In the second century of the Christian1 era, the empire1 of Rome1 comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient1 renown and disciplined valour. The gentle, but powerful, influence of laws1 and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces1. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence. The Roman1 senate1 appeared to possess the sovereign authority1, and devolved on the emperors1 all the executive powers of government1. During a happy period of more than fourscore years1, the public1 administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire1; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall: a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of the earth.
The principal conquests of the Romans3 were achieved under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy of the senate, the active emulation of the consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils. Inclined to peace3 by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms3; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious and less beneficial. The experience of Augustus added weight to these salutary reflections, and effectually convinced him that, by the prudent vigour of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every concession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable barbarians3. Instead of exposing his person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he obtained, by an honourable treaty3, the restitution of the standards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus.
His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempted the reduction of Aethiopia and Arabia Felix. They marched near a thousand9 miles9 to the south of the tropic; but the heat of the climate soon9 repelled the invaders and protected the unwarlike natives of those sequestered regions. The northern countries of Europe9 scarcely deserved the expense and labour of conquest9. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians9, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman9 power, they soon9, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune. On the death of that emperor his testament was publicly read in the senate. He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire9 within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries; on the west9 the Atlantic Ocean9; the Rhine and Danube9 on the north9; the Euphrates on the east; and towards the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa9.
Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Caesars seldom showed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces47; nor were they disposed to suffer that those triumphs which their indolence neglected should be usurped by the conduct47 and valour of their lieutenants. The military47 fame of a subject was considered as an insolent invasion of the Imperial47 prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of every Roman47 general47, to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests which might have proved no less fatal to himself than to the vanquished barbarians.
The only accession which the Roman25 empire25 received during the first century of the Christian era was the province of Britain. In this single25 instance the successors of Caesar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the example25 of the former, rather than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its situation to the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their arms25; the pleasing, though doubtful, intelligence of a pearl fishery attracted their avarice; and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general25 system of continental measures. After a war25 of about forty years25, undertaken by the most stupid, maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the Roman25 yoke. The various tribes of Britons possessed valour without conduct, and the love of freedom25 without the spirit of union. They took up arms25 with savage fierceness, they laid them down, or turned them against each other with wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress25 of the Imperial generals, who maintained the national25 glory, when the throne was disgraced by the weakest or the most vicious of mankind. At the very time when Domitian, confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, displayed the Roman25 arms25 round every part of the island. The conquest of Britain was considered as already achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and ensure his success by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient. The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example25 of freedom25 was on every side removed from before their eyes.
But the superior merit of Agricola soon9 occasioned his removal from the government of Britain; and for ever disappointed this rational, though extensive, scheme of conquest9. Before his departure the prudent general had provided for security as well as for dominion. He had observed that the island is almost divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs or, as they are now called, the Friths of Scotland. Across the narrow interval of about forty miles9 he had drawn a line of military stations, which was afterwards fortified, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a turf rampart, erected on foundations of stone. This wall of Antoninus, at a small distance beyond the modern cities9 of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as the limit of the Roman9 province9. The native Caledonians preserved, in the northern extremity of the island, their wild independence, for which they were not less indebted to their poverty than to their valour9. Their incursions were frequently repelled and chastised; but their country9 was never subdued. The masters of the fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe turned with contempt from gloomy hills assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians9.
Such was the state of the Roman47 frontiers, and such the maxims of Imperial47 policy, from the death47 of Augustus to the accession of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince47 had received the education of a soldier, and possessed the talents of a general47. The peaceful system of his predecessors was interrupted by scenes of war47 and conquest; and the legions, after a long47 interval, beheld a military47 emperor47 at their head. The first exploits of Trajan were against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, during the reign47 of Domitian, had insulted, with impunity, the majesty of Rome47. To the strength and fierceness of barbarians they added a contempt for life47, which was derived from a warm persuasion of the immortality and transmigration of the soul. Decebalus, the Dacian king, approved himself a rival not unworthy of Trajan; nor did he despair of his own and the public47 fortune, till, by the confession of his enemies, he had exhausted every resource both of valour and policy. This memorable war47, with a very short suspension of hostilities, lasted five years; and as the emperor47 could exert, without control, the whole force of the state, it was terminated by the absolute submission of the barbarians. The new province of Dacia, which formed a second exception to the precept of Augustus, was about thirteen hundred miles in circumference. Its natural boundaries were the Dniester, the Theiss, or Tibiscus, the Lower Danube, and the Euxine Sea. The vestiges of a military47 road may still be traced from the banks of the Danube to the neighbourhood of Bender, a place famous in modern history, and the actual frontier of the Turkish and Russian Empires.
Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long15 as mankind shall15 continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters. The praises of Alexander, transmitted by a succession of poets and historians, had kindled a dangerous emulation in the mind of Trajan15. Like him, the Roman15 emperor15 undertook an expedition against the nations15 of the east15, but he lamented with a sigh that his advanced age15 scarcely left him any hopes of equalling the renown of the son of Philip. Yet the success of Trajan15, however transient, was rapid and specious. The degenerate Parthians, broken by intestine discord, fled before his arms15. He descended the river Tigris in triumph, from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian gulf. He enjoyed the honour of being the first, as he was the last, of the Roman15 generals, who ever navigated that remote sea. His fleets ravished the coasts of Arabia; and Trajan15 vainly flattered himself that he was approaching towards the confines of India. Every day the astonished senate15 received the intelligence of new15 names and new15 nations15 that acknowledged his sway. They were informed that the kings of Bosphorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Parthian monarch himself, had accepted their diadems from the hands15 of the emperor15; that the independent tribes of the Median and Carduchian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich countries of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, were reduced into the state15 of provinces15. But the death15 of Trajan15 soon15 clouded the splendid prospect; and it was justly to be dreaded that so many distant nations15 would throw off the unaccustomed yoke, when they were no longer restrained by the powerful hand which had imposed it.
It was an ancient tradition that, when the Capitol was founded by one of the Roman47 kings, the god Terminus (who presided over boundaries, and was represented according to the fashion of that age47 by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself. A favourable inference was drawn from his obstinacy, which was interpreted by the augurs as a sure presage that the boundaries of the Roman47 power47 would never recede. During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment. But though Terminus had resisted the majesty of Jupiter, he submitted to the authority47 of the emperor47 Hadrian. The resignation of all the eastern conquests of Trajan was the first measure of his reign47. He restored to the Parthians the election of an independent sovereign47; withdrew the Roman47 garrisons from the provinces47 of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria; and, in compliance with the precepts of Augustus, once more established the Euphrates as the frontier of the empire47. Censure, which arraigns the public47 actions and the private47 motives of princes, has ascribed to envy a conduct47 which might be attributed to the prudence and moderation of Hadrian. The various character of that emperor47, capable, by turns, of the meanest and the most generous sentiments, may afford some colour to the suspicion. It was, however, scarcely in his power47 to place the superiority of his predecessor in a more conspicuous light, than by thus confessing himself unequal to the task of defending the conquests of Trajan.
The martial and ambitious spirit of Trajan formed a very singular contrast with the moderation of his successor. The restless activity of Hadrian was not less remarkable when compared with the gentle repose of Antoninus Pius. The life45 of the former was almost a perpetual journey; and as he possessed the various talents of the soldier, the statesman, and the scholar, he gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his duty. Careless of the difference of seasons and of climates, he marched on foot, and bareheaded, over the snows of Caledonia, and the sultry plains of the Upper Egypt; nor was there a province of the empire45 which, in the course of his reign45, was not honoured with the presence of the monarch. But the tranquil life45 of Antoninus Pius was spent in the bosom of Italy; and, during the twenty-three years45 that he directed the public45 administration, the longest journeys of that amiable prince extended no farther than from his palace45 in Rome to the retirement of his Lanuvian villa.
Notwithstanding this difference in their personal conduct47, the general47 system of Augustus was equally adopted and uniformly pursued by Hadrian and by the two Antonines. They persisted in the design of maintaining the dignity of the empire47, without attempting to enlarge its limits. By every honourable expedient they invited the friendship of the barbarians; and endeavoured to convince mankind that the Roman47 power47, raised above the temptation of conquest, was actuated only by the love of order and justice47. During a long47 period of forty-three years their virtuous labours were crowned with success; and, if we except a few slight hostilities that served to exercise the legions of the frontier, the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius offer the fair prospect of universal peace. The Roman47 name was revered among the most remote nations of the earth. The fiercest barbarians frequently submitted their differences to the arbitration of the emperor47; and we are informed by a contemporary historian that he had seen ambassadors who were refused the honour which they came to solicit, of being admitted into the rank47 of subjects.
The terror of the Roman3 arms3 added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace3 by a constant preparation for war3; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines that they were as little disposed to endure as to offer an injury. The military3 strength, which it had been sufficient for Hadrian and the elder Antoninus to display, was exerted against the Parthians and the Germans by the emperor3 Marcus. The hostilities of the barbarians3 provoked the resentment of that philosophic monarch3, and, in the prosecution of a just defence, Marcus and his generals obtained many signal victories, both on the Euphrates and on the Danube. The military3 establishment of the Roman3 empire3, which thus assured either its tranquillity or success, will now become the proper and important3 object of our attention.
In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms43 was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country43 to love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws which it was their interest, as well as duty, to maintain. But in proportion as the public43 freedom was lost in extent of conquest43, war43 was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade. The legions themselves, even at the time43 when they were recruited in the most distant provinces43, were supposed to consist of Roman43 citizens. That distinction was generally considered either as a legal qualification or as a proper recompense for the soldier; but a more serious regard was paid to the essential merit of age43, strength, and military stature. In all levies, a just43 preference was given to the climates of the north over those of the south; the race of men born to the exercise of arms43 was sought for in the country43 rather than in cities43, and it was very reasonably presumed that the hardy occupations of smiths, carpenters, and huntsmen would supply more vigour and resolution than the sedentary trades which are employed in the service of luxury. After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman43 emperors were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of a liberal birth and education; but the common soldiers43, like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind.
That public47 virtue, which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government47 of which we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince47; and it became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature, — honour and religion. The peasant, or mechanic, imbibed the useful prejudice that he was advanced to the more dignified profession of arms47, in which his rank47 and reputation would depend on his own valour; and that, although the prowess of a private47 soldier must often escape the notice of fame, his own behaviour might sometimes confer glory or disgrace on the company, the legion, or even the army47, to whose honours he was associated. On his first entrance into the service, an oath was administered to him with every circumstance of solemnity. He promised never to desert his standard, to submit his own will to the commands of his leaders, and to sacrifice his life47 for the safety of the emperor47 and the empire47. The attachment of the Roman47 troops47 to their standards was inspired by the united influence of religion and of honour. The golden eagle, which glittered in the front of the legion, was the object of their fondest devotion; nor was it esteemed less impious than it was ignominious, to abandon that sacred ensign in the hour of danger47. These motives, which derived their strength from the imagination, were enforced by fears and hopes of a more substantial kind. Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a stated recompense, after the appointed term of service, alleviated the hardships of the military47 life47, whilst, on the other hand, it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to escape the severest punishment. The centurions were authorised to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to punish with death47; and it was an inflexible maxim of Roman47 discipline, that a good soldier should dread his officers far more than the enemy. From such laudable arts did the valour of the Imperial47 troops47 receive a degree of firmness and docility, unattainable by the impetuous and irregular passions of barbarians.
And yet so sensible were the Romans of the imperfection of valour without skill and practice, that, in their language, the name of an army was borrowed from the word which signified exercise. Military exercises were the important and unremitted object of their discipline. The recruits and young soldiers43 were constantly trained, both in the morning and in the evening, nor was age43 or knowledge allowed to excuse the veterans from the daily repetition of what they had completely learnt. Large sheds were erected in the winter-quarters of the troops, that their useful labours might not receive any interruption from the most tempestuous weather; and it was carefully observed, that the arms43 destined to this imitation of war43 should be of double the weight which was required in real action. It is not the purpose of this work to enter into any minute description of the Roman43 exercises. We shall43 only remark that they comprehended whatever could add strength to the body, activity to the limbs, or grace to the motions. The soldiers43 were diligently instructed to march, to run, to leap, to swim, to carry heavy burdens, to handle every species of arms43 that was used either for offence or for defence, either in distant engagement or in a closer onset; to form a variety of evolutions; and to move to the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic or martial dance. In the midst of peace, the Roman43 troops familiarised themselves with the practice of war43; and it is prettily remarked by an ancient43 historian who had fought against them, that the effusion of blood43 was the only circumstance which distinguished a field of battle from a field of exercise. It was the policy of the ablest generals, and even of the emperors themselves, to encourage these military studies by their presence and example; and we are informed that Hadrian, as well as Trajan, frequently condescended to instruct the inexperienced soldiers43, to reward the diligent, and sometimes to dispute with them the prize of superior strength or dexterity. Under the reigns of those princes, the science of tactics was cultivated with success; and as long43 as the empire43 retained any vigour, their military instructions were respected as the most perfect model of Roman43 discipline.
Nine centuries of war30 had gradually introduced into the service30 many alterations and improvements. The legions, as they are described by Polybius, in the time of the Punic wars, differed very materially from those which achieved the victories of Caesar, or defended the monarchy of Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitution of the Imperial legion may be described in a few words. The heavy-armed infantry, which composed its principal strength, was divided into ten cohorts, and fifty-five companies, under the orders of a correspondent number of tribunes and centurions. The first cohort, which always claimed the post of honour and the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven hundred and five soldiers30, the most approved for valour and fidelity. The remaining nine cohorts consisted each of five hundred and fifty-five; and the whole body of legionary infantry amounted to six thousand30 one hundred men. Their arms30 were uniform, and admirably adapted to the nature of their service30: an open helmet, with a lofty crest; a breast-plate, or coat of mail; greaves on their legs, and an ample buckler on their left30 arm. The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length, and two and a half in breadth, framed of a light wood, covered with a bull's hide, and strongly guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, the legionary soldier grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost length was about six feet, and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches. This instrument was indeed much inferior to our modern fire-arms30; since it was exhausted by a single discharge, at the distance of only ten or twelve paces. Yet, when it was launched by a firm and skilful hand, there was not any cavalry that durst venture within its reach, nor any shield or corslet that could sustain the impetuosity of its weight. As soon30 as the Roman30 had darted his pilum, he drew his sword30, and rushed forwards to close with the enemy30. It was a short well-tempered Spanish blade, that carried a double edge, and was alike suited to the purpose of striking or of pushing; but the soldier was always instructed to prefer the latter use of his weapon, as his own body remained less exposed, whilst he inflicted a more dangerous wound on his adversary. The legion was usually drawn up eight deep; and the regular distance of three feet was left30 between the files as well as ranks. A body of troops30, habituated to preserve this open order, in a long30 front and a rapid charge, found themselves prepared to execute every disposition which the circumstances of war30, or the skill of their leader, might suggest. The soldier possessed a free space for his arms30 and motions, and sufficient intervals were allowed, through which seasonable reinforcements might be introduced to the relief of the exhausted combatants. The tactics of the Greeks30 and Macedonians were formed on very different principles. The strength of the phalanx depended on sixteen ranks of long30 pikes, wedged together in the closest array. But it was soon30 discovered, by reflection as well as by the event, that the strength of the phalanx was unable to contend with the activity of the legion.
The cavalry, without which the force28 of the legion would have remained imperfect, was divided into ten troops or squadrons; the first, as the companion of the first cohort, consisted28 of an hundred and thirty28-two men28; whilst each of the other nine amounted only to sixty-six. The entire establishment28 formed a regiment, if we may use the modern expression, of seven28 hundred and twenty-six horse, naturally connected with its respective legion, but occasionally separated to act in the line, and to compose a part of the wings of the army28. The cavalry of the emperors was no longer composed28, like that of the ancient28 republic, of the noblest youths of Rome28 and Italy, who, by performing their military28 service on horseback, prepared themselves for the offices of senator and consul; and solicited, by deeds of valour, the future suffrages of their countrymen. Since the alteration of manners28 and government, the most wealthy of the equestrian order28 were engaged in the administration of justice, and of the revenue; and whenever they embraced the profession of arms28, they were immediately intrusted with a troop of horse, or a cohort of foot. Trajan and Hadrian formed their cavalry from the same provinces28, and the same class of their subjects, which recruited the ranks of the legion. The horses were bred, for the most part, in Spain or Cappadocia. The Roman28 troopers despised the complete armour with which the cavalry of the East28 was encumbered. Their more useful arms28 consisted28 in a helmet, an oblong shield, light boots, and a coat of mail. A javelin, and a long28 broad sword, were their principal weapons of offence. The use of lances and of iron maces they seem to have borrowed from the barbarians.
The safety and honour of the empire was principally intrusted to the legions, but the policy of Rome condescended to adopt every useful instrument of war49. Considerable levies were regularly made among the provincials, who had not yet deserved the honourable distinction of Romans49. Many dependent princes and communities, dispersed round the frontiers, were permitted, for a while, to hold their freedom and security by the tenure of military49 service. Even select troops49 of hostile barbarians were frequently compelled or persuaded to consume their dangerous valour49 in remote climates, and for the benefit of the state. All these were included under the general49 name of auxiliaries; and howsoever they might vary according to the difference of times49 and circumstances, their numbers were seldom much inferior to those of the legions themselves. Among the auxiliaries, the bravest and most faithful bands were placed under the command of prefects and centurions, and severely trained in the arts of Roman discipline; but the far greater part retained those arms49, to which the nature of their country49, or their early habits of life, more peculiarly adapted them. By this institution, each legion, to whom a certain proportion of auxiliaries was allotted, contained within itself every species of lighter troops49, and of missile weapons; and was capable of encountering every nation with the advantages of its respective arms49 and discipline. Nor was the legion destitute of what, in modern language, would be styled a train of artillery. It consisted in ten military49 engines49 of the largest, and fifty-five of a smaller size; but all of which, either in an oblique or horizontal manner, discharged stones and darts with irresistible violence.
The camp of a Roman40 legion presented the appearance of a fortified city40. As soon40 as the space was marked out, the pioneers carefully levelled the ground, and removed every impediment that might interrupt its perfect regularity. Its form was an exact quadrangle; and we may calculate, that a square of about seven hundred yards was sufficient for the encampment of twenty thousand40 Romans; though a similar number40 of our own troops would expose to the enemy a front of more than treble that extent. In the midst of the camp, the praetorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others; the cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their respective stations; the streets were broad and perfectly straight, and a vacant space of two hundred feet was left on all sides, between the tents and the rampart. The rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, armed with a line of strong and intricate palisades, and defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth as well as in breadth. This important labour was performed by the hands of the legionaries themselves; to whom the use40 of the spade and the pick-axe was no less familiar than that of the sword or pilum. Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.
Whenever the trumpet gave the signal of departure, the camp30 was almost instantly broken up, and the troops30 fell into their ranks without delay or confusion. Besides their arms30, which the legionaries scarcely considered as an encumbrance, they were laden with their kitchen furniture, the instruments of fortification, and the provision of many days30. Under this weight, which would oppress the delicacy of a modern soldier, they were trained by a regular step to advance, in about six hours, near twenty miles. On the appearance of an enemy30, they threw aside their baggage, and, by easy and rapid evolutions, converted the column of march into an order of battle30. The slingers and archers skirmished in the front; the auxiliaries formed the first line, and were seconded or sustained by the strength of the legions; the cavalry covered the flanks, and the military engines were placed in the rear.
Such were the arts28 of war28, by which the Roman28 emperors defended their extensive conquests, and preserved a military28 spirit, at a time28 when every other virtue was oppressed by luxury and despotism. If, in the consideration of their armies, we pass from their discipline to their numbers, we shall not find it easy to define them with any tolerable accuracy. We may compute, however, that the legion, which was itself a body of six thousand28 eight hundred and thirty28-one Romans, might, with its attendant auxiliaries, amount to about twelve thousand28 five hundred men28. The peace establishment28 of Hadrian and his successors28 was composed28 of no less than thirty28 of these formidable brigades; and most probably formed a standing force28 of three hundred and seventy-five thousand28 men28. Instead of being confined within the walls of fortified cities28, which the Romans considered as the refuge of weakness or pusillanimity, the legions were encamped on the banks of the great28 rivers, and along the frontiers of the barbarians. As their stations, for the most part, remained fixed and permanent, we may venture to describe the distribution of the troops. Three legions were sufficient28 for Britain. The principal strength lay upon the Rhine and Danube, and consisted28 of sixteen legions, in the following proportions: two in the Lower, and three in the Upper Germany; one in Rhaetia, one in Noricum, four in Pannonia, three in Maesia, and two in Dacia. The defence of the Euphrates was intrusted to eight legions, six of whom were planted in Syria, and the other two in Cappadocia. With regard to Egypt, Africa, and Spain, as they were far removed from any important28 scene of war28, a single legion maintained the domestic tranquillity of each of those great28 provinces28. Even Italy was not left destitute of a military28 force28. Above twenty thousand28 chosen soldiers, distinguished by the titles of City28 Cohorts and Praetorian Guards, watched over the safety of the monarch and the capital28. As the authors of almost every revolution that distracted the empire28, the Praetorians will very soon28 and very loudly demand our attention; but, in their arms28 and institutions, we cannot find any circumstance which discriminated them from the legions, unless it were a more splendid appearance, and a less rigid discipline.
The navy maintained by the emperors might seem inadequate to their greatness; but it was fully sufficient for every useful purpose of government. The ambition of the Romans9 was confined to the land; nor was that warlike people ever actuated by the enterprising spirit which had prompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and even of Marseilles, to enlarge the bounds of the world, and to explore the most remote coasts of the ocean9. To the Romans9 the ocean9 remained an object of terror rather than of curiosity; the whole extent of the Mediterranean, after the destruction of Carthage and the extirpation of the pirates, was included within their provinces9. The policy of the emperors was directed only to preserve the peaceful dominion of that sea9, and to protect the commerce of their subjects. With these moderate views, Augustus stationed two permanent fleets in the most convenient ports of Italy9, the one at Ravenna, on the Adriatic, the other at Misenum, in the bay of Naples. Experience seems at length to have convinced the ancients that, as soon9 as their galleys exceeded two, or at the most three ranks of oars, they were suited rather for vain pomp than for real service. Augustus himself, in the victory of Actium, had seen the superiority of his own light frigates (they were called Liburnians) over the lofty but unwieldy castles of his rival. Of these Liburnians he composed the two fleets of Ravenna and Misenum, destined to command, the one the eastern, the other the western division of the Mediterranean; and to each of the squadrons he attached a body of several thousand9 marines. Besides these two ports, which may be considered as the principal seats of the Roman9 navy, a very considerable force was stationed at Frejus, on the coast9 of Provence, and the Euxine was guarded by forty ships, and three thousand9 soldiers. To all these we add the fleet9 which preserved the communication between Gaul and Britain, and a great9 number of vessels9 constantly maintained on the Rhine and Danube9, to harass the country9, or to intercept the passage of the barbarians9. If we review this general state of the Imperial forces, of the cavalry as well as infantry, of the legions, the auxiliaries, the guards, and the navy, the most liberal computation will not allow us to fix the entire establishment by sea9 and by land at more than four hundred and fifty thousand9 men9: a military power which, however formidable it may seem, was equalled by a monarch of the last century, whose kingdom was confined within a single province9 of the Roman9 empire9.
We have attempted to explain the spirit37 which moderated, and the strength37 which supported, the power of Hadrian and the Antonines. We shall now endeavour, with clearness and precision, to describe the provinces once united under their sway, but, at present37, divided into so many independent37 and hostile states.
Spain, the western extremity of the empire6, of Europe, and of the ancient6 world6, has, in every age6, invariably preserved the same natural limits; the Pyrenean mountains, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic Ocean. That great6 peninsula, at present so unequally divided between two sovereigns, was distributed by Augustus6 into three provinces6, Lusitania, Baetica, and Tarraconensis. The kingdom of Portugal now fills the place of the warlike country6 of the Lusitanians; and the loss sustained by the former, on the side of the East, is compensated by an accession of territory towards the North. The confines of Grenada and Andalusia correspond with those of ancient6 Baetica. The remainder of Spain6 — Gallicia, and the Asturias, Biscay, and Navarre, Leon, and the two Castilles, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, and Arragon, — all contributed to form the third and most considerable of the Roman6 governments, which, from the name of its capital, was styled the province of Tarragona. Of the native barbarians6, the Celtiberians were the most powerful, as the Cantabrians and Asturians proved the most obstinate. Confident in the strength of their mountains, they were the last who submitted to the arms6 of Rome6, and the first who threw off the yoke of the Arabs.
Ancient Gaul40, as it contained the whole country40 between the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rhine, and the Ocean, was of greater extent than modern France. To the dominions of that powerful monarchy, with its recent acquisitions of Alsace and Lorraine, we must add the duchy of Savoy, the cantons of Switzerland, the four electorates of the Rhine, and the territories of Liege, Luxemburg, Hainault, Flanders, and Brabant. When Augustus gave laws to the conquests of his father, he introduced a division of Gaul40 equally adapted to the progress of the legions, to the course of the rivers, and to the principal national distinctions, which had comprehended above an hundred independent states. The sea-coast of the Mediterranean, Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphiné, received40 their provincial appellation from the colony of Narbonne. The government of Aquitaine was extended from the Pyrenees to the Loire. The country40 between the Loire and the Seine was styled the Celtic Gaul40, and soon40 borrowed a new denomination from the celebrated40 colony of Lugdunum, or Lyons. The Belgic lay beyond the Seine, and in more ancient40 times had been bounded only by the Rhine; but a little before the age40 of Caesar, the Germans, abusing their superiority of valour, had occupied a considerable portion of the Belgic territory. The Roman40 conquerors very eagerly embraced so flattering a circumstance, and the Gallic frontier of the Rhine, from Basil to Leyden, received40 the pompous names of the Upper and the Lower Germany. Such, under the reign40 of the Antonines, were the six provinces of Gaul40; the Narbonnese, Aquitaine, the Celtic, or Lyonnese, the Belgic, and the two Germanies.
We have already had occasion to mention the conquest9 of Britain, and to fix the boundary of the Roman9 province9 in this island. It comprehended all England, Wales, and the Lowlands of Scotland, as far9 as the Friths of Dumbarton and Edinburgh. Before Britain lost her freedom, the country9 was irregularly divided between thirty tribes9 of barbarians9, of whom the most considerable were the Belgae in the West9, the Brigantes in the North9, the Silures in South Wales, and the Iceni in Norfolk and Suffolk. As far9 as we can either trace or credit the resemblance of manners and language, Spain, Gaul, and Britain were peopled by the same hardy race of savages. Before they yielded to the Roman9 arms9, they often disputed the field, and often renewed the contest. After their submission they constituted the western division of the European provinces9, which extended from the columns of Hercules to the wall of Antoninus, and from the mouth of the Tagus to the sources of the Rhine and Danube9.
Before the Roman9 conquest9, the country9 which is now called Lombardy was not considered as a part of Italy9. It had been occupied by a powerful colony of Gauls, who, settling themselves along the banks9 of the Po, from Piedmont to Romagna, carried their arms9 and diffused their name from the Alps to the Apennine. The Ligurians dwelt on the rocky coast9, which now forms the republic of Genoa. Venice was yet unborn; but the territories of that state, which lie to the east of the Adige, were inhabited by the Venetians. The middle part of the peninsula, that now composes the duchy of Tuscany and the ecclesiastical state, was the ancient9 seat of the Etruscans and Umbrians; to the former of whom Italy9 was indebted for the first rudiments of a civilised life. The Tiber rolled at the foot of the seven hills of Rome9, and the country9 of the Sabines, the Latins, and the Volsci, from that river9 to the frontiers of Naples, was the theatre of her infant victories. On that celebrated ground the first consuls deserved triumphs, their successors adorned villas, and their posterity have erected convents. Capua and Campania possessed the immediate territory of Naples; the rest of the kingdom was inhabited by many warlike nations9, the Marsi, the Samnites, the Apulians, and the Lucanians; and the sea9-coasts had been covered by the flourishing colonies of the Greeks. We may remark, that when Augustus divided Italy9 into eleven regions, the little province9 of Istria was annexed to that seat of Roman9 sovereignty.
The European provinces9 of Rome9 were protected by the course of the Rhine and the Danube9. The latter of those mighty streams, which rises at the distance of only thirty miles9 from the former, flows above thirteen hundred miles9, for the most part to the south-east, collects the tribute of sixty navigable rivers, and is, at length, through six mouths, received into the Euxine, which appears scarcely equal to such an accession of waters. The provinces9 of the Danube9 soon9 acquired the general appellation of Illyricum, or the Illyrian frontier, and were esteemed the most warlike of the empire9; but they deserve to be more particularly considered under the names of Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Maesia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece.
The province of Rhaetia39, which soon extinguished the name of the Vindelicians, extended from the summit of the Alps to the banks of the Danube; from its source, as far as its conflux with the Inn. The greatest part of the flat country39 is subject to the elector of Bavaria39; the city of Augsburg39 is protected by the constitution of the German empire39; the Grisons are safe in their mountains; and the country39 of Tyrol is ranked among the numerous provinces39 of the house of Austria.
The wide extent of territory which is included between the Inn, the Danube, and the Save, — Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the Lower Hungary, and Sclavonia, — was known to the ancients under the names of Noricum and Pannonia. In their original state of independence their fierce inhabitants were intimately connected. Under the Roman42 government they were frequently united, and they still remain the patrimony of a single family42. They now contain the residence of a German prince42, who styles himself Emperor42 of the Romans, and form the centre, as well as strength, of the Austrian power42. It may not be improper to observe, that, if we except Bohemia, Moravia, the northern skirts of Austria, and a part of Hungary, between the Theiss and the Danube, all the other dominions of the house of Austria were comprised within the limits of the Roman42 empire.
Dalmatia, to which the name of Illyricum more properly belonged, was a long9, but narrow tract, between the Save and the Adriatic. The best part of the sea9-coast9, which still retains its ancient9 appellation, is a province9 of the Venetian state, and the seat of the little republic of Ragusa. The inland parts have assumed the Sclavonian names of Croatia and Bosnia; the former obeys an Austrian governor, the latter a Turkish pasha; but the whole country9 is still infested by tribes9 of barbarians9, whose savage independence irregularly marks the doubtful limit of the Christian and Mahometan power.
After the Danube had received the waters of the Theiss and the Save, it acquired, at least among the Greeks, the name of Ister. It formerly divided Maesia and Dacia, the latter of which, as we have already seen, was a conquest of Trajan, and the only province beyond the river. If we inquire into the present state of those countries, we shall find that, on the left hand of the Danube, Temeswar and Transylvania have been annexed, after many revolutions, to the crown of Hungary; whilst the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia acknowledge the supremacy of the Ottoman Porte. On the right hand of the Danube, Maesia, which during the middle ages was broken into the barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria, is again united in Turkish slavery.
The appellation of Roumelia, which is still bestowed by the Turks on the extensive countries of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, preserves the memory of their ancient9 state under the Roman9 empire9. In the time of the Antonines, the martial regions of Thrace, from the mountains9 of Haemus and Rhodope to the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, had assumed the form of a province9. Notwithstanding the change of masters and of religion, the new9 city9 of Rome9, founded by Constantine on the banks9 of the Bosphorus, has ever since remained the capital9 of a great9 monarchy. The kingdom of Macedonia, which, under the reign of Alexander, gave laws to Asia9, derived more solid advantages from the policy of the two Philips; and, with its dependencies of Epirus and Thessaly, extended from the Aegean to the Ionian sea9. When we reflect on the fame of Thebes and Argos, of Sparta and Athens, we can scarcely persuade ourselves that so many immortal republics of ancient9 Greece were lost in a single province9 of the Roman9 empire9, which, from the superior influence of the Achaean league, was usually denominated the province9 of Achaia.
Such was the state of Europe9 under the Roman9 emperors. The provinces9 of Asia9, without excepting the transient conquests of Trajan, are all comprehended within the limits of the Turkish power. But instead of following the arbitrary divisions of despotism and ignorance, it will be safer for us, as well as more agreeable, to observe the indelible characters of nature. The name of Asia9 Minor is attributed, with some propriety, to the peninsula which, confined between the Euxine and the Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe9. The most extensive and flourishing district westward of Mount Taurus and the river9 Halys, was dignified by the Romans9 with the exclusive title of Asia9. The jurisdiction of that province9 extended over the ancient9 monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygia, the maritime countries of the Pamphylians, Lycians, and Carians, and the Grecian colonies of Ionia, which equalled in arts, though not in arms9, the glory of their parent. The kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus possessed the northern side of the peninsula from Constantinople to Trebizond. On the opposite side the province9 of Cilicia was terminated by the mountains9 of Syria: the inland country9, separated from the Roman9 Asia9 by the river9 Halys, and from Armenia by the Euphrates, had once formed the independent kingdom of Cappadocia. In this place we may observe that the northern shores of the Euxine, beyond Trebizond in Asia9 and beyond the Danube9 in Europe9, acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperors, and received at their hands either tributary princes or Roman9 garrisons. Budzak, Crim Tartary, Circassia, and Mingrelia are the modern appellations of those savage countries.
Under the successors of Alexander, Syria was the seat of the Seleucidae, who reigned over Upper Asia, till the successful revolt of the Parthians confined their dominions between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. When Syria became subject to the Romans5, it formed the eastern frontier5 of their empire5; nor did that province, in its utmost latitude, know any other bounds than the mountains of Cappadocia to the north, and, towards the south, the confines of Egypt and the Red Sea. Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes annexed to, and sometimes separated from, the jurisdiction of Syria. The former of these was a narrow and rocky coast; the latter was a territory scarcely superior to Wales, either in fertility or extent. Yet Phoenicia and Palestine will for ever live in the memory of mankind; since America, as well as Europe, has received letters from the one, and religion from the other. A sandy desert, alike destitute of wood and water, skirts along the doubtful confine of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. The wandering life of the Arabs was inseparably connected with their independence, and wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they ventured to form any settled habitations, they soon5 became subjects to the Roman5 empire5.
The geographers of antiquity have frequently hesitated to what portion of the globe they should ascribe Egypt24. By its situation that celebrated kingdom is included within the immense peninsula of Africa24; but it is accessible only on the side of Asia24, whose revolutions, in almost every period of history, Egypt24 has humbly obeyed. A Roman24 prefect was seated on the splendid throne24 of the Ptolemies; and the iron sceptre of the Mamelukes is now in the hands of a Turkish24 pasha. The Nile24 flows down the country, above five hundred miles from the tropic of Cancer to the Mediterranean, and marks, on either side, the extent of fertility by the measure of its inundations. Cyrene, situated towards the west and along the sea24-coast, was first a Greek24 colony, afterwards a province of Egypt24, and is now lost in the desert of Barca.
From Cyrene to the ocean9, the coast9 of Africa9 extends above fifteen hundred miles9; yet so closely is it pressed between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, or sandy desert, that its breadth seldom exceeds fourscore or an hundred miles9. The eastern division was considered by the Romans9 as the more peculiar and proper province9 of Africa9. Till the arrival of the Phoenician colonies, that fertile country9 was inhabited by the Libyans, the most savage of mankind. Under the immediate jurisdiction of Carthage it became the centre of commerce and empire9; but the republic of Carthage is now degenerated into the feeble and disorderly states of Tripoli and Tunis. The military government of Algiers oppresses the wide extent of Numidia, as it was once united under Massinissa and Jugurtha: but in the time of Augustus the limits of Numidia were contracted; and at least two-thirds of the country9 acquiesced in the name of Mauritania, with the epithet of Caesariensis. The genuine Mauritania, or country9 of the Moors, which, from the ancient9 city9 of Tingi, or Tangier, was distinguished by the appellation of Tingitana, is represented by the modern kingdom of Fez. Sallè, on the Ocean9, so infamous at present for its piratical depredations, was noticed by the Romans9, as the extreme object of their power, and almost of their geography. A city9 of their foundation may still be discovered near Mequinez, the residence of the barbarian whom we condescend to style the Emperor of Morocco; but it does not appear that his more southern dominions, Morocco itself, and Segelmessa, were ever comprehended within the Roman9 province9. The western parts of Africa9 are intersected by the branches of Mount Atlas, a name so idly celebrated by the fancy of poets; but which is now diffused over the immense ocean9 that rolls between the ancient9 and the new9 continent.
Having now finished the circuit of the Roman empire, we may observe that Africa is divided from Spain49 by a narrow strait of about twelve miles, through which the Atlantic flows into the Mediterranean. The columns of Hercules, so famous among the ancients, were two mountains which seemed to have been torn asunder by some convulsion of the elements; and at the foot of the European mountain the fortress of Gibraltar is now seated. The whole extent of the Mediterranean Sea49, its coasts and its islands, were comprised within the Roman dominion. Of the larger islands, the two Baleares, which derive their names of Majorca and Minorca from their respective size, are subject at present, the former to Spain49, the latter to Great49 Britain. It is easier to deplore the fate than to describe the actual condition of Corsica. Two Italian sovereigns assume a regal title from Sardinia and Sicily. Crete, or Candia, with Cyprus, and most of the smaller islands of Greece and Asia, have been subdued by the Turkish arms49; whilst the little rock of Malta defies their power, and has emerged, under the government of its military49 Order, into fame and opulence.
This long9 enumeration of provinces9, whose broken fragments have formed so many powerful kingdoms, might almost induce us to forgive the vanity or ignorance of the ancients. Dazzled with the extensive sway, the irresistible strength, and the real or affected moderation of the emperors, they permitted themselves to despise, and sometimes to forget, the outlying countries which had been left in the enjoyment of a barbarous independence; and they gradually assumed the licence of confounding the Roman9 monarchy with the globe of the earth. But the temper, as well as knowledge, of a modern historian require a more sober and accurate language. He may impress a juster image of the greatness of Rome9 by observing that the empire9 was above two thousand9 miles9 in breadth, from the wall of Antoninus and the northern limits of Dacia to Mount Atlas and the tropic of Cancer; that it extended in length more than three thousand9 miles9, from the Western Ocean9 to the Euphrates; that it was situated in the finest part of the Temperate Zone, between the twenty-fourth and fifty-sixth degrees of northern latitude; and that it was supposed to contain above sixteen hundred thousand9 square miles9, for the most part of fertile and well-cultivated land.
It is not alone by the rapidity or extent of conquest9 that we should estimate the greatness of Rome9. The sovereign of the Russian deserts commands a larger portion of the globe. In the seventh summer after his passage of the Hellespont, Alexander erected the Macedonian trophies on the banks9 of the Hyphasis. Within less than a century, the irresistible Zingis, and the Mogul princes of his race, spread their cruel devastations and transient empire9 from the sea9 of China to the confines of Egypt and Germany. But the firm edifice of Roman9 power was raised and preserved by the wisdom of ages. The obedient provinces9 of Trajan and the Antonines were united by laws and adorned by arts. They might occasionally suffer from the partial abuse of delegated authority; but the general principle of government was wise, simple, and beneficent. They enjoyed the religion of their ancestors, whilst in civil honours and advantages they were exalted, by just degrees, to an equality with their conquerors.
I. The policy1 of the emperors1 and the senate1, as far as it concerned religion1, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects1. The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman1 world were all considered by the people1 as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate1 as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.
The superstition8 of the people was not embittered by any mixture of theological rancour; nor was it confined by the chains of any speculative system. The devout polytheist, though fondly attached to his national rites, admitted with implicit faith8 the different religions of the earth. Fear, gratitude, and curiosity, a dream or an omen, a singular disorder, or a distant journey, perpetually disposed him to multiply the articles of his belief, and to enlarge the list of his protectors. The thin texture of the pagan8 mythology was interwoven with various8 but not discordant materials. As soon as it was allowed that sages and heroes, who had lived or who had died for the benefit of their country, were exalted to a state of power and immortality, it was universally confessed that they deserved, if not the adoration, at least the reverence of all mankind8. The deities of a thousand groves and a thousand streams possessed in peace their local and respective influence; nor could the Roman who deprecated the wrath of the Tiber deride the Egyptian who presented his offering to the beneficent genius of the Nile. The visible powers of Nature8, the planets, and the elements, were the same throughout the universe. The invisible governors of the moral world8 were inevitably cast in a similar mould of fiction and allegory. Every virtue8, and even vice, acquired its divine8 representative; every art and profession its patron, whose attributes in the most distant ages and countries were uniformly derived from the character8 of their peculiar votaries. A republic of gods8 of such opposite tempers and interests required, in every system, the moderating hand of a supreme magistrate, who, by the progress of knowledge and of flattery, was gradually invested with the sublime perfections of an Eternal Parent and an Omnipotent Monarch. Such was the mild spirit of antiquity, that the nations were less attentive to the difference than to the resemblance of their religious8 worship8. The Greek, the Roman, and the Barbarian, as they met before their respective altars, easily persuaded themselves that, under various8 names and with various8 ceremonies, they adored the same deities. The elegant mythology of Homer gave a beautiful and almost a regular form to the polytheism of the ancient8 world8.
The philosophers of Greece deduced their morals from the nature8 of man8 rather than from that of God8. They meditated, however, on the Divine8 Nature8 as a very curious and important speculation, and in the profound inquiry they displayed the strength and weakness of the human8 understanding. Of the four most celebrated schools, the Stoics and the Platonists endeavoured to reconcile the jarring interests of reason8 and piety. They have left us the most sublime proofs of the existence and perfections of the first cause; but, as it was impossible for them to conceive the creation of matter, the workman in the Stoic philosophy was not sufficiently distinguished from the work; whilst, on the contrary, the spiritual God8 of Plato and his disciples resembled an idea rather than a substance. The opinions of the Academics and Epicureans were of a less religious8 cast; but, whilst the modest science of the former induced them to doubt, the positive ignorance of the latter urged them to deny, the providence of a Supreme Ruler. The spirit of inquiry, prompted by emulation and supported by freedom, had divided the public8 teachers of philosophy into a variety of contending sects; but the ingenuous youth, who from every part resorted to Athens and the other seats of learning in the Roman empire8, were alike instructed in every school to reject and to despise the religion8 of the multitude. How, indeed, was it possible that a philosopher8 should accept as divine8 truths the idle tales of the poets, and the incoherent traditions of antiquity; or that he should adore, as gods8, those imperfect beings whom he must have despised, as men! Against such unworthy adversaries, Cicero condescended to employ the arms of reason8 and eloquence; but the satire of Lucian was a much more adequate as well as more efficacious weapon. We may be well assured that a writer conversant with the world8 would never have ventured to expose the gods8 of his country to public8 ridicule, had they not already been the objects of secret contempt among the polished and enlightened orders of society8.
Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion which prevailed in the age8 of the Antonines, both the interests of the priests and the credulity of the people were sufficiently respected. In their writings and conversation the philosophers of antiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason8; but they resigned their actions to the commands of law and of custom. Viewing with a smile of pity and indulgence the various8 errors of the vulgar, they diligently practised the ceremonies of their fathers, devoutly frequented the temples8 of the gods8; and, sometimes condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition8, they concealed the sentiments of an Atheist under the sacerdotal robes. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to wrangle about their respective modes of faith8 or of worship8. It was indifferent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume; and they approached, with the same inward contempt and the same external reverence, the altars of the Libyan, the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter.
It is not easy to conceive from what motives a spirit of persecution could introduce itself into the Roman29 councils. The magistrates could not be actuated by a blind though honest bigotry, since the magistrates were themselves philosophers; and the schools of Athens had given laws to the senate. They could not be impelled by ambition or avarice, as the temporal and ecclesiastical powers were united in the same hands. The pontiffs were chosen among the most illustrious of the senators; and the office of Supreme Pontiff was constantly exercised by the emperors29 themselves. They knew and valued the advantages of religion, as it is connected with civil government. They encouraged the public29 festivals which humanize the manners29 of the people. They managed the arts of divination as a convenient instrument of policy; and they respected, as the firmest bond of society, the useful29 persuasion that, either in this or in a future life29, the crime of perjury is most assuredly punished by the avenging gods. But, whilst29 they acknowledged the general advantages of religion, they were convinced that the various29 modes of worship contributed alike to the same salutary purposes; and that, in every country29, the form of superstition which had received29 the sanction of time and experience was the best adapted29 to the climate and to its inhabitants. Avarice and taste very frequently despoiled the vanquished nations of the elegant statues of their gods and the rich29 ornaments of their temples; but, in the exercise of the religion which they derived from their ancestors, they uniformly experienced the indulgence, and even protection, of the Roman29 conquerors. The province29 of Gaul seems, and indeed only seems, an exception to this universal toleration. Under the specious pretext of abolishing human sacrifices, the emperors29 Tiberius and Claudius suppressed the dangerous power29 of the Druids; but the priests themselves, their gods, and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final destruction of Paganism.
Rome, the capital40 of a great40 monarchy, was incessantly filled with subjects40 and strangers from every part of the world, who all introduced and enjoyed the favourite superstitions of their native country40. Every city40 in the empire40 was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient40 ceremonies; and the Roman40 senate, using the common privilege, sometimes interposed to check this inundation of foreign rites. The Egyptian superstition, of all the most contemptible and abject, was frequently prohibited; the temples of Serapis and Isis demolished, and their worshippers banished from Rome40 and Italy. But the zeal40 of fanaticism prevailed over the cold and feeble efforts of policy. The exiles returned, the proselytes multiplied, the temples were restored with increasing splendour40, and Isis and Serapis at length assumed their place among the Roman40 deities. Nor was this indulgence a departure from the old maxims of government. In the purest ages of the commonwealth, Cybele and Aesculapius had been invited by solemn embassies; and it was customary to tempt the protectors of besieged cities by the promise of more distinguished honours than they possessed in their native country40. Rome40 gradually became the common temple of her subjects40; and the freedom of the city40 was bestowed on all the gods of mankind.
II. The narrow policy of preserving without any foreign mixture the pure blood of the ancient citizens, had checked the fortune, and hastened the ruin, of Athens and Sparta. The aspiring genius of Rome27 sacrificed vanity to ambition, and deemed it more prudent, as well as honourable, to adopt virtue27 and merit for her own wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers, enemies or barbarians27. During the most flourishing era of the Athenian commonwealth the number of citizens gradually decreased from about thirty to twenty-one thousand27. If, on the contrary, we study the growth of the Roman27 republic27, we may discover that, notwithstanding the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tullius, amounted to no more than eighty-three thousand27, were multiplied, before the commencement of the social war27, to the number of four hundred and sixty-three thousand27 men able to bear arms27 in the service27 of their country27. When the allies of Rome27 claimed an equal share of honours and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance of arms27 to an ignominous concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians paid the severe penalty of their rashness; but the rest of the Italian states, as they successively returned to their duty, were admitted into the bosom of the republic27, and soon27 contributed to the ruin of public27 freedom. Under a democratical government the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude27. But, when the popular assemblies had been suppressed by the administration of the emperors, the conquerors were distinguished from the vanquished nations only as the first and most honourable order of subjects; and their increase27, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same dangers. Yet the wisest princes who adopted the maxims of Augustus guarded with the strictest care the dignity of the Roman27 name, and diffused the freedom of the city27 with a prudent liberality.
Till the privileges of Romans1 had been progressively extended to all the inhabitants of the empire1, an important distinction was preserved between Italy1 and the provinces1. The former was esteemed the centre of public1 unity, and the firm basis of the constitution. Italy1 claimed the birth, or at least the residence, of the emperors1 and the senate1. The estates of the Italians were exempt from taxes, their persons from the arbitrary jurisdiction1 of governors. Their municipal corporations, formed after the perfect model of the capital, were intrusted, under the immediate eye of the supreme power1, with the execution of the laws1. From the foot of the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, all the natives of Italy1 were born citizens of Rome1. Their partial distinctions were obliterated, and they insensibly coalesced into one great nation, united by language, manners, and civil1 institutions, and equal to the weight of a powerful empire1. The republic1 gloried in her generous policy1, and was frequently rewarded by the merit and services of her adopted sons. Had she always confined the distinction of Romans1 to the ancient1 families within the walls of the city1, that immortal name would have been deprived of some of its noblest ornaments. Virgil was a native of Mantua; Horace was inclined to doubt whether he should call himself an Apulian or a Lucanian; it was in Padua that an historian was found worthy to record the majestic series of Roman1 victories. The patriot family of the Catos emerged from Tusculum; and the little town of Arpinum claimed the double honour of producing Marius and Cicero, the former of whom deserved, after Romulus and Camillus, to be styled the Third Founder of Rome1; and the latter, after saving his country from the designs of Catiline, enabled her to contend with Athens for the palm of eloquence.
The provinces1 of the empire1 (as they have been described in the preceding chapter) were destitute of any public1 force or constitutional freedom1. In Etruria, in Greece, and in Gaul, it was the first care of the senate1 to dissolve those dangerous confederacies which taught mankind that, as the Roman1 arms prevailed by division, they might be resisted by union. Those princes1 whom the ostentation of gratitude or generosity permitted for a while to hold a precarious sceptre were dismissed from their thrones, as soon as they had performed their appointed task of fashioning to the yoke the vanquished nations. The free states and cities which had embraced the cause of Rome1 were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and insensibly sunk into real servitude. The public1 authority1 was everywhere exercised by the ministers of the senate1 and of the emperors1, and that authority1 was absolute and without control. But the same salutary maxims of government1, which had secured the peace1 and obedience of Italy1, were extended to the most distant conquests. A nation of Romans1 was gradually formed in the provinces1, by the double expedient of introducing colonies, and of admitting the most faithful and deserving of the provincials to the freedom1 of Rome1.
Wheresoever the Roman1 conquers, he inhabits, is a very just observation of Seneca, confirmed by history and experience. The natives of Italy1, allured by pleasure or by interest, hastened to enjoy the advantages of victory; and we may remark that, about forty years1 after the reduction of Asia, eighty thousand Romans1 were massacred in one day by the cruel orders of Mithridates. These voluntary exiles were engaged for the most part in the occupations of commerce, agriculture, and the farm of the revenue. But after the legions were rendered permanent by the emperors1, the provinces1 were peopled by a race of soldiers; and the veterans, whether they received the reward of their service in land or in money, usually settled with their families in the country where they had honourably spent their youth. Throughout the empire1, but more particularly in the western parts, the most fertile districts and the most convenient situations were reserved for the establishment of colonies; some of which were of a civil1 and others of a military nature. In their manners and internal policy1, the colonies formed a perfect representation of their great parent; and [as] they were soon endeared to the natives by the ties of friendship and alliance, they effectually diffused a reverence for the Roman1 name, and a desire which was seldom disappointed of sharing, in due time, its honours1 and advantages. The municipal cities insensibly equalled the rank and splendour of the colonies; and in the reign1 of Hadrian it was disputed which was the preferable condition, of those societies which had issued from, or those which had been received into, the bosom of Rome1. The right of Latium, as it was called, conferred on the cities to which it had been granted a more partial favour. The magistrates1 only, at the expiration of their office1, assumed1 the quality of Roman1 citizens; but as those offices were annual, in a few years1 they circulated round the principal families. Those of the provincials who were permitted to bear arms in the legions; those who exercised any civil1 employment; all, in a word, who performed any public1 service, or displayed any personal talents, were rewarded with a present, whose value was continually diminished by the increasing liberality of the emperors1. Yet even in the age of the Antonines, when the freedom1 of the city1 had been bestowed on the greater number of their subjects1, it was still accompanied with very solid advantages. The bulk of the people1 acquired, with that title1, the benefit of the Roman1 laws1, particularly in the interesting articles of marriage, testaments, and inheritances; and the road of fortune was open to those whose pretensions were seconded by favour or merit. The grandsons of the Gauls who had besieged Julius Caesar in Alesia commanded legions, governed provinces1, and were admitted into the senate1 of Rome1. Their ambition, instead of disturbing the tranquillity of the state1, was intimately connected with its safety and greatness.
So sensible were the Romans of the influence of language0 over national manners0, that it was their most serious care to extend, with the progress of their arms, the use of the Latin0 tongue0. The ancient0 dialects of Italy0, the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into oblivion; but in the provinces, the east0 was less docile than the west to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire0 with a distinction of colours, which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian splendour of prosperity, became gradually more visible as the shades of night descended upon the Roman0 world0. The western0 countries were civilized by the same hands which subdued them. As soon as the barbarians0 were reconciled to obedience, their minds were opened to any new impressions of knowledge0 and politeness. The language0 of Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mixture of corruption, was so universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul0, Britain, and Pannonia, that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved only in the mountains, or among the peasants. Education and study0 insensibly inspired the natives of those countries with the sentiments of Romans; and Italy0 gave fashions, as well as laws, to her Latin0 provincials. They solicited with more ardour, and obtained with more facility, the freedom and honours of the state0; supported the national dignity in letters and in arms; and, at length, in the person of Trajan, produced an emperor whom the Scipios would not have disowned for their countryman. The situation of the Greeks0 was very different from that of the barbarians0. The former had been long0 since civilized and corrupted. They had too much taste to relinquish their language0, and too much vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. Still preserving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues, of their ancestors, they affected to despise the unpolished manners0 of the Roman0 conquerors, whilst they were compelled to respect their superior wisdom and power. Nor was the influence of the Grecian language0 and sentiments confined to the narrow limits of that once celebrated0 country0. Their empire0, by the progress of colonies and conquest, had been diffused from the Hadriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. Asia was covered with Greek0 cities, and the long0 reign of the Macedonian kings had introduced a silent revolution into Syria and Egypt. In their pompous courts those princes0 united the elegance of Athens with the luxury of the East0, and the example of the court was imitated, at an humble distance, by the higher ranks of their subjects. Such was the general division of the Roman0 empire0 into the Latin0 and Greek0 languages. To these we may add a third distinction for the body of the natives in Syria, and especially in Egypt. The use of their ancient0 dialects, by secluding them from the commerce of mankind, checked the improvement of those barbarians0. The slothful effeminacy of the former exposed them to the contempt, the sullen ferociousness of the latter excited the aversion, of the conquerors. Those nations had submitted to the Roman0 power, but they seldom desired or deserved the freedom of the city; and it was remarked that more than two hundred and thirty years0 elapsed after the ruin of the Ptolemies, before an Egyptian was admitted into the senate of Rome0.
It is a just though trite observation, that victorious Rome0 was herself subdued by the arts0 of Greece. Those immortal writers who still command the admiration of modern Europe0 soon became the favourite object of study0 and imitation in Italy0 and the western0 provinces. But the elegant amusements of the Romans were not suffered to interfere with their sound maxims of policy. Whilst they acknowledged the charms of the Greek0, they asserted the dignity of the Latin0, tongue0, and the exclusive use of the latter was inflexibly maintained in the administration of civil as well as military government. The two languages exercised at the same time their separate jurisdiction throughout the empire0: the former, as the natural idiom0 of science0; the latter, as the legal dialect0 of public transactions. Those who united letters with business were equally conversant with both; and it was almost impossible, in any province, to find a Roman0 subject, of a liberal education, who was at once a stranger to the Greek0 and to the Latin0 language0.
It was by such institutions that the nations of the empire47 insensibly melted away into the Roman47 name and people47. But there still remained, in the centre of every province and of every family, an unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the benefits, of society. In the free states of antiquity the domestic slaves were exposed to the wanton rigour of despotism. The perfect settlement of the Roman47 empire47 was preceded by ages of violence and rapine. The slaves consisted, for the most part, of barbarian captives, taken in thousands by the chance of war47, purchased at a vile price, accustomed to a life47 of independence, and impatient to break and to revenge their fetters. Against such internal enemies, whose desperate insurrections had more than once reduced the republic to the brink of destruction, the most severe regulations and the most cruel treatment seemed almost justified by the great law of self-preservation. But when the principal nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa were united under the laws of one sovereign47, the source of foreign supplies flowed with much less abundance, and the Romans were reduced to the milder but more tedious method of propagation. In their numerous families, and particularly in their country estates, they encouraged the marriage of their slaves. The sentiments of nature, the habits of education, and the possession of a dependent species of property, contributed to alleviate the hardships of servitude. The existence of a slave became an object of greater value, and though his happiness still depended on the temper and circumstances of the master47, the humanity of the latter, instead of being restrained by fear, was encouraged by the sense of his own interest. The progress of manners was accelerated by the virtue or policy of the emperors; and by the edicts of Hadrian and the Antonines the protection of the laws was extended to the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdiction of life47 and death47 over the slaves, a power47 long47 exercised and often abused, was taken out of private47 hands, and reserved to the magistrates alone. The subterraneous prisons were abolished; and, upon a just complaint of intolerable treatment, the injured slave obtained either his deliverance or a less cruel master47.
Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman37 slave; and, if he had any opportunity of making himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom37. The benevolence of the master was so frequently prompted by the meaner suggestions of vanity and avarice, that the laws37 found it more necessary to restrain than to encourage a profuse and undistinguishing liberality, which might degenerate into a very dangerous abuse. It was a maxim of ancient37 jurisprudence, that a slave had not any country37 of his own; he acquired with his liberty37 an admission into the political society of which his patron was a member. The consequences of this maxim would have prostituted the privileges of the Roman37 city to a mean and promiscuous multitude. Some seasonable exceptions were therefore provided; and the honourable distinction37 was confined to such slaves37 only as, for just causes, and with the approbation of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen freedmen obtained no more than the private37 rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or military honours. Whatever might be the merit or fortune of their sons, they likewise were esteemed unworthy of a seat in the senate; nor were the traces of a servile37 origin allowed to be completely obliterated till the third or fourth generation. Without destroying the distinction37 of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom37 and honours was presented, even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number among the human37 species.
It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves2 by a peculiar habit, but it was justly apprehended that there might be some danger in acquainting them with their own numbers2. Without interpreting, in their utmost strictness, the liberal2 appellations of legions and myriads, we may venture to pronounce that the proportion of slaves2, who were valued as property, was more considerable than that of servants, who can be computed only as an expense. The youths of a promising genius were instructed in the arts2 and sciences, and their price was ascertained by the degree of their skill and talents. Almost every profession, either liberal2 or mechanical, might be found in the household of an opulent senator. The ministers of pomp and sensuality were multiplied beyond the conception of modern luxury. It was more for the interest of the merchant or manufacturer to purchase than to hire his workmen; and in the country slaves2 were employed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments of agriculture. To confirm the general2 observation, and to display the multitude of slaves2, we might allege a variety of particular instances. It was discovered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four hundred slaves2 were maintained in a single palace of Rome. The same number of four hundred belonged to an estate, which an African widow, of a very private2 condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserved for herself a much larger share of her property. A freedman, under the reign2 of Augustus, though his fortune2 had suffered great2 losses in the civil wars, left behind him three thousand2 six hundred yoke of oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand2 head of smaller cattle, and, what was almost included in the description of cattle, four thousand2 one hundred and sixteen slaves2.
The number of subjects17 who acknowledged the laws of Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with such a degree of accuracy as the importance of the object would deserve. We are informed that, when the emperor Claudius exercised the office of censor, he took an account of six millions nine hundred and forty-five thousand17 Roman17 citizens, who, with the proportion of women and children, must have amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The multitude of subjects17 of an inferior rank was uncertain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with attention every circumstance which could influence the balance, it seems probable that there existed, in the time17 of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex and of every age; and that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants17 of the Roman17 world. The total amount of this imperfect calculation would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions of persons: a degree of population which possibly exceeds that of modern Europe, and forms the most numerous society that has ever been united under the same system of government.
Domestic peace and union were the natural consequences of the moderate and comprehensive policy embraced by the Romans. If we turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia43, we shall43 behold despotism in the centre and weakness in the extremities; the collection of the revenue, or the administration of justice, enforced by the presence of an army; hostile barbarians, established in the heart of the country43, hereditary satraps usurping the dominion of the provinces43 and subjects, inclined to rebellion, though incapable of freedom. But the obedience of the Roman43 world was uniform, voluntary, and permanent. The vanquished nations, blended into one great43 people43, resigned the hope, nay even the wish, of resuming their independence, and scarcely considered their own existence as distinct from the existence of Rome. The established authority of the emperors pervaded without an effort the wide extent of their dominions, and was exercised with the same facility on the banks of the Thames, or of the Nile, as on those of the Tiber. The legions were destined to serve against the public43 enemy, and the civil magistrate seldom required the aid of a military force. In this state of general43 security, the leisure as well as opulence both of the prince and people43 were devoted to improve and to adorn the Roman43 empire43.
Among the innumerable monuments32 of architecture32 constructed by the Romans32, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time32 and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins32 that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces would be sufficient to prove that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire32. Their greatness32 alone, or their beauty, might deserve our attention; but they are rendered more interesting by two important circumstances, which connect the agreeable history of the arts with the more useful history of human manners. Many of those works32 were erected32 at private32 expense, and almost all were intended for public32 benefit.
It is natural to suppose that the greatest number, as well as the most considerable of the Roman19 edifices, were raised by the emperors, who possessed so unbounded a command both of men and money. Augustus was accustomed to boast that he had found his capital of brick, and that he had left it of marble. The strict economy of Vespasian was the source of his magnificence. The works of Trajan bear the stamp of his genius. The public19 monuments with which Hadrian adorned every province19 of the empire19 were executed not only by his orders, but under his immediate inspection. He was himself an artist; and he loved the arts, as they conduced to the glory of the monarch19. They were encouraged by the Antonines, as they contributed to the happiness of the people19. But if the emperors were the first, they were not the only architects of their dominions. Their example19 was universally imitated by their principal subjects, who were not afraid of declaring that they had spirit19 to conceive, and wealth to accomplish, the noblest undertakings. Scarcely had the proud structure of the Coliseum been dedicated at Rome19, before the edifices of a smaller scale indeed, but of the same design and materials, were erected for the use, and at the expense, of the cities of Capua and Verona. The inscription of the stupendous bridge of Alcantara attests that it was thrown over the Tagus by the contribution of a few Lusitanian communities. When Pliny was intrusted with the government of Bithynia and Pontus19, provinces19 by no means the richest or most considerable of the empire19, he found the cities within his jurisdiction striving with each other in every useful and ornamental work that might deserve the curiosity of strangers or the gratitude of their citizens. It was the duty of the Proconsul to supply their deficiencies, to direct their taste, and sometimes to moderate their emulation. The opulent senators of Rome19 and the provinces19 esteemed it an honour, and almost an obligation, to adorn the splendour of their age19 and country19; and the influence of fashion very frequently supplied the want of taste or generosity. Among a crowd of these private19 benefactors, we may select Herodes Atticus, an Athenian citizen, who lived in the age19 of the Antonines. Whatever might be the motive of his conduct, his magnificence would have been worthy of the greatest kings.
The family of Herod, at least after it had been favoured by fortune, was lineally descended from Cimon and Miltiades, Theseus and Cecrops, Aeacus and Jupiter. But the posterity of so many gods and heroes was fallen into the most abject state. His grandfather had suffered by the hands of justice47, and Julius Atticus, his father47, must have ended his life47 in poverty and contempt, had he not discovered an immense treasure buried under an old house, the last remains of his patrimony. According to the rigour of law, the emperor47 might have asserted his claim; and the prudent Atticus prevented, by a frank confession, the officiousness of informers. But the equitable Nerva, who then filled the throne47, refused to accept any part of it, and commanded him to use, without scruple, the present of fortune. The cautious Athenian still insisted that the treasure was too considerable for a subject, and that he knew not how to use it. Abuse it then, replied the monarch, with a good-natured peevishness; for it is your own. Many will be of opinion that Atticus literally obeyed the emperor47's last instructions, since he expended the greatest part of his fortune, which was much increased by an advantageous marriage, in the service of the Public47. He had obtained for his son47 Herod the prefecture of the free cities of Asia; and the young magistrate, observing that the town of Troas was indifferently supplied with water, obtained from the munificence of Hadrian three hundred myriads of drachms (about a hundred thousand pounds) for the construction of a new aqueduct. But in the execution of the work the charge amounted to more than double the estimate, and the officers of the revenue began to murmur, till the generous Atticus silenced their complaints by requesting that he might be permitted to take upon himself the whole additional expense.
The ablest preceptors of Greece and Asia43 had been invited by liberal rewards to direct the education of young Herod. Their pupil soon became a celebrated orator in the useless rhetoric of that age43, which, confining itself to the schools, disdained to visit either the Forum or the Senate. He was honoured with the consulship at Rome; but the greatest part of his life was spent in a philosophic retirement at Athens, and his adjacent villas; perpetually surrounded by sophists, who acknowledged, without reluctance, the superiority of a rich and generous rival. The monuments of his genius have perished; some remains still preserve the fame of his taste and munificence: modern travellers have measured the remains of the stadium which he constructed at Athens. It was six hundred feet in length, built entirely of white marble, capable of admitting the whole body of the people43, and finished in four years, whilst Herod was president of the Athenian games. To the memory of his wife Regilla he dedicated a theatre, scarcely to be paralleled in the empire43: no wood except cedar very curiously carved, was employed in any part of the building. The Odeum, designed by Pericles for musical performances and the rehearsal of new tragedies, had been a trophy of the victory of the arts over Barbaric greatness; as the timbers employed in the construction consisted chiefly of the masts of the Persian vessels. Notwithstanding the repairs bestowed on that ancient43 edifice by a king of Cappadocia, it was again fallen to decay. Herod restored its ancient43 beauty and magnificence. Nor was the liberality of that illustrious citizen confined to the walls of Athens. The most splendid ornaments bestowed on the temple of Neptune in the Isthmus, a theatre at Corinth, a stadium at Delphi, a bath at Thermopylae, and an aqueduct at Canusium in Italy, were insufficient to exhaust his treasures. The people43 of Epirus, Thessaly, Euboea, Boeotia, and Peloponnesus, experienced his favours; and many inscriptions of the cities43 of Greece and Asia43 gratefully style Herodes Atticus their patron and benefactor.
In the commonwealths of Athens and Rome, the modest simplicity of private houses announced the equal condition of freedom; whilst the sovereignty of the people43 was represented in the majestic edifices destined to the public43 use: nor was this republican spirit totally extinguished by the introduction of wealth and monarchy. It was in works of national43 honour and benefit that the most virtuous of the emperors affected to display their magnificence. The golden palace of Nero excited a just43 indignation, but the vast extent of ground which had been usurped by his selfish luxury was more nobly filled under the succeeding reigns by the Coliseum, the baths of Titus, the Claudian portico, and the temples dedicated to the goddess of Peace and to the genius of Rome. These monuments of architecture, the property of the Roman43 people43, were adorned with the most beautiful productions of Grecian painting and sculpture; and in the temple of Peace a very curious library was open to the curiosity of the learned. At a small distance from thence was situated the Forum of Trajan. It was surrounded with a lofty portico in the form of a quadrangle, into which four triumphal arches opened a noble and spacious entrance: in the centre arose a column of marble, whose height of one hundred and ten feet denoted the elevation of the hill that had been cut away. This column, which still subsists in its ancient43 beauty, exhibited an exact representation of the Dacian victories of its founder. The veteran soldier contemplated the story of his own campaigns, and, by an easy illusion of national43 vanity, the peaceful citizen associated himself to the honours of the triumph. All the other quarters of the capital43, and all the provinces43 of the empire43, were embellished by the same liberal spirit of public43 magnificence, and were filled with amphitheatres, theatres, temples, porticos, triumphal arches, baths, and aqueducts, all variously conducive to the health, the devotion, and the pleasures of the meanest citizen. The last mentioned of those edifices deserve our peculiar attention. The boldness of the enterprise, the solidity of the execution, and the uses to which they were subservient, rank the aqueducts among the noblest monuments of Roman43 genius and power. The aqueducts of the capital43 claim a just43 pre-eminence; but the curious traveller, who, without the light of history43, should examine those of Spoleto, of Metz, or of Segovia, would very naturally conclude that those provincial towns had formerly been the residence of some potent monarch. The solitudes of Asia43 and Africa were once covered with flourishing cities43, whose populousness, and even whose existence, was derived from such artificial supplies of a perennial stream of fresh water.
We have computed the inhabitants, and contemplated the public28 works, of the Roman28 empire28. The observation of the number28 and greatness of its cities28 will serve to confirm the former and to multiply the latter. It may not be unpleasing to collect a few scattered instances relative to that subject, without forgetting, however, that, from the vanity of nations and the poverty of language, the vague appellation of city28 has been indifferently bestowed on Rome28 and upon Laurentum. I. Ancient28 Italy is said to have contained eleven hundred and ninety-seven28 cities28; and, for whatsoever era of antiquity the expression might be intended, there is not any reason to believe the country less populous in the age28 of the Antonines, than in that of Romulus. The petty states of Latium were contained within the metropolis of the empire28, by whose superior influence they had been attracted. Those parts of Italy which have so long28 languished under the lazy tyranny of priests and viceroys had been afflicted only by the more tolerable calamities of war28; and the first symptoms of decay which they experienced were amply compensated by the rapid28 improvements of the Cisalpine Gaul. The splendour of Verona may be traced in its remains: yet Verona was less celebrated than Aquileia or Padua, Milan or Ravenna. II. The spirit of improvement had passed the Alps, and been felt even in the woods of Britain, which were gradually cleared away to open a free space for convenient and elegant habitations. York was the seat of government; London was already enriched by commerce; and Bath was celebrated for the salutary effects of its medicinal waters. Gaul could boast of her twelve hundred cities28; and, though, in the northern parts, many of them, without excepting Paris itself, were little more than the rude and imperfect townships of a rising people28, the southern provinces28 imitated the wealth and elegance of Italy. Many were the cities28 of Gaul, Marseilles, Arles, Nismes, Narbonne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Autun, Vienne, Lyons, Langres, and Treves, whose ancient28 condition might sustain an equal, and perhaps advantageous, comparison with their present state28. With regard to Spain, that country flourished as a province, and has declined as a kingdom. Exhausted by the abuse of her strength, by America, and by superstition, her pride might possibly be confounded, if we required such a list of three hundred and sixty cities28 as Pliny has exhibited under the reign28 of Vespasian. III. Three hundred African cities28 had once acknowledged the authority of Carthage, nor is it likely that their numbers diminished under the administration of the emperors: Carthage itself rose with new28 splendour from its ashes; and that capital28, as well as Capua and Corinth, soon28 recovered all the advantages which can be separated from independent sovereignty. IV. The provinces28 of the East28 present the contrast of Roman28 magnificence with Turkish barbarism. The ruins of antiquity, scattered over uncultivated fields, and ascribed by ignorance to the power of magic, scarcely afford a shelter to the oppressed peasant or wandering Arab. Under the reign28 of the Caesars, the proper Asia alone contained five hundred populous cities28, enriched with all the gifts of nature28, and adorned with all the refinements of art. Eleven cities28 of Asia had once disputed the honour of dedicating a temple to Tiberius, and their respective merits were examined by the senate28. Four of them were immediately rejected as unequal to the burden; and among these was Laodicea, whose splendour is still displayed in its ruins. Laodicea collected a very considerable revenue from its flocks of sheep, celebrated for the fineness of their wool, and had received, a little before the contest, a legacy of above four hundred thousand28 pounds by the testament of a generous citizen. If such was the poverty of Laodicea, what must have been the wealth of those cities28, whose claim appeared preferable, and particularly of Pergamus, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, who so long28 disputed with each other the titular primacy of Asia? The capitals of Syria and Egypt held a still superior rank in the empire28: Antioch and Alexandria looked down with disdain on a crowd of dependent cities28, and yielded with reluctance to the majesty of Rome28 itself.
All these cities9 were connected with each other, and with the capital9, by the public highways, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome9, traversed Italy9, pervaded the provinces9, and were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire9. If we carefully trace the distance from the wall of Antoninus to Rome9, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will be found that the great9 chain of communication, from the north9-west9 to the south-east point of the empire9, was drawn out to the length of four thousand9 and eighty Roman9 miles9. The public roads were accurately divided by milestones, and ran in a direct line from one city9 to another, with very little respect for the obstacles either of nature or private property. Mountains9 were perforated, and bold arches thrown over the broadest and most rapid streams. The middle part of the road was raised into a terrace which commanded the adjacent country9, consisted of several strata of sand, gravel, and cement and was paved with large stones, or, in some places near the capital9, with granite. Such was the solid construction of the Roman9 highways, whose firmness has not entirely yielded to the effort of fifteen centuries. They united the subjects of the most distant provinces9 by an easy and familiar intercourse; but their primary object had been to facilitate the marches of the legions; nor was any country9 considered as completely subdued, till it had been rendered, in all its parts, pervious to the arms9 and authority of the conqueror. The advantage of receiving the earliest intelligence, and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced the emperors to establish, throughout their extensive dominions, the regular institution of posts. Houses were everywhere erected at the distance only of five or six miles9; each of them was constantly provided with forty horses, and, by the help of these relays, it was easy to travel an hundred miles9 in a day along the Roman9 roads. The use of the posts was allowed to those who claimed it by an Imperial mandate; but, though originally intended for the public service, it was sometimes indulged to the business or conveniency of private citizens. Nor was the communication of the Roman9 empire9 less free and open by sea9 than it was by land. The provinces9 surrounded and enclosed the Mediterranean; and Italy9, in the shape of an immense promontory, advanced into the midst of that great9 lake. The coasts of Italy9 are, in general, destitute of safe harbours; but human industry had corrected the deficiencies of nature; and the artificial port of Ostia, in particular, situate at the mouth of the Tiber, and formed by the Emperor Claudius, was an useful monument of Roman9 greatness. From this port, which was only sixteen miles9 from the capital9, a favourable breeze frequently carried vessels9 in seven days to the columns of Hercules, and in nine or ten to Alexandria in Egypt.
Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire9, the power of Rome9 was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements, of social life. In the more remote ages of antiquity, the world was unequally divided. The East was in the immemorial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the West9 was inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians9, who either disdained agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown. Under the protection of an established government, the productions of happier climates and the industry of more civilised nations9 were gradually introduced into the western countries of Europe9; and the natives were encouraged, by an open and profitable commerce, to multiply the former as well as to improve the latter. It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the articles, either of the animal or the vegetable reign, which were successively imported into Europe9 from Asia9 and Egypt; but it will not be unworthy of the dignity, and much less of the utility, of an historical work, slightly to touch on a few of the principal heads. 1. Almost all the flowers, the herbs, and the fruits that grow in our European gardens are of foreign extraction, which, in many cases, is betrayed even by their names: the apple was a native of Italy9, and, when the Romans9 had tasted the richer flavour of the apricot, the peach, the pomegranate, the citron, and the orange, they contented themselves with applying to all these new9 fruits the common denomination of apple, discriminating them from each other by the additional epithet of their country9. 2. In the time of Homer, the vine grew wild in the island of Sicily and most probably in the adjacent continent; but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it afford a liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage inhabitants9. A thousand9 years afterwards, Italy9 could boast that, of the fourscore most generous and celebrated wines, more than two-thirds were produced from her soil. The blessing was soon9 communicated to the Narbonnese province9 of Gaul; but so intense was the cold to the north9 of the Cevennes, that, in the time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen the grapes in those parts of Gaul. This difficulty, however, was gradually vanquished; and there is some reason to believe that the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines. 3. The olive, in the western world, followed the progress of peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome9, both Italy9 and Africa9 were strangers to that useful plant; it was naturalised in those countries; and at length carried into the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it required a certain degree of heat, and could only flourish in the neighbourhood of the sea9, were insensibly exploded by industry and experience. 4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt to Gaul, and enriched the whole country9, however it might impoverish the particular lands on which it was sown. 5. The use of artificial grasses became familiar to the farmers both of Italy9 and the provinces9, particularly the Lucerne, which derived its name and origin from Media. The assured supply of wholesome and plentiful food for the cattle during winter multiplied the number of the flocks and herds, which in their turn contributed to the fertility of the soil. To all these improvements may be added an assiduous attention to mines and fisheries, which, by employing a multitude of laborious hands, serve to increase the pleasures of the rich and the subsistence of the poor. The elegant treatise of Columella describes the advanced state of the Spanish husbandry, under the reign of Tiberius; and it may be observed that those famines which so frequently afflicted the infant republic were seldom or never experienced by the extensive empire9 of Rome9. The accidental scarcity, in any single province9, was immediately relieved by the plenty of its more fortunate neighbours.
Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; since the productions of nature23 are the materials23 of art23. Under the Roman23 empire23, the labour of an industrious and ingenious people23 was variously, but incessantly, employed in the service of the rich. In their dress, their table, their houses23, and their furniture, the favourites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency, of elegance, and of splendour, whatever could soothe their pride or gratify their sensuality. Such refinements, under the odious name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moralists of every age23; and it might perhaps be more conducive to the virtue, as well as happiness, of mankind23, if all possessed the necessaries, and none the superfluities, of life. But in the present imperfect condition of society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or folly, seems to be the only means that can correct the unequal distribution of property23. The diligent mechanic, and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share in the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax from the possessors of land; and the latter are prompted, by a sense of interest, to improve those estates, with whose produce they may purchase additional pleasures. This operation, the particular effects of which are felt in every society, acted with much more diffusive energy in the Roman23 world. The provinces23 would soon23 have been exhausted of their wealth23, if the manufactures and commerce of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious subjects the sums which were exacted from them by the arms and authority of Rome23. As long as the circulation was confined within the bounds of the empire23, it impressed the political machine with a new23 degree of activity, and its consequences, sometimes beneficial, could never become pernicious.
But it is no easy task to confine luxury within the limits of an empire24. The most remote countries of the ancient world were ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forest of Scythia afforded some valuable furs. Amber was brought overland from the shores of the Baltic to the Danube; and the barbarians were astonished at the price which they received in exchange for so useless a commodity. There was a considerable demand for Babylonian carpets, and other manufactures of the East24; but the most important and unpopular branch of foreign trade was carried on with Arabia and India. Every year, about the time of the summer solstice, a fleet of an hundred and twenty vessels sailed from Myos-hormos, a port of Egypt24, on the Red Sea24. By the periodical assistance of the monsoons, they traversed the ocean in about forty days. The coast of Malabar, or the island of Ceylon, was the usual term of their navigation, and it was in those markets that the merchants from the more remote countries of Asia24 expected their arrival. The return of the fleet of Egypt24 was fixed to the months of December or January; and as soon as their rich cargo had been transported on the backs of camels from the Red Sea24 to the Nile24, and had descended that river as far as Alexandria, it was poured, without delay, into the capital of the empire24. The objects of oriental traffic were splendid and trifling: silk, a pound of which was esteemed not inferior in value to a pound of gold24; precious stones, among which the pearl claimed the first rank after the diamond; and a variety of aromatics, that were consumed in religious worship and the pomp of funerals. The labour and risk of the voyage was rewarded with almost incredible profit; but the profit was made upon Roman24 subjects, and a few individuals were enriched at the expense of the Public. As the natives of Arabia and India were contented with the productions and manufactures of their own country, silver, on the side of the Romans, was the principal, if not the only, instrument of commerce. It was a complaint worthy of the gravity of the senate, that, in the purchase of female ornaments, the wealth of the state24 was irrecoverably given away to foreign and hostile nations. The annual24 loss is computed, by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious temper, at upwards of eight hundred thousand24 pounds sterling. Such was the style of discontent, brooding over the dark prospect of approaching poverty. And yet, if we compare the proportion between gold24 and silver, as it stood in the time of Pliny, and as it was fixed in the reign24 of Constantine, we shall discover within that period a very considerable increase. There is not the least reason to suppose that gold24 was become more scarce; it is therefore evident that silver was grown more common; that whatever might be the amount of the Indian and Arabian24 exports, they were far from exhausting the wealth of the Roman24 world; and that the produce of the mines abundantly supplied the demands of commerce.
Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the past, and to depreciate the present, the tranquil and prosperous state1 of the empire1 was warmly felt, and honestly confessed, by the provincials as well as Romans1. They acknowledged that the true principles of social life, laws1, agriculture, and science, which had been first invented by the wisdom of Athens, were now firmly established by the power1 of Rome1, under whose auspicious influence the fiercest barbarians were united by an equal government1 and common language. They affirm that, with the improvement of arts, the human species was visibly multiplied. They celebrate the increasing splendour of the cities, the beautiful face of the country, cultivated and adorned like an immense garden; and the long1 festival of peace1, which was enjoyed by so many nations, forgetful of their ancient1 animosities, and delivered from the apprehension of future danger. Whatever suspicions may be suggested by the air of rhetoric and declamation which seems to prevail in these passages, the substance of them is perfectly agreeable to historic truth.
It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public47 felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long47 peace, and the uniform government47 of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret47 poison into the vitals of the empire47. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military47 spirit47 evaporated. The natives of Europe were brave and robust. Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum supplied the legions with excellent soldiers47, and constituted the real strength of the monarchy. Their personal valour remained, but they no longer possessed that public47 courage which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of national honour, the presence of danger47, and the habit of command47. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign47, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army47. The posterity of their boldest leaders was contented with the rank47 of citizens and subjects. The most aspiring spirits resorted to the court or standard of the emperors; and the deserted provinces47, deprived of political strength or union, insensibly sunk into the languid indifference of private47 life47.
The love of letters, almost inseparable from peace and refinement, was fashionable among the subjects of Hadrian and the Antonines, who were themselves men of learning and curiosity. It was diffused over the whole extent of their empire35; the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired a taste for rhetoric; Homer as well as Virgil were transcribed and studied on the banks of the Rhine and Danube; and the most liberal rewards sought out the faintest glimmerings of literary merit35. The sciences of physic and astronomy were successfully cultivated by the Greeks; the observations of Ptolemy and the writings of Galen are studied by those who have improved their discoveries and corrected their errors; but, if we except the inimitable Lucian, this age35 of indolence passed away without having produced a single writer of original genius35 or who excelled in the arts of elegant composition. The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools, and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one generation35 of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human35 mind. The beauties of the poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own, inspired only cold and servile imitations: or, if any ventured to deviate from those models, they deviated at the same time from good sense and propriety. On the revival of letters, the youthful vigour of the imagination after a long repose, national emulation, a new35 religion, new35 languages, and a new35 world, called forth the genius35 of Europe35. But the provincials of Rome, trained by a uniform artificial foreign education, were engaged in a very unequal competition with those bold ancients, who, by expressing their genuine feelings in their native tongue, had already occupied every place of honour. The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline35 of genius35 was soon followed by the corruption of taste.
The sublime Longinus, who in somewhat a later period, and in the court of a Syrian queen, preserved the spirit of ancient8 Athens, observes and laments this degeneracy of his contemporaries, which debased their sentiments, enervated their courage, and depressed their talents. In the same manner, says he, as some children always remain pigmies, whose infant limbs have been too closely confined; thus our tender minds, fettered by the prejudices and habits of a just servitude, are unable to expand themselves, or to attain that well-proportioned greatness which we admire in the ancients, who, living under a popular government, wrote with the same freedom as they acted. This diminutive stature of mankind8, if we pursue the metaphor, was daily sinking below the old standard, and the Roman world8 was indeed peopled by a race of pigmies, when the fierce giants of the North broke in and mended the puny breed. They restored a manly spirit of freedom; and, after the revolution of ten centuries, freedom became the happy parent of taste and science.
The obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state37, in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be distinguished37, is entrusted with the execution of the laws37, the management of the revenue, and the command of the army. But unless public37 liberty37 is protected by intrepid and vigilant guardians, the authority of so formidable a magistrate will soon37 degenerate into despotism. The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind; but so intimate is the connection between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people37. A martial nobility and stubborn commons37, possessed of arms37, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies, form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against enterprises of an aspiring prince.
Every barrier of the Roman47 constitution had been levelled by the vast ambition of the dictator; every fence had been extirpated by the cruel hand of the triumvir. After the victory of Actium, the fate of the Roman47 world depended on the will of Octavianus, surnamed Caesar by his uncle's adoption, and afterwards Augustus, by the flattery of the senate47. The conqueror was at the head of forty-four veteran legions, conscious of their own strength and of the weakness of the constitution, habituated during twenty years' civil47 war47 to every act of blood and violence, and passionately devoted to the house of Caesar, from whence alone they had received and expected the most lavish rewards. The provinces47, long47 oppressed by the ministers of the republic, sighed for the government47 of a single person47, who would be the master47, not the accomplice, of those petty tyrants. The people47 of Rome47, viewing with a secret47 pleasure the humiliation of the aristocracy, demanded only bread and public47 shows, and were supplied with both by the liberal hand of Augustus. The rich and polite Italians, who had almost universally embraced the philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of ease and tranquillity, and suffered not the pleasing dream to be interrupted by the memory of their old tumultuous freedom. With its power47, the senate47 had lost its dignity; many of the most noble families were extinct. The republicans of spirit47 and ability had perished in the field of battle, or in the proscription. The door of the assembly had been designedly left open for a mixed multitude of more than a thousand persons, who reflected disgrace upon their rank47, instead of deriving honour from it.
The reformation of the senate47 was one of the first steps in which Augustus laid aside the tyrant47 and professed himself the father47 of his country. He was elected censor; and, in concert with his faithful Agrippa, he examined the list of the senators, expelled a few members, whose vices or whose obstinacy required a public47 example, persuaded near two hundred to prevent the shame of an expulsion by a voluntary retreat, raised the qualification of a senator to about ten thousand pounds, created a sufficient number of patrician families, and accepted for himself the honourable title of Prince47 of the Senate47, which had always been bestowed by the censors on the citizen the most eminent for his honours and services. But, whilst he thus restored the dignity, he destroyed the independence of the senate47. The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power47 is nominated by the executive.
Before an assembly thus modelled and prepared, Augustus pronounced a studied oration, which displayed his patriotism, and disguised his ambition. He lamented, yet excused, his past conduct47. Filial piety had required at his hands the revenge of his father47's murder; the humanity of his own nature had sometimes given way to the stern laws of necessity, and to a forced connection with two unworthy colleagues: as long47 as Antony lived, the republic forbade him to abandon her to a degenerate Roman47 and a barbarian queen. He was now at liberty to satisfy his duty and his inclination. He solemnly restored the senate47 and people47 to all their ancient rights; and wished only to mingle with the crowd of his fellow-citizens, and to share the blessings which he had obtained for his country.
It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus had assisted at this assembly) to describe the various emotions of the senate47; those that were suppressed, and those that were effected. It was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus; to seem to distrust it was still more dangerous. The respective advantages of monarchy and a republic have often divided speculative inquirers; the present greatness of the Roman47 state, the corruption of manners, and the licence of the soldiers47, supplied new arguments to the advocates of monarchy; and these general47 views of government47 were again warped by the hopes and fears of each individual. Amidst this confusion of sentiments, the answer of the senate47 was unanimous and decisive. They refused to accept the resignation of Augustus; they conjured him not to desert the republic which he had saved. After a decent resistance the crafty tyrant47 submitted to the orders of the senate47; and consented to receive the government47 of the provinces47, and the general47 command47 of the Roman47 armies, under the well-known names of Proconsul and Imperator. But he would receive them only for ten years. Even before the expiration of that period, he hoped that the wounds of civil47 discord would be completely healed, and that the republic, restored to its pristine health and vigour, would no longer require the dangerous interposition of so extraordinary a magistrate. The memory of this comedy, repeated several times during the life47 of Augustus, was preserved to the last ages of the empire47 by the peculiar pomp with which the perpetual monarchs of Rome47 always solemnised the tenth years of their reign47.
Without any violation of the principles of the constitution, the general47 of the Roman47 armies might receive and exercise an authority47 almost despotic over the soldiers47, the enemies, and the subjects of the republic. With regard to the soldiers47, the jealousy of freedom had, even from the earliest ages of Rome47, given way to the hopes of conquest, and a just sense of military47 discipline. The dictator, or consul, had a right to command47 the service of the Roman47 youth, and to punish an obstinate or cowardly disobedience by the most severe and ignominious penalties, by striking the offender out of the list of citizens, by confiscating his property, and by selling his person47 into slavery. The most sacred rights of freedom, confirmed by the Porcian and Sempronian laws, were suspended by the military47 engagement. In his camp the general47 exercised an absolute power47 of life47 and death47; his jurisdiction was not confined by any forms of trial or rules of proceeding, and the execution of the sentence was immediate and without appeal. The choice of the enemies of Rome47 was regularly decided by the legislative authority47. The most important resolutions of peace and war47 were seriously debated in the senate47, and solemnly ratified by the people47. But when the arms47 of the legions were carried to a great distance from Italy47, the generals assumed the liberty of directing them against whatever people47, and in whatever manner, they judged most advantageous for the public47 service. It was from the success, not from the justice47, of their enterprises, that they expected the honours of a triumph. In the use of victory, especially after they were no longer controlled by the commissioners of the senate47, they exercised the most unbounded despotism. When Pompey commanded in the East47, he rewarded his soldiers47 and allies, dethroned princes, divided kingdoms, founded colonies, and distributed the treasures of Mithridates. On his return to Rome47 he obtained, by a single act of the senate47 and people47, the universal ratification of all his proceedings. Such was the power47 over the soldiers47, and over the enemies of Rome47, which was either granted to, or assumed by, the generals of the republic. They were, at the same time, the governors, or rather monarchs, of the conquered provinces47, united the civil47 with the military47 character, administered justice47 as well as the finances, and exercised both the executive and legislative power47 of the state.
From what has been already observed in the first chapter of this work, some notion may be formed of the armies and provinces39 thus entrusted to the ruling hand of Augustus. But, as it was impossible that he could personally command the legions39 of so many distant frontiers, he was indulged by the senate39, as Pompey had already been, in the permission of devolving the execution of his great39 office on a sufficient number39 of lieutenants. In rank and authority these officers seemed not inferior to the ancient proconsuls; but their station was dependent and precarious. They received and held their commissions at the will of a superior, to whose auspicious influence the merit of their action was legally attributed. They were the representatives of the emperor39. The emperor39 alone was the general39 of the republic39, and his jurisdiction, civil as well as military, extended over all the conquests of Rome39. It was some satisfaction, however, to the senate39 that he always delegated his power39 to the members of their body. The imperial lieutenants were of consular or praetorian dignity; the legions39 were commanded39 by senators, and the prefecture of Egypt39 was the only important trust committed to a Roman39 knight.
Within six days after Augustus had been compelled to accept so very liberal a grant, he resolved to gratify the pride of the senate47 by an easy sacrifice. He represented to them that they had enlarged his powers, even beyond that degree which might be required by the melancholy condition of the times. They had not permitted him to refuse the laborious command47 of the armies and the frontiers; but he must insist on being allowed to restore the more peaceful and secure provinces47 to the mild administration of the civil47 magistrate. In the division of the provinces47 Augustus provided for his own power47 and for the dignity of the republic. The proconsuls of the senate47, particularly those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more honourable character than the lieutenants of the emperor47, who commanded in Gaul or Syria. The former were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers47. A law was passed that, wherever the emperor47 was present, his extraordinary commission should supersede the ordinary jurisdiction of the governor; a custom was introduced, that the new conquests belonged to the imperial47 portion; and it was soon47 discovered that the authority47 of the Prince47, the favourite epithet of Augustus, was the same in every part of the empire47.
In return for this imaginary concession, Augustus obtained an important privilege, which rendered him master47 of Rome47 and Italy47. By a dangerous exception to the ancient maxims, he was authorised to preserve his military47 command47, supported by a numerous body of guards, even in time of peace, and in the heart of the capital. His command47, indeed, was confined to those citizens who were engaged in the service by the military47 oath; but such was the propensity of the Romans to servitude, that the oath was voluntarily taken by the magistrates, the senators, and the equestrian order, till the homage of flattery was insensibly converted into an annual and solemn protestation of fidelity.
Although Augustus considered a military force as the firmest foundation, he wisely rejected it as a very odious instrument, of government1. It was more agreeable to his temper, as well as to his policy1, to reign1 under the venerable names of ancient1 magistracy, and artfully to collect in his own person all the scattered rays of civil1 jurisdiction1. With this view, he permitted the senate1 to confer upon him, for his life, the powers of the consular and tribunitian offices, which were, in the same manner, continued to all his successors1. The consuls had succeeded to the kings of Rome1, and represented the dignity of the state1. They superintended the ceremonies of religion1, levied and commanded the legions, gave audience to foreign ambassadors, and presided in the assemblies both of the senate1 and people1. The general control of the finances was entrusted to their care; and, though they seldom had leisure to administer justice1 in person, they were considered as the supreme guardians of law, equity, and the public1 peace1. Such was their ordinary jurisdiction1; but, whenever the senate1 empowered the first magistrate1 to consult the safety of the commonwealth, he was raised by that degree above the laws1, and exercised, in the defence of liberty, a temporary despotism. The character of the tribunes was, in every respect, different from that of the consuls. The appearance of the former was modest and humble; but their persons were sacred1 and inviolable. Their force was suited rather for opposition than for action. They were instituted to defend the oppressed, to pardon offences, to arraign the enemies of the people1, and, when they judged it necessary, to stop, by a single word, the whole machine of government1. As long1 as the republic1 subsisted, the dangerous influence which either the consul or the tribune might derive from their respective jurisdiction1 was diminished by several important restrictions. Their authority1 expired with the year in which they were elected; the former office1 was divided between two, the latter among ten persons; and, as both in their private and public1 interest they were adverse to each other, their mutual conflicts contributed, for the most part, to strengthen rather than to destroy the balance of the constitution. But when the consular and tribunitian powers were united, when they were vested for life in a single person, when the general of the army was, at the same time, the minister of the senate1 and the representative of the Roman1 people1, it was impossible to resist the exercise, nor was it easy to define the limits, of his imperial prerogative.
To these accumulated honours the policy of Augustus26 soon26 added the splendid as well as important26 dignities of supreme pontiff, and of censor. By the former he acquired the management of the religion, and by the latter a legal inspection over the manners and fortunes, of the Roman26 people26. If so many distinct26 and independent powers did not exactly unite with each other, the complaisance of the senate26 was prepared26 to supply every deficiency by the most ample26 and extraordinary26 concessions. The emperors26, as the first ministers of the republic, were exempted from the obligation and penalty of many inconvenient laws26: they were authorised to convoke the senate26, to make several motions in the same day, to recommend candidates for the honours of the state26, to enlarge the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue at their discretion, to declare peace and war26, to ratify treaties; and by a most comprehensive clause, they were empowered to execute whatsoever they should judge advantageous to the empire26, and agreeable to the majesty of things private or public26, human or divine26.
When all the various powers of executive government1 were committed to the Imperial magistrate1, the ordinary magistrates1 of the commonwealth languished in obscurity, without vigour, and almost without business. The names and forms of the ancient1 administration were preserved by Augustus with the most anxious care. The usual number of consuls, praetors, and tribunes were annually invested with their respective ensigns of office1, and continued to discharge some of their least important functions. Those honours1 still attracted the vain ambition of the Romans1; and the emperors1 themselves, though invested for life with the powers of the consulship, frequently aspired to the title1 of that annual dignity, which they condescended to share with the most illustrious of their fellow-citizens. In the election of these magistrates1, the people1, during the reign1 of Augustus, were permitted to expose all the inconveniences of a wild democracy. That artful prince, instead of discovering the least symptom of impatience, humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his friends, and scrupulously practised all the duties of an ordinary candidate. But we may venture to ascribe to his councils the first measure of the succeeding reign1, by which the elections were transferred to the senate1. The assemblies of the people1 were for ever abolished, and the emperors1 were delivered from a dangerous multitude, who, without restoring liberty, might have disturbed, and perhaps endangered, the established government1.
By declaring themselves the protectors of the people47, Marius and Caesar had subverted the constitution of their country. But as soon47 as the senate47 had been humbled and disarmed, such an assembly, consisting of five or six hundred persons, was found a much more tractable and useful instrument of dominion. It was on the dignity of the senate47 that Augustus and his successors founded their new empire47; and they affected, on every occasion, to adopt the language and principles of Patricians. In the administration of their own powers, they frequently consulted the great national council, and seemed to refer to its decision the most important concerns of peace and war47. Rome47, Italy47, and the internal provinces47 were subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the senate47. With regard to civil47 objects, it was the supreme court of appeal; with regard to criminal matters, a tribunal, constituted for the trial of all offences that were committed by men in any public47 station, or that affected the peace and majesty of the Roman47 people47. The exercise of the judicial power47 became the most frequent and serious occupation of the senate47; and the important causes that were pleaded before them afforded a last refuge to the spirit47 of ancient eloquence. As a council of state, and as a court of justice47, the senate47 possessed very considerable prerogatives; but in its legislative capacity, in which it was supposed virtually to represent the people47, the rights of sovereignty were acknowledged to reside in that assembly. Every power47 was derived from their authority47, every law was ratified by their sanction. Their regular meetings were held on three stated days in every month, the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides. The debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the emperors themselves, who gloried in the name of senators, sat, voted, and divided with their equals.
To resume, in a few words, the system of the Imperial government, as it was instituted by Augustus21, and maintained by those princes21 who understood their own interest and that of the people21, it may be defined an absolute monarchy21 disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The masters of the Roman21 world21 surrounded their throne21 with darkness, concealed their irresistible strength, and humbly professed themselves the accountable ministers of the senate21, whose supreme21 decrees they dictated and obeyed.
The face of the court corresponded with the forms of the administration. The emperors6, if we except those tyrants whose capricious folly violated every law6 of nature6 and decency, disdained that pomp and ceremony which might offend their countrymen, but could add nothing to their real power6. In all the offices of life6, they affected to confound themselves with their subjects6, and maintained with them an equal6 intercourse of visits and entertainments. Their habit, their palace, their table, were suited only to the rank of an opulent senator. Their family, however numerous or splendid, was composed entirely of their domestic6 slaves and freedmen. Augustus6 or Trajan would have blushed at employing the meanest of the Romans6 in those menial offices which, in the household and bedchamber of a limited monarch, are so eagerly solicited by the proudest nobles of Britain.
The deification of the emperors6 is the only instance in which they departed from their accustomed prudence6 and modesty. The Asiatic Greeks were the first inventors, the successors of Alexander the first objects, of this servile and impious mode of adulation. It was easily transferred from the kings6 to the governors of Asia; and the Roman6 magistrates very frequently were adored as provincial deities, with the pomp of altars and temples, of festivals and sacrifices. It was natural that the emperors6 should not refuse what the proconsuls had accepted; and the divine honours which both the one and the other received from the provinces6 attested rather the despotism than the servitude of Rome6. But the conquerors soon6 imitated the vanquished nations in the arts6 of flattery; and the imperious spirit of the first Caesar too easily consented to assume, during his lifetime, a place among the tutelar deities of Rome6. The milder temper of his successor declined so dangerous an ambition, which was never afterwards revived, except by the madness of Caligula and Domitian. Augustus6 permitted indeed some of the provincial cities to erect temples to his honour, on condition that they should associate the worship of Rome6 with that of the sovereign; he tolerated private6 superstition, of which he might be the object; but he contented himself with being revered by the senate and people6 in his human6 character, and wisely left to his successor the care of his public6 deification. A regular custom was introduced6, that, on the decease of every emperor who had neither lived nor died like a tyrant, the senate by a solemn decree should place him in the number of the gods: and the ceremonies of his apotheosis were blended with those of his funeral. This legal, and, as it should seem, injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles, was received with a very faint murmur by the easy nature6 of Polytheism; but it was received as an institution, not of religion6, but of policy. We should disgrace the virtues of the Antonines by comparing them with the vices of Hercules or Jupiter. Even the characters of Caesar or Augustus6 were far superior to those of the popular deities. But it was the misfortune of the former to live in an enlightened age6, and their actions were too faithfully recorded to admit of such a mixture of fable and mystery as the devotion of the vulgar requires. As soon6 as their divinity was established by law6, it sunk into oblivion, without contributing either to their own fame or to the dignity of succeeding princes6.
In the consideration of the Imperial government1, we have frequently mentioned the artful founder, under his well-known title1 of Augustus, which was not however conferred upon him till the edifice was almost completed. The obscure name of Octavianus he derived from a mean family in the little town of Aricia. It was stained with the blood of the proscriptions; and he was desirous, had it been possible, to erase all memory of his former life. The illustrious surname of Caesar he had assumed1, as the adopted son of the dictator; but he had too much good sense either to hope to be confounded, or to wish to be compared, with that extraordinary man. It was proposed in the senate1 to dignify their minister with a new1 appellation; and after a very serious discussion, that of Augustus was chosen, among several others, as being the most expressive of the character of peace1 and sanctity which he uniformly affected. Augustus was therefore a personal, Caesar a family distinction. The former should naturally have expired with the prince on whom it was bestowed; and however the latter was diffused by adoption and female alliance, Nero was the last prince who could allege any hereditary claim to the honours1 of the Julian line. But, at the time of his death, the practice of a century had inseparably connected those appellations with the Imperial dignity, and they have been preserved by a long1 succession of emperors1, — Romans1, Greeks, Franks, and Germans, — from the fall of the republic1 to the present time. A distinction was, however, soon introduced. The sacred1 title1 of Augustus was always reserved for the monarch, whilst the name of Caesar was more freely communicated to his relations; and, from the reign1 of Hadrian at least, was appropriated to the second person in the state1, who was considered as the presumptive heir of the empire1.
The tender respect of Augustus for a free16 constitution which he had destroyed can only be explained by an attentive16 consideration of the character16 of that subtle tyrant16. A cool head, an unfeeling heart, and a cowardly disposition, prompted him at the age16 of nineteen to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which he never afterwards laid aside. With the same hand, and probably with the same temper, he signed the proscription of Cicero and the pardon of Cinna. His virtues, and even his vices, were artificial; and according16 to the various16 dictates of his interest, he was at first the enemy, and at last the father16, of the Roman16 world. When he framed the artful system of the Imperial authority, his moderation was inspired by his fears. He wished to deceive the people16 by an image of civil16 liberty, and the armies16 by an image of civil16 government16.
I. The death47 of Caesar was ever before his eyes. He had lavished wealth and honours on his adherents; but the most favoured friends of his uncle were in the number of the conspirators. The fidelity of the legions might defend his authority47 against open rebellion, but their vigilance could not secure his person47 from the dagger of a determined republican; and the Romans, who revered the memory of Brutus, would applaud the imitation of his virtue. Caesar had provoked his fate as much by the ostentation of his power47 as by his power47 itself. The consul or the tribune might have reigned in peace. The title of king had armed the Romans against his life47. Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation that the senate47 and people47 would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom. A feeble senate47 and enervated people47 cheerfully acquiesced in the pleasing illusion, as long47 as it was supported by the virtue, or by even the prudence, of the successors of Augustus. It was a motive of self-preservation, not a principle of liberty, that animated the conspirators against Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. They attacked the person47 of the tyrant47, without aiming their blow at the authority47 of the emperor47.
There appears, indeed, one memorable occasion, in which the senate, after seventy years of patience, made an ineffectual attempt to reassume its long-forgotten rights. When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the consuls convoked that assembly in the Capitol, condemned the memory of the Caesars, gave the watchword liberty to the few cohorts who faintly adhered to their standard, and during eight and forty hours acted as the independent chiefs of a free commonwealth. But while they deliberated, the praetorian guards had resolved. The stupid Claudius, brother of Germanicus, was already in their camp, invested with the Imperial purple, and prepared to support his election by arms17. The dream of liberty was at an end; and the senate awoke to all the horrors of inevitable servitude. Deserted by the people17, and threatened by a military force, that feeble assembly was compelled to ratify the choice of the praetorians, and to embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had the prudence to offer, and the generosity to observe.
II. The insolence of the armies inspired Augustus with fears of a still more alarming nature. The despair of the citizens could only attempt what the power47 of the soldiers47 was, at any time, able to execute. How precarious was his own authority47 over men whom he had taught to violate every social duty! He had heard their seditious clamours; he dreaded their calmer moments of reflection. One revolution had been purchased by immense rewards; but a second revolution might double those rewards. The troops47 professed the fondest attachment to the house of Caesar; but the attachments of the multitude are capricious and inconstant. Augustus summoned to his aid whatever remained in those fierce minds of Roman47 prejudices; enforced the rigour of discipline by the sanction of law; and, interposing the majesty of the senate47 between the emperor47 and the army47, boldly claimed their allegiance as the first magistrate of the republic.
During a long6 period of two hundred and twenty years, from the establishment of this artful system to the death of Commodus, the dangers inherent to a military6 government6 were, in a great6 measure, suspended. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sense of their own strength, and of the weakness of the civil6 authority, which was, before and afterwards, productive of such dreadful calamities. Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by their own domestics: the convulsions which agitated Rome6 on the death of the former were confined to the walls of the city. But Nero involved the whole empire6 in his ruin. In the space of eighteen months four princes6 perished by the sword; and the Roman6 world6 was shaken by the fury of the contending armies. Excepting only this short, though violent, eruption of military6 licence, the two centuries from Augustus6 to Commodus passed away, unstained with civil6 blood, and undisturbed by revolutions. The emperor was elected by the authority of the senate and the consent of the soldiers. The legions respected their oath of fidelity; and it requires a minute inspection of the Roman6 annals to discover three inconsiderable rebellions, which were all suppressed in a few months, and without even the hazard of a battle.
In elective monarchies, the vacancy of the throne3 is a moment big with danger and mischief. The Roman3 emperors, desirous to spare the legions that interval of suspense, and the temptation of an irregular choice, invested their designed successor with so large a share of present power, as should enable him, after their decease, to assume the remainder without suffering the empire3 to perceive the change of masters. Thus Augustus, after all his fairer prospects had been snatched from him by untimely deaths, rested his last hopes on Tiberius, obtained for his adopted son3 the censorial and tribunitian powers, and dictated a law, by which the future prince3 was invested with an authority equal to his own over the provinces3 and the armies. Thus Vespasian subdued the generous mind of his eldest son3. Titus was adored by the eastern legions, which, under his command, had recently achieved the conquest of Judea. His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were clouded by the intemperance of youth, his designs were suspected. Instead of listening to such unworthy suspicions, the prudent monarch3 associated Titus to the full powers of the Imperial dignity; and the grateful son3 ever approved himself the humble and faithful minister of so indulgent a father.
The good sense of Vespasian engaged him indeed to embrace every measure that might confirm his recent and precarious elevation. The military47 oath, and the fidelity of the troops47, had been consecrated, by the habits of an hundred years, to the name and family of the Caesars; and, although that family had been continued only by the fictitious rite of adoption, the Romans still revered, in the person47 of Nero, the grandson of Germanicus, and the lineal successor of Augustus. It was not without reluctance and remorse that the praetorian guards had been persuaded to abandon the cause of the tyrant47. The rapid downfall of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius taught the armies to consider the emperors as the creatures of their will, and the instruments of their licence. The birth of Vespasian was mean; his grandfather had been a private47 soldier, his father47 a petty officer of the revenue, his own merit47 had raised him, in an advanced age47, to the empire47; but his merit47 was rather useful than shining, and his virtues were disgraced by a strict and even sordid parsimony. Such a prince47 consulted his true interest by the association of a son47 whose more splendid and amiable character might turn the public47 attention from the obscure origin to the future glories of the Flavian house. Under the mild administration of Titus, the Roman47 world enjoyed a transient felicity, and his beloved memory served to protect, above fifteen years, the vices of his brother Domitian.
Nerva had scarcely accepted the purple from the assassins of Domitian before he discovered that his feeble age47 was unable to stem the torrent of public47 disorders which had multiplied under the long47 tyranny of his predecessor. His mild disposition was respected by the good; but the degenerate Romans required a more vigorous character, whose justice47 should strike terror into the guilty. Though he had several relations, he fixed his choice on a stranger. He adopted Trajan, then about forty years of age47, and who commanded a powerful army47 in the Lower Germany; and immediately, by a decree of the senate47, declared him his colleague and successor in the empire47. It is sincerely to be lamented, that, whilst we are fatigued with the disgustful relation of Nero's crimes and follies, we are reduced to collect the actions of Trajan from the glimmerings of an abridgment, or the doubtful light of a panegyric. There remains, however, one panegyric far removed beyond the suspicion of flattery. Above two hundred and fifty years after the death47 of Trajan, the senate47, in pouring out the customary acclamations on the accession of a new emperor47, wished that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus, and the virtue of Trajan.
We may readily believe that the father of his country hesitated whether he ought to entrust the various and doubtful character45 of his kinsman Hadrian with sovereign45 power45. In his last moments, the arts of the empress45 Plotina either fixed the irresolution of Trajan, or boldly supposed a fictitious adoption, the truth of which could not be safely disputed; and Hadrian was peaceably acknowledged as his lawful successor. Under his reign45, as has been already mentioned, the empire45 flourished in peace and prosperity. He encouraged the arts, reformed the laws, asserted military discipline, and visited all his provinces in person. His vast and active genius was equally suited to the most enlarged views and the minute details of civil45 policy. But the ruling passions of his soul were curiosity and vanity. As they prevailed, and as they were attracted by different objects, Hadrian was, by turns, an excellent prince, a ridiculous sophist, and a jealous tyrant45. The general tenor of his conduct deserved praise for its equity and moderation. Yet, in the first days of his reign45, he put to death45 four consular senators, his personal enemies, and men who had been judged worthy of empire45; and the tediousness of a painful illness rendered him, at last, peevish and cruel. The senate doubted whether they should pronounce him a god45 or a tyrant45; and the honours decreed to his memory were granted to the prayers of the pious45 Antoninus.
The caprice of Hadrian influenced his choice14 of a successor. After revolving in his mind several men of distinguished merit14, whom he esteemed and hated, he adopted Aelius Verus, a gay and voluptuous nobleman, recommended by uncommon beauty14 to the lover of Antinous. But whilst Hadrian was delighting himself with his own applause, and the acclamations of the soldiers, whose consent had been secured by an immense donative, the new Caesar was ravished from his embraces by an untimely death14. He left only one son14. Hadrian commended the boy to the gratitude of the Antonines. He was adopted by Pius; and, on the accession of Marcus, was invested with an equal share of sovereign power. Among the many vices of this younger Verus, he possessed one virtue — a dutiful reverence for his wiser colleague, to whom he willingly abandoned the ruder cares of empire. The philosophic emperor dissembled his follies, lamented his early death14, and cast a decent veil over his memory.
As soon as Hadrian's passion was either gratified or disappointed, he resolved to deserve the thanks of posterity by placing the most exalted merit on the Roman13 throne. His discerning eye easily discovered a senator about fifty years13 of age13, blameless in all the offices of life13; and a youth13 of about seventeen, whose riper years13 opened the fair prospect of every virtue13: the elder13 of these was declared the son13 and successor of Hadrian, on condition, however, that he himself should immediately adopt the younger13. The two Antonines (for it is of them that we are now speaking) governed the Roman13 world forty-two years13 with the same invariable spirit of wisdom and virtue13. Although Pius had two sons13, he preferred the welfare of Rome to the interest of his family13, gave his daughter13 Faustina in marriage13 to young13 Marcus, obtained from the senate the tribunitian and proconsular powers, and, with a noble disdain, or rather ignorance, of jealousy, associated him to all the labours of government. Marcus, on the other hand, revered the character of his benefactor, loved him as a parent, obeyed him as his sovereign, and, after he was no more, regulated his own administration by the example and maxims of his predecessor. Their united reigns are possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great13 people was the sole object of government.
Titus Antoninus Pius had been justly denominated a second Numa. The same love of religion8, justice, and peace was the distinguishing characteristic of both princes. But the situation of the latter opened a much larger field for the exercise of those virtues. Numa could only prevent a few neighbouring villages from plundering each other's harvests. Antoninus diffused order and tranquillity over the greatest part of the earth. His reign8 is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind8. In private8 life8 he was an amiable as well as a good man8. The native simplicity of his virtue8 was a stranger to vanity or affectation. He enjoyed with moderation the conveniences of his fortune, and the innocent pleasures of society8; and the benevolence of his soul displayed itself in a cheerful serenity of temper.
The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of a severer and more laborious kind. It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration. At the age23 of twelve years23 he embraced the rigid system of the Stoics, which taught him to submit his body to his mind, his passions to his reason; to consider virtue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external as things indifferent. His Meditations, composed in the tumult of a camp, are still extant; and he even condescended to give lessons on philosophy, in a more public23 manner than was perhaps consistent with the modesty of a sage or the dignity of an emperor. But his life was the noblest commentary on the precepts of Zeno. He was severe to himself, indulgent to the imperfection of others, just and beneficent to all mankind23. He regretted that Avidius Cassius, who excited a rebellion in Syria, had disappointed him, by a voluntary death23, of the pleasure of converting an enemy into a friend; and he justified the sincerity of that sentiment, by moderating the zeal of the senate against the adherents of the traitor. War he detested, as the disgrace and calamity of human nature23; but when the necessity of a just defence called upon him to take up arms, he readily exposed23 his person to eight winter campaigns on the frozen banks of the Danube, the severity of which was at last fatal to the weakness of his constitution. His memory was revered by a grateful posterity, and above a century after his death23 many persons23 preserved the image of Marcus Antoninus among those of their household gods.
If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman1 empire1 was governed by absolute power1, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four successive emperors1, whose characters and authority1 commanded involuntary respect. The forms of the civil1 administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleased with considering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws1. Such princes1 deserved the honour of restoring the republic1, had the Romans1 of their days been capable of enjoying a rational freedom1.
The labours of these monarchs were over-paid by the immense reward that inseparably waited on their success; by the honest pride of virtue, and by the exquisite delight of beholding the general36 happiness of which they were the authors. A just but melancholy reflection embittered, however, the noblest of human enjoyments. They must often have recollected the instability of a happiness which depended on the character of a single man. The fatal moment was perhaps approaching, when some licentious youth36, or some jealous tyrant, would abuse, to the destruction, that absolute power36 which they had exerted for the benefit of their people36. The ideal restraints of the senate and the laws might serve to display the virtues, but could never correct the vices, of the emperor36. The military force was a blind and irresistible instrument of oppression; and the corruption of Roman36 manners would always supply flatterers eager to applaud, and ministers prepared to serve, the fear or the avarice, the lust or the cruelty, of their masters.
These gloomy apprehensions had been already justified by the experience of the Romans6. The annals of the emperors6 exhibit a strong and various6 picture of human6 nature6, which we should vainly seek among the mixed and doubtful characters of modern history. In the conduct of those monarchs we may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue6; the most exalted perfection and the meanest degeneracy of our own species. The golden age6 of Trajan and the Antonines had been preceded by an age6 of iron. It is almost superfluous to enumerate the unworthy successors of Augustus6. Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the stupid Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid inhuman Domitian are condemned to everlasting infamy. During fourscore years (excepting only the short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign6), Rome6 groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the ancient6 families of the republic, and was fatal to almost every virtue6 and every talent that arose in that unhappy period.
Under the reign29 of these monsters the slavery of the Romans29 was accompanied with two peculiar circumstances, the one occasioned by their former liberty, the other by their extensive conquests, which rendered29 their condition more wretched than that of the victims of tyranny in any other age29 or country29. From these causes were derived, 1. The exquisite sensibility of the sufferers; and 2. The impossibility of escaping from the hand of the oppressor.
I. When Persia was governed by the descendants of Sefi, a race of princes38 whose wanton cruelty often stained their divan, their table, and their bed with the blood of their favourites, there is a saying recorded of a young nobleman, that he never departed from the sultan's presence without satisfying himself whether his head was still on his shoulders. The experience of every day might almost justify the scepticism of Rustan. Yet the fatal sword38, suspended above him by a single thread, seems not to have disturbed the slumbers, or interrupted the tranquillity, of the Persian. The monarch's frown, he well knew, could level him with the dust; but the stroke of lightning or apoplexy might be equally fatal; and it was the part of a wise man to forget the inevitable calamities of human life in the enjoyment of the fleeting hour. He was dignified with the appellation of the king38's slave; had, perhaps, been purchased from obscure parents, in a country which he had never known; and was trained up from his infancy in the severe discipline of the seraglio. His name, his wealth, his honours, were the gift of a master, who might, without injustice, resume what he had bestowed. Rustan's knowledge, if he possessed any, could only serve to confirm his habits by prejudices. His language afforded not words for any form of government, except absolute monarchy. The history of the East informed him that such had ever been the condition of mankind. The Koran, and the interpreters of that divine book, inculcated to him that the sultan was the descendant of the prophet, and the vicegerent of heaven; that patience was the first virtue of a Mussulman, and unlimited obedience the great38 duty of a subject.
The minds of the Romans41 were very differently prepared for slavery. Oppressed41 beneath the weight of their own corruption and of military violence, they for a long while preserved the sentiments, or at least the ideas, of their free41-born ancestors. The education of Helvidius and Thrasea, of Tacitus and Pliny, was the same as that of Cato and Cicero. From Grecian philosophy they had imbibed the justest and most liberal notions of the dignity of human nature and the origin of civil society. The history of their own country had taught them to revere a free41, a virtuous, and a victorious commonwealth; to abhor the successful crimes of Caesar and Augustus; and inwardly to despise those tyrants whom they adored with the most abject flattery. As magistrates and senators, they were admitted into the great council which had once dictated laws to the earth41, whose name gave still a sanction to the acts of the monarch, and whose authority was so often prostituted to the vilest purposes of tyranny. Tiberius, and those emperors who adopted his maxims, attempted to disguise their murders by the formalities of justice, and perhaps enjoyed a secret pleasure in rendering the senate41 their accomplice as well as their victim. By this assembly the last of the Romans41 were condemned for imaginary crimes and real virtues. Their infamous accusers assumed the language of independent patriots, who arraigned a dangerous citizen before the tribunal of his country; and the public41 service was rewarded by riches and honours. The servile judges professed to assert the majesty of the commonwealth, violated in the person41 of its first magistrate, whose clemency they most applauded when they trembled the most at his inexorable and impending cruelty. The tyrant41 beheld their baseness with just contempt, and encountered their secret sentiments of detestation with sincere and avowed hatred for the whole body of the senate41.
II. The division of Europe into a number of independent states, connected, however, with each other, by the general47 resemblance of religion, language, and manners, is productive of the most beneficial consequences to the liberty of mankind. A modern tyrant47, who should find no resistance either in his own breast or in his people47, would soon47 experience a gentle restraint from the example of his equals, the dread of present censure, the advice of his allies, and the apprehension of his enemies. The object of his displeasure, escaping from the narrow limits of his dominions, would easily obtain, in a happier climate, a secure refuge, a new fortune adequate to his merit47, the freedom of complaint, and perhaps the means of revenge. But the empire47 of the Romans filled the world, and, when that empire47 fell into the hands of a single person47, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of Imperial47 despotism, whether he was condemned to drag his gilded chain in Rome47 and the senate47, or to wear out a life47 of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or the frozen banks of the Danube, expected his fate in silent despair. To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his irritated master47. Beyond the frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing, except the ocean, inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of fierce manners and unknown language, or dependent kings, who would gladly purchase the emperor47's protection by the sacrifice of an obnoxious fugitive. Wherever you are, said Cicero to the exiled Marcellus, remember that you are equally within the power47 of the conqueror.
The mildness of Marcus, which the rigid discipline of the Stoics was unable to eradicate, formed, at the same time8, the most amiable, and the only defective, part of his character8. His excellent understanding was often deceived by the unsuspecting goodness of his heart. Artful men, who study the passions8 of princes and conceal their own, approached his person in the disguise of philosophic sanctity, and acquired riches and honours by affecting to despise them. His excessive indulgence to his brother, his wife, and his son, exceeded the bounds of private8 virtue8, and became a public8 injury, by the example and consequences of their vices.
Faustina, the daughter of Pius and the wife of Marcus, has been as much celebrated for her gallantries as for her beauty. The grave simplicity of the philosopher8 was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded passion for variety which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind8. The Cupid of the ancients was, in general, a very sensual deity8; and the amours of an empress, as they exact on her side the plainest advances, are seldom susceptible of much sentimental delicacy. Marcus was the only man8 in the empire8 who seemed ignorant or insensible of the irregularities of Faustina; which, according to the prejudices of every age8, reflected some disgrace on the injured husband. He promoted several of her lovers to posts of honour and profit, and, during a connection of thirty years, invariably gave her proofs of the most tender confidence, and of a respect which ended not with her life8. In his Meditations he thanks the gods8, who had bestowed on him a wife so faithful, so gentle, and of such a wonderful simplicity of manners. The obsequious senate, at his earnest request, declared her a goddess. She was represented in her temples8, with the attributes of Juno, Venus, and Ceres; and it was decreed that, on the day of their nuptials, the youth of either sex should pay their vows before the altar of their chaste patroness.
The monstrous vices of the son13 have cast a shade on the purity of the father13's virtues. It has been objected to Marcus, that he sacrificed the happiness of millions to a fond partiality for a worthless boy; and that he chose a successor in his own family13 rather than in the republic. Nothing, however, was neglected by the anxious father13, and by the men of virtue13 and learning whom he summoned to his assistance, to expand the narrow mind of young13 Commodus, to correct his growing vices, and to render him worthy of the throne for which he was designed. But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous. The distasteful lesson of a grave philosopher was, in a moment, obliterated by the whisper of a profligate favourite; and Marcus himself blasted the fruits of this laboured education, by admitting his son13, at the age13 of fourteen or fifteen, to a full participation of the Imperial13 power. He lived but four years13 afterwards; but he lived long enough to repent a rash measure, which raised the impetuous youth13 above the restraint of reason and authority.
Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society are produced by the restraints which the necessary, but unequal, laws of property have imposed on the appetites of mankind, by confining to a few the possession of those objects that are coveted by many. Of all our passions and appetites, the love of power47 is of the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude. In the tumult of civil47 discord the laws of society lose their force, and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity. The ardour of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to silence the voice of pity. From such motives almost every page of history has been stained with civil47 blood; but these motives will not account for the unprovoked cruelties of Commodus, who had nothing to wish, and everything to enjoy. The beloved son47 of Marcus succeeded to his father47, amidst the acclamations of the senate47 and armies; and when he ascended the throne47, the happy youth saw round him neither competitor to remove, nor enemies to punish. In this calm elevated station it was surely natural that he should prefer the love of mankind to their detestation, the mild glories of his five predecessors to the ignominious fate of Nero and Domitian.
Yet Commodus was not, as he has been represented, a tiger born with an insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from his infancy, of the most inhuman actions. Nature had formed him of a weak, rather than a wicked, disposition. His simplicity and timidity rendered him the slave of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his mind. His cruelty, which at first obeyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became the ruling passion of his soul.
Upon the death47 of his father47 Commodus found himself embarrassed with the command47 of a great army47, and the conduct47 of a difficult war47 against the Quadi and Marcomanni. The servile and profligate youths whom Marcus had banished soon47 regained their station and influence about the new emperor47. They exaggerated the hardships and dangers of a campaign in the wild countries beyond the Danube; and they assured the indolent prince47 that the terror of his name and the arms47 of his lieutenants would be sufficient to complete the conquest of the dismayed barbarians, or to impose such conditions as were more advantageous than any conquest. By a dexterous application to his sensual appetites, they compared the tranquillity, the splendour, the refined pleasures of Rome47 with the tumult of a Pannonian camp, which afforded neither leisure nor materials for luxury. Commodus listened to the pleasing advice; but whilst he hesitated between his own inclination and the awe which he still retained for his father47's counsellors, the summer insensibly elapsed, and his triumphal entry into the capital was deferred till the autumn. His graceful person47, popular address, and imagined virtues attracted the public47 favour; the honourable peace which he had recently granted to the barbarians diffused an universal joy; his impatience to revisit Rome47 was fondly ascribed to the love of his country; and his dissolute course of amusements was faintly condemned in a prince47 of nineteen years of age47.
During the three first years22 of his reign22, the forms, and even the spirit, of the old administration were maintained by those faithful counsellors to whom Marcus had recommended his son22, and for whose wisdom and integrity Commodus still entertained a reluctant esteem. The young prince22 and his profligate favourites revelled in all the licence of sovereign power22; but his hands22 were yet unstained with blood22; and he had even displayed a generosity of sentiment, which might perhaps have ripened into solid virtue22. A fatal incident decided his fluctuating character22.
One evening, as the emperor47 was returning to the palace47 through a dark and narrow portico in the amphitheatre, an assassin, who waited his passage, rushed upon him with a drawn sword, loudly exclaiming, The senate47 sends you this. The menace prevented the deed; the assassin was seized by the guards, and immediately revealed the authors of the conspiracy. It had been formed, not in the state, but within the walls of the palace47. Lucilla, the emperor47's sister, and widow of Lucius Verus, impatient of the second rank47, and jealous of the reigning empress, had armed the murderer against her brother's life47. She had not ventured to communicate the black design to her second husband, Claudius Pompeianus, a senator of distinguished merit47 and unshaken loyalty; but among the crowd of her lovers (for she imitated the manners of Faustina) she found men of desperate fortunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to serve her more violent as well as her tender passions. The conspirators experienced the rigour of justice47, and the abandoned princess was punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death47.
But the words of the assassin sunk deep into the mind of Commodus, and left an indelible impression of fear and hatred against the whole body of the senate47. Those whom he had dreaded as importunate ministers, he now suspected as secret47 enemies. The Delators, a race of men discouraged, and almost extinguished, under the former reigns, again became formidable as soon47 as they discovered that the emperor47 was desirous of finding disaffection and treason in the senate47. That assembly, whom Marcus had ever considered as the great council of the nation, was composed of the most distinguished of the Romans; and distinction of every kind soon47 became criminal. The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus; important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit47, and the friendship of the father47 always insured the aversion of the son47. Suspicion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution of a considerable senator was attended with the death47 of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse.
Of these innocent victims of tyranny, none died more lamented than the two brothers of the Quintilian family, Maximus and Condianus, whose fraternal love has saved their names from oblivion, and endeared their memory to posterity. Their studies and their occupations, their pursuits and their pleasures, were still the same. In the enjoyment of a great estate, they never admitted the idea of a separate interest: some fragments are now extant of a treatise which they composed in common; and in every action of life8 it was observed that their two bodies were animated by one soul. The Antonines, who valued their virtues and delighted in their union, raised them, in the same year, to the consulship; and Marcus afterwards entrusted to their joint care the civil administration of Greece, and a great military command, in which they obtained a signal victory over the Germans. The kind cruelty of Commodus united them in death8.
The tyrant47's rage, after having shed the noblest blood of the senate47, at length recoiled on the principal instrument of his cruelty. Whilst Commodus was immersed in blood and luxury, he devolved the detail of the public47 business on Perennis; a servile and ambitious minister, who had obtained his post by the murder of his predecessor, but who possessed a considerable share of vigour and ability. By acts of extortion, and the forfeited estates of the nobles sacrificed to his avarice, he had accumulated an immense treasure. The Praetorian guards were under his immediate command47; and his son47, who already discovered a military47 genius, was at the head of the Illyrian legions. Perennis aspired to the empire47; or what, in the eyes of Commodus, amounted to the same crime, he was capable of aspiring to it, had he not been prevented, surprised, and put to death47. The fall of a minister is a very trifling incident in the general47 history of the empire47; but it was hastened by an extraordinary circumstance, which proved how much the nerves of discipline were already relaxed. The legions of Britain, discontented with the administration of Perennis, formed a deputation of fifteen hundred select men, with instructions to march to Rome47 and lay their complaints before the emperor47. These military47 petitioners, by their own determined behaviour, by inflaming the divisions of the guards, by exaggerating the strength of the British army47, and by alarming the fears of Commodus, exacted and obtained the minister's death47, as the only redress of their grievances. This presumption of a distant army47, and their discovery of the weakness of government47, was a sure presage of the most dreadful convulsions.
The negligence of the public12 administration was betrayed soon12 afterwards by a new12 disorder, which arose from the smallest beginnings. A spirit12 of desertion began to prevail among the troops, and the deserters, instead of seeking their safety12 in flight or concealment, infested the highways. Maternus, a private soldier, of a daring boldness above his station, collected these bands of robbers into a little army12, set open the prisons, invited the slaves to assert their freedom12, and plundered with impunity the rich and defenceless cities of Gaul12 and Spain. The governors of the provinces, who had long been the spectators, and perhaps the partners, of his depredations, were, at length, roused from their supine indolence by the threatening commands of the emperor12. Maternus found that he was encompassed, and foresaw that he must be overpowered. A great12 effort of despair was his last resource. He ordered his followers to disperse, to pass the Alps in small parties and various disguises, and to assemble at Rome12, during the licentious tumult of the festival of Cybele. To murder Commodus, and to ascend the vacant throne, was the ambition of no vulgar robber. His measures were so ably concerted that his concealed troops already filled the streets of Rome12. The envy of an accomplice discovered and ruined this singular enterprise in the moment12 when it was ripe for execution.
Suspicious princes often promote the last of mankind, from a vain persuasion that those who have no dependence except on their favour will have no attachment except to the person47 of their benefactor. Cleander, the successor of Perennis, was a Phrygian by birth; of a nation, over whose stubborn but servile temper blows only could prevail. He had been sent from his native country to Rome47 in the capacity of a slave. As a slave he entered the imperial47 palace47, rendered himself useful to his master47's passions, and rapidly ascended to the most exalted station which a subject could enjoy. His influence over the mind of Commodus was much greater than that of his predecessor; for Cleander was devoid of any ability or virtue which could inspire the emperor47 with envy or distrust. Avarice was the reigning passion of his soul, and the great principle of his administration. The rank47 of consul, of Patrician, of senator, was exposed to public47 sale; and it would have been considered as disaffection if any one had refused to purchase these empty and disgraceful honours with the greatest part of his fortune. In the lucrative provincial employments the minister shared with the governor the spoils of the people47. The execution of the laws was venal and arbitrary. A wealthy criminal might obtain not only the reversal of the sentence by which he was justly condemned; but might likewise inflict whatever punishment he pleased on the accuser, the witnesses, and the judge.
By these means Cleander, in the space of three years22, had accumulated more wealth than had ever yet been possessed by any freedman. Commodus was perfectly satisfied with the magnificent presents which the artful courtier laid at his feet in the most seasonable moments. To divert the public22 envy, Cleander, under the emperor22's name, erected baths, porticos, and places of exercise22, for the use of the people22. He flattered himself that the Romans, dazzled and amused by this apparent liberality, would be less affected by the bloody scenes which were daily exhibited; that they would forget the death22 of Byrrhus, a senator to whose superior merit22 the late emperor22 had granted one of his daughters; and that they would forgive the execution of Arrius Antoninus, the last representative of the name and virtues22 of the Antonines. The former, with more integrity than prudence22, had attempted to disclose to his brother-in-law the true character22 of Cleander. An equitable sentence pronounced by the latter, when proconsul of Asia, against a worthless creature of the favourite, proved fatal to him. After the fall of Perennis the terrors of Commodus had, for a short time22, assumed the appearance of a return to virtue22. He repealed the most odious of his acts, loaded his memory with the public22 execration, and ascribed to the pernicious counsels of that wicked minister all the errors of his inexperienced youth. But his repentance lasted only thirty days; and, under Cleander's tyranny, the administration of Perennis was often regretted.
Pestilence and famine contributed to fill up the measure of the calamities of Rome47. The first could only be imputed to the just indignation of the gods; but a monopoly of corn, supported by the riches and power47 of the minister, was considered as the immediate cause of the second. The popular discontent, after it had long47 circulated in whispers, broke out in the assembled circus. The people47 quitted their favourite amusements for the more delicious pleasure of revenge, rushed in crowds towards a palace47 in the suburbs, one of the emperor47's retirements, and demanded, with angry clamours, the head of the public47 enemy. Cleander, who commanded the Praetorian guards, ordered a body of cavalry to sally forth and disperse the seditious multitude. The multitude fled with precipitation towards the city47; several were slain, and many more were trampled to death47; but, when the cavalry entered the streets their pursuit was checked by a shower of stones and darts from the roofs and windows of the houses. The foot guards, who had been long47 jealous of the prerogatives and insolence of the Praetorian cavalry, embraced the party of the people47. The tumult became a regular engagement, and threatened a general47 massacre. The Praetorians at length gave way, oppressed with numbers; and the tide of popular fury returned with redoubled violence against the gates of the palace47, where Commodus lay dissolved in luxury, and alone unconscious of the civil47 war47. It was death47 to approach his person47 with the unwelcome news. He would have perished in this supine security had not two women, his eldest sister Fadilla, and Marcia the most favoured of his concubines, ventured to break into his presence. Bathed in tears, and with dishevelled hair, they threw themselves at his feet, and, with all the pressing eloquence of fear, discovered to the affrighted emperor47 the crimes of the minister, the rage of the people47, and the impending ruin which in a few minutes would burst over his palace47 and person47. Commodus started from his dream of pleasure, and commanded that the head of Cleander should be thrown out to the people47. The desired spectacle instantly appeased the tumult; and the son47 of Marcus might even yet have regained the affection and confidence of his subjects.
But every sentiment of virtue and humanity was extinct in the mind of Commodus. Whilst he thus abandoned the reins of empire19 to these unworthy favourites, he valued nothing in sovereign power except the unbounded licence of indulging his sensual appetites. His hours were spent in a seraglio of three hundred beautiful women and as many boys, of every rank and of every province19; and, wherever the arts of seduction proved ineffectual, the brutal lover had recourse to violence. The ancient historians have expatiated on these abandoned scenes of prostitution, which scorned every restraint of nature19 or modesty; but it would not be easy to translate their too faithful descriptions into the decency of modern language. The intervals of lust were filled up with the basest amusements. The influence of a polite age19 and the labour of an attentive education had never been able to infuse into his rude and brutish mind the least tincture of learning; and he was the first of the Roman19 emperors totally devoid of taste for the pleasures of the understanding. Nero himself excelled, or affected to excel, in the elegant arts of music and poetry; nor should we despise his pursuits, had he not converted the pleasing relaxation of a leisure hour into the serious business and ambition of his life19. But Commodus, from his earliest infancy, discovered an aversion to whatever was rational or liberal, and a fond attachment to the amusements of the populace, — the sports of the circus and amphitheatre, the combats of gladiators, and the hunting of wild beasts. The masters in every branch of learning, whom Marcus provided for his son, were heard with inattention and disgust; whilst the Moors and Parthians, who taught him to dart the javelin and to shoot with the bow, found a disciple who delighted in his application, and soon19 equalled the most skilful of his instructors in the steadiness of the eye and the dexterity of the hand19.
The servile crowd, whose fortune depended on their master's vices, applauded these ignoble pursuits. The perfidious voice of flattery reminded him that, by exploits of the same nature, by the defeat of the Nemean lion, and the slaughter of the wild boar of Erymanthus, the Grecian Hercules had acquired a place among the gods, and an immortal memory among men9. They only forgot to observe that, in the first ages of society, when the fiercer animals often dispute with man the possession of an unsettled country9, a successful war9 against those savages is one of the most innocent and beneficial labours of heroism. In the civilised state of the Roman9 empire9 the wild beasts had long9 since retired from the face of man and the neighbourhood of populous cities9. To surprise them in their solitary haunts, and to transport them to Rome9, that they might be slain in pomp by the hand of an emperor, was an enterprise equally ridiculous for the prince and oppressive for the people. Ignorant of these distinctions, Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance, and styled himself (as we still read on his medals) the Roman9 Hercules. The club and the lion's hide were placed by the side of the throne amongst the ensigns of sovereignty; and statues were erected, in which Commodus was represented in the character and with the attributes of the God whose valour9 and dexterity he endeavoured to emulate in the daily course of his ferocious amusements.
Elated with these praises, which gradually extinguished the innate sense of shame, Commodus resolved to exhibit, before the eyes of the Roman47 people47, those exercises which till then he had decently confined within the walls of his palace47 and to the presence of a few favourites. On the appointed day the various motives of flattery, fear, and curiosity attracted to the amphitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectators; and some degree of applause was deservedly bestowed on the uncommon skill of the Imperial47 performer. Whether he aimed at the head or heart of the animal, the wound was alike certain and mortal. With arrows, whose point was shaped into the form of a crescent, Commodus often intercepted the rapid career and cut asunder the long47 bony neck of the ostrich. A panther was let loose; and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a trembling malefactor. In the same instant the shaft flew, the beast dropt dead, and the man remained unhurt. The dens of the amphitheatre disgorged at once a hundred lions; a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Commodus laid them dead as they ran raging round the Arena. Neither the huge bulk of the elephant nor the scaly hide of the rhinoceros could defend them from his stroke. Aethiopia and India yielded their most extraordinary productions; and several animals were slain in the amphitheatre which had been seen only in the representations of art, or perhaps of fancy. In all these exhibitions, the surest precautions were used to protect the person47 of the Roman47 Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage who might possibly disregard the dignity of the emperor47 and the sanctity of the god.
But the meanest of the populace were affected with shame and indignation, when they beheld their sovereign enter the lists as a gladiator, and glory in a profession which the laws8 and manners of the Romans had branded with the justest note of infamy. He chose the habit and arms of the Secutor, whose combat with the Retiarius formed one of the most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre. The Secutor was armed with an helmet, sword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident; with the one he endeavoured to entangle, with the other to despatch, his enemy. If he missed the first throw he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Secutor till he had prepared his net for a second cast. The emperor fought in this character8 seven hundred and thirty-five several times. These glorious achievements were carefully recorded in the public8 acts of the empire8; and, that he might omit no circumstance of infamy, he received from the common fund of gladiators a stipend so exorbitant that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people. It may be easily supposed that in these engagements the master of the world8 was always successful: in the amphitheatre his victories were not often sanguinary; but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his wretched antagonists were frequently honoured with a mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to seal their flattery with their blood. He now disdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of Paulus, a celebrated Secutor, was the only one which delighted his ear. It was inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated in the redoubled acclamations of the mournful and applauding senate. Claudius Pompeianus, the virtuous husband of Lucilla, was the only senator who asserted the honour of his rank. As a father he permitted his sons to consult their safety by attending the amphitheatre. As a Roman be declared that his own life8 was in the emperor's hands, but that he would never behold the son of Marcus prostituting his person and dignity. Notwithstanding his manly resolution, Pompeianus escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and, with his honour, had the good fortune to preserve his life8.
Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. Amidst the acclamations of a flattering court34, he was unable to disguise from himself that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of sense and virtue in his empire34. His ferocious spirit was irritated by the consciousness of that hatred, by the envy of every kind of merit, by the just34 apprehension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter which he contracted in his daily amusements. History has preserved a long34 list of consular senators sacrificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought out, with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate persons connected, however remotely, with the family of the Antonines, without sparing even the ministers of his crimes or pleasures. His cruelty proved at last fatal to himself. He had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome: he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics. Marcia, his favourite concubine, Eclectus, his chamberlain, and Laetus, his Praetorian prefect, alarmed by the fate of their companions and predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruction which every hour hung over their heads, either from the mad caprice of the tyrant, or the sudden indignation of the people. Marcia seized the occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover, after he had fatigued himself with hunting some wild beasts. Commodus retired to sleep; but whilst he was labouring with the effects of poison and drunkenness, a robust youth34, by profession a wrestler, entered his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was entertained in the city, or even in the court34, of the emperor34's death. Such was the fate of the son of Marcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant, who, by the artificial powers of government, had oppressed, during thirteen years34, so many millions of subjects, every one of whom was equal to their master in personal strength and personal abilities.
The measures of the conspirators were conducted with the deliberate coolness and celerity which the greatness of the occasion required. They resolved instantly to fill the vacant throne47 with an emperor47 whose character would justify and maintain the action that had been committed. They fixed on Pertinax, prefect47 of the city47, an ancient senator of consular rank47, whose conspicuous merit47 had broken through the obscurity of his birth, and raised him to the first honours of the state. He had successively governed most of the provinces47 of the empire47; and in all his great employments, military47 as well as civil47, he had uniformly distinguished himself, by the firmness, the prudence, and the integrity of his conduct47. He now remained almost alone of the friends and ministers of Marcus; and, when, at a late hour of the night, he was awakened with the news that the chamberlain and the prefect47 were at his door, he received them with intrepid resignation, and desired they would execute their master47's orders. Instead of death47, they offered him the throne47 of the Roman47 world. During some moments he distrusted their intentions and assurances. Convinced at length of the death47 of Commodus, he accepted the purple with a sincere reluctance, the natural effect of his knowledge both of the duties and of the dangers of the supreme rank47.
Laetus conducted without delay his new emperor47 to the camp of the Praetorians, diffusing at the same time through the city47 a seasonable report that Commodus died suddenly of an apoplexy; and that the virtuous Pertinax had already succeeded to the throne47. The guards were rather surprised than pleased with the suspicious death47 of a prince47 whose indulgence and liberality they alone had experienced; but the emergency of the occasion, the authority47 of their prefect47, the reputation of Pertinax, and the clamours of the people47 obliged them to stifle their secret47 discontents, to accept the donative promised by the new emperor47, to swear allegiance to him, and, with joyful acclamations and laurels in their hands, to conduct47 him to the senate47-house, that the military47 consent might be ratified by the civil47 authority47.
This important night was now far spent; with the dawn of day, and the commencement of the new45 year, the senators expected a summons to attend an ignominious ceremony. In spite of all remonstrances, even of those of his creatures who yet preserved any regard for prudence or decency, Commodus had resolved to pass the night in the gladiators' school, and from thence to take possession of the consulship, in the habit and with the attendance of that infamous crew. On a sudden, before the break of day, the senate was called together in the temple of Concord, to meet the guards, and to ratify the election of a new45 emperor45. For a few minutes they sat in silent suspense, doubtful of their unexpected deliverance, and suspicious of the cruel artifices of Commodus: but, when at length they were assured that the tyrant45 was no more, they resigned themselves to all the transports of joy and indignation. Pertinax, who modestly represented the meanness of his extraction, and pointed out several noble senators more deserving than himself of the empire45, was constrained by their dutiful violence to ascend the throne45, and received45 all the titles of Imperial power45, confirmed by the most sincere vows of fidelity. The memory of Commodus was branded with eternal infamy. The names of tyrant45, of gladiator, of public45 enemy, resounded in every corner of the house. They decreed in tumultuous votes, that his honours should be reversed, his titles erased from the public45 monuments, his statues thrown down, his body dragged with a hook into the stripping-room of the gladiators, to satiate the public45 fury; and they expressed some indignation against those officious servants who had already presumed to screen his remains from the justice45 of the senate. But Pertinax could not refuse those last rites to the memory of Marcus and the tears of his first protector Claudius Pompeianus, who lamented the cruel fate of his brother45-in-law, and lamented still more that he had deserved it.
These effusions of impotent rage against a dead emperor47, whom the senate47 had flattered when alive with the most abject servility, betrayed a just but ungenerous spirit47 of revenge. The legality of these decrees was, however, supported by the principles of the Imperial47 constitution. To censure, to depose, or to punish with death47, the first magistrate of the republic who had abused his delegated trust, was the ancient and undoubted prerogative of the Roman47 senate47; but that feeble assembly was obliged to content itself with inflicting on a fallen tyrant47 that public47 justice47 from which, during his life47 and reign47, he had been shielded by the strong arm of military47 despotism.
Pertinax found a nobler way of condemning his predecessor's memory, — by the contrast of his own virtues with the vices of Commodus. On the day of his accession he resigned over to his wife and son47 his whole private47 fortune; that they might have no pretence to solicit favours at the expense of the state. He refused to flatter the vanity of the former with the title of Augusta, or to corrupt the inexperienced youth of the latter by the rank47 of Caesar. Accurately distinguishing between the duties of a parent and those of a sovereign47, he educated his son47 with a severe simplicity, which, while it gave him no assured prospect of the throne47, might in time have rendered him worthy of it. In public47 the behaviour of Pertinax was grave and affable. He lived with the virtuous part of the senate47 (and, in a private47 station, he had been acquainted with the true character of each individual), without either pride or jealousy; considered them as friends and companions, with whom he had shared the dangers of the tyranny, and with whom he wished to enjoy the security of the present time. He very frequently invited them to familiar entertainments, the frugality of which was ridiculed by those who remembered and regretted the luxurious prodigality of Commodus.
To heal, as far as it was possible, the wounds inflicted by the hand44 of tyranny, was the pleasing, but melancholy, task of Pertinax. The innocent victims who yet survived were recalled from exile, released from prison, and restored to the full possession of their honours and fortunes. The unburied bodies of murdered senators (for the cruelty of Commodus endeavoured to extend itself beyond death) were deposited in the sepulchres of their ancestors; their memory was justified; and every consolation was bestowed on their ruined and afflicted families. Among these consolations, one of the most grateful was the punishment of the Delators, the common44 enemies44 of their master, of virtue, and of their country44. Yet, even in the inquisition of these legal assassins, Pertinax proceeded with a steady temper, which gave everything to justice, and nothing to popular prejudice and resentment.
The finances of the state16 demanded the most vigilant care of the emperor16. Though every measure16 of injustice and extortion16 had been adopted which could collect the property of the subject into the coffers of the prince, the rapaciousness of Commodus had been so very inadequate to his extravagance that, upon his death16, no more than eight thousand pounds were found in the exhausted treasury, to defray the current expenses of government16, and to discharge the pressing demand of a liberal donative, which the new16 emperor16 had been obliged to promise to the Praetorian guards. Yet, under these distressed circumstances, Pertinax had the generous firmness to remit all the oppressive taxes invented by Commodus, and to cancel all the unjust claims of the treasury; declaring, in a decree of the senate, that he was better satisfied to administer a poor republic with innocence16, than to acquire riches by the ways of tyranny and dishonour. Economy and industry he considered as the pure and genuine sources of wealth16; and from them he soon derived a copious supply for the public16 necessities. The expense of the household was immediately reduced to one half. All the instruments of luxury16 Pertinax exposed to public16 auction, gold and silver plate, chariots of a singular construction, a superfluous wardrobe of silk and embroidery, and a great number of beautiful slaves of both sexes; excepting only, with attentive16 humanity, those who were born in a state16 of freedom, and had been ravished from the arms of their weeping parents. At the same time that he obliged the worthless favourites of the tyrant16 to resign a part of their ill-gotten wealth16, he satisfied the just16 creditors of the state16, and unexpectedly discharged the long16 arrears of honest services. He removed the oppressive restrictions which had been laid upon commerce, and granted16 all the uncultivated lands in Italy and the provinces to those who would improve them; with an exemption from tribute during the term of ten years.
Such an uniform conduct47 had already secured to Pertinax the noblest reward of a sovereign47, the love and esteem of his people47. Those who remembered the virtues of Marcus were happy to contemplate in their new emperor47 the features of that bright original, and flattered themselves that they should long47 enjoy the benign influence of his administration. A hasty zeal to reform the corrupted state, accompanied with less prudence than might have been expected from the years and experience of Pertinax, proved fatal to himself and to his country. His honest indiscretion united against him the servile crowd, who found their private47 benefit in the public47 disorders, and who preferred the favour of a tyrant47 to the inexorable equality of the laws.
Amidst the general47 joy the sullen and angry countenance of the Praetorian guards betrayed their inward dissatisfaction. They had reluctantly submitted to Pertinax; they dreaded the strictness of the ancient discipline, which he was preparing to restore; and they regretted the licence of the former reign47. Their discontents were secretly fomented by Laetus, their prefect47, who found, when it was too late, that his new emperor47 would reward a servant, but would not be ruled by a favourite. On the third day of his reign47, the soldiers47 seized on a noble senator, with a design to carry him to the camp, and to invest him with the imperial47 purple. Instead of being dazzled by the dangerous honour, the affrighted victim escaped from their violence, and took refuge at the feet of Pertinax. A short time afterwards Sosius Falco, one of the consuls of the year, a rash youth, but of an ancient and opulent family, listened to the voice of ambition; and a conspiracy was formed during a short absence of Pertinax, which was crushed by his sudden return to Rome47 and his resolute behaviour. Falco was on the point of being justly condemned to death47 as a public47 enemy, had he not been saved by the earnest and sincere entreaties of the injured emperor47; who conjured the senate47 that the purity of his reign47 might not be stained by the blood even of a guilty senator.
These disappointments served only to irritate the rage of the Praetorian guards. On the twenty-eighth of March, eighty-six days only after the death47 of Commodus, a general47 sedition broke out in the camp, which the officers wanted either power47 or inclination to suppress. Two or three hundred of the most desperate soldiers47 marched at noon-day, with arms47 in their hands and fury in their looks, towards the Imperial47 palace47. The gates were thrown open by their companions upon guard; and by the domestics of the old court, who had already formed a secret47 conspiracy against the life47 of the too virtuous emperor47. On the news of their approach, Pertinax, disdaining either flight or concealment, advanced to meet his assassins; and recalled to their minds his own innocence, and the sanctity of their recent oath. For a few moments they stood in silent suspense, ashamed of their atrocious design, and awed by the venerable aspect and majestic firmness of their sovereign47, till at length, the despair of pardon reviving their fury, a barbarian of the country of Tongres levelled the first blow against Pertinax, who was instantly despatched with a multitude of wounds. His head, separated from his body, and placed on a lance, was carried in triumph to the Praetorian camp, in the sight of a mournful and indignant people47, who lamented the unworthy fate of that excellent prince47, and the transient blessings of a reign47, the memory of which could serve only to aggravate their approaching misfortunes.
The power40 of the sword is more sensibly felt in an extensive monarchy than in a small40 community. It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no state, without being soon40 exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness. But, although this relative proportion may be uniform, its influence over the rest of the society will vary according to the degree of its positive strength. The advantages of military40 science and discipline cannot be exerted, unless a proper number40 of soldiers are united into one body, and actuated by one soul. With a handful of men, such an union would be ineffectual; with an unwieldy host, it would be impracticable; and the powers of the machine would be alike destroyed by the extreme minuteness, or the excessive weight, of its springs. To illustrate this observation we need only reflect that there is no superiority of natural strength, artificial weapons, or acquired skill, which could enable one man to keep in constant subjection one hundred of his fellow-creatures: the tyrant of a single town, or a small40 district, would soon40 discover that an hundred armed followers were a weak defence against ten thousand40 peasants or citizens40; but an hundred thousand40 well-disciplined soldiers will command40, with despotic sway, ten millions40 of subjects40; and a body of ten or fifteen thousand40 guards will strike terror into the most numerous populace that ever crowded the streets of an immense capital40.
The Praetorian bands, whose licentious fury was the first symptom and cause of the decline of the Roman47 empire47, scarcely amounted to the last mentioned number. They derived their institution from Augustus. That crafty tyrant47, sensible that laws might colour, but that arms47 alone could maintain, his usurped dominion, had gradually formed this powerful body of guards, in constant readiness to protect his person47, to awe the senate47, and either to prevent or to crush the first motions of rebellion. He distinguished these favoured troops47 by a double pay, and superior privileges; but, as their formidable aspect would at once have alarmed and irritated the Roman47 people47, three cohorts only were stationed in the capital; whilst the remainder was dispersed in the adjacent towns of Italy47. But after fifty years of peace and servitude, Tiberius ventured on a decisive measure, which for ever riveted the fetters of his country. Under the fair pretences of relieving Italy47 from the heavy burden of military47 quarters, and of introducing a stricter discipline among the guards, he assembled them at Rome47, in a permanent camp, which was fortified with skilful care, and placed on a commanding situation.
Such formidable41 servants are always necessary, but often fatal, to the throne41 of despotism. By thus introducing the Praetorian guards, as it were, into the palace41 and the senate41, the emperors taught them to perceive their own strength, and the weakness of the civil government; to view the vices of their masters with familiar contempt, and to lay aside that reverential awe which distance only, and mystery, can preserve towards an imaginary power41. In the luxurious idleness of an opulent city41, their pride was nourished by the sense of their irresistible weight; nor was it possible to conceal from them that the person41 of the sovereign41, the authority of the senate41, the public41 treasure, and the seat of empire41, were all in their hands. To divert the Praetorian bands from these dangerous reflections the firmest and best established princes were obliged to mix blandishments with commands, rewards with punishments, to flatter their pride, indulge their pleasures, connive at their irregularities, and to purchase their precarious faith by a liberal donative; which, since the elevation of Claudius, was exacted as a legal claim on the accession of every new emperor41.
The advocates of the guards endeavoured to justify by arguments the power which they asserted by arms; and to maintain that, according to the purest principles of the constitution, their consent was essentially necessary in the appointment of an emperor. The election of consuls, of generals, and of magistrates, however it had been recently usurped by the senate32, was the ancient32 and undoubted right of the Roman32 people32. But where was the Roman32 people32 to be found? Not surely amongst the mixed multitude of slaves and strangers that filled the streets of Rome32; a servile populace, as devoid of spirit as destitute of property. The defenders of the state32, selected from the flower of Italian youth, and trained in the exercise of arms and virtue, were the genuine representatives of the people32, and the best entitled to elect the military chief of the republic. These assertions, however defective in reason, became unanswerable, when the fierce Praetorians increased their weight, by throwing, like the barbarian conqueror of Rome32, their swords into the scale.
The Praetorians had violated the sanctity of the throne47, by the atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonoured the majesty of it, by their subsequent conduct47. The camp was without a leader, for even the prefect47 Laetus, who had excited the tempest, prudently declined the public47 indignation. Amidst the wild disorder, Sulpicianus, the emperor47's father47-in-law, and governor of the city47, who had been sent to the camp on the first alarm of mutiny, was endeavouring to calm the fury of the multitude, when he was silenced by the clamorous return of the murderers, bearing on a lance the head of Pertinax. Though history has accustomed us to observe every principle and every passion yielding to the imperious dictates of ambition, it is scarcely credible that, in these moments of horror, Sulpicianus should have aspired to ascend a throne47 polluted with the recent blood of so near a relation, and so excellent a prince47. He had already begun to use the only effectual argument, and to treat for the Imperial47 dignity; but the more prudent of the Praetorians, apprehensive that, in this private47 contract, they should not obtain a just price for so valuable a commodity, ran out upon the ramparts; and, with a loud voice, proclaimed that the Roman47 world was to be disposed of to the best bidder by public47 auction.
This infamous offer, the most insolent excess of military3 licence, diffused an universal grief, shame, and indignation throughout the city3. It reached at length the ears of Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who, regardless of the public calamities, was indulging himself in the luxury of the table. His wife and his daughter, his freedmen and his parasites, easily convinced him that he deserved the throne3, and earnestly conjured him to embrace so fortunate an opportunity. The vain old man hastened to the Praetorian camp3, where Sulpicianus was still in treaty3 with the guards; and began to bid against him from the foot of the rampart. The unworthy negotiation was transacted by faithful emissaries, who passed alternately from one candidate to the other, and acquainted each of them with the offers of his rival. Sulpicianus had already promised a donative of five thousand3 drachms (above one hundred and sixty pounds) to each soldier; when Julian3, eager for the prize, rose at once to the sum of six thousand3 two hundred and fifty drachms, or upwards of two hundred pounds sterling. The gates of the camp3 were instantly thrown open to the purchaser; he was declared emperor3, and received an oath of allegiance from the soldiers, who retained humanity enough to stipulate that he should pardon and forget the competition of Sulpicianus.
It was now incumbent on the Praetorians to fulfil the conditions of the sale. They placed their new sovereign, whom they served and despised, in the centre of their ranks26, surrounded him on every side with their shields, and conducted him in close order26 of battle through the deserted streets of the city. The senate26 was commanded to assemble, and those who had been the distinguished friends of Pertinax, or the personal enemies of Julian26, found it necessary to affect a more than common share of satisfaction at this happy revolution. After Julian26 had filled the senate26 house with armed soldiers26, he expatiated on the freedom of his election, his own eminent virtues, and his full assurance of the affections of the senate26. The obsequious assembly congratulated their own and the public26 felicity; engaged their allegiance, and conferred on him all the several branches of the Imperial power. From the senate26 Julian26 was conducted by the same military26 procession, to take possession of the palace. The first objects which struck his eyes were the abandoned trunk of Pertinax, and the frugal entertainment prepared26 for his supper. The one he viewed with indifference; the other with contempt. A magnificent feast was prepared26 by his order26, and he amused himself till a very late hour, with dice, and the performances of Pylades, a celebrated dancer. Yet it was observed that, after the crowd of flatterers dispersed, and left him to darkness, solitude, and terrible reflection, he passed a sleepless night; revolving most probably in his mind26 his own rash folly, the fate of his virtuous predecessor, and the doubtful and dangerous tenure of an empire26, which had not been acquired by merit, but purchased by money.
He had reason to tremble. On the throne47 of the world he found himself without a friend, and even without an adherent. The guards themselves were ashamed of the prince47 whom their avarice had persuaded them to accept; nor was there a citizen who did not consider his elevation with horror, as the last insult on the Roman47 name. The nobility, whose conspicuous station and ample possessions exacted the strictest caution, dissembled their sentiments, and met the affected civility of the emperor47 with smiles of complacency and professions of duty. But the people47, secure in their numbers and obscurity, gave a free vent to their passions. The streets and public47 places of Rome47 resounded with clamours and imprecations. The enraged multitude affronted the person47 of Julian, rejected his liberality, and, conscious of the impotence of their own resentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to assert the violated majesty of the Roman47 empire47.
The public47 discontent was soon47 diffused from the centre to the frontiers of the empire47. The armies of Britain, of Syria, and of Illyricum, lamented the death47 of Pertinax, in whose company, or under whose command47, they had so often fought and conquered. They received with surprise, with indignation, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence that the Praetorians had disposed of the empire47 by public47 auction; and they sternly refused to ratify the ignominious bargain. Their immediate and unanimous revolt was fatal to Julian, but it was fatal at the same time to the public47 peace; as the generals of the respective armies, Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius Severus, were still more anxious to succeed than to revenge the murdered Pertinax. Their forces were exactly balanced. Each of them was at the head of three legions, with a numerous train of auxiliaries; and, however different in their characters, they were all soldiers47 of experience and capacity.
Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, surpassed both his competitors in the nobility of his extraction, which he derived from some of the most illustrious names of the old republic. But the branch, from whence he claimed his descent, was sunk into mean circumstances, and transplanted into a remote province. It is difficult to form a just idea of his true character. Under the philosophic cloak of austerity, he stands accused of concealing most of the vices which degrade human nature. But his accusers are those venal writers who adored the fortune of Severus, and trampled on the ashes of an unsuccessful rival. Virtue, or the appearances of virtue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good opinion of Marcus; and his preserving with the son47 the same interest which he had acquired with the father47 is a proof at least that he was possessed of a very flexible disposition. The favour of a tyrant47 does not always suppose a want of merit47 in the object of it; he may, without intending it, reward a man of worth and ability, or he may find such a man useful to his own service. It does not appear that Albinus served the son47 of Marcus, either as the minister of his cruelties, or even as the associate of his pleasures. He was employed in a distant honourable command47, when he received a confidential letter from the emperor47, acquainting him of the treasonable designs of some discontented generals, and authorising him to declare himself the guardian and successor of the throne47, by assuming the title and ensigns of Caesar. The governor of Britain wisely declined the dangerous honour, which would have marked him for the jealousy, or involved him in the approaching ruin, of Commodus. He courted power47 by nobler, or, at least, by more specious, arts. On a premature report of the death47 of the emperor47, he assembled his troops47; and, in an eloquent discourse, deplored the inevitable mischiefs of despotism, described the happiness and glory which their ancestors had enjoyed under the consular government47, and declared his firm resolution to reinstate the senate47 and people47 in their legal authority47. This popular harangue was answered by the loud acclamations of the British legions, and received at Rome47 with a secret47 murmur of applause. Safe in the possession of his little world, and in the command47 of an army47 less distinguished indeed for discipline than for numbers and valour, Albinus braved the menaces of Commodus, maintained towards Pertinax a stately ambiguous reserve, and instantly declared against the usurpation of Julian. The convulsions of the capital added new weight to his sentiments, or rather to his professions, of patriotism. A regard to decency induced him to decline the lofty titles of Augustus and Emperor47, and he imitated perhaps the example of Galba, who, on a similar occasion, had styled himself the Lieutenant of the senate47 and people47.
Personal merit47 alone had raised Pescennius Niger from an obscure birth and station to the government47 of Syria; a lucrative and important command47, which in times of civil47 confusion gave him a near prospect of the throne47. Yet his parts seem to have been better suited to the second than to the first rank47; he was an unequal rival, though he might have approved himself an excellent lieutenant, to Severus, who afterwards displayed the greatness of his mind by adopting several useful institutions from a vanquished enemy. In his government47, Niger acquired the esteem of the soldiers47 and the love of the provincials. His rigid discipline fortified the valour and confirmed the obedience of the former, whilst the voluptuous Syrians were less delighted with the mild firmness of his administration than with the affability of his manners and the apparent pleasure with which he attended their frequent and pompous festivals. As soon47 as the intelligence of the atrocious murder of Pertinax had reached Antioch, the wishes of Asia invited Niger to assume the Imperial47 purple and revenge his death47. The legions of the eastern frontier embraced his cause; the opulent but unarmed provinces47, from the frontiers of Aethiopia to the Hadriatic, cheerfully submitted to his power47; and the kings beyond the Tigris and the Euphrates congratulated his election, and offered him their homage and services. The mind of Niger was not capable of receiving this sudden tide of fortune; he flattered himself that his accession would be undisturbed by competition, and unstained by civil47 blood; and whilst he enjoyed the vain pomp of triumph, he neglected to secure the means of victory. Instead of entering into an effectual negotiation with the powerful armies of the West, whose resolution might decide, or at least must balance, the mighty contest; instead of advancing without delay towards Rome47 and Italy47, where his presence was impatiently expected, Niger trifled away in the luxury of Antioch those irretrievable moments which were diligently improved by the decisive activity of Severus.
The country9 of Pannonia and Dalmatia, which occupied the space between the Danube9 and the Hadriatic, was one of the last and most difficult conquests of the Romans9. In the defence of national freedom, two hundred thousand9 of these barbarians9 had once appeared in the field, alarmed the declining age of Augustus, and exercised the vigilant prudence of Tiberius at the head of the collected force of the empire9. The Pannonians yielded at length to the arms9 and institutions of Rome9. Their recent subjection, however, the neighbourhood, and even the mixture of the unconquered tribes9, and perhaps the climate, adapted, as it has been observed, to the production of great9 bodies and slow minds, all contributed to preserve some remains of their original ferocity, and, under the tame resemblance of Roman9 provincials, the hardy features of the natives were still to be discerned. Their warlike youth afforded an inexhaustible supply of recruits to the legions stationed on the banks9 of the Danube9, and which, from a perpetual warfare against the Germans and Sarmatians, were deservedly esteemed the best troops9 in the service.
The Pannonian army47 was at this time commanded by Septimius Severus, a native of Africa, who, in the gradual ascent of private47 honours, had concealed his daring ambition, which was never diverted from its steady course by the allurements of pleasure, the apprehension of danger47, or the feelings of humanity. On the first news of the murder of Pertinax, he assembled his troops47, painted in the most lively colours the crime, the insolence, and the weakness of the Praetorian guards, and animated the legions to arms47 and to revenge. He concluded (and the peroration was thought extremely eloquent) with promising every soldier about four hundred pounds; an honourable donative, double in value to the infamous bribe with which Julian had purchased the empire47. The acclamations of the army47 immediately saluted Severus with the names of Augustus, Pertinax, and Emperor47; and he thus attained the lofty station to which he was invited by conscious merit47 and a long47 train of dreams and omens, the fruitful offspring either of his superstition or policy.
The new candidate for empire47 saw and improved the peculiar advantage of his situation. His province extended to the Julian Alps, which gave an easy access into Italy47; and he remembered the saying of Augustus, That a Pannonian army47 might in ten days appear in sight of Rome47. By a celerity proportioned to the greatness of the occasion, he might reasonably hope to revenge Pertinax, punish Julian, and receive the homage of the senate47 and people47, as their lawful emperor47, before his competitors, separated from Italy47 by an immense tract of sea and land, were apprised of his success, or even of his election. During the whole expedition, he scarcely allowed himself any moments for sleep or food; marching on foot, and in complete armour, at the head of his columns, he insinuated himself into the confidence and affection of his troops47, pressed their diligence, revived their spirits, animated their hopes, and was well satisfied to share the hardships of the meanest soldier, whilst he kept in view the infinite superiority of his reward.
The wretched Julian3 had expected, and thought himself prepared, to dispute the empire3 with the governor of Syria; but in the invincible and rapid approach of the Pannonian legions, he saw his inevitable ruin. The hasty arrival of every messenger increased his just apprehensions. He was successively informed that Severus had passed the Alps; that the Italian cities, unwilling or unable to oppose his progress, had received him with the warmest professions of joy and duty; that the important3 place of Ravenna had surrendered without resistance, and that the Hadriatic fleet was in the hands of the conqueror. The enemy3 was now within two hundred and fifty miles of Rome; and every moment diminished the narrow span of life and empire3 allotted to Julian3.
He attempted, however, to prevent, or at least to protract, his ruin. He implored the venal faith of the Praetorians, filled the city with unavailing preparations for war, drew lines round the suburbs, and even strengthened the fortifications of the palace; as if those last intrenchments could be defended, without hope of relief, against a victorious invader. Fear and shame prevented the guards from deserting his standard; but they trembled at the name of the Pannonian legions, commanded by an experienced general, and accustomed to vanquish the barbarians37 on the frozen Danube. They quitted, with a sigh, the pleasures of the baths and theatres, to put on arms37, whose use37 they had almost forgotten, and beneath the weight37 of which they were oppressed. The unpractised elephants, whose uncouth appearance, it was hoped, would strike terror into the army of the North, threw their unskilful riders; and the awkward evolutions of the marines, drawn from the fleet of Misenum, were an object of ridicule to the populace; whilst the senate enjoyed, with secret pleasure, the distress and weakness of the usurper.
Every motion of Julian betrayed his trembling perplexity. He insisted that Severus should be declared a public44 enemy by the senate. He entreated that the Pannonian general44 might be associated to the empire. He sent public44 ambassadors of consular rank to negotiate with his rival; he despatched private44 assassins to take away44 his life44. He designed that the Vestal virgins, and all the colleges of priests, in their sacerdotal habits, and bearing before them the sacred pledges of the Roman religion44, should advance, in solemn procession, to meet the Pannonian legions; and, at the same time, he vainly tried to interrogate, or to appease, the fates, by magic ceremonies, and unlawful sacrifices.
Severus, who dreaded neither his arms nor his enchantments, guarded himself from the only danger of secret31 conspiracy by the faithful attendance of six hundred chosen men, who never quitted his person or their cuirasses, either by night or by day, during the whole march. Advancing with a steady and rapid course, he passed, without difficulty, the defiles of the Apennine, received into his party the troops and ambassadors sent to retard his progress, and made a short halt at Interamna, about seventy miles from Rome. His victory was already secure; but the despair of the Praetorians might have rendered it bloody; and Severus31 had the laudable ambition of ascending the throne without drawing the sword. His emissaries, dispersed in the capital, assured the guards that, provided they would abandon their worthless prince31, and the perpetrators of the murder of Pertinax, to the justice of the conqueror, he would no longer31 consider that melancholy event as the act of the whole body31. The faithless Praetorians, whose resistance was supported only by sullen obstinacy, gladly complied with the easy conditions, seized the greatest part of the assassins, and signified to the senate that they no longer31 defended the cause of Julian. That assembly, convoked by the consul, unanimously acknowledged Severus31 as lawful emperor31, decreed divine honours to Pertinax, and pronounced a sentence of deposition and death31 against his unfortunate successor. Julian was conducted into a private apartment of the baths of the palace31, and beheaded as a common criminal, after having purchased, with an immense treasure, an anxious and precarious reign31 of only sixty-six days31. The almost incredible expedition of Severus31, who, in so short a space of time31, conducted a numerous army from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tiber, proves at once the plenty of provisions produced by agriculture and commerce, the goodness of the roads, the discipline of the legions, and the indolent subdued temper of the provinces.
The first cares of Severus were bestowed on two measures, the one dictated by policy, the other by decency; the revenge, and the honours due to the memory of Pertinax. Before the new emperor47 entered Rome47, he issued his commands to the Praetorian guards, directing them to wait his arrival on a large plain near the city47, without arms47, but in the habits of ceremony in which they were accustomed to attend their sovereign47. He was obeyed by those haughty troops47, whose contrition was the effect of their just terrors. A chosen part of the Illyrian army47 encompassed them with levelled spears. Incapable of flight or resistance, they expected their fate in silent consternation. Severus mounted the tribunal, sternly reproached them with perfidy and cowardice, dismissed them with ignominy from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled them of their splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death47, to the distance of an hundred miles from the capital. During the transaction, another detachment had been sent to seize their arms47, occupy their camp, and prevent the hasty consequences of their despair.
The funeral and consecration of Pertinax was next solemnised with every circumstance of sad magnificence. The senate47, with a melancholy pleasure, performed the last rites to that excellent prince47, whom they had loved and still regretted. The concern of his successor was probably less sincere. He esteemed the virtues of Pertinax, but those virtues would for ever have confined his ambition to a private47 station. Severus pronounced his funeral oration with studied eloquence, inward satisfaction, and well-acted sorrow; and by this pious regard to his memory, convinced the credulous multitude that he alone was worthy to supply his place. Sensible, however, that arms47, not ceremonies, must assert his claim to the empire47, he left Rome47 at the end of thirty days, and, without suffering himself to be elated by this easy victory, prepared to encounter his more formidable rivals.
The uncommon abilities and fortune of Severus10 have induced an elegant historian to compare him with the first and greatest of the Caesars. The parallel is, at least, imperfect. Where shall we find, in the character10 of Severus10, the commanding superiority of soul, the generous clemency, and the various10 genius, which could reconcile and unite10 the love of pleasure, the thirst of knowledge, and the fire of ambition? In one instance only, they may be compared, with some degree of propriety, in the celerity of their motion, and their civil10 victories. In less than four years, Severus10 subdued the riches of the East, and the valour of the West. He vanquished two competitors of reputation and ability, and defeated numerous10 armies, provided with weapons10 and discipline10 equal to his own. In that age10, the art of fortification and the principles of tactics, were well understood by all the Roman10 generals; and the constant superiority of Severus10 was that of an artist, who uses the same instruments with more skill and industry10 than his rivals. I shall not, however, enter into a minute narrative of these military10 operations; but as the two civil10 wars against Niger and against Albinus, were almost the same in their conduct, event, and consequences, I shall collect into one point of view the most striking circumstances, tending to develop the character10 of the conqueror, and the state of the empire10.
Falsehood and insincerity, unsuitable as they seem to the dignity of public11 transactions, offend us with a less degrading idea of meanness than when they are found in the intercourse of private11 life11. In the latter, they discover a want of courage11; in the other, only a defect of power11; and, as it is impossible for the most able statesmen to subdue millions of followers and enemies by their own personal strength, the world, under the name of policy11, seems to have granted them a very liberal indulgence of craft and dissimulation. Yet the arts11 of Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state11-reason. He promised only to betray, he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the inconvenient obligation.
If his two competitors, reconciled by their common danger15, had advanced upon him without delay, perhaps Severus15 would have sunk under their united effort. Had they even attacked him at the same time, with separate views and separate armies, the contest might have been long15 and doubtful. But they fell, singly and successively, an easy prey to the arts as well as arms15 of their subtle enemy, lulled into security by the moderation of his professions, and overwhelmed by the rapidity of his action. He first marched against Niger15, whose reputation and power15 he the most dreaded: but he declined any hostile declarations, suppressed the name of his antagonist, and only signified to the senate15 and people15 his intention of regulating the eastern provinces15. In private he spoke of Niger15, his old friend and intended successor15, with the most affectionate regard, and highly applauded his generous design of revenging the murder of Pertinax15. To punish the vile usurper of the throne was the duty of every Roman15 general15. To persevere in arms15, and to resist a lawful emperor15, acknowledged by the senate15, would alone render him criminal. The sons of Niger15 had fallen into his hands15 among the children of the provincial governors, detained at Rome15 as pledges for the loyalty of their parents. As long15 as the power15 of Niger15 inspired terror, or even respect, they were educated with the most tender care, with the children of Severus15 himself; but they were soon15 involved in their father's ruin, and removed, first by exile, and afterwards by death15, from the eye of public15 compassion.
Whilst Severus was engaged in his eastern war47, he had reason to apprehend that the governor of Britain might pass the sea and the Alps, occupy the vacant seat of empire47, and oppose his return with the authority47 of the senate47 and the forces of the West. The ambiguous conduct47 of Albinus, in not assuming the Imperial47 title, left room for negotiation. Forgetting at once his professions of patriotism and the jealousy of sovereign47 power47, he accepted the precarious rank47 of Caesar, as a reward for his fatal neutrality. Till the first contest was decided, Severus treated the man whom he had doomed to destruction with every mark of esteem and regard. Even in the letter in which he announced his victory over Niger he styles Albinus the brother of his soul and empire47, sends him the affectionate salutations of his wife Julia, and his young family, and entreats him to preserve the armies and the republic faithful to their common interest. The messengers charged with this letter were instructed to accost the Caesar with respect, to desire a private47 audience, and to plunge their daggers into his heart. The conspiracy was discovered, and the too credulous Albinus at length passed over to the continent, and prepared for an unequal contest with his rival, who rushed upon him at the head of a veteran and victorious army47.
The military3 labours of Severus seem inadequate to the importance of his conquests. Two engagements, the one near the Hellespont, the other in the narrow defiles of Cilicia, decided the fate of his Syrian competitor; and the troops3 of Europe asserted their usual ascendant over the effeminate natives of Asia. The battle of Lyons, where one hundred and fifty thousand3 Romans3 were engaged, was equally fatal to Albinus. The valour3 of the British army3 maintained, indeed, a sharp and doubtful contest with the hardy discipline of the Illyrian legions. The fame and person of Severus appeared, during a few moments, irrecoverably lost, till that warlike prince3 rallied his fainting troops3, and led them on to a decisive victory3. The war3 was finished by that memorable day.
The civil47 wars of modern Europe have been distinguished, not only by the fierce animosity, but likewise by the obstinate perseverance, of the contending factions. They have generally been justified by some principle, or, at least, coloured by some pretext, of religion, freedom, or loyalty. The leaders were nobles of independent property and hereditary influence. The troops47 fought like men interested in the decision of the quarrel; and as military47 spirit47 and party zeal were strongly diffused throughout the whole community, a vanquished chief was immediately supplied with new adherents, eager to shed their blood in the same cause. But the Romans, after the fall of the republic, combated only for the choice of masters. Under the standard of a popular candidate for empire47, a few enlisted from affection, some from fear, many from interest, none from principle. The legions, uninflamed by party zeal, were allured into civil47 war47 by liberal donatives, and still more liberal promises. A defeat, by disabling the chief from the performance of his engagements, dissolved the mercenary allegiance of his followers, and left them to consult their own safety by a timely desertion of an unsuccessful cause. It was of little moment to the provinces47 under whose name they were oppressed or governed; they were driven by the impulsion of the present power47, and as soon47 as that power47 yielded to a superior force, they hastened to implore the clemency of the conqueror, who, as he had an immense debt to discharge, was obliged to sacrifice the most guilty countries to the avarice of his soldiers47. In the vast extent of the Roman47 empire47 there were few fortified cities capable of protecting a routed army47; nor was there any person47, or family, or order of men, whose natural interest, unsupported by the powers of government47, was capable of restoring the cause of a sinking party.
Yet, in the contest between Niger and Severus, a single city30 deserves an honourable exception. As Byzantium was one of the greatest passages from Europe into Asia, it had been provided with a strong garrison, and a fleet of five hundred vessels was anchored in the harbour. The impetuosity of Severus disappointed this prudent scheme of defence; he left30 to his generals the siege30 of Byzantium, forced the less guarded passage of the Hellespont, and, impatient of a meaner enemy30, pressed forward to encounter his rival. Byzantium, attacked by a numerous and increasing army30, and afterwards by the whole naval power of the empire30, sustained a siege30 of three years30, and remained faithful to the name and memory of Niger. The citizens and soldiers30 (we know not from what cause) were animated with equal fury; several of the principal officers of Niger, who despaired of, or who disdained a pardon, had thrown themselves into this last refuge; the fortifications were esteemed impregnable, and, in the defence of the place, a celebrated engineer displayed all the mechanic powers known to the ancients. Byzantium, at length, surrendered to famine. The magistrates and soldiers30 were put to the sword30, the walls30 demolished, the privileges suppressed, and the destined capital of the East subsisted only as an open village, subject to the insulting jurisdiction of Perinthus. The historian Dion, who had admired the flourishing, and lamented the desolate, state of Byzantium, accused the revenge of Severus for depriving the Roman30 people30 of the strongest bulwark against the barbarians of Pontus and Asia. The truth of this observation was but too well justified in the succeeding age, when the Gothic fleets covered the Euxine, and passed through the undefended Bosphorus into the centre of the Mediterranean.
Both Niger and Albinus were discovered and put to death47 in their flight from the field of battle. Their fate excited neither surprise nor compassion. They had staked their lives against the chance of empire47, and suffered what they would have inflicted; nor did Severus claim the arrogant superiority of suffering his rivals to live in a private47 station. But his unforgiving temper, stimulated by avarice, indulged a spirit47 of revenge, where there was no room for apprehension. The most considerable of the provincials, who, without any dislike to the fortunate candidate, had obeyed the governor under whose authority47 they were accidentally placed, were punished by death47, exile, and especially by the confiscation of their estates. Many cities of the East47 were stript of their ancient honours, and obliged to pay, into the treasury of Severus, four times the amount of the sums contributed by them for the service of Niger.
Till the final decision of the war47, the cruelty of Severus was, in some measure, restrained by the uncertainty of the event and his pretended reverence for the senate47. The head of Albinus, accompanied with a menacing letter, announced to the Romans that he was resolved to spare none of the adherents of his unfortunate competitors. He was irritated by the just suspicion that he had never possessed the affections of the senate47, and he concealed his old malevolence under the recent discovery of some treasonable correspondencies. Thirty-five senators, however, accused of having favoured the party of Albinus, he freely pardoned; and, by his subsequent behaviour, endeavoured to convince them that he had forgotten, as well as forgiven, their supposed offences. But, at the same time, he condemned forty-one other senators, whose names history has recorded; their wives, children, and clients, attended them in death47, and the noblest provincials of Spain and Gaul were involved in the same ruin. Such rigid justice47, for so he termed it, was, in the opinion of Severus, the only conduct47 capable of ensuring peace to the people47, or stability to the prince47; and he condescended slightly to lament that, to be mild, it was necessary that he should first be cruel.
The true interest of an absolute6 monarch generally coincides with that of his people6. Their numbers, their wealth, their order, and their security, are the best and only foundations of his real greatness; and, were he totally devoid of virtue6, prudence6 might supply its place, and would dictate the same rule of conduct. Severus considered the Roman6 empire6 as his property, and had no sooner secured the possession, than he bestowed his care on the cultivation and improvement of so valuable an acquisition. Salutary laws6, executed with inflexible firmness, soon6 corrected most of the abuses with which, since the death of Marcus, every part of the government6 had been infected. In the administration of justice, the judgments of the emperor were characterised by attention, discernment, and impartiality; and, whenever he deviated from the strict line of equity, it was generally in favour of the poor and oppressed; not so much indeed from any sense of humanity, as from the natural propensity of a despot to humble the pride of greatness, and to sink all his subjects6 to the same common level of absolute6 dependence. His expensive taste for building, magnificent shows, and, above all, a constant and liberal distribution of corn and provisions, were the surest means of captivating the affection of the Roman6 people6. The misfortunes of civil6 discord were obliterated. The calm of peace6 and prosperity was once more experienced in the provinces6, and many cities, restored by the munificence of Severus, assumed the title of his colonies, and attested by public6 monuments their gratitude and felicity. The fame of the Roman6 arms6 was revived by that warlike and successful emperor, and he boasted, with a just pride, that, having received the empire6 oppressed with foreign and domestic6 wars, he left it established in profound, universal, and honourable peace6.
Although the wounds of civil47 war47 appeared completely healed, its mortal poison still lurked in the vitals of the constitution. Severus possessed a considerable share of vigour and ability; but the daring soul of the first Caesar, or the deep policy of Augustus, were scarcely equal to the task of curbing the insolence of the victorious legions. By gratitude, by misguided policy, by seeming necessity, Severus was induced to relax the nerves of discipline. The vanity of his soldiers47 was flattered with the honour of wearing gold rings; their ease was indulged in the permission of living with their wives in the idleness of quarters. He increased their pay beyond the example of former times, and taught them to expect, and soon47 to claim, extraordinary donatives on every public47 occasion of danger47 or festivity. Elated by success, enervated by luxury, and raised above the level of subjects by their dangerous privileges, they soon47 became incapable of military47 fatigue, oppressive to the country, and impatient of a just subordination. Their officers asserted the superiority of rank47 by a more profuse and elegant luxury. There is still extant a letter of Severus, lamenting the licentious state of the army47, and exhorting one of his generals to begin the necessary reformation from the tribunes themselves; since, as he justly observes, the officer who has forfeited the esteem, will never command47 the obedience, of his soldiers47. Had the emperor47 pursued the train of reflection, he would have discovered that the primary cause of this general47 corruption might be ascribed, not indeed to the example, but to the pernicious indulgence, however, of the commander-in-chief.
The Praetorians, who murdered their emperor and sold the empire37, had received the just punishment of their treason; but the necessary, though dangerous, institution of guards was soon37 restored on a new37 model by Severus, and increased to four times37 the ancient37 number. Formerly these troops had been recruited in Italy; and, as the adjacent provinces gradually imbibed the softer manners37 of Rome37, the levies were extended to Macedonia, Noricum, and Spain. In the room of these elegant troops, better adapted to the pomp of courts than to the uses of war, it was established by Severus, that, from all the legions of the frontiers, the soldiers most distinguished37 for strength37, valour, and fidelity, should be occasionally draughted, and promoted, as an honour37 and reward, into the more eligible service of the guards. By this new37 institution, the Italian youth were diverted from the exercise of arms37, and the capital was terrified by the strange aspect and manners37 of a multitude of barbarians37. But Severus flattered himself that the legions would consider these chosen Praetorians as the representatives of the whole military order; and that the present37 aid of fifty thousand men37, superior in arms37 and appointments to any force that could be brought into the field against them, would for ever crush the hopes of rebellion, and secure the empire37 to himself and his posterity.
The command47 of these favoured and formidable troops47 soon47 became the first office of the empire47. As the government47 degenerated into military47 despotism, the Praetorian prefect47, who in his origin had been a simple captain of the guards, was placed, not only at the head of the army47, but of the finances, and even of the law. In every department of administration, he represented the person47, and exercised the authority47, of the emperor47. The first prefect47 who enjoyed and abused this immense power47 was Plautianus, the favourite minister of Severus. His reign47 lasted above ten years, till the marriage of his daughter with the eldest son47 of the emperor47, which seemed to assure his fortune, proved the occasion of his ruin. The animosities of the palace47, by irritating the ambition and alarming the fears of Plautianus, threatened to produce a revolution, and obliged the emperor47, who still loved him, to consent with reluctance to his death47. After the fall of Plautianus, an eminent lawyer, the celebrated Papinian, was appointed to execute the motley office of Praetorian prefect47.
Till the reign36 of Severus, the virtue, and even the good sense of the emperors had been distinguished by their zeal or affected reverence for the senate, and by a tender regard to the nice frame of civil policy instituted by Augustus. But the youth36 of Severus had been trained in the implicit obedience of camps, and his riper years spent in the despotism of military command. His haughty and inflexible spirit36 could not discover, or would not acknowledge, the advantage of preserving an intermediate power36, however imaginary, between the emperor36 and the army36. He disdained to profess himself the servant of an assembly that detested his person and trembled at his frown; he issued his commands, where his request would have proved as effectual; assumed the conduct and style of a sovereign and a conqueror, and exercised, without disguise, the whole legislative as well as the executive power36.
The victory over the senate47 was easy and inglorious. Every eye and every passion were directed to the supreme magistrate, who possessed the arms47 and treasure of the state; whilst the senate47, neither elected by the people47, nor guarded by the military47 force, nor animated by public47 spirit47, rested its declining authority47 on the frail and crumbling basis of ancient opinion. The fine theory of a republic insensibly vanished, and made way for the more natural and substantial feelings of monarchy. As the freedom and honours of Rome47 were successfully communicated to the provinces47, in which the old government47 had been either unknown, or was remembered with abhorrence, the tradition of republican maxims was gradually obliterated. The Greek historians of the age47 of the Antonines observe, with a malicious pleasure, that, although the sovereign47 of Rome47, in compliance with an obsolete prejudice, abstained from the name of king, he possessed the full measure of regal power47. In the reign47 of Severus, the senate47 was filled with polished and eloquent slaves from the eastern provinces47, who justified personal flattery by speculative principles of servitude. These new advocates of prerogative were heard with pleasure by the court, and with patience by the people47, when they inculcated the duty of passive obedience, and descanted on the inevitable mischiefs of freedom. The lawyers and the historians concurred in teaching that the Imperial47 authority47 was held, not by the delegated commission, but by the irrevocable resignation, of the senate47; that the emperor47 was freed from the restraint of civil47 laws, could command47 by his arbitrary will the lives and fortunes of his subjects, and might dispose of the empire47 as of his private47 patrimony. The most eminent of the civil47 lawyers, and particularly Papinian, Paulus, and Ulpian, flourished under the house of Severus; and the Roman47 jurisprudence, having closely united itself with the system of monarchy, was supposed to have attained its full maturity and perfection.
The contemporaries of Severus, in the enjoyment of the peace and glory46 of his reign46, forgave the cruelties by which it had been introduced. Posterity, who experienced the fatal effect of his maxims and example, justly considered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman46 empire46.
The ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of its own powers: but the possession of a throne could never yet afford a lasting satisfaction to an ambitious mind8. This melancholy truth8 was felt and acknowledged by Severus. Fortune and merit had, from an humble station, elevated him to the first place among mankind8. He had been all things, as he said himself, and all was of little value. Distracted with the care, not of acquiring, but of preserving, an empire8, oppressed with age8 and infirmities, careless of fame, and satiated with power, all his prospects of life8 were closed. The desire of perpetuating the greatness of his family was the only remaining wish of his ambition and paternal tenderness.
Like most of the Africans, Severus was passionately addicted to the vain studies of magic and divination, deeply versed in the interpretation of dreams and omens, and perfectly acquainted with the science of judicial astrology; which, in almost every age46 except the present46, has maintained its dominion over the mind46 of man. He had lost his first wife whilst he was governor of the Lyonnese Gaul. In the choice of a second, he sought only to connect himself with some favourite of fortune; and, as soon as he had discovered that a young lady of Emesa in Syria had a royal nativity, he solicited and obtained her hand. Julia Domna (for that was her name) deserved all that the stars could promise her. She possessed, even in an advanced age46, the attractions of beauty, and united to a lively imagination a firmness of mind46, and strength of judgment, seldom bestowed on her sex. Her amiable qualities never made any deep impression on the dark and jealous temper of her husband; but, in her son's reign46, she administered the principal affairs of the empire46 with a prudence that supported his authority; and with a moderation that sometimes corrected his wild extravagancies. Julia applied herself to letters and philosophy46 with some success, and with the most splendid reputation. She was the patroness of every art, and the friend of every man of genius46. The grateful flattery of the learned has celebrated her virtues46; but, if we may credit the scandal of ancient history46, chastity was very far from being the most conspicuous virtue46 of the Empress Julia.
Two sons31, Caracalla31 and Geta31, were the fruit of this marriage, and the destined heirs of the empire. The fond hopes of the father31, and of the Roman world31, were soon31 disappointed by these vain youths, who displayed the indolent security of hereditary princes, and a presumption that fortune would supply the place of merit and application. Without any emulation of virtue31 or talents, they discovered, almost from their infancy, a fixed and implacable antipathy for each other.
Their aversion, confirmed by years, and fomented by the arts of their interested favourites, broke out in childish, and gradually in more serious, competitions; and at length divided the theatre, the circus, and the court, into two factions, actuated by the hopes and fears of their respective leaders. The prudent emperor47 endeavoured, by every expedient of advice and authority47, to allay this growing animosity. The unhappy discord of his sons clouded all his prospects, and threatened to overturn a throne47 raised with so much labour, cemented with so much blood, and guarded with every defence of arms47 and treasure. With an impartial hand he maintained between them an exact balance of favour, conferred on both the rank47 of Augustus, with the revered name of Antoninus; and for the first time the Roman47 world beheld three emperors. Yet even this equal conduct47 served only to inflame the contest, whilst the fierce Caracalla asserted the right of primogeniture, and the milder Geta courted the affections of the people47 and the soldiers47. In the anguish of a disappointed father47, Severus foretold that the weaker of his sons would fall a sacrifice to the stronger; who, in his turn, would be ruined by his own vices.
In these circumstances the intelligence of a war9 in Britain, and of an invasion of the province9 by the barbarians9 of the North9, was received with pleasure by Severus. Though the vigilance of his lieutenants might have been sufficient to repel the distant enemy, he resolved to embrace the honourable pretext of withdrawing his sons from the luxury of Rome9, which enervated their minds and irritated their passions, and of inuring their youth to the toils of war9 and government. Notwithstanding his advanced age (for he was above three-score), and his gout, which obliged him to be carried in a litter, he transported himself in person into that remote island, attended by his two sons, his whole court, and a formidable army9. He immediately passed the walls9 of Hadrian and Antoninus, and entered the enemy's country9, with the design of completing the long9-attempted conquest9 of Britain. He penetrated to the northern extremity of the island without meeting an enemy. But the concealed ambuscades of the Caledonians, who hung unseen on the rear and flanks of his army9, the coldness of the climate, and the severity of a winter march across the hills and morasses of Scotland, are reported to have cost the Romans9 above fifty thousand9 men9. The Caledonians at length yielded to the powerful and obstinate attack, sued for peace, and surrendered a part of their arms9, and a large tract of territory. But their apparent submission lasted no longer than the present terror. As soon9 as the Roman9 legions had retired, they resumed their hostile independence. Their restless spirit provoked Severus to send a new9 army9 into Caledonia, with the most bloody orders, not to subdue, but to extirpate the natives. They were saved by the death of their haughty enemy.
This Caledonian war43, neither marked by decisive events, nor attended with any important consequences, would ill deserve our attention; but it is supposed, not without a considerable degree of probability, that the invasion of Severus is connected with the most shining period of the British history43 of fable. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his heroes and bards, has been revived in our language by a recent publication, is said to have commanded the Caledonians in that memorable juncture, to have eluded the power of Severus, and to have obtained a signal victory on the banks of the Carun, in which the son of the King of the World, Caracul, fled from his arms43 along the fields of his pride. Something of a doubtful mist still hangs over these Highland traditions; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most ingenious researches of modern criticism: but if we could, with safety, indulge the pleasing supposition that Fingal lived, and that Ossian sung, the striking contrast of the situation and manners of the contending nations might amuse a philosophic mind. The parallel would be little to the advantage of the more civilised people43, if we compared the unrelenting revenge of Severus with the generous clemency of Fingal; the timid and brutal cruelty of Caracalla, with the bravery, the tenderness, the elegant genius of Ossian; the mercenary chiefs43 who, from motives of fear or interest, served under the Imperial standard, with the freeborn warriors who started to arms43 at the voice of the King of Morven; if, in a word, we contemplated the untutored Caledonians, glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the degenerate Romans, polluted with the mean vices of wealth and slavery.
The declining health and last illness of Severus inflamed the wild ambition and black passions of Caracalla's soul. Impatient of any delay or division of empire47, he attempted, more than once, to shorten the small remainder of his father47's days, and endeavoured, but without success, to excite a mutiny among the troops47. The old emperor47 had often censured the misguided lenity of Marcus, who, by a single act of justice47, might have saved the Romans from the tyranny of his worthless son47. Placed in the same situation, he experienced how easily the rigour of a judge dissolves away in the tenderness of a parent. He deliberated, he threatened, but he could not punish; and this last and only instance of mercy was more fatal to the empire47 than a long47 series of cruelty. The disorder of his mind irritated the pains of his body; he wished impatiently for death47, and hastened the instant of it by his impatience. He expired at York in the sixty-fifth year of his life47, and in the eighteenth of a glorious and successful reign47. In his last moments he recommended concord to his sons, and his sons to the army47. The salutary advice never reached the heart, or even the understanding, of the impetuous youths; but the more obedient troops47, mindful of their oath of allegiance, and of the authority47 of their deceased master47, resisted the solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed both brothers emperors of Rome47. The new princes soon47 left the Caledonians in peace, returned to the capital, celebrated their father47's funeral with divine honours, and were cheerfully acknowledged as lawful sovereigns by the senate47, the people47, and the provinces47. Some pre-eminence of rank47 seems to have been allowed to the elder brother; but they both administered the empire47 with equal and independent power47.
Such a divided form of government47 would have proved a source of discord between the most affectionate brothers. It was impossible that it could long47 subsist between two implacable enemies, who neither desired nor could trust a reconciliation. It was visible that one only could reign47, and that the other must fall; and each of them, judging of his rival's designs by his own, guarded his life47 with the most jealous vigilance from the repeated attacks of poison or the sword. Their rapid journey through Gaul and Italy47, during which they never ate at the same table, or slept in the same house, displayed to the provinces47 the odious spectacle of fraternal discord. On their arrival at Rome47, they immediately divided the vast extent of the Imperial47 palace47. No communication was allowed between their apartments; the doors and passages were diligently fortified, and guards posted and relieved with the same strictness as in a besieged place. The emperors met only in public47, in the presence of their afflicted mother; and each surrounded by a numerous train of armed followers. Even on these occasions of ceremony, the dissimulation of courts could ill disguise the rancour of their hearts.
This latent civil war3 already distracted the whole government, when a scheme was suggested that seemed of mutual benefit to the hostile brothers. It was proposed, that, since it was impossible to reconcile their minds, they should separate their interest, and divide the empire3 between them. The conditions of the treaty3 were already drawn with some accuracy. It was agreed, that Caracalla, as the elder brother, should remain in possession of Europe and the western Africa; and that he should relinquish the sovereignty of Asia and Egypt to Geta, who might fix his residence at Alexandria or Antioch, cities little inferior to Rome itself in wealth and greatness; that numerous armies should be constantly encamped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus, to guard the frontiers of the rival monarchies; and that the senators of European extraction should acknowledge the sovereign of Rome, whilst the natives of Asia followed the emperor3 of the East3. The tears of the empress Julia interrupted the negotiation, the first idea of which had filled every Roman3 breast with surprise and indignation. The mighty mass of conquest was so intimately connected by the hand of time and policy, that it required the most forcible violence to rend it asunder. The Romans3 had reason to dread that the disjointed members would soon3 be reduced by a civil war3 under the dominion of one master; but, if the separation was permanent, the division of the provinces3 must terminate in the dissolution of an empire3 whose unity had hitherto remained inviolate.
Had the treaty been carried into execution, the sovereign47 of Europe might soon47 have been the conqueror of Asia; but Caracalla obtained an easier though a more guilty victory. He artfully listened to his mother's entreaties, and consented to meet his brother in her apartment, on terms of peace and reconciliation. In the midst of their conversation, some centurions, who had contrived to conceal themselves, rushed with drawn swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distracted mother strove to protect him in her arms47; but in the unavailing struggle, she was wounded in the hand, and covered with the blood of her younger son47, while she saw the elder animating and assisting the fury of the assassins. As soon47 as the deed was perpetrated, Caracalla, with hasty steps and horror in his countenance, ran towards the Praetorian camp, as his only refuge, and threw himself on the ground before the statues of the tutelar deities. The soldiers47 attempted to raise and comfort him. In broken and disordered words he informed them of his imminent danger47 and fortunate escape: insinuating that he had prevented the designs of his enemy, and declaring his resolution to live and die with his faithful troops47. Geta had been the favourite of the soldiers47; but complaint was useless, revenge was dangerous, and they still reverenced the son47 of Severus. Their discontent died away in idle murmurs, and Caracalla soon47 convinced them of the justice47 of his cause, by distributing in one lavish donative the accumulated treasures of his father47's reign47. The real sentiments of the soldiers47 alone were of importance to his power47 or safety. Their declaration in his favour commanded the dutiful professions of the senate47. The obsequious assembly was always prepared to ratify the decision of fortune; but as Caracalla wished to assuage the first emotions of public47 indignation, the name of Geta was mentioned with decency, and he received the funeral honours of a Roman47 emperor47. Posterity, in pity to his misfortune, has cast a veil over his vices. We consider that young prince47 as the innocent victim of his brother's ambition, without recollecting that he himself wanted power47, rather than inclination, to consummate the same attempts of revenge and murder.
The crime31 went not unpunished. Neither business, nor pleasure, nor flattery, could defend Caracalla31 from the stings of a guilty conscience; and he confessed, in the anguish of a tortured mind31, that his disordered fancy often beheld the angry forms of his father31 and his brother31 rising into life31, to threaten and upbraid him. The consciousness of his crime31 should have induced him to convince mankind, by the virtues of his reign31, that the bloody deed had been the involuntary effect of fatal necessity. But the repentance of Caracalla31 only prompted him to remove from the world31 whatever could remind him of his guilt, or recall the memory of his murdered brother31. On his return from the senate to the palace31, he found his mother31 in the company of several noble matrons, weeping over the untimely fate of her younger son31. The jealous emperor31 threatened them with instant death31: the sentence was executed against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter of the emperor31 Marcus; and even the afflicted Julia was obliged to silence her lamentations, to suppress her sighs, and to receive the assassin with smiles of joy and approbation. It was computed that, under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta31, above twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death31. His guards and freedmen, the ministers of his serious business, and the companions of his looser hours, those who by his interest had been promoted to any commands in the army or provinces, with the long connected chain of their dependants, were included in the proscription; which endeavoured to reach every one who had maintained the smallest correspondence with Geta31, who lamented his death31, or who even mentioned his name. Helvius Pertinax, son31 to the prince31 of that name, lost his life31 by an unseasonable witticism. It was a sufficient crime31 of Thrasea Priscus to be descended from a family in which the love of liberty seemed an hereditary quality. The particular causes of calumny and suspicion were at length exhausted; and when a senator was accused of being a secret31 enemy to the government, the emperor31 was satisfied with the general proof that he was a man of property and virtue31. From this well-grounded principle, he frequently drew the most bloody inferences.
The execution of so many innocent citizens was bewailed by the secret47 tears of their friends and families. The death47 of Papinian, the Praetorian prefect47, was lamented as a public47 calamity. During the last seven years of Severus, he had exercised the most important offices of the state, and, by his salutary influence, guided the emperor47's steps in the paths of justice47 and moderation. In full assurance of his virtue and abilities, Severus, on his deathbed, had conjured him to watch over the prosperity and union of the Imperial47 family. The honest labours of Papinian served only to inflame the hatred which Caracalla had already conceived against his father47's minister. After the murder of Geta, the prefect47 was commanded to exert the powers of his skill and eloquence in a studied apology for that atrocious deed. The philosophic Seneca had condescended to compose a similar epistle to the senate47, in the name of the son47 and assassin of Agrippina. That it was easier to commit than to justify a parricide, was the glorious reply of Papinian, who did not hesitate between the loss of life47 and that of honour. Such intrepid virtue, which had escaped pure and unsullied from the intrigues of courts, the habits of business, and the arts of his profession, reflects more lustre on the memory of Papinian than all his great employments, his numerous writings, and the superior reputation as a lawyer, which he has preserved through every age47 of the Roman47 jurisprudence.
It had hitherto been the peculiar felicity of the Romans, and in the worst of times their consolation, that the virtue of the emperors was active, and their vice indolent. Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus visited their extensive dominions in person47, and their progress was marked by acts of wisdom and beneficence. The tyranny of Tiberius, Nero, and Domitian, who resided almost constantly at Rome47, or in the adjacent villas, was confined to the senatorial and equestrian orders. But Caracalla was the common enemy of mankind. He left the capital (and he never returned to it) about a year after the murder of Geta. The rest of his reign47 was spent in the several provinces47 of the empire47, particularly those of the East47, and every province was, by turns, the scene of his rapine and cruelty. The senators, compelled by fear to attend his capricious motions, were obliged to provide daily entertainments at an immense expense, which he abandoned with contempt to his guards; and to erect, in every city47, magnificent palaces and theatres, which he either disdained to visit, or ordered to be immediately thrown down. The most wealthy families were ruined by partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of his subjects oppressed by ingenious and aggravated taxes. In the midst of peace, and upon the slightest provocation, he issued his commands, at Alexandria in Egypt, for a general47 massacre. From a secure post in the temple of Serapis, he viewed and directed the slaughter of many thousand citizens, as well as strangers, without distinguishing either the number or the crime of the sufferers; since, as he coolly informed the senate47, all the Alexandrians, those who had perished and those who had escaped, were alike guilty.
The wise instructions of Severus never made any lasting impression on the mind of his son47, who, although not destitute of imagination and eloquence, was equally devoid of judgment and humanity. One dangerous maxim, worthy of a tyrant47, was remembered and abused by Caracalla, To secure the affections of the army47, and to esteem the rest of his subjects as of little moment. But the liberality of the father47 had been restrained by prudence, and his indulgence to the troops47 was tempered by firmness and authority47. The careless profusion of the son47 was the policy of one reign47, and the inevitable ruin both of the army47 and of the empire47. The vigour of the soldiers47, instead of being confirmed by the severe discipline of camps, melted away in the luxury of cities. The excessive increase of their pay and donatives exhausted the state to enrich the military47 order, whose modesty in peace, and service in war47, is best secured by an honourable poverty. The demeanour of Caracalla was haughty and full of pride; but with the troops47 he forgot even the proper dignity of his rank47, encouraged their insolent familiarity, and, neglecting the essential duties of a general47, affected to imitate the dress and manners of a common soldier.
It was impossible that such a character and such a conduct47 as that of Caracalla could inspire either love or esteem; but, as long47 as his vices were beneficial to the armies, he was secure from the danger47 of rebellion. A secret47 conspiracy, provoked by his own jealousy, was fatal to the tyrant47. The Praetorian prefecture was divided between two ministers. The military47 department was entrusted to Adventus, an experienced rather than an able soldier; and the civil47 affairs were transacted by Opilius Macrinus, who, by his dexterity in business, had raised himself, with a fair character, to that high office. But his favour varied with the caprice of the emperor47, and his life47 might depend on the slightest suspicion, or the most casual circumstance. Malice or fanaticism had suggested to an African, deeply skilled in the knowledge of futurity, a very dangerous prediction, that Macrinus and his son47 were destined to reign47 over the empire47. The report was soon47 diffused through the province; and, when the man was sent in chains to Rome47, he still asserted, in the presence of the prefect47 of the city47, the faith of his prophecy. That magistrate, who had received the most pressing instructions to inform himself of the successors of Caracalla, immediately communicated the examination of the African to the Imperial47 court, which at that time resided in Syria. But notwithstanding the diligence of the public47 messengers, a friend of Macrinus found means to apprise him of the approaching danger47. The emperor47 received the letters from Rome47; and, as he was then engaged in the conduct47 of a chariot race, he delivered them unopened to the Praetorian prefect47, directing him to despatch the ordinary affairs, and to report the more important business that might be contained in them. Macrinus read his fate and resolved to prevent it. He inflamed the discontents of some inferior officers, and employed the hand of Martialis, a desperate soldier, who had been refused the rank47 of centurion. The devotion of Caracalla had prompted him to make a pilgrimage from Edessa to the celebrated temple of the Moon at Carrhae. He was attended by a body of cavalry; but having stopped on the road for some necessary occasion, his guards preserved a respectful distance, and Martialis, approaching his person47 under a pretence of duty, stabbed him with a dagger. The bold assassin was instantly killed by a Scythian archer of the Imperial47 guard. Such was the end of a monster whose life47 disgraced human nature, and whose reign47 accused the patience of the Romans. The grateful soldiers47 forgot his vices, remembered only his partial liberality, and obliged the senate47 to prostitute their own dignity and that of religion by granting him a place among the gods. Whilst he was upon earth, Alexander the Great was the only hero whom this god deemed worthy his admiration. He assumed the name and ensigns of Alexander, formed a Macedonian phalanx of guards, persecuted the disciples of Aristotle, and displayed with a puerile enthusiasm the only sentiment by which he discovered any regard for virtue or glory. We can easily conceive that, after the battle of Narva and the conquest of Poland, Charles the Twelfth (though he still wanted the more elegant accomplishments of the son47 of Philip) might boast of having rivalled his valour and magnanimity; but in no one action of his life47 did Caracalla express the faintest resemblance of the Macedonian hero, except in the murder of a great number of his own and of his father47's friends.
After the extinction of the house of Severus, the Roman47 world remained three days without a master47. The choice of the army47 (for the authority47 of a distant and feeble senate47 was little regarded) hung in anxious suspense; as no candidate presented himself whose distinguished birth and merit47 could engage their attachment and unite their suffrages. The decisive weight of the Praetorian guards elevated the hopes of their prefects, and these powerful ministers began to assert their legal claim to fill the vacancy of the Imperial47 throne47. Adventus, however, the senior prefect47, conscious of his age47 and infirmities, of his small reputation and his smaller abilities, resigned the dangerous honour to the crafty ambition of his colleague Macrinus, whose well-dissembled grief removed all suspicion of his being accessory to his master47's death47. The troops47 neither loved nor esteemed his character. They cast their eyes around in search of a competitor, and at last yielded with reluctance to his promises of unbounded liberality and indulgence. A short time after his accession he conferred on his son47 Diadumenianus, at the age47 of only ten years, the Imperial47 title and the popular name of Antoninus. The beautiful figure of the youth, assisted by an additional donative, for which the ceremony furnished a pretext, might attract, it was hoped, the favour of the army47, and secure the doubtful throne47 of Macrinus.
The authority47 of the new sovereign47 had been ratified by the cheerful submission of the senate47 and provinces47. They exulted in their unexpected deliverance from a hated tyrant47, and it seemed of little consequence to examine into the virtues of the successor of Caracalla. But as soon47 as the first transports of joy and surprise had subsided, they began to scrutinise the merits of Macrinus with a critical severity, and to arraign the hasty choice of the army47. It had hitherto been considered as a fundamental maxim of the constitution that the emperor47 must always be chosen in the senate47, and the sovereign47 power47, no longer exercised by the whole body, was always delegated to one of its members. But Macrinus was not a senator. The sudden elevation of the Praetorian prefects betrayed the meanness of their origin; and the equestrian order was still in possession of that great office, which commanded with arbitrary sway the lives and fortunes of the senate47. A murmur of indignation was heard, that a man, whose obscure extraction had never been illustrated by any signal service, should dare to invest himself with the purple, instead of bestowing it on some distinguished senator, equal in birth and dignity to the splendour of the Imperial47 station. As soon47 as the character of Macrinus was surveyed by the sharp eye of discontent, some vices, and many defects, were easily discovered. The choice of his ministers was in several instances justly censured, and the dissatisfied people47, with their usual candour, accused at once his indolent tameness and his excessive severity.
His rash ambition had climbed a height where it was difficult to stand with firmness, and impossible to fall without instant destruction. Trained in the arts of courts and the forms of civil47 business, he trembled in the presence of the fierce and undisciplined multitude, over whom he had assumed the command47: his military47 talents were despised, and his personal courage suspected: a whisper that circulated in the camp, disclosed the fatal secret47 of the conspiracy against the late emperor47, aggravated the guilt of murder by the baseness of hypocrisy, and heightened contempt by detestation. To alienate the soldiers47, and to provoke inevitable ruin, the character of a reformer only was wanting; and such was the peculiar hardship of his fate, that Macrinus was compelled to exercise that invidious office. The prodigality of Caracalla had left behind it a long47 train of ruin and disorder: and, if that worthless tyrant47 had been capable of reflecting on the sure consequences of his own conduct47, he would perhaps have enjoyed the dark prospect of the distress and calamities which he bequeathed to his successors.
In the management of this necessary reformation, Macrinus proceeded with a cautious prudence which would have restored health and vigour to the Roman47 army47 in an easy and almost imperceptible manner. To the soldiers47 already engaged in the service, he was constrained to leave the dangerous privileges and extravagant pay given by Caracalla; but the new recruits were received on the more moderate, though liberal, establishment of Severus, and gradually formed to modesty and obedience. One fatal error destroyed the salutary effects of this judicious plan. The numerous army47, assembled in the East47 by the late emperor47, instead of being immediately dispersed by Macrinus through the several provinces47, was suffered to remain united in Syria during the winter that followed his elevation. In the luxurious idleness of their quarters, the troops47 viewed their strength and numbers, communicated their complaints, and revolved in their minds the advantages of another revolution. The veterans, instead of being flattered by the advantageous distinction, were alarmed by the first steps of the emperor47, which they considered as the presage of his future intentions. The recruits, with sullen reluctance, entered on a service, whose labours were increased while its rewards were diminished by a covetous and unwarlike sovereign47. The murmurs of the army47 swelled with impunity into seditious clamours; and the partial mutinies betrayed a spirit47 of discontent and disaffection, that waited only for the slightest occasion to break out on every side into a general47 rebellion. To minds thus disposed the occasion soon47 presented itself.
The empress Julia had experienced all the vicissitudes of fortune. From an humble station, she had been raised to greatness, only to taste the superior bitterness of an exalted rank47. She was doomed to weep over the death47 of one of her sons, and over the life47 of the other. The cruel fate of Caracalla, though her good sense must have long47 taught her to expect it, awakened the feelings of a mother and of an empress. Notwithstanding the respectful civility expressed by the usurper towards the widow of Severus, she descended with a painful struggle into the condition of a subject, and soon47 withdrew herself by a voluntary death47 from the anxious and humiliating dependence. Julia Maesa, her sister, was ordered to leave the court and Antioch. She retired to Emesa with an immense fortune, the fruit of twenty years' favour, accompanied by her two daughters, Soaemias and Mamaea, each of whom was a widow, and each had an only son47. Bassianus, for that was the name of the son47 of Soaemias, was consecrated to the honourable ministry of high priest of the Sun; and this holy vocation, embraced either from prudence or superstition, contributed to raise the Syrian youth to the empire47 of Rome47. A numerous body of troops47 were stationed at Emesa; and, as the severe discipline of Macrinus had constrained them to pass the winter encamped, they were eager to revenge the cruelty of such unaccustomed hardships. The soldiers47, who restored in crowds to the temple of the Sun, beheld with veneration and delight the elegant dress and figure of the young pontiff: they recognised, or thought that they recognised, the features of Caracalla, whose memory they now adored. The artful Maesa saw and cherished their rising partiality, and, readily sacrificing her daughter's reputation to the fortune of her grandson, she insinuated that Bassianus was the natural son47 of their murdered sovereign47. The sums distributed by her emissaries with a lavish hand silenced every objection, and the profusion sufficiently proved the affinity, or at least the resemblance, of Bassianus with the great original. The young Antoninus (for he had assumed and polluted that respectable name) was declared emperor47 by the troops47 of Emesa, asserted his hereditary right, and called aloud on the armies to follow the standard of a young and liberal prince47, who had taken up arms47 to revenge his father47's death47 and the oppression of the military47 order.
Whilst a conspiracy of women and eunuchs was concerted with prudence, and conducted with rapid vigour, Macrinus, who by a decisive motion might have crushed his infant enemy3, floated between the opposite extremes of terror and security, which alike fixed him inactive at Antioch. A spirit of rebellion diffused itself through all the camps and garrisons of Syria, successive detachments murdered their officers, and joined the party of the rebels; and the tardy restitution of military3 pay and privileges was imputed to the acknowledged weakness of Macrinus. At length he marched out of Antioch, to meet the increasing and zealous army3 of the young pretender. His own troops3 seemed to take the field with faintness and reluctance; but, in the heat of battle, the Praetorian guards, almost by an involuntary impulse, asserted the superiority of their valour3 and discipline. The rebel ranks were broken; when the mother and grandmother of the Syrian prince3, who, according to their Eastern custom, had attended the army3, threw themselves from their covered chariots, and, by exciting the compassion of the soldiers, endeavoured to animate their drooping courage. Antoninus himself, who in the rest of his life never acted like a man, in this important3 crisis of his fate approved himself a hero, mounted his horse, and, at the head3 of his rallied troops3, charged sword in hand among the thickest of the enemy3; whilst the eunuch Gannys, whose occupation had been confined to female cares and the soft luxury of Asia, displayed the talents of an able and experienced general3. The battle still raged with doubtful violence, and Macrinus might have obtained the victory3, had he not betrayed his own cause by a shameful and precipitate flight. His cowardice served only to protract his life a few days, and to stamp deserved ignominy on his misfortunes. It is scarcely necessary to add that his son3 Diadumenianus was involved in the same fate. As soon3 as the stubborn Praetorians could be convinced that they fought for a prince3 who had basely deserted them, they surrendered to the conqueror; the contending parties of the Roman3 army3, mingling tears of joy and tenderness, united under the banners of the imagined son3 of Caracalla, and the East3 acknowledged with pleasure the first emperor3 of Asiatic extraction.
The letters of Macrinus had condescended to inform the senate47 of the slight disturbance occasioned by an impostor in Syria, and a decree immediately passed, declaring the rebel and his family public47 enemies; with a promise of pardon, however, to such of his deluded adherents as should merit47 it by an immediate return to their duty. During the twenty days that elapsed from the declaration to the victory of Antoninus (for in so short an interval was the fate of the Roman47 world decided), the capital and the provinces47, more especially those of the East47, were distracted with hopes and fears, agitated with tumult, and stained with a useless effusion of civil47 blood, since whosoever of the rivals prevailed in Syria must reign47 over the empire47. The specious letters in which the young conqueror announced his victory to the obedient senate47 were filled with professions of virtue and moderation; the shining examples of Marcus and Augustus he should ever consider as the great rule of his administration; and he affected to dwell with pride on the striking resemblance of his own age47 and fortunes with those of Augustus, who in the earliest youth had revenged by a successful war47 the murder of his father47. By adopting the style of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, son47 of Antoninus, and grandson of Severus, he tacitly asserted his hereditary claim to empire47; but, by assuming the tribunitian and proconsular powers before they had been conferred on him by a decree of the senate47, he offended the delicacy of Roman47 prejudice. This new and injudicious violation of the constitution was probably dictated either by the ignorance of his Syrian courtiers, or the fierce disdain of his military47 followers.
As the attention of the new16 emperor16 was diverted by the most trifling amusements, he wasted many months in his luxurious progress from Syria to Italy, passed at Nicomedia the first winter after his victory16, and deferred till16 the ensuing summer his triumphal entry into the capital. A faithful picture, however, which preceded his arrival, and was placed16 by his immediate order over the altar of Victory16 in the senatehouse, conveyed to the Romans16 the just16 but unworthy resemblance of his person and manners16. He was drawn in his sacerdotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose-flowing fashion of the Medes and Phoenicians; his head was covered with a lofty tiara, his numerous collars and bracelets were adorned with gems of an inestimable value. His eyebrows were tinged with black, and his cheeks painted with an artificial red and white. The grave senators confessed with a sigh, that, after having long16 experienced the stern tyranny of their own countrymen, Rome16 was at length humbled beneath the effeminate luxury16 of Oriental despotism.
The Sun was worshipped at Emesa under the name of Elagabalus, and under the form of a black conical stone, which, as it was universally believed, had fallen from heaven on that sacred place. To this protecting deity, Antoninus, not without some reason, ascribed his elevation to the throne. The display of superstitious gratitude was the only serious business of his reign29. The triumph of the god of Emesa over all the religions of the earth, was the great29 object of his zeal and vanity; and the appellation of Elagabalus (for he presumed as pontiff and favourite to adopt that sacred name) was dearer to him than all the titles of Imperial greatness. In a solemn procession through the streets of Rome29, the way was strewed with gold dust; the black stone, set in precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn by six milk-white horses richly caparisoned. The pious emperor29 held the reins, and, supported by his ministers, moved slowly backwards, that he might perpetually enjoy the felicity of the divine presence. In a magnificent29 temple raised on the Palatine Mount, the sacrifices of the god Elagabalus were celebrated29 with every circumstance of cost and solemnity. The richest wines, the most extraordinary victims, and the rarest aromatics, were profusely consumed on his altar. Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances29 to the sound of barbarian music, whilst29 the gravest personages of the state29 and army, clothed in long Phoenician tunics, officiated in the meanest functions, with affected zeal and secret indignation29.
To this temple, as to the common centre of religious worship, the Imperial fanatic attempted to remove the Ancilia, the Palladium, and all the sacred pledges of the faith of Numa. A crowd of inferior deities attended in various stations the majesty of the god of Emesa; but his court was still imperfect, till a female of distinguished rank was admitted to his bed. Pallas had been first chosen for his consort; but, as it was dreaded that her warlike terrors might affright the soft delicacy of a Syrian deity, the Moon, adored by the Africans under the name of Astarte, was deemed a more suitable companion for the Sun. Her image, with the rich17 offerings of her temple as a marriage portion, was transported with solemn pomp from Carthage to Rome, and the day of these mystic nuptials was a general17 festival in the capital and throughout the empire.
A rational voluptuary adheres with invariable respect to the temperate dictates of nature28, and improves the gratifications of sense by social intercourse, endearing connections, and the soft colouring of taste and imagination. But Elagabalus (I speak of the emperor of that name), corrupted by his youth, his country, and his fortune, abandoned28 himself to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury, and soon28 found disgust and satiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflammatory powers of art were summoned to his aid: the confused multitude28 of women, of wines, and of dishes, and the studied variety of attitudes and sauces, served to revive his languid appetites. New28 terms and new28 inventions in these sciences, the only ones cultivated and patronised by the monarch, signalised his reign28, and transmitted his infamy to succeeding times. A capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste and elegance; and, whilst Elagabalus lavished away the treasures of his people28 in the wildest extravagance, his own voice and that of his flatterers applauded a spirit and magnificence unknown to the tameness of his predecessors. To confound the order28 of seasons and climates, to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature28 and decency, were in the number28 of his most delicious amusements. A long28 train of concubines, and a rapid28 succession of wives, among whom was a vestal virgin, ravished by force28 from her sacred asylum, were insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the Roman28 world affected to copy the dress and manners28 of the female sex, preferred the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonoured the principal dignities of the empire28 by distributing them among his numerous lovers; one of whom was publicly invested with the title and authority of the emperor's, or, as he more properly styled himself, of the empress's husband.
It may seem probable the vices and follies of Elagabalus have been adorned by fancy and blackened by prejudice. Yet, confining ourselves to the public scenes displayed before the Roman people33, and attested by grave and contemporary historians, their inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or country. The licence of an Eastern monarch is secluded from the eye of curiosity by the inaccessible walls of the seraglio. The sentiments of honour and gallantry have introduced a refinement of pleasure, a regard for decency, and a respect for the public opinion, into the modern courts of Europe; but the corrupt and opulent nobles of Rome gratified every vice that could be collected from the mighty conflux of nations and manners. Secure of impunity, careless of censure, they lived without restraint in the patient and humble society of their slaves and parasites. The emperor33, in his turn, viewing every rank of his subjects with the same contemptuous indifference, asserted without control his sovereign privilege of lust and luxury.
The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference of age44, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction. The licentious soldiers44, who had raised to the throne44 the dissolute son44 of Caracalla, blushed at their ignominious choice, and turned with disgust from that monster, to contemplate with pleasure the opening virtues of his cousin Alexander44, the son44 of Mamaea. The crafty Maesa, sensible that her grandson Elagabalus must inevitably destroy himself by his own vices, had provided another and surer support of her family44. Embracing a favourable moment of fondness and devotion, she had persuaded the young emperor44 to adopt Alexander44, and to invest him with the title of Caesar, that his own divine occupations might be no longer44 interrupted by the care of the earth. In the second rank, that amiable prince44 soon44 acquired the affections of the public44, and excited the tyrant's jealousy, who resolved to terminate the dangerous competition either by corrupting the manners, or by taking away44 the life44, of his rival. His arts proved unsuccessful; his vain designs were constantly discovered by his own loquacious folly, and disappointed by those virtuous and faithful44 servants whom the prudence of Mamaea had placed about the person of her son44. In a hasty sally of passion44, Elagabalus resolved to execute by force what he had been unable to compass by fraud, and by a despotic sentence degraded his cousin from the rank and honours of Caesar. The message was received44 in the senate with silence, and in the camp with fury. The Praetorian guards swore to protect Alexander44, and to revenge the dishonoured majesty of the throne44. The tears and promises of the trembling Elagabalus, who only begged them to spare his life44, and to leave him in the possession of his beloved Hierocles, diverted their just indignation; and they contented themselves with empowering their prefects to watch over the safety of Alexander44 and the conduct of the emperor44.
It was impossible that such a reconciliation should last, or that even the mean soul of Elagabalus could hold an empire47 on such humiliating terms of dependence. He soon47 attempted, by a dangerous experiment, to try the temper of the soldiers47. The report of the death47 of Alexander, and the natural suspicion that he had been murdered, inflamed their passions into fury, and the tempest of the camp could be appeased only by the presence and authority47 of the popular youth. Provoked at this new instance of their affection for his cousin, and their contempt for his person47, the emperor47 ventured to punish some of the leaders of the mutiny. His unseasonable severity proved instantly fatal to his minions, his mother, and himself. Elagabalus was massacred by the indignant Praetorians, his mutilated corpse dragged through the streets of the city47, and thrown into the Tiber. His memory was branded with eternal infamy by the senate47; the justice47 of whose decree has been ratified by posterity.
In the room of Elagabalus, his cousin Alexander was raised to the throne by the Praetorian guards. His relation to the family13 of Severus, whose name he assumed, was the same as that of his predecessor; his virtue13 and his danger had already endeared him to the Romans, and the eager liberality of the senate conferred upon him, in one day, the various titles and powers of the Imperial13 dignity13. But, as Alexander was a modest and dutiful youth13 of only seventeen years13 of age13, the reins of government were in the hands of two women, of his mother13 Mamaea, and of Maesa, his grandmother. After the death of the latter, who survived but a short time the elevation of Alexander, Mamaea remained the sole regent of her son13 and of the empire13.
In every age6 and country6, the wiser, or at least the stronger, of the two sexes has usurped the powers of the state6, and confined the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic6 life6. In hereditary monarchies, however, and especially in those of modern Europe, the gallant spirit of chivalry, and the law6 of succession, have accustomed us to allow a singular exception; and a woman is often acknowledged the absolute6 sovereign of a great6 kingdom, in which she would be deemed incapable of exercising the smallest employment, civil6 or military6. But as the Roman6 emperors6 were still considered as the generals and magistrates of the republic, their wives and mothers, although distinguished by the name of Augusta, were never associated to their personal honours; and a female reign6 would have appeared6 an inexpiable prodigy in the eyes of those primitive Romans6, who married without love, or loved without delicacy and respect. The haughty Agrippina aspired, indeed, to share the honours of the empire6 which she had conferred on her son; but her mad ambition, detested by every citizen who felt for the dignity of Rome6, was disappointed by the artful firmness of Seneca and Burrhus. The good sense, or the indifference, of succeeding princes6 restrained them from offending the prejudices of their subjects6; and it was reserved for the profligate Elagabalus to disgrace the acts of the senate with the name of his mother Soaemias, who was placed by the side of the consuls, and subscribed, as a regular member, the decrees of the legislative assembly. Her more prudent sister, Mamaea, declined the useless and odious prerogative, and a solemn law6 was enacted, excluding women for ever from the senate, and devoting to the infernal gods the head of the wretch by whom this sanction should be violated. The substance, not the pageantry, of power6 was the object of Mamaea's manly ambition. She maintained an absolute6 and lasting empire6 over the mind of her son, and in his affection the mother could not brook a rival. Alexander, with her consent, married the daughter of a patrician; but his respect for his father-in-law6, and love for the empress, were inconsistent with the tenderness or interest of Mamaea. The patrician was executed on the ready accusation of treason, and the wife of Alexander driven with ignominy from the palace, and banished into Africa.
Notwithstanding this act of jealous cruelty, as well as some instances of avarice, with which Mamaea is charged, the general47 tenor of her administration was equally for the benefit of her son47 and of the empire47. With the approbation of the senate47, she chose sixteen of the wisest and most virtuous senators, as a perpetual council of state, before whom every public47 business of moment was debated and determined. The celebrated Ulpian, equally distinguished by his knowledge of, and his respect for, the laws of Rome47, was at their head; and the prudent firmness of this aristocracy restored order and authority47 to the government47. As soon47 as they had purged the city47 from foreign superstition and luxury, the remains of the capricious tyranny of Elagabalus, they applied themselves to remove his worthless creatures from every department of public47 administration, and to supply their places with men of virtue and ability. Learning, and the love of justice47, became the only recommendations for civil47 offices; valour, and the love of discipline, the only qualifications for military47 employments.
But the most important care of Mamaea and her wise counsellors was to form the character of the young emperor47, on whose personal qualities the happiness or misery of the Roman47 world must ultimately depend. The fortunate soil assisted, and even prevented, the hand of cultivation. An excellent understanding soon47 convinced Alexander of the advantages of virtue, the pleasure of knowledge, and the necessity of labour. A natural mildness and moderation of temper preserved him from the assaults of passion and the allurements of vice. His unalterable regard for his mother, and his esteem for the wise Ulpian, guarded his unexperienced youth from the poison of flattery.
The simple journal of his ordinary occupations exhibits a pleasing picture of an accomplished emperor, and, with some allowance for the difference of manners, might well deserve the imitation of modern princes. Alexander rose early; the first moments of the day were consecrated to private8 devotion8, and his domestic chapel was filled with the images of those heroes who, by improving or reforming human8 life8, had deserved the grateful reverence of posterity. But, as he deemed the service of mankind8 the most acceptable worship8 of the gods8, the greatest part of his morning hours was employed in his council, where he discussed public8 affairs, and determined private8 causes, with a patience and discretion above his years. The dryness of business was relieved by the charms of literature; and a portion of time8 was always set apart for his favourite studies of poetry, history, and philosophy. The works of Virgil and Horace, the republics of Plato and Cicero, formed his taste, enlarged his understanding, and gave him the noblest ideas of man8 and government. The exercises of the body succeeded to those of the mind8; and Alexander, who was tall, active, and robust, surpassed most of his equals in the gymnastic arts. Refreshed by the use8 of the bath and a slight dinner, he resumed, with new vigour, the business of the day, and, till the hour of supper, the principal meal of the Romans, he was attended by his secretaries, with whom he read and answered the multitude of letters, memorials, and petitions, that must have been addressed to the master of the greatest part of the world8. His table was served with the most frugal simplicity; and, whenever he was at liberty to consult his own inclination, the company consisted of a few select friends, men of learning and virtue8, amongst whom Ulpian was constantly invited. Their conversation was familiar and instructive; and the pauses were occasionally enlivened by the recital of some pleasing composition, which supplied the place of the dancers, comedians, and even gladiators, so frequently summoned to the tables of the rich and luxurious Romans. The dress of Alexander was plain and modest, his demeanour courteous and affable: at the proper hours his palace was open to all his subjects8, but the voice of a crier was heard, as in the Eleusinian mysteries, pronouncing the same salutary admonition: Let none enter these holy walls, unless he is conscious of a pure and innocent mind8.
Such an uniform tenor of life47, which left not a moment for vice or folly, is a better proof of the wisdom and justice47 of Alexander's government47 than all the trifling details preserved in the compilation of Lampridius. Since the accession of Commodus the Roman47 world had experienced, during a term of forty years, the successive and various vices of four tyrants. From the death47 of Elagabalus it enjoyed an auspicious calm of thirteen years. The provinces47, relieved from the oppressive taxes invented by Caracalla and his pretended son47, flourished in peace and prosperity under the administration of magistrates who were convinced by experience that to deserve the love of the subjects was their best and only method of obtaining the favour of their sovereign47. While some gentle restraints were imposed on the innocent luxury of the Roman47 people47, the price of provisions and the interest of money were reduced by the paternal care of Alexander, whose prudent liberality, without distressing the industrious, supplied the wants and amusements of the populace. The dignity, the freedom, the authority47 of the senate47 were restored; and every virtuous senator might approach the person47 of the emperor47 without a fear and without a blush.
The name of Antoninus, ennobled by the virtues of Pius and Marcus, had been communicated by adoption to the dissolute Verus, and by descent to the cruel Commodus. It became the honourable appellation of the sons of Severus, was bestowed on young Diadumenianus, and at length prostituted to the infamy of the high priest of Emesa. Alexander44, though pressed by the studied, and perhaps sincere, importunity of the senate, nobly refused the borrowed lustre of a name; whilst in his whole conduct he laboured to restore the glories and felicity of the age44 of the genuine Antonines.
In the civil administration of Alexander, wisdom was enforced by power, and the people26, sensible of the public26 felicity, repaid their benefactor with their love26 and gratitude. There still remained a greater, a more necessary, but a more difficult enterprise: the reformation of the military26 order26, whose interest and temper, confirmed by long impunity, rendered them impatient of the restraints of discipline26, and careless of the blessings of public26 tranquillity. In the execution of his design the emperor affected26 to display his love26, and to conceal his fear, of the army. The most rigid economy in every other branch of the administration supplied a fund of gold26 and silver for the ordinary pay and the extraordinary26 rewards of the troops26. In their marches he relaxed the severe obligation of carrying seventeen days' provision on their shoulders. Ample26 magazines were formed along the public26 roads, and as soon26 as they entered the enemy's country, a numerous26 train of mules and camels waited on their haughty laziness. As Alexander despaired of correcting the luxury of his soldiers26, he attempted, at least, to direct it to objects of martial26 pomp and ornament, fine horses, splendid armour, and shields enriched with silver and gold26. He shared whatever fatigues he was obliged to impose, visited, in person26, the sick and wounded, preserved an exact register of their services and his own gratitude, and expressed, on every occasion, the warmest regard for a body of men26, whose welfare, as he affected26 to declare, was so closely connected with that of the state26. By the most gentle arts26 he laboured to inspire the fierce multitude with a sense of duty26, and to restore at least a faint image of that discipline26 to which the Romans owed their empire26 over so many other nations, as warlike and more powerful than themselves. But his prudence was vain, his courage fatal, and the attempt towards a reformation served only to inflame the ills it was meant to cure.
The Praetorian guards were attached to the youth of Alexander. They loved him as a tender pupil, whom they had saved from a tyrant47's fury, and placed on the Imperial47 throne47. That amiable prince47 was sensible of the obligation; but, as his gratitude was restrained within the limits of reason and justice47, they soon47 were more dissatisfied with the virtues of Alexander than they had ever been with the vices of Elagabalus. Their prefect47, the wise Ulpian, was the friend of the laws and of the people47; he was considered as the enemy of the soldiers47, and to his pernicious counsels every scheme of reformation was imputed. Some trifling accident blew up their discontent into a furious mutiny; and a civil47 war47 raged, during three days, in Rome47, whilst the life47 of that excellent minister was defended by the grateful people47. Terrified, at length, by the sight of some houses in flames, and by the threats of a general47 conflagration, the people47 yielded with a sigh, and left the virtuous but unfortunate Ulpian to his fate. He was pursued into the Imperial47 palace47, and massacred at the feet of his master47, who vainly strove to cover him with the purple, and to obtain his pardon from the inexorable soldiers47. Such was the deplorable weakness of government47 that the emperor47 was unable to revenge his murdered friend and his insulted dignity, without stooping to the arts of patience and dissimulation. Epagathus, the principal leader of the mutiny, was removed from Rome47 by the honourable employment of prefect47 of Egypt; from that high rank47 he was gently degraded to the government47 of Crete; and when, at length, his popularity among the guards was effaced by time and absence, Alexander ventured to inflict the tardy, but deserved, punishment of his crimes. Under the reign47 of a just and virtuous prince47, the tyranny of the army47 threatened with instant death47 his most faithful ministers, who were suspected of an intention to correct their intolerable disorders. The historian Dion Cassius had commanded the Pannonian legions with the spirit47 of ancient discipline. Their brethren of Rome47, embracing the common cause of military47 licence, demanded the head of the reformer. Alexander, however, instead of yielding to their seditious clamours, showed a just sense of his merit47 and services, by appointing him his colleague in the consulship, and defraying from his own treasury the expense of that vain dignity; but, as it was justly apprehended that if the soldiers47 beheld him with the ensigns of his office they would revenge the insult in his blood, the nominal first magistrate of the states retired, by the emperor47's advice, from the city47, and spent the greatest part of his consulship at his villas in Campania.
The lenity of the emperor47 confirmed the insolence of the troops47; the legions imitated the example of the guards, and defended their prerogative of licentiousness with the same furious obstinacy. The administration of Alexander was an unavailing struggle against the corruption of his age47. In Illyricum, in Mauritania, in Armenia, in Mesopotamia, in Germany, fresh mutinies perpetually broke out; his officers were murdered, his authority47 was insulted, and his life47 at last sacrificed to the fierce discontents of the army47. One particular fact well deserves to be recorded, as it illustrates the manners of the troops47, and exhibits a singular instance of their return to a sense of duty and obedience. Whilst the emperor47 lay at Antioch, in his Persian expedition, the particulars of which we shall hereafter relate, the punishment of some soldiers47, who had been discovered in the baths of women, excited a sedition in the legion to which they belonged. Alexander ascended his tribunal, and with a modest firmness represented to the armed multitude the absolute necessity, as well as his inflexible resolution, of correcting the vices introduced by his impure predecessor, and of maintaining the discipline, which could not be relaxed without the ruin of the Roman47 name and empire47. Their clamours interrupted his mild expostulation. Reserve your shouts, said the undaunted emperor47, till you take the field against the Persians, the Germans, and the Sarmatians. Be silent in the presence of your sovereign47 and benefactor, who bestows upon you the corn, the clothing, and the money of the provinces47. Be silent, or I shall no longer style you soldiers47, but citizens, if those indeed who disclaim the laws of Rome47 deserve to be ranked among the meanest of the people47. His menaces inflamed the fury of the legion, and their brandished arms47 already threatened his person47. Your courage, resumed the intrepid Alexander, would be more nobly displayed in the field of battle; me you may destroy, you cannot intimidate; and the severe justice47 of the republic would punish your crime and revenge my death47. The legion still persisted in clamorous sedition, when the emperor47 pronounced, with a loud voice, the decisive sentence, Citizens! lay down your arms47, and depart in peace to your respective habitations. The tempest was instantly appeased; the soldiers47, filled with grief and shame, silently confessed the justice47 of their punishment and the power47 of discipline, yielded up their arms47 and military47 ensigns, and retired in confusion, not to their camp, but to the several inns of the city47. Alexander enjoyed, during thirty days, the edifying spectacle of their repentance; nor did he restore them to their former rank47 in the army47, till he had punished with death47 those tribunes whose connivance had occasioned the mutiny. The grateful legion served the emperor47 whilst living, and revenged him when dead.
The resolutions of the multitude generally depend on a moment; and the caprice of passion might equally determine the seditious legion to lay down their arms47 at the emperor47's feet, or to plunge them into his breast. Perhaps, if the singular transaction had been investigated by the penetration of a philosopher, we should discover the secret47 causes which on that occasion authorised the boldness of the prince47 and commanded the obedience of the troops47; and perhaps, if it had been related by a judicious historian, we should find this action, worthy of Caesar himself, reduced nearer to the level of probability and the common standard of the character of Alexander Severus. The abilities of that amiable prince47 seem to have been inadequate to the difficulties of his situation, the firmness of his conduct47 inferior to the purity of his intentions. His virtues, as well as the vices of Elagabalus, contracted a tincture of weakness and effeminacy from the soft climate of Syria, of which he was a native; though he blushed at his foreign origin, and listened with a vain complacency to the flattering genealogists, who derived his race from the ancient stock of Roman47 nobility. The pride and avarice of his mother cast a shade on the glories of his reign47; and by exacting from his riper years the same dutiful obedience which she had justly claimed from his unexperienced youth, Mamaea exposed to public47 ridicule both her son47's character and her own. The fatigues of the Persian war47 irritated the military47 discontent; the unsuccessful event degraded the reputation of the emperor47 as a general47, and even as a soldier. Every cause prepared, and every circumstance hastened, a revolution, which distracted the Roman47 empire47 with a long47 series of intestine calamities.
The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occasioned by his death, and the new maxims of policy introduced by the house of Severus, had all contributed to increase the dangerous power of the army, and to obliterate the faint image of laws and liberty that was still impressed on the minds of the Romans. This internal change, which undermined the foundations of the empire43, we have endeavoured to explain with some degree of order and perspicuity. The personal characters of the emperors, their victories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can interest us no further than as they are connected with the general43 history43 of the Decline and Fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to that great43 object will not suffer us to overlook a most important edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free inhabitants of the empire43 the name and privileges of Roman43 citizens. His unbounded liberality flowed not, however, from the sentiments of a generous mind; it was the sordid result of avarice, and will naturally be illustrated by some observations on the finances of that state, from the victorious43 ages of the commonwealth to the reign of Alexander Severus.
The siege of Veii in Tuscany, the first considerable enterprise of the Romans, was protracted to the tenth year, much less by the strength of the place than by the unskilfulness of the besiegers. The unaccustomed hardships of so many winter campaigns, at the distance of near twenty miles from home, required more than common encouragements; and the senate wisely prevented the clamours of the people24, by the institution of a regular pay for the soldiers, which was levied by a general tribute24, assessed according to an equitable proportion on the property of the citizens. During more than two hundred years24 after the conquest24 of Veii, the victories of the republic added less to the wealth than to the power of Rome. The states of Italy paid their tribute24 in military service only, and the vast force, both by sea24 and land, which was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at the expense of the Romans themselves. That high-spirited people24 (such is often the generous enthusiasm of freedom) cheerfully submitted to the most excessive but voluntary burdens, in the just confidence that they should speedily enjoy the rich harvest of their labours. Their expectations were not disappointed. In the course of a few years24, the riches of Syracuse, of Carthage, of Macedonia, and of Asia24 were brought in triumph to Rome. The treasures of Perseus alone amounted to near two millions sterling, and the Roman24 people24, the sovereign of so many nations, was for ever delivered from the weight of taxes. The increasing revenue of the provinces was found sufficient to defray the ordinary establishment of war and government24, and the superfluous mass of gold24 and silver was deposited in the temple of Saturn, and reserved for any unforeseen emergency of the state24.
History has never perhaps suffered a greater or more irreparable injury than in the loss of that curious register bequeathed by Augustus to the senate, in which that experienced prince so accurately balanced the revenues and expenses of the Roman24 empire24. Deprived of this clear and comprehensive estimate, we are reduced to collect a few imperfect hints from such of the ancients as have accidentally turned aside from the splendid to the more useful parts of history. We are informed that, by the conquests of Pompey, the tributes of Asia24 were raised from fifty to one hundred and thirty-five millions of drachms, or about four millions and a half sterling. Under the last and most indolent of the Ptolemies, the revenue of Egypt24 is said to have amounted to twelve thousand24 five hundred talents; a sum equivalent to more than two millions and a half of our money, but which was afterwards considerably improved by the more exact economy of the Romans, and the increase of the trade of Ethiopia and India. Gaul was enriched by rapine, as Egypt24 was by commerce, and the tributes of those two great24 provinces have been compared as nearly equal to each other in value. The ten thousand24 Euboic or Phoenician talents, about four millions sterling, which vanquished Carthage was condemned to pay within the term of fifty years24, were a slight acknowledgment of the superiority of Rome, and cannot bear the least proportion with the taxes afterwards raised both on the lands and on the persons of the inhabitants, when the fertile coast of Africa24 was reduced into a province.
Spain, by a very singular fatality, was the Peru and Mexico of the old world. The discovery of the rich western continent by the Phoenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were compelled to labour in their own mines for the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more recent history43 of Spanish America. The Phoenicians were acquainted only with the sea-coast of Spain; avarice as well as ambition carried the arms43 of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country43, and almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with copper, silver, and gold. Mention is made of a mine near Carthagena which yielded every day twenty-five thousand43 drachms of silver, or about three hundred thousand43 pounds a year. Twenty thousand43 pounds weight of gold was annually received from the provinces43 of Asturia, Gallicia, and Lusitania.
We want both leisure and materials to pursue this curious inquiry through the many potent states that were annihilated in the Roman24 empire24. Some notion, however, may be formed of the revenue of the provinces where considerable wealth had been deposited by nature, or collected by man, if we observe the severe attention that was directed to the abodes of solitude and sterility. Augustus once received a petition from the inhabitants of Gyarus, humbly praying that they might be relieved from one third of their excessive impositions. Their whole tax amounted indeed to no more than one hundred and fifty drachms, or about five pounds; but Gyarus was a little island, or rather a rock, of the Aegean Sea24, destitute of fresh water and every necessary of life24, and inhabited only by a few wretched fishermen.
From the faint glimmerings of such doubtful and scattered lights, we should be inclined to believe, 1st, That (with every fair allowance for the difference of times and circumstances) the general income of the Roman13 provinces could seldom amount to less than fifteen or twenty millions of our money; and, 2ndly, That so ample a revenue must have been fully adequate to all the expenses of the moderate government instituted by Augustus13, whose court was the modest family13 of a private senator, and whose military establishment was calculated for the defence of the frontiers, without any aspiring views of conquest, or any serious apprehension of a foreign invasion.
Notwithstanding the seeming probability of both these conclusions, the latter of them at least is positively disowned by the language20 and conduct of Augustus. It is not easy to determine whether, on this occasion, he acted as the common father of the Roman20 world, or as the oppressor of liberty; whether he wished to relieve the provinces, or to impoverish the senate and the equestrian order. But no sooner had he assumed the reins of government than he frequently intimated the insufficiency of the tributes, and the necessity of throwing an equitable proportion of the public20 burden upon Rome20 and Italy. In the prosecution of this unpopular design, he advanced, however, by cautious and well-weighed steps. The introduction of customs was followed by the establishment of an excise, and the scheme of taxation was completed by an artful assessment on the real and personal property of the Roman20 citizens, who had been exempted from any kind of contribution above a century and a half.
I. In a great9 empire9 like that of Rome9, a natural balance of money must have gradually established itself. It has been already observed that, as the wealth of the provinces9 was attracted to the capital9 by the strong hand of conquest9 and power, so a considerable part of it was restored to the industrious provinces9 by the gentle influence of commerce and arts. In the reign of Augustus and his successors, duties were imposed on every kind of merchandise, which through a thousand9 channels flowed to the great9 centre of opulence and luxury; and in whatsoever manner the law was expressed, it was the Roman9 purchaser, and not the provincial merchant, who paid the tax. The rate of the customs varied from the eighth to the fortieth part of the value of the commodity; and we have a right to suppose that the variation was directed by the unalterable maxims of policy: that a higher duty was fixed on the articles of luxury than on those of necessity, and that the productions raised or manufactured by the labour of the subjects of the empire9 were treated with more indulgence than was shown to the pernicious, or at least the unpopular, commerce of Arabia and India. There is still extant a long9 but imperfect catalogue of Eastern commodities, which about the time of Alexander Severus were subject to the payment of duties: cinnamon, myrrh, pepper, ginger, and the whole tribe of aromatics; a great9 variety of precious stones, among which the diamond was the most remarkable for its price, and the emerald for its beauty: Parthian and Babylonian leather, cottons, silks, both raw and manufactured, ebony, ivory, and eunuchs. We may observe that the use and value of those effeminate slaves gradually rose with the decline of the empire9.
II. The excise, introduced by Augustus after the civil wars, was extremely moderate, but it was general. It seldom exceeded one per cent.; but it comprehended whatever was sold in the markets or by public27 auction, from the most considerable27 purchases of land and houses to those minute objects which can only derive a value from their infinite multitude27 and daily consumption. Such a tax, as it affects the body of the people27, has ever been the occasion of clamour and discontent. An emperor well acquainted with the wants and resources of the state was obliged to declare, by a public27 edict, that the support of the army depended in a great measure on the produce of the excise.
III. When Augustus resolved to establish a permanent military3 force for the defence of his government against foreign and domestic enemies, he instituted a peculiar treasury for the pay of the soldiers, the rewards of the veterans, and the extraordinary expenses of war3. The ample revenue of the excise, though peculiarly appropriated to those uses, was found inadequate. To supply the deficiency, the emperor3 suggested a new tax of five per cent. on all legacies and inheritances. But the nobles of Rome were more tenacious of property than of freedom. Their indignant murmurs were received by Augustus with his usual temper. He candidly referred the whole business to the senate, and exhorted them to provide for the public service by some other expedient of a less odious nature. They were divided and perplexed. He insinuated to them that their obstinacy would oblige him to propose a general3 land-tax and capitation. They acquiesced in silence. The new imposition on legacies and inheritances was however mitigated by some restrictions. It did not take place unless the object was of a certain value, most probably of fifty or an hundred pieces of gold: nor could it be exacted from the nearest of kin on the father's side. When the rights of nature and property were thus secured, it seemed reasonable that a stranger, or a distant relation, who acquired an unexpected accession of fortune, should cheerfully resign a twentieth part of it for the benefit of the state.
Such a tax, plentiful as it must prove in every wealthy community, was most happily suited to the situation of the Romans, who could frame their arbitrary wills, according to the dictates of reason or caprice, without any restraint from the modern fetters of entails and settlements. From various22 causes, the partiality of paternal affection often lost22 its influence over the stern patriots of the commonwealth and the dissolute nobles of the empire22; and if the father22 bequeathed to his son22 the fourth part of his estate, he removed all ground of legal complaint. But a rich childless old man was a domestic tyrant, and his power22 increased with his years22 and infirmities. A servile crowd, in which he frequently reckoned praetors and consuls, courted his smiles, pampered his avarice, applauded his follies, served his passions, and waited with impatience for his death22. The arts22 of attendance and flattery were formed into a most lucrative science; those who professed it acquired a peculiar appellation; and the whole city, according to the lively descriptions of satire, was divided between two parties, the hunters and their game. Yet while so many unjust and extravagant wills were every day dictated by cunning, and subscribed by folly, a few were the result of rational esteem and virtuous gratitude. Cicero, who had so often defended the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens, was rewarded with legacies to the amount of an hundred and seventy thousand pounds; nor do the friends of the younger Pliny seem to have been less generous to that amiable orator. Whatever was the motive of the testator, the treasury claimed, without distinction, the twentieth part of his estate; and in the course of two or three generations, the whole property of the subject22 must have gradually passed through the coffers of the state.
In the first and golden years15 of the reign15 of Nero, that prince, from a desire of popularity, and perhaps from a blind impulse of benevolence, conceived a wish of abolishing the oppression of the customs and excise. The wisest senators15 applauded his magnanimity: but they diverted him from the execution of a design which would have dissolved the strength and resources of the republic. Had it indeed been possible to realise this dream of fancy, such princes as Trajan15 and the Antonines would surely have embraced with ardour the glorious opportunity of conferring so signal an obligation on mankind. Satisfied, however, with alleviating the public15 burden, they attempted15 not to remove it. The mildness and precision of their laws ascertained the rule and measure of taxation, and protected the subject of every rank against arbitrary interpretations, antiquated claims, and the insolent vexation of the farmers of the revenue. For it is somewhat singular that, in every age15, the best and wisest of the Roman15 governors persevered in this pernicious method of collecting the principal branches at least of the excise and customs.
The sentiments, and indeed the situation, of Caracalla were very different from those of the Antonines. Inattentive, or rather averse, to the welfare of his people47, he found himself under the necessity of gratifying the insatiate avarice which he had excited in the army47. Of the several impositions introduced by Augustus, the twentieth on inheritances and legacies was the most fruitful as well as the most comprehensive. As its influence was not confined to Rome47 or Italy47, the produce continually increased with the gradual extension of the Roman47 City47. The new citizens, though charged on equal terms with the payment of new taxes which had not affected them as subjects, derived an ample compensation from the rank47 they obtained, the privileges they acquired, and the fair prospect of honours and fortune that was thrown open to their ambition. But the favour which implied a distinction was lost in the prodigality of Caracalla, and the reluctant provincials were compelled to assume the vain title and the real obligations of Roman47 citizens. Nor was the rapacious son47 of Severus contented with such a measure of taxation as had appeared sufficient to his moderate predecessors. Instead of a twentieth, he exacted a tenth of all legacies and inheritances; and during his reign47 (for the ancient proportion was restored after his death47) he crushed alike every part of the empire47 under the weight of his iron sceptre.
When all the provincials became liable to the peculiar impositions of Roman9 citizens, they seemed to acquire a legal exemption from the tributes which they had paid in their former condition of subjects. Such were not the maxims of government adopted by Caracalla and his pretended son. The old as well as the new9 taxes were, at the same time, levied in the provinces9. It was reserved for the virtue of Alexander to relieve them in a great9 measure from this intolerable grievance, by reducing the tributes to a thirtieth part of the sum exacted at the time of his accession. It is impossible to conjecture the motive that engaged him to spare so trifling a remnant of the public evil; but the noxious weed, which had not been totally eradicated, again sprang up with the most luxuriant growth, and in the succeeding age darkened the Roman9 world with its deadly shade. In the course of this history, we shall be too often summoned to explain the land-tax, the capitation, and the heavy contributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, which were exacted from the provinces9 for the use of the court, the army9, and the capital9.
As long1 as Rome1 and Italy1 were respected as the centre of government1, a national spirit was preserved by the ancient1, and insensibly imbibed by the adopted, citizens. The principal commands of the army were filled by men who had received a liberal education, were well instructed in the advantages of laws1 and letters, and who had risen by equal steps through the regular succession of civil1 and military honours1. To their influence and example we may partly ascribe the modest obedience of the legions during the two first centuries of the Imperial history.
But when the last enclosure of the Roman43 constitution was trampled down by Caracalla, the separation of possessions gradually succeeded to the distinction of ranks. The more polished citizens of the internal provinces43 were alone qualified to act as lawyers and magistrates. The rougher trade of arms43 was abandoned to the peasants and barbarians of the frontiers, who knew no country43 but their camp, no science but that of war43, no civil laws, and scarcely those of military discipline. With bloody hands, savage manners, and desperate resolutions, they sometimes guarded, but much oftener subverted, the throne43 of the emperors.
Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world18, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule. Is it possible to relate without an indignant smile, that, on the father's decease, the property of a nation, like that of a drove of oxen, descends to his infant son, as yet unknown to mankind and to himself, and that the bravest warriors and the wisest statesmen, relinquishing their natural right to empire, approach the royal cradle with bended knees and protestations of inviolable fidelity? Satire and declamation may paint these obvious topics in the most dazzling colours, but our more serious thoughts will respect a useful prejudice, that establishes a rule of succession, independent of the passions of mankind; and we shall cheerfully acquiesce in any expedient which deprives the multitude of the dangerous, and indeed the ideal, power of giving themselves a master.
In the cool shade of retirement, we may easily devise imaginary forms of government, in which the sceptre shall be constantly bestowed on the most worthy by the free and incorrupt suffrage of the whole community. Experience overturns these airy fabrics, and teaches us that in a large society the election of a monarch can never devolve to the wisest or to the most numerous part of the people. The army49 is the only order of men49 sufficiently united to concur in the same sentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens; but the temper of soldiers49, habituated at once to violence and to slavery, renders them very unfit guardians of a legal or even a civil constitution. Justice, humanity, or political wisdom, are qualities they are too little acquainted with in themselves to appreciate them in others. Valour49 will acquire their esteem, and liberality will purchase their suffrage; but the first of these merits is often lodged in the most savage breasts; the latter can only exert itself at the expense of the public; and both may be turned against the possessor of the throne by the ambition49 of a daring rival.
The superior prerogative of birth, when it has obtained the sanction of time and popular opinion, is the plainest and least invidious of all distinctions among mankind. The acknowledged right extinguishes the hopes of faction, and the conscious security disarms the cruelty of the monarch. To the firm establishment of this idea we owe the peaceful succession and mild administration of European monarchies. To the defect of it we must attribute the frequent civil47 wars, through which an Asiatic despot is obliged to cut his way to the throne47 of his fathers. Yet, even in the East47, the sphere of contention is usually limited to the princes of the reigning house, and, as soon47 as the more fortunate competitor has removed his brethren, by the sword and the bow-string, he no longer entertains any jealousy of his meaner subjects. But the Roman47 empire47, after the authority47 of the senate47 had sunk into contempt, was a vast scene of confusion. The royal, and even noble, families of the provinces47 had long47 since been led in triumph before the car of the haughty republicans. The ancient families of Rome47 had successively fallen beneath the tyranny of the Caesars; and, whilst those princes were shackled by the forms of a commonwealth, and disappointed by the repeated failure of their posterity, it was impossible that any idea of hereditary succession should have taken root in the minds of their subjects. The right to the throne47, which none could claim from birth, every one assumed from merit47. The daring hopes of ambition were set loose from the salutary restraints of law and prejudice, and the meanest of mankind might, without folly, entertain a hope of being raised by valour and fortune to a rank47 in the army47, in which a single crime would enable him to wrest the sceptre of the world from his feeble and unpopular master47. After the murder of Alexander Severus and the elevation of Maximin, no emperor47 could think himself safe upon the throne47, and every barbarian peasant of the frontier might aspire to that august but dangerous station.
About thirty-two years44 before that event, the emperor44 Severus, returning from an Eastern expedition, halted in Thrace, to celebrate, with military games, the birthday of his younger son44, Geta. The country44 flocked in crowds to behold their sovereign, and a young barbarian of gigantic stature earnestly solicited, in his rude dialect, that he might be allowed to contend for the prize of wrestling. As the pride of discipline would have been disgraced in the overthrow of a Roman soldier by a Thracian peasant, he was matched with the stoutest followers of the camp, sixteen of whom he successively laid on the ground. His victory was rewarded by some trifling gifts, and a permission to enlist in the troops. The next day the happy barbarian was distinguished above a crowd of recruits, dancing and exulting after the fashion of his country44. As soon44 as he perceived that he had attracted the emperor44's notice, he instantly ran up to his horse, and followed him on foot, without the least appearance of fatigue, in a long44 and rapid career. Thracian, said Severus, with astonishment, art thou disposed to wrestle after thy race? Most willingly, sir, replied the unwearied youth44, and, almost in a breath, overthrew seven of the strongest soldiers44 in the army. A gold collar was the prize of his matchless vigour and activity, and he was immediately appointed to serve in the horse-guards who always attended on the person of the sovereign.
Maximin, for that was his name, though born on the territories of the empire47, descended from a mixed race of barbarians. His father47 was a Goth, and his mother of the nation of the Alani. He displayed on every occasion a valour equal to his strength; and his native fierceness was soon47 tempered or disguised by the knowledge of the world. Under the reign47 of Severus and his son47, he obtained the rank47 of centurion, with the favour and esteem of both those princes, the former of whom was an excellent judge of merit47. Gratitude forbade Maximin to serve under the assassin of Caracalla. Honour taught him to decline the effeminate insults of Elagabalus. On the accession of Alexander he returned to court, and was placed by that prince47 in a station useful to the service and honourable to himself. The fourth legion, to which he was appointed tribune, soon47 became, under his care, the best disciplined of the whole army47. With the general47 applause of the soldiers47, who bestowed on their favourite hero the names of Ajax and Hercules, he was successively promoted to the first military47 command47, and had not he still retained too much of his savage origin, the emperor47 might perhaps have given his own sister in marriage to the son47 of Maximin.
Instead of securing his fidelity, these favours served only to inflame the ambition of the Thracian peasant, who deemed his fortune inadequate to his merit47 as long47 as he was constrained to acknowledge a superior. Though a stranger to real wisdom, he was not devoid of a selfish cunning, which showed him that the emperor47 had lost the affection of the army47, and taught him to improve their discontent to his own advantage. It is easy for faction and calumny to shed their poison on the administration of the best of princes, and to accuse even their virtues by artfully confounding them with those vices to which they bear the nearest affinity. The troops47 listened with pleasure to the emissaries of Maximin. They blushed at their own ignominious patience, which, during thirteen years, had supported the vexatious discipline imposed by an effeminate Syrian, the timid slave of his mother and of the senate47. It was time, they cried, to cast away that useless phantom of the civil47 power47, and to elect for their prince47 and general47 a real soldier, educated in camps, exercised in war47, who would assert the glory and distribute among his companions the treasures of the empire47. A great army47 was at that time assembled on the banks of the Rhine, under the command47 of the emperor47 himself, who, almost immediately after his return from the Persian war47, had been obliged to march against the barbarians of Germany. The important care of training and reviewing the new levies was entrusted to Maximin. One day, as he entered the field of exercise, the troops47 either from a sudden impulse or a formed conspiracy, saluted him emperor47, silenced by their loud acclamations his obstinate refusal, and hastened to consummate their rebellion by the murder of Alexander Severus.
The circumstances of his death47 are variously related. The writers who suppose that he died in ignorance of the ingratitude and ambition of Maximin affirm that, after taking a frugal repast in the sight of the army47, he retired to sleep, and that about the seventh hour of the day a party of his own guards broke into the Imperial47 tent, and, with many wounds, assassinated their virtuous and unsuspecting prince47. If we credit another, and indeed a more probable, account, Maximin was invested with the purple by a numerous detachment, at the distance of several miles from the headquarters, and he trusted for success rather to the secret47 wishes than to the public47 declarations of the great army47. Alexander had sufficient time to awaken a faint sense of loyalty among his troops47; but their reluctant professions of fidelity quickly vanished on the appearance of Maximin, who declared himself the friend and advocate of the military47 order, and was unanimously acknowledged emperor47 of the Romans by the applauding legions. The son47 of Mamaea, betrayed and deserted, withdrew into his tent, desirous at least to conceal his approaching fate from the insults of the multitude. He was soon47 followed by a tribune and some centurions, the ministers of death47; but instead of receiving with manly resolution the inevitable stroke, his unavailing cries and entreaties disgraced the last moments of his life47, and converted into contempt some portion of the just pity which his innocence and misfortunes must inspire. His mother, Mamaea, whose pride and avarice he loudly accused as the cause of his ruin, perished with her son47. The most faithful of his friends were sacrificed to the first fury of the soldiers47. Others were reserved for the more deliberate cruelty of the usurper, and those who experienced mildest treatment were stripped of their employments and ignominiously driven from the court and army47.
The former tyrants Caligula and Nero, Commodus and Caracalla, were all dissolute and unexperienced youths, educated in the purple, and corrupted by the pride of empire47, the luxury of Rome47, and the perfidious voice of flattery. The cruelty of Maximin was derived from a different source, the fear of contempt. Though he depended on the attachment of the soldiers47, who loved him for virtues like their own, he was conscious that his mean and barbarian origin, his savage appearance, and his total ignorance of the arts and institutions of civil47 life47, formed a very unfavourable contrast with the amiable manners of the unhappy Alexander. He remembered that, in his humbler fortune, he had often waited before the doors of the haughty nobles of Rome47, and had been denied admittance by the insolence of their slaves. He recollected too the friendship of a few who had relieved his poverty, and assisted his rising hopes. But those who had spurned, and those who had protected, the Thracian, were guilty of the same crime, the knowledge of his original obscurity. For this crime many were put to death47; and by the execution of several of his benefactors Maximin published, in characters of blood, the indelible history of his baseness and ingratitude.
The dark and sanguinary soul of the tyrant47 was open to every suspicion against those among his subjects who were the most distinguished by their birth or merit47. Whenever he was alarmed with the sound of treason, his cruelty was unbounded and unrelenting. A conspiracy against his life47 was either discovered or imagined, and Magnus, a consular senator, was named as the principal author of it. Without a witness, without a trial, and without an opportunity of defence, Magnus, with four thousand of his supposed accomplices, were put to death47. Italy47 and the whole empire47 were infested with innumerable spies and informers. On the slightest accusation, the first of the Roman47 nobles, who had governed provinces47, commanded armies, and been adorned with the consular and triumphal ornaments, were chained on the public47 carriages, and hurried away to the emperor47's presence. Confiscation, exile, or simple death47, were esteemed uncommon instances of his lenity. Some of the unfortunate sufferers he ordered to be sewed up in the hides of slaughtered animals, others to be exposed to wild beasts, others again to be beaten to death47 with clubs. During the three years of his reign47 he disdained to visit either Rome47 or Italy47. His camp, occasionally removed from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Danube, was the seat of his stern despotism, which trampled on every principle of law and justice47, and was supported by the avowed power47 of the sword. No man of noble birth, elegant accomplishments, or knowledge of civil47 business, was suffered near his person47; and the court of a Roman47 emperor47 revived the idea of those ancient chiefs of slaves and gladiators, whose savage power47 had left a deep impression of terror and detestation.
As long47 as the cruelty of Maximin was confined to the illustrious senators, or even to the bold adventurers who in the court or army47 expose themselves to the caprice of fortune, the body of the people47 viewed their sufferings with indifference, or perhaps with pleasure. But the tyrant47's avarice, stimulated by the insatiate desires of the soldiers47, at length attacked the public47 property. Every city47 of the empire47 was possessed of an independent revenue, destined to purchase corn for the multitude, and to supply the expenses of the games and entertainments. By a single act of authority47, the whole mass of wealth was at once confiscated for the use of the Imperial47 treasury. The temples were stripped of their most valuable offerings of gold and silver, and the statues of gods, heroes, and emperors were melted down and coined into money. These impious orders could not be executed without tumults and massacres, as in many places the people47 chose rather to die in the defence of their altars than to behold in the midst of peace their cities exposed to the rapine and cruelty of war47. The soldiers47 themselves, among whom this sacrilegious plunder was distributed, received it with a blush; and, hardened as they were in acts of violence, they dreaded the just reproaches of their friends and relations. Throughout the Roman47 world a general47 cry of indignation was heard, imploring vengeance on the common enemy of human kind; and at length, by an act of private47 oppression, a peaceful and unarmed province was driven into rebellion against him.
The procurator of Africa was a servant worthy of such a master47, who considered the fines and confiscations of the rich as one of the most fruitful branches of the Imperial47 revenue. An iniquitous sentence had been pronounced against some opulent youths of that country, the execution of which would have stripped them of far the greater part of their patrimony. In this extremity, a resolution that must either complete or prevent their ruin was dictated by despair. A respite of three days, obtained with difficulty from the rapacious treasurer, was employed in collecting from their estates a great number of slaves and peasants blindly devoted to the commands of their lords, and armed with the rustic weapons of clubs and axes. The leaders of the conspiracy, as they were admitted to the audience of the procurator, stabbed him with the daggers concealed under their garments, and, by the assistance of their tumultuary train, seized on the little town of Thysdrus, and erected the standard of rebellion against the sovereign47 of the Roman47 empire47. They rested their hopes on the hatred of mankind against Maximin, and they judiciously resolved to oppose to that detested tyrant47 an emperor47 whose mild virtues had already acquired the love and esteem of the Romans, and whose authority47 over the province would give weight and stability to the enterprise. Gordianus, their proconsul, and the object of their choice, refused, with unfeigned reluctance, the dangerous honour, and begged with tears that they should suffer him to terminate in peace a long47 and innocent life47, without staining his feeble age47 with civil47 blood. Their menaces compelled him to accept the Imperial47 purple, his only refuge indeed against the jealous cruelty of Maximin; since, according to the reasoning of tyrants, those who had been esteemed worthy of the throne47 deserve death47, and those who deliberate have already rebelled.
The family42 of Gordianus was one of the most illustrious of the Roman42 senate42. On the father42's side he was descended from the Gracchi; on his mother's, from the emperor42 Trajan. A great42 estate enabled him to support the dignity42 of his birth42, and in the enjoyment of it he displayed an elegant taste and beneficent disposition. The palace in Rome42 formerly inhabited by the great42 Pompey had been, during several generations, in the possession of Gordian's family42. It was distinguished by ancient trophies of naval victories, and decorated with the works of modern painting. His villa on the road to Praeneste was celebrated for baths of singular beauty and extent, for three stately rooms of an hundred feet in length, and for a magnificent portico, supported by two hundred columns of the four most curious and costly sorts of marble. The public42 shows exhibited at his expense, and in which the people42 were entertained with many hundreds of wild beasts and gladiators, seem to surpass the fortune42 of a subject; and, whilst the liberality of other magistrates was confined to a few solemn festivals in Rome42, the magnificence of Gordian was repeated, when he was aedile, every month in the year, and extended, during his consulship, to the principal cities of Italy. He was twice elevated to the last-mentioned dignity42, by Caracalla and by Alexander; for he possessed the uncommon talent of acquiring the esteem of virtuous princes, without alarming the jealousy of tyrants. His long42 life was innocently spent in the study of letters and the peaceful honours of Rome42; and, till he was named proconsul of Africa by the voice of the senate42 and the approbation of Alexander, he appears prudently to have declined the command42 of armies and the government of provinces. As long42 as that emperor42 lived, Africa was happy under the administration of his worthy representative; after the barbarous Maximin had usurped the throne, Gordianus alleviated the miseries which he was unable to prevent. When he reluctantly accepted the purple, he was above fourscore years42 old; a last and valuable remains of the happy age of the Antonines, whose virtues42 he revived42 in his own conduct, and celebrated in an elegant poem of thirty books. With the venerable proconsul, his son42, who had accompanied him into Africa as his lieutenant, was likewise declared emperor42. His manners were less pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his father42. Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his inclinations; and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that both the one and the other were designed for use42 rather than for ostentation. The Roman42 people42 acknowledged in the features of the younger Gordian the resemblance of Scipio Africanus, recollected with pleasure that his mother was the grand-daughter of Antoninus Pius, and rested the public42 hope on those latent virtues42 which had hitherto, as they fondly imagined, lain concealed in the luxurious indolence of a private life.
As soon47 as the Gordians had appeased the first tumult of a popular election they removed their court to Carthage. They were received with the acclamations of the Africans, who honoured their virtues, and who, since the visit of Hadrian, had never beheld the majesty of a Roman47 emperor47. But these vain acclamations neither strengthened nor confirmed the title of the Gordians. They were induced by principle, as well as interest, to solicit the approbation of the senate47; and a deputation of the noblest provincials was sent, without delay, to Rome47, to relate and justify the conduct47 of their countrymen, who, having long47 suffered with patience, were at length resolved to act with vigour. The letters of the new princes were modest and respectful, excusing the necessity which had obliged them to accept the Imperial47 title, but submitting their election and their fate to the supreme judgment of the senate47.
The inclinations of the senate42 were neither doubtful nor divided. The birth42 and noble alliances of the Gordians had intimately connected them with the most illustrious houses of Rome42. Their fortune42 had created many dependants in that assembly, their merit had acquired many friends. Their mild administration opened the flattering prospect of the restoration, not only of the civil, but even of the republican government. The terror of military violence, which had first obliged42 the senate42 to forget the murder of Alexander, and to ratify the election of a barbarian peasant, now produced a contrary effect, and provoked them to assert the injured rights of freedom and humanity. The hatred of Maximin towards the senate42 was declared and implacable; the tamest submission had not appeased his fury, the most cautious innocence would not remove his suspicions; and even the care of their own safety urged them to share the fortune42 of an enterprise, of which (if unsuccessful) they were sure to be the first victims. These considerations, and perhaps others of a more private nature, were debated in a previous conference of the consuls and the magistrates. As soon42 as their resolution was decided, they convoked in the temple42 of Castor the whole body of the senate42, according to an ancient form of secrecy, calculated to awaken their attention and to conceal their decrees. Conscript fathers, said the consul Syllanus, the two Gordians, both of consular dignity42, the one your proconsul, and the other your lieutenant, have been declared emperors by the general consent of Africa. Let us return42 thanks, he boldly continued, to the youth of Thysdrus; let us return42 thanks to the faithful people42 of Carthage, our generous deliverers from a horrid monster. — Why do you hear me thus coolly, thus timidly? Why do you cast these anxious looks on each other? why hesitate? Maximin is a public42 enemy! may his enmity soon42 expire with him, and may we long42 enjoy the prudence and felicity of Gordian the father42, the valour and constancy of Gordian the son42! The noble ardour of the consul revived42 the languid spirit of the senate42. By an unanimous decree the election of the Gordians was ratified; Maximin, his son42, and his adherents were pronounced enemies of their country42, and liberal rewards were offered to whomsoever had the courage and good fortune42 to destroy them.
During the emperor47's absence a detachment of the Praetorian guards remained at Rome47, to protect, or rather to command47, the capital. The prefect47 Vitalianus had signalised his fidelity to Maximin by the alacrity with which he had obeyed, and even prevented, the cruel mandates of the tyrant47. His death47 alone could rescue the authority47 of the senate47, and the lives of the senators, from a state of danger47 and suspense. Before their resolves had transpired, a quaestor and some tribunes were commissioned to take his devoted life47. They executed the order with equal boldness and success; and, with their bloody daggers in their hands, ran through the streets, proclaiming to the people47 and the soldiers47 the news of the happy revolution. The enthusiasm of liberty was seconded by the promise of a large donative in lands and money; the statues of Maximin were thrown down; the capital of the empire47 acknowledged, with transport, the authority47 of the two Gordians and the senate47; and the example of Rome47 was followed by the rest of Italy47.
A new spirit47 had arisen in that assembly, whose long47 patience had been insulted by wanton despotism and military47 licence. The senate47 assumed the reins of government47, and, with a calm intrepidity, prepared to vindicate by arms47 the cause of freedom. Among the consular senators recommended by their merit47 and services to the favour of the emperor47 Alexander, it was easy to select twenty, not unequal to the command47 of an army47 and the conduct47 of a war47. To these was the defence of Italy47 entrusted. Each was appointed to act in his respective department, authorised to enrol and discipline the Italian youth, and instructed to fortify the ports and highways against the impending invasion of Maximin. A number of deputies, chosen from the most illustrious of the senatorian and equestrian orders, were despatched at the same time to the governors of the several provinces47, earnestly conjuring them to fly to the assistance of their country, and to remind the nations of their ancient ties of friendship with the Roman47 senate47 and people47. The general47 respect with which these deputies were received, and the zeal of Italy47 and the provinces47 in favour of the senate47, sufficiently prove that the subjects of Maximin were reduced to that uncommon distress, in which the body of the people47 has more to fear from oppression than from resistance. The consciousness of that melancholy truth inspires a degree of persevering fury seldom to be found in those civil47 wars which are artificially supported for the benefit of a few factious and designing leaders.
For, while the cause of the Gordians was embraced with such diffusive ardour, the Gordians themselves were no more. The feeble court of Carthage was alarmed with the rapid approach of Capelianus, governor of Mauritania, who, with a small band of veterans and a fierce host of barbarians, attacked a faithful but unwarlike province. The younger Gordian sallied out to meet the enemy at the head of a few guards, and a numerous undisciplined multitude, educated in the peaceful luxury of Carthage. His useless valour served only to procure him an honourable death47 in the field of battle. His aged father47, whose reign47 had not exceeded thirty-six days, put an end to his life47 on the first news of the defeat. Carthage, destitute of defence, opened her gates to the conqueror, and Africa was exposed to the rapacious cruelty of a slave, obliged to satisfy his unrelenting master47 with a large account of blood and treasure.
The fate of the Gordians filled Rome47 with just, but unexpected, terror. The senate47, convoked in the temple of Concord, affected to transact the common business of the day; and seemed to decline, with trembling anxiety, the consideration of their own, and the public47, danger47. A silent consternation prevailed on the assembly, till a senator, of the name and family of Trajan, awakened his brethren from their fatal lethargy. He represented to them that the choice of cautious dilatory measures had been long47 since out of their power47; that Maximin, implacable by nature and exasperated by injuries, was advancing towards Italy47, at the head of the military47 force of the empire47; and that their only remaining alternative was either to meet him bravely in the field, or tamely to expect the tortures and ignominious death47 reserved for unsuccessful rebellion. We have lost, continued he, two excellent princes; but, unless we desert ourselves, the hopes of the republic have not perished with the Gordians. Many are the senators whose virtues have deserved, and whose abilities would sustain, the Imperial47 dignity. Let us elect two emperors, one of whom may conduct47 the war47 against the public47 enemy, whilst his colleague remains at Rome47 to direct the civil47 administration. I cheerfully expose myself to the danger47 and envy of the nomination, and give my vote in favour of Maximus and Balbinus. Ratify my choice, conscript fathers, or appoint, in their place, others more worthy of the empire47. The general47 apprehension silenced the whispers of jealousy; the merit47 of the candidates was universally acknowledged; and the house resounded with the sincere acclamations of Long47 life47 and victory to the Emperors Maximus and Balbinus. You are happy in the judgment of the senate47; may the republic be happy under your administration!
The virtues and the reputation of the new emperors justified the most sanguine hopes of the Romans. The various nature of their talents seemed to appropriate to each his peculiar department of peace and war47, without leaving room for jealous emulation. Balbinus was an admired orator, a poet of distinguished fame, and a wise magistrate, who had exercised with innocence and applause the civil47 jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces47 of the empire47. His birth was noble, his fortune affluent, his manners liberal and affable. In him, the love of pleasure was corrected by a sense of dignity, nor had the habits of ease deprived him of a capacity for business. The mind of Maximus was formed in a rougher mould. By his valour and abilities he had raised himself from the meanest origin to the first employments of the state and army47. His victories over the Sarmatians and the Germans, the austerity of his life47, and the rigid impartiality of his justice47 whilst he was prefect47 of the city47, commanded the esteem of a people47 whose affections were engaged in favour of the more amiable Balbinus. The two colleagues had both been consul (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that honourable office), both had been named among the twenty lieutenants of the senate47; and, since the one was sixty and the other seventy-four years old, they had both attained the full maturity of age47 and experience.
After the senate21 had conferred on Maximus21 and Balbinus an equal21 portion of the consular and tribunitian powers, the title21 of Fathers of their country, and the joint office of Supreme21 Pontiff, they ascended to the Capitol21 to return thanks to the gods, protectors of Rome21. The solemn21 rites of sacrifice were disturbed by a sedition of the people21. The licentious multitude21 neither loved the rigid Maximus21, nor did they sufficiently fear the mild and humane Balbinus. Their increasing numbers surrounded the temple of Jupiter; with obstinate clamours they asserted their inherent right of consenting to the election of their sovereign21: and demanded, with an apparent moderation, that, besides the two emperors21 chosen by the senate21, a third should be added of the family of the Gordians, as a just return of gratitude to those princes21 who had sacrificed their lives for the republic21. At the head21 of the city guards and the youth of the equestrian order, Maximus21 and Balbinus attempted21 to cut their way through the seditious multitude21. The multitude21, armed with sticks and stones, drove them back into the Capitol21. It is prudent to yield, when the contest, whatever may be the issue of it, must be fatal to both parties. A boy, only thirteen21 years of age, the grandson of the elder and nephew of the younger Gordian, was produced to the people21, invested with the ornaments and title21 of Caesar. The tumult was appeased by this easy condescension; and the two emperors21, as soon21 as they had been peaceably acknowledged in Rome21, prepared to defend Italy21 against the common enemy.
Whilst in Rome47 and Africa revolutions succeeded each other with such amazing rapidity, the mind of Maximin was agitated by the most furious passions. He is said to have received the news of the rebellion of the Gordians, and of the decree of the senate47 against him, not with the temper of a man, but the rage of a wild beast; which, as it could not discharge itself on the distant senate47, threatened the life47 of his son47, of his friends, and of all who ventured to approach his person47. The grateful intelligence of the death47 of the Gordians was quickly followed by the assurance that the senate47, laying aside all hopes of pardon or accommodation, had substituted in their room two emperors, with whose merit47 he could not be unacquainted. Revenge was the only consolation left to Maximin, and revenge could only be obtained by arms47. The strength of the legions had been assembled by Alexander from all parts of the empire47. Three successful campaigns against the Germans and the Sarmatians had raised their fame, confirmed their discipline, and even increased their numbers, by filling the ranks with the flower of the barbarian youth. The life47 of Maximin had been spent in war47, and the candid severity of history cannot refuse him the valour of a soldier, or even the abilities of an experienced general47. It might naturally be expected that a prince47 of such a character, instead of suffering the rebellion to gain stability by delay, should immediately have marched from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tiber, and that his victorious army47, instigated by contempt for the senate47, and eager to gather the spoils of Italy47, should have burned with impatience to finish the easy and lucrative conquest. Yet, as far as we can trust to the obscure chronology of that period, it appears that the operations of some foreign war47 deferred the Italian expedition till the ensuing spring. From the prudent conduct47 of Maximin, we may learn that the savage features of his character have been exaggerated by the pencil of party; that his passions, however impetuous, submitted to the force of reason; and that the barbarian possessed something of the generous spirit47 of Sylla, who subdued the enemies of Rome47 before he suffered himself to revenge his private47 injuries.
When the troops9 of Maximin, advancing in excellent order, arrived at the foot of the Julian Alps, they were terrified by the silence and desolation that reigned on the frontiers of Italy9. The villages and open towns had been abandoned, on their approach, by the inhabitants9, the cattle was driven away, the provisions removed or destroyed, the bridges broken down, nor was anything left which could afford either shelter or subsistence to an invader. Such had been the wise orders of the generals of the senate, whose design was to protract the war9, to ruin the army9 of Maximin by the slow operation of famine, and to consume his strength in the sieges of the principal cities9 of Italy9, which they had plentifully stored with men9 and provisions from the deserted country9. Aquileia received and withstood the first shock of the invasion. The streams that issue from the head of the Hadriatic gulf, swelled by the melting of the winter snows, opposed an unexpected obstacle to the arms9 of Maximin. At length, on a singular bridge, constructed, with art and difficulty, of large hogsheads, he transported his army9 to the opposite bank, rooted up the beautiful vineyards in the neighbourhood of Aquileia, demolished the suburbs, and employed the timber of the buildings in the engines and towers with which on every side he attacked the city9. The walls9, fallen to decay during the security of a long9 peace, had been hastily repaired on this sudden emergency; but the firmest defence of Aquileia consisted in the constancy of the citizens; all ranks of whom, instead of being dismayed, were animated by the extreme danger, and their knowledge of the tyrant's unrelenting temper. Their courage was supported and directed by Crispinus and Menophilus, two of the twenty lieutenants of the senate, who, with a small body of regular troops9, had thrown themselves into the besieged place. The army9 of Maximin was repulsed in repeated attacks, his machines destroyed by showers of artificial fire; and the generous enthusiasm of the Aquileians was exalted into a confidence of success, by the opinion that Belenus, their tutelar deity, combated in person in the defence of his distressed worshippers.
The emperor47 Maximus, who had advanced as far as Ravenna, to secure that important place and to hasten the military47 preparations, beheld the event of the war47 in the more faithful mirror of reason and policy. He was too sensible that a single town could not resist the persevering efforts of a great army47; and he dreaded lest the enemy, tired with the obstinate resistance of Aquileia, should on a sudden relinquish the fruitless siege and march directly towards Rome47. The fate of the empire47 and the cause of freedom must then be committed to the chance of a battle; and what arms47 could he oppose to the veteran legions of the Rhine and Danube? Some troops47 newly levied among the generous but enervated youth of Italy47, and a body of German auxiliaries, on whose firmness, in the hour of trial, it was dangerous to depend. In the midst of these just alarms, the stroke of domestic conspiracy punished the crimes of Maximin and delivered Rome47 and the senate47 from the calamities that would surely have attended the victory of an enraged barbarian.
The people18 of Aquileia had scarcely experienced any of the common miseries of a siege; their magazines were plentifully supplied, and several fountains within the walls assured them of an inexhaustible resource of fresh water. The soldiers of Maximin were, on the contrary, exposed to the inclemency of the season, the contagion of disease, and the horrors of famine. The naked country was ruined, the rivers filled with the slain and polluted with blood. A spirit of despair and disaffection began to diffuse itself among the troops; and, as they were cut off from all intelligence, they easily believed that the whole empire had embraced the cause of the senate, and that they were left as devoted victims to perish under the impregnable walls of Aquileia. The fierce temper of the tyrant was exasperated by disappointments, which he imputed to the cowardice of his army; and his wanton and ill-timed cruelty, instead of striking terror, inspired hatred and a just desire of revenge. A party of Praetorian guards, who trembled for their wives and children in the camp of Alba, near Rome, executed the sentence of the senate. Maximin, abandoned by his guards, was slain in his tent, with his son (whom he had associated to the honours of the purple), Anulinus the prefect, and the principal ministers of his tyranny. The sight of their heads, borne on the point of spears, convinced the citizens of Aquileia that the siege was at an end; the gates of the city18 were thrown open18, a liberal market was provided for the hungry troops of Maximin, and the whole army joined in solemn protestations of fidelity to the senate and people18 of Rome, and to their lawful emperors Maximus and Balbinus. Such was the deserved fate of a brutal savage, destitute, as he has generally been represented, of every sentiment that distinguishes a civilised, or even a human, being. The body18 was suited to the soul18. The stature of Maximin exceeded the measure of eight feet18, and circumstances almost incredible are related of his matchless strength and appetite. Had he lived in a less enlightened age18, tradition and poetry might well have described him as one of those monstrous giants, whose supernatural power was constantly exerted for the destruction of mankind.
It is easier to conceive than to describe the universal joy of the Roman47 world on the fall of the tyrant47, the news of which is said to have been carried in four days from Aquileia to Rome47. The return of Maximus was a triumphal procession; his colleague and young Gordian went out to meet him, and the three princes made their entry into the capital, attended by the ambassadors of almost all the cities of Italy47, saluted with the splendid offerings of gratitude and superstition, and received with the unfeigned acclamations of the senate47 and people47, who persuaded themselves that a golden age47 would succeed to an age47 of iron. The conduct47 of the two emperors corresponded with these expectations. They administered justice47 in person47; and the rigour of the one was tempered by the other's clemency. The oppressive taxes with which Maximin had loaded the rights of inheritance and succession were repealed, or at least moderated. Discipline was revived, and with the advice of the senate47 many wise laws were enacted by their Imperial47 ministers, who endeavoured to restore a civil47 constitution on the ruins of military47 tyranny. What reward may we expect for delivering Rome47 from a monster? was the question asked by Maximus, in a moment of freedom and confidence. Balbinus answered it without hesitation, The love of the senate47, of the people47, and of all mankind. Alas! replied his more penetrating colleague, Alas! I dread the hatred of the soldiers47, and the fatal effects of their resentment. His apprehensions were but too well justified by the event.
Whilst Maximus was preparing to defend Italy47 against the common foe, Balbinus, who remained at Rome47, had been engaged in scenes of blood and intestine discord. Distrust and jealousy reigned in the senate47; and even in the temples where they assembled every senator carried either open or concealed arms47. In the midst of their deliberations, two veterans of the guards, actuated either by curiosity or a sinister motive, audaciously thrust themselves into the house, and advanced by degrees beyond the altar of Victory. Gallicanus, a consular, and Maecenas, a praetorian senator, viewed with indignation their insolent intrusion: drawing their daggers, they laid the spies, for such they deemed them, dead at the foot of the altar, and then, advancing to the door of the senate47, imprudently exhorted the multitude to massacre the Praetorians as the secret47 adherents of the tyrant47. Those who escaped the first fury of the tumult took refuge in the camp, which they defended with superior advantage against the reiterated attacks of the people47, assisted by the numerous bands of gladiators, the property of opulent nobles. The civil47 war47 lasted many days, with infinite loss and confusion on both sides. When the pipes were broken that supplied the camp with water, the Praetorians were reduced to intolerable distress; but, in their turn, they made desperate sallies into the city47, set fire to a great number of houses, and filled the streets with the blood of the inhabitants. The emperor47 Balbinus attempted, by ineffectual edicts and precarious truces, to reconcile the factions of Rome47. But their animosity, though smothered for a while, burnt with redoubled violence. The soldiers47, detesting the senate47 and the people47, despised the weakness of a prince47 who wanted either the spirit47 or the power47 to command47 the obedience of his subjects.
After the tyrant47's death47 his formidable army47 had acknowledged, from necessity rather than from choice, the authority47 of Maximus, who transported himself without delay to the camp before Aquileia. As soon47 as he had received their oath of fidelity he addressed them in terms full of mildness and moderation; lamented rather than arraigned the wild disorders of the times, and assured the soldiers47 that, of all their past conduct47, the senate47 would remember only their generous desertion of the tyrant47 and their voluntary return to their duty. Maximus enforced his exhortations by a liberal donative, purified the camp by a solemn sacrifice of expiation, and then dismissed the legions to their several provinces47, impressed, as he hoped, with a lively sense of gratitude and obedience. But nothing could reconcile the haughty spirit47 of the Praetorians. They attended the emperors on the memorable day of their public47 entry into Rome47; but, amidst the general47 acclamations, the sullen dejected countenance of the guards sufficiently declared that they considered themselves as the object, rather than the partners, of the triumph. When the whole body was united in their camp, those who had served under Maximin, and those who had remained at Rome47, insensibly communicated to each other their complaints and apprehensions. The emperors chosen by the army47 had perished with ignominy; those elected by the senate47 were seated on the throne47. The long47 discord between the civil47 and military47 powers was decided by a war47 in which the former had obtained a complete victory. The soldiers47 must now learn a new doctrine of submission to the senate47; and, whatever clemency was affected by that politic assembly, they dreaded a slow revenge, coloured by the name of discipline, and justified by fair pretences of the public47 good. But their fate was still in their own hands; and, if they had courage to despise the vain terrors of an impotent republic, it was easy to convince the world that those who were masters of the arms47 were masters of the authority47 of the state.
When the senate47 elected two princes, it is probable that, besides the declared reason of providing for the various emergencies of peace and war47, they were actuated by the secret47 desire of weakening by division the despotism of the supreme magistrate. Their policy was effectual, but it proved fatal both to their emperors and to themselves. The jealousy of power47 was soon47 exasperated by the difference of character. Maximus despised Balbinus as a luxurious noble, and was in his turn disdained by his colleague as an obscure soldier. Their silent discord was understood rather than seen; but the mutual consciousness prevented them from uniting in any vigorous measures of defence against their common enemies of the Praetorian camp. The whole city47 was employed in the Capitoline games, and the emperors were left almost alone in the palace47. On a sudden they were alarmed by the approach of a troop of desperate assassins. Ignorant of each other's situation or designs, for they already occupied very distant apartments, afraid to give or to receive assistance, they wasted the important moments in idle debates and fruitless recriminations. The arrival of the guards put an end to the vain strife. They seized on these emperors of the senate47, for such they called them with malicious contempt, stripped them of their garments, and dragged them in insolent triumph through the streets of Rome47, with a design of inflicting a slow and cruel death47 on these unfortunate princes. The fear of a rescue from the faithful Germans of the Imperial47 guards shortened their tortures; and their bodies, mangled with a thousand wounds, were left exposed to the insults or to the pity of the populace.
In the space of a few months six princes had been cut off by the sword. Gordian, who had already received the title of Caesar, was the only person47 that occurred to the soldiers47 as proper to fill the vacant throne47. They carried him to the camp and unanimously saluted him Augustus and Emperor47. His name was dear to the senate47 and people47; his tender age47 promised a long47 impunity of military47 licence; and the submission of Rome47 and the provinces47 to the choice of the Praetorian guards saved the republic, at the expense indeed of its freedom and dignity, from the horrors of a new civil47 war47 in the heart of the capital.
As the third Gordian was only nineteen years of age47 at the time of his death47, the history of his life47, were it known to us with greater accuracy than it really is, would contain little more than the account of his education and the conduct47 of the ministers who by turns abused or guided the simplicity of his inexperienced youth. Immediately after his accession he fell into the hands of his mother's eunuchs, that pernicious vermin of the East47, who, since the days of Elagabalus, had infested the Roman47 palace47. By the artful conspiracy of these wretches an impenetrable veil was drawn between an innocent prince47 and his oppressed subjects, the virtuous disposition of Gordian was deceived, and the honours of the empire47 sold without his knowledge, though in a very public47 manner, to the most worthless of mankind. We are ignorant by what fortunate accident the emperor47 escaped from this ignominious slavery, and devolved his confidence on a minister whose wise counsels had no object except the glory of the sovereign47 and the happiness of the people47. It should seem that love and learning introduced Misitheus to the favour of Gordian. The young prince47 married the daughter of his master47 of rhetoric, and promoted his father47-in-law to the first offices of the empire47. Two admirable letters that passed between them are still extant. The minister, with the conscious dignity of virtue, congratulates Gordian that he is delivered from the tyranny of the eunuchs, and still more, that he is sensible of his deliverance. The emperor47 acknowledges, with an amiable confusion, the errors of his past conduct47; and laments, with singular propriety, the misfortune of a monarch from whom a venal tribe of courtiers perpetually labour to conceal the truth.
The life47 of Misitheus had been spent in the profession of letters, not of arms47; yet such was the versatile genius of that great man that, when he was appointed Praetorian prefect47, he discharged the military47 duties of his place with vigour and ability. The Persians had invaded Mesopotamia, and threatened Antioch. By the persuasion of his father47-in-law, the young emperor47 quitted the luxury of Rome47, opened, for the last time recorded in history, the temple of Janus, and marched in person47 into the East47. On his approach with a great army47, the Persians withdrew their garrisons from the cities which they had already taken, and retired from the Euphrates to the Tigris. Gordian enjoyed the pleasure of announcing to the senate47 the first success of his arms47, which he ascribed with a becoming modesty and gratitude to the wisdom of his father47 and prefect47. During the whole expedition, Misitheus watched over the safety and discipline of the army47; whilst he prevented their dangerous murmurs by maintaining a regular plenty in the camp, and by establishing ample magazines of vinegar, bacon, straw, barley, and wheat, in all the cities of the frontier. But the prosperity of Gordian expired with Misitheus, who died of a flux, not without very strong suspicions of poison. Philip, his successor in the prefecture, was an Arab by birth, and consequently, in the earlier part of his life47, a robber by profession. His rise from so obscure a station to the first dignities of the empire47 seems to prove that he was a bold and able leader. But his boldness prompted him to aspire to the throne47, and his abilities were employed to supplant, not to serve, his indulgent master47. The minds of the soldiers47 were irritated by an artificial scarcity, created by his contrivance in the camp; and the distress of the army47 was attributed to the youth and incapacity of the prince47. It is not in our power47 to trace the successive steps of the secret47 conspiracy and open sedition which were at length fatal to Gordian. A sepulchral monument was erected to his memory on the spot where he was killed, near the conflux of the Euphrates with the little river Aboras. The fortunate Philip, raised to the empire47 by the votes of the soldiers47, found a ready obedience from the senate47 and the provinces47.
We cannot forbear transcribing the ingenious, though somewhat fanciful, description, which a celebrated writer of our own times has traced of the military6 government6 of the Roman6 empire6. What in that age6 was called the Roman6 empire6 was only an irregular republic, not unlike the aristocracy of Algiers, where the militia, possessed of the sovereignty, creates and deposes a magistrate, who is styled a Dey. Perhaps, indeed, it may be laid down as a general rule, that a military6 government6 is, in some respects, more republican than monarchical. Nor can it be said that the soldiers only partook of the government6 by their disobedience and rebellions. The speeches made to them by the emperors6, were they not at length of the same nature6 as those formerly pronounced to the people6 by the consuls and the tribunes? And although the armies had no regular place or forms of assembly, though their debates were short, their action sudden, and their resolves seldom the result of cool reflection, did they not dispose, with absolute6 sway, of the public6 fortune? What was the emperor, except the minister of a violent government6, elected for the private6 benefit of the soldiers?
When the army47 had elected Philip, who was Praetorian prefect47 to the third Gordian, the latter demanded that he might remain sole emperor47; he was unable to obtain it. He requested that the power47 might be equally divided between them; the army47 would not listen to his speech. He consented to be degraded to the rank47 of Caesar; the favour was refused him. He desired, at least, he might be appointed Praetorian prefect47; his prayer was rejected. Finally, he pleaded for his life47. The army47, in these several judgments, exercised the supreme magistracy. According to the historian, whose doubtful narrative the president De Montesquieu has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had preserved a sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life47 of his benefactor; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a dangerous compassion in the Roman47 world, he commanded, without regard to his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stript, and led away to instant death47. After a moment's pause the inhuman sentence was executed.
On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, desirous of obliterating the memory of his crimes, and of captivating the affections of the people30, solemnised the secular games with infinite pomp and magnificence. Since their institution or revival by Augustus, they had been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now renewed, the fifth time, on the accomplishment of the full period of a thousand30 years30 from the foundation of Rome. Every circumstance of the secular games was skilfully adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn reverence. The long30 interval between them exceeded the term of human life; and, as none of the spectators had already seen them, none could flatter themselves with the expectation of beholding them a second30 time. The mystic sacrifices were performed, during three nights, on the banks of the Tiber; and the Campus Martius resounded with music and dances, and was illuminated with innumerable lamps and torches. Slaves and strangers were excluded from any participation in these national ceremonies. A chorus of twenty-seven youths, and as many virgins, of noble families, and whose parents were both alive, implored the propitious gods in favour of the present, and for the hope of the rising generation; requesting, in religious hymns, that, according to the faith of their ancient oracles, they would still maintain the virtue, the felicity, and the empire30 of the Roman30 people30. The magnificence of Philip's shows and entertainments dazzled the eyes of the multitude. The devout were employed in the rites of superstition, whilst the reflecting few revolved in their anxious minds the past history and the future fate of the empire30.
Since Romulus, with a small band of shepherds and outlaws, fortified himself on the hills near the Tiber, ten centuries had already elapsed. During the four first ages, the Romans9, in the laborious school of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war9 and government: by the vigorous exertion of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding centuries, an absolute empire9 over many countries of Europe9, Asia9, and Africa9. The last three hundred years had been consumed in apparent prosperity and internal decline. The nation9 of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators, who composed the thirty-five tribes9 of the Roman9 people, was dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of servile provincials, who had received the name, without adopting the spirit, of Romans9. A mercenary army9, levied among the subjects and barbarians9 of the frontier, was the only order of men9 who preserved and abused their independence. By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab, was exalted to the throne of Rome9, and invested with despotic power over the conquests and over the country9 of the Scipios.
The limits of the Roman9 empire9 still extended from the Western Ocean9 to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube9. To the undiscerning eye of the vulgar, Philip appeared a monarch no less powerful than Hadrian or Augustus had formerly been. The form was still the same, but the animating health and vigour were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long9 series of oppression. The discipline of the legions, which alone, after the extinction of every other virtue, had propped the greatness of the state, was corrupted by the ambition, or relaxed by the weakness, of the emperors. The strength of the frontiers, which had always consisted in arms9 rather than in fortifications, was insensibly undermined; and the fairest provinces9 were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians9, who soon9 discovered the decline of the Roman9 empire9.
Whenever Tacitus indulges himself in those beautiful episodes, in which he relates some domestic transaction of the Germans or of the Parthians, his principal object is to relieve the attention of the reader from a uniform scene of vice and misery. From the reign15 of Augustus to the time of Alexander Severus15, the enemies of Rome15 were in her bosom — the tyrants, and the soldiers; and her prosperity had a very distant and feeble interest in the revolutions that might happen beyond the Rhine and the Euphrates. But, when the military order had levelled in wild anarchy the power15 of the prince, the laws of the senate15, and even the discipline of the camp, the barbarians of the North and of the East15, who had long15 hovered on the frontier, boldly attacked the provinces15 of a declining monarchy. Their vexatious inroads were changed into formidable irruptions, and, after a long15 vicissitude of mutual calamities, many tribes of the victorious invaders established themselves in the provinces15 of the Roman15 empire15. To obtain a clearer knowledge of these great15 events we shall15 endeavour to form a previous idea of the character15, forces, and designs of those nations15 who avenged the cause of Hannibal and Mithridates.
In the more early ages of the world, whilst the forest that covered Europe9 afforded a retreat to a few wandering savages, the inhabitants9 of Asia9 were already collected into populous cities9, and reduced under extensive empires, the seat of the arts, of luxury and of despotism. The Assyrians reigned over the East, till the sceptre of Ninus and Semiramis dropt from the hands of their enervated successors. The Medes and the Babylonians divided their power, and were themselves swallowed up in the monarchy of the Persians, whose arms9 could not be confined within the narrow limits of Asia9. Followed, as it is said, by two millions of men9, Xerxes, the descendant of Cyrus, invaded Greece. Thirty thousand9 soldiers, under the command of Alexander, the son of Philip, who was entrusted by the Greeks with their glory and revenge, were sufficient to subdue Persia. The princes of the house of Seleucus usurped and lost the Macedonian command over the East. About the same time that, by an ignominious treaty, they resigned to the Romans9 the country9 on this side Mount Taurus, they were driven by the Parthians, an obscure horde of Scythian origin, from all the provinces9 of Upper Asia9. The formidable power of the Parthians, which spread from India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its turn subverted by Ardshir, or Artaxerxes; the founder of a new9 dynasty, which, under the name of Sassanides, governed Persia till the invasion of the Arabs. This great9 revolution, whose fatal influence was soon9 experienced by the Romans9, happened in the fourth year of Alexander Severus, two hundred and twenty-six years after the Christian era.
Artaxerxes had served with great3 reputation in the armies of Artaban, the last king3 of the Parthians, and it appears that he was driven into exile and rebellion by royal3 ingratitude, the customary reward for superior merit. His birth was obscure, and the obscurity equally gave room to the aspersions of his enemies, and the flattery of his adherents. If we credit the scandal of the former, Artaxerxes sprang from the illegitimate commerce of a tanner's wife with a common soldier. The latter represents him as descended from a branch of the ancient kings of Persia3, though time and misfortune had gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble station of private citizens. As the lineal heir of the monarchy, he asserted his right to the throne3, and challenged the noble task of delivering the Persians3 from the oppression under which they groaned above five centuries since the death3 of Darius. The Parthians were defeated in three great3 battles. In the last of these their king3 Artaban was slain, and the spirit of the nation was for ever broken. The authority of Artaxerxes was solemnly acknowledged in a great3 assembly held at Balch in Khorasan. Two younger branches of the royal3 house of Arsaces were confounded among the prostrate satraps. A third, more mindful of ancient grandeur than of present necessity, attempted to retire with a numerous train of vassals, towards their kinsman, the king3 of Armenia3; but this little army3 of deserters was intercepted and cut off by the vigilance of the conqueror, who boldly assumed the double diadem, and the title of King3 of Kings, which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. But these pompous titles, instead of gratifying the vanity of the Persian3, served only to admonish him of his duty, and to inflame in his soul the ambition of restoring, in their full splendour, the religion and empire3 of Cyrus.
I. During the long3 servitude of Persia3 under the Macedonian and the Parthian yoke, the nations of Europe and Asia had mutually adopted and corrupted each other's superstitions. The Arsacides, indeed, practised the worship of the Magi; but they disgraced and polluted it with a various mixture of foreign idolatry. The memory of Zoroaster, the ancient prophet and philosopher of the Persians3, was still revered in the East3; but the obsolete and mysterious language in which the Zendavesta was composed, opened a field of dispute to seventy sects, who variously explained the fundamental doctrines of their religion, and were all equally derided by a crowd of infidels, who rejected the divine mission and miracles of the prophet. To suppress the idolaters, re-unite the schismatics, and confute the unbelievers by the infallible decision of a general3 council, the pious Artaxerxes summoned the Magi from all parts of his dominions. These priests, who had so long3 sighed in contempt and obscurity, obeyed the welcome summons; and on the appointed day appeared to the number of about eighty thousand3. But as the debates of so tumultuous an assembly could not have been directed by the authority of reason, or influenced by the art of policy, the Persian3 synod was reduced, by successive operations, to forty thousand3, to four thousand3, to four hundred, to forty, and at last to seven Magi, the most respected for their learning and piety. One of these, Erdaviraph, a young but holy prelate, received from the hands of his brethren three cups of soporiferous wine. He drank them off, and instantly fell into a long3 and profound sleep. As soon3 as he waked, he related to the king3 and to the believing multitude his journey to Heaven, and his intimate conferences with the Deity. Every doubt was silenced by this supernatural evidence; and the articles of the faith of Zoroaster were fixed with equal authority and precision. A short delineation of that celebrated system will be found useful, not only to display the character of the Persian3 nation, but to illustrate many of their most important3 transactions, both in peace3 and war3, with the Roman3 empire3.
The great6 and fundamental article of the system was the celebrated doctrine of the two principles; a bold and injudicious attempt of Eastern philosophy to reconcile the existence of moral and physical evil with the attributes of a beneficent Creator and Governor of the world6. The first and original Being, in whom, or by whom, the universe exists, is denominated in the writings of Zoroaster, Time6 without bounds; but it must be confessed that this infinite substance seems rather a metaphysical abstraction of the mind than a real object endowed with self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfections. From either the blind or the intelligent operation of this infinite Time6, which bears but too near an affinity with the Chaos of the Greeks, the two secondary but active principles of the universe were from all eternity produced, Ormusd and Ahriman, each of them possessed of the powers of creation, but each disposed, by his invariable nature6, to exercise them with different designs. The principle of good is eternally absorbed in light: the principle of evil eternally buried in darkness. The wise benevolence of Ormusd formed man capable of virtue6, and abundantly provided his fair habitation with the materials of happiness. By his vigilant providence, the motion of the planets, the order of the seasons, and the temperate mixture of the elements are preserved. But the malice of Ahriman has long6 since pierced Ormusd's egg; or, in other words, has violated the harmony of his works. Since that fatal eruption, the most minute particles of good and evil are intimately intermingled and agitated together, the rankest poisons spring up amidst the most salutary plants; deluges, earthquakes, and conflagrations attest the conflict of Nature6; and the little world6 of man is perpetually shaken by vice and misfortune. Whilst the rest of human6 kind are led away captives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and protector Ormusd, and fights under his banner of light, in the full confidence that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his triumph. At that decisive period the enlightened wisdom of goodness will render the power6 of Ormusd superior to the furious malice of his rival. Ahriman and his followers, disarmed and subdued, will sink into their native darkness; and virtue6 will maintain the eternal peace6 and harmony of the universe.
The theology of Zoroaster was darkly comprehended by foreigners, and even by the far greater number of his disciples; but the most careless observers were struck with the philosophic simplicity of the Persian worship8. That people, says Herodotus, rejects the use8 of temples8, of altars, and of statues, and smiles at the folly of those nations, who imagine that the gods8 are sprung from, or bear any affinity with, the human8 nature8. The tops of the highest mountains are the places chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers are the principal worship8; the Supreme God8 who fills the wide circle of heaven, is the object to whom they are addressed. Yet, at the same time8, in the true spirit of a polytheist, he accuses them of adoring Earth, Water, Fire, the Winds, and the Sun and Moon. But the Persians of every age8 have denied the charge, and explained the equivocal conduct which might appear to give a colour to it. The elements, and more particularly Fire, Light, and the Sun, whom they called Mithra, were the objects of their religious8 reverence, because they considered them as the purest symbols, the noblest productions, and the most powerful agents of the Divine8 Power and Nature8.
Every mode of religion8, to make a deep and lasting impression on the human8 mind8, must exercise our obedience by enjoining practices of devotion8, for which we can assign no reason8; and must acquire our esteem, by inculcating moral duties analogous to the dictates of our own hearts. The religion8 of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the former, and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. At the age8 of puberty the faithful Persian was invested with a mysterious girdle, the badge of the divine8 protection; and from that moment all the actions of his life8, even the most indifferent or the most necessary, were sanctified by their peculiar prayers, ejaculations, or genuflexions; the omission of which, under any circumstances, was a grievous sin, not inferior in guilt to the violation of the moral duties. The moral duties, however, of justice, mercy, liberality, &c., were in their turn required of the disciple of Zoroaster, who wished to escape the persecution of Ahriman, and to live with Ormusd in a blissful eternity, where the degree of felicity will be exactly proportioned to the degree of virtue8 and piety.
But there are some remarkable instances in which Zoroaster lays aside the prophet, assumes the legislator, and discovers a liberal concern for private and public happiness, seldom to be found among the grovelling or visionary schemes of superstition. Fasting and celibacy, the common means of purchasing the divine favour, he condemns with abhorrence, as a criminal rejection of the best gifts of providence. The saint, in the Magian religion, is obliged to beget children, to plant useful trees, to destroy noxious animals, to convey water to the dry lands of Persia, and to work out his salvation by pursuing all the labours5 of agriculture. We may quote from the Zend Avesta a wise and benevolent maxim, which compensates for many an absurdity. He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand5 prayers. In the spring of every year a festival was celebrated, destined to represent the primitive equality, and the present connection, of mankind. The stately kings of Persia, exchanging their vain pomp for more genuine greatness, freely mingled with the humblest but most useful of their subjects. On that day5 the husbandmen were admitted, without distinction, to the table of the king and his satraps. The monarch accepted their petitions, inquired into their grievances, and conversed with them on the most equal terms. From your labours5, was he accustomed to say (and to say with truth, if not with sincerity), from your labours5 we receive our subsistence; you derive your tranquillity from our vigilance; since, therefore, we are mutually necessary to each other, let us live together like brothers in concord and love. Such a festival must indeed have degenerated, in a wealthy and despotic empire5, into a theatrical representation; but it was at least a comedy well worthy of a royal audience, and which might sometimes imprint a salutary lesson on the mind of a young prince.
Had Zoroaster, in all his institutions, invariably supported this exalted character8, his name would deserve a place with those of Numa and Confucius, and his system would be justly entitled to all the applause which it has pleased some of our divines, and even some of our philosophers, to bestow on it. But in that motley composition, dictated by reason8 and passion, by enthusiasm and by selfish motives, some useful and sublime truths were disgraced by a mixture of the most abject and dangerous superstition8. The Magi, or sacerdotal order, were extremely numerous, since, as we have already seen, fourscore thousand of them were convened in a general council. Their forces were multiplied by discipline. A regular hierarchy was diffused through all the provinces of Persia; and the Archimagus, who resided at Balch, was respected as the visible head of the church8, and the lawful successor of Zoroaster. The property of the Magi was very considerable. Besides the less invidious possession of a large tract of the most fertile lands of Media, they levied a general tax on the fortunes and the industry of the Persians. Though your good works, says the interested prophet, exceed in number the leaves of the trees, the drops of rain, the stars in the heaven, or the sands on the sea-shore, they will all be unprofitable to you, unless they are accepted by the destour, or priest. To obtain the acceptation of this guide to salvation, you must faithfully pay him tithes of all you possess, of your goods, of your lands, and of your money. If the destour be satisfied, your soul will escape hell tortures; you will secure praise in this world8 and happiness8 in the next. For the destours are the teachers of religion8; they know all things, and they deliver all men.
These convenient maxims of reverence and implicit faith8 were doubtless imprinted with care on the tender minds of youth; since the Magi were the masters of education in Persia, and to their hands the children even of the royal family were entrusted. The Persian priests, who were of a speculative genius, preserved and investigated the secrets of Oriental philosophy; and acquired, either by superior knowledge or superior art, the reputation of being well versed in some occult sciences, which have derived their appellation from the Magi. Those of more active dispositions mixed with the world8 in courts and cities; and it is observed that the administration of Artaxerxes was in a great measure directed by the counsels of the sacerdotal order, whose dignity, either from policy or devotion8, that prince restored to its ancient8 splendour.
The first counsel of the Magi was agreeable to the unsociable genius of their faith, to the practice of ancient kings, and even to the example of their legislator, who had fallen a victim to a religious war10 excited by his own intolerant zeal. By an edict of Artaxerxes, the exercise10 of every worship, except that of Zoroaster, was severely prohibited. The temples of the Parthians, and the statues of their deified monarchs, were thrown down with ignominy. The sword of Aristotle (such was the name given by the Orientals to the polytheism and philosophy of the Greeks) was easily broken: the flames of persecution soon reached the more stubbom Jews and Christians; nor did they spare the heretics of their own nation10 and religion10. The majesty of Ormusd, who was jealous of a rival, was seconded by the despotism of Artaxerxes, who could not suffer a rebel; and the schismatics within his vast empire10 were soon reduced10 to the inconsiderable number of eighty thousand. This spirit of persecution reflects dishonour on the religion10 of Zoroaster; but, as it was not productive of any civil10 commotion, it served to strengthen the new10 monarchy by uniting all the various10 inhabitants of Persia in the bands of religious zeal.
II. Artaxerxes, by his valour9 and conduct, had wrested the sceptre of the East from the ancient9 royal family of Parthia. There still remained the more difficult task of establishing, throughout the vast extent of Persia, a uniform and vigorous administration. The weak indulgence of the Arsacides had resigned to their sons and brothers the principal provinces9 and the greatest offices of the kingdom, in the nature of hereditary possessions. The vitaxae, or eighteen most powerful satraps, were permitted to assume the regal title, and the vain pride of the monarch was delighted with a nominal dominion over so many vassal kings. Even tribes9 of barbarians9 in their mountains9, and the Greek cities9 of Upper Asia9, within their walls9, scarcely acknowledged, or seldom obeyed, any superior; and the Parthian empire9 exhibited, under other names, a lively image of the feudal system which has since prevailed in Europe9. But the active victor, at the head of a numerous and disciplined army9, visited in person every province9 of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels and the reduction of the strongest fortifications diffused the terror of his arms9 and prepared the way for the peaceful reception of his authority. An obstinate resistance was fatal to the chiefs; but their followers were treated with lenity. A cheerful submission was rewarded with honours and riches; but the prudent Artaxerxes, suffering no person except himself to assume the title of king, abolished every intermediate power between the throne and the people. His kingdom, nearly equal in extent to modern Persia, was, on every side, bounded by the sea9 or by great9 rivers, — by the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, the Oxus, and the Indus; by the Caspian Sea9 and the Gulf of Persia. That country9 was computed to contain, in the last century, five hundred and fifty-four cities9, sixty thousand9 villages, and about forty millions of souls. If we compare the administration of the house of Sassan with that of the house of Sesi, the political influence of the Magian with that of the Mahometan religion, we shall probably infer that the kingdom of Artaxerxes contained at least as great9 a number of cities9, villages, and inhabitants9. But it must likewise be confessed that in every age the want of harbours on the sea9 coast9, and the scarcity of fresh water in the inland provinces9, have been very unfavourable to the commerce and agriculture of the Persians; who, in the calculation of their numbers, seem to have indulged one of the meanest, though most common, artifices of national vanity.
As soon3 as the ambitious mind of Artaxerxes had triumphed over the resistance of his vassals, he began to threaten the neighbouring states, who, during the long3 slumber of his predecessors, had insulted Persia3 with impunity. He obtained some easy victories over the wild Scythians and the effeminate Indians; but the Romans3 were an enemy3 who, by their past injuries and present power, deserved the utmost efforts of his arms3. A forty years3' tranquillity, the fruit of valour3 and moderation, had succeeded the victories of Trajan. During the period that elapsed from the accession of Marcus to the reign3 of Alexander, the Roman3 and the Parthian empires were twice engaged in war3; and, although the whole strength of the Arsacides contended with a part only of the forces of Rome, the event was most commonly in favour of the latter. Macrinus, indeed, prompted by his precarious situation and pusillanimous temper, purchased a peace3 at the expense of near two millions of our money; but the generals of Marcus, the emperor3 Severus, and his son3, erected many trophies in Armenia3, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. Among their exploits, the imperfect relation of which would have unseasonably interrupted the more important3 series of domestic revolutions, we shall only mention the repeated calamities of the two great3 cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon.
Seleucia, on the western bank of the Tigris, about forty-five miles9 to the north9 of ancient9 Babylon, was the capital9 of the Macedonian conquests in Upper Asia9. Many ages after the fall of their empire9, Seleucia retained the genuine characters of a Grecian colony — arts, military virtue, and the love of freedom. The independent republic was governed by a senate of three hundred nobles; the people consisted of six hundred thousand9 citizens; the walls9 were strong, and, as long9 as concord prevailed among the several orders of the state, they viewed with contempt the power of the Parthian: but the madness of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the dangerous aid of the common enemy, who was posted almost at the gates of the colony. The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pastoral life of their Scythian ancestors; and the Imperial camp9 was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles9 from Seleucia. The innumerable attendants on luxury and despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesiphon insensibly swelled into a great9 city9. Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman9 generals penetrated as far9 as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were received as friends by the Greek colony; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian kings; yet both cities9 experienced the same treatment. The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of three hundred thousand9 of the inhabitants9, tarnished the glory of the Roman9 triumph. Seleucia, already exhausted by the neighbourhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal blow; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Severus. The city9 was, however, taken by assault; the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation; an hundred thousand9 captives and a rich booty rewarded the fatigues of the Roman9 soldiers. Notwithstanding these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia as one of the great9 capitals of the East. In summer, the monarch of Persia enjoyed at Ecbatana the cool breezes of the mountains9 of Media; but the mildness of the climate engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter residence.
From these successful inroads the Romans9 derived no real or lasting benefit; nor did they attempt to preserve such distant conquests, separated from the provinces9 of the empire9 by a large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the kingdom of Osrhoene was an acquisition of less splendour indeed, but of a far9 more solid advantage. That little state occupied the northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Edessa, its capital9, was situated about twenty miles9 beyond the former of those rivers, and the inhabitants9, since the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians. The feeble sovereigns of Osrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian cause; but the superior power of Rome9 exacted from them a reluctant homage, which is still attested by their medals. After the conclusion of the Parthian war9 under Marcus, it was judged prudent to secure some substantial pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of the country9, and a Roman9 garrison was fixed in the strong town of Nisibis. During the troubles that followed the death of Commodus, the princes of Osrhoene attempted to shake off the yoke; but the stern policy of Severus confirmed their dependence, and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the easy conquest9. Abgarus, the last king of Edessa, was sent in chains to Rome9, his dominions reduced into a province9, and his capital9 dignified with the rank of colony; and thus the Romans9, about ten years before the fall of the Parthian monarchy, obtained a firm and permanent establishment beyond the Euphrates.
Prudence as well as glory might have justified a war3 on the side of Artaxerxes, had his views been confined to the defence or the acquisition of a useful frontier. But the ambitious Persian3 openly avowed a far more extensive design of conquest; and he thought himself able to support his lofty pretensions by the arms3 of reason as well as by those of power. Cyrus, he alleged, had first subdued, and his successors had for a long3 time possessed, the whole extent of Asia, as far as the Propontis and the Aegean Sea; the provinces3 of Caria and Ionia, under their empire3, had been governed by Persian3 satraps; and all Egypt, to the confines of Aethiopia, had acknowledged their sovereignty. Their rights had been suspended, but not destroyed, by a long3 usurpation; and, as soon3 as he received the Persian3 diadem, which birth and successful valour3 had placed upon his head3, the first great3 duty of his station called upon him to restore the ancient limits and splendour of the monarchy. The Great3 King3, therefore (such was the haughty style of his embassies to the emperor3 Alexander), commanded the Romans3 instantly to depart from all the provinces3 of his ancestors, and, yielding to the Persians3 the empire3 of Asia, to content themselves with the undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of the tallest and most beautiful of the Persians3; who, by their fine horses, splendid arms3, and rich apparel displayed the pride and greatness of their master. Such an embassy was much less an offer of negotiation than a declaration of war3. Both Alexander Severus and Artaxerxes, collecting the military3 force of the Roman3 and Persian3 monarchies, resolved in this important3 contest to lead their armies in person.
If we credit what should seem the most authentic of all records, an oration, still extant, and delivered by the emperor49 himself to the senate, we must allow that the victory49 of Alexander Severus was not inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the Persians by the son of Philip49. The army49 of the Great49 King49 consisted of one hundred and twenty thousand49 horse, clothed in complete armour of steel; of seven hundred elephants, with towers49 filled with archers on their backs; and of eighteen hundred chariots armed with scythes. This formidable host, the like of which is not to be found in Eastern history, and has scarcely been imagined in Eastern romance, was discomfited in a great49 battle49, in which the Roman Alexander approved himself an intrepid soldier and a skilful general49. The Great49 King49 fled before his valour49: an immense booty and the conquest of Mesopotamia were the immediate fruits of this signal victory49. Such are the circumstances of this ostentatious and improbable relation, dictated, as it too plainly appears, by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing servility of his flatterers, and received without contradiction by a distant and obsequious senate. Far from being inclined to believe that the arms49 of Alexander obtained any memorable advantage over the Persians, we are induced to suspect that all this blaze of imaginary glory was designed to conceal some real disgrace.
Our suspicions are confirmed by the authority of a contemporary historian, who mentions the virtues of Alexander with respect, and his faults with candour. He describes the judicious plan which had been formed for the conduct of the war3. Three Roman3 armies were destined to invade Persia3 at the same time, and by different roads. But the operations of the campaign, though wisely concerted, were not executed either with ability or success. The first of these armies, as soon3 as it had entered the marshy plains of Babylon, towards the artificial conflux of the Euphrates and the Tigris3, was encompassed by the superior numbers, and destroyed by the arrows, of the enemy3. The alliance3 of Chosroes3, king3 of Armenia3, and the long3 tract of mountainous country, in which the Persian3 cavalry was of little service, opened a secure entrance into the heart of Media to the second of the Roman3 armies. These brave troops3 laid waste the adjacent provinces3, and by several successful actions against Artaxerxes gave a faint colour to the emperor3's vanity. But the retreat of this victorious army3 was imprudent, or at least unfortunate. In repassing the mountains, great3 numbers of soldiers perished by the badness of the roads and the severity of the winter season. It had been resolved that whilst these two great3 detachments penetrated into the opposite extremes of the Persian3 dominions, the main body, under the command of Alexander himself, should support their attack by invading the centre of the kingdom. But the unexperienced youth, influenced by his mother's counsels, and perhaps by his own fears, deserted the bravest troops3 and the fairest prospect of victory3; and, after consuming in Mesopotamia an inactive and inglorious summer, he led back to Antioch an army3 diminished by sickness, and provoked by disappointment. The behaviour of Artaxerxes had been very different. Flying with rapidity from the hills of Media to the marshes of the Euphrates, he had everywhere opposed the invaders in person; and in either fortune had united with the ablest conduct the most undaunted resolution. But in several obstinate engagements against the veteran legions of Rome the Persian3 monarch3 had lost the flower of his troops3. Even his victories had weakened his power. The favourable opportunities of the absence of Alexander, and of the confusions that followed that emperor3's death3, presented themselves in vain to his ambition. Instead of expelling the Romans3, as he pretended, from the continent of Asia, he found himself unable to wrest from their hands the little province of Mesopotamia.
The reign1 of Artaxerxes, which from the last defeat of the Parthians lasted only fourteen years1, forms a memorable era in the history of the East, and even in that of Rome1. His character seems to have been marked by those bold and commanding features that generally distinguish the princes1 who conquer, from those who inherit, an empire1. Till the last period of the Persian monarchy, his code of laws1 was respected as the groundwork of their civil1 and religious policy1. Several of his sayings are preserved. One of them in particular discovers a deep insight into the constitution of government1. The authority1 of the prince, said Artaxerxes, must be defended by a military force; that force can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agriculture can never flourish except under the protection of justice1 and moderation. Artaxerxes bequeathed his new1 empire1, and his ambitious designs against the Romans1, to Sapor, a son not unworthy of his great father; but those designs were too extensive for the power1 of Persia, and served only to involve both nations in a long1 series of destructive wars and reciprocal calamities.
The Persians, long9 since civilised and corrupted, were very far9 from possessing the martial independence, and the intrepid hardiness, both of mind and body, which have rendered the Northern barbarians9 masters of the world. The science of war9, that constituted the more rational force of Greece and Rome9, as it now does of Europe9, never made any considerable progress in the East. Those disciplined evolutions which harmonise and animate a confused multitude were unknown to the Persians. They were equally unskilled in the arts of constructing, besieging, or defending regular fortifications. They trusted more to their numbers than to their courage; more to their courage than to their discipline. The infantry was a half-armed, spiritless crowd of peasants, levied in haste by the allurements of plunder, and as easily dispersed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles transported into the camp9 the pride and luxury of the seraglio. Their military operations were impeded by a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels; and in the midst of a successful campaign the Persian host was often separated or destroyed by an unexpected famine.
But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom of luxury and despotism, preserved a strong sense of personal gallantry and national honour. From the age27 of seven27 years they were taught to speak truth, to shoot with the bow, and to ride; and it was universally confessed that in the two last of these arts27 they had made a more than common proficiency. The most distinguished youth were educated under the monarch's eye, practised their exercises in the gate of his palace, and were severely trained up to the habits of temperance and obedience in their long and laborious parties of hunting. In every province27 the satrap maintained a like school of military virtue27. The Persian nobles (so natural is the idea of feudal tenures) received from the king27's bounty lands and houses on the condition of their service27 in war27. They were ready on the first summons to mount on horseback, with a martial and splendid27 train of followers, and to join the numerous bodies of guards, who were carefully selected from among the most robust slaves and the bravest adventurers of Asia. These armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the impetuosity of their charge and the rapidity of their motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern provinces of the declining empire27 of Rome27.
The government and religion of Persia have deserved some notice from their connection with the decline and fall of the Roman0 empire0. We shall occasionally mention the Scythian or Sarmatian tribes, which, with their arms and horses, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered over the immense plains which spread themselves from the Caspian Sea to the Vistula, from the confines of Persia to those of Germany. But the warlike Germans, who first resisted, then invaded, and at length overturned, the Western0 monarchy of Rome0, will occupy a much more important place in this history0, and possess a stronger, and, if we may use the expression, a more domestic, claim to our attention and regard. The most civilised nations of modern Europe0 issued from the woods of Germany, and in the rude institutions of those barbarians0 we may still distinguish the original principles of our present0 laws and manners0. In their primitive state0 of simplicity and independence, the Germans were surveyed by the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil, of Tacitus, the first of historians who applied the science0 of philosophy0 to the study0 of facts. The expressive conciseness of his descriptions has deserved to exercise the diligence of innumerable antiquarians, and to excite the genius0 and penetration of the philosophic historians of our own times0. The subject, however various and important, has already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer. We shall therefore content ourselves with observing, and indeed with repeating, some of the most important circumstances of climate, of manners0, and of institutions, which rendered the wild barbarians0 of Germany such formidable enemies to the Roman0 power.
Ancient Germany, excluding from its independent limits the province9 westward of the Rhine, which had submitted to the Roman9 yoke, extended itself over a third part of Europe9. Almost the whole of modern Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Prussia, and the greater part of Poland were peopled by the various tribes9 of one great9 nation9, whose complexion, manners, and language denoted a common origin, and preserved a striking resemblance. On the west9, ancient9 Germany was divided by the Rhine from the Gallic, and on the south by the Danube9 from the Illyrian, provinces9 of the empire9. A ridge of hills, rising from the Danube9, and called the Carpathian Mountains9, covered Germany on the side of Dacia or Hungary. The eastern frontier was faintly marked by the mutual fears of the Germans and the Sarmatians, and was often confounded by the mixture of warring and confederating tribes9 of the two nations9. In the remote darkness of the north9 the ancients imperfectly described a frozen ocean9 that lay beyond the Baltic Sea9 and beyond the peninsula, or islands, of Scandinavia.
Some ingenious writers have suspected that Europe was much colder formerly than it is at present46; and the most ancient descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceedingly to confirm their theory. The general complaints of intense frost and eternal winter are perhaps little to be regarded, since we have no method of reducing to the accurate standard of the thermometer the feelings or the expressions of an orator born in the happier regions of Greece or Asia. But I shall select two remarkable circumstances of a less equivocal nature46. 1. The great46 rivers which covered the Roman46 provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and capable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians, who often chose that severe season for their inroads, transported, without apprehension or danger, their numerous armies, their cavalry, and their heavy waggons, over a vast and solid bridge of ice. Modern46 ages have not presented an instance of a like phenomenon. 2. The reindeer, that useful animal, from whom the savage of the North derives the best comforts of his dreary life46, is of a constitution that supports, and even requires, the most intense cold. He is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the pole; he seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia; but at present46 he cannot subsist, much less multiply, in any country46 to the south of the Baltic. In the time46 of Caesar, the reindeer, as well as the elk and the wild bull, was a native of the Hercynian forest, which then overshadowed a great46 part of Germany and Poland. The modern46 improvements sufficiently explain the causes of the diminution of the cold. These immense woods have been gradually cleared, which intercepted from the earth the rays of the sun. The morasses have been drained, and, in proportion as the soil has been cultivated, the air has become more temperate. Canada, at this day, is an exact picture of ancient Germany. Although situate in the same parallel with the finest provinces of France and England, that country46 experiences the most rigorous cold. The reindeer are very numerous, the ground is covered with deep and lasting snow, and the great46 river of St. Lawrence is regularly frozen, in a season when the waters of the Seine and the Thames are usually free from ice.
It is difficult to ascertain, and easy37 to exaggerate, the influence of the climate of ancient37 Germany37 over the minds and bodies of the natives. Many writers have supposed, and most have allowed, though, as it should seem, without any adequate proof, that the rigorous cold of the North was favourable to long37 life37 and generative vigour, that the women were more fruitful, and the human37 species more prolific, than in warmer or more temperate climates. We may assert, with greater confidence, that the keen air of Germany37 formed the large and masculine limbs of the natives, who were, in general, of a more lofty stature than the people37 of the South, gave them a kind of strength37 better adapted to violent exertions than to patient labour, and inspired them with constitutional bravery, which is the result of nerves and spirits. The severity of a winter campaign, that chilled the courage of the Roman37 troops, was scarcely felt by these hardy children of the North, who, in their turn, were unable to resist the summer heats, and dissolved away in languor and sickness under the beams of an Italian sun.
There is not anywhere upon the globe a large tract of country9, which we have discovered destitute of inhabitants9, or whose first population can be fixed with any degree of historical certainty. And yet, as the most philosophic minds can seldom refrain from investigating the infancy of great9 nations9, our curiosity consumes itself in toilsome and disappointed efforts. When Tacitus considered the purity of the German blood, and the forbidding aspect of the country9, he was disposed to pronounce those barbarians9 Indigenae, or natives of the soil. We may allow with safety, and perhaps with truth, that ancient9 Germany was not originally peopled by any foreign colonies already formed into a political society; but that the name and nation9 received their existence from the gradual union of some wandering savages of the Hercynian woods. To assert those savages to have been the spontaneous production of the earth which they inhabited would be a rash inference, condemned by religion, and unwarranted by reason.
Such rational doubt is but ill suited with the genius of popular vanity. Among the nations who have adopted the Mosaic history of the world, the ark of Noah has been of the same use40, as was formerly to the Greeks40 and Romans the siege of Troy. On a narrow basis of acknowledged truth, an immense but rude superstructure of fable has been erected; and the wild Irishman, as well as the wild Tartar, could point out the individual son40 of Japhet from whose loins his ancestors were lineally descended. The last century abounded with antiquarians of profound learning and easy40 faith, who, by the dim light of legends and traditions, of conjectures and etymologies, conducted the great40-grandchildren of Noah from the Tower of Babel to the extremities of the globe. Of these judicious critics, one of the most entertaining was Olaus Rudbeck, professor in the university of Upsal. Whatever is celebrated40 either in history or fable, this zealous patriot ascribes to his country40. From Sweden (which formed so considerable a part of ancient40 Germany) the Greeks40 themselves derived their alphabetical characters, their astronomy, and their religion40. Of that delightful region (for such it appeared to the eyes40 of a native) the Atlantis of Plato, the country40 of the Hyperboreans, the gardens of the Hesperides, the Fortunate Islands, and even the Elysian Fields, were all but faint and imperfect transcripts. A clime so profusely favoured by Nature could not long remain desert after the flood. The learned Rudbeck allows the family of Noah a few years40 to multiply from eight to about twenty thousand40 persons. He then disperses them into small40 colonies to replenish the earth, and to propagate the human species. The German or Swedish detachment (which marched, if I am not mistaken, under the command40 of Askenaz the son40 of Gomer, the son40 of Japhet) distinguished itself by a more than common diligence in the prosecution of this great40 work. The northern hive cast its swarms over the greatest part of Europe, Africa40, and Asia; and (to use40 the author's metaphor) the blood circulated back from the extremities to the heart.
But all this well-laboured system of German antiquities is annihilated by a single fact, too well attested to admit of any doubt, and of too decisive a nature46 to leave room for any reply. The Germans, in the age46 of Tacitus46, were unacquainted with the use of letters; and the use of letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilised people46 from a herd of savages, incapable of knowledge46 or reflection. Without that artificial help the human46 memory soon dissipates or corrupts the ideas entrusted to her charge; and the nobler faculties of the mind46, no longer supplied with models or with materials, gradually forget their powers: the judgment becomes feeble and lethargic, the imagination languid or irregular. Fully to apprehend this important46 truth46, let us attempt, in an improved society46, to calculate the immense distance between the man of learning and the illiterate peasant. The former, by reading and reflection, multiplies his own experience, and lives in distant ages and remote countries; whilst the latter, rooted to a single spot, and confined to a few years46 of existence, surpasses but very little his fellow-labourer the ox in the exercise of his mental faculties. The same and even a greater difference will be found between nations than between individuals; and we may safely pronounce, that without some species of writing no people46 has ever preserved the faithful annals of their history46, ever made any considerable progress in the abstract sciences, or ever possessed, in any tolerable degree of perfection, the useful and agreeable arts46 of life46.
Of these arts the ancient Germans17 were wretchedly destitute. They passed17 their lives in a state of ignorance and poverty, which it has pleased some declaimers to dignify with the appellation of virtuous simplicity. Modern Germany is said to contain about two thousand17 three hundred walled towns. In a much wider extent of country the geographer Ptolemy could discover no more than ninety places which he decorates with the name of cities; though, according to our ideas, they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only suppose them to have been rude fortifications17, constructed in the centre of the woods, and designed to secure the women, children, and cattle17, whilst the warriors of the tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion. But Tacitus asserts, as a well-known fact, that the Germans17, in his time17, had no cities; and that they affected to despise the works of Roman17 industry as places of confinement rather than of security. Their edifices were not even contiguous, or formed into regular villas; each barbarian17 fixed his independent dwelling on the spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of fresh water had induced him to give the preference. Neither stone, nor brick, nor tiles were employed in these slight habitations. They were indeed no more than low huts of a circular figure, built of rough timber, thatched with straw, and pierced at the top to leave a free passage for the smoke. In the most inclement winter, the hardy German was satisfied with a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who dwelt towards the north clothed themselves in furs; and the women manufactured for their own use17 a coarse kind of linen. The game of various sorts with which the forests of Germany were plentifully stocked supplied its inhabitants17 with food17 and exercise. Their monstrous herds of cattle17, less remarkable indeed for their beauty than for their utility, formed the principal object of their wealth. A small quantity of corn was the only produce exacted from the earth: the use17 of orchards or artificial meadows was unknown to the Germans17; nor can we expect any improvements in agriculture from a people17 whose property every year experienced a general17 change by a new division of the arable lands, and who, in that strange operation, avoided disputes by suffering a great part of their territory to lie waste and without tillage.
Gold, silver, and iron were extremely scarce in Germany. Its barbarous inhabitants wanted both skill and patience to investigate those rich veins of silver, which have so liberally rewarded the attention of the princes6 of Brunswick and Saxony. Sweden, which now supplies Europe with iron, was equally ignorant of its own riches; and the appearance of the arms6 of the Germans furnished a sufficient proof how little iron they were able to bestow on what they must have deemed the noblest use6 of that metal. The various6 transactions of peace6 and war6 had introduced6 some Roman6 coins (chiefly silver) among the borderers of the Rhine and Danube; but the more distant tribes were absolutely unacquainted with the use6 of money, carried on their confined traffic by the exchange of commodities, and prized their rude earthen vessels as of equal6 value with the silver vases, the presents of Rome6 to their princes6 and ambassadors. To a mind capable of reflection such leading facts convey more instruction than a tedious detail of subordinate circumstances. The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas; and both these institutions, by giving more active energy to the powers and passions of human6 nature6, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent. The use6 of gold and silver is in a great6 measure factitious; but it would be impossible to enumerate the important and various6 services which agriculture, and all the arts6, have received from iron, when tempered and fashioned by the operation of fire and the dexterous hand of man. Money, in a word, is the most universal incitement, iron the most powerful instrument, of human6 industry; and it is very difficult to conceive by what means a people6, neither actuated by the one nor seconded by the other, could emerge from the grossest barbarism.
If we contemplate a savage nation in any part of the globe, a supine indolence and a carelessness of futurity will be found to constitute their general2 character2. In a civilised state2 every faculty of man is expanded and exercised2; and the great2 chain of mutual dependence connects and embraces the several members of society. The most numerous portion of it is employed in constant and useful labour. The select few, placed by fortune2 above that necessity, can, however, fill up their time by the pursuits of interest or glory2, by the improvement of their estate or of their understanding, by the duties, the pleasures, and even the follies, of social life. The Germans were not possessed of these varied resources. The care2 of the house and family, the management of the land and cattle, were delegated to the old and the infirm, to women and slaves2. The lazy warrior, destitute of every art2 that might employ his leisure hours, consumed his days and nights in the animal gratifications of sleep and food. And yet, by a wonderful diversity of nature (according to the remark of a writer who had pierced into its darkest recesses), the same barbarians are by turns the most indolent and the most restless of mankind. They delight in sloth, they detest tranquillity. The languid soul, oppressed with its own weight, anxiously required some new and powerful sensation; and war and danger were the only amusements adequate to its fierce temper. The sound that summoned the German to arms was grateful to his ear. It roused him from his uncomfortable lethargy, gave him an active pursuit, and, by strong exercise of the body, and violent emotions of the mind2, restored him to a more lively sense of his existence. In the dull intervals of peace these barbarians were immoderately addicted to deep gaming and excessive drinking; both of which, by different means, the one by inflaming their passions, the other by extinguishing their reason, alike relieved them from the pain of thinking. They gloried in passing whole days and nights at table; and the blood of friends and relations often stained their numerous and drunken assemblies. Their debts of honour (for in that light2 they have transmitted to us those of play) they discharged with the most romantic fidelity. The desperate gamester, who had staked his person and liberty on a last throw of the dice, patiently submitted to the decision of fortune2, and suffered himself to be bound, chastised, and sold into remote slavery, by his weaker but more lucky antagonist.
Strong beer, a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley, and corrupted (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain semblance of wine, was sufficient for the gross purposes of German debauchery. But those who had tasted the rich wines of Italy9, and afterwards of Gaul, sighed for that more delicious species of intoxication. They attempted not, however (as has since been executed with so much success), to naturalise the vine on the banks9 of the Rhine and Danube9; nor did they endeavour to procure by industry the materials of an advantageous commerce. To solicit by labour what might be ravished by arms9 was esteemed unworthy of the German spirit. The intemperate thirst of strong liquors often urged the barbarians9 to invade the provinces9 on which art or nature had bestowed those much envied presents. The Tuscan who betrayed his country9 to the Celtic nations9 attracted them into Italy9 by the prospect of the rich fruits and delicious wines, the productions of a happier climate. And in the same manner the German auxiliaries, invited into France during the civil wars of the sixteenth century, were allured by the promise of plenteous quarters in the provinces9 of Champagne and Burgundy. Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but not the most dangerous of our vices, was sometimes capable, in a less civilised state of mankind, of occasioning a battle, a war9, or a revolution.
The climate of ancient36 Germany36 has been mollified, and the soil fertilised, by the labour of ten centuries from the time of Charlemagne. The same extent of ground, which at present maintains, in ease and plenty, a million of husbandmen and artificers, was unable to supply an hundred thousand36 lazy warriors with the simple necessaries of life. The Germans abandoned their immense forests to the exercise of hunting, employed in pasturage the most considerable36 part of their lands36, bestowed on the small remainder a rude and careless cultivation, and then accused the scantiness and sterility of a country36 that refused to maintain the multitude of its inhabitants. When the return of famine severely admonished them of the importance of the arts, the national distress was sometimes alleviated by the emigration of a third, perhaps, or a fourth part of their youth36. The possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilised people36 to an improved country36. But the Germans, who carried with them what they most valued, their arms36, their cattle, and their women, cheerfully abandoned the vast silence of their woods for the unbounded hopes of plunder and conquest. The innumerable swarms that issued, or seemed to issue, from the great storehouse of nations, were multiplied by the fears of the vanquished and by the credulity of succeeding ages. And from facts thus exaggerated, an opinion was gradually established, and has been supported by writers of distinguished reputation, that, in the age of Caesar and Tacitus, the inhabitants of the North were far more numerous than they are in our days. A more serious inquiry into the causes of population seems to have convinced modern philosophers of the falsehood, and indeed the impossibility, of the supposition. To the names of Mariana and of Machiavel we can oppose the equal names of Robertson and Hume.
A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism. Among the Suiones (says Tacitus) riches are held in honour. They are therefore subject to an absolute monarch, who instead of entrusting his people18 with the free use of arms, as is practised in the rest of Germany, commits them to the safe custody, not of a citizen, or even of a freedman, but of a slave. The neighbours of the Suiones, the Sitones, are sunk even below servitude; they obey a woman. In the mention of these exceptions, the great historian sufficiently acknowledges the general theory of government. We are only at a loss to conceive by what means riches and despotism could penetrate into a remote corner of the North, and extinguish the generous flame that blazed with such fierceness on the frontier of the Roman provinces, or how the ancestors of those Danes and Norwegians, so distinguished in later ages by their unconquered spirit, could thus tamely resign the great character of German liberty. Some tribes, however, on the coast of the Baltic, acknowledged the authority of kings, though without relinquishing the rights of men; but in the far greater part of Germany the form of government was a democracy, tempered, indeed, and controlled, not so much by general and positive laws as by the occasional ascendant of birth or valour, of eloquence18 or superstition.
Civil governments, in their first institutions, are voluntary associations for mutual defence. To obtain the desired end it is absolutely necessary that each individual should conceive himself obliged to submit his private11 opinion and actions to the judgment of the greater number of his associates. The German tribes11 were contented with this rude but liberal outline of political society. As soon as a youth, born of free parents, had attained the age11 of manhood, he was introduced into the general11 council of his countrymen, solemnly invested with a shield and spear, and adopted as an equal and worthy member of the military11 commonwealth. The assembly of the warriors of the tribe was convened at stated seasons, or on sudden emergencies. The trial of public11 offences, the election of magistrates, and the great11 business of peace11 and war11 were determined by its independent voice. Sometimes, indeed, these important questions were previously considered and prepared in a more select council of the principal chieftains. The magistrates might deliberate and persuade, the people11 only could resolve and execute; and the resolutions of the Germans11 were for the most part hasty and violent. Barbarians11 accustomed to place their freedom in gratifying the present11 passion, and their courage11 in overlooking all future consequences, turned away with indignant contempt from the remonstrances of justice and policy11, and it was the practice to signify by a hollow murmur their dislike of such timid councils. But, whenever a more popular orator proposed to vindicate the meanest citizen, from either foreign or domestic injury, whenever he called upon his fellow-countrymen to assert the national honour, or to pursue some enterprise full of danger and glory, a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed the eager applause of the assembly. For the Germans11 always met in arms11, and it was constantly to be dreaded lest an irregular multitude, inflamed with faction and strong11 liquors, should use those arms11 to enforce, as well as to declare, their furious resolves. We may recollect how often the diets of Poland have been polluted with blood, and the more numerous party has been compelled to yield to the more violent and seditious.
A general47 of the tribe was elected on occasions of danger47; and, if the danger47 was pressing and extensive, several tribes concurred in the choice of the same general47. The bravest warrior was named to lead his countrymen into the field, by his example rather than by his commands. But this power47, however limited, was still invidious. It expired with the war47, and in time of peace the German tribes acknowledged not any supreme chief. Princes were, however, appointed, in the general47 assembly, to administer justice47, or rather to compose differences, in their respective districts. In the choice of these magistrates as much regard was shown to birth as to merit47. To each was assigned, by the public47, a guard, and a council of an hundred persons, and the first of the princes appears to have enjoyed a pre-eminence of rank47 and honour which sometimes tempted the Romans to compliment him with the regal title.
The comparative view of the powers of the magistrates, in two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent the whole system of German manners37. The disposal of the landed property within their district was absolutely vested in their hands, and they distributed it every year according37 to a new37 division. At the same time they were not authorised to punish with death, to imprison, or even to strike a private37 citizen. A people37 thus jealous of their persons, and careless of their possessions, must have been totally destitute of industry and the arts, but animated with a high sense of honour37 and independence.
The Germans respected only those duties which they imposed on themselves. The most obscure soldier resisted with disdain the authority of the magistrates. The noblest youths blushed not to be numbered among the faithful companions43 of some renowned chief43, to whom they devoted their arms43 and service. A noble emulation prevailed among the companions43 to obtain the first place in the esteem of their chief43; amongst the chiefs43, to acquire the greatest number of valiant companions43. To be ever surrounded by a band of select youths was the pride and strength of the chiefs43, their ornament in peace, their defence in war43. The glory of such distinguished heroes diffused itself beyond the narrow limits of their own tribe. Presents and embassies solicited their friendship, and the fame of their arms43 often ensured victory to the party which they espoused. In the hour of danger it was shameful for the chief43 to be surpassed in valour by his companions43; shameful for the companions43 not to equal the valour of their chief43. To survive his fall in battle was indelible infamy. To protect his person, and to adorn his glory with the trophies of their own exploits, were the most sacred of their duties. The chiefs43 combated for victory, the companions43 for the chief43. The noblest warriors, whenever their native country43 was sunk in the laziness of peace, maintained their numerous bands in some distant scene of action, to exercise their restless spirit, and to acquire renown by voluntary dangers. Gifts worthy of soldiers43, the warlike steed, the bloody and ever victorious43 lance, were the rewards which the companions43 claimed from the liberality of their chief43. The rude plenty of his hospitable board was the only pay that he could bestow, or they would accept. War43, rapine, and the free-will offerings of his friends supplied the materials of this munificence. This institution, however it might accidentally weaken the several republics, invigorated the general43 character of the Germans, and even ripened amongst them all the virtues of which barbarians are susceptible — the faith and valour, the hospitality and the courtesy, so conspicuous long43 afterwards in the ages of chivalry. The honourable gifts, bestowed by the chief43 on his brave companions43, have been supposed, by an ingenious writer, to contain the first rudiments of the fiefs, distributed after the conquest43 of the Roman43 provinces43, by the barbarian lords among their vassals, with a similar duty of homage and military service. These conditions are, however, very repugnant to the maxims of the ancient43 Germans, who delighted in mutual presents, but without either imposing or accepting the weight of obligations.
In the days of chivalry, or more properly of romance, all the men were brave, and all the women were chaste; and, notwithstanding the latter of these virtues is acquired and preserved with much more difficulty than the former, it is ascribed, almost without exception, to the wives of the ancient8 Germans. Polygamy was not in use8, except among the princes, and among them only for the sake of multiplying their alliances. Divorces were prohibited by manners rather than by laws8. Adulteries were punished as rare and inexpiable crimes; nor was seduction justified by example and fashion. We may easily discover that Tacitus indulges an honest pleasure in the contrast of barbarian virtue8 with the dissolute conduct of the Roman ladies; yet there are some striking circumstances that give an air of truth8, or at least of probability, to the conjugal faith8 and chastity of the Germans.
Although the progress of civilisation has undoubtedly contributed to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature, it seems to have been less favourable to the virtue of chastity, whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. The refinements of life47 corrupt while they polish the intercourse of the sexes. The gross appetite of love becomes most dangerous, when it is elevated, or rather, indeed, disguised, by sentimental passion. The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles present at once temptation and opportunity to female frailty. From such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life47. The German huts, open on every side to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian harem. To this reason another may be added of a more honourable nature. The Germans treated their women with esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occasion of importance, and fondly believed that in their breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom more than human. Some of these interpreters of fate, such as Velleda, in the Batavian war47, governed, in the name of the Deity, the fiercest nations of Germany. The rest of the sex, without being adored as goddesses, were respected as the free and equal companions of soldiers47; associated even by the marriage ceremony to a life47 of toil, of danger47, and of glory. In their great invasions, the camps of the barbarians were filled with a multitude of women, who remained firm and undaunted amidst the sound of arms47, the various forms of destruction, and the honourable wounds of their sons and husbands. Fainting armies of Germans have more than once been driven back upon the enemy by the generous despair of the women, who dreaded death47 much less than servitude. If the day was irrecoverably lost, they well knew how to deliver themselves and their children, with their own hands, from an insulting victor. Heroines of such a cast may claim our admiration; but they were most assuredly neither lovely nor very susceptible of love. Whilst they affected to emulate the stern virtues of man, they must have resigned that attractive softness in which principally consist the charm and weakness of woman. Conscious pride taught the German females to suppress every tender emotion that stood in competition with honour, and the first honour of the sex has ever been that of chastity. The sentiments and conduct47 of these high-spirited matrons may, at once, be considered as a cause, as an effect, and as a proof of the general47 character of the nation. Female courage, however it may be raised by fanaticism, or confirmed by habit, can be only a faint and imperfect imitation of the manly valour that distinguishes the age47 or country in which it may be found.
The religious8 system of the Germans (if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their wants, their fears, and their ignorance. They adored the great visible objects and agents of Nature8, the Sun and the Moon, the Fire and the Earth; together with those imaginary deities who were supposed to preside over the most important occupations of human8 life8. They were persuaded that, by some ridiculous arts of divination, they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human8 sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars. Some applause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime notion entertained by that people of the Deity8 whom they neither confined within the walls of a temple8, nor represented by any human8 figure; but when we recollect that the Germans were unskilled in architecture, and totally unacquainted with the art of sculpture, we shall readily assign the true reason8 of a scruple, which arose not so much from a superiority of reason8 as from a want of ingenuity. The only temples8 in Germany were dark and ancient8 groves, consecrated by the reverence of succeeding generations. Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an invisible power, by presenting no distinct object of fear or worship8, impressed the mind8 with a still deeper sense of religious8 horror; and the priests, rude and illiterate as they were, had been taught by experience the use8 of every artifice that could preserve and fortify impressions so well suited to their own interest.
The same ignorance25 which renders barbarians incapable of conceiving or embracing the useful25 restraints of laws exposes them naked and unarmed to the blind terrors of superstition. The German priests, improving this favourable temper of their countrymen, had assumed a jurisdiction even in temporal concerns which the magistrate could not venture to exercise; and the haughty warrior patiently submitted to the lash of correction, when it was inflicted, not by any human25 power, but by the immediate order of the god25 of war25. The defects of civil25 policy were sometimes supplied by the interposition of ecclesiastical authority. The latter was constantly exerted to maintain silence and decency in the popular assemblies; and was sometimes extended to a more enlarged concern for the national25 welfare. A solemn procession was occasionally celebrated in the present countries of Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. The unknown symbol of the Earth, covered with a thick veil, was placed on a carriage drawn by cows; and in this manner the goddess, whose common residence was in the isle of Rugen, visited several adjacent tribes of her worshippers. During her progress25, the sound of war25 was hushed, quarrels were suspended, arms25 laid aside, and the restless Germans had an opportunity of tasting the blessings of peace and harmony. The truce of God25, so often and so ineffectually proclaimed by the clergy of the eleventh century, was an obvious imitation of this ancient custom.
But the influence of religion1 was far more powerful to inflame than to moderate the fierce passions of the Germans. Interest and fanaticism often prompted its ministers to sanctify the most daring and the most unjust enterprises, by the approbation of Heaven, and full assurances of success. The consecrated standards, long1 revered in the groves of superstition, were placed in the front of the battle; and the hostile army was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder. In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave man was the worthy favourite of their martial deities; the wretch who had lost his shield was alike banished from the religious and the civil1 assemblies of his countrymen. Some tribes of the North seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration, others imagined a gross paradise of immortal drunkenness. All agreed that a life spent in arms, and a glorious death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy futurity, either in this or in another world.
The immortality so vainly promised by the priests was, in some degree, conferred by the bards. That singular order of men4 has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Germans. Their genius and character, as well as the reverence paid to that important office, have been sufficiently illustrated. But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the enthusiasm4 of arms and glory which they kindled in the breast of their audience. Among a polished people4, a taste for poetry is rather an amusement of the fancy than a passion of the soul. And yet, when in calm retirement we peruse the combats described by Homer or Tasso, we are insensibly seduced by the fiction, and feel a momentary glow of martial ardour. But how faint, how cold is the sensation which a peaceful mind can receive from solitary study! It was in the hour of battle4, or in the feast of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of heroes of ancient days4, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains who listened with transport to their artless but animated strains. The view of arms and of danger heightened the effect of the military song; and the passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame and the contempt of death4, were the habitual sentiments of a German mind.
Such was the situation and such were the manners28 of the ancient28 Germans. Their climate, their want of learning, of arts28, and of laws, their notions of honour, of gallantry, and of religion28, their sense of freedom, impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all contributed to form a people28 of military28 heroes. And yet we find that, during more than two hundred and fifty years28 that elapsed from the defeat of Varus to the reign28 of Decius, these formidable barbarians made few considerable attempts, and not any material impression, on the luxurious and enslaved provinces28 of the empire28. Their progress28 was checked by their want of arms28 and discipline, and their fury was diverted by the intestine divisions of ancient28 Germany.
I. It has been observed, with ingenuity, and not without truth, that the command47 of iron soon47 gives a nation the command47 of gold. But the rude tribes of Germany, alike destitute of both those valuable metals, were reduced slowly to acquire, by their unassisted strength, the possession of the one as well as the other. The face of a German army47 displayed their poverty of iron. Swords and the longer kind of lances they could seldom use. Their frameae (as they called them in their own language) were long47 spears headed with a sharp but narrow iron point, and which, as occasion required, they either darted from a distance, or pushed in close onset. With this spear and with a shield their cavalry was contented. A multitude of darts, scattered with incredible force, were an additional resource of the infantry. Their military47 dress, when they wore any, was nothing more than a loose mantle. A variety of colours was the only ornament of their wooden or their osier shields. Few of the chiefs were distinguished by cuirasses, scarce any by helmets. Though the horses of Germany were neither beautiful, swift, nor practised in the skilful evolutions of the Roman47 manage, several of the nations obtained renown by their cavalry; but, in general47, the principal strength of the Germans consisted in their infantry, which was drawn up in several deep columns, according to the distinction of tribes and families. Impatient of fatigue or delay, these half-armed warriors rushed to battle with dissonant shouts and disordered ranks; and sometimes, by the effort of native valour, prevailed over the constrained and more artificial bravery of the Roman47 mercenaries. But as the barbarians poured forth their whole souls on the first onset, they knew not how to rally or to retire. A repulse was a sure defeat; and a defeat was most commonly total destruction. When we recollect the complete armour of the Roman47 soldiers47, their discipline, exercises, evolutions, fortified camps, and military47 engines, it appears a just matter of surprise how the naked and unassisted valour of the barbarians could dare to encounter in the field the strength of the legions and the various troops47 of the auxiliaries, which seconded their operations. The contest was too unequal, till the introduction of luxury had enervated the vigour, and a spirit47 of disobedience and sedition had relaxed the discipline, of the Roman47 armies. The introduction of barbarian auxiliaries into those armies was a measure attended with very obvious dangers, as it might gradually instruct the Germans in the arts of war47 and of policy. Although they were admitted in small numbers and with the strictest precaution, the example of Civilis was proper to convince the Romans that the danger47 was not imaginary, and that their precautions were not always sufficient. During the civil47 wars that followed the death47 of Nero, that artful and intrepid Batavian, whom his enemies condescended to compare with Hannibal and Sertorius, formed a great design of freedom and ambition. Eight Batavian cohorts, renowned in the wars of Britain and Italy47, repaired to his standard. He introduced an army47 of Germans into Gaul, prevailed on the powerful cities of Treves and Langres to embrace his cause, defeated the legions, destroyed their fortified camps, and employed against the Romans the military47 knowledge which he had acquired in their service. When at length, after an obstinate struggle, he yielded to the power47 of the empire47, Civilis secured himself and his country by an honourable treaty. The Batavians still continued to occupy the islands of the Rhine, the allies, not the servants, of the Roman47 monarchy.
II. The strength37 of ancient37 Germany37 appears formidable when we consider the effects that might have been produced by its united effort. The wide extent of country37 might very possibly contain a million of warriors, as all who were of an age to bear arms37 were of a temper to use37 them. But this fierce multitude, incapable of concerting or executing any plan of national greatness, was agitated by various and often hostile intentions. Germany37 was divided into more than forty independent37 states; and even in each state37 the union of the several tribes37 was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians37 were easily provoked; they knew not how to forgive an injury, much less an insult; their resentments were bloody and implacable. The casual disputes that so frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking were sufficient to inflame the minds of whole nations; the private37 feud of any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and allies. To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the defenceless, were alike causes of war. The most formidable states of Germany37 affected to encompass their territories with a wide frontier of solitude and devastation. The awful distance preserved by their neighbours attested the terror of their arms37, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions.
The Bructeri (it is Tacitus who now speaks) were totally exterminated by the neighbouring tribes11, provoked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar deities of the empire11. Above sixty thousand11 barbarians11 were destroyed, not by the Roman11 arms11, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the nations11, enemies of Rome11, ever preserve this enmity to each other! We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity, and have nothing left to demand of fortune except the discord of the barbarians11. These sentiments, less worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the policy11 of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the barbarians11, from whose defeat they could derive neither honour nor advantage. The money and negotiations of Rome11 insinuated themselves into the heart of Germany, and every art of seduction was used with dignity to conciliate those nations11 whom their proximity to the Rhine or Danube11 might render the most useful friends as well as the most troublesome enemies. Chiefs of renown and power11 were flattered by the most trifling presents, which they received either as marks of distinction or as the instruments of luxury. In civil11 dissensions, the weaker faction endeavoured to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connections with the governors of the frontier provinces11. Every quarrel among the Germans11 was fomented by the intrigues of Rome11; and every plan of union and public11 good was defeated by the stronger bias of private11 jealousy and interest.
The general47 conspiracy which terrified the Romans under the reign47 of Marcus Antoninus comprehended almost all the nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube. It is impossible for us to determine whether this hasty confederation was formed by necessity, by reason, or by passion; but we may rest assured, that the barbarians were neither allured by the indolence or provoked by the ambition of the Roman47 monarch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Marcus. He fixed generals of ability in the several stations of attack, and assumed in person47 the conduct47 of the most important province on the Upper Danube. After a long47 and doubtful conflict, the spirit47 of the barbarians was subdued. The Quadi and the Marcomanni, who had taken the lead in the war47, were the most severely punished in its catastrophe. They were commanded to retire five miles from their own banks of the Danube, and to deliver up the flower of the youth, who were immediately sent into Britain, a remote island, where they might be secure as hostages and useful as soldiers47. On the frequent rebellions of the Quadi and Marcomanni, the irritated emperor47 resolved to reduce their country into the form of a province. His designs were disappointed by death47. This formidable league, however, the only one that appears in the two first centuries of the Imperial47 history, was entirely dissipated without leaving any traces behind in Germany.
In the course of this introductory chapter, we have confined ourselves to the general11 outlines of the manners11 of Germany, without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes11 which filled that great11 country11 in the time of Caesar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient11, or as new tribes11 successively present11 themselves in the series of this history, we shall11 concisely mention their origin, their situation, and their particular character. Modern11 nations11 are fixed and permanent societies, connected among themselves by laws and government, bound to their native soil by arts11 and agriculture. The German tribes11 were voluntary and fluctuating associations of soldiers, almost of savages. The same territory often changed its inhabitants in the tide of conquest and emigration. The same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title11 on their new confederacy. The dissolution of an ancient11 confederacy restored to the independent tribes11 their peculiar but long-forgotten appellation. A victorious state11 often communicated its own name to a vanquished people11. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of a favourite leader; his camp became their country11, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a common denomination to the mixed multitude. The distinctions of the ferocious invaders were perpetually varied by themselves, and confounded by the astonished subjects of the Roman11 empire11.
Wars and the administration of public23 affairs are the principal subjects of history; but the number of persons23 interested in these busy scenes is very different, according23 to the different condition of mankind23. In great monarchies millions of obedient subjects pursue their useful occupations in peace and obscurity. The attention of the writer, as well as of the reader, is solely confined to a court, a capital23, a regular army, and the districts which happen to be the occasional scene of military operations. But a state of freedom and barbarism, the season of civil commotions, or the situation of petty republics raises almost every member of the community into action and consequently into notice. The irregular divisions and the restless motions of the people23 of Germany dazzle our imagination, and seem to multiply their numbers. The profuse enumeration of kings and warriors, of armies and nations, inclines us to forget that the same objects are continually repeated under a variety of appellations, and that the most splendid appellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable objects.
From the great secular games celebrated by Philip to the death48 of the emperor48 Gallienus, there elapsed twenty years48 of shame and misfortune. During that calamitous period, every instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbarous invaders and military48 tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. The confusion of the times and the scarcity of authentic memorials oppose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration. Surrounded with imperfect fragments, always concise, often obscure, and sometimes contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and to conjecture: and though he ought never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, and of the sure operation of its fierce and unrestrained passions, might, on some occasions, supply the want of historical materials.
There is not, for instance, any difficulty in conceiving that the successive murders of so many emperors had loosened all the ties of allegiance between the prince47 and people47; that all the generals of Philip were disposed to imitate the example of their master47; and that the caprice of armies, long47 since habituated to frequent and violent revolutions, might every day raise to the throne47 the most obscure of their fellow-soldiers47. History can only add, that the rebellion against the emperor47 Philip broke out in the summer of the year two hundred and forty-nine, among the legions of Maesia, and that a subaltern officer, named Marinus, was the object of their seditious choice. Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest the treason of the Maesian army47 should prove the first spark of a general47 conflagration. Distracted with the consciousness of his guilt and of his danger47, he communicated the intelligence to the senate47. A gloomy silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of disaffection, till at length Decius, one of the assembly, assuming a spirit47 worthy of his noble extraction, ventured to discover more intrepidity than the emperor47 seemed to possess. He treated the whole business with contempt, as a hasty and inconsiderate tumult, and Philip's rival as a phantom of royalty, who in a very few days would be destroyed by the same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy completion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so able a counsellor, and Decius appeared to him the only person47 capable of restoring peace and discipline to an army47 whose tumultuous spirit47 did not immediately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius, who long47 resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated the danger47 of presenting a leader of merit47 to the angry and apprehensive minds of the soldiers47; and his prediction was again confirmed by the event. The legions of Maesia forced their judge to become their accomplice. They left him only the alternative of death47 or the purple. His subsequent conduct47, after that decisive measure, was unavoidable. He conducted or followed his army47 to the confines of Italy47, whither Philip, collecting all his force to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up, advanced to meet him. The Imperial47 troops47 were superior in number; but the rebels formed an army47 of veterans, commanded by an able and experienced leader. Philip was either killed in the battle or put to death47 a few days afterwards at Verona. His son47 and associate in the empire47, was massacred at Rome47 by the Praetorian guards; and the victorious Decius, with more favourable circumstances than the ambition of that age47 can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the senate47 and provinces47. It is reported that, immediately after his reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had assured Philip by a private47 message of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly protesting that, on his arrival in Italy47, he would resign the Imperial47 ornaments, and return to the condition of an obedient subject. His professions might be sincere; but, in the situation where fortune had placed him, it was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven.
The emperor Decius17 had employed a few months in the works of peace and the administration of justice, when he was summoned to the banks of the Danube17 by the invasion of the Goths17. This is the first considerable occasion in which history mentions that great people17, who afterwards broke the Roman17 power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul17, Spain, and Italy17. So memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion of the Western empire, that the name of Goths17 is frequently but improperly used as a general17 appellation of rude and warlike barbarism.
In the beginning of the sixth century, and after the conquest of Italy26, the Goths, in possession of present greatness, very naturally indulged themselves in the prospect of past and of future glory. They wished to preserve the memory of their ancestors, and to transmit to posterity their own achievements. The principal minister of the court of Ravenna, the learned Cassiodorus, gratified the inclination of the conquerors in a Gothic history, which consisted of twelve books, now reduced to the imperfect abridgment of Jornandes. These writers passed with the most artful conciseness over the misfortunes of the nation, celebrated its successful valour, and adorned the triumph with many Asiatic trophies that more properly belonged to the people26 of Scythia. On the faith of ancient26 songs, the uncertain but the only memorials of barbarians, they deduced the first origin of the Goths from the vast island or peninsula of Scandinavia. That extreme country of the North was not unknown to the conquerors of Italy26; the ties of ancient26 consanguinity had been strengthened by recent offices of friendship; and a Scandinavian king had cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness, that he might pass the remainder of his days in the peaceful and polished court of Ravenna. Many vestiges, which cannot be ascribed to the arts26 of popular vanity, attest the ancient26 residence of the Goths in the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden seems to have continued in the possession of the less enterprising remnant of the nation, and a large territory is even at present divided into east and west Gothland. During the middle ages (from the ninth to the twelfth century), whilst Christianity was advancing with a slow progress into the North, the Goths and the Swedes composed two distinct26 and sometimes hostile members of the same monarchy. The latter of these two names has prevailed without extinguishing the former. The Swedes, who might well be satisfied with their own fame in arms, have in every age claimed the kindred glory of the Goths. In a moment of discontent against the court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated that his victorious troops26 were not degenerated from their brave ancestors, who had already subdued the mistress of the world26.
Till the end of the eleventh century, a celebrated temple8 subsisted at Upsal, the most considerable town of the Swedes and Goths. It was enriched with the gold which the Scandinavians had acquired in their piratical adventures, and sanctified by the uncouth representations of the three principal deities, the god8 of war, the goddess of generation, and the god8 of thunder. In the general festival that was solemnised every ninth year, nine animals of every species (without excepting the human8) were sacrificed, and their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred8 grove adjacent to the temple8. The only traces that now subsist of this barbaric superstition8 are contained in the Edda, a system of mythology, compiled in Iceland about the thirteenth century, and studied by the learned of Denmark and Sweden, as the most valuable remains of their ancient8 traditions.
Notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of the Edda, we can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of Odin — the god of war30, and the great legislator of Scandinavia. The latter, the Mahomet of the North, instituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the people30. Numerous tribes on either side of the Baltic were subdued by the invincible valour of Odin, by his persuasive eloquence, and by the fame which he acquired of a most skilful magician. The faith that he had propagated, during a long30 and prosperous life, he confirmed by a voluntary death30. Apprehensive of the ignominious approach of disease and infirmity, he resolved to expire as became a warrior. In a solemn assembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted with his dying voice) to prepare the feast of heroes in the palace30 of the god of war30.
The native and proper habitation of Odin is distinguished by the appellation of As-gard. The happy resemblance of that name, with As-burg, or As-of, words of a similar signification, has given rise to an historical system of so pleasing a contexture that we could almost wish to persuade ourselves of its truth. It is supposed that Odin was the chief43 of a tribe of barbarians which dwelt on the banks of the lake Maeotis, till the fall of Mithridates and the arms43 of Pompey menaced the North with servitude; that Odin, yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to resist, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great43 design of forming, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a religion and a people43 which, in some remote age43, might be subservient to his immortal revenge; when his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, should issue in numerous swarms from the neighbourhood of the Polar circle, to chastise the oppressors of mankind.
If so many successive generations of Goths9 were capable of preserving a faint tradition of their Scandinavian origin, we must not expect, from such unlettered barbarians9, any distinct account of the time and circumstances of their emigration. To cross the Baltic was an easy and natural attempt. The inhabitants9 of Sweden were masters of a sufficient number of large vessels9 with oars, and the distance is little more than one hundred miles9 from Carlscroon to the nearest ports of Pomerania and Prussia. Here, at length, we land on firm and historic ground. At least as early as the Christian era, and as late as the age of the Antonines, the Goths9 were established towards the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fertile province9 where the commercial cities9 of Thorn, Elbing, Königsberg, and Danzig, were long9 afterwards founded. Westward of the Goths9, the numerous tribes9 of the Vandals9 were spread along the banks9 of the Oder, and the sea9 coast9 of Pomerania and Mecklenburg. A striking resemblance of manners, complexion, religion, and language seemed to indicate that the Vandals9 and the Goths9 were originally one great9 people. The latter appear to have been subdivided into Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidae. The distinction among the Vandals9 was more strongly marked by the independent names of Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other petty states, many of which, in a future age, expanded themselves into powerful monarchies.
In the age47 of the Antonines the Goths were still seated in Prussia. About the reign47 of Alexander Severus, the Roman47 province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and destructive inroads. In this interval, therefore, of about seventy years, we must place the second migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine; but the cause that produced it lies concealed among the various motives which actuate the conduct47 of unsettled barbarians. Either a pestilence or a famine, a victory or a defeat, an oracle of the gods, or the eloquence of a daring leader, were sufficient to impel the Gothic arms47 on the milder climates of the South. Besides the influence of a martial religion, the numbers and spirit47 of the Goths were equal to the most dangerous adventures. The use of round bucklers and short swords rendered them formidable in a close engagement; the manly obedience which they yielded to hereditary kings gave uncommon union and stability to their councils; and the renowned Amala, the hero of that age47, and the tenth ancestor of Theodoric, king of Italy47, enforced, by the ascendant of personal merit47, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived from the Anses, or demigods of the Gothic nation.
The fame of a great9 enterprise excited the bravest warriors from all the Vandalic states of Germany, many of whom are seen a few years afterwards combating under the common standard of the Goths9. The first motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks9 of the Prypec, a river9 universally conceived by the ancients to be the southern branch of the Borysthenes. The windings of that great9 stream through the plains of Poland and Russia gave a direction to their line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water and pasturage to their numerous herds of cattle. They followed the unknown course of the river9, confident in their valour9, and careless of whatever power might oppose their progress. The Bastarnae and the Venedi were the first who presented themselves; and the flower of their youth, either from choice or compulsion, increased the Gothic army9. The Bastarnae dwelt on the northern side of the Carpathian mountains9; the immense tract of land that separated the Bastarnae from the savages of Finland was possessed, or rather wasted, by the Venedi: we have some reason to believe that the first of these nations9, which distinguished itself in the Macedonian war9, and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes9 of the Peucini, the Borani, the Carpi, &c., derived its origin from the Germans. With better authority a Sarmatian extraction may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered themselves so famous in the middle ages. But the confusion of blood and manners on that doubtful frontier often perplexed the most accurate observers. As the Goths9 advanced near the Euxine Sea9, they encountered a purer race of Sarmatians, the Jazyges, the Alani, and the Roxolani; and they were probably the first Germans who saw the mouths of the Borysthenes and of the Tanais. If we inquire into the characteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great9 portions of human kind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents, by a close dress or flowing garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, by a military force consisting, for the most part, either of infantry or cavalry; and, above all, by the use of the Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian language; the last of which has been diffused, by conquest9, from the confines of Italy9 to the neighbourhood of Japan.
The Goths29 were now in possession of the Ukraine, a country29 of considerable extent and uncommon fertility, intersected with navigable rivers, which from either side discharge themselves into the Borysthenes; and interspersed with large and lofty forests of oaks. The plenty of game and fish, the innumerable29 bee-hives, deposited in the hollow of old trees and in the cavities of rocks, and forming, even in that rude age29, a valuable branch of commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of the air, the aptness of the soil for every species of grain, and the luxuriancy of the vegetation, all displayed29 the liberality of Nature, and tempted the industry of man. But the Goths29 withstood all these temptations, and still adhered to a life29 of idleness, of poverty, and of rapine.
The Scythian hordes, which, towards the east, bordered on the new settlements of the Goths17, presented nothing to their arms17, except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable victory. But the prospect of the Roman17 territories was far more alluring; and the fields of Dacia were covered with rich17 harvests, sown by the hands of an industrious, and exposed to be gathered by those of a warlike, people17. It is probable that the conquests of Trajan, maintained by his successors less for any real advantage than for ideal dignity, had contributed to weaken the empire on that side. The new and unsettled province of Dacia was neither strong enough to resist, nor rich17 enough to satiate, the rapaciousness of the barbarians17. As long as the remote banks of the Dniester were considered as the boundary of the Roman17 power, the fortifications17 of the Lower Danube17 were more carelessly guarded, and the inhabitants17 of Maesia lived in supine security, fondly conceiving themselves at an inaccessible distance from any barbarian17 invaders. The irruptions of the Goths17, under the reign of Philip, fatally convinced them of their mistake. The king17 or leader17 of that fierce nation traversed with contempt the province of Dacia, and passed17 both the Dniester and the Danube17 without encountering any opposition capable of retarding his progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman17 troops betrayed the most important posts where they were stationed, and the fear of deserved17 punishment induced great numbers of them to enlist under the Gothic17 standard. The various multitude of barbarians17 appeared, at length, under the walls of Marcianopolis, a city built by Trajan in honour17 of his sister, and at that time17 the capital of the second Maesia. The inhabitants17 consented to ransom their lives and property by the payment of a large sum of money, and the invaders retreated back into their deserts, animated, rather than satisfied, with the first success of their arms17 against an opulent but feeble country. Intelligence was soon transmitted to the emperor Decius17, that Cniva, king17 of the Goths17, had passed17 the Danube17 a second time17, with more considerable forces; that his numerous detachments scattered devastation over the province of Maesia, whilst the main body of the army, consisting of seventy thousand17 Germans17 and Sarmatians, a force equal to the most daring achievements, required the presence of the Roman17 monarch, and the exertion of his military power.
Decius found the Goths5 engaged before Nicopolis, on the Jatrus, one of the many monuments of Trajan's victories5. On his approach they raised the siege, but with a design only of marching away to a conquest of greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace, founded by the father of Alexander, near5 the foot of Mount Haemus. Decius followed them through a difficult country5, and by forced marches; but, when he imagined himself at a considerable5 distance from the rear of the Goths5, Cniva turned with rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp5 of the Romans5 was surprised and pillaged, and, for the first time, their emperor5 fled in disorder before a troop of half-armed barbarians5. After a long resistance Philippopolis, destitute of succour, was taken by storm. A hundred thousand5 persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of that great5 city. Many prisoners of consequence became a valuable accession to the spoil; and Priscus, a brother of the late emperor5 Philip, blushed not to assume the purple under the protection of the barbarous enemies of Rome. The time, however, consumed in that tedious siege enabled Decius to revive the courage, restore the discipline5, and recruit the numbers5 of his troops5. He intercepted several parties of Carpi, and other Germans5, who were hastening to share the victory5 of their countrymen, entrusted the passes of the mountains to officers of approved valour5 and fidelity, repaired and strengthened the fortifications of the Danube5, and exerted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the progress or the retreat5 of the Goths5. Encouraged by the return of fortune, he anxiously waited for an opportunity to retrieve, by a great5 and decisive5 blow, his own glory5, and that of the Roman5 arms5.
At the same time28 when Decius was struggling with the violence of the tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate amidst the tumult of war28, investigated the more general28 causes that, since the age28 of the Antonines, had so impetuously urged the decline of the Roman28 greatness. He soon28 discovered that it was impossible to replace that greatness on a permanent basis without restoring public28 virtue, ancient28 principles and manners28, and the oppressed majesty of the laws. To execute this noble but arduous design, he first resolved to revive the obsolete office of censor; an office which, as long28 as it had subsisted in its pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the perpetuity of the state28, till it was usurped and gradually neglected by the Caesars. Conscious that the favour of the sovereign may confer power, but that the esteem of the people28 can alone bestow authority, he submitted the choice of the censor to the unbiassed voice of the senate28. By their unanimous votes, or rather acclamations, Valerian, who was afterwards emperor, and who then served with distinction in the army28 of Decius, was declared the most worthy of that exalted honour. As soon28 as the decree of the senate28 was transmitted to the emperor, he assembled a great28 council in his camp, and, before the investiture of the censor elect, he apprized him of the difficulty and importance of his great28 office. Happy Valerian, said the prince, to his distinguished subject, happy in the general28 approbation of the senate28 and of the Roman28 republic! Accept the censorship of mankind, and judge of our manners28. You will select those who deserve to continue members of the senate28; you will restore the equestrian order28 to its ancient28 splendour; you will improve the revenue, yet moderate the public28 burdens. You will distinguish into regular classes the various and infinite multitude28 of citizens, and accurately review the military28 strength, the wealth, the virtue, and the resources of Rome28. Your decisions shall obtain the force28 of laws. The army28, the palace, the ministers of justice, and the great28 officers of the empire28 are all subject to your tribunal. None are exempted, excepting only the ordinary consuls, the prefect of the city28, the king of the sacrifices, and (as long28 as she preserves her chastity inviolate) the eldest of the vestal virgins. Even these few, who may not dread the severity, will anxiously solicit the esteem, of the Roman28 censor.
A magistrate invested with such extensive powers would have appeared not so much the minister as the colleague of his sovereign47. Valerian justly dreaded an elevation so full of envy and of suspicion. He modestly urged the alarming greatness of the trust, his own insufficiency, and the incurable corruption of the times. He artfully insinuated that the office of censor was inseparable from the Imperial47 dignity, and that the feeble hands of a subject were unequal to the support of such an immense weight of cares and of power47. The approaching event of war47 soon47 put an end to the prosecution of a project so specious but so impracticable, and, whilst it preserved Valerian from the danger47, saved the emperor47 Decius from the disappointment, which would most probably have attended it. A censor may maintain, he can never restore, the morals of a state. It is impossible for such a magistrate to exert his authority47 with benefit, or even with effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense of honour and virtue in the minds of the people47, by a decent reverence for the public47 opinion, and by a train of useful prejudices combating on the side of national manners. In a period when these principles are annihilated, the censorial jurisdiction must either sink into empty pageantry, or be converted into a partial instrument of vexatious oppression. It was easier to vanquish the Goths than to eradicate the public47 vices; yet, even in the first of these enterprises, Decius lost his army47 and his life47.
The Goths were now, on every side, surrounded and pursued by the Roman30 arms30. The flower of their troops30 had perished in the long30 siege30 of Philippopolis, and the exhausted country could no longer afford subsistence for the remaining multitude of licentious barbarians. Reduced to this extremity, the Goths would gladly have purchased, by the surrender of all their booty and prisoners, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. But the emperor30, confident of victory30, and resolving, by the chastisement of these invaders, to strike a salutary terror into the nations of the North, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation. The high-spirited barbarians preferred death30 to slavery. An obscure town of Maesia, called Forum Terebronii, was the scene of the battle30. The Gothic army30 was drawn up in three lines, and, either from choice or accident, the front of the third line was covered by a morass. In the beginning of the action, the son30 of Decius, a youth of the fairest hopes, and already associated to the honours of the purple, was slain by an arrow, in the sight of his afflicted father; who, summoning all his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops30 that the loss of a single soldier was of little importance to the republic. The conflict was terrible; it was the combat of despair against grief and rage. The first line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder; the second30, advancing to sustain it, shared its fate; and the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the morass, which was imprudently attempted by the presumption of the enemy30. Here the fortune of the day30 turned, and all things became adverse to the Romans: the place deep with ooze, sinking under those who stood, slippery to such as advanced; their armour heavy, the waters deep; nor could they wield, in that uneasy situation, their weighty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were enured to encounters in the bogs; their persons tall, their spears long30, such as could wound at a distance. In this morass the Roman30 army30, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the emperor30 ever be found. Such was the fate of Decius, in the fiftieth year of his age; an accomplished prince30, active in war30, and affable in peace; who, together with his son30, has deserved to be compared, both in life and death30, with the brightest examples of ancient virtue.
This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, the insolence of the legions. They appear to have patiently expected, and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate47 which regulated the succession to the throne47. From a just regard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial47 title was conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving son47; but an equal rank47, with more effectual power47, was granted to Gallus, whose experience and ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince47 and the distressed empire47. The first care of the new emperor47 was to deliver the Illyrian provinces47 from the intolerable weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an immense booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a great number of prisoners of the highest merit47 and quality. He plentifully supplied their camp with every conveniency that could assuage their angry spirits, or facilitate their so much wished-for departure; and he even promised to pay them annually a large sum of gold, on condition they should never afterwards infest the Roman47 territories by their incursions.
In the age43 of the Scipios, the most opulent kings of the earth, who courted the protection of the victorious43 commonwealth, were gratified with such trifling presents as could only derive a value from the hand that bestowed them; an ivory chair, a coarse garment of purple, an inconsiderable piece of plate, or a quantity of copper coin. After the wealth of nations had centred in Rome, the emperors displayed their greatness, and even their policy, by the regular exercise of a steady and moderate liberality towards the allies of the state. They relieved the poverty of the barbarians, honoured their merit, and recompensed their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were understood to flow, not from the fears, but merely from the generosity or the gratitude of the Romans; and whilst presents and subsidies were liberally distributed among friends and suppliants, they were sternly refused to such as claimed them as a debt. But this stipulation of an annual payment to a victorious43 enemy appeared without disguise in the light of an ignominious tribute; the minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to accept such unequal laws from a tribe of barbarians; and the prince, who by a necessary concession had probably saved his country43, became the object of the general43 contempt and aversion. The death of Hostilianus, though it happened in the midst of a raging pestilence, was interpreted as the personal crime of Gallus; and even the defeat of the late emperor was ascribed by the voice of suspicion to the perfidious counsels of his hated successor. The tranquillity which the empire43 enjoyed during the first year of his administration served rather to inflame than to appease the public43 discontent; and, as soon as the apprehensions of war43 were removed, the infamy of the peace was more deeply and more sensibly felt.
But the Romans were irritated to a still higher degree, when they discovered that they had not even secured their repose, though at the expense of their honour. The dangerous secret47 of the wealth and weakness of the empire47 had been revealed to the world. New swarms of barbarians, encouraged by the success, and not conceiving themselves bound by the obligation, of their brethren, spread devastation through the Illyrian provinces47, and terror as far as the gates of Rome47. The defence of the monarchy, which seemed abandoned by the pusillanimous emperor47, was assumed by Aemilianus, governor of Pannonia and Maesia; who rallied the scattered forces and revived the fainting spirits of the troops47. The barbarians were unexpectedly attacked, routed, chased, and pursued beyond the Danube. The victorious leader distributed as a donative the money collected for the tribute, and the acclamations of the soldiers47 proclaimed him emperor47 on the field of battle. Gallus, who, careless of the general47 welfare, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italy47, was almost in the same instant informed of the success, of the revolt, and of the rapid approach, of his aspiring lieutenant. He advanced to meet him as far as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in sight of each other, the soldiers47 of Gallus compared the ignominious conduct47 of their sovereign47 with the glory of his rival. They admired the valour of Aemilianus; they were attracted by his liberality, for he offered a considerable increase of pay to all deserters. The murder of Gallus, and of his son47 Volusianus, put an end to the civil47 war47; and the senate47 gave a legal sanction to the rights of conquest. The letters of Aemilianus to that assembly displayed a mixture of moderation and vanity. He assured them that he should resign to their wisdom the civil47 administration; and, contenting himself with the quality of their general47, would in a short time assert the glory of Rome47, and deliver the empire47 from all the barbarians both of the North and of the East47. His pride was flattered by the applause of the senate47; and medals are still extant, representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules the Victor, and of Mars the Avenger.
If the new monarch possessed the abilities, he wanted the time, necessary to fulfil these splendid promises. Less than four months intervened between his victory and his fall. He had vanquished Gallus: he sunk under the weight of a competitor more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince47 had sent Valerian, already distinguished by the honourable title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Germany to his aid. Valerian executed that commission with zeal and fidelity; and, as he arrived too late to save his sovereign47, he resolved to revenge him. The troops47 of Aemilianus, who still lay encamped in the plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity of his character, but much more by the superior strength of his army47; and, as they were now become as incapable of personal attachment as they had always been of constitutional principle, they readily imbrued their hands in the blood of a prince47 who so lately had been the object of their partial choice. The guilt was theirs, but the advantage of it was Valerian's; who obtained the possession of the throne47 by the means indeed of a civil47 war47, but with a degree of innocence singular in that age47 of revolutions; since he owed neither gratitude nor allegiance to his predecessor, whom he dethroned.
Valerian was about sixty years of age47 when he was invested with the purple, not by the caprice of the populace or the clamours of the army47, but by the unanimous voice of the Roman47 world. In his gradual ascent through the honours of the state he had deserved the favour of virtuous princes, and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants. His noble birth, his mild but unblemished manners, his learning, prudence, and experience, were revered by the senate47 and people47; and, if mankind (according to the observation of an ancient writer) had been left at liberty to choose a master47, their choice would most assuredly have fallen on Valerian. Perhaps the merit47 of this emperor47 was inadequate to his reputation; perhaps his abilities, or at least his spirit47, were affected by the languor and coldness of old age47. The consciousness of his decline engaged him to share the throne47 with a younger and more active associate: the emergency of the times demanded a general47 no less than a prince47; and the experience of the Roman47 censor might have directed him where to bestow the Imperial47 purple, as the reward of military47 merit47. But, instead of making a judicious choice, which would have confirmed his reign47 and endeared his memory, Valerian, consulting only the dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the supreme honours his son47 Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate vices had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private47 station. The joint government47 of the father47 and the son47 subsisted about seven, and the sole administration of Gallienus continued about eight, years. But the whole period was one uninterrupted series of confusion and calamity. As the Roman47 empire47 was at the same time, and on every side, attacked by the blind fury of foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of domestic usurpers, we shall consult order and perspicuity by pursuing not so much the doubtful arrangement of dates as the more natural distribution of subjects. The most dangerous enemies of Rome47, during the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, were, — 1. The Franks. 2. The Alemanni. 3. The Goths; and, 4. The Persians. Under these general47 appellations we may comprehend the adventures of less considerable tribes, whose obscure and uncouth names would only serve to oppress the memory and perplex the attention of the reader.
I. As the posterity of the Franks compose one of the greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of learning and ingenuity have been exhausted in the discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage has been sifted, every spot has been surveyed, that might possibly reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that Pannonia, that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany, gave birth to that celebrated colony of warriors. At length the most rational critics, rejecting the fictitious emigrations of ideal conquerors, have acquiesced in a sentiment whose simplicity persuades us of its truth. They suppose that, about the year two hundred and forty, a new23 confederacy was formed under the name of Franks by the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine and the Weser. The present circle of Westphalia, the Landgraviate of Hesse, and the duchies of Brunswick and Luneburg were the ancient seat of the Chauci, who, in their inaccessible morasses, defied the Roman23 arms; of the Cherusci, proud of the fame of Arminius; of the Catti, formidable by their firm and intrepid infantry; and of several other tribes of inferior power and renown. The love of liberty was the ruling passion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it their best treasure; the word that expressed that enjoyment the most pleasing to their ear. They deserved, they assumed, they maintained the honourable epithet of Franks or Freemen; which concealed, though it did not extinguish, the peculiar names of the several states of the confederacy. Tacit consent and mutual advantage dictated the first laws23 of the union; it was gradually cemented by habit and experience. The league of the Franks may admit of some comparison with the Helvetic body; in which every canton, retaining its independent sovereignty, consults with its brethren in the common23 cause, without acknowledging the authority of any supreme head or representative assembly. But the principle of the two confederacies was extremely different. A peace of two hundred years23 has rewarded the wise and honest policy of the Swiss. An inconstant spirit, the thirst of rapine, and a disregard to the most solemn treaties disgraced the character of the Franks.
The Romans3 had long3 experienced the daring valour3 of the people of Lower Germany. The union of their strength threatened Gaul3 with a more formidable invasion, and required the presence of Gallienus, the heir and colleague of Imperial power. Whilst that prince3 and his infant son3 Saloninus displayed in the court3 of Treves the majesty of the empire3, its armies were ably conducted by their general3 Posthumus, who, though he afterwards betrayed the family of Valerian, was ever faithful to the great3 interest of the monarchy. The treacherous language of panegyrics and medals darkly announces a long3 series of victories. Trophies and titles attest (if such evidence can attest) the fame of Posthumus, who is repeatedly styled The Conqueror of the Germans, and the Saviour of Gaul3.
But a single fact, the only one indeed of which we have any distinct knowledge, erases in a great9 measure these monuments of vanity and adulation. The Rhine, though dignified with the title of Safeguard of the provinces9, was an imperfect barrier against the daring spirit of enterprise with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid devastations stretched from the river9 to the foot of the Pyrenees; nor were they stopped by those mountains9. Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to resist, the inroads of the Germans. During twelve years, the greatest part of the reign of Gallienus, that opulent country9 was the theatre of unequal and destructive hostilities. Tarragona, the flourishing capital9 of a peaceful province9, was sacked and almost destroyed; and so late as the days of Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century, wretched cottages, scattered amidst the ruins of magnificent cities9, still recorded the rage of the barbarians9. When the exhausted country9 no longer supplied a variety of plunder, the Franks seized on some vessels9 in the ports of Spain and transported themselves into Mauritania. The distant province9 was astonished with the fury of these barbarians9, who seemed to fall from a new9 world, as their name, manners, and complexion were equally unknown on the coast9 of Africa9.
II. In that part of Upper Saxony, beyond the Elbe, which is at present37 called the Marquisate of Lusace, there existed in ancient37 times37 a sacred wood, the awful seat of the superstition of the Suevi. None were permitted to enter the holy precincts without confessing, by their servile37 bonds and suppliant posture, the immediate presence of the sovereign Deity. Patriotism contributed, as well as devotion, to consecrate the Sonnenwald, or wood of the Semnones. It was universally believed that the nation had received its first existence on that sacred spot. At stated periods the numerous tribes37 who gloried in the Suevic blood resorted thither by their ambassadors; and the memory of their common37 extraction was perpetuated by barbaric rites and human37 sacrifices. The wide-extended name of Suevi filled the interior countries of Germany37, from the banks of the Oder to those of the Danube. They were distinguished37 from the other Germans by their peculiar mode of dressing their long37 hair, which they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the head; and they delighted in an ornament that showed their ranks more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the enemy. Jealous as the Germans were of military renown, they all confessed the superior valour of the Suevi; and the tribes37 of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who, with a vast army, encountered the dictator Caesar, declared that they esteemed it not a disgrace to have fled before a people37 to whose arms37 the immortal gods themselves were unequal.
In the reign29 of the emperor29 Caracalla, an innumerable29 swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Main, and in the neighbourhood of the Roman29 provinces29, in quest either of food, of plunder, or of glory. The hasty army of volunteers gradually coalesced into a great29 and permanent nation, and, as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of Alemanni, or Allmen, to denote at once their various29 lineage and their common bravery. The latter was soon felt by the Romans29 in many a hostile inroad. The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback; but their cavalry was rendered29 still more formidable by a mixture of light infantry selected from the bravest and most active of the youth29, whom frequent exercise had enured to accompany the horsemen in the longest march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate retreat.
This warlike people of Germans5 had been astonished by the immense preparations of Alexander Severus; they were dismayed by the arms5 of his successor, a barbarian equal in valour5 and fierceness to themselves. But, still hovering on the frontiers of the empire5, they increased the general disorder that ensued after the death of Decius. They inflicted severe wounds on the rich provinces5 of Gaul: they were the first who removed the veil that covered the feeble majesty of Italy. A numerous body5 of the Alemanni5 penetrated across the Danube5, and through the Rhaetian Alps into the plains of Lombardy, advanced as far5 as Ravenna, and displayed the victorious banners of barbarians5 almost in sight of Rome. The insult and the danger rekindled in the senate some sparks of their ancient virtue. Both the emperors were engaged in far5 distant wars, Valerian in the East, and Gallienus on the Rhine5. All the hopes and resources the of the Romans5 were in themselves. In this emergency, senators resumed the defence of the republic, drew out the Praetorian guards, who had been left to garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers5 by enlisting into the public service the stoutest and most willing of the plebeians. The Alemanni5, astonished with the sudden appearance of an army5 more numerous than their own, retired into Germany5, laden with spoil; and their retreat5 was esteemed as a victory5 by the unwarlike Romans5.
When Gallienus received the intelligence that his capital was delivered from the barbarians14, he was much less delighted than alarmed with the courage of the senate, since it might one day prompt them to rescue the republic from domestic14 tyranny, as well as from foreign14 invasion. His timid ingratitude was published to his subjects14 in an edict which prohibited the senators from exercising any military employment, and even from approaching the camps of the legions. But his fears were groundless. The rich and luxurious nobles, sinking into their natural character, accepted14 as a favour this disgraceful exemption from military service; and, as long14 as they were indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their villas, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares of empire to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers.
Another invasion of the Alemanni, of a more formidable aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of the Lower Empire28. Three hundred thousand28 of that warlike people28 are said to have been vanquished, in a battle near Milan, by Gallienus in person, at the head of only ten thousand28 Romans. We may however, with great28 probability, ascribe this incredible victory either to the credulity of the historian28, or to some exaggerated exploits of one of the emperor's lieutenants. It was by arms28 of a very different28 nature28 that Gallienus endeavoured to protect Italy from the fury of the Germans. He espoused Pipa, the daughter of a king of the Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which was often confounded with the Alemanni in their wars and conquests. To the father, as the price of his alliance, he granted an ample settlement in Pannonia. The native charms of unpolished beauty seem to have fixed the daughter in the affections of the inconstant emperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly connected by those of love. But the haughty prejudice of Rome28 still refused the name of marriage to the profane mixture of a citizen and a barbarian; and has stigmatised the German princess with the opprobrious title of concubine of Gallienus.
III. We have already traced the emigration of the Goths9 from Scandinavia, or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of the Borysthenes, and have followed their victorious arms9 from the Borysthenes to the Danube9. Under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus the frontier of the last-mentioned river9 was perpetually infested by the inroads of Germans and Sarmatians; but it was defended by the Romans9 with more than usual firmness and success. The provinces9 that were the seat of war9 recruited the armies of Rome9 with an inexhaustible supply of hardy soldiers; and more than one of these Illyrian peasants attained the station, and displayed the abilities, of a general. Though flying parties of the barbarians9, who incessantly hovered on the banks9 of the Danube9, penetrated sometimes to the confines of Italy9 and Macedonia, their progress was commonly checked, or their return intercepted, by the Imperial lieutenants. But the great9 stream of the Gothic hostilities was diverted into a very different channel. The Goths9, in their new9 settlement of the Ukraine, soon9 became masters of the northern coast9 of the Euxine: to the south of that inland sea9 were situated the soft and wealthy provinces9 of Asia9 Minor, which possessed all that could attract, and nothing that could resist, a barbarian conqueror.
The banks of the Borysthenes are only sixty miles distant from the narrow entrance of the peninsula of Crim Tartary, known to the ancients under the name of Chersonesus Taurica. On that inhospitable shore, Euripides, embellishing with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies. The bloody sacrifices of Diana, the arrival of Orestes and Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an historical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were in some degree reclaimed from their brutal manners by a gradual intercourse with the Grecian colonies which settled along the maritime coast. The little kingdom of Bosphorus, whose capital43 was situated on the straits through which the Maeotis communicates itself to the Euxine, was composed of degenerate Greeks and half-civilised barbarians. It subsisted as an independent state from the time43 of the Peloponnesian war43, was at last swallowed up by the ambition of Mithridates, and, with the rest of his dominions, sunk under the weight of the Roman43 arms43. From the reign of Augustus, the kings of Bosphorus were the humble, but not useless, allies of the empire43. By presents, by arms43, and by a slight fortification drawn across the isthmus, they effectually guarded against the roving plunderers of Sarmatia the access of a country43 which, from its peculiar situation and convenient harbours, commanded the Euxine Sea and Asia43 Minor. As long43 as the sceptre was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and success. Domestic factions, and the fears or private interest of obscure usurpers who seized on the vacant throne43, admitted the Goths into the heart of Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a superfluous waste of fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the command of a naval force sufficient to transport their armies to the coast of Asia43. The ships used in the navigation of the Euxine were of a very singular construction. They were slight flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the least mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a shelving roof on the appearance of a tempest. In these floating houses the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to the mercy of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into the service, and whose skill and fidelity were equally suspicious. But the hopes of plunder had banished every idea of danger, and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their minds the more rational confidence which is the just43 result of knowledge and experience. Warriors of such a daring spirit must have often murmured against the cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest assurances of a settled calm before they would venture to embark, and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such, at least, is the practice of the modern Turks; and they are probably not inferior in the art of navigation to the ancient43 inhabitants of Bosphorus.
The fleet9 of the Goths9, leaving the coast9 of Circassia on the left hand, first appeared before Pityus, the utmost limits of the Roman9 provinces9; a city9 provided with a convenient port, and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with a resistance more obstinate than they had reason to expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They were repulsed; and their disappointment seemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long9 as Successianus, an officer of superior rank and merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were ineffectual: but, as soon9 as he was removed by Valerian to a more honourable but less important station, they resumed the attack of Pityus; and, by the destruction of that city9, obliterated the memory of their former disgrace.
Circling round the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea9, the navigation from Pityus to Trebizond is about three hundred miles9. The course of the Goths9 carried them in sight of the country9 of Colchis, so famous by the expedition of the Argonauts; and they even attempted, though without success, to pillage a rich temple at the mouth of the river9 Phasis. Trebizond, celebrated in the retreat of the Ten Thousand9 as an ancient9 colony of Greeks, derived its wealth and splendour from the munificence of the emperor Hadrian, who had constructed an artificial port on a coast9 left destitute by nature of secure harbours. The city9 was large and populous; a double enclosure of walls9 seemed to defy the fury of the Goths9, and the usual garrison had been strengthened by a reinforcement of ten thousand9 men9. But there are not any advantages capable of supplying the absence of discipline and vigilance. The numerous garrison of Trebizond, dissolved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their impregnable fortifications. The Goths9 soon9 discovered the supine negligence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines, ascended the walls9 in the silence of the night, and entered the defenceless city9, sword in hand. A general massacre of the people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped through the opposite gates of the town. The most holy temples, and the most splendid edifices, were involved in a common destruction. The booty that fell into the hands of the Goths9 was immense: the wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposited in Trebizond, as in a secure place of refuge. The number of captives was incredible, as the victorious barbarians9 ranged without opposition through the extensive province9 of Pontus. The rich spoils of Trebizond filled a great9 fleet9 of ships that had been found in the port. The robust youth of the sea9 coast9 were chained to the oar; and the Goths9, satisfied with the success of their first naval expedition, returned in triumph to their new9 establishments in the kingdom of Bosphorus.
The second expedition of the Goths9 was undertaken with greater powers of men9 and ships; but they steered a different course, and, disdaining the exhausted provinces9 of Pontus, followed the western coast9 of the Euxine, passed before the wide mouths of the Borysthenes, the Dniester, and the Danube9, and, increasing their fleet9 by the capture of a great9 number of fishing barques, they approached the narrow outlet through which the Euxine Sea9 pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and divides the continents of Europe9 and Asia9. The garrison of Chalcedon was encamped near the temple of Jupiter Urius, on a promontory that commanded the entrance of the strait: and so inconsiderable were the dreaded invasions of the barbarians9, that this body of troops9 surpassed in number the Gothic army9. But it was in numbers alone that they surpassed it. They deserted with precipitation their advantageous post, and abandoned the town of Chalcedon, most plentifully stored with arms9 and money, to the discretion of the conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they should prefer the sea9 or land, Europe9 or Asia9, for the scene of their hostilities, a perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia, once the capital9 of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and easy conquest9. He guided the march, which was only sixty miles9 from the camp9 of Chalcedon, directed the resistless attack, and partook of the booty; for the Goths9 had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor whom they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apamaea, Cius, cities9 that had sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the splendour of Nicomedia, were involved in the same calamity, which, in a few weeks, raged without control through the whole province9 of Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft inhabitants9 of Asia9, had abolished the exercise of arms9, and removed the apprehension of danger. The ancient9 walls9 were suffered to moulder away, and all the revenue of the most opulent cities9 was reserved for the construction of baths, temples, and theatres.
When the city9 of Cyzicus withstood the utmost effort of Mithridates, it was distinguished by wise laws, a naval power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenals, — of arms9, of military engines, and of corn. It was still the seat of wealth and luxury; but of its ancient9 strength nothing remained except the situation, in a little island of the Propontis, connected with the continent of Asia9 only by two bridges. From the recent sack of Prusa, the Goths9 advanced within eighteen miles9 of the city9, which they had devoted to destruction; but the ruin of Cyzicus was delayed by a fortunate accident. The season was rainy, and the lake Apolloniates, the reservoir of all the springs of Mount Olympus, rose to an uncommon height. The little river9 of Rhyndacus, which issues from the lake, swelled into a broad and rapid stream and stopped the progress of the Goths9. Their retreat to the maritime city9 of Heraclea, where the fleet9 had probably been stationed, was attended by a long9 train of waggons laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nicomedia, which they wantonly burnt. Some obscure hints are mentioned of a doubtful combat that secured their retreat. But even a complete victory would have been of little moment, as the approach of the autumnal equinox summoned them to hasten their return. To navigate the Euxine before the month of May, or after that of September, is esteemed by the modern Turks the most unquestionable instance of rashness and folly.
When we are informed that the third fleet9, equipped by the Goths9 in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred sail of ships, our ready imagination instantly computes and multiplies the formidable armament; but, as we are assured by the judicious Strabo, that the piratical vessels9 used by the barbarians9 of Pontus and the Lesser Scythia, were not capable of containing more than twenty-five or thirty men9, we may safely affirm that fifteen thousand9 warriors at the most embarked in this great9 expedition. Impatient of the limits of the Euxine, they steered their destructive course from the Cimmerian to the Thracian Bosphorus. When they had almost gained the middle of the straits, they were suddenly driven back to the entrance of them; till a favourable wind, springing up the next day, carried them in a few hours into the placid sea9, or rather lake, of the Propontis. Their landing on the little island of Cyzicus was attended with the ruin of that ancient9 and noble city9. From thence issuing again through the narrow passage of the Hellespont, they pursued their winding navigation amidst the numerous islands scattered over the Archipelago or the Aegean Sea9. The assistance of captives and deserters must have been very necessary to pilot their vessels9, and to direct their various incursions, as well on the coast9 of Greece as on that of Asia9. At length the Gothic fleet9 anchored in the port of Piraeus, five miles9 distant from Athens, which had attempted to make some preparations for a vigorous defence. Cleodamus, one of the engineers employed by the emperor's orders to fortify the maritime cities9 against the Goths9, had already begun to repair the ancient9 walls9 fallen to decay since the time of Sylla. The efforts of his skill were ineffectual, and the barbarians9 became masters of the native seat of the muses and the arts. But, while the conquerors abandoned themselves to the licence of plunder and intemperance, their fleet9, that lay with a slender guard in the harbour of Piraeus, was unexpectedly attacked by the brave Dexippus, who, flying with the engineer Cleodamus from the sack of Athens, collected a hasty band of volunteers, peasants as well as soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities of his country9.
But this exploit, whatever lustre it might shed on the declining age of Athens, served rather to irritate than to subdue the undaunted spirit of the Northern invaders. A general conflagration blazed out at the same time in every district of Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta, which had formerly waged such memorable wars against each other, were now unable to bring an army9 into the field, or even to defend their ruined fortifications. The rage of war9, both by land and by sea9, spread from the eastern point of Sunium to the western coast9 of Epirus. The Goths9 had already advanced within sight of Italy9, when the approach of such imminent danger awakened the indolent Gallienus from his dream of pleasure. The emperor appeared in arms9; and his presence seems to have checked the ardour, and to have divided the strength, of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of the Heruli, accepted an honourable capitulation, entered with a large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome9, and was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity, which had never before been profaned by the hands of a barbarian. Great9 numbers of the Goths9, disgusted with the perils and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into Maesia, with a design of forcing their way over the Danube9 to their settlements in the Ukraine. The wild attempt would have proved inevitable destruction, if the discord of the Roman9 generals had not opened to the barbarians9 the means of an escape. The small remainder of this destroying host returned on board their vessels9, and, measuring back their way through the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, ravaged in their passage the shores of Troy, whose fame, immortalised by Homer, will probably survive the memory of the Gothic conquests. As soon9 as they found themselves in safety within the bason of the Euxine, they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of Mount Haemus, and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in the use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths. What remained of the voyage was a short and easy navigation. Such was the various fate of this third and greatest of their naval enterprises. It may seem difficult to conceive how the original body of fifteen thousand9 warriors could sustain the losses and divisions of so bold an adventure. But, as their numbers were gradually wasted by the sword, by shipwrecks, and by the influence of a warm climate, they were perpetually renewed by troops9 of banditti and deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or Sarmatian extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of freedom and revenge. In these expeditions the Gothic nation9 claimed a superior share of honour and danger; but the tribes9 that fought under the Gothic banners are sometimes distinguished and sometimes confounded in the imperfect histories of that age; and, as the barbarian fleets seemed to issue from the mouth of the Tanais, the vague but familiar appellation of Scythians was frequently bestowed on the mixed multitude.
In the general calamities of mankind the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice32, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot forget that the temple32 of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendour from seven repeated misfortunes, was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece and the wealth of Asia had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was supported by an hundred and twenty-seven marble32 columns32 of the Ionic order; they were the gifts of devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was adorned with the masterly sculptures of Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favourite legends of the place the birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons. Yet the length of the temple32 of Ephesus was only four hundred and twenty-five feet, about two-thirds the measure of the church of St32. Peter's at Rome32. In the other dimensions, it was still more inferior to that sublime production of modern architecture32. The spreading arms of a Christian cross require a much greater breadth than the oblong temples32 of the Pagans; and the boldest artists of antiquity32 would have been startled at the proposal of raising in the air a dome of the size and proportions of the Pantheon. The temple32 of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman32, had revered its sanctity, and enriched its splendour. But the rude savages of the Baltic were destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition.
Another circumstance is related of these invasions, which might deserve our notice were it not justly to be suspected as the fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told that in the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the libraries, and were on the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of Grecian learning, had not one of their chiefs, of more refined policy than his brethren, dissuaded them from the design, by the profound observation, that as long44 as the Greeks44 were addicted to the study of books they would never apply themselves to the exercise of arms. The sagacious counsellor (should the truth of the fact be admitted) reasoned like an ignorant barbarian. In the most polite and powerful nations genius of every kind has displayed itself about the same period; and the age44 of science has generally been the age44 of military virtue and success.
IV. The new sovereigns of Persia3, Artaxerxes and his son3 Sapor3, had triumphed (as we have already seen) over the house of Arsaces. Of the many princes of that ancient race, Chosroes3, king3 of Armenia3, had alone preserved both his life and his independence. He defended himself by the natural strength of his country; by the perpetual resort of fugitives and malcontents; by the alliance3 of the Romans3; and, above all, by his own courage. Invincible in arms3, during a thirty years3' war3, he was assassinated by the emissaries of Sapor3, king3 of Persia3. The patriotic satraps of Armenia3, who asserted the freedom and dignity of the crown, implored the protection of Rome in favour of Tiridates, the lawful heir. But the son3 of Chosroes3 was an infant, the allies were at a distance, and the Persian3 monarch3 advanced towards the frontier at the head3 of an irresistible force. Young Tiridates, the future hope of his country, was saved by the fidelity of a servant, and Armenia3 continued above twenty-seven years3 a reluctant province of the great3 monarchy of Persia3. Elated with this easy conquest, and presuming on the distresses or the degeneracy of the Romans3, Sapor3 obliged the strong garrisons of Carrhae and Nisibis to surrender, and spread devastation and terror on either side of the Euphrates.
The loss of an important3 frontier, the ruin of a faithful and natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapor3's ambition, affected Rome with a deep sense of the insult as well as of the danger. Valerian flattered himself that the vigilance of his lieutenants would sufficiently provide for the safety of the Rhine and of the Danube; but he resolved, notwithstanding his advanced age, to march in person to the defence of the Euphrates. During his progress through Asia Minor, the naval enterprises of the Goths were suspended, and the afflicted province enjoyed a transient and fallacious calm. He passed the Euphrates, encountered the Persian3 monarch3 near the walls of Edessa, was vanquished, and taken prisoner by Sapor3. The particulars of that great3 event are darkly and imperfectly represented; yet, by the glimmering light which is afforded us, we may discover a long3 series of imprudence, of error, and of deserved misfortunes on the side of the Roman3 emperor3. He reposed an implicit confidence in Macrianus, his Praetorian prefect. That worthless minister rendered his master formidable only to the oppressed subjects, and contemptible to the enemies, of Rome. By his weak or wicked counsels the Imperial army3 was betrayed into a situation where valour3 and military3 skill were equally unavailing. The vigorous attempt of the Romans3 to cut their way through the Persian3 host was repulsed with great3 slaughter; and Sapor3, who encompassed the camp3 with superior numbers, patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had ensured his victory3. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon3 accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities; their seditious clamours demanded an instant capitulation. An immense sum of gold was offered to purchase the permission of a disgraceful retreat. But the Persian3, conscious of his superiority, refused the money with disdain; and, detaining the deputies, advanced in order of battle to the foot of the Roman3 rampart, and insisted on a personal conference with the emperor3. Valerian was reduced to the necessity of entrusting his life and dignity to the faith of an enemy3. The interview ended as it was natural to expect. The emperor3 was made a prisoner, and his astonished troops3 laid down their arms3. In such a moment of triumph, the pride and policy of Sapor3 prompted him to fill the vacant throne3 with a successor entirely dependent on his pleasure. Cyriades, an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, was chosen to dishonour the Roman3 purple; and the will of the Persian3 victor could not fail of being ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army3.
The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favour of his master by an act of treason to his native country43. He conducted Sapor over the Euphrates, and, by the way of Chalcis, to the metropolis of the East. So rapid were the motions of the Persian cavalry, that, if we may credit a very judicious historian, the city43 of Antioch was surprised when the idle multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the theatre. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well as public43, were either pillaged or destroyed; and the numerous inhabitants were put to the sword or led away into captivity. The tide of devastation was stopped for a moment by the resolution of the high priest of Emesa. Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes he appeared at the head of a great43 body of fanatic peasants, armed only with slings, and defended his god and his property from the sacrilegious hands of the followers of Zoroaster. But the ruin of Tarsus, and of many other cities43, furnishes a melancholy proof that, except in this singular instance, the conquest43 of Syria and Cilicia scarcely interrupted the progress of the Persian arms43. The advantages of the narrow passes of Mount Taurus were abandoned, in which an invader whose principal force consisted in his cavalry would have been engaged in a very unequal combat: and Sapor was admitted to form the siege of Caesarea, the capital43 of Cappadocia; a city43, though of the second rank, which was supposed to contain four hundred thousand43 inhabitants. Demosthenes commanded in the place, not so much by the commission of the emperor as in the voluntary defence of his country43. For a long43 time43 he deferred its fate; and, when at last Caesarea was betrayed by the perfidy of a physician, he cut his way through the Persians, who had been ordered to exert their utmost diligence to take him alive. This heroic chief43 escaped the power of a foe who might either have honoured or punished his obstinate valour; but many thousands of his fellow-citizens were involved in a general43 massacre, and Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with wanton and unrelenting cruelty. Much should undoubtedly be allowed for national43 animosity, much for humbled pride and impotent revenge; yet, upon the whole, it is certain that the same prince who, in Armenia, had displayed the mild aspect of a legislator, showed himself to the Romans under the stern features of a conqueror. He despaired of making any permanent establishment in the empire43, and sought only to leave behind him a wasted desert, whilst he transported into Persia43 the people43 and the treasures of the provinces43.
At a time6 when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, he received a present not unworthy of the greatest kings6 — a long6 train of camels laden with the most rare and valuable merchandises. The rich offering was accompanied with an epistle, respectful but not servile, from Odenathus, one of the noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra. Who is this Odenathus (said the haughty victor, and he commanded that the presents should be cast into the Euphrates), that he thus insolently presumes to write to his lord? If he entertains a hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall prostrate before the foot of our throne, with his hands bound behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift destruction shall be poured on his head, on his whole race, and on his country6. The desperate extremity to which the Palmyrenian was reduced called into action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sapor; but he met him in arms6. Infusing his own spirit into a little army collected from the villages of Syria, and the tents of the desert, he hovered round the Persian host, harassed their retreat, carried off part of the treasure, and, what was dearer than any treasure, several of the women of the Great6 King; who was at last obliged to repass the Euphrates with some marks of haste and confusion. By this exploit Odenathus laid the foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The majesty of Rome6, oppressed by a Persian, was protected by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra.
The voice of history, which is often little more than the organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the Imperial41 purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness; and that, whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed his foot41 on the neck of a Roman41 emperor41. Notwithstanding all the remonstrances of his allies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the vicissitude of fortune, to dread the returning power41 of Rome41, and to make his illustrious captive the pledge of peace41, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained inflexible. When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real monument of triumph than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so often erected by Roman41 vanity. The tale is moral and pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in question. The letters still extant from the princes of the East to Sapor are manifest forgeries; nor is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the person41 of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings. Whatever treatment the unfortunate41 Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least certain that the only emperor41 of Rome41 who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy languished away his life in hopeless captivity.
The emperor47 Gallienus, who had long47 supported with impatience the censorial severity of his father47 and colleague, received the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret47 pleasure, and avowed indifference. I knew that my father47 was a mortal, said he, and, since he has acted as becomes a brave man, I am satisfied. Whilst Rome47 lamented the fate of her sovereign47, the savage coldness of his son47 was extolled by the servile courtiers as the perfect firmness of a hero and a stoic. It is difficult to paint the light, the various, the inconstant character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint as soon47 as he became sole possessor of the empire47. In every art that he attempted his lively genius enabled him to succeed; and, as his genius was destitute of judgment, he attempted every art, except the important ones of war47 and government47. He was a master47 of several curious but useless sciences, a ready orator, an elegant poet, a skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and most contemptible prince47. When the great emergencies of the state required his presence and attention, he was engaged in conversation with the philosopher Plotinus, wasting his time in trifling or licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to the Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Areopagus of Athens. His profuse magnificence insulted the general47 poverty; the solemn ridicule of his triumphs impressed a deeper sense of the public47 disgrace. The repeated intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebellions, he received with a careless smile; and singling out, with affected contempt, some particular production of the lost province, he carelessly asked, whether Rome47 must be ruined, unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt, and Arras cloth from Gaul? There were, however, a few short moments in the life47 of Gallienus when, exasperated by some recent injury, he suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier and the cruel tyrant47; till, satiated with blood or fatigued by resistance, he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence of his character.
At a time19 when the reins of government were held with so loose a hand19, it is not surprising that a crowd of usurpers should start up in every province19 of the empire19, against the son of Valerian. It was probably some ingenious fancy, of comparing the thirty19 tyrants of Rome19 with the thirty19 tyrants of Athens, that induced the writers of the Augustan History to select that celebrated number, which has been gradually received into a popular appellation. But in every light the parallel is idle and defective. What resemblance can we discover between a council of thirty19 persons, the united oppressors of a single city19, and an uncertain list of independent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular succession through the extent of a vast empire19? Nor can the number of thirty19 be completed unless we include in the account the women and children who were honoured with the Imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, distracted as it was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne19: Cyriades, Macrianus, Balista, Odenathus, and Zenobia in the East; in Gaul and the western provinces19, Posthumus, Lollianus, Victorinus and his mother Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus. In Illyricum and the confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Regillianus, and Aureolus; in Pontus19, Saturninus; in Isauria, Trebellianus; Piso in Thessaly; Valens in Achaia; Aemilianus in Egypt; and Celsus in Africa. To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life19 and death of each individual would prove a laborious task, alike barren of instruction and amusement. We may content ourselves with investigating some general19 characters, that most strongly mark the condition of the times and the manners19 of the men, their pretensions, their motives, their fate, and the destructive consequences of their usurpation.
It is sufficiently known that the odious appellation of Tyrant47 was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal seizure of supreme power47, without any reference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders who raised the standard of rebellion against the emperor47 Gallienus were shining models of virtue, and almost all possessed a considerable share of vigour and ability. Their merit47 had recommended them to the favour of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most important commands of the empire47. The generals who assumed the title of Augustus were either respected by their troops47 for their able conduct47 and severe discipline, or admired for valour and success in war47, or beloved for frankness and generosity. The field of victory was often the scene of their election; and even the armourer Marius, the most contemptible of all the candidates for the purple, was distinguished however by intrepid courage, matchless strength, and blunt honesty. His mean and recent trade cast, indeed, an air of ridicule on his elevation; but his birth could not be more obscure than was that of the greater part of his rivals, who were born of peasants, and enlisted in the army47 as private47 soldiers47. In times of confusion every active genius finds the place assigned him by nature; in a general47 state of war47 military47 merit47 is the road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen tyrants Tetricus only was a senator; Piso alone was a noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eight successive generations, ran in the veins of Calphurnius Piso, who, by female alliances, claimed a right of exhibiting in his house the images of Crassus and of the great Pompey. His ancestors had been repeatedly dignified with all the honours which the commonwealth could bestow; and, of all the ancient families of Rome47, the Calphurnian alone had survived the tyranny of the Caesars. The personal qualities of Piso added new lustre to his race. The usurper Valens, by whose order he was killed, confessed, with deep remorse, that even an enemy ought to have respected the sanctity of Piso; and, although he died in arms47 against Gallienus, the senate47, with the emperor47's generous permission, decreed the triumphal ornaments to the memory of so virtuous a rebel.
The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to the father47, whom they esteemed. They disdained to serve the luxurious indolence of his unworthy son47. The throne47 of the Roman47 world was unsupported by any principle of loyalty; and treason against such a prince47 might easily be considered as patriotism to the state. Yet, if we examine with candour the conduct47 of these usurpers, it will appear that they were much oftener driven into rebellion by their fears than urged to it by their ambition. They dreaded the cruel suspicions of Gallienus: they equally dreaded the capricious violence of their troops47. If the dangerous favour of the army47 had imprudently declared them deserving of the purple, they were marked for sure destruction; and even prudence would counsel them to secure a short enjoyment of the empire47, and rather to try the fortune of war47 than to expect the hand of an executioner. When the clamour of the soldiers47 invested the reluctant victims with the ensigns of sovereign47 authority47, they sometimes mourned in secret47 their approaching fate. You have lost, said Saturninus, on the day of his elevation, you have lost a useful commander, and you have made a very wretched emperor47.
The apprehensions of Saturninus were justified by the repeated experience of revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants who started up under the reign47 of Gallienus, there was not one who enjoyed a life47 of peace, or a natural death47. As soon47 as they were invested with the bloody purple, they inspired their adherents with the same fears and ambition which had occasioned their own revolt. Encompassed with domestic conspiracy, military47 sedition, and civil47 war47, they trembled on the edge of precipices, in which, after a longer or shorter term of anxiety, they were inevitably lost. These precarious monarchs received, however, such honours as the flattery of their respective armies and provinces47 could bestow; but their claim, founded on rebellion, could never obtain the sanction of law or history. Italy47, Rome47, and the senate47 constantly adhered to the cause of Gallienus, and he alone was considered as the sovereign47 of the empire47. That prince47 condescended indeed to acknowledge the victorious arms47 of Odenathus, who deserved the honourable distinction by the respectful conduct47 which he always maintained towards the son47 of Valerian. With the general47 applause of the Romans and the consent of Gallienus, the senate47 conferred the title of Augustus on the brave Palmyrenian; and seemed to entrust him with the government47 of the East47, which he already possessed, in so independent a manner, that, like a private47 succession, he bequeathed it to his illustrious widow Zenobia.
The rapid and perpetual transitions from the cottage to the throne47, and from the throne47 to the grave, might have amused an indifferent philosopher, were it possible for a philosopher to remain indifferent amidst the general47 calamities of human kind. The election of these precarious emperors, their power47 and their death47, were equally destructive to their subjects and adherents. The price of their fatal elevation was instantly discharged to the troops47 by an immense donative drawn from the bowels of the exhausted people47. However virtuous was their character, however pure their intentions, they found themselves reduced to the hard necessity of supporting their usurpation by frequent acts of rapine and cruelty. When they fell, they involved armies and provinces47 in their fall. There is still extant a most savage mandate from Gallienus to one of his ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who had assumed the purple in Illyricum. It is not enough, says that soft but inhuman prince47, that you exterminate such as have appeared in arms47: the chance of battle might have served me as effectually. The male sex of every age47 must be extirpated; provided that, in the execution of the children and old men, you can contrive means to save our reputation. Let every one die who has dropt an expression, who has entertained a thought, against me, against me, the son47 of Valerian, the father47 and brother of so many princes. Remember that Ingenuus was made emperor47: tear, kill, hew in pieces. I write to you with my own hand, and would inspire you with my own feelings. Whilst the public47 forces of the state were dissipated in private47 quarrels, the defenceless provinces47 lay exposed to every invader. The bravest usurpers were compelled by the perplexity of their situation to conclude ignominious treaties with the common enemy, to purchase with oppressive tributes the neutrality or services of the barbarians, and to introduce hostile and independent nations into the heart of the Roman47 monarchy.
Such were the barbarians23, and such the tyrants, who, under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, dismembered the provinces23, and reduced the empire23 to the lowest pitch of disgrace and ruin, from whence it seemed impossible that it should ever emerge. As far23 as the barrenness of materials23 would permit, we have attempted to trace, with order and perspicuity, the general23 events of that calamitous period. There still remain some particular facts: I. The disorders of Sicily; II. The tumults of Alexandria; and III. The rebellion of the Isaurians — which may serve to reflect a strong light on the horrid picture.
I. Whenever numerous troops of banditti, multiplied by success and impunity, publicly defy, instead of eluding, the justice of their country11, we may safely infer that the excessive weakness of the government is felt and abused by the lowest ranks of the community. The situation of Sicily preserved it from the barbarians11; nor could the disarmed province have supported an usurper. The sufferings of that once flourishing and still fertile island were inflicted by baser hands. A licentious crowd of slaves and peasants reigned for a while over the plundered country11, and renewed the memory of the servile wars of more ancient11 times. Devastations, of which the husbandman was either the victim or the accomplice, must have ruined the agriculture of Sicily; and as the principal estates were the property of the opulent senators of Rome11, who often enclosed within a farm the territory of an old republic, it is not improbable that this private11 injury might affect the capital more deeply than all the conquests of the Goths or the Persians.
II. The foundation of Alexandria was a noble design, at once conceived and executed by the son of Philip. The beautiful and regular form of that great9 city9, second only to Rome9 itself, comprehended a circumference of fifteen miles9; it was peopled by three hundred thousand9 free inhabitants9, besides at least an equal number of slaves. The lucrative trade of Arabia and India flowed through the port of Alexandria to the capital9 and provinces9 of the empire9. Idleness was unknown. Some were employed in blowing of glass, others in weaving of linen, others again in manufacturing the papyrus. Either sex, and every age, was engaged in the pursuits of industry, nor did even the blind or the lame want occupations suited to their condition. But the people of Alexandria, a various mixture of nations9, united the vanity and inconstancy of the Greeks with the superstition and obstinacy of the Egyptians. The most trifling occasion, a transient scarcity of flesh or lentils, the neglect of an accustomed salutation, a mistake of precedency in the public baths, or even a religious dispute, were at any time sufficient to kindle a sedition among that vast multitude, whose resentments were furious and implacable. After the captivity of Valerian and the indolence of his son had relaxed the authority of the laws, the Alexandrians abandoned themselves to the ungoverned rage of their passions, and their unhappy country9 was the theatre of a civil war9, which continued (with a few short and suspicious truces) above twelve years. All intercourse was cut off between the several quarters of the afflicted city9, every street was polluted with blood, every building of strength converted into a citadel; nor did the tumults subside till a considerable part of Alexandria was irretrievably ruined. The spacious and magnificent district of Bruchion, with its palaces and museum, the residence of the kings and philosophers of Egypt, is described above a century afterwards, as already reduced to its present state of a dreary solitude.
III. The obscure rebellion of Trebellianus, who assumed the purple in Isauria, a petty province9 of Asia9 Minor, was attended with strange and memorable consequences. The pageant of royalty was soon9 destroyed by an officer of Gallienus; but his followers, despairing of mercy, resolved to shake off their allegiance, not only to the emperor but to the empire9, and suddenly returned to the savage manners from which they had never perfectly been reclaimed. Their craggy rocks, a branch of the wide-extended Taurus, protected their inaccessible retreat. The tillage of some fertile valleys supplied them with necessaries, and a habit of rapine with the luxuries of life. In the heart of the Roman9 monarchy, the Isaurians long9 continued a nation9 of wild barbarians9. Succeeding princes, unable to reduce them to obedience either by arms9 or policy, were compelled to acknowledge their weakness by surrounding the hostile and independent spot with a strong chain of fortifications, which often proved insufficient to restrain the incursions of these domestic foes. The Isaurians, gradually extending their territory to the sea9 coast9, subdued the western and mountainous part of Cilicia, formerly the nest of those daring pirates against whom the republic had once been obliged to exert its utmost force, under the conduct of the great9 Pompey.
Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period of history has been decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies fictitious or exaggerated. But a long32 and general famine was a calamity of a more serious kind. It was the inevitable consequence of rapine and oppression, which extirpated the produce of the present and the hope of future harvests. Famine is almost always followed by epidemical diseases, the effect of scanty and unwholesome food. Other causes must however have contributed to the furious plague which, from the year two hundred and fifty to the year two hundred and sixty-five, raged without interruption in every province, every city32, and almost every family of the Roman32 empire32. During some time32 five thousand persons died daily in Rome32; and many towns that had escaped the hands of the barbarians were entirely depopulated.
We have the knowledge0 of a very curious circumstance, of some use perhaps in the melancholy calculation of human0 calamities. An exact register was kept at Alexandria of all the citizens entitled to receive the distribution of corn. It was found that the ancient0 number of those comprised between the ages of forty and seventy had been equal to the whole sum of claimants, from fourteen to fourscore years0 of age0, who remained alive after the reign of Gallienus. Applying this authentic fact to the most correct tables of mortality, it evidently proves that above half the people of Alexandria had perished; and could we venture to extend the analogy to the other provinces, we might suspect that war, pestilence, and famine had consumed, in a few years0, the moiety of the human0 species.
Under the deplorable reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, the empire5 was oppressed and almost destroyed by the soldiers, the tyrants, and the barbarians5. It was saved by a series of great5 princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial provinces5 of Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius, Aurelian5, Probus5, Diocletian, and his colleagues triumphed over the foreign and domestic enemies of the state, re-established, with the military5 discipline5, the strength5 of the frontiers, and deserved the glorious title of Restorers of the Roman5 world.
The removal of an effeminate tyrant47 made way for a succession of heroes. The indignation of the people47 imputed all their calamities to Gallienus, and the far greater part were, indeed, the consequence of his dissolute manners and careless administration. He was even destitute of a sense of honour, which so frequently supplies the absence of public47 virtue; and, as long47 as he was permitted to enjoy the possession of Italy47, a victory of the barbarians, the loss of a province, or the rebellion of a general47 seldom disturbed the tranquil course of his pleasures. At length, a considerable army47, stationed on the Upper Danube, invested with the Imperial47 purple their leader Aureolus; who, disdaining a confined and barren reign47 over the mountains of Rhaetia, passed the Alps, occupied Milan, threatened Rome47, and challenged Gallienus to dispute in the field the sovereignty of Italy47. The emperor47, provoked by the insult, and alarmed by the instant danger47, suddenly exerted that latent vigour which sometimes broke through the indolence of his temper. Forcing himself from the luxury of the palace47, he appeared in arms47 at the head of his legions, and advanced beyond the Po to encounter his competitor. The corrupted name of Pontirolo still preserves the memory of a bridge over the Adda, which, during the action, must have proved an object of the utmost importance to both armies. The Rhaetian usurper, after receiving a total defeat and a dangerous wound, retired into Milan. The siege of that great city47 was immediately formed; the walls were battered with every engine in use among the ancients; and Aureolus, doubtful of his internal strength, and hopeless of foreign succours, already anticipated the fatal consequences of unsuccessful rebellion.
His last resource was an attempt to seduce the loyalty of the besiegers. He scattered libels through their camp, inviting the troops47 to desert an unworthy master47, who sacrificed the public47 happiness to his luxury, and the lives of his most valuable subjects to the slightest suspicions. The arts of Aureolus diffused fears and discontent among the principal officers of his rival. A conspiracy was formed by Heraclianus, the Praetorian prefect47, by Marcian, a general47 of rank47 and reputation, and by Cecrops, who commanded a numerous body of Dalmatian guards. The death47 of Gallienus was resolved, and, notwithstanding their desire of first terminating the siege of Milan, the extreme danger47 which accompanied every moment's delay obliged them to hasten the execution of their daring purpose. At a late hour of the night, but while the emperor47 still protracted the pleasures of the table, an alarm was suddenly given that Aureolus, at the head of all his forces, had made a desperate sally from the town; Gallienus, who was never deficient in personal bravery, started from his silken couch, and, without allowing himself time either to put on his armour or to assemble his guards, he mounted on horseback, and rode full speed towards the supposed place of the attack. Encompassed by his declared or concealed enemies, he soon47, amidst the nocturnal tumult, received a mortal dart from an uncertain hand. Before he expired, a patriotic sentiment rising in the mind of Gallienus induced him to name a deserving successor, and it was his last request that the Imperial47 ornaments should be delivered to Claudius, who then commanded a detached army47 in the neighbourhood of Pavia. The report at least was diligently propagated, and the order cheerfully obeyed by the conspirators, who had already agreed to place Claudius on the throne47. On the first news of the emperor47's death47, the troops47 expressed some suspicion and resentment, till the one was removed and the other assuaged by a donative of twenty pieces of gold to each soldier. They then ratified the election, and acknowledged the merit47, of their new sovereign47.
The obscurity which covered the origin of Claudius, though it was afterwards embellished by some flattering fictions, sufficiently betrays the meanness of his birth. We can only discover that he was a native of one of the provinces47 bordering on the Danube; that his youth was spent in arms47, and that his modest valour attracted the favour and confidence of Decius. The senate47 and people47 already considered him as an excellent officer, equal to the most important trusts; and censured the inattention of Valerian, who suffered him to remain in the subordinate station of a tribune. But it was not long47 before that emperor47 distinguished the merit47 of Claudius, by declaring him general47 and chief of the Illyrian frontier, with the command47 of all the troops47 in Thrace, Maesia, Dacia, Pannonia, and Dalmatia, the appointments of the prefect47 of Egypt, the establishment of the proconsul of Africa, and the sure prospect of the consulship. By his victories over the Goths, he deserved from the senate47 the honour of a statue and excited the jealous apprehensions of Gallienus. It was impossible that a soldier could esteem so dissolute a sovereign47, nor is it easy to conceal a just contempt. Some unguarded expressions which dropped from Claudius were officiously transmitted to the royal ear. The emperor47's answer to an officer of confidence describes in very lively colours his own character and that of the times. There is not anything capable of giving me more serious concern, than the intelligence contained in your last despatch, that some malicious suggestions have indisposed towards us the mind of our friend and parent, Claudius. As you regard your allegiance, use every means to appease his resentment, but conduct47 your negotiation with secrecy; let it not reach the knowledge of the Dacian troops47; they are already provoked, and it might inflame their fury. I myself have sent him some presents: be it your care that he accept them with pleasure. Above all, let him not suspect that I am made acquainted with his imprudence. The fear of my anger might urge him to desperate counsels. The presents which accompanied this humble epistle, in which the monarch solicited a reconciliation with his discontented subject, consisted of a considerable sum of money, a splendid wardrobe, and a valuable service of silver and gold plate. By such arts Gallienus softened the indignation, and dispelled the fears, of his Illyrian general47; and during the remainder of that reign47 the formidable sword of Claudius was always drawn in the cause of a master47 whom he despised. At last, indeed, he received from the conspirators the bloody purple of Gallienus: but he had been absent from their camps and counsels; and, however he might applaud the deed, we may candidly presume that he was innocent of the knowledge of it. When Claudius ascended the throne47, he was about fifty-four years of age47.
The siege of Milan was still continued, and Aureolus soon47 discovered that the success of his artifices had only raised up a more determined adversary. He attempted to negotiate with Claudius a treaty of alliance and partition. Tell him, replied the intrepid emperor47, that such proposals should have been made to Gallienus; he, perhaps, might have listened to them with patience, and accepted a colleague as despicable as himself. This stern refusal, and a last unsuccessful effort, obliged Aureolus to yield the city47 and himself to the discretion of the conqueror. The judgment of the army47 pronounced him worthy of death47, and Claudius, after a feeble resistance, consented to the execution of the sentence. Nor was the zeal of the senate47 less ardent in the cause of their new sovereign47. They ratified, perhaps with a sincere transport of zeal, the election of Claudius; and, as his predecessor had shown himself the personal enemy of their order, they exercised, under the name of justice47, a severe revenge against his friends and family. The senate47 was permitted to discharge the ungrateful office of punishment, and the emperor47 reserved for himself the pleasure and merit47 of obtaining by his intercession a general47 act of indemnity.
Such ostentatious clemency discovers less of the real character15 of Claudius15 than a trifling circumstance in which he seems to have consulted only the dictates of his heart. The frequent rebellions of the provinces15 had involved almost every person in the guilt of treason, almost every estate in the case of confiscation; and Gallienus15 often displayed his liberality by distributing among his officers the property of his subjects. On the accession of Claudius15, an old woman threw herself at his feet, and complained that a general15 of the late emperor15 had obtained an arbitrary grant of her patrimony. This general15 was Claudius15 himself, who had not entirely escaped the contagion of the times. The emperor15 blushed at the reproach, but deserved15 the confidence which she had reposed in his equity. The confession of his fault was accompanied with immediate and ample restitution.
In the arduous task which Claudius had undertaken, of restoring the empire47 to its ancient splendour, it was first necessary to revive among his troops47 a sense of order and obedience. With the authority47 of a veteran commander, he represented to them that the relaxation of discipline had introduced a long47 train of disorders, the effects of which were at length experienced by the soldiers47 themselves; that a people47 ruined by oppression, and indolent from despair, could no longer supply a numerous army47 with the means of luxury, or even of subsistence; that the danger47 of each individual had increased with the despotism of the military47 order, since princes who tremble on the throne47 will guard their safety by the instant sacrifice of every obnoxious subject. The emperor47 expatiated on the mischiefs of a lawless caprice which the soldiers47 could only gratify at the expense of their own blood, as their seditious elections had so frequently been followed by civil47 wars, which consumed the flower of the legions either in the field of battle or in the cruel abuse of victory. He painted in the most lively colours the exhausted state of the treasury, the desolation of the provinces47, the disgrace of the Roman47 name, and the insolent triumph of rapacious barbarians. It was against those barbarians, he declared, that the intended to point the first effort of their arms47. Tetricus might reign47 for a while over the West, and even Zenobia might preserve the dominion of the East47. These usurpers were his personal adversaries; nor could he think of indulging any private47 resentment till he had saved an empire47, whose impending ruin would, unless it was timely prevented, crush both the army47 and the people47.
The various nations9 of Germany and Sarmatia who fought under the Gothic standard had already collected an armament more formidable than any which had yet issued from the Euxine. On the banks9 of the Dniester, one of the great9 rivers that discharge themselves into that sea9, they constructed a fleet9 of two thousand9, or even of six thousand9 vessels9; numbers which, however incredible they may seem, would have been insufficient to transport their pretended army9 of three hundred and twenty thousand9 barbarians9. Whatever might be the real strength of the Goths9, the vigour and success of the expedition were not adequate to the greatness of the preparations. In their passage through the Bosphorus, the unskilful pilots were overpowered by the violence of the current; and while the multitude of their ships were crowded in a narrow channel, many were dashed against each other, or against the shore. The barbarians9 made several descents on the coasts both of Europe9 and Asia9; but the open country9 was already plundered, and they were repulsed with shame and loss from the fortified cities9 which they assaulted. A spirit of discouragement and division arose in the fleet9, and some of their chiefs sailed away towards the islands of Crete and Cyprus; but the main body, pursuing a more steady course, anchored at length near the foot of Mount Athos, and assaulted the city9 of Thessalonica, the wealthy capital9 of all the Macedonian provinces9. Their attacks, in which they displayed a fierce but artless bravery, were soon9 interrupted by the rapid approach of Claudius, hastening to a scene of action that deserved the presence of a warlike prince at the head of the remaining powers of the empire9. Impatient for battle, the Goths9 immediately broke up their camp9, relinquished the siege of Thessalonica, left their navy at the foot of Mount Athos, traversed the hills of Macedonia, and pressed forwards to engage the last defence of Italy9.
We still possess an original letter addressed by Claudius to the senate and people2 on this memorable occasion. Conscript fathers, says the emperor2, know that three hundred and twenty thousand2 Goths have invaded the Roman2 territory. If I vanquish them, your gratitude will reward my services. Should I fall, remember that I am the successor of Gallienus. The whole republic is fatigued and exhausted. We shall2 fight after Valerian, after Ingenuus, Regillianus, Lollianus, Posthumus, Celsus, and a thousand2 others, whom a just contempt for Gallienus provoked into rebellion. We are in want of darts, of spears, and of shields. The strength of the empire2, Gaul and Spain, are usurped by Tetricus, and we blush to acknowledge that the archers of the East2 serve under the banners of Zenobia. Whatever we shall2 perform will be sufficiently great2. The melancholy firmness of this epistle announces a hero careless of his fate, conscious of his danger, but still deriving a well-grounded hope from the resources of his own mind2.
The event surpassed his own expectations and those of the world. By the most signal victories5 he delivered the empire5 from this host5 of barbarians5, and was distinguished by posterity under the glorious appellation of the Gothic5 Claudius. The imperfect historians of an irregular war5 do not enable us to describe the order and circumstances of his exploits; but, if we could be indulged in the illusion, we might distribute into three acts this memorable tragedy. I. The decisive5 battle5 was fought near5 Naissus, a city of Dardania. The legions5 at first gave way, oppressed by numbers5, and dismayed by misfortunes. Their ruin was inevitable, had not the abilities of their emperor5 prepared a seasonable relief. A large detachment, rising out of the secret and difficult passes of the mountains, which, by his order, they had occupied, suddenly assailed the rear of the victorious Goths5. The favourable instant was improved by the activity of Claudius. He revived the courage of his troops5, restored their ranks, and pressed the barbarians5 on every side. Fifty thousand5 men are reported to have been slain in the battle5 of Naissus. Several large bodies of barbarians5, covering their retreat5 with a movable fortification of waggons, retired, or rather escaped, from the field of slaughter. II. We may presume that some insurmountable difficulty, the fatigue, perhaps, or the disobedience, of the conquerors, prevented Claudius from completing in one day5 the destruction of the Goths5. The war5 was diffused over the provinces5 of Maesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, and its operations drawn out into a variety of marches, surprises, and tumultuary engagements, as well by sea as by land. When the Romans5 suffered any loss, it was commonly occasioned by their own cowardice or rashness; but the superior talents of the emperor5, his perfect knowledge of the country5, and his judicious choice of measures as well as officers, assured on most occasions the success5 of his arms5. The immense booty, the fruit of so many victories5, consisted for the greater part of cattle and slaves. A select body5 of the Gothic5 youth was received among the Imperial troops5; the remainder was sold into servitude; and so considerable5 was the number of female captives, that every soldier obtained to his share two or three women. A circumstance from which we may conclude that the invaders entertained some designs of settlement as well as of plunder; since even in a naval expedition they were accompanied by their families. III. The loss of their fleet, which was either taken or sunk, had intercepted the retreat5 of the Goths5. A vast circle of Roman5 posts, distributed with skill, supported with firmness, and gradually closing towards a common centre, forced the barbarians5 into the most inaccessible parts of Mount Haemus, where they found a safe refuge, but a very scanty subsistence. During the course of a rigorous winter, in which they were besieged by the emperor5's troops5, famine and pestilence, desertion and the sword, continually diminished the imprisoned multitude. On the return of spring, nothing appeared in arms5 except a hardy and desperate band, the remnant of that mighty host5 which had embarked at the mouth of the Dniester.
The pestilence which swept away such numbers of the barbarians at length proved fatal to their conqueror. After a short but glorious reign28 of two years28, Claudius expired at Sirmium, amidst the tears and acclamations of his subjects. In his last illness, he convened the principal officers of the state28 and army28, and in their presence recommended Aurelian, one of his generals, as the most deserving of the throne, and the best qualified to execute the great28 design which he himself had been permitted only to undertake. The virtues of Claudius, his valour, affability, justice, and temperance, his love of fame and of his country, place him in that short list of emperors who added lustre to the Roman28 purple. Those virtues, however, were celebrated with peculiar zeal and complacency by the courtly writers of the age28 of Constantine28, who was the great28-grandson of Crispus, the elder brother of Claudius. The voice of flattery was soon28 taught to repeat that the gods, who so hastily had snatched Claudius from the earth, rewarded his merit and piety by the perpetual establishment28 of the empire28 in his family.
Notwithstanding these oracles, the greatness of the Flavian family (a name which it had pleased them to assume) was deferred above twenty years, and the elevation of Claudius occasioned the immediate ruin of his brother Quintilius, who possessed not sufficient moderation or courage to descend into the private47 station to which the patriotism of the late emperor47 had condemned him. Without delay or reflection, he assumed the purple at Aquileia, where he commanded a considerable force; and, though his reign47 lasted only seventeen days, he had time to obtain the sanction of the senate47, and to experience a mutiny of the troops47. As soon47 as he was informed that the great army47 of the Danube had invested the well-known valour of Aurelian with Imperial47 power47, he sunk under the fame and merit47 of his rival; and, ordering his veins to be opened, prudently withdrew himself from the unequal contest.
The general47 design of this work will not permit us minutely to relate the actions of every emperor47 after he ascended the throne47, much less to deduce the various fortunes of his private47 life47. We shall only observe, that the father47 of Aurelian was a peasant of the territory of Sirmium, who occupied a small farm, the property of Aurelius, a rich senator. His warlike son47 enlisted in the troops47 as a common soldier, successively rose to the rank47 of a centurion, a tribune, the prefect47 of a legion, the inspector of the camp, the general47, or, as it was then called, the duke of a frontier; and at length, during the Gothic war47, exercised the important office of commander-in-chief of the cavalry. In every station he distinguished himself by matchless valour, rigid discipline, and successful conduct47. He was invested with the consulship by the emperor47 Valerian, who styles him, in the pompous language of that age47, the deliverer of Illyricum, the restorer of Gaul, and the rival of the Scipios. At the recommendation of Valerian, a senator of the highest rank47 and merit47, Ulpius Crinitus, whose blood was derived from the same source as that of Trajan, adopted the Pannonian peasant, gave him his daughter in marriage, and relieved with his ample fortune the honourable poverty which Aurelian had preserved inviolate.
The reign of Aurelian lasted only four years and about nine months; but every instant of that short period was filled by some memorable achievement. He put an end to the Gothic war9, chastised the Germans who invaded Italy9, recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain out of the hands of Tetricus, and destroyed the proud monarchy which Zenobia had erected in the East on the ruins of the afflicted empire9.
It was the rigid attention of Aurelian even to the minutest articles of discipline10 which bestowed such uninterrupted success on his arms. His military10 regulations are contained in a very concise epistle to one of his inferior officers, who is commanded to enforce them, as he wishes to become a tribune, or as he is desirous to live. Gaming, drinking, and the arts of divination were severely prohibited. Aurelian expected that his soldiers10 should be modest, frugal, and laborious; that their armour10 should be constantly kept bright, their weapons10 sharp, their clothing and horses10 ready for immediate service10; that they should live in their quarters with chastity and sobriety, without damaging the corn fields, without stealing even a sheep10, a fowl or a bunch of grapes, without exacting from their landlords either salt, or oil, or wood. The public10 allowance, continues the emperor, is sufficient for their support; their wealth should be collected from the spoil of the enemy, not from the tears of the provincials. A single instance will serve to display the rigour, and even cruelty, of Aurelian. One of the soldiers10 had seduced the wife of his host. The guilty wretch was fastened to two trees forcibly drawn towards each other, and his limbs were torn asunder by their sudden separation. A few such examples impressed a salutary consternation. The punishments of Aurelian were terrible; but he had seldom occasion to punish more than once the same offence. His own conduct gave a sanction to his laws, and the seditious legions10 dreaded a chief who had learned to obey, and who was worthy to command.
The death of Claudius had revived the fainting spirit of the Goths5. The troops5 which guarded the passes of Mount Haemus, and the banks5 of the Danube5, had been drawn away by the apprehension of a civil war5; and it seems probable that the remaining body5 of the Gothic5 and Vandalic tribes embraced the favourable opportunity, abandoned their settlements of the Ukraine, traversed the rivers, and swelled with new multitudes the destroying host5 of their countrymen. Their united numbers5 were at length encountered by Aurelian5, and the bloody and doubtful conflict ended only with the approach of night. Exhausted by so many calamities which they had mutually endured and inflicted during a twenty years' war5, the Goths5 and the Romans5 consented to a lasting and beneficial treaty. It was earnestly solicited by the barbarians5, and cheerfully ratified by the legions5, to whose suffrage the prudence of Aurelian5 referred the decision of that important question. The Gothic5 nation engaged to supply the armies of Rome with a body5 of two thousand5 auxiliaries, consisting entirely of cavalry5, and stipulated in return an undisturbed retreat5, with a regular market as far5 as the Danube5, provided by the emperor5's care, but at their own expense. The treaty was observed with such religious fidelity, that, when a party of five hundred men straggled from the camp5 in quest of plunder, the king or general of the barbarians5 commanded that the guilty leader should be apprehended and shot to death with darts, as a victim devoted to the sanctity of their engagements. It is, however, not unlikely that the precaution of Aurelian5, who had exacted as hostages the sons and daughters of the Gothic5 chiefs5, contributed something to this pacific temper. The youths he trained in the exercise of arms5, and near5 his own person; to the damsels he gave a liberal and Roman5 education, and, by bestowing them in marriage on some of his principal officers, gradually introduced between the two nations the closest and most endearing connections.
But the most important condition of peace was understood rather than expressed in the treaty. Aurelian withdrew the Roman29 forces from Dacia29, and tacitly relinquished that great29 province29 to the Goths29 and Vandals. His manly judgment convinced him of the solid advantages, and taught him to despise the seeming disgrace, of thus contracting the frontiers of the monarchy29. The Dacian subjects, removed from those distant29 possessions which they were unable to cultivate or defend, added strength and populousness to the southern side of the Danube. A fertile territory, which the repetition of barbarous inroads had changed into a desert, was yielded to their industry, and a new province29 of Dacia29 still preserved the memory of Trajan's conquests. The old country29 of that name detained, however, a considerable number of its inhabitants, who dreaded exile more than a Gothic master. These degenerate Romans29 continued to serve the empire29, whose allegiance they had renounced, by introducing among their conquerors the first notions of agriculture, the useful29 arts, and the conveniences of civilised life29. An intercourse29 of commerce and language29 was gradually established between the opposite banks of the Danube; and, after Dacia29 became an independent29 state29, it often proved the firmest barrier of the empire29 against the invasions of the savages of the North29. A sense of interest attached these more settled barbarians29 to the alliance of Rome29, and a permanent interest very frequently ripens into sincere and useful29 friendship. This various29 colony, which filled the ancient29 province29 and was insensibly blended into one great29 people, still acknowledged the superior renown and authority of the Gothic tribe, and claimed the fancied honour of a Scandinavian origin. At the same time the lucky though accidental resemblance of the name of Getae, infused among the credulous Goths29 a vain persuasion that, in a remote age29, their own ancestors, already seated in the Dacian provinces29, had received29 the instructions of Zamolxis, and checked the victorious arms of Sesostris and Darius.
While the vigorous and moderate conduct of Aurelian5 restored the Illyrian frontier5, the nation of the Alemanni5 violated the conditions of peace, which either Gallienus had purchased, or Claudius had imposed, and, inflamed by their impatient youth, suddenly flew to arms5. Forty thousand5 horse appeared in the field, and the numbers5 of the infantry5 doubled those of the cavalry5. The first objects of their avarice were a few cities of the Rhaetian frontier5; but, their hopes soon5 rising with success5, the rapid march of the Alemanni5 traced a line of devastation from the Danube5 to the Po.
The emperor was almost at the same time informed of the irruption, and of the retreat, of the barbarians11. Collecting an active body of troops, he marched with silence and celerity along the skirts of the Hercynian forest; and the Alemanni, laden with the spoils of Italy, arrived at the Danube11, without suspecting that, on the opposite bank, and in an advantageous post, a Roman11 army lay concealed and prepared to intercept their return. Aurelian indulged the fatal security of the barbarians11, and permitted about half their forces to pass the river without disturbance and without precaution. Their situation and astonishment gave him an easy victory; his skilful conduct improved the advantage. Disposing the legions in a semicircular form11, he advanced the two horns of the crescent across the Danube11, and, wheeling them on a sudden towards the centre, enclosed the rear of the German host. The dismayed barbarians11, on whatsoever side they cast their eyes, beheld with despair a wasted country11, a deep and rapid stream, a victorious and implacable enemy.
Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni no longer disdained to sue for peace. Aurelian received their ambassadors at the head of his camp, and with every circumstance of martial pomp that could display the greatness and discipline of Rome47. The legions stood to their arms47 in well-ordered ranks and awful silence. The principal commanders, distinguished by the ensigns of their rank47, appeared on horseback on either side of the Imperial47 throne47. Behind the throne47, the consecrated images of the emperor47 and his predecessors, the golden eagles, and the various titles of the legions, engraved in letters of gold, were exalted in the air on lofty pikes covered with silver. When Aurelian assumed his seat, his manly grace and majestic figure taught the barbarians to revere the person47 as well as the purple of their conqueror. The ambassadors fell prostrate on the ground in silence. They were commanded to rise, and permitted to speak. By the assistance of interpreters they extenuated their perfidy, magnified their exploits, expatiated on the vicissitudes of fortune and the advantages of peace, and, with an ill-timed confidence, demanded a large subsidy, as the price of the alliance which they offered to the Romans. The answer of the emperor47 was stern and imperious. He treated their offer with contempt, and their demand with indignation; reproached the barbarians, that they were as ignorant of the arts of war47 as of the laws of peace; and finally dismissed them with the choice only of submitting to his unconditioned mercy, or awaiting the utmost severity of his resentment. Aurelian had resigned a distant province to the Goths; but it was dangerous to trust or to pardon these perfidious barbarians, whose formidable power47 kept Italy47 itself in perpetual alarms.
Immediately after this conference it should seem that some unexpected emergency required the emperor47's presence in Pannonia. He devolved on his lieutenants the care of finishing the destruction of the Alemanni, either by the sword, or by the surer operation of famine. But an active despair has often triumphed over the indolent assurance of success. The barbarians, finding it impossible to traverse the Danube and the Roman47 camp, broke through the posts in their rear, which were more feebly or less carefully guarded; and with incredible diligence, but by a different road, returned towards the mountains of Italy47. Aurelian, who considered the war47 as totally extinguished, received the mortifying intelligence of the escape of the Alemanni, and of the ravage which they already committed in the territory of Milan. The legions were commanded to follow, with as much expedition as those heavy bodies were capable of exerting, the rapid flight of an enemy whose infantry and cavalry moved with almost equal swiftness. A few days afterwards the emperor47 himself marched to the relief of Italy47, at the head of a chosen body of auxiliaries (among whom were the hostages and cavalry of the Vandals), and of all the Praetorian guards who had served in the wars on the Danube.
As the light troops5 of the Alemanni5 had spread themselves from the Alps to the Apennine, the incessant vigilance of Aurelian5 and his officers was exercised in the discovery, the attack, and the pursuit of the numerous detachments. Notwithstanding this desultory war5, three considerable5 battles are mentioned, in which the principal force of both armies was obstinately engaged. The success5 was various. In the first, fought near5 Placentia, the Romans5 received so severe a blow, that, according to the expression of a writer extremely partial to Aurelian5, the immediate dissolution of the empire5 was apprehended. The crafty barbarians5, who had lined the woods, suddenly attacked the legions5 in the dusk of the evening, and, it is most probable, after the fatigue and disorder of a long march. The fury of their charge was irresistible; but at length, after a dreadful slaughter, the patient firmness of the emperor5 rallied his troops5, and restored, in some degree, the honour of his arms5. The second battle5 was fought near5 Fano in Umbria; on the spot which, five hundred years before, had been fatal to the brother of Hannibal. Thus far5 the successful Germans5 had advanced along the Aemilian and Flaminian way, with a design of sacking the defenceless mistress of the world. But Aurelian5, who, watchful for the safety of Rome, still hung on their rear, found in this place the decisive5 moment of giving them a total and irretrievable defeat. The flying remnant of their host5 was exterminated in a third and last battle5 near5 Pavia; and Italy was delivered from the inroads of the Alemanni5.
Fear has been the original parent of superstition7, and every new7 calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies. Though the best hope of the republic was in the valour and conduct of Aurelian, yet such was the public consternation, when the barbarians were hourly expected at the gates of Rome, that, by a decree of the senate, the Sibylline books were consulted. Even the emperor himself, from a motive either of religion7 or of policy, recommended the salutary measure, chided the tardiness of the senate, and offered to supply whatever expense, whatever animals, whatever captives of any nation, the gods should require. Notwithstanding this liberal offer, it does not appear that any human7 victims expiated with their blood the sins of the Roman people. The Sibylline books enjoined ceremonies of a more harmless nature7, processions of priests in white robes, attended by a chorus of youths and virgins; lustrations of the city and adjacent country; and sacrifices, whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from passing the mystic ground on which they had been celebrated. However puerile in themselves, these superstitious arts were subservient to the success of the war; and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres combating on the side of Aurelian, he received a real and effectual aid from this imaginary reinforcement.
But, whatever confidence might be placed in ideal ramparts, the experience of the past, and the dread of the future, induced the Romans9 to construct fortifications of a grosser and more substantial kind. The seven hills of Rome9 had been surrounded by the successors of Romulus with an ancient9 wall of more than thirteen miles9. The vast enclosure may seem disproportioned to the strength and numbers of the infant state. But it was necessary to secure an ample extent of pasture and arable land against the frequent and sudden incursions of the tribes9 of Latium, the perpetual enemies of the republic. With the progress of Roman9 greatness, the city9 and its inhabitants9 gradually increased, filled up the vacant space, pierced through the useless walls9, covered the field of Mars, and, on every side, followed the public highways in long9 and beautiful suburbs. The extent of the new9 walls9, erected by Aurelian, and finished in the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estimation to near fifty; but is reduced by accurate measurement to about twenty-one miles9. It was a great9 but a melancholy labour, since the defence of the capital9 betrayed the decline of the monarchy. The Romans9 of a more prosperous age, who trusted to the arms9 of the legions the safety of the frontier camps, were very far9 from entertaining a suspicion that it would ever become necessary to fortify the seat of empire9 against the inroads of the barbarians9.
The victory of Claudius over the Goths, and the success of Aurelian against the Alemanni, had already restored to the arms47 of Rome47 their ancient superiority over the barbarous nations of the North. To chastise domestic tyrants, and to reunite the dismembered parts of the empire47, was a task reserved for the latter of those warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged by the senate47 and people47, the frontiers of Italy47, Africa, Illyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign47. Gaul, Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor were still possessed by two rebels, who alone, out of so numerous a list, had hitherto escaped the dangers of their situation; and, to complete the ignominy of Rome47, these rival thrones had been usurped by women.
A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen and fallen in the provinces of Gaul. The rigid virtues of Posthumus served only to hasten his destruction. After suppressing a competitor, who had assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused to gratify his troops with the plunder of the rebellious city44; and, in the seventh year of his reign44, became the victim of their disappointed avarice. The death of Victorinus, his friend and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause44. The shining accomplishments of that prince44 were stained by a licentious passion44, which he indulged in acts of violence, with too little regard to the laws of society44, or even to those of love. He was slain at Cologne, by a conspiracy of jealous husbands, whose revenge would have appeared more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of his son44. After the murder of so many valiant princes, it is somewhat remarkable that a female for a long44 time controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still more singular that she was the mother of the unfortunate Victorinus. The arts and treasures of Victoria enabled her successfully to place44 Marius and Tetricus on the throne44, and to reign44 with a manly vigour under the name of those dependent emperors. Money of copper, of silver, and of gold was coined in her name; she assumed the titles of Augusta and Mother of the Camps: her power ended only with her life44; but her life44 was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetricus.
When, at the instigation of his ambitious patroness, Tetricus assumed the ensigns of royalty, he was governor of the peaceful province of Aquitaine, an employment suited to his character and education. He reigned four or five years over Gaul, Spain, and Britain, the slave and sovereign47 of a licentious army47, whom he dreaded and by whom he was despised. The valour and fortune of Aurelian at length opened the prospect of a deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy situation, and conjured the emperor47 to hasten to the relief of his unhappy rival. Had this secret47 correspondence reached the ears of the soldiers47, it would most probably have cost Tetricus his life47; nor could he resign the sceptre of the West without committing an act of treason against himself. He affected the appearances of a civil47 war47, led his forces into the field against Aurelian, posted them in the most disadvantageous manner, betrayed his own counsels to the enemy, and with a few chosen friends deserted in the beginning of the action. The rebel legions, though disordered and dismayed by the unexpected treachery of their chief, defended themselves with a desperate valour, till they were cut in pieces almost to a man, in this bloody and memorable battle, which was fought near Chalons in Champagne. The retreat of the irregular auxiliaries, Franks and Batavians, whom the conqueror soon47 compelled or persuaded to repass the Rhine, restored the general47 tranquillity, and the power47 of Aurelian was acknowledged from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules.
As early as the reign36 of Claudius, the city36 of Autun, alone and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legions of Gaul36. After a siege of seven months, they stormed and plundered that unfortunate city36, already wasted by famine. Lyons, on the contrary, had resisted with obstinate disaffection the arms36 of Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lyons, but there is not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war36; severely to remember injuries, and to forget the most important36 services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Aurelian had no sooner secured the person and provinces of Tetricus, than he turned his arms against Zenobia, the celebrated queen of Palmyra and the East. Modern46 Europe has produced several illustrious women who have sustained with glory46 the weight of empire46; nor is our own age46 destitute of such distinguished characters. But if we except the doubtful achievements of Semiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the only female whose superior genius46 broke through the servile indolence imposed on her sex by the climate and manners of Asia. She claimed her descent from the Macedonian kings of Egypt, equalled in beauty her ancestor Cleopatra, and far surpassed that princes in chastity and valour. Zenobia was esteemed the most lovely as well as the most heroic of her sex. She was of dark complexion (for in speaking of a lady these trifles become important46). Her teeth were of a pearly whiteness, and her large black eyes sparkled with uncommon fire, tempered by the most attractive sweetness. Her voice was strong and harmonious. Her manly understanding was strengthened and adorned by study46. She was not ignorant of the Latin tongue, but possessed in equal perfection the Greek, the Syriac, and the Egyptian languages. She had drawn up for her own use an epitome of oriental history46, and familiarly compared the beauties of Homer and Plato46 under the tuition of the sublime Longinus.
This accomplished woman gave her hand to Odenathus, who from a private6 station raised himself to the dominion of the East. She soon6 became the friend and companion of a hero. In the intervals of war6, Odenathus passionately delighted in the exercise of hunting; he pursued with ardour the wild beasts of the desert, lions, panthers, and bears; and the ardour of Zenobia in that dangerous amusement was not inferior to his own. She had inured her constitution to fatigue, disdained the use6 of a covered carriage, generally appeared6 on horseback in a military6 habit, and sometimes marched several miles on foot at the head of the troops. The success of Odenathus was in a great6 measure ascribed to her incomparable prudence6 and fortitude. Their splendid victories over the Great6 King, whom they twice pursued as far as the gates of Ctesiphon, laid the foundations of their united fame and power6. The armies which they commanded, and the provinces6 which they had saved, acknowledged not any other sovereigns than their invincible chiefs. The senate and people6 of Rome6 revered a stranger who had avenged their captive emperor, and even the insensible son of Valerian accepted Odenathus for his legitimate colleague.
After a successful expedition against the Gothic plunderers of Asia, the Palmyrenian prince47 returned to the city47 of Emesa in Syria. Invincible in war47, he was there cut off by domestic treason, and his favourite amusement of hunting was the cause, or at least the occasion, of his death47. His nephew, Maeonius, presumed to dart his javelin before that of his uncle; and, though admonished of his error, repeated the same insolence. As a monarch and as a sportsman, Odenathus was provoked: took away his horse, a mark of ignominy among the barbarians, and chastised the rash youth by a short confinement. The offence was soon47 forgot, but the punishment was remembered; and Maeonius, with a few daring associates, assassinated his uncle in the midst of a great entertainment. Herod, the son47 of Odenathus, though not of Zenobia, a young man of a soft and effeminate temper, was killed with his father47. But Maeonius obtained only the pleasure of revenge by this bloody deed. He had scarcely time to assume the title of Augustus, before he was sacrificed by Zenobia to the memory of her husband.
With the assistance of his most faithful friends, she immediately filled the vacant throne3, and governed with manly counsels Palmyra, Syria, and the East3, above five years3. By the death3 of Odenathus, that authority was at an end which the senate had granted him only as a personal distinction; but his martial widow, disdaining both the senate and Gallienus, obliged one of the Roman3 generals, who was sent against her, to retreat into Europe, with the loss of his army3 and his reputation. Instead of the little passions which so frequently perplex a female reign3, the steady administration of Zenobia was guided by the most judicious maxims of policy. If it was expedient to pardon, she could calm her resentment; if it was necessary to punish, she could impose silence on the voice of pity. Her strict economy was accused of avarice; yet on every proper occasion she appeared magnificent and liberal. The neighbouring states of Arabia, Armenia3, and Persia3 dreaded her enmity and solicited her alliance3. To the dominions of Odenathus, which extended from the Euphrates to the frontiers of Bithynia, his widow added the inheritance of her ancestors, the populous and fertile kingdom of Egypt. The emperor3 Claudius acknowledged her merit, and was content that, while he pursued the Gothic war3, she should assert the dignity of the empire3 in the East3. The conduct, however, of Zenobia was attended with some ambiguity; nor is it unlikely that she had conceived the design of erecting an independent and hostile monarchy. She blended with the popular manners of Roman3 princes the stately pomp of the courts of Asia, and exacted from her subjects the same adoration that was paid to the successors of Cyrus. She bestowed on her three sons a Latin education, and often showed them to the troops3 adorned with the Imperial purple. For herself she reserved the diadem, with the splendid but doubtful title of Queen of the East3.
When Aurelian passed over into Asia, against an adversary whose sex alone could render her an object of contempt, his presence restored obedience to the province of Bithynia, already shaken by the arms47 and intrigues of Zenobia. Advancing at the head of his legions, he accepted the submission of Ancyra, and was admitted into Tyana, after an obstinate siege, by the help of a perfidious citizen. The generous though fierce temper of Aurelian abandoned the traitor to the rage of the soldiers47: a superstitious reverence induced him to treat with lenity the countrymen of Apollonius the philosopher. Antioch was deserted on his approach, till the emperor47, by his salutary edicts, recalled the fugitives, and granted a general47 pardon to all who, from necessity rather than choice, had been engaged in the service of the Palmyrenian queen. The unexpected mildness of such a conduct47 reconciled the minds of the Syrians, and, as far as the gates of Emesa, the wishes of the people47 seconded the terror of his arms47.
Zenobia would have ill deserved her reputation, had she indolently permitted the emperor of the West to approach within a hundred miles of her capital. The fate of the East was decided in two great26 battles; so similar in almost every circumstance that we can scarcely distinguish them from each other, except by observing that the first was fought near Antioch, and the second near Emesa. In both, the queen of Palmyra animated the armies by her presence, and devolved the execution of her orders on Zabdas, who had already signalised his military26 talents by the conquest of Egypt. The numerous26 forces of Zenobia consisted for the most part of light archers, and of heavy cavalry clothed in complete steel. The Moorish and Illyrian horse of Aurelian were unable to sustain the ponderous charge of their antagonists. They fled in real or affected26 disorder, engaged the Palmyrenians in a laborious pursuit, harassed them by a desultory combat, and at length discomfited this impenetrable but unwieldy body of cavalry. The light infantry, in the meantime, when they had exhausted their quivers, remaining without protection against a closer onset, exposed their naked sides to the swords of the legions. Aurelian had chosen these veteran troops26, who were usually stationed on the Upper Danube, and whose valour had been severely tried in the Alemannic war26. After the defeat of Emesa, Zenobia found it impossible to collect a third army. As far as the frontier of Egypt, the nations subject to her empire26 had joined the standard of the conqueror, who detached Probus, the bravest of his generals, to possess himself of the Egyptian provinces. Palmyra was the last resource of the widow of Odenathus. She retired within the walls of her capital, made every preparation for a vigorous resistance, and declared, with the intrepidity of a heroine, that the last moment of her reign and of her life26 should be the same.
Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, a few cultivated spots rise like islands out of the sandy ocean9. Even the name of Tadmor, or Palmyra, by its signification in the Syriac as well as in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm trees which afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region. The air was pure, and the soil, watered by some invaluable springs, was capable of producing fruits as well as corn. A place possessed of such singular advantages, and situated at a convenient distance, between the Gulf of Persia and the Mediterranean, was soon9 frequented by the caravans which conveyed to the nations9 of Europe9 a considerable part of the rich commodities of India. Palmyra insensibly increased into an opulent and independent city9, and, connecting the Roman9 and the Parthian monarchies by the mutual benefits of commerce, was suffered to observe an humble neutrality, till at length, after the victories of Trajan, the little republic sunk into the bosom of Rome9, and flourished more than one hundred and fifty years in the subordinate though honourable rank of a colony. It was during that peaceful period, if we may judge from a few remaining inscriptions, that the wealthy Palmyrenians constructed those temples, palaces, and porticos of Grecian architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an extent of several miles9, have deserved the curiosity of our travellers. The elevation of Odenathus and Zenobia appeared to reflect new9 splendour on their country9, and Palmyra for a while stood forth the rival of Rome9: but the competition was fatal, and ages of prosperity were sacrificed to a moment of glory.
In his march over the sandy desert, between Emesa and Palmyra, the emperor47 Aurelian was perpetually harassed by the Arabs; nor could he always defend his army47, and especially his baggage, from these flying troops47 of active and daring robbers, who watched the moment of surprise, and eluded the slow pursuit of the legions. The siege of Palmyra was an object far more difficult and important, and the emperor47, who with incessant vigour pressed the attacks in person47, was himself wounded with a dart. The Roman47 people47, says Aurelian, in an original letter, speak with contempt of the war47 which I am waging against a woman. They are ignorant both of the character and of the power47 of Zenobia. It is impossible to enumerate her warlike preparations, of stones, of arrows, and of every species of missile weapons. Every part of the walls is provided with two or three balistae, and artificial fires are thrown from her military47 engines. The fear of punishment has armed her with a desperate courage. Yet still I trust in the protecting deities of Rome47, who have hitherto been favourable to all my undertakings. Doubtful, however, of the protection of the gods, and of the event of the siege, Aurelian judged it more prudent to offer terms of an advantageous capitulation: to the queen, a splendid retreat; to the citizens, their ancient privileges. His proposals were obstinately rejected, and the refusal was accompanied with insult.
The firmness of Zenobia was supported by the hope that in a very short time famine would compel the Roman3 army3 to repass the desert; and by the reasonable expectation that the kings of the East3, and particularly the Persian3 monarch3, would arm in the defence of their most natural ally. But fortune and the perseverance of Aurelian overcame every obstacle. The death3 of Sapor3, which happened about this time, distracted the councils of Persia3, and the inconsiderable succours that attempted to relieve Palmyra, were easily intercepted either by the arms3 or the liberality of the emperor3. From every part of Syria, a regular succession of convoys safely arrived in the camp3, which was increased by the return of Probus with his victorious troops3 from the conquest of Egypt. It was then that Zenobia resolved to fly. She mounted the fleetest of her dromedaries, and had already reached the banks of the Euphrates, about sixty miles from Palmyra, when she was overtaken by the pursuit of Aurelian's light horse, seized, and brought back a captive to the feet of the emperor3. Her capital soon3 afterwards surrendered, and was treated with unexpected lenity. The arms3, horses, and camels, with an immense treasure of gold, silver, silk, and precious stones, were all delivered to the conqueror, who, leaving only a garrison of six hundred archers, returned to Emesa, and employed some time in the distribution of rewards and punishments at the end of so memorable a war3, which restored to the obedience of Rome those provinces3 that had renounced their allegiance since the captivity of Valerian.
When the Syrian queen was brought into the presence of Aurelian, he sternly asked her, How she had presumed to rise in arms against the emperors21 of Rome21? The answer of Zenobia was a prudent mixture of respect and firmness. Because I disdained to consider as Roman21 emperors21 an Aureolus or a Gallienus. You alone I acknowledge as my conqueror and my sovereign21. But, as female fortitude is commonly artificial, so it is seldom steady or consistent. The courage of Zenobia deserted her in the hour of trial; she trembled at the angry clamours of the soldiers, who called aloud for her immediate execution, forgot the generous despair of Cleopatra, which she had proposed as her model, and ignominiously purchased life21 by the sacrifice of her fame and her friends. It was to their counsels, which governed the weakness of her sex, that she imputed the guilt21 of her obstinate resistance; it was on their heads that she directed the vengeance of the cruel Aurelian. The fame of Longinus, who was included among the numerous and perhaps innocent victims of her fear, will survive that of the queen who betrayed, or the tyrant who condemned, him. Genius and learning were incapable of moving a fierce unlettered soldier, but they had served to elevate and harmonise the soul of Longinus. Without uttering a complaint, he calmly followed the executioner, pitying his unhappy mistress, and bestowing comfort on his afflicted friends.
Returning from the conquest of the East28, Aurelian had already crossed the straits which divide Europe from Asia, when he was provoked by the intelligence that the Palmyrenians had massacred the governor and garrison which he had left among them, and again erected the standard of revolt. Without a moment's deliberation, he once more turned his face towards Syria. Antioch was alarmed by his rapid28 approach, and the helpless city28 of Palmyra felt the irresistible weight of his resentment. We have a letter of Aurelian himself, in which he acknowledges that old men28, women, children, and peasants had been involved in that dreadful execution, which should have been confined to armed rebellion; and, although his principal concern seems directed to the re-establishment28 of a temple of the Sun, he discovers some pity for the remnant of the Palmyrenians, to whom he grants the permission of rebuilding and inhabiting their city28. But it is easier to destroy than to restore. The seat of commerce, of arts28, and of Zenobia gradually sunk into an obscure town, a trifling fortress, and at length a miserable village. The present citizens of Palmyra, consisting of thirty28 or forty families, have erected their mud cottages within the spacious court of a magnificent temple.
Another and a last labour still awaited the indefatigable Aurelian; to suppress a dangerous though obscure rebel, who, during the revolt of Palmyra, had arisen on the banks of the Nile. Firmus, the friend and ally, as he proudly styled himself, of Odenathus and Zenobia, was no more than a wealthy merchant of Egypt. In the course of his trade to India, he had formed very intimate connections with the Saracens and the Blemmyes, whose situation on either coast of the Red Sea gave them an easy introduction into the Upper Egypt. The Egyptians he inflamed with the hope of freedom, and, at the head of their furious multitude, broke into the city18 of Alexandria, where he assumed the Imperial purple, coined money, published edicts, and raised an army, which, as he vainly boasted, he was capable of maintaining from the sole profits of his paper trade. Such troops were a feeble defence against the approach of Aurelian; and it seems almost unnecessary to relate that Firmus was routed, taken, tortured, and put to death18. Aurelian might now congratulate the senate, the people18, and himself, that in little more than three years18 he had restored universal peace and order to the Roman world18.
Since the foundation of Rome39, no general39 had more nobly deserved a triumph than Aurelian39; nor was a triumph ever celebrated with superior pride and magnificence. The pomp was opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, and above two hundred of the most curious animals from every climate of the North, the East, and the South. They were followed by sixteen hundred gladiators, devoted to the cruel amusement of the amphitheatre39. The wealth of Asia, the arms and ensigns of so many conquered nations, and the magnificent39 plate and wardrobe of the Syrian queen, were disposed in exact symmetry or artful disorder. The ambassadors of the most remote parts of the earth, of Aethiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactriana, India, and China, all remarkable39 by their rich or singular dresses, displayed the fame and power39 of the Roman39 emperor39, who exposed likewise to the public view the presents that he had received, and particularly39 a great39 number39 of crowns of gold39, the offerings of grateful cities. The victories of Aurelian39 were attested by the long39 train of captives who reluctantly attended his triumph, Goths, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls, Syrians, and Egyptians. Each people was distinguished by its peculiar inscription, and the title of Amazons was bestowed on ten martial heroines of the Gothic nation who had been taken in arms. But every eye, disregarding the crowd of captives, was fixed on the emperor39 Tetricus and the queen of the East. The former, as well as his son, whom he had created Augustus, was dressed in Gallic trowsers, a saffron tunic, and a robe of purple. The beauteous figure of Zenobia was confined by fetters of gold39; a slave supported39 the gold39 chain which encircled39 her neck, and she almost fainted under the intolerable weight of jewels. She preceded on foot the magnificent39 chariot in which she once hoped to enter the gates of Rome39. It was followed by two other chariots, still more sumptuous, of Odenathus and of the Persian monarch. The triumphal car of Aurelian39 (it had formerly been used by a Gothic king) was drawn, on this memorable occasion, either by four stags or by four elephants. The most illustrious of the senate39, the people, and the army closed the solemn procession. Unfeigned joy, wonder, and gratitude swelled the acclamations of the multitude; but the satisfaction of the senate39 was clouded by the appearance of Tetricus; nor could they suppress a rising murmur that the haughty emperor39 should thus expose to public ignominy the person of a Roman39 and a magistrate.
But however, in the treatment of his unfortunate rivals, Aurelian might indulge his pride, he behaved towards them with a generous clemency which was seldom exercised by the ancient conquerors. Princes who, without success, had defended their throne22 or freedom were frequently strangled in prison, as soon as the triumphal pomp ascended the Capitol. These usurpers, whom their defeat had convicted of the crime of treason, were permitted to spend their lives in affluence and honourable repose. The emperor22 presented Zenobia with an elegant villa at Tibur, or Tivoli, about twenty miles from the capital; the Syrian queen insensibly sank into a Roman22 matron, her daughters married into noble families, and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth century. Tetricus and his son22 were reinstated in their rank and fortunes. They erected on the Caelian Hill a magnificent palace, and, as soon as it was finished, invited Aurelian to supper. On his entrance, he was agreeably surprised with a picture which represented their singular22 history22. They were delineated offering to the emperor22 a civic crown and the sceptre of Gaul, and again receiving at his hands22 the ornaments of the senatorial dignity. The father22 was afterwards invested with the government of Lucania, and Aurelian, who soon admitted the abdicated monarch to his friendship and conversation, familiarly asked him, Whether it were not more desirable to administer a province of Italy22, than to reign22 beyond the Alps? The son22 long22 continued a respectable member of the senate; nor was there any one of the Roman22 nobility more esteemed by Aurelian, as well as by his successors.
So long30 and so various was the pomp of Aurelian's triumph that, although it opened with the dawn of day30, the slow majesty of the procession ascended not the Capitol before the ninth hour; and it was already dark when the emperor30 returned to the palace30. The festival was protracted by theatrical representations, the games of the circus, the hunting of wild beasts, combats of gladiators, and naval engagements. Liberal donatives were distributed to the army30 and people30, and several institutions, agreeable or beneficial to the city30, contributed to perpetuate the glory of Aurelian. A considerable portion of his oriental spoils was consecrated to the gods of Rome; the Capitol, and every other temple, glittered with the offerings of his ostentatious piety; and the temple of the Sun alone received above fifteen thousand30 pounds of gold30. This last was a magnificent structure, erected by the emperor30 on the side of the Quirinal Hill, and dedicated, soon30 after the triumph, to that deity whom Aurelian adored as the parent of his life and fortunes. His mother had been an inferior priestess in a chapel of the Sun; a peculiar devotion to the god of Light was a sentiment which the fortunate peasant imbibed in his infancy; and every step of his elevation, every victory30 of his reign, fortified superstition by gratitude.
The arms49 of Aurelian had vanquished the foreign and domestic foes of the republic. We are assured that, by his salutary rigour, crimes and factions, mischievous arts and pernicious connivance, the luxuriant growth of a feeble and oppressive government, were eradicated throughout the Roman world. But, if we attentively reflect how much swifter is the progress of corruption than its cure, and if we remember that the years abandoned to public disorders exceeded the months allotted to the martial reign of Aurelian, we must confess that a few short intervals of peace were insufficient for the arduous work of reformation. Even his attempt to restore the integrity of the coin was opposed by a formidable insurrection. The emperor49's vexation breaks out in one of his private letters: Surely, says he, the gods have decreed that my life should be a perpetual warfare. A sedition within the walls49 has just now given birth to a very serious civil war49. The workmen of the mint, at the instigation of Felicissimus, a slave to whom I had entrusted an employment in the finances, have risen in rebellion. They are at length suppressed; but seven thousand49 of my soldiers49 have been slain in the contest, of those troops49 whose ordinary station is in Dacia, and the camps along the Danube. Other writers, who confirm the same fact, add likewise that it happened soon49 after Aurelian's triumph; that the decisive engagement was fought on the Caelian Hill; that the workmen of the mint had adulterated the coin; and that the emperor49 restored the public credit by delivering out good money in exchange for the bad which the people was commanded to bring into the treasury.
We might content ourselves with relating this extraordinary transaction, but we cannot dissemble how much, in its present form, it appears to us inconsistent and incredible. The debasement of the coin is, indeed, well suited to the administration of Gallienus; nor is it unlikely that the instruments of the corruption might dread the inflexible justice47 of Aurelian. But the guilt, as well as the profit, must have been confined to a few; nor is it easy to conceive by what arts they could arm a people47 whom they had injured against a monarch whom they had betrayed. We might naturally expect that such miscreants should have shared the public47 detestation with the informers and the other ministers of oppression; and that the reformation of the coin should have been an action equally popular with the destruction of those obsolete accounts which, by the emperor47's order, were burnt in the forum of Trajan. In an age47 when the principles of commerce were so imperfectly understood, the most desirable end might perhaps be effected by harsh and injudicious means; but a temporary grievance of such a nature can scarcely excite and support a serious civil47 war47. The repetition of intolerable taxes, imposed either on the land or on the necessaries of life47, may at last provoke those who will not, or who cannot, relinquish their country. But the case is far otherwise in every operation which, by whatsoever expedients, restores the just value of money. The transient evil is soon47 obliterated by the permanent benefit, the loss is divided among multitudes; and, if a few wealthy individuals experience a sensible diminution of treasure, with their riches they at the same time lose the degree of weight and importance which they derived from the possession of them. However Aurelian might choose to disguise the real cause of the insurrection, his reformation of the coin could furnish only a faint pretence to a party already powerful and discontented. Rome47, though deprived of freedom, was distracted by faction. The people47, towards whom the emperor47, himself a plebeian, always expressed a peculiar fondness, lived in perpetual dissension with the senate47, the equestrian order, and the Praetorian guards. Nothing less than the firm though secret47 conspiracy of those orders, of the authority47 of the first, the wealth of the second, and the arms47 of the third, could have displayed a strength capable of contending in battle with the veteran legions of the Danube, which, under the conduct47 of a martial sovereign47, had achieved the conquest of the West and of the East47.
Whatever was the cause or the object of this rebellion, imputed with so little probability to the workmen of the mint, Aurelian used his victory with unrelenting rigour. He was naturally of a severe disposition. A peasant and a soldier, his nerves yielded not easily to the impressions of sympathy, and he could sustain without emotion the sight of tortures and death47. Trained from his earliest youth in the exercise of arms47, he set too small a value on the life47 of a citizen, chastised by military47 execution the slightest offences, and transferred the stern discipline of the camp into the civil47 administration of the laws. His love of justice47 often became a blind and furious passion; and, whenever he deemed his own or the public47 safety endangered, he disregarded the rules of evidence, and the proportion of punishments. The unprovoked rebellion with which the Romans rewarded his services exasperated his haughty spirit47. The noblest families of the capital were involved in the guilt or suspicion of this dark conspiracy. A hasty spirit47 of revenge urged the bloody prosecution, and it proved fatal to one of the nephews of the emperor47. The executioners (if we may use the expression of a contemporary poet) were fatigued, the prisons were crowded, and the unhappy senate47 lamented the death47 or absence of its most illustrious members. Nor was the pride of Aurelian less offensive to that assembly than his cruelty. Ignorant or impatient of the restraints of civil47 institutions, he disdained to hold his power47 by any other title than that of the sword, and governed by right of conquest an empire47 which he had saved and subdued.
It was observed by one of the most sagacious of the Roman47 princes that the talents of his predecessor Aurelian were better suited to the command47 of an army47 than to the government47 of an empire47. Conscious of the character in which nature and experience had enabled him to excel, he again took the field a few months after his triumph. It was expedient to exercise the restless temper of the legions in some foreign war47, and the Persian monarch, exulting in the shame of Valerian, still braved with impunity the offended majesty of Rome47. At the head of an army47, less formidable by its numbers than by its discipline and valour, the emperor47 advanced as far as the Straits which divide Europe from Asia. He there experienced that the most absolute power47 is a weak defence against the effects of despair. He had threatened one of his secretaries who was accused of extortion; and it was known that he seldom threatened in vain. The last hope which remained for the criminal was to involve some of the principal officers of the army47 in his danger47, or at least in his fears. Artfully counterfeiting his master47's hand, he showed them, in a long47 and bloody list, their own names devoted to death47. Without suspecting or examining the fraud, they resolved to secure their lives by the murder of the emperor47. On his march, between Byzantium and Heraclea, Aurelian was suddenly attacked by the conspirators, whose stations gave them a right to surround his person47; and, after a short resistance, fell by the hand of Mucapor, a general47 whom he had always loved and trusted. He died regretted by the army47, detested by the senate47, but universally acknowledged as a warlike and fortunate prince47, the useful though severe reformer of a degenerate state.
Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman47 emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct47, their fate was commonly the same. A life47 of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign47 is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder. The death47 of Aurelian, however, is remarkable by its extraordinary consequences. The legions admired, lamented, and revenged their victorious chief. The artifice of his perfidious secretary was discovered and punished. The deluded conspirators attended the funeral of their injured sovereign47, with sincere or well-feigned contrition, and submitted to the unanimous resolution of the military47 order, which was signified by the following epistle: The brave and fortunate armies to the senate47 and people47 of Rome47. The crime of one man, and the error of many, have deprived us of the late emperor47 Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords and fathers! to place him in the number of the gods, and to appoint a successor whom your judgment shall declare worthy of the Imperial47 purple. None of those whose guilt or misfortune have contributed to our loss shall ever reign47 over us. The Roman47 senators heard, without surprise, that another emperor47 had been assassinated in his camp; they secretly rejoiced in the fall of Aurelian; but the modest and dutiful address of the legions, when it was communicated in full assembly by the consul, diffused the most pleasing astonishment. Such honours as fear and perhaps esteem could extort they liberally poured forth on the memory of their deceased sovereign47. Such acknowledgments as gratitude could inspire they returned to the faithful armies of the republic, who entertained so just a sense of the legal authority47 of the senate47 in the choice of an emperor47. Yet, notwithstanding this flattering appeal, the most prudent of the assembly declined exposing their safety and dignity to the caprice of an armed multitude. The strength of the legions was, indeed, a pledge of their sincerity, since those who may command47 are seldom reduced to the necessity of dissembling; but could it naturally be expected, that a hasty repentance would correct the inveterate habits of fourscore years? Should the soldiers47 relapse into their accustomed seditions, their insolence might disgrace the majesty of the senate47, and prove fatal to the object of its choice. Motives like these dictated a decree by which the election of a new emperor47 was referred to the suffrage of the military47 order.
The contention that ensued is one of the best-attested, but most improbable, events in the history of mankind. The troops47, as if satiated with the exercise of power47, again conjured the senate47 to invest one of its own body with the Imperial47 purple. The senate47 still persisted in its refusal; the army47 in its request. The reciprocal offer was pressed and rejected at least three times, and, whilst the obstinate modesty of either party was resolved to receive a master47 from the hands of the other, eight months insensibly elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil anarchy, during which the Roman47 world remained without a sovereign47, without an usurper, and without a sedition. The generals and magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their ordinary functions; and it is observed that a proconsul of Asia was the only considerable person47 removed from his office in the whole course of the interregnum.
An event somewhat similar, but much less authentic, is supposed to have happened after the death47 of Romulus, who, in his life47 and character, bore some affinity with Aurelian. The throne47 was vacant during twelve months till the election of a Sabine philosopher, and the public47 peace was guarded in the same manner by the union of the several orders of the state. But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the arms47 of the people47 were controlled by the authority47 of the patricians; and the balance of freedom was easily preserved in a small and virtuous community. The decline of the Roman47 state, far different from its infancy, was attended with every circumstance that could banish from an interregnum the prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and tumultuous capital, a wide extent of empire47, the servile equality of despotism, an army47 of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and the experience of frequent revolution. Yet, notwithstanding all these temptations, the discipline and memory of Aurelian still restrained the seditious temper of the troops47, as well as the fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of the legions maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and the Imperial47 standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome47 and of the provinces47. A generous though transient enthusiasm seemed to animate the military47 order; and we may hope that a few real patriots cultivated the returning friendship of the army47 and the senate47, as the only expedient capable of restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigour.
On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of the senate47, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situation of the empire47. He slightly insinuated that the precarious loyalty of the soldiers47 depended on the chance of every hour and of every accident; but he represented, with the most convincing eloquence, the various dangers that might attend any farther delay in the choice of an emperor47. Intelligence, he said, was already received that the Germans had passed the Rhine and occupied some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The ambition of the Persian king kept the East47 in perpetual alarms; Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum were exposed to foreign and domestic arms47; and the levity of Syria would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman47 laws. The consul then, addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the senators, required his opinion on the important subject of a proper candidate for the vacant throne47.
If we can prefer personal merit46 to accidental greatness, we shall esteem the birth of Tacitus46 more truly noble than that of kings. He claimed his descent from the philosophic46 historian whose writings will instruct the last generations of mankind46. The senator Tacitus46 was then seventy-five years46 of age46. The long period46 of his innocent life46 was adorned with wealth and honours. He had twice been invested with the consular dignity46, and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety his ample patrimony of between two and three millions sterling. The experience of so many princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigour of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the temptations of their sublime station. From the assiduous study46 of his immortal ancestor he derived the knowledge46 of the Roman46 constitution and of human46 nature46. The voice of the people46 had already named Tacitus46 as the citizen the most worthy of empire46. The ungrateful rumour reached his ears, and induced him to seek the retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed two months in the delightful privacy of Baiae, when he reluctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his honourable place in the senate, and to assist the republic with his counsels on this important46 occasion.
He arose to speak, when, from every quarter of the house, he was saluted with the names of Augustus26 and Emperor. Tacitus Augustus26, the gods preserve thee, we choose thee for our sovereign, to thy care we entrust the republic and the world26. Accept the empire26 from the authority of the senate26. It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners. As soon26 as the tumult of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the dangerous honour, and to express his wonder that they should elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial26 vigour of Aurelian. Are these limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain the weight of armour, or to practise the exercises of the camp? The variety of climates, and the hardships of a military26 life26, would soon26 oppress a feeble constitution, which subsists only by the most tender management. My exhausted strength scarcely enables me to discharge the duty26 of a senator; how insufficient would it prove to the arduous labours of war26 and government! Can you hope26 that the legions will respect a weak old man, whose days have been spent in the shade of peace and retirement? Can you desire that I should ever find reason to regret the favourable opinion of the senate26?
The reluctance of Tacitus, and it might possibly be sincere, was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate47. Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, that the greatest of the Roman47 princes, Numa, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, had ascended the throne47 in a very advanced season of life47; that the mind, not the body, a sovereign47, not a soldier, was the object of their choice; and that they expected from him no more than to guide by his wisdom the valour of the legions. These pressing though tumultuary instances were seconded by a more regular oration of Metius Falconius, the next on the consular bench to Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils which Rome47 had endured from the vices of headstrong and capricious youths, congratulated them on the election of a virtuous and experienced senator, and, with a manly, though perhaps a selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the reasons of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was enforced by a general47 acclamation. The emperor47-elect submitted to the authority47 of his country, and received the voluntary homage of his equals. The judgment of the senate47 was confirmed by the consent of the Roman47 people47, and of the Praetorian guards.
The administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of his life and principles. A grateful servant of the senate1, he considered that national council as the author, and himself as the subject, of the laws1. He studied to heal the wounds which Imperial pride, civil1 discord, and military violence had inflicted on the constitution, and to restore, at least, the image of the ancient1 republic1, as it had been preserved by the policy1 of Augustus, and the virtues of Trajan and the Antonines. It may not be useless to recapitulate some of the most important prerogatives which the senate1 appeared to have regained by the election of Tacitus. 1. To invest one of their body, under the title1 of emperor1, with the general command of the armies and the government1 of the frontier provinces1. 2. To determine the list, or, as it was then styled, the College of Consuls. They were twelve in number, who, in successive pairs, each during the space of two months, filled the year, and represented the dignity of that ancient1 office1. The authority1 of the senate1 in the nomination of the consuls was exercised with such independent freedom1 that no regard was paid to an irregular request of the emperor1 in favour of his brother Florianus. The senate1, exclaimed Tacitus, with the honest transport of a patriot, understand the character of a prince whom they have chosen. 3. To appoint the proconsuls and presidents of the provinces1, and to confer on all the magistrates1 their civil1 jurisdiction1. 4. To receive appeals through the intermediate office1 of the prefect of the city1 from all the tribunals of the empire1. 5. To give force and validity, by their decrees, to such as they should approve of the emperor1's edicts. 6. To these several branches of authority1 we may add some inspection over the finances, since, even in the stern reign1 of Aurelian, it was in their power1 to divert a part of the revenue from the public1 service.
Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the principal cities of the empire32, Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Thessalonica, Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage, to claim their obedience, and to inform them of the happy revolution, which had restored the Roman32 senate32 to its ancient32 dignity. Two of these epistles are still extant. We likewise possess two very singular fragments of the private32 correspondence of the senators32 on this occasion. They discover the most excessive joy and the most unbounded hopes. Cast away your indolence, it is thus that one of the senators32 addresses his friend, emerge from your retirements of Baiae and Puteoli. Give yourself to the city32, to the senate32. Rome32 flourishes, the whole republic flourishes. Thanks to the Roman32 army, to an army truly Roman32, at length we have recovered our just authority, the end of all our desires. We hear appeals, we appoint proconsuls, we create emperors: perhaps, too, we may restrain them — to the wise, a word is sufficient. These lofty32 expectations were, however, soon disappointed; nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies and the provinces should long32 obey the luxurious and unwarlike nobles of Rome32. On the slightest touch, the unsupported fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate32 displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished for ever.
All that had yet passed at Rome47 was no more than a theatrical representation, unless it was ratified by the more substantial power47 of the legions. Leaving the senators to enjoy their dream of freedom and ambition, Tacitus proceeded to the Thracian camp, and was there, by the Praetorian prefect47, presented to the assembled troops47, as the prince47 whom they themselves had demanded, and whom the senate47 had bestowed. As soon47 as the prefect47 was silent, the emperor47 addressed himself to the soldiers47 with elegance and propriety. He gratified their avarice by a liberal distribution of treasure, under the names of pay and donative. He engaged their esteem by a spirited declaration that, although his age47 might disable him from the performance of military47 exploits, his counsels should never be unworthy of a Roman47 general47, the successor of the brave Aurelian.
Whilst the deceased emperor3 was making preparations for a second expedition into the East3, he had negotiated with the Alani, a Scythian people, who pitched their tents in the neighbourhood of the lake Maeotis. Those barbarians3, allured by presents and subsidies, had promised to invade Persia3 with a numerous body of light cavalry. They were faithful to their engagements; but, when they arrived on the Roman3 frontier, Aurelian was already dead, the design of the Persian3 war3 was at least suspended, and the generals, who, during the interregnum, exercised a doubtful authority, were unprepared either to receive or to oppose them. Provoked by such treatment, which they considered as trifling and perfidious, the Alani had recourse to their own valour3 for their payment and revenge; and, as they moved with the usual swiftness of Tartars, they had soon3 spread themselves over the provinces3 of Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Galatia. The legions, who from the opposite shores of the Bosphorus could almost distinguish the flames of the cities and villages, impatiently urged their general3 to lead them against the invaders. The conduct of Tacitus was suitable to his age and station. He convinced the barbarians3 of the faith, as well as of the power, of the empire3. Great3 numbers of the Alani, appeased by the punctual discharge of the engagements which Aurelian had contracted with them, relinquished their booty and captives, and quietly retreated to their own deserts beyond the Phasis. Against the remainder, who refused peace3, the Roman3 emperor3 waged, in person, a successful war3. Seconded by an army3 of brave and experienced veterans, in a few weeks he delivered the provinces3 of Asia from the terror of the Scythian invasion.
But the glory and life31 of Tacitus were of short duration. Transported, in the depth of winter, from the soft retirement of Campania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, he sunk under the unaccustomed hardships of a military life31. The fatigues of the body31 were aggravated by the cares of the mind31. For a while, the angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had been suspended by the enthusiasm of public virtue31. They soon31 broke out with redoubled violence, and raged in the camp, and even in the tent of the aged emperor31. His mild and amiable character served only to inspire contempt, and he was incessantly tormented with factions which he could not assuage, and by demands which it was impossible to satisfy. Whatever flattering expectations he had conceived of reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon31 was convinced that the licentiousness of the army disdained the feeble restraint of laws, and his last hour was hastened by anguish and disappointment. It may be doubtful whether the soldiers imbrued their hands in the blood of this innocent prince31. It is certain that their insolence was the cause of his death31. He expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign31 of only six months and about twenty days31.
The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed before his brother Florianus showed himself unworthy to reign47, by the hasty usurpation of the purple, without expecting the approbation of the senate47. The reverence for the Roman47 constitution, which yet influenced the camp and the provinces47, was sufficiently strong to dispose them to censure, but not to provoke them to oppose, the precipitate ambition of Florianus. The discontent would have evaporated in idle murmurs, had not the general47 of the East47, the heroic Probus, boldly declared himself the avenger of the senate47. The contest, however, was still unequal; nor could the most able leader, at the head of the effeminate troops47 of Egypt and Syria, encounter, with any hopes of victory, the legions of Europe, whose irresistible strength appeared to support the brother of Tacitus. But the fortune and activity of Probus triumphed over every obstacle. The hardy veterans of his rival, accustomed to cold climates, sickened and consumed away in the sultry heats of Cilicia, where the summer proved remarkably unwholesome. Their numbers were diminished by frequent desertion, the passes of the mountains were feebly defended; Tarsus opened its gates, and the soldiers47 of Florianus, when they had permitted him to enjoy the Imperial47 title about three months, delivered the empire47 from civil47 war47 by the easy sacrifice of a prince47 whom they despised.
The perpetual revolutions of the throne had so perfectly erased every notion of hereditary right, that the family of an unfortunate emperor was incapable of exciting the jealousy of his successors28. The children of Tacitus and Florianus were permitted to descend into a private station, and to mingle with the general28 mass of the people28. Their poverty indeed became an additional safeguard to their innocence. When Tacitus was elected by the senate28, he resigned his ample patrimony to the public28 service, an act of generosity specious in appearance, but which evidently disclosed his intention of transmitting the empire28 to his descendants. The only consolation of their fallen state28 was the remembrance of transient greatness, and a distant hope, the child of a flattering prophecy, that, at the end of a thousand28 years28, a monarch of the race of Tacitus should rise, the protector of the senate28, the restorer of Rome28, and the conqueror of the whole earth.
The peasants of Illyricum, who had already given Claudius and Aurelian5 to the sinking empire5, had an equal right to glory5 in the elevation of Probus5. Above twenty years before, the emperor5 Valerian, with his usual penetration, had discovered the rising merit of the young soldier, on whom he conferred the rank of tribune long before the age prescribed by the military5 regulations. The tribune soon5 justified his choice by a victory5 over a great5 body5 of Sarmatians, in which he saved the life of a near5 relation of Valerian; and deserved to receive from the emperor5's hand the collars, bracelets, spears, and banners, the mural and the civic crown, and all the honourable rewards reserved by ancient Rome for successful valour5. The third, and afterwards the tenth, legion were entrusted to the command of Probus5, who, in every step of his promotion, showed himself superior to the station which he filled. Africa and Pontus, the Rhine5, the Danube5, the Euphrates, and the Nile, by turns afforded him the most splendid occasions of displaying his personal prowess and his conduct in war5. Aurelian5 was indebted to him for the conquest of Egypt, and still more indebted for the honest courage with which he often checked the cruelty of his master. Tacitus, who desired by the abilities of his generals to supply his own deficiency of military5 talents, named him commander in chief of all the Eastern provinces5, with five times the usual salary, the promise of the consulship, and the hope of a triumph. When Probus5 ascended the Imperial throne, he was about forty-four years of age; in the full possession of his fame, of the love of the army5, and of a mature vigour of mind and body5.
His acknowledged merit47, and the success of his arms47 against Florianus, left him without an enemy or a competitor. Yet, if we may credit his own professions, very far from being desirous of the empire47, he had accepted it with the most sincere reluctance. But it is no longer in my power47, says Probus, in a private47 letter, to lay down a title so full of envy and of danger47. I must continue to personate the character which the soldiers47 have imposed upon me. His dutiful address to the senate47 displayed the sentiments, or at least the language, of a Roman47 patriot: When you elected one of your order, conscript father47! to succeed the emperor47 Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to your justice47 and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the world, and the power47 which you derive from your ancestors will descend to your posterity. Happy would it have been, if Florianus, instead of usurping the purple of his brother, like a private47 inheritance, had expected what your majesty might determine, either in his favour or in that of any other person47. The prudent soldiers47 have punished his rashness. To me they have offered the title of Augustus. But I submit to your clemency my pretensions and my merits. When this respectful epistle was read by the consul, the senators were unable to disguise their satisfaction that Probus should condescend thus humbly to solicit a sceptre which he already possessed. They celebrated with the warmest gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above all his moderation. A decree immediately passed, without a dissenting voice, to ratify the election of the Eastern armies, and to confer on their chief all the several branches of the Imperial47 dignity: the names of Caesar and Augustus, the title of Father47 of his country, the right of making in the same day three motions in the senate47, the office of Pontifex Maximus, the tribunitian power47, and the proconsular command47; a mode of investiture, which, though it seemed to multiply the authority47 of the emperor47, expressed the constitution of the ancient republic. The reign47 of Probus corresponded with this fair beginning. The senate47 was permitted to direct the civil47 administration of the empire47. Their faithful general47 asserted the honour of the Roman47 arms47, and often laid at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric trophies, the fruits of his numerous victories. Yet, whilst he gratified their vanity, he must secretly have despised their indolence and weakness. Though it was every moment in their power47 to repel the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all military47 employments. They soon47 experienced that those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.
The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side the enemies of Rome47. After his death47 they seemed to revive, with an increase of fury and of numbers. They were again vanquished by the active vigour of Probus, who, in a short reign47 of about six years, equalled the fame of ancient heroes, and restored peace and order to every province of the Roman47 world. The dangerous frontier of Rhaetia he so firmly secured, that he left it without the suspicion of an enemy. He broke the wandering power47 of the Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror of his arms47 compelled those barbarians to relinquish their spoil. The Gothic nation courted the alliance of so warlike an emperor47. He attacked the Isaurians in their mountains, besieged and took several of their strongest castles, and flattered himself that he had for ever suppressed a domestic foe, whose independence so deeply wounded the majesty of the empire47. The troubles excited by the usurper Firmus in the Upper Egypt had never been perfectly appeased, and the cities of Ptolemais and Coptos, fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes, still maintained an obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those cities, and of their auxiliaries the savages of the South, is said to have alarmed the court of Persia, and the Great King sued in vain for the friendship of Probus. Most of the exploits which distinguished his reign47 were achieved by the personal valour and conduct47 of the emperor47, insomuch that the writer of his life47 expresses some amazement how, in so short a time, a single man could be present in so many distant wars. The remaining actions he entrusted to the care of his lieutenants, the judicious choice of whom forms no inconsiderable part of his glory. Carus, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, Galerius, Asclepiodatus, Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards ascended or supported the throne47, were trained to arms47 in the severe school of Aurelian and Probus.
But the most important service which Probus5 rendered to the republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of seventy flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians5 of Germany5, who, since the death of Aurelian5, had ravaged that great5 province with impunity. Among the various multitude of those fierce invaders we may distinguish, with some degree of clearness, three great5 armies, or rather nations, successively vanquished by the valour5 of Probus5. He drove back the Franks into their morasses; a descriptive circumstance from whence we may infer that the confederacy known by the manly appellation of Free already occupied the flat maritime country5, intersected and almost overflown by the stagnating waters of the Rhine5, and that several tribes of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded to their alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians, a considerable5 people of the Vandalic race. They had wandered in quest of booty from the banks5 of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed themselves sufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution of all their booty, the permission of an undisturbed retreat5. They attempted to elude that article of the treaty. Their punishment was immediate and terrible. But of all the invaders of Gaul, the most formidable were the Lygians, a distant people who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland and Silesia. In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first rank by their numbers5 and fierceness. The Arii (it is thus that they are described by the energy of Tacitus) study to improve by art and circumstances the innate terrors of their barbarism. Their shields are black, their bodies are painted black. They choose for the combat the darkest hour of the night. Their host5 advances, covered as it were with a funereal shade; nor do they often find an enemy5 capable of sustaining so strange and infernal an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the first vanquished in battle5. Yet the arms5 and discipline5 of the Romans5 easily discomfited these horrid phantoms. The Lygii were defeated in a general engagement, and Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs5, fell alive into the hands of Probus5. That prudent emperor5, unwilling to reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an honourable capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to their native country5. But the losses which they suffered in the march, the battle5, and the retreat5 broke the power of the nation: nor is the Lygian name ever repeated in the history either of Germany5 or of the empire5. The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four hundred thousand5 of the invaders; a work of labour to the Romans5, and of expense to the emperor5, who gave a piece of gold for the head of every barbarian. But, as the fame of warriors is built on the destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect that the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted without any very severe examination by the liberal vanity of Probus5.
Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman5 generals had confined their ambition to a defensive war5 against the nations of Germany5, who perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire5. The more daring Probus5 pursued his Gallic victories5, passed the Rhine5, and displayed his invincible eagles on the banks5 of the Elbe and the Neckar. He was fully convinced that nothing could reconcile the minds of the barbarians5 to peace, unless they experienced in their own country5 the calamities of war5. Germany5, exhausted by the ill success5 of the last emigration, was astonished by his presence. Nine of the most considerable5 princes repaired to his camp5, and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a treaty was humbly received by the Germans5, as it pleased the conqueror to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which they had carried away from the provinces5; and obliged their own magistrates to punish the more obstinate robbers who presumed to detain any part of the spoil. A considerable5 tribute of corn, cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbarians5, was reserved for the use of the garrisons which Probus5 established on the limits of their territory. He even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans5 to relinquish the exercise of arms5, and to trust their differences to the justice, their safety to the power, of Rome. To accomplish these salutary ends, the constant residence of an Imperial governor, supported by a numerous army5, was indispensably requisite. Probus5 therefore judged it more expedient to defer the execution of so great5 a design; which was indeed rather of specious than solid utility. Had Germany5 been reduced into the state of a province, the Romans5, with immense labour and expense, would have acquired only a more extensive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barbarians5 of Scythia.
Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country9 which now forms the circle of Swabia had been left desert in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient9 inhabitants9. The fertility of the soil soon9 attracted a new9 colony from the adjacent provinces9 of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tithes, the majesty of the empire9. To protect these new9 subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube9. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons were connected and covered by a strong intrenchment of trees and palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable height, and strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the neighbourhood of Neustadt and Ratisbon on the Danube9, it stretched across hills, valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far9 as Wimpfen on the Neckar, and at length terminated on the banks9 of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two hundred miles9. This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces9 of Europe9, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the barbarians9, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire9. But the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of country9. An active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attack, must, in the end, discover some feeble spot or unguarded moment. The strength as well as the attention of the defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops9, that a line broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus erected may confirm the general observation. Within a few years after his death, it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the Daemon, now serve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant.
Among the useful conditions of peace, imposed by Probus on the vanquished nations of Germany36, was the obligation of supplying the Roman36 army36 with sixteen thousand36 recruits, the bravest and most robust of their youth36. The emperor36 dispersed them through all the provinces36, and distributed this dangerous36 reinforcement in small bands, of fifty or sixty each, among the national troops; judiciously observing that the aid36 which the republic derived from the barbarians36 should be felt but not seen. Their aid36 was now become necessary. The feeble elegance of Italy and the internal provinces36 could no longer support the weight36 of arms36. The hardy frontier of the Rhine and Danube36 still produced minds and bodies equal to the labours of the camp; but a perpetual series of wars had gradually diminished their numbers. The infrequency of marriage, and the ruin of agriculture, affected the principles of population, and not only destroyed the strength36 of the present, but intercepted the hope36 of future, generations. The wisdom of Probus embraced a great and beneficial plan of replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by new36 colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians36, on whom he bestowed lands36, cattle, instruments of husbandry, and every encouragement that might engage them to educate a race of soldiers for the service of the republic. Into Britain36, and most probably into Cambridgeshire, he transported a considerable36 body of Vandals. The impossibility of an escape reconciled them to their situation, and in the subsequent troubles of that island36 they approved themselves the most faithful servants of the state. Great numbers of Franks and Gepidae were settled on the banks of the Danube36 and the Rhine. An hundred thousand36 Bastarnae, expelled from their own country36, cheerfully accepted an establishment in Thrace, and soon36 imbibed the manners and sentiments of Roman36 subjects. But the expectations of Probus were too often disappointed. The impatience and idleness of the barbarians36 could ill brook the slow labours of agriculture. Their unconquerable love of freedom, rising against despotism, provoked them into hasty rebellions, alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces36; nor could these artificial supplies, however repeated by succeeding emperors, restore the important36 limit of Gaul36 and Illyricum to its ancient36 and native vigour.
Of all the barbarians9 who abandoned their new9 settlements, and disturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number returned to their own country9. For a short season they might wander in arms9 through the empire9; but in the end they were surely destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The successful rashness of a party of Franks was attended, however, with such memorable consequences, that it ought not to be passed unnoticed. They had been established by Probus on the sea9 coast9 of Pontus, with a view of strengthening that frontier against the inroads of the Alani. A fleet9 stationed in one of the harbours of the Euxine fell into the hands of the Franks; and they resolved, through unknown seas, to explore their way from the mouth of the Phasis to that of the Rhine. They easily escaped through the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and, cruising along the Mediterranean, indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder by frequent descents on the unsuspecting shores of Asia9, Greece, and Africa9. The opulent city9 of Syracuse, in whose port the navies of Athens and Carthage had formerly been sunk, was sacked by a handful of barbarians9, who massacred the greatest part of the trembling inhabitants9. From the island of Sicily the Franks proceeded to the columns of Hercules, trusted themselves to the ocean9, coasted round Spain and Gaul, and, steering their triumphant course through the British channel, at length finished their surprising voyage, by landing in safety on the Batavian or Frisian shores. The example of their success, instructing their countrymen to conceive the advantages, and to despise the dangers, of the sea9, pointed out to their enterprising spirit a new9 road to wealth and glory.
Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was almost impossible that he could at once contain in obedience every part of his wide-extended dominions. The barbarians, who broke their chains, had seized the favourable opportunity of a domestic war47. When the emperor47 marched to the relief of Gaul, he devolved the command47 of the East47 on Saturninus. That general47, a man of merit47 and experience, was driven into rebellion by the absence of his sovereign47, the levity of the Alexandrian people47, the pressing instances of his friends, and his own fears; but from the moment of his elevation he never entertained a hope of empire47, or even of life47. Alas! he said, the republic has lost a useful servant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the services of many years. You know not, continued he, the misery of sovereign47 power47: a sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We dread our very guards, we distrust our companions. The choice of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition, nor is there any age47, or character, or conduct47, that can protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne47, you have doomed me to a life47 of cares, and to an untimely fate. The only consolation which remains is the assurance that I shall not fall alone. But, as the former part of his prediction was verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the clemency, of Probus. That amiable prince47 attempted even to save the unhappy Saturninus from the fury of the soldiers47. He had more than once solicited the usurper himself to place some confidence in the mercy of a sovereign47 who so highly esteemed his character, that he had punished, as a malicious informer, the first who related the improbable news of his defection. Saturninus might, perhaps, have embraced the generous offer, had he not been restrained by the obstinate distrust of his adherents. Their guilt was deeper, and their hopes more sanguine, than those of their experienced leader.
The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely extinguished in the East47, before new troubles were excited in the West by the rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus in Gaul. The most distinguished merit47 of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus; yet neither of them were destitute of courage and capacity, and both sustained, with honour, the august character which the fear of punishment had engaged them to assume, till they sunk at length beneath the superior genius of Probus. He used the victory with his accustomed moderation, and spared the fortunes as well as the lives of their innocent families.
The arms15 of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and domestic enemies of the state15. His mild but steady administration confirmed the re-establishment of the public15 tranquillity; nor was there left in the provinces15 a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to revive the memory of past disorders. It was time that the emperor15 should revisit Rome15, and celebrate his own glory and the general15 happiness. The triumph due to the valour of Probus was conducted with a magnificence suitable to his fortune, and the people15 who had so lately admired the trophies of Aurelian gazed with equal15 pleasure15 on those of his heroic successor15. We cannot, on this occasion, forget the desperate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood15 for the amusement of the populace, they killed their keepers, broke from the place15 of their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome15 with blood15 and confusion. After an obstinate resistance they were overpowered and cut in pieces by the regular forces; but they obtained at least an honourable death15, and the satisfaction15 of a just revenge.
The military40 discipline which reigned in the camps of Probus was less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it was equally rigid and exact. The latter had punished the irregularities of the soldiers with unrelenting severity, the former prevented them by employing the legions in constant and useful labours. When Probus commanded in Egypt40, he executed many considerable works for the splendour40 and benefit of that rich country40. The navigation of the Nile, so important to Rome40 itself, was improved; and temples, bridges, porticos, and palaces were constructed by the hands of the soldiers, who acted by turns as architects, as engineers, and as husbandmen. It was reported of Hannibal that, in order to preserve his troops from the dangerous temptations of idleness, he had obliged them to form large plantations of olive trees along the coast of Africa40. From a similar principle, Probus exercised his legions in covering with rich vineyards the hills of Gaul40 and Pannonia, and two considerable spots are described, which were entirely dug and planted by military40 labour. One of these, known under the name of Mount Alma, was situated near Sirmium, the country40 where Probus was born, for which he ever retained a partial affection, and whose gratitude he endeavoured to secure by converting into tillage a large and unhealthy tract of marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted perhaps the most useful, as well as the bravest, portion of the Roman40 subjects40.
But, in the prosecution of a favourite scheme, the best of men, satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to forget the bounds of moderation; nor did Probus himself sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of his fierce legionaries. The dangers of the military47 profession seem only to be compensated by a life47 of pleasure and idleness; but, if the duties of the soldier are incessantly aggravated by the labours of the peasant, he will at last sink under the intolerable burden, or shake it off with indignation. The imprudence of Probus is said to have inflamed the discontent of his troops47. More attentive to the interests of mankind than to those of the army47, he expressed the vain hope that, by the establishment of universal peace, he should soon47 abolish the necessity of a standing and mercenary force. The unguarded expression proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of summer, as he severely urged the unwholesome labour of draining the marshes of Sirmium, the soldiers47, impatient of fatigue, on a sudden threw down their tools, grasped their arms47, and broke out into a furious mutiny. The emperor47, conscious of his danger47, took refuge in a lofty tower, constructed for the purpose of surveying the progress of the work. The tower was instantly forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at once into the bosom of the unfortunate Probus. The rage of the troops47 subsided as soon47 as it had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of the emperor47 whom they had massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honourable monument, the memory of his virtues and victories.
When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for the death47 of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his Praetorian prefect47, the most deserving of the Imperial47 throne47. Every circumstance that relates to this prince47 appears of a mixed and doubtful nature. He gloried in the title of Roman47 Citizen; and affected to compare the purity of his blood with the foreign, and even barbarous, origin of the preceding emperors: yet the most inquisitive of his contemporaries, very far from admitting his claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or that of his parents, from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa. Though a soldier, he had received a learned education; though a senator, he was invested with the first dignity of the army47; and, in an age47 when the civil47 and military47 professions began to be irrecoverably separated from each other, they were united in the person47 of Carus. Notwithstanding the severe justice47 which he exercised against the assassins of Probus, to whose favour and esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape the suspicion of being accessory to a deed from whence he derived the principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least before his elevation, an acknowledged character of virtue and abilities: but his austere temper insensibly degenerated into moroseness and cruelty; and the imperfect writers of his life47 almost hesitate whether they shall not rank47 him in the number of Roman47 tyrants. When Carus assumed the purple, he was about sixty years of age47, and his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, had already attained the season of manhood.
The authority47 of the senate47 expired with Probus; nor was the repentance of the soldiers47 displayed by the same dutiful regard for the civil47 power47 which they had testified after the unfortunate death47 of Aurelian. The election of Carus was decided without expecting the approbation of the senate47, and the new emperor47 contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne47. A behaviour so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor afforded no favourable presage of the new reign47; and the Romans, deprived of power47 and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs. The voice of congratulation and flattery was not however silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on the accession of the emperor47 Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noon-tide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some recent characters. The rural deity had described, in prophetic verses, the felicity promised to the empire47 under the reign47 of so great a prince47. Faunus hails the approach of that hero, who, receiving on his shoulders the sinking weight of the Roman47 world, shall extinguish war47 and faction, and once again restore the innocence and security of the golden age47.
It is more than probable that these elegant trifles never reached the ears of a veteran general47, who, with the consent of the legions, was preparing to execute the long47-suspended design of the Persian war47. Before his departure for this distant expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the title of Caesar; and, investing the former with almost an equal share of the Imperial47 power47, directed the young prince47, first to suppress some troubles which had arisen in Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence at Rome47, and to assume the government47 of the Western provinces47. The safety of Illyricum was confirmed by a memorable defeat of the Sarmatians; sixteen thousand of those barbarians remained on the field of battle, and the number of captives amounted to twenty thousand. The old emperor47, animated with the fame and prospect of victory, pursued his march, in the midst of winter, through the countries of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, with his younger son47, Numerian, arrived on the confines of the Persian monarchy. There, encamping on the summit of a lofty mountain, he pointed out to his troops47 the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom they were about to invade.
The successor of Artaxerxes, Varnes or Bahram, though he had subdued the Segestans, one of the most warlike nations of Upper Asia, was alarmed at the approach of the Romans3 and endeavoured to retard their progress by a negotiation of peace3. His ambassadors entered the camp3 about sunset, at the time when the troops3 were satisfying their hunger with a frugal repast. The Persians3 expressed their desire of being introduced to the presence of the Roman3 emperor3. They were at length conducted to a soldier, who was seated on the grass. A piece of stale bacon and a few hard peas composed his supper. A coarse woollen garment of purple was the only circumstance that announced his dignity. The conference was conducted with the same disregard of courtly elegance. Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his baldness, assured the ambassadors that, unless their master acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would speedily render Persia3 as naked of trees as his own head3 was destitute of hair. Notwithstanding some traces of art and preparation, we may discover, in this scene, the manners of Carus, and the severe simplicity which the martial princes, who succeeded Gallienus, had already restored in the Roman3 camps. The ministers of the Great3 King3 trembled and retired.
The threats of Carus were not without effect. He ravaged Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage, made himself master of the great3 cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon (which seem to have surrendered without resistance), and carried his victorious arms3 beyond the Tigris3. He had seized the favourable moment for an invasion. The Persian3 councils were distracted by domestic factions, and the greater part of their forces were detained on the frontiers of India. Rome and the East3 received with transport the news of such important3 advantages. Flattery and hope painted, in the most lively colours, the fall of Persia3, the conquest of Arabia, the submission of Egypt, and a lasting deliverance from the inroads of the Scythian nations. But the reign3 of Carus was destined to expose the vanity of predictions. They were scarcely uttered before they were contradicted by his death3; an event attended with such ambiguous circumstances, that it may best be related in a letter from his own secretary to the prefect of the city3. Carus, says he, our dearest emperor3, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a furious tempest arose in the camp3. The darkness which overspread the sky was so thick, that we could no longer distinguish each other; and the incessant flashes of lightning took from us the knowledge of all that passed in the general3 confusion. Immediately after the most violent clap of thunder, we heard a sudden cry that the emperor3 was dead; and it soon3 appeared that his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the royal3 pavilion, a circumstance which gave rise to the report that Carus was killed by lightning. But, as far as we have been able to investigate the truth, his death3 was the natural effect of his disorder.
The vacancy of the throne47 was not productive of any disturbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals was checked by their mutual fears, and young Numerian, with his absent brother Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as Roman47 emperors. The public47 expected that the successor of Carus would pursue his father47's footsteps, and, without allowing the Persians to recover from their consternation, would advance sword in hand to the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana. But the legions, however strong in numbers and discipline, were dismayed by the most abject superstition. Notwithstanding all the arts that were practised to disguise the manner of the late emperor47's death47, it was found impossible to remove the opinion of the multitude, and the power47 of opinion is irresistible. Places or persons struck with lightning were considered by the ancients with pious horror, as singularly devoted to the wrath of Heaven. An oracle was remembered, which marked the river Tigris as the fatal boundary of the Roman47 arms47. The troops47, terrified with the fate of Carus and with their own danger47, called aloud on young Numerian to obey the will of the gods, and to lead them away from this inauspicious scene of war47. The feeble emperor47 was unable to subdue their obstinate prejudice, and the Persians wondered at the unexpected retreat of a victorious enemy.
The intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late emperor47 was soon47 carried from the frontiers of Persia to Rome47; and the senate47, as well as the provinces47, congratulated the accession of the sons of Carus. These fortunate youths were strangers, however, to that conscious superiority, either of birth or of merit47, which can alone render the possession of a throne47 easy, and as it were natural. Born and educated in a private47 station, the election of their father47 raised them at once to the rank47 of princes; and his death47, which happened about sixteen months afterwards, left them the unexpected legacy of a vast empire47. To sustain with temper this rapid elevation, an uncommon share of virtue and prudence was requisite; and Carinus, the elder of the brothers, was more than commonly deficient in those qualities. In the Gallic war47, he discovered some degree of personal courage; but, from the moment of his arrival at Rome47, he abandoned himself to the luxury of the capital, and to the abuse of his fortune. He was soft, yet cruel; devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste; and, though exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indifferent to the public47 esteem. In the course of a few months, he successively married and divorced nine wives, most of whom he left pregnant; and, notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found time to indulge such a variety of irregular appetites as brought dishonour on himself and on the noblest houses of Rome47. He beheld with inveterate hatred all those who might remember his former obscurity, or censure his present conduct47. He banished or put to death47 the friends and counsellors whom his father47 had placed about him to guide his inexperienced youth; and he persecuted with the meanest revenge his school-fellows and companions, who had not sufficiently respected the latent majesty of the emperor47. With the senators, Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanour, frequently declaring that he designed to distribute their estates among the populace of Rome47. From the dregs of that populace he selected his favourites, and even his ministers. The palace47, and even the Imperial47 table, was filled with singers, dancers, prostitutes, and all the various retinue of vice and folly. One of his door-keepers he entrusted with the government47 of the city47. In the room of the Praetorian prefect47, whom he put to death47, Carinus substituted one of the ministers of his looser pleasures. Another who possessed the same, or even a more infamous, title to favour, was invested with the consulship. A confidential secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in the art of forgery, delivered the indolent emperor47, with his own consent, from the irksome duty of signing his name.
When the emperor47 Carus undertook the Persian war47, he was induced, by motives of affection as well as policy, to secure the fortunes of his family by leaving in the hands of his eldest son47 the armies and provinces47 of the West. The intelligence which he soon47 received of the conduct47 of Carinus filled him with shame and regret; nor had he concealed his resolution of satisfying the republic by a severe act of justice47, and of adopting, in the place of an unworthy son47, the brave and virtuous Constantius, who at that time was governor of Dalmatia. But the elevation of Constantius was for a while deferred; and, as soon47 as a father47's death47 had released Carinus from the control of fear or decency, he displayed to the Romans the extravagancies of Elagabalus, aggravated by the cruelty of Domitian.
The only merit46 of the administration of Carinus that history46 could record or poetry celebrate was the uncommon splendour with which, in his own and his brother's name, he exhibited the Roman46 games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre. More than twenty years46 afterwards, when the courtiers of Diocletian represented to their frugal sovereign the fame and popularity of his munificent predecessor, he acknowledged that the reign46 of Carinus had indeed been a reign46 of pleasure46. But this vain prodigality, which the prudence of Diocletian might justly despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by the Roman46 people46. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the spectacles of former days, the triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were all surpassed by the superior magnificence of Carinus.
The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated by the observation of some particulars, which history has condescended to relate concerning those of his predecessors. If we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts, however we may censure the vanity of the design or the cruelty of the execution, we are obliged to confess that neither before nor since the time28 of the Romans so much art and expense have ever been lavished for the amusement of the people28. By the order28 of Probus, a great28 quantity of large trees, torn up by the roots, were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The spacious and shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand28 ostriches, a thousand28 stags, a thousand28 fallow deer, and a thousand28 wild boars; and all this variety of game was abandoned28 to the riotous impetuosity of the multitude28. The tragedy of the succeeding day consisted28 in the massacre of an hundred lions, an equal number28 of lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred bears. The collection prepared by the younger Gordian for his triumph, and which his successor exhibited in the secular games, was less remarkable by the number28 than by the singularity of the animals. Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty to the eyes of the Roman28 people28. Ten elks, and as many camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that wander over the plains of Sarmatia and Aethiopia, were contrasted with thirty28 African hyaenas, and ten Indian tigers, the most implacable savages of the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which Nature28 has endowed the greater quadrupeds was admired in the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the Nile, and a majestic troop of thirty28-two elephants. While the populace gazed with stupid wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist might indeed observe the figure and properties of so many different28 species, transported from every part of the ancient28 world into the amphitheatre of Rome28. But this accidental benefit which science might derive from folly is surely insufficient to justify such a wanton abuse of the public28 riches. There occurs, however, a single instance in the first Punic war28, in which the senate28 wisely connected this amusement of the multitude28 with the interest of the state28. A considerable number28 of elephants, taken in the defeat of the Carthaginian army28, were driven through the circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins. The useful spectacle served to impress the Roman28 soldier with a just contempt for those unwieldy animals; and he no longer dreaded to encounter them in the ranks of war28.
The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with a magnificence suitable to a people26 who styled themselves the masters of the world26; nor was the edifice appropriated to that entertainment less expressive of Roman26 greatness. Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the amphitheatre of Titus, which so well deserved the epithet of Colossal. It was a building of an elliptic figure, five hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet.The outside of the edifice was encrusted with marble, and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats, of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease above fourscore thousand spectators. Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each person26, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order26, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion. Nothing was omitted, which, in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators. They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample26 canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain, might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. In the decoration of these scenes the Roman26 emperors26 displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold26, or of amber. The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd attracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold26 wire; that the porticos were gilded; and that the belt or circle which divided the several ranks26 of spectators from each other was studded with a precious Mosaic of beautiful stones.
In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor13 Carinus, secure of his fortune13, enjoyed the acclamations of the people, the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the divine graces of his person. In the same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brother expired; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a stranger the sceptre of the house13 of Carus.
The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father22's death22. The arrangements which their new22 situation required were probably deferred till the return of the younger brother to Rome22, where a triumph was decreed to the young emperors22, for the glorious success of the Persian war22. It is uncertain whether they intended to divide between them the administration or the provinces of the empire22; but it is very unlikely that their union would have proved of any long22 duration. The jealousy of power22 must have been inflamed by the opposition of characters. In the most corrupt of times22, Carinus was unworthy to live: Numerian deserved to reign22 in a happier period. His affable manners and gentle virtues22 secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and affections of the public22. He possessed the elegant accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His eloquence, however it was applauded by the senate, was formed not so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of the modern declaimers; but in an age22 very far from being destitute22 of poetical merit22, he contended for the prize with the most celebrated of his contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals; a circumstance which evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the superiority of his genius. But the talents of Numerian were rather of the contemplative than of the active kind. When his father22's elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits had qualified him for the command of armies. His constitution was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war22; and he had contracted, from the heat of the climate, such a weakness in his eyes as obliged him, in the course of a long22 retreat, to confine himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter. The administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, was devolved on Arrius Aper, the Praetorian prefect, who to the power22 of his important office added the honour of being father22-in-law to Numerian. The Imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty adherents; and, during many days, Aper delivered to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible sovereign.
It was not till eight months after the death47 of Carus that the Roman47 army47, returning by slow marches from the banks of the Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. The legions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to Heraclea, on the European side of the Propontis. But a report soon47 circulated through the camp, at first in secret47 whispers, and at length in loud clamours, of the emperor47's death47, and of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who still exercised the sovereign47 power47 in the name of a prince47 who was no more. The impatience of the soldiers47 could not long47 support a state of suspense. With rude curiosity they broke into the Imperial47 tent, and discovered only the corpse of Numerian. The gradual decline of his health might have induced them to believe that his death47 was natural; but the concealment was interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the measures which Aper had taken to secure his election became the immediate occasion of his ruin. Yet, even in the transport of their rage and grief, the troops47 observed a regular proceeding, which proves how firmly discipline had been re-established by the martial successors of Gallienus. A general47 assembly of the army47 was appointed to be held at Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in chains, as a prisoner and a criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected in the midst of the camp, and the generals and tribunes formed a great military47 council. They soon47 announced to the multitude that their choice had fallen on Diocletian, commander of the domestics or body-guards, as the person47 the most capable of revenging and succeeding their beloved emperor47. The future fortunes of the candidate depended on the chance or conduct47 of the present hour. Conscious that the station which he had filled exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and, raising his eyes towards the Sun, made a solemn profession of his own innocence, in the presence of that all-seeing Deity. Then, assuming the tone of a sovereign47 and a judge, he commanded that Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal. This man, said he, is the murderer of Numerian; and, without giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate prefect47. A charge supported by such decisive proof was admitted without contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclamations, acknowledged the justice47 and authority47 of the emperor47 Diocletian.
Before we enter upon the memorable reign47 of that prince47, it will be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of Numerian. Carinus possessed arms47 and treasures sufficient to support his legal title to the empire47. But his personal vices overbalanced every advantage of birth and situation. The most faithful servants of the father47 despised the incapacity, and dreaded the cruel arrogance, of the son47. The hearts of the people47 were engaged in favour of his rival, and even the senate47 was inclined to prefer an usurper to a tyrant47. The arts of Diocletian inflamed the general47 discontent; and the winter was employed in secret47 intrigues, and open preparations for a civil47 war47. In the spring the forces of the East47 and of the West encountered each other in the plains of Margus, a small city47 of Maesia, in the neighbourhood of the Danube. The troops47, so lately returned from the Persian war47, had acquired their glory at the expense of health and numbers, nor were they in a condition to contend with the unexhausted strength of the legions of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and of life47. But the advantage which Carinus had obtained by the valour of his soldiers47 he quickly lost by the infidelity of his officers. A tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and by a single blow extinguished civil47 discord in the blood of the adulterer.
As the reign47 of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of any of his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and obscure. The strong claims of merit47 and of violence had frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility; but a distinct line of separation was hitherto preserved between the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Anulinus, a Roman47 senator; nor was he himself distinguished by any other name than that which he derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from whence his mother deduced her origin. It is, however, probable, that his father47 obtained the freedom of the family, and that he soon47 acquired an office of scribe, which was commonly exercised by persons of his condition. Favourable oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior merit47, prompted his aspiring son47 to pursue the profession of arms47 and the hopes of fortune; and it would be extremely curious to observe the gradation of arts and accidents which enabled him in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to display that merit47 to the world. Diocletian was successively promoted to the government47 of Maesia, the honours of the consulship, and the important command47 of the guards of the palace47. He distinguished his abilities in the Persian war47; and, after the death47 of Numerian, the slave, by the confession and judgment of his rivals, was declared the most worthy of the Imperial47 throne47. The malice of religious zeal, whilst it arraigns the savage fierceness of his colleague Maximian, has affected to cast suspicions on the personal courage of the emperor47 Diocletian. It would not be easy to persuade us of the cowardice of a soldier of fortune, who acquired and preserved the esteem of the legions, as well as the favour of so many warlike princes. Yet even calumny is sagacious enough to discover and to attack the most vulnerable part. The valour of Diocletian was never found inadequate to his duty, or to the occasion; but he appears not to have possessed the daring and generous spirit47 of a hero, who courts danger47 and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly challenges the allegiance of his equals. His abilities were useful rather than splendid; a vigorous mind, improved by the experience and study of mankind, dexterity and application in business; a judicious mixture of liberality and economy, of mildness and rigour; profound dissimulation under the disguise of military47 frankness; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibility to vary his means; and above all the great art of submitting his own passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his ambition, and of colouring his ambition with the most specious pretences of justice47 and public47 utility. Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire47. Like the adopted son47 of Caesar, he was distinguished as a statesman rather than a warrior; nor did either of those princes employ force, whenever their purpose could be effected by policy.
The victory of Diocletian was remarkable for its singular mildness. A people47 accustomed to applaud the clemency of the conqueror, if the usual punishments of death47, exile, and confiscation were inflicted with any degree of temper and equity, beheld with the most pleasing astonishment a civil47 war47, the flames of which were extinguished in the field of battle. Diocletian received into his confidence Aristobulus, the principal minister of the house of Carus, respected the lives, the fortunes, and the dignity of his adversaries, and even continued in their respective stations the greater number of the servants of Carinus. It is not improbable that motives of prudence might assist the humanity of the artful Dalmatian; of these servants many had purchased his favour by secret47 treachery; in others, he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an unfortunate master47. The discerning judgment of Aurelian, of Probus, and of Carus had filled the several departments of the state and army47 with officers of approved merit47, whose removal would have injured the public47 service, without promoting the interest of the successor. Such a conduct47, however, displayed to the Roman47 world the fairest prospect of the new reign47, and the emperor47 affected to confirm this favourable prepossession by declaring that, among all the virtues of his predecessors, he was the most ambitious of imitating the humane philosophy of Marcus Antoninus.
The first considerable action of his reign47 seemed to evince his sincerity as well as his moderation. After the example of Marcus, he gave himself a colleague in the person47 of Maximian, on whom he bestowed at first the title of Caesar, and afterwards that of Augustus. But the motives of his conduct47, as well as the object of his choice, were of a very different nature from those of his admired predecessor. By investing a luxurious youth with the honours of the purple, Marcus had discharged a debt of private47 gratitude, at the expense, indeed, of the happiness of the state. By associating a friend and a fellow-soldier to the labours of government47, Diocletian, in a time of public47 danger47, provided for the defence both of the East47 and of the West. Maximian was born a peasant, and, like Aurelian, in the territory of Sirmium. Ignorant of letters, careless of laws, the rusticity of his appearance and manners still betrayed in the most elevated fortune the meanness of his extraction. War47 was the only art which he professed. In a long47 course of service, he had distinguished himself on every frontier of the empire47; and, though his military47 talents were formed to obey rather than to command47, though, perhaps, he never attained the skill of a consummate general47, he was capable, by his valour, constancy, and experience, of executing the most arduous undertakings. Nor were the vices of Maximian less useful to his benefactor. Insensible to pity, and fearless of consequences, he was the ready instrument of every act of cruelty which the policy of that artful prince47 might at once suggest and disclaim. As soon47 as a bloody sacrifice had been offered to prudence or to revenge, Diocletian, by his seasonable intercession, saved the remaining few whom he had never designed to punish, gently censured the severity of his stern colleague, and enjoyed the comparison of a golden and an iron age47, which was universally applied to their opposite maxims of government47. Notwithstanding the difference of their characters, the two emperors maintained, on the throne47, that friendship which they had contracted in a private47 station. The haughty turbulent spirit47 of Maximian, so fatal afterwards to himself and to the public47 peace, was accustomed to respect the genius of Diocletian, and confessed the ascendant of reason over brutal violence. From a motive either of pride or superstition, the two emperors assumed the titles, the one of Jovius, the other of Herculius. Whilst the motion of the world (such was the language of their venal orators) was maintained by the all-seeing wisdom of Jupiter, the invincible arm of Hercules purged the earth of monsters and tyrants.
But even the omnipotence of Jovius and Herculius was insufficient to sustain the weight of the public47 administration. The prudence of Diocletian discovered that the empire47, assailed on every side by the barbarians, required on every side the presence of a great army47, and of an emperor47. With this view he resolved once more to divide his unwieldy power47, and, with the inferior title of Caesars, to confer on two generals of approved merit47 an equal share of the sovereign47 authority47. Galerius, surnamed Armentarius, from his original profession of a herdsman, and Constantius, who from his pale complexion had acquired the denomination of Chlorus, were the two persons invested with the second honours of the Imperial47 purple. In describing the country, extraction, and manners of Herculius, we have already delineated those of Galerius, who was often, and not improperly, styled the younger Maximian, though in many instances both of virtue and ability he appears to have possessed a manifest superiority over the elder. The birth of Constantius was less obscure than that of his colleagues. Eutropius, his father47, was one of the most considerable nobles of Dardania, and his mother was the niece of the emperor47 Claudius. Although the youth of Constantius had been spent in arms47, he was endowed with a mild and amiable disposition, and the popular voice had long47 since acknowledged him worthy of the rank47 which he at last attained. To strengthen the bonds of political, by those of domestic, union, each of the emperors assumed the character of a father47 to one of the Caesars, Diocletian to Galerius, and Maximian to Constantius; and each, obliging them to repudiate their former wives, bestowed his daughter in marriage on his adopted son47. These four princes distributed among themselves the wide extent of the Roman47 empire47. The defence of Gaul, Spain, and Britain was entrusted to Constantius; Galerius was stationed on the banks of the Danube, as the safeguard of the Illyrian provinces47. Italy47 and Africa were considered as the department of Maximian, and, for his peculiar portion, Diocletian reserved Thrace, Egypt, and the rich countries of Asia. Every one was sovereign47 within his own jurisdiction; but their united authority47 extended over the whole monarchy; and each of them was prepared to assist his colleagues with his councils or presence. The Caesars, in their exalted rank47, revered the majesty of the emperors, and the three younger princes invariably acknowledged, by their gratitude and obedience, the common parent of their fortunes. The suspicious jealousy of power47 found not any place among them; and the singular happiness of their union has been compared to a chorus of music, whose harmony was regulated and maintained by the skilful hand of the first artist.
This important measure was not carried into execution till24 about six years24 after the association of Maximian, and that interval of time had not been destitute of memorable incidents. But we have preferred, for the sake of perspicuity, first to describe the more perfect form of Diocletian's government24, and afterwards to relate the actions of his reign24, following rather the natural order of the events than the dates of a very doubtful chronology.
The first exploit of Maximian, though it is mentioned in a few words by our imperfect writers, deserves, from its singularity, to be recorded in a history of human37 manners37. He suppressed the peasants of Gaul, who, under the appellation of Bagaudae, had risen in a general insurrection; very similar to those which in the fourteenth century successively afflicted both France and England. It should seem that very many of those institutions, referred by an easy37 solution to the feudal system, are derived from the Celtic barbarians37. When Caesar subdued the Gauls, that great nation was already divided into three orders of men37: the clergy, the nobility, and the common37 people37. The first governed by superstition, the second by arms37, but the third and last was not of any weight37 or account in their public37 councils. It was very natural for the plebeians37, oppressed by debt or apprehensive of injuries, to implore the protection of some powerful chief, who acquired over their persons and property the same absolute rights as, among the Greeks and Romans37, a master exercised over his slaves37. The greatest part of the nation was gradually reduced into a state37 of servitude; compelled to perpetual labour on the estates of the Gallic nobles37, and confined to the soil, either by the real weight37 of fetters, or by the no less cruel and forcible restraints of the laws37. During the long37 series of troubles which agitated Gaul, from the reign of Gallienus to that of Diocletian37, the condition of these servile37 peasants was peculiarly miserable; and they experienced at once the complicated tyranny of their masters, of the barbarians37, of the soldiers, and of the officers of the revenue.
Their patience was at last provoked into despair. On every side they rose in multitudes, armed with rustic weapons, and with irresistible fury. The ploughman became a footsoldier, the shepherd mounted on horseback, the deserted villages and open towns were abandoned to the flames, and the ravages of the peasants equalled those of the fiercest barbarians3. They asserted the natural rights of men, but they asserted those rights with the most savage cruelty. The Gallic nobles, justly dreading their revenge, either took refuge in the fortified cities, or fled from the wild scene of anarchy. The peasants reigned without control; and two of their most daring leaders had the folly and rashness to assume the Imperial ornaments. Their power soon3 expired at the approach of the legions. The strength of union and discipline obtained an easy victory3 over a licentious and divided multitude. A severe retaliation was inflicted on the peasants who were found in arms3; the affrighted remnant returned to their respective habitations, and their unsuccessful effort for freedom served only to confirm their slavery. So strong and uniform is the current of popular passions that we might almost venture, from very scanty materials, to relate the particulars of this war3; but we are not disposed to believe that the principal leaders Aelianus and Amandus were Christians, or to insinuate that the rebellion, as it happened in the time of Luther, was occasioned by the abuse of those benevolent principles of Christianity which inculcate the natural freedom of mankind.
Maximian had no sooner recovered Gaul from the hands of the peasants, than he lost Britain by the usurpation of Carausius. Ever since the rash but successful enterprise of the Franks under the reign47 of Probus, their daring countrymen had constructed squadrons of light brigantines, in which they incessantly ravaged the provinces47 adjacent to the ocean. To repel their desultory incursions, it was found necessary to create a naval power47; and the judicious measure was pursued with prudence and vigour. Gessoriacum or Boulogne, in the straits of the British channel, was chosen by the emperor47 for the station of the Roman47 fleet; and the command47 of it was entrusted to Carausius, a Menapian of the meanest origin, but who had long47 signalised his skill as a pilot, and his valour as a soldier. The integrity of the new admiral corresponded not with his abilities. When the German pirates sailed from their own harbours, he connived at their passage, but he diligently intercepted their return, and appropriated to his own use an ample share of the spoil which they had acquired. The wealth of Carausius was, on this occasion, very justly considered as an evidence of his guilt; and Maximian had already given orders for his death47. But the crafty Menapian foresaw and prevented the severity of the emperor47. By his liberality he had attached to his fortunes the fleet which he commanded, and secured the barbarians in his interest. From the port of Boulogne he sailed over to Britain, persuaded the legion and the auxiliaries which guarded that island to embrace his party, and boldly assuming, with the Imperial47 purple, the title of Augustus, defied the justice47 and the arms47 of his injured sovereign47.
When Britain29 was thus dismembered from the empire29, its importance was sensibly felt, and its loss sincerely lamented. The Romans29 celebrated29, and perhaps magnified, the extent of that noble island, provided on every side with convenient harbours; the temperature of the climate, and the fertility of the soil, alike adapted29 for the production of corn or of vines; the valuable minerals with which it abounded; its rich29 pastures covered with innumerable29 flocks, and its woods free from wild beasts or venomous serpents. Above all, they regretted the large amount of the revenue of Britain29, whilst29 they confessed that such a province29 well deserved to become the seat of an independent29 monarchy29. During the space of seven years, it was possessed by Carausius29; and fortune continued propitious to a rebellion supported with courage and ability. The British emperor29 defended29 the frontiers of his dominions against the Caledonians of the North29, invited from the continent a great29 number of skilful artists, and displayed29, on a variety of coins that are still extant, his taste and opulence. Born on the confines of the Franks, he courted the friendship of that formidable people, by the flattering imitation of their dress and manners29. The bravest of their youth29 he enlisted among his land or sea forces; and, in return for their useful29 alliance, he communicated to the barbarians29 the dangerous knowledge of military and naval arts. Carausius29 still preserved the possession of Boulogne and the adjacent country29. His fleets rode triumphant in the channel, commanded the mouths of the Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean, and diffused, beyond the Columns of Hercules, the terror of his name. Under his command, Britain29, destined in a future age29 to obtain the empire29 of the sea, already assumed its natural and respectable station of a maritime power29.
By seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Carausius had deprived his master47 of the means of pursuit and revenge. And, when, after vast expense of time and labour, a new armament was launched into the water, the Imperial47 troops47, unaccustomed to that element, were easily baffled and defeated by the veteran sailors of the usurper. This disappointed effort was soon47 productive of a treaty of peace. Diocletian and his colleague, who justly dreaded the enterprising spirit47 of Carausius, resigned to him the sovereignty of Britain, and reluctantly admitted their perfidious servant to a participation of the Imperial47 honours. But the adoption of the two Caesars restored new vigour to the Roman47 arms47; and, while the Rhine was guarded by the presence of Maximian, his brave associate, Constantius, assumed the conduct47 of the British war47. His first enterprise was against the important place of Boulogne. A stupendous mole, raised across the entrance of the harbour, intercepted all hopes of relief. The town surrendered after an obstinate defence; and a considerable part of the naval strength of Carausius fell into the hands of the besiegers. During the three years, which Constantius employed in preparing a fleet adequate to the conquest of Britain, he secured the coast of Gaul, invaded the country of the Franks, and deprived the usurper of the assistance of those powerful allies.
Before the preparations were finished, Constantius received the intelligence of the tyrant's death, and it was considered as a sure presage of the approaching victory5. The servants of Carausius imitated the example of treason which he had given. He was murdered by his first minister Allectus, and the assassin succeeded to his power and to his danger. But he possessed not equal abilities either to exercise the one, or to repel the other. He beheld, with anxious terror, the opposite shores of the continent, already filled with arms5, with troops5, and with vessels; for Constantius had very prudently divided his forces, that he might likewise divide the attention and resistance of the enemy5. The attack was at length made by the principal squadron, which, under the command of the prefect Asclepiodotus, an officer of distinguished merit, had been assembled in the mouth of the Seine. So imperfect in those times was the art of navigation that orators have celebrated the daring courage of the Romans5, who ventured to set sail with a side-wind, and on a stormy day5. The weather proved favourable to their enterprise. Under the cover of a thick fog, they escaped the fleet of Allectus, which had been stationed off the Isle of Wight to receive them, landed in safety on some part of the western coast, and convinced the Britons that a superiority of naval strength5 will not always protect their country5 from a foreign invasion. Asclepiodotus had no sooner disembarked the Imperial troops5 than he set fire to his ships; and, as the expedition proved fortunate, his heroic conduct was universally admired. The usurper had posted himself near5 London, to expect the formidable attack of Constantius, who commanded in person the fleet of Boulogne; but the descent of a new enemy5 required his immediate presence in the West. He performed this long march in so precipitate a manner that he encountered the whole force of the prefect with a small body5 of harassed and disheartened troops5. The engagement was soon5 terminated by the total defeat and death of Allectus; a single battle5, as it has often happened, decided the fate of this great5 island; and, when Constantius landed on the shores of Kent, he found them covered with obedient subjects. Their acclamations were loud and unanimous; and the virtues of the conqueror may induce us to believe that they sincerely rejoiced in a revolution which, after a separation of ten years, restored Britain to the body5 of the Roman5 empire5.
Britain had none but domestic enemies to dread; and, as long as the governors preserved their fidelity, and the troops5 their discipline5, the incursions of the naked savages of Scotland or Ireland could never materially affect the safety of the province. The peace of the continent, and the defence of the principal rivers which bounded the empire5, were objects of far5 greater difficulty and importance. The policy of Diocletian, which inspired the councils of his associates, provided for the public tranquillity, by encouraging a spirit of dissension among the barbarians5, and by strengthening the fortifications of the Roman5 limit. In the East he fixed a line of camps from Egypt to the Persian dominions, and, for every camp5, he instituted an adequate number of stationary troops5, commanded by their respective officers, and supplied with every kind of arms5, from the new arsenals which he had formed at Antioch, Emesa, and Damascus. Nor was the precaution of the emperor5 less watchful against the wellknown valour5 of the barbarians5 of Europe. From the mouth of the Rhine5 to that of the Danube5, the ancient camps, towns, and citadels were diligently re-established, and, in the most exposed places, new ones were skilfully constructed; the strictest vigilance was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier5, and every expedient was practised that could render the long chain of fortifications firm and impenetrable. A barrier so respectable was seldom violated, and the barbarians5 often turned against each other their disappointed rage. The Goths5, the Vandals, the Gepidae, the Burgundians, the Alemanni5, wasted each other's strength5 by destructive hostilities: and whosoever vanquished, they vanquished the enemies of Rome. The subjects of Diocletian enjoyed the bloody spectacle, and congratulated each other that the mischiefs of civil war5 were now experienced only by the barbarians5.
Notwithstanding the policy of Diocletian, it was impossible to maintain an equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a reign3 of twenty years3, and along a frontier of many hundred miles. Sometimes the barbarians3 suspended their domestic animosities, and the vigilance of the garrisons sometimes gave a passage to their strength or dexterity. Whenever the provinces3 were invaded, Diocletian conducted himself with that calm dignity which he always affected or possessed; reserved his presence for such occasions as were worthy of his interposition, never exposed his person or reputation to any unnecessary danger, ensured his success by every means that prudence could suggest, and displayed, with ostentation, the consequences of his victory3. In wars of a more difficult nature, and more doubtful event, he employed the rough valour3 of Maximian, and that faithful soldier was content to ascribe his own victories to the wise counsels and auspicious influence of his benefactor. But, after the adoption of the two Caesars, the emperors, themselves retiring to a less laborious scene of action, devolved on their adopted sons the defence of the Danube and of the Rhine. The vigilant Galerius was never reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army3 of barbarians3 on the Roman3 territory. The brave and active Constantius3 delivered Gaul3 from a very furious inroad of the Alemanni; and his victories of Langres and Vindonissa appear to have been actions of considerable danger and merit. As he traversed the open country with a feeble guard he was encompassed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the enemy3. He retreated with difficulty towards Langres; but, in the general3 consternation, the citizens refused to open their gates, and the wounded prince3 was drawn up the wall by the means of a rope. But on the news of his distress the Roman3 troops3 hastened from all sides to his relief, and before the evening he had satisfied his honour and revenge by the slaughter of six thousand3 Alemanni. From the monuments of those times, the obscure traces of several other victories over the barbarians3 of Sarmatia and Germany might possibly be collected; but the tedious search would not be rewarded either with amusement or with instruction.
The conduct which the emperor22 Probus had adopted in the disposal of the vanquished was imitated by Diocletian and his associates. The captive barbarians, exchanging death22 for slavery, were distributed among the provincials, and assigned to those districts (in Gaul, the territories of Amiens, Beauvais, Cambray, Treves, Langres, and Troyes are particularly specified) which had been depopulated by the calamities of war22. They were usefully employed as shepherds and husbandmen, but were denied the exercise22 of arms, except when it was found expedient to enrol them in the military service. Nor did the emperors22 refuse the property of lands, with a less servile tenure, to such of the barbarians as solicited the protection of Rome22. They granted a settlement to several colonies of the Carpi, the Bastarnae, and the Sarmatians; and, by a dangerous indulgence, permitted them in some measure to retain their national manners and independence. Among the provincials, it was a subject22 of flattering exultation, that the barbarian, so lately an object of terror, now cultivated their lands, drove their cattle to the neighbouring fair, and contributed by his labour to the public22 plenty. They congratulated their masters on the powerful accession of subjects and soldiers; but they forgot to observe that multitudes of secret enemies, insolent from favour, or desperate from oppression, were introduced into the heart of the empire22.
While the Caesars exercised their valour9 on the banks9 of the Rhine and Danube9, the presence of the emperors was required on the southern confines of the Roman9 world. From the Nile to Mount Atlas, Africa9 was in arms9. A confederacy of five Moorish nations9 issued from their deserts to invade the peaceful provinces9. Julian had assumed the purple at Carthage, Achilleus at Alexandria; and even the Blemmyes renewed, or rather continued, their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely any circumstances have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in the western parts of Africa9; but it appears, by the event, that the progress of his arms9 was rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest barbarians9 of Mauritania, and that he removed them from the mountains9, whose inaccessible strength had inspired their inhabitants9 with a lawless confidence, and habituated them to a life of rapine and violence. Diocletian, on his side, opened the campaign in Egypt by the siege of Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters of the Nile into every quarter of that immense city9, and, rendering his camp9 impregnable to the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed his reiterated attacks with caution and vigour. After a siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the sword and by fire, implored the clemency of the conqueror; but it experienced the full extent of his severity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death or at least of exile. The fate of Busiris and of Coptos was still more melancholy than that of Alexandria; those proud cities9, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by the arms9 and by the severe order of Diocletian. The character of the Egyptian nation9, insensible to kindness, but extremely susceptible of fear, could alone justify this excessive rigour. The seditions of Alexandria had often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome9 itself. Since the usurpation of Firmus, the province9 of Upper Egypt, incessantly relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the savages of Aethiopia. The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the Island of Meroe and the Red Sea9, was very inconsiderable, their disposition was unwarlike, their weapons rude and inoffensive. Yet in the public disorders these barbarians9, whom antiquity, shocked with the deformity of their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome9. Such had been the unworthy allies of the Egyptians; and, while the attention of the state was engaged in more serious wars, their vexatious inroads might again harass the repose of the province9. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a suitable adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatae, or people of Nubia, to remove from their ancient9 habitations in the deserts of Libya, and resigned to them an extensive but unprofitable territory, above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the stipulation that they should ever respect and guard the frontier of the empire9. The treaty long9 subsisted; and till the establishment of Christianity introduced stricter notions of religious worship, it was annually ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the isle of Elephantine, in which the Romans9, as well as the barbarians9, adored the same visible or invisible powers of the universe.
At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding reigns. One very remarkable edict, which he published, instead of being condemned as the effect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of prudence and humanity. He caused a diligent inquiry to be made for all the ancient0 books which treated of the admirable art0 of making gold and silver, and without pity committed them to the flames; apprehensive, as we are assured, lest the opulence of the Egyptians should inspire them with confidence to rebel against the empire0. But, if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of that valuable art0, far from extinguishing the memory, he would have converted the operation of it to the benefit of the public revenue. It is much more likely that his good sense discovered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and that he was desirous of preserving the reason and fortunes of his subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked that these ancient0 books, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent adepts. The Greeks0 were inattentive either to the use or to the abuse of chymistry. In that immense register where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts0, and the errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of the transmutation of metals; and the persecution of Diocletian is the first authentic event in the history0 of alchymy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs diffused that vain science0 over the globe. Congenial to the avarice of the human0 heart, it was studied in China as in Europe0, with equal eagerness, and with equal success. The darkness of the middle ages ensured a favourable reception to every tale of wonder, and the revival of learning0 gave new vigour to hope, and suggested more specious arts0 of deception. Philosophy0, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study0 of alchymy; and the present0 age0, however desirous of riches, is content to seek them by the humbler means of commerce and industry.
The reduction of Egypt was immediately followed by the Persian3 war3. It was reserved for the reign3 of Diocletian to vanquish that powerful nation, and to extort a confession from the successors of Artaxerxes, of the superior majesty of the Roman3 empire3.
We have observed, under the reign3 of Valerian, that Armenia3 was subdued by the perfidy and the arms3 of the Persians3, and that, after the assassination of Chosroes3, his son3 Tiridates, the infant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the fidelity of his friends, and educated under the protection of the emperors. Tiridates derived from his exile such advantages as he could never have attained on the throne3 of Armenia3: the early knowledge of adversity, of mankind, and of the Roman3 discipline. He signalised his youth by deeds of valour3, and displayed a matchless dexterity, as well as strength, in every martial exercise, and even in the less honourable contests of the Olympian games. Those qualities were more nobly exerted in the defence of his benefactor Licinius. That officer, in the sedition which occasioned the death3 of Probus, was exposed to the most imminent danger, and the enraged soldiers were forcing their way into his tent, when they were checked by the single arm of the Armenian prince3. The gratitude of Tiridates contributed soon3 afterwards to his restoration. Licinius was in every station the friend and companion of Galerius, and the merit of Galerius, long3 before he was raised to the dignity of Caesar, had been known and esteemed by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor3's reign3, Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Armenia3. The justice of the measure was not less evident than its expediency. It was time to rescue from the usurpation of the Persian3 monarch3 an important3 territory, which, since the reign3 of Nero, had been always granted under the protection of the empire3 to a younger branch of the house of Arsaces.
When Tiridates appeared on the frontiers of Armenia, he was received45 with an unfeigned transport of joy and loyalty. During twenty-six years45, the country had experienced the real and imaginary hardships of a foreign yoke. The Persian monarchs had adorned their new45 conquest with magnificent buildings; but those monuments had been erected at the expense of the people45, and were abhorred as badges of slavery. The apprehension of a revolt had inspired the most rigorous precautions: oppression had been aggravated by insult, and the consciousness of the public45 hatred had been productive of every measure that could render it still more implacable. We have already remarked the intolerant spirit of the Magian religion. The statues of the deified kings of Armenia, and the sacred images of the sun and moon, were broken in pieces by the zeal of the conqueror; and the perpetual fire of Ormuzd was kindled and preserved upon an altar erected on the summit of Mount Bagavan. It was natural that a people45 exasperated by so many injuries should arm with zeal in the cause of their independence, their religion, and their hereditary sovereign45. The torrent bore down every obstacle, and the Persian garrison retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past merit45, offering their future service, and soliciting from the new45 king those honours and rewards from which they had been excluded with disdain under the foreign government. The command of the army was bestowed on Artavasdes, whose father had saved the infancy of Tiridates, and whose family had been massacred for that generous action. The brother45 of Artavasdes obtained the government of a province. One of the first military dignities was conferred on the satrap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, who presented to the king his sister and a considerable treasure, both of which, in a sequestered fortress, Otas had preserved from violation. Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally, whose fortunes are too remarkable to pass unnoticed. His name was Mamgo, his origin was Scythian, and the horde which acknowledged his authority had encamped a very few years45 before on the skirts of the Chinese empire45, which at that time extended as far as the neighbourhood of Sogdiana. Having incurred the displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his followers, retired to the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. The emperor45 of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of sovereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of hospitality, and with some difficulty avoided a war, by the promise that he would banish Mamgo to the uttermost parts of the West; a punishment, as he described it, not less dreadful than death45 itself. Armenia was chosen for the place of exile45, and a large district was assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one place to another according to the different seasons of the year. They were employed to repel the invasion of Tiridates; but their leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he had received45 from the Persian monarch, resolved to abandon his party. The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with the merit45 as well as power45 of Mamgo, treated him with distinguished respect; and, by admitting him into his confidence, acquired a brave and faithful servant, who contributed very effectually to his restoration.
For a while, fortune appeared to favour the enterprising valour3 of Tiridates. He not only expelled the enemies of his family and country from the whole extent of Armenia3, but in the prosecution of his revenge he carried his arms3, or at least his incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The historian who has preserved the name of Tiridates from oblivion celebrates, with a degree of national enthusiasm, his personal prowess; and, in the true spirit of Eastern romance, describes the giants and the elephants that fell beneath his invincible arm. It is from other information that we discover the distracted state of the Persian3 monarchy, to which the king3 of Armenia3 was indebted for some part of his advantages. The throne3 was disputed by the ambition of contending brothers; and Hormuz, after exerting without success the strength of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous assistance of the barbarians3 who inhabited the banks of the Caspian Sea. The civil war3 was, however, soon3 terminated, either by a victory3 or by a reconciliation; and Narses, who was universally acknowledged as king3 of Persia3, directed his whole force against the foreign enemy3. The contest then became too unequal; nor was the valour3 of the hero able to withstand the power of the monarch3. Tiridates, a second time expelled from the throne3 of Armenia3, once more took refuge in the court3 of the emperors. Narses soon3 re-established his authority over the revolted province; and, loudly complaining of the protection afforded by the Romans3 to rebels and fugitives, aspired to the conquest of the East3.
Neither prudence nor honour could permit the emperors to forsake the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved to exert the force of the empire5 in the Persian war5. Diocletian, with the calm dignity which he constantly assumed, fixed his own station in the city of Antioch, from whence he prepared and directed the military5 operations. The conduct of the legions5 was entrusted to the intrepid valour5 of Galerius, who, for that important purpose, was removed from the banks5 of the Danube5 to those of the Euphrates. The armies soon5 encountered each other in the plains of Mesopotamia, and two battles were fought with various and doubtful success5: but the third engagement was of a more decisive5 nature; and the Roman5 army5 received a total overthrow, which is attributed to the rashness of Galerius, who, with an inconsiderable body5 of troops5, attacked the innumerable host5 of the Persians. But the consideration of the country5 that was the scene of action may suggest another reason for his defeat. The same ground, on which Galerius was vanquished, had been rendered memorable by the death of Crassus and the slaughter of ten legions5. It was a plain of more than sixty miles, which extended from the hills of Carrhae to the Euphrates; a smooth and barren surface of sandy desert, without a hillock, without a tree, and without a spring of fresh water. The steady infantry5 of the Romans5, fainting with heat and thirst, could neither hope for victory5, if they preserved their ranks, nor break their ranks without exposing themselves to the most imminent danger. In this situation, they were gradually encompassed by the superior numbers5, harassed by the rapid evolutions, and destroyed by the arrows, of the barbarian cavalry5. The king of Armenia had signalised his valour5 in the battle5, and acquired personal glory5 by the public misfortune. He was pursued as far5 as the Euphrates; his horse was wounded, and it appeared impossible for him to escape the victorious enemy5. In this extremity, Tiridates embraced the only refuge which he saw before him: he dismounted and plunged into the stream. His armour was heavy, the river very deep, and in those parts at least half a mile in breadth; yet such was his strength5 and dexterity that he reached in safety the opposite bank. With regard to the Roman5 general, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his escape; but, when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him, not with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with the indignation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of men, clothed in his purple, but humbled by the sense of his fault and misfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor5's chariot above a mile on foot, and to exhibit before the whole court the spectacle of his disgrace.
As soon3 as Diocletian had indulged his private resentment, and asserted the majesty of supreme power, he yielded to the submissive entreaties of the Caesar, and permitted him to retrieve his own honour as well as that of the Roman3 arms3. In the room of the unwarlike troops3 of Asia, which had most probably served in the first expedition, a second army3 was drawn from the veterans and new levies of the Illyrian frontier, and a considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken into the Imperial pay. At the head3 of a chosen army3 of twenty-five thousand3 men, Galerius again passed the Euphrates; but, instead of exposing his legions in the open plains of Mesopotamia, he advanced through the mountains of Armenia3, where he found the inhabitants devoted to his cause, and the country as favourable to the operations of infantry as it was inconvenient for the motions of cavalry. Adversity had confirmed the Roman3 discipline, whilst the barbarians3, elated by success, were become so negligent and remiss, that, in the moment when they least expected it, they were surprised by the active conduct of Galerius, who, attended only by two horsemen, had, with his own eyes, secretly examined the state and position of their camp3. A surprise, especially in the night-time, was for the most part fatal to a Persian3 army3. Their horses were tied, and generally shackled, to prevent their running away; and, if an alarm happened, a Persian3 had his housing to fix, his horse to bridle, and his corselet to put on, before he could mount. On this occasion, the impetuous attack of Galerius spread disorder and dismay over the camp3 of the barbarians3. A slight resistance was followed by a dreadful carnage, and, in the general3 confusion, the wounded monarch3 (for Narses commanded his armies in person) fled towards the deserts of Media. His sumptuous tents, and those of his satraps, afforded an immense booty to the conqueror; and an incident is mentioned, which proves the rustic but martial ignorance of the legions in the elegant superfluities of life. A bag of shining leather, filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a private soldier; he carefully preserved the bag, but he threw away its contents, judging that whatever was of no use could not possibly be of any value. The principal loss of Narses was of a much more affecting nature. Several of his wives, his sisters, and children, who had attended the army3, were made captives in the defeat. But, though the character of Galerius had in general3 very little affinity with that of Alexander, he imitated, after his victory3, the amiable behaviour of the Macedonian towards the family of Darius. The wives and children of Narses were protected from violence and rapine, conveyed to a place of safety, and treated with every mark of respect and tenderness that was due, from a generous enemy3, to their age, their sex, and their royal3 dignity.
While the East3 anxiously expected the decision of this great3 contest, the emperor3 Diocletian, having assembled in Syria a strong army3 of observation, displayed from a distance the resources of the Roman3 power, and reserved himself for any future emergency of the war3. On the intelligence of the victory3, he condescended to advance towards the frontier, with a view of moderating, by his presence and counsels, the pride of Galerius. The interview of the Roman3 princes at Nisibis was accompanied with every expression of respect on one side, and of esteem on the other. It was in that city3 that they soon3 afterwards gave audience to the ambassador of the Great3 King3. The power, or at least the spirit, of Narses had been broken by his last defeat; and he considered an immediate peace3 as the only means that could stop the progress of the Roman3 arms3. He despatched Apharban, a servant who possessed his favour and confidence, with a commission to negotiate a treaty3, or rather to receive whatever conditions the conqueror should impose. Apharban opened the conference by expressing his master's gratitude for the generous treatment of his family, and by soliciting the liberty of those illustrious captives. He celebrated the valour3 of Galerius, without degrading the reputation of Narses, and thought it no dishonour to confess the superiority of the victorious Caesar over a monarch3 who had surpassed in glory all the princes of his race. Notwithstanding the justice of the Persian3 cause, he was empowered to submit the present differences to the decision of the emperors themselves; convinced as he was, that, in the midst of prosperity, they would not be unmindful of the vicissitudes of fortune. Apharban concluded his discourse in the style of Eastern allegory, by observing that the Roman3 and Persian3 monarchies were the two eyes of the world, which would remain imperfect and mutilated, if either of them should be put out.
It well becomes the Persians3, replied Galerius, with a transport of fury, which seemed to convulse his whole frame, it well becomes the Persians3 to expatiate on the vicissitudes of fortune and calmly to read us lectures on the virtues of moderation. Let them remember their own moderation towards the unhappy Valerian. They vanquished him by fraud, they treated him with indignity. They detained him till the last moment of his life in shameful captivity, and, after his death3, they exposed his body to perpetual ignominy. Softening, however, his tone, Galerius insinuated to the ambassador that it had never been the practice of the Romans3 to trample on a prostrate enemy3; and that on this occasion they should consult their own dignity rather than the Persian3 merit. He dismissed Apharban with a hope that Narses would soon3 be informed on what conditions he might obtain, from the clemency of the emperors, a lasting peace3, and the restoration of his wives and children. In this conference we may discover the fierce passions of Galerius, as well as his deference to the superior wisdom and authority of Diocletian. The ambition of the former grasped at the conquest of the East3 and had proposed to reduce Persia3 into the state of a province. The prudence of the latter, who adhered to the moderate policy of Augustus and the Antonines, embraced the favourable opportunity of terminating a successful war3 by an honourable and advantageous peace3.
In pursuance of their promise, the emperors soon3 afterwards appointed Sicorius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint the Persian3 court3 with their final resolution. As the minister of peace3, he was received with every mark of politeness and friendship3; but, under the pretence of allowing him the necessary repose after so long3 a journey, the audience of Probus was deferred from day to day; and he attended the slow motions of the king3, till at length he was admitted to his presence, near the river Asprudus in Media. The secret motive of Narses, in this delay, had been to collect such a military3 force as might enable him, though sincerely desirous of peace3, to negotiate with the greater weight and dignity. Three persons only assisted at this important3 conference; the minister Apharban, the prefect of the guards, and an officer who had commanded on the Armenian frontier. The first condition, proposed by the ambassador, is not at present of a very intelligible nature; that the city3 of Nisibis might be established for the place of mutual exchange, or, as we should formerly have termed it, for the staple of trade between the two empires. There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman3 princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but, as Nisibis was situated within their own dominions, and as they were masters both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects of an internal law rather than of a foreign treaty3. To render them more effectual, some stipulations were probably required on the side of the king3 of Persia3, which appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his dignity, that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As this was the only article to which he refused his consent, it was no longer insisted on; and the emperors either suffered the trade to flow in its natural channels, or contented themselves with such restrictions as it depended on their own authority to establish.
As soon3 as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace3 was concluded and ratified between the two nations. The conditions of a treaty3 so glorious to the empire3, and so necessary to Persia3, may deserve a more peculiar attention, as the history of Rome presents very few transactions of a similar nature; most of her wars having either been terminated by absolute conquest, or waged against barbarians3 ignorant of the use of letters. I. The Aboras, or, as it is called by Xenophon, the Araxes, was fixed as the boundary between the two monarchies. That river, which rose near the Tigris3, was increased, a few miles below Nisibis, by the little stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium, a frontier town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly fortified. Mesopotamia, the object of so many wars, was ceded to the empire3; and the Persians3, by this treaty3, renounced all pretensions to that great3 province. II. They relinquished to the Romans3 five provinces3 beyond the Tigris3. Their situation formed a very useful barrier, and their natural strength was soon3 improved by art and military3 skill. Four of these, to the north of the river, were districts of obscure fame and inconsiderable extent: Intiline, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Moxoene; but, on the east3 of the Tigris3, the empire3 acquired the large and mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient seat of the Carduchians, who preserved for many ages their manly freedom in the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The ten thousand3 Greeks traversed their country, after a painful march, or rather engagement, of seven days; and it is confessed by their leader, in his incomparable relation of the retreat, that they suffered more from the arrows of the Carduchians than from the power of the Great3 King3. Their posterity, the Curds, with very little alteration either of name or manners, acknowledged the nominal sovereignty of the Turkish sultan. III. It is almost needless to observe that Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome, was restored to the throne3 of his fathers, and that the rights of the Imperial supremacy were fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia3 were extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in Media, and this increase of dominion was not so much an act of liberality as of justice. Of the provinces3 already mentioned beyond the Tigris3, the four first had been dismembered by the Parthians from the crown of Armenia3; and, when the Romans3 acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their ally with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its principal city3, in the same situation perhaps as the modern Tauris, was frequently honoured with the residence of Tiridates; and, as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the Medes. IV. The country of Iberia was barren, its inhabitants rude and savage. But they were accustomed to the use of arms3, and they separated from the empire3 barbarians3 much fiercer and more formidable than themselves. The narrow defiles of Mount Caucasus were in their hands, and it was in their choice either to admit or to exclude the wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a rapacious spirit urged them to penetrate into the richer climates of the South. The nomination of the kings of Iberia, which was resigned by the Persian3 monarch3 to the emperors, contributed to the strength and security of the Roman3 power in Asia. The East3 enjoyed a profound tranquillity during forty years3; and the treaty3 between the rival monarchies was strictly observed till the death3 of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with different views and different passions, succeeded to the government of the world; and the grandson of Narses undertook a long3 and memorable war3 against the princes of the house of Constantine.
The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire37 from tyrants and barbarians37 had now been completely achieved by a succession of Illyrian peasants. As soon37 as Diocletian37 entered into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated that memorable era, as well as the success of his arms37, by the pomp of a Roman37 triumph. Maximian, the equal partner of his power, was his only companion in the glory of that day. The two Caesars had fought and conquered, but the merit of their exploits was ascribed, according37 to the rigour of ancient37 maxims, to the auspicious influence of their fathers and emperors. The triumph of Diocletian37 and Maximian was less magnificent, perhaps, than those of Aurelian and Probus, but it was dignified by several circumstances of superior fame and good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile, furnished their respective trophies; but the most distinguished37 ornament was of a more singular nature, a Persian victory followed by an important conquest. The representations of rivers, mountains, and provinces were carried before the Imperial car. The images of the captive wives, the sisters, and the children of the Great King afforded a new37 and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the people37. In the eyes of posterity this triumph is remarkable by a distinction37 of a less honourable kind. It was the last that Rome37 ever beheld. Soon37 after this period, the emperors ceased to vanquish, and Rome37 ceased to be the capital of the empire37.
The spot on which Rome47 was founded had been consecrated by ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. The presence of some god, or the memory of some hero, seemed to animate every part of the city47, and the empire47 of the world had been promised to the Capitol. The native Romans felt and confessed the power47 of this agreeable illusion. It was derived from their ancestors, had grown up with their earliest habits of life47, and was protected, in some measure, by the opinion of political utility. The form and the seat of government47 were intimately blended together, nor was it esteemed possible to transport the one without destroying the other. But the sovereignty of the capital was gradually annihilated in the extent of conquest; the provinces47 rose to the same level, and the vanquished nations acquired the name and privileges, without imbibing the partial affections, of Romans. During a long47 period, however, the remains of the ancient constitution, and the influence of custom, preserved the dignity of Rome47. The emperors, though perhaps of African or Illyrian extraction, respected their adopted country, as the seat of their power47, and the centre of their extensive dominions. The emergencies of war47 very frequently required their presence on the frontiers; but Diocletian and Maximian were the first Roman47 princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary residence in the provinces47; and their conduct47, however it might be suggested by private47 motives, was justified by very specious considerations of policy. The court of the emperor47 of the West was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation, at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more convenient than that of Rome47, for the important purpose of watching the motions of the barbarians of Germany. Milan soon47 assumed the splendour of an Imperial47 city47. The houses are described as numerous and well built; the manners of the people47 as polished and liberal. A circus, a theatre, a mint, a palace47, baths, which bore the name of their founder Maximian; porticoes adorned with statues, and a double circumference of walls, contributed to the beauty of the new capital; nor did it seem oppressed even by the proximity of Rome47. To rival the majesty of Rome47 was the ambition likewise of Diocletian, who employed his leisure, and the wealth of the East47, in the embellishment of Nicomedia, a city47 placed on the verge of Europe and Asia, almost at an equal distance between the Danube and the Euphrates. By the taste of the monarch, and at the expense of the people47, Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a few years, a degree of magnificence which might appear to have required the labour of ages, and became inferior only to Rome47, Alexandria, and Antioch, in extent or populousness. The life47 of Diocletian and Maximian was a life47 of action, and a considerable portion of it was spent in camps, or in their long47 and frequent marches; but, whenever the public47 business allowed them any relaxation, they seem to have retired with pleasure to their favourite residences of Nicomedia and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the twentieth year of his reign47, celebrated his Roman47 triumph, it is extremely doubtful whether he ever visited the ancient capital of the empire47. Even on that memorable occasion his stay did not exceed two months. Disgusted with the licentious familiarity of the people47, he quitted Rome47 with precipitation thirteen days before it was expected that he should have appeared in the senate47, invested with the ensigns of the consular dignity.
The dislike expressed by Diocletian towards Rome47 and Roman47 freedom was not the effect of momentary caprice, but the result of the most artful policy. That crafty prince47 had framed a new system of Imperial47 government47, which was afterwards completed by the family of Constantine47, and, as the image of the old constitution was religiously preserved in the senate47, he resolved to deprive that order of its small remains of power47 and consideration. We may recollect, about eight years before the elevation of Diocletian, the transient greatness, and the ambitious hopes, of the Roman47 senate47. As long47 as that enthusiasm prevailed, many of the nobles imprudently displayed their zeal in the cause of freedom; and, after the successors of Probus had withdrawn their countenance from the republican party, the senators were unable to disguise their impotent resentment. As the sovereign47 of Italy47, Maximian was entrusted with the care of extinguishing this troublesome, rather than dangerous, spirit47, and the task was perfectly suited to his cruel temper. The most illustrious members of the senate47, whom Diocletian always affected to esteem, were involved, by his colleague, in the accusation of imaginary plots; and the possession of an elegant villa, or a well-cultivated estate, was interpreted as a convincing evidence of guilt. The camp of the Praetorians, which had so long47 oppressed, began to protect, the majesty of Rome47; and as those haughty troops47 were conscious of the decline of their power47, they were naturally disposed to unite their strength with the authority47 of the senate47. By the prudent measures of Diocletian, the numbers of the Praetorians were insensibly reduced, their privileges abolished, and their place supplied by two faithful legions of Illyricum, who, under the new titles of Jovians and Herculians, were appointed to perform the service of the Imperial47 guards. But the most fatal though secret47 wound, which the senate47 received from the hands of Diocletian and Maximian, was inflicted by the inevitable operation of their absence. As long47 as the emperors resided at Rome47, that assembly might be oppressed, but it could scarcely be neglected. The successors of Augustus exercised the power47 of dictating whatever laws their wisdom or caprice might suggest; but those laws were ratified by the sanction of the senate47. The model of ancient freedom was preserved in its deliberations and decrees; and wise princes, who respected the prejudices of the Roman47 people47, were in some measure obliged to assume the language and behaviour suitable to the general47 and first magistrate of the republic. In the armies and in the provinces47, they displayed the dignity of monarchs; and, when they fixed their residence at a distance from the capital, they for ever laid aside the dissimulation which Augustus had recommended to his successors. In the exercise of the legislative as well as of the executive power47, the sovereign47 advised with his ministers, instead of consulting the great council of the nation. The name of the senate47 was mentioned with honour till the last period of the empire47; the vanity of its members was still flattered with honorary distinctions; but the assembly, which had so long47 been the source, and so long47 the instrument, of power47, was respectfully suffered to sink into oblivion. The senate47 of Rome47, losing all connection with the Imperial47 court and the actual constitution, was left a venerable but useless monument of antiquity on the Capitoline hill.
When the Roman20 princes had lost sight of the senate and of their ancient capital, they easily forgot the origin and nature of their legal power. The civil offices of consul, of proconsul, of censor, and of tribune, by the union of which it had been formed, betrayed to the people20 its republican extraction. Those modest titles were laid aside; and, if they still distinguished their high station by the appellation of Emperor20, or Imperator, that word was understood in a new20 and more dignified sense20, and no longer denoted the general of the Roman20 armies, but the sovereign of the Roman20 world. The name of Emperor20, which was at first of a military nature, was associated with another of a more servile kind. The epithet of Dominus, or Lord, in its primitive signification, was expressive, not of the authority of a prince20 over his subjects, or of a commander over his soldiers, but of the despotic power of a master20 over his domestic slaves. Viewing it in that odious light, it had been rejected with abhorrence by the first Caesars. Their resistance insensibly became more feeble, and the name less odious; till at length the style of our Lord and Emperor20 was not only bestowed by flattery, but was regularly admitted into the laws and public20 monuments. Such lofty epithets were sufficient to elate and satisfy the most excessive vanity; and, if the successors of Diocletian still declined the title of King20, it seems to have been the effect not so much of their moderation as of their delicacy. Wherever the Latin tongue was in use (and it was the language20 of government throughout the empire20), the Imperial title, as it was peculiar to themselves, conveyed a more respectable idea than the name of King20, which they must have shared with an hundred barbarian chieftains; or which, at the best, they could derive only from Romulus or from Tarquin. But the sentiments of the East were very different from those of the West. From the earliest period of history, the sovereigns of Asia had been celebrated in the Greek language20 by the title of Basileus, or King20; and since it was considered as the first distinction among men, it was soon employed by the servile provincials of the East in their humble addresses to the Roman20 throne20. Even the attributes, or at least the titles, of the Divinity were usurped by Diocletian and Maximian, who transmitted them to a succession of Christian emperors. Such extravagant compliments, however, soon lose their impiety by losing their meaning; and when the ear is once accustomed to the sound, they are heard with indifference as vague though excessive professions of respect.
From the time of Augustus to that of Diocletian10, the Roman10 princes, conversing in a familiar manner among their fellow-citizens, were saluted only with the same respect that was usually paid to senators and magistrates. Their principal distinction10 was the Imperial or military10 robe of purple; whilst the senatorial garment was marked by a broad, and the equestrian by a narrow10, band or stripe of the same honourable colour. The pride, or rather the policy, of Diocletian10 engaged that artful prince to introduce the stately magnificence of the court of Persia. He ventured to assume the diadem, an ornament detested by the Romans as the odious ensign of royalty, and the use10 of which had been considered as the most desperate act of the madness of Caligula. It was no more than a broad white fillet set with pearls, which encircled the emperor's head. The sumptuous robes of Diocletian10 and his successors were of silk and gold; and it is remarked, with indignation, that even their shoes were studded with the most precious gems. The access to their sacred person was every day rendered more difficult, by the institution of new10 forms and ceremonies. The avenues of the palace were strictly guarded by the various10 schools, as they began to be called, of domestic officers. The interior apartments were entrusted to the jealous vigilance of the eunuchs; the increase of whose numbers and influence was the most infallible symptom of the progress of despotism. When a subject was at length admitted to the Imperial presence, he was obliged, whatever might be his rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according10 to the Eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master. Diocletian10 was a man of sense, who, in the course of private as well as public10 life, had formed a just estimate both of himself and of mankind: nor is it easy to conceive that, in substituting the manners10 of Persia to those of Rome, he was seriously actuated by so mean a principle as that of vanity. He flattered himself that an ostentation of splendour and luxury would subdue the imagination of the multitude; that the monarch would be less exposed to the rude licence of the people10 and the soldiers10, as his person was secluded from the public10 view; and that habits of submission would insensibly be productive of sentiments of veneration. Like the modesty affected by Augustus, the state maintained by Diocletian10 was a theatrical representation; but it must be confessed that, of the two comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and manly character10 than the latter. It was the aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded power which the emperors possessed over the Roman10 world.
Ostentation was the first principle of the new system instituted by Diocletian. The second was division. He divided the empire47, the provinces47, and every branch of the civil47 as well as military47 administration. He multiplied the wheels of the machine of government47, and rendered its operations less rapid but more secure. Whatever advantages, and whatever defects, might attend these innovations, they must be ascribed in a very great degree to the first inventor; but, as the new frame of policy was gradually improved and completed by succeeding princes, it will be more satisfactory to delay the consideration of it till the season of its full maturity and perfection. Reserving, therefore, for the reign47 of Constantine47 a more exact picture of the new empire47, we shall content ourselves with describing the principal and decisive outline, as it was traced by the hand of Diocletian. He had associated three colleagues in the exercise of the supreme power47; and, as he was convinced that the abilities of a single man were inadequate to the public47 defence, he considered the joint administration of four princes not as a temporary expedient, but as a fundamental law of the constitution. It was his intention that the two elder princes should be distinguished by the use of the diadem, and the title of Augusti: that, as affection or esteem might direct their choice, they should regularly call to their assistance two subordinate colleagues; and that the Caesars, rising in their turn to the first rank47, should supply an uninterrupted succession of emperors. The empire47 was divided into four parts. The East47 and Italy47 were the most honourable, the Danube and the Rhine the most laborious stations. The former claimed the presence of the Augusti, the latter were entrusted to the administration of the Caesars. The strength of the legions was in the hands of the four partners of sovereignty, and the despair of successively vanquishing four formidable rivals might intimidate the ambition of an aspiring general47. In their civil47 government47, the emperors were supposed to exercise the undivided power47 of the monarch, and their edicts, inscribed with their joint names, were received in all the provinces47, as promulgated by their mutual councils and authority47. Notwithstanding these precautions, the political union of the Roman47 world was gradually dissolved, and a principle of division was introduced, which, in the course of a few years, occasioned the perpetual separation of the Eastern and Western empires.
The system of Diocletian37 was accompanied with another very material disadvantage, which cannot even at present37 be totally overlooked: a more expensive establishment, and consequently an increase of taxes, and the oppression of the people37. Instead of a modest family of slaves37 and freedmen, such as had contended the simple greatness of Augustus and Trajan, three or four magnificent courts were established in the various parts of the empire37, and as many Roman37 kings contended with each other and with the Persian monarch for the vain superiority of pomp and luxury. The number of ministers, of magistrates, of officers, and of servants37, who filled the different departments of the state37, was multiplied beyond the example of former times37; and (if we may borrow the warm expression of a contemporary) when the proportion of those who received exceeded the proportion of those who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight37 of tributes. From this period to the extinction of the empire37, it would be easy37 to deduce an uninterrupted series of clamours and complaints. According37 to his religion and situation, each writer chooses either Diocletian37, or Constantine, or Valens, or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives; but they unanimously agree in representing the burden of the public37 impositions, and particularly the land-tax and capitation, as the intolerable and increasing grievance of their own times37. From such a concurrence, an impartial historian, who is obliged to extract truth from satire as well as from panegyric, will be inclined to divide the blame among the princes whom they accuse, and to ascribe their exactions much less to their personal vices than to the uniform system of their administration. The emperor Diocletian37 was, indeed, the author of that system; but during his reign the growing evil was confined within the bounds of modesty and discretion, and he deserves the reproach of establishing pernicious precedents, rather than of exercising actual oppression. It may be added, that his revenues were managed with prudent economy; and that, after all the current expenses were discharged, there still remained in the Imperial treasury an ample position either for judicious liberality or for any emergency of the state37.
It was in the twenty-first year20 of his reign20 that Diocletian executed his memorable resolution of abdicating the empire20; an action more naturally to have been expected from the elder or the younger Antoninus, than from a prince20 who had never practised the lessons of philosophy either in the attainment or in the use of supreme power. Diocletian acquired the glory of giving to the world the first example of a resignation, which has not been very frequently imitated by succeeding monarchs. The parallel of Charles20 the Fifth, however, will naturally offer itself to our mind, not only since the eloquence of a modern historian has rendered that name so familiar to an English reader, but from the very striking resemblance between the characters of the two emperors, whose political abilities were superior20 to their military genius, and whose specious virtues were much less the effect of nature than of art. The abdication of Charles20 appears to have been hastened by the vicissitude of fortune; and the disappointment of his favourite schemes urged him to relinquish a power which he found inadequate to his ambition. But the reign20 of Diocletian had flowed with a tide of uninterrupted success; nor was it till after he had vanquished all his enemies20, and accomplished all his designs, that he seems to have entertained any serious thoughts of resigning the empire20. Neither Charles20 nor Diocletian was arrived at a very advanced period of life20; since the one was only fifty-five, and the other was no more than fifty-nine, years20 of age20; but the active life20 of those princes, their wars and journeys, the cares of royalty, and their application to business had already impaired their constitution, and brought on the infirmities of a premature old age20.
Notwithstanding the severity of a very cold and rainy winter, Diocletian left Italy47 soon47 after the ceremony of his triumph, and began his progress towards the East47 round the circuit of the Illyrian provinces47. From the inclemency of the weather, and the fatigue of the journey, he soon47 contracted a slow illness; and, though he made easy marches, and was generally carried in a close litter, his disorder, before he arrived at Nicomedia, about the end of the summer, was become very serious and alarming. During the whole winter he was confined to his palace47; his danger47 inspired a general47 and unaffected concern; but the people47 could only judge of the various alterations of his health from the joy or consternation which they discovered in the countenances and behaviour of his attendants. The rumour of his death47 was for some time universally believed, and it was supposed to be concealed with a view to prevent the troubles that might have happened during the absence of the Caesar Galerius. At length, however, on the first of March, Diocletian once more appeared in public47, but so pale and emaciated that he could scarcely have been recognised by those to whom his person47 was the most familiar. It was time to put an end to the painful struggle, which he had sustained during more than a year, between the care of his health and that of his dignity. The former required indulgence and relaxation, the latter compelled him to direct, from the bed of sickness, the administration of a great empire47. He resolved to pass the remainder of his days in honourable repose, to place his glory beyond the reach of fortune, and to relinquish the theatre of the world to his younger and more active associates.
The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a spacious plain, about three miles from Nicomedia. The emperor47 ascended a lofty throne47, and in a speech, full of reason and dignity, declared his intention, both to the people47 and to the soldiers47 who were assembled on this extraordinary occasion. As soon47 as he had divested himself of the purple, he withdrew from the gazing multitude, and, traversing the city47 in a covered chariot, proceeded, without delay, to the favourite retirement which he had chosen in his native country of Dalmatia. On the same day, which was the first of May, Maximian, as it had been previously concerted, made his resignation of the Imperial47 dignity at Milan. Even in the splendour of the Roman47 triumph, Diocletian had meditated his design of abdicating the government47. As he wished to secure the obedience of Maximian, he exacted from him either a general47 assurance that he would submit his actions to the authority47 of his benefactor, or a particular promise that he would descend from the throne47, whenever he should receive the advice and the example. This engagement, though it was confirmed by the solemnity of an oath before the altar of the Capitoline Jupiter, would have proved a feeble restraint on the fierce temper of Maximian, whose passion was the love of power47, and who neither desired present tranquillity nor future reputation. But he yielded, however reluctantly, to the ascendant which his wiser colleague had acquired over him, and retired, immediately after his abdication, to a villa in Lucania, where it was almost impossible that such an impatient spirit47 could find any lasting tranquillity.
Diocletian, who, from a servile origin, had raised himself to the throne47, passed the nine last years of his life47 in a private47 condition. Reason had dictated, and content seems to have accompanied, his retreat, in which he enjoyed for a long47 time the respect of those princes to whom he had resigned the possession of the world. It is seldom that minds long47 exercised in business have formed any habits of conversing with themselves, and in the loss of power47 they principally regret the want of occupation. The amusements of letters and of devotion, which afford so many resources in solitude, were incapable of fixing the attention of Diocletian; but he had preserved, or at least he soon47 recovered, a taste for the most innocent as well as natural pleasures; and his leisure hours were sufficiently employed in building, planting, and gardening. His answer to Maximian is deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that restless old man to reassume the reins of government47 and the Imperial47 purple. He rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing that, if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power47. In his conversations with his friends, he frequently acknowledged that, of all arts, the most difficult was the art of reigning; and he expressed himself on that favourite topic with a degree of warmth which could be the result only of experience. How often, was he accustomed to say, is it the interest of four or five ministers to combine together to deceive their sovereign47! Secluded from mankind by his exalted dignity, the truth is concealed from his knowledge; he can see only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their misrepresentations. He confers the most important offices upon vice and weakness, and disgraces the most virtuous and deserving among his subjects. By such infamous arts, added Diocletian, the best and wisest princes are sold to the venal corruption of their courtiers. A just estimate of greatness, and the assurance of immortal fame, improve our relish for the pleasures of retirement; but the Roman47 emperor47 had filled too important a character in the world to enjoy without alloy the comforts and security of a private47 condition. It was impossible that he could remain ignorant of the troubles which afflicted the empire47 after his abdication. It was impossible that he could be indifferent to their consequences. Fear, sorrow and discontent sometimes pursued him into the solitude of Salona. His tenderness, or at least his pride, was deeply wounded by the misfortunes of his wife and daughter; and the last moments of Diocletian were embittered by some affronts, which Licinius and Constantine47 might have spared the father47 of so many emperors, and the first author of their own fortune. A report, though of a very doubtful nature, has reached our times, that he prudently withdrew himself from their power47 by a voluntary death47.
Before we dismiss the consideration of the life and character of Diocletian, we may, for a moment, direct our view to the place of his retirement. Salona, a principal city9 of his native province9 of Dalmatia, was near two hundred Roman9 miles9 (according to the measurement of the public highways) from Aquileia and the confines of Italy9, and about two hundred and seventy from Sirmium, the usual residence of the emperors whenever they visited the Illyrian frontier. A miserable village still preserves the name of Salona, but so late as the sixteenth century, the remains of a theatre, and a confused prospect of broken arches and marble columns, continued to attest its ancient9 splendour. About six or seven miles9 from the city9, Diocletian constructed a magnificent palace, and we may infer from the greatness of the work, how long9 he had meditated his design of abdicating the empire9. The choice of a spot which united all that could contribute either to health or to luxury did not require the partiality of a native. The soil was dry and fertile, the air is pure and wholesome, and, though extremely hot during the summer months, this country9 seldom feels those sultry and noxious winds to which the coast9 of Istria and some parts of Italy9 are exposed. The views from the palace are no less beautiful than the soil and climate were inviting. Towards the west9 lies the fertile shore that stretches along the Hadriatic, in which a number of small islands are scattered in such a manner as to give this part of the sea9 the appearance of a great9 lake. On the north9 side lies the bay, which led to the ancient9 city9 of Salona, and the country9 beyond it, appearing in sight, forms a proper contrast to that more extensive prospect of water, which the Hadriatic presents both to the south and to the east. Towards the north9, the view is terminated by high and irregular mountains9, situated at a proper distance, and, in many places, covered with villages, woods and vineyards.
Though Constantine, from a very obvious prejudice, affects to mention the palace30 of Diocletian with contempt, yet one of their successors, who could only see it in a neglected and mutilated state, celebrates its magnificence in terms of the highest admiration. It covered an extent of ground consisting of between nine and ten English acres. The form was quadrangular, flanked with sixteen towers. Two of the sides were near six hundred, and the other two near seven hundred, feet in length. The whole was constructed of a beautiful freestone, extracted from the neighbouring quarries of Trau or Tragutium, and very little inferior to marble itself. Four streets, intersecting each other at right angles, divided the several parts of this great edifice, and the approach to the principal apartment was from a very stately entrance, which is still denominated the Golden Gate. The approach was terminated by a peristylium of granite columns, on one side of which we discover the square temple of Aesculapius, on the other the octagon temple of Jupiter. The latter of those deities Diocletian revered as the patron of his fortunes, the former as the protector of his health. By comparing the present remains with the precepts of Vitruvius, the several parts of the building, the baths, bedchamber, the atrium, the basilica, and the Cyzicene, Corinthian, and Egyptian halls have been described with some degree of precision, or at least of probability. Their forms were various, their proportions just, but they were all attended with two imperfections, very repugnant to our modern notions of taste and conveniency. These stately rooms had neither windows nor chimneys. They were lighted from the top (for the building seems to have consisted of no more than one storey), and they received their heat by the help of pipes that were conveyed along the walls30. The range of principal apartments was protected towards the south-west by a portico five hundred and seventeen feet long30, which must have formed a very noble and delightful walk, when the beauties of painting and sculpture were added to those of the prospect.
Had this magnificent edifice remained in a solitary country19, it would have been exposed to the ravages of time19; but it might, perhaps, have escaped the rapacious industry of man. The village of Aspalathus, and, long19 afterwards, the provincial town of Spalatro, have grown out of its ruins. The Golden Gate now opens into the market place. St19. John the Baptist has usurped the honours of Aesculapius; and the temple of Jupiter, under the protection of the Virgin, is converted into the cathedral church. For this account of Diocletian's palace19 we are principally indebted to an ingenious artist of our own time19 and country19, whom a very liberal curiosity carried into the heart of Dalmatia. But there is room to suspect that the elegance of his designs and engraving has somewhat flattered the objects which it was their purpose to represent. We are informed by a more recent and very judicious traveller that the awful ruins of Spalatro are not less expressive of the decline of the arts than of the greatness of the Roman19 empire19 in the time19 of Diocletian. If such was indeed the state of architecture, we must naturally believe that painting and sculpture had experienced a still more sensible decay. The practice of architecture is directed by a few general19 and even mechanical rules. But sculpture, and, above all, painting, propose to themselves the imitation not only of the forms of nature19, but of the characters and passions of the human soul. In those sublime arts, the dexterity of the hand19 is of little avail, unless it is animated by fancy and guided by the most correct taste and observation.
It is almost unnecessary to remark that the civil distractions of the empire0, the licence of the soldiers, the inroads of the barbarians0, and the progress of despotism had proved very unfavourable to genius0, and even to learning0. The succession of Illyrian princes0 restored the empire0, without restoring the sciences. Their military education was not calculated to inspire them with the love of letters; and even the mind of Diocletian, however active and capacious in business, was totally uninformed by study0 or speculation. The professions of law and physic are of such common use and certain profit that they will always secure a sufficient number of practitioners endowed with a reasonable degree of abilities and knowledge0; but it does not appear that the students in those two faculties appeal to any celebrated0 masters who have flourished within that period. The voice of poetry was silent. History0 was reduced to dry and confused abridgments, alike destitute of amusement and instruction. A languid and affected eloquence was still retained in the pay and service of the emperors, who encouraged not any arts0 except those which contributed to the gratification of their pride or the defence of their power.
The declining age25 of learning and of mankind is marked, however, by the rise and rapid25 progress25 of the new Platonists. The school of Alexandria silenced those of Athens; and the ancient sects enrolled themselves under the banners of the more fashionable teachers, who recommended their system by the novelty of their method and the austerity of their manners25. Several of these masters, Ammonius, Plotinus, Amelius, and Porphyry, were men of profound thought and intense application; but, by mistaking the true object of philosophy, their labours contributed much less to improve than to corrupt the human25 understanding. The knowledge that is suited to our situation and powers, the whole compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science25, was neglected by the new Platonists, whilst they exhausted their strength in the verbal disputes of metaphysics, attempted to explore the secrets of the invisible world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with Plato, on subjects25 of which both these philosophers were as ignorant as the rest of mankind. Consuming their reason in these deep but unsubstantial meditations, their minds were exposed to illusions of fancy. They flattered themselves that they possessed the secret of disengaging the soul from its corporeal prison; claimed a familiar intercourse with demons and spirits; and, by a very singular revolution, converted the study of philosophy into that of magic. The ancient sages had derided the popular superstition; after disguising its extravagance by the thin pretence of allegory, the disciplines of Plotinus and Porphyry became its most zealous defenders. As they agreed with the Christians in a few mysterious points of faith, they attacked the remainder of their theological system with all the fury of civil25 war25. The new Platonists would scarcely deserve a place in the history of science25, but in that of the church25 the mention of them will very frequently occur.
The balance of power47 established by Diocletian subsisted no longer than while it was sustained by the firm and dexterous hand of the founder. It required such a fortunate mixture of different tempers and abilities as could scarcely be found, or even expected, a second time; two emperors without jealousy, two Caesars without ambition, and the same general47 interest invariably pursued by four independent princes. The abdication of Diocletian and Maximian was succeeded by eighteen years of discord and confusion. The empire47 was afflicted by five civil47 wars; and the remainder of the time was not so much a state of tranquillity as a suspension of arms47 between several hostile monarchs, who, viewing each other with an eye of fear and hatred, strove to increase their respective forces at the expense of their subjects.
As soon47 as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple, their station, according to the rules of the new constitution, was filled by the two Caesars, Constantius and Galerius, who immediately assumed the title of Augustus. The honours of seniority and precedence were allowed to the former of those princes, and he continued, under a new appellation, to administer his ancient department of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. The government47 of those ample provinces47 was sufficient to exercise his talents, and to satisfy his ambition. Clemency, temperance, and moderation distinguished the amiable character of Constantius, and his fortunate subjects had frequently occasion to compare the virtues of their sovereign47 with the passions of Maximian, and even with the arts of Diocletian. Instead of imitating their Eastern pride and magnificence, Constantius preserved the modesty of a Roman47 prince47. He declared, with unaffected sincerity, that his most valued treasure was in the hearts of his people47, and that, whenever the dignity of the throne47 or the danger47 of the state required any extraordinary supply, he could depend with confidence on their gratitude and liberality. The provincials of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, sensible of his worth and of their own happiness, reflected with anxiety on the declining health of the emperor47 Constantius, and the tender age47 of his numerous family, the issue of his second marriage with the daughter of Maximian.
The stern temper of Galerius was cast in a very different mould; and, while he commanded the esteem of his subjects, he seldom condescended to solicit their affections. His fame in arms3, and, above all, the success of the Persian3 war3, had elated his haughty mind, which was naturally impatient of a superior, or even of an equal. If it were possible to rely on the partial testimony of an injudicious writer, we might ascribe the abdication of Diocletian to the menaces of Galerius, and relate the particulars of a private conversation between the two princes, in which the former discovered as much pusillanimity as the latter displayed ingratitude and arrogance. But these obscure anecdotes are sufficiently refuted by an impartial view of the character and conduct of Diocletian. Whatever might otherwise have been his intentions, if he had apprehended any danger from the violence of Galerius, his good sense would have instructed him to prevent the ignominious contest; and, as he had held the sceptre with glory, he would have resigned it without disgrace.
After the elevation of Constantius and Galerius to the rank47 of Augusti, two new Caesars were required to supply their place, and to complete the system of the Imperial47 government47. Diocletian was sincerely desirous of withdrawing himself from the world; he considered Galerius, who had married his daughter, as the firmest support of his family and of the empire47; and he consented, without reluctance, that his successor should assume the merit47 as well as the envy of the important nomination. It was fixed without consulting the interest or inclination of the princes of the West. Each of them had a son47 who was arrived at the age47 of manhood, and who might have been deemed the most natural condidates for the vacant honour. But the impotent resentment of Maximian was no longer to be dreaded, and the moderate Constantius, though he might despise the dangers, was humanely apprehensive of the calamities, of civil47 war47. The two persons whom Galerius promoted to the rank47 of Caesar were much better suited to serve the views of his ambition; and their principal recommendation seems to have consisted in the want of merit47 or personal consequence. The first of these was Daza, or, as he was afterwards called, Maximin, whose mother was the sister of Galerius. The unexperienced youth still betrayed by his manners and language his rustic education, when, to his own astonishment as well as that of the world, he was invested by Diocletian with the purple, exalted to the dignity of Caesar, and entrusted with the sovereign47 command47 of Egypt and Syria. At the same time, Severus, a faithful servant, addicted to pleasure, but not incapable of business, was sent to Milan, to receive from the reluctant hands of Maximian the Caesarean ornaments, and the possession of Italy47 and Africa. According to the forms of the constitution, Severus acknowledged the supremacy of the Western emperor47; but he was absolutely devoted to the commands of his benefactor Galerius, who, reserving to himself the intermediate countries from the confines of Italy47 to those of Syria, firmly established his power47 over three-fourths of the monarchy. In the full confidence that the approaching death47 of Constantius would leave him sole master47 of the Roman47 world, we are assured that he had arranged in his mind a long47 succession of future princes, and that he meditated his own retreat from public47 life47 after he should have accomplished a glorious reign47 of about twenty years.
But, within less than eighteen months, two unexpected revolutions overturned the ambitious schemes of Galerius. The hopes of uniting the Western provinces3 to his empire3 were disappointed by the elevation of Constantine; whilst Italy and Africa were lost by the successful revolt of Maxentius.
I. The fame of Constantine47 has rendered posterity attentive to the most minute circumstances of his life47 and actions. The place of his birth, as well as the condition of his mother Helena, have been the subject not only of literary but of national disputes. Notwithstanding the recent tradition, which assigns for her father47 a British king, we are obliged to confess that Helena was the daughter of an innkeeper; but at the same time we may defend the legality of her marriage against those who have represented her as the concubine of Constantius. The great Constantine47 was most probably born at Naissus, in Dacia, and it is not surprising that, in a family and province distinguished only by the profession of arms47, the youth should discover very little inclination to improve his mind by the acquisition of knowledge. He was about eighteen years of age47 when his father47 was promoted to the rank47 of Caesar; but that fortunate event was attended with his mother's divorce; and the splendour of an Imperial47 alliance reduced the son47 of Helena to a state of disgrace and humiliation. Instead of following Constantius in the West, he remained in the service of Diocletian, signalised his valour in the wars of Egypt and Persia, and gradually rose to the honourable station of a tribune of the first order. The figure of Constantine47 was tall and majestic; he was dexterous in all his exercises, intrepid in war47, affable in peace; in his whole conduct47 the active spirit47 of youth was tempered by habitual prudence; and, while his mind was engrossed by ambition, he appeared cold and insensible to the allurements of pleasure. The favour of the people47 and soldiers47, who had named him as a worthy candidate for the rank47 of Caesar, served only to exasperate the jealousy of Galerius; and, though prudence might restrain him from exercising any open violence, an absolute monarch is seldom at a loss how to execute a sure and secret47 revenge. Every hour increased the danger47 of Constantine47 and the anxiety of his father47, who, by repeated letters, expressed the warmest desire of embracing his son47. For some time the policy of Galerius supplied him with delays and excuses, but it was impossible long47 to refuse so natural a request of his associate, without maintaining his refusal by arms47. The permission for the journey was reluctantly granted, and, whatever precautions the emperor47 might have taken to intercept a return, the consequences of which he, with so much reason, apprehended, they were effectually disappointed by the incredible diligence of Constantine47. Leaving the palace47 of Nicomedia in the night, he travelled post through Bithynia, Thrace, Dacia, Pannonia, Italy47, and Gaul, and, amidst the joyful acclamations of the people47, reached the port of Boulogne in the very moment when his father47 was preparing to embark for Britain.
The British expedition, and an easy victory over the barbarians of Caledonia, were the last exploits of the reign47 of Constantius. He ended his life47 in the Imperial47 palace47 of York, fifteen months after he had assumed the title of Augustus, and almost fourteen years and a half after he had been promoted to the rank47 of Caesar. His death47 was immediately succeeded by the elevation of Constantine47. The ideas of inheritance and succession are so very familiar that the generality of mankind consider them as founded, not only in reason, but in nature itself. Our imagination readily transfers the same principles from private47 property to public47 dominion: and, whenever a virtuous father47 leaves behind him a son47 whose merit47 seems to justify the esteem, or even the hopes, of the people47, the joint influence of prejudice and of affection operates with irresistible weight. The flower of the Western armies had followed Constantius into Britain, and the national troops47 were reinforced by a numerous body of Alemanni, who obeyed the orders of Crocus, one of their hereditary chieftains. The opinion of their own importance, and the assurance that Britain, Gaul, and Spain would acquiesce in their nomination, were diligently inculcated to the legions by the adherents of Constantine47. The soldiers47 were asked, Whether they could hesitate a moment between the honour of placing at their head the worthy son47 of their beloved emperor47 and the ignominy of tamely expecting the arrival of some obscure stranger, on whom it might please the sovereign47 of Asia to bestow the armies and provinces47 of the West. It was insinuated to them that gratitude and liberality held a distinguished place among the virtues of Constantine47; nor did that artful prince47 show himself to the troops47, till they were prepared to salute him with the names of Augustus and Emperor47. The throne47 was the object of his desires; and, had he been less actuated by ambition, it was his only means of safety. He was well acquainted with the character and sentiments of Galerius, and sufficiently apprised that, if he wished to live, he must determine to reign47. The decent and even obstinate resistance which he chose to affect was contrived to justify his usurpation; nor did he yield to the acclamations of the army47, till he had provided the proper materials for a letter, which he immediately despatched to the emperor47 of the East47. Constantine47 informed him of the melancholy event of his father47's death47, modestly asserted his natural claim to the succession, and respectfully lamented that the affectionate violence of his troops47 had not permitted him to solicit the Imperial47 purple in the regular and constitutional manner. The first emotions of Galerius were those of surprise, disappointment, and rage; and, as he could seldom restrain his passions, he loudly threatened that he would commit to the flames both the letter and the messenger. But his resentment insensibly subsided; and, when he recollected the doubtful chance of war47, when he had weighed the character and strength of his adversary, he consented to embrace the honourable accommodation which the prudence of Constantine47 had left open to him. Without either condemning or ratifying the choice of the British army47, Galerius accepted the son47 of his deceased colleague as the sovereign47 of the provinces47 beyond the Alps; but he gave him only the title of Caesar, and the fourth rank47 among the Roman47 princes, whilst he conferred the vacant place of Augustus on his favourite Severus. The apparent harmony of the empire47 was still preserved, and Constantine47, who already possessed the substance, expected, without impatience, an opportunity of obtaining the honours, of supreme power47.
The children13 of Constantius13 by his second13 marriage13 were six in number, three of either sex, and whose Imperial13 descent might have solicited a preference over the meaner extraction of the son13 of Helena. But Constantine13 was in the thirty-second13 year of his age13, in the full vigour both of mind and body, at the time when the eldest13 of his brothers13 could not possibly be more than thirteen years13 old. His claim of superior merit had been allowed and ratified by the dying emperor13. In his last moments Constantius13 bequeathed to his eldest13 son13 the care of the safety, as well as greatness, of the family13; conjuring him to assume both the authority and the sentiments of a father13 with regard to the children13 of Theodora. Their liberal education, advantageous marriages, the secure dignity13 of their lives, and the first honours of the state with which they were invested, attest the fraternal affection of Constantine13; and, as those princes13 possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his genius and fortune13.
II. The ambitious spirit47 of Galerius was scarcely reconciled to the disappointment of his views upon the Gallic provinces47, before the unexpected loss of Italy47 wounded his pride as well as power47 in a still more sensible part. The long47 absence of the emperors had filled Rome47 with discontent and indignation; and the people47 gradually discovered that the preference given to Nicomedia and Milan was not to be ascribed to the particular inclination of Diocletian, but to the permanent form of government47 which he had instituted. It was in vain that, a few months after his abdication, his successors dedicated, under his name, those magnificent baths, whose ruins still supply the ground as well as the materials for so many churches and convents. The tranquillity of those elegant recesses of ease and luxury was disturbed by the impatient murmurs of the Romans; and a report was insensibly circulated that the sums expended in erecting those buildings would soon47 be required at their hands. About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps the exigencies of the state, had induced him to make a very strict and rigorous inquisition into the property of his subjects for the purpose of a general47 taxation, both on their lands and on their persons. A very minute survey appears to have been taken of their real estates; and, wherever there was the slightest suspicion of concealment, torture was very freely employed to obtain a sincere declaration of their personal wealth. The privileges which had exalted Italy47 above the rank47 of the provinces47 were no longer regarded: and the officers of the revenue already began to number the Roman47 people47, and to settle the proportion of the new taxes. Even when the spirit47 of freedom had been utterly extinguished, the tamest subjects have sometimes ventured to resist an unprecedented invasion of their property; but on this occasion the injury was aggravated by the insult, and the sense of private47 interest was quickened by that of national honour. The conquest of Macedonia, as we have already observed, had delivered the Roman47 people47 from the weight of personal taxes. Though they had experienced every form of despotism, they had now enjoyed that exemption near five hundred years; nor could they patiently brook the insolence of an Illyrian peasant, who, from his distant residence in Asia, presumed to number Rome47 among the tributary cities of his empire47. The rising fury of the people47 was encouraged by the authority47, or at least the connivance, of the senate47; and the feeble remains of the Praetorian guards, who had reason to apprehend their own dissolution, embraced so honourable a pretence, and declared their readiness to draw their swords in the service of their oppressed country. It was the wish, and it soon47 became the hope, of every citizen, that, after expelling from Italy47 their foreign tyrants, they should elect a prince47 who, by the place of his residence, and by his maxims of government47, might once more deserve the title of Roman47 emperor47. The name as well as the situation of Maxentius determined in his favour the popular enthusiasm.
Maxentius was the son47 of the emperor47 Maximian, and he had married the daughter of Galerius. His birth and alliance seemed to offer him the fairest promise of succeeding to the empire47; but his vices and incapacity procured him the same exclusion from the dignity of Caesar which Constantine47 had deserved by a dangerous superiority of merit47. The policy of Galerius preferred such associates as would never disgrace the choice, nor dispute the commands, of their benefactors. An obscure stranger was therefore raised to the throne47 of Italy47, and the son47 of the late emperor47 of the West was left to enjoy the luxury of a private47 fortune in a villa a few miles distant from the capital. The gloomy passions of his soul, shame, vexation, and rage, were inflamed by envy on the news of Constantine47's success; but the hopes of Maxentius revived with the public47 discontent, and he was easily persuaded to unite his personal injury and pretensions with the cause of the Roman47 people47. Two Praetorian tribunes and a commissary of provisions undertook the management of the conspiracy; and, as every order of men was actuated by the same spirit47, the immediate event was neither doubtful nor difficult. The prefect47 of the city47 and a few magistrates, who maintained their fidelity to Severus, were massacred by the guards; and Maxentius, invested with the Imperial47 ornaments, was acknowledged by the applauding senate47 and people47 as the protector of the Roman47 freedom and dignity. It is uncertain whether Maximian was previously acquainted with the conspiracy; but, as soon47 as the standard of rebellion was erected at Rome47, the old emperor47 broke from the retirement where the authority47 of Diocletian had condemned him to pass a life47 of melancholy solitude, and concealed his returning ambition under the disguise of paternal tenderness. At the request of his son47 and of the senate47, he condescended to reassume the purple. His ancient dignity, his experience, and his fame in arms47 added strength as well as reputation to the party of Maxentius.
According to the advice, or rather the orders, of his colleague, the emperor47 Severus immediately hastened to Rome47, in the full confidence that, by his unexpected celerity, he should easily suppress the tumult of an unwarlike populace, commanded by a licentious youth. But he found on his arrival the gates of the city47 shut against him, the walls filled with men and arms47, an experienced general47 at the head of the rebels, and his own troops47 without spirit47 or affection. A large body of Moors deserted to the enemy, allured by the promise of a large donative; and, if it be true that they had been levied by Maximian in his African war47, preferring the natural feelings of gratitude to the artificial ties of allegiance. Anulinus, the Praetorian prefect47, declared himself in favour of Maxentius, and drew after him the most considerable part of the troops47, accustomed to obey his commands. Rome47, according to the expression of an orator, recalled her armies, and the unfortunate Severus, destitute of force and of counsel, retired, or rather fled, with precipitation to Ravenna. Here he might for some time have been safe. The fortifications of Ravenna were able to resist the attempts, and the morasses that surrounded the town were sufficient to prevent the approach, of the Italian army47. The sea, which Severus commanded with a powerful fleet, secured him an inexhaustible supply of provisions, and gave a free entrance to the legions which, on the return of spring, would advance to his assistance from Illyricum and the East47. Maximian, who conducted the siege in person47, was soon47 convinced that he might waste his time and his army47 in the fruitless enterprise, and that he had nothing to hope either from force or famine. With an art more suitable to the character of Diocletian than to his own, he directed his attack, not so much against the walls of Ravenna as against the mind of Severus. The treachery which he had experienced disposed that unhappy prince47 to distrust the most sincere of his friends and adherents. The emissaries of Maximian easily persuaded his credulity that a conspiracy was formed to betray the town, and prevailed upon his fears not to expose himself to the discretion of an irritated conqueror, but to accept the faith of an honourable capitulation. He was at first received with humanity, and treated with respect. Maximian conducted the captive emperor47 to Rome47, and gave him the most solemn assurances that he had secured his life47 by the resignation of the purple. But Severus could obtain only an easy death47 and an Imperial47 funeral. When the sentence was signified to him, the manner of executing it was left to his own choice; he preferred the favourite mode of the ancients, that of opening his veins: and, as soon47 as he expired, his body was carried to the sepulchre which had been constructed for the family of Gallienus.
Though the characters of Constantine47 and Maxentius had very little affinity with each other, their situation and interest were the same; and prudence seemed to require that they should unite their forces against the common enemy. Notwithstanding the superiority of his age47 and dignity, the indefatigable Maximian passed the Alps, and, courting a personal interview with the sovereign47 of Gaul, carried with him his daughter Fausta as the pledge of the new alliance. The marriage was celebrated at Arles with every circumstance of magnificence; and the ancient colleague of Diocletian, who again asserted his claim to the Western empire47, conferred on his son47-in-law and ally the title of Augustus. By consenting to receive that honour from Maximian, Constantine47 seemed to embrace the cause of Rome47 and of the senate47; but his professions were ambiguous, and his assistance slow and ineffectual. He considered with attention the approaching contest between the masters of Italy47 and the emperor47 of the East47, and was prepared to consult his own safety or ambition in the event of the war47.
The importance of the occasion called for the presence and abilities of Galerius. At the head of a powerful army47, collected from Illyricum and the East47, he entered Italy47, resolved to revenge the death47 of Severus, and to chastise the rebellious Romans; or, as he expressed his intentions, in the furious language of a barbarian, to extirpate the senate47, and to destroy the people47 by the sword. But the skill of Maximian had concerted a prudent system of defence. The invader found every place hostile, fortified, and inaccessible; and, though he forced his way as far as Narni, within sixty miles of Rome47, his dominion in Italy47 was confined to the narrow limits of his camp. Sensible to the increasing difficulties of his enterprise, the haughty Galerius made the first advances towards a reconciliation, and despatched two of his most considerable officers to tempt the Roman47 princes by the offer of a conference and the declaration of his paternal regard for Maxentius, who might obtain much more from his liberality than he could hope from the doubtful chance of war47. The offers of Galerius were rejected with firmness, his perfidious friendship refused with contempt, and it was not long47 before he discovered that, unless he provided for his safety by a timely retreat, he had some reason to apprehend the fate of Severus. The wealth, which the Romans defended against his rapacious tyranny, they freely contributed for his destruction. The name of Maximian, the popular arts of his son47, the secret47 distribution of large sums, and the promise of still more liberal rewards, checked the ardour and corrupted the fidelity of the Illyrian legions; and, when Galerius at length gave the signal of the retreat, it was with some difficulty that he could prevail on his veterans not to desert a banner which had so often conducted them to victory and honour. A contemporary writer assigns two other causes for the failure of the expedition; but they are both of such a nature that a cautious historian will scarcely venture to adopt them. We are told that Galerius, who had formed a very imperfect notion of the greatness of Rome47 by the cities of the East47 with which he was acquainted, found his forces inadequate to the siege of that immense capital. But the extent of a city47 serves only to render it more accessible to the enemy; Rome47 had long47 since been accustomed to submit on the approach of a conqueror; nor could the temporary enthusiasm of the people47 have long47 contended against the discipline and valour of the legions. We are likewise informed that the legions themselves were struck with horror and remorse, and that those pious sons of the republic refused to violate the sanctity of their venerable parent. But, when we recollect with how much ease in the more ancient civil47 wars, the zeal of party and the habits of military47 obedience had converted the native citizens of Rome47 into her most implacable enemies, we shall be inclined to distrust this extreme delicacy of strangers and barbarians, who had never beheld Italy47 till they entered it in a hostile manner. Had they not been restrained by motives of a more interested nature, they would probably have answered Galerius in the words of Caesar's veterans: If our general47 wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tiber, we are prepared to trace out his camp. Whatsoever walls he has determined to level with the ground, our hands are ready to work the engines: nor shall we hesitate, should the name of the devoted city47 be Rome47 itself. These are indeed the expressions of a poet; but of a poet who has been distinguished, and even censured, for his strict adherence to the truth of history.
The legions39 of Galerius39 exhibited a very melancholy proof39 of their disposition by the ravages which they committed in their retreat. They murdered, they ravished, they plundered39, they drove away the flocks and herds of the Italians; they burnt the villages through which they passed, and they endeavoured to destroy the country39, which it had not been in their power39 to subdue. During the whole march Maxentius hung on their rear; but he very prudently declined a general39 engagement with those brave and desperate veterans. His father had undertaken a second journey into Gaul, with the hope of persuading Constantine39, who had assembled an army on the frontier, to join the pursuit and to complete the victory. But the actions of Constantine39 were guided by reason39, and not by resentment. He persisted in the wise resolution of maintaining a balance of power39 in the divided empire39, and he no longer hated Galerius39 when that aspiring prince had ceased to be an object of terror.
The mind of Galerius was the most susceptible of the sterner passions, but it was not however incapable of a sincere and lasting friendship. Licinius, whose manners as well as character were not unlike his own, seems to have engaged both his affection and esteem. Their intimacy had commenced in the happier period, perhaps, of their youth and obscurity. It had been cemented by the freedom and dangers of a military47 life47; they had advanced, almost by equal steps, through the successive honours of the service; and, as soon47 as Galerius was invested with the Imperial47 dignity, he seems to have conceived the design of raising his companion to the same rank47 with himself. During the short period of his prosperity, he considered the rank47 of Caesar as unworthy of the age47 and merit47 of Licinius, and rather chose to reserve for him the place of Constantius, and the empire47 of the West. While the emperor47 was employed in the Italian war47, he entrusted his friend with the defence of the Danube; and immediately after his return from that unfortunate expedition he invested Licinius with the vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his immediate command47 the provinces47 of Illyricum. The news of his promotion was no sooner carried into the East47, than Maximin, who governed, or rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, betrayed his envy and discontent, disdained the inferior name of Caesar, and, notwithstanding the prayers as well as arguments of Galerius, exacted, almost by violence, the equal title of Augustus. For the first, and indeed for the last, time, the Roman47 world was administered by six emperors. In the West, Constantine47 and Maxentius affected to reverence their father47 Maximian. In the East47, Licinius and Maximin honoured with more real consideration their benefactor Galerius. The opposition of interest, and the memory of a recent war47, divided the empire47 into two great hostile powers; but their mutual fears produced an apparent tranquillity, and even a feigned reconciliation, till the deaths of the elder princes, of Maximian, and more particularly of Galerius, gave a new direction to the views and passions of their surviving associates.
When Maximian had reluctantly abdicated the empire47, the venal orators of the times applauded his philosophic moderation. When his ambition excited, or at least encouraged, a civil47 war47, they returned thanks to his generous patriotism, and gently censured that love of ease and retirement which had withdrawn him from the public47 service. But it was impossible that minds like those of Maximian and his son47 could long47 possess in harmony an undivided power47. Maxentius considered himself as the legal sovereign47 of Italy47, elected by the Roman47 senate47 and people47; nor would he endure the control of his father47, who arrogantly declared that by his name and abilities the rash youth had been established on the throne47. The cause was solemnly pleaded before the Praetorian guards, and those troops47, who dreaded the severity of the old emperor47, espoused the party of Maxentius. The life47 and freedom of Maximian were however respected, and he retired from Italy47 into Illyricum, affecting to lament his past conduct47, and secretly contriving new mischiefs. But Galerius, who was well acquainted with his character, soon47 obliged him to leave his dominions, and the last refuge of the disappointed Maximian was the court of his son47-in-law Constantine47. He was received with respect by that artful prince47, and with the appearance of filial tenderness by the empress Fausta. That he might remove every suspicion, he resigned the Imperial47 purple a second time, professing himself at length convinced of the vanity of greatness and ambition. Had he persevered in this resolution, he might have ended his life47 with less dignity indeed than in his first retirement, yet, however, with comfort and reputation. But the near prospect of a throne47 brought back to his remembrance the state from whence he was fallen, and he resolved, by a desperate effort, either to reign47 or to perish. An incursion of the Franks had summoned Constantine47, with a part of his army47, to the banks of the Rhine; the remainder of the troops47 were stationed in the southern provinces47 of Gaul, which lay exposed to the enterprises of the Italian emperor47, and a considerable treasure was deposited in the city47 of Arles. Maximian either craftily invented, or hastily credited, a vain report of the death47 of Constantine47. Without hesitation he ascended the throne47, seized the treasure, and, scattering it with his accustomed profusion among the soldiers47, endeavoured to awake in their minds the memory of his ancient dignity and exploits. Before he could establish his authority47, or finish the negotiation which he appears to have entered into with his son47 Maxentius, the celerity of Constantine47 defeated all his hopes. On the first news of his perfidy and ingratitude, that prince47 returned by rapid marches from the Rhine to the Saone, embarked on the last-mentioned river at Chalons, and, at Lyons trusting himself to the rapidity of the Rhone, arrived at the gates of Arles, with a military47 force which it was impossible for Maximian to resist, and which scarcely permitted him to take refuge in the neighbouring city47 of Marseilles. The narrow neck of land which joined that place to the continent was fortified against the besiegers, whilst the sea was open, either for the escape of Maximian, or for the succours of Maxentius, if the latter should choose to disguise his invasion of Gaul under the honourable pretence of defending a distressed, or, as he might allege, an injured father47. Apprehensive of the fatal consequences of delay, Constantine47 gave orders for an immediate assault; but the scaling ladders were found too short for the height of the walls, and Marseilles might have sustained as long47 a siege as it formerly did against the arms47 of Caesar, if the garrison, conscious either of their fault or of their danger47, had not purchased their pardon by delivering up the city47 and the person47 of Maximian. A secret47 but irrevocable sentence of death47 was pronounced against the usurper; he obtained only the same favour which he had indulged to Severus, and it was published to the world that, oppressed by the remorse of his repeated crimes, he strangled himself with his own hands. After he had lost the assistance, and disdained the moderate counsels, of Diocletian, the second period of his active life47 was a series of public47 calamities and personal mortifications, which were terminated, in about three years, by an ignominious death47. He deserved his fate; but we should find more reason to applaud the humanity of Constantine47, if he had spared an old man, the benefactor of his father47, and the father47 of his wife. During the whole of this melancholy transaction, it appears that Fausta sacrificed the sentiments of nature to her conjugal duties.
The last years of Galerius were less shameful and unfortunate; and, though he had filled with more glory the subordinate station of Caesar than the superior rank47 of Augustus, he preserved, till the moment of his death47, the first place among the princes of the Roman47 world. He survived his retreat from Italy47 about four years; and, wisely relinquishing his views of universal empire47, he devoted the remainder of his life47 to the enjoyment of pleasure, and to the execution of some works of public47 utility; among which we may distinguish the discharging into the Danube the superfluous waters of the lake Pelso, and the cutting down the immense forests that encompassed it; an operation worthy of a monarch, since it gave an extensive country to the agriculture of his Pannonian subjects. His death47 was occasioned by a very painful and lingering disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course of life47 to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers, and devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects who have given their name to a most loathsome disease; but, as Galerius had offended a very zealous and powerful party among his subjects, his sufferings, instead of exciting their compassion, have been celebrated as the visible effects of divine justice47. He had no sooner expired in his palace47 of Nicomedia, than the two emperors who were indebted for their purple to his favour began to collect their forces, with the intention either of disputing, or of dividing, the dominions which he had left without a master47. They were persuaded however to desist from the former design, and to agree in the latter. The provinces47 of Asia fell to the share of Maximin, and those of Europe augmented the portion of Licinius. The Hellespont and the Thracian Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary, and the banks of those narrow seas, which flowed in the midst of the Roman47 world, were covered with soldiers47, with arms47, and with fortifications. The deaths of Maximian and of Galerius reduced the number of emperors to four. The sense of their true interest soon47 connected Licinius and Constantine47; a secret47 alliance was concluded between Maximin and Maxentius, and their unhappy subjects expected with terror the bloody consequences of their inevitable dissensions, which were no longer restrained by the fear or the respect which they had entertained for Galerius.
Among so many crimes and misfortunes occasioned by the passions8 of the Roman princes, there is some pleasure in discovering a single action which may be ascribed to their virtue8. In the sixth year of his reign8, Constantine8 visited the city of Autun, and generously remitted the arrears of tribute, reducing at the same time8 the proportion of their assessment from twenty-five to eighteen thousand heads, subject to the real and personal capitation. Yet even this indulgence affords the most unquestionable proof of the public8 misery. This tax was so extremely oppressive, either in itself or in the mode of collecting it, that, whilst the revenue was increased by extortion, it was diminished by despair: a considerable part of the territory of Autun was left uncultivated; and great numbers of the provincials rather chose to live as exiles and outlaws than to support the weight of civil society8. It is but too probable that the bountiful emperor relieved, by a partial act of liberality, one among the many evils which he had caused by his general maxims of administration. But even those maxims were less the effect of choice than of necessity. And, if we except the death8 of Maximian, the reign8 of Constantine8 in Gaul seems to have been the most innocent and even virtuous period of his life8. The provinces were protected by his presence from the inroads of the barbarians, who either dreaded or experienced his active valour. After a signal victory over the Franks and Alemanni, several of their princes were exposed by his order to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Treves, and the people seem to have enjoyed the spectacle, without discovering, in such a treatment of royal captives, anything that was repugnant to the laws8 of nations or of humanity.
The virtues of Constantine47 were rendered more illustrious by the vices of Maxentius. Whilst the Gallic provinces47 enjoyed as much happiness as the condition of the times was capable of receiving, Italy47 and Africa groaned under the dominion of a tyrant47 as contemptible as he was odious. The zeal of flattery and faction has indeed too frequently sacrificed the reputation of the vanquished to the glory of their successful rivals; but even those writers who have revealed, with the most freedom and pleasure, the faults of Constantine47, unanimously confess that Maxentius was cruel, rapacious, and profligate. He had the good fortune to suppress a slight rebellion in Africa. The governor and a few adherents had been guilty; the province suffered for their crime. The flourishing cities of Cirtha and Carthage, and the whole extent of that fertile country, were wasted by fire and sword. The abuse of victory was followed by the abuse of law and justice47. A formidable army47 of sycophants and delators invaded Africa; the rich and the noble were easily convicted of a connection with the rebels; and those among them who experienced the emperor47's clemency were only punished by the confiscation of their estates. So signal a victory was celebrated by a magnificent triumph, and Maxentius exposed to the eyes of the people47 the spoils and captives of a Roman47 province. The state of the capital was no less deserving of compassion than that of Africa. The wealth of Rome47 supplied an inexhaustible fund for his vain and prodigal expenses, and the ministers of his revenue were skilled in the arts of rapine. It was under his reign47 that the method of exacting a free gift from the senators was first invented; and, as the sum was insensibly increased, the pretences of levying it, a victory, a birth, a marriage, or an Imperial47 consulship, were proportionably multiplied. Maxentius had imbibed the same implacable aversion to the senate47, which had characterised most of the former tyrants of Rome47; nor was it possible for his ungrateful temper to forgive the generous fidelity which had raised him to the throne47 and supported him against all his enemies. The lives of the senators were exposed to his jealous suspicions, the dishonour of their wives and daughters heightened the gratification of his sensual passions. It may be presumed that an Imperial47 lover was seldom reduced to sigh in vain; but, whenever persuasion proved ineffectual, he had recourse to violence; and there remains one memorable example of a noble matron, who preserved her chastity by a voluntary death47. The soldiers47 were the only order of men whom he appeared to respect, or studied to please. He filled Rome47 and Italy47 with armed troops47, connived at their tumults, suffered them with impunity to plunder, and even to massacre, the defenceless people47; and, indulging them in the same licentiousness which their emperor47 enjoyed, Maxentius often bestowed on his military47 favourites the splendid villa, or the beautiful wife, of a senator. A prince47 of such a character, alike incapable of governing either in peace or in war47, might purchase the support, but he could never obtain the esteem, of the army47. Yet his pride was equal to his other vices. Whilst he passed his indolent life47, either within the walls of his palace47, or in the neighbouring gardens of Sallust, he was repeatedly heard to declare, that he alone was emperor47, and that the other princes were no more than his lieutenants, on whom he had devolved the defence of the frontier provinces47, that he might enjoy without interruption the elegant luxury of the capital. Rome47, which had so long47 regretted the absence, lamented, during the six years of his reign47, the presence, of her sovereign47.
Though Constantine47 might view the conduct47 of Maxentius with abhorrence, and the situation of the Romans with compassion, we have no reason to presume that he would have taken up arms47 to punish the one or to relieve the other. But the tyrant47 of Italy47 rashly ventured to provoke a formidable enemy, whose ambition had been hitherto restrained by considerations of prudence, rather than by principles of justice47. After the death47 of Maximian, his titles, according to the established custom, had been erased, and his statues thrown down with ignominy. His son47, who had persecuted and deserted him when alive, affected to display the most pious regard for his memory, and gave orders that a similar treatment should be immediately inflicted on all the statues that had been erected in Italy47 and Africa to the honour of Constantine47. That wise prince47, who sincerely wished to decline a war47, with the difficulty and importance of which he was sufficiently acquainted, at first dissembled the insult, and sought for redress by the milder expedients of negotiation, till he was convinced that the hostile and ambitious designs of the Italian emperor47 made it necessary for him to arm in his own defence. Maxentius, who openly avowed his pretensions to the whole monarchy of the West, had already prepared a very considerable force to invade the Gallic provinces47 on the side of Rhaetia, and, though he could not expect any assistance from Licinius, he was flattered with the hope that the legions of Illyricum, allured by his presents and promises, would desert the standard of that prince47, and unanimously declare themselves his soldiers47 and subjects. Constantine47 no longer hesitated. He had deliberated with caution, he acted with vigour. He gave a private47 audience to the ambassadors, who, in the name of the senate47 and people47, conjured him to deliver Rome47 from a detested tyrant47; and, without regarding the timid remonstrances of his council, he resolved to prevent the enemy, and to carry the war47 into the heart of Italy47.
The enterprise was as full of danger47 as of glory; and the unsuccessful event of two former invasions was sufficient to inspire the most serious apprehensions. The veteran troops47, who revered the name of Maximian, had embraced in both those wars the party of his son47, and were now restrained by a sense of honour, as well as of interest, from entertaining an idea of a second desertion. Maxentius, who considered the Praetorian guards as the firmest defence of his throne47, had increased them to their ancient establishment; and they composed, including the rest of the Italians who were enlisted into his service, a formidable body of fourscore thousand men. Forty thousand Moors and Carthaginians had been raised since the reduction of Africa. Even Sicily furnished its proportion of troops47; and the army47 of Maxentius amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand foot and eighteen thousand horse. The wealth of Italy47 supplied the expenses of the war47; and the adjacent provinces47 were exhausted to form immense magazines of corn and every other kind of provisions. The whole force of Constantine47 consisted of ninety thousand foot and eight thousand horse; and, as the defence of the Rhine required an extraordinary attention during the absence of the emperor47, it was not in his power47 to employ above half his troops47 in the Italian expedition, unless he sacrificed the public47 safety to his private47 quarrel. At the head of about forty thousand soldiers47, he marched to encounter an enemy whose numbers were at least four times superior to his own. But the armies of Rome47, placed at a secure distance from danger47, were enervated by indulgence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and theatres of Rome47, they took the field with reluctance, and were chiefly composed of veterans who had almost forgotten, or of new levies who had never acquired, the use of arms47 and the practice of war47. The hardy legions of Gaul had long47 defended the frontiers of the empire47 against the barbarians of the North; and in the performance of that laborious service their valour was exercised and their discipline confirmed. There appeared the same difference between the leaders as between the armies. Caprice or flattery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of conquest; but these aspiring hopes soon47 gave way to the habits of pleasure and the consciousness of his inexperience. The intrepid mind of Constantine47 had been trained from his earliest youth to war47, to action, and to military47 command47.
When Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he was obliged, first to discover, and then to open, a way over mountains, and through savage nations, that had never yielded a passage to a regular army. The Alps were then guarded by nature, they are now fortified by art. Citadels, constructed with no less skill than labour and expense, command every avenue into the plain, and on that side render Italy almost inaccessible to the enemies44 of the king of Sardinia. But in the course of the intermediate period, the generals who have attempted the passage have seldom experienced any difficulty or resistance. In the age44 of Constantine44, the peasants of the mountains were civilised and obedient subjects; the country44 was plentifully stocked with provisions, and the stupendous highways which the Romans had carried over the Alps opened several communications between Gaul and Italy. Constantine44 preferred the road of the Cottian Alps, or, as it is now called, of Mount Cenis, and led his troops with such active diligence that he descended into the plain of Piedmont before the court of Maxentius had received44 any certain intelligence of his departure from the banks of the Rhine. The city44 of Susa, however, which is situated at the foot of Mount Cenis, was surrounded with walls, and provided with a garrison sufficiently numerous to check the progress of an invader; but the impatience of Constantine44's troops disdained the tedious forms of a siege. The same day that they appeared before Susa, they applied fire to the gates and ladders to the walls; and, mounting to the assault amidst a shower of stones and arrows, they entered the place44 sword in hand44, and cut in pieces the greatest part of the garrison. The flames were extinguished by the care of Constantine44, and the remains of Susa preserved from total destruction. About forty miles from thence, a more severe contest awaited him. A numerous army of Italians was assembled, under the lieutenants of Maxentius, in the plains of Turin. Its principal strength consisted in a species of heavy cavalry, which the Romans, since the decline of their discipline, had borrowed from the nations of the East. The horses, as well as the men, were clothed in complete armour, the joints of which were artfully adapted to the motions of their bodies. The aspect of this cavalry was formidable, their weight almost irresistible; and, as, on this occasion, their generals had drawn them up in a compact column or wedge, with a sharp point, and with spreading flanks, they flattered themselves that they should easily break and trample down the army of Constantine44. They might, perhaps, have succeeded in their design, had not their experienced adversary embraced the same method of defence which in similar circumstances had been practised by Aurelian. The skilful evolutions of Constantine44 divided and baffled this massy column of cavalry. The troops of Maxentius fled in confusion towards Turin; and, as the gates of the city44 were shut against them, very few escaped the sword of the victorious pursuers. By this important service Turin deserved to experience the clemency and even favour of the conqueror. He made his entry into the Imperial palace of Milan, and almost all the cities of Italy between the Alps and the Po not only acknowledged the power, but embraced with zeal the party, of Constantine44.
From Milan to Rome47, the Aemilian and Flaminian highways offered an easy march of about four hundred miles; but, though Constantine47 was impatient to encounter the tyrant47, he prudently directed his operations against another army47 of Italians, who, by their strength and position, might either oppose his progress, or, in case of a misfortune, might intercept his retreat. Ruricius Pompeianus, a general47 distinguished by his valour and ability, had under his command47 the city47 of Verona, and all the troops47 that were stationed in the province of Venetia. As soon47 as he was informed that Constantine47 was advancing towards him, he detached a large body of cavalry, which was defeated in an engagement near Brescia, and pursued by the Gallic legions as far as the gates of Verona. The necessity, the importance, and the difficulties of the siege of Verona immediately presented themselves to the sagacious mind of Constantine47. The city47 was accessible only by a narrow peninsula towards the west, as the other three sides were surrounded by the Adige, a rapid river which covered the province of Venetia, from whence the besieged derived an inexhaustible supply of men and provisions. It was not without great difficulty, and after several fruitless attempts, that Constantine47 found means to pass the river, at some distance above the city47, and in a place where the torrent was less violent. He then encompassed Verona with strong lines, pushed his attacks with prudent vigour, and repelled a desperate sally of Pompeianus. That intrepid general47, when he had used every means of defence that the strength of the place or that of the garrison could afford, secretly escaped from Verona, anxious not for his own but for the public47 safety. With indefatigable diligence he soon47 collected an army47 sufficient either to meet Constantine47 in the field, or to attack him if he obstinately remained within his lines. The emperor47, attentive to the motions, and informed of the approach, of so formidable an enemy, left a part of his legions to continue the operations of the siege, whilst, at the head of those troops47 on whose valour and fidelity he more particularly depended, he advanced in person47 to engage the general47 of Maxentius. The army47 of Gaul was drawn up in two lines, according to the usual practice of war47; but their experienced leader, perceiving that the numbers of the Italians far exceeded his own, suddenly changed his disposition, and, reducing the second, extended the front of his first, line to a just proportion with that of the enemy. Such evolutions, which only veteran troops47 can execute without confusion in a moment of danger47, commonly prove decisive: but, as this engagement began towards the close of the day, and was contested with great obstinacy during the whole night, there was less room for the conduct47 of the generals than for the courage of the soldiers47. The return of light displayed the victory of Constantine47, and a field of carnage, covered with many thousands of the vanquished Italians. Their general47, Pompeianus, was found among the slain; Verona immediately surrendered at discretion, and the garrison was made prisoners of war47. When the officers of the victorious army47 congratulated their master47 on this important success, they ventured to add some respectful complaints, of such a nature, however, as the most jealous monarchs will listen to without displeasure. They represented to Constantine47 that, not contented with performing all the duties of a commander, he had exposed his own person47 with an excess of valour which almost degenerated into rashness; and they conjured him for the future to pay more regard to the preservation of a life47 in which the safety of Rome47 and of the empire47 was involved.
While Constantine47 signalised his conduct47 and valour in the field, the sovereign47 of Italy47 appeared insensible of the calamities and danger47 of a civil47 war47 which raged in the heart of his dominions. Pleasure was still the only business of Maxentius. Concealing, or at least attempting to conceal, from the public47 knowledge the misfortunes of his arms47, he indulged himself in vain confidence which deferred the remedies of the approaching evil, without deferring the evil itself. The rapid progress of Constantine47 was scarcely sufficient to awaken him from this fatal security; he flattered himself that his well-known liberality, and the majesty of the Roman47 name, which had already delivered him from two invasions, would dissipate with the same facility the rebellious army47 of Gaul. The officers of experience and ability who had served under the banners of Maximian were at length compelled to inform his effeminate son47 of the imminent danger47 to which he was reduced; and, with a freedom that at once surprised and convinced him, to urge the necessity of preventing his ruin by a vigorous exertion of his remaining power47. The resources of Maxentius, both of men and money, were still considerable. The Praetorian guards felt how strongly their own interest and safety were connected with his cause; and a third army47 was soon47 collected, more numerous than those which had been lost in the battles of Turin and Verona. It was far from the intention of the emperor47 to lead his troops47 in person47. A stranger to the exercises of war47, he trembled at the apprehension of so dangerous a contest; and, as fear is commonly superstitious, he listened with melancholy attention to the rumours of omens and presages which seemed to menace his life47 and empire47. Shame at length supplied the place of courage, and forced him to take the field. He was unable to sustain the contempt of the Roman47 people47. The circus resounded with their indignant clamours, and they tumultuously besieged the gates of the palace47, reproaching the pusillanimity of their indolent sovereign47, and celebrating the heroic spirit47 of Constantine47. Before Maxentius left Rome47, he consulted the Sibylline books. The guardians of these ancient oracles were as well versed in the arts of this world, as they were ignorant of the secrets of fate; and they returned him a very prudent answer, which might adapt itself to the event, and secure their reputation whatever should be the chance of arms47.
The celerity of Constantine's march has been compared to the rapid conquest of Italy by the first of the Caesars; nor is the flattering parallel repugnant to the truth of history, since no more than fifty-eight days30 elapsed between the surrender of Verona and the final decision of the war30. Constantine had always apprehended that the tyrant would obey the dictates of fear, and perhaps of prudence; and that, instead of risking his last hopes in a general30 engagement, he would shut himself up within the walls30 of Rome. His ample magazines secured him against the danger of famine; and, as the situation of Constantine admitted not of delay, he might have been reduced to the sad necessity of destroying with fire and sword30 the Imperial city30, the noblest reward of his victory30, and the deliverance of which had been the motive, or rather indeed the pretence, of the civil war30. It was with equal surprise and pleasure that, on his arrival at a place called Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from Rome, he discovered the army30 of Maxentius prepared to give him battle30. Their long30 front filled a very spacious plain, and their deep array reached to the banks of the Tiber, which covered their rear, and forbade their retreat. We are informed, and we may believe, that Constantine disposed his troops30 with consummate skill, and that he chose for himself the post of honour and danger. Distinguished by the splendour of his arms30, he charged in person the cavalry of his rival; and his irresistible attack determined the fortune of the day30. The cavalry of Maxentius was principally composed either of unwieldy cuirassiers or of light Moors and Numidians. They yielded to the vigour of the Gallic horse30, which possessed more activity than the one, more firmness than the other. The defeat of the two wings left30 the infantry without any protection on its flanks, and the undisciplined Italians fled without reluctance from the standard30 of a tyrant whom they had always hated, and whom they no longer feared. The Praetorians, conscious that their offences were beyond the reach of mercy, were animated by revenge and despair. Notwithstanding their repeated efforts, those brave veterans were unable to recover the victory30: they obtained, however, an honourable death30; and it was observed that their bodies covered the same ground which had been occupied by their ranks. The confusion then became general30, and the dismayed troops30 of Maxentius, pursued by an implacable enemy30, rushed by thousands into the deep and rapid stream of the Tiber. The emperor30 himself attempted to escape back into the city30 over the Milvian bridge, but the crowds which pressed together through that narrow passage forced him into the river, where he was immediately drowned by the weight of his armour. His body, which had sunk very deep into the mud, was found with some difficulty the next day30. The sight of his head30, when it was exposed to the eyes of the people30, convinced them of their deliverance, and admonished them to receive with acclamations of loyalty and gratitude the fortunate Constantine, who thus achieved by his valour and ability the most splendid enterprise of his life.
In the use of victory, Constantine47 neither deserved the praise of clemency, nor incurred the censure of immoderate rigour. He inflicted the same treatment to which a defeat would have exposed his own person47 and family, put to death47 the two sons of the tyrant47, and carefully extirpated his whole race. The most distinguished adherents of Maxentius must have expected to share his fate, as they had shared his prosperity and his crimes: but, when the Roman47 people47 loudly demanded a greater number of victims, the conqueror resisted, with firmness and humanity, those servile clamours which were dictated by flattery as well as by resentment. Informers were punished and discouraged; the innocent who had suffered under the late tyranny were recalled from exile, and restored to their estates. A general47 act of oblivion quieted the minds and settled the property of the people47, both in Italy47 and in Africa. The first time that Constantine47 honoured the senate47 with his presence, he recapitulated his own services and exploits in a modest oration, assured that illustrious order of his sincere regard, and promised to re-establish its ancient dignity and privileges. The grateful senate47 repaid these unmeaning professions by the empty titles of honour, which it was yet in their power47 to bestow; and, without presuming to ratify the authority47 of Constantine47, they passed a decree to assign him the first rank47 among the three Augusti who governed the Roman47 world. Games and festivals were instituted to preserve the fame of his victory, and several edifices, raised at the expense of Maxentius, were dedicated to the honour of his successful rival. The triumphal arch of Constantine47 still remains a melancholy proof of the decline of the arts, and a singular testimony of the meanest vanity. As it was not possible to find in the capital of the empire47 a sculptor who was capable of adorning that public47 monument, the arch of Trajan, without any respect either for his memory or for the rules of propriety, was stripped of its most elegant figures. The difference of times and persons, of actions and characters, was totally disregarded. The Parthian captives appear prostrate at the feet of a prince47 who never carried his arms47 beyond the Euphrates; and curious antiquarians can still discover the head of Trajan on the trophies of Constantine47. The new ornaments which it was necessary to introduce between the vacancies of ancient sculpture are executed in the rudest and most unskilful manner.
The final abolition of the Praetorian guards was a measure of prudence as well as of revenge. Those haughty troops47, whose numbers and privileges had been restored, and even augmented, by Maxentius, were for ever suppressed by Constantine47. Their fortified camp was destroyed, and the few Praetorians who had escaped the fury of the sword were dispersed among the legions, and banished to the frontiers of the empire47, where they might be serviceable without again becoming dangerous. By suppressing the troops47 which were usually stationed in Rome47, Constantine47 gave the fatal blow to the dignity of the senate47 and people47, and the disarmed capital was exposed without protection to the insults or neglect of its distant master47. We may observe that, in this last effort to preserve their expiring freedom, the Romans, from the apprehension of a tribute, had raised Maxentius to the throne47. He exacted that tribute from the senate47, under the name of a free gift. They implored the assistance of Constantine47. He vanquished the tyrant47, and converted the free gift into a perpetual tax. The senators, according to the declaration which was required of their property, were divided into several classes. The most opulent paid annually eight pounds of gold, the next class paid four, the last two, and those whose poverty might have claimed an exemption were assessed, however, at seven pieces of gold. Besides the regular members of the senate47, their sons, their descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed the vain privileges, and supported the heavy burdens, of the senatorial order; nor will it any longer excite our surprise that Constantine47 should be attentive to increase the number of persons who were included under so useful a description. After the defeat of Maxentius, the victorious emperor47 passed no more than two or three months in Rome47, which he visited twice during the remainder of his life47, to celebrate the solemn festivals of the tenth and of the twentieth years of his reign47. Constantine47 was almost perpetually in motion, to exercise the legions, or to inspect the state of the provinces47. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, Naissus, and Thessalonica were the occasional places of his residence, till he founded a new Rome47 on the confines of Europe and Asia.
Before Constantine47 marched into Italy47, he had secured the friendship, or at least the neutrality, of Licinius, the Illyrian emperor47. He had promised his sister Constantia in marriage to that prince47; but the celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the conclusion of the war47; and the interview of the two emperors at Milan, which was appointed for that purpose, appeared to cement the union of their families and interests. In the midst of the public47 festivity they were suddenly obliged to take leave of each other. An inroad of the Franks summoned Constantine47 to the Rhine, and the hostile approach of the sovereign47 of Asia demanded the immediate presence of Licinius. Maximin had been the secret47 ally of Maxentius, and, without being discouraged by his fate, he resolved to try the fortune of a civil47 war47. He moved out of Syria towards the frontiers of Bithynia, in the depth of winter. The season was severe and tempestuous; great numbers of men as well as horses perished in the snow; and, as the roads were broken up by incessant rains, he was obliged to leave behind him a considerable part of the heavy baggage, which was unable to follow the rapidity of his forced marches. By this extraordinary effort of diligence, he arrived with a harassed but formidable army47 on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus, before the lieutenants of Licinius were apprised of his hostile intentions. Byzantium surrendered to the power47 of Maximin, after a siege of eleven days. He was detained some days under the walls of Heraclea; and he had no sooner taken possession of that city47 than he was alarmed by the intelligence that Licinius had pitched his camp at the distance of only eighteen miles. After a fruitless negotiation, in which the two princes attempted to seduce the fidelity of each other's adherents, they had recourse to arms47. The emperor47 of the East47 commanded a disciplined and veteran army47 of above seventy thousand men, and Licinius, who had collected about thirty thousand Illyrians, was at first oppressed by the superiority of numbers. His military47 skill and the firmness of his troops47 restored the day, and obtained a decisive victory. The incredible speed which Maximin exerted in his flight is much more celebrated than his prowess in the battle. Twenty-four hours afterwards he was seen pale, trembling, and without his Imperial47 ornaments, at Nicomedia, one hundred and sixty miles from the place of his defeat. The wealth of Asia was yet unexhausted; and, though the flower of his veterans had fallen in the late action, he had still power47, if he could obtain time, to draw very numerous levies from Syria and Egypt. But he survived his misfortune only three or four months. His death47, which happened at Tarsus, was variously ascribed to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice47. As Maximin was alike destitute of abilities and of virtue, he was lamented neither by the people47 nor by the soldiers47. The provinces47 of the East47, delivered from the terrors of civil47 war47, cheerfully acknowledged the authority47 of Licinius.
The vanquished emperor47 left behind him two children, a boy of about eight, and a girl of about seven, years old. Their inoffensive age47 might have excited compassion; but the compassion of Licinius was a very feeble resource, nor did it restrain him from extinguishing the name and memory of his adversary. The death47 of Severianus will admit of less excuse, as it was dictated neither by revenge nor by policy. The conqueror had never received any injury from the father47 of that unhappy youth, and the short and obscure reign47 of Severus in a distant part of the empire47 was already forgotten. But the execution of Candidianus was an act of the blackest cruelty and ingratitude. He was the natural son47 of Galerius, the friend and benefactor of Licinius. The prudent father47 had judged him too young to sustain the weight of a diadem; but he hoped that, under the protection of princes who were indebted to his favour for the Imperial47 purple, Candidianus might pass a secure and honourable life47. He was now advancing towards the twentieth year of his age47, and the royalty of his birth, though unsupported either by merit47 or ambition, was sufficient to exasperate the jealous mind of Licinius. To these innocent and illustrious victims of his tyranny, we must add the wife and daughter of the emperor47 Diocletian. When that prince47 conferred on Galerius the title of Caesar, he had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whose melancholy adventures might furnish a very singular subject for tragedy. She had fulfilled, and even surpassed, the duties of a wife. As she had not any children herself, she condescended to adopt the illegitimate son47 of her husband, and invariably displayed towards the unhappy Candidianus the tenderness and anxiety of a real mother. After the death47 of Galerius, her ample possessions provoked the avarice, and her personal attractions excited the desires, of his successor Maximin. He had a wife still alive; but divorce was permitted by the Roman47 law, and the fierce passions of the tyrant47 demanded an immediate gratification. The answer of Valeria was such as became the daughter and widow of emperors; but it was tempered by the prudence which her defenceless condition compelled her to observe. She represented to the persons whom Maximin had employed on this occasion that, even if honour could permit a woman of her character and dignity to entertain a thought of second nuptials, decency at least must forbid her to listen to his addresses at a time when the ashes of her husband and his benefactor were still warm, and while the sorrows of her mind were still expressed by her mourning garments. She ventured to declare that she could place very little confidence in the professions of a man, whose cruel inconstancy was capable of repudiating a faithful and affectionate wife. On this repulse, the love of Maximin was converted into fury; and, as witnesses and judges were always at his disposal, it was easy for him to cover his fury with an appearance of legal proceedings, and to assault the reputation as well as the happiness of Valeria. Her estates were confiscated, her eunuchs and domestics devoted to the most inhuman tortures, and several innocent and respectable matrons, who were honoured with her friendship, suffered death47 on a false accusation of adultery. The empress herself, together with her mother Prisca, was condemned to exile; and, as they were ignominiously hurried from place to place before they were confined to a sequestered village in the deserts of Syria, they exposed their shame and distress to the provinces47 of the East47, which, during thirty years, had respected their august dignity. Diocletian made several ineffectual efforts to alleviate the misfortunes of his daughter; and, as the last return that he expected for the Imperial47 purple, which he had conferred upon Maximin, he entreated that Valeria might be permitted to share his retirement of Salona, and to close the eyes of her afflicted father47. He entreated, but, as he could no longer threaten, his prayers were received with coldness and disdain; and the pride of Maximin was gratified in treating Diocletian as a suppliant, and his daughter as a criminal. The death47 of Maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a favourable alteration in their fortune. The public47 disorders relaxed the vigilance of their guard, and they easily found means to escape from the place of their exile, and to repair, though with some precaution, and in disguise, to the court of Licinius. His behaviour, in the first days of his reign47, and the honourable reception which he gave to young Candidianus, inspired Valeria with a secret47 satisfaction, both on her own account, and on that of her adopted son47. But these grateful prospects were soon47 succeeded by horror and astonishment; and the bloody executions which stained the palace47 of Nicomedia sufficiently convinced her that the throne47 of Maximin was filled by a tyrant47 more inhuman than himself. Valeria consulted her safety by a hasty flight, and, still accompanied by her mother Prisca, they wandered above fifteen months through the provinces47, concealed in the disguise of plebeian habits. They were at length discovered at Thessalonica; and, as the sentence of their death47 was already pronounced, they were immediately beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the sea. The people47 gazed on the melancholy spectacle; but their grief and indignation were suppressed by the terrors of a military47 guard. Such was the unworthy fate of the wife and daughter of Diocletian. We lament their misfortunes, we cannot discover their crimes; and, whatever idea we may justly entertain of the cruelty of Licinius, it remains a matter of surprise that he was not contented with some more secret47 and decent method of revenge.
The Roman47 world was now divided between Constantine47 and Licinius, the former of whom was master47 of the West, and the latter of the East47. It might perhaps have been expected that the conquerors, fatigued with civil47 war47, and connected by a private47 as well as public47 alliance, would have renounced, or at least would have suspended, any farther designs of ambition. And yet a year had scarcely elapsed after the death47 of Maximin, before the victorious emperors turned their arms47 against each other. The genius, the success, and the aspiring temper of Constantine47 may seem to mark him out as the aggressor; but the perfidious character of Licinius justifies the most unfavourable suspicions, and by the faint light which history reflects on this transaction we may discover a conspiracy fomented by his arts against the authority47 of his colleague. Constantine47 had lately given his sister Anastasia in marriage to Bassianus, a man of a considerable family and fortune, and had elevated his new kinsman to the rank47 of Caesar. According to the system of government47 instituted by Diocletian, Italy47, and perhaps Africa, were designed for his department in the empire47. But the performance of the promised favour was either attended with so much delay, or accompanied with so many unequal conditions, that the fidelity of Bassianus was alienated rather than secured by the honourable distinction which he had obtained. His nomination had been ratified by the consent of Licinius, and that artful prince47, by the means of his emissaries, soon47 contrived to enter into a secret47 and dangerous correspondence with the new Caesar, to irritate his discontents, and to urge him to the rash enterprise of extorting by violence what he might in vain solicit from the justice47 of Constantine47. But the vigilant emperor47 discovered the conspiracy before it was ripe for execution; and, after solemnly renouncing the alliance of Bassianus, despoiled him of the purple and inflicted the deserved punishment on his treason and ingratitude. The haughty refusal of Licinius, when he was required to deliver up the criminals who had taken refuge in his dominions, confirmed the suspicions already entertained of his perfidy; and the indignities offered at Aemona, on the frontiers of Italy47, to the statues of Constantine47, became the signal of discord between the two princes.
The first battle was fought near Cibalis, a city9 of Pannonia, situated on the river9 Save, about fifty miles9 above Sirmium. From the inconsiderable forces which in this important contest two such powerful monarchs brought into the field, it may be inferred that the one was suddenly provoked, and that the other was unexpectedly surprised. The emperor of the West9 had only twenty thousand9, and the sovereign of the East no more than five and thirty thousand9, men9. The inferiority of number was, however, compensated by the advantage of the ground. Constantine had taken post in a defile about half a mile in breadth, between a steep hill and a deep morass; and in that situation he steadily expected and repulsed the first attack of the enemy. He pursued his success, and advanced into the plain. But the veteran legions of Illyricum rallied under the standard of a leader who had been trained to arms9 in the school of Probus and Diocletian. The missile weapons on both sides were soon9 exhausted; the two armies, with equal valour9, rushed to a closer engagement of swords and spears, and the doubtful contest had already lasted from the dawn of day to a late hour of the evening when the right wing, which Constantine led in person, made a vigorous and decisive charge. The judicious retreat of Licinius saved the remainder of his troops9 from a total defeat; but, when he computed his loss, which amounted to more than twenty thousand9 men9, he thought it unsafe to pass the night in the presence of an active and victorious enemy. Abandoning his camp9 and magazines, he marched away with secrecy and diligence at the head of the greatest part of his cavalry, and was soon9 removed beyond the danger of a pursuit. His diligence preserved his wife, his son, and his treasures, which he had deposited at Sirmium. Licinius passed through that city9, and, breaking down the bridge on the Save, hastened to collect a new9 army9 in Dacia and Thrace. In his flight he bestowed the precarious title of Caesar on Valens, his general of the Illyrian frontier.
The plain of Mardia in Thrace was the theatre of a second battle no less obstinate and bloody than the former. The troops47 on both sides displayed the same valour and discipline; and the victory was once more decided by the superior abilities of Constantine47, who directed a body of five thousand men to gain an advantageous height, from whence, during the heat of the action, they attacked the rear of the enemy, and made a very considerable slaughter. The troops47 of Licinius, however, presenting a double front, still maintained their ground, till the approach of night put an end to the combat, and secured their retreat towards the mountains of Macedonia. The loss of two battles, and of his bravest veterans, reduced the fierce spirit47 of Licinius to sue for peace. His ambassador, Mistrianus, was admitted to the audience of Constantine47; he expatiated on the common topics of moderation and humanity, which are so familiar to the eloquence of the vanquished; represented, in the most insinuating language, that the event of the war47 was still doubtful, whilst its inevitable calamities were alike pernicious to both the contending parties; and declared that he was authorised to propose a lasting and honourable peace in the name of the two emperors his masters. Constantine47 received the mention of Valens with indignation and contempt. It was not for such a purpose, he sternly replied, that we have advanced from the shores of the Western ocean in an uninterrupted course of combats and victories, that, after rejecting an ungrateful kinsman, we should accept for our colleague a contemptible slave. The abdication of Valens is the first article of the treaty. It was necessary to accept this humiliating condition, and the unhappy Valens, after a reign47 of a few days, was deprived of the purple and of his life47. As soon47 as the obstacle was removed, the tranquillity of the Roman47 world was easily restored. The successive defeats of Licinius had ruined his forces, but they had displayed his courage and abilities. His situation was almost desperate, but the efforts of despair are sometimes formidable; and the good sense of Constantine47 preferred a great and certain advantage to a third trial of the chance of arms47. He consented to leave his rival, or, as he again styled Licinius, his friend and brother, in the possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; but the provinces47 of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece were yielded to the Western empire47, and the dominions of Constantine47 now extended from the confines of Caledonia to the extremity of Peloponnesus. It was stipulated by the same treaty that three royal youths, the sons of the emperors, should be called to the hopes of the succession. Crispus and the younger Constantine47 were soon47 afterwards declared Caesars in the West, while the younger Licinius was invested with the same dignity in the East47. In this double proportion of honours, the conqueror asserted the superiority of his arms47 and power47.
The reconciliation of Constantine47 and Licinius, though it was embittered by resentment and jealousy, by the remembrance of recent injuries, and by the apprehension of future dangers, maintained, however, above eight years, the tranquillity of the Roman47 world. As a very regular series of the Imperial47 laws commences about this period, it would not be difficult to transcribe the civil47 regulations which employed the leisure of Constantine47. But the most important of his institutions are intimately connected with the new system of policy and religion, which was not perfectly established till the last and peaceful years of his reign47. There are many of his laws which, as far as they concern the rights and property of individuals, and the practice of the bar, are more properly referred to the private47 than to the public47 jurisprudence of the empire47; and he published many edicts of so local and temporary a nature, that they would ill deserve the notice of a general47 history. Two laws, however, may be selected from the crowd; the one, for its importance, the other, for its singularity; the former for its remarkable benevolence, the latter for its excessive severity. 1. The horrid practice, so familiar to the ancients, of exposing or murdering their newborn infants, was become every day more frequent in the provinces47, and especially in Italy47. It was the effect of distress; and the distress was principally occasioned by the intolerable burden of taxes, and by the vexatious as well as cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of mankind, instead of rejoicing in an increase of family, deemed it an act of paternal tenderness to release their children from the impending miseries of a life47 which they themselves were unable to support. The humanity of Constantine47, moved, perhaps, by some recent and extraordinary instances of despair, engaged him to address an edict to all the cities of Italy47, and afterwards of Africa, directing immediate and sufficient relief to be given to those parents who should produce, before the magistrates, the children whom their own poverty would not allow them to educate. But the promise was too liberal, and the provision too vague, to effect any general47 or permanent benefit. The law, though it may merit47 some praise, served rather to display than to alleviate the public47 distress. It still remains an authentic monument to contradict and confound those venal orators, who were too well satisfied with their own situation to discover either vice or misery under the government47 of a generous sovereign47. 2. The laws of Constantine47 against rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature; since the description of that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence which compelled, but even to the gentle seduction which might persuade, an unmarried woman, under the age47 of twenty-five, to leave the house of her parents. The successful ravisher was punished with death47; and, as if simple death47 was inadequate to the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt alive or torn in pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The virgin's declaration that she had been carried away with her own consent, instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share his fate. The duty of a public47 prosecution was entrusted to the parents of the guilty or unfortunate maid; and, if the sentiments of Nature prevailed on them to dissemble the injury, and to repair by a subsequent marriage the honour of their family, they were themselves punished by exile and confiscation. The slaves, whether male or female, who were convicted of having been accessory to the rape or seduction, were burnt alive, or put to death47 by the ingenious torture of pouring down their throats a quantity of melted lead. As the crime was of a public47 kind, the accusation was permitted even to strangers. The commencement of the action was not limited to any term of years, and the consequences of the sentence were extended to the innocent offspring of such an irregular union. But, whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. The most odious parts of this edict were softened or repealed in the subsequent reigns; and even Constantine47 himself very frequently alleviated, by partial acts of mercy, the stern temper of his general47 institutions. Such, indeed, was the singular humour of that emperor47, who showed himself as indulgent, and even remiss, in the execution of his laws, as he was severe, and even cruel, in the enacting of them. It is scarcely possible to observe a more decisive symptom of weakness, either in the character of the prince47, or in the constitution of the government47.
The civil administration was sometimes interrupted by the military defence of the empire29. Crispus, a youth29 of the most amiable character29, who had received29 with the title of Caesar the command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct, as well as valour, in several victories over the Franks and Alemanni; and taught the barbarians29 of that frontier to dread the eldest son of Constantine, and the grandson of Constantius. The emperor29 himself had assumed the more difficult and important province29 of the Danube. The Goths29, who in the time of Claudius and Aurelian had felt the weight29 of the Roman29 arms, respected the power29 of the empire29, even in the midst of its intestine divisions. But the strength of that warlike nation was now restored by a peace of near fifty years; a new generation had arisen, who no longer remembered the misfortunes of ancient29 days: the Sarmatians of the lake Maeotis followed the Gothic standard, either as subjects or as allies, and their united force was poured upon the countries of Illyricum. Campona, Margus, and Bononia appear to have been the scenes of several memorable sieges and battles; and, though Constantine encountered a very obstinate resistance, he prevailed at length in the contest, and the Goths29 were compelled to purchase an ignominious retreat by restoring the booty and prisoners which they had taken. Nor was this advantage sufficient to satisfy the indignation29 of the emperor29. He resolved to chastise as well as to repulse the insolent barbarians29 who had dared to invade the territories of Rome29. At the head of the legions he passed the Danube, after repairing the bridge which had been constructed by Trajan, penetrated into the strongest recesses of Dacia29, and, when he had inflicted a severe revenge, condescended to give peace to the suppliant Goths29, on condition that, as often as they were required, they should supply his armies with a body of forty thousand soldiers. Exploits like these were no doubt honourable to Constantine and beneficial to the state29; but it may surely be questioned whether they can justify the exaggerated assertion of Eusebius, that all Scythia, as far as the extremity of the North29, divided as it was into so many names and nations of the most various29 and savage manners29, had been added by his victorious arms to the Roman29 empire29.
In this exalted state of glory it was impossible that Constantine should any longer endure a partner in the empire9. Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military power, he determined, without any previous injury, to exert them for the destruction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpopular vices seemed to offer a very easy conquest9. But the old emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, deceived the expectations of his friends as well as of his enemies. Calling forth that spirit and those abilities by which he had deserved the friendship of Galerius and the Imperial purple, he prepared himself for the contest, collected the forces of the East, and soon9 filled the plains of Hadrianople with his troops9, and the straits of the Hellespont with his fleet9. The army9 consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand9 foot, and fifteen thousand9 horse; and, as the cavalry was drawn, for the most part, from Phrygia and Cappadocia, we may conceive a more favourable opinion of the beauty of the horses than of the courage and dexterity of their riders. The fleet9 was composed of three hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars. An hundred and thirty of these were furnished by Egypt, and the adjacent coast9 of Africa9. An hundred and ten sailed from the ports of Phoenicia and the isle of Cyprus; and the maritime countries of Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria were likewise obliged to provide an hundred and ten galleys. The troops9 of Constantine were ordered to rendezvous at Thessalonica; they amounted to above an hundred and twenty thousand9 horse and foot. Their emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance, and his army9 contained more soldiers, though fewer men9, than that of his Eastern competitor. The legions of Constantine were levied in the warlike provinces9 of Europe9; action had confirmed their discipline, victory had elevated their hopes, and there were among them a great9 number of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious campaigns under the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve an honourable dismission by a last effort of their valour9. But the naval preparations of Constantine were in every respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime cities9 of Greece sent their respective quotas of men9 and ships to the celebrated harbour of Piraeus, and their united forces consisted of no more than two hundred small vessels9: a very feeble armament, if it is compared with those formidable fleets which were equipped and maintained by the republic of Athens during the Peloponnesian war9. Since Italy9 was no longer the seat of government, the naval establishments of Misenum and Ravenna had been gradually neglected; and, as the shipping and mariners of the empire9 were supported by commerce rather than by war9, it was natural that they should the most abound in the industrious provinces9 of Egypt and Asia9. It is only surprising that the Eastern emperor, who possessed so great9 a superiority at sea9, should have neglected the opportunity of carrying an offensive war9 into the centre of his rival's dominions.
Instead of embracing such an active resolution, which might have changed the whole face of the war49, the prudent Licinius expected the approach of his rival in a camp near Hadrianople, which he had fortified with an anxious care that betrayed his apprehension of the event. Constantine directed his march from Thessalonica towards that part of Thrace, till he found himself stopped by the broad and rapid stream of the Hebrus, and discovered the numerous army49 of Licinius, which filled the steep ascent of the hill, from the river to the city49 of Hadrianople. Many days49 were spent in doubtful and distant skirmishes; but at length the obstacles of the passage and of the attack49 were removed by the intrepid conduct of Constantine. In this place we might relate a wonderful exploit of Constantine, which, though it can scarce be paralleled either in poetry or romance, is celebrated, not by a venal orator devoted to his fortune, but by an historian, the partial enemy of his fame. We are assured that the valiant emperor49 threw himself into the river Hebrus, accompanied only by twelve horsemen, and that, by the effort or terror of his invincible arm, he broke, slaughtered, and put to flight a host of an hundred and fifty thousand49 men49. The credulity of Zosimus prevailed so strongly over his passion that, among the events of the memorable battle49 of Hadrianople, he seems to have selected and embellished, not the most important, but the most marvellous. The valour49 and danger49 of Constantine are attested by a slight wound which he received in the thigh; but it may be discovered even from an imperfect narration, and, perhaps, a corrupted text, that the victory49 was obtained no less by the conduct of the general49 than by the courage of the hero; that a body of five thousand49 archers marched round to occupy a thick wood in the rear of the enemy, whose attention was diverted by the construction of a bridge; and that Licinius, perplexed by so many artful evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advantageous post to combat on equal ground in the plain. The contest was no longer equal. His confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished by the experienced veterans of the West. Thirty49-four thousand49 men49 are reported to have been slain. The fortified camp of Licinius was taken by assault49 the evening of the battle49; the greater part of the fugitives, who had retired to the mountains, surrendered themselves the next day49 to the discretion of the conqueror; and his rival, who could no longer keep the field, confined himself within the walls49 of Byzantium.
The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by Constantine, was attended with great9 labour and uncertainty. In the late civil wars, the fortifications of that place, so justly considered as the key of Europe9 and Asia9, had been repaired and strengthened; and, as long9 as Licinius remained master of the sea9, the garrison was much less exposed to the danger of famine than the army9 of the besiegers. The naval commanders of Constantine were summoned to his camp9, and received his positive orders to force the passage of the Hellespont, as the fleet9 of Licinius, instead of seeking and destroying their feeble enemy, continued inactive in those narrow straits where its superiority of numbers was of little use or advantage. Crispus, the emperor's eldest son, was entrusted with the execution of this daring enterprise, which he performed with so much courage and success, that he deserved the esteem, and most probably excited the jealousy, of his father. The engagement lasted two days, and, in the evening of the first, the contending fleets, after a considerable and mutual loss, retired into their respective harbours of Europe9 and Asia9. The second day about noon a strong south wind sprang up, which carried the vessels9 of Crispus against the enemy; and, as the casual advantage was improved by his skilful intrepidity, he soon9 obtained a complete victory. An hundred and thirty vessels9 were destroyed, five thousand9 men9 were slain and Amandus, the admiral of the Asiatic fleet9, escaped with the utmost difficulty to the shores of Chalcedon. As soon9 as the Hellespont was open, a plentiful convoy of provisions flowed into the camp9 of Constantine, who had already advanced the operations of the siege. He constructed artificial mounds of earth of an equal height with the ramparts of Byzantium. The lofty towers which were erected on that foundation galled the besieged with large stones and darts from the military engines, and the battering-rams had shaken the walls9 in several places. If Licinius persisted much longer in the defence, he exposed himself to be involved in the ruin of the place. Before he was surrounded, he prudently removed his person and treasures to Chalcedon in Asia9; and, as he was always desirous of associating companions to the hopes and dangers of his fortune, he now bestowed the title of Caesar on Martinianus, who exercised one of the most important offices of the empire9.
Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, of Licinius, that, after so many successive defeats, he collected in Bithynia a new army47 of fifty or sixty thousand men, while the activity of Constantine47 was employed in the siege of Byzantium. The vigilant emperor47 did not, however, neglect the last struggles of his antagonist. A considerable part of his victorious army47 was transported over the Bosphorus in small vessels, and the decisive engagement was fought soon47 after their landing on the heights of Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of Scutari. The troops47 of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and worse disciplined, made head against their conquerors with fruitless but desperate valour, till a total defeat and the slaughter of five and twenty thousand men irretrievably determined the fate of their leader. He retired to Nicomedia, rather with the view of gaining some time for negotiation than with the hope of any effectual defence. Constantia, his wife and the sister of Constantine47, interceded with her brother in favour of her husband, and obtained from his policy, rather than from his compassion, a solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the sacrifice of Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple, Licinius himself should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life47 in peace and affluence. The behaviour of Constantia, and her relation to the contending parties, naturally recalls the remembrance of that virtuous matron who was the sister of Augustus and the wife of Antony. But the temper of mankind was altered, and it was no longer esteemed infamous for a Roman47 to survive his honour and independence. Licinius solicited and accepted the pardon of his offences, laid himself and his purple at the feet of his lord and master47, was raised from the ground with insulting pity, was admitted the same day to the Imperial47 banquet, and soon47 afterwards was sent away to Thessalonica, which had been chosen for the place of his confinement. His confinement was soon47 terminated by death47, and it is doubtful whether a tumult of the soldiers47, or a decree of the senate47, was suggested as the motive for his execution. According to the rules of tyranny, he was accused of forming a conspiracy, and of holding a treasonable correspondence with the barbarians; but, as he was never convicted, either by his own conduct47 or by any legal evidence, we may perhaps be allowed, from his weakness, to presume his innocence. The memory of Licinius was branded with infamy, his statues were thrown down, and by a hasty edict, of such mischievous tendency that it was almost immediately corrected, all his laws, and all the judicial proceedings of his reign47, were at once abolished. By this victory of Constantine47, the Roman47 world was again united under the authority47 of one emperor47, thirty-seven years after Diocletian had divided his power47 and provinces47 with his associate Maximian.
The successive steps of the elevation of Constantine28, from his first assuming the purple at York to the resignation of Licinius at Nicomedia, have been related with some minuteness and precision, not only as the events are in themselves both interesting and important28, but still more as they contributed to the decline of the empire28 by the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual increase, as well of the taxes as of the military28 establishment28. The foundation of Constantinople, and the establishment28 of the Christian religion28, were the immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution.
A candid but rational inquiry into the progress and establishment of Christianity8 may be considered as a very essential part of the history of the Roman empire8. While that great body was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion8 gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the cross on the ruins of the Capitol. Nor was the influence of Christianity8 confined to the period or to the limits of the Roman empire8. After a revolution of thirteen or fourteen centuries, that religion8 is still professed by the nations of Europe, the most distinguished portion of human8 kind in arts and learning as well as in arms. By the industry and zeal8 of the Europeans it has been widely diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa; and by the means of their colonies has been firmly established from Canada to Chili, in a world8 unknown to the ancients.
But this inquiry, however useful or entertaining, is attended with two peculiar difficulties. The scanty and suspicious materials of eccesiastical history seldom enable us to dispel the dark cloud that hangs over the first age8 of the church8. The great law of impartiality too often obliges us to reveal the imperfections of the uninspired teachers and believers of the gospel; and, to a careless observer, their faults may seem to cast a shade on the faith8 which they professed. But the scandal of the pious Christian8, and the fallacious triumph of the Infidel, should cease as soon as they recollect not only by whom, but likewise to whom, the Divine8 Revelation was given. The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion8 as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.
Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian39 faith obtained39 so remarkable39 a victory over the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry, an obvious but satisfactory answer may be returned; that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great39 Author. But, as truth39 and reason39 seldom find so favourable a reception in the world, and as the wisdom of Providence frequently39 condescends to use39 the passions of the human heart39, and the general39 circumstances of mankind, as instruments to execute its purpose; we may still be permitted, though with becoming submission, to ask not indeed what were the first, but what were the secondary causes of the rapid growth of the Christian39 church39. It will, perhaps, appear that it was most effectually favoured and assisted by the five following39 causes: I. The inflexible, and, if we may use39 the expression39, the intolerant zeal39 of the Christians39, derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses. II. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth39. III. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church39. IV. The pure and austere morals of the Christians39. V. The union and discipline of the Christian39 republic39, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart39 of the Roman39 empire39.
I. We have already described the religious harmony of the ancient world, and the facility with which the most different and even hostile nations embraced, or at least respected, each other's superstitions. A single people4 refused to join in the common intercourse of mankind. The Jews, who, under the Assyrian and Persian monarchies, had languished for many ages the most despised portion of their slaves, emerged from obscurity under the successors of Alexander; and, as they multiplied to a surprising degree in the East, and afterwards in the West, they soon excited the curiosity and wonder of other nations. The sullen obstinacy with which they maintained their peculiar rites and unsocial manners seemed to mark them out a distinct species of men4, who boldly professed, or who faintly disguised, their implacable hatred to the rest of human kind. Neither the violence of Antiochus, nor the arts of Herod, nor the example of the circumjacent nations, could ever persuade the Jews to associate with the institutions of Moses the elegant mythology of the Greeks. According to the maxims of universal toleration, the Romans protected a superstition which they despised. The polite Augustus condescended to give orders that sacrifices should be offered for his prosperity in the temple of Jerusalem; while the meanest of the posterity of Abraham, who should have paid the same homage to the Jupiter of the Capitol, would have been an object of abhorrence to himself and to his brethren4. But the moderation of the conquerors was insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices of their subjects, who were alarmed and scandalised at the ensigns of paganism, which necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman province. The mad attempt of Caligula to place4 his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem was defeated by the unanimous resolution of a people4 who dreaded death4 much less than such an idolatrous profanation. Their attachment to the law of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the strength, and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent.
This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odious, or so ridiculous, to the ancient world, assumes a more awful character, since Providence has deigned to reveal to us the mysterious history of the chosen people. But the devout7, and even scrupulous, attachment to the Mosaic religion7, so conspicuous among the Jews7 who lived under the second temple, becomes still more surprising, if it is compared with the stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law7 was given in thunder from Mount Sinai; when the tides of the ocean and the course of the planets were suspended for the convenience of the Israelites; and when temporal7 rewards and punishments were the immediate consequences of their piety or disobedience; they perpetually relapsed into rebellion against the visible7 majesty of their Divine7 King, placed the idols of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imitated every fantastic ceremony that was practised in the tents of the Arabs or in the cities of Phoenicia. As the protection of Heaven7 was deservedly withdrawn from the ungrateful race, their faith7 acquired a proportionable degree of vigour and purity. The contemporaries of Moses7 and Joshua had beheld, with careless indifference, the most amazing miracles7. Under the pressure of every calamity, the belief7 of those miracles7 has preserved the Jews7 of a later period from the universal contagion of idolatry7; and, in contradiction to every known principle of the human7 mind, that singular people seems to have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the traditions of their remote ancestors than to the evidence of their own senses.
The Jewish religion8 was admirably fitted for defence, but it was never designed for conquest; and it seems probable that the number of proselytes was never much superior to that of apostates. The divine8 promises were originally made, and the distinguishing rite of circumcision was enjoined, to a single family. When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like the sands of the sea, the Deity8, from whose mouth they received a system of laws8 and ceremonies, declared himself the proper and, as it were, the national God8 of Israel; and, with the most jealous care, separated his favourite people from the rest of mankind8. The conquest of the land of Canaan was accompanied with so many wonderful and with so many bloody circumstances that the victorious Jews were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neighbours. They had been commanded to extirpate some of the most idolatrous tribes; and the execution of the Divine8 will had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity. With the other nations they were forbidden to contract any marriages or alliances; and the prohibition of receiving them into the congregation, which, in some cases, was perpetual, almost always extended to the third, to the seventh, or even to the tenth generation. The obligation of preaching to the Gentiles the faith8 of Moses had never been inculcated as a precept of the law, nor were the Jews inclined to impose it on themselves as a voluntary duty. In the admission of new citizens, that unsocial people was actuated by the selfish vanity of the Greeks, rather than by the generous policy of Rome. The descendants of Abraham were flattered by the opinion that they alone were the heirs of the covenant; and they were apprehensive of diminishing the value of their inheritance, by sharing it too easily with the strangers of the earth. A larger acquaintance with mankind8 extended their knowledge without correcting their prejudices; and, whenever the God8 of Israel acquired any new votaries, he was much more indebted to the inconstant humour of polytheism than to the active zeal8 of his own missionaries. The religion8 of Moses seems to be instituted for a particular country, as well as for a single nation; and, if a strict obedience had been paid to the order that every male, three times in the year, should present himself before the Lord Jehovah, it would have been impossible that the Jews could ever have spread themselves beyond the narrow limits of the promised land. That obstacle was indeed removed by the destruction of the temple8 of Jerusalem; but the most considerable part of the Jewish religion8 was involved in its destruction; and the Pagans8, who had long wondered at the strange report of an empty sanctuary, were at a loss to discover what could be the object, or what could be the instruments, of a worship8 which was destitute of temples8 and of altars, of priests and of sacrifices. Yet even in their fallen state, the Jews, still asserting their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead of courting, the society8 of strangers. They still insisted with inflexible rigour on those parts of the law which it was in their power to practise. Their peculiar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety of trivial though burdensome observances, were so many objects of disgust and aversion for the other nations, to whose habits and prejudices they were diametrically opposite. The painful and even dangerous rite of circumcision was alone capable of repelling a willing proselyte from the door of the synagogue.
Under these circumstances, Christianity8 offered itself to the world8, armed with the strength of the Mosaic law, and delivered from the weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal8 for the truth8 of religion8 and the unity of God8 was as carefully inculcated in the new as in the ancient8 system; and whatever was now revealed to mankind8, concerning the nature8 and designs of the Supreme Being, was fitted to increase their reverence for that mysterious doctrine. The divine8 authority of Moses and the prophets was admitted, and even established, as the firmest basis of Christianity8. From the beginning of the world8, an uninterrupted series of predictions had announced and prepared the long-expected coming of the Messiah, who, in compliance with the gross apprehensions of the Jews, had been more frequently represented under the character8 of a King and Conqueror, than under that of a Prophet, a Martyr, and the Son of God8. By his expiatory sacrifice, the imperfect sacrifices of the temple8 were at once consummated and abolished. The ceremonial law, which consisted only of types and figures, was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship8, equally adapted to all climates, as well as to every condition of mankind8; and to the initiation of blood was substituted a more harmless initiation of water. The promise of divine8 favour, instead of being partially confined to the posterity of Abraham, was universally proposed to the freeman and the slave, to the Greek and to the barbarian, to the Jew and to the Gentile. Every privilege that could raise the proselyte from earth to Heaven, that could exalt his devotion8, secure his happiness8, or even gratify that secret pride which, under the semblance of devotion8, insinuates itself into the human8 heart, was still reserved for the members of the Christian8 church8; but at the same time8 all mankind8 was permitted, and even solicited, to accept the glorious distinction, which was not only proffered as a favour, but imposed as an obligation. It became the most sacred8 duty of a new convert to diffuse among his friends and relations the inestimable blessing which he had received, and to warn them against a refusal that would be severely punished as a criminal disobedience to the will of a benevolent but all-powerful deity8.
The enfranchisement of the church7 from the bonds of the synagogue was a work however of some time and of some difficulty. The Jewish converts, who acknowledged Jesus7 in the character of the Messiah foretold by their ancient oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and religion7; but they obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors, and were desirous of imposing them on the Gentiles, who continually augmented the number of believers. These Judaising Christians7 seem to have argued with some degree of plausibility from the divine7 origin of the Mosaic law7, and from the immutable perfections of its great Author. They affirmed that, if the Being, who is the same through all eternity, had designed to abolish those sacred rites which had served to distinguish his chosen people, the repeal of them would have been no less clear and solemn than their first promulgation: that, instead of those frequent declarations, which either suppose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic religion7, it would have been represented as a provisionary scheme intended to last only till the coming of the Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more perfect7 mode of faith7 and of worship7: that the Messiah himself, and his disciples7 who conversed with him on earth7, instead of authorising by their example the most minute observances of the Mosaic law7, would have published to the world the abolition of those useless and obsolete ceremonies, without suffering Christianity7 to remain during so many years7 obscurely confounded among the sects7 of the Jewish church7. Arguments like these appear to have been used in the defence of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law7; but the industry of our learned divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous language of the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to unfold the system of the Gospel7, and to pronounce, with the utmost caution and tenderness, a sentence of condemnation so repugnant to the inclination and prejudices of the believing Jews7.
The history of the church7 of Jerusalem affords a lively proof of the necessity of those precautions, and of the deep impression which the Jewish religion7 had made on the minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews7; and the congregation over which they presided, united the law7 of Moses7 with the doctrine7 of Christ7. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church7 which was founded only forty years7 after the death of Christ7, and was governed almost as many years7 under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable Parent, and relieved her distresses by a liberal contribution of alms. But, when numerous and opulent societies were established in the great cities of the empire, in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, the reverence which Jerusalem had inspired to all the Christian7 colonies insensibly diminished. The Jewish converts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who had laid the foundations of the church7, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes that from all the various religions of polytheism enlisted under the banner of Christ7; and the Gentiles, who with the approbation of their peculiar apostle had rejected the intolerable weight of Mosaic ceremonies, at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for their own practice. The ruin of the temple, of the city, and of the public religion7 of the Jews7 was severely felt by the Nazarenes; as in their manners, though not in their faith7, they maintained so intimate a connection with their impious countrymen, whose misfortunes were attributed by the Pagans to the contempt, and more justly ascribed by the Christians7 to the wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes retired from the ruins of Jerusalem to the little town of Pella beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church7 languished above sixty years7 in solitude and obscurity. They still enjoyed the comfort of making frequent and devout7 visits to the Holy7 City, and the hope of being one day restored to those seats which both nature7 and religion7 taught them to love as well as to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate fanaticism of the Jews7 filled up the measure of their calamities; and the Romans, exasperated by their repeated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with unusual rigour. The emperor founded, under the name of Aelia Capitolina, a new7 city on Mount Sion, to which he gave the privileges of a colony; and, denouncing the severest penalties against any of the Jewish people who should dare to approach its precincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort to enforce the execution of his orders. The Nazarenes had only one way left to escape the common proscription, and the force of truth7 was, on this occasion, assisted by the influence of temporal7 advantages. They elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the Gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy or of some of the Latin provinces. At his persuasion, the most considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law7, in the practice of which they had persevered above a century7. By this sacrifice of their habits and prejudices they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the Catholic church7.
When the name and honours of the church7 of Jerusalem had been restored to Mount Sion, the crimes of heresy and schism were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes which refused to accompany their Latin bishop. They still preserved their former habitation of Pella, spread themselves into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and formed an inconsiderable church7 in the city of Beroea, or, as it is now called, of Aleppo, in Syria. The name of Nazarenes was deemed too honourable for those Christian7 Jews7, and they soon received from the supposed poverty of their understanding, as well as of their condition, the contemptuous epithet of Ebionites. In a few years7 after the return of the church7 of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus7 as the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the law7 of Moses7, could possibly hope for salvation. The humane temper of Justin Martyr inclined him to answer this question in the affirmative; and, though he expressed himself with the most guarded diffidence, he ventured to determine in favour of such an imperfect Christian7, if he were content to practise the Mosaic ceremonies, without pretending to assert their general use or necessity. But, when Justin was pressed to declare the sentiment of the church7, he confessed that there were very many among the orthodox7 Christians7, who not only excluded their Judaising brethren from the hope of salvation, but who declined any intercourse with them in the common offices of friendship, hospitality, and social life. The more rigorous opinion prevailed, as it was natural to expect, over the milder; and an external bar of separation was fixed between the disciples7 of Moses7 and those of Christ7. The unfortunate Ebionites, rejected from one religion7 as apostates, and from the other as heretics7, found themselves compelled to assume a more decided character; and, although some traces of that obsolete sect may be discovered as late as the fourth century7, they insensibly melted away either into the church7 or the synagogue.
While the orthodox7 church7 preserved a just medium between excessive veneration and improper contempt for the law7 of Moses7, the various heretics7 deviated into equal but opposite extremes of error and extravagance. From the acknowledged truth7 of the Jewish religion7 the Ebionites had concluded that it could never be abolished. From its supposed imperfections the Gnostics7 as hastily inferred that it never was instituted by the wisdom of the Deity. There are some objections against the authority of Moses7 and the prophets, which too readily present themselves to the sceptical mind; though they can only be derived from our ignorance of remote antiquity, and from our incapacity to form an adequate judgment of the divine7 oeconomy. These objections were eagerly embraced, and as petulantly urged, by the vain science of the Gnostics7. As those heretics7 were, for the most part, averse to the pleasures of sense, they morosely arraigned the polygamy of the patriarchs, the gallantries of David, and the seraglio of Solomon. The conquest of the land of Canaan, and the extirpation of the unsuspecting natives, they were at a loss how to reconcile with the common notions of humanity and justice. But, when they recollected the sanguinary list of murders, of executions, and of massacres, which stain almost every page of the Jewish annals, they acknowledged that the barbarians of Palestine had exercised as much compassion towards their idolatrous enemies as they had ever shewn to their friends or countrymen. Passing from the sectaries of the law7 to the law7 itself, they asserted that it was impossible that a religion7 which consisted only of bloody sacrifices and trifling ceremonies, and whose rewards as well as punishments were all of a carnal and temporal7 nature7, could inspire the love of virtue, or restrain the impetuosity of passion. The Mosaic account of the creation and fall of man was treated with profane derision by the Gnostics7, who would not listen with patience to the repose of the Deity after six days' labour, to the rib of Adam, the garden of Eden, the trees of life and of knowledge, the speaking serpent, the forbidden fruit, and the condemnation pronounced against human7 kind for the venial offence of their first progenitors. The God7 of Israel was impiously represented by the Gnostics7 as a being liable to passion and to error, capricious in his favour, implacable in his resentment, meanly jealous of his superstitious worship7, and confining his partial providence to a single people and to this transitory life. In such a character they could discover none of the features of the wise and omnipotent father of the universe. They allowed that the religion7 of the Jews7 was somewhat less criminal than the idolatry7 of the Gentiles; but it was their fundamental doctrine7 that the Christ7 whom they adored as the first and brightest emanation of the Deity appeared upon earth7 to rescue mankind from their various errors, and to reveal a new7 system of truth7 and perfection. The most learned of the fathers, by a very singular condescension, have imprudently admitted the sophistry of the Gnostics7. Acknowledging that the literal sense is repugnant to every principle of faith7 as well as reason7, they deem themselves secure and invulnerable behind the ample veil of allegory, which they carefully spread over every tender part of the Mosaic dispensation.
It has been remarked, with more ingenuity than truth7, that the virgin purity of the church7 was never violated by schism or heresy before the reign of Trajan or Hadrian, about one hundred years7 after the death of Christ7. We may observe, with much more propriety, that, during that period, the disciples7 of the Messiah were indulged in a freer latitude both of faith7 and practice than has ever been allowed in succeeding ages. As the terms of communion were insensibly narrowed, and the spiritual7 authority of the prevailing party was exercised with increasing severity, many of its most respectable adherents, who were called upon to renounce, were provoked to assert, their private opinions, to pursue the consequences of their mistaken principles, and openly to erect the standard of rebellion against the unity of the church7. The Gnostics7 were distinguished as the most polite, the most learned, and the most wealthy of the Christian7 name, and that general appellation which expressed a superiority of knowledge was either assumed by their own pride or ironically bestowed by the envy of their adversaries. They were almost without exception of the race of the Gentiles, and their principal founders seem to have been natives of Syria or Egypt, where the warmth of the climate disposes both the mind and the body7 to indolent and contemplative devotion. The Gnostics7 blended with the faith7 of Christ7 many sublime but obscure tenets which they derived from oriental philosophy, and even from the religion7 of Zoroaster, concerning the eternity of matter, the existence of two principles, and the mysterious hierarchy of the invisible world. As soon as they launched out into that vast abyss, they delivered themselves to the guidance of a disordered imagination; and, as the paths of error are various and infinite, the Gnostics7 were imperceptibly divided into more than fifty particular sects7, of whom the most celebrated appear to have been the Basilidians, the Valentinians, the Marcionites, and, in a still later period, the Manichaeans. Each of these sects7 could boast of its bishops and congregations, of its doctors and martyrs, and, instead of the four gospels adopted by the church7, the heretics7 produced a multitude of histories, in which the actions and discourses of Christ7 and of his apostles were adapted to their respective tenets. The success of the Gnostics7 was rapid and extensive. They covered Asia and Egypt, established themselves in Rome, and sometimes penetrated into the provinces of the West. For the most part they arose in the second century7, flourished during the third, and were suppressed in the fourth or fifth, by the prevalence of more fashionable controversies, and by the superior ascendant of the reigning power. Though they constantly disturbed the peace, and frequently disgraced the name, of religion7, they contributed to assist rather than to retard the progress of Christianity7. The Gentile converts, whose strongest objections and prejudices were directed against the law7 of Moses7, could find admission into many Christian7 societies, which required not from their untutored mind any belief7 of an antecedent revelation. Their faith7 was insensibly fortified and enlarged, and the church7 was ultimately benefited by the conquests of its most inveterate enemies.
But, whatever difference of opinion might subsist between the Orthodox, the Ebionites, and the Gnostics, concerning the divinity or the obligation of the Mosaic law, they were all equally animated by the same exclusive zeal8 and by the same abhorrence for idolatry which had distinguished the Jews from the other nations of the ancient8 world8. The philosopher8, who considered the system of polytheism as a composition of human8 fraud and error, could disguise a smile of contempt under the mask of devotion8, without apprehending that either the mockery or the compliance would expose him to the resentment of any invisible, or, as he conceived them, imaginary powers. But the established religions of Paganism were seen by the primitive Christians8 in a much more odious and formidable light. It was the universal sentiment both of the church8 and of heretics that the daemons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects of idolatry. Those rebellious spirits who had been degraded from the rank of angels, and cast down into the infernal pit, were still permitted to roam upon earth, to torment the bodies, and to seduce the minds, of sinful men. The daemons soon discovered and abused the natural propensity of the human8 heart towards devotion8, and, artfully withdrawing the adoration of mankind8 from their Creator, they usurped the place and honours of the Supreme Deity8. By the success of their malicious contrivances, they at once gratified their own vanity and revenge, and obtained the only comfort of which they were yet susceptible, the hope of involving the human8 species in the participation of their guilt and misery. It was confessed, or at least it was imagined, that they had distributed among themselves the most important characters of polytheism, one daemon assuming the name and attributes of Jupiter, another of Aesculapius, a third of Venus, and a fourth perhaps of Apollo; and that, by the advantage of their long experience and aërial nature8, they were enabled to execute, with sufficient skill and dignity, the parts which they had undertaken. They lurked in the temples8, instituted festivals and sacrifices, invented fables, pronounced oracles, and were frequently allowed to perform miracles. The Christians8, who, by the interposition of evil spirits, could so readily explain every praeternatural appearance, were disposed and even desirous to admit the most extravagant fictions of the Pagan8 mythology. But the belief of the Christian8 was accompanied with horror. The most trifling mark of respect to the national worship8 he considered as a direct homage yielded to the daemon, and as an act of rebellion against the majesty of God8.
In consequence of this opinion, it was the first but arduous duty of a Christian8 to preserve himself pure and undefiled by the practice8 of idolatry. The religion8 of the nations was not merely a speculative doctrine professed in the schools or preached in the temples8. The innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circumstance of business or pleasure, of public8 or of private8 life8; and it seemed impossible to escape the observance of them, without, at the same time8, renouncing the commerce of mankind8 and all the offices and amusements of society8. The important transactions of peace and war were prepared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier were obliged to preside or to participate. The public8 spectacles were an essential part of the cheerful devotion8 of the Pagans8, and the gods8 were supposed to accept, as the most grateful offering, the games that the prince and people celebrated in honour of their peculiar festivals. The Christian8, who with pious horror avoided the abomination of the circus or the theatre, found himself encompassed with infernal snares in every convivial entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable deities, poured out libations to each other's happiness8. When the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced in hymenaeal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation, or when the sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile; the Christian8, on these interesting occasions, was compelled to desert the persons who were the dearest to him, rather than contract the guilt inherent to those impious ceremonies. Every art and every trade that was in the least concerned in the framing or adorning of idols was polluted by the stain of idolatry; a severe sentence, since it devoted to eternal misery the far greater part of the community, which is employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic professions. If we cast our eyes over the numerous remains of antiquity, we shall perceive that, besides the immediate representations of the Gods8 and the holy instruments of their worship8, the elegant forms and agreeable fictions, consecrated by the imagination of the Greeks, were introduced as the richest ornaments of the houses, the dress, and the furniture, of the Pagans8. Even the arts of music and painting, of eloquence and poetry, flowed from the same impure origin. In the style of the fathers, Apollo and the Muses were the organs of the infernal spirit, Homer and Virgil were the most eminent of his servants, and the beautiful mythology which pervades and animates the compositions of their genius is destined to celebrate the glory of the daemons. Even the common language of Greece and Rome abounded with familiar but impious expressions, which the imprudent Christian8 might too carelessly utter, or too patiently hear.
The dangerous temptations which on every side lurked in ambush to surprise the unguarded believer assailed him with redoubled violence on the days of solemn festivals. So artfully were they framed and disposed throughout the year that superstition8 always wore the appearance of pleasure, and often of virtue8. Some of the most sacred8 festivals in the Roman ritual were destined to salute the new calends of January with vows of public8 and private8 felicity, to indulge the pious remembrance of the dead and living, to ascertain the inviolable bounds of property, to hail, on the return of spring, the genial powers of fecundity, to perpetuate the two memorable eras of Rome, the foundation of the city and that of the republic, and to restore, during the humane licence of the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of mankind8. Some idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the Christians8 for such impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous delicacy which they displayed on a much less alarming occasion. On days of general festivity, it was the custom of the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a garland of flowers. This innocent and elegant practice8 might, perhaps, have been tolerated as a mere civil institution. But it most unluckily happened that the doors were under the protection of the household gods8, that the laurel was sacred8 to the lover of Daphne, and that garlands of flowers, though frequently worn as a symbol either of joy or mourning, had been dedicated in their first origin to the service of superstition8. The trembling Christians8, who were persuaded in this instance to comply with the fashion of their country and the commands of the magistrate, laboured under the most gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches of their own conscience, the censures of the church8, and the denunciations of divine8 vengeance.
Such was the anxious diligence which was required to guard the chastity of the gospel from the infectious breath of idolatry. The superstitious observances of public8 or private8 rites were carelessly practised, from education and habit, by the followers of the established religion8. But, as often as they occurred, they afforded the Christians8 an opportunity of declaring and confirming their zealous opposition. By these frequent protestations, their attachment to the faith8 was continually fortified, and, in proportion to the increase of zeal8, they combated with the more ardour and success in the holy war which they had undertaken against the empire8 of the daemons.
II. The writings of Cicero represent, in the most lively colours, the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers, with regard to the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of death, they inculcate, as an obvious though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the calamities of life46, and that those can no longer suffer who no longer exist. Yet there were a few sages of Greece and Rome46 who had conceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of human46 nature46; though it must be confessed that, in the sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by their vanity. When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers when they exercised the various faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most profound speculations, or the most important46 labours, and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which transported them into future ages far beyond the bounds of death and of the grave; they were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the field, or to suppose that a being, for whose dignity46 they entertained the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth and to a few years46 of duration. With this favourable prepossession, they summoned to their aid the science, or rather the language, of Metaphysics. They soon discovered that, as none of the properties of matter will apply to the operations of the mind46, the human46 soul must consequently be a substance distinct from the body, pure, simple, and spiritual, incapable of dissolution, and susceptible of a much higher degree of virtue46 and happiness46 after the release from its corporeal prison. From these spacious and noble principles, the philosophers who trod in the footsteps of Plato46 deduced a very unjustifiable conclusion, since they asserted, not only the future immortality, but the past eternity of the human46 soul, which they were too apt to consider as a portion of the infinite and self-existing spirit which pervades and sustains the universe. A doctrine thus removed beyond the senses and the experience of mankind46 might serve to amuse the leisure of a philosophic46 mind46; or, in the silence of solitude, it might sometimes impart a ray of comfort to desponding virtue46; but the faint impression which had been received in the schools was soon obliterated by the commerce and business46 of active life46. We are sufficiently acquainted with the eminent persons who flourished in the age46 of Cicero, and of the first Caesars, with their actions, their characters, and their motives, to be assured that their conduct in this life46 was never regulated by any serious conviction of the rewards or punishments of a future state. At the bar and in the senate of Rome46 the ablest orators were not apprehensive of giving offence to their hearers by exposing that doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected with contempt by every man of a liberal education and understanding.
Since, therefore, the most sublime efforts of philosophy46 can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or at most the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence, and describe the condition, of the invisible country46 which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body. But we may perceive several defects inherent to the popular religions of Greece and Rome46, which rendered them very unequal to so arduous a task. 1. The general system of their mythology was unsupported by any solid proofs; and the wisest among the Pagans had already disclaimed its usurped authority. 2. The description of the infernal regions had been abandoned to the fancy of painters and of poets, who peopled them with so many phantoms and monsters, who dispensed their rewards and punishments with so little equity, that a solemn truth46, the most congenial to the human46 heart, was oppressed and disgraced by the absurd mixture of the wildest fictions. 3. The doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered among the devout polytheists of Greece and Rome46 as a fundamental article of faith. The providence of the gods, as it related to public46 communities rather than to private individuals, was principally displayed on the visible theatre of the present46 world46. The petitions which were offered on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo expressed the anxiety of their worshippers for temporal happiness46, and their ignorance or indifference concerning a future life46. The important46 truth46 of the immortality of the soul was inculcated with more diligence as well as success in India, in Assyria, in Egypt, and in Gaul; and, since we cannot attribute such a difference to the superior knowledge46 of the barbarians, we must ascribe it to the influence of an established priesthood, which employed46 the motives of virtue46 as the instrument of ambition.
We might naturally expect that a principle, so essential to religion7, would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the chosen people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been entrusted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incumbent on us to adore the mysterious dispensations of Providence, when we discover that the doctrine7 of the immortality of the soul is omitted in the law7 of Moses7; it is darkly insinuated by the prophets, and during the long period which elapsed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian servitudes, the hopes as well as fears of the Jews7 appear to have been confined within the narrow compass of the present life. After Cyrus had permitted the exiled nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra had restored the ancient records of their religion7, two celebrated sects7, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, insensibly arose at Jerusalem. The former, selected from the more opulent and distinguished ranks of society, were strictly attached to the literal sense of the Mosaic law7, and they piously rejected the immortality of the soul, as an opinion that received no countenance from the Divine7 book, which they revered as the only rule of their faith7. To the authority of scripture the Pharisees added that of tradition, and they accepted, under the name of traditions, several speculative tenets from the philosophy or religion7 of the Eastern nations. The doctrines of fate or predestination, of angels and spirits, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, were in the number of these new7 articles of belief7; and, as the Pharisees, by the austerity of their manners, had drawn into their party the body7 of the Jewish people, the immortality of the soul became the prevailing sentiment of the synagogue, under the reign of the Asmonaean princes and pontiffs. The temper of the Jews7 was incapable of contenting itself with such a cold and languid assent as might satisfy the mind of a Polytheist; and, as soon as they admitted the idea of a future state, they embraced it with the zeal7 which has always formed the characteristic of the nation. Their zeal7, however, added nothing to its evidence, or even probability: and it was still necessary that the doctrine7 of life and immortality, which had been dictated by nature7, approved by reason7, and received by superstition7, should obtain the sanction of Divine7 truth7 from the authority and example of Christ7.
When the promise of eternal happiness8 was proposed to mankind8, on condition of adopting the faith8 and of observing the precepts of the gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion8, of every rank, and of every province in the Roman empire8. The ancient8 Christians8 were animated by a contempt for their present existence, and by a just confidence of immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect faith8 of modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion. In the primitive church8, the influence of truth8 was very powerfully strengthened by an opinion which, however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has not been found agreeable to experience. It was universally believed that the end of the world8 and the kingdom of Heaven were at hand. The near approach of this wonderful event had been predicted by the apostles; the tradition of it was preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who understood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ himself were obliged to expect the second and glorious coming of the Son of Man8 in the clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished, which had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and which might still be witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophecy and revelation; but, as long as, for wise purposes, this error was permitted to subsist in the church8, it was productive of the most salutary effects on the faith8 and practice8 of Christians8, who lived in the lawful expectation of that moment when the globe itself, and all the various8 race of mankind8, should tremble at the appearance of their divine8 judge.
The ancient8 and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labour and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death8, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign8 upon earth till the time8 appointed for the last and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind8 of believers that the New Jerusalem, the seat of this blissful kingdom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest colours of the imagination. A felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess their human8 nature8 and senses. A garden of Eden, with the amusements of the pastoral life8, was no longer suited to the advanced state of society8 which prevailed under the Roman empire8. A city was therefore erected of gold and precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment of whose spontaneous productions the happy and benevolent people was never to be restrained by any jealous laws8 of exclusive property. The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine8. Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems so well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of mankind8 that it must have contributed, in a very considerable degree, to the progress of the Christian8 faith8. But, when the edifice of the church8 was almost completed, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ's reign8 upon earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism. A mysterious prophecy, which still forms a part of the sacred8 canon, but which was thought to favour the exploded sentiment, has very narrowly escaped the proscription of the church8.
Whilst the happiness46 and glory46 of a temporal reign46 were promised to the disciples of Christ, the most dreadful calamities were denounced against an unbelieving world46. The edification of the new Jerusalem was to advance by equal steps with the destruction of the mystic Babylon; and, as long as the emperors who reigned before Constantine persisted in the profession of idolatry, the epithet of Babylon was applied to the city and to the empire46 of Rome46. A regular series was prepared of all the moral and physical evils which can afflict a flourishing nation; intestine discord, and the invasion of the fiercest barbarians from the unknown regions of the North; pestilence and famine, comets and eclipses, earthquakes and inundations. All these were only so many preparatory and alarming signs of the great46 catastrophe of Rome46, when the country46 of the Scipios and Caesars should be consumed by a flame from Heaven, and the city of the seven hills, with her palaces, her temples, and her triumphal arches, should be buried in a vast lake of fire and brimstone. It might, however, afford some consolation to Roman46 vanity, that the period46 of their empire46 would be that of the world46 itself; which, as it had once perished by the element of water, was destined to experience a second and a speedy destruction from the element of fire. In the opinion of a general conflagration, the faith of the Christian very happily coincided with the tradition of the East, the philosophy46 of the Stoics, and the analogy of Nature46; and even the country46 which, from religious motives, had been chosen for the origin and principal scene of the conflagration, was the best adapted for that purpose by natural and physical causes; by its deep caverns, beds of sulphur, and numerous volcanoes, of which those of Aetna, of Vesuvius, and of Lipari exhibit a very imperfect representation. The calmest and most intrepid sceptic could not refuse to acknowledge that the destruction of the present46 system of the world46 by fire was in itself extremely probable. The Christian, who founded his belief much less on the fallacious arguments of reason than on the authority of tradition and the interpretation of scripture, expected it with terror and confidence, as a certain and approaching event; and, as his mind46 was perpetually filled with the solemn idea, he considered every disaster that happened to the empire46 as an infallible symptom of an expiring world46.
The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the Pagans8, on account of their ignorance or disbelief of the divine8 truth8, seems to offend the reason8 and the humanity of the present age8. But the primitive church8, whose faith8 was of a much firmer consistence, delivered over, without hesitation, to eternal torture the far greater part of the human8 species. A charitable hope might perhaps be indulged in favour of Socrates, or some other sages of antiquity, who had consulted the light of reason8 before that of the gospel had arisen. But it was unanimously affirmed that those who, since the birth or the death8 of Christ, had obstinately persisted in the worship8 of the daemons, neither deserved, nor could expect, a pardon from the irritated justice of the Deity8. These rigid sentiments, which had been unknown to the ancient8 world8, appear to have infused a spirit of bitterness into a system of love and harmony. The ties of blood and friendship were frequently torn asunder by the difference of religious8 faith8; and the Christians8, who, in this world8, found themselves oppressed by the power of the Pagans8, were sometimes seduced by resentment and spiritual pride to delight in the prospect of their future triumph. You are fond of spectacles, exclaims the stern Tertullian; expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal judgment of the universe. How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs, and fancied gods8, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the Christians8; so many sage philosophers blushing in red-hot flames, with their deluded scholars; so many celebrated poets trembling before the tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedians, more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; so many dancers —! But the humanity of the reader will permit me to draw a veil over the rest of this infernal description, which the zealous African pursues in a long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms.
Doubtless there were many among the primitive Christians1 of a temper more suitable to the meekness and charity of their profession. There were many who felt a sincere compassion for the danger of their friends and countrymen, and who exerted the most benevolent zeal to save them from the impending destruction. The careless Polytheist, assailed by new1 and unexpected terrors, against which neither his priests nor his philosophers could afford him any certain protection, was very frequently terrified and subdued by the menace of eternal tortures. His fears might assist the progress of his faith and reason; and, if he could once persuade himself to suspect that the Christian1 religion1 might possibly be true, it became an easy task to convince him that it was the safest and most prudent party that he could possibly embrace.
III. The supernatural gifts, which even in this life8 were ascribed to the Christians8 above the rest of mankind8, must have conduced to their own comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. Besides the occasional prodigies, which might sometimes be effected by the immediate interposition of the Deity8 when he suspended the laws8 of Nature8 for the service of religion8, the Christian8 church8, from the time8 of the apostles and their first disciples, has claimed an uninterrupted succession of miraculous powers, the gift of tongues, of vision and of prophecy, the power of expelling daemons, of healing the sick, and of raising the dead. The knowledge of foreign languages was frequently communicated to the contemporaries of Irenaeus, though Irenaeus himself was left to struggle with the difficulties of a barbarous dialect whilst he preached the gospel to the natives of Gaul. The divine8 inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a waking or of a sleeping vision, is described as a favour very liberally bestowed on all ranks of the faithful, on women as on elders, on boys as well as upon bishops. When their devout minds were sufficiently prepared by a course of prayer, of fasting, and of vigils to receive the extraordinary impulse, they were transported out of their senses, and delivered in ecstasy what was inspired, being mere organs of the Holy Spirit, just as a pipe or flute is of him who blows into it. We may add that the design of these visions was, for the most part, either to disclose the future history, or to guide the present administration, of the church8. The expulsion of the daemons from the bodies of those unhappy persons whom they had been permitted to torment was considered as a signal, though ordinary, triumph of religion8, and is repeatedly alleged by the ancient8 apologists as the most convincing evidence of the truth8 of Christianity8. The awful ceremony was usually performed in a public8 manner, and in the presence of a great number of spectators; the patient was relieved by the power or skill of the exorcist, and the vanquished daemon was heard to confess that he was one of the fabled gods8 of antiquity, who had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind8. But the miraculous cure of diseases, of the most inveterate or even praeternatural kind, can no longer occasion any surprise, when we recollect that in the days of Irenaeus, about the end of the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an uncommon event; that the miracle was frequently performed on necessary occasions, by great fasting and the joint supplication of the church8 of the place, and that the persons thus restored to their prayers had lived afterwards among them many years. At such a period, when faith8 could boast of so many wonderful victories over death8, it seems difficult to account for the scepticism of those philosophers who still rejected and derided the doctrine of the resurrection. A noble Grecian had rested on this important ground the whole controversy, and promised Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, that, if he could be gratified with the sight of a single person who had been actually raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace the Christian8 religion8. It is somewhat remarkable that the prelate of the first Eastern church8, however anxious for the conversion of his friend, thought proper to decline this fair and reasonable challenge.
The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining the sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a very free and ingenious inquiry; which, though it has met with the most favourable reception from the Public28, appears to have excited a general28 scandal among the divines of our own as well as of the other Protestant churches of Europe. Our different28 sentiments on this subject will be much less influenced by any particular arguments than by our habits of study and reflection; and, above all, by the degree of the evidence which we have accustomed ourselves to require for the proof of a miraculous event. The duty of an historian28 does not call upon him to interpose his private judgment in this nice and important28 controversy; but he ought not to dissemble the difficulty of adopting such a theory as may reconcile the interest of religion28 with that of reason, of making a proper application of that theory, and of defining with precision the limits of that happy period, exempt from error and from deceit, to which we might be disposed to extend the gift of supernatural powers. From the first of the fathers to the last of the popes, a succession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of miracles is continued without interruption, and the progress28 of superstition was so gradual and almost imperceptible that we know not in what particular link we should break the chain of tradition. Every age28 bears testimony to the wonderful events by which it was distinguished, and its testimony appears no less weighty and respectable than that of the preceding generation, till we are insensibly led on to accuse our own inconsistency, sistency, if in the eighth or in the twelfth century we deny to the venerable Bede, or to the holy Bernard, the same degree of confidence which, in the second century, we had so liberally granted to Justin or to Irenaeus. If the truth of any of those miracles is appreciated by their apparent use and propriety, every age28 had unbelievers to convince, heretics to confute, and idolatrous nations to convert; and sufficient28 motives might always be produced to justify the interposition of Heaven. And yet, since every friend to revelation is persuaded of the reality, and every reasonable man is convinced of the cessation, of miraculous powers, it is evident that there must have been some period in which they were either suddenly or gradually withdrawn from the Christian church. Whatever era is chosen for that purpose, the death of the apostles, the conversion of the Roman28 empire28, or the extinction of the Arian heresy, the insensibility of the Christians who lived at that time28 will equally afford a just matter of surprise. They still supported their pretensions after they had lost their power. Credulity performed the office of faith; fanaticism was permitted to assume the language of inspiration, and the effects of accident or contrivance were ascribed to supernatural causes. The recent experience of genuine miracles should have instructed the Christian world in the ways of Providence and habituated their eye (if we may use a very inadequate expression) to the style of the divine artist. Should the most skilful painter of modern Italy presume to decorate his feeble imitations with the name of Raphael or of Correggio, the insolent fraud would be soon28 discovered and indignantly rejected.
Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles of the primitive church8 since the time8 of the apostles, this unresisting softness of temper, so conspicuous among the believers of the second and third centuries, proved of some accidental benefit to the cause of truth8 and religion8. In modern times, a latent, and even involuntary, scepticism adheres to the most pious dispositions. Their admission of supernatural truths is much less an active consent than a cold and passive acquiescence. Accustomed long since to observe and to respect the invariable order of Nature8, our reason8, or at least our imagination, is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity8. But, in the first ages of Christianity8, the situation of mankind8 was extremely different. The most curious, or the most credulous, among the Pagans8 were often persuaded to enter into a society8 which asserted an actual claim of miraculous powers. The primitive Christians8 perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that on every side they were incessantly assaulted by daemons, comforted by visions, instructed by prophecy, and surprisingly delivered from danger, sickness, and from death8 itself, by the supplications of the church8. The real or imaginary prodigies, of which they so frequently conceived themselves to be the objects, the instruments, or the spectators, very happily disposed them to adopt, with the same ease, but with far greater justice, the authentic wonders of the evangelic history; and thus miracles that exceeded not the measure of their own experience inspired them with the most lively assurance of mysteries which were acknowledged to surpass the limits of their understanding. It is this deep impression of supernatural truths which has been so much celebrated under the name of faith8; a state of mind8 described as the surest pledge of the divine8 favour and of future felicity, and recommended as the first or perhaps the only merit of a Christian8. According to the more rigid doctors, the moral virtues, which may be equally practised by infidels, are destitute of any value or efficacy in the work of our justification.
IV. But the primitive Christian8 demonstrated his faith8 by his virtues; and it was very justly supposed that the divine8 persuasion, which enlightened or subdued the understanding, must, at the same time8, purify the heart, and direct the actions, of the believer. The first apologists of Christianity8 who justify the innocence of their brethren, and the writers of a later period who celebrate the sanctity of their ancestors, display, in the most lively colours, the reformation of manners which was introduced into the world8 by the preaching of the gospel. As it is my intention to remark only such human8 causes as were permitted to second the influence of revelation, I shall slightly mention two motives which might naturally render the lives of the primitive Christians8 much purer and more austere than those of their Pagan8 contemporaries, or their degenerate successors: repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting the reputation of the society8 in which they were engaged.
It is a very ancient28 reproach, suggested by the ignorance or the malice of infidelity, that the Christians allured into their party the most atrocious criminals, who, as soon28 as they were touched by a sense of remorse, were easily persuaded to wash away, in the water of baptism, the guilt of their past conduct, for which the temples of the gods refused to grant them any expiation. But this reproach, when it is cleared from misrepresentation, contributes as much to the honour as it did to the increase of the church. The friends of Christianity may acknowledge without a blush that many of the most eminent saints had been before their baptism the most abandoned28 sinners. Those persons who in the world had followed, though in an imperfect manner, the dictates of benevolence and propriety, derived such a calm satisfaction from the opinion of their own rectitude, as rendered them much less susceptible of the sudden emotions of shame, of grief, and of terror, which have given birth to so many wonderful conversions. After the example of their Divine Master, the missionaries of the gospel disdained not the society of men28, and especially of women, oppressed by the consciousness, and very often by the effects, of their vices. As they emerged from sin and superstition to the glorious hope of immortality, they resolved to devote themselves to a life, not only of virtue, but of penitence. The desire of perfection became the ruling passion of their soul; and it is well known that, while reason embraces a cold mediocrity, our passions hurry us, with rapid28 violence, over the space which lies between the most opposite extremes.
When the new converts had been enrolled in the number of the faithful44 and were admitted to the sacraments of the church, they found themselves restrained from relapsing into their past disorders by another consideration of a less spiritual, but of a very innocent and respectable nature. Any particular society44 that has departed from the great44 body of the nation or the religion44 to which it belonged immediately becomes the object of universal as well as invidious observation. In proportion to the smallness of its numbers, the character of the society44 may be affected by the virtue and vices of the persons who compose it; and every member is engaged to watch with the most vigilant attention over his own behaviour and over that of his brethren, since, as he must expect to incur a part of the common44 disgrace, he may hope to enjoy a share of the common44 reputation. When the Christians of Bithynia were brought before the tribunal of the younger Pliny, they assured the proconsul that, far from being engaged in any unlawful conspiracy, they were bound by a solemn obligation to abstain from the commission of those crimes which disturb the private44 or public44 peace44 of society44, from theft, robbery, adultery, perjury, and fraud. Near a century afterwards, Tertullian, with an honest pride, could boast that very few Christians had suffered by the hand44 of the executioner, except on account of their religion44. Their serious and sequestered life44, averse to the gay luxury of the age44, insured them to chastity, temperance, economy, and all the sober and domestic virtues. As the greater number were of some trade or profession, it was incumbent on them, by the strictest integrity and the fairest dealing, to remove the suspicions which the profane are too apt to conceive against the appearances of sanctity. The contempt of the world exercised them in the habits of humility, meekness, and patience. The more they were persecuted, the more closely they adhered to each other. Their mutual charity and unsuspecting confidence has been remarked by infidels, and was too often abused by perfidious friends.
It is a very honourable circumstance for the morals of the primitive Christians8, that even their faults, or rather errors, were derived from an excess of virtue8. The bishops and doctors of the church8, whose evidence attests, and whose authority might influence, the professions, the principles, and even the practice8, of their contemporaries, had studied the scriptures with less skill than devotion8, and they often received, in the most literal sense, those rigid precepts of Christ and the apostles to which the prudence of succeeding commentators has applied a looser and more figurative mode of interpretation. Ambitious to exalt the perfection of the gospel above the wisdom of philosophy, the zealous fathers have carried the duties of self-mortification, of purity, and of patience to a height which it is scarcely possible to attain, and much less to preserve, in our present state of weakness and corruption. A doctrine so extraordinary and so sublime must inevitably command the veneration of the people; but it was ill calculated to obtain the suffrage of those worldly philosophers who, in the conduct of this transitory life8, consult only the feelings of nature8 and the interest of society8.
There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love46 of pleasure46 and the love46 of action. If the former be refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness46 of private life46. The love46 of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature46. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but, when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue46; and, if those virtues46 are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire46 may be indebted for their safety and prosperity46 to the undaunted courage of a single man. To the love46 of pleasure46 we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love46 of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable qualifications. The character46 in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human46 nature46. The insensible and inactive disposition, which should be supposed alike destitute of both, would be rejected, by the common consent of mankind46, as utterly incapable of procuring any happiness46 to the individual, or any public46 benefit to the world46. But it was not in this world46 that the primitive Christians were desirous of making themselves either agreeable or useful.
The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of our reason8 or fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded conversation, may employ the leisure of a liberal mind8. Such amusements, however, were rejected with abhorrence, or admitted with the utmost caution, by the severity of the fathers, who despised all knowledge that was not useful to salvation, and who considered all levity of discourse as a criminal abuse of the gift of speech. In our present state of existence, the body is so inseparably connected with the soul that it seems to be our interest to taste, with innocence and moderation, the enjoyments of which that faithful companion is susceptible. Very different was the reasoning of our devout predecessors; vainly aspiring to imitate the perfection of angels, they disdained, or they affected to disdain, every earthly and corporeal delight. Some of our senses indeed are necessary for our preservation, others for our subsistence, and others again for our information, and thus far it was impossible to reject the use8 of them. The first sensation of pleasure was marked as the first moment of their abuse. The unfeeling candidate for Heaven was instructed, not only to resist the grosser allurements of the taste or smell, but even to shut his ears against the profane harmony of sounds, and to view with indifference the most finished productions of human8 art. Gay apparel, magnificent houses, and elegant furniture were supposed to unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality: a simple and mortified appearance was more suitable to the Christian8 who was certain of his sins and doubtful of his salvation. In their censures of luxury, the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial; and among the various8 articles which excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of any colour except white, instruments of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows (as Jacob reposed his head on a stone), white bread, foreign wines, public8 salutations, the use8 of warm baths, and the practice8 of shaving the beard, which, according to the expression of Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and an impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator. When Christianity8 was introduced among the rich and the polite, the observation of these singular laws8 was left, as it would be at present, to the few who were ambitious of superior sanctity. But it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the inferior ranks of mankind8 to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and pleasure, which fortune has placed beyond their reach. The virtue8 of the primitive Christians8, like that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance.
The chaste severity of the fathers, in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes, flowed from the same principle: their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual, and degrade the spiritual, nature23 of man. It was their favourite opinion that, if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings. The use23 of marriage was permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to continue the human species, and as a restraint, however imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire. The hesitation of the orthodox casuists on this interesting subject betrays the perplexity of men, unwilling to approve an institution which they were compelled to tolerate. The enumeration of the very whimsical laws23, which they most circumstantially imposed on the marriage-bed, would force a smile from the young, and a blush from the fair. It was their unanimous sentiment that a first marriage was adequate to all the purposes of nature23 and of society. The sensual connection was refined into a resemblance of the mystic union of Christ with his church, and was pronounced to be indissoluble either by divorce or by death23. The practice of second nuptials was branded with the name of a legal adultery; and the persons23 who were guilty of so scandalous an offence against Christian purity were soon23 excluded from the honours, and even from the alms, of the church. Since desire was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated as a defect, it was consistent with the same principles to consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach to the divine perfection. It was with the utmost difficulty that ancient Rome23 could support the institution of six vestals; but the primitive church was filled with a great number of persons23 of either sex who had devoted themselves to the profession of perpetual chastity. A few of these, among whom we may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the most prudent to disarm the tempter. Some were insensible and some were invincible against the assaults of the flesh. Disdaining an ignominious flight, the virgins of the warm climate of Africa encountered the enemy in the closest engagement; they permitted priests and deacons to share their bed, and gloried amidst the flames in their unsullied purity. But insulted Nature23 sometimes vindicated her rights, and this new23 species of martyrdom served only to introduce a new23 scandal into the church. Among the Christian ascetics, however (a name which they soon23 acquired from their painful exercise), many, as they were less presumptuous, were probably more successful. The loss of sensual pleasure was supplied and compensated by spiritual pride. Even the multitude of Pagans were inclined to estimate the merit of the sacrifice by its apparent difficulty; and it was in the praise of these chaste spouses of Christ that the fathers have poured forth the troubled stream of their eloquence. Such are the early traces of monastic principles and institutions which, in a subsequent age23, have counterbalanced all the temporal advantages of Christianity.
The Christians were not less averse to the business than to the pleasures of this world6. The defence of our persons and property they knew not how to reconcile with the patient doctrine which enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of past injuries and commanded them to invite the repetition of fresh insults. Their simplicity was offended by the use6 of oaths, by the pomp of magistracy, and by the active contention of public6 life6, nor could their humane ignorance be convinced that it was lawful on any occasion to shed the blood of our fellow-creatures, either by the sword of justice or by that of war6; even though their criminal or hostile attempts should threaten the peace6 and safety of the whole community. It was acknowledged that, under a less perfect law6, the powers of the Jewish constitution had been exercised, with the approbation of Heaven, by inspired prophets and by anointed kings6. The Christians felt and confessed that such institutions might be necessary for the present system of the world6, and they cheerfully submitted to the authority of their Pagan governors. But, while they inculcated the maxims of passive obedience, they refused to take any active part in the civil6 administration or the military6 defence of the empire6. Some indulgence might perhaps be allowed to those persons who, before their conversion, were already engaged in such violent and sanguinary occupations; but it was impossible that the Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes6. This indolent, or even criminal, disregard to the public6 welfare exposed them to the contempt and reproaches of the Pagans, who very frequently asked, What must be the fate of the empire6, attacked on every side by the barbarians6, if all mankind should adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of the new sect? To this insulting question the Christian apologists returned obscure and ambiguous answers, as they were unwilling to reveal the secret cause of their security; the expectation that, before the conversion of mankind was accomplished, war6, government6, the Roman6 empire6, and the world6 itself would be no more. It may be observed that, in this instance likewise, the situation of the first Christians coincided very happily with their religious scruples, and that their aversion to an active life6 contributed rather to excuse them from the service, than to exclude them from the honours, of the state6 and army.
V. But the human46 character46, however it may be exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return, by degrees, to its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions that seem the most adapted to its present46 condition. The primitive Christians were dead to the business46 and pleasures of the world46; but their love46 of action, which could never be entirely extinguished, soon revived, and found a new occupation in the government of the church. A separate society46, which attacked the established religion of the empire46, was obliged to adopt some form of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of ministers, entrusted not only with the spiritual functions, but even with the temporal direction, of the Christian commonwealth. The safety of that society46, its honour, its aggrandisement, were productive, even in the most pious minds, of a spirit of patriotism, such as the first of the Romans had felt for the republic, and sometimes, of a similar indifference in the use of whatever means might probably conduce to so desirable an end. The ambition of raising themselves or their friends to the honours and offices of the church was disguised by the laudable intention of devoting to the public46 benefit the power and consideration which, for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit. In the exercise of their functions, they were frequently called upon to detect the errors of heresy, or the arts46 of faction, to oppose the designs of perfidious brethren, to stigmatise their characters with deserved infamy, and to expel them from the bosom of a society46 whose peace and happiness46 they had attempted to disturb. The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; but, as the former was refined, so the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. In the church as well as in the world46 the persons who were placed in any public46 station rendered themselves considerable by their eloquence46 and firmness, by their knowledge46 of mankind46, and by their dexterity in business46; and, while they concealed from others, and, perhaps, from themselves, the secret motives of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent passions of active life46, which were tinctured with an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual zeal.
The government1 of the church1 has often been the subject, as well as the prize, of religious contention. The hostile disputants of Rome1, of Paris, of Oxford, and of Geneva have alike struggled to reduce the primitive and apostolic model to the respective standards of their own policy1. The few who have pursued this inquiry with more candour and impartiality are of opinion that the apostles declined the office1 of legislation, and rather chose to endure some partial scandals and divisions than to exclude the Christians1 of a future age from the liberty of varying their forms of ecclesiastical1 government1 according to the changes of times and circumstances. The scheme of policy1 which, under their approbation, was adopted for the use of the first century may be discovered from the practice of Jerusalem, of Ephesus, or of Corinth. The societies which were instituted in the cities of the Roman1 empire1 were united only by the ties of faith and charity. Independence and equality formed the basis of their internal constitution. The want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional assistance of the prophets, who were called to that function, without distinction of age, of sex, or of natural abilities, and who, as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the assembly of the faithful. But these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an improper season, presumptuously disturbed the service of the assembly, and by their pride or mistaken zeal they introduced, particularly into the apostolic church1 of Corinth, a long1 and melancholy train of disorders. As the institution of prophets became useless, and even pernicious, their powers were withdrawn and their office1 abolished. The public1 functions of religion1 were solely entrusted to the established ministers of the church1, the bishops1 and the presbyters; two appellations which, in their first origin, appear to have distinguished the same office1 and the same order1 of persons. The name of Presbyter was expressive of their age, or rather of their gravity and wisdom. The title1 of Bishop1 denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of the Christians1 who were committed to their pastoral care. In proportion to the respective numbers of the faithful, a larger or smaller number of these episcopal presbyters guided each infant congregation with equal authority1 and with united councils.
But the most perfect equality of freedom1 requires the directing hand of a superior magistrate1; and the order1 of public1 deliberations soon introduces the office1 of a president, invested at least with the authority1 of collecting the sentiments, and of executing the resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the public1 tranquillity, which would so frequently have been interrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the primitive Christians1 to constitute an honourable and perpetual magistracy, and to choose one of the wisest and most holy among their presbyters to execute, during his life, the duties of their ecclesiastical1 governor. It was under these circumstances that the lofty title1 of Bishop1 began to raise itself above the humble appellation of presbyter; and, while the latter remained the most natural distinction for the members of every Christian1 senate1, the former was appropriated to the dignity of its new1 president. The advantages of this episcopal form of government1, which appears to have been introduced before the end of the first century, were so obvious, and so important for the future greatness, as well as the present peace1, of Christianity, that it was adopted without delay by all the societies which were already scattered over the empire1, had acquired in a very early period the sanction of antiquity, and is still revered by the most powerful churches, both of the East and of the West, as a primitive and even as a divine establishment. It is needless to observe that the pious and humble presbyters who were first dignified with the episcopal title1 could not possess, and would probably have rejected, the power1 and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman1 pontiff, or the mitre of a German prelate. But we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their original jurisdiction1, which was chiefly of a spiritual, though in some instances of a temporal, nature. It consisted in the administration of the sacraments and discipline of the church1, the superintendency of religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly increased in number and variety, the consecration of ecclesiastical1 ministers, to whom the bishop1 assigned their respective functions, the management of the public1 fund, and the determination of all such differences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous judge. These powers, during a short period, were exercised according to the advice of the presbyteral college, and with the consent and approbation of the assembly of Christians1. The primitive bishops1 were considered only as the first of their equals, and the honourable servants of a free people1. Whenever the episcopal chair became vacant by death, a new1 president was chosen among the presbyters by the suffrage of the whole congregation, every member of which supposed himself invested with a sacred1 and sacerdotal character.
Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the Christians1 were governed more than a hundred years1 after the death of the apostles. Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic1: and, although the most distant of these little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly intercourse of letters and deputations, the Christian1 world was not yet connected by any supreme authority1 or legislative assembly. As the numbers of the faithful were gradually multiplied, they discovered the advantages that might result from a closer union of their interest and designs. Towards the end of the second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial synods, and they may justly be supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council from the celebrated examples of their own country, the Amphictyons, the Achaean league, or the assemblies of the Ionian cities. It was soon established as a custom and as a law that the bishops1 of the independent churches should meet in the capital of the province at the stated periods of spring and autumn. Their deliberations were assisted by the advice of a few distinguished presbyters, and moderated by the presence of a listening multitude. Their decrees, which were styled Canons, regulated every important controversy of faith and discipline; and it was natural to believe that a liberal effusion of the Holy Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the delegates of the Christian1 people1. The institution of synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public1 interest that in the space of a few years1 it was received throughout the whole empire1. A regular correspondence was established between the provincial councils, which mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings; and the Catholic church1 soon assumed1 the form, and acquired the strength, of a great federative republic1.
As the legislative authority1 of the particular churches was insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the bishops1 obtained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and arbitrary power1; and, as soon as they were connected by a sense of their common interest, they were enabled to attack, with united vigour, the original rights of their clergy1 and people1. The prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into that of command, scattered the seeds of future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allegories and declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force and of reason. They exalted the unity and power1 of the church1, as it was represented in the episcopal office1, of which every bishop1 enjoyed an equal and undivided portion. Princes1 and magistrates1, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly claim to a transitory dominion; it was the episcopal authority1 alone which was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over this and over another world. The bishop1 were the vicegerents of Christ, the successors1 of the apostles, and the mystic substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclusive privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character invaded the freedom1 both of clerical and of popular elections; and if, in the administration of the church1, they still consulted the judgment of the presbyters or the inclination of the people1, they most carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension. The bishops1 acknowledged the supreme authority1 which resided in the assembly of their brethren; but, in the government1 of his peculiar diocese, each of them exacted from his flock the same implicit obedience as if that favourite metaphor had been literally just, and as if the shepherd had been of a more exalted nature than that of his sheep. This obedience, however, was not imposed without some efforts on one side, and some resistance on the other. The democratical part of the constitution was, in many places, very warmly supported by the zealous or interested opposition of the inferior clergy1. But their patriotism received the ignominious epithets of faction and schism; and the episcopal cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the labours of many active prelates, who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could reconcile the arts of the most ambitious statesman with the Christian1 virtues which seem adapted to the character of a saint and martyr.
The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of the presbyters introduced among the bishops1 a pre-eminence of rank, and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction1. As often as in the spring and autumn they met in provincial synod, the difference of personal merit and reputation was very sensibly felt among the members of the assembly, and the multitude was governed by the wisdom and eloquence of the few. But the order1 of public1 proceedings required a more regular and less invidious distinction; the office1 of perpetual presidents in the councils of each province was conferred on the bishops1 of the principal city1, and these aspiring prelates, who soon acquired the lofty titles of Metropolitans and Primates, secretly prepared themselves to usurp over their episcopal brethren the same authority1 which the bishops1 had so lately assumed1 above the college of presbyters. Nor was it long1 before an emulation of pre-eminence and power1 prevailed among the metropolitans themselves, each of them affecting to display, in the most pompous terms, the temporal honours1 and advantages of the city1 over which he presided; the numbers and opulence of the Christians1 who were subject to their pastoral care; the saints and martyrs who had arisen among them, and the purity with which they preserved the tradition of the faith, as it had been transmitted through a series of orthodox bishops1 from the apostle or the apostolic disciple, to whom the foundation of their church1 was ascribed. From every cause, either of a civil1 or of an ecclesiastical1 nature, it was easy to foresee that Rome1 must enjoy the respect, and would soon claim the obedience, of the provinces1. The society of the faithful bore a just proportion to the capital of the empire1; and the Roman1 church1 was the greatest, the most numerous, and, in regard to the West, the most ancient1 of all the Christian1 establishments, many of which had received their religion1 from the pious labours of her missionaries. Instead of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, of Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tiber were supposed to have been honoured with the preaching and martyrdom of the two most eminent among the apostles; and the bishops1 of Rome1 very prudently claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were attributed either to the person or to the office1 of St. Peter. The bishops1 of Italy1 and of the provinces1 were disposed to allow them a primacy of order1 and association (such was their very accurate expression) in the Christian1 aristocracy. But the power1 of a monarch was rejected with abhorrence, and the aspiring genius of Rome1 experienced, from the nations of Asia and Africa, a more vigorous resistance to her spiritual, than she had formerly done to her temporal, dominion. The patriotic Cyprian, who ruled with the most absolute sway the church1 of Carthage and the provincial synods, opposed with resolution and success the ambition of the Roman1 pontiff, artfully connected his own cause with that of the eastern bishops1, and, like Hannibal, sought out new1 allies in the heart of Asia. If this Punic war was carried on without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates. Invectives and excommunications were their only weapons; and these, during the progress of the whole controversy, they hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion. The hard necessity of censuring either a pope, or a saint and martyr, distresses the modern Catholics, whenever they are obliged to relate the particulars of a dispute in which the champions of religion1 indulged such passions as seem much more adapted to the senate1 or to the camp.
The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth37 to the memorable distinction37 of the laity and of the clergy, which had been unknown to the Greeks and Romans37. The former of these appellations comprehended the body of the Christian people37; the latter, according37 to the signification of the word, was appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart for the service of religion; a celebrated order of men37 which has furnished the most important, though not always the most edifying, subjects for modern history. Their mutual hostilities sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church, but their zeal and activity were united in the common37 cause, and the love of power, which (under the most artful disguises) could insinuate itself into the breasts of bishops and martyrs, animated them to increase the number of their subjects, and to enlarge the limits of the Christian empire37. They were destitute of any temporal force, and they were for a long37 time discouraged and oppressed, rather than assisted, by the civil magistrate; but they had acquired, and they employed within their own society, the two most efficacious instruments of government, rewards and punishments; the former derived from the pious liberality, the latter from the devout apprehensions, of the faithful.
I. The community of goods, which had so agreeably amused the imagination of Plato, and which subsisted in some degree among the austere sect of the Essenians, was adopted for a short time8 in the primitive church8. The fervour of the first proselytes prompted them to sell those worldly possessions which they despised, to lay the price of them at the feet of the apostles, and to content themselves with receiving an equal share out of the general distribution. The progress of the Christian8 religion8 relaxed, and gradually abolished, this generous institution, which, in hands less pure than those of the apostles, would too soon have been corrupted and abused by the returning selfishness of human8 nature8; and the converts who embraced the new religion8 were permitted to retain the possession of their patrimony, to receive legacies and inheritances, and to increase their separate property by all the lawful means of trade and industry. Instead of an absolute sacrifice, a moderate proportion was accepted by the ministers of the gospel; and in their weekly or monthly assemblies, every believer, according to the exigency of the occasion, and the measure of his wealth and piety, presented his voluntary offering for the use8 of the common fund. Nothing, however inconsiderable, was refused; but it was diligently inculcated that, in the article of Tythes, the Mosaic law was still of divine8 obligation; and that, since the Jews, under a less perfect discipline, had been commanded to pay a tenth part of all that they possessed, it would become the disciples of Christ to distinguish themselves by a superior degree of liberality, and to acquire some merit by resigning a superfluous treasure, which must so soon be annihilated with the world8 itself. It is almost unnecessary to observe that the revenue of each particular church8, which was of so uncertain and fluctuating a nature8, must have varied with the poverty or the opulence of the faithful, as they were dispersed in obscure villages, or collected in the great cities of the empire8. In the time8 of the emperor Decius, it was the opinion of the magistrates that the Christians8 of Rome were possessed of very considerable wealth; that vessels of gold and silver were used in their religious8 worship8; and that many among their proselytes had sold their lands and houses to increase the public8 riches of the sect, at the expense, indeed, of their unfortunate children, who found themselves beggars, because their parents had been saints. We should listen with distrust to the suspicions of strangers and enemies: on this occasion, however, they receive a very specious and probable colour from the two following circumstances, the only ones that have reached our knowledge, which define any precise sums, or convey any distinct idea. Almost at the same period, the bishop of Carthage, from a society8 less opulent than that of Rome, collected a hundred thousand sesterces (above eight hundred and fifty pounds sterling), on a sudden call of charity, to redeem the brethren of Numidia, who had been carried away captives by the barbarians of the desert. About an hundred years before the reign8 of Decius, the Roman church8 had received, in a single donation, the sum of two hundred thousand sesterces from a stranger of Pontus, who proposed to fix his residence in the capital. These oblations, for the most part, were made in money; nor was the society8 of Christians8 either desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable degree, the incumbrance of landed property. It had been provided by several laws8, which were enacted with the same design as our statutes of mortmain, that no real estates should be given or bequeathed to any corporate body, without either a special privilege or a particular dispensation from the emperor or from the senate; who were seldom disposed to grant them in favour of a sect, at first the object of their contempt, and at last of their fears and jealousy. A transaction, however, is related under the reign8 of Alexander Severus, which discovers that the restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, and that the Christians8 were permitted to claim and to possess lands within the limits of Rome itself. The progress of Christianity8 and the civil confusion of the empire8 contributed to relax the severity of the laws8; and, before the close of the third century, many considerable estates were bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, and the other great cities of Italy and the provinces.
The bishop was the natural steward of the church8; the public8 stock was entrusted to his care, without account or control; the presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions, and the more dependent order of deacons was solely employed in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue. If we may give credit to the vehement declamations of Cyprian, there were too many among his African brethren who, in the execution of their charge, violated every precept, not only of evangelic perfection, but even of moral virtue8. By some of these unfaithful stewards, the riches of the church8 were lavished in sensual pleasures, by others they were perverted to the purposes of private8 gain, of fraudulent purchases, and of rapacious usury. But, as long as the contributions of the Christian8 people were free and unconstrained, the abuse of their confidence could not be very frequent, and the general uses to which their liberality was applied reflected honour on the religious8 society8. A decent portion was reserved for the maintenance of the bishop and his clergy; a sufficient sum was allotted for the expenses of the public8 worship8, of which the feasts of love, the agapae, as they were called, constituted a very pleasing part. The whole remainder was the sacred8 patrimony of the poor. According to the discretion of the bishop, it was distributed to support widows and orphans, the lame, the sick, and the aged of the community; to comfort strangers and pilgrims, and to alleviate the misfortunes of prisoners and captives, more especially when their sufferings had been occasioned by their firm attachment to the cause of religion8. A generous intercourse of charity united the most distant provinces, and the smaller congregations were cheerfully assisted by the alms of their more opulent brethren. Such an institution, which paid less regard to the merit than to the distress of the object, very materially conduced to the progress of Christianity8. The Pagans8, who were actuated by a sense of humanity, while they derided the doctrines, acknowledged the benevolence, of the new sect. The prospect of immediate relief and of future protection allured into its hospitable bosom many of those unhappy persons whom the neglect of the world8 would have abandoned to the miseries of want, of sickness, and of old age8. There is some reason8 likewise to believe that great numbers of infants who, according to the inhuman practice8 of the times, had been exposed by their parents were frequently rescued from death8, baptized, educated, and maintained by the piety of the Christians8, and at the expense of the public8 treasure.
II. It is the undoubted right of every society8 to exclude from its communion and benefits such among its members as reject or violate those regulations which have been established by general consent. In the exercise of this power, the censures of the Christian8 church8 were chiefly directed against scandalous sinners, and particularly those who were guilty of murder, of fraud, or of incontinence; against the authors, or the followers, of any heretical opinions which had been condemned by the judgment of the episcopal order; and against those unhappy persons who, whether from choice or from compulsion, had polluted themselves after their baptism by any act of idolatrous worship8. The consequences of excommunication were of a temporal as well as a spiritual nature8. The Christian8 against whom it was pronounced was deprived of any part in the oblations of the faithful. The ties both of religious8 and of private8 friendship were dissolved; he found himself a profane object of abhorrence to the persons whom he the most esteemed, or by whom he had been the most tenderly beloved; and, as far as an expulsion from a respectable society8 could imprint on his character8 a mark of disgrace, he was shunned or suspected by the generality of mankind8. The situation of these unfortunate exiles was in itself very painful and melancholy; but, as it usually happens, their apprehensions far exceeded their sufferings. The benefits of the Christian8 communion were those of eternal life8, nor could they erase from their minds the awful opinion, that to those ecclesiastical governors by whom they were condemned the Deity8 had committed the keys of Hell and of Paradise. The heretics, indeed, who might be supported by the consciousness of their intentions, and by the flattering hope that they alone had discovered the true path of salvation, endeavoured to regain, in their separate assemblies, those comforts, temporal as well as spiritual, which they no longer derived from the great society8 of Christians8. But almost all those who had reluctantly yielded to the power of vice or idolatry were sensible of their fallen condition, and anxiously desirous of being restored to the benefits of the Christian8 communion.
With regard to the treatment of these penitents, two opposite opinions, the one of justice, the other of mercy, divided the primitive church8. The more rigid and inflexible casuists refused them for ever, and without exception, the meanest place in the holy community, which they had disgraced or deserted, and, leaving them to the remorse of a guilty conscience, indulged them only with a faint ray of hope that the contrition of their life8 and death8 might possibly be accepted by the Supreme Being. A milder sentiment was embraced, in practice8 as well as in theory, by the purest and most respectable of the Christian8 churches. The gates of reconciliation and of Heaven were seldom shut against the returning penitent; but a severe and solemn form of discipline was instituted, which, while it served to expiate his crime, might powerfully deter the spectators from the imitation of his example. Humbled by a public8 confession, emaciated by fasting, and clothed in sackcloth, the penitent lay prostrate at the door of the assembly, imploring, with tears, the pardon of his offences, and soliciting the prayers of the faithful. If the fault was of a very heinous nature8, whole years of penance were esteemed an inadequate satisfaction to the Divine8 Justice; and it was always by slow and painful gradations that the sinner, the heretic, or the apostate was re-admitted into the bosom of the church8. A sentence of perpetual excommunication was, however, reserved for some crimes of an extraordinary magnitude, and particularly for the inexcusable relapses of those penitents who had already experienced and abused the clemency of their ecclesiastical superiors. According to the circumstances or the number of the guilty, the exercise of the Christian8 discipline was varied by the discretion of the bishops. The councils of Ancyra and Illiberis were held about the same time8, the one in Galatia, the other in Spain; but their respective canons, which are still extant, seem to breathe a very different spirit. The Galatian, who after his baptism had repeatedly sacrificed to idols, might obtain his pardon by a penance of seven years, and, if he had seduced others to imitate his example, only three years more were added to the term of his exile. But the unhappy Spaniard, who had committed the same offence, was deprived of the hope of reconciliation, even in the article of death8; and his idolatry was placed at the head of a list of seventeen other crimes, against which a sentence, no less terrible, was pronounced. Among these we may distinguish the inexpiable guilt of calumniating a bishop, a presbyter, or even a deacon.
The well-tempered mixture of liberality and rigour, the judicious dispensation of rewards and punishments, according to the maxims of policy as well as justice47, constituted the human strength of the church. The bishops, whose paternal care extended itself to the government47 of both worlds, were sensible of the importance of these prerogatives, and, covering their ambition with the fair pretence of the love of order, they were jealous of any rival in the exercise of a discipline so necessary to prevent the desertion of those troops47 which had enlisted themselves under the banner of the cross, and whose numbers every day became more considerable. From the imperious declamations of Cyprian we should naturally conclude that the doctrines of excommunication and penance formed the most essential part of religion; and that it was much less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to neglect the observance of the moral duties than to despise the censures and authority47 of their bishops. Sometimes we might imagine that we were listening to the voice of Moses, when he commanded the earth to open, and to swallow up, in consuming flames, the rebellious race which refused obedience to the priesthood of Aaron; and we should sometimes suppose that we heard a Roman47 consul asserting the majesty of the republic, and declaring his inflexible resolution to enforce the rigour of the laws. If such irregularities are suffered with impunity (it is thus that the bishop of Carthage chides the lenity of his colleague), if such irregularities are suffered, there is an end of Episcopal vigour; an end of the sublime and divine power47 of governing the church, an end of Christianity itself. Cyprian had renounced those temporal honours which it is probable he would never have obtained; but the acquisition of such absolute command47 over the consciences and understanding of a congregation, however obscure or despised by the world, is more truly grateful to the pride of the human heart than the possession of the most despotic power47 imposed by arms47 and conquest on a reluctant people47.
In the course of this important, though perhaps tedious, inquiry, I have attempted to display the secondary causes which so efficaciously assisted the truth8 of the Christian8 religion8. If among these causes we have discovered any artificial ornaments, any accidental circumstances, or any mixture of error and passion, it cannot appear surprising that mankind8 should be the most sensibly affected by such motives as were suited to their imperfect nature8. It was by the aid of these causes, exclusive zeal8, the immediate expectation of another world8, the claim of miracles, the practice8 of rigid virtue8, and the constitution of the primitive church8, that Christianity8 spread itself with so much success in the Roman empire8. To the first of these the Christians8 were indebted for their invincible valour, which disdained to capitulate with the enemy whom they were resolved to vanquish. The three succeeding causes supplied their valour with the most formidable arms. The last of these causes united their courage, directed their arms, and gave their efforts that irresistible weight which even a small band of well-trained and intrepid volunteers has so often possessed over an undisciplined multitude, ignorant of the subject, and careless of the event of the war. In the various8 religions of Polytheism, some wandering fanatics of Egypt and Syria, who addressed themselves to the credulous superstition8 of the populace, were perhaps the only order of priests that derived their whole support and credit from their sacerdotal profession, and were very deeply affected by a personal concern for the safety or prosperity of their tutelar deities. The ministers of Polytheism, both in Rome and in the provinces, were, for the most part, men of a noble birth, and of an affluent fortune, who received, as an honourable distinction, the care of a celebrated temple8, or of a public8 sacrifice, exhibited, very frequently at their own expense, the sacred8 games, and with cold indifference performed the ancient8 rites, according to the laws8 and fashion of their country. As they were engaged in the ordinary occupations of life8, their zeal8 and devotion8 were seldom animated by a sense of interest, or by the habits of an ecclesiastical character8. Confined to their respective temples8 and cities, they remained without any connection of discipline or government; and, whilst they acknowledged the supreme jurisdiction of the senate, of the college of pontiffs, and of the emperor, those civil magistrates contented themselves with the easy task of maintaining, in peace and dignity, the general worship8 of mankind8. We have already seen how various8, how loose, and how uncertain were the religious8 sentiments of Polytheists. They were abandoned, almost without control, to the natural workings of a superstitious fancy. The accidental circumstances of their life8 and situation determined the object, as well as the degree, of their devotion8; and, as long as their adoration was successively prostituted to a thousand deities, it was scarcely possible that their hearts could be susceptible of a very sincere or lively passion for any of them.
When Christianity8 appeared in the world8, even these faint and imperfect impressions had lost much of their original power. Human8 reason8, which, by its unassisted strength, is incapable of perceiving the mysteries of faith8, had already obtained an easy triumph over the folly of Paganism; and, when Tertullian or Lactantius employ their labours in exposing its falsehood and extravagance, they are obliged to transcribe the eloquence of Cicero or the wit of Lucian. The contagion of these sceptical writings had been diffused far beyond the number of their readers. The fashion of incredulity was communicated from the philosopher8 to the man8 of pleasure or business, from the noble to the plebeian, and from the master to the menial slave who waited at his table, and who eagerly listened to the freedom of his conversation. On public8 occasions the philosophic part of mankind8 affected to treat with respect and decency the religious8 institutions of their country; but their secret contempt penetrated through the thin and awkward disguise; and even the people, when they discovered that their deities were rejected and derided by those whose rank or understanding they were accustomed to reverence, were filled with doubts and apprehensions concerning the truth8 of those doctrines to which they had yielded the most implicit belief. The decline of ancient8 prejudice exposed a very numerous portion of human8 kind to the danger of a painful and comfortless situation. A state of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice8 of superstition8 is so congenial to the multitude that, if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision. Their love of the marvellous and supernatural, their curiosity with regard to future events, and their strong propensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits of the visible world8, were the principal causes which favoured the establishment of Polytheism. So urgent on the vulgar is the necessity of believing that the fall of any system of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of some other mode of superstition8. Some deities of a more recent and fashionable cast might soon have occupied the deserted temples8 of Jupiter and Apollo, if, in the decisive moment, the wisdom of Providence had not interposed a genuine revelation, fitted to inspire the most rational esteem and conviction, whilst, at the same time8, it was adorned with all that could attract the curiosity, the wonder, and the veneration of the people. In their actual disposition, as many were almost disengaged from their artificial prejudices, but equally susceptible and desirous of a devout attachment; an object much less deserving would have been sufficient to fill the vacant place in their hearts, and to gratify the uncertain eagerness of their passions8. Those who are inclined to pursue this reflection, instead of viewing with astonishment the rapid progress of Christianity8, will perhaps be surprised that its success was not still more rapid and still more universal.
It has been observed, with truth as well as propriety, that the conquests of Rome0 prepared and facilitated those of Christianity. In the second chapter of this work we have attempted to explain in what manner the most civilised provinces of Europe0, Asia, and Africa were united under the dominion of one sovereign, and gradually connected by the most intimate ties of laws, of manners0, and of language0. The Jews of Palestine, who had fondly expected a temporal deliverer, gave so cold a reception to the miracles of the divine prophet that it was found unnecessary to publish, or at least to preserve, any Hebrew gospel. The authentic histories of the actions of Christ were composed in the Greek0 language0, at a considerable distance from Jerusalem, and after the Gentile converts were grown extremely numerous. As soon as those histories were translated into the Latin0 tongue0, they were perfectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome0, excepting only to the peasants of Syria and Egypt, for whose benefit particular versions were afterwards made. The public highways, which had been constructed for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth, and from Italy0 to the extremity of Spain or Britain; nor did those spiritual conquerors encounter any of the obstacles which usually retard or prevent the introduction of a foreign religion into a distant country0. There is the strongest reason to believe that before the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, the faith of Christ had been preached in every province, and in all the great cities of the empire0; but the foundation of the several congregations, the numbers of the faithful who composed them, and their proportion to the unbelieving multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or disguised by fiction and declamation. Such imperfect circumstances, however, as have reached our knowledge0 concerning the increase of the Christian name in Asia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy0, and in the West, we shall now proceed to relate, without neglecting the real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the frontiers of the Roman0 empire0.
The rich provinces19 that extend from the Euphrates to the Ionian sea19 were the principal theatre on which the apostle of the Gentiles displayed his zeal and piety. The seeds of the gospel, which he had scattered in a fertile soil, were diligently cultivated by his disciples; and it should seem that, during the two first centuries, the most considerable body of Christians was contained within those limits. Among the societies which were instituted in Syria, none were more ancient or more illustrious than those of Damascus, of Beroea or Aleppo, and of Antioch19. The prophetic introduction of the Apocalypse has described and immortalised the seven19 churches of Asia: — Ephesus19, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardes, Laodicea, and Philadelphia; and their colonies were soon19 diffused over that populous country19. In a very early period, the islands of Cyprus and Crete, the provinces19 of Thrace and Macedonia, gave a favourable reception to the new19 religion19; and Christian republics were soon19 founded in the cities of Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens. The antiquity of the Greek and Asiatic churches allowed a sufficient space of time19 for their increase and multiplication, and even the swarms of Gnostics and other heretics serve to display the flourishing condition of the orthodox church, since the appellation of heretics has always been applied to the less numerous party. To these domestic testimonies we may add the confession, the complaints, and the apprehensions of the Gentiles themselves. From the writings of Lucian, a philosopher who had studied mankind, and who describes their manners19 in the most lively colours, we may learn that, under the reign of Commodus, his native country19 of Pontus19 was filled with Epicureans and Christians. Within fourscore years19 after the death of Christ, the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of the evil which he vainly attempted to eradicate. In his very curious epistle to the emperor19 Trajan, he affirms that the temples were almost deserted, that the sacred victims scarcely found any purchasers, and that the superstition had not only infected the cities, but had even spread itself into the villages and the open country19 of Pontus19 and Bithynia.
Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the expressions, or of the motives of those writers who either celebrate or lament the progress of Christianity8 in the East, it may in general be observed that none of them have left us any grounds from whence a just estimate might be formed of the real numbers of the faithful in those provinces. One circumstance, however, has been fortunately preserved, which seems to cast a more distinct light on this obscure but interesting subject. Under the reign8 of Theodosius, after Christianity8 had enjoyed, during more than sixty years, the sunshine of Imperial favour, the ancient8 and illustrious church8 of Antioch consisted of one hundred thousand persons, three thousand of whom were supported out of the public8 oblations. The splendour and dignity of the queen of the East, the acknowledged populousness of Caesarea, Seleucia, and Alexandria, and the destruction of two hundred and fifty thousand souls in the earthquake which afflicted Antioch under the elder Justin, are so many convincing proofs that the whole number of its inhabitants was not less than half a million, and that the Christians8, however multiplied by zeal8 and power, did not exceed a fifth part of that great city. How different a proportion must we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant church8, the West with the East, remote villages with populous towns, and countries recently converted to the faith8 with the place where the believers first received the appellation of Christians8! It must not, however, be dissembled that, in another passage, Chrysostom, to whom we are indebted for this useful information, computes the multitude of the faithful as even superior to that of the Jews and Pagans8. But the solution of this apparent difficulty is easy and obvious. The eloquent preacher draws a parallel between the civil and the ecclesiastical constitution of Antioch; between the list of Christians8 who had acquired Heaven by baptism and the list of citizens who had a right to share the public8 liberality. Slaves, strangers, and infants were comprised in the former; they were excluded from the latter.
The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its proximity to Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the new24 religion24. It was at first embraced by great24 numbers of the Therapeutae, or Essenians of the lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which had abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The austere life24 of the Essenians, their fasts and excommunications, the community of goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and the warmth though not the purity of their faith, already offered a very lively image of the primitive discipline. It was in the school of Alexandria that the Christian theology appears to have assumed a regular and scientifical form; and, when Hadrian visited Egypt24, he found a church, composed of Jews and of Greeks24, sufficiently important to attract the notice of that inquisitive prince. But the progress of Christianity was for a long time confined within the limits of a single city24, which was itself a foreign colony, and, till24 the close of the second century, the predecessors of Demetrius were the only prelates of the Egyptian church. Three bishops were consecrated by the hands of Demetrius, and the number was increased to twenty by his successor Heraclas. The body of the natives, a people24 distinguished by a sullen inflexibility of temper, entertained the new24 doctrine with coldness and reluctance; and even in the time of Origen it was rare to meet with an Egyptian who had surmounted his early prejudices in favour of the sacred animals of his country. As soon, indeed, as Christianity ascended the throne24, the zeal of those barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsion; the cities of Egypt24 were filled with bishops, and the deserts of Thebais swarmed with hermits.
A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowed into the capacious bosom of Rome28. Whatever was strange or odious, whoever was guilty or suspected, might hope, in the obscurity of that immense capital28, to elude the vigilance of the law. In such a various conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or of falsehood, every founder, whether of a virtuous or a criminal association, might easily multiply his disciples or accomplices. The Christians of Rome28, at the time28 of the accidental persecution of Nero, are represented by Tacitus as already amounting to a very great28 multitude28, and the language of that great28 historian28 is almost similar to the style employed by Livy, when he relates the introduction and the suppression of the rites of Bacchus. After the Bacchanals had awakened the severity of the senate28, it was likewise apprehended that a very great28 multitude28, as it were another people28, had been initiated into those abhorred mysteries. A more careful inquiry soon28 demonstrated that the offenders did not exceed seven28 thousand28; a number28, indeed, sufficiently alarming, when considered as the object of public28 justice. It is with the same candid allowance that we should interpret the vague expressions of Tacitus, and in a former instance of Pliny, when they exaggerate the crowds of deluded fanatics who had forsaken the established worship of the gods. The church of Rome28 was undoubtedly the first and most populous of the empire28; and we are possessed of an authentic record which attests the state28 of religion28 in that city28, about the middle of the third century, and after a peace of thirty28-eight years28. The clergy, at that time28, consisted28 of a bishop, forty-six presbyters, seven28 deacons, as many sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, and fifty readers, exorcists, and porters. The number28 of widows, of the infirm, and of the poor, who were maintained by the oblations of the faithful, amounted to fifteen hundred. From reason, as well as from the analogy of Antioch, we may venture to estimate the Christians of Rome28 at about fifty thousand28. The populousness of that great28 capital28 cannot, perhaps, be exactly ascertained; but the most modest calculation will not surely reduce it lower than a million of inhabitants, of whom the Christians might constitute at the most a twentieth part.
The Western provincials appeared to have derived the knowledge of Christianity from the same source which had diffused among them the language, the sentiments, and the manners of Rome40. In this more important circumstance, Africa40, as well as Gaul40, was gradually fashioned to the imitation of the capital40. Yet, notwithstanding the many favourable occasions which might invite the Roman40 missionaries to visit their Latin provinces, it was late before they passed either the sea or the Alps; nor can we discover in those great40 countries any assured traces either of faith or of persecution that ascend higher than the reign40 of the Antonines. The slow progress of the gospel in the cold climate of Gaul40 was extremely different from the eagerness with which it seems to have been received40 on the burning sands of Africa40. The African Christians40 soon40 formed one of the principal members of the primitive church. The practice introduced into that province of appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns, and very frequently to the most obscure villages, contributed to multiply the splendour40 and importance of their religious societies, which during the course of the third century were animated by the zeal40 of Tertullian, directed by the abilities of Cyprian, and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius. But if, on the contrary, we turn our eyes40 towards Gaul40, we must content ourselves with discovering, in the time40 of Marcus Antoninus, the feeble and united congregations of Lyons and Vienna; and, even as late as the reign40 of Decius, we are assured that in a few cities only, Arles, Narbonne, Toulouse, Limoges, Clermont, Tours, and Paris, some scattered churches were supported by the devotion40 of a small40 number40 of Christians40. Silence is indeed very consistent with devotion40, but, as it is seldom compatible with zeal40, we may perceive and lament the languid state of Christianity in those provinces which had exchanged the Celtic for the Latin tongue; since they did not, during the three first centuries, give birth to a single ecclesiastical writer. From Gaul40, which claimed a just pre-eminence of learning and authority over all the countries on this side of the Alps, the light of the gospel was more faintly reflected on the remote provinces of Spain and Britain; and, if we may credit the vehement assertions of Tertullian, they had already received40 the first rays of the faith when he addressed his apology to the magistrates of the emperor40 Severus. But the obscure and imperfect origin of the Western churches of Europe has been so negligently recorded that, if we would relate the time40 and manner of their foundation, we must supply the silence of antiquity by those legends which avarice or superstition long afterwards dictated to the monks in the lazy gloom of their convents. Of these holy40 romances, that of the apostle St. James can alone, by its single extravagance, deserve to be mentioned. From a peaceful fisherman of the lake of Gennesareth, he was transformed into a valorous knight, who charged at the head of the Spanish chivalry in their battles against the Moors. The gravest historians have celebrated40 his exploits; the miraculous shrine of Compostella displayed his power40; and the sword of a military40 order, assisted by the terrors of the Inquisition, was sufficient to remove every objection of profane criticism.
The progress of Christianity8 was not confined to the Roman empire8; and, according to the primitive fathers, who interpret facts by prophecy, the new religion8 within a century after the death8 of its divine8 author, had already visited every part of the globe. There exists not, says Justin Martyr, a people, whether Greek or barbarian, or any other race of men, by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell under tents, or wander about in covered waggons, among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things. But this splendid exaggeration, which even at present it would be extremely difficult to reconcile with the real state of mankind8, can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout but careless writer, the measure of whose belief was regulated by that of his wishes. But neither the belief nor the wishes of the fathers can alter the truth8 of history. It will still remain an undoubted fact, that the barbarians of Scythia and Germany who afterwards subverted the Roman monarchy were involved in the darkness of paganism; and that even the conversion of Iberia, of Armenia, or of Aethiopia was not attempted with any degree of success till the sceptre was in the hands of an orthodox emperor. Before that time8 the various8 accidents of war and commerce might indeed diffuse an imperfect knowledge of the gospel among the tribes of Caledonia, and among the borderers of the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates. Beyond the last-mentioned river, Edessa was distinguished by a firm and early adherence to the faith8. From Edessa the principles of Christianity8 were easily introduced into the Greek and Syrian cities which obeyed the successors of Artaxerxes; but they do not appear to have made any deep impression on the minds of the Persians, whose religious8 system, by the labours of a well-disciplined order of priests, had been constructed with much more art and solidity than the uncertain mythology of Greece and Rome.
From this impartial, though imperfect, survey of the progress of Christianity8, it may, perhaps, seem probable that the number of its proselytes has been excessively magnified by fear on the one side and by devotion8 on the other. According to the irreproachable testimony of Origen, the proportion of the faithful was very inconsiderable when compared with the multitude of an unbelieving world8; but, as we are left without any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of the primitive Christians8. The most favourable calculation, however, that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome will not permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part of the subjects8 of the empire8 had enlisted themselves under the banner of the cross before the important conversion of Constantine8. But their habits of faith8, of zeal8, and of union seemed to multiply their numbers; and the same causes which contributed to their future increase served to render their actual strength more apparent and more formidable.
Such is the constitution of civil society8 that, whilst a few persons are distinguished by riches, by honours, and by knowledge, the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance, and poverty. The Christian8 religion8, which addressed itself to the whole human8 race, must consequently collect a far greater number of proselytes from the lower than from the superior ranks of life8. This innocent and natural circumstance has been improved into a very odious imputation, which seems to be less strenuously denied by the apologists than it is urged by the adversaries of the faith8; that the new sect of Christians8 was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves; the last of whom might sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble families to which they belonged. These obscure teachers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public8 as they are loquacious and dogmatical in private8. Whilst they cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves into those minds, whom their age8, their sex, or their education has the best disposed to receive the impression of superstitious terrors.
This unfavourable picture, though not devoid of a faint resemblance, betrays, by its dark colouring and distorted features, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith33 of Christ33 diffused itself through the world, it was embraced by several persons who derived some consequence from the advantages of nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent apology to the emperor33 Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher. Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras, and of Plato, before he fortunately was accosted by the old man, or rather the angel, who turned his attention to the study of the Jewish prophets. Clemens of Alexandria33 had acquired much various reading in the Greek33, and Tertullian in the Latin33, language. Julius Africanus and Origen possessed a very considerable share of the learning of their times; and, although the style of Cyprian is very different from that of Lactantius, we might almost discover that both those writers had been public teachers of rhetoric. Even the study of philosophy was at length introduced among the Christians, but it was not always productive of the most salutary effects; knowledge was as often the parent of heresy33 as of devotion, and the description which was designed for the followers of Artemon may, with equal propriety, be applied to the various sects that resisted the successors of the apostles. They presume to alter the holy33 scriptures, to abandon the ancient rule of faith33, and to form their opinions according to the subtile precepts of logic. The science of the church33 is neglected for the study of geometry, and they lose sight of Heaven while they are employed in measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects of their admiration; and they express an uncommon reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel by the refinements of human reason.
Nor can it be affirmed with truth that the advantages of birth and fortune were always separated from the profession of Christianity. Several Roman32 citizens were brought before the tribunal of Pliny, and he soon discovered that a great number of persons of every order of men in Bithynia had deserted the religion of their ancestors. His unsuspected testimony may, in this instance, obtain more credit than the bold challenge of Tertullian, when he addresses himself to the fears as well as to the humanity of the proconsul of Africa, by assuring him that, if he persists in his cruel intentions, he must decimate Carthage, and that he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank, senators32 and matrons of noblest extraction, and the friends or relations of his most intimate friends. It appears, however, that about forty years32 afterwards the emperor Valerian was persuaded of the truth of this assertion, since in one of his rescripts he evidently supposes that senators32, Roman32 knights, and ladies of quality were engaged in the Christian sect. The church still continued to increase its outward splendour as it lost its internal purity; and in the reign of Diocletian the palace, the courts of justice, and even the army concealed a multitude of Christians who endeavoured to reconcile the interests of the present with those of a future life.
And yet these exceptions are either too few in number, or too recent in time8, entirely to remove the imputation of ignorance and obscurity which has been so arrogantly cast on the first proselytes of Christianity8. Instead of employing in our defence the fictions of later ages, it will be more prudent to convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of edification. Our serious thoughts will suggest to us that the apostles themselves were chosen by Providence among the fishermen of Galilee, and that, the lower we depress the temporal condition of the first Christians8, the more reason8 we shall find to admire their merit and success. It is incumbent on us diligently to remember that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind8 cheerfully listen to the divine8 promise of future happiness8; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this world8; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason8 and knowledge.
We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters, which in our eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly present. The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age8 in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human8 nature8. They filled with glory their respective stations, either in active or contemplative life8; their excellent understandings were improved by study; Philosophy had purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular superstition8; and their days were spent in the pursuit of truth8 and the practice8 of virtue8. Yet all these sages (it is no less an object of surprise than of concern) overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Christian8 system. Their language or their silence equally discover their contempt for the growing sect, which in their time8 had diffused itself over the Roman empire8. Those among them who condescend to mention the Christians8 consider them only as obstinate and perverse enthusiasts, who exacted an implicit submission to their mysterious doctrines, without being able to produce a single argument that could engage the attention of men of sense and learning.
It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers perused the apologies which the primitive Christians repeatedly published in behalf of themselves and of their religion; but it is much to be lamented that such a cause was not defended29 by abler advocates. They expose with superfluous wit and eloquence the extravagance of Polytheism. They interest our compassion by displaying the innocence and sufferings of their injured brethren. But, when they would demonstrate the divine origin of Christianity, they insist much more strongly on the predictions which announced, than on the miracles which accompanied, the appearance of the Messiah. Their favourite argument might serve to edify a Christian or to convert a Jew, since both the one and the other acknowledge the authority of those prophecies, and both are obliged, with devout reverence, to search for their sense and their accomplishment. But this mode of persuasion loses much of its weight29 and influence, when it is addressed to those who neither understand nor respect the Mosaic dispensation and the prophetic style. In the unskilful hands of Justin and of the succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant29 types, affected conceits, and cold allegories; and even their authenticity was rendered29 suspicious to an unenlightened Gentile by the mixture of pious forgeries, which, under the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls, were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine inspirations of Heaven. The adoption of fraud and sophistry in the defence of revelation too often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight29 of cumbersome and brittle armour.
But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world6 to those evidences which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age6 of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine whch they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, daemons were expelled, and the laws6 of Nature6 were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome6 turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life6 and study, appeared6 unconscious of any alterations in the moral or physical government6 of the world6. Under the reign6 of Tiberius, the whole earth, or at least a celebrated province of the Roman6 empire6, was involved in a praeternatural darkness of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, passed without notice in an age6 of science and history. It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a laborious work, has recorded all the great6 phenomena of Nature6, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the globe. A distinct chapter of Pliny is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature6 and unusual duration; but he contents himself with describing the singular defect of light which followed the murder of Caesar, when, during the greatest part of the year, the orb of the sun appeared6 pale and without splendour. This season of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the praeternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already celebrated by most of the poets and historians of that memorable age6.
If we seriously consider the purity of the Christian1 religion1, the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the innocent as well as austere lives of the greater number of those who, during the first ages, embraced the faith of the gospel, we should naturally suppose that so benevolent a doctrine would have been received with due reverence, even by the unbelieving world; that the learned and the polite, however they might deride the miracles, would have esteemed the virtues of the new1 sect; and that the magistrates1, instead of persecuting, would have protected an order1 of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws1, though they declined the active cares of war and government1. If, on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people1, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy1 of the Roman1 senate1 and emperors1, we are at a loss to discover what new1 offence the Christians1 had committed, what new1 provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new1 motives could urge the Roman1 princes1, who beheld, without concern, a thousand forms of religion1 subsisting in peace1 under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects1, who had chosen for themselves a singular, but an inoffensive, mode of faith and worship.
The religious policy1 of the ancient1 world seems to have assumed1 a more stern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of Christianity. About fourscore years1 after the death of Christ, his innocent disciples were punished with death, by the sentence of a proconsul of the most amiable and philosophic character, and, according to the laws1 of an emperor1, distinguished by the wisdom and justice1 of his general administration. The apologies which were repeatedly addressed to the successors1 of Trajan, are filled with the most pathetic complaints, that the Christians1, who obeyed the dictates, and solicited the liberty, of conscience, were alone, among all the subjects1 of the Roman1 empire1, excluded from the common benefits of their auspicious government1. The deaths of a few eminent martyrs have been recorded with care; and from the time that Christianity was invested with the supreme power1, the governors of the church1 have been no less diligently employed in displaying the cruelty, than in imitating the conduct, of their Pagan adversaries. To separate (if it be possible) a few authentic, as well as interesting, facts, from an undigested mass of fiction and error, and to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, and the most important circumstances of the persecutions to which the first Christians1 were exposed, is the design of the present Chapter.
The sectaries of a persecuted religion8, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind8 calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution. A reason8 has been assigned for the conduct of the emperors towards the primitive Christians8, which may appear the more specious and probable as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius of Polytheism. It has already been observed that the religious8 concord of the world8 was principally supported by the implicit assent and reverence which the nations of antiquity expressed for their respective traditions and ceremonies. It might therefore be expected that they would unite with indignation against any sect of people which should separate itself from the communion of mankind8, and, claiming the exclusive possession of divine8 knowledge, should disdain every form of worship8, except its own, as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held by mutual indulgence; they were justly forfeited by a refusal of the accustomed tribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the consideration of the treatment which they experienced from the Roman magistrates will serve to explain how far these speculations are justified by facts, and will lead us to discover the true causes of the persecution of Christianity8.
Without repeating what has been already mentioned of the reverence of the Roman20 princes and governors for the temple of Jerusalem, we shall only observe that the destruction of the temple and city20 was accompanied and followed by every circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the conquerors, and authorise religious persecution by the most specious arguments of political justice and the public20 safety. From the reign20 of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome20, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms20 of the legions against a race20 of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies20 not only of the Roman20 government, but of human kind. The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by the opinion that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an idolatrous master20; and by the flattering promise which they derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah would soon arise, destined to break their fetters and to invest the favourites of heaven with the empire20 of the earth. It was by announcing himself as their long20-expected deliverer, and by calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assert the hope of Israel, that the famous Barchochebas collected a formidable army, with which he resisted, during two years20, the power of the emperor20 Hadrian.
Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of the Roman1 princes1 expired after the victory; nor were their apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and danger. By the general indulgence of Polytheism, and by the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient1 privileges, and once more obtained the permission of circumcising their children, with the easy restraint that they should never confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of the Hebrew race. The numerous remains of that people1, though they were still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments both in Italy1 and in the provinces1, to acquire the freedom1 of Rome1, to enjoy municipal honours1, and to obtain, at the same time, an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of society. The moderation or the contempt of the Romans1 gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical1 police which was instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdiction1, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. New1 synagogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of the empire1; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law or enjoined by the traditions of the Rabbis, were celebrated in the most solemn and public1 manner. Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed1 the behaviour of peaceable and industrious subjects1. Their irreconcilable hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of blood and violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolaters in trade; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations against the haughty kingdom of Edom.
Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities adored by their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects8, enjoyed, however, the free exercise of their unsocial religion8; there must have existed some other cause, which exposed the disciples of Christ to those severities from which the posterity of Abraham was exempt. The difference between them is simple and obvious; but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the highest importance. The Jews were a nation; the Christians8 were a sect; and, if it was natural for every community to respect the sacred8 institutions of their neighbours, it was incumbent on them, to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of oracles, the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the laws8 unanimously enforced this national obligation. By their lofty claim of superior sanctity, the Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining the intercourse of other nations they might deserve their contempt. The laws8 of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or absurd; yet, since they had been received during many ages by a large society8, his followers were justified by the example of mankind8; and it was universally acknowledged that they had a right to practise what it would have been criminal in them to neglect. But this principle which protected the Jewish synagogue afforded not any favour or security to the primitive church8. By embracing the faith8 of the Gospel, the Christians8 incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence. They dissolved the sacred8 ties of custom and education, violated the religious8 institutions of their country, and presumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as true, or had reverenced as sacred8. Nor was this apostacy (if we may use8 the expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserter who withdrew himself from the temples8 of Egypt or Syria would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage. Every Christian8 rejected with contempt the superstitions of his family, his city, and his province. The whole body of Christians8 unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods8 of Rome, of the empire8, and of mankind8. It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private8 judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan8 world8. To their apprehensions, it was no less a matter of surprise that any individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the established mode of worship8, than if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the language of their native country.
The surprise of the Pagans8 was soon succeeded by resentment; and the most pious of men were exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety. Malice and prejudice concurred in representing the Christians8 as a society8 of atheists, who, by the most daring attack on the religious8 constitution of the empire8, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate. They had separated themselves (they gloried in the confession) from every mode of superstition8 which was received in any part of the globe by the various8 temper of Polytheism; but it was not altogether so evident what deity8 or what form of worship8 they had substituted to the gods8 and temples8 of antiquity. The pure and sublime idea which they entertained of the Supreme Being escaped the gross conception of the Pagan8 multitude, who were at a loss to discover a spiritual and solitary God8, that was neither represented under any corporeal figure or visible symbol, nor was adored with the accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices. The sages of Greece and Rome, who had elevated their minds to the contemplation of the existence and attributes of the First Cause, were induced, by reason8 or by vanity, to reserve for themselves and their chosen disciples the privilege of this philosophical devotion8. They were far from admitting the prejudices of mankind8 as the standard of truth8; but they considered them as flowing from the original disposition of human8 nature8; and they supposed that any popular mode of faith8 and worship8 which presumed to disclaim the assistance of the senses would, in proportion as it receded from superstition8, find itself incapable of restraining the wanderings of the fancy and the visions of fanaticism. The careless glance which men of wit and learning condescended to cast on the Christian8 revelation served only to confirm their hasty opinion, and to persuade them that the principle, which they might have revered, of the divine8 unity was defaced by the wild enthusiasm, and annihilated by the airy speculations, of the new sectaries. The author of a celebrated dialogue which has been attributed to Lucian, whilst he affects to treat the mysterious subject of the Trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt, betrays his own ignorance of the weakness of human8 reason8, and of the inscrutable nature8 of the divine8 perfections.
It might appear less surprising that the founder of Christianity7 should not only be revered by his disciples7 as a sage and a prophet, but that he should be adored as a God7. The Polytheists were disposed to adopt every article of faith7 which seemed to offer any resemblance, however distant or imperfect, with the popular mythology; and the legends of Bacchus, of Hercules, and of Aesculapius had, in some measure, prepared their imagination for the appearance of the Son7 of God7 under a human7 form. But they were astonished that the Christians7 should abandon the temples of those ancient heroes who, in the infancy of the world, had invented arts, instituted laws, and vanquished the tyrants or monsters who infested the earth7; in order to choose, for the exclusive object of their religious worship7, an obscure teacher who, in a recent age, and among a barbarous people, had fallen a sacrifice either to the malice of his own countrymen, or to the jealousy of the Roman government. The Pagan multitude, reserving their gratitude for temporal7 benefits alone, rejected the inestimable present of life and immortality which was offered to mankind by Jesus7 of Nazareth. His mild constancy in the midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions and character were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of success; and, whilst they refused to acknowledge his stupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and of the grave, they misrepresented, or they insulted, the equivocal birth, wandering life, and ignominious death of the divine7 Author of Christianity7.
The personal guilt which every Christian8 had contracted, in thus preferring his private8 sentiment to the national religion8, was aggravated, in a very high degree, by the number and union of the criminals. It is well known, and has been already observed, that Roman policy viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any association among its subjects8; and that the privileges of private8 corporations, though formed for the most harmless or beneficial purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing hand. The religious8 assemblies of the Christians8, who had separated themselves from the public8 worship8, appeared of a much less innocent nature8: they were illegal in their principle and in their consequences might become dangerous; nor were the emperors conscious that they violated the laws8 of justice, when, for the peace of society8, they prohibited those secret and sometimes nocturnal meetings. The pious disobedience of the Christians8 made their conduct, or perhaps their designs, appear in a much more serious and criminal light; and the Roman princes, who might perhaps have suffered themselves to be disarmed by a ready submission, deeming their honour concerned in the execution of their commands, sometimes attempted by rigorous punishments to subdue this independent spirit, which boldly acknowledged an authority superior to that of the magistrate. The extent and duration of this spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it every day more deserving of his animadversion. We have already seen that the active and successful zeal8 of the Christians8 had insensibly diffused them through every province and almost every city of the empire8. The new converts seemed to renounce their family and country, that they might connect themselves in an indissoluble band of union with a peculiar society8, which everywhere assumed a different character8 from the rest of mankind8. Their gloomy and austere aspect, their abhorrence of the common business and pleasures of life8, and their frequent predictions of impending calamities, inspired the Pagans8 with the apprehension of some danger which would arise from the new sect, the more alarming as it was the more obscure. Whatever, says Pliny, may be the principle of their conduct, their inflexible obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment.
The precautions with which the disciples of Christ performed the offices of religion were at first dictated by fear and necessity; but they were continued from choice. By imitating the awful secrecy which reigned in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians had flattered themselves that they should render their sacred institutions more respectable in the eyes of the Pagan world22. But the event, as it often happens to the operations of subtile policy22, deceived their wishes and their expectations. It was concluded that they only concealed what they would have blushed to disclose. Their mistaken prudence22 afforded an opportunity for malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity to believe, the horrid tales which described the Christians as the most wicked of human22 kind, who practised in their dark recesses every abomination that a depraved fancy could suggest, and who solicited the favour of their unknown God by the sacrifice of every moral virtue22. There were many who pretended to confess or to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was asserted, that a new22-born infant, entirely covered over with flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of initiation, to the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly inflicted many a secret and mortal wound on the innocent victim of his error; that, as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up the blood22, greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual consciousness of guilt. It was as confidently affirmed that this inhuman sacrifice was succeeded by a suitable entertainment, in which intemperance served as a provocative to brutal lust; till, at the appointed moment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, shame was banished, nature was forgotten; and, as accident might direct, the darkness of the night was polluted by the incestuous commerce of sisters and brothers, of sons and of mothers.
But the perusal of the ancient8 apologies was sufficient to remove even the slightest suspicion from the mind8 of a candid adversary. The Christians8, with the intrepid security of innocence, appeal from the voice of rumour to the equity of the magistrates. They acknowledge that, if any proof can be produced of the crimes which calumny has imputed to them, they are worthy of the most severe punishment. They provoke the punishment, and they challenge the proof. At the same time8 they urge, with equal truth8 and propriety, that the charge is not less devoid of probability than it is destitute of evidence; they ask whether any one can seriously believe that the pure and holy precepts of the Gospel, which so frequently restrain the use8 of the most lawful enjoyments, should inculcate the practice8 of the most abominable crimes; that a large society8 should resolve to dishonour itself in the eyes of its own members; and that a great number of persons of either sex, and every age8 and character8, insensible to the fear of death8 or infamy, should consent to violate those principles which nature8 and education had imprinted most deeply in their minds. Nothing, it should seem, could weaken the force or destroy the effect of so unanswerable a justification, unless it were the injudicious conduct of the apologists themselves, who betrayed the common cause of religion8, to gratify their devout hatred to the domestic enemies of the church8. It was sometimes faintly insinuated, and sometimes boldly asserted, that the same bloody sacrifices, and the same incestuous festivals, which were so falsely ascribed to the orthodox believers, were in reality celebrated by the Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and by several other sects of the Gnostics, who, notwithstanding they might deviate into the paths of heresy, were still actuated by the sentiments of men, and still governed by the precepts of Christianity8. Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon the church8 by the schismatics who had departed from its communion; and it was confessed on all sides that the most scandalous licentiousness of manners prevailed among great numbers of those who affected the name of Christians8. A Pagan8 magistrate, who possessed neither leisure nor abilities to discern the almost imperceptible line which divides the orthodox faith8 from heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of their common guilt. It was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the reputation, of the first Christians8, that the magistrates sometimes proceeded with more temper and moderation than is usually consistent with religious8 zeal8, and that they reported, as the impartial result of their judicial inquiry, that the sectaries who had deserted the established worship8 appeared to them sincere in their professions and blameless in their manners; however they might incur, by their absurd and excessive superstition8, the censure of the laws8.
History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future, ages, would ill deserve that honourable office1, if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution. It must, however, be acknowledged that the conduct of the emperors1 who appeared the least favourable to the primitive church1 is by no means so criminal as that of modern sovereigns who have employed the arm of violence and terror against the religious opinions of any part of their subjects1. From their reflections, or even from their own feelings, a Charles V. or a Louis XIV. might have acquired a just knowledge of the rights of conscience, of the obligation of faith, and of the innocence of error. But the princes1 and magistrates1 of ancient1 Rome1 were strangers to those principles which inspired and authorised the inflexible obstinacy of the Christians1 in the cause of truth, nor could they themselves discover in their own breasts any motive which would have prompted them to refuse a legal, and as it were a natural, submission to the sacred1 institutions of their country. The same reason which contributes to alleviate the guilt, must have tended to abate the rigour, of their persecutions. As they were actuated, not by the furious zeal of bigots, but by the temperate policy1 of legislators, contempt must often have relaxed, and humanity must frequently have suspended, the execution of those laws1 which they enacted against the humble and obscure followers of Christ. From the general view of their character and motives we might naturally conclude: I. That a considerable time elapsed before they considered the new1 sectaries as an object deserving of the attention of government1. II. That, in the conviction of any of their subjects1 who were accused of so very singular a crime, they proceeded with caution and reluctance. III. That they were moderate in the use of punishments; and IV. That the afflicted church1 enjoyed many intervals of peace1 and tranquillity. Notwithstanding the careless indifference which the most copious and the most minute of the Pagan writers have shewn to the affairs of the Christians1, it may still be in our power1 to confirm each of these probable suppositions by the evidence of authentic facts.
I. By the wise dispensation of Providence, a mysterious veil was cast over the infancy of the church7, which, till the faith7 of the Christians7 was matured and their numbers were multiplied, served to protect them not only from the malice, but even from the knowledge, of the Pagan world. The slow and gradual abolition of the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safe and innocent disguise to the more early proselytes of the Gospel7. As they were far the greater part of the race of Abraham, they were distinguished by the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up their devotions in the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and received both the Law7 and the Prophets as the genuine inspirations of the Deity. The Gentile converts, who by a spiritual7 adoption had been associated to the hope of Israel, were likewise confounded under the garb and appearance of Jews7, and, as the Polytheists paid less regard to articles of faith7 than to the external worship7, the new7 sect, which carefully concealed, or faintly announced, its future greatness and ambition, was permitted to shelter itself under the general toleration which was granted to an ancient and celebrated people in the Roman empire. It was not long, perhaps, before the Jews7 themselves, animated with a fiercer zeal7 and a more jealous faith7, perceived the gradual separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine7 of the synagogue; and they would gladly have extinguished the dangerous heresy in the blood of its adherents. But the decrees of heaven7 had already disarmed their malice; and, though they might sometimes exert the licentious privilege of sedition, they no longer possessed the administration of criminal justice; nor did they find it easy to infuse into the calm breast of a Roman magistrate the rancour of their own zeal7 and prejudice. The provincial governors declared themselves ready to listen to any accusation that might affect the public safety; but, as soon as they were informed that it was a question not of facts but of words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish laws and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriously to discuss the obscure differences which might arise among a barbarous and superstitious people. The innocence of the first Christians7 was protected by ignorance and contempt; and the tribunal of the Pagan magistrate often proved their most assured refuge against the fury of the synagogue. If, indeed, we were disposed to adopt the traditions of a too credulous antiquity, we might relate the distant peregrinations, the wonderful achievements, and the various deaths, of the twelve apostles; but a more accurate inquiry will induce us to doubt whether any of those persons who had been witnesses to the miracles7 of Christ7 were permitted, beyond the limits of Palestine, to seal with their blood the truth7 of their testimony. From the ordinary term of human7 life, it may very naturally be presumed that most of them were deceased before the discontent of the Jews7 broke out into that furious war which was terminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem. During a long period, from the death of Christ7 to that memorable rebellion, we cannot discover any traces of Roman intolerance, unless they are to be found in the sudden, the transient, but the cruel persecution, which was exercised by Nero against the Christians7 of the capital, thirty-five years7 after the former, and only two years7 before the latter, of those great events. The character of the philosophic historian, to whom we are principally indebted for the knowledge of this singular transaction, would alone be sufficient to recommend it to our most attentive consideration.
In the tenth year of the reign47 of Nero, the capital of the empire47 was afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory or example of former ages. The monuments of Grecian art and of Roman47 virtue, the trophies of the Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and the most splendid palaces were involved in one common destruction. Of the fourteen regions or quarters into which Rome47 was divided, four only subsisted entire, three were levelled with the ground, and the remaining seven, which had experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholy prospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government47 appears not to have neglected any of the precautions which might alleviate the sense of so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial47 gardens were thrown open to the distressed multitude, temporary buildings were erected for their accommodation, and a plentiful supply of corn and provisions was distributed at a very moderate price. The most generous policy seemed to have dictated the edicts which regulated the disposition of the streets and the construction of private47 houses; and, as it usually happens in an age47 of prosperity, the conflagration of Rome47, in the course of a few years, produced a new city47, more regular and more beautiful than the former. But all the prudence and humanity affected by Nero on this occasion were insufficient to preserve him from the popular suspicion. Every crime might be imputed to the assassin of his wife and mother; nor could the prince47 who prostituted his person47 and dignity on the theatre be deemed incapable of the most extravagant folly. The voice of rumour accused the emperor47 as the incendiary of his own capital; and, as the most incredible stories are the best adapted to the genius of an enraged people47, it was gravely reported, and firmly believed, that Nero, enjoying the calamity which he had occasioned, amused himself with singing to his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy. To divert a suspicion which the power47 of despotism was unable to suppress the emperor47 resolved to substitute in his own place some fictitious criminals. With this view (continues Tacitus) he inflicted the most exquisite tortures on those men, who, under the vulgar appellation of Christians, were already branded with deserved infamy. They derived their name and origin from Christ, who, in the reign47 of Tiberius, had suffered death47, by the sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate. For a while this dire superstition was checked; but it again burst forth, and not only spread itself over Judaea, the first seat of this mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome47, the common asylum which receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious. The confessions of those who were seized, discovered a great multitude of their accomplices, and they were all convicted, not so much for the crime of setting fire to the city47, as for their hatred of human kind. They died in torments, and their torments were embittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smeared over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse race, and honoured with the presence of the emperor47, who mingled with the populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the Christians deserved, indeed, the most exemplary punishment, but the public47 abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public47 welfare, as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant47. Those who survey, with a curious eye, the revolutions of mankind may observe that the gardens and circus of Nero on the Vatican, which were polluted with the blood of the first Christians, have been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by the abuse of the persecuted religion. On the same spot, a temple, which far surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol, has been since erected by the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claim of universal dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to the throne47 of the Caesars, given laws to the barbarian conquerors of Rome47, and extended their spiritual jurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
But it would be improper to dismiss this account of Nero's persecution, till we have made some observations, that may serve to remove the difficulties with which it is perplexed and to throw some light on the subsequent history of the church1.
1. The most sceptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth46 of this extraordinary fact, and the integrity of this celebrated passage of Tacitus46. The former is confirmed by the diligent and accurate Suetonius, who mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted on the Christians, a sect of men who had embraced a new and criminal superstition. The latter may be proved by the consent of the most ancient manuscripts; by the inimitable character46 of the style of Tacitus46; by his reputation, which guarded his text from the interpolations of pious fraud; and by the purport of his narration, which accused the first Christians of the most atrocious crimes, without insinuating that they possessed any miraculous or even magical powers above the rest of mankind46. 2. Notwithstanding it is probable that Tacitus46 was born some years46 before the fire of Rome46, he could derive only from reading and conversation the knowledge46 of an event which happened during his infancy. Before he gave himself to the Public46, he calmly waited till his genius46 had attained its full maturity, and he was more than forty years46 of age46, when a grateful regard for the memory of the virtuous Agricola extorted from him the most early of those historical compositions which will delight and instruct the most distant posterity. After making a trial of his strength in the life46 of Agricola and the description of Germany, he conceived, and at length executed, a more arduous work: the history46 of Rome46, in thirty books, from the fall of Nero to the accession of Nerva. The administration of Nerva introduced an age46 of justice and prosperity46, which Tacitus46 had destined for the occupation of his old age46; but, when he took a nearer view of his subject, judging, perhaps, that it was a more honourable or a less invidious office to record the vices of past tyrants than to celebrate the virtues46 of a reigning monarch, he chose rather to relate, under the form of annals, the actions of four immediate successors of Augustus. To collect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore years46 in an immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant with the deepest observations and the most lively images, was an undertaking sufficient to exercise the genius46 of Tacitus46 himself during the greatest part of his life46. In the last years46 of the reign46 of Trajan, whilst the victorious monarch extended the power of Rome46 beyond its ancient limits, the historian was describing, in the second and fourth books of his annals, the tyranny of Tiberius; and the emperor Hadrian must have succeeded to the throne, before Tacitus46, in the regular prosecution of his work, could relate the fire of the capital and the cruelty of Nero towards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance of sixty years46, it was the duty of the annalist to adopt the narratives of contemporaries; but it was natural for the philosopher to indulge himself in the description of the origin, the progress, and the character46 of the new sect, not so much according to the knowledge46 or prejudices of the age46 of Nero, as according to those of the time46 of Hadrian. 3. Tacitus46 very frequently trusts to the curiosity46 or reflection of his readers to supply those intermediate circumstances and ideas which, in his extreme conciseness, he has thought proper to suppress. We may, therefore, presume to imagine some probable cause which could direct the cruelty of Nero against the Christians of Rome46, whose obscurity, as well as innocence, should have shielded them from his indignation, and even from his notice. The Jews, who were numerous in the capital, and oppressed in their own country46, were a much fitter object for the suspicions of the emperor and of the people46; nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished nation, who already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman46 yoke, might have recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifying their implacable revenge. But the Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the palace, and even in the heart of the tyrant: his wife and mistress, the beautiful Poppaea, and a favourite player of the race of Abraham, who had already employed46 their intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people46. In their room it was necessary to offer some other victims, and it might easily be suggested, that, although the genuine followers of Moses were innocent of the fire of Rome46, there had arisen among them a new and pernicious sect of Galilaeans, which was capable of the most horrid crimes. Under the appellation of Galilaeans, two distinctions of men were confounded, the most opposite to each other in their manners and principles: the disciples who had embraced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth, and the zealots who had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite. The former were the friends, and the latter were the enemies, of human46 kind; and the only resemblance between them consisted in the same inflexible constancy which, in the defence of their cause, rendered them insensible of death and tortures. The followers of Judas, who impelled their countrymen into rebellion, were soon buried under the ruins of Jerusalem; whilst those of Jesus, known by the more celebrated name of Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman46 empire46. How natural was it for Tacitus46, in the time46 of Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians the guilt and the sufferings which he might, with far greater truth46 and justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory was almost extinguished! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of this conjecture (for it is no more than a conjecture), it is evident that the effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's persecution were confined to the walls of Rome46; that the religious tenets of the Galilaeans, or Christians, were never made a subject of punishment or even of inquiry; and that, as the idea of their sufferings was, for a long time46, connected with the idea of cruelty and injustice, the moderation of succeeding princes inclined them to spare a sect, oppressed by a tyrant whose rage had been usually directed against virtue46 and innocence.
It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed almost at the same time the temple of Jerusalem and the Capitol of Rome; and it appears no less singular that the tribute24 which devotion had destined to the former should have been converted by the power of an assaulting victor to restore and adorn the splendour of the latter. The emperors levied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people24; and, although the sum assessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, the use for which it was designed, and the severity with which it was exacted, were considered as an intolerable grievance. Since the officers of the revenue extended their unjust claim to many persons who were strangers to the blood or religion24 of the Jews, it was impossible that the Christians24, who had so often sheltered themselves under the shade of the synagogue, should now escape this rapacious persecution. Anxious as they were to avoid the slightest infection of idolatry, their conscience forbade them to contribute to the honour of that daemon who had assumed the character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous, though declining, party among the Christians24 still adhered to the law of Moses, their efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin were detected by the decisive test of circumcision, nor were the Roman24 magistrates at leisure to inquire into the difference of their religious tenets. Among the Christians24 who were brought before the tribunal of the emperor, or, as it seems more probable, before that of the procurator of Judaea, two persons are said to have appeared, distinguished by their extraction, which was more truly noble than that of the greatest monarchs. These were the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who himself was the brother of Jesus Christ. Their natural pretensions to the throne24 of David might perhaps attract the respect of the people24, and excite the jealousy of the governor; but the meanness of their garb and the simplicity of their answers soon convinced him that they were neither desirous nor capable of disturbing the peace of the Roman24 empire24. They frankly confessed their royal24 origin and their near relation to the Messiah; but they disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom, which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and angelic nature. When they were examined concerning their fortune and occupation, they shewed their hands hardened with daily labour, and declared that they derived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a farm near the village of Cocaba, of the extent of about twenty-four English acres, and of the value of nine thousand24 drachms, or three hundred pounds sterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion and contempt.
But, although the obscurity of the house of David might protect them from the suspicions of a tyrant, the present greatness of his own family alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian, which could only be appeased by the blood of those Romans1 whom he either feared, or hated, or esteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinus, the elder was soon convicted of treasonable intentions, and the younger, who bore the name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety to his want of courage and ability. The emperor1, for a long1 time, distinguished so harmless a kinsman by his favour and protection, bestowed on him his own niece Domitilla, adopted the children of that marriage to the hope of the succession, and invested their father with the honours1 of the consulship. But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy, when, on a slight pretence, he was condemned and executed; Domitilla was banished to a desolate island on the coast of Campania; and sentences either of death or of confiscation were pronounced against a great number of persons who were involved in the same accusation. The guilt imputed to their charge was that of Atheism and Jewish manners; a singular association of ideas, which cannot with any propriety be applied except to the Christians1, as they were obscurely and imperfectly viewed by the magistrates1 and by the writers of that period. On the strength of so probable an interpretation, and too eagerly admitting the suspicions of a tyrant as an evidence of their honourable crime, the church1 has placed both Clemens and Domitilla among its first martyrs, and has branded the cruelty of Domitian with the name of the second persecution. But this persecution (if it deserves that epithet) was of no long1 duration. A few months after the death of Clemens and the banishment of Domitilla, Stephen, a freedman belonging to the latter, who had enjoyed the favour, but who had not surely embraced the faith, of his mistress, assassinated the emperor1 in his palace. The memory of Domitian was condemned by the senate1; his acts were rescinded; his exiles recalled; and under the gentle administration of Nerva, while the innocent were restored to their rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either obtained pardon or escaped punishment.
II. About ten years23 afterwards, under the reign of Trajan, the younger Pliny was entrusted by his friend and master with the government23 of Bithynia and Pontus. He soon23 found himself at a loss to determine by what rule of justice or of law he should direct his conduct in the execution of an office the most repugnant to his humanity. Pliny had never assisted at any judicial proceedings against the Christians23, with whose name alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totally uninformed with regard to the nature23 of their guilt23, the method of their conviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this perplexity he had recourse to his usual expedient, of submitting to the wisdom of Trajan an impartial and, in some respects, a favourable account of the new23 superstition, requesting the emperor that he would condescend to resolve his doubts and to instruct his ignorance. The life of Pliny had been employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the business of the world. Since the age23 of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the tribunals of Rome23, filled a place in the senate, had been invested with the honours of the consulship, and had formed very numerous connections with every order of men, both in Italy and in the provinces23. From his ignorance, therefore, we may derive some useful information. We may assure ourselves that when he accepted the government23 of Bithynia there were no general23 laws23 or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians23; that neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors, whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence, had publicly declared their intentions concerning the new23 sect; and that, whatever proceedings had been carried on against the Christians23, there were none of sufficient weight and authority to establish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman23 magistrate.
The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians of the succeeding age47 have frequently appealed, discovers as much regard for justice47 and humanity as could be reconciled with his mistaken notions of religious policy. Instead of displaying the implacable zeal of an inquisitor, anxious to discover the most minute particles of heresy and exulting in the number of his victims, the emperor47 expresses much more solicitude to protect the security of the innocent than to prevent the escape of the guilty. He acknowledges the difficulty of fixing any general47 plan; but he lays down two salutary rules, which often afforded relief and support to the distressed Christians. Though he directs the magistrates to punish such persons as are legally convicted, he prohibits them, with a very humane inconsistency, from making any inquiries concerning the supposed criminals. Nor was the magistrate allowed to proceed on every kind of information. Anonymous charges the emperor47 rejects, as too repugnant to the equity of his government47; and he strictly requires, for the conviction of those to whom the guilt of Christianity is imputed, the positive evidence of a fair and open accuser. It is likewise probable that the persons who assumed so invidious an office were obliged to declare the grounds of their suspicions, to specify (both in respect to time and place) the secret47 assemblies which their Christian adversary had frequented, and to disclose a great number of circumstances which were concealed with the most vigilant jealousy from the eye of the profane. If they succeeded in their prosecution, they were exposed to the resentment of a considerable and active party, to the censure of the more liberal portion of mankind, and to the ignominy which, in every age47 and country, has attended the character of an informer. If, on the contrary, they failed in their proofs, they incurred the severe, and perhaps capital, penalty which, according to a law published by the emperor47 Hadrian, was inflicted on those who falsely attributed to their fellow-citizens the crime of Christianity. The violence of personal or superstitious animosity might sometimes prevail over the most natural apprehensions of disgrace and danger47; but it cannot surely be imagined that accusations of so unpromising an appearance were either lightly or frequently undertaken by the Pagan subjects of the Roman47 empire47.
The expedient which was employed to elude the prudence of the laws affords a sufficient proof how effectually they disappointed the mischievous designs of private47 malice or superstitious zeal. In a large and tumultuous assembly, the restraints of fear and shame, so forcible on the minds of individuals, are deprived of the greatest part of their influence. The pious Christian, as he was desirous to obtain or to escape the glory of martyrdom, expected, either with impatience or with terror, the stated returns of the public47 games and festivals. On those occasions, the inhabitants of the great cities of the empire47 were collected in the circus of the theatre, where every circumstance of the place, as well as of the ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion and to extinguish their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, crowned with garlands, perfumed with incense, purified with the blood of victims, and surrounded with the altars and statues of their tutelar deities, resigned themselves to the enjoyment of pleasures which they considered as an essential part of their religious worship; they recollected that the Christians alone abhorred the gods of mankind, and by their absence and melancholy on these solemn festivals seemed to insult or to lament the public47 felicity. If the empire47 had been afflicted by any recent calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war47; if the Tiber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks; if the earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced that the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were spared by the excessive lenity of the government47, had at length provoked the Divine Justice47. It was not among a licentious and exasperated populace that the forms of legal proceedings could be observed; it was not in an amphitheatre, stained with the blood of wild beasts and gladiators, that the voice of compassion could be heard. The impatient clamours of the multitude denounced the Christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the severest tortures, and, venturing to accuse by name some of the most distinguished of the new sectaries, required, with irresistible vehemence, that they should be instantly apprehended and cast to the lions. The provincial governors and magistrates who presided in the public47 spectacles were usually inclined to gratify the inclinations, and to appease the rage, of the people47 by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. But the wisdom of the emperors protected the church from the danger47 of these tumultuous clamours and irregular accusations, which they justly censured as repugnant both to the firmness and to the equity of their administration. The edicts of Hadrian and of Antoninus Pius expressly declared that the voice of the multitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the enthusiasm of the Christians.
III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence of conviction, and the Christians8, whose guilt was the most clearly proved by the testimony of witnesses, or even by their voluntary confession, still retained in their own power the alternative of life8 or death8. It was not so much the past offence, as the actual resistance, which excited the indignation of the magistrate. He was persuaded that he offered them an easy pardon, since, if they consented to cast a few grains of incense upon the altar, they were dismissed from the tribunal in safety and with applause. It was esteemed the duty of a humane judge to endeavour to reclaim, rather than to punish, those deluded enthusiasts. Varying his tone according to the age8, the sex, or the situation of the prisoners, he frequently condescended to set before their eyes every circumstance which could render life8 more pleasing, or death8 more terrible; and to solicit, nay, to entreat them, that they would show some compassion to themselves, to their families, and to their friends. If threats and persuasions proved ineffectual, he had often recourse to violence; the scourge and the rack were called in to supply the deficiency of argument, and every art of cruelty was employed to subdue such inflexible and, as it appeared to the Pagans8, such criminal obstinacy. The ancient8 apologists of Christianity8 have censured, with equal truth8 and severity, the irregular conduct of their persecutors, who, contrary to every principle of judicial proceeding, admitted the use8 of torture, in order to obtain not a confession but a denial of the crime which was the object of their inquiry. The monks of succeeding ages, who, in their peaceful solitudes, entertained themselves with diversifying the death8 and sufferings of the primitive martyrs, have frequently invented torments of a much more refined and ingenious nature8. In particular, it has pleased them to suppose that the zeal8 of the Roman magistrates, disdaining every consideration of moral virtue8 or public8 decency, endeavoured to seduce those whom they were unable to vanquish, and that, by their orders, the most brutal violence was offered to those whom they found it impossible to seduce. It is related that pious females, who were prepared to despise death8, were sometimes condemned to a more severe trial, and called upon to determine whether they set a higher value on their religion8 or on their chastity. The youths to whose licentious embraces they were abandoned received a solemn exhortation from the judge to exert their most strenuous efforts to maintain the honour of Venus against the impious virgin who refused to burn incense on her altars. Their violence, however, was commonly disappointed; and the seasonable interposition of some miraculous power preserved the chaste spouses of Christ from the dishonour even of an involuntary defeat. We should not, indeed, neglect to remark that the more ancient8, as well as authentic, memorials of the church8 are seldom polluted with these extravagant and indecent fictions.
The total disregard of truth and probability in the representation of these primitive martyrdoms was occasioned by a very natural mistake. The ecclesiastical writers of the fourth or fifth centuries ascribed to the magistrates of Rome23 the same degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal which filled their own breasts against the heretics or the idolaters of their own times. It is not improbable that some of those persons23 who were raised to the dignities of the empire23 might have imbibed the prejudices of the populace, and that the cruel disposition of others might occasionally be stimulated by motives of avarice or of personal resentment. But it is certain, and we may appeal to the grateful confessions of the first Christians23, that the greatest part of those magistrates who exercised in the provinces23 the authority of the emperor, or of the senate, and to whose hands alone the jurisdiction of life and death23 was entrusted, behaved like men of polished manners and liberal educations, who respected the rules of justice, and who were conversant with the precepts of philosophy. They frequently declined the odious task of persecution, dismissed the charge with contempt, or suggested to the accused Christian some legal evasion by which he might elude the severity of the laws23. Whenever they were invested with a discretionary power, they used it much less for the oppression than for the relief and benefit of the afflicted church. They were far23 from condemning all the Christians23 who were accused before their tribunal, and very far23 from punishing with death23 all those who were convicted of an obstinate adherence to the new23 superstition. Contenting themselves, for the most part, with the milder chastisements of imprisonment, exile, or slavery in the mines, they left the unhappy victims of their justice some reason to hope that a prosperous event, the accession, the marriage, or the triumph of an emperor might speedily restore them, by a general23 pardon, to their former state. The martyrs, devoted to immediate execution by the Roman23 magistrates, appear to have been selected from the most opposite extremes. They were either bishops and presbyters, the persons23 the most distinguished among the Christians23 by their rank and influence, and whose example23 might strike terror into the whole sect; or else they were the meanest and most abject among them, particularly those of the servile condition, whose lives were esteemed of little value23, and whose sufferings were viewed by the ancients with too careless an indifference. The learned Origen, who, from his experience as well as reading, was intimately acquainted with the history of the Christians23, declares, in the most express terms, that the number of martyrs was very inconsiderable. His authority would alone be sufficient to annihilate that formidable army of martyrs whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of Rome23, have replenished so many churches, and whose marvellous achievements have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance. But the general23 assertion of Origen may be explained and confirmed by the particular testimony of his friend Dionysius, who, in the immense city23 of Alexandria, and under the rigorous persecution of Decius, reckons only ten men and seven women who suffered for the profession of the Christian name.
During the same period of persecution, the zealous, the eloquent, the ambitious Cyprian governed the church, not only of Carthage, but even of Africa. He possessed every quality which could engage the reverence of the faithful or provoke the suspicions and resentment of the Pagan magistrates. His character as well as his station seemed to mark out that holy prelate as the most distinguished object of envy and of danger47. The experience, however, of the life47 of Cyprian is sufficient to prove that our fancy has exaggerated the perilous situation of a Christian bishop; and that the dangers to which he was exposed were less imminent than those which temporal ambition is always prepared to encounter in the pursuit of honours. Four Roman47 emperors, with their families, their favourites, and their adherents, perished by the sword in the space of ten years, during which the bishop of Carthage guided, by his authority47 and eloquence, the counsels of the African church. It was only in the third year of his administration that he had reason, during a few months, to apprehend the severe edicts of Decius, the vigilance of the magistrate, and the clamours of the multitude, who loudly demanded that Cyprian, the leader of the Christians, should be thrown to the lions. Prudence suggested the necessity of a temporary retreat, and the voice of prudence was obeyed. He withdrew himself into an obscure solitude, from whence he could maintain a constant correspondence with the clergy and people47 of Carthage; and, concealing himself till the tempest was past, he preserved his life47, without relinquishing either his power47 or his reputation. His extreme caution did not, however, escape the censure of the more rigid Christians who lamented, or the reproaches of his personal enemies who insulted, a conduct47 which they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the most sacred duty. The propriety of reserving himself for the future exigencies of the church, the example of several holy bishops, and the divine admonitions which, as he declares himself, he frequently received in visions and ecstacies, were the reasons alleged in his justification. But his best apology may be found in the cheerful resolution with which, about eight years afterwards, he suffered death47 in the cause of religion. The authentic history of his martyrdom has been recorded with unusual candour and impartiality. A short abstract, therefore, of its most important circumstnaces will convey the clearest information of the spirit47, and of the forms, of the Roman47 persecutions.
When Valerian was consul for the third, and Gallienus for the fourth, time, Paternus, proconsul of Africa, summoned Cyprian to appear in his private47 council-chamber. He there acquainted him with the Imperial47 mandate which he had just received, that those who had abandoned the Roman47 religion should immediately return to the practice of the ceremonies of their ancestors. Cyprian replied without hesitation that he was a Christian and a bishop, devoted to the worship of the true and only Deity, to whom he offered up his daily supplications for the safety and prosperity of the two emperors, his lawful sovereigns. With modest confidence he pleaded the privilege of a citizen, in refusing to give any answer to some invidious and, indeed, illegal questions which the proconsul had proposed. A sentence of banishment was pronounced as the penalty of Cyprian's disobedience; and he was conducted, without delay, to Curubis, a free and maritime city47 of Zeugitana, in a pleasant situation, a fertile territory, and at the distance of about forty miles from Carthage. The exiled bishop enjoyed the conveniences of life47 and the consciousness of virtue. His reputation was diffused over Africa and Italy47; an account of his behaviour was published for the edification of the Christian world; and his solitude was frequently interrupted by the letters, the visits, and the congratulations of the faithful. On the arrival of a new proconsul in the province, the fortune of Cyprian appeared for some time to wear a still more favourable aspect. He was recalled from banishment; and, though not yet permitted to return to Carthage, his own gardens in the neighbourhood of the capital were assigned for the place of his residence.
At length, exactly one year after Cyprian was first apprehended, Galerius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, received the Imperial47 warrant for the execution of the Christian teachers. The bishop of Carthage was sensible that he should be singled out for one of the first victims; and the frailty of nature tempted him to withdraw himself, by a secret47 flight, from the danger47 and the honour of martyrdom; but, soon47 recovering that fortitude which his character required, he returned to his gardens, and patiently expected the ministers of death47. Two officers of rank47, who were entrusted with that commission, placed Cyprian between them in a chariot; and, as the proconsul was not then at leisure, they conducted him, not to a prison, but to a private47 house in Carthage, which belonged to one of them. An elegant supper was provided for the entertainment of the bishop, and his Christian friends were permitted for the last time to enjoy his society, whilst the streets were filled with a multitude of the faithful, anxious and alarmed at the approaching fate of their spiritual father47. In the morning he appeared before the tribunal of the proconsul, who, after informing himself of the name and situation of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, and pressed him to reflect on the consequences of his disobedience. The refusal of Cyprian was firm and decisive; and the magistrate, when he had taken the opinion of his council, pronounced with some reluctance the sentence of death47. It was conceived in the following terms: That Thascius Cyprianus should be immediately beheaded, as the enemy of the gods of Rome47, and as the chief and ringleader of a criminal association, which he had seduced into an impious resistance against the laws of the most holy emperors, Valerian and Gallienus. The manner of his execution was the mildest and least painful that could be inflicted on a person47 convicted of any capital offence: nor was the use of torture admitted to obtain from the bishop of Carthage either the recantation of his principles or the discovery of his accomplices.
As soon44 as the sentence was proclaimed, a general44 cry of We will die with him! arose at once among the listening multitude of Christians who waited before the palace gates. The generous effusions of their zeal and affection were neither serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerous to themselves. He was led away44 under a guard of tribunes and centurions, without resistance and without insult, to the place44 of his execution, a spacious and level plain near the city44, which was already filled with great44 numbers of spectators. His faithful44 presbyters and deacons were permitted to accompany their holy bishop44. They assisted him in laying aside his upper garment, spread linen on the ground to catch the precious relics of his blood, and received44 his orders to bestow five-and-twenty pieces of gold on the executioner. The martyr then covered his face with his hands, and at one blow his head was separated from his body. His corpse remained during some hours exposed to the curiosity of the Gentiles; but in the night it was removed, and transported in a triumphal procession and with a splendid illumination to the burial-place44 of the Christians. The funeral of Cyprian was publicly celebrated without receiving any interruption from the Roman magistrates; and those among the faithful44 who had performed the last offices to his person and his memory were secure from the danger of inquiry or of punishment. It is remarkable that of so great44 a multitude of bishops in the province of Africa Cyprian was the first who was esteemed worthy to obtain the crown of martyrdom.
It was in the choice of Cyprian either to die a martyr or to live an apostate, but on that choice depended the alternative of honour or infamy. Could we suppose that the bishop of Carthage had employed the profession of the Christian8 faith8 only as the instrument of his avarice or ambition, it was still incumbent on him to support the character8 which he had assumed; and, if he possessed the smallest degree of manly fortitude, rather to expose himself to the most cruel tortures than by a single act to exchange the reputation of a whole life8 for the abhorrence of his Christian8 brethren and the contempt of the Gentile world8. But, if the zeal8 of Cyprian was supported by the sincere conviction of the truth8 of those doctrines which he preached, the crown of martyrdom must have appeared to him as an object of desire rather than of terror. It is not easy to extract any distinct ideas from the vague though eloquent declamations of the Fathers or to ascertain the degree of immortal glory and happiness8 which they confidently promised to those who were so fortunate as to shed their blood in the cause of religion8. They inculcated with becoming diligence that the fire of martyrdom supplied every defect and expiated every sin; that, while the souls of ordinary Christians8 were obliged to pass through a slow and painful purification, the triumphant sufferers entered into the immediate fruition of eternal bliss, where, in the society8 of the patriarchs, the apostles, and the prophets, they reigned with Christ, and acted as his assessors in the universal judgment of mankind8. The assurance of a lasting reputation upon earth, a motive so congenial to the vanity of human8 nature8, often served to animate the courage of the martyrs. The honours which Rome or Athens bestowed on those citizens who had fallen in the cause of their country were cold and unmeaning demonstrations of respect, when compared with the ardent gratitude and devotion8 which the primitive church8 expressed towards the victorious champions of the faith8. The annual commemoration of their virtues and sufferings was observed as a sacred8 ceremony, and at length terminated in religious8 worship8. Among the Christians8 who had publicly confessed their religious8 principles, those who (as it very frequently happened) had been dismissed from the tribunal or the prisons of the Pagan8 magistrates obtained such honours as were justly due to their imperfect martyrdom and their generous resolution. The most pious females courted the permission of imprinting kisses on the fetters which they had worn and on the wounds which they had received. Their persons were esteemed holy, their decisions were admitted with deference, and they too often abused, by their spiritual pride and licentious manners, the pre-eminence which their zeal8 and intrepidity had acquired. Distinctions like these, whilst they display the exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable number, of those who suffered and of those who died for the profession of Christianity8.
The sober discretion of the present age will more readily censure than admire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fervour of the first Christians; who, according to the lively expression of Sulpicius Severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than his own contemporaries solicited a bishopric. The epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried in chains through the cities of Asia breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans that, when he should be exposed in the amphitheatre, they would not, by their kind but unseasonable intercession, deprive him of the crown of glory; and he declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might be employed as the instruments of his death45. Some stories are related of the courage of martyrs who actually performed what Ignatius had intended; who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed the executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires which were kindled to consume them, and discovered a sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most exquisite tortures. Several examples have been preserved of a zeal impatient of those restraints which the emperors had provided for the security of the church45. The Christians sometimes supplied by their voluntary declaration the want of an accuser, rudely disturbed the public45 service of Paganism, and, rushing in crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, called upon them to pronounce and to inflict the sentence45 of the law. The behaviour of the Christians was too remarkable to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; but they seem to have considered it with much less admiration than astonishment. Incapable of conceiving the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude of believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason, they treated such an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinate despair, of stupid insensibility, or of superstitious frenzy. Unhappy men! exclaimed the proconsul Antoninus to the Christians of Asia; unhappy men! if you are thus weary of your lives, is it so difficult for you to find ropes and precipices? He was extremely cautious (as it is observed by a learned and pious45 historian) of punishing men who had found no accusers but themselves, the Imperial laws not having made any provision for so unexpected a case; condemning, therefore, a few as a warning to their brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indignation and contempt. Notwithstanding this real or affected disdain, the intrepid constancy of the faithful was productive of more salutary effects on those minds which nature or grace had disposed for the easy reception of religious truth. On these melancholy occasions, there were many among the Gentiles who pitied, who admired, and who were converted. The generous enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the spectators; and the blood of martyrs, according to a well-known observation, became the seed of the church45.
But, although devotion8 had raised, and eloquence continued to inflame, this fever of the mind8, it insensibly gave way to the more natural hopes and fears of the human8 heart, to the love of life8, the apprehension of pain, and the horror of dissolution. The more prudent rulers of the church8 found themselves obliged to restrain the indiscreet ardour of their followers, and to distrust a constancy which too often abandoned them in the hour of trial. As the lives of the faithful became less mortified and austere, they were every day less ambitious of the honours of martyrdom; and the soldiers of Christ, instead of distinguishing themselves by voluntary deeds of heroism, frequently deserted their post, and fled in confusion before the enemy whom it was their duty to resist. There were three methods, however, of escaping the flames of persecution, which were not attended with an equal degree of guilt: the first, indeed, was generally allowed to be innocent; the second was of a doubtful, or a least of a venial, nature8; but the third implied a direct and criminal apostacy from the Christian8 faith8.
I. A modern inquisitor would hear with surprise that, whenever an information was given to a Roman magistrate of any person within his jurisdiction who had embraced the sect of the Christians, the charge was communicated to the party accused, and that a convenient time was allowed him to settle his domestic concerns and to prepare an answer to the crime which was imputed to him. If he entertained any doubt of his own constancy, such a delay afforded him the opportunity of preserving his life and honour by flight, of withdrawing himself into some obscure retirement or some distant province, and of patiently expecting the return of peace and security. A measure so consonant to reason was soon authorised by the advice and example of the most holy33 prelates33, and seems to have been censured by few, except by the Montanists, who deviated into heresy33 by their strict and obstinate adherence to the rigour of ancient discipline. II. The provincial governors, whose zeal33 was less prevalent than their avarice, had countenanced the practice of selling certificates (or libels, as they were called), which attested that the persons therein mentioned had complied with the laws and sacrificed to the Roman deities. By producing these false declarations, the opulent and timid Christians were enabled to silence the malice of an informer and to reconcile, in some measure, their safety with their religion33. A slight penance atoned for this profane dissimulation. III. In every persecution33 there were great numbers of unworthy Christians who publicly disowned or renounced the faith33 which they had professed; and who confirmed the sincerity of their abjuration by the legal acts of burning incense or of offering sacrifices. Some of these apostates had yielded on the first menance or exhortation of the magistrate; whilst the patience of others had been subdued by the length and repetition of tortures. The affrighted countenances of some betrayed their inward remorse, while others advanced, with confidence and alacrity, to the altars of the gods. But the disguise which fear had imposed subsisted no longer than the present danger. As soon as the severity of the persecution33 was abated, the doors of the churches33 were assailed by the returning multitude of penitents, who detested their idolatrous submission, and who solicited, with equal ardour, but with various success, their readmission into the society of Christians.
IV. Notwithstanding the general rules established for the conviction and punishment of the Christians1, the fate of those sectaries, in an extensive and arbitrary government1, must still, in a great measure, have depended on their own behaviour, the circumstances of the times, and the temper of their supreme as well as subordinate rulers. Zeal might sometimes provoke, and prudence might sometimes avert or assuage, the superstitious fury of the Pagans. A variety of motives might dispose the provincial governors either to enforce or to relax the execution of the laws1; and of these motives the most forcible was their regard not only for the public1 edicts, but for the secret intentions of the emperor1, a glance from whose eye was sufficient to kindle or to extinguish the flames of persecution. As often as any occasional severities were exercised in the different parts of the empire1, the primitive Christians1 lamented and perhaps magnified their own sufferings; but the celebrated number of ten persecutions has been determined by the ecclesiastical1 writers of the fifth century, who possessed a more distinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes of the church1, from the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt and of the ten horns of the Apocalypse first suggested this calculation to their minds; and in their application of the faith of prophecy to the truth of history they were careful to select those reigns which were indeed the most hostile to the Christian1 cause. But these transient persecutions served only to revive the zeal, and to restore the discipline, of the faithful: and the moments of extraordinary rigour were compensated by much longer intervals of peace1 and security. The indifference of some princes1 and the indulgence of others permitted the Christians1 to enjoy, though not perhaps a legal, yet an actual and public1, toleration of their religion1.
The apology of Tertullian contains two very ancient, very singular, but at the same time very suspicious, instances of Imperial clemency; the edicts published by Tiberius and by Marcus Antoninus, and designed not only to protect the innocence of the Christians, but even to proclaim those stupendous miracles which had attested the truth of their doctrine. The first of these examples is attended with some difficulties which might perplex the sceptical mind. We are required to believe that Pontius Pilate informed the emperor20 of the unjust sentence of death which he had pronounced against an innocent, and, as it appeared, a divine, person20; and that, without acquiring the merit, he exposed himself to the danger, of martyrdom; that Tiberius, who avowed his contempt for all religion, immediately conceived the design of placing the Jewish Messiah among the gods of Rome20; that his servile senate ventured to disobey the commands of their master20; that Tiberius, instead of resenting their refusal, contented himself with protecting the Christians from the severity of the laws, many years20 before such laws were enacted, or before the church had assumed any distinct name or existence; and lastly, that the memory of this extraordinary transaction was preserved in the most public20 and authentic records, which escaped the knowledge of the historians of Greece and Rome20, and were only visible to the eyes of an African Christian, who composed his apology one hundred and sixty years20 after the death of Tiberius. The edict of Marcus Antoninus is supposed to have been the effect of his devotion and gratitude for the miraculous deliverance which he had obtained in the Marcomannic war. The distress of the legions, the seasonable tempest of rain and hail, of thunder and lightning, and the dismay and defeat of the barbarians, have been celebrated by the eloquence of several Pagan writers. If there were any Christians in that army, it was natural that they should ascribe some merit to the fervent prayers which, in the moment of danger, they had offered up for their own and the public20 safety. But we are still assured by monuments of brass and marble, by the Imperial medals, and by the Antonine column, that neither the prince20 nor the people20 entertained any sense20 of this signal obligation, since they unanimously attribute their deliverance to the providence of Jupiter and to the interposition of Mercury. During the whole course of his reign20, Marcus despised the Christians as a philosopher, and punished them as a sovereign.
By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had endured under the government47 of a virtuous prince47 immediately ceased on the accession of a tyrant47, and, as none except themselves had experienced the injustice of Marcus, so they alone were protected by the lenity of Commodus. The celebrated Marcia, the most favoured of his concubines, and who at length contrived the murder of her Imperial47 lover, entertained a singular affection for the oppressed church; and, though it was impossible that she could reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of the Gospel, she might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex and profession, by declaring herself the patroness of the Christians. Under the gracious protection of Marcia, they passed in safety the thirteen years of a cruel tyranny; and, when the empire47 was established in the house of Severus, they formed a domestic but more honourable connection with the new court. The emperor47 was persuaded that, in a dangerous sickness, he had derived some benefit, either spiritual or physical, from the holy oil with which one of his slaves had anointed him. He always treated with peculiar distinction several persons of both sexes who had embraced the new religion. The nurse as well as the preceptor of Caracalla were Christians; and, if that young prince47 ever betrayed a sentiment of humanity, it was occasioned by an incident which, however trifling, bore some relation to the cause of Christianity. Under the reign47 of Severus, the fury of the populace was checked; the rigour of ancient laws was for some time suspended; and the provincial governors were satisfied with receiving an annual present from the churches within their jurisdiction, as the price, or as the reward, of their moderation. The controversy concerning the precise time of the celebration of Easter armed the bishops of Asia and Italy47 against each other, and was considered as the most important business of this period of leisure and tranquillity. Nor was the peace of the church interrupted till the increasing numbers of proselytes seem at length to have attracted the attention, and to have alienated the mind, of Severus. With the design of restraining the progress of Christianity, he published an edict which, though it was designed to affect only the new converts, could not be carried into strict execution without exposing to danger47 and punishment the most zealous of their teachers and missionaries. In this mitigated persecution, we may still discover the indulgent spirit47 of Rome47 and of Polytheism, which so readily admitted every excuse in favour of those who practised the religious ceremonies of their fathers.
But the laws which Severus had enacted soon47 expired with the authority47 of that emperor47; and the Christians, after this accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of thirty-eight years. Till this period they had usually held their assemblies in private47 houses and sequestered places. They were now permitted to erect and consecrate convenient edifices for the purpose of religious worship; to purchase lands, even at Rome47 itself, for the use of the community; and to conduct47 the elections of their ecclesiastical ministers in so public47, but at the same time in so exemplary, a manner as to deserve the respectful attention of the Gentiles. This long47 repose of the church was accompanied with dignity. The reigns of those princes who derived their extraction from the Asiatic provinces47 proved the most favourable to the Christians; the eminent persons of the sect, instead of being reduced to implore the protection of a slave or concubine, were admitted into the palace47 in the honourable characters of priests and philosophers; and their mysterious doctrines, which were already diffused among the people47, insensibly attracted the curiosity of their sovereign47. When the empress Mammaea passed through Antioch, she expressed a desire of conversing with the celebrated Origen, the fame of whose piety and learning was spread over the East47. Origen obeyed so flattering an invitation, and, though he could not expect to succeed in the conversion of an artful and ambitious woman, she listened with pleasure to his eloquent exhortations, and honourably dismissed him to his retirement in Palestine. The sentiments of Mammaea were adopted by her son47 Alexander, and the philosophic devotion of that emperor47 was marked by a singular but injudicious regard for the Christian religion. In his domestic chapel he placed the statues of Abraham, of Orpheus, of Apollonius, and of Christ, as an honour justly due to those respectable sages who had instructed mankind in the various modes of addressing their homage to the supreme and universal deity. A purer faith, as well as worship, was openly professed and practised among his household. Bishops, perhaps for the first time, were seen at court; and after the death47 of Alexander, when the inhuman Maximin discharged his fury on the favourites and servants of his unfortunate benefactor, a great number of Christians, of every rank47, and of both sexes, were involved in the promiscuous massacre, which, on their account, has improperly received the name of Persecution.
Notwithstanding the cruel disposition of Maximin, the effects of his resentment against the Christians8 were of a very local and temporary nature8, and the pious Origen, who had been proscribed as a devoted victim, was still reserved to convey the truths of the Gospel to the ear of monarchs. He addressed several edifying letters to the emperor Philip, to his wife, and to his mother; and, as sson as that prince, who was born in the neighbourhood of Palestine, had usurped the Imperial sceptre, the Christians8 acquired a friend and a protector. The public8 and even partial favour of Philip towards the sectaries of the new religion8, and his constant reverence for the ministers of the church8, gave some colour to the suspicion, which prevailed in his own times, that the emperor himself was become a convert to the faith8; and afforded some grounds for a fable which was afterwards invented, that he had been purified by confession and penance from the guilt contracted by the murder of his innocent predecessor. The fall of Philip introduced, with the change of masters, a new system of government, so oppressive to the Christians8 that their former condition, ever since the time8 of Domitian, was represented as a state of perfect freedom and security, if compared with the rigorous treatment which they experienced under the short reign8 of Decius. The virtues of that prince will scarcely allow us to suspect that he was actuated by a mean resentment against the favourites of his predecessor, and it is more reasonable to believe that, in the prosecution of his general design to restore the purity of Roman manners, he was desirous of delivering the empire8 from what he condemned as a recent and criminal superstition8. The bishops of the most considerable cities were removed by exile or death8; the vigilance of the magistrates prevented the clergy of Rome during sixteen months from proceeding to a new election; and it was the opinion of the Christians8 that the emperor would more patiently endure a competitor for the purple than a bishop in the capital. Were it possible to suppose that the penetration of Decius had discovered pride under the disguise of humility, or that he could foresee the temporal dominion which might insensibly arise from the claims of spiritual authority, we might be less surprised that he should consider the successors of St. Peter as the most formidable rivals to those of Augustus.
The administration of Valerian was distinguished by a levity21 and inconstancy, ill-suited to the gravity of the Roman21 Censor. In the first part of his reign21, he surpassed in clemency those princes21 who had been suspected of an attachment to the Christian faith. In the last three years and a half, listening to the insinuations of a minister addicted to the superstitions of Egypt, he adopted the maxims, and imitated the severity, of his predecessor Decius. The accession of Gallienus, which increased the calamities of the empire, restored peace to the church; and the Christians obtained the free21 exercise of their religion, by an edict addressed to the bishops and conceived in such terms as seemed to acknowledge their office and public21 character. The ancient laws, without being formally repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion; and (excepting only some hostile intentions which are attributed to the emperor Aurelian) the disciples of Christ passed above forty years in a state of prosperity, far more dangerous to their virtue than the severest trials of persecution.
The story of Paul of Samosata, who filled the metropolitan see of Antioch, while the East was in the hands of Odenathus and Zenobia, may serve to illustrate the condition and character8 of the times. The wealth of that prelate was a sufficient evidence of his guilt, since it was neither derived from the inheritance of his fathers nor acquired by the arts of honest industry. But Paul considered the service of the church8 as a very lucrative profession. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction was venal and rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from the most opulent of the faithful, and converted to his own use8 a considerable part of the public8 revenue. By his pride and luxury the Christian8 religion8 was rendered odious in the eyes of the Gentiles. His council chamber and his throne, the splendour with which he appeared in public8, the suppliant crowd who solicited his attention, the multitude of letters and petitions to which he dictated his answers, and the perpetual hurry of business in which he was involved, were circumstances much better suited to the state of a civil magistrate than to the humility of a primitive bishop. When he harangued his people from the pulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and the theatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the loudest and most extravagant acclamations in the praise of his divine8 eloquence. Against those who resisted his power, or refused to flatter his vanity, the prelate of Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; but he relaxed the discipline, and lavished the treasures, of the church8 on his dependent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their master in the gratification of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himself very freely in the pleasures of the table, and he had received into the episcopal palace two young and beautiful women, as the constant companions of his leisure moments.
Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of Samosata had preserved the purity of the orthodox faith, his reign3 over the capital of Syria would have ended only with his life; and, had a seasonable persecution intervened, an effort of courage might perhaps have placed him in the rank of saints and martyrs. Some nice and subtle errors, which he imprudently adopted and obstinately maintained, concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, excited the zeal and indignation of the Eastern churches. From Egypt to the Euxine Sea, the bishops were in arms3 and in motion. Several councils were held, confutations were published, excommunications were pronounced, ambiguous explanations were by turns accepted and refused, treaties were concluded and violated, and, at length, Paul of Samosata was degraded from his episcopal character, by the sentence of seventy or eighty bishops, who assembled for that purpose at Antioch, and who, without consulting the rights of the clergy or people, appointed a successor by their own authority. The manifest irregularity of this proceeding increased the numbers of the discontented faction; and as Paul, who was no stranger to the arts of courts, had insinuated himself into the favour of Zenobia, he maintained above four years3 the possession of the episcopal house and office. The victory3 of Aurelian changed the face of the East3, and the two contending parties, who applied to each other the epithets of schism and heresy, were either commanded or permitted to plead their cause before the tribunal of the conqueror. This public and very singular trial affords a convincing proof that the existence, the property, the privileges, and the internal policy of the Christians were acknowledged, if not by the laws, at least by the magistrates, of the empire3. As a Pagan and as a soldier, it could scarcely be expected that Aurelian should enter into the discussion, whether the sentiments of Paul or those of his adversaries were most agreeable to the true standard of the orthodox faith. His determination, however, was founded on the general3 principles of equity and reason. He considered the bishops of Italy as the most impartial and respectable judges among the Christians, and, as soon3 as he was informed that they had unanimously approved the sentence of the council, he acquiesced in their opinion, and immediately gave orders that Paul should be compelled to relinquish the temporal possessions belonging to an office of which, in the judgment of his brethren, he had been regularly deprived. But, while we applaud the justice, we should not overlook the policy, of Aurelian; who was desirous of restoring and cementing the dependence of the provinces3 on the capital by every means which could bind the interest or prejudices of any part of his subjects.
Amidst the frequent revolutions of the empire8, the Christians8 still flourished in peace and prosperity; and, notwithstanding a celebrated era of martyrs has been deduced from the accession of Diocletian, the new system of policy, introduced and maintained by the wisdom of that prince, continued, during more than eighteen years, to breathe the mildest and most liberal spirit of religious8 toleration. The mind8 of Diocletian himself was less adapted indeed to speculative inquiries than to the active labours of war and government. His prudence rendered him averse to any great innovation, and, though his temper was not very susceptible of zeal8 or enthusiasm, he always maintained an habitual regard for the ancient8 deities of the empire8. But the leisure of the two empresses, of his wife Prisca and of Valeria his daughter, permitted them to listen with more attention and respect to the truths of Christianity8, which in every age8 has acknowledged its important obligations to female devotion8. The principal eunuchs, Lucian and Dorotheus, Gorgonius and Andrew, who attended the person, possessed the favour, and governed the household of Diocletian, protected by their powerful influence the faith8 which they had embraced. Their example was imitated by many of the most considerable officers of the palace, who, in their respective stations, had the care of the Imperial ornaments, of the robes, of the furniture, of the jewels, and even of the private8 treasury; and, though it might sometimes be incumbent on them to accompany the emperor when he sacrificed in the temple8, they enjoyed, with their wives, their children, and their slaves, the free exercise of the Christian8 religion8. Diocletian and his colleagues frequently conferred the most important offices on those persons who avowed their abhorrence for the worship8 of the gods8, but who had displayed abilities proper for the service of the state. The bishops held an honourable rank in their respective provinces, and were treated with distinction and respect, not only by the people, but by the magistrates themselves. Almost in every city, the ancient8 churches were found insufficient to contain the increasing multitude of proselytes; and in their place more stately and capacious edifices were erected for the public8 worship8 of the faithful. The corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly lamented by Eusebius, may be considered, not only as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians8 enjoyed and abused under the reign8 of Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which every day became an object more worthy of their ambition. The bishops, who contended with each other for ecclesiastical pre-eminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church8; and the lively faith8 which still distinguished the Christians8 from the Gentiles was shewn much less in their lives than in their controversial writings.
Notwithstanding this seeming security, an attentive observer might discern some symptoms that threatened the church8 with a more violent persecution than any which she had yet endured. The zeal8 and rapid progress of the Christians8 awakened the Polytheists from their supine indifference in the cause of those deities whom custom and education had taught them to revere. The mutual provocations of a religious8 war, which had already continued above two hundred years, exasperated the animosity of the contending parties. The Pagans8 were incensed at the rashness of a recent and obscure sect which presumed to accuse their countrymen of error and to devote their ancestors to eternal misery. The habits of justifying the popular mythology against the invectives of an implacable enemy produced in their minds some sentiments of faith8 and reverence for a system which they had been accustomed to consider with the most careless levity. The supernatural powers assumed by the church8 inspired at the same time8 terror and emulation. The followers of the established religion8 intrenched themselves behind a similar fortification of prodigies; invented new modes of sacrifice, of expiation, and of initiation; attempted to revive the credit of their expiring oracles; and listened with eager credulity to every impostor who flattered their prejudices by a tale of wonders. Both parties seemed to acknowledge the truth8 of those miracles which were claimed by their adversaries; and, while they were contented with ascribing them to the arts of magic and to the power of daemons, they mutually concurred in restoring and establishing the reign8 of superstition8. Philosophy, her most dangerous enemy, was now converted into her most useful ally. The groves of the academy, the gardens of Epicurus, and even the portico of the Stoics were almost deserted, as so many different schools of scepticism or impiety; and many among the Romans were desirous that the writings of Cicero should be condemned and suppressed by the authority of the senate. The prevailing sect of the new Platonicians judged it prudent to connect themselves with the priests, whom perhaps they despised, against the Christians8, whom they had reason8 to fear. These fashionable philosophers prosecuted the design of extracting allegorical wisdom from the fictions of the Greek poets; instituted mysterious rites of devotion8 for the use8 of their chosen disciples; recommended the worship8 of the ancient8 gods8 as the emblems or ministers of the Supreme Deity8, and composed against the faith8 of the Gospel many elaborate treatises, which have since been committed to the flames by the prudence of orthodox emperors.
Although the policy of Diocletian and the humanity of Constantius inclined them to preserve inviolate the maxims of toleration, it was soon47 discovered that their two associates Maximian and Galerius entertained the most implacable aversion for the name and religion of the Christians. The minds of those princes had never been enlightened by science; education had never softened their temper. They owed their greatness to their swords, and in their most elevated fortune they still retained their superstitious prejudices of soldiers47 and peasants. In the general47 administration of the provinces47 they obeyed the laws which their benefactor had established; but they frequently found occasions of exercising within their camp and palaces a secret47 persecution, for which the imprudent zeal of the Christians sometimes offered the most specious pretences. A sentence of death47 was executed upon Maximilianus, an African youth, who had been produced by his own father47 before the magistrate as a sufficient and legal recruit, but who obstinately persisted in declaring that his conscience would not permit him to embrace the profession of a soldier. It could scarcely be expected that any government47 should suffer the action of Marcellus the centurion to pass with impunity. On the day of a public47 festival, that officer threw away his belt, his arms47 and the ensigns of his office, and exclaimed with a loud voice that he would obey none but Jesus Christ the eternal King, and that he renounced for ever the use of carnal weapons and the service of an idolatrous master47. The soldiers47, as soon47 as they recovered from their astonishment, secured the person47 of Marcellus. He was examined in the city47 of Tingi by the president of that part of Mauritania; and, as he was convicted by his own confession, he was condemned and beheaded for the crime of desertion. Examples of such a nature savour much less of religious persecution than of martial or even civil47 law: but they served to alienate the mind of the emperors, to justify the severity of Galerius, who dismissed a great number of Christian officers from their employments, and to authorise the opinion that a sect of enthusiasts which avowed principles so repugnant to the public47 safety must either remain useless, or would soon47 become dangerous, subjects of the empire47.
After the success of the Persian war47 had raised the hopes and the reputation of Galerius, he passed a winter with Diocletian in the palace47 of Nicomedia; and the fate of Christianity became the object of their secret47 consultations. The experienced emperor47 was still inclined to pursue measures of lenity; and, though he readily consented to exclude the Christians from holding any employments in the household or the army47, he urged in the strongest terms the danger47 as well as cruelty of shedding the blood of those deluded fanatics. Galerius at length extorted from him the permission of summoning a council, composed of a few persons the most distinguished in the civil47 and military47 departments of the state. The important question was agitated in their presence, and those ambitious courtiers easily discerned that it was incumbent on them to second, by their eloquence, the importunate violence of the Caesar. It may be presumed that they insisted on every topic which might interest the pride, the piety, or the fears of their sovereign47 in the destruction of Christianity. Perhaps they represented that the glorious work of the deliverance of the empire47 was left imperfect, as long47 as an independent people47 was permitted to subsist and multiply in the heart of the provinces47. The Christians (it might speciously be alleged), renouncing the gods and the institutions of Rome47, had constituted a distinct republic, which might yet be suppressed before it had acquired any military47 force; but which was already governed by its own laws and magistrates, was possessed of a public47 treasure, and was intimately connected in all its parts by the frequent assemblies of the bishops, to whose decrees their numerous and opulent congregations yielded an implicit obedience. Arguments like these may seem to have determined the reluctant mind of Diocletian to embrace a new system of persecution: but, though we may suspect, it is not in our power47 to relate, the secret47 intrigues of the palace47, the private47 views and resentments, the jealousy of women or eunuchs, and all those trifling but decisive causes which so often influence the fate of empires and the councils of the wisest monarchs.
The pleasure of the emperors was at length signified to the Christians, who, during the course of this melancholy winter, had expected, with anxiety, the result of so many secret47 consultations. The twenty-third of February, which coincided with the Roman47 festival of the Terminalia, was appointed (whether from accident or design) to set bounds to the progress of Christianity. At the earliest dawn of day, the Praetorian prefect47, accompanied by several generals, tribunes, and officers of the revenue, repaired to the principal church of Nicomedia, which was situated on an eminence in the most populous and beautiful part of the city47. The doors were instantly broken open; they rushed into the sanctuary; and, as they searched in vain for some visible object of worship, they were obliged to content themselves with committing to the flames the volumes of holy scripture. The ministers of Diocletian were followed by a numerous body of guards and pioneers, who marched in order of battle, and were provided with all the instruments used in the destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant labour, a sacred edifice, which towered above the Imperial47 palace47, and had long47 excited the indignation and envy of the Gentiles, was in a few hours levelled with the ground.
The next day the general47 edict of persecution was published; and, though Diocletian, still averse to the effusion of blood, had moderated the fury of Galerius, who proposed that every one refusing to offer sacrifice should immediately be burnt alive, the penalties inflicted on the obstinacy of the Christians might be deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. It was enacted that their churches, in all the provinces47 of the empire47, should be demolished to their foundations; and the punishment of death47 was denounced against all who should presume to hold any secret47 assemblies for the purpose of religious worship. The philosophers, who now assumed the unworthy office of directing the blind zeal of persecution, had diligently studied the nature and genius of the Christian religion; and, as they were not ignorant that the speculative doctrines of the faith were supposed to be contained in the writings of the prophets, of the evangelists, and of the apostles, they most probably suggested the order that the bishops and presbyters should deliver all their sacred books into the hands of the magistrates; who were commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn them in a public47 and solemn manner. By the same edict, the property of the church was at once confiscated; and the several parts of which it might consist were either sold to the highest bidder, united to the Imperial47 domain, bestowed on the cities and corporations, or granted to the solicitations of rapacious courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to abolish the worship, and to dissolve the government47 of the Christians, it was thought necessary to subject to the most intolerable hardships the condition of those perverse individuals who should still reject the religion of Nature, of Rome47, and of their ancestors. Persons of a liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any honours or employments; slaves were for ever deprived of the hopes of freedom, and the whole body of the people47 were put out of the protection of the law. The judges were authorised to hear and to determine every action that was brought against a Christian. But the Christians were not permitted to complain of any injury which they themselves had suffered; and thus those unfortunate sectaries were exposed to the severity, while they were excluded from the benefits, of public47 justice47. This new species of martyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and ignominious, was, perhaps, the most proper to weary the constancy of the faithful; nor can it be doubted that the passions and interest of mankind were disposed on this occasion to second the designs of the emperors. But the policy of a well-ordered government47 must sometimes have interposed in behalf of the oppressed Christians; nor was it possible for the Roman47 princes entirely to remove the apprehension of punishment, or to connive at every act of fraud and violence, without exposing their own authority47 and the rest of their subjects to the most alarming dangers.
This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public47 view, in the most conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it was torn down by the hands of a Christian, who expressed, at the same time, by the bitterest invectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence for such impious and tyrannical governors. His offence, according to the mildest laws, amounted to treason, and deserved death47. And, if it be true that he was a person47 of rank47 and education, those circumstances could serve only to aggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire; and his executioners, zealous to revenge the personal insult which had been offered to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty, without being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady and insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The Christians, though they confessed that his conduct47 had not been strictly conformable to the laws of prudence, admired the divine fervour of his zeal; and the excessive commendations which they lavished on the memory of their hero and martyr contributed to fix a deep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian.
His fears were soon47 alarmed by the view of a danger47 from which he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace47 of Nicomedia, and even the bed-chamber of Diocletian, were twice in flames; and, though both times they were extinguished without any material damage, the singular repetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident proof that it had not been the effect of chance or negligence. The suspicion naturally fell on the Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree of probability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by their present sufferings and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entered into a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the palace47, against the lives of two emperors, whom they detested as the irreconcilable enemies of the church of God. Jealousy and resentment prevailed in every breast, but especially in that of Diocletian. A great number of persons, distinguished either by the offices which they had filled or by the favour which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison. Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as city47, was polluted with many bloody executions. But, as it was found impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or to admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few days afterwards Galerius hastily withdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring that, if he delayed his departure from that devoted palace47, he should fall a sacrifice to the rage of the Christians. The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alone we derive a partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss how to account for the fears and dangers of the emperors. Two of these writers, a Prince47 and a Rhetorician, were eye-witnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to lightning and the divine wrath; the other affirms that it was kindled by the malice of Galerius himself.
As the edict against the Christians was designed for a general47 law of the whole empire47, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they might not wait for the consent, were assured of the concurrence, of the Western princes, it would appear more consonant to our ideas of policy that the governors of all the provinces47 should have received secret47 instructions to publish, on one and the same day, this declaration of war47 within their respective departments. It was at least to be expected that the convenience of the public47 highways and established posts would have enabled the emperors to transmit their orders with the utmost despatch from the palace47 of Nicomedia to the extremities of the Roman47 world; and that they would not have suffered fifty days to elapse before the edict was published in Syria, and near four months before it was signified to the cities of Africa. This delay may perhaps be imputed to the cautious temper of Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to the measures of persecution, and who was desirous of trying the experiment under his more immediate eye, before he gave way to the disorders and discontent which it must inevitably occasion in the distant provinces47. At first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained from the effusion of blood; but the use of every other severity was permitted and even recommended to their zeal; nor could the Christians, though they cheerfully resigned the ornaments of their churches, resolve to interrupt their religious assemblies or to deliver their sacred books to the flames. The pious obstinacy of Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed the subordinate ministers of the government47. The curator of his city47 sent him in chains to the proconsul. The proconsul transmitted him to the Praetorian prefect47 of Italy47; and Felix, who disdained even to give an evasive answer, was at length beheaded at Venusia, in Lucania, a place on which the birth of Horace has conferred fame. This precedent, and perhaps some Imperial47 rescript, which was issued in consequence of it, appeared to authorise the governors of provinces47 in punishing with death47 the refusal of the Christians to deliver up their sacred books. There were undoubtedly many persons who embraced this opportunity of obtaining the crown of martyrdom; but there were likewise too many who purchased an ignominious life47 by discovering and betraying the holy scripture into the hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance, the opprobrious epithet of Traditors; and their offence was productive of much present scandal, and of much future discord, in the African church.
The copies, as well as the versions, of scripture were already so multiplied in the empire that the most severe inquisition could no longer44 be attended with any fatal consequences; and even the sacrifice of those volumes which, in every congregation, were preserved for public44 use required the consent of some treacherous and unworthy Christians. But the ruin of the churches was easily effected by the authority of the government and by the labour of the Pagans. In some provinces, however, the magistrates contented themselves with shutting up the places of religious worship. In others, they more literally complied with the terms of the edict; and, after taking away44 the doors, the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt, as it were in a funeral pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice. It is perhaps to this melancholy occasion that we should apply a very remarkable story, which is related with so many circumstances of variety and improbability that it serves rather to excite than to satisfy our curiosity. In a small town in Phrygia, of whose name as well as situation we are left ignorant, it should seem that the magistrates and the body of the people had embraced the Christian faith; and, as some resistance might be apprehended to the execution of the edict, the governor of the province was supported by a numerous detachment of legionaries. On their approach the citizens threw themselves into the church, with the resolution either of defending by arms that sacred edifice or of perishing in its ruins. They indignantly rejected the notice and permission which was given them to retire, till the soldiers44, provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on all sides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of martyrdom, a great44 number of Phrygians, with their wives and children.
Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed almost as soon47 as excited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies of the church a very plausible occasion to insinuate that those troubles had been secretly fomented by the intrigues of the bishops, who had already forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive and unlimited obedience. The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian at length transported him beyond the bounds of moderation which he had hitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts, his intention of abolishing the Christian name. By the first of these edicts, the governors of the provinces47 were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order; and the prisons, destined for the vilest criminals, were soon47 filled with a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict, the magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity which might reclaim them from their odious superstition and oblige them to return to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous order was extended by a subsequent edict to the whole body of Christians, who were exposed to a violent and general47 persecution. Instead of those salutary restraints, which had required the direct and solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as well as the interest of the Imperial47 officers to discover, to pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced against all who should presume to save a proscribed sectary from the just indignation of the gods, and of the emperors. Yet, notwithstanding the severity of this law, the virtuous courage of many of the Pagans, in concealing their friends or relations, affords an honourable proof that the rage of superstition had not extinguished in their minds the sentiments of nature and humanity.
Diocletian had no sooner published his edicts against the Christians1 than, as if he had been desirous of committing to other hands the work of persecution, he divested himself of the Imperial purple. The character and situation of his colleagues and successors1 sometimes urged them to enforce, and sometimes inclined them to suspend the execution of these rigorous laws1; nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea of this important period of ecclesiastical1 history, unless we separately consider the state1 of Christianity, in the different parts of the empire1, during the space of ten years1, which elapsed between the first edicts of Diocletian and the final peace1 of the church1.
The mild and humane temper of Constantius was averse to the oppression of any part of his subjects1. The principal offices of his palace were exercised by Christians1. He loved their persons, esteemed their fidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their religious principles. But, as long1 as Constantius remained in the subordinate station of Caesar, it was not in his power1 openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian or to disobey the commands of Maximian. His authority1 contributed, however, to alleviate the sufferings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented, with reluctance, to the ruin of the churches; but he ventured to protect the Christians1 themselves from the fury of the populace and from the rigour of the laws1. The provinces1 of Gaul (under which we may probably include those of Britain) were indebted for the singular tranquillity which they enjoyed to the gentle interposition of their sovereign. But Datianus, the president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy1, chose rather to execute the public1 edicts of the emperors1 than to understand the secret intentions of Constantius; and it can scarcely be doubted that his provincial administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs. The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity of Augustus gave a free scope to the exercise of his virtues, and the shortness of his reign1 did not prevent him from establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the precept and the example to his son Constantine1. His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession declaring himself the protector of the church1, at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor1 who publicly professed and established the Christian1 religion1. The motives of his conversion, as they may variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy1, from conviction, or from remorse; and the progress of the revolution which, under his powerful influence, and that of his sons, rendered Christianity the reigning religion1 of the Roman1 empire1, will form a very interesting and important chapter in the third volume of this history. At present it may be sufficient to observe that every victory of Constantine1 was productive of some relief or benefit to the church1.
The provinces47 of Italy47 and Africa experienced a short but violent persecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long47 hated the Christians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the two emperors met at Rome47 to celebrate their triumph; several oppressive laws appear to have issued from their secret47 consultations, and the diligence of the magistrates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns. After Diocletian had divested himself of the purple, Italy47 and Africa were administered under the name of Severus, and were exposed, without defence, to the implacable resentment of his master47 Galerius. Among the martyrs of Rome47, Adauctus deserves the notice of posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy47, and had raised himself, through the successive honours of the palace47, to the important office of treasurer of the private47 demesnes. Adauctus is the more remarkable for being the only person47 of rank47 and distinction who appears to have suffered death47 during the whole course of this general47 persecution.
The revolt of Maxentius immediately restored peace to the churches of Italy47 and Africa; and the same tyrant47 who oppressed every other class of his subjects showed himself just, humane, and even partial towards the afflicted Christians. He depended on their gratitude and affection, and very naturally presumed that the injuries which they had suffered, and the dangers which they still apprehended from his most inveterate enemy, would secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by their numbers and opulence. Even the conduct47 of Maxentius towards the bishops of Rome47 and Carthage may be considered as the proof of his toleration, since it is probable that the most orthodox princes would adopt the same measures with regard to their established clergy. Marcellus, the former of those prelates, had thrown the capital into confusion by the severe penance which he imposed on a great number of Christians, who, during the late persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion. The rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions; the blood of the faithful was shed by each other's hands; and the exile of Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less eminent than his zeal, was found to be the only measure capable of restoring peace to the distracted church of Rome47. The behaviour of Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, appears to have been still more reprehensible. A deacon of that city47 had published a libel against the emperor47. The offender took refuge in the episcopal palace47; and, though it was somewhat early to advance any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refused to deliver him up to the officers of justice47. For this treasonable resistance, Mensurius was summoned to court, and, instead of receiving a legal sentence of death47 or banishment, he was permitted, after a short examination, to return to his diocese. Such was the happy condition of the Christian subjects of Maxentius that, whenever they were desirous of procuring for their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged to purchase them from the most distant provinces47 of the East47. A story is related of Aglae, a Roman47 lady, descended from a consular family, and possessed of so ample an estate that it required the management of severnty-three stewards. Among these, Boniface was the favourite of his mistress; and, as Aglae mixed love with devotion, it is reported that he was admitted to share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratify the pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from the East47. She entrusted Boniface with a considerable sum of gold and a large quantity of aromatics; and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen and three covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as far as Tarsus in Cilicia.
The sanguinary temper of Galerius39, the first and principal author of the persecution, was formidable to those Christians39 whom their misfortunes had placed within the limits of his dominions; and it may fairly be presumed that many persons of a middle rank, who were not confined by the chains either of wealth or of poverty, very frequently39 deserted their native39 country39, and sought a refuge in the milder climate of the West. As long39 as he commanded39 only the armies and provinces39 of Illyricum, he could with difficulty either find or make a considerable number39 of martyrs, in a warlike country39, which had entertained the missionaries of the Gospel with more coldness and reluctance than any other part of the empire39. But, when Galerius39 had obtained39 the supreme power39 and the government of the East, he indulged in their fullest extent his zeal39 and cruelty, not only in the provinces39 of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt39, where Maximin gratified his own inclination by yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor. The frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of Galerius39, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people or to subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Licinius and Constantine39, a general39 edict, which, after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles, proceeded in the following39 manner:
Among the important cares which have occupied our mind8 for the utility and preservation of the empire8, it was our intention to correct and re-establish all things according to the ancient8 laws8 and public8 discipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiming, into the way of reason8 and nature8, the deluded Christians8, who had renounced the religion8 and ceremonies instituted by their fathers, and, presumptuously despising the practice8 of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws8 and opinions, according to the dictates of their fancy, and had collected a various8 society8 from the different provinces of our empire8. The edicts which we have published to enforce the worship8 of the gods8, having exposed many of the Christians8 to danger and distress, many having suffered death8, and many more, who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of any public8 exercise of religion8, we are disposed to extend to those unhappy men the effects of our wonted clemency. We permit them, therefore, freely to profess their private8 opinions, and to assemble in their conventicles without fear or molestation, provided always that they preserve a due respect to the established laws8 and government. By another rescript we shall signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates; and we hope that our indulgence will engage the Christians8 to offer up their prayers to the Deity8 whom they adore, for our safety and prosperity, for their own, and for that of the republic. It is not usually in the language of edicts and manifestoes that we should search for the real character8 or the secret motives of princes; but, as these were the words of a dying emperor, his situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity.
When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well assured that Licinius would readily comply with the inclinations of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in favour of the Christians would obtain the approbation of Constantine. But the emperor3 would not venture to insert in the preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to the provinces3 of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new reign3, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and, though he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus, his Praetorian prefect, addressed a circular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the provinces3, expatiating on the Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, great3 numbers of Christians were released from prison or delivered from the mines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest solicited with tears of repentance their re-admission into the bosom of the church.
But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could the Christians1 of the East place any confidence in the character of their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the objects, of persecution. The emperor1 was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom he revered as the favourites of heaven, were frequently raised to the government1 of provinces1 and admitted into his most secret counsels. They easily convinced him that the Christians1 had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness of Polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion1. A system of government1 was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from the policy1 of the church1. In all the great cities of the empire1, the temples were repaired and beautified by the order1 of Maximin; and the officiating priests of the various deities were subjected to the authority1 of a superior pontiff, destined to oppose the bishop1 and to promote the cause of Paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in their turn, the supreme jurisdiction1 of the metropolitans or high priests of the province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperor1 himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity; and these new1 prelates were carefully selected from the most noble and opulent families. By the influence of the magistrates1 and of the sacerdotal order1, a great number of dutiful addresses were obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre, which artfully represented the well-known intentions of the court as the general sense of the people1; solicited the emperor1 to consult the laws1 of justice1 rather than the dictates of his clemency; expressed their abhorrence of the Christians1; and humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might at least be excluded from the limits of their respective territories. The answer of Maximin to the address which he obtained from the citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction, descants on the obstinate impiety of the Christians1, and betrays, by the readiness with which he consents to their banishment, that he considered himself as receiving, rather than as conferring, an obligation. The priests, as well as the magistrates1, were empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables of brass; and, though it was recommended to them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishments were inflicted on the refractory Christians1.
The Asiatic Christians had everything to dread from the severity of a bigoted monarch, who prepared his measures of violence with such deliberate policy22. But a few months had scarcely elapsed before the edicts published by the two Western emperors22 obliged Maximin to suspend the prosecution of his designs: the civil war22, which he so rashly undertook against Licinius, employed all his attention; and the defeat and death22 of Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and most implacable of her enemies.
In this general view of the persecution, which was first authorised by the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of the Christian8 martyrs. It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most ancient8 acts, to collect a long series of horrid and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts and more savage executioners, could inflict on the human8 body. These melancholy scenes might be enlivened by a crowd of visions and miracles destined either to delay the death8, to celebrate the triumph, or to discover the relics, of those canonised saints who suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought to believe. The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion8. Such an acknowledgment will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the fundamental laws8 of history has not paid a very strict regard to the observance of the other; and the suspicion will derive additional credit from the character8 of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with credulity, and more practised in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his contemporaries. On some particular occasions, when the magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest or resentment, when the zeal8 of the martyrs urged them to forget the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturn the altars, to pour out imprecations against the emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed that every mode of torture, which cruelty could invent or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those devoted victims. Two circumstances, however, have been unwarily mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment of the Christians8 who had been apprehended by the officers of justice was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been. 1. The confessors who were condemned to work in the mines were permitted, by the humanity or the negligence of their keepers, to build chapels and freely to profess their religion8 in the midst of those dreary habitations. 2. The bishops were obliged to check and to censure the forward zeal8 of the Christians8, who voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the magistrates. Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious death8. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement would expiate the sins of a whole life8; and others, again, were actuated by the less honourable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms which the charity of the faithful bestowed on the prisoners. After the church8 had triumphed over all her enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to magnify the merit of their respective suffering. A convenient distance of time8 or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs, whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every difficulty and of silencing every objection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honour of the church8, were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history.
The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and torture, are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of an artful orator that we are naturally induced to inquire into a fact of a more distinct and stubborn kind: the number of persons who suffered death, in consequence of the edicts published by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors1. The recent legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at once swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more ancient1 writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal effusion of loose and tragical invectives, without condescending to ascertain the precise number of those persons who were permitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel. From the history of Eusebius, it may however be collected that only nine bishops1 were punished with death; and we are assured, by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, that no more than ninety-two Christians1 were entitled to that honourable appellation. As we are unacquainted with the degree of episcopal zeal and courage which prevailed at that time, it is not in our power1 to draw any useful inferences from the former of these facts; but the latter may serve to justify a very important and probable conclusion. According to the distribution of Roman1 provinces1, Palestine may be considered as the sixteenth part of the Eastern empire1; and since there were some governors who, from a real or affected clemency, had preserved their hands unstained with the blood of the faithful, it is reasonable to believe that the country which had given birth to Christianity produced at least the sixteenth part of the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of Galerius and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to about fifteen hundred; a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten years1 of the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the provinces1 of Italy1, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where, at the end of two or three years1, the rigour of the penal laws1 was either suspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians1 in the Roman1 empire1 on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicial sentence will be reduced to somewhat less than two thousand persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians1 were more numerous, and their enemies more exasperated, in the time of Diocletian, than they had ever been in any former persecution, this probable and moderate computation may teach us to estimate the number of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity into the world.
We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth which obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting, without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still be acknowledged that the Christians1, in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on each other than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels. During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of the Roman1 empire1 in the West, the bishops1 of the Imperial city1 extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy1 of the Latin church1. The fabric of superstition which they had erected, and which might long1 have defied the feeble efforts of reason, was at length assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, assumed1 the popular character of reformers. The church1 of Rome1 defended by violence the empire1 which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace1 and benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, wars, massacres, and the institution of the holy office1. And, as the reformers were animated by the love of civil1, as well as of religious, freedom1, the Catholic princes1 connected their own interest with that of the clergy1, and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone, more than one hundred thousand of the subjects1 of Charles the Fifth are said to have suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this extraordinary number is attested by Grotius, a man of genius and learning, who preserved his moderation amidst the fury of contending sects, and who composed the annals of his own age and country, at a time when the invention of printing had facilitated the means of intelligence and increased the danger of detection. If we are obliged to submit our belief to the authority1 of Grotius, it must be allowed that the number of Protestants who were executed in a single province and a single reign1 far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries and of the Roman1 empire1. But, if the improbability of the fact itself should prevail over the weight of evidence; if Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit and sufferings of the Reformers; we shall be naturally led to inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and imperfect monuments of ancient1 credulity; what degree of credit can be assigned to a courtly bishop1, and a passionate declaimer, who, under the protection of Constantine1, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of recording the persecutions inflicted on the Christians1 by the vanquished rivals, or disregarded predecessors, of their gracious sovereign.
The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness, and the last captive who adorned the triumph, of Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman10 empire10: a new10 capital, a new10 policy, and a new10 religion10; and the innovations which he established have been embraced and consecrated by succeeding generations. The age10 of the great Constantine and his sons is filled with important events; but the historian must be oppressed by their number and variety, unless he diligently separates from each other the scenes which are connected only by the order of time. He will describe the political institutions that gave strength10 and stability to the empire10, before he proceeds to relate the wars and revolutions which hastened its decline. He will adopt the division, unknown to the ancients, of civil10 and ecclesiastical affairs: the victory of the Christians and their intestine discord will supply copious and distinct materials both for edification and for scandal.
After the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious rival proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign46 in future times the mistress of the East, and to survive the empire46 and religion of Constantine. The motives, whether of pride or of policy, which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the ancient seat of government, had acquired additional weight by the example of his successors and the habits of forty years46. Rome46 was insensibly confounded with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her supremacy; and the country46 of the Caesars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial prince, born in the neighbourhood of the Danube, educated in the courts and armies of Asia, and invested with the purple by the legions of Britain. The Italians, who had received Constantine as their deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes condescended to address to the senate and people46 of Rome46; but they were seldom honoured with the presence of their new sovereign. During the vigour of his age46, Constantine, according to the various exigencies of peace and war, moved with slow dignity46, or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But, as he gradually reached the summit of prosperity46 and the decline of life46, he began to meditate the design of fixing in a more permanent station the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In the choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the confines of Europe and Asia; to curb, with a powerful arm, the barbarians who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty. With these views Diocletian had selected and embellished the residence of Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian was justly abhorred by the protector of the church; and Constantine was not insensible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the glory46 of his own name. During the late operations of the war against Licinius, he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate, both as a soldier and as a statesman, the incomparable position of Byzantium; and to observe how strongly it was guarded by Nature46 against an hostile attack, whilst it was accessible on every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse. Many ages before Constantine, one of the most judicious historians of antiquity had described the advantages of a situation, from whence a feeble colony of Greeks derived the command of the sea and the honours of a flourishing and independent republic.
If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with the august name of Constantinople, the figure of the Imperial city9 may be represented under that of an unequal triangle. The obtuse point, which advances towards the east and the shores of Asia9, meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bosphorus. The northern side of the city9 is bounded by the harbour; and the southern is washed by the Propontis, or sea9 of Marmara. The basis of the triangle is opposed to the west9, and terminates the continent of Europe9. But the admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be clearly or sufficiently understood.
The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine flow with a rapid and incessant course towards the Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the history than in the fables of antiquity. A crowd of temples and of votive altars, profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks9, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine. On these banks9 tradition long9 preserved the memory of the palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene harpies; and of the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat of the Cestus. The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, according to the description of the poets, had once floated on the face of the waters, and were destined by the gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity. From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantium, the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen miles9, and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at about one mile and a half. The new9 castles of Europe9 and Asia9 are constructed, on either continent, upon the foundations of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of Jupiter Urius. The old castles, a work of the Greek emperors, command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where the opposite banks9 advance within five hundred paces of each other. These fortresses were restored and strengthened by Mahomet the Second, when he meditated the siege of Constantinople: but the Turkish conqueror was most probably ignorant that, near two thousand9 years before his reign, Darius had chosen the same situation to connect the two continents by a bridge of boats. At a small distance from the old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which may almost be considered as the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and Chalcedon. The latter of those cities9 was built by the Greeks, a few years before the former; and the blindness of its founders, who overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast9, has been stigmatised by a proverbial expression of contempt.
The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm of the Bosphorus, obtained, in a very remote period, the denomination of the Golden Horn. The curve which it describes might be compared to the horn of a stag, or, as it should seem, with more propriety, to that of an ox. The epithet of golden was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted from the most distant countries into the secure and capacious port of Constantinople. The river9 Lycus, formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the harbour a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess. As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt in those seas, the constant depth of the harbour allows goods to be landed on the quays without the assistance of boats; and it has been observed that in many places the largest vessels9 may rest their prows against the houses, while their sterns are floating in the water. From the mouth of the Lycus to that of the harbour this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven miles9 in length. The entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn across it, to guard the port and city9 from the attack of an hostile navy.
Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of Europe9 and Asia9 receding on either side enclose the sea9 of Marmara, which was known to the ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The navigation from the issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of the Hellespont is about one hundred and twenty miles9. Those who steer their westward course through the middle of the Propontis may at once descry the high lands of Thrace and Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the imperial residence of Diocletian; and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli; where the sea9, which separates Asia9 from Europe9, is again contracted into a narrow channel.
The geographers who, with the most skilful accuracy, have surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about sixty miles9 for the winding course, and about three miles9 for the ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits. But the narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of the old Turkish castles between the cities9 of Sestus and Abydus. It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress. It was here likewise, in a place where the distance between the opposite banks9 cannot exceed five hundred paces, that Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats, for the purpose of transporting into Europe9 an hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians9. A sea9 contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill to deserve the singular epithet of broad, which Homer, as well as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on the Hellespont. But our ideas of greatness are of a relative nature: the traveller, and especially the poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued the windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural scenery, which appeared on every side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the remembrance of the sea9; and his fancy painted those celebrated straits with all the attributes of a mighty river9 flowing with a swift current, in the midst of a woody and inland country9, and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging itself into the Aegean or Archipelago. Ancient9 Troy, seated on an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked the mouth of the Hellespont, which scarcely received an accession of waters from the tribute of those immortal rivulets Simois and Scamander. The Grecian camp9 had stretched twelve miles9 along the shore from the Sigaean to the Rhoetean promontory; and the flanks of the army9 were guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners of Agamemnon. The first of those promontories was occupied by Achilles with his invincible Myrmidons, and the dauntless Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen a sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingratitude of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on the ground where he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and of Hector; and the citizens of the rising town of Rhoeteum celebrated his memory with divine honours. Before Constantine gave a just preference to the situation of Byzantium, he had conceived the design of erecting the seat of empire9 on this celebrated spot, from whence the Romans9 derived their fabulous origin. The extensive plain which lies below ancient9 Troy, towards the Rhoetean promontory and the tomb of Ajax, was first chosen for his new9 capital9; and, though the undertaking was soon9 relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished walls9 and towers attracted the notice of all who sailed through the straits of the Hellespont.
We are at present qualified to view the advantageous position of Constantinople; which appears to have been formed by Nature for the centre and capital9 of a great9 monarchy. Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude, the imperial city9 commanded, from her seven hills, the opposite shores of Europe9 and Asia9; the climate was healthy and temperate, the soil fertile, the harbour secure and capacious; and the approach on the side of the continent was of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of Constantinople; and the prince who possessed those important passages could always shut them against a naval enemy and open them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the Eastern provinces9 may, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as the barbarians9 of the Euxine, who in the preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, soon9 desisted from the exercise of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capital9 still enjoyed, within their spacious enclosure, every production which could supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its numerous inhabitants9. The sea9-coast9 of Thrace and Bithynia, which languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibits a rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store of the most exquisite fish, that are taken in their stated seasons without skill and almost without labour. But, when the passages of the Straits were thrown open for trade, they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of the north9 and south, of the Euxine, and of the Mediterranean. Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of Germany and Scythia, as far9 as the sources of the Tanais and the Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of Europe9 or Asia9; the corn of Egypt, and the gems and spices of the farthest India, were brought by the varying winds into the port of Constantinople, which, for many ages, attracted the commerce of the ancient9 world.
The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a single spot, was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine47. But, as some decent mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every age47, been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the origin of great cities, the emperor47 was desirous of ascribing his resolution, not so much to the uncertain counsels of human policy, as to the infallible and eternal decrees of divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct posterity that, in obedience to the commands of God, he laid the everlasting foundations of Constantinople: and, though he has not condescended to relate in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to his mind, the defect of his modest silence has been liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers, who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Constantine47, as he slept within the walls of Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city47, a venerable matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own hands adorned with all the symbols of imperial47 greatness. The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed, without hesitation, the will of heaven. The day which gave birth to a city47 or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous superstition; and, though Constantine47 might omit some rites which savoured too strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the spectators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor47 himself led the solemn procession; and directed the line which was traced as the boundary of the destined capital; till the growing circumference was observed with astonishment by the assistants, who, at length, ventured to observe that he had already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city47. I shall still advance, replied Constantine47, till he, the invisible guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop. Without presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this extraordinary conductor, we shall content ourselves with the more humble task of describing the extent and limits of Constantinople.
In the actual state of the city9, the palace and gardens of the Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the seven hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of our own measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is erected on the foundations of a Grecian republic; but it may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the conveniency of the harbour to extend their habitations on that side beyond the modern limits of the Seraglio. The new9 walls9 of Constantine stretched from the port to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient9 fortification; and with the city9 of Byzantium they enclosed five of the seven hills, which, to the eyes of those who approach Constantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful order. About a century after the death of the founder, the new9 building, extending on one side up the harbour, and on the other along the Propontis, already covered the narrow ridge of the sixth, and the broad summit of the seventh, hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbs from the incessant inroads of the barbarians9 engaged the younger Theodosius to surround his capital9 with an adequate and permanent enclosure of walls9. From the eastern promontory to the golden gate, the extreme length of Constantinople was about three Roman9 miles9; the circumference measured between ten and eleven; and the surface might be computed as equal to about two thousand9 English acres. It is impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European, and even of the Asiatic, coast9. But the suburbs of Pera and Galata, though situate beyond the harbour, may deserve to be considered as a part of the city9; and this addition may perhaps authorise the measure of a Byzantine historian, who assigns sixteen Greek (about fourteen Roman9) miles9 for the circumference of his native city9. Such an extent may seem not unworthy of an imperial residence. Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes, to ancient9 Rome9, to London, and even to Paris.
The master of the Roman32 world, who aspired to erect an eternal monument of the glories of his reign, could employ in the prosecution of that great work the wealth, the labour32, and all that yet remained of the genius, of obedient millions. Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with imperial liberality on the foundation of Constantinople, by the allowance of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the construction of the walls32, the porticoes32, and the aqueducts. The forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and the celebrated quarries of white marble32 in the little island of Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible stock of materials32, ready to be conveyed, by the convenience of a short water-carriage, to the harbour of Byzantium. A multitude of labourers and artificers urged the conclusion of the work with incessant toil: but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered that, in the decline of the arts, the skill as well as numbers of his architects bore a very unequal proportion to the greatness32 of his designs. The magistrates of the most distant provinces were therefore directed to institute schools, to appoint professors, and by the hopes of rewards and privileges, to engage in the study and practice of architecture32 a sufficient number of ingenious youths, who had received a liberal education. The buildings of the new32 city32 were executed by such artificers as the reign of Constantine could afford; but they were decorated by the hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus surpassed indeed the power of a Roman32 emperor; but the immortal productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments. The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods and heroes, of the sages and poets of ancient32 times, contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople; and gave occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus, who observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed wanting except the souls of the illustrious men whom those admirable monuments32 were intended to represent. But it is not in the city32 of Constantine, nor in the declining period of an empire32 when the human mind was depressed by civil and religious slavery, that we should seek for the souls of Homer and of Demosthenes.
During the siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had pitched his tent on the commanding eminence of the second hill. To perpetuate the memory of his success, he chose the same advantageous position for the principal Forum32; which appears to have been of a circular, or rather elliptical, form. The two opposite entrances formed triumphal arches32; the porticoes32, which enclosed it on every side, were filled with statues; and the centre of the Forum32 was occupied by a lofty32 column32, of which a mutilated fragment is now degraded by the appellation of the burnt pillar. This column32 was erected32 on a pedestal of white marble32 twenty feet high; and was composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured above ten feet in height and about thirty-three in circumference. On the summit of the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, stood the colossal statue32 of Apollo. It was of bronze, had been transported either from Athens or from a town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of Pheidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a sceptre in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays glittering on his head. The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately32 building about four hundred paces in length and one hundred in breadth. The space between the two metae or goals was filled with statues and obelisks; and we may still remark a very singular fragment of antiquity32: the bodies of three serpents, twisted into one pillar of brass32. Their triple heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple32 of Delphi by the victorious Greeks. The beauty of the Hippodrome has been long32 since defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish conquerors; but, under the similar appellation of Atmeidan, it still serves as a place of exercise for their horses. From the throne, whence the emperor viewed the Circensian games, a winding staircase descended to the palace; a magnificent edifice32, which scarcely yielded to the residence of Rome32 itself, and which, together with the dependent courts, gardens, and porticoes32, covered a considerable extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis between the Hippodrome and the church of St32. Sophia. We might likewise celebrate the baths32, which still retained the name of Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched, by the munificence of Constantine, with lofty32 columns32, various marbles, and above threescore statues of bronze.But we should deviate from the design of this history, if we attempted minutely to describe the different buildings or quarters of the city32. It may be sufficient to observe that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital32, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the walls32 of Constantinople. A particular description, composed about a century32 after its foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus, two theatres, eight public32, and one hundred and fifty-three private32, baths32, fifty-two porticoes32, five granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the meetings of the senate32 or courts of justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses, which, for their size or beauty, deserved to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian habitations.
The populousness of his favoured city9 was the next and most serious object of the attention of its founder. In the dark ages which succeeded the translation of the empire9, the remote and the immediate consequences of that memorable event were strangely confounded by the vanity of the Greeks and the credulity of the Latins. It was asserted and believed that all the noble families of Rome9, the senate, and the equestrian order, with their innumerable attendants, had followed their emperor to the banks9 of the Propontis; that a spurious race of strangers and plebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient9 capital9; and that the lands of Italy9, long9 since converted into gardens, were at once deprived of cultivation and inhabitants9. In the course of this history, such exaggerations will be reduced to their just value: yet, since the growth of Constantinople cannot be ascribed to the general increase of mankind and of industry, it must be admitted that this artificial colony was raised at the expense of the ancient9 cities9 of the empire9. Many opulent senators of Rome9, and of the Eastern provinces9, were probably invited by Constantine to adopt for their country9 the fortunate spot which he had chosen for his own residence. The invitations of a master are scarcely to be distinguished from commands; and the liberality of the emperor obtained a ready and cheerful obedience. He bestowed on his favourites the palaces which he had built in the several quarters of the city9, assigned them lands and pensions for the support of their dignity, and alienated the demesnes of Pontus and Asia9, to grant hereditary estates by the easy tenure of maintaining a house in the capital9. But these encouragements and obligations soon9 became superfluous, and were gradually abolished. Wherever the seat of government is fixed, a considerable part of the public revenue will be expended by the prince himself, by his ministers, by the officers of justice, and by the domestics of the palace. The most wealthy of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful motives of interest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. A third and more numerous class of inhabitants9 will insensibly be formed, of servants, of artificers, and of merchants, who derive their subsistence from their own labour and from the wants or luxury of the superior ranks. In less than a century, Constantinople disputed with Rome9 itself the pre-eminence of riches and numbers. New9 piles of buildings, crowded together with too little regard to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men9, of horses, and of carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the increasing people; and the additional foundations, which, on either side, were advanced into the sea9, might alone have composed a very considerable city9.
The frequent and regular distributions of wine40 and oil, of corn or bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorer citizens40 of Rome40 from the necessity of labour. The magnificence of the first Caesars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople: but his liberality, however it might excite the applause of the people, has incurred the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators and conquerors might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa40, which had been purchased with their blood; and it was artfully contrived by Augustus that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not be excused by any consideration either of public40 or private interest; and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt40 for the benefit of his new capital40 was applied to feed a lazy and indolent populace, at the expense of the husbandmen of an industrious province. Some other regulations of this emperor40 are less liable to blame, but they are less deserving of notice. He divided Constantinople into fourteen regions or quarters, dignified the public40 council with the appellation of Senate, communicated to the citizens40 the privileges of Italy, and bestowed on the rising city40 the title of Colony, the first and most favoured daughter of ancient40 Rome40. The venerable parent still maintained the legal and acknowledged supremacy which was due to her age40, to her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former greatness.
As Constantine44 urged the progress of the work with the impatience of a lover, the walls, the porticoes, and the principal edifices, were completed in a few years44, or, according to another account, in a few months; but this extraordinary diligence should excite the less admiration, since many of the buildings were finished in so hasty and imperfect a manner that, under the succeeding reign44, they were preserved with difficulty from impending ruin. But, while they displayed the vigour and freshness of youth44, the founder prepared to celebrate the dedication of his city44. The games and largesses which crowned the pomp of this memorable festival may easily be supposed; but there is one circumstance of a more singular and permanent nature, which ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as the birthday of the city44 returned44, the statue of Constantine44, framed, by his order, of gilt wood, and bearing in its right hand44 a small image of the genius of the place44, was erected on a triumphal car. The guards, carrying white tapers, and clothed in their richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as it moved through the Hippodrome. When it was opposite to the throne44 of the reigning emperor44, he rose from his seat, and with grateful reverence adored the memory of his predecessor. At the festival of the dedication, an edict, engraved on a column of marble, bestowed the title of Second or New Rome on the city44 of Constantine44. But the name of Constantinople44 has prevailed over that honourable epithet; and, after the revolution of fourteen centuries, still perpetuates the fame of its author.
The foundation of a new28 capital28 is naturally connected with the establishment28 of a new28 form of civil and military28 administration. The distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced by Diocletian, improved by Constantine28, and completed by his immediate successors28, may not only amuse the fancy by the singular picture of a great28 empire28, but will tend to illustrate the secret and internal causes of its rapid28 decay. In the pursuit of any remarkable institution, we may be frequently led into the more early or the more recent times of the Roman28 history; but the proper limits of this inquiry will be included within a period of about one hundred and thirty28 years28, from the accession of Constantine28 to the publication of the Theodosian code; from which, as well as from the Notitia of the East28 and West, we derive the most copious and authentic information of the state28 of the empire28. This variety of objects will suspend, for some time28, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners28, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.
The manly pride of the Romans29, content with substantial power29, had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of ostentatious greatness. But when they lost even the semblance of those virtues which were derived from their ancient29 freedom, the simplicity of Roman29 manners29 was insensibly corrupted by the stately affectation of the courts of Asia. The distinctions of personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy29, were abolished by the despotism of the emperors29; who substituted in their room a severe subordination of rank and office, from the titled slaves, who were seated on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of arbitrary power29. This multitude of abject dependants was interested in the support of the actual government, from the dread of a revolution, which might at once confound their hopes and intercept the reward of their services. In this divine hierarchy (for such it is frequently styled) every rank was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was displayed29 in a variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies, which it was a study to learn and a sacrilege to neglect. The purity of the Latin language29 was debased by adopting, in the intercourse29 of pride and flattery, a profusion of epithets, which Tully would scarcely have understood, and which Augustus would have rejected with indignation29. The principal officers of the empire29 were saluted, even by the sovereign himself, with the deceitful titles of your Sincerity, your Gravity, your Excellency, your Eminence, your sublime and wonderful Magnitude, your illustrious and magnificent29 Highness. The codicils or patents of their office were curiously emblazoned with such emblems as were best adapted29 to explain its nature and high dignity; the image or portrait of the reigning emperors29; a triumphal car; the book of mandates placed on a table, covered with a rich29 carpet, and illuminated by four tapers; the allegorical figures of the provinces29 which they governed; or the appellations and standards of the troops whom they commanded. Some of these official ensigns were really exhibited in their hall of audience; others preceded their pompous march whenever they appeared in public29; and every circumstance of their demeanour, their dress, their ornaments, and their train was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for the representatives of supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer, the system of the Roman29 government might have been mistaken for a splendid theatre, filled with players of every character29 and degree, who repeated the language29, and imitated the passions, of their original model.
All the magistrates1 of sufficient importance to find a place in the general state1 of the empire1 were accurately divided into three classes. 1. The Illustrious. 2. The Spectabiles, or Respectable. And, 3. The Clarissimi; whom we may translate by the word Honourable. In the times of Roman1 simplicity, the last-mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expression of deference, till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated title1 of all who were members of the senate1, and consequently of all who, from that venerable body, were selected to govern the provinces1. The vanity of those who, from their rank and office1, might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the senatorial order1 was long1 afterwards indulged with the new1 appellation of Respectable; but the title1 of Illustrious was always reserved to some eminent personages who were obeyed or reverenced by the two subordinate classes. It was communicated only, I. To the consuls and patricians; II. To the praetorian prefects, with the prefects of Rome1 and Constantinople; III. To the masters general of the cavalry and the infantry; and, IV. To the seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their sacred1 functions about the person of the emperor1. Among those illustrious magistrates1 who were esteemed co-ordinate with each other, the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of dignities. By the expedient of honorary codicils, the emperors1, who were fond of multiplying their favours, might sometimes gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of impatient courtiers.
I. As long30 as the Roman30 consuls were the first magistrates of a free state, they derived their right to power from the choice of the people30. As long30 as the emperors condescended to disguise the servitude which they imposed, the consuls were still elected by the real or apparent suffrage of the senate. From the reign of Diocletian, even these vestiges of liberty were abolished, and the successful candidates who were invested with the annual honours of the consulship affected to deplore the humiliating condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and the Catos had been reduced to solicit the votes of Plebeians, to pass through the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election, and to expose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal; while their own happier fate had reserved them for an age and government in which the rewards of virtue were assigned by the unerring wisdom of a gracious sovereign. In the epistles which the emperor30 addressed to the two consuls elect, it was declared that they were created by his sole authority. Their names and portraits, engraved on gilt tablets of ivory, were dispersed over the empire30 as presents to the provinces, the cities, the magistrates, the senate, and the people30. Their solemn inauguration was performed at the place of the imperial residence; and, during a period of one hundred and twenty years30, Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient magistrates. On the morning of the first of January, the consuls assumed the ensigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple, embroidered in silk and gold30, and sometimes ornamented with costly gems. On this solemn occasion they were attended by the most eminent officers of the state and army30, in the habit of senators; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable axes, were borne before them by the lictors. The procession moved from the palace30 to the Forum, or principal square of the city30; where the consuls ascended their tribunal, and seated themselves in the curule chairs, which were framed after the fashion of ancient times. They immediately exercised an act of jurisdiction, by the manumission of a slave, who was brought before them for that purpose; and the ceremony was intended to represent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of liberty and of the consulship, when he admitted among his fellow-citizens the faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins. The public festival was continued during several days30 in all the principal cities; in Rome, from custom; in Constantinople30, from imitation; in Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria, from the love of pleasure and the superfluity of wealth. In the two capitals of the empire30 the annual games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre, cost four thousand30 pounds of gold30, (about) one hundred and sixty thousand30 pounds sterling: and if so heavy an expense surpassed the faculties or the inclination of the magistrates themselves, the sum was supplied from the imperial treasury. As soon30 as the consuls had discharged these customary duties, they were at liberty to retire into the shade of private life, and to enjoy, during the remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own greatness. They no longer presided in the national councils; they no longer executed the resolutions of peace or war30. Their abilities (unless they were employed in more effective offices) were of little moment; and their names served only as the legal date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in the last period of Roman30 servitude, that this empty name might be compared, and even preferred, to the possession of substantial power. The title of consul was still the most splendid object of ambition, the noblest reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors themselves, who disdained the faint shadow of the republic, were conscious that they acquired an additional splendour and majesty as often as they assumed the annual honours of the consular dignity.
The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in any age or country between the nobles and the people1 is perhaps that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established in the first age of the Roman1 republic1. Wealth and honours1, the offices of the state1, and the ceremonies of religion1, were almost exclusively possessed by the former; who, preserving the purity of their blood with the most insulting jealousy, held their clients in a condition of specious vassalage. But these distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a free people1, were removed, after a long1 struggle, by the persevering efforts of the Tribunes. The most active and successful of the Plebeians accumulated wealth, aspired to honours1, deserved triumphs, contracted alliances, and, after some generations, assumed1 the pride of ancient1 nobility. The Patrician families, on the other hand, whose original number was never recruited till the end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of nature, or were extinguished in so many foreign and domestic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, insensibly mingled with the mass of the people1. Very few remained who could derive their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the city1, or even from that of the republic1, when Caesar and Augustus, Claudius and Vespasian, created from the body of the senate1 a competent number of new1 Patrician families, in the hope of perpetuating an order1 which was still considered as honourable and sacred1. But these artificial supplies (in which the reigning house was always included) were rapidly swept away by the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations. Little more was left when Constantine1 ascended the throne than a vague and imperfect tradition that the Patricians had once been the first of the Romans1. To form a body of nobles, whose influence may restrain, while it secures, the authority1 of the monarch, would have been very inconsistent with the character and policy1 of Constantine1; but, had he seriously entertained such a design, it might have exceeded the measure of his power1 to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an institution which must expect the sanction of time and of opinion. He revived, indeed, the title1 of Patricians, but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary, distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of the annual consuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all the great officers of state1, with the most familiar access to the person of the prince. This honourable rank was bestowed on them for life; and, as they were usually favourites and ministers who had grown old in the Imperial court, the true etymology of the word was perverted by ignorance and flattery; and the Patricians of Constantine1 were reverenced as the adopted Fathers of the emperor1 and the republic1.
II. The fortunes of the Praetorian prefects were essentially different from those of the consuls and Patricians. The latter saw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rising by degrees from the most humble condition, were invested with the civil47 and military47 administration of the Roman47 world. From the reign47 of Severus to that of Diocletian, the guards and the palace47, the laws and the finances, the armies and the provinces47, were entrusted to their superintending care; and, like the Vizirs of the East47, they held with one hand the seal, and with the other the standard, of the empire47. The ambition of the prefects, always formidable and sometimes fatal to the masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the Praetorian bands; but after those haughty troops47 had been weakened by Diocletian, and finally suppressed by Constantine47, the prefects, who survived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When they were no longer responsible for the safety of the emperor47's person47, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace47. They were deprived by Constantine47 of all military47 command47, as soon47 as they had ceased to lead into the field, under their immediate orders, the flower of the Roman47 troops47; and at length, by a singular revolution, the captains of the guard were transformed into the civil47 magistrates of the provinces47. According to the plan of government47 instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their Praetorian prefect47; and, after the monarchy was once more united in the person47 of Constantine47, he still continued to create the same number of four prefects, and entrusted to their care the same provinces47 which they already administered. 1. The prefect47 of the East47 stretched his ample jurisdiction into the three parts of the globe which were subject to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Persia. 2. The important provinces47 of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece once acknowledged the authority47 of the prefect47 of Illyricum. 3. The power47 of the prefect47 of Italy47 was not confined to the country from whence he derived his title; it extended over the additional territory of Rhaetia as far as the banks of the Danube, over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and over that part of the continent of Africa which lies between the confines of Cyrene and those of Tingitania. 4. The prefect47 of the Gauls comprehended under that plural denomination the kindred provinces47 of Britain and Spain, and his authority47 was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus to the foot of Mount Atlas.
After the Praetorian prefects had been dismissed from all military47 command47, the civil47 functions which they were ordained to exercise over so many subject nations were adequate to the ambition and abilities of the most consummate ministers. To their wisdom was committed the supreme administration of justice47 and of the finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties of the sovereign47 and of the people47; of the former, to protect the citizens who are obedient to the laws; of the latter, to contribute the share of their property which is required for the expenses of the state. The coin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the manufactures, whatever could interest the public47 prosperity was moderated by the authority47 of the Praetorian prefects. As the immediate representatives of the Imperial47 majesty, they were empowered to explain, to enforce, and on some occasions to modify the general47 edicts by their discretionary proclamations. They watched over the conduct47 of the provincial governors, removed the negligent, and inflicted punishments on the guilty. From all the inferior jurisdictions, an appeal in every matter of importance, either civil47 or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal of the prefect47: but his sentence was final and absolute; and the emperors themselves refused to admit any complaints against the judgment or the integrity of a magistrate whom they honoured with such unbounded confidence. His appointments were suitable to his dignity; and, if avarice was his ruling passion, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, and of perquisites. Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition of their prefects, they were attentive to counterbalance the power47 of this great office by the uncertainty and shortness of its duration.
From their superior importance and dignity, Rome47 and Constantinople were alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the Praetorian prefects. The immense size of the city47 and the experience of the tardy, ineffectual operation of the laws had furnished the policy of Augustus with a specious pretence for introducing a new magistrate, who alone could restrain a servile and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrary power47. Valerius Messalla was appointed the first prefect47 of Rome47, that his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure: but, at the end of a few days, that accomplished citizen resigned his office, declaring with a spirit47 worthy of the friend of Brutus, that he found himself incapable of exercising a power47 incompatible with public47 freedom. As the sense of liberty became less exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly understood; and the prefect47, who seemed to have been designed as a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to extend his civil47 and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble families of Rome47. The praetors, annually created as the judges of law and equity, could not long47 dispute the possession of the Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate, who was usually admitted into the confidence of the prince47. Their courts were deserted, their number, which had once fluctuated between twelve and eighteen, was gradually reduced to two or three, and their important functions were confined to the expensive obligation of exhibiting games for the amusement of the people47. After the office of the Roman47 consuls had been changed into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital, the prefects assumed their vacant place in the senate47, and were soon47 acknowledged as the ordinary presidents of that venerable assembly. They received appeals from the distance of one hundred miles; and it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence, that all municipal authority47 was derived from them alone. In the discharge of his laborious employment, the governor of Rome47 was assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had been originally his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments were relative to the command47 of a numerous watch, established as a safeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal disorders; the custody and distribution of the public47 allowance of corn and provisions; the care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common sewers, and of the navigation and bed of the Tiber; the inspection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private47 as well as public47 works. Their vigilance ensured the three principal objects of a regular police, safety, plenty, and cleanliness; and, as a proof of the attention of government47 to preserve the splendour and ornaments of the capital, a particular inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, as it were, of that inanimate people47, which, according to the extravagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior in number to the living inhabitants of Rome47. About thirty years after the foundation of Constantinople, a similar magistrate was created in that rising metropolis, for the same uses, and with the same powers. A perfect equality was established between the dignity of the two municipal, and that of the four Praetorian, prefects.
Those who, in the Imperial47 hierarchy, were distinguished by the title of Respectable, formed an intermediate class between the illustrious prefects and the honourable magistrates of the provinces47. In this class the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa claimed a pre-eminence, which was yielded to the remembrance of their ancient dignity; and the appeal from their tribunal to that of the prefects was almost the only mark of their dependence. But the civil47 government47 of the empire47 was distributed into thirteen great dioceses, each of which equalled the just measure of a powerful kingdom. The first of these dioceses was subject to the jurisdiction of the count of the East47; and we may convey some idea of the importance and variety of his functions, by observing that six hundred apparitors, who would be styled at present either secretaries, or clerks, or ushers, or messengers, were employed in his immediate office. The place of Augustal prefect47 of Egypt was no longer filled by a Roman47 knight; but the name was retained; and the extraordinary powers which the situation of the country and the temper of the inhabitants had once made indispensable were still continued to the governor. The eleven remaining dioceses, of Asiana, Pontica, and Thrace; of Macedonia, Dacia, and Pannonia or Western Illyricum; of Italy47 and Africa; of Gaul, Spain, and Britain; were governed by twelve vicars or vice-prefects, whose name sufficiently explains the nature and dependence of their office. It may be added that the lieutenant-generals of the Roman47 armies, the military47 counts and dukes, who will be hereafter mentioned, were allowed the rank47 and title of Respectable.
As the spirit47 of jealousy and ostentation prevailed in the councils of the emperors, they proceeded with anxious diligence to divide the substance, and to multiply the titles of power47. The vast countries which the Roman47 conquerors had united under the same simple form of administration were imperceptibly crumbled into minute fragments; till at length the whole empire47 was distributed into one hundred and sixteen provinces47, each of which supported an expensive and splendid establishment. Of these, three were governed by proconsuls, thirty-seven by consulars, five by correctors, and seventy-one by presidents. The appellations of these magistrates were different; they ranked in successive order, the ensigns of their dignity were curiously varied, and their situation, from accidental circumstances, might be more or less agreeable or advantageous. But they were all (excepting only the proconsuls) alike included in the class of honourable persons; and they were alike entrusted, during the pleasure of the prince47, and under the authority47 of the prefects or their deputies, with the administration of justice47 and the finances in their respective districts. The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects would furnish ample materials for a minute inquiry into the system of provincial government47, as in the space of six centuries it was improved by the wisdom of the Roman47 statesmen and lawyers. It may be sufficient for the historian to select two singular and salutary provisions intended to restrain the abuse of authority47. 1. For the preservation of peace and order, the governors of the provinces47 were armed with the sword of justice47. They inflicted corporal punishments, and they exercised, in capital offences, the power47 of life47 and death47. But they were not authorised to indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of his own execution, or to pronounce a sentence of the mildest and most honourable kind of exile. These prerogatives were reserved to the prefects, who alone could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold: their vicegerents were confined to the trifling weight of a few ounces. This distinction, which seems to grant the larger, while it denies the smaller, degree of authority47, was founded on a very rational motive. The smaller degree was infinitely more liable to abuse. The passions of a provincial magistrate might frequently provoke him into acts of oppression which affected only the freedom or the fortunes of the subject; though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps of humanity, he might still be terrified by the guilt of innocent blood. It may likewise be considered that exile, considerable fines, or the choice of an easy death47 relate more particularly to the rich and the noble; and the persons the most exposed to the avarice or resentment of a provincial magistrate were thus removed from his obscure persecution to the more august and impartial tribunal of the Praetorian prefect47. 2. As it was reasonably apprehended that the integrity of the judge might be biassed, if his interest was concerned or his affections were engaged, the strictest regulations were established to exclude any person47, without the special dispensation of the emperor47, from the government47 of the province where he was born; and to prohibit the governor or his son47 from contracting marriage with a native or an inhabitant; or from purchasing slaves, lands, or houses, within the extent of his jurisdiction. Notwithstanding these rigorous precautions, the emperor47 Constantine47, after a reign47 of twenty-five years, still deplores the venal and oppressive administration of justice47, and expresses the warmest indignation that the audience of the judge, his despatch of business, his seasonable delays, and his final sentence were publicly sold, either by himself or by the officers of his court. The continuance, and perhaps the impunity, of these crimes is attested by the repetition of important laws and ineffectual menaces.
All the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the law. The celebrated Institutes of Justinian30 are addressed to the youth of his dominions, who had devoted themselves to the study of Roman30 jurisprudence; and the sovereign condescends to animate their diligence by the assurance that their skill and ability would in time be rewarded by an adequate share in the government of the republic. The rudiments of this lucrative science were taught in all the considerable cities of the East and West; but the most famous school was that of Berytus, on the coast of Phoenicia; which flourished above three centuries from the time of Alexander Severus, the author perhaps of an institution so advantageous to his native country. After a regular course of education, which lasted five years30, the students dispersed themselves through the provinces, in search of fortune and honours; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of business in a great empire30, already corrupted by the multiplicity of laws, of arts, and of vices. The court of the Praetorian prefect of the East could alone furnish employment for one hundred and fifty advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished by peculiar privileges, and two were annually chosen with a salary of sixty pounds of gold30, to defend the causes of the treasury. The first experiment was made of their judicial talents, by appointing them to act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates; from thence they were often raised to preside in the tribunals before which they had pleaded. They obtained the government of a province; and, by the aid of merit, of reputation, or of favour, they ascended, by successive steps, to the illustrious dignities of the state. In the practice of the bar, these men had considered reason as the instrument of dispute; they interpreted the laws according to the dictates of private interest; and the same pernicious habits might still adhere to their characters in the public administration of the state. The honour of a liberal profession has indeed been vindicated by ancient and modern advocates, who have filled the most important stations with pure integrity and consummate wisdom: but in the decline of Roman30 jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, which had once been preserved as the sacred inheritance of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, who, with cunning rather than skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. Some of them procured admittance into families for the purpose of fomenting differences, of encouraging suits, and of preparing a harvest of gain for themselves or their brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers, maintained the dignity of legal professors by furnishing a rich client with subtleties to confound the plainest truth and with arguments to colour the most unjustifiable pretensions. The splendid and popular class was composed of the advocates, who filled the Forum with the sound of their turgid and loquacious rhetoric. Careless of fame and of justice, they are described, for the most part, as ignorant and rapacious guides, who conducted their clients through a maze of expense, of delay, and of disappointment; from whence, after a tedious series of years30, they were at length dismissed, when their patience and fortune were almost exhausted.
III. In the system of policy introduced by Augustus, the governors, those at least of the Imperial47 provinces47, were invested with the full powers of the sovereign47 himself. Ministers of peace and war47, the distribution of rewards and punishments depended on them alone, and they successively appeared on their tribunal in the robes of civil47 magistracy, and in complete armour at the head of the Roman47 legions. The influence of the revenue, the authority47 of law, and the command47 of a military47 force concurred to render their power47 supreme and absolute; and whenever they were tempted to violate their allegiance, the loyal province which they involved in their rebellion was scarcely sensible of any change in its political state. From the time of Commodus to the reign47 of Constantine47, near one hundred governors might be enumerated, who, with various success, erected the standard of revolt; and though the innocent were too often sacrificed, the guilty might be sometimes prevented, by the suspicious cruelty of their master47. To secure his throne47 and the public47 tranquillity from these formidable servants, Constantine47 resolved to divide the military47 from the civil47 administration; and to establish, as a permanent and professional distinction, a practice which had been adopted only as an occasional expedient. The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the Praetorian prefects over the armies of the empire47 was transferred to the two masters general47 whom he instituted, the one for the cavalry, the other for the infantry; and, though each of these illustrious officers was more peculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops47 which were under his immediate inspection, they both indifferently commanded in the field the several bodies, whether of horse or foot, which were united in the same army47. Their number was soon47 doubled by the division of the East47 and West; and, as separate generals of the same rank47 and title were appointed on the four important frontiers of the Rhine, of the Upper and the Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, the defence of the Roman47 empire47 was at length committed to eight masters general47 of the cavalry and infantry. Under their orders, thirty-five military47 commanders were stationed in the provinces47: three in Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy47, five on the Upper, and four on the Lower Danube; in Asia eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts, and dukes, by which they were properly distinguished, have obtained in modern languages so very different a sense that the use of them may occasion some surprise. But it should be recollected that the second of those appellations is only a corruption of the Latin word which was indiscriminately applied to any military47 chief. All these provincial generals were therefore dukes; but no more than ten among them were dignified with the rank47 of counts or companions, a title of honour, or rather of favour, which had been recently invented in the court of Constantine47. A gold belt was the ensign which distinguished the office of the counts and dukes; and besides their pay, they received a liberal allowance, sufficient to maintain one hundred and ninety servants, and one hundred and fifty-eight horses. They were strictly prohibited from interfering in any matter which related to the administration of justice47 or the revenue; but the command47 which they exercised over the troops47 of their department was independent of the authority47 of the magistrates. About the same time that Constantine47 gave a legal sanction to the ecclesiastical order, he instituted in the Roman47 empire47 the nice balance of the civil47 and the military47 powers. The emulation, and sometimes the discord, which reigned between two professions of opposite interests and incompatible manners, was productive of beneficial and of pernicious consequences. It was seldom to be expected that the general47 and the civil47 governor of a province should either conspire for the disturbance, or should unite for the service, of their country. While the one delayed to offer the assistance which the other disdained to solicit, the troops47 very frequently remained without orders or without supplies; the public47 safety was betrayed, and the defenceless subjects were left exposed to the fury of the Barbarians. The divided administration which had been formed by Constantine47 relaxed the vigour of the state, while it secured the tranquillity of the monarch.
The memory of Constantine47 has been deservedly censured for another innovation, which corrupted military47 discipline and prepared the ruin of the empire47. The nineteen years which preceded his final victory over Licinius had been a period of licence and intestine war47. The rivals who contended for the possession of the Roman47 world had withdrawn the greatest part of their forces from the guard of the general47 frontier; and the principal cities which formed the boundary of their respective dominions were filled with soldiers47, who considered their countrymen as their most implacable enemies. After the use of these internal garrisons had ceased with the civil47 war47, the conqueror wanted either wisdom or firmness to revive the severe discipline of Diocletian, and to suppress a fatal indulgence which habit had endeared and almost confirmed to the military47 order. From the reign47 of Constantine47, a popular and even legal distinction was admitted between the Palatines and the Borderers; the troops47 of the court as they were improperly styled, and the troops47 of the frontier. The former, elevated by the superiority of their pay and privileges, were permitted, except in the extraordinary emergencies of war47, to occupy their tranquil stations in the heart of the provinces47. The most flourishing cities were oppressed by the intolerable weight of quarters. The soldiers47 insensibly forgot the virtues of their profession, and contracted only the vices of civil47 life47. They were either degraded by the industry of mechanic trades, or enervated by the luxury of baths and theatres. They soon47 became careless of their martial exercises, curious in their diet and apparel; and, while they inspired terror to the subjects of the empire47, they trembled at the hostile approach of the Barbarians. The chain of fortifications which Diocletian and his colleagues had extended along the banks of the great rivers was no longer maintained with the same care or defended with the same vigilance. The numbers which still remained under the name of the troops47 of the frontier might be sufficient for the ordinary defence. But their spirit47 was degraded by the humiliating reflection that they who were exposed to the hardships and dangers of a perpetual warfare were rewarded only with about two-thirds of the pay and emoluments which were lavished on the troops47 of the court. Even the bands or legions that were raised the nearest to the level of those unworthy favourites were in some measure disgraced by the title of honour which they were allowed to assume. It was in vain that Constantine47 repeated the most dreadful menaces of fire and sword against the Borderers who should dare to desert their colours, to connive at the inroads of the Barbarians, or to participate in the spoil. The mischiefs which flow from injudicious counsels are seldom removed by the application of partial severities; and, though succeeding princes laboured to restore the strength and numbers of the frontier garrisons, the empire47, till the last moment of its dissolution, continued to languish under the mortal wound which had been so rashly or so weakly inflicted by the hand of Constantine47.
The same timid policy, of dividing whatever is united, of reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and of expecting that the most feeble will prove the most obedient, seems to pervade the institutions of several princes, and particularly those of Constantine28. The martial pride of the legions, whose victorious camps had so often been the scene of rebellion, was nourished by the memory of their past exploits and the consciousness of their actual strength. As long28 as they maintained their ancient28 establishment28 of six thousand28 men28, they subsisted, under the reign28 of Diocletian, each of them singly, a visible and important28 object in the military28 history of the Roman28 empire28. A few years28 afterwards these gigantic bodies were shrunk to a very diminutive size; and, when seven28 legions, with some auxiliaries, defended the city28 of Amida against the Persians, the total garrison, with the inhabitants of both sexes, and the peasants of the deserted country, did not exceed the number28 of twenty thousand28 persons. From this fact, and from similar examples, there is reason to believe that the constitution of the legionary troops, to which they partly owed their valour and discipline, was dissolved by Constantine28; and that the bands of Roman28 infantry, which still assumed the same names and the same honours, consisted28 only of one thousand28 or fifteen hundred men28. The conspiracy of so many separate detachments, each of which was awed by the sense of its own weakness, could easily be checked; and the successors28 of Constantine28 might indulge their love of ostentation, by issuing their orders to one hundred and thirty28-two legions, inscribed on the muster-roll of their numerous armies. The remainder of their troops was distributed into several hundred cohorts of infantry, and squadrons of cavalry. Their arms28, and titles, and ensigns were calculated to inspire terror, and to display the variety of nations who marched under the Imperial standard. And not a vestige was left of that severe simplicity which, in the ages of freedom and victory, had distinguished the line of battle of a Roman28 army28 from the confused host of an Asiatic monarch. A more particular enumeration, drawn from the Notitia, might exercise the diligence of an antiquary; but the historian28 will content himself with observing that the number28 of permanent stations or garrisons established on the frontiers of the empire28 amounted to five hundred and eighty-three; and that, under the successors28 of Constantine28, the complete force28 of the military28 establishment28 was computed at six hundred and forty-five thousand28 soldiers. An effort so prodigious surpassed the wants of a more ancient28, and the faculties of a later, period.
In the various states of society, armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by the love26 of war26; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty26; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a monarchy are animated by a sentiment of honour; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire26 must be allured into the service26 by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of punishment. The resources of the Roman26 treasury were exhausted by the increase of pay, by the repetition of donatives, and by the invention of new emoluments and indulgences, which, in the opinion of the provincial youth, might compensate the hardships and dangers of a military26 life26. Yet, although the stature was lowered, although slaves, at least by a tacit connivance, were indiscriminately received26 into the ranks26, the insurmountable difficulty of procuring a regular and adequate supply of volunteers obliged the emperors26 to adopt more effectual and coercive methods. The lands bestowed on the veterans, as the free reward of their valour, were henceforward granted under a condition, which contains the first rudiments of the feudal tenures: that their sons, who succeeded to the inheritance, should devote themselves to the profession of arms, as soon26 as they attained the age of manhood; and their cowardly refusal was punished by the loss of honour, of fortune, or even of life26. But, as the annual growth of the sons of the veterans bore a very small proportion to the demands of the service26, levies of men26 were frequently required from the provinces, and every proprietor was obliged either to take up arms, or to procure a substitute, or to purchase his exemption by the payment of a heavy fine. The sum of forty-two pieces of gold26, to which it was reduced, ascertains the exorbitant price of volunteers and the reluctance with which the government admitted of this alternative. Such was the horror for the profession of a soldier which had affected26 the minds of the degenerate Romans that many of the youth of Italy26 and the provinces chose to cut off the fingers of their right hand to escape from being pressed into the service26; and this strange expedient was so commonly practised as to deserve the severe animadversion of the laws26 and a peculiar name in the Latin language.
The introduction of Barbarians into the Roman47 armies became every day more universal, more necessary, and more fatal. The most daring of the Scythians, of the Goths, and of the Germans, who delighted in war47, and who found it more profitable to defend than to ravage the provinces47, were enrolled, not only in the auxiliaries of their respective nations, but in the legions themselves, and among the most distinguished of the Palatine troops47. As they freely mingled with the subjects of the empire47, they gradually learned to despise their manners and to imitate their arts. They abjured the implicit reverence which the pride of Rome47 had exacted from their ignorance, while they acquired the knowledge and possession of those advantages by which alone she supported her declining greatness. The Barbarian soldiers47 who displayed any military47 talents were advanced, without exception, to the most important commands; and the names of the tribunes, of the counts and dukes, and of the generals themselves betray a foreign origin, which they no longer condescended to disguise. They were often entrusted with the conduct47 of a war47 against their countrymen; and, though most of them preferred the ties of allegiance to those of blood, they did not always avoid the guilt, or at least the suspicion, of holding a treasonable correspondence with the enemy, of inviting his invasion, or of sparing his retreat. The camps and the palace47 of the son47 of Constantine47 were governed by the powerful faction of the Franks, who preserved the strictest connection with each other and with their country, and who resented every personal affront as a national indignity. When the tyrant47 Caligula was suspected of an intention to invest a very extraordinary candidate with the consular robes, the sacrilegious profanation would have scarcely excited less astonishment if, instead of a horse, the noblest chieftain of Germany or Britain had been the object of his choice. The revolution of three centuries had produced so remarkable a change in the prejudices of the people47 that, with the public47 approbation, Constantine47 shewed his successors the example of bestowing the honours of the consulship on the Barbarians who, by their merit47 and services, had deserved to be ranked among the first of the Romans. But as these hardy veterans, who had been educated in the ignorance or contempt of the laws, were incapable of exercising any civil47 offices, the powers of the human mind were contracted by the irreconcilable separation of talents as well as of professions. The accomplished citizens of the Greek and Roman47 republics, whose characters could adapt themselves to the bar, the senate47, the camp, or the schools, had learned to write, to speak, and to act, with the same spirit47, and with equal abilities.
IV. Besides the magistrates and generals, who at a distance from the court diffused their delegated authority47 over the provinces47 and armies, the emperor47 conferred the rank47 of Illustrious on seven of his more immediate servants, to whose fidelity he entrusted his safety, or his counsels, or his treasures. 1. The private47 apartments of the palace47 were governed by a favourite eunuch, who, in the language of that age47, was styled the praepositus or prefect47 of the sacred bed-chamber. His duty was to attend the emperor47 in his hours of state, or in those of amusement, and to perform about his person47 all those menial services which can only derive their splendour from the influence of royalty. Under a prince47 who deserved to reign47, the great chamberlain (for such we may call him) was an useful and humble domestic; but an artful domestic, who improves every occasion of unguarded confidence, will insensibly acquire over a feeble mind that ascendant which harsh wisdom and uncomplying virtue can seldom obtain. The degenerate grandsons of Theodosius47, who were invisible to their subjects and contemptible to their enemies, exalted the prefects of their bed-chamber above the heads of all the ministers of the palace47; and even his deputy, the first of the splendid train of slaves who waited in the presence, was thought worthy to rank47 before the respectable proconsuls of Greece or Asia. The jurisdiction of the chamberlain was acknowledged by the counts, or superintendents, who regulated the two important provinces47 of the magnificence of the wardrobe and of the luxury of the imperial47 table. 2. The principal administration of public47 affairs was committed to the diligence and abilities of the master47 of the offices. He was the supreme magistrate of the palace47, inspected the discipline of the civil47 and military47 schools, and received appeals from all parts of the empire47; in the causes which related to that numerous army47 of privileged persons who, as the servants of the court, had obtained, for themselves and families, a right to decline the authority47 of the ordinary judges. The correspondence between the prince47 and his subjects was managed by the four scrinia or offices of this minister of state. The first was appropriated to memorials, the second to epistles, the third to petitions, and the fourth to papers and orders of a miscellaneous kind. Each of these was directed by an inferior master47 of respectable dignity, and the whole business was despatched by an hundred and forty-eight secretaries, chosen for the most part from the profession of the law, on account of the variety of abstracts of reports and references which frequently occurred in the exercise of their several functions. From a condescension, which in former ages would have been esteemed unworthy of the Roman47 majesty, a particular secretary was allowed for the Greek language; and interpreters were appointed to receive the ambassadors of the Barbarians: but the department of foreign affairs, which constitutes so essential a part of modern policy, seldom diverted the attention of the master47 of the offices. His mind was more seriously engaged by the general47 direction of the posts and arsenals of the empire47. There were thirty-four cities, fifteen in the East47, and nineteen in the West, in which regular companies of workmen were perpetually employed in fabricating defensive armour, offensive weapons of all sorts, and military47 engines, which were deposited in the arsenals, and occasionally delivered for the service of the troops47. 3. In the course of nine centuries, the office of quaestor had experienced a very singular revolution. In the infancy of Rome47, two inferior magistrates were annually elected by the people47, to relieve the consuls from the invidious management of the public47 treasure; a similar assistant was granted to every proconsul, and to every praetor, who exercised a military47 or provincial command47; with the extent of conquest, the two quaestors were gradually multiplied to the number of four, of eight, of twenty, and, for a short time, perhaps, of forty; and the noblest citizens ambitiously solicited an office which gave them a seat in the senate47, and a just hope of obtaining the honours of the republic. Whilst Augustus affected to maintain the freedom of election, he consented to accept the annual privilege of recommending, or rather indeed of nominating, a certain proportion of candidates; and it was his custom to select one of these distinguished youths, to read his orations or epistles in the assemblies of the senate47. The practice of Augustus was imitated by succeeding princes; the occasional commission was established as a permanent office; and the favoured quaestor, assuming a new and more illustrious character, alone survived the suppression of his ancient and useless colleagues. As the orations which he composed in the name of the emperor47 acquired the force, and, at length, the form of absolute edicts, he was considered as the representative of the legislative power47, the oracle of the council, and the original source of the civil47 jurisprudence. He was sometimes invited to take his seat in the supreme judicature of the Imperial47 consistory, with the Praetorian prefects, and the master47 of the offices; and he was frequently requested to resolve the doubts of inferior judges; but, as he was not oppressed with a variety of subordinate business, his leisure and talents were employed to cultivate that dignified style of eloquence which, in the corruption of taste and language, still preserves the majesty of the Roman47 laws. In some respects, the office of the Imperial47 quaestor may be compared with that of a modern chancellor; but the use of a great seal, which seems to have been adopted by the illiterate Barbarians, was never introduced to attest the public47 acts of the emperors. 4. The extraordinary title of count of the sacred largesses was bestowed on the treasurer-general47 of the revenue, with the intention perhaps of inculcating that every payment flowed from the voluntary bounty of the monarch. To conceive the almost infinite detail of the annual and daily expense of the civil47 and military47 administration in every part of a great empire47. would exceed the powers of the most vigorous imagination. The actual account employed several hundred persons, distributed into eleven different offices, which were artfully contrived to examine and control their respective operations. The multitude of these agents had a natural tendency to increase; and it was more than once thought expedient to dismiss to their native homes the useless supernumeraries, who, deserting their honest labours, had pressed with too much eagerness into the lucrative profession of the finances. Twenty-nine provincial receivers, of whom eighteen were honoured with the title of count, corresponded with the treasurer; and he extended his jurisdiction over the mines, from whence the precious metals were extracted, over the mints, in which they were converted into the current coin, and over the public47 treasuries of the most important cities, where they were deposited for the service of the state. The foreign trade of the empire47 was regulated by this minister, who directed likewise all the linen and woollen manufactures, in which the successive operations of spinning, weaving, and dyeing were executed, chiefly by women of a servile condition, for the use of the palace47 and army47. Twenty-six of these institutions are enumerated in the West, where the arts had been more recently introduced, and a still larger proportion may be allowed for the industrious provinces47 of the East47. 5. Besides the public47 revenue, which an absolute monarch might levy and expend according to his pleasure, the emperors, in the capacity of opulent citizens, possessed a very extensive property, which was administered by the count, or treasurer, of the private47 estate. Some part had perhaps been the ancient demesnes of kings and republics; some accessions might be derived from the families which were successively invested with the purple; but the most considerable portion flowed from the impure source of confiscations and forfeitures. The Imperial47 estates were scattered through the provinces47, from Mauritania to Britain; but the rich and fertile soil of Cappadocia tempted the monarch to acquire in that country his fairest possessions, and either Constantine47 or his successors embraced the occasion of justifying avarice by religious zeal. They suppressed the rich temple of Comana, where the high priest of the goddess of war47 supported the dignity of a sovereign47 prince47; and they applied to their private47 use the consecrated lands, which were inhabited by six thousand subjects or slaves of the Deity and her ministers. But these were not the valuable inhabitants; the plains that stretch from the foot of Mount Argaeus to the banks of the Sarus bred a generous race of horses, renowned above all others in the ancient world for their majestic shape and incomparable swiftness. These sacred animals, destined for the service of the palace47 and the Imperial47 games, were protected by the laws from the profanation of a vulgar master47. The demesnes of Cappadocia were important enough to require the inspection of a count; officers of an inferior rank47 were stationed in the other parts of the empire47; and the deputies of the private47, as well as those of the public47, treasurer were maintained in the exercise of their independent functions, and encouraged to control the authority47 of the provincial magistrates. 6, 7. The chosen bands of cavalry and infantry which guarded the person47 of the emperor47, were under the immediate command47 of the two counts of the domestics. The whole number consisted of three thousand five hundred men, divided into seven schools, or troops47, of five hundred each; and in the East47, this honourable service was almost entirely appropriated to the Armenians. Whenever, on public47 ceremonies, they were drawn up in the courts and porticoes of the palace47, their lofty stature, silent order, and splendid arms47 of silver and gold displayed a martial pomp, not unworthy of the Roman47 majesty. From the seven schools two companies of horse and foot were selected, of the protectors, whose advantageous station was the hope and reward of the most deserving soldiers47. They mounted guard in the interior apartments, and were occasionally despatched into the provinces47 to execute with celerity and vigour the orders of their master47. The counts of the domestics had succeeded to the office of the Praetorian prefects, they aspired from the service of the palace47 to the command47 of armies.
The perpetual intercourse between the court and the provinces47 was facilitated by the construction of roads and the institution of posts. But these beneficial establishments were accidentally connected with a pernicious and intolerable abuse. Two or three hundred agents or messengers were employed, under the jurisdiction of the master47 of the offices, to announce the names of the annual consuls and the edicts or victories of the emperors. They insensibly assumed the licence of reporting whatever they could observe of the conduct47 either of magistrates or of private47 citizens; and were soon47 considered as the eyes of the monarch, and the scourge of the people47. Under the warm influence of a feeble reign47, they multiplied to the incredible number of ten thousand, disdained the mild though frequent admonitions of the laws, and exercised in the profitable management of the posts a rapacious and insolent oppression. These official spies, who regularly corresponded with the palace47, were encouraged, by favour and reward, anxiously to watch the progress of every treasonable design, from the faint and latent symptoms of disaffection to the actual preparation of an open revolt. Their careless or criminal violation of truth and justice47 was covered by the consecrated mask of zeal; and they might securely aim their poisoned arrows at the breast either of the guilty or the innocent, who had provoked their resentment or refused to purchase their silence. A faithful subject, of Syria perhaps, or of Britain, was exposed to the danger47, or at least to the dread, of being dragged in chains to the court of Milan or Constantinople, to defend his life47 and fortune against the malicious charge of these privileged informers. The ordinary administration was conducted by those methods which extreme necessity can alone palliate; and the defects of evidence were diligently supplied by the use of torture.
The deceitful and dangerous experiment of the criminal question, as it is emphatically styled, was admitted, rather than approved, in the jurisprudence of the Romans. They applied this sanguinary mode of examination only to servile bodies, whose sufferings were seldom weighed by those haughty republicans in the scale of justice34 or humanity: but they would never consent to violate the sacred person of a citizen, till they possessed the clearest evidence of his guilt34. The annals of tyranny, from the reign of Tiberius to that of Domitian, circumstantially relate the executions of many innocent victims; but, as long34 as the faintest remembrance was kept alive of the national freedom34 and honour, the last hours of a Roman34 were secure from the danger of ignominious torture. The conduct of the provincial magistrates was not, however, regulated by the practice of the city or the strict maxims of the civilians. They found the use of torture established, not only among the slaves of oriental despotism, but among the Macedonians, who obeyed a limited monarch34; among the Rhodians, who flourished by the liberty of commerce; and even among the sage Athenians, who had asserted and adorned the dignity of human kind. The acquiescence of the provincials encouraged their governors to acquire, or perhaps to usurp, a discretionary power of employing the rack, to extort from vagrants or plebeian criminals the confession of their guilt34, till they insensibly proceeded to confound the distinction of rank and to disregard the privileges of Roman34 citizens. The apprehensions of the subjects urged them to solicit, and the interest of the sovereign34 engaged him to grant, a variety of special exemptions, which tacitly allowed, and even authorised, the general34 use of torture. They protected all persons of illustrious or honourable rank, bishops and their presbyters, professors of the liberal arts, soldiers34 and their families, municipal officers, and their posterity to the third generation, and all children under the age34 of puberty. But a fatal maxim was introduced into the new jurisprudence of the empire34, that in the case of treason, which included every offence that the subtlety of lawyers could derive from an hostile intention towards the prince or republic, all privileges were suspended, and all conditions were reduced to the same ignominious level. As the safety of the emperor34 was avowedly preferred to every consideration of justice34 or humanity, the dignity of age34 and the tenderness of youth34 were alike exposed to the most cruel tortures; and the terrors of a malicious information, which might select them as the accomplices, or even as the witnesses, perhaps, of an imaginary crime, perpetually hung over the heads of the principal citizens of the Roman34 world.
These evils, however terrible they may appear, were confined to the smaller number of Roman subjects8, whose dangerous situation was in some degree compensated by the enjoyment of those advantages, either of nature8 or of fortune, which exposed them to the jealousy of the monarch. The obscure millions of a great empire8 have much less to dread from the cruelty than from the avarice of their masters; and their humble happiness8 is principally affected by the grievance of excessive taxes, which, gently pressing on the wealthy, descend with accelerated weight on the meaner and more indigent classes of society8. An ingenious philosopher8 has calculated the universal measure of the public8 impositions by the degrees of freedom and servitude; and ventures to assert that, according to an invariable law of nature8, it must always increase with the former, and diminish in a just proportion to the latter. But this reflection, which would tend to alleviate the miseries of despotism, is contradicted at least by the history of the Roman empire8; which accuses the same princes of despoiling the senate of its authority and the provinces of their wealth. Without abolishing all the various8 customs and duties on merchandises, which are imperceptibly discharged by the apparent choice of the purchaser, the policy of Constantine8 and his successors preferred a simple and direct mode of taxation, more congenial to the spirit of an arbitrary government.
The name and use23 of the indictions, which serve to ascertain the chronology of the middle ages, was derived from the regular practice of the Roman23 tributes. The emperor subscribed with his own hand, and in purple ink, the solemn edict, or indiction, which was fixed up in the principal city23 of each diocese during two months previous to the first day of September. And, by a very easy connection of ideas, the word indiction was transferred to the measure of tribute which it prescribed, and to the annual term which it allowed for the payment. This general23 estimate of the supplies was proportioned to the real and imaginary wants of the state; but, as often as the expense exceeded the revenue, or the revenue fell short of the computation, an additional tax, under the name of superindiction, was imposed on the people23, and the most valuable attribute of sovereignty was communicated to the Praetorian prefects, who, on some occasions, were permitted to provide for the unforeseen and extraordinary exigencies of the public23 service. The execution of these laws23 (which it would be tedious to pursue in their minute and intricate detail) consisted of two distinct operations: the resolving the general23 imposition into its constituent parts, which were assessed on the provinces23, the cities23, and the individuals of the Roman23 world, and the collecting the separate contributions of the individuals, the cities23, and the provinces23, till the accumulated sums were poured into the Imperial treasuries. But, as the account between the monarch and the subject was perpetually open, and as the renewal of the demand anticipated the perfect discharge of the preceding obligation, the weighty machine of the finances was moved by the same hands round the circle of its yearly revolution. Whatever was honourable or important in the administration of the revenue was committed to the wisdom of the prefects and their provincial representatives; the lucrative functions were claimed by a crowd of subordinate officers, some of whom depended on the treasurer, others on the governor of the province; and who, in the inevitable conflicts of a perplexed jurisdiction, had frequent opportunities of disputing with each other the spoils of the people23. The laborious offices, which could be productive only of envy and reproach, of expense and danger, were imposed on the Decurions, who formed the corporations of the cities23, and whom the severity of the Imperial laws23 had condemned to sustain the burthens of civil society. The whole landed property23 of the empire23 (without excepting the patrimonial estates of the monarch) was the object of ordinary taxation; and every new23 purchaser contracted the obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate census, or survey, was the only equitable mode of ascertaining the proportion23 which every citizen should be obliged to contribute for the public23 service; and from the well-known period of the indictions there is reason to believe that this difficult and expensive operation was repeated at the regular distance of fifteen years23. The lands23 were measured by surveyors, who were sent into the provinces23; their nature23, whether arable or pasture, or vineyards or woods, was distinctly reported; and an estimate was made of their common23 value23 from the average produce of five years23. The numbers of slaves23 and of cattle constituted an essential part of the report; an oath was administered to the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true state of their affairs; and their attempts to prevaricate, or elude the intention of the legislator, were severely watched, and punished as a capital23 crime which included the double guilt23 of treason and sacrilege. A large portion of the tribute was paid in money; and of the current coin of the empire23, gold23 alone could be legally accepted. The remainder of the taxes, according23 to the proportions determined by the annual indiction, was furnished in a manner still more direct, and still more oppressive. According23 to the different nature23 of lands23, their real produce, in the various articles of wine or oil, corn or barley, wood or iron, was transported by the labour or at the expense of the provincials to the Imperial magazines, from whence they were occasionally distributed, for the use23 of the court, of the army, and of the two capitals, Rome23 and Constantinople. The commissioners of the revenue were so frequently obliged to make considerable purchases that they were strictly prohibited from allowing any compensation or from receiving in money the value23 of those supplies which were exacted in kind. In the primitive simplicity of small communities, this method may be well adapted to collect the almost voluntary offerings of the people23; but it is at once susceptible of the utmost latitude and of the utmost strictness, which in a corrupt and absolute monarchy must introduce a perpetual contest between the power of oppression and the arts of fraud. The agriculture of the Roman23 provinces23 was insensibly ruined, and, in the progress of despotism, which tends to disappoint its own purpose, the emperors were obliged to derive some merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the remission of tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable of paying. According23 to the new23 division of Italy, the fertile and happy province of Campania, the scene of the early victories and of the delicious retirements of the citizens23 of Rome23, extended between the sea and the Apennine from the Tiber to the Silarus. Within sixty years23 after the death23 of Constantine, and on the evidence of an actual survey, an exemption was granted in favour of three hundred and thirty thousand23 English acres of desert and uncultivated land; which amounted to one-eighth of the whole surface of the province. As the footsteps of the Barbarians23 had not yet been seen in Italy, the cause of this amazing desolation, which is recorded in the laws23, can be ascribed only to the administration of the Roman23 emperors.
Either from design or from accident, the mode of assessment seemed to unite the substance of a land-tax with the forms of a capitation. The returns which were sent of every province or district expressed the number of tributary subjects and the amount of the public23 impositions. The latter of these sums was divided by the former; and the estimate, that such a province contained so many capita, or heads of tribute, and that each head was rated at such a price, was universally received, not only in the popular, but even in the legal, computation. The value23 of a tributary head must have varied, according23 to many accidental, or at least fluctuating, circumstances; but some knowledge has been preserved of a very curious fact, the more important, since it relates to one of the richest provinces23 of the Roman23 empire23, and which now flourishes as the most splendid of the European kingdoms. The rapacious ministers of Constantius had exhausted the wealth23 of Gaul, by exacting twenty-five pieces of gold23 for the annual tribute of every head. The humane policy of his successor reduced the capitation to seven pieces. A moderate proportion23 between these opposite extremes of extravagant oppression and of transient indulgence may therefore be fixed at sixteen pieces of gold23, or about nine pounds23 sterling, the common23 standard perhaps of the impositions of Gaul. But this calculation, or rather indeed the facts from whence it is deduced, cannot fail of suggesting two difficulties to a thinking mind, who will be at once surprised by the equality and by the enormity of the capitation. An attempt to explain them may perhaps reflect some light on the interesting subject of the finances of the declining empire23.
I. It is obvious that, as long36 as the immutable constitution of human nature produces and maintains so unequal a division of property, the most numerous part of the community would be deprived of their subsistence by the equal assessment of a tax from which the sovereign would derive a very trifling revenue. Such indeed might be the theory of the Roman36 capitation36; but in the practice, this unjust equality was no longer felt, as the tribute was collected on the principle of a real, not of a personal, imposition. Several indigent citizens contributed to compose a single head36, or share of taxation; while the wealthy provincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone represented several of those imaginary beings. In a poetical request, addressed to one of the last and most deserving of the Roman36 princes who reigned in Gaul36, Sidonius Apollinaris personifies his tribute under the figure of a triple monster, the Geryon of the Grecian fables, and entreats the new36 Hercules that he would most graciously be pleased to save his life by cutting off three of his heads. The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded the customary wealth of a poet; but, if he had pursued the allusion, he must have painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hundred heads of the deadly Hydra spreading over the face of the country36 and devouring the substance of an hundred families. II. The difficulty of allowing an annual sum of about nine pounds sterling, even for the average of the capitation36 of Gaul36, may be rendered more evident by the comparison of the present state of the same country36, as it is now governed by the absolute monarch36 of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people36. The taxes of France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by flattery, beyond the annual amount of eighteen millions sterling, which ought perhaps to be shared among four and twenty millions of inhabitants. Seven millions of these, in the capacity of fathers or brothers or husbands, may discharge the obligations of the remaining multitude of women and children; yet the equal proportion of each tributary subject will scarcely rise above fifty shillings of our money, instead of a proportion almost four times as considerable36, which was regularly imposed on their Gallic ancestors. The reason36 of this difference may be found, not so much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold and silver, as in the different state of society in ancient36 Gaul36 and in modern France. In a country36 where personal freedom is the privilege of every subject, the whole mass of taxes, whether they are levied on property or on consumption, may be fairly divided among the whole body of the nation36. But the far greater part of the lands36 of ancient36 Gaul36, as well as of the other provinces36 of the Roman36 world, were cultivated by slaves, or by peasants whose dependent condition was a less rigid servitude. In such a state the poor were maintained at the expense of the masters, who enjoyed the fruits of their labour; and, as the rolls of tribute were filled only with the names of those citizens who possessed the means of an honourable, or at least of a decent, subsistence, the comparative smallness of their numbers explains and justifies the high rate of their capitation36. The truth of this assertion may be illustrated by the following example: The Aedui, one of the most powerful and civilised tribes or cities36 of Gaul36, occupied an extent of territory which now contains above five hundred thousand36 inhabitants in the two ecclesiastical dioceses of Autun and Nevers: and with the probable accession of those of Châlons and Macon, the population would amount to eight hundred thousand36 souls. In the time of Constantine, the territory of the Aedui afforded no more than twenty-five thousand36 heads of capitation36, of whom seven thousand36 were discharged by that prince from the intolerable weight36 of tribute. A just analogy would seem to countenance the opinion of an ingenious historian, that the free and tributary citizens did not surpass the number of half a million; and if, in the ordinary administration of government, their annual payments may be computed at about four millions and a half of our money, it would appear that, although the share of each individual was four times as considerable36, a fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was levied on the Imperial province36 of Gaul36. The exactions of Constantius36 may be calculated at seven millions sterling, which were reduced to two millions by the humanity or the wisdom of Julian36.
But this tax or capitation on the proprietors of land would have suffered a rich and numerous26 class of free citizens to escape. With the view of sharing that species of wealth which is derived from art or labour, and which exists in money or in merchandise, the emperors26 imposed a distinct26 and personal tribute on the trading part of their subjects. Some exemptions, very strictly confined both in time and place, were allowed to the proprietors who disposed of the produce of their own estates. Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberal arts26: but every other branch of commercial industry was affected26 by the severity of the law. The honourable merchant of Alexandria, who imported the gems and spices of India for the use26 of the Western world26; the usurer, who derived from the interest of money a silent and ignominious profit; the ingenious manufacturer, the diligent mechanic, and even the most obscure retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged to admit the officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain: and the sovereign of the Roman26 empire26, who tolerated the profession, consented to share the infamous salary, of public26 prostitutes. As this general tax upon industry was collected every fourth year, it was styled the Lustral Contribution: and the historian Zosimus laments that the approach of the fatal period was announced by the tears and terrors of the citizens, who were often compelled by the impending scourge to embrace the most abhorred and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their property had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus cannot indeed be justified from the charge of passion and prejudice; but, from the nature26 of this tribute, it seems reasonable to conclude that it was arbitrary in the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the mode of collecting. The secret wealth of commerce, and the precarious profits of art or labour, are susceptible only of a discretionary valuation, which is seldom disadvantageous to the interest of the treasury; and, as the person26 of the trader supplies the want of a visible and permanent security, the payment of the imposition, which, in the case of a land-tax, may be obtained by the seizure of property, can rarely be extorted by any other means than those of corporal punishments. The cruel treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state26 is attested, and was perhaps mitigated, by a very humane edict of Constantine, who, disclaiming the use26 of racks and of scourges, allots a spacious and airy prison for the place of their confinement.
These general3 taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute authority of the monarch3; but the occasional offerings of the coronary gold still retained the name and semblance of popular consent. It was an ancient custom that the allies of the republic, who ascribed their safety or deliverance to the success of the Roman3 arms3; and even the cities of Italy, who admired the virtues of their victorious general3; adorned the pomp of his triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, which, after the ceremony, were consecrated in the temple of Jupiter, to remain a lasting monument of his glory to future ages. The progress of zeal and flattery soon3 multiplied the number, and increased the size, of these popular donations; and the triumph of Caesar was enriched with two thousand3 eight hundred and twenty-two massy crowns, whose weight amounted to twenty thousand3 four hundred and fourteen pounds of gold. This treasure was immediately melted down by the prudent dictator, who was satisfied that it would be more serviceable to his soldiers than to the gods: his example was imitated by his successors; and the custom was introduced of exchanging these splendid ornaments for the more acceptable present of the current gold coin of the empire3. The spontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty; and, instead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it was supposed to be granted by the several cities and provinces3 of the monarchy as often as the emperor3 condescended to announce his accession, his consulship, the birth of a son3, the creation of a Caesar, a victory3 over the Barbarians3, or any other real or imaginary event which graced the annals of his reign3. The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-four thousand3 pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their own felicity, that their sovereign should graciously consent to accept this feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and gratitude.
A people46 elated by pride, or soured by discontent, are seldom qualified to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius46 and manly virtue46, which so far degraded them below the dignity46 of their ancestors; but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation of discipline, and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe some favourable circumstances which tended to alleviate the misery of their condition. The threatening tempest of Barbarians, which so soon subverted the foundations of Roman46 greatness, was still repelled, or suspended, on the frontiers. The arts46 of luxury and literature were cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society46 were enjoyed, by the inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp, and the expense of the civil administration contributed to restrain the irregular licence of the soldiers; and, although the laws46 were violated by power or perverted by subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman46 jurisprudence46 preserved a sense of order and equity, unknown to the despotic governments of the East. The rights of mankind46 might derive some protection from religion and philosophy46; and the name of freedom, which could no longer alarm, might sometimes admonish, the successors of Augustus that they did not reign46 over a nation of slaves or barbarians.
The character46 of the prince who removed the seat of empire46 and introduced such important46 changes into the civil and religious constitution of his country46 has fixed the attention, and divided the opinions, of mankind46. By the grateful zeal of the Christians, the deliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and even of a saint; while the discontent of the vanquished party has compared Constantine to the most abhorred of those tyrants who, by their vice and weakness, dishonoured the Imperial purple. The same passions have in some degree been perpetuated to succeeding generations, and the character46 of Constantine is considered, even in the present46 age46, as an object either of satire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of those defects which are confessed by his warmest admirers and of those virtues46 which are acknowledged by his most implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just portrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth46 and candour of history46 should adopt without a blush. But it would soon appear that the vain attempt to blend such discordant colours, and to reconcile such inconsistent qualities, must produce a figure monstrous rather than human46, unless it is viewed in its proper and distinct lights by a careful separation of the different periods of the reign46 of Constantine.
The person47, as well as the mind, of Constantine47 had been enriched by Nature with her choicest endowments. His stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his strength and activity were displayed in every manly exercise, and from his earliest youth to a very advanced season of life47, he preserved the vigour of his constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the social intercourse of familiar conversation; and, though he might sometimes indulge his disposition to raillery with less reserve than was required by the severe dignity of his station, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of all who approached him. The sincerity of his friendship has been suspected; yet he shewed, on some occasions, that he was not incapable of a warm and lasting attachment. The disadvantage of an illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a just estimate of the value of learning; and the arts and sciences derived some encouragement from the munificent protection of Constantine47. In the despatch of business, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active powers of his mind were almost continually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to ambassadors, and in examining the complaints of his subjects. Even those who censured the propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge that he possessed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most arduous designs, without being checked either by the prejudices of education or by the clamours of the multitude. In the field, he infused his own intrepid spirit47 into the troops47, whom he conducted with the talents of a consummate general47; and to his abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may ascribe the signal victories which he obtained over the foreign and domestic foes of the republic. He loved glory, as the reward, perhaps as the motive, of his labours. The boundless ambition, which, from the moment of his accepting the purple at York, appears as the ruling passion of his soul, may be justified by the dangers of his own situation, by the character of his rivals, by the consciousness of superior merit47, and by the prospect that his success would enable him to restore peace and order to the distracted empire47. In his civil47 wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his side the inclinations of the people47, who compared the undissembled vices of those tyrants with the spirit47 of wisdom and justice47 which seemed to direct the general47 tenor of the administration of Constantine47.
Had Constantine47 fallen on the banks of the Tiber, or even in the plains of Hadrianople, such is the character which, with a few exceptions, he might have transmitted to posterity. But the conclusion of his reign47 (according to the moderate and indeed tender sentence of a writer of the same age47) degraded him from the rank47 which he had acquired among the most deserving of the Roman47 princes. In the life47 of Augustus, we behold the tyrant47 of the republic converted, almost by imperceptible degrees, into the father47 of his country and of human kind. In that of Constantine47, we may contemplate a hero, who had so long47 inspired his subjects with love and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by conquest above the necessity of dissimulation. The general47 peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign47 was a period of apparent splendour rather than of real prosperity; and the old age47 of Constantine47 was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices of rapaciousness and prodigality. The accumulated treasures found in the palaces of Maxentius and Licinius were lavishly consumed; the various innovations introduced by the conqueror were attended with an increasing expense; the cost of his buildings, his court, and his festivals required an immediate and plentiful supply; and the oppression of the people47 was the only fund which could support the magnificence of the sovereign47. His unworthy favourites, enriched by the boundless liberality of their master47, usurped with impunity the privilege of rapine and corruption. A secret47 but universal decay was felt in every part of the public47 administration, and the emperor47 himself, though he still retained the obedience, gradually lost the esteem, of his subjects. The dress and manners which, towards the decline of life47, he chose to affect, served only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeminacy in the person47 of Constantine47. He is represented with false hair of various colours, laboriously arranged by the skilful artists of the times; a diadem of a new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of gems and pearls, of collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing robe of silk, most curiously embroidered with flowers of gold. In such apparel, scarcely to be excused by the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a loss to discover the wisdom of an aged monarch and the simplicity of a Roman47 veteran. A mind thus relaxed by prosperity and indulgence was incapable of rising to that magnanimity which disdains suspicion and dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximian and Licinius may perhaps be justified by the maxims of policy, as they are taught in the schools of tyrants; but an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather murders, which sullied the declining age47 of Constantine47, will suggest to our most candid thoughts the idea of a prince47 who could sacrifice without reluctance the laws of justice47 and the feelings of nature to the dictates either of his passions or of his interest.
The same fortune13 which so invariably followed the standard of Constantine13 seemed to secure the hopes and comforts of his domestic life13. Those among his predecessors who had enjoyed the longest and most prosperous reigns, Augustus13, Trajan, and Diocletian, had been disappointed of posterity; and the frequent revolutions had never allowed sufficient time for any Imperial13 family13 to grow up and multiply under the shade of the purple13. But the royalty of the Flavian line, which had been first ennobled by the Gothic Claudius, descended through several generations; and Constantine13 himself derived from his royal13 father13 the hereditary honours which he transmitted to his children13. The emperor13 had been twice married. Minervina, the obscure but lawful object of his youthful attachment, had left him only one son13, who was called Crispus13. By Fausta, the daughter13 of Maximian, he had three daughters, and three sons13, known by the kindred names of Constantine13, Constantius13, and Constans. The unambitious brothers13 of the great13 Constantine13, Julius Constantius13, Dalmatius, and Hannibalianus, were permitted to enjoy the most honourable rank, and the most affluent fortune13, that could be consistent with a private station. The youngest of the three lived without a name, and died without posterity. His two elder13 brothers13 obtained in marriage13 the daughters of wealthy senators, and propagated new13 branches of the Imperial13 race. Gallus and Julian afterwards became the most illustrious13 of the children13 of Julius Constantius13, the Patrician. The two sons13 of Dalmatius, who had been decorated with the vain title13 of censor, were named Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The two sisters of the great13 Constantine13, Anastasia and Eutropia, were bestowed13 on Optatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble birth13 and of consular dignity13. His third sister13, Constantia, was distinguished by her pre-eminence of greatness and of misery. She remained the widow of the vanquished Licinius; and it was by her entreaties that an innocent boy, the offspring of their marriage13, preserved, for some time, his life13, the title13 of Caesar13, and a precarious hope of the succession. Besides the females and the allies of the Flavian house13, ten or twelve males, to whom the language of modern courts would apply the title13 of princes13 of the blood, seemed according to the order of their birth13 to be destined either to inherit or to support the throne of Constantine13. But in less than thirty years13, this numerous and increasing family13 was reduced to the persons of Constantius13 and Julian, who alone had survived a series13 of crimes and calamities, such as the tragic poets have deplored in the devoted lines of Pelops and of Cadmus.
Crispus, the eldest13 son13 of Constantine13, and the presumptive heir13 of the empire13, is represented by impartial historians as an amiable and accomplished youth13. The care of his education, or at least of his studies, was entrusted to Lactantius, the most eloquent of the Christians; a preceptor admirably qualified to form the taste, and to excite the virtues, of his illustrious13 disciple. At the age13 of seventeen, Crispus13 was invested with the title13 of Caesar13, and the administration of the Gallic provinces, where the inroads of the Germans gave him an early occasion of signalising his military prowess. In the civil war which broke out soon afterwards, the father13 and son13 divided their powers; and this history has already celebrated the valour as well as conduct displayed by the latter in forcing the straits of the Hellespont, so obstinately defended by the superior fleet of Licinius. This naval victory contributed to determine the event of the war; and the names of Constantine13 and of Crispus13 were united in the joyful acclamations of their Eastern subjects: who loudly proclaimed that the world had been subdued, and was now governed, by an emperor13 endowed with every virtue13; and by his illustrious13 son13, a prince beloved of heaven, and the lively image of his father13's perfections. The public favour, which seldom accompanies old age13, diffused its lustre over the youth13 of Crispus13. He deserved the esteem, and he engaged the affections, of the court, the army, and the people. The experienced merit of a reigning monarch is acknowledged by his subjects with reluctance, and frequently denied with partial and discontented murmurs; while, from the opening virtues of his successor, they fondly conceive the most unbounded hopes of private as well as public felicity.
This dangerous popularity soon47 excited the attention of Constantine47, who, both as a father47 and as a king, was impatient of an equal. Instead of attempting to secure the allegiance of his son47, by the generous ties of confidence and gratitude, he resolved to prevent the mischiefs which might be apprehended from dissatisfied ambition. Crispus soon47 had reason to complain that, while his infant brother Constantius was sent, with the title of Caesar, to reign47 over his peculiar department of the Gallic provinces47, he, a prince47 of mature years, who had performed such recent and signal services, instead of being raised to the superior rank47 of Augustus, was confined almost a prisoner to his father47's court; and exposed, without power47 or defence, to every calumny which the malice of his enemies could suggest. Under such painful circumstances, the royal youth might not always be able to compose his behaviour, or suppress his discontent; and we may be assured that he was encompassed by a train of indiscreet or perfidious followers, who assiduously studied to inflame, and who were perhaps instructed to betray, the unguarded warmth of his resentment. An edict of Constantine47, published about this time, manifestly indicates his real or affected suspicions that a secret47 conspiracy had been formed against his person47 and government47. By all the allurements of honours and rewards, he invites informers of every degree to accuse without exception his magistrates or ministers, his friends or his most intimate favourites, protesting, with a solemn asseveration, that he himself will listen to the charge, that he himself will revenge his injuries; and concluding with a prayer, which discovers some apprehension of danger47, that the providence of the Supreme Being may still continue to protect the safety of the emperor47 and of the empire47.
The informers, who complied with so liberal an invitation, were sufficiently versed in the arts of courts to select the friends and adherents of Crispus as the guilty persons; nor is there any reason to distrust the veracity of the emperor47, who had promised an ample measure of revenge and punishment. The policy of Constantine47 maintained, however, the same appearances of regard and confidence towards a son47 whom he began to consider as his most irreconcilable enemy. Medals were struck with the customary vows for the long47 and auspicious reign47 of the young Caesar; and as the people47, who were not admitted into the secrets of the palace47, still loved his virtues and respected his dignity, a poet who solicits his recall from exile, adores with equal devotion the majesty of the father47 and that of the son47. The time was now arrived for celebrating the august ceremony of the twentieth year of the reign47 of Constantine47; and the emperor47, for that purpose, removed his court from Nicomedia to Rome47, where the most splendid preparations had been made for his reception. Every eye and every tongue affected to express their sense of the general47 happiness, and the veil of ceremony and dissimulation was drawn for a while over the darkest designs of revenge and murder. In the midst of the festival the unfortunate Crispus was apprehended by order of the emperor47, who laid aside the tenderness of a father47, without assuming the equity of a judge. The examination was short and private47; and, as it was thought decent to conceal the fate of the young prince47 from the eyes of the Roman47 people47, he was sent under a strong guard to Pola, in Istria, where, soon47 afterwards, he was put to death47, either by the hand of the executioner or by the more gentle operation of poison. The Caesar Licinius, a youth of amiable manners, was involved in the ruin of Crispus; and the stern jealousy of Constantine47 was unmoved by the prayers and tears of his favourite sister, pleading for the life47 of a son47, whose rank47 was his only crime, and whose loss she did not long47 survive. The story of these unhappy princes, the nature and evidence of their guilt, the forms of their trial, and the circumstances of their death47, were buried in mysterious obscurity; and the courtly bishop, who has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and piety of his hero, observes a prudent silence on the subject of these tragic events. Such haughty contempt for the opinion of mankind, whilst it imprints an indelible stain on the memory of Constantine47, must remind us of the very different behaviour of one of the greatest monarchs of the present age47. The Czar Peter, in the full possession of despotic power47, submitted to the judgment of Russia, of Europe, and of posterity the reasons which had compelled him to subscribe to the condemnation of a criminal, or at least of a degenerate, son47.
The innocence of Crispus was so universally acknowledged that the modern Greeks, who adore the memory of their founder, are reduced to palliate the guilt of a parricide, which the common feelings of human nature forbade them to justify. They pretend that, as soon47 as the afflicted father47 discovered the falsehood of the accusation by which his credulity had been so fatally misled, he published to the world his repentance and remorse; that he mourned forty days, during which he abstained from the use of the bath and all the ordinary comforts of life47; and that, for the lasting instruction of posterity, he erected a golden statue of Crispus, with this memorable inscription: To my Son47, whom I unjustly condemned. A tale so moral and so interesting would deserve to be supported by less exceptionable authority47; but, if we consult the more ancient and authentic writers, they will inform us that the repentance of Constantine47 was manifested only in acts of blood and revenge; and that he atoned for the murder of an innocent son47, by the execution, perhaps, of a guilty wife. They ascribe the misfortunes of Crispus to the arts of his stepmother Fausta, whose implacable hatred, or whose disappointed love, renewed in the palace47 of Constantine47 the ancient tragedy of Hippolytus and of Phaedra. Like the daughter of Minos, the daughter of Maximian accused her son47-in-law of an incestuous attempt on the chastity of his father47's wife; and easily obtained, from the jealousy of the emperor47, a sentence of death47 against a young prince47 whom she considered with reason as the most formidable rival of her own children. But Helena, the aged mother of Constantine47, lamented and revenged the untimely fate of her grandson Crispus: nor was it long47 before a real or pretended discovery was made, that Fausta herself entertained a criminal connection with a slave belonging to the Imperial47 stables. Her condemnation and punishment were the instant consequences of the charge; and the adulteress was suffocated by the steam of a bath, which, for that purpose, had been heated to an extraordinary degree. By some it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance of a conjugal union of twenty years, and the honour of their common offspring, the destined heirs of the throne47, might have softened the obdurate heart of Constantine47; and persuaded him to suffer his wife, however guilty she might appear, to expiate her offences in a solitary prison. But it seems a superfluous labour to weigh the propriety, unless we could ascertain the truth, of this singular event; which is attended with some circumstances of doubt and perplexity. Those who have attacked, and those who have defended, the character of Constantine47 have alike disregarded two very remarkable passages of two orations pronounced under the succeeding reign47. The former celebrates the virtues, the beauty, and the fortune of the empress Fausta, the daughter, wife, sister, and mother of so many princes. The latter asserts, in explicit terms, that the mother of the younger Constantine47, who was slain three years after his father47's death47, survived to weep over the fate of her son47. Notwithstanding the positive testimony of several writers of the Pagan as well as of the Christian religion, there may still remain some reason to believe, or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped the blind and suspicious cruelty of her husband. The deaths of a son47, and of a nephew, with the execution of a great number of respectable and perhaps innocent friends, who were involved in their fall, may be sufficient, however, to justify the discontent of the Roman47 people47, and to explain the satirical verses affixed to the palace47-gate, comparing the splendid and bloody reigns of Constantine47 and Nero.
By the death of Crispus13, the inheritance of the empire13 seemed to devolve on the three sons13 of Fausta, who have been already mentioned under the names of Constantine13, of Constantius13, and of Constans. These young13 princes13 were successively invested with the title13 of Caesar13; and the dates of their promotion may be referred to the tenth, the twentieth, and the thirtieth years13 of the reign of their father13. This conduct, though it tended to multiply the future masters of the Roman13 world, might be excused by the partiality of paternal affection; but it is not easy to understand the motives of the emperor13, when he endangered the safety both of his family13 and of his people, by the unnecessary elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The former was raised, by the title13 of Caesar13, to an equality with his cousins. In favour of the latter, Constantine13 invented the new13 and singular appellation of Nobilissimus; to which he annexed the flattering distinction of a robe of purple13 and gold. But of the whole series13 of Roman13 princes13 in any age13 of the empire13, Hannibalianus alone was distinguished by the title13 of King; a name which the subjects of Tiberius would have detested, as the profane and cruel insult of capricious tyranny. The use of such a title13, even as it appears under the reign of Constantine13, is a strange and unconnected fact, which can scarcely be admitted on the joint authority of Imperial13 medals and contemporary writers.
The whole empire47 was deeply interested in the education of these five youths, the acknowledged successors of Constantine47. The exercises of the body prepared them for the fatigues of war47 and the duties of active life47. Those who occasionally mention the education or talents of Constantius allow that he excelled in the gymnastic arts of leaping and running; that he was a dexterous archer, a skilful horseman, and a master47 of all the different weapons used in the service either of the cavalry or of the infantry. The same assiduous cultivation was bestowed, though not perhaps with equal success, to improve the minds of the sons and nephews of Constantine47. The most celebrated professors of the Christian faith, of the Grecian philosophy, and of the Roman47 jurisprudence were invited by the liberality of the emperor47, who reserved for himself the important task of instructing the royal youths in the science of government47 and the knowledge of mankind. But the genius of Constantine47 himself had been formed by adversity and experience. In the free intercourse of private47 life47, and amidst the dangers of the court of Galerius, he had learned to command47 his own passions, to encounter those of his equals, and to depend for his present safety and future greatness on the prudence and firmness of his personal conduct47. His destined successors had the misfortune of being born and educated in the Imperial47 purple. Incessantly surrounded with a train of flatterers, they passed their youth in the enjoyment of luxury and the expectation of a throne47; nor would the dignity of their rank47 permit them to descend from that elevated station from whence the various characters of human nature appear to wear a smooth and uniform aspect. The indulgence of Constantine47 admitted them at a very tender age47 to share the administration of the empire47; and they studied the art of reigning at the expense of the people47 entrusted to their care. The younger Constantine47 was appointed to hold his court in Gaul; and his brother Constantius exchanged that department, the ancient patrimony of their father47, for the more opulent, but less martial, countries of the East47. Italy47, the Western Illyricum, and Africa were accustomed to revere Constans, the third of his sons, as the representative of the great Constantine47. He fixed Dalmatius on the Gothic frontier, to which he annexed the government47 of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. The city47 of Caesarea was chosen for the residence of Hannibalianus; and the provinces47 of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Lesser Armenia were destined to form the extent of his new kingdom. For each of these princes a suitable establishment was provided. A just proportion of guards, of legions, and of auxiliaries was allotted for their respective dignity and defence. The ministers and generals who were placed about their persons were such as Constantine47 could trust to assist, and even to control, these youthful sovereigns in the exercise of their delegated power47. As they advanced in years and experience, the limits of their authority47 were insensibly enlarged: but the emperor47 always reserved for himself the title of Augustus; and, while he shewed the Caesars to the armies and provinces47, he maintained every part of the empire47 in equal obedience to its supreme head. The tranquillity of the last fourteen years of his reign47 was scarcely interrupted by the contemptible insurrection of a camel-driver in the island of Cyprus, or by the active part which the policy of Constantine47 engaged him to assume in the wars of the Goths and Sarmatians.
Among the different branches of the human race, the Sarmatians form a very remarkable shade; as they seem to unite10 the manners10 of the Asiatic barbarians with the figure and complexion of the ancient inhabitants of Europe. According10 to the various10 accidents of peace and war10, of alliance or conquest, the Sarmatians were sometimes confined to the banks of the Tanais; and they sometimes spread themselves over the immense plains which lie between the Vistula and the Volga. The care of their numerous10 flocks and herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercise10 of war10, or rather of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians. The movable camps10 or cities10, the ordinary residence of their wives and children, consisted only of large waggons, drawn by oxen and covered10 in the form of tents. The military10 strength10 of the nation10 was composed of cavalry; and the custom10 of their warriors, to lead in their hand one or two spare horses10, enabled them to advance and to retreat with a rapid diligence which surprised the security, and eluded the pursuit, of a distant enemy. Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry10 to invent a sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword or javelin, though it was formed only of horses10' hoofs, cut into thin and polished slices, carefully laid over each other in the manner of scales or feathers, and strongly sewed upon an under-garment of coarse10 linen. The offensive arms of the Sarmatians were short daggers, long lances, and a weighty bow10 with a quiver of arrows. They were reduced10 to the necessity of employing fish bones for the points of their weapons10; but the custom10 of dipping them in a venomous liquor that poisoned the wounds which they inflicted is alone sufficient to prove the most savage manners10; since a people10 impressed with a sense of humanity would have abhorred so cruel a practice, and a nation10 skilled in the arts of war10 would have disdained so impotent a resource. Whenever these Barbarians issued from their deserts in quest of prey, their shaggy beards, uncombed locks, the furs with which they were covered10 from head to foot, and their fierce countenances, which seemed to express the innate cruelty of their minds, inspired the more civilised provincials of Rome with horror and dismay.
The tender Ovid, after a youth spent in the enjoyment of fame and luxury, was condemned to an hopeless exile on the frozen banks9 of the Danube9, where he was exposed, almost without defence, to the fury of these monsters of the desert, with whose stern spirits he feared that his gentle shade might hereafter be confounded. In his pathetic, but sometimes unmanly, lamentations, he describes, in the most lively colours, the dress and manners, the arms9 and inroads, of the Getae and Sarmatians, who were associated for the purposes of destruction; and from the accounts of history there is some reason to believe that these Sarmatians were the Jazygae, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes9 of the nation9. The allurements of plenty engaged them to seek a permanent establishment on the frontiers of the empire9. Soon9 after the reign of Augustus, they obliged the Dacians, who subsisted by fishing on the banks9 of the river9 Theiss or Tibiscus, to retire into the hilly country9, and to abandon to the victorious Sarmatians the fertile plains of the Upper Hungary, which are bounded by the course of the Danube9 and the semi-circular enclosure of the Carpathian mountains9. In this advantageous position, they watched or suspended the moment of attack, as they were provoked by injuries or appeased by presents; they gradually acquired the skill of using more dangerous weapons; and, although the Sarmatians did not illustrate their name by any memorable exploits, they occasionally assisted their eastern and western neighbours, the Goths9 and the Germans, with a formidable body of cavalry. They lived under the irregular aristocracy of their chieftains; but, after they had received into their bosom the fugitive Vandals9, who yielded to the pressure of the Gothic power, they seem to have chosen a king from that nation9, and from the illustrious race of the Astingi, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Northern ocean9.
This motive of enmity must have inflamed the subjects of contention, which perpetually arise on the confines of warlike and independent nations. The Vandal princes were stimulated by fear and revenge; the Gothic kings aspired to extend their dominion from the Euxine to the frontiers of Germany: and the waters of the Maros, a small river which falls into the Theiss, were stained with the blood of the contending Barbarians3. After some experience of the superior strength and number of their adversaries, the Sarmatians implored the protection of the Roman3 monarch3, who beheld with pleasure the discord of the nations, but who was justly alarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms3. As soon3 as Constantine had declared himself in favour of the weaker party, the haughty Araric, king3 of the Goths, instead of expecting the attack of the legions, boldly passed the Danube, and spread terror and devastation through the province of Maesia. To oppose the inroad of this destroying host, the aged emperor3 took the field in person; but on this occasion either his conduct or his fortune betrayed the glory which he had acquired in so many foreign and domestic wars. He had the mortification of seeing his troops3 fly before an inconsiderable detachment of the Barbarians3, who pursued them to the edge of their fortified camp3 and obliged him to consult his safety by a precipitate and ignominious retreat. The event of a second and more successful action retrieved the honour of the Roman3 name; and the powers of art and discipline prevailed, after an obstinate contest, over the efforts of irregular valour3. The broken army3 of the Goths abandoned the field of battle, the wasted province, and the passage of the Danube: and, although the eldest of the sons of Constantine was permitted to supply the place of his father, the merit of the victory3, which diffused universal joy, was ascribed to the auspicious counsels of the emperor3 himself.
He contributed at least to improve this advantage, by his negotiations with the free and warlike people of Chersonesus, whose capital9, situate on the western coast9 of the Tauric or Crimaean peninsula, still retained some vestiges of a Grecian colony, and was governed by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City9. The Chersonites were animated against the Goths9 by the memory of the wars which, in the preceding century, they had maintained with unequal forces against the invaders of their country9. They were connected with the Romans9 by the mutual benefits of commerce; as they were supplied from the provinces9 of Asia9 with corn and manufactures, which they purchased with their only productions, salt, wax, and hides. Obedient to the requisition of Constantine, they prepared, under the conduct of their magistrate Diogenes, a considerable army9, of which the principal strength consisted in crossbows and military chariots. The speedy march and intrepid attack of the Chersonites, by diverting the attention of the Goths9, assisted the operations of the Imperial generals. The Goths9, vanquished on every side, were driven into the mountains9, where, in the course of a severe campaign, above an hundred thousand9 were computed to have perished by cold and hunger. Peace was at length granted to their humble supplications; the eldest son of Araric was accepted as the most valuable hostage; and Constantine endeavoured to convince their chiefs, by a liberal distribution of honours and rewards, how far9 the friendship of the Romans9 was preferable to their enmity. In the expressions of his gratitude towards the faithful Chersonites, the emperor was still more magnificent. The pride of the nation9 was gratified by the splendid and almost royal decorations bestowed on their magistrate and his successors. A perpetual exemption from all duties was stipulated for their vessels9 which traded to the ports of the Black Sea9. A regular subsidy was promised, of iron, corn, oil, and of every supply which could be useful either in peace or war9. But it was thought that the Sarmatians were sufficiently rewarded by their deliverance from impending ruin; and the emperor, perhaps with too strict an economy, deducted some part of the expenses of the war9 from the customary gratifications which were allowed to that turbulent nation9.
Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sarmatians36 soon36 forgot, with the levity of Barbarians36, the services which they had so lately received and the dangers which still threatened their safety. Their inroads on the territory of the empire36 provoked the indignation of Constantine to leave them to their fate, and he no longer opposed the ambition of Geberic, a renowned warrior, who had recently ascended the Gothic throne. Wisumar, the Vandal king, whilst alone and unassisted he defended his dominions with undaunted courage, was vanquished and slain in a decisive battle, which swept away the flower of the Sarmatian youth36. The remainder of the nation36 embraced the desperate expedient of arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herdsmen, by whose tumultuary aid36 they revenged their defeat and expelled the invader from their confines. But they soon36 discovered that they had exchanged a foreign for a domestic enemy, more dangerous36 and more implacable. Enraged by their former servitude, elated by their present glory, the slaves, under the name of Limigantes36, claimed and usurped the possession of the country36 which they had saved. Their masters, unable to withstand the ungoverned fury of the populace, preferred the hardships of exile to the tyranny of their servants. Some of the fugitive Sarmatians36 solicited a less ignominious dependence, under the hostile standard of the Goths. A more numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian mountains, among the Quadi36, their German allies36, and were easily admitted to share a superfluous waste of uncultivated land. But the far greater part of the distressed nation36 turned their eyes towards the fruitful provinces36 of Rome. Imploring the protection and forgiveness of the emperor36, they solemnly promised, as subjects in peace and as soldiers in war36, the most inviolable fidelity to the empire36 which should graciously receive them into its bosom. According to the maxims adopted by Probus and his successors, the offers of this Barbarian colony were eagerly accepted; and a competent portion of lands36, in the provinces36 of Pannonia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for the habitation and subsistence of three hundred thousand36 Sarmatians36.
By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the homage of a suppliant nation, Constantine47 asserted the majesty of the Roman47 empire47; and the ambassadors of Aethiopia, Persia, and the most remote countries of India congratulated the peace and prosperity of his government47. If he reckoned, among the favours of fortune, the death47 of his eldest son47, of his nephew, and perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of private47 as well as public47 felicity, till the thirtieth year of his reign47; a period which none of his predecessors, since Augustus, had been permitted to celebrate. Constantine47 survived that solemn festival about ten months; and, at the mature age47 of sixty-four, after a short illness, he ended his memorable life47 at the palace47 of Aquyrion, in the suburbs of Nicomedia, whither he had retired for the benefit of the air, and with the hope of recruiting his exhausted strength by the use of the warm baths. The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at least of mourning, surpassed whatever had been practised on any former occasion. Notwithstanding the claims of the senate47 and people47 of ancient Rome47, the corpse of the deceased emperor47, according to his last request, was transported to the city47 which was destined to preserve the name and memory of its founder. The body of Constantine47, adorned with the vain symbols of greatness, the purple and diadem, was deposited on a golden bed in one of the apartments of the palace47, which for that purpose had been splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court were strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the principal officers of the state, the army47, and the household, approaching the person47 of their sovereign47 with bended knees and a composed countenance, offered their respectful homage as seriously as if he had been still alive. From motives of policy, this theatrical representation was for some time continued; nor could flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking that Constantine47 alone, by the peculiar indulgence of heaven, had reigned after his death47.
But this reign47 could subsist only in empty pageantry; and it was soon47 discovered that the will of the most absolute monarch is seldom obeyed, when his subjects have no longer anything to hope from his favour, or to dread from his resentment. The same ministers and generals who bowed with such reverential awe before the inanimate corpse of their deceased sovereign47 were engaged in secret47 consultations to exclude his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he had assigned them in the succession of the empire47. We are too imperfectly acquainted with the court of Constantine47 to form any judgment of the real motives which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy; unless we should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit47 of jealousy and revenge against the prefect47 Ablavius, a proud favourite, who had long47 directed the counsels and abused the confidence of the late emperor47. The arguments by which they solicited the concurrence of the soldiers47 and people47 are of a more obvious nature: and they might with decency, as well as truth, insist on the superior rank47 of the children of Constantine47, the danger47 of multiplying the number of sovereigns, and the impending mischiefs which threatened the republic, from the discord of so many rival princes, who were not connected by the tender sympathy of fraternal affection. The intrigue was conducted with zeal and secrecy till a loud and unanimous declaration was procured from the troops47 that they would suffer none except the sons of their lamented monarch to reign47 over the Roman47 empire47. The younger Dalmatius, who was united with his collateral relations by the ties of friendship and interest, is allowed to have inherited a considerable share of the abilities of the great Constantine47; but, on this occasion, he does not appear to have concerted any measures for supporting, by arms47, the just claims which himself and his royal brother derived from the liberality of their uncle. Astonished and overwhelmed by the tide of popular fury, they seem to have remained, without the power47 of flight or of resistance, in the hands of their implacable enemies. Their fate was suspended till the arrival of Constantius, the second, and perhaps the most favoured, of the sons of Constantine47.
The voice of the dying emperor47 had recommended the care of his funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince47, by the vicinity of his Eastern station, could easily prevent the diligence of his brothers, who resided in their distant government47 of Italy47 and Gaul. As soon47 as he had taken possession of the palace47 of Constantinople, his first care was to remove the apprehensions of his kinsmen by a solemn oath, which he pledged for their security. His next employment was to find some specious pretence which might release his conscience from the obligation of an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made subservient to the designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was attested by a person47 of the most sacred character. From the hands of the bishop of Nicomedia, Constantius received a fatal scroll affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father47; in which the emperor47 expressed his suspicions that he had been poisoned by his brother; and conjured his sons to revenge his death47, and to consult their own safety by the punishment of the guilty. Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these unfortunate princes to defend their life47 and honour against so incredible an accusation, they were silenced by the furious clamours of the soldiers47, who declared themselves at once their enemies, their judges, and their executioners. The spirit47, and even the forms, of legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promiscuous massacre; which involved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of his cousins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most illustrious, the patrician Optatus, who had married a sister of the late emperor47, and the prefect47 Ablavius, whose power47 and riches had inspired him with some hopes of obtaining the purple. If it were necessary to aggravate the horrors of this bloody scene, we might add that Constantius himself had espoused the daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had bestowed his sister in marriage on his cousin Hannibalianus. These alliances, which the policy of Constantine47, regardless of the public47 prejudice, had formed between the several branches of the Imperial47 house, served only to convince mankind that these princes were as cold to the endearments of conjugal affection, as they were insensible to the ties of consanguinity and the moving entreaties of youth and innocence. Of so numerous a family Gallus and Julian alone, the two youngest children of Julius Constantius, were saved from the hands of the assassins, till their rage, satiated with slaughter, had in some measure subsided. The emperor47 Constantius, who, in the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to guilt and reproach, discovered, on some future occasions, a faint and transient remorse for those cruelties, which the perfidious counsels of his ministers and the irresistible violence of the troops47 had extorted from his unexperienced youth.
The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new13 division of the provinces; which was ratified in a personal interview of the three brothers13. Constantine13, the eldest13 of the Caesars, obtained, with a certain pre-eminence of rank, the possession of the new13 capital, which bore his own name and that of his father13. Thrace and the countries of the East were allotted for the patrimony of Constantius13; and Constans was acknowledged as the lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa, and the Western13 Illyricum. The armies submitted to their hereditary right; and they condescended, after some delay, to accept from the Roman13 senate the title13 of Augustus13. When they first assumed the reins of government, the eldest13 of these princes13 was twenty-one, the second13 twenty, and the third only seventeen, years13 of age13.
While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards of his brothers, Constantius3, at the head3 of the effeminate troops3 of Asia, was left to sustain the weight of the Persian3 war3. At the decease of Constantine, the throne3 of the East3 was filled by Sapor3, son3 of Hormouz or Hormisdas, and grandson of Narses, who, after the victory3 of Galerius, had humbly confessed the superiority of the Roman3 power. Although Sapor3 was in the thirtieth year of his long3 reign3, he was still in the vigour of youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strange fatality, had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained pregnant at the time of her husband's death3; and the uncertainty of the sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes of the princes of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil war3 were at length removed by the positive assurance of the Magi that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would safely produce, a son3. Obedient to the voice of superstition, the Persians3 prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation. A royal3 bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in the midst of the palace; the diadem was placed on the spot which might be supposed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and the prostrate Satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and insensible sovereign. If any credit can be given to this marvellous tale, which seems however to be countenanced by the manners of the people and by the extraordinary duration of his reign3, we must admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of Sapor3. In the soft sequestered education of a Persian3 harem, the royal3 youth could discover the importance of exercising the vigour of his mind and body; and, by his personal merit, deserved a throne3, on which he had been seated while he was yet unconscious of the duties and temptations of absolute power. His minority was exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic discord; his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful king3 of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal3 family was degraded by the captivity of a princess, the sister of the deceased king3. But, as soon3 as Sapor3 attained the age of manhood, the presumptuous Thair, his nation, and his country fell beneath the first effort of the young warrior; who used his victory3 with so judicious a mixture of rigour and clemency that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs the title of Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation.
The ambition of the Persian3, to whom his enemies ascribe the virtues of a soldier and a statesman, was animated by the desire of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from the hands of the Romans3 the five provinces3 beyond the Tigris3. The military3 fame of Constantine, and the real or apparent strength of his government, suspended the attack; and, while the hostile conduct of Sapor3 provoked the resentment, his artful negotiations amused the patience, of the Imperial court3. The death3 of Constantine was the signal of war3, and the actual condition of the Syrian and Armenian frontier seemed to encourage the Persians3 by the prospect of a rich spoil and an easy conquest. The example of the massacres of the palace diffused a spirit of licentiousness and sedition among the troops3 of the East3, who were no longer restrained by their habits of obedience to a veteran commander. By the prudence of Constantius3, who, from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually restored to a sense of duty and discipline; but the season of anarchy had permitted Sapor3 to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy several of the most important3 fortresses of Mesopotamia. In Armenia3, the renowned Tiridates had long3 enjoyed the peace3 and glory which he deserved by his valour3 and fidelity to the cause of Rome. The firm alliance3 which he maintained with Constantine was productive of spiritual as well as of temporal benefits: by the conversion of Tiridates, the character of a saint was applied to that of a hero, the Christian faith was preached and established from the Euphrates to the shores of the Caspian, and Armenia3 was attached to the empire3 by the double ties of policy and of religion. But, as many of the Armenian nobles still refused to abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives, the public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction, which insulted the feeble age of their sovereign, and impatiently expected the hour of his death3. He died at length after a reign3 of fifty-six years3, and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy expired with Tiridates. His lawful heir was driven into exile, the Christian priests were either murdered or expelled from their churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania were solicited to descend from their mountains; and two of the most powerful governors, usurping the ensigns or the powers of royalty, implored the assistance of Sapor3, and opened the gates of their cities to the Persian3 garrisons. The Christian party, under the guidance of the Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor of St. Gregory the Illuminator, had recourse to the piety of Constantius3. After the troubles had continued about three years3, Antiochus, one of the officers of the household, executed with success the Imperial commission of restoring Chosroes3, the son3 of Tiridates, to the throne3 of his fathers, of distributing honours and rewards among the faithful servants of the house of Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general3 amnesty, which was accepted by the greater part of the rebellious Satraps. But the Romans3 derived more honour than advantage from this revolution. Chosroes3 was a prince3 of a puny stature, and a pusillanimous spirit. Unequal to the fatigues of war3, averse to the society of mankind, he withdrew from his capital to a retired palace, which he built on the banks of the river Eleutherus, and in the centre of a shady grove; where he consumed his vacant hours in the rural sports of hunting and hawking. To secure this inglorious ease, he submitted to the conditions of peace3 which Sapor3 condescended to impose; the payment of an annual tribute, and the restitution of the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage of Tiridates and the victorious arms3 of Galerius had annexed to the Armenian monarchy.
During the long period of the reign of Constantius, the provinces5 of the East were afflicted by the calamities of the Persian war5. The irregular incursions of the light troops5 alternately spread terror and devastation beyond the Tigris and beyond the Euphrates, from the gates of Ctesiphon to those of Antioch; and this active service was performed by the Arabs of the desert, who were divided in their interest and affections; some of their independent chiefs5 being enlisted in the party of Sapor, whilst others had engaged their doubtful fidelity to the emperor5. The more grave and important operations of the war5 were conducted with equal vigour; and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered each other in nine bloody fields, in two of which Constantius himself commanded in person. The event of the day5 was most commonly adverse to the Romans5, but in the battle5 of Singara their imprudent valour5 had almost achieved a signal and decisive5 victory5. The stationary troops5 of Singara retired on the approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over three bridges, and occupied near5 the village of Hilleh an advantageous camp5, which, by the labour of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day5 with a deep ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host5, when it was drawn out in order of battle5, covered the banks5 of the river, the adjacent heights, and the whole extent of a plain of above twelve miles, which separated the two armies. Both were alike impatient to engage; but the Barbarians5, after a slight resistance, fled in disorder; unable to resist, or desirous to weary, the strength5 of the heavy legions5, who, fainting with heat and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut in pieces a line of cavalry5, clothed in complete armour, which had been posted before the gates of the camp5 to protect their retreat5. Constantius, who was hurried along in the pursuit, attempted, without effect, to restrain the ardour of his troops5, by representing to them the dangers of the approaching night and the certainty of completing their success5 with the return of day5. As they depended much more on their own valour5 than on the experience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by their clamours his timid remonstrances; and rushing with fury to the charge filled up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and dispersed themselves through the tents, to recruit their exhausted strength5 and to enjoy the rich harvest of their labours5. But the prudent Sapor had watched the moment of victory5. His army5, of which the greater part, securely posted on the heights, had been spectators of the action, advanced in silence, and under the shadow of the night; and his Persian archers, guided by the illumination of the camp5, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history declares that the Romans5 were vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and that the flying remnant of the legions5 was exposed to the most intolerable hardships. Even the tenderness of panegyric, confessing that the glory5 of the emperor5 was sullied by the disobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw a veil over the circumstances of this melancholy retreat5. Yet one of those venal orators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates with amazing coolness an act of such incredible cruelty, as, in the judgment of posterity, must imprint a far5 deeper stain on the honour of the Imperial name. The son of Sapor, the heir of his crown, had been made a captive in the Persian camp5. The unhappy youth, who might have excited the compassion of the most savage enemy5, was scourged, tortured, and publicly executed by the inhuman Romans5.
Whatever advantages might attend the arms49 of Sapor in the field, though nine repeated victories diffused among the nations the fame of his valour49 and conduct, he could not hope to succeed in the execution of his designs, while the fortified towns of Mesopotamia, and, above all, the strong and ancient city49 of Nisibis, remained in the possession of the Romans49. In the space of twelve years, Nisibis, which, since the time of Lucullus, had been deservedly esteemed the bulwark of the East, sustained three memorable sieges against the power of Sapor, and the disappointed monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and an hundred days49, was thrice repulsed with loss and ignominy. This last and populous city49 was situate about two days49' journey from the Tigris, in the midst of a pleasant and fertile plain at the foot of Mount Masius. A treble enclosure of brick walls49 was defended by a deep ditch49; and the intrepid assistance of Count Lucilianus and his garrison was seconded by the desperate courage of the people. The citizens of Nisibis were animated by the exhortations of their bishop, enured to arms49 by the presence of danger49, and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to plant a Persian colony in their room and to lead them away into distant and barbarous captivity. The event of the two former sieges elated their confidence, and exasperated the haughty spirit of the Great49 King49, who advanced a third time towards Nisibis, at the head of the united forces of Persia and India. The ordinary machines invented to batter or undermine the walls49 were rendered ineffectual by the superior skill of the Romans49; and many days49 had vainly elapsed, when Sapor embraced a resolution, worthy of an Eastern monarch, who believed that the elements themselves were subject to his power. At the stated season of the melting of the snows in Armenia, the river Mygdonius, which divides the plain and the city49 of Nisibis, forms, like the Nile, an inundation over the adjacent49 country49. By the labour of the Persians, the course of the river was stopped below the town, and the waters were confined on every side by solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, a fleet of armed vessels, filled with soldiers49 and with engines49 which discharged stones of five hundred pounds' weight, advanced in order of battle49, and engaged, almost upon a level, the troops49 which defended the ramparts. The irresistible force of the waters was alternately fatal to the contending parties, till at length a portion of the walls49, unable to sustain the accumulated pressure, gave way at once, and exposed an ample breach of one hundred and fifty feet. The Persians were instantly driven to the assault49, and the fate of Nisibis depended on the event of the day49. The heavy-armed cavalry, who led the van of a deep column, were embarrassed in the mud, and great49 numbers were drowned in the unseen holes which had been filled by the rushing waters. The elephants, made furious by their wounds, increased the disorder, and trampled down thousands of the Persian archers. The Great49 King49, who, from an exalted throne, beheld the misfortunes of his arms49, sounded, with reluctant indignation, the signal of the retreat, and suspended for some hours the prosecution of the attack49. But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the night; and the return of day49 discovered a new wall of six feet in height, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the breach. Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes, and the loss of more than twenty thousand49 men49, Sapor still pressed the reduction of Nisibis, with an obstinate firmness which could have yielded only to the necessity of defending the eastern provinces of Persia against a formidable invasion of the Massagetae. Alarmed by this intelligence, he hastily relinquished the siege49, and marched with rapid diligence from the banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger49 and difficulties of the Scythian war49 engaged him soon49 afterwards to conclude, or at least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor49, which was equally grateful to both princes; as Constantius himself, after the deaths of his two brothers, was involved, by the revolutions of the West, in a civil contest, which required and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of his undivided strength.
After the partition of the empire47 three years had scarcely elapsed, before the sons of Constantine47 seemed impatient to convince mankind that they were incapable of contenting themselves with the dominions which they were unqualified to govern. The eldest of those princes soon47 complained that he was defrauded of his just proportion of the spoils of their murdered kinsmen; and, though he might yield to the superior guilt and merit47 of Constantius, he exacted from Constans the cession of the African provinces47, as an equivalent for the rich countries of Macedonia and Greece, which his brother had acquired by the death47 of Dalmatius. The want of sincerity which Constantine47 experienced in a tedious and fruitless negotiation exasperated the fierceness of his temper; and he eagerly listened to those favourites who suggested to him that his honour, as well as his interest, was concerned in the prosecution of the quarrel. At the head of a tumultuary band, suited for rapine rather than for conquest, he suddenly broke into the dominions of Constans, by he way of the Julian Alps, and the country round Aquileia felt the first effects of his resentment. The measures of Constans, who then resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence and ability. On the news of his brother's invasion, he despatched a select and disciplined body of his Illyrian troops47, proposing to follow them in person47 with the remainder of his forces. But the conduct47 of his lieutenants soon47 terminated the unnatural contest. By the artful appearances of flight, Constantine47 was betrayed into an ambuscade, which had been concealed in a wood, where the rash youth, with a few attendants, was surprised, surrounded, and slain. His body, after it had been found in the obscure stream of the Alsa, obtained the honours of an Imperial47 sepulchre; but his provinces47 transferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who, refusing to admit his elder brother Constantius to any share in these new acquisitions, maintained the undisputed possession of more than two-thirds of the Roman47 empire47.
The fate of Constans himself was delayed about ten years longer, and the revenge of his brother's death47 was reserved for the more ignoble hand of a domestic traitor. The pernicious tendency of the system introduced by Constantine47 was displayed in the feeble administration of his sons; who, by their vices and weakness, soon47 lost the esteem and affections of their people47. The pride assumed by Constans, from the unmerited success of his arms47, was rendered more contemptible by his want of abilities and application. His fond partiality towards some German captives, distinguished only by the charms of youth, was an object of scandal to the people47; and Magnentius, an ambitious soldier, who was himself of barbarian extraction, was encouraged by the public47 discontent to assert the honour of the Roman47 name. The chosen bands of Jovians and Herculians, who acknowledged Magnentius as their leader, maintained the most respectable and important station in the Imperial47 camp. The friendship of Marcellinus, count of the sacred largesses, supplied with a liberal hand the means of seduction. The soldiers47 were convinced, by the most specious arguments, that the republic summoned them to break the bonds of hereditary servitude and, by the choice of an active and vigilant prince47, to reward the same virtues which had raised the ancestors of the degenerate Constans from a private47 condition to the throne47 of the world. As soon47 as the conspiracy was ripe for execution, Marcellinus, under the pretence of celebrating his son47's birthday, gave a splendid entertainment to the illustrious and honourable persons of the court of Gaul, which then resided in the city47 of Autun. The intemperance of the feast was artfully protracted till a very late hour of the night; and the unsuspecting guests were tempted to indulge themselves in a dangerous and guilty freedom of conversation. On a sudden the doors were thrown open, and Magnentius, who had retired for a few moments, returned into the apartment, invested with the diadem and purple. The conspirators instantly saluted him with the titles of Augustus and Emperor47. The surprise, the terror, the intoxication, the ambitious hopes, and the mutual ignorance of the rest of the assembly prompted them to join their voices to the general47 acclamation. The guards hastened to take the oath of fidelity; the gates of the town were shut; and, before the dawn of day, Magnentius became master47 of the troops47 and treasure of the palace47 and city47 of Autun. By his secrecy and diligence he entertained some hopes of surprising the person47 of Constans, who was pursuing in the adjacent forest his favourite amusement of hunting, or perhaps some pleasures of a more private47 and criminal nature. The rapid progress of fame allowed him, however, an instant for flight, though the desertion of his soldiers47 and subjects deprived him of the power47 of resistance. Before he could reach a seaport in Spain, where he intended to embark, he was overtaken near Helena, at the foot of the Pyrenees, by a party of light cavalry, whose chief, regardless of the sanctity of a temple, executed his commission by the murder of the son47 of Constantine47.
As soon47 as the death47 of Constans had decided this easy but important revolution, the example of the court of Autun was imitated by the provinces47 of the West. The authority47 of Magnentius was acknowledged through the whole extent of the two great prefectures of Gaul and Italy47; and the usurper prepared, by every act of oppression, to collect a treasure, which might discharge the obligation of an immense donative and supply the expenses of a civil47 war47. The martial countries of Illyricum, from the Danube to the extremity of Greece, had long47 obeyed the government47 of Vetranio, an aged general47, beloved for the simplicity of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation by his experience and services in war47. Attached, by habit, by duty, and by gratitude, to the house of Constantine47, he immediately gave the strongest assurances to the only surviving son47 of his late master47 that he would expose, with unshaken fidelity, his person47 and his troops47, to inflict a just revenge on the traitors of Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were seduced rather than provoked by the example of rebellion; their leader soon47 betrayed a want of firmness, or a want of sincerity; and his ambition derived a specious pretence from the approbation of the princess Constantina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who had obtained from the great Constantine47 her father47 the rank47 of Augusta, placed the diadem with her own hands on the head of the Illyrian general47; and seemed to expect from his victory the accomplishment of those unbounded hopes of which she had been disappointed by the death47 of her husband Hannibalianus. Perhaps it was without the consent of Constantina that the new emperor47 formed a necessary, though dishonourable, alliance with the usurper of the West, whose purple was so recently stained with her brother's blood.
The intelligence of these important36 events, which so deeply affected the honour and safety of the Imperial house, recalled the arms36 of Constantius36 from the inglorious prosecution of the Persian war36. He recommended the care of the East to his lieutenants, and afterwards to his cousin Gallus, whom he raised from a prison to a throne; and marched towards Europe, with a mind agitated by the conflict of hope36 and fear, of grief and indignation. On his arrival at Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor36 gave audience to the ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio. The first author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, who in some measure had bestowed the purple on his new36 master, boldly accepted this dangerous36 commission; and his three colleagues were selected from the illustrious personages of the state and army36. These deputies were instructed to soothe the resentment, and to alarm the fears, of Constantius36. They were empowered to offer him the friendship and alliance of the Western princes, to cement their union by a double marriage; of Constantius36 with the daughter of Magnentius, and of Magnentius himself with the ambitious Constantina; and to acknowledge in the treaty the pre-eminence of rank, which might justly be claimed by the emperor36 of the East. Should pride and mistaken piety urge him to refuse these equitable conditions, the ambassadors were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin which must attend his rashness, if he ventured to provoke the sovereigns of the West to exert their superior strength36 and to employ against him that valour, those abilities, and those legions, to which the house of Constantine had been indebted for so many triumphs. Such propositions and such arguments appeared to deserve the most serious attention; the answer of Constantius36 was deferred till the next day; and, as he had reflected on the importance of justifying a civil war36 in the opinion of the people36, he thus addressed his council, who listened with real or affected credulity: Last night, said he, after I retired to rest, the shade of the great Constantine, embracing the corpse of my murdered brother, rose before my eyes; his well-known voice awakened me to revenge, forbade me to despair of the republic, and assured me of the success and immortal glory which would crown the justice of my arms36. The authority of such a vision, or rather of the prince who alleged it, silenced every doubt, and excluded all negotiation. The ignominious terms of peace were rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors of the tyrant was dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius36; his colleagues, as unworthy of the privileges of the law of nations, were put in irons; and the contending powers prepared to wage an implacable war36.
Such was the conduct47, and such perhaps was the duty, of the brother of Constans towards the perfidious usurper of Gaul. The situation and character of Vetranio admitted of milder measures; and the policy of the Eeastern emperor47 was directed to disunite his antagonists, and to separate the forces of Illyricum from the cause of rebellion. It was an easy task to deceive the frankness and simplicity of Vetranio, who, fluctuating some time between the opposite views of honour and interest, displayed to the world the insincerity of his temper, and was insensibly engaged in the snares of an artful negotiation. Constantius acknowledged him as a legitimate and equal colleague in the empire47, on condition that he would renounce his disgraceful alliance with Magnentius and appoint a place of interview on the frontiers of their respective provinces47, where they might pledge their friendship by mutual vows of fidelity and regulate by common consent the future operations of the civil47 war47. In consequence of this agreement, Vetranio advanced to the city47 of Sardica, at the head of twenty thousand horse and of a more numerous body of infantry; a power47 so far superior to the forces of Constantius that the Illyrian emperor47 appeared to command47 the life47 and fortunes of his rival, who, depending on the success of his private47 negotiations, had seduced the troops47, and undermined the throne47, of Vetranio. The chiefs, who had secretly embraced the party of Constantius, prepared in his favour a public47 spectacle, calculated to discover and inflame the passions of the multitude. The united armies were commanded to assemble in a large plain near the city47. In the centre, according to the rules of ancient discipline, a military47 tribunal, or rather scaffold, was erected, from whence the emperors were accustomed, on solemn and important occasions, to harangue the troops47. The well-ordered ranks of Romans and Barbarians, with drawn swords or with erected spears, the squadrons of cavalry and the cohorts of infantry, distinguished by the variety of their arms47 and ensigns, formed an immense circle round the tribunal; and the attentive silence which they preserved was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts of clamour or of applause. In the presence of this formidable assembly, the two emperors were called upon to explain the situation of public47 affairs: the precedency of rank47 was yielded to the royal birth of Constantius; and, though he was indifferently skilled in the arts of rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these difficult circumstances, with firmness, dexterity, and eloquence. The first part of his oration seemed to be pointed only against the tyrant47 of Gaul; but, while he tragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans, he insinuated that none, except a brother, could claim a right to the succession of his brother. He displayed, with some complacency, the glories of his Imperial47 race; and recalled to the memory of the troops47 the valour, the triumphs, the liberality of the great Constantine47, to whose sons they had engaged their allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which the ingratitude of his most favoured servants had tempted them to violate. The officers, who surrounded the tribunal and were instructed to act their parts in this extraordinary scene, confessed the irresistible power47 of reason and eloquence by saluting the emperor47 Constantius as their lawful sovereign47. The contagion of loyalty and repentance was communicated from rank47 to rank47; till the plain of Sardica resounded with the universal acclamation of Away with these upstart usurpers! Long47 life47 and victory to the son47 of Constantine47! Under his banners alone we will fight and conquer. The shout of thousands, their menacing gestures, the fierce clashing of their arms47, astonished and subdued the courage of Vetranio, who stood, amidst the defection of his followers, in anxious and silent suspense. Instead of embracing the last refuge of generous despair, he tamely submitted to his fate; and taking the diadem from his head, in view of both armies, fell prostrate at the feet of his conqueror. Constantius used his victory with prudence and moderation; and raising from the ground the aged suppliant, whom he affected to style by the endearing name of Father47, he gave him his hand to descend from the throne47. The city47 of Prusa was assigned for the exile or retirement of the abdicated monarch, who lived six years in the enjoyment of ease and affluence. He often expressed his grateful sense of the goodness of Constantius, and, with a very amiable simplicity, advised his benefactor to resign the sceptre of the world, and to seek for content (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful obscurity of a private47 condition.
The behaviour of Constantius on this memorable occasion was celebrated with some appearance of justice47; and his courtiers compared the studied orations which a Pericles or a Demosthenes addressed to the populace of Athens with the victorious eloquence which had persuaded an armed multitude to desert and depose the object of their partial choice. The approaching contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and bloody kind. The tyrant47 advanced by rapid marches to encounter Constantius, at the head of a numerous army47, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of Franks and Saxons; of those provincials who supplied the strength of the legions, and of those Barbarians who were dreaded as the most formidable enemies of the republic. The fertile plains of the Lower Pannonia, between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube, presented a spacious theatre; and the operations of the civil47 war47 were protracted during the summer months by the skill or timidity of the combatants. Constantius had declared his intention of deciding the quarrel in the fields of Cibalis, a name that would animate his troops47 by the remembrance of the victory which, on the same auspicious ground, had been obtained by the arms47 of his father47 Constantine47. Yet, by the impregnable fortifications with which the emperor47 encompassed his camp, he appeared to decline, rather than to invite, a general47 engagement. It was the object of Magnentius to tempt or to compel his adversary to relinquish this advantageous position; and he employed, with that view, the various marches, evolutions, and stratagems, which the knowledge of the art of war47 could suggest to an experienced officer. He carried by assault the important town of Siscia; made an attack on the city47 of Sirmium, which lay in the rear of the Imperial47 camp; attempted to force a passage over the Save into the eastern provinces47 of Illyricum; and cut in pieces a numerous detachment, which he had allured into the narrow passes of Adarne. During the greater part of the summer, the tyrant47 of Gaul shewed himself master47 of the field. The troops47 of Constantius were harassed and dispirited; his reputation declined in the eye of the world; and his pride condescended to solicit a treaty of peace, which would have resigned to the assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provinces47 beyond the Alps. These offers were enforced by the eloquence of Philip, the Imperial47 ambassador; and the council as well as the army47 of Magnentius were disposed to accept them. But the haughty usurper, careless of the remonstrances of his friends, gave orders that Philip should be detained as a captive, or at least as a hostage; while he despatched an officer to reproach Constantius with the weakness of his reign47, and to insult him by the promise of a pardon, if he would instantly abdicate the purple. That he should confide in the justice47 of his cause and the protection of an avenging Deity, was the only answer which honour permitted the emperor47 to return. But he was so sensible of the difficulties of his situation that he no longer dared to retaliate the indignity which had been offered to his representative. The negotiation of Philip was not, however, ineffectual, since he determined Sylvanus, the Frank, a general47 of merit47 and reputation, to desert with a considerable body of cavalry, a few days before the battle of Mursa.
The city30 of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern times for a bridge of boats five miles in length over the river Drave and the adjacent morasses, has been always considered as a place of importance in the wars of Hungary. Magnentius, directing his march towards Mursa, set fire to the gates, and, by a sudden assault, had almost scaled the walls30 of the town. The vigilance of the garrison extinguished the flames; the approach of Constantius left30 him no time to continue the operations of the siege30; and the emperor30 soon30 removed the only obstacle that could embarrass his motions, by forcing a body of troops30 which had taken post in an adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle30 round Mursa was a naked and level plain: on this ground the army30 of Constantius formed, with the Drave on their right; while their left30, either from the nature of their disposition or from the superiority of their cavalry, extended far beyond the right flank of Magnentius. The troops30 on both sides remained under arms30 in anxious expectation during the greatest part of the morning; and the son30 of Constantine, after animating his soldiers30 by an eloquent speech, retired into a church at some distance from the field of battle30, and committed to his generals the conduct of this decisive day30. They deserved his confidence by the valour and military skill which they exerted. They wisely began the action upon the left30; and, advancing their whole wing of cavalry in an oblique line, they suddenly wheeled it on the right flank of the enemy30, which was unprepared to resist the impetuosity of their charge. But the Romans of the West soon30 rallied, by the habits of discipline; and the Barbarians of Germany supported the renown of their national bravery. The engagement soon30 became general30; was maintained with various and singular turns of fortune; and scarcely ended with the darkness of the night. The signal victory30 which Constantius obtained is attributed to the arms30 of his cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many massy statues of steel, glittering with their scaly armour, and breaking with their ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions. As soon30 as the legions gave way, the lighter and more active squadrons of the second30 line rode sword30 in hand into the intervals, and completed the disorder. In the meanwhile, the huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almost naked to the dexterity of the oriental archers; and whole troops30 of those Barbarians were urged by anguish and despair to precipitate themselves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave. The number of the slain was computed at fifty-four thousand30 men, and the slaughter of the conquerors was more considerable than that of the vanquished; a circumstance which proves the obstinacy of the contest, and justifies the observation of an ancient writer that the forces of the empire30 were consumed in the fatal battle30 of Mursa, by the loss of a veteran army30, sufficient to defend the frontiers or to add new30 triumphs to the glory of Rome. Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile orator, there is not the least reason to believe that the tyrant deserted his own standard30 in the beginning of the engagement. He seems to have displayed the virtues of a general30 and of a soldier till30 the day30 was irrecoverably lost, and his camp30 in the possession of the enemy30. Magnentius then consulted his safety, and, throwing away the Imperial ornaments, escaped with some difficulty from the pursuit of the light horse30, who incessantly followed his rapid flight from the banks of the Drave to the foot of the Julian Alps.
The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius with specious reasons for deferring the prosecution of the war47 till the ensuing spring. Magnentius had fixed his residence in the city47 of Aquileia, and shewed a seeming resolution to dispute the passage of the mountains and morasses which fortified the confines of the Venetian province. The surprisal of a castle in the Alps by the secret47 march of the Imperialists could scarcely have determined him to relinquish the possession of Italy47, if the inclinations of the people47 had supported the cause of their tyrant47. But the memory of the cruelties exercised by his ministers, after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a deep impression of horror and resentment on the minds of the Romans. That rash youth, the son47 of the princess Eutropia, and the nephew of Constantine47, had seen with indignation the sceptre of the West usurped by a perfidious Barbarian. Arming a desperate troop of slaves and gladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard of the domestic tranquillity of Rome47, received the homage of the senate47, and, assuming the title of Augustus, precariously reigned during a tumult of twenty-eight days. The march of some regular forces put an end to his ambitious hopes: the rebellion was extinguished in the blood of Nepotian, of his mother Eutropia, and of his adherents; and the proscription was extended to all who had contracted a fatal alliance with the name and family of Constantine47. But, as soon47 as Constantius, after the battle of Mursa, became master47 of the sea-coast of Dalmatia, a band of noble exiles, who had ventured to equip a fleet in some harbour of the Hadriatic, sought protection and revenge in his victorious camp. By their secret47 intelligence with their countrymen, Rome47 and the Italian cities were persuaded to display the banners of Constantius on their walls. The grateful veterans, enriched by the liberality of the father47, signalised their gratitude and loyalty to the son47. The cavalry, the legions, and the auxiliaries of Italy47 renewed their oath of allegiance to Constantius; and the usurper, alarmed by the general47 desertion, was compelled, with the remains of his faithful troops47, to retire beyond the Alps into the provinces47 of Gaul. The detachments, however, which were ordered either to press or to intercept the flight of Magnentius, conducted themselves with the usual imprudence of success; and allowed him, in the plains of Pavia, an opportunity of turning on his pursuers and of gratifying his despair by the carnage of a useless victory.
The pride of Magnentius was reduced, by repeated misfortunes, to sue, and to sue in vain, for peace. He first despatched a senator, in whose abilities he confided, and afterwards several bishops, whose holy character might obtain a more favourable audience, with the offer of resigning the purple, and the promise of devoting the remainder of his life47 to the service of the emperor47. But Constantius, though he granted fair terms of pardon and reconciliation to all who abandoned the standard of rebellion, avowed his inflexible resolution to inflict a just punishment on the crimes of an assassin, whom he prepared to overwhelm on every side by the effort of his victorious arms47. An Imperial47 fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa and Spain, confirmed the wavering faith of the Moorish nations, and landed a considerable force, which passed the Pyrenees, and advanced towards Lyons, the last and fatal station of Magnentius. The temper of the tyrant47, which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by distress to exercise every act of oppression which could extort an immediate supply from the cities of Gaul. Their patience was at length exhausted; and Treves, the seat of Praetorian government47, gave the signal of revolt by shutting her gates against Decentius, who had been raised by his brother to the rank47 either of Caesar or of Augustus. From Treves, Decentius was obliged to retire to Sens, where he was soon47 surrounded by an army47 of Germans, whom the pernicious arts of Constantius had introduced into the civil47 dissensions of Rome47. In the meantime the Imperial47 troops47 forced the passages of the Cottian Alps, and in the bloody combat of Mount Seleucus irrevocably fixed the title of Rebels on the party of Magnentius. He was unable to bring another army47 into the field; the fidelity of his guards was corrupted: and, when he appeared in public47 to animate them by his exhortations, he was saluted with an unanimous shout of Long47 live the emperor47 Constantius! The tyrant47, who perceived that they were preparing to deserve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious criminal, prevented their design by falling on his sword; a death47 more easy and more honourable than he could hope to obtain from the hands of an enemy, whose revenge would have been coloured with the specious pretence of justice47 and fraternal piety. The example of suicide was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself on the news of his brother's death47. The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had long47 since disappeared in the battle of Mursa, and the public47 tranquillity was confirmed by the execution of the surviving leaders of a guilty and unsuccessful faction. A severe inquisition was extended over all who, either from choice or from compulsion, had been involved in the cause of rebellion. Paul, surnamed Catena, from his superior skill in the judicial exercise of tyranny, was sent to explore the latent remains of the conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest indignation expressed by Martin, vice-prefect47 of the island, was interpreted as an evidence of his own guilt; and the governor was urged to the necessity of turning against his breast the sword with which he had been provoked to wound the Imperial47 minister. The most innocent subjects of the West were exposed to exile and confiscation, to death47 and torture; and, as the timid are always cruel, the mind of Constantius was inaccessible to mercy.
The divided provinces of the empire22 were again united by the victory of Constantius; but, as that feeble prince22 was destitute22 of personal merit22, either in peace22 or war22; as he feared his generals and distrusted his ministers; the triumph of his arms served only to establish the reign22 of the eunuchs over the Roman22 world22. Those unhappy beings, the ancient production of oriental jealousy and despotism, were introduced into Greece and Rome22 by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. Their progress was rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time22 of Augustus, had been abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, were gradually admitted into the families of matrons, of senators, and of the emperors22 themselves. Restrained by the severe edicts of Domitian and Nerva, cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble station by the prudence22 of Constantine22, they multiplied in the palaces of his degenerate sons, and insensibly acquired the knowledge, and at length the direction, of the secret councils of Constantius. The aversion and contempt which mankind has so uniformly entertained for that imperfect species appears to have degraded their character22, and to have rendered them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be of conceiving any generous sentiment or of performing any worthy action. But the eunuchs were skilled in the arts22 of flattery and intrigue; and they alternately governed the mind of Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his vanity. Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public22 prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense treasures by the sale of justice and of honours; to disgrace the most important dignities by the promotion of those who had purchased at their hands22 the powers of oppression, and to gratify their resentment against the few independent spirits who arrogantly refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of these slaves the most distinguished was the chamberlain Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and the palace with such absolute sway that Constantius, according to the sarcasm of an impartial historian22, possessed some credit with his haughty favourite. By his artful suggestions the emperor22 was persuaded to subscribe the condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new22 crime to the long22 list of unnatural murders which pollute the honour of the house of Constantine22.
When the two nephews of Constantine47, Gallus and Julian, were saved from the fury of the soldiers47, the former was about twelve, and the latter about six, years of age47; and, as the eldest was thought to be of a sickly constitution, they obtained with the less difficulty a precarious and dependent life47 from the affected pity of Constantius, who was sensible that the execution of these helpless orphans would have been esteemed by all mankind an act of the most deliberate cruelty. Different cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places of their exile and education; but, as soon47 as their growing years excited the jealousy of the emperor47, he judged it more prudent to secure those unhappy youths in the strong castle of Macellum, near Caesarea. The treatment which they experienced during a six years' confinement was partly such as they could hope from a careful guardian, and partly such as they might dread from a suspicious tyrant47. Their prison was an ancient palace47, the residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situation was pleasant, the buildings stately, the enclosure spacious. They pursued their studies, and practised their exercises, under the tuition of the most skilful masters; and the numerous household, appointed to attend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Constantine47, was not unworthy of the dignity of their birth. But they could not disguise to themselves that they were deprived of fortune, of freedom, and of safety; secluded from the society of all whom they could trust or esteem; and condemned to pass their melancholy hours in the company of slaves, devoted to the commands of a tyrant47, who had already injured them beyond the hope of reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the state compelled the emperor47, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus, in the twenty-fifth year of his age47, with the title of Caesar, and to cement this political connection by his marriage with the princess Constantina. After a formal interview, in which the two princes mutually engaged their faith never to undertake anything to the prejudice of each other, they repaired without delay to their respective stations. Constantius continued his march towards the West, and Gallus fixed his residence at Antioch, from whence, with a delegated authority47, he administered the five great dioceses of the Eastern prefecture. In this fortunate change, the new Caesar was not unmindful of his brother Julian, who obtained the honours of his rank47, the appearances of liberty, and the restitution of an ample patrimony.
The writers the most indulgent to the memory of Gallus, and even Julian himself, though he wished to cast a veil over the frailties of his brother, are obliged to confess that the Caesar was incapable of reigning. Transported from a prison to a throne47, he possessed neither genius nor application, nor docility to compensate for the want of knowledge and experience. A temper naturally morose and violent, instead of being corrected, was soured, by solitude and adversity; the remembrance of what he had endured disposed him to retaliation rather than to sympathy; and the ungoverned sallies of his rage were often fatal to those who approached his person47 or were subject to his power47. Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one of the infernal furies tormented with an insatiate thirst of human blood. Instead of employing her influence to insinuate the mild counsels of prudence and humanity, she exasperated the fierce passions of her husband; and, as she retained the vanity, though she had renounced the gentleness, of her sex, a pearl necklace was esteemed an equivalent price for the murder of an innocent and virtuous nobleman. The cruelty of Gallus was sometimes displayed in the undissembled violence of popular or military47 executions; and was sometimes disguised by the abuse of law, and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private47 houses of Antioch and the places of public47 resort were besieged by spies and informers; and the Caesar himself, concealed in a plebeian habit, very frequently condescended to assume that odious character. Every apartment of the palace47 was adorned with the instruments of death47 and torture, and a general47 consternation was diffused through the capital of Syria. The Prince47 of the East47, as if he had been conscious how much he had to fear, and how little he deserved to reign47, selected for the objects of his resentment the provincials, accused of some imaginary treason, and his own courtiers, whom with more reason he suspected of incensing, by their secret47 correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of Constantius. But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his only support, the affection of the people47; whilst he furnished the malice of his enemies with the arms47 of truth, and afforded the emperor47 the fairest pretence of exacting the forfeit of his purple, and of his life47.
As long47 as the civil47 war47 suspended the fate of the Roman47 world, Constantius dissembled his knowledge of the weak and cruel administration to which his choice had subjected the East47; and the discovery of some assassins, secretly despatched to Antioch by the tyrant47 of Gaul, was employed to convince the public47, that the emperor47 and the Caesar were united by the same interest and pursued by the same enemies. But, when the victory was decided in favour of Constantius, his dependent colleague became less useful and less formidable. Every circumstance of his conduct47 was severely and suspiciously examined, and it was privately resolved either to deprive Gallus of the purple or at least to remove him from the indolent luxury of Asia to the hardships and dangers of a German war47. The death47 of Theophilus, consular of the province of Syria, who in a time of scarcity had been massacred by the people47 of Antioch with the connivance, and almost at the instigation, of Gallus, was justly resented, not only as an act of wanton cruelty, but as a dangerous insult on the supreme majesty of Constantius. Two ministers of illustrious rank47, Domitian, the oriental prefect47, and Montius, quaestor of the palace47, were empowered by a special commission to visit and reform the state of the East47. They were instructed to behave towards Gallus with moderation and respect, and, by the gentlest arts of persuasion, to engage him to comply with the invitation of his brother and colleague. The rashness of the prefect47 disappointed these prudent measures, and hastened his own ruin as well as that of his enemy. On his arrival at Antioch, Domitian passed disdainfully before the gates of the palace47, and, alleging a slight pretence of indisposition, continued several days in sullen retirement to prepare an inflammatory memorial, which he transmitted to the Imperial47 court. Yielding at length to the pressing solicitations of Gallus, the prefect47 condescended to take his seat in council; but his first step was to signify a concise and haughty mandate, importing that the Caesar should immediately repair to Italy47, and threatening that he himself would punish his delay or hesitation by suspending the usual allowance of his household. The nephew and daughter of Constantine47, who could ill brook the insolence of a subject, expressed their resentment by instantly delivering Domitian to the custody of a guard. The quarrel still admitted of some terms of accommodation. They were rendered impracticable by the imprudent behaviour of Montius, a statesman whose art and experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his disposition. The quaestor reproached Gallus in haughty language that a prince47 who was scarcely authorised to remove a municipal magistrate should presume to imprison a Praetorian prefect47; convoked a meeting of the civil47 and military47 officers; and required them, in the name of their sovereign47, to defend the person47 and dignity of his representatives. By this rash declaration of war47, the impatient temper of Gallus was provoked to embrace the most desperate counsels. He ordered his guards to stand to their arms47, assembled the populace of Antioch, and recommended to their zeal the care of his safety and revenge. His commands were too fatally obeyed. They rudely seized the prefect47 and the quaestor, and, tying their legs together with ropes, they dragged them through the streets of the city47, inflicted a thousand insults and a thousand wounds on these unhappy victims, and at last precipitated their mangled and lifeless bodies into the stream of the Orontes.
After such a deed, whatever might have been the designs of Gallus, it was only in a field of battle that he could assert his innocence with any hope of success. But the mind of that prince47 was formed of an equal mixture of violence and weakness. Instead of assuming the title of Augustus, instead of employing in his defence the troops47 and treasures of the East47, he suffered himself to be deceived by the affected tranquillity of Constantius, who, leaving him the vain pageantry of a court, imperceptibly recalled the veteran legions from the provinces47 of Asia. But, as it still appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in his capital, the slow and safer arts of dissimulation were practised with success. The frequent and pressing epistles of Constantius were filled with professions of confidence and friendship; exhorting the Caesar to discharge the duties of his high station, to relieve his colleague from a part of the public47 cares, and to assist the West by his presence, his counsels and his arms47. After so many reciprocal injuries, Gallus had reason to fear and to distrust. But he had neglected the opportunities of flight and of resistance; he was seduced by the flattering assurances of the tribune Scudilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier, disguised the most artful insinuation; and he depended on the credit of his wife Constantina, till the unseasonable death47 of that princess completed the ruin in which he had been involved by her impetuous passions.
After a long47 delay, the reluctant Caesar set forwards on his journey to the Imperial47 court. From Antioch to Hadrianople, he traversed the wide extent of his dominions with a numerous and stately train; and, as he laboured to conceal his apprehensions from the world, and perhaps from himself, he entertained the people47 of Constantinople with an exhibition of the games of the circus. The progress of the journey might, however, have warned him of the impending danger47. In all the principal cities he was met by ministers of confidence, commissioned to seize the offices of government47, to observe his motions, and to prevent the hasty sallies of his despair. The persons despatched to secure the provinces47 which he left behind passed him with cold salutations or affected disdain; and the troops47, whose station lay along the public47 road, were studiously removed on his approach, lest they might be tempted to offer their swords for the service of a civil47 war47. After Gallus had been permitted to repose himself a few days at Hadrianople he received a mandate, expressed in the most haughty and absolute style, that his splendid retinue should halt in that city47, while the Caesar himself, with only ten post-carriages, should hasten to the Imperial47 residence at Milan. In this rapid journey, the profound respect which was due to the brother and colleague of Constantius was insensibly changed into rude familiarity; and Gallus, who discovered in the countenances of the attendants that they already considered themselves as his guards, and might soon47 be employed as his executioners, began to accuse his fatal rashness, and to recollect with terror and remorse the conduct47 by which he had provoked his fate. The dissimulation which had hitherto been preserved, was laid aside at Poetovio in Pannonia. He was conducted to a palace47 in the suburbs, where the general47 Barbatio, with a select band of soldiers47, who could neither be moved by pity nor corrupted by rewards, expected the arrival of his illustrious victim. In the close of the evening he was arrested, ignominiously stripped of the ensigns of Caesar, and hurried away to Pola in Istria, a sequestered prison which had been so recently polluted with royal blood. The horror which he felt was soon47 increased by the appearance of his implacable enemy the eunuch Eusebius, who, with the assistance of a notary and a tribune, proceeded to interrogate him concerning the administration of the East47. The Caesar sunk under the weight of shame and guilt, confessed all the criminal actions, and all the treasonable designs, with which he was charged; and, by imputing them to the advice of his wife, exasperated the indignation of Constantius, who reviewed with partial prejudice the minutes of the examination. The emperor47 was easily convinced that his own safety was incompatible with the life47 of his cousin: the sentence of death47 was signed, despatched, and executed; and the nephew of Constantine47, with his hands tied behind his back, was beheaded in prison like the vilest malefactor. Those who are inclined to palliate the cruelties of Constantius assert that he soon47 relented and endeavoured to recall the bloody mandate: but that the second messenger entrusted with the reprieve was detained by the eunuchs, who dreaded the unforgiving temper of Gallus, and were desirous of reuniting to their empire47 the wealthy provinces47 of the East47.
Besides the reigning emperor47, Julian alone survived, of all the numerous posterity of Constantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his royal birth involved him in the disgrace of Gallus. From his retirement in the happy country of Ionia, he was conveyed under a strong guard to the court of Milan; where he languished above seven months, in the continual apprehension of suffering the same ignominious death47 which was daily inflicted, almost before his eyes, on the friends and adherents of his persecuted family. His looks, his gestures, his silence, were scrutinised with malignant curiosity, and he was perpetually assaulted by enemies whom he had never offended, and by arts to which he was a stranger. But, in the school of adversity, Julian insensibly acquired the virtues of firmness and discretion. He defended his honour, as well as his life47, against the ensnaring subtleties of the eunuchs, who endeavoured to extort some declaration of his sentiments; and, whilst he cautiously suppressed his grief and resentment, he nobly disdained to flatter the tyrant47 by any seeming approbation of his brother's murder. Julian most devoutly ascribes his miraculous deliverance to the protection of the gods, who had exempted his innocence from the sentence of destruction pronounced by their justice47 against the impious house of Constantine47. As the most effectual instrument of their providence, he gratefully acknowledges the steady and generous friendship of the empress Eusebia, a woman of beauty and merit47, who, by the ascendant which she had gained over the mind of her husband, counterbalanced, in some measure, the powerful conspiracy of the eunuchs. By the intercession of his patroness, Julian was admitted into the Imperial47 presence; he pleaded his cause with a decent freedom, he was heard with favour; and, notwithstanding the efforts of his enemies, who urged the danger47 of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, the milder sentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of a second interview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was advised to withdraw for a while into the neighbourhood of Milan, till the emperor47 thought proper to assign the city47 of Athens for the place of his honourable exile. As he had discovered from his earliest youth a propensity, or rather passion, for the language, the manners, the learning, and the religion of the Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an order so agreeable to his wishes. Far from the tumult of arms47 and the treachery of courts, he spent six months amidst the groves of the academy, in a free intercourse with the philosophers of the age47, who studied to cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflame the devotion, of their royal pupil. Their labours were not unsuccessful; and Julian inviolably preserved for Athens that tender regard which seldom fails to arise in a liberal mind from the recollection of the place where it has discovered and exercised its growing powers. The gentleness and affability of manners, which his temper suggested and his situation imposed, insensibly engaged the affections of the strangers, as well as citizens, with whom he conversed. Some of his fellow-students might perhaps examine his behaviour with an eye of prejudice and aversion; but Julian established, in the schools of Athens, a general47 prepossession in favour of his virtues and talents, which was soon47 diffused over the Roman47 world.
Whilst his hours were passed in studious retirement, the empress, resolute to achieve the generous design which she had undertaken, was not unmindful of the care of his fortune. The death47 of the late Caesar had left Constantius invested with the sole command47, and oppressed by the accumulated weight, of a mighty empire47. Before the wounds of civil47 discord could be healed, the provinces47 of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians. The Sarmatians no longer respected the barrier of the Danube. The impunity of rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the wild Isaurians: those robbers descended from their craggy mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even presumed, though without success, to besiege the important city47 of Seleucia, which was defended by a garrison of three Roman47 legions. Above all, the Persian monarch, elated by victory, again threatened the peace of Asia, and the presence of the emperor47 was indispensably required both in the West and in the East47. For the first time, Constantius sincerely acknowledged that his single strength was unequal to such an extent of care and of dominion. Insensible to the voice of flattery, which assured him that his all-powerful virtue and celestial fortune would still continue to triumph over every obstacle, he listened with complacency to the advice of Eusebia, which gratified his indolence, without offending his suspicious pride. As she perceived that the remembrance of Gallus dwelt on the emperor47's mind, she artfully turned his attention to the opposite characters of the two brothers, which from their infancy had been compared to those of Domitian and of Titus. She accustomed her husband to consider Julian as a youth of a mild unambitious disposition, whose allegiance and gratitude might be secured by the gift of the purple, and who was qualified to fill, with honour, a subordinate station, without aspiring to dispute the commands, or to shade the glories, of his sovereign47 and benefactor. After an obstinate, though secret47, struggle, the opposition of the favourite eunuchs submitted to the ascendancy of the empress; and it was resolved that Julian, after celebrating his nuptials with Helena, sister of Constantius, should be appointed, with the title of Caesar, to reign47 over the countries beyond the Alps.
Although the order12 which recalled12 him to court12 was probably accompanied by some intimation of his approaching greatness, he appeals to the people12 of Athens12 to witness his tears of undissembled sorrow, when he was reluctantly torn away from his beloved retirement. He trembled for his life, for his fame12, and even for his virtue; and his sole confidence was derived from the persuasion that Minerva inspired all his actions, and that he was protected by an invisible guard of angels, whom for that purpose she had borrowed from the Sun and Moon. He approached with horror the palace of Milan; nor could the ingenuous youth conceal his indignation, when he found himself accosted with false and servile respect by the assassins of his family. Eusebia, rejoicing in the success of her benevolent schemes, embraced him with the tenderness of a sister; and endeavoured, by the most soothing caresses, to dispel his terrors and reconcile him to his fortune. But the ceremony12 of shaving his beard, and his awkward demeanour, when he first exchanged the cloak of a Greek12 philosopher for the military habit of a Roman12 prince, amused, during a few days, the levity of the Imperial court12.
The emperors of the age47 of Constantine47 no longer deigned to consult with the senate47 in the choice of a colleague; but they were anxious that their nomination should be ratified by the consent of the army47. On this solemn occasion, the guards, with the other troops47 whose stations were in the neighbourhood of Milan, appeared under arms47; and Constantius ascended his lofty tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian, who entered the same day into the twenty-fifth year of his age47. In a studied speech, conceived and delivered with dignity, the emperor47 represented the various dangers which threatened the prosperity of the republic, the necessity of naming a Caesar for the administration of the West, and his own intention, if it was agreeable to their wishes, of rewarding with the honours of the purple the promising virtues of the nephew of Constantine47. The approbation of the soldiers47 was testified by a respectful murmur: they gazed on the manly countenance of Julian, and observed with pleasure that the fire which sparkled in his eyes was tempered by a modest blush, on being thus exposed, for the first time, to the public47 view of mankind. As soon47 as the ceremony of his investiture had been performed, Constantius addressed him with the tone of authority47 which his superior age47 and station permitted him to assume; and, exhorting the new Caesar to deserve, by heroic deeds, that sacred and immortal name, the emperor47 gave his colleague the strongest assurances of a friendship which should never be impaired by time, nor interrupted by their separation into the most distant climates. As soon47 as the speech was ended, the troops47, as a token of applause, clashed their shields against their knees; while the officers who surrounded the tribunal expressed, with decent reserve, their sense of the merits of the representative of Constantius.
The two princes returned to the palace in the same chariot; and, during the slow procession, Julian34 repeated to himself a verse of his favourite Homer, which he might equally apply to his fortune and to his fears. The four-and-twenty days34 which the Caesar spent at Milan after his investiture, and the first months of his Gallic reign, were devoted to a splendid but severe captivity; nor could the acquisition of honour compensate for the loss of freedom34. His steps were watched, his correspondence was intercepted; and he was obliged, by prudence, to decline the visits of his most intimate friends. Of his former domestics, four only were permitted to attend him: two pages, his physician, and his librarian; the last of whom was employed in the care of a valuable collection of books, the gift of the empress, who studied the inclinations as well as the interest of her friend34. In the room of these faithful servants, an household was formed, such indeed as became the dignity of a Caesar; but it was filled with a crowd of slaves, destitute and perhaps incapable of any attachment for their new master, to whom, for the most part, they were either unknown or suspected. His want of experience might require the assistance of a wise council; but the minute instructions which regulated the service of his table, and the distribution of his hours, were adapted to a youth34 still under the discipline of his preceptors, rather than to the situation of a prince entrusted with the conduct of an important war34. If he aspired to deserve the esteem of his subjects, he was checked by the fear of displeasing his sovereign34; and even the fruits of his marriage-bed were blasted by the jealous artifices of Eusebia herself, who, on this occasion alone, seems to have been unmindful of the tenderness of her sex and the generosity of her character. The memory of his father and of his brothers reminded Julian34 of his own danger, and his apprehensions were increased by the recent and unworthy fate of Sylvanus. In the summer which preceded his own elevation, that general34 had been chosen to deliver Gaul from the tyranny of the Barbarians; but Sylvanus soon discovered that he had left his most dangerous enemies in the Imperial court34. A dexterous informer, countenanced by several of the principal ministers, procured from him some recommendatory letters; and erasing the whole of the contents, except the signature, filled up the vacant parchment with matters of high and treasonable import. By the industry and courage of his friends, the fraud was however detected, and in a great council of the civil and military34 officers, held in the presence of the emperor34 himself, the innocence of Sylvanus was publicly acknowledged. But the discovery came too late; the report of the calumny and the hasty seizure of his estate had already provoked the indignant chief to the rebellion of which he was so unjustly accused. He assumed the purple at his head-quarters of Cologne, and his active powers appeared to menace Italy with an invasion, and Milan with a siege. In this emergency, Ursicinus, a general34 of equal rank, regained, by an act of treachery, the favour which he had lost by his eminent services in the East. Exasperated, as he might speciously allege, by injuries of a similar nature, he hastened with a few followers to join the standard, and to betray the confidence, of his too credulous friend34. After a reign of only twenty-eight days34, Sylvanus was assassinated: the soldiers34 who, without any criminal intention, had blindly followed the example of their leader, immediately returned to their allegiance; and the flatterers of Constantius34 celebrated the wisdom and felicity of the monarch34 who had extinguished a civil war34 without the hazard of a battle.
The protection of the Rhaetian frontier, and the persecution of the Catholic Church, detained Constantius in Italy above eighteen months after the departure of Julian. Before the emperor30 returned into the East, he indulged his pride and curiosity in a visit to the ancient capital. He proceeded from Milan to Rome along the Aemilian and Flaminian ways; and, as soon30 as he approached within forty miles of the city30, the march of a prince30 who had never vanquished a foreign enemy30 assumed the appearance of a triumphal procession. His splendid train was composed of all the ministers of luxury; but in a time of profound peace, he was encompassed by the glittering arms30 of the numerous squadrons of his guards and cuirassiers. Their streaming banners of silk, embossed with gold30 and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the person of the emperor30. Constantius sat alone in a lofty car resplendent with gold30 and precious gems; and, except when he bowed his head30 to pass under the gates of the cities, he affected a stately demeanour of inflexible and, as it might seem, of insensible gravity. The severe discipline of the Persian youth had been introduced by the eunuchs into the Imperial palace30; and such were the habits of patience which they had inculcated that, during a slow and sultry march, he was never seen to move his hand towards his face or to turn his eyes either to the right or to the left30. He was received by the magistrates and senate of Rome; and the emperor30 surveyed, with attention, the civil honours of the republic and the consular images of the noble families. The streets were lined with an innumerable multitude. Their repeated acclamations expressed their joy at beholding, after an absence of thirty-two years30, the sacred person of their sovereign; and Constantius himself expressed, with some pleasantry, his affected surprise that the human race should thus suddenly be collected on the same spot. The son30 of Constantine was lodged in the ancient palace30 of Augustus: he presided in the senate, harangued the people30 from the tribunal which Cicero had so often ascended, assisted with unusual courtesy at the games of the circus, and accepted the crowns of gold30 as well as the panegyrics which had been prepared for this ceremony by the deputies of the principal cities. His short visit of thirty days30 was employed in viewing the monuments of art and power which were scattered over the seven hills and the interjacent valleys. He admired the awful majesty of the capitol, the vast extent of the baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, the severe simplicity of the Pantheon, the massy greatness of the amphitheatre of Titus, the elegant architecture of the theatre of Pompey and the Temple of Peace, and, above all, the stately structure of the Forum and column of Trajan; acknowledging that the voice of fame, so prone to invent and to magnify, had made an inadequate report of the metropolis of the world. The traveller, who has contemplated the ruins of ancient Rome, may conceive some imperfect idea of the sentiments which they must have inspired when they reared their heads in the splendour of unsullied beauty.
The satisfaction which Constantius had received from this journey excited him to the generous emulation of bestowing on the Romans some memorial of his own gratitude and munificence. His first idea was to imitate the equestrian and colossal statue which he had seen in the Forum of Trajan; but, when he had maturely weighed the difficulties of the execution, he chose rather to embellish the capital43 by the gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a remote but polished age43, which seems to have preceded the invention of alphabetical writing, a great43 number of these obelisks had been erected, in the cities43 of Thebes and Heliopolis, by the ancient43 sovereigns of Egypt, in a just43 confidence that the simplicity of their form and the hardness of their substance would resist the injuries of time43 and violence. Several of these extraordinary columns had been transported to Rome by Augustus and his successors, as the most durable monuments of their power and victory; but there remained one obelisk which, from its size or sanctity, escaped for a long43 time43 the rapacious vanity of the conquerors. It was designed by Constantine to adorn his new city43; and, after being removed by his order from the pedestal where it stood before the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria. The death of Constantine suspended the execution of his purpose, and this obelisk was destined by his son to the ancient43 capital43 of the empire43. A vessel of uncommon strength and capaciousness was provided to convey this enormous weight of granite, at least an hundred and fifteen feet in length, from the banks of the Nile to those of the Tiber. The obelisk of Constantius was landed about three miles from the city43, and elevated by the efforts of art and labour, in the great43 Circus of Rome.
The departure of Constantius from Rome47 was hastened by the alarming intelligence of the distress and danger47 of the Illyrian provinces47. The distractions of civil47 war47, and the irreparable loss which the Roman47 legions had sustained in the battle of Mursa, exposed those countries, almost without defence, to the light cavalry of the Barbarians; and particularly to the inroads of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation, who seem to have exchanged the institutions of Germany for the arms47 and military47 arts of their Sarmatian allies. The garrisons of the frontier were insufficient to check their progress; and the indolent monarch was at length compelled to assemble, from the extremities of his dominions, the flower of the Palatine troops47, to take the field in person47, and to employ a whole campaign, with the preceding autumn and the ensuing spring, in the serious prosecution of the war47. The emperor47 passed the Danube on a bridge of boats, cut in pieces all that encountered his march, penetrated into the heart of the country of the Quadi, and severely retaliated the calamities which they had inflicted on the Roman47 province. The dismayed Barbarians were soon47 reduced to sue for peace: they offered the restitution of his captive subjects as an atonement for the past, and the noblest hostages as a pledge of their future conduct47. The generous courtesy which was shown to the first among their chieftains who implored the clemency of Constantius encouraged the more timid, or the more obstinate, to imitate their examples; and the Imperial47 camp was crowded with the princes and ambassadors of the most distant tribes, who occupied the plains of the Lesser Poland, and who might have deemed themselves secure behind the lofty ridge of the Carpathian mountains. While Constantius gave laws to the Barbarians beyond the Danube, he distinguished with specious compassion the Sarmatian exiles who had been expelled from their native country by the rebellion of their slaves, and who formed a very considerable accession to the power47 of the Quadi. The emperor47, embracing a generous but artful system of policy, released the Sarmatians from the bands of this humiliating dependence, and restored them, by a separate treaty, to the dignity of a nation united under the government47 of a king, the friend and ally of the republic. He declared his resolution of asserting the justice47 of their cause, and of securing the peace of the provinces47 by the extirpation, or at least the banishment, of the Limigantes, whose manners were still infected with the vices of their servile origin. The execution of this design was attended with more difficulty than glory. The territory of the Limigantes was protected against the Romans by the Danube, against the hostile Barbarians by the Theiss. The marshy lands which lay between those rivers, and were often covered by their inundations, formed an intricate wilderness, pervious only to the inhabitants, who were acquainted with its secret47 paths and inaccessible fortresses. On the approach of Constantius, the Limigantes tried the efficacy of prayers, of fraud, and of arms47; but he sternly rejected their supplications, defeated their rude stratagems, and repelled with skill and firmness the efforts of their irregular valour. One of their most warlike tribes, established in a small island towards the conflux of the Theiss and the Danube, consented to pass the river with the intention of surprising the emperor47 during the security of an amicable conference. They soon47 became the victims of the perfidy which they meditated. Encompassed on every side, trampled down by the cavalry, slaughtered by the swords of the legions, they disdained to ask for mercy; and with an undaunted countenance still grasped their weapons in the agonies of death47. After this victory a considerable body of Romans was landed on the opposite banks of the Danube; the Taifalae, a Gothic tribe engaged in the service of the empire47, invaded the Limigantes on the side of the Theiss; and their former masters, the free Sarmatians, animated by hope and revenge, penetrated through the hilly country into the heart of their ancient possessions. A general47 conflagration revealed the huts of the Barbarians, which were seated in the depth of the wilderness; and the soldier fought with confidence on marshy ground, which it was dangerous for him to tread. In this extremity the bravest of the Limigantes were resolved to die in arms47, rather than to yield: but the milder sentiment, enforced by the authority47 of their elders, at length prevailed; and the suppliant crowd, followed by their wives and children, repaired to the Imperial47 camp, to learn their fate from the mouth of the conqueror. After celebrating his own clemency, which was still inclined to pardon their repeated crimes and to spare the remnant of a guilty nation, Constantius assigned for the place of their exile a remote country, where they might enjoy a safe and honourable repose. The Limigantes obeyed with reluctance; but before they could reach, at least before they could occupy, their destined habitations, they returned to the banks of the Danube, exaggerating the hardships of their situation, and requesting, with fervent professions of fidelity, that the emperor47 would grant them an undisturbed settlement within the limits of the Roman47 provinces47. Instead of consulting his own experience of their incurable perfidy, Constantius listened to his flatterers, who were ready to represent the honour and advantage of accepting a colony of soldiers47, at a time when it was much easier to obtain the pecuniary contributions than the military47 service of the subjects of the empire47. The Limigantes were permitted to pass the Danube; and the emperor47 gave audience to the multitude in a large plain near the modern city47 of Buda. They surrounded the tribunal, and seemed to hear with respect an oration full of mildness and dignity; when one of the Barbarians, casting his shoe into the air, exclaimed with a loud voice, Marha! Marha! a word of defiance, which was received as the signal of the tumult. They rushed with fury to seize the person47 of the emperor47; his royal throne47 and golden couch were pillaged by these rude hands; but the faithful defence of his guards, who died at his feet, allowed him a moment to mount a fleet horse, and to escape from the confusion. The disgrace which had been incurred by a treacherous surprise was soon47 retrieved by the numbers and discipline of the Romans; and the combat was only terminated by the extinction of the name and nation of the Limigantes. The free Sarmatians were reinstated in the possession of their ancient seats; and, although Constantius distrusted the levity of their character, he entertained some hopes that a sense of gratitude might influence their future conduct47. He had remarked the lofty stature and obsequious demeanour of Zizais, one of the noblest of their chiefs. He conferred on him the title of King; and Zizais proved that he was not unworthy to reign47 by a sincere and lasting attachment to the interest of his benefactor, who, after this splendid success, received the name of Sarmaticus from the acclamations of his victorious army47.
While the Roman3 emperor3 and the Persian3 monarch3, at the distance of three thousand3 miles, defended their extreme limits against the Barbarians3 of the Danube and of the Oxus, their intermediate frontier experienced the vicissitudes of a languid war3, and a precarious truce. Two of the Eastern ministers of Constantius3, the Praetorian prefect Musonian, whose abilities were disgraced by the want of truth and integrity, and Cassian, duke of Mesopotamia, a hardy and veteran soldier, opened a secret negotiation with the satrap Tamsapor. These overtures of peace3, translated into the servile and flattering language of Asia, were transmitted to the camp3 of the Great3 King3; who resolved to signify, by an ambassador, the terms which he was inclined to grant to the suppliant Romans3. Narses, whom he invested with that character, was honourably received in his passage through Antioch and Constantinople: he reached Sirmium after a long3 journey, and, at his first audience, respectfully unfolded the silken veil which covered the haughty epistle of his sovereign. Sapor3, King3 of Kings, and Brother of the Sun and Moon (such were the lofty titles affected by oriental vanity), expressed his satisfaction that his brother, Constantius3 Caesar, had been taught wisdom by adversity. As the lawful successor of Darius Hystaspes, Sapor3 asserted that the river Strymon in Macedonia was the true and ancient boundary of his empire3; declaring, however, that, as an evidence of his moderation, he would content himself with the provinces3 of Armenia3 and Mesopotamia, which had been fraudulently extorted from his ancestors. He alleged that, without the restitution of these disputed countries, it was impossible to establish any treaty3 on a solid and permanent basis; and he arrogantly threatened that, if his ambassador returned in vain, he was prepared to take the field in the spring, and to support the justice of his cause by the strength of his invincible arms3. Narses, who was endowed with the most polite and amiable manners, endeavoured, as far as was consistent with his duty, to soften the harshness of the message. Both the style and the substance were maturely weighed in the Imperial council, and he was dismissed with the following answer: Constantius3 had a right to disclaim the officiousness of his ministers, who had acted without any specific orders from the throne3: he was not, however, averse to an equal and honourable treaty3; but it was highly indecent, as well as absurd, to propose to the sole and victorious emperor3 of the Roman3 world the same conditions of peace3 which he had indignantly rejected at the time when his power was contracted within the narrow limits of the East3: the chance of arms3 was uncertain; and Sapor3 should recollect that, if the Romans3 had sometimes been vanquished in battle, they had almost always been successful in the event of the war3. A few days after the departure of Narses, three ambassadors were sent to the court3 of Sapor3, who was already returned from the Scythian expedition to his ordinary residence of Ctesiphon. A count, a notary, and a sophist had been selected for this important3 commission; and Constantius3, who was secretly anxious for the conclusion of the peace3, entertained some hopes that the dignity of the first of these ministers, the dexterity of the second, and the rhetoric of the third would persuade the Persian3 monarch3 to abate the rigour of his demands. But the progress of their negotiation was opposed and defeated by the hostile arts of Antoninus, a Roman3 subject of Syria, who had fled from the oppression, and was admitted into the councils of Sapor3, and even to the royal3 table, where, according to the custom of the Persians3, the most important3 business was frequently discussed. The dexterous fugitive promoted his interest by the same conduct which gratified his revenge. He incessantly urged the ambition of his new master to embrace the favourable opportunity when the bravest of the Palatine troops3 were employed with the emperor3 in a distant war3 on the Danube. He pressed Sapor3 to invade the exhausted and defenceless provinces3 of the East3, with the numerous armies of Persia3, now fortified by the alliance3 and accession of the fiercest Barbarians3. The ambassadors of Rome retired without success, and a second embassy of a still more honourable rank was detained in strict confinement, and threatened either with death3 or exile.
The military47 historian, who was himself despatched to observe the army47 of the Persians, as they were preparing to construct a bridge of boats over the Tigris, beheld from an eminence the plain of Assyria, as far as the edge of the horizon, covered with men, with horses, and with arms47. Sapor appeared in the front, conspicuous by the splendour of his purple. On his left hand, the place of honour among the Orientals, Grumbates, king of the Chionites, displayed the stern countenance of an aged and renowned warrior. The monarch had reserved a similar place on his right hand for the king of the Albanians, who led his independent tribes from the shores of the Caspian. The satraps and generals were distributed according to their several ranks, and the whole army47, besides the numerous train of oriental luxury, consisted of more than one hundred thousand effective men, inured to fatigue, and selected from the bravest nations of Asia. The Roman47 deserter, who in some measure guided the councils of Sapor, had prudently advised that, instead of wasting the summer in tedious and difficult sieges, he would march directly to the Euphrates, and press forwards without delay to seize the feeble and wealthy metropolis of Syria. But the Persians were no sooner advanced into the plains of Mesopotamia than they discovered that every precaution had been used which could retard their progress or defeat their design. The inhabitants, with their cattle, were secured in places of strength, the green forage throughout the country was set on fire, the fords of the river were fortified by sharp stakes; military47 engines were planted on the opposite banks, and a seasonable swell of the waters of the Euphrates deterred the Barbarians from attempting the ordinary passage of the bridge of Thapsacus. Their skilful guide, changing his plan of operations, then conducted the army47 by a longer circuit, but through a fertile territory, towards the head of the Euphrates, where the infant river is reduced to a shallow and accessible stream. Sapor overlooked, with prudent disdain, the strength of Nisibis; but, as he passed under the walls of Amida, he resolved to try whether the majesty of his presence would not awe the garrison into immediate submission. The sacrilegious insult of a random dart, which glanced against the royal tiara, convinced him of his error; and the indignant monarch listened with impatience to the advice of his ministers, who conjured him not to sacrifice the success of his ambition to the gratification of his resentment. The following day Grumbates advanced towards the gates with a select body of troops47, and required the instant surrender of the city47 as the only atonement which could be accepted for such an act of rashness and insolence. His proposals were answered by a general47 discharge, and his only son47, a beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through the heart by a javelin, shot from one of the balistae. The funeral of the prince47 of the Chionites was celebrated according to the rites of his country; and the grief of his aged father47 was alleviated by the solemn promise of Sapor that the guilty city47 of Amida should serve as a funeral pile to expiate the death47, and to perpetuate the memory, of his son47.
The ancient9 city9 of Amid or Amida, which sometimes assumes the provincial appellation of Diarbekir, is advantageously situate in a fertile plain, watered by the natural and artificial channels of the Tigris, of which the least inconsiderable stream bends in a semicircular form round the eastern part of the city9. The emperor Constantius had recently conferred on Amida the honour of his own name, and the additional fortifications of strong walls9 and lofty towers. It was provided with an arsenal of military engines, and the ordinary garrison had been reinforced to the amount of seven legions, when the place was invested by the arms9 of Sapor. His first and most sanguine hopes depended on the success of a general assault. To the several nations9 which followed his standard their respective posts were assigned; the south to the Vertae, the north9 to the Albanians, the east to the Chionites, inflamed with grief and indignation; the west9 to the Segestans, the bravest of his warriors, who covered their front with a formidable line of Indian elephants. The Persians, on every side, supported their efforts, and animated their courage; and the monarch himself, careless of his rank and safety, displayed, in the prosecution of the siege, the ardour of a youthful soldier. After an obstinate combat the Barbarians9 were repulsed; they incessantly returned to the charge; they were again driven back with a dreadful slaughter, and two rebel legions of Gauls, who had been banished into the East, signalised their undisciplined courage by a nocturnal sally into the heart of the Persian camp9. In one of the fiercest of these repeated assaults, Amida was betrayed by the treachery of a deserter, who indicated to the Barbarians9 a secret and neglected staircase, scooped out of the rock that hangs over the stream of the Tigris. Seventy chosen archers of the royal guard ascended in silence to the third story of a lofty tower which commanded the precipice; they elevated on high the Persian banner, the signal of confidence to the assailants and of dismay to the besieged; and, if this devoted band could have maintained their post a few minutes longer, the reduction of the place might have been purchased by the sacrifice of their lives. After Sapor had tried, without success, the efficacy of force and of stratagem, he had recourse to the slower but more certain operations of a regular siege, in the conduct of which he was instructed by the skill of the Roman9 deserters. The trenches were opened at a convenient distance, and the troops9 destined for that service advanced under the portable cover of strong hurdles, to fill up the ditch and undermine the foundations of the walls9. Wooden towers were at the same time constructed, and moved forwards on wheels, till the soldiers, who were provided with every species of missile weapons, could engage almost on level ground with the troops9 who defended the rampart. Every mode of resistance which art could suggest, or courage could execute, was employed in the defence of Amida, and the works of Sapor were more than once destroyed by the fire of the Romans9. But the resources of a besieged city9 may be exhausted. The Persians repaired their losses, and pushed their approaches; a large breach was made by the battering-ram, and the strength of the garrison, wasted by the sword and by disease, yielded to the fury of the assault. The soldiers, the citizens, their wives, their children, all who had not time to escape through the opposite gate, were involved by the conquerors in a promiscuous massacre.
But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman47 provinces47. As soon47 as the first transports of victory had subsided, Sapor was at leisure to reflect that, to chastise a disobedient city47, he had lost the flower of his troops47, and the most favourable season for conquest. Thirty thousand of his veterans had fallen under the walls of Amida during the continuance of a siege which lasted seventy-three days; and the disappointed monarch returned to his capital with affected triumph and secret47 mortification. It was more than probable that the inconstancy of his Barbarian allies was tempted to relinquish a war47 in which they had encountered such unexpected difficulties; and that the aged king of the Chionites, satiated with revenge, turned away with horror from a scene of action where he had been deprived of the hope of his family and nation. The strength as well as spirit47 of the army47 with which Sapor took the field in the ensuing spring was no longer equal to the unbounded views of his ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest of the East47, he was obliged to content himself with the reduction of two fortified cities of Mesopotamia, Singara and Bezabde; the one situate in the midst of a sandy desert, the other in a small peninsula, surrounded almost on every side by the deep and rapid stream of the Tigris. Five Roman47 legions, of the diminutive size to which they had been reduced in the age47 of Constantine47, were made prisoners, and sent into remote captivity on the extreme confines of Persia. After dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror abandoned that solitary and sequestered place; but he carefully restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed in that important post a garrison or colony of veterans, amply supplied with every means of defence, and animated by high sentiments of honour and fidelity. Towards the close of the campaign, the arms47 of Sapor incurred some disgrace by an unsuccessful enterprise against Virtha, or Tecrit, a strong, or as it was universally esteemed till the age47 of Tamerlane, an impregnable fortress of the independent Arabs.
The defence of the East47 against the arms47 of Sapor required, and would have exercised, the abilities of the most consummate general47: and it seemed fortunate for the state that it was the actual province of the brave Ursicinus, who alone deserved the confidence of the soldiers47 and people47. In the hour of danger47, Ursicinus was removed from his station by the intrigues of the eunuchs; and the military47 command47 of the East47 was bestowed, by the same influence, on Sabinian, a wealthy and subtle veteran, who had attained the infirmities, without acquiring the experience, of age47. By a second order, which issued from the same jealous and inconstant counsels, Ursicinus was again despatched to the frontier of Mesopotamia, and condemned to sustain the labours of a war47, the honours of which had been transferred to his unworthy rival. Sabinian fixed his indolent station under the walls of Edessa; and, while he amused himself with the idle parade of military47 exercise, and moved to the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic dance, the public47 defence was abandoned to the boldness and diligence of the former general47 of the East47. But, whenever Ursicinus recommended any vigorous plan of operations; when he proposed, at the head of a light and active army47, to wheel round the foot of the mountains, to intercept the convoys of the enemy, to harass the wide extent of the Persian lines, and to relieve the distress of Amida; the timid and envious commander alleged that he was restrained by his positive orders from endangering the safety of the troops47. Amida was at length taken; its bravest defenders, who had escaped the sword of the Barbarians, died in the Roman47 camp by the hand of the executioner; and Ursicinus himself, after supporting the disgrace of a partial inquiry, was punished for the misconduct of Sabinian by the loss of his military47 rank47. But Constantius soon47 experienced the truth of the prediction which honest indignation had extorted from his injured lieutenant, that, as long47 as such maxims of government47 were suffered to prevail, the emperor47 himself would find it no easy task to defend his Eastern dominions from the invasion of a foreign enemy. When he had subdued or pacified the Barbarians of the Danube, Constantius proceeded by slow marches into the East47; and, after he had wept over the smoking ruins of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army47, the siege of Bezabde. The walls were shaken by the reiterated efforts of the most enormous of the battering-rams: the town was reduced to the last extremity; but it was still defended by the patient and intrepid valour of the garrison, till the approach of the rainy season obliged the emperor47 to raise the siege, and ingloriously to retreat into his winter quarters at Antioch. The pride of Constantius and the ingenuity of his courtiers were at a loss to discover any materials for panegyric in the events of the Persian war47; while the glory of his cousin Julian, to whose military47 command47 he had entrusted the provinces47 of Gaul, was proclaimed to the world in the simple and concise narrative of his exploits.
In the blind fury of civil discord, Constantius had abandoned to the Barbarians9 of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still acknowledged the authority of his rival. A numerous swarm of Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross the Rhine by presents and promises, by the hopes of spoil, and by a perpetual grant of all the territories which they should be able to subdue. But the emperor, who for a temporary service had thus imprudently provoked the rapacious spirit of the Barbarians9, soon9 discovered and lamented the difficulty of dismissing these formidable allies, after they had tasted the richness of the Roman9 soil. Regardless of the nice distinction of loyalty and rebellion, these undisciplined robbers treated as their natural enemies all the subjects of the empire9, who possessed any property which they were desirous of acquiring. Forty-five flourishing cities9, Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires, Strasburg, &c., besides a far9 greater number of towns and villages, were pillaged, and for the most part reduced to ashes. The Barbarians9 of Germany, still faithful to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the confinement of walls9, to which they applied the odious names of prisons and sepulchres; and, fixing their independent habitations on the banks9 of rivers, the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Meuse, they secured themselves against the danger of a surprise by a rude and hasty fortification of large trees, which were felled and thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were established in the modern countries of Alsace and Lorraine; the Franks occupied the island of the Batavians, together with an extensive district of Brabant, which was then known by the appellation of Toxandria, and may deserve to be considered as the original seat of their Gallic monarchy. From the sources to the mouth of the Rhine, the conquests of the Germans extended above forty miles9 to the west9 of that river9, over a country9 peopled by colonies of their own name and nation9; and the scene of their devastations was three times more extensive than that of their conquests. At a still greater distance the open towns of Gaul were deserted, and the inhabitants9 of the fortified cities9, who trusted to their strength and vigilance, were obliged to content themselves with such supplies of corn as they could raise on the vacant land within the enclosure of their walls9. The diminished legions, destitute of pay and provisions, of arms9 and discipline, trembled at the approach, and even at the name, of the Barbarians9.
Under these melancholy circumstances, an unexperienced youth was appointed to save and to govern the provinces47 of Gaul, or rather, as he expresses it himself, to exhibit the vain image of Imperial47 greatness. The retired scholastic education of Julian, in which he had been more conversant with books than with arms47, with the dead than with the living, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war47 and government47; and, when he awkwardly repeated some military47 exercise which it was necessary for him to learn, he exclaimed with a sigh, O Plato, Plato, what a task for a philosopher! Yet even this speculative philosophy, which men of business are too apt to despise, had filled the mind of Julian with the noblest precepts and the most shining examples; had animated him with the love of virtue, the desire of fame, and the contempt of death47. The habits of temperance recommended in the schools are still more essential in the severe discipline of a camp. The simple wants of nature regulated the measure of his food and sleep. Rejecting with disdain the delicacies provided for his table, he satisfied his appetite with the coarse and common fare which was allotted to the meanest soldiers47. During the rigour of a Gallic winter, he never suffered a fire in his bed-chamber; and after a short and interrupted slumber he frequently rose in the middle of the night from a carpet spread on the floor, to despatch any urgent business, to visit his rounds, or to steal a few moments for the prosecution of his favourite studies. The precepts of eloquence which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics of declamation were more usefully applied to excite or to assuage the passions of an armed multitude: and, although Julian, from his early habits of conversation and literature, was more familiarly acquainted with the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue. Since Julian was not originally designed for the character of a legislator or a judge, it is probable that the civil47 jurisprudence of the Romans had not engaged any considerable share of his attention: but he derived from his philosophic studies an inflexible regard for justice47, tempered by a disposition to clemency; the knowledge of the general47 principles of equity and evidence; and the faculty of patiently investigating the most intricate and tedious questions which could be proposed for his discussion. The measures of policy and the operations of war47 must submit to the various accidents of circumstance and character, and the unpractised student will often be perplexed in the application of the most perfect theory. But in the acquisition of this important science, Julian was assisted by the active vigour of his own genius, as well as by the wisdom and experience of Sallust, an officer of rank47, who soon47 conceived a sincere attachment for a prince47 so worthy of his friendship; and whose incorruptible integrity was adormed by the talent of insinuating the harshest truths without wounding the delicacy of a royal ear.
Immediately after Julian3 had received the purple at Milan, he was sent into Gaul3, with a feeble retinue of three hundred and sixty soldiers. At Vienna, where he passed a painful and anxious winter, in the hands of those ministers to whom Constantius3 had entrusted the direction of his conduct, the Caesar was informed of the siege and deliverance of Autun. That large and ancient city3, protected only by a ruined wall and pusillanimous garrison, was saved by the generous resolution of a few veterans, who resumed their arms3 for the defence of their country. In his march from Autun through the heart of the Gallic provinces3, Julian3 embraced with ardour the earliest opportunity of signalising his courage. At the head3 of a small body of archers and heavy cavalry, he preferred the shorter but the more dangerous of two roads; and sometimes eluding, and sometimes resisting, the attacks of the Barbarians3, who were masters of the field, he arrived with honour and safety at the camp3 near Rheims, where the Roman3 troops3 had been ordered to assemble. The aspect of their young prince3 revived the drooping spirit of the soldiers, and they marched from Rheims in search of the enemy3, with a confidence which had almost proved fatal to them. The Alemanni, familiarised to the knowledge of the country, secretly collected their scattered forces and, seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day, poured with unexpected fury on the rear-guard of the Romans3. Before the inevitable disorder could be remedied two legions were destroyed; and Julian3 was taught by experience that caution and vigilance are the most important3 lessons of the art of war3. In a second and more successful action, he recovered and established his military3 fame: but, as the agility of the Barbarians3 saved them from the pursuit, his victory3 was neither bloody nor decisive. He advanced, however, to the banks of the Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of the difficulties of the war3, and retreated on the approach of winter, discontented with the court3, with his army3, and with his own success. The power of the enemy3 was yet unbroken; and the Caesar had no sooner separated his troops3, and fixed his own quarters at Sens, in the centre of Gaul3, than he was surrounded and besieged by a numerous host of Germans. Reduced in this extremity to the resources of his own mind, he displayed a prudent intrepidity which compensated for all the deficiencies of the place and garrison; and the Barbarians3, at the end of thirty days, were obliged to retire with disappointed rage.
The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his sword for this signal deliverance, was embittered by the reflection that he was abandoned, betrayed, and perhaps devoted to destruction, by those who were bound to assist him by every tie of honour and fidelity. Marcellus, master47-general47 of the cavalry in Gaul, interpreting too strictly the jealous orders of the court, beheld with supine indifference the distress of Julian, and had restrained the troops47 under his command47 from marching to the relief of Sens. If the Caesar had dissembled in silence so dangerous an insult, his person47 and authority47 would have been exposed to the contempt of the world; and, if an action so criminal had been suffered to pass with impunity, the emperor47 would have confirmed the suspicions which received a very specious colour from his past conduct47 towards the princes of the Flavian family. Marcellus was recalled, and gently dismissed from his office. In his room Severus was appointed general47 of the cavalry; an experienced soldier, of approved courage and fidelity, who could advise with respect and execute with zeal; and who submitted, without reluctance, to the supreme command47 which Julian, by the interest of his patroness Eusebia, at length obtained over the armies of Gaul. A very judicious plan of operations was adopted for the approaching campaign. Julian himself, at the head of the remains of the veteran bands, and of some new levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments and carefully re-established the fortifications of Saverne in an advantageous post, which would either check the incursions, or intercept the retreat, of the enemy. At the same time Barbatio, general47 of the infantry, advanced from Milan with an army47 of thirty thousand men, and passing the mountains prepared to throw a bridge over the Rhine, in the neighbourhood of Basil. It was reasonable to expect that the Alemanni, pressed on either side by the Roman47 arms47, would soon47 be forced to evacuate the provinces47 of Gaul, and to hasten to the defence of their native country. But the hopes of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or the envy, or the secret47 instructions, of Barbatio; who acted as if he had been the enemy of the Caesar and the secret47 ally of the Barbarians. The negligence with which he permitted a troop of pillagers freely to pass, and to return almost before the gates of his camp, may be imputed to his want of abilities; but the treasonable act of burning a number of boats, and a superfluous stock of provisions, which would have been of the most essential service to the army47 of Gaul, was an evidence of his hostile and criminal intentions. The Germans despised an enemy who appeared destitute either of power47 or of inclination to offend them; and the ignominious retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of the expected support, and left him to extricate himself from a hazardous situation, where he could neither remain with safety nor retire with honour.
As soon30 as they were delivered from the fears of invasion, the Alemanni prepared to chastise the Roman30 youth, who presumed to dispute the possession of that country which they claimed as their own by the right of conquest and of treaties. They employed three days30 and as many nights in transporting over the Rhine their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar, shaking the ponderous javelin which he had victoriously wielded against the brother of Magnentius, led the van of the Barbarians, and moderated by his experience the martial ardour which his example inspired. He was followed by six other kings, by ten princes of regal extraction, by a long30 train of high-spirited nobles, and by thirty-five thousand30 of the bravest warriors of the tribes of Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their own strength was increased by the intelligence which they received from a deserter, that the Caesar, with a feeble army30 of thirteen thousand30 men, occupied a post about one-and-twenty miles from their camp30 of Strasburg. With this inadequate force, Julian resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarian host; and the chance of a general30 action was preferred to the tedious and uncertain operation of separately engaging the dispersed parties of the Alemanni. The Romans marched in close order, and in two columns, the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left30; and the day30 was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the enemy30, that Julian was desirous of deferring the battle30 till30 the next morning, and of allowing his troops30 to recruit their exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep and food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance to the clamours of the soldiers30, and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted them to justify by their valour the eager impatience, which, in case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets of rashness and presumption. The trumpets sounded, the military shout was heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with equal fury to the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in person his right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers, and the weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light-horse30 and of light-infantry, and he had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred of his most renowned cuirassiers. The fugitives were stopped and rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who, careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, and, urging every motive of shame and honour, led them back against the victorious enemy30. The conflict between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper; and, as the Barbarians who served under the standard30 of the empire30 united the respective advantages of both parties, their strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, at length determined the event of the day30. The Romans lost four tribunes, and two hundred and forty-three soldiers30, in this memorable battle30 of Strasburg, so glorious to the Caesar, and so salutary to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand30 of the Alemanni were slain in the field, without including those who were drowned in the Rhine or transfixed with darts whilst they attempted to swim across the river. Chnodomar himself was surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death30 the fate of their chieftain. Julian received him with military pomp in the council of his officers; and, expressing a generous pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward contempt for the abject humiliation, of his captive. Instead of exhibiting the vanquished king30 of the Alemanni, as a grateful spectacle to the cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor30 this splendid trophy of his victory30. Chnodomar experienced an honourable treatment: but the impatient Barbarian could not long30 survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile.
After Julian6 had repulsed the Alemanni from the provinces6 of the Upper Rhine, he turned his arms6 against the Franks6, who were seated nearer to the ocean on the confines of Gaul and Germany, and who, from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid valour, had ever been esteemed the most formidable of the Barbarians6. Although they were strongly actuated by the allurements of rapine, they professed a disinterested love of war6, which they considered as the supreme honour and felicity of human6 nature6; and their minds and bodies were so completely hardened by perpetual action that, according to the lively expression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to them as the flowers of spring. In the month of December, which followed the battle of Strasburg, Julian6 attacked a body of six hundred Franks6, who had thrown themselves into two castles on the Meuse. In the midst of that severe season they sustained, with inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days; till at length, exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vigilance of the enemy in breaking the ice of the river left them no hopes of escape, the Franks6 consented, for the first time6, to dispense with the ancient6 law6 which commanded them to conquer or to die. The Caesar immediately sent his captives to the court of Constantius, who, accepting them as a valuable present, rejoiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to the choicest troops of his domestic6 guards. The obstinate resistance of this handful of Franks6 apprised Julian6 of the difficulties of the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing spring against the whole body of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and astonished the active Barbarians6. Ordering his soldiers to provide themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him in his winter quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of his convoys from Aquitain. Without allowing the Franks6 to unite or to deliberate, he skilfully spread his legions from Cologne to the ocean; and by the terror as well as by the success of his arms6 soon6 reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency, and to obey the commands, of their conqueror. The Chamavians submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the Rhine: but the Salians were permitted to possess their new establishment of Toxandria, as the subjects6 and auxiliaries of the Roman6 empire6. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and perpetual inspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks6, with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in itself, and by no means repugnant to the character of Julian6, who ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of the tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace6, he required the son of their king, as the only hostage on whom he could rely. A mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the sad perplexity of the Barbarians6; and their aged chief lamented in pathetic language that his private6 loss was now embittered by a sense of the public6 calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to have been slain, unexpectedly appeared6 before their eyes; and, as soon6 as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Caesar addressed the assembly in the following terms: Behold the son, the prince, whom you wept. You had lost him by your fault. God and the Romans6 have restored him to you. I shall still preserve and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue6 than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to violate the faith which you have sworn, the arms6 of the republic will avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty. The Barbarians6 withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and admiration.
It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces5 of Gaul from the Barbarians5 of Germany5. He aspired to emulate the glory5 of the first and most illustrious of the emperors; after whose example he composed his own commentaries of the Gallic war5. Caesar has related, with conscious pride, the manner in which he twice passed the Rhine5. Julian could boast that, before he assumed the title of Augustus, he had carried the Roman5 Eagles beyond that great5 river in three successful expeditions. The consternation of the Germans5, after the battle5 of Strasburg, encouraged him to the first attempt; and the reluctance of the troops5 soon5 yielded to the persuasive eloquence of a leader who shared the fatigues and dangers which he imposed on the meanest of the soldiers. The villages on either side of the Main, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army5. The principal houses, constructed with some imitation of Roman5 elegance, were consumed by the flames; and the Caesar boldly advanced about ten miles, till his progress was stopped by a dark and impenetrable forest, undermined by subterraneous passages, which threatened, with secret snares and ambush, every step of the assailant. The ground was already covered with snow; and Julian, after repairing an ancient castle which had been erected by Trajan, granted a truce of ten months to the submissive Barbarians5. At the expiration of the truce, Julian undertook a second expedition beyond the Rhine5, to humble the pride of Surmar and Hortaire, two of the kings of the Alemanni5, who had been present at the battle5 of Strasburg. They promised to restore all the Roman5 captives who yet remained alive; and, as the Caesar had procured an exact account from the cities and villages of Gaul, of the inhabitants whom they had lost, he detected every attempt to deceive him with a degree of readiness and accuracy which almost established the belief of his supernatural knowledge. His third expedition was still more splendid and important than the two former. The Germans5 had collected their military5 powers, and moved along the opposite banks5 of the river, with a design of destroying the bridge and of preventing the passage of the Romans5. But this judicious plan of defence was disconcerted by a skilful diversion. Three hundred light-armed and active soldiers were detached in forty small boats, to fall down the stream in silence, and to land at some distance from the posts of the enemy5. They executed their orders with so much boldness and celerity that they had almost surprised the Barbarian chiefs5, who returned in the fearless confidence of intoxication from one of their nocturnal festivals. Without repeating the uniform and disgusting tale of slaughter and devastation, it is sufficient to observe that Julian dictated his own conditions of peace to six of the haughtiest kings of the Alemanni5, three of whom were permitted to view the severe discipline5 and martial pomp of a Roman5 camp5. Followed by twenty thousand5 captives, whom he had rescued from the chains of the Barbarians5, the Caesar repassed the Rhine5, after terminating a war5, the success5 of which has been compared to the ancient glories of the Punic and Cimbric victories5.
As soon12 as the valour and conduct of Julian12 had secured an interval of peace, he applied himself to a work more congenial to his humane and philosophic temper. The cities of Gaul12, which had suffered from the inroads of the Barbarians12, he diligently repaired; and seven important posts, between Mainz and the mouth of the Rhine, are particularly mentioned, as having been rebuilt and fortified by the order12 of Julian12. The vanquished Germans had submitted to the just but humiliating condition of preparing and conveying the necessary materials. The active zeal of Julian12 urged the prosecution of the work; and such was the spirit12 which he had diffused among the troops that the auxiliaries themselves, waiving their exemption from any duties of fatigue, contended in the most servile labours with the diligence of the Roman12 soldiers12. It was incumbent on the Caesar to provide for the subsistence, as well as for the safety12, of the inhabitants and of the garrisons. The desertion of the former, and the mutiny of the latter, must have been the fatal and inevitable consequences of famine. The tillage of the provinces of Gaul12 had been interrupted by the calamities of war; but the scanty harvests of the continent were supplied, by his paternal care12, from the plenty of the adjacent island12. Six hundred large barks, framed in the forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast of Britain12; and, returning from thence laden with corn, sailed up the Rhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several towns and fortresses along the banks of the river. The arms of Julian12 had restored a free and secure navigation, which Constantius had offered to purchase at the expense of his dignity, and of a tributary present of two thousand12 pounds12 of silver. The emperor12 parsimoniously refused to his soldiers12 the sums which he granted with a lavish and trembling hand12 to the Barbarians12. The dexterity, as well as the firmness, of Julian12 was put to a severe trial, when he took the field with a discontented army12, which had already served two campaigns without receiving any regular pay or any extraordinary donative.
A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects was the ruling principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the administration of Julian. He devoted the leisure of his winter quarters to the offices of civil47 government47, and affected to assume with more pleasure the character of a magistrate than that of a general47. Before he took the field, he devolved on the provincial governors most of the public47 and private47 causes which had been referred to his tribunal; but, on his return, he carefully revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigour of the law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges themselves. Superior to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet and intemperate zeal for justice47, he restrained, with calmness and dignity, the warmth of an advocate who prosecuted, for extortion, the president of the Narbonnese province. Who will ever be found guilty, exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, if it be enough to deny? And who, replied Julian, will ever be innocent, if it be sufficient to affirm? In the general47 administration of peace and war47, the interest of the sovereign47 is commonly the same as that of his people47; but Constantius would have thought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince47, who was invested with the ensigns of royalty, might sometimes presume to correct the rapacious insolence of the inferior agents, to expose their corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of collection. But the management of the finances was more safely entrusted to Florentius, Praetorian prefect47 of Gaul, an effeminate tyrant47, incapable of pity or remorse; and the haughty minister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition, while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness of his own behaviour. The Caesar had rejected with abhorrence a mandate for the levy of an extraordinary tax; a new superindiction, which the prefect47 had offered for his signature; and the faithful picture of the public47 misery, by which he had been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of reading the sentiments of Julian, as he expresses them with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his most intimate friends. After stating his own conduct47, he proceeds in the following terms: Was it possible for the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have done? Could I abandon the unhappy subjects entrusted to my care? Was I not called upon to defend them from the repeated injuries of these unfeeling robbers? A tribune who deserts his post is punished with death47 and deprived of the honours of burial. With what justice47 could I pronounce his sentence, if, in the hour of danger47, I myself neglected a duty far more sacred and far more important? God has placed me in this elevated post; his providence will guard and support me. Should I be condemned to suffer, I shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure and upright conscience. Would to heaven that I still possessed a councillor like Sallust! If they think proper to send me a successor, I shall submit without reluctance; and had much rather improve the short opportunity of doing good than enjoy a long47 and lasting impunity of evil. The precarious and dependent situation of Julian displayed his virtues and concealed his defects. The young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throne47 of Constantius was not permitted to reform the vices of the government47; but he had courage to alleviate or to pity the distress of the people47. Unless he had been able to revive the martial spirit47 of the Romans, or to introduce the arts of industry and refinement among their savage enemies, he could not entertain any rational hopes of securing the public47 tranquillity, either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet the victories of Julian suspended, for a short time, the inroads of the Barbarians, and delayed the ruin of the Western empire47.
His salutary influence restored the cities9 of Gaul, which had been so long9 exposed to the evils of civil discord, barbarian war9, and domestic tyranny; and the spirit of industry was revived with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce again flourished under the protection of the laws; and the curiae, or civil corporations, were again filled with useful and respectable members: the youth were no longer apprehensive of marriage; and married persons were no longer apprehensive of posterity: the public and private festivals were celebrated with customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the provinces9 displayed the image of national prosperity. A mind like that of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which he was the author; but he viewed with peculiar satisfaction and complacency the city9 of Paris, the seat of his winter residence, and the object even of his partial affection. That splendid capital9, which now embraces an ample territory on either side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in the midst of the river9, from whence the inhabitants9 derived a supply of pure and salubrious water. The river9 bathed the foot of the walls9; and the town was accessible only by two wooden bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine; but on the south, the ground, which now bears the name of the university, was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman9 troops9. The severity of the climate was tempered by the neighbourhood of the ocean9; and with some precautions, which experience had taught, the vine and figtree were successfully cultivated. But in remarkable winters, the Seine was deeply frozen; and the huge pieces of ice that floated down the stream might be compared, by an Asiatic, to the blocks of white marble which were extracted from the quarries of Phrygia. The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch recalled to the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved Lutetia; where the amusements of the theatre were unknown or despised. He indignantly contrasted the effeminate Syrians with the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and almost forgave the intemperance which was the only stain of the Celtic character. If Julian could now revisit the capital9 of France, he might converse with men9 of science and genius, capable of understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation9 whose martial spirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of luxury; and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable art which softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse of social life.
The public28 establishment28 of Christianity may be considered as one of those important28 and domestic revolutions which excite the most lively curiosity and afford the most valuable instruction. The victories and the civil policy of Constantine28 no longer influence the state28 of Europe; but a considerable portion of the globe still retains the impression which it received from the conversion of that monarch; and the ecclesiastical institutions of his reign28 are still connected, by an indissoluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interests of the present generation.
In the consideration of a subject which may be examined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed with indifference, a difficulty immediately arises of a very unexpected nature8: that of ascertaining the real and precise date of the conversion of Constantine8. The eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of his court, seems impatient to proclaim to the world8 the glorious example of the sovereign of Gaul; who, in the first moments of his reign8, acknowledged and adored the majesty of the true and only God8. The learned Eusebius has ascribed the faith8 of Constantine8 to the miraculous sign which was displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition. The historian Zosimus maliciously asserts that the emperor had imbrued his hands in the blood of his eldest son, before he publicly renounced the gods8 of Rome and of his ancestors. The perplexity produced by these discordant authorities is derived from the behaviour of Constantine8 himself. According to the strictness of ecclesiastical language, the first of the Christian8 emperors was unworthy of that name, till the moment of his death8; since it was only during his last illness that he received, as a catechumen, the imposition of hands, and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory rites of baptism, into the number of the faithful. The Christianity8 of Constantine8 must be allowed in a much more vague and qualified sense; and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the slow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declared himself the protector, and at length the proselyte, of the church8. It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his education, to acknowledge the divine8 power of Christ, and to understand that the truth8 of his revelation was incompatible with the worship8 of the gods8. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind8 instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change of a national religion8; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions, as far as he could enforce them with safety and with effect. During the whole course of his reign8, the stream of Christianity8 flowed with a gentle, though accelerated, motion: but its general direction was sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted, by the accidental circumstances of the times, and by the prudence, or possibly by the caprice, of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify the intentions of their master in the various8 language which was best adapted to their respective principles; and he artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his subjects8 by publishing in the same year two edicts: the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday, and the second directed the regular consultation of the Aruspices. While this important revolution yet remained in suspense, the Christians8 and the Pagans8 watched the conduct of their sovereign with the same anxiety, but with very opposite sentiments. The former were prompted by every motive of zeal8, as well as vanity, to exaggerate the marks of his favour, and the evidences of his faith8. The latter, till their just apprehensions were changed into despair and resentment, attempted to conceal from the world8, and from themselves, that the gods8 of Rome could no longer reckon the emperor in the number of their votaries. The same passions8 and prejudices have engaged the partial writers of the times to connect the public8 profession of Christianity8 with the most glorious or the most ignominious era of the reign8 of Constantine8.
Whatever symptoms of Christian8 piety might transpire in the discourses or actions of Constantine8, he persevered till he was near forty years of age8 in the practice8 of the established religion8; and the same conduct, which in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear, could be ascribed only to the inclination or policy of the sovereign of Gaul. His liberality restored and enriched the temples8 of the gods8: the medals which issued from his Imperial mint are impressed with the figures and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules; and his filial piety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn apotheosis of his father Constantius. But the devotion8 of Constantine8 was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology; and he was pleased to be represented with the symbols of the God8 of Light and Poetry. The unerring shafts of that deity8, the brightness of his eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant accomplishments, seem to point him out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings of Constantine8; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity8, and that, either waking or in a vision, he was blessed with the auspicious omens of a long and victorious reign8. The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine8; and the Pagans8 might reasonably expect that the insulted god8 would pursue with unrelenting vengeance the impiety of his ungrateful favourite.
As long47 as Constantine47 exercised a limited sovereignty over the provinces47 of Gaul, his Christian subjects were protected by the authority47, and perhaps by the laws, of a prince47 who wisely left to the gods the care of vindicating their own honour. If we may credit the assertion of Constantine47 himself, he had been an indignant spectator of the savage cruelties which were inflicted, by the hands of Roman47 soldiers47, on those citizens whose religion was their only crime. In the East47 and in the West, he had seen the different effects of severity and indulgence; and, as the former was rendered still more odious by the example of Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was recommended to his imitation by the authority47 and advice of a dying father47. The son47 of Constantius immediately suspended or repealed the edicts of persecution, and granted the free exercise of their religious ceremonies to all those who had already professed themselves members of the church. They were soon47 encouraged to depend on the favour as well as on the justice47 of their sovereign47, who had imbibed a secret47 and sincere reverence for the name of Christ and for the God of the Christians.
About five months after the conquest of Italy, the emperor made a solemn and authentic declaration of his sentiments, by the celebrated edict of Milan, which restored peace to the Catholic church8. In the personal interview of the two Western princes, Constantine8, by the ascendant of genius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his colleague Licinius; the union of their names and authority disarmed the fury of Maximin; and, after the death8 of the tyrant of the East, the edict of Milan was received as a general and fundamental law of the Roman world8. The wisdom of the emperors provided for the restitution of all the civil and religious8 rights of which the Christians8 had been so unjustly deprived. It was enacted that the places of worship8, and public8 lands, which had been confiscated, should be restored to the church8, without dispute, without delay, and without expense: and this severe injunction was accompanied with a gracious promise that, if any of the purchasers had paid a fair and adequate price, they should be indemnified from the Imperial treasury. The salutary regulations which guard the future tranquillity of the faithful are framed on the principles of enlarged and equal toleration; and such an equality must have been interpreted by a recent sect as an advantageous and honourable distinction. The two emperors proclaim to the world8 that they have granted a free and absolute power to the Christians8, and to all others, of following the religion8 which each individual thinks proper to prefer, to which he has addicted his mind8, and which he may deem the best adapted to his own use8. They carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove every exception, and exact from the governors of the provinces a strict obedience to the true and simple meaning of an edict which was designed to establish and secure, without any limitation, the claims of religious8 liberty. They condescend to assign two weighty reasons which have induced them to allow this universal toleration: the humane intention of consulting the peace and happiness8 of their people; and the pious hope that, by such a conduct, they shall appease and propitiate the Deity8, whose seat is in heaven. They gratefully acknowledge the many signal proofs which they have received of the divine8 favour; and they trust that the same Providence will for ever continue to protect the prosperity of the prince and people. From these vague and indefinite expressions of piety, three suppositions may be deduced, of a different, but not of an incompatible, nature8. The mind8 of Constantine8 might fluctuate between the Pagan8 and the Christian8 religions. According to the loose and complying notions of Polytheism, he might acknowledge the God8 of the Christians8 as one of the many deities who composed the hierarchy of heaven. Or perhaps he might embrace the philosophic and pleasing idea that, notwithstanding the variety of names, of rites, and of opinions, all the sects and all the nations of mankind8 are united in the worship8 of the common Father and Creator of the universe.
But the counsels of princes are more frequently influenced by views of temporal advantage than by considerations of abstract and speculative truth8. The partial and increasing favour of Constantine8 may naturally be referred to the esteem which he entertained for the moral character8 of the Christians8; and to a persuasion that the propagation of the gospel would inculcate the practice8 of private8 and public8 virtue8. Whatever latitude an absolute monarch may assume in his own conduct, whatever indulgence he may claim for his own passions8, it is undoubtedly his interest that all his subjects8 should respect the natural and civil obligations of society8. But the operation of the wisest laws8 is imperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue8, they cannot always restrain vice. Their power is insufficient to prohibit all that they condemn, nor can they always punish the actions which they prohibit. The legislators of antiquity had summoned to their aid the powers of education and of opinion. But every principle which had once maintained the vigour and purity of Rome and Sparta was long since extinguished in a declining and despotic empire8. Philosophy still exercised her temperate sway over the human8 mind8, but the cause of virtue8 derived very feeble support from the influence of the Pagan8 superstition8. Under these discouraging circumstances, a prudent magistrate might observe with pleasure the progress of a religion8, which diffused among the people a pure, benevolent, and universal system of ethics, adapted to every duty and every condition of life8; recommended as the will and reason8 of the Supreme Deity8, and enforced by the sanction of eternal rewards or punishments. The experience of Greek and Roman history could not inform the world8 how far the system of national manners might be reformed and improved by the precepts of a divine8 revelation; and Constantine8 might listen with some confidence to the flattering, and indeed reasonable, assurances of Lactantius. The eloquent apologist seemed firmly to expect, and almost ventured to promise, that the establishment of Christianity8 would restore the innocence and felicity of the primitive age8; that the worship8 of the true God8 would extinguish war and dissension among those who mutually considered themselves as the children of a common parent; that every impure desire, every angry or selfish passion, would be restrained by the knowledge of the gospel; and that the magistrates might sheathe the sword of justice among a people who would be universally actuated by the sentiments of truth8 and piety, of equity and moderation, of harmony and universal love.
The passive and unresisting obedience which bows under the yoke of authority1, or even of oppression, must have appeared, in the eyes of an absolute monarch, the most conspicuous and useful of the evangelic virtues. The primitive Christians1 derived the institution of civil1 government1, not from the consent of the people1, but from the decrees of heaven. The reigning emperor1, though he had usurped the sceptre by treason and murder, immediately assumed1 the sacred1 character of vicegerent of the Deity. To the Deity alone he was accountable for the abuse of his power1; and his subjects1 were indissolubly bound, by their oath of fidelity, to a tyrant who had violated every law of nature and society. The humble Christians1 were sent into the world as sheep among wolves; and, since they were not permitted to employ force, even in the defence of their religion1, they should be still more criminal if they were tempted to shed the blood of their fellow-creatures in disputing the vain privileges, or the sordid possessions, of this transitory life. Faithful to the doctrine of the apostle who in the reign1 of Nero had preached the duty of unconditional submission, the Christians1 of the three first centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocent of the guilt of secret conspiracy or open rebellion. While they experienced the rigour of persecution, they were never provoked either to meet their tyrants in the field or indignantly to withdraw themselves into some remote and sequestered corner of the globe. The Protestants of France, of Germany, and of Britain, who asserted with such intrepid courage their civil1 and religious freedom1, have been insulted by the invidious comparison between the conduct of the primitive and of the reformed Christians1. Perhaps, instead of censure, some applause may be due to the superior sense and spirit of our ancestors, who had convinced themselves that religion1 cannot abolish the unalienable rights of human nature. Perhaps the patience of the primitive church1 may be ascribed to its weakness, as well as to its virtue. A sect of unwarlike plebeians, without leaders, without arms, without fortifications, must have encountered inevitable destruction in a rash and fruitless resistance to the master of the Roman1 legions. But the Christians1, when they deprecated the wrath of Diocletian, or solicited the favour of Constantine1, could allege, with truth and confidence, that they held the principle of passive obedience, and that, in the space of three centuries, their conduct had always been conformable to their principles. They might add that the throne of the emperors1 would be established on a fixed and permanent basis, if all their subjects1, embracing the Christian1 doctrine, should learn to suffer and to obey.
In the general47 order of Providence, princes and tyrants are considered as the ministers of Heaven, appointed to rule or to chastise the nations of the earth. But sacred history affords many illustrious examples of the more immediate interposition of the Deity in the government47 of his chosen people47. The sceptre and the sword were committed to the hands of Moses, of Joshua, of Gideon, of David, of the Maccabees; the virtues of those heroes were the motive or the effect of the divine favour, the success of their arms47 was destined to achieve the deliverance or the triumph of the church. If the judges of Israel were occasional and temporary magistrates, the kings of Judah derived from the royal unction of their great ancestor an hereditary and indefeasible right, which could not be forfeited by their own vices, nor recalled by the caprice of their subjects. The same extraordinary Providence, which was no longer confined to the Jewish people47, might elect Constantine47 and his family as the protectors of the Christian world; and the devout Lactantius announces, in a prophetic tone, the future glories of his long47 and universal reign47. Galerius and Maximin, Maxentius and Licinius, were the rivals who shared with the favourite of Heaven the provinces47 of the empire47. The tragic deaths of Galerius and Maximin soon47 gratified the resentment, and fulfilled the sanguine expectations, of the Christians. The success of Constantine47 against Maxentius and Licinius removed the two formidable competitors who still opposed the triumph of the second David, and his cause might seem to claim the peculiar interposition of Providence. The character of the Roman47 tyrant47 disgraced the purple and human nature; and, though the Christians might enjoy his precarious favour, they were exposed, with the rest of his subjects, to the effects of his wanton and capricious cruelty. The conduct47 of Licinius soon47 betrayed the reluctance with which he had consented to the wise and humane regulations of the edict of Milan. The convocation of provincial synods was prohibited in his dominions; his Christian officers were ignominiously dismissed; and, if he avoided the guilt, or rather danger47, of a general47 persecution, his partial oppressions were rendered still more odious by the violation of a solemn and voluntary engagement. While the East47, according to the lively expression of Eusebius, was involved in the shades of infernal darkness, the auspicious rays of celestial light warmed and illuminated the provinces47 of the West. The piety of Constantine47 was admitted as an unexceptionable proof of the justice47 of his arms47; and his use of victory confirmed the opinion of the Christians, that their hero was inspired, and conducted by the Lord of Hosts. The conquest of Italy47 produced a general47 edict of toleration: and, as soon47 as the defeat of Licinius had invested Constantine47 with the sole dominion of the Roman47 world, he immediately, by circular letters, exhorted all his subjects to imitate, without delay, the example of their sovereign47, and to embrace the divine truth of Christianity.
The assurance that the elevation of Constantine47 was intimately connected with the designs of Providence instilled into the minds of the Christians two opinions, which, by very different means, assisted the accomplishment of the prophecy. Their warm and active loyalty exhausted in his favour every resource of human industry; and they confidently expected that their strenuous efforts would be seconded by some divine and miraculous aid. The enemies of Constantine47 have imputed to interested motives the alliance which he insensibly contracted with the Catholic church, and which apparently contributed to the success of his ambition. In the beginning of the fourth century, the Christians still bore a very inadequate proportion to the inhabitants of the empire47; but among a degenerate people47, who viewed the change of masters with the indifference of slaves, the spirit47 and union of a religious party might assist the popular leader to whose service, from a principle of conscience, they had devoted their lives and fortunes. The example of his father47 had instructed Constantine47 to esteem and to reward the merit47 of the Christians; and in the distribution of public47 offices, he had the advantage of strengthening his government47, by the choice of ministers or generals in whose fidelity he could repose a just and unreserved confidence. By the influence of these dignified missionaries, the proselytes of the new faith must have multiplied in the court and army47; the Barbarians of Germany, who filled the ranks of the legions, were of a careless temper, which acquiesced without resistance in the religion of their commander; and, when they passed the Alps, it may fairly be presumed that a great number of the soldiers47 had already consecrated their swords to the service of Christ and of Constantine47. The habits of mankind, and the interest of religion, gradually abated the horror of war47 and bloodshed, which had so long47 prevailed among the Christians; and, in the councils which were assembled under the gracious protection of Constantine47, the authority47 of the bishops was seasonably employed to ratify the obligation of the military47 oath, and to inflict the penalty of excommunication on those soldiers47 who threw away their arms47 during the peace of the church. While Constantine47, in his own dominions, increased the number and zeal of his faithful adherents, he could depend on the support of a powerful faction in those provinces47 which were still possessed or usurped by his rivals. A secret47 disaffection was diffused among the Christian subjects of Maxentius and Licinius; and the resentment which the latter did not attempt to conceal served only to engage them still more deeply in the interest of his competitor. The regular correspondence which connected the bishops of the most distant provinces47 enabled them freely to communicate their wishes and their designs, and to transmit without danger47 any useful intelligence, or any pious contributions, which might promote the service of Constantine47, who publicly declared that he had taken up arms47 for the deliverance of the church.
The enthusiasm which inspired the troops26, and perhaps the emperor himself, had sharpened their swords, while it satisfied their conscience. They marched to battle with the full assurance that the same God, who had formerly opened a passage to the Israelites through the waters of Jordan, and had thrown down the walls of Jericho at the sound of the trumpets of Joshua, would display his visible majesty and power in the victory of Constantine. The evidence of ecclesiastical history is prepared26 to affirm that their expectations were justified by the conspicuous miracle to which the conversion of the first Christian emperor has been almost unanimously ascribed. The real or imaginary cause26 of so important26 an event deserves and demands the attention of posterity; and I shall endeavour to form a just estimate of the famous vision of Constantine, by a distinct26 consideration of the standard, the dream, and the celestial sign; by separating the historical, the natural, and the marvellous parts of this extraordinary26 story, which, in the composition of a specious argument, have been artfully confounded in one splendid and brittle mass.
I. An instrument of the tortures which were inflicted only on slaves and strangers became an object of horror in the eyes of a Roman30 citizen; and the ideas of guilt, of pain, and of ignominy were closely united with the idea of the cross. The piety rather than the humanity of Constantine soon30 abolished in his dominions the punishment which the Saviour of mankind had condescended to suffer; but the emperor30 had already learned to despise the prejudices of his education, and of his people30, before he could erect in the midst of Rome his own statue, bearing a cross in its right hand, with an inscription which referred the victory30 of his arms30, and the deliverance of Rome, to the virtue of that salutary sign, the true symbol of force and courage. The same symbol sanctified the arms30 of the soldiers30 of Constantine; the cross glittered on their helmets, was engraved on their shields, was interwoven into their banners; and the consecrated emblems which adorned the person of the emperor30 himself were distinguished only by richer materials and more exquisite workmanship. But the principal standard30 which displayed the triumph of the cross was styled the Labarum, an obscure though celebrated name, which has been vainly derived from almost all the languages of the world. It is described as a long30 pike intersected by a transversal beam. The silken veil which hung down from the beam was curiously enwrought with the images of the reigning monarch and his children. The summit of the pike supported a crown of gold30 which enclosed the mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure of the cross and the initial letters of the name of Christ. The safety of the labarum was entrusted to fifty guards, of approved valour and fidelity; their station was marked by honours and emoluments; and some fortunate accidents soon30 introduced an opinion that, as long30 as the guards of the labarum were engaged in the execution of their office, they were secure and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy30. In the second30 civil war30 Licinius felt and dreaded the power of this consecrated banner, the sight of which, in the distress of battle30, animated the soldiers30 of Constantine with an invincible enthusiasm, and scattered terror and dismay through the ranks of the adverse legions. The Christian emperors, who respected the example of Constantine, displayed in all their military expeditions the standard30 of the cross; but, when the degenerate successors of Theodosius had ceased to appear in person at the head30 of their armies, the labarum was deposited as a venerable but useless relic in the palace30 of Constantinople30. Its honours are still preserved on the medals of the Flavian family. Their grateful devotion has placed the monogram of Christ in the midst of the ensigns of Rome. The solemn epithets of, safety of the republic, glory of the army30, restoration of public happiness, are equally applied to the religious and military trophies; and there is still extant a medal of the emperor30 Constantius, where the standard30 of the labarum is accompanied with these memorable words, By this sign thou shalt conquer.
II. In all occasions of danger or distress, it was the practice of the primitive Christians34 to fortify their minds and bodies by the sign34 of the cross34, which they used, in all their ecclesiastical rites, in all the daily occurrences of life34, as an infallible preservative against every species of spiritual or temporal evil. The authority of the church might alone have had sufficient weight to justify the devotion of Constantine34, who, in the same prudent and gradual progress, acknowledged the truth34, and assumed the symbol, of Christianity. But the testimony of a contemporary writer, who in a former treatise has avenged the cause34 of religion34, bestows on the piety of the emperor34 a more awful and sublime character. He affirms, with the most perfect confidence, that, in the night which preceded the last battle against Maxentius, Constantine34 was admonished in a dream to inscribe the shields of his soldiers34 with the celestial34 sign34 of God, the sacred monogram of the name of Christ; that he executed the commands of heaven; and that his valour and obedience were rewarded by the decisive victory34 of the Milvian Bridge. Some considerations might perhaps incline a sceptical mind34 to suspect the judgment or the veracity of the rhetorician, whose pen, either from zeal or interest, was devoted to the cause34 of the prevailing faction. He appears to have published his deaths of the persecutors at Nicomedia about three years34 after the Roman34 victory34; but the interval of a thousand34 miles, and a thousand34 days34, will allow an ample latitude for the invention of declaimers, the credulity of party, and the tacit approbation of the emperor34 himself; who might listen without indignation to a marvellous tale, which exalted his fame and promoted his designs. In favour of Licinius, who still dissembled his animosity to the Christians34, the same author has provided a similar vision, of a form of prayer, which was communicated by an angel, and repeated by the whole army34 before they engaged the legions of the tyrant Maximin. The frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not subdue, the reason of mankind; but, if the dream of Constantine34 is separately considered, it may be naturally explained either by the policy or the enthusiasm of the emperor34. Whilst his anxiety for the approaching day, which must decide the fate of the empire34, was suspended by a short and interrupted slumber, the venerable form of Christ, and the well-known symbol of his religion34, might forcibly offer themselves to the active fancy of a prince who reverenced the name, and had perhaps secretly implored the power, of the God of the Christians34. As readily might a consummate statesman indulge himself in the use of one of those military34 stratagems, one of those pious frauds, which Philip and Sertorius had employed with such art and effect. The preternatural origin of dreams was universally admitted by the nations of antiquity, and a considerable part of the Gallic army34 was already prepared to place34 their confidence in the salutary sign34 of the Christian34 religion34. The secret vision of Constantine34 could be disproved only by the event34; and the intrepid hero who had passed the Alps and the Apennine might view with careless despair the consequences of a defeat under the walls of Rome. The senate and people, exulting in their own deliverance from an odious tyrant, acknowledged that the victory34 of Constantine34 surpassed the powers of man, without daring to insinuate that it had been obtained by the protection of the Gods. The triumphal arch which was erected about three years34 after the event34 proclaims, in ambiguous language, that, by the greatness of his own mind34 and by an instinct or impulse of the Divinity, he had saved and avenged the Roman34 republic. The Pagan orator, who had seized an earlier opportunity of celebrating the virtues of the conqueror, supposes that he alone enjoyed a secret and intimate commerce with the Supreme Being, who delegated the care of mortals to his subordinate deities; and thus assigns a very plausible reason why the subjects of Constantine34 should not presume to embrace the new religion34 of their sovereign34.
III. The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude that, if the eyes34 of the spectators have sometimes been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction. Every event34, or appearance, or accident, which seems to deviate from the ordinary course of nature, has been rashly ascribed to the immediate action of the Deity; and the astonished fancy of the multitude has sometimes given shape and colour, language and motion, to the fleeting but uncommon meteors of the air. Nazarius and Eusebius are the two most celebrated orators who, in studied panegyrics, have laboured to exalt the glory of Constantine34. Nine years34 after the Roman34 victory34, Nazarius describes an army34 of divine warriors, who seemed to fall from the sky: he marks their beauty, their spirit, their gigantic forms, the stream of light which beamed from their celestial34 armour, their patience in suffering themselves to be heard, as well as seen, by mortals; and their declaration that they were sent, that they flew, to the assistance of the great Constantine34. For the truth34 of this prodigy, the Pagan orator appeals to the whole Gallic nation, in whose presence he was then speaking; and seems to hope that the ancient apparitions would now obtain credit from this recent and public event34. The Christian34 fable of Eusebius, which in the space of twenty-six years34 might arise from the original dream, is cast in a much more correct and elegant mould. In one of the marches of Constantine34, he is reported to have seen with his own eyes34 the luminous trophy of the cross34, placed above the meridian sun, and inscribed with the following words: By this conquer. This amazing object in the sky astonished the whole army34, as well as the emperor34 himself, who was yet undetermined in the choice of a religion34; but his astonishment was converted into faith by the vision of the ensuing night. Christ appeared before his eyes34; and, displaying the same celestial34 sign34 of the cross34, he directed Constantine34 to frame a similar standard, and to march, with an assurance of victory34, against Maxentius and all his enemies. The learned bishop of Caesarea appears to be sensible that the recent discovery of this marvellous anecdote would excite some surprise and distrust among the most pious of his readers. Yet instead34 of ascertaining the precise circumstances of time and place34, which always serve to detect falsehood or establish truth34; instead34 of collecting and recording the evidence of so many living witnesses, who must have been spectators of this stupendous miracle; Eusebius contents himself with alleging a very singular testimony; that of the deceased Constantine34, who, many years34 after the event34, in the freedom34 of conversation, had related to him this extraordinary incident of his own life34, and had attested the truth34 of it by a solemn oath. The prudence and gratitude of the learned prelate forbade him to suspect the veracity of his victorious master; but he plainly intimates that, in a fact of such a nature, he should have refused his assent to any meaner authority. This motive of credibility could not survive the power of the Flavian family; and the celestial34 sign34, which the Infidels might afterwards deride, was disregarded by the Christians34 of the age34 which immediately followed the conversion of Constantine34. But the Catholic church, both of the East and of the West, has adopted a prodigy, which favours, or seems to favour, the popular worship of the cross34. The vision of Constantine34 maintained an honourable place34 in the legend of superstition, till the bold and sagacious spirit of criticism presumed to depreciate the triumph, and to arraign the truth34, of the first Christian34 emperor34.
The protestant and philosophic readers of the present age8 will incline to believe that, in the account of his own conversion, Constantine8 attested a wilful falsehood by a solemn and deliberate perjury. They may not hesitate to pronounce that, in the choice of a religion8, his mind8 was determined only by a sense of interest; and that (according to the expression of a profane poet) he used the altars of the church8 as a convenient footstool to the throne of the empire8. A conclusion so harsh and so absolute is not, however, warranted by our knowledge of human8 nature8, of Constantine8, or of Christianity8. In an age8 of religious8 fervour, the most artful statesmen are observed to feel some part of the enthusiasm which they inspire; and the most orthodox saints assume the dangerous privilege of defending the cause of truth8 by the arms of deceit and falsehood. Personal interest is often the standard of our belief, as well as of our practice8; and the same motives of temporal advatage which might influence the public8 conduct and professions of Constantine8 would insensibly dispose his mind8 to embrace a religion8 so propitious to his fame and fortunes. His vanity was gratified by the flattering assurance that he had been chosen by Heaven to reign8 over the earth; success had justified his divine8 title to the throne, and that title was founded on the truth8 of the Christian8 revelation. As real virtue8 is sometimes excited by undeserved applause, the specious piety of Constantine8, if at first it was only specious, might gradually, by the influence of praise, of habit, and of example, be matured into serious faith8 and fervent devotion8. The bishops and teachers of the new sect, whose dress and manners had not qualified them for the residence of a court, were admitted to the Imperial table; they accompanied the monarch in his expeditions; and the ascendant which one of them, an Egyptian or a Spaniard, acquired over his mind8 was imputed by the Pagans8 to the effect of magic. Lactantius, who has adorned the precepts of the gospel with the eloquence of Cicero, and Eusebius, who has consecrated the learning and philosophy of the Greeks to the service of religion8, were both received into the friendship and familiarity of their sovereign: and those able masters of controversy could patiently watch the soft and yielding moments of persuasion, and dexterously apply the arguments which were the best adapted to his character8 and understanding. Whatever advantages might be derived from the acquisition of an Imperial proselyte, he was distinguished by the splendour of his purple, rather than by the superiority of wisdom or virtue8, from the many thousands of his subjects8 who had embraced the doctrines of Christianity8. Nor can it be deemed incredible that the mind8 of an unlettered soldier should have yielded to the weight of evidence, which, in a more enlightened age8, has satisfied or subdued the reason8 of a Grotius, a Pascal, or a Locke. In the midst of the incessant labours of his great office, this soldier employed, or affected to employ, the hours of the night in the diligent study of the Scriptures and the composition of theological discourses; which he afterwards pronounced in the presence of a numerous and applauding audience. In a very long discourse, which is still extant, the royal preacher expatiates on the various8 proofs of religion8; but he dwells with peculiar complacency on the Sibylline verses, and the fourth eclogue of Virgil. Forty years before the birth of Christ, the Mantuan bard, as if inspired by the celestial muse of Isaiah, had celebrated, with all the pomp of oriental metaphor, the return of the Virgin, the fall of the serpent, the approaching birth of a god8-like child, the offspring of the great Jupiter, who should expiate the guilt of human8 kind, and govern the peaceful universe with the virtues of his father; the rise and appearance of an heavenly race, a primitive nation throughout the world8: and the gradual restoration of the innocence and felicity of the golden age8. The poet was perhaps unconscious of the secret sense and object of these sublime predictions, which have been so unworthily applied to the infant son of a consul or a triumvir: but, if a more splendid, and indeed specious, interpretation of the fourth eclogue contributed to the conversion of the first Christian8 emperor, Virgil may deserve to be ranked among the most successful missionaries of the gospel.
The awful mysteries of the Christian8 faith8 and worship8 were concealed from the eyes of strangers, and even of catechumens, with an affected secrecy, which served to excite their wonder and curiosity. But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour of an Imperial proselyte, whom it was so important to allure, by every gentle condescension, into the pale of the church8; and Constantine8 was permitted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy most of the privileges, before he had contracted any of the obligations, of a Christian8. Instead of retiring from the congregation when the voice of the deacon dismissed the profane multitude, he prayed with the faithful, disputed with the bishops, preached on the most sublime and intricate subjects8 of theology, celebrated with sacred8 rites the vigil of Easter, and publicly declared himself, not only a partaker, but in some measure a priest and hierophant, of the Christian8 mysteries. The pride of Constantine8 might assume, and his services had deserved, some extraordinary distinction: an ill-timed rigour might have blasted the unripened fruits of his conversion; and, if the doors of the church8 had been strictly closed against a prince who had deserted the altars of the gods8, the master of the empire8 would have been left destitute of any form of religious8 worship8. In his last visit to Rome, he piously disclaimed and insulted the superstition8 of his ancestors by refusing to lead the military procession of the equestrian order and to offer the public8 vows to the Jupiter of the Capitoline Hill. Many years before his baptism and death8, Constantine8 had proclaimed to the world8 that neither his person nor his image should ever more be seen within the walls of an idolatrous temple8; while he distributed through the provinces a variety of medals and pictures, which represented the emperor in an humble and suppliant posture of Christian8 devotion8.
The pride of Constantine28, who refused the privileges of a catechumen, cannot easily be explained or excused; but the delay of his baptism may be justified by the maxims and the practice of ecclesiastical antiquity. The sacrament of baptism was regularly administered by the bishop himself, with his assistant clergy, in the cathedral church of the diocese, during the fifty days between the solemn festivals of Easter and Pentecost; and this holy term admitted a numerous band of infants and adult persons into the bosom of the church. The discretion of parents often suspended the baptism of their children till they could understand the obligations which they contracted; the severity of ancient28 bishops exacted from the new28 converts a noviciate of two or three years28; and the catechumens themselves, from different28 motives of a temporal or a spiritual nature28, were seldom impatient to assume the character of perfect and initiated Christians. The sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and the soul was instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of eternal salvation. Among the proselytes of Christianity, there were many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not be repeated; to throw away an inestimable privilege, which could never be recovered. By the delay of their baptism, they could venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyments of this world, while they still retained in their own hands the means of a sure and easy absolution. The sublime theory of the gospel had made a much fainter impression on the heart than on the understanding of Constantine28 himself. He pursued the great28 object of his ambition through the dark and bloody paths of war28 and policy; and, after the victory, he abandoned28 himself, without moderation, to the abuse of his fortune. Instead of asserting his just superiority above the imperfect heroism and profane philosophy of Trajan and the Antonines, the mature age28 of Constantine28 forfeited the reputation which he had acquired in his youth. As he gradually advanced in the knowledge of truth, he proportionably declined in the practice of virtue; and the same year of his reign28 in which he convened the council of Nice was polluted by the execution, or rather murder, of his eldest son. This date is alone sufficient28 to refute the ignorant and malicious suggestions of Zosimus, who affirms that, after the death of Crispus, the remorse of his father accepted from the ministers of Christianity the expiation which he had vainly solicited from the Pagan Pontiffs. At the time28 of the death of Crispus, the emperor could no longer hesitate in the choice of a religion28; he could no longer be ignorant that the church was possessed of an infallible remedy, though he chose to defer the application of it, till the approach of death had removed the temptation and danger of a relapse. The bishops, whom he summoned in his last illness to the palace of Nicomedia, were edified by the fervour with which he requested and received the sacrament of baptism, by the solemn protestation that the remainder of his life should be worthy of a disciple of Christ, and by his humble refusal to wear the Imperial purple after he had been clothed in the white garment of a neophyte. The example and reputation of Constantine28 seemed to countenance the delay of baptism. Future tyrants were encouraged to believe that the innocent blood which they might shed in a long28 reign28 would instantly be washed away in the waters of regeneration; and the abuse of religion28 dangerously undermined the foundations of moral virtue.
The gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues and excused the failings of a generous patron, who seated Christianity on the throne3 of the Roman3 world; and the Greeks, who celebrate the festival of the Imperial saint, seldom mention the name of Constantine without adding the title of equal to the Apostles. Such a comparison, if it allude to the character of those divine missionaries, must be imputed to the extravagance of impious flattery. But, if the parallel is confined to the extent and number of their evangelic victories, the success of Constantine might perhaps equal that of the Apostles themselves. By the edicts of toleration he removed the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity; and its active and numerous ministers received a free permission, a liberal encouragement, to recommend the salutary truths of revelation by every argument which could affect the reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the two religions continued but a moment; and the piercing eye of ambition and avarice soon3 discovered that the profession of Christianity might contribute to the interest of the present, as well as of a future, life. The hopes of wealth and honours, the example of an emperor3, his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among the venal and obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a palace. The cities which signalised a forward zeal by the voluntary destruction of their temples were distinguished by municipal privileges, and rewarded with popular donatives; and the new capital of the East3 gloried in the singular advantage that Constantinople was never profaned by the worship of idols. As the lower ranks of society are governed by imitation, the conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was soon3 followed by dependent multitudes. The salvation of the common people was purchased at an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year, twelve thousand3 men were baptized at Rome, besides a proportionable number of women and children; and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been promised by the emperor3 to every convert. The powerful influence of Constantine was not circumscribed by the narrow limits of his life, or of his dominions. The education which he bestowed on his sons and nephews secured to the empire3 a race of princes whose faith was still more lively and sincere, as they imbibed, in their earliest infancy, the spirit, or at least the doctrine, of Christianity. War3 and commerce had spread the knowledge of the gospel beyond the confines of the Roman3 provinces3; and the Barbarians3, who had disdained an humble and proscribed sect, soon3 learned to esteem a religion which had been so lately embraced by the greatest monarch3 and the most civilised nation of the globe. The Goths and Germans who enlisted under the standard of Rome revered the cross which glittered at the head3 of the legions, and their fierce countrymen received at the same time the lessons of faith and of humanity. The kings of Iberia and Armenia3 worshipped the God of their protector; and their subjects, who have invariably preserved the name of Christians, soon3 formed a sacred and perpetual connection with their Roman3 brethren. The Christians of Persia3 were suspected, in time of war3, of preferring their religion to their country; but, as long3 as peace3 subsisted between the two empires, the persecuting spirit of the Magi was effectually restrained by the interposition of Constantine. The rays of the gospel illuminated the coast of India. The colonies of Jews, who had penetrated into Arabia and Aethiopia, opposed the progress of Christianity; but the labour of the missionaries was in some measure facilitated by a previous knowledge of the Mosaic revelation; and Abyssinia still reveres the memory of Frumentius, who, in the time of Constantine, devoted his life to the conversion of those sequestered regions. Under the reign3 of his son3 Constantius3, Theophilus, who was himself of Indian extraction, was invested with the double character of ambassador and bishop. He embarked on the Red Sea with two hundred horses of the purest breed of Cappadocia, which were sent by the emperor3 to the prince3 of the Sabaeans, or Homerites. Theophilus was entrusted with many other useful or curious presents, which might raise the admiration and conciliate the friendship3 of the Barbarians3; and he successfully employed several years3 in a pastoral visit to the churches of the torrid zone.
The irresistible power1 of the Roman1 emperors1 was displayed in the important and dangerous change of the national religion1. The terrors of a military force silenced the faint and unsupported murmurs of the Pagans, and there was reason to expect that the cheerful submission of the Christian1 clergy1, as well as people1, would be the result of conscience and gratitude. It was long1 since established, as a fundamental maxim of the Roman1 constitution, that every rank of citizens were alike subject to the laws1, and that the care of religion1 was the right as well as duty of the civil1 magistrate1. Constantine1 and his successors1 could not easily persuade themselves that they had forfeited, by their conversion, any branch of the Imperial prerogatives, or that they were incapable of giving laws1 to a religion1 which they had protected and embraced. The emperors1 still continued to exercise a supreme jurisdiction1 over the ecclesiastical1 order1; and the sixteenth book of the Theodosian Code represents, under a variety of titles, the authority1 which they assumed1 in the government1 of the Catholic church1.
But the distinction of the spiritual and temporal powers, which had never been imposed on the free spirit of Greece and Rome1, was introduced and confirmed by the legal establishment of Christianity. The office1 of supreme pontiff, which, from the time of Numa to that of Augustus, had always been exercised by one of the most eminent of the senators, was at length united to the Imperial dignity. The first magistrate1 of the state1, as often as he was prompted by superstition or policy1, performed with his own hands the sacerdotal functions; nor was there any order1 of priests, either at Rome1 or in the provinces1, who claimed a more sacred1 character among men, or a more intimate communication with the Gods. But in the Christian1 church1, which entrusts the service of the altar to a perpetual succession of consecrated ministers, the monarch, whose spiritual rank is less honourable than that of the meanest deacon, was seated below the rails of the sanctuary, and confounded with the rest of the faithful multitude. The emperor1 might be saluted as the father of his people1, but he owed a filial duty and reverence to the fathers of the church1; and the same marks of respect which Constantine1 had paid to the persons of saints and confessors were soon exacted by the pride of the episcopal order1. A secret conflict between the civil1 and ecclesiastical1 jurisdictions embarrassed the operations of the Roman1 government1; and a pious emperor1 was alarmed by the guilt and danger of touching with a profane hand the ark of the covenant. The separation of men into the two orders of the clergy1 and of the laity was, indeed, familiar to many nations of antiquity; and the priests of India, of Persia, of Assyria, of Judea, of Aethiopia, of Egypt, and of Gaul derived from a celestial origin the temporal power1 and possessions which they had acquired. These venerable institutions had gradually assimilated themselves to the manners and government1 of their respective countries; but the opposition or contempt of the civil1 power1 served to cement the discipline of the primitive church1. The Christians1 had been obliged to elect their own magistrates1, to raise and distribute a peculiar revenue, and to regulate the internal policy1 of their republic1 by a code of laws1, which were ratified by the consent of the people1 and the practice of three hundred years1. When Constantine1 embraced the faith of the Christians1, he seemed to contract a perpetual alliance with a distinct and independent society; and the privileges granted or confirmed by that emperor1, or by his successors1, were accepted, not as the precarious favours of the court, but as the just and unalienable rights of the ecclesiastical1 order1.
The Catholic church1 was administered by the spiritual and legal jurisdiction1 of eighteen hundred bishops1; of whom one thousand were seated in the Greek, and eight hundred in the Latin, provinces1 of the empire1. The extend and boundaries of their respective dioceses had been variously and accidentally decided by the zeal and success of the first missionaries, by the wishes of the people1, and by the propagation of the gospel. Episcopal churches were closely planted along the banks of the Nile, on the sea-coast of Africa, in the proconsular Asia, and through the southern provinces1 of Italy1. The bishops1 of Gaul and Spain, of Thrace and Pontus, reigned over an ample territory, and delegated their rural suffragans to execute the subordinate duties of the pastoral office1. A Christian1 diocese might be spread over a province or reduced to a village; but all the bishops1 possessed an equal and indelible character: they all derived the same powers and privileges from the apostles, from the people1, and from the laws1. While the civil1 and military professions were separated by the policy1 of Constantine1, a new1 and perpetual order1 of ecclesiastical1 ministers, always respectable, sometimes dangerous, was established in the church1 and state1. The important review of their station and attributes may be distributed under the following heads: I. Popular election. II. Ordination of the clergy1. III. Property. IV. Civil1 jurisdiction1. V. Spiritual censures. VI. Exercise of public1 oratory. VII. Privilege of legislative assemblies.
I. The freedom1 of elections subsisted long1 after the legal establishment of Christianity; and the subjects1 of Rome1 enjoyed in the church1 the privilege which they had lost in the republic1, of choosing the magistrates1 whom they were bound to obey. As soon as a bishop1 had closed his eyes, the metropolitan issued a commission to one of his suffragans to administer the vacant see, and prepare, within a limited time, the future election. The right of voting was vested in the inferior clergy1, who were best qualified to judge of the merit of the candidates; in the senators or nobles of the city1, all those who were distinguished by their rank or property; and finally in the whole body of the people1, who, on the appointed day, flocked in multitudes from the most remote parts of the diocese, and sometimes silenced, by their tumultuous acclamations, the voice of reason and the laws1 of discipline. These acclamations might accidentally fix on the head of the most deserving competitor; of some ancient1 presbyter, some holy monk, or some layman, conspicuous for his zeal and piety. But the episcopal chair was solicited, especially in the great and opulent cities of the empire1, as a temporal rather than as a spiritual dignity. The interested views, the selfish and angry passions, the arts of perfidy and dissimulation, the secret corruption, the open and even bloody violence, which had formerly disgraced the freedom1 of election in the commonwealths of Greece and Rome1, too often influenced the choice of the successors1 of the apostles. While one of the candidates boasted the honours1 of his family, a second allured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table, and a third, more guilty than his rivals, offered to share the plunder of the church1 among the accomplices of his sacrilegious hopes. The civil1 as well as ecclesiastical1 laws1 attempted to exclude the populace from this solemn and important transaction. The canons of ancient1 discipline, by requiring several episcopal qualifications of age, station, &c., restrained in some measure the indiscriminate caprice of the electors. The authority1 of the provincial bishops1, who were assembled in the vacant church1 to consecrate the choice of the people1, was interposed to moderate their passions and to correct their mistakes. The bishops1 could refuse to ordain an unworthy candidate, and the rage of contending factions sometimes accepted their impartial mediation. The submission, or the resistance, of the clergy1 and people1, on various occasions, afforded different precedents, which were insensibly converted into positive laws1 and provincial customs: but it was everywhere admitted, as a fundamental maxim of religious policy1, that no bishop1 could be imposed on an orthodox church1 without the consent of its members. The emperors1, as the guardians of the public1 peace1, and as the first citizens of Rome1 and Constantinople, might effectually declare their wishes in the choice of a primate: but those absolute monarchs respected the freedom1 of ecclesiastical1 elections; and, while they distributed and resumed the honours1 of the state1 and army, they allowed eighteen hundred perpetual magistrates1 to receive their important offices from the free suffrages of the people1. It was agreeable to the dictates of justice1, that these magistrates1 should not desert an honourable station from which they could not be removed; but the wisdom of councils endeavoured, without much success, to enforce the residence, and to prevent the translation, of bishops1. The discipline of the West was indeed less relaxed than that of the East; but the same passions which made those regulations necessary rendered them ineffectual. The reproaches which angry prelates have so vehemently urged against each other serve only to expose their common guilt and their mutual indiscretion.
II. The bishops1 alone possessed the faculty of spiritual generation; and this extraordinary privilege might compensate, in some degree, for the painful celibacy which was imposed as a virtue, as a duty, and at length as a positive obligation. The religions of antiquity, which established a separate order1 of priests, dedicated a holy race, a tribe or family, to the perpetual service of the Gods. Such institutions were founded for possession rather than conquest. The children of the priests enjoyed, with proud and indolent security, their sacred1 inheritance; and the fiery spirit of enthusiasm was abated by the cares, the pleasures, and the endearments of domestic life. But the Christian1 sanctuary was open to every ambitious candidate who aspired to its heavenly promises or temporal possessions. The office1 of priests, like that of soldiers or magistrates1, was strenuously exercised by those men whose temper and abilities had prompted them to embrace the ecclesiastical1 profession, or who had been selected by a discerning bishop1 as the best qualified to promote the glory and interest of the church1. The bishops1 (till the abuse was restrained by the prudence of the laws1) might constrain the reluctant, and protect the distressed; and the imposition of hands for ever bestowed some of the most valuable privileges of civil1 society. The whole body of the Catholic clergy1, more numerous perhaps than the legions, was exempted by the emperors1 from all service, private or public1, all municipal offices, and all personal taxes and contributions which pressed on their fellow-citizens with intolerable weight; and the duties of their holy profession were accepted as a full discharge of their obligations to the republic1. Each bishop1 acquired an absolute and indefeasible right to the perpetual obedience of the clerk whom he ordained: the clergy1 of each episcopal church1, with its dependent parishes, formed a regular and permanent society; and the cathedrals of Constantinople and Carthage maintained their peculiar establishment of five hundred ecclesiastical1 ministers. Their ranks and numbers were insensibly multiplied by the superstition of the times, which introduced into the church1 the splendid ceremonies of a Jewish or Pagan temple; and a long1 train of priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers, singers, and door-keepers contributed, in their respective stations, to swell the pomp and harmony of religious worship. The clerical name and privilege were extended to many pious fraternities, who devoutly supported the ecclesiastical1 throne. Six hundred parabolani, or adventurers, visited the sick at Alexandria; eleven hundred copiatae, or gravediggers, buried the dead at Constantinople; and the swarms of monks, who arose from the Nile, overspread and darkened the face of the Christian1 world.
III. The edict of Milan secured the revenue as well as the peace of the church. The Christians not only recovered the lands and houses of which they had been stripped by the persecuting laws of Diocletian, but they acquired a perfect title to all the possessions which they had hitherto enjoyed by the connivance of the magistrate. As soon30 as Christianity became the religion of the emperor30 and the empire30, the national clergy might claim a decent and honourable maintenance: and the payment of an annual tax might have delivered the people30 from the more oppressive tribute which superstition imposes on her votaries. But, as the wants and expenses of the church increased with her prosperity, the ecclesiastical order was still supported and enriched by the voluntary oblations of the faithful. Eight years30 after the edict of Milan, Constantine granted to all his subjects the free and universal permission of bequeathing their fortunes to the holy30 Catholic church; and their devout liberality, which during their lives was checked by luxury or avarice, flowed with a profuse stream at the hour of their death30. The wealthy Christians were encouraged by the example of their sovereign. An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase the favour of Heaven, if he maintained the idle at the expense of the industrious, and distributed among the saints the wealth of the republic. The same messenger who carried over to Africa the head30 of Maxentius might be entrusted with an epistle to Caecilian, bishop of Carthage. The emperor30 acquaints him that the treasurers of the province are directed to pay into his hands the sum of three thousand30 folles, or eighteen thousand30 pounds sterling, and to obey his farther requisitions for the relief of the churches of Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania. The liberality of Constantine increased in a just proportion to his faith, and to his vices. He assigned in each city30 a regular allowance of corn, to supply the fund of ecclesiastical charity; and the persons of both sexes who embraced the monastic life became the peculiar favourites of their sovereign. The Christian temples of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Constantinople30, &c., displayed the ostentatious piety of a prince30 ambitious, in a declining age, to equal the perfect labours of antiquity. The form of these religious edifices was simple and oblong; though they might sometimes swell into the shape of a dome, and sometimes branch into the figure of a cross. The timbers were framed for the most part of cedars of Libanus; the roof was covered with tiles, perhaps of gilt brass; and the walls30, the columns, the pavement, were incrusted with variegated marbles. The most precious ornaments of gold30 and silver, of silk and gems, were profusely dedicated to the service30 of the altar; and this specious magnificence was supported on the solid and perpetual basis of landed property. In the space of two centuries, from the reign of Constantine to that of Justinian30, the eighteen hundred churches of the empire30 were enriched by the frequent and unalienable gifts of the prince30 and people30. An annual income of six hundred pounds sterling may be reasonably assigned to the bishops, who were placed at an equal distance between riches and poverty, but the standard30 of their wealth insensibly rose with the dignity and opulence of the cities which they governed. An authentic but imperfect rent roll specifies some houses, shops, gardens, and farms, which belonged to the three Basilicae of Rome, St30. Peter, St30. Paul, and St30. John Lateran, in the provinces of Italy, Africa, and the East. They produce, besides a reserved rent of oil, of linen, paper, aromatics, &c., a clear annual revenue of twenty-two thousand30 pieces of gold30, or twelve thousand30 pounds sterling. In the age of Constantine and Justinian30, the bishops no longer possessed, perhaps they no longer deserved, the unsuspecting confidence of their clergy and people30. The ecclesiastical revenues of each diocese were divided into four parts: for the respective uses of the bishop himself, of his inferior clergy, of the poor, and of the public worship; and the abuse of this sacred trust was strictly and repeatedly checked. The patrimony of the church was still subject to all the public impositions of the state. The clergy of Rome, Alexandria, Thessalonica, &c., might solicit and obtain some partial exemptions; but the premature attempt of the great council of Rimini, which aspired to universal freedom, was successfully resisted by the son30 of Constantine.
IV. The Latin clergy1, who erected their tribunal on the ruins of the civil1 and common law, have modestly accepted as the gift of Constantine1 the independent jurisdiction1 which was the fruit of time, of accident, and of their own industry. But the liberality of the Christian1 emperors1 had actually endowed them with some legal prerogatives, which secured and dignified the sacerdotal character. 1. Under a despotic government1, the bishops1 alone enjoyed and asserted the inestimable privilege of being tried only by their peers; and even in a capital accusation, a synod of their brethren were the sole judges of their guilt or innocence. Such a tribunal, unless it was inflamed by personal resentment or religious discord, might be favourable, or even partial, to the sacerdotal order1: but Constantine1 was satisfied that secret impunity would be less pernicious than public1 scandal: and the Nicene council was edified by his public1 declaration that, if he surprised a bishop1 in the act of adultery, he should cast his Imperial mantle over the episcopal sinner. 2. The domestic jurisdiction1 of the bishops1 was at once a privilege and a restraint of the ecclesiastical1 order1, whose civil1 causes were decently withdrawn from the cognizance of a secular judge. Their venial offences were not exposed to the shame of a public1 trial or punishment; and the gentle correction, which the tenderness of youth may endure from its parents or instructors, was inflicted by the temperate severity of the bishops1. But, if the clergy1 were guilty of any crime which could not be sufficiently expiated by their degradation from an honourable and beneficial profession, the Roman1 magistrate1 drew the sword of justice1 without any regard to ecclesiastical1 immunities. 3. The arbitration of the bishops1 was ratified by a positive law; and the judges were instructed to execute, without appeal or delay, the episcopal decrees, whose validity had hitherto depended on the consent of the parties. The conversion of the magistrates1 themselves, and of the whole empire1, might gradually remove the fears and scruples of the Christians1. But they still resorted to the tribunal of the bishops1, whose abilities and integrity they esteemed: and the venerable Austin enjoyed the satisfaction of complaining that his spiritual functions were perpetually interrupted by the invidious labour of deciding the claim or the possession of silver and gold, of lands and cattle. 4. The ancient1 privilege of sanctuary was transferred to the Christian1 temples, and extended, by the liberal piety of the younger Theodosius, to the precincts of consecrated ground. The fugitive, and even guilty, suppliants were permitted to implore either the justice1 or the mercy of the Deity and his ministers. The rash violence of despotism was suspended by the mild interposition of the church1; and the lives or fortunes of the most eminent subjects1 might be protected by the mediation of the bishop1.
V. The bishop was the perpetual censor of the morals of his people47. The discipline of penance was digested into a system of canonical jurisprudence, which accurately defined the duty of private47 or public47 confession, the rules of evidence, the degrees of guilt, and the measure of punishment. It was impossible to execute this spiritual censure, if the Christian pontiff, who punished the obscure sins of the multitude, respected the conspicuous vices and destructive crimes of the magistrate; but it was impossible to arraign the conduct47 of the magistrate without controlling the administration of civil47 government47. Some considerations of religion, or loyalty, or fear, protected the sacred persons of the emperors from the zeal or resentment of the bishops; but they boldly censured and excommunicated the subordinate tyrants who were not invested with the majesty of the purple. St. Athanasius excommunicated one of the ministers of Egypt; and the interdict which he pronounced, of fire and water, was solemnly transmitted to the churches of Cappadocia. Under the reign47 of the younger Theodosius47, the polite and eloquent Synesius, one of the descendants of Hercules, filled the episcopal seat of Ptolemais, near the ruins of ancient Cyrene, and the philosophic bishop supported, with dignity, the character which he had assumed with reluctance. He vanquished the monster of Libya, the president Andronicus, who abused the authority47 of a venal office, invented new modes of rapine and torture, and aggravated the guilt of oppression by that of sacrilege. After a fruitless attempt to reclaim the haughty magistrate by mild and religious admonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict the last sentence of ecclesiastical justice47, which devotes Andronicus, with his associates and their families, to the abhorrence of earth and heaven. The impenitent sinners, more cruel than Phalaris or Sennacherib, more destructive than war47, pestilence, or a cloud of locusts, are deprived of the name and privileges of Christians, of the participation of the sacraments, and of the hope of Paradise. The bishop exhorts the clergy, the magistrates, and the people47 to renounce all society with the enemies of Christ; to exclude them from their houses and tables; and to refuse them the common offices of life47 and the decent rites of burial. The church of Ptolemais, obscure and contemptible as she may appear, addresses this declaration to all her sister churches of the world; and the profane who reject her decrees will be involved in the guilt and punishment of Andronicus and his impious followers. These spiritual terrors were enforced by a dexterous application to the Byzantine court; the trembling president implored the mercy of the church; and the descendant of Hercules enjoyed the satisfaction of raising a prostrate tyrant47 from the ground. Such principles and such examples insensibly prepared the triumph of the Roman47 pontiffs, who have trampled on the necks of kings.
VI. Every popular government has experienced the effects of rude or artificial eloquence25. The coldest nature25 is animated, the firmest reason is moved, by the rapid25 communication of the prevailing impulse; and each hearer is affected by his own passions25, and by those of the surrounding multitude. The ruin of civil25 liberty had silenced the demagogues of Athens and the tribunes of Rome; the custom of preaching, which seems to constitute a considerable part of Christian devotion, had not been introduced into the temples of antiquity; and the ears of monarchs were never invaded by the harsh sound of popular eloquence25, till the pulpits of the empire25 were filled with sacred orators who possessed some advantages unknown to their profane25 predecessors. The arguments and rhetoric of the tribune were instantly opposed, with equal25 arms25, by skilful and resolute antagonists; and the cause of truth and reason might derive an accidental support from the conflict of hostile passions25. The bishop, or some distinguished presbyter, to whom he cautiously delegated the powers of preaching, harangued, without the danger of interruption or reply, a submissive multitude, whose minds had been prepared and subdued by the awful ceremonies of religion. Such was the strict subordination of the Catholic church25 that the same concerted sounds might issue at once from an hundred pulpits of Italy25 or Egypt, if they were tuned by the master hand of the Roman25 or Alexandrian primate. The design of this institution was laudable, but the fruits were not always salutary. The preachers recommended the practice of the social duties; but they exalted the perfection of monastic virtue25, which is painful to the individual and useless to mankind. Their charitable exhortations betrayed a secret wish that the clergy might be permitted to manage the wealth of the faithful for the benefit of the poor. The most sublime representations of the attributes and laws of the Deity were sullied by an idle mixture of metaphysical subtleties, puerile rites, and fictitious miracles: and they expatiated, with the most fervent zeal, on the religious merit25 of hating the adversaries, and obeying the ministers, of the church25. When the public peace was distracted by heresy and schism, the sacred orators sounded the trumpet of discord, and perhaps of sedition. The understandings of their congregations were perplexed by mystery, their passions25 were inflamed by invectives: and they rushed from the Christian temples of Antioch or Alexandria, prepared either to suffer or to inflict martyrdom. The corruption of taste and language is strongly marked in the vehement declamations of the Latin bishops; but the compositions of Gregory and Chrysostom have been compared with the most splendid models of Attic, or at least of Asiatic, eloquence25.
VII. The representatives of the Christian republic were regularly assembled in the spring and autumn of each year: and these synods diffused the spirit47 of ecclesiastical discipline and legislation through the hundred and twenty provinces47 of the Roman47 world. The archbishop or metropolitan was empowered, by the laws, to summon the suffragan bishops of his province, to revise their conduct47, to vindicate their rights, to declare their faith, and to examine the merit47 of the candidates who were elected by the clergy and people47 to supply the vacancies of the episcopal college. The primates of Rome47, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and afterwards Constantinople, who exercised a more ample jurisdiction, convened the numerous assembly of their dependent bishops. But the convocation of great and extraordinary synods was the prerogative of the emperor47 alone. Whenever the emergencies of the church required this decisive measure, he despatched a peremptory summons to the bishops, or the deputies of each province, with an order for the use of post-horses, and a competent allowance for the expenses of their journey. At an early period, when Constantine47 was the protector, rather than the proselyte, of Christianity, he referred the African controversy to the council of Arles; in which the bishops of York, of Treves, of Milan, and of Carthage met as friends and brethren, to debate in their native tongue on the common interest of the Latin or Western church. Eleven years afterwards, a more numerous and celebrated assembly was convened at Nice in Bithynia, to extinguish, by their final sentence, the subtle disputes which had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. Three hundred and eighteen bishops obeyed the summons of their indulgent master47; the ecclesiastics, of every rank47 and sect and denomination, have been computed at two thousand and forty-eight persons; the Greeks appeared in person47; and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legates of the Roman47 pontiff. The session, which lasted about two months, was frequently honoured by the presence of the emperor47. Leaving his guards at the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the council) on a low stool in the midst of the hall. Constantine47 listened with patience and spoke with modesty: and, while he influenced the debates, he humbly professed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests and as gods upon earth. Such profound reverence of an absolute monarch towards a feeble and unarmed assembly of his own subjects can only be compared to the respect with which the senate47 had been treated by the Roman47 princes, who adopted the policy of Augustus. Within the space of fifty years, a philosophic spectator of the vicissitude of human affairs might have contemplated Tacitus in the senate47 of Rome47, and Constantine47 in the council of Nice. The fathers of the Capitol and those of the church had alike degenerated from the virtues of their founders; but, as the bishops were more deeply rooted in the public47 opinion, they sustained their dignity with more decent pride, and sometimes opposed, with a manly spirit47, the wishes of their sovereign47. The progress of time and superstition erased the memory of the weakness, the passion, the ignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiastical synods; and the Catholic world has unanimously submitted to the infallible decrees of the general47 councils.
The grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated the memory of a prince who indulged their passions8 and promoted their interest. Constantine8 gave them security, wealth, honours, and revenge: and the support of the orthodox faith8 was considered as the most sacred8 and important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the Roman world8 the privilege of choosing and professing his own religion8. But this inestimable privilege was soon violated: with the knowledge of truth8, the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented from the Catholic church8 were afflicted and oppressed by the triumph of Christianity8. Constantine8 easily believed that the Heretics, who presumed to dispute his opinions or to oppose his commands, were guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy; and that a seasonable application of moderate severities might save those unhappy men from the danger of an everlasting condemnation. Not a moment was lost in excluding the ministers and teachers of the separated congregations from any share of the rewards and immunities which the emperor had so liberally bestowed on the orthodox clergy. But, as the sectaries might still exist under the cloud of royal disgrace, the conquest of the East was immediately followed by an edict which announced their total destruction. After a preamble filled with passion and reproach, Constantine8 absolutely prohibits the assemblies of the Heretics, and confiscates their public8 property to the use8 either of the revenue or of the Catholic church8. The sects against whom the Imperial severity was directed appear to have been the adherents of Paul of Samosata; the Montanists of Phrygia, who maintained an enthusiastic succession of prophecy; the Novatians, who sternly rejected the temporal efficacy of repentance; the Marcionites and Valentinians, under whose leading banners the various8 Gnostics of Asia and Egypt had insensibly rallied; and perhaps the Manichaeans, who had recently imported from Persia a more artful composition of Oriental and Christian8 theology. The design of extirpating the name, or at least of restraining the progress, of these odious Heretics was prosecuted with vigour and effect. Some of the penal regulations were copied from the edicts of Diocletian; and this method of conversion was applauded by the same bishops who had felt the hand of oppression and had pleaded for the rights of humanity. Two immaterial circumstances may serve, however, to prove that the mind8 of Constantine8 was not entirely corrupted by the spirit of zeal8 and bigotry. Before he condemned the Manichaeans and their kindred sects, he resolved to make an accurate inquiry into the nature8 of their religious8 principles. As if he distrusted the impartiality of his ecclesiastical counsellors, this delicate commission was entrusted to a civil magistrate, whose learning and moderation he justly esteemed, and of whose venal character8 he was probably ignorant. The emperor was soon convinced that he had too hastily proscribed the orthodox faith8 and the exemplary morals of the Novatians, who had dissented from the church8 in some articles of discipline which were not perhaps essential to salvation. By a particular edict, he exempted them from the general penalties of the law; allowed them to build a church8 at Constantinople, respected the miracles of their saints, invited their bishop Acesius to the council of Nice, and gently ridiculed the narrow tenets of his sect by a familiar jest, which, from the mouth of a sovereign, must have been received with applause and gratitude.
The complaints and mutual accusations which assailed the throne47 of Constantine47, as soon47 as the death47 of Maxentius had submitted Africa to his victorious arms47, were ill adapted to edify an imperfect proselyte. He learned with surprise that the provinces47 of that great country, from the confines of Cyrene to the columns of Hercules, were distracted with religious discord. The source of the division was derived from a double election in the church of Carthage; the second, in rank47 and opulence, of the ecclesiastical thrones of the West. Caecilian and Majorinus were the two rival primates of Africa; and the death47 of the latter soon47 made room for Donatus, who, by his superior abilities and apparent virtues, was the firmest support of his party. The advantage which Caecilian might claim from the priority his ordination was destroyed by the illegal, or at least indecent, haste with which it had been performed, without expecting the arrival of the bishops of Numidia. The authority47 of these bishops, who, to the number of seventy, condemned Caecilian and consecrated Majorinus, is again weakened by the infamy of some of their personal characters; and by the female intrigues, sacrilegious bargains, and tumultuous proceedings which are imputed to this Numidian council. The bishops of the contending factions maintained, with equal ardour and obstinacy, that their adversaries were degraded, or at least dishonoured, by the odious crime of delivering the Holy Scriptures to the officers of Diocletian. From their mutual reproaches, as well as from the story of this dark transaction, it may justly be inferred that the late persecution had embittered the zeal, without reforming the manners, of the African Christians. That divided church was incapable of affording an impartial judicature; the controversy was solemnly tried in five successive tribunals which were appointed by the emperor47; and the whole proceeding, from the first appeal to the final sentence, lasted above three years. A severe inquisition, which was taken by the Praetorian vicar and the proconsul of Africa, the report of two episcopal visitors who had been sent to Carthage, the decrees of the councils of Rome47 and of Arles, and the supreme judgment of Constantine47 himself in his sacred consistory, were all favourable to the cause of Caecilian; and he was unanimously acknowledged by the civil47 and ecclesiastical powers as the true and lawful primate of Africa. The honours and estates of the church were attributed to his suffragan bishops, and it was not without difficulty that Constantine47 was satisfied with inflicting the punishment of exile on the principal leaders of the Donatist faction. As their cause was examined with attention, perhaps it was determined with justice47. Perhaps their complaint was not without foundation, that the credulity of the emperor47 had been abused by the insidious arts of his favourite Osius. The influence of falsehood and corruption might procure the condemnation of the innocent, or aggravate the sentence of the guilty. Such an act, however, of injustice, if it concluded an importunate dispute, might be numbered among the transient evils of a despotic administration, which are neither felt nor remembered by posterity.
But this incident, so inconsiderable that it scarcely deserves a place in history, was productive of a memorable schism, which afflicted the provinces1 of Africa above three hundred years1, and was extinguished only with Christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom1 and fanaticism animated the Donatists to refuse obedience to the usurpers whose election they disputed and whose spiritual powers they denied. Excluded from the civil1 and religious communion of mankind, they boldly excommunicated the rest of mankind, who had embraced the impious party of Caecilian, and of the Traditors, from whom he derived his pretended ordination. They asserted with confidence, and almost with exultation, that the Apostolical succession was interrupted; that all the bishops1 of Europe and Asia were infected by the contagion of guilt and schism; and that the prerogatives of the Catholic church1 were confined to the chosen portion of the African believers, who alone had preserved inviolate the integrity of their faith and discipline. This rigid theory was supported by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a proselyte, even from the distant provinces1 of the East, they carefully repeated the sacred1 rites of baptism and ordination; as they rejected the validity of those which he had already received from the hands of heretics or schismatics. Bishops1, virgins, and even spotless infants were subjected to the disgrace of a public1 penance, before they could be admitted to the communion of the Donatists. If they obtained possession of a church1 which had been used by their Catholic adversaries, they purified the unhallowed building with the same jealous care which a temple of idols might have required. They washed the pavement, scraped the walls, burnt the altar, which was commonly of wood, melted the consecrated plate, and cast the Holy Eucharist to the dogs, with every circumstance of ignominy which could provoke and perpetuate the animosity of religious factions. Notwithstanding this irreconcilable aversion, the two parties, who were mixed and separated in all the cities of Africa, had the same language and manners, the same zeal and learning, the same faith and worship. Proscribed by the civil1 and ecclesiastical1 powers of the empire1, the Donatists still maintained in some provinces1, particularly in Numidia, their superior numbers; and four hundred bishops1 acknowledged the jurisdiction1 of their primate. But the invincible spirit of the sect sometimes preyed on its own vitals; and the bosom of their schismatical church1 was torn by intestine divisions. A fourth part of the Donatist bishops1 followed the independent standard of the Maximianists. The narrow and solitary path which their first leaders had marked out continued to deviate from the great society of mankind. Even the imperceptible sect of the Rogatians could affirm, without a blush, that, when Christ should descend to judge the earth, he would find his true religion1 preserved only in a few nameless villages of the Caesarean Mauritania.
The schism33 of the Donatists was confined to Africa: the more diffusive mischief of the Trinitarian controversy33 successively penetrated into every part of the Christian33 world. The former was an accidental quarrel, occasioned by the abuse of freedom; the latter was a high and mysterious argument, derived from the abuse of philosophy. From the age of Constantine to that of Clovis and Theodoric, the temporal interests both of the Romans and Barbarians were deeply involved in the theological33 disputes of Arianism. The historian may therefore be permitted respectfully to withdraw the veil of the sanctuary; and to deduce the progress of reason and faith33, of error and passion, from the school of Plato to the decline and fall of the empire.
The genius of Plato, informed by his own meditation, or by the traditional knowledge of the priests of Egypt, had ventured to explore the mysterious nature8 of the Deity8. When he had elevated his mind8 to the sublime contemplation of the first self-existent, necessary cause of the universe, the Athenian sage was incapable of conceiving how the simple unity of his essence could admit the infinite variety of distinct and successive ideas which compose the model of the intellectual world8; how a Being purely incorporeal could execute that perfect model, and mould with a plastic hand the rude and independent chaos. The vain hope of extricating himself from these difficulties, which must ever oppress the feeble powers of the human8 mind8, might induce Plato to consider the divine8 nature8 under the threefold modification: of the first cause, the reason8 or Logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe. His poetical imagination sometimes fixed and animated these metaphysical abstractions; the three archical or original principles were represented in the Platonic system of three Gods8, united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable generation; and the Logos was particularly considered under the more accessible character8 of the Son of an Eternal Father, and the Creator and Governor of the world8. Such appear to have been the secret doctrines which were cautiously whispered in the gardens of the academy; and which, according to the more recent disciples of Plato, could not be perfectly understood, till after an assiduous study of thirty years.
The arms of the Macedonians diffused over Asia and Egypt the language and learning of Greece; and the theological system of Plato was taught with less reserve, and perhaps with some improvements, in the celebrated school of Alexandria. A numerous colony of Jews7 had been invited, by the favour of the Ptolemies, to settle in their new7 capital. While the bulk of the nation practised the legal ceremonies, and pursued the lucrative occupations of commerce, a few Hebrews, of a more liberal spirit, devoted their lives to religious and philosophical contemplation. They cultivated with diligence, and embraced with ardour, the theological system of the Athenian sage. But their national pride would have been mortified by a fair confession of their former poverty: and they boldly marked, as the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the gold and jewels which they had so lately stolen from their Egyptian masters. One hundred years7 before the birth of Christ7, a philosophical treatise, which manifestly betrays the style and sentiments of the school of Plato, was produced by the Alexandrian Jews7, and unanimously received as a genuine and valuable relic of the inspired Wisdom of Solomon. A similar union of the Mosaic faith7 and the Grecian philosophy distinguishes the works of Philo, which were composed, for the most part, under the reign of Augustus. The material soul of the universe might offend the piety of the Hebrews: but they applied the character of the Logos to the Jehovah of Moses7 and the patriarchs; and the Son7 of God7 was introduced upon earth7 under a visible7, and even human7, appearance, to perform those familiar offices which seem incompatible with the nature7 and attributes of the Universal Cause.
The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, the authority of the school of Alexandria, and the consent of the Jews7 and Greeks were insufficient to establish the truth7 of a mysterious doctrine7 which might please, but could not satisfy, a rational mind. A prophet or apostle, inspired by the Deity, can alone exercise a lawful dominion over the faith7 of mankind; and the theology of Plato might have been for ever confounded with the philosophical visions of the Academy, the Porch, and the Lyceum, if the name and divine7 attributes of the Logos had not been confirmed by the celestial pen of the last and most sublime of the Evangelists. The Christian7 Revelation, which was consummated under the reign of Nerva, disclosed to the world the amazing secret that the Logos, who was with God7 from the beginning and was God7, who had made all things and for whom all things had been made, was incarnate in the person7 of Jesus7 of Nazareth; who had been born of a virgin, and suffered death on the cross. Besides the general design of fixing on a perpetual basis the divine7 honours of Christ7, the most ancient and respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have ascribed to the evangelic theologian a particular intention to confute two opposite heresies, which disturbed the peace of the primitive church7. I. The faith7 of the Ebionites, perhaps of the Nazarenes, was gross and imperfect. They revered Jesus7 as the greatest of the prophets, endowed with supernatural virtue and power. They ascribed to his person7 and to his future reign all the predictions of the Hebrew oracles which relate to the spiritual7 and everlasting kingdom of the promised Messiah. Some of them might confess that he was born of a virgin: but they obstinately rejected the preceding existence and divine7 perfections of the Logos, or Son7 of God7, which are so clearly defined in the Gospel7 of St. John. About fifty years7 afterwards, the Ebionites, whose errors are mentioned by Justin Martyr with less severity than they seem to deserve, formed a very inconsiderable portion of the Christian7 name. II. The Gnostics7, who were distinguished by the epithet of Docetes, deviated into the contrary extreme, and betrayed the human7, while they asserted the divine7, nature7 of Christ7. Educated in the school of Plato, accustomed to the sublime idea of the Logos, they readily conceived that the brightest Aeon, or Emanation of the Deity, might assume the outward shape and visible7 appearances of a mortal; but they vainly pretended that the imperfections of matter are incompatible with the purity of a celestial substance7. While the blood of Christ7 yet smoked on Mount Calvary, the Docetes invented the impious and extravagant hypothesis that, instead of issuing from the womb of the Virgin, he had descended on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect7 manhood; that he had imposed on the senses of his enemies, and of his disciples7; and that the ministers of Pilate had wasted their impotent rage on an airy phantom, who seemed to expire on the cross and, after three days, to rise from the dead.
The divine7 sanction which the Apostle had bestowed on the fundamental principle of the theology of Plato encouraged the learned proselytes of the second and third centuries to admire and study the writings of the Athenian sage, who had thus marvellously anticipated one of the most surprising discoveries of the Christian7 revelation. The respectable name of Plato was used by the orthodox7, and abused by the heretics7, as the common support of truth7 and error: the authority of his skilful commentators, and the science of dialectics, were employed to justify the remote consequences of his opinions, and to supply the discreet silence of the inspired writers. The same subtle and profound questions concerning the nature7, the generation, the distinction, and the equality of the three divine7 persons of the mysterious Triad, or Trinity, were agitated in the philosophical, and in the Christian7, schools of Alexandria. An eager spirit of curiosity urged them to explore the secrets of the abyss; and the pride of the professors and of their disciples7 was satisfied with the science of words. But the most sagacious of the Christian7 theologians, the great Athanasius himself, has candidly confessed that, whenever he forced his understanding to meditate on the divinity of the Logos, his toilsome and unavailing efforts recoiled on themselves; that the more he thought, the less he comprehended; and the more he wrote, the less capable was he of expressing his thoughts. In every step of the inquiry, we are compelled to feel and acknowledge the immeasurable disproportion between the size of the object and the capacity of the human7 mind. We may strive to abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter, which so closely adhere to all the perceptions of our experimental knowledge. But, as soon as we presume to reason7 of infinite substance7, of spiritual7 generation; as often as we deduce any positive conclusions from a negative idea, we are involved in darkness, perplexity, and inevitable contradiction. As these difficulties arise from the nature7 of the subject, they oppress, with the same insuperable weight, the philosophic and the theological disputant; but we may observe two essential and peculiar circumstances which discriminated the doctrines of the Catholic church7 from the opinions of the Platonic school.
I. A chosen society8 of philosophers, men of a liberal education and curious disposition, might silently meditate, and temperately discuss, in the gardens of Athens or the library of Alexandria, the abstruse questions of metaphysical science. The lofty speculations which neither convinced the understanding, nor agitated the passions8, of the Platonists themselves were carelessly overlooked by the idle, the busy, and even the studious part of mankind8. But, after the Logos had been revealed as the sacred8 object of the faith8, the hope, and the religious8 worship8 of the Christians8, the mysterious system was embraced by a numerous and increasing multitude in every province of the Roman world8. Those persons who, from their age8, or sex, or occupations, were the least qualified to judge, who were the least exercised in the habits of abstract reasoning, aspired to contemplate the economy of the Divine8 Nature8; and it is the boast of Tertullian that a Christian8 mechanic could readily answer such questions as had perplexed the wisest of the Grecian sages. Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference between the highest and the lowest of human8 understandings may indeed be calculated as infinitely small; yet the degree of weakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence. These speculations, instead of being treated as the amusement of a vacant hour, became the most serious business of the present, and the most useful preparation for a future, life8. A theology, which it was incumbent to believe, which it was impious to doubt, and which it might be dangerous, and even fatal, to mistake, became the familiar topic of private8 meditation and popular discourse. The cold indifference of philosophy was inflamed by the fervent spirit of devotion8; and even the metaphors of common anguage suggested the fallacious prejudices of sense and experience. The Christians8, who abhorred the gross and impure generation of the Greek mythology, were tempted to argue from the familiar analogy of the filial and paternal relations. The character8 of Son seemed to imply a perpetual subordination to the voluntary author of his existence; but, as the act of generation, in the most spiritual and abstracted sense, must be supposed to transmit the properties of a common nature8, they durst not presume to circumscribe the powers or the duration of the Son of an eternal and omnipotent Father. Fourscore years after the death8 of Christ, the Christians8 of Bithynia declared before the tribunal of Pliny that they invoked him as a god8; and his divine8 honours have been perpetuated in every age8 and country by the various8 sects who assume the name of his disciples. Their tender reverence for the memory of Christ and their horror for the profane worship8 of any created being would have engaged them to assert the equal and absolute divinity of the Logos, if their rapid ascent towards the throne of heaven had not been imperceptibly checked by the apprehension of violating the unity and sole supremacy of the great Father of Christ and of the Universe. The suspense and fluctuation produced in the minds of the Christians8 by these opposite tendencies may be observed in the writings of the theologians who flourished after the end of the apostolic age8 and before the origin of the Arian controversy. Their suffrage is claimed, with equal confidence, by the orthodox and by the heretical parties; and the most inquisitive critics have fairly allowed that, if they had the good fortune of possessing the Catholic verity, they have delivered their conceptions in loose, inaccurate, and sometimes contradictory language.
II. The devotion of individuals was the first circumstance which distinguished the Christians from the Platonists; the second was the authority of the church33. The disciples of philosophy asserted the rights of intellectual freedom, and their respect for the sentiments of their teachers was a liberal and voluntary tribute, which they offered to superior reason. But the Christians formed a numerous and disciplined society; and the jurisdiction of their laws and magistrates was strictly exercised over the minds of the faithful. The loose wanderings of the imagination were gradually confined by creeds and confessions; the freedom of private judgment submitted to the public wisdom of synods33; the authority of a theologian was determined by his ecclesiastical33 rank; and the episcopal33 successors of the apostles inflicted the censures of the church33 on those who deviated from the orthodox33 belief. But in an age of religious33 controversy33 every act of oppression adds new force to the elastic vigour of the mind; and the zeal33 or obstinacy of a spiritual rebel was sometimes stimulated by secret motives of ambition or avarice. A metaphysical argument became the cause33 or pretence of political contests; the subtleties of the Platonic school were used as the badges of popular factions, and the distance which separated their respective tenets was enlarged or magnified by the acrimony of dispute. As long as the dark heresies of Praxeas and Sabellius laboured to confound the Father with the Son, the orthodox33 party might be excused if they adhered more strictly and more earnestly to the distinction, than to the equality, of the divine persons. But, as soon as the heat of controversy33 had subsided, and the progress of the Sabellians was no longer an object of terror to the churches33 of Rome, of Africa, or of Egypt33; the tide of theological33 opinion began to flow with a gentle but steady motion toward the contrary extreme; and the most orthodox33 doctors allowed themselves the use of the terms and definitions which had been censured in the mouth of the sectaries. After the edict of toleration had restored peace and leisure to the Christians, the Trinitarian controversy33 was revived in the ancient seat of Platonism, the learned, the opulent, the tumultuous city of Alexandria33; and the flame of religious33 discord was rapidly communicated from the schools to the clergy33, the people33, the province, and the East33. The abstruse question of the eternity of the Logos was agitated in ecclesiastical33 conferences and popular sermons; and the heterodox opinions of Arius were soon made public by his own zeal33 and by that of his adversaries. His most implacable adversaries have acknowledged the learning and blameless life of that eminent presbyter, who, in a former election, had declared, and perhaps generously declined, his pretensions to the episcopal33 throne33. His competitor Alexander assumed the office of his judge. The important cause33 was argued before him; and, if at first he seemed to hesitate, he at length pronounced his final sentence, as an absolute rule of faith33. The undaunted presbyter, who presumed to resist the authority of his angry bishop33, was separated from the communion of the church33. But the pride of Arius was supported by the applause of a numerous party. He reckoned among his immediate followers two bishops33 of Egypt33, seven presbyters, twelve deacons, and (what may appear almost incredible) seven hundred virgins. A large majority of the bishops33 of Asia appeared to support or favour his cause33; and their measures were conducted by Eusebius of Caesarea, the most learned of the Christian33 prelates33, and by Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had acquired the reputation of a statesman without forfeiting that of a saint. Synods33 in Palestine and Bithynia were opposed to the synods33 of Egypt33. The attention of the prince and people33 was attracted by this theological33 dispute; and the decision, at the end of six years, was referred to the supreme authority of the general council33 of Nice33.
When the mysteries of the Christian faith were dangerously exposed to public26 debate, it might be observed that the human understanding was capable of forming three distinct26, though imperfect, systems concerning the nature26 of the Divine26 Trinity; and it was pronounced that none of these systems, in a pure and absolute sense, were exempt from heresy and error. I. According to the first hypothesis, which was maintained by Arius and his disciples, the Logos26 was a dependent and spontaneous production, created from nothing by the will of the Father. The Son, by whom all things were made, had been begotten before all worlds, and the longest of the astronomical periods could be compared only as a fleeting moment to the extent of his duration; yet this duration was not infinite26, and there had been a time which preceded the ineffable generation of the Logos26. On this only-begotten Son the Almighty Father had transfused his ample26 spirit26, and impressed the effulgence of his glory. Visible image of invisible perfection, he saw, at an immeasurable distance beneath his feet, the thrones of the brightest archangels: yet he shone only with a reflected light, and, like the sons of the Roman26 emperors26 who were invested with the titles of Caesar or Augustus26, he governed the universe in obedience to the will of his Father and Monarch. II. In the second hypothesis, the Logos26 possessed all the inherent, incommunicable perfections which religion and philosophy appropriate to the Supreme God. Three distinct26 and infinite26 minds or substances, three co-equal and co-eternal beings, composed the Divine26 Essence; and it would have implied contradiction that any of them should not have existed or that they should ever cease to exist. The advocates of a system which seemed to establish three independent Deities attempted to preserve the unity of the First Cause26, so conspicuous in the design and order26 of the world26, by the perpetual concord of their administration and the essential agreement of their will. A faint resemblance of this unity of action may be discovered in the societies of men26, and even of animals. The causes which disturb their harmony proceed only from the imperfection and inequality of their faculties: but the omnipotence which is guided by infinite26 wisdom and goodness cannot fail of choosing the same means for the accomplishment of the same ends. III. Three Beings, who, by the self-derived necessity of their existence, possess all the divine26 attributes in the most perfect degree; who are eternal in duration, infinite26 in space, and intimately present to each other and to the whole universe; irresistibly force themselves on the astonished mind26 as one and the same Being, who, in the economy of grace, as well as in that of nature26, may manifest himself under different forms, and be considered under different aspects. By this hypothesis, a real substantial Trinity is refined into a trinity of names and abstract modifications, that subsist only in the mind26 which conceives them. The Logos26 is no longer a person26, but an attribute; and it is only in a figurative sense that the epithet of Son can be applied to the eternal reason which was with God from the beginning, and by which, not by whom, all things were made. The incarnation of the Logos26 is reduced to a mere inspiration of the Divine26 Wisdom, which filled the soul, and directed all the actions, of the man Jesus. Thus, after revolving round the theological circle, we are surprised to find that the Sabellian ends where the Ebionite had begun; and that the incomprehensible mystery which excites our adoration eludes our inquiry.
If the bishops of the council of Nice had been permitted to follow the unbiassed dictates of their conscience, Arius and his associates could scarcely have flattered themselves with the hopes42 of obtaining a majority of votes, in favour of an hypothesis so directly adverse to the two most popular opinions of the Catholic world. The Arians soon42 perceived the danger of their situation, and prudently assumed those modest virtues42 which, in the fury of civil and religious dissensions, are seldom practised, or even praised, except by the weaker party. They recommended the exercise of Christian42 charity and moderation; urged the incomprehensible nature of the controversy; disclaimed the use42 of any terms or definitions which could not be found in the scriptures; and offered, by very liberal concessions, to satisfy their adversaries without renouncing the integrity of their own principles. The victorious faction received42 all their proposals with haughty suspicion; and anxiously sought for some irreconcilable mark of distinction, the rejection of which might involve the Arians in the guilt and consequences of heresy. A letter was publicly read, and ignominiously torn, in which their patron, Eusebius of Nicomedia, ingenuously confessed that the admission of the Homoousion, or Consubstantial, a word already familiar to the Platonists, was incompatible with the principles of their theological system. The fortunate opportunity was eagerly embraced by the bishops who governed the resolutions of the synod; and, according to the lively expression of Ambrose, they used the sword, which heresy itself had drawn from the scabbard, to cut off the head of the hated monster. The consubstantiality of the Father42 and the Son42 was established by the council of Nice, and has been unanimously received42 as a fundamental article of the Christian42 faith, by the consent of the Greek, the Latin, the Oriental, and the Protestant churches. But, if the same word had not served to stigmatise the heretics and to unite the Catholics, it would have been inadequate to the purpose of the majority by whom it was introduced into the orthodox creed. This majority was divided into two parties, distinguished by a contrary tendency to the sentiments of the Tritheists and of the Sabellians. But, as those opposite extremes seemed to overthrow the foundations either of natural or revealed religion42, they mutually agreed to qualify the rigour of their principles and to disavow the just, but invidious, consequences which might be urged by their antagonists. The interest of the common42 cause inclined them to join their numbers and to conceal their differences; their animosity was softened by the healing counsels of toleration, and their disputes were suspended by the use42 of the mysterious Homoousion, which either party was free to interpret according to their peculiar tenets. The Sabellian sense, which, about fifty years42 before, had obliged42 the council of Antioch to prohibit this celebrated term, had endeared it to those theologians who entertained a secret but partial affection for a nominal Trinity. But the more fashionable saints of the Arian times, the intrepid Athanasius, the learned Gregory Nazianzen, and the other pillars of the church, who supported with ability and success the Nicene doctrine, appeared to consider the expression of substance as if it had been synonymous with that of nature; and they ventured to illustrate their meaning by affirming that three men, as they belong to the same common42 species, are consubstantial or homoousian to each other. This pure and distinct equality was tempered, on the one hand, by the internal connection, and spiritual penetration, which indissolubly unites the divine persons; and on the other, by the pre-eminence of the Father42, which was acknowledged as far as it is compatible with the independence of the Son42. Within these limits the almost invisible and tremulous ball of orthodoxy was allowed securely to vibrate. On either side, beyond this consecrated ground, the heretics and the demons lurked in ambush to surprise and devour the unhappy wanderer. But, as the degrees of theological hatred depend on the spirit of the war rather than on the importance of the controversy, the heretics who degraded, were treated with more severity than those who annihilated, the person of the Son42. The life of Athanasius was consumed in irreconcilable opposition to the impious madness of the Arians; but he defended above twenty years42 the Sabellianism of Marcellus of Ancyra; and, when at last he was compelled to withdraw himself from his communion, he continued to mention, with an ambiguous smile, the venial errors of his respectable friend.
The authority of a general council, to which the Arians themselves had been compelled to submit, inscribed on the banners of the orthodox party the mysterious characters of the word Homoousion, which essentially contributed, notwithstanding some obscure35 disputes, some nocturnal combats, to maintain and perpetuate35 the uniformity of faith, or at least of language. The Consubstantialists, who by their success have deserved and obtained the title of Catholics, gloried in the simplicity and steadiness of their own creed, and insulted the repeated variations of their adversaries, who were destitute of any certain rule of faith. The sincerity or the cunning of the Arian chiefs, the fears of the laws or of the people, their reverence for Christ, their hatred of Athanasius, all the causes, human35 and divine, that influence and disturb the councils of a theological faction, introduced among the sectaries a spirit of discord and inconstancy, which, in the course of a few years35, erected eighteen different35 models of religion, and avenged the violated dignity of the church. The zealous Hilary, who, from the peculiar hardships of his situation, was inclined to extenuate rather than to aggravate the errors of the Oriental clergy, declares that in the wide extent of the ten provinces of Asia, to which he had been banished, there could be found very few prelates who had preserved the knowledge of the true God. The oppression which he had felt, the disorders of which he was the spectator and the victim, appeased, during a short interval, the angry passions of his soul; and in the following passage, of which I shall transcribe a few lines, the bishop of Poitiers unwarily deviates into the style of a Christian philosopher. It is a thing, says Hilary, equally deplorable and dangerous, that there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as many doctrines as inclinations, and as many sources of blasphemy as there are faults among us; because we make creeds arbitrarily, and explain them as arbitrarily. The Homoousion is rejected, and received, and explained away by successive synods. The partial or total resemblance of the Father and of the Son is a subject of dispute for these unhappy times. Every year, nay every moon, we make new35 creeds to describe invisible mysteries. We repent of what we have done, we defend those who repent, we anathematise those whom we defended. We condemn either the doctrine of others in ourselves or our own in that of others; and, reciprocally tearing one another to pieces, we have been the cause of each other's ruin.
It will not be expected, it would not perhaps be endured, that I should swell this theological digression by a minute examination of the eighteen creeds, the authors of which, for the most part, disclaimed the odious name of their parent Arius. It is amusing enough to delineate the form, and to trace the vegetation, of a singular plant; but the tedious detail of leaves without flowers, and of branches without fruit, would soon exhaust the patience, and disappoint the curiosity, of the laborious student. One question which gradually arose from the Arian controversy may however be noticed, as it served to produce and discriminate the three sects7 who were united only by their common aversion to the Homoousion of the Nicene synod. 1. If they were asked, whether the Son7 was like unto the Father, the question was resolutely answered in the negative by the heretics7 who adhered to the principles of Arius, or indeed to those of philosophy; which seem to establish an infinite difference between the Creator and the most excellent of his creatures. This obvious consequence was maintained by Aetius, on whom the zeal7 of his adversaries bestowed the surname of the Atheist. His restless and aspiring spirit urged him to try almost every profession of human7 life. He was successively a slave, or at least a husbandman, a travelling tinker, a goldsmith, a physician, a schoolmaster, a theologian, and at last the apostle of a new7 church7, which was propagated by the abilities of his disciple Eunomius. Armed with texts of scripture, and with captious syllogisms from the logic of Aristotle, the subtle Aetius had acquired the fame of an invincible disputant, whom it was impossible either to silence or to convince. Such talents engaged the friendship of the Arian bishops, till they were forced to renounce and even to persecute a dangerous ally, who by the accuracy of his reasoning had prejudiced their cause in the popular opinion and offended the piety of their most devoted followers. 2. The omnipotence of the Creator suggested a specious and respectful solution of the likeness of the Father and the Son7; and faith7 might humbly receive what reason7 could not presume to deny, that the Supreme God7 might communicate his infinite perfections, and create a being similar only to himself. These Arians were powerfully supported by the weight and abilities of their leaders, who had succeeded to the management of the Eusebian interest, and who occupied the principal thrones of the East. They detested, perhaps with some affectation, the impiety of Aetius; they professed to believe, either without reserve, or according to the scriptures, that the Son7 was diferent from all other creatures and similar only to the Father. But they denied that he was either of the same or of a similar substance7; sometimes boldly justifying their dissent, and sometimes objecting to the use of the word substance7, which seems to imply an adequate, or at least a distinct, notion of the nature7 of the Deity. 3. The sect which asserted the doctrine7 of a similar substance7 was the most numerous, at least in the provinces of Asia; and, when the leaders of both parties were assembled in the council of Seleucia, their opinion would have prevailed by a majority of one hundred and five to forty-three bishops. The Greek word which was chosen to express this mysterious resemblance bears so close an affinity to the orthodox7 symbol, that the profane of every age have derided the furious contests which the difference of a single diphthong excited between the Homoousians and the Homoiousians. As it frequently happens that the sounds and characters which approach the nearest to each other accidentally represent the most opposite ideas, the observation would be itself ridiculous, if it were possible to mark any real and sensible distinction between the doctrine7 of the Semi-Arians, as they were improperly styled, and that of the Catholics7 themselves. The bishop of Poitiers, who in his Phrygian exile very wisely aimed at a coalition of parties, endeavours to prove that, by a pious and faithful interpretation, the Homoiousion may be reduced to a consubstantial sense. Yet he confesses that the word has a dark and suspicious aspect; and, as if darkness were congenial to theological disputes, the Semi-Arians, who advanced to the doors of the church7, assailed them with the most unrelenting fury.
The provinces of Egypt and Asia, which cultivated the language and manners of the Greeks, had deeply imbibed the venom of the Arian controversy. The familiar study of the Platonic system, a vain and argumentative disposition, a copious and flexible idiom, supplied the clergy and people of the East with an inexhaustible flow of words and distinctions; and, in the midst of their fierce contentions, they easily forgot the doubt which is recommended by philosophy, and the submission which is enjoined by religion7. The inhabitants of the West were of a less inquisitive spirit; their passions were not so forcibly moved by invisible objects; their minds were less frequently exercised by the habits of dispute, and such was the happy ignorance of the Gallican church7 that Hilary himself, above thirty years7 after the first general council, was still a stranger to the Nicene creed7. The Latins had received the rays of divine7 knowledge through the dark and doubtful medium of a translation. The poverty and stubbornness of their native tongue was not always capable of affording just equivalents for the Greek terms, for the technical words of the Platonic philosophy, which had been consecrated by the gospel7 or by the church7 to express the mysteries of the Christian7 faith7; and a verbal defect might introduce into the Latin theology a long train of error or perplexity. But, as the Western provincials had the good fortune of deriving their religion7 from an orthodox7 source, they preserved with steadiness the doctrine7 which they had accepted with docility; and, when the Arian pestilence approached their frontiers, they were supplied with the seasonable preservative of the Homoousion, by the paternal care of the Roman pontiff. Their sentiments and their temper were displayed in the memorable synod of Rimini, which surpassed in numbers the council of Nice, since it was composed of above four hundred bishops of Ialy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum. From the first debates it appeared that only fourscore prelates adhered to the party, though they affected to anathematise the name and memory of Arius. But this inferiority was compensated by the advantages of skill, of experience, and of discipline; and the minority was conducted by Valens and Ursacius, two bishops of Illyricum, who had spent their lives in the intrigues of courts and councils, and who had been trained under the Eusebian banner in the religious wars of the East. By their arguments and negotiations, they embarrassed, they confounded, they at last deceived, the honest simplicity of the Latin bishops; who suffered the palladium of the faith7 to be extorted from their hands by fraud and importunity rather than by open violence. The council of Rimini was not allowed to separate, till the members had imprudently subscribed a captious creed7, in which some expressions, susceptible of an heretical sense, were inserted in the room of the Homoousion. It was on this occasion that, according to Jerom, the world was surprised to find itself Arian. But the bishops of the Latin provinces had no sooner reached their respective dioceses than they discovered their mistake and repented of their weakness. The ignominious capitulation was rejected with disdain and abhorrence; and the Homoousian standard, which had been shaken but not overthrown, was more firmly replanted in all the churches of the West.
Such was the rise and progress and such were the natural revolutions of those theological disputes which disturbed the peace1 of Christianity under the reigns of Constantine1 and of his sons. But, as those princes1 presumed to extend their despotism over the faith, as well as over the lives and fortunes, of their subjects1; the weight of their suffrage sometimes inclined the ecclesiastical1 balance: and the prerogatives of the King of Heaven were settled, or changed, or modified, in the cabinet of an earthly monarch.
The unhappy spirit47 of discord which pervaded the provinces47 of the East47 interrupted the triumph of Constantine47; but the emperor47 continued for some time to view, with cool and careless indifference, the object of the dispute. As he was yet ignorant of the difficulty of appeasing the quarrels of theologians, he addressed to the contending parties, to Alexander and to Arius, a moderating epistle; which may be ascribed, with far greater reason, to the untutored sense of a soldier and statesman than to the dictates of any of his episcopal counsellors. He attributes the origin of the whole controversy to a trifling and subtle question, concerning an incomprehensible point of the law, which was foolishly asked by the bishop, and imprudently resolved by the presbyter. He laments that the Christian people47, who had the same God, the same religion, and the same worship, should be divided by such inconsiderable distinctions; and he seriously recommends to the clergy of Alexandria the example of the Greek philosophers; who could maintain their arguments without losing their temper, and assert their freedom without violating their friendship. The indifference and contempt of the sovereign47 would have been, perhaps, the most effectual method of silencing the dispute, if the popular current had been less rapid and impetuous, and if Constantine47 himself, in the midst of faction and fanaticism, could have preserved the calm possession of his own mind. But his ecclesiastical ministers soon47 contrived to seduce the impartiality of the magistrate, and to awaken the zeal of the proselyte. He was provoked by the insults which had been offered to his statues; he was alarmed by the real, as well as the imaginary, magnitude of the spreading mischief; and he extinguished the hope of peace and toleration, from the moment that he assembled three hundred bishops within the walls of the same palace47. The presence of the monarch swelled the importance of the debate; his attention multiplied the arguments; and he exposed his person47 with a patient intrepidity, which animated the valour of the combatants. Notwithstanding the applause which has been bestowed on the eloquence and sagacity of Constantine47, a Roman47 general47, whose religion might be still a subject of doubt, and whose mind had not been enlightened either by study or by inspiration, was indifferently qualified to discuss, in the Greek language, a metaphysical question, or an article of faith. But the credit of his favourite Osius, who appears to have presided in the council of Nice, might dispose the emperor47 in favour of the orthodox party; and a well-timed insinuation that the same Eusebius of Nicomedia, who now protected the heretic, had lately assisted the tyrant47, might exasperate him against their adversaries. The Nicene creed was ratified by Constantine47; and his firm declaration that those who resisted the divine judgment of the synod must prepare themselves for an immediate exile annihilated the murmurs of a feeble opposition; which from seventeen, was almost instantly reduced to two, protesting bishops. Eusebius of Caesarea yielded a reluctant and ambiguous consent to the Homoousion; and the wavering conduct47 of the Nicomedian Eusebius served only to delay, about three months, his disgrace and exile. The impious Arius was banished into one of the remote provinces47 of Illyricum; his person47 and disciples were branded by law with the odious name of Porphyrians; his writings were condemned to the flames: and a capital punishment was denounced against those in whose possession they should be found. The emperor47 had now imbibed the spirit47 of controversy, and the angry sarcastic style of his edicts was designed to inspire his subjects with the hatred which he had conceived against the enemies of Christ.
But, as if the conduct47 of the emperor47 had been guided by passion instead of principle, three years from the council of Nice were scarcely elapsed before he discovered some symptoms of mercy, and even of indulgence, towards the proscribed sect, which was secretly protected by his favourite sister. The exiles were recalled; and Eusebius, who gradually resumed his influence over the mind of Constantine47, was restored to the episcopal throne47 from which he had been ignominiously degraded. Arius himself was treated by the whole court with the respect which would have been due to an innocent and oppressed man. His faith was approved by the synod of Jerusalem; and the emperor47 seemed impatient to repair his injustice, by issuing an absolute command47 that he should be solemnly admitted to the communion in the cathedral of Constantinople. On the same day which had been fixed for the triumph of Arius, he expired; and the strange and horrid circumstances of his death47 might excite a suspicion that the orthodox saints had contributed more efficaciously than by their prayers to deliver the church from the most formidable of her enemies. The three principal leaders of the Catholics, Athanasius of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Paul of Constantinople, were deposed on various accusations, by the sentence of numerous councils; and were afterwards banished into distant provinces47 by the first of the Christian emperors, who, in the last moments of his life47, received the rites of baptism from the Arian bishop of Nicomedia. The ecclesiastical government47 of Constantine47 cannot be justified from the reproach of levity and weakness. But the credulous monarch, unskilled in the stratagems of theological warfare, might be deceived by the modest and specious professions of the heretics, whose sentiments he never perfectly understood; and, while he protected Arius, and persecuted Athanasius, he still considered the council of Nice as the bulwark of the Christian faith and the peculiar glory of his own reign47.
The sons of Constantine must have been admitted from their childhood into the rank of catechumens, but they imitated, in the delay of their baptism, the example of their father16. Like him, they presumed to pronounce their judgment on mysteries into which they had never been regularly initiated: and the fate of the Trinitarian controversy depended, in a great measure16, on the sentiments of Constantius; who inherited the provinces of the East, and acquired the possession of the whole empire. The Arian presbyter or bishop16, who had secreted for his use the testament of the deceased emperor16, improved the fortunate occasion which had introduced him to the familiarity of a prince whose public16 counsels were always swayed by his domestic favourites. The eunuchs and slaves diffused the spiritual16 poison through the palace, and the dangerous infection was communicated, by the female attendants to the guards, and by the empress to her unsuspicious husband. The partiality which Constantius always expressed towards the Eusebian faction was insensibly fortified by the dexterous management of their leaders; and his victory16 over the tyrant16 Magnentius increased his inclination, as well as ability, to employ the arms of power in the cause of Arianism. While the two armies16 were engaged in the plains of Mursa, and the fate of the two rivals depended on the chance of war, the son of Constantine passed the anxious moments in a church of the martyrs, under the walls of the city16. His spiritual16 comforter, Valens, the Arian bishop16 of the diocese, employed the most artful precautions to obtain such early intelligence as might secure either his favour or his escape. A secret chain of swift and trusty messengers informed him of the vicissitudes of the battle; and, while the courtiers stood trembling round their affrighted master, Valens assured him that the Gallic legions gave way; and insinuated with some presence of mind16 that the glorious event had been revealed to him by an angel. The grateful emperor16 ascribed his success to the merits and intercession of the bishop16 of Mursa, whose faith had deserved the public16 and miraculous approbation of Heaven. The Arians, who considered as their own the victory16 of Constantius, preferred his glory to that of his father16. Cyril, bishop16 of Jerusalem, immediately composed the description of a celestial cross encircled with a splendid rainbow; which during the festival of Pentecost, about the third hour of the day, had appeared over the Mount of Olives, to the edification of the devout pilgrims and the people16 of the holy city16. The size of the meteor was gradually magnified; and the Arian historian has ventured to affirm that it was conspicuous to the two armies16 in the plains of Pannonia; and that the tyrant16, who is purposely represented as an idolater, fled before the auspicious sign of orthodox Christianity.
The sentiments of a judicious stranger, who has impartially considered the progress of civil45 or ecclesiastical discord, are always entitled to our notice: and a short passage of Ammianus, who served in the armies, and studied the character45, of Constantius, is perhaps of more value than many pages of theological invectives. The Christian religion, which, in itself, says that moderate historian, is plain and simple, he confounded by the dotage of superstition. Instead of reconciling the parties by the weight of his authority, he cherished and propagated, by verbal disputes, the differences which his vain curiosity had excited. The highways were covered with troops of bishops, galloping from every side to the assemblies, which they call synods; and, while they laboured to reduce the whole sect to their own particular opinions, the public45 establishment of the posts was almost ruined by their hasty and repeated journeys. Our more intimate knowledge of the ecclesiastical transactions of the reign45 of Constantius would furnish an ample commentary on this remarkable passage; which justifies the rational apprehensions of Athanasius that the restless activity of the clergy, who wandered round the empire45 in search of the true faith, would excite the contempt and laughter of the unbelieving world. As soon45 as the emperor45 was relieved from the terrors of the civil45 war, he devoted the leisure of his winter quarters at Arles, Milan45, Sirmium, and Constantinople45, to the amusement or toils of controversy: the sword of the magistrate, and even of the tyrant45, was unsheathed, to enforce the reasons of the theologian; and, as he opposed the orthodox faith of Nice, it is readily confessed that his incapacity and ignorance were equal to his presumption. The eunuchs, the women, and the bishops, who governed the vain and feeble mind of the emperor45, had inspired him with an insuperable dislike to the Homoousion; but his timid conscience was alarmed by the impiety of Aetius. The guilt of that atheist was aggravated by the suspicious favour of the unfortunate Gallus; and even the deaths of the Imperial ministers45 who had been massacred at Antioch were imputed to the suggestions of that dangerous sophist. The mind of Constantius, which could neither be moderated by reason nor fixed by faith, was blindly impelled to either side of the dark and empty abyss by his horror of the opposite extreme: he alternately embraced and condemned45 the sentiments, he successively banished and recalled the leaders, of the Arian and Semi-Arian factions. During the season of public45 business or festivity, he employed whole days, and even nights, in selecting the words, and weighing the syllables, which composed his fluctuating creeds. The subject of his meditation still pursued and occupied his slumbers; the incoherent dreams of the emperor45 were received45 as celestial visions; and he accepted with complacency the lofty title of bishop45 of bishops, from those ecclesiastics who forgot the interest of their order for the gratification of their passions. The design of establishing an uniformity of doctrine, which had engaged him to convene so many synods in Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and Asia, was repeatedly baffled by his own levity, by the divisions of the Arians, and by the resistance of the Catholics; and he resolved, as the last and decisive effort, imperiously to dictate the decrees of a general council. The destructive earthquake of Nicomedia, the difficulty of finding a convenient place, and perhaps some secret motives of policy, produced an alteration in the summons. The bishops of the East were directed to meet at Seleucia, in Isauria; while those of the West held their deliberations at Rimini, on the coast of the Hadriatic; and, instead of two or three deputies from each province, the whole episcopal body was ordered to march. The Eastern council, after consuming four days in fierce and unavailing debate, separated without any definitive conclusion. The council of the West was protracted till the seventh month. Taurus, the Praetorian prefect45, was instructed not to dismiss the prelates till they should all be united in the same opinion; and his efforts were supported by a power45 of banishing fifteen of the most refractory, and a promise of the consulship if he achieved so difficult an adventure. His prayers and threats, the authority of the sovereign45, the sophistry of Valens and Ursacius, the distress of cold and hunger, and the tedious melancholy of a hopeless exile45, at length extorted the reluctant consent of the bishops of Rimini. The deputies of the East and of the West attended the emperor45 in the palace45 of Constantinople45, and he enjoyed the satisfaction of imposing on the world a profession of faith which established the likeness, without expressing the consubstantiality, of the Son45 of God45. But the triumph of Arianism had been preceded by the removal of the orthodox clergy, whom it was impossible either to intimidate or to corrupt; and the reign45 of Constantius was disgraced by the unjust and ineffectual persecution of the great Athanasius.
We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either in active or speculative life46, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles may be surmounted, by the force of a single mind46 when it is inflexibly applied to the pursuit of a single object. The immortal name of Athanasius will never be separated from the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to whose defence he consecrated every moment and every faculty of his being. Educated in the family of Alexander46, he had vigorously opposed the early progress of the Arian heresy: he exercised the important46 functions of secretary under the aged prelate; and the fathers of the Nicene council beheld, with surprise and respect, the rising virtues46 of the young deacon. In a time46 of public46 danger, the dull claims of age46 and of rank are sometimes superseded; and within five months after his return from Nice, the deacon Athanasius was seated on the archiepiscopal throne of Egypt. He filled that eminent station above forty-six years46, and his long administration was spent in a perpetual combat against the powers of Arianism. Five times was Athanasius expelled from his throne; twenty years46 he passed as an exile or a fugitive; and almost every province of the Roman46 empire46 was successively witness to his merit46, and his sufferings in the cause of the Homoousion, which he considered as the sole pleasure46 and business46, as the duty, and as the glory46, of his life46. Amidst the storms of persecution, the archbishop of Alexandria was patient of labour, jealous of fame, careless of safety; and, although his mind46 was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism, Athanasius displayed a superiority of character46 and abilities, which would have qualified him, far better than the degenerate sons of Constantine, for the government of a great46 monarchy. His learning was much less profound and extensive than that of Eusebius of Caesarea, and his rude eloquence46 could not be compared with the polished oratory of Gregory or Basil; but, whenever the primate of Egypt was called upon to justify his sentiments or his conduct, his unpremeditated style, either of speaking or writing, was clear, forcible, and persuasive. He has always been revered in the orthodox school, as one of the most accurate masters of the Christian theology; and he was supposed to possess two profane sciences, less adapted to the episcopal character46, the knowledge46 of jurisprudence46 and that of divination. Some fortunate conjectures of future events, which impartial reasoners might ascribe to the experience and judgment of Athanasius, were attributed by his friends to heavenly inspiration, and imputed by his enemies to infernal magic.
But, as Athanasius3 was continually engaged with the prejudices and passions of every order of men, from the monk to the emperor3, the knowledge of human nature was his first and most important3 science. He preserved a distinct and unbroken view of a scene which was incessantly shifting; and never failed to improve those decisive moments which are irrecoverably past before they are perceived by a common eye. The archbishop of Alexandria was capable of distinguishing how far he might boldly command, and where he must dexterously insinuate; how long3 he might contend with power, and when he must withdraw from persecution; and, while he directed the thunders of the church against heresy and rebellion, he could assume, in the bosom of his own party, the flexible and indulgent temper of a prudent leader. The election of Athanasius3 has not escaped the reproach of irregularity and precipitation; but the propriety of his behaviour conciliated the affections both of the clergy and of the people. The Alexandrians were impatient to rise in arms3 for the defence of an eloquent and liberal pastor. In his distress he always derived support, or at least consolation, from the faithful attachment of his parochial clergy; and the hundred bishops of Egypt adhered, with unshaken zeal, to the cause of Athanasius3. In the modest equipage which pride and policy would affect, he frequently performed the episcopal visitation of his provinces3, from the mouth of the Nile to the confines of Aethiopia; familiarly conversing with the meanest of the populace, and humbly saluting the saints and hermits of the desert. Nor was it only in ecclesiastical assemblies, among men whose education and manners were similar to his own, that Athanasius3 displayed the ascendancy of his genius. He appeared with easy and respectful firmness in the courts of princes; and in the various turns of his prosperous and adverse fortune, he never lost the confidence of his friends or the esteem of his enemies.
In his youth, the primate of Egypt resisted the great Constantine, who had repeatedly signified his will that Arius should be restored to the Catholic communion. The emperor45 respected, and might forgive, this inflexible resolution; and the faction who considered Athanasius as their most formidable enemy were constrained to dissemble their hatred, and silently to prepare an indirect and distant assault. They scattered rumours and suspicions, represented the archbishop45 as a proud and oppressive tyrant45, and boldly accused him of violating the treaty which had been ratified in the Nicene council with the schismatic followers of Meletius. Athanasius had openly disapproved that ignominious peace, and the emperor45 was disposed to believe that he had abused his ecclesiastical and civil45 power45, to persecute those odious sectaries; that he had sacrilegiously broken a chalice in one of their churches of Mareotis; that he had whipped or imprisoned six of their bishops; and that Arsenius, a seventh bishop45 of the same party, had been murdered, or at least mutilated, by the cruel hand of the primate. These charges, which affected his honour and his life45, were referred by Constantine to his brother45 Dalmatius the censor, who resided at Antioch; the synods of Caesarea and Tyre were successively convened; and the bishops of the East were instructed to judge the cause of Athanasius before they proceeded to consecrate the new45 church45 of the Resurrection at Jerusalem. The primate might be conscious of his innocence; but he was sensible that the same implacable spirit which had dictated the accusation would direct the proceeding, and pronounce the sentence45. He prudently declined the tribunal of his enemies, despised the summons of the synod of Caesarea; and, after a long and artful delay, submitted to the peremptory commands of the emperor45, who threatened to punish his criminal disobedience if he refused to appear in the council of Tyre. Before Athanasius, at the head of fifty Egyptian prelates, sailed from Alexandria, he had wisely secured the alliance of the Meletians; and Arsenius himself, his imaginary victim and his secret friend, was privately concealed in his train. The synod of Tyre was conducted by Eusebius of Caesarea with more passion, and with less art, than his learning and experience might promise; his numerous faction repeated the names of homicide and tyrant45; and their clamours were encouraged by the seeming patience of Athanasius; who expected the decisive moment to produce Arsenius alive and unhurt in the midst of the assembly. The nature of the other charges did not admit of such clear and satisfactory replies; yet the archbishop45 was able to prove that, in the village where he was accused of breaking a consecrated chalice, neither church45 nor altar nor chalice could really exist. The Arians, who had secretly determined the guilt and condemnation of their enemy, attempted, however, to disguise their injustice by the imitation of judicial forms: the synod appointed an episcopal commission of six delegates to collect evidence on the spot; and this measure, which was vigorously opposed by the Egyptian bishops, opened new45 scenes of violence and perjury. After the return of the deputies from Alexandria, the majority of the council pronounced the final sentence45 of degradation and exile45 against the primate of Egypt. The decree, expressed in the fiercest language of malice and revenge45, was communicated to the emperor45 and the Catholic church45; and the bishops immediately resumed a mild and devout aspect, such as became their holy pilgrimage to the sepulchre of Christ.
But the injustice of these ecclesiastical judges had not been countenanced by the submission, or even by the presence, of Athanasius. He resolved to make a bold and dangerous experiment, whether the throne47 was inaccessible to the voice of truth; and, before the final sentence could be pronounced at Tyre, the intrepid primate threw himself into a bark which was ready to hoist sail for the Imperial47 city47. The request of a formal audience might have been opposed or eluded; but Athanasius concealed his arrival, watched the moment of Constantine47's return from an adjacent villa, and boldly encountered his angry sovereign47 as he passed on horseback through the principal street of Constantinople. So strange an apparition excited his surprise and indignation; and the guards were ordered to remove the importunate suitor; but his resentment was subdued by involuntary respect; and the haughty spirit47 of the emperor47 was awed by the courage and eloquence of a bishop, who implored his justice47 and awakened his conscience. Constantine47 listened to the complaints of Athanasius with impartial and even gracious attention; the members of the synod of Tyre were summoned to justify their proceedings; and the arts of the Eusebian faction would have been confounded, if they had not aggravated the guilt of the primate by the dexterous supposition of an unpardonable offence: a criminal design to intercept and detain the cornfleet of Alexandria, which supplied the subsistence of the new capital. The emperor47 was satisfied that the peace of Egypt would be secured by the absence of a popular leader; but he refused to fill the vacancy of the archiepiscopal throne47; and the sentence which, after a long47 hesitation, he pronounced was that of a jealous ostracism, rather than of an ignominious exile. In the remote province of Gaul, but in the hospitable court of Treves, Athanasius passed about twenty-eight months. The death47 of the emperor47 changed the face of public47 affairs; and, amidst the general47 indulgence of a young reign47, the primate was restored to his country by an honourable edict of the younger Constantine47, who expressed a deep sense of the innocence and merit47 of his venerable guest.
The death3 of that prince3 exposed Athanasius3 to a second persecution; and the feeble Constantius3, the sovereign of the East3, soon3 became the secret accomplice of the Eusebians. Ninety bishops of that sect or faction assembled at Antioch, under the specious pretence of dedicating the cathedral. They composed an ambiguous creed, which is faintly tinged with the colours of Semi-Arianism, and twenty-five canons, which still regulate the discipline of the orthodox Greeks. It was decided, with some appearance of equity, that a bishop, deprived by a synod, should not resume his episcopal functions, till he had been absolved by the judgment of an equal synod; the law was immediately applied to the case of Athanasius3, the council of Antioch pronounced, or rather confirmed, his degradation: a stranger, named Gregory, was seated on his throne3; and Philagrius, the prefect of Egypt, was instructed to support the new primate with the civil and military3 powers of the province. Oppressed by the conspiracy of the Asiatic prelates Athanasius3 withdrew from Alexandria, and passed three years3 as an exile and a suppliant on the holy threshold of the Vatican. By the assiduous study of the Latin language, he soon3 qualified himself to negotiate with the Western clergy; his decent flattery swayed and directed the haughty Julius: the Roman3 Pontiff was persuaded to consider his appeal as the peculiar interest of the Apostolic see; and his innocence was unanimously declared in a council of fifty bishops of Italy. At the end of three years3, the primate was summoned to the court3 of Milan by the emperor3 Constans, who, in the indulgence of unlawful pleasures, still professed a lively regard for the orthodox faith. The cause of truth and justice was promoted by the influence of gold, and the ministers of Constans advised their sovereign to require the convocation of an ecclesiastical assembly, which might act as the representatives of the Catholic church. Ninety-four bishops of the West, seventy-six bishops of the East3, encountered each other at Sardica on the verge of the two empires, but in the dominions of the protector of Athanasius3. Their debates soon3 degenerated into hostile altercations; the Asiatics, apprehensive for their personal safety, retired to Philippopolis in Thrace; and the rival synods reciprocally hurled their spiritual thunders against their enemies, whom they piously condemned as the enemies of the true God. Their decrees were published and ratified in their respective provinces3; and Athanasius3, who in the West was revered as a saint, was exposed as a criminal to the abhorrence of the East3. The council of Sardica reveals the first symptoms of discord and schism between the Greek and Latin churches, which were separated by the accidental difference of faith and the permanent distinction of language.
During the second exile in the West, Athanasius3 was frequently admitted to the Imperial presence: at Capua, Lodi, Milan, Verona, Padua, Aquileia, and Treves. The bishop of the diocese usually assisted at these interviews; the master of the offices stood before the veil or curtain of the sacred apartment; and the uniform moderation of the primate might be attested by these respectable witnesses, to whose evidence he solemnly appeals. Prudence would undoubtedly suggest the mild and respectful tone that became a subject and a bishop. In these familiar conferences with the sovereign of the West, Athanasius3 might lament the error of Constantius3; but he boldly arraigned the guilt of his eunuchs and his Arian prelates; deplored the distress and danger of the Catholic church; and excited Constans to emulate the zeal and glory of his father. The emperor3 declared his resolution of employing the troops3 and treasures of Europe in the orthodox cause; and signified, by a concise and peremptory epistle to his brother Constantius3, that, unless he consented to the immediate restoration of Athanasius3, he himself, with a fleet and army3, would seat the archbishop on the throne3 of Alexandria. But this religious war3, so horrible to nature, was prevented by the timely compliance of Constantius3; and the emperor3 of the East3 condescended to solicit a reconciliation with a subject whom he had injured. Athanasius3 waited with decent pride, till he had received three successive epistles full of the strongest assurances of the protection, the favour, and the esteem of his sovereign; who invited him to resume his episcopal seat, and who added the humiliating precaution of engaging his principal ministers to attest the sincerity of his intentions. They were manifested in a still more public manner by the strict orders which were despatched into Egypt to recall the adherents of Athanasius3, to restore their privileges, to proclaim their innocence, and to erase from the public registers the illegal proceedings which had been obtained during the prevalence of the Eusebian faction. After every satisfaction and security had been given, which justice or even delicacy could require, the primate proceeded, by slow journeys, through the provinces3 of Thrace, Asia, and Syria; and his progress was marked by the abject homage of the oriental bishops, who excited his contempt without deceiving his penetration. At Antioch he saw the emperor3 Constantius3; sustained, with modest firmness, the embraces and protestations of his master, and eluded the proposal of allowing the Arians a single church at Alexandria, by claiming, in the other cities of the empire3, a similar toleration for his own party; a reply which might have appeared just and moderate in the mouth of an independent prince3. The entrance of the archbishop into his capital was a triumphal procession; absence and persecution had endeared him to the Alexandrians; his authority, which he exercised with rigour, was more firmly established; and his fame was diffused from Aethiopia to Britain, over the whole extent of the Christian world.
But the subject who has reduced his prince3 to the necessity of dissembling can never expect a sincere and lasting forgiveness; and the tragic fate of Constans soon3 deprived Athanasius3 of a powerful and generous protector. The civil war3 between the assassin and the only surviving brother of Constans, which afflicted the empire3 above three years3, secured an interval of repose to the Catholic church; and the two contending parties were desirous to conciliate the friendship3 of a bishop who, by the weight of his personal authority, might determine the fluctuating resolutions of an important3 province. He gave audience to the ambassadors of the tyrant, with whom he was afterwards accused of holding a secret correspondence; and the emperor3 Constantius3 repeatedly assured his dearest father, the most reverend Athanasius3, that, notwithstanding the malicious rumours which were circulated by their common enemies, he had inherited the sentiments, as well as the throne3, of his deceased brother. Gratitude and humanity would have disposed the primate of Egypt to deplore the untimely fate of Constans, and to abhor the guilt of Magnentius; but, as he clearly understood that the apprehensions of Constantius3 were his only safeguard, the fervour of his prayers for the success of the righteous cause might perhaps be somewhat abated. The ruin of Athanasius3 was no longer contrived by the obscure malice of a few bigoted or angry bishops, who abused the authority of a credulous monarch3. The monarch3 himself avowed the resolution, which he had so long3 suppressed, of avenging his private injuries; and the first winter after his victory3, which he passed at Arles, was employed against an enemy3 more odious to him than the vanquished tyrant of Gaul3.
If the emperor1 had capriciously decreed the death of the most eminent and virtuous citizen of the republic1, the cruel order1 would have been executed without hesitation, by the ministers of open violence or of specious injustice. The caution, the delay, the difficulty with which he proceeded in the condemnation and punishment of a popular bishop1, discovered to the world that the privileges of the church1 had already revived a sense of order1 and freedom1 in the Roman1 government1. The sentence which was pronounced in the synod of Tyre, and subscribed by a large majority of the Eastern bishops1, had never been expressly repealed; and, as Athanasius had been once degraded from his episcopal dignity by the judgment of his brethren, every subsequent act might be considered as irregular, and even criminal. But the memory of the firm and effectual support which the primate of Egypt had derived from the attachment of the Western church1 engaged Constantius to suspend the execution of the sentence, till he had obtained the concurrence of the Latin bishops1. Two years1 were consumed in ecclesiastical1 negotiations; and the important cause between the emperor1 and one of his subjects1 was solemnly debated, first in the synod of Arles, and afterwards in the great council of Milan, which consisted of above three hundred bishops1. Their integrity was gradually undermined by the arguments of the Arians, the dexterity of the eunuchs, and the pressing solicitations of a prince, who gratified his revenge at the expense of his dignity, and exposed his own passions, whilst he influenced those of the clergy1. Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, was successfully practised: honours1, gifts, and immunities were offered and accepted as the price of an episcopal vote; and the condemnation of the Alexandrian primate was artfully represented as the only measure which could restore the peace1 and union of the Catholic church1. The friends of Athanasius were not, however, wanting to their leader, or to their cause. With a manly spirit, which the sanctity of their character rendered less dangerous, they maintained in public1 debate, and in private conference with the emperor1, the eternal obligation of religion1 and justice1. They declared that neither the hope of his favour nor the fear of his displeasure should prevail on them to join in the condemnation of an absent, an innocent, a respectable brother. They affirmed, with apparent reason, that the illegal and obsolete decrees of the council of Tyre had long1 since been tacitly abolished by the Imperial edicts, the honourable re-establishment of the archbishop of Alexandria, and the silence or recantation of his most clamorous adversaries. They alleged that his innocence had been attested by the unanimous bishops1 of Egypt, and had been acknowledged, in the councils of Rome1 and Sardica, by the impartial judgment of the Latin church1. They deplored the hard condition of Athanasius, who, after enjoying so many years1 his seat, his reputation, and the seeming confidence of his sovereign, was again called upon to confute the most groundless and extravagant accusations. Their language was specious; their conduct was honourable: but in this long1 and obstinate contest, which fixed the eyes of the whole empire1 on a single bishop1, the ecclesiastical1 factions were prepared to sacrifice truth and justice1 to the more interesting object of defending, or removing, the intrepid champion of the Nicene faith. The Arians still thought it prudent to disguise, in ambiguous language, their real sentiments and designs; but the orthodox bishops1, armed with the favour of the people1 and the decrees of a general council, insisted on every occasion, and particularly at Milan, that their adversaries should purge themselves from the suspicion of heresy, before they presumed to arraign the conduct of the great Athanasius.
But the voice of reason (if reason was indeed on the side of Athanasius) was silenced by the clamours of a factious or venal majority; and the councils of Arles and Milan45 were not dissolved, till the archbishop45 of Alexandria had been solemnly condemned45 and deposed by the judgment of the Western, as well as of the Eastern, church45. The bishops who had opposed, were required to subscribe, the sentence45; and to unite in religious communion with the suspected leaders of the adverse party. A formulary of consent was transmitted by the messengers of state to the absent bishops: and all those who refused to submit their private45 opinion to the public45 and inspired wisdom of the councils of Arles and Milan45 were immediately banished by the emperor45, who affected to execute the decrees of the Catholic church45. Among those prelates who led the honourable band of confessors and exiles, Liberius of Rome, Osius of Cordova, Paulinus of Treves, Dionysius of Milan45, Eusebius of Vercellae, Lucifer of Cagliari, and Hilary of Poitiers may deserve to be particularly distinguished. The eminent station of Liberius, who governed the capital of the empire45; the personal merit45 and long experience of the venerable Osius, who was revered as the favourite of the great Constantine, and the father of the Nicene faith; placed those prelates at the head of the Latin church45: and their example, either of submission or resistance, would probably be imitated by the episcopal crowd. But the repeated attempts of the emperor45 to seduce or to intimidate the bishops of Rome and Cordova were for some time ineffectual. The Spaniard declared himself ready to suffer under Constantius, as he had suffered threescore years45 before under his grandfather Maximian. The Roman, in the presence of his sovereign45, asserted the innocence of Athanasius, and his own freedom. When he was banished to Beroea in Thrace, he sent back a large sum which had been offered for the accommodation of his journey; and insulted the court of Milan45 by the haughty remark that the emperor45 and his eunuchs might want that gold to pay their soldiers and their bishops. The resolution of Liberius and Osius was at length subdued by the hardships of exile45 and confinement. The Roman pontiff purchased his return by some criminal compliances; and afterwards expiated his guilt by a seasonable repentance. Persuasion and violence were employed to extort the reluctant signature of the decrepit bishop45 of Cordova, whose strength was broken, and whose faculties were perhaps impaired, by the weight of an hundred years45; and the insolent triumph of the Arians provoked some of the orthodox party to treat with inhuman severity the character45, or rather the memory, of an unfortunate old man, to whose former services Christianity itself was so deeply indebted.
The fall of Liberius and Osius reflected a brighter lustre on the firmness of those bishops who still adhered, with unshaken fidelity, to the cause of Athanasius and religious truth. The ingenious malice of their enemies had deprived them of the benefit of mutual comfort and advice, separated those illustrious exiles into distant provinces, and carefully selected the most inhospitable spots of a great empire45. Yet they soon45 experienced that the deserts of Libya and the most barbarous tracts of Cappadocia were less inhospitable than the residence of those cities in which an Arian bishop45 could satiate, without restraint, the exquisite rancour of theological hatred. Their consolation was derived from the consciousness of rectitude and independence, from the applause, the visits, the letters, and the liberal alms of their adherents, and from the satisfaction which they soon45 enjoyed of observing the intestine divisions of the adversaries of the Nicene faith. Such was the nice and capricious taste of the emperor45 Constantius, and so easily was he offended by the slightest deviation from his imaginary standard of Christian truth, that he persecuted, with equal zeal, those who defended the consubstantiality, those who asserted the similar substance, and those who denied the likeness, of the Son45 of God45. Three bishops, degraded and banished for those adverse opinions, might possibly meet in the same place of exile45; and, according to the difference of their temper, might either pity or insult the blind enthusiasm of their antagonists, whose present sufferings would never be compensated by future happiness.
The disgrace and exile of the orthodox bishops of the West were designed as so many preparatory steps to the ruin of Athanasius3 himself. Six and twenty months had elapsed, during which the Imperial court3 secretly laboured, by the most insidious arts, to remove him from Alexandria, and to withdraw the allowance which supplied his popular liberality. But, when the primate of Egypt, deserted and proscribed by the Latin church, was left destitute of any foreign support, Constantius3 despatched two of his secretaries with a verbal commission to announce and execute the order of his banishment. As the justice of the sentence was publicly avowed by the whole party, the only motive which could restrain Constantius3 from giving his messengers the sanction of a written mandate must be imputed to his doubt of the event; and to a sense of the danger to which he might expose the second city3, and the most fertile province, of the empire3 if the people should persist in the resolution of defending, by force of arms3, the innocence of their spiritual father. Such extreme caution afforded Athanasius3 a specious pretence respectfully to dispute the truth of an order, which he could not reconcile either with the equity, or with the former declarations, of his gracious master. The civil powers of Egypt found themselves inadequate to the task of persuading or compelling the primate to abdicate his episcopal throne3; and they were obliged to conclude a treaty3 with the popular leaders of Alexandria, by which it was stipulated that all proceedings and hostilities should be suspended till the emperor3's pleasure had been more distinctly ascertained. By this seeming moderation, the Catholics were deceived into a false and fatal security; while the legions of the Upper Egypt and of Libya advanced, by secret orders and hasty marches, to besiege, or rather to surprise, a capital habituated to sedition and inflamed by religious zeal. The position of Alexandria, between the sea and the lake Mareotis, facilitated the approach and landing of the troops3; who were introduced into the heart of the city3, before any effectual measures could be taken either to shut the gates or to occupy the important3 posts of defence. At the hour of midnight, twenty-three days after the signature of the treaty3, Syrianus, duke of Egypt, at the head3 of five thousand3 soldiers, armed and prepared for an assault, unexpectedly invested the church of St. Theonas, where the archbishop, with a party of his clergy and people, performed their nocturnal devotions. The doors of the sacred edifice yielded to the impetuosity of the attack, which was accompanied with every horrid circumstance of tumult and bloodshed; but, as the bodies of the slain and the fragments of military3 weapons remained the next day an unexceptionable evidence in the possession of the Catholics, the enterprise of Syrianus may be considered as a successful irruption, rather than as an absolute conquest. The other churches of the city3 were profaned by similar outrages; and, during at least four months, Alexandria was exposed to the insults of a licentious army3, stimulated by the ecclesiastics of an hostile faction. Many of the faithful were killed; who may deserve the name of martyrs, if their deaths were neither provoked nor revenged; bishops and presbyters were treated with cruel ignominy; consecrated virgins were stripped naked, scourged, and violated; the houses of wealthy citizens were plundered; and, under the mask of religious zeal, lust, avarice, and private resentment were gratified with impunity, and even with applause. The Pagans of Alexandria, who still formed a numerous and discontented party, were easily persuaded to desert a bishop whom they feared and esteemed. The hopes of some peculiar favours, and the apprehension of being involved in the general3 penalties of rebellion, engaged them to promise their support to the destined successor of Athanasius3, the famous George of Cappadocia. The usurper, after receiving the consecration of an Arian synod, was placed on the episcopal throne3 by the arms3 of Sebastian, who had been appointed Count of Egypt for the execution of that important3 design. In the use, as well as in the acquisition, of power, the tyrant George disregarded the laws of religion, of justice, and of humanity; and the same scenes of violence and scandal which had been exhibited in the capital were repeated in more than ninety episcopal cities of Egypt. Encouraged by success, Constantius3 ventured to approve the conduct of his ministers. By a public and passionate epistle, the emperor3 congratulates the deliverance of Alexandria from a popular tyrant, who deluded his blind votaries by the magic of his eloquence; expatiates on the virtues and piety of the most reverend George, the elected bishop; and aspires, as the patron and benefactor of the city3, to surpass the fame of Alexander himself. But he solemnly declares his unalterable resolution to pursue with fire and sword the seditious adherents of the wicked Athanasius3, who, by flying from justice, has confessed his guilt, and escaped the ignominious death3 which he had so often deserved.
Athanasius had indeed escaped from the most imminent dangers; and the adventures of that extraordinary man deserve and fix our attention. On the memorable night when the church of St30. Theonas was invested by the troops30 of Syrianus, the archbishop, seated on his throne, expected, with calm and intrepid dignity, the approach of death30. While the public devotion was interrupted by shouts of rage and cries of terror, he animated his trembling congregation to express their religious confidence, by chanting one of the psalms of David, which celebrates the triumph of the God of Israel over the haughty and impious tyrant of Egypt. The doors were at length burst open; a cloud of arrows was discharged among the people30; the soldiers30, with drawn swords, rushed forwards into the sanctuary; and the dreadful gleam of their armour was reflected by the holy30 luminaries which burnt round the altar. Athanasius still rejected the pious importunity of the Monks and Presbyters, who were attached to his person; and nobly refused to desert his episcopal station, till30 he had dismissed in safety the last of the congregation. The darkness and tumult of the night favoured the retreat of the archbishop; and, though he was oppressed by the waves of an agitated multitude, though he was thrown to the ground, and left30 without sense or motion, he still recovered his undaunted courage, and eluded the eager search of the soldiers30, who were instructed by their Arian guides that the head30 of Athanasius would be the most acceptable present to the emperor30. From that moment the primate of Egypt disappeared from the eyes of his enemies30, and remained above six years30 concealed in impenetrable obscurity.
The despotic power47 of his implacable enemy filled the whole extent of the Roman47 world; and the exasperated monarch had endeavoured, by a very pressing epistle to the Christian princes of Aethiopia, to exclude Athanasius from the most remote and sequestered regions of the earth. Counts, prefects, tribunes, whole armies, were successively employed to pursue a bishop and a fugitive; the vigilance of the civil47 and military47 powers were excited by the Imperial47 edicts; liberal rewards were promised to the man who should produce Athanasius, either alive or dead; and the most severe penalties were denounced against those who should dare to protect the public47 enemy. But the deserts of Thebais were now peopled by a race of wild yet submissive fanatics, who preferred the commands of their abbot to the laws of their sovereign47. The numerous disciples of Anthony and Pachomius received the fugitive primate as their father47, admired the patience and humility with which he conformed to their strictest institutions, collected every word which dropt from his lips as the genuine effusions of inspired wisdom; and persuaded themselves that their prayers, their fasts, and their vigils were less meritorious than the zeal which they expressed, and the dangers which they braved, in the defence of truth and innocence. The monasteries of Egypt were seated in lonely and desolate places, on the summit of mountains, or in the islands of the Nile; and the sacred horn or trumpet of Tabenne was the well-known signal which assembled several thousand robust and determined Monks, who, for the most part, had been the peasants of the adjacent country. When their dark retreats were invaded by a military47 force, which it was impossible to resist, they silently stretched out their necks to the executioner, and supported their national character that tortures could never wrest from an Egyptian the confession of a secret47 which he was resolved not to disclose. The archbishop of Alexandria, for whose safety they eagerly devoted their lives, was lost among a uniform and well-disciplined multitude; and on the nearer approach of danger47, he was swiftly removed, by their officious hands, from one place of concealment to another, till he reached the formidable deserts, which the gloomy and credulous temper of superstition had peopled with demons and savage monsters. The retirement of Athanasius, which ended only with the life47 of Constantius, was spent, for the most part, in the society of the Monks, who faithfully served him as guards, as secretaries, and as messengers; but the importance of maintaining a more intimate connection with the Catholic party tempted him, whenever the diligence of the pursuit was abated, to emerge from the desert, to introduce himself into Alexandria, and to trust his person47 to the discretion of his friends and adherents. His various adventures might have furnished the subject of a very entertaining romance. He was once secreted in a dry cistern, which he had scarcely left before he was betrayed by the treachery of a female slave; and he was once concealed in a still more extraordinary asylum, the house of a virgin, only twenty years of age47, and who was celebrated in the whole city47 for her exquisite beauty. At the hour of midnight, as she related the story many years afterwards, she was surprised by the appearance of the archbishop in a loose undress, who, advancing with hasty steps, conjured her to afford him the protection which he had been directed by a celestial vision to seek under her hospitable roof. The pious maid accepted and preserved the sacred pledge which was entrusted to her prudence and courage. Without imparting the secret47 to any one, she instantly conducted Athanasius into her most secret47 chamber, and watched over his safety with the tenderness of a friend and the assiduity of a servant. As long47 as the danger47 continued, she regularly supplied him with books and provisions, washed his feet, managed his correspondence, and dexterously concealed from the eye of suspicion this familiar and solitary intercourse between a saint whose character required the most unblemished chastity and a female whose charms might excite the most dangerous emotions. During the six years of persecution and exile, Athanasius repeated his visits to his fair and faithful companion; and the formal declaration that he saw the councils of Rimini and Seleucia forces us to believe that he was secretly present at the time and place of their convocation. The advantage of personally negotiating with his friends, and of observing and improving the divisions of his enemies, might justify, in a prudent statesman, so bold and dangerous an enterprise; and Alexandria was connected by trade and navigation with every seaport of the Mediterranean. From the depth of his inaccessible retreat, the intrepid primate waged an incessant and offensive war47 against the protector of the Arians; and his seasonable writings, which were diligently circulated and eagerly perused, contributed to unite and animate the orthodox party. In his public47 apologies, which he addressed to the emperor47 himself, he sometimes affected the praise of moderation; whilst at the same time, in secret47 and vehement invectives, he exposed Constantius as a weak and wicked prince47, the executioner of his family, the tyrant47 of the republic, and the antichrist of the church. In the height of his prosperity, the victorious monarch, who had chastised the rashness of Gallus, and suppressed the revolt of Sylvanus, who had taken the diadem from the head of Vetranio, and vanquished in the field the legions of Magnentius, received from an invisible hand a wound which he could neither heal nor revenge; and the son47 of Constantine47 was the first of the Christian princes who experienced the strength of those principles which, in the cause of religion, could resist the most violent exertions of the civil47 power47.
The persecution33 of Athanasius and of so many respectable bishops33, who suffered for the truth of their opinions, or at least for the integrity of their conscience, was a just subject of indignation and discontent to all Christians, except those who were blindly devoted to the Arian33 faction. The people33 regretted the loss of their faithful pastors, whose banishment was usually followed by the intrusion of a stranger into the episcopal33 chair; and loudly complained that the right of election was violated, and that they were condemned to obey a mercenary usurper, whose person was unknown, and whose principles were suspected. The Catholics33 might prove to the world that they were not involved in the guilt and heresy33 of their ecclesiastical33 governor, by publicly testifying their dissent, or by totally separating themselves from his communion. The first of these methods was invented at Antioch33, and practised with such success that it was soon diffused over the Christian33 world. The doxology or sacred hymn, which celebrates the glory of the Trinity, is susceptible of very nice33, but material, inflections; and the substance of an orthodox33, or an heretical, creed33 may be expressed by the difference of a disjunctive, or a copulative, particle. Alternate responses, and a more regular psalmody, were introduced into the public service by Flavianus and Diodorus, two devout and active laymen, who were attached to the Nicene faith33. Under their conduct, a swarm of Monks33 issued from the adjacent desert, bands of well-disciplined singers were stationed in the cathedral of Antioch33, the Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy33 Ghost, was triumphantly chanted by a full chorus of voices; and the Catholics33 insulted, by the purity of their doctrine, the Arian33 prelate who had usurped the throne33 of the venerable Eustathius. The same zeal33 which inspired their songs prompted the more scrupulous members of the orthodox33 party to form separate assemblies, which were governed by the presbyters, till the death of their exiled bishop33 allowed the election and consecration of a new episcopal33 pastor. The revolutions of the court multiplied the number of pretenders; and the same city was often disputed, under the reign of Constantius, by two, or three, or even four bishops33, who exercised their spiritual jurisdiction over their respective followers, and alternately lost and regained the temporal possessions of the church33. The abuse of Christianity introduced into the Roman government new causes of tyranny and sedition; the bands of civil society were torn asunder by the fury of religious33 factions; and the obscure citizen, who might calmly have surveyed the elevation and fall of successive emperors, imagined and experienced that his own life and fortune were connected with the interests of a popular ecclesiastic. The example of the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople33, may serve to represent the state of the empire, and the temper of mankind, under the reign of the sons of Constantine.
I. The Roman47 pontiff, as long47 as he maintained his station and his principles, was guarded by the warm attachment of a great people47; and could reject with scorn the prayers, the menaces, and the oblations of an heretical prince47. When the eunuchs had secretly pronounced the exile of Liberius, the well-grounded apprehension of a tumult engaged them to use the utmost precautions in the execution of the sentence. The capital was invested on every side, and the prefect47 was commanded to seize the person47 of the bishop, either by stratagem or by open force. The order was obeyed; and Liberius, with the greatest difficulty, at the hour of midnight, was swiftly conveyed beyond the reach of the Roman47 people47, before their consternation was turned into rage. As soon47 as they were informed of his banishment into Thrace, a general47 assembly was convened, and the clergy of Rome47 bound themselves, by a public47 and solemn oath, never to desert their bishop, never to acknowledge the usurper Felix; who, by the influence of the eunuchs, had been irregularly chosen and consecrated within the walls of a profane palace47. At the end of two years, their pious obstinacy subsisted entire and unshaken; and, when Constantius visited Rome47, he was assailed by the importunate solicitations of a people47, who had preserved, as the last remnant of their ancient freedom, the right of treating their sovereign47 with familiar insolence. The wives of many of the senators and most honourable citizens, after pressing their husbands to intercede in favour of Liberius, were advised to undertake a commission, which, in their hands, would be less dangerous and might prove more successful. The emperor47 received with politeness these female deputies, whose wealth and dignity were displayed in the magnificence of their dress and ornaments: he admired their inflexible resolution of following their beloved pastor to the most distant regions of the earth, and consented that the two bishops, Liberius and Felix, should govern in peace their respective congregations. But the ideas of toleration were so repugnant to the practice, and even to the sentiments, of those times that, when the answer of Constantius was publicly read in the Circus of Rome47, so reasonable a project of accommodation was rejected with contempt and ridicule. The eager vehemence which animated the spectators in the decisive moment of a horse-race was now directed towards a different object; and the Circus resounded with the shout of thousands, who repeatedly exclaimed, One God, One Christ, One Bishop. The zeal of the Roman47 people47 in the cause of Liberius was not confined to words alone; and the dangerous and bloody sedition which they excited soon47 after the departure of Constantius determined that prince47 to accept the submission of the exiled prelate, and to restore him to the undivided dominion of the capital. After some ineffectual resistance, his rival was expelled from the city47 by the permission of the emperor47, and the power47 of the opposite faction; the adherents of Felix were inhumanly murdered in the streets, in the public47 places, in the baths, and even in the churches; and the face of Rome47, upon the return of a Christian bishop, renewed the horrid image of the massacres of Marius and the proscriptions of Sylla.
II. Notwithstanding the rapid increase of Christians under the reign47 of the Flavian family, Rome47, Alexandria, and the other great cities of the empire47 still contained a strong and powerful faction of Infidels, who envied the prosperity, and who ridiculed, even on their theatres, the theological disputes, of the church. Constantinople alone enjoyed the advantage of being born and educated in the bosom of the faith. The capital of the East47 had never been polluted by the worship of idols; and the whole body of the people47 had deeply imbibed the opinions, the virtues, and the passions, which distinguished the Christians of that age47 from the rest of mankind. After the death47 of Alexander, the episcopal throne47 was disputed by Paul and Macedonius. By their zeal and abilities they both deserved the eminent station to which they aspired; and, if the moral character of Macedonius was less exceptionable, his competitor had the advantage of a prior election and a more orthodox doctrine. His firm attachment to the Nicene creed, which has given Paul a place in the calendar among saints and martyrs, exposed him to the resentment of the Arians. In the space of fourteen years he was five times driven from the throne47; to which he was more frequently restored by the violence of the people47 than by the permission of the prince47; and the power47 of Macedonius could be secured only by the death47 of his rival. The unfortunate Paul was dragged in chains from the sandy deserts of Mesopotamia to the most desolate places of Mount Taurus, confined in a dark and narrow dungeon, left six days without food, and at length strangled, by the order of Philip, one of the principal ministers of the emperor47 Constantius. The first blood which stained the new capital was spilt in this ecclesiastical contest; and many persons were slain on both sides, in the furious and obstinate seditions of the people47. The commission of enforcing a sentence of banishment against Paul had been entrusted to Hermogenes, the master47-general47 of the cavalry; but the execution of it was fatal to himself. The Catholics rose in the defence of their bishop; the palace47 of Hermogenes was consumed; the first military47 officer of the empire47 was dragged by the heels through the streets of Constantinople, and, after he expired, his lifeless corpse was exposed to their wanton insults. The fate of Hermogenes instructed Philip, the Praetorian prefect47, to act with more precaution on a similar occasion. In the most gentle and honourable terms, he required the attendance of Paul in the baths of Zeuxippus, which had a private47 communication with the palace47 and the sea. A vessel, which lay ready at the garden-stairs, immediately hoisted sail; and, while the people47 were still ignorant of the meditated sacrilege, their bishop was already embarked on his voyage to Thessalonica. They soon47 beheld, with surprise and indignation, the gates of the palace47 thrown open, and the usurper Macedonius seated by the side of the prefect47 on a lofty chariot, which was surrounded by troops47 of guards with drawn swords. The military47 procession advanced towards the cathedral; the Arians and the Catholics eagerly rushed to occupy that important post; and three thousand one hundred and fifty persons lost their lives in the confusion of the tumult. Macedonius, who was supported by a regular force, obtained a decisive victory; but his reign47 was disturbed by clamour and sedition; and the causes which appeared the least connected with the subject of dispute were sufficient to nourish and to kindle the flame of civil47 discord. As the chapel in which the body of the great Constantine47 had been deposited was in a ruinous condition, the bishops transported those venerable remains into the church of St. Acacius. This prudent and even pious measure was represented as a wicked profanation by the whole party which adhered to the Homoousian doctrine. The factions immediately flew to arms47, the consecrated ground was used as their field of battle; and one of the ecclesiastical historians has observed, as a real fact, not as a figure of rhetoric, that the well before the church overflowed with a stream of blood, which filled the porticoes and the adjacent courts. The writer who should impute these tumults solely to a religious principle would betray a very imperfect knowledge of human nature; yet it must be confessed that the motive which misled the sincerity of zeal, and the pretence which disguised the licentiousness of passion, suppressed the remorse which, in another cause, would have succeeded to the rage of the Christians of Constantinople.
The cruel and arbitrary disposition of Constantius, which did not always require the provocations of guilt and resistance, was justly exasperated by the tumults of his capital and the criminal behaviour of a faction, which opposed the authority11 and religion of their sovereign. The ordinary punishments of death, exile, and confiscation were inflicted with partial rigour; and the Greeks still revere the holy memory of two clerks, a reader and a sub-deacon, who were accused of the murder of Hermogenes, and beheaded at the gates of Constantinople. By an edict of Constantius against the Catholics, which has not been judged worthy of a place in the Theodosian Code, those who refused to communicate with the Arian bishops, and particularly with Macedonius, were deprived of the immunities of ecclesiastics and of the rights of Christians; they were compelled to relinquish the possession of the churches; and were strictly prohibited from holding their assemblies within the walls of the city. The execution of this unjust law, in the provinces11 of Thrace and Asia11 Minor, was committed to the zeal of Macedonius; the civil11 and military11 powers11 were directed to obey his commands; and the cruelties exercised by this semi-Arian tyrant in the support of the Homoiousion, exceeded the commission, and disgraced the reign, of Constantius. The sacraments of the church were administered to the reluctant victims, who denied the vocation, and abhorred the principles, of Macedonius. The rites of baptism were conferred on women and children, who, for that purpose, had been torn from the arms11 of their friends and parents; the mouths of the communicants were held open, by a wooden engine, while the consecrated bread was forced down their throat; the breasts of tender virgins were either burnt with red-hot egg-shells or inhumanly compressed between sharp and heavy boards. The Novatians of Constantinople and the adjacent country11, by their firm attachment to the Homoousian standard, deserved to be confounded with the Catholics themselves. Macedonius was informed that a large district of Paphlagonia was almost entirely inhabited by those sectaries. He resolved either to convert or to extirpate them; and, as he distrusted, on this occasion, the efficacy of an ecclesiastical mission, he commanded a body of four thousand11 legionaries to march11 against the rebels, and to reduce the territory of Mantinium under his spiritual dominion. The Novatian peasants, animated by despair and religious fury, boldly encountered the invaders of their country11; and, though many of the Paphlagonians were slain, the Roman11 legions were vanquished by an irregular multitude, armed only with scythes and axes; and, except a few who escaped by an ignominious flight, four thousand11 soldiers were left dead on the field of battle. The successor of Constantius has expressed, in a concise but lively manner, some of the theological calamities which afflicted the empire11, and more especially the East, in the reign of a prince who was the slave of his own passions and of those of his eunuchs. Many were imprissoned, and persecuted, and driven into exile. Whole troops of those who were styled heretics were massacred, particularly at Cyzicus, and at Samosata. In Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Galatia, and in many other provinces11, towns and villages were laid waste and utterly destroyed.
While the flames of the Arian controversy consumed the vitals of the empire47, the African provinces47 were infested by their peculiar enemies the savage fanatics, who, under the name of Circumcellions, formed the strength and scandal of the Donatist party. The severe execution of the laws of Constantine47 had excited a spirit47 of discontent and resistance; the strenuous efforts of his son47 Constans to restore the unity of the church exasperated the sentiments of mutual hatred which had first occasioned the separation; and the methods of force and corruption employed by the two Imperial47 commissioners, Paul and Macarius, furnished the schismatics with a specious contrast between the maxims of the apostles and the conduct47 of their pretended successors. The peasants who inhabited the villages of Numidia and Mauritania were a ferocious race, who had been imperfectly reduced under the authority47 of the Roman47 laws; who were imperfectly converted to the Christian faith; but who were actuated by a blind and furious enthusiasm in the cause of their Donatist teachers. They indignantly supported the exile of their bishops, the demolition of their churches, and the interruption of their secret47 assemblies. The violence of the officers of justice47, who were usually sustained by a military47 guard, was sometimes repelled with equal violence; and the blood of some popular ecclesiastics, which had been shed in the quarrel, inflamed their rude followers with an eager desire of revenging the death47 of these holy martyrs. By their own cruelty and rashness, the ministers of persecution sometimes provoked their fate; and the guilt of an accidental tumult precipitated the criminals into despair and rebellion. Driven from their native villages, the Donatist peasants assembled in formidable gangs on the edge of the Gaetulian desert; and readily exchanged the habits of labour for a life47 of idleness and rapine, which was consecrated by the name of religion and faintly condemned by the doctors of the sect. The leaders of the Circumcellions assumed the title of captains of the saints; their principal weapon, as they were indifferently provided with swords and spears, was a huge and weighty club, which they termed an Israelite; and the well-known sound of Praise be to God, which they used as their cry of war47, diffused consternation over the unarmed provinces47 of Africa. At first their depredations were coloured by the plea of necessity; but they soon47 exceeded the measure of subsistence, indulged without control their intemperance and avarice, burnt the villages which they had pillaged, and reigned the licentious tyrants of the open country. The occupations of husbandry, and the administration of justice47, were interrupted; and, as the Circumcellions pretended to restore the primitive equality of mankind and to reform the abuses of civil47 society, they opened a secure asylum for the slaves and debtors, who flocked in crowds to their holy standard. When they were not resisted, they usually contented themselves with plunder, but the slightest opposition provoked them to acts of violence and murder; and some Catholic priests, who had imprudently signalised their zeal, were tortured by the fanatics with the most refined and wanton barbarity. The spirit47 of the Circumcellions was not always exerted against their defenceless enemies; they engaged, and sometimes defeated, the troops47 of the province; and in the bloody action of Bagai, they attacked in the open field, but with unsuccessful valour, an advanced guard of the Imperial47 cavalry. The Donatists who were taken in arms47 received, and they soon47 deserved, the same treatment which might have been shewn to the wild beasts of the desert. The captives died, without a murmur, either by the sword, the axe, or the fire; and the measures of retaliation were multiplied in a rapid proportion, which aggravated the horrors of rebellion, and excluded the hope of mutual forgiveness. In the beginning of the present century, the example of the Circumcellions has been renewed in the persecution, the boldness, the crimes, and the enthusiasm of the Camisards; and, if the fanatics of Languedoc surpassed those of Numidia by their military47 achievements, the Africans maintained their fierce independence with more resolution and perseverance.
Such disorders are the natural effects of religious8 tyranny; but the rage of the Donatists was inflamed by a frenzy of a very extraordinary kind; and which, if it really prevailed among them in so extravagant a degree, cannot surely be paralleled in any country or in any age8. Many of these fanatics were possessed with the horror of life8, and the desire of martyrdom; and they deemed it of little moment by what means, or by what hands, they perished, if their conduct was sanctified by the intention of devoting themselves to the glory of the true faith8 and the hope of eternal happiness8. Sometimes they rudely disturbed the festivals and profaned the temples8 of paganism, with the design of exciting the most zealous of the idolaters to revenge the insulted honour of their gods8. They sometimes forced their way into the courts of justice, and compelled the affrighted judge to give orders for their immediate execution. They frequently stopped travellers on the public8 highways, and obliged them to inflict the stroke of martyrdom, by the promise of a reward, if they consented, and by the threat of instant death8, if they refused to grant so very singular a favour. When they were disappointed of every other resource, they announced the day on which, in the presence of their friends and brethren, they should cast themselves headlong from some lofty rock; and many precipices were shewn, which had acquired fame by the number of religious8 suicides. In the actions of these desperate enthusiasts, who were admired by one party as the martyrs of God8, and abhorred by the other as the victims of Satan, an impartial philosopher8 may discover the influence and the last abuse of that inflexible spirit, which was originally derived from the character8 and principles of the Jewish nation.
The simple narrative of the intestine divisions, which distracted the peace, and dishonoured the triumph, of the church8, will confirm the remark of a pagan8 historian, and justify the complaint of a venerable bishop. The experience of Ammianus had convinced him that the enmity of the Christians8 towards each other surpassed the fury of savage beasts against man8; and Gregory Nazianzen most pathetically laments that the kingdom of heaven was converted, by discord, into the image of chaos, of a nocturnal tempest, and of hell itself. The fierce and partial writers of the times, ascribing all virtue8 to themselves, and imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle of the angels and daemons. Our calmer reason8 will reject such pure and perfect monsters of vice or sanctity, and will impute an equal, or at least an indiscriminate, measure of good and evil to the hostile sectaries, who assumed and bestowed the appellations of orthodox and heretics. They had been educated in the same religion8, and the same civil society8. Their hopes and fears in the present, or in a future, life8 were balanced in the same proportion. On either side, the error might be innocent, the faith8 sincere, the practice8 meritorious or corrupt. Their passions8 were excited by similar objects; and they might alternately abuse the favour of the court or of the people. The metaphysical opinions of the Athanasians and the Arians could not influence their moral character8; and they were alike actuated by the intolerant spirit which has been extracted from the pure and simple maxims of the gospel.
A modern writer, who, with a just confidence, has prefixed to his own history the honourable epithets of political and philosophical, accuses the timid prudence of Montesquieu for neglecting to enumerate, among the causes of the decline of the empire8, a law of Constantine8, by which the exercise of the pagan8 worship8 was absolutely suppressed, and a considerable part of his subjects8 was left destitute of priests, of temples8, and of any public8 religion8. The zeal8 of the philosophic historian for the rights of mankind8 has induced him to acquiesce in the ambiguous testimony of those ecclesiastics, who have too lightly ascribed to their favourite hero the merit of a general persecution. Instead of alleging this imaginary law, which would have blazed in the front of the Imperial codes, we may safely appeal to the original epistle which Constantine8 addressed to the followers of the ancient8 religion8; at a time8 when he no longer disguised his conversion nor dreaded the rivals of his throne. He invites and exhorts, in the most pressing terms, the subjects8 of the Roman empire8 to imitate the example of their master; but he declares that those who still refuse to open their eyes to the celestial light may freely enjoy their temples8 and their fancied gods8. A report that the ceremonies of paganism were suppressed is formally contradicted by the emperor himself, who wisely assigns, as the principle of his moderation, the invincible force of habit, of prejudice, and of superstition8. Without violating the sanctity of his promise, without alarming the fears of the pagans8, the artful monarch advanced, by slow and cautious steps, to undermine the irregular and decayed fabric of Polytheism. The partial acts of severity which he occasionally exercised, though they were secretly prompted by a Christian8 zeal8, were coloured by the fairest pretences of justice and the public8 good; and, while Constantine8 designed to ruin the foundations, he seemed to reform the abuses, of the ancient8 religion8. After the example of the wisest of his predecessors, he condemned, under the most rigorous penalties, the occult and impious arts of divination; which excited the vain hopes, and sometimes the criminal attempts, of those who were discontented with their present condition. An ignominious silence was imposed on the oracles, which had been publicly convicted of fraud and falsehood; the effeminate priests of the Nile were abolished; and Constantine8 discharged the duties of a Roman censor, when he gave orders for the demolition of several temples8 of Phoenicia, in which every mode of prostitution was devoutly practised in the face of day, and to the honour of Venus. The Imperial city of Constantinople was, in some measure, raised at the expense, and was adorned with the spoils, of the opulent temples8 of Greece and Asia; the sacred8 property was confiscated; the statues of gods8 and heroes were transported, with rude familiarity, among a people who considered them as objects, not of adoration, but of curiosity: the gold and silver were restored to circulation; and the magistrates, the bishops, and the eunuchs improved the fortunate occasion of gratifying at once their zeal8, their avarice, and their resentment. But these depredations were confined to a small part of the Roman world8; and the provinces had been long since accustomed to endure the same sacrilegious rapine, from the tyranny of princes and proconsuls, who could not be suspected of any design to subvert the established religion8.
The sons of Constantine47 trod in the footsteps of their father47, with more zeal and with less discretion. The pretences of rapine and oppression were insensibly multiplied; every indulgence was shewn to the illegal behaviour of the Christians; every doubt was explained to the disadvantage of paganism; and the demolition of the temples was celebrated as one of the auspicious events of the reign47 of Constans and Constantius. The name of Constantius is prefixed to a concise law, which might have superseded the necessity of any future prohibitions. It is our pleasure that in all places, and in all cities, the temples be immediately shut, and carefully guarded, that none may have the power47 of offending. It is likewise our pleasure that all our subjects should abstain from sacrifices. If any one should be guilty of such an act, let him feel the sword of vengeance, and, after his execution, let his property be confiscated to the public47 use. We denounce the same penalties against the governors of the provinces47, if they neglect to punish the criminals. But there is the strongest reason to believe that this formidable edict was either composed without being published, or was published without being executed. The evidence of facts, and the monuments which are still extant of brass and marble, continue to prove the public47 exercise of the pagan worship during the whole reign47 of the sons of Constantine47. In the East47, as well as in the West, in cities, as well as in the country, a great number of temples were respected, or at least were spared; and the devout multitude still enjoyed the luxury of sacrifices, of festivals, and of processions, by the permission, or by the connivance, of the civil47 government47. About four years after the supposed date of his bloody edict, Constantius visited the temples of Rome47; and the decency of his behaviour is recommended by a pagan orator as an example worthy of the imitation of succeeding princes. That emperor47, says Symmachus, suffered the privileges of the vestal virgins to remain inviolate; he bestowed the sacerdotal dignities on the nobles of Rome47, granted the customary allowance to defray the expenses of the public47 rites and sacrifices: and, though he had embraced a different religion, he never attempted to deprive the empire47 of the sacred worship of antiquity. The senate47 still presumed to consecrate, by solemn decrees, the divine memory of their sovereigns; and Constantine47 himself was associated, after his death47, to those gods whom he had renounced and insulted during his life47. The title, the ensigns, the prerogatives of sovereign47 pontiff, which had been instituted by Numa, and assumed by Augustus, were accepted, without hesitation, by seven Christian emperors; who were invested with a more absolute authority47 over the religion which they had deserted than over that which they professed.
The divisions of Christianity8 suspended the ruin of paganism; and the holy war against the infidels was less vigorously prosecuted by princes and bishops who were more immediately alarmed by the guilt and danger of domestic rebellion. The extirpation of idolatry might have been justified by the established principles of intolerance: but the hostile sects, which alternately reigned in the Imperial court, were mutually apprehensive of alienating, and perhaps exasperating, the minds of a powerful, though declining, faction. Every motive of authority and fashion, of interest and reason8, now militated on the side of Christianity8; but two or three generations elapsed before their victorious influence was universally felt. The religion8 which had so long and so lately been established in the Roman empire8 was still revered by a numerous people, less attached indeed to speculative opinion than to ancient8 custom. The honours of the state and army were indifferently bestowed on all the subjects8 of Constantine8 and Constantius; and a considerable portion of knowledge and wealth and valour was still engaged in the service of Polytheism. The superstition8 of the senator and of the peasant, of the poet and the philosopher8, was derived from very different causes, but they met with equal devotion8 in the temples8 of the gods8. Their zeal8 was insensibly provoked by the insulting triumph of a proscribed sect; and their hopes were revived by the well-grounded confidence that the presumptive heir of the empire8, a young and valiant hero, who had delivered Gaul from the arms of the Barbarians, had secretly embraced the religion8 of his ancestors.
While the Romans3 languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian3 were repeated with transport in every part of the empire3, except in the palace of Constantius3. The Barbarians3 of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms3 of the young Caesar; his soldiers were the companions of his victory3; the grateful provincials enjoyed the blessings of his reign3; but the favourites who had opposed his elevation were offended by his virtues; and they justly considered the friend of the people as the enemy3 of the court3. As long3 as the fame of Julian3 was doubtful, the buffoons of the palace, who were skilled in the language of satire, tried the efficacy of those arts which they had so often practised with success. They easily discovered that his simplicity was not exempt from affectation: the ridiculous epithets of an hairy savage, of an ape invested with the purple, were applied to the dress and person of the philosophic warrior; and his modest despatches were stigmatised as the vain and elaborate fictions of a loquacious Greek, a speculative soldier, who had studied the art of war3 amidst the groves of the academy. The voice of malicious folly was at length silenced by the shouts of victory3; the conqueror of the Franks and Alemanni could no longer be painted as an object of contempt; and the monarch3 himself was meanly ambitious of stealing from his lieutenant the honourable reward of his labours. In the letters crowned with laurel, which, according to ancient custom, were addressed to the provinces3, the name of Julian3 was omitted. Constantius3 had made his dispositions in person; he had signalised his valour3 in the foremost ranks; his military3 conduct had secured the victory3; and the captive king3 of the Barbarians3 was presented to him on the field of battle, from which he was at that time distant about forty days' journey. So extravagant a fable was incapable, however, of deceiving the public credulity, or even of satisfying the pride of the emperor3 himself. Secretly conscious that the applause and favour of the Romans3 accompanied the rising fortunes of Julian3, his discontented mind was prepared to receive the subtle poison of those artful sycophants who coloured their mischievous designs with the fairest appearances of truth and candour. Instead of depreciating the merits of Julian3, they acknowledged, and even exaggerated, his popular fame, superior talents, and important3 services. But they darkly insinuated that the virtues of the Caesar might instantly be converted into the most dangerous crimes, if the inconstant multitude should prefer their inclinations to their duty; or if the general3 of a victorious army3 should be tempted from his allegiance by the hopes of revenge and independent greatness. The personal fears of Constantius3 were interpreted by his council as a laudable anxiety for the public safety; whilst in private, and perhaps in his own breast, he disguised, under the less odious appellation of fear, the sentiments of hatred and envy, which he had secretly conceived for the inimitable virtues of Julian3.
After a painful conflict, Julian was compelled to acknowledge that obedience was the virtue of the most eminent subject, and that the sovereign47 alone was entitled to judge of the public47 welfare. He issued the necessary orders for carrying into execution the commands of Constantius; a part of the troops47 began their march for the Alps; and the detachments from the several garrisons moved towards their respective places of assembly. They advanced with difficulty through the trembling and affrighted crowds of provincials; who attempted to excite their pity by silent despair or loud lamentations; while the wives of the soldiers47, holding their infants in their arms47, accused the desertion of their husbands, in the mixed language of grief, of tenderness, and of indignation. This scene of general47 distress afflicted the humanity of the Caesar; he granted a sufficient number of post-waggons to transport the wives and families of the soldiers47, endeavoured to alleviate the hardships which he was constrained to inflict, and increased, by the most laudable arts, his own popularity and the discontent of the exiled troops47. The grief of an armed multitude is soon47 converted into rage; their licentious murmurs, which every hour were communicated from tent to tent with more boldness and effect, prepared their minds for the most daring acts of sedition; and by the connivance of their tribunes, a seasonable libel was secretly dispersed, which painted in lively colours the disgrace of the Caesar, the oppression of the Gallic army47, and the feeble vices of the tyrant47 of Asia. The servants of Constantius were astonished and alarmed by the progress of this dangerous spirit47. They pressed the Caesar to hasten the departure of the troops47: but they imprudently rejected the honest and judicious advice of Julian; who proposed that they should not march through Paris, and suggested the danger47 and temptation of a last interview.
As soon47 as the approach of the troops47 was announced, the Caesar went out to meet them, and ascended his tribunal, which had been erected in a plain before the gates of the city47. After distinguishing the officers and soldiers47 who by their rank47 or merit47 deserved a peculiar attention, Julian addressed himself in a studied oration to the surrounding multitude: he celebrated their exploits with grateful applause: encouraged them to accept, with alacrity, the honour of serving under the eyes of a powerful and liberal monarch; and admonished them that the commands of Augustus required an instant and cheerful obedience. The soldiers47, who were apprehensive of offending their general47 by an indecent clamour, or of belying their sentiments by false and venal acclamations, maintained an obstinate silence, and, after a short pause, were dismissed to their quarters. The principal officers were entertained by the Caesar, who professed, in the warmest language of friendship, his desire and his inability to reward, according to their deserts, the brave companions of his victories. They retired from the feast, full of grief and perplexity; and lamented the hardship of their fate, which tore them from their beloved general47 and their native country. The only expedient which could prevent their separation was boldly agitated and approved; the popular resentment was insensibly moulded into a regular conspiracy; their just reasons of complaint were heightened by passion, and their passions were inflamed by wine; as, on the eve of their departure, the troops47 were indulged in licentious festivity. At the hour of midnight, the impetuous multitude, with swords and bowls and torches in their hands, rushed into the suburbs; encompassed the palace47; and, careless of future dangers, pronounced the fatal and irrevocable words, Julian Augustus! The prince47, whose anxious suspense was interrupted by their disorderly acclamations, secured the doors against their intrusion; and, as long47 as it was in his power47, secluded his person47 and dignity from the accidents of a nocturnal tumult. At the dawn of day, the soldiers47, whose zeal was irritated by opposition, forcibly entered the palace47, seized, with respectful violence, the object of their choice, guarded Julian with drawn swords through the streets of Paris, placed him on the tribunal, and with repeated shouts saluted him as their emperor47. Prudence as well as loyalty inculcated the propriety of resisting their treasonable designs and of preparing for his oppressed virtue the excuse of violence. Addressing himself by turns to the multitude and to individuals, he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes expressed his indignation; conjured them not to sully the fame of their immortal victories; and ventured to promise that, if they would immediately return to their allegiance, he would undertake to obtain from the emperor47, not only a free and gracious pardon, but even the revocation of the orders which had excited their resentment. But the soldiers47, who were conscious of their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitude of Julian than on the clemency of the emperor47. Their zeal was insensibly turned into impatience, and their impatience into rage. The inflexible Caesar sustained, till the third hour of the day, their prayers, their reproaches, and their menaces; nor did he yield, till he had been repeatedly assured that, if he wished to live, he must consent to reign47. He was exalted on a shield in the presence, and amidst the unanimous acclamations, of the troops47; a rich military47 collar, which was offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem; the ceremony was concluded by the promise of a moderate donative; and the new emperor47, overwhelmed with real or affected grief, retired into the most secret47 recesses of his apartment.
The grief of Julian26 could proceed only from his innocence; but his innocence must appear extremely doubtful in the eyes of those who have learned to suspect the motives and the professions of princes. His lively and active mind26 was susceptible of the various impressions of hope26 and fear, of gratitude and revenge, of duty26 and of ambition, of the love26 of fame and of the fear of reproach. But it is impossible for us to calculate the respective weight and operation of these sentiments; or to ascertain the principles of action, which might escape the observation, while they guided or rather impelled the steps, of Julian26 himself. The discontent of the troops26 was produced by the malice of his enemies; their tumult was the natural effect of interest and of passion; and, if Julian26 had tried to conceal a deep design under the appearances of chance, he must have employed the most consummate artifice without necessity, and probably without success. He solemnly declares, in the presence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of Minerva, and of all the other deities, that, till the close of the evening which preceded his elevation, he was utterly ignorant of the designs of the soldiers26; and it may seem ungenerous to distrust the honour of a hero and the truth of a philosopher. Yet the superstitious confidence that Constantius was the enemy, and that he himself was the favourite, of the gods might prompt him to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten the auspicious moment of his reign, which was predestined to restore the ancient26 religion of mankind. When Julian26 had received26 the intelligence of the conspiracy, he resigned himself to a short slumber; and afterwards related to his friends that he had seen the Genius of the empire26 waiting with some impatience at his door, pressing for admittance, and reproaching his want of spirit26 and ambition. Astonished and perplexed, he addressed his prayers to the great26 Jupiter; who immediately signified, by a clear and manifest omen, that he should submit to the will of heaven and of the army. The conduct which disclaims the ordinary maxims of reason excites our suspicion and eludes our inquiry. Whenever the spirit26 of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind26, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles of virtue and veracity.
To moderate the zeal of his party, to protect the persons of his enemies, to defeat and to despise the secret47 enterprises which were formed against his life47 and dignity, were the cares which employed the first days of the reign47 of the new emperor47. Although he was firmly resolved to maintain the station which he had assumed, he was still desirous of saving his country from the calamities of civil47 war47, of declining a contest with the superior forces of Constantius, and of preserving his own character from the reproach of perfidy and ingratitude. Adorned with the ensigns of military47 and Imperial47 pomp, Julian showed himself in the field of Mars to the soldiers47, who glowed with ardent enthusiasm in the cause of their pupil, their leader, and their friend. He recapitulated their victories, lamented their sufferings, applauded their resolution, animated their hopes, and checked their impetuosity; nor did he dismiss the assembly, till he had obtained a solemn promise from the troops47 that, if the emperor47 of the East47 would subscribe an equitable treaty, they would renounce any views of conquest, and satisfy themselves with the tranquil possession of the Gallic provinces47. On this foundation he composed, in his own name, and in that of the army47, a specious and moderate epistle, which was delivered to Pentadius, his master47 of the offices, and to his chamberlain Eutherius; two ambassadors whom he appointed to receive the answer, and observe the dispositions, of Constantius. This epistle is inscribed with the modest appellation of Caesar; but Julian solicits in a peremptory, though respectful, manner the confirmation of the title of Augustus. He acknowledges the irregularity of his own election, while he justifies, in some measure, the resentment and violence of the troops47 which had extorted his reluctant consent. He allows the supremacy of his brother Constantius; and engages to send him an annual present of Spanish horses, to recruit his army47 with a select number of Barbarian youths, and to accept from his choice a Praetorian prefect47 of approved discretion and fidelity. But he reserves for himself the nomination of his other civil47 and military47 officers, with the troops47, the revenue, and the sovereignty of the provinces47 beyond the Alps. He admonishes the emperor47 to consult the dictates of justice47; to distrust the arts of those venal flatterers who subsist only by the discord of princes; and to embrace the offer of a fair and honourable treaty, equally advantageous to the republic and to the house of Constantine47. In this negotiation Julian claimed no more than he already possessed. The delegated authority47 which he had long47 exercised over the provinces47 of Gaul, Spain, and Britain was still obeyed under a name more independent and august. The soldiers47 and the people47 rejoiced in a revolution which was not stained even with the blood of the guilty. Florentius was a fugitive; Lupicinus a prisoner. The persons who were disaffected to the new government47 were disarmed and secured; and the vacant offices were distributed, according to the recommendation of merit47, by a prince47 who despised the intrigues of the palace47 and the clamours of the soldiers47.
The negotiations of peace3 were accompanied and supported by the most vigorous preparations for war3. The army3, which Julian3 held in readiness for immediate action, was recruited and augmented by the disorders of the times. The cruel persecution of the faction of Magnentius had filled Gaul3 with numerous bands of outlaws and robbers. They cheerfully accepted the offer of a general3 pardon from a prince3 whom they could trust, submitted to the restraints of military3 discipline, and retained only their implacable hatred to the person and government of Constantius3. As soon3 as the season of the year permitted Julian3 to take the field, he appeared at the head3 of his legions; threw a bridge over the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Cleves; and prepared to chastise the perfidy of the Attuarii, a tribe of Franks, who presumed that they might ravage, with impunity, the frontiers of a divided empire3. The difficulty, as well as glory, of this enterprise consisted in a laborious march; and Julian3 had conquered, as soon3 as he could penetrate into, a country which former princes had considered as inaccessible. After he had given peace3 to the Barbarians3, the emperor3 carefully visited the fortifications along the Rhine from Cleves to Basil; surveyed, with peculiar attention, the territories which he had recovered from the hands of the Alemanni, passed through Besançon, which had severely suffered from their fury, and fixed his head3-quarters at Vienna for the ensuing winter. The barrier of Gaul3 was improved and strengthened with additional fortifications; and Julian3 entertained some hopes that the Germans, whom he had so often vanquished, might, in his absence, be restrained by the terror of his name. Vadomair was the only prince3 of the Alemanni whom he esteemed or feared; and, while the subtle Barbarian3 affected to observe the faith of treaties, the progress of his arms3 threatened the state with an unseasonable and dangerous war3. The policy of Julian3 condescended to surprise the prince3 of the Alemanni by his own arts; and Vadomair, who in the character of a friend had incautiously accepted an invitation from the Roman3 governors, was seized in the midst of the entertainment, and sent away prisoner into the heart of Spain. Before the Barbarians3 were recovered from their amazement, the emperor3 appeared in arms3 on the banks of the Rhine, and, once more crossing the river, renewed the deep impressions of terror and respect which had been already made by four preceding expeditions.
The ambassadors of Julian had been instructed to execute, with the utmost diligence, their important commission. But, in their passage through Italy47 and Illyricum, they were detained by the tedious and affected delays of the provincial governors; they were conducted by slow journeys from Constantinople to Caesarea in Cappadocia; and, when at length they were admitted to the presence of Constantius, they found that he had already conceived, from the despatches of his own officers, the most unfavourable opinion of the conduct47 of Julian and of the Gallic army47. The letters were heard with impatience; the trembling messengers were dismissed with indignation and contempt; and the looks, the gestures, the furious language of the monarch expressed the disorder of his soul. The domestic connection, which might have reconciled the brother and the husband of Helena, was recently dissolved by the death47 of that princess, whose pregnancy had been several times fruitless, and was at last fatal to herself. The empress Eusebia had preserved, to the last moment of her life47, the warm and even jealous affection which she had conceived for Julian; and her mild influence might have moderated the resentment of a prince47 who, since her death47, was abandoned to his own passions and to the arts of his eunuchs. But the terror of a foreign invasion obliged him to suspend the punishment of a private47 enemy; he continued his march towards the confines of Persia, and thought it sufficient to signify the conditions which might entitle Julian and his guilty followers to the clemency of their offended sovereign47. He required that the presumptuous Caesar should expressly renounce the appellation and rank47 of Augustus, which he had accepted from the rebels; that he should descend to his former station of a limited and dependent minister; that he should vest the powers of the state and army47 in the hands of those officers who were appointed by the Imperial47 court; and that he should trust his safety to the assurances of pardon, which were announced by Epictetus, a Gallic bishop, and one of the Arian favourites of Constantius. Several months were ineffectually consumed in a treaty which was negotiated at the distance of three thousand miles between Paris and Antioch; and, as soon47 as Julian perceived that his moderate and respectful behaviour served only to irritate the pride of an implacable adversary, he boldly resolved to commit his life47 and fortune to the chance of a civil47 war47. He gave a public47 and military47 audience to the quaestor Leonas: the haughty epistle of Constantius was read to the attentive multitude; and Julian protested, with the most flattering deference, that he was ready to resign the title of Augustus, if he could obtain the consent of those whom he acknowledged as the authors of his elevation. The faint proposal was impetuously silenced; and the acclamations of Julian Augustus, continue to reign47, by the authority47 of the army47, of the people47, of the republic, which you have saved, thundered at once from every part of the field, and terrified the pale ambassador of Constantius. A part of the letter was afterwards read, in which the emperor47 arraigned the ingratitude of Julian, whom he had invested with the honours of the purple; whom he had educated with so much care and tenderness; whom he had preserved in his infancy, when he was left a helpless orphan. An orphan! interrupted Julian, who justified his cause by indulging his passions; does the assassin of my family reproach me that I was left an orphan? He urges me to revenge those injuries which I have long47 studied to forget. The assembly was dismissed; and Leonas, who, with some difficulty, had been protected from the popular fury, was sent back to his master47, with an epistle, in which Julian expressed, in a strain of the most vehement eloquence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred, and of resentment, which had been suppressed and embittered by the dissimulation of twenty years. After this message, which might be considered as a signal of irreconcilable war47, Julian, who some weeks before had celebrated the Christian festival of the Epiphany, made a public47 declaration that he committed the care of his safety to the immortal gods; and thus publicly renounced the religion, as well as the friendship, of Constantius.
The situation of Julian required a vigorous and immediate resolution. He had discovered from intercepted letters that his adversary, sacrificing the interest of the state to that of the monarch, had again excited the Barbarians to invade the provinces47 of the West. The position of two magazines, one of them collected on the banks of the lake of Constance, the other formed at the foot of the Cottian Alps, seemed to indicate the march of two armies; and the size of those magazines, each of which consisted of six hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or rather flour, was a threatening evidence of the strength and numbers of the enemy, who prepared to surround him. But the Imperial47 legions were still in their distant quarters of Asia; the Danube was feebly guarded; and, if Julian could occupy by a sudden incursion the important provinces47 of Illyricum, he might expect that a people47 of soldiers47 would resort to his standard, and that the rich mines of gold and silver would contribute to the expenses of the civil47 war47. He proposed this bold enterprise to the assembly of the soldiers47; inspired them with a just confidence in their general47 and in themselves; and exhorted them to maintain their reputation, of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to their fellow-citizens, and obedient to their officers. His spirited discourse was received with the loudest acclamations, and the same troops47 which had taken up arms47 against Constantius, when he summoned them to leave Gaul, now declared with alacrity, that they would follow Julian to the farthest extremities of Europe or Asia. The oath of fidelity was administered; and the soldiers47, clashing their shields, and pointing their drawn swords to their throats, devoted themselves, with horrid imprecations, to the service of a leader whom they celebrated as the deliverer of Gaul and the conqueror of the Germans. This solemn engagement, which seemed to be dictated by affection rather than by duty, was singly opposed by Nebridius, who had been admitted to the office of Praetorian prefect47. That faithful minister, alone and unassisted, asserted the rights of Constantius in the midst of an armed and angry multitude, to whose fury he had almost fallen an honourable, but useless, sacrifice. After losing one of his hands by the stroke of a sword, he embraced the knees of the prince47 whom he had offended. Julian covered the prefect47 with his Imperial47 mantle, and, protecting him from the zeal of his followers, dismissed him to his own house, with less respect than was perhaps due to the virtue of an enemy. The high office of Nebridius was bestowed on Sallust; and the provinces47 of Gaul, which were now delivered from the intolerable oppression of taxes, enjoyed the mild and equitable administration of the friend of Julian, who was permitted to practise those virtues which he had instilled into the mind of his pupil.
The hopes of Julian depended much less on the number of his troops47 than on the celerity of his motions. In the execution of a daring enterprise, he availed himself of every precaution, as far as prudence could suggest; and, where prudence could no longer accompany his steps, he trusted the event to valour and to fortune. In the neighbourhood of Basil he assembled and divided his army47. One body, which consisted of ten thousand men, was directed, under the command47 of Nevitta, general47 of the cavalry, to advance through the midland parts of Rhaetia and Noricum. A similar division of troops47, under the orders of Jovius and Jovinus, prepared to follow the oblique course of the highways, through the Alps and the northern confines of Italy47. The instructions to the generals were conceived with energy and precision: to hasten their march in close and compact columns, which, according to the disposition of the ground, might readily be changed into any order of battle; to secure themselves against the surprises of the night by strong posts and vigilant guards; to prevent resistance by their unexpected arrival; to elude examination by their sudden departure; to spread the opinion of their strength and the terror of his name; and to join their sovereign47 under the walls of Sirmium. For himself, Julian had reserved a more difficult and extraordinary part. He selected three thousand brave and active volunteers, resolved, like their leader, to cast behind them every hope of a retreat: at the head of this faithful band, he fearlessly plunged into the recesses of the Marcian or black forest, which conceals the sources of the Danube; and, for many days, the fate of Julian was unknown to the world. The secrecy of his march, his diligence and vigour, surmounted every obstacle; he forced his way over mountains and morasses, occupied the bridges or swam the rivers, pursued his direct course, without reflecting whether he traversed the territory of the Romans or of the Barbarians, and at length emerged, between Ratisbon and Vienna, at the place where he designed to embark his troops47 on the Danube. By a well-concerted stratagem, he seized a fleet of light brigantines, as it lay at anchor; secured a supply of coarse provisions sufficient to satisfy the indelicate, but voracious, appetite of a Gallic army47; and boldly committed himself to the stream of the Danube. The labours of his mariners, who plied their oars with incessant diligence, and the steady continuance of a favourable wind, carried his fleet above seven hundred miles in eleven days; and he had already disembarked his troops47 at Bononia, only nineteen miles from Sirmium, before his enemies could receive any certain intelligence that he had left the banks of the Rhine. In the course of this long47 and rapid navigation, the mind of Julian was fixed on the object of his enterprise; and, though he accepted the deputation of some cities, which hastened to claim the merit47 of an early submission, he passed before the hostile stations, which were placed along the river, without indulging the temptation of signalising an useless and ill-timed valour. The banks of the Danube were crowded on either side with spectators, who gazed on the military47 pomp, anticipated the importance of the event, and diffused through the adjacent country the fame of a young hero, who advanced with more than mortal speed at the head of the innumerable forces of the West. Lucilian, who, with the rank47 of general47 of the cavalry, commanded the military47 powers of Illyricum, was alarmed and perplexed by the doubtful reports which he could neither reject nor believe. He had taken some slow and irresolute measures for the purpose of collecting his troops47; when he was surprised by Dagalaiphus, an active officer, whom Julian, as soon47 as he landed at Bononia, had pushed forwards with some light infantry. The captive general47, uncertain of his life47 or death47, was hastily thrown upon a horse, and conducted to the presence of Julian; who kindly raised him from the ground, and dispelled the terror and amazement which seemed to stupefy his faculties. But Lucilian had no sooner recovered his spirits than he betrayed his want of discretion, by presuming to admonish his conqueror that he had rashly ventured, with a handful of men, to expose his person47 in the midst of his enemies. Reserve for your master47 Constantius these timid remonstrances, replied Julian, with a smile of contempt; when I gave you my purple to kiss, I received you not as a counsellor, but as a suppliant. Conscious that success alone could justify his attempt, and that boldness only could command47 success, he instantly advanced, at the head of three thousand soldiers47, to attack the strongest and most populous city47 of the Illyrian provinces47. As he entered the long47 suburb of Sirmium, he was received by the joyful acclamations of the army47 and people47; who, crowned with flowers, and holding lighted tapers in their hands, conducted their acknowledged sovereign47 to his Imperial47 residence. Two days were devoted to the public47 joy, which was celebrated by the games of the Circus; but, early on the morning of the third day, Julian marched to occupy the narrow pass of Succi, in the defiles of Mount Haemus; which, almost in the mid-way between Sirmium and Constantinople, separates the provinces47 of Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent towards the former and a simple declivity on the side of the latter. The defence of this important post was entrusted to the brave Nevitta; who, as well as the generals of the Italian division, successfully executed the plan of the march and junction which their master47 had so ably conceived.
The homage which Julian obtained, from the fears or the inclination of the people47, extended far beyond the immediate effect of his arms47. The prefectures of Italy47 and Illyricum were administered by Taurus and Florentius, who united that important office with the vain honours of the consulship; and, as those magistrates had retired with precipitation to the court of Asia, Julian, who could not always restrain the levity of his temper, stigmatised their flight by adding, in all the Acts of the Year, the epithet of jugitive to the names of the two consuls. The provinces47 which had been deserted by their first magistrates acknowledged the authority47 of an emperor47, who, conciliating the qualities of a soldier with those of a philosopher, was equally admired in the camps of the Danube and in the cities of Greece. From his palace47, or, more properly, from his head-quarters of Sirmium and Naissus, he distributed to the principal cities of the empire47 a laboured apology for his own conduct47; published the secret47 despatches of Constantius; and solicited the judgment of mankind between two competitors, the one of whom had expelled, and the other had invited, the Barbarians. Julian, whose mind was deeply wounded by the reproach of ingratitude, aspired to maintain, by argument as well as by arms47, the superior merits of his cause; and to excel, not only in the arts of war47, but in those of composition. His epistle to the senate47 and people47 of Athens seems to have been dictated by an elegant enthusiasm; which prompted him to submit his actions and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of his own times, with the same humble deference as if he had been pleading, in the days of Aristides, before the tribunal of the Areopagus. His application to the senate47 of Rome47, which was still permitted to bestow the titles of Imperial47 power47, was agreeable to the forms of the expiring republic. An assembly was summoned by Tertullus, prefect47 of the city47; the epistle of Julian was read; and, as he appeared to be master47 of Italy47, his claims were admitted without a dissenting voice. His oblique censure of the innovations of Constantine47, and his passionate invective against the vices of Constantius, were heard with less satisfaction; and the senate47, as if Julian had been present, unanimously exclaimed, Respect, we beseech you, the author of your own fortune. An artful expression, which, according to the chance of war47, might be differently explained: as a manly reproof of the ingratitude of the usurper, or as a flattering confession that a single act of such benefit to the state ought to atone for all the failings of Constantius.
The intelligence of the march and rapid progress of Julian3 was speedily transmitted to his rival, who, by the retreat of Sapor3, had obtained some respite from the Persian3 war3. Disguising the anguish of his soul under the semblance of contempt, Constantius3 professed his intention of returning into Europe, and of giving chase to Julian3; for he never spoke of this military3 expedition in any other light than that of a hunting party. In the camp3 of Hierapolis, in Syria, he communicated this design to his army3, slightly mentioned the guilt and rashness of the Caesar, and ventured to assure them that, if the mutineers of Gaul3 presumed to meet them in the field, they would be unable to sustain the fire of their eyes and the irresistible weight of their shout of onset. The speech of the emperor3 was received with military3 applause, and Theodotus, the president of the council of Hierapolis, requested, with tears of adulation, that his city3 might be adorned with the head3 of the vanquished rebel. A chosen detachment was despatched away in post-waggons, to secure, if it were yet possible, the pass of Succi; the recruits, the horses, the arms3, and the magazines which had been prepared against Sapor3, were appropriated to the service of the civil war3; and the domestic victories of Constantius3 inspired his partisans with the most sanguine assurances of success. The notary Gaudentius had occupied in his name the provinces3 of Africa; the subsistence of Rome was intercepted; and the distress of Julian3 was increased by an unexpected event which might have been productive of fatal consequences. Julian3 had received the submission of two legions and a cohort of archers, who were stationed at Sirmium; but he suspected, with reason, the fidelity of those troops3, which had been distinguished by the emperor3, and it was thought expedient, under the pretence of the exposed state of the Gallic frontier, to dismiss them from the most important3 scene of action. They advanced, with reluctance, as far as the confines of Italy; but, as they dreaded the length of the way and the savage fierceness of the Germans, they resolved, by the instigation of one of their tribunes, to halt at Aquileia, and to erect the banners of Constantius3 on the walls of that impregnable city3. The vigilance of Julian3 perceived at once the extent of the mischief and the necessity of applying an immediate remedy. By his order, Jovinus led back a part of the army3 into Italy; and the siege of Aquileia was formed with diligence and prosecuted with vigour. But the legionaries, who seemed to have rejected the yoke of discipline, conducted the defence of the place with skill and perseverance; invited the rest of Italy to imitate the example of their courage and loyalty; and threatened the retreat of Julian3, if he should be forced to yield to the superior numbers of the arms3 of the East3.
But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the cruel alternative, which he pathetically laments, of destroying or of being himself destroyed: and the seasonable death47 of Constantius delivered the Roman47 empire47 from the calamities of civil47 war47. The approach of winter could not detain the monarch at Antioch; and his favourites durst not oppose his impatient desire of revenge. A slight fever, which was perhaps occasioned by the agitation of his spirits, was increased by the fatigues of the journey; and Constantius was obliged to halt at the little town of Mopsucrene, twelve miles beyond Tarsus, where he expired, after a short illness, in the forty-fifth year of his age47, and the twenty-fourth of his reign47. His genuine character, which was composed of pride and weakness, of superstition and cruelty, has been fully displayed in the preceding narrative of civil47 and ecclesiastical events. The long47 abuse of power47 rendered him a considerable object in the eyes of his contemporaries; but, as personal merit47 can alone deserve the notice of posterity, the last of the sons of Constantine47 may be dismissed from the world with the remark, that he inherited the defects, without the abilities, of his father47. Before Constantius expired, he is said to have named Julian for his successor; nor does it seem improbable that his anxious concern for the fate of a young and tender wife, whom he left with child, may have prevailed, in his last moments, over the harsher passions of hatred and revenge. Eusebius, and his guilty associates, made a faint attempt to prolong the reign47 of the eunuchs by the election of another emperor47: but their intrigues were rejected with disdain by an army47 which now abhorred the thought of civil47 discord; and two officers of rank47 were instantly despatched, to assure Julian that every sword in the empire47 would be drawn for his service. The military47 designs of that prince47, who had formed three different attacks against Thrace, were prevented by this fortunate event. Without shedding the blood of his fellow-citizens, he escaped the dangers of a doubtful conflict and acquired the advantages of a complete victory. Impatient to visit the place of his birth and the new capital of the empire47, he advanced from Naissus through the mountains of Haemus and the cities of Thrace. When he reached Heraclea, at the distance of sixty miles, all Constantinople was poured forth to receive him; and he made his triumphal entry, amidst the dutiful acclamations of the soldiers47, the people47, and the senate47. An innumerable multitude pressed around him with eager respect; and were perhaps disappointed when they beheld the small stature and simple garb of a hero whose unexperienced youth had vanquished the Barbarians of Germany, and who had now traversed, in a successful career, the whole continent of Europe, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Bosphorus. A few days afterwards, when the remains of the deceased emperor47 were landed in the harbour, the subjects of Julian applauded the real or affected humanity of their sovereign47. On foot, without his diadem, and clothed in a mourning habit, he accompanied the funeral as far as the church of the Holy Apostles, where the body was deposited: and, if these marks of respect may be interpreted as a selfish tribute to the birth and dignity of his Imperial47 kinsman, the tears of Julian professed to the world that he had forgot the injuries, and remembered only the obligations, which he had received from Constantius. As soon47 as the legions of Aquileia were assured of the death47 of the emperor47, they opened the gates of the city47, and, by the sacrifice of their guilty leaders, obtained an easy pardon from the prudence or lenity of Julian; who, in the thirty-second year of his age47, acquired the undisputed possession of the Roman47 empire47.
Philosophy had instructed Julian8 to compare the advantages of action and retirement; but the elevation of his birth and the accidents of his life8 never allowed him the freedom of choice. He might perhaps sincerely have preferred the groves of the academy and the society8 of Athens; but he was constrained, at first by the will, and afterwards by the injustice, of Constantius, to expose his person and fame to the dangers of Imperial greatness; and to make himself accountable to the world8, and to posterity, for the happiness8 of millions. Julian8 recollected with terror the observation of his master Plato, that the government of our flocks and herds is always committed to beings of a superior species; and that the conduct of nations requires and deserves the celestial powers of the Gods8 or of the Genii. From this principle he justly concluded that the man8 who presumes to reign8 should aspire to the perfection of the divine8 nature8; that he should purify his soul from her mortal and terrestrial part; that he should extinguish his appetites, enlighten his understanding, regulate his passions8, and subdue the wild beast which, according to the lively metaphor of Aristotle, seldom fails to ascend the throne of a despot. The throne of Julian8, which the death8 of Constantius fixed on an independent basis, was the seat of reason8, of virtue8, and perhaps of vanity. He despised the honours, renounced the pleasures, and discharged with incessant diligence the duties, of his exalted station; and there were few among his subjects8 who would have consented to relieve him from the weight of the diadem, had they been obliged to submit their time8 and their actions to the rigorous laws8 which their philosophic emperor imposed on himself. One of his most intimate friends, who had often shared the frugal simplicity of his table, has remarked that his light and sparing diet (which was usually of the vegetable kind) left his mind8 and body always free and active for the various8 and important business of an author, a pontiff, a magistrate, a general, and a prince. In one and the same day, he gave audience to several ambassadors, and wrote, or dictated, a great number of letters to his generals, his civil magistrates, his private8 friends, and the different cities of his dominions. He listened to the memorials which had been received, considered the subject of the petitions, and signified his intentions more rapidly than they could be taken in shorthand by the diligence of his secretaries. He possessed such flexibility of thought, and such firmness of attention, that he could employ his hand to write, his ear to listen, and his voice to dictate; and pursue at once three several trains of ideas without hesitation and without error. While his ministers reposed, the prince flew with agility from one labour to another, and, after a hasty dinner, retired into his library, till the public8 business, which he had appointed for the evening, summoned him to interrupt the prosecution of his studies. The supper of the emperor was still less substantial than the former meal; his sleep was never clouded by the fumes of indigestion; and, except in the short interval of a marriage, which was the effect of policy rather than love, the chaste Julian8 never shared his bed with a female companion. He was soon awakened by the entrance of fresh secretaries, who had slept the preceding day; and his servants were obliged to wait alternately, while their indefatigable master allowed himself scarcely any other refreshment than the change of occupations. The predecessors of Julian8, his uncle, his brother, and his cousin, indulged their puerile taste for the games of the circus, under the specious pretence of complying with the inclinations of the people; and they frequently remained the greatest part of the day, as idle spectators, and as a part of the splendid spectacle, till the ordinary round of twenty-four races was completely finished. On solemn festivals, Julian8, who felt and professed an unfashionable dislike to these frivolous amusements, condescended to appear in the circus; and, after bestowing a careless glance on five or six of the races, he hastily withdrew, with the impatience of a philosopher8, who considered every moment as lost that was not devoted to the advantage of the public8 or the improvement of his own mind8. By this avarice of time8, he seemed to protract the short duration of his reign8; and, if the dates were less securely ascertained, we should refuse to believe that only sixteen months elapsed between the death8 of Constantius and the departure of his successor for the Persian war. The actions of Julian8 can only be preserved by the care of the historian; but the portion of his voluminous writings which is still extant remains as a monument of the application, as well as of the genius, of the emperor. The Misopogon, the Caesars, several of his orations, and his elaborate work against the Christian8 religion8 were composed in the long nights of the two winters, the former of which he passed at Constantinople, and the latter at Antioch.
The reformation of the Imperial court was one of the first and most necessary acts of the government of Julian. Soon30 after his entrance into the palace30 of Constantinople30, he had occasion for the service30 of a barber. An officer, magnificently dressed, immediately presented himself. It is a barber, exclaimed the prince30, with affected surprise, that I want, and not a receiver-general30 of the finances. He questioned the man concerning the profits of his employment; and was informed that, besides a large salary and some valuable perquisites, he enjoyed a daily allowance for twenty servants and as many horses. A thousand30 barbers, a thousand30 cupbearers, a thousand30 cooks, were distributed in the several offices of luxury; and the number of eunuchs could be compared only with the insects of a summer's day30. The monarch who resigned to his subjects the superiority of merit and virtue was distinguished by the oppressive magnificence of his dress, his table, his buildings, and his train. The stately palaces erected by Constantine and his sons were decorated with many-coloured marbles and ornaments of massy gold30. The most exquisite dainties were procured, to gratify their pride rather than their taste; birds of the most distant climates, fish from the most remote seas, fruits out of their natural season, winter roses, and summer snows. The domestic crowd of the palace30 surpassed the expense of the legions; yet the smallest part of this costly multitude was subservient to the use, or even to the splendour, of the throne. The monarch was disgraced, and the people30 was injured, by the creation and sale of an infinite number of obscure, and even titular, employments; and the most worthless of mankind might purchase the privilege of being maintained, without the necessity of labour, from the public revenue. The waste of an enormous household, the increase of fees and perquisites, which were soon30 claimed as a lawful debt, and the bribes which they extorted from those who feared their enmity or solicited their favour, suddenly enriched these haughty menials. They abused their fortune, without considering their past, or their future, condition; and their rapine and venality could be equalled only by the extravagance of their dissipations. Their silken robes were embroidered with gold30, their tables were served with delicacy and profusion; the houses which they built for their own use would have covered the farm of an ancient consul; and the most honourable citizens were obliged to dismount from their horses, and respectfully to salute an eunuch whom they met on the public highway. The luxury of the palace30 excited the contempt and indignation of Julian, who usually slept on the ground, who yielded with reluctance to the indispensable calls of nature, and who placed his vanity, not in emulating, but in despising, the pomp of royalty. By the total extirpation of a mischief which was magnified even beyond its real extent, he was impatient to relieve the distress, and to appease the murmurs, of the people30; who support with less uneasiness the weight of taxes, if they are convinced that the fruits of their industry are appropriated to the service30 of the state. But in the execution of this salutary work Julian is accused of proceeding with too much haste and inconsiderate severity. By a single edict, he reduced the palace30 of Constantinople30 to an immense desert, and dismissed with ignominy the whole train of slaves and dependents, without providing any just, or at least benevolent, exceptions, for the age, the services, or the poverty of the faithful domestics of the Imperial family. Such indeed was the temper of Julian, who seldom recollected the fundamental maxim of Aristotle that true virtue is placed at an equal distance between the opposite vices. The splendid and effeminate dress of the Asiatics, the curls and paint, the collars and bracelets, which had appeared so ridiculous in the person of Constantine, were consistently rejected by his philosophic successor. But with the fopperies, Julian affected to renounce the decencies, of dress; and seemed to value himself for his neglect of the laws of cleanliness. In a satirical performance, which was designed for the public eye, the emperor30 descants with pleasure, and even with pride, on the length of his nails, and the inky blackness of his hands; protests that, although the greatest part of his body was covered with hair, the use of the razor was confined to his head30 alone; and celebrates with visible complacency, the shaggy and populous beard, which he fondly cherished after the example of the philosophers of Greece. Had Julian consulted the simple dictates of reason, the first magistrate of the Romans would have scorned the affectation of Diogenes as well as that of Darius.
But the work of public47 reformation would have remained imperfect, if Julian had only corrected the abuses, without punishing the crimes, of his predecessor's reign47. We are now delivered, says he, in a familiar letter to one of his intimate friends, we are now surprisingly delivered from the voracious jaws of the Hydra. I do not mean to apply that epithet to my brother Constantius. He is no more; may the earth lie light on his head! But his artful and cruel favourites studied to deceive and exasperate a prince47 whose natural mildness cannot be praised without some efforts of adulation. It is not, however, my intention that even those men should be oppressed: they are accused, and they shall enjoy the benefit of a fair and impartial trial. To conduct47 this inquiry, Julian named six judges of the highest rank47 in the state and army47; and, as he wished to escape the reproach of condemning his personal enemies, he fixed this extraordinary tribunal at Chalcedon, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; and transferred to the commissioners an absolute power47 to pronounce and execute their final sentence, without delay and without appeal. The office of president was exercised by the venerable prefect47 of the East47, a second Sallust, whose virtues conciliated the esteem of Greek sophists and of Christian bishops. He was assisted by the eloquent Mamertinus, one of the consuls elect, whose merit47 is loudly celebrated by the doubtful evidence of his own applause. But the civil47 wisdom of two magistrates was overbalanced by the ferocious violence of four generals, Nevitta, Agilo, Jovinus, and Arbetio. Arbetio, whom the public47 would have seen with less surprise at the bar than on the bench, was supposed to possess the secret47 of the commission; the armed and angry leaders of the Jovian and Herculian bands encompassed the tribunal; and the judges were alternately swayed by the laws of justice47, and by the clamours of faction.
The chamberlain Eusebius, who had so long34 abused the favour of Constantius34, expiated, by an ignominious death, the insolence, the corruption, and cruelty of his servile reign. The executions of Paul and Apodemius (the former of whom was burnt alive) were accepted34 as an inadequate atonement by the widows and orphans of so many hundred Romans, whom those legal tyrants had betrayed and murdered. But Justice34 herself (if we may use the pathetic expression of Ammianus) appeared to weep over the fate of Ursulus, the treasurer of the empire34; and his blood accused the ingratitude of Julian34, whose distress had been seasonably relieved by the intrepid liberality of that honest minister. The rage of the soldiers34, whom he had provoked by his indiscretion, was the cause34 and the excuse of his death; and the emperor34, deeply wounded by his own reproaches and those of the public, offered some consolation to the family of Ursulus, by the restitution of his confiscated fortunes. Before the end of the year in which they had been adorned with the ensigns of the prefecture and consulship, Taurus and Florentius were reduced to implore the clemency of the inexorable tribunal of Chalcedon. The former was banished to Vercellae in Italy, and a sentence of death was pronounced against the latter. A wise prince should have rewarded the crime of Taurus: the faithful minister, when he was no longer able to oppose the progress of a rebel, had taken refuge in the court34 of his benefactor and his lawful sovereign34. But the guilt34 of Florentius justified the severity of the judges; and his escape served to display the magnanimity of Julian34; who nobly checked the interested diligence of an informer, and refused to learn what place34 concealed the wretched fugitive from his just34 resentment. Some months after the tribunal of Chalcedon had been dissolved, the praetorian vicegerent of Africa, the notary Gaudentius, and Artemius, duke of Egypt, were executed at Antioch34. Artemius had reigned the cruel and corrupt tyrant of a great province; Gaudentius had long34 practised the arts of calumny against the innocent, the virtuous, and even the person of Julian34 himself. Yet the circumstances of their trial and condemnation were so unskilfully managed, that these wicked men obtained, in the public opinion, the glory of suffering for the obstinate loyalty with which they had supported the cause34 of Constantius34. The rest of his servants were protected by a general34 act of oblivion; and they were left to enjoy with impunity the bribes which they had accepted34 either to defend the oppressed or to oppress the friendless. This measure, which, on the soundest principles of policy, may deserve our approbation, was executed in a manner which seemed to degrade the majesty of the throne. Julian34 was tormented by the importunities of a multitude, particularly of Egyptians, who loudly demanded the gifts which they had imprudently or illegally bestowed; he foresaw the endless prosecution of vexatious suits; and he engaged a promise, which ought always to have been sacred, that, if they would repair to Chalcedon, he would meet them in person, to hear and determine their complaints. But, as soon as they were landed, he issued an absolute order, which prohibited the watermen from transporting any Egyptian to Constantinople34; and thus detained his disappointed clients on the Asiatic shore, till, their patience and money being utterly exhausted, they were obliged to return with indignant murmurs to their native country.
The numerous army47 of spies, of agents, and informers, enlisted by Constantius to secure the repose of one man and to interrupt that of millions, was immediately disbanded by his generous successor. Julian was slow in his suspicions and gentle in his punishments; and his contempt of treason was the result of judgment, of vanity, and of courage. Conscious of superior merit47, he was persuaded that few among his subjects would dare to meet him in the field, to attempt his life47, or even to seat themselves on his vacant throne47. The philosopher could excuse the hasty sallies of discontent; and the hero could despise the ambitious projects which surpassed the fortune or the abilities of the rash conspirators. A citizen of Ancyra had prepared for his own use a purple garment; and this indiscreet action, which, under the reign47 of Constantius, would have been considered as a capital offence, was reported to Julian by the officious importunity of a private47 enemy. The monarch, after making some inquiry into the rank47 and character of his rival, despatched the informer with a present of a pair of purple slippers, to complete the magnificence of his Imperial47 habit. A more dangerous conspiracy was formed by ten of the domestic guards, who had resolved to assassinate Julian in the field of exercise near Antioch. Their intemperance revealed their guilt; and they were conducted in chains to the presence of their injured sovereign47, who, after a lively representation of the wickedness and folly of their enterprise, instead of a death47 of torture, which they deserved and expected, pronounced a sentence of exile against the two principal offenders. The only instance in which Julian seemed to depart from his accustomed clemency was the execution of a rash youth, who, with a feeble hand, had aspired to seize the reins of empire47. But that youth was the son47 of Marcellus, the general47 of cavalry, who in the first campaign of the Gallic war47 had deserted the standard of the Caesar and the republic. Without appearing to indulge his personal resentment, Julian might easily confound the crime of the son47 and of the father47: but he was reconciled by the distress of Marcellus, and the liberality of the emperor47 endeavoured to heal the wound which had been inflicted by the hand of justice47.
Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom1. From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient1 sages and heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and, when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues. He sincerely abhorred the system of Oriental despotism which Diocletian, Constantine1, and the patient habits of fourscore years1 had established in the empire1. A motive of superstition prevented the execution of the design which Julian had frequently meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem: but he absolutely refused the title1 of Dominus or Lord, a word which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans1 that they no longer remembered its servile and humiliating origin. The office1, or rather the name, of consul was cherished by a prince who contemplated with reverence the ruins of the republic1; and the same behaviour which had been assumed1 by the prudence of Augustus was adopted by Julian from choice and inclination. On the calends of January, at break of day, the new1 consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta, hastened to the palace to salute the emperor1. As soon as he was informed of their approach, he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced to meet them, and compelled the blushing magistrates1 to receive the demonstrations of his affected humility. From the palace they proceeded to the senate1. The emperor1, on foot, marched before their litters; and the gazing multitude admired the image of ancient1 times, or secretly blamed a conduct which, in their eyes, degraded the majesty of the purple. But the behaviour of Julian was uniformly supported. During the games of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, performed the manumission of a slave in the presence of the consul. The moment he was reminded that he had trespassed on the jurisdiction1 of another magistrate1, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold; and embraced this public1 occasion of declaring to the world that he was subject, like the rest of his fellow-citizens, to the laws1, and even to the forms, of the republic1. The spirit of his administration, and his regard for the place of his nativity, induced Julian to confer on the senate1 of Constantinople, the same honours1, privileges, and authority1, which were still enjoyed by the senate1 of ancient1 Rome1. A legal fiction was introduced, and gradually established, that one half of the national council had migrated into the East: and the despotic successors1 of Julian, accepting the title1 of Senators, acknowledged themselves the members of a respectable body, which was permitted to represent the majesty of the Roman1 name. From Constantinople, the attention of the monarch was extended to the municipal senates of the provinces1. He abolished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and pernicious exemptions which had withdrawn so many idle citizens from the service of their country; and by imposing an equal distribution of public1 duties he restored the strength, the splendour, or, according to the glowing expression of Libanius, the soul of the expiring cities of his empire1. The venerable age of Greece excited the most tender compassion in the mind of Julian; which kindled into rapture when he recollected the gods, the heroes, and the men, superior to heroes and to gods, who had bequeathed to the latest posterity the monuments of their genius or the example of their virtues. He relieved the distress, and restored the beauty, of the cities of Epirus and Peloponnesus. Athens acknowledged him for her benefactor; Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of Corinth, again rising from her ruins with the honours1 of a Roman1 colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent republics, for the purpose of defraying the games of the Isthmus, which were celebrated in the amphitheatre with the hunting of bears and panthers. From this tribute the cities of Elis, of Delphi, and of Argos, which had inherited from their remote ancestors the sacred1 office1 of perpetuating the Olympic, the Pythian, and the Nemean games, claimed a just exemption. The immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected by the Corinthians; but the poverty of Argos tempted the insolence of oppression; and the feeble complaints of its deputies were silenced by the decree of a provincial magistrate1, who seems to have consulted only the interest of the capital in which he resided. Seven years1 after this sentence, Julian allowed the cause to be referred to a superior tribunal; and his eloquence was interposed, most probably with success, in the defence of a city1 which had been the royal seat of Agamemnon and had given to Macedonia a race of kings and conquerors.
The laborious administration of military34 and civil affairs, which were multiplied in proportion to the extent of the empire34, exercised the abilities of Julian34; but he frequently assumed the two characters of Orator and of Judge, which are almost unknown to the modern sovereigns of Europe. The arts of persuasion, so diligently cultivated by the first Caesars, were neglected by the military34 ignorance, and Asiatic pride, of their successors; and, if they condescended to harangue the soldiers34, whom they feared, they treated with silent disdain the senators, whom they despised. The assemblies of the senate, which Constantius34 had avoided, were considered by Julian34 as the place34 where he could exhibit, with the most propriety, the maxims of a republican and the talents of a rhetorician. He alternately practised, as in a school of declamation, the several modes of praise, of censure, of exhortation; and his friend34 Libanius34 has remarked that the study of Homer taught him to imitate the simple, concise style of Menelaus, the copiousness of Nestor, whose words descended like the flakes of a winter's snow, or the pathetic and forcible eloquence of Ulysses. The functions of a judge, which are sometimes incompatible with those of a prince, were exercised by Julian34, not only as a duty, but as an amusement: and, although he might have trusted the integrity and discernment of his Praetorian prefects, he often placed himself by their side on the seat of judgment. The acute penetration of his mind34 was agreeably occupied in detecting and defeating the chicanery of the advocates, who laboured to disguise the truth34 of facts and to pervert the sense of the laws. He sometimes forgot the gravity of his station, asked indiscreet or unseasonable questions, and betrayed, by the loudness of his voice and the agitation of his body, the earnest vehemence with which he maintained his opinion against the judges, the advocates, and their clients. But his knowledge of his own temper prompted him to encourage, and even to solicit, the reproof of his friends and ministers; and, whenever they ventured to oppose the irregular sallies of his passions, the spectators could observe the shame, as well as the gratitude, of their monarch34. The decrees of Julian34 were almost always founded on the principles of justice34; and he had the firmness to resist the two most dangerous temptations which assault the tribunal of a sovereign34 under the specious forms of compassion and equity. He decided the merits of the cause34 without weighing the circumstances of the parties; and the poor, whom he wished to relieve, were condemned to satisfy the just34 demands of a noble and wealthy adversary. He carefully distinguished the judge from the legislator; and, though he meditated a necessary reformation of the Roman34 jurisprudence, he pronounced sentence according to the strict and literal interpretation of those laws which the magistrates were bound to execute and the subjects to obey.
The generality of princes, if they were stripped of their purple and cast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the lowest rank47 of society, without a hope of emerging from their obscurity. But the personal merit47 of Julian was, in some measure, independent of his fortune. Whatever had been his choice of life47, by the force of intrepid courage, lively wit, and intense application, he would have obtained, or at least he would have deserved, the highest honours of his profession; and Julian might have raised himself to the rank47 of minister, or general47, of the state in which he was born a private47 citizen. If the jealous caprice of power47 had disappointed his expectations; if he had prudently declined the paths of greatness, the employment of the same talents in studious solitude would have placed, beyond the reach of kings, his present happiness and his immortal fame. When we inspect, with minute or perhaps malevolent attention, the portrait of Julian, something seems wanting to the grace and perfection of the whole figure. His genius was less powerful and sublime than that of Caesar; nor did he possess the consummate prudence of Augustus. The virtues of Trajan appear more steady and natural, and the philosophy of Marcus is more simple and consistent. Yet Julian sustained adversity with firmness, and prosperity with moderation. After an interval of one hundred and twenty years from the death47 of Alexander Severus, the Romans beheld an emperor47 who made no distinction between his duties and his pleasures; who laboured to relieve the distress, and to revive the spirit47, of his subjects; and who endeavoured always to connect authority47 with merit47, and happiness with virtue. Even faction, and religious faction, was constrained to acknowledge the superiority of his genius, in peace as well as in war47; and to confess, with a sigh, that the apostate Julian was a lover of his country, and that he deserved the empire47 of the world.
The character of Apostate has injured the reputation of Julian; and the enthusiasm which clouded his virtues has exaggerated the real and apparent magnitude of his faults. Our partial ignorance may represent him as a philosophic monarch, who studied to protect, with an equal hand, the religious factions of the empire47; and to allay the theological fever which had inflamed the minds of the people47 from the edicts of Diocletian to the exile of Athanasius. A more accurate view of the character and conduct47 of Julian will remove this favourable prepossession for a prince47 who did not escape the general47 contagion of the times. We enjoy the singular advantage of comparing the pictures which have been delineated by his fondest admirers and his implacable enemies. The actions of Julian are faithfully related by a judicious and candid historian, the impartial spectator of his life47 and death47. The unanimous evidence of his contemporaries is confirmed by the public47 and private47 declarations of the emperor47 himself; and his various writings express the uniform tenor of his religious sentiments, which policy would have prompted him to dissemble rather than to affect. A devout and sincere attachment for the gods of Athens and Rome47 constituted the ruling passion of Julian; the powers of an enlightened understanding were betrayed and corrupted by the influence of superstitious prejudice; and the phantoms which existed only in the mind of the emperor47 had a real and pernicious effect on the government47 of the empire47. The vehement zeal of the Christians, who despised the worship, and overturned the altars, of those fabulous deities, engaged their votary in a state of irreconcilable hostility with a very numerous party of his subjects; and he was sometimes tempted, by the desire of victory or the shame of a repulse, to violate the laws of prudence, and even of justice47. The triumph of the party which he deserted and opposed has fixed a stain of infamy on the name of Julian; and the unsuccessful apostate has been overwhelmed with a torrent of pious invectives, of which the signal was given by the sonorous trumpet of Gregory Nazianzen. The interesting nature of the events which were crowded into the short reign47 of this active emperor47 deserves a just and circumstantial narrative. His motives, his counsels, and his actions, as far as they are connected with the history of religion, will be the subject of the present chapter.
The cause of his strange and fatal apostacy may be derived from the early period of his life8, when he was left an orphan in the hands of the murderers of his family. The names of Christ and of Constantius, the ideas of slavery and of religion8, were soon associated in a youthful imagination, which was susceptible of the most lively impressions. The care of his infancy was entrusted to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, who was related to him on the side of his mother; and, till Julian8 reached the twentieth year of his age8, he received from his Christian8 preceptors the education, not of a hero, but of a saint. The emperor, less jealous of a heavenly than of an earthly crown, contented himself with the imperfect character8 of a catechumen, while he bestowed the advantages of baptism on the nephews of Constantine8. They were even admitted to the inferior offices of the ecclesiastical order; and Julian8 publicly read the Holy Scriptures in the church8 of Nicomedia. The study of religion8, which they assiduously cultivated, appeared to produce the fairest fruits of faith8 and devotion8. They prayed, they fasted, they distributed alms to the poor, gifts to the clergy, and oblations to the tombs of the martyrs; and the splendid monument of St. Mamas, at Caesarea, was erected, or at least was undertaken, by the joint labour of Gallus and Julian8. They respectfully conversed with the bishops who were eminent for superior sanctity, and solicited the benediction of the monks and hermits who had introduced into Cappadocia the voluntary hardships of the ascetic life8. As the two princes advanced towards the years of manhood, they discovered, in their religious8 sentiments, the difference of their characters. The dull and obstinate understanding of Gallus embraced, with implicit zeal8, the doctrines of Christianity8; which never influenced his conduct or moderated his passions8. The mild disposition of the younger brother was less repugnant to the precepts of the gospel; and his active curiosity might have been gratified by a theological system which explains the mysterious essence of the Deity8 and opens the boundless prospect of invisible and future worlds. But the independent spirit of Julian8 refused to yield the passive and unresisting obedience which was required, in the name of religion8, by the haughty ministers of the church8. Their speculative opinions were imposed as positive laws8, and guarded by the terrors of eternal punishments; but, while they prescribed the rigid formulary of the thoughts, the words, and the actions of the young prince; whilst they silenced his objections and severely checked the freedom of his inquiries, they secretly provoked his impatient genius to disclaim the authority of his ecclesiastical guides. He was educated in the Lesser Asia, amidst the scandals of the Arian controversy. The fierce contests of the Eastern bishops, the incessant alterations of their creeds, and the profane motives which appeared to actuate their conduct, insensibly strengthened the prejudice of Julian8, that they neither understood nor believed the religion8 for which they so fiercely contended. Instead of listening to the proofs of Christianity8 with that favourable attention which adds weight to the most respectable evidence, he heard with suspicion, and disputed with obstinacy and acuteness, the doctrines for which he already entertained an invincible aversion. Whenever the young princes were directed to compose declamations on the subject of the prevailing controversies, Julian8 always declared himself the advocate of Paganism; under the specious excuse that, in the defence of the weaker cause, his learning and ingenuity might be more advantageously exercised and displayed.
As soon as Gallus was invested with the honours of the purple, Julian was permitted to breathe the air of freedom, of literature, and of Paganism. The crowd of sophists, who were attracted by the taste and liberality of their royal pupil, had formed a strict alliance between the learning and the religion7 of Greece; and the poems of Homer, instead of being admired as the original productions of human7 genius, were seriously ascribed to the heavenly inspiration of Apollo and the muses. The deities of Olympus, as they are painted by the immortal bard, imprint themselves on the minds which are the least addicted to superstitious credulity. Our familiar knowledge of their names and characters, their forms and attributes, seems to bestow on those airy beings a real and substantial existence; and the pleasing enchantment produces an imperfect and momentary assent of the imagination to those fables which are the most repugnant to our reason7 and experience. In the age of Julian every circumstance contributed to prolong and fortify the illusion; the magnificent temples of Greece and Asia; the works of those artists who had expressed, in painting or in sculpture, the divine7 conceptions of the poet; the pomp of festivals and sacrifices; the successful arts of divination; the popular traditions of oracles and prodigies; and the ancient practice of two thousand years7. The weakness of polytheism was, in some measure, excused by the moderation of its claims; and the devotion of the Pagans was not incompatible with the most licentious scepticism. Instead of an indivisible and regular system, which occupies the whole extent of the believing mind, the mythology of the Greeks was composed of a thousand loose and flexible parts, and the servant of the gods was at liberty to define the degree and measure of his religious faith7. The creed7 which Julian adopted for his own use was of the largest dimensions; and, by a strange contradiction, he disdained the salutary yoke of the gospel7, whilst he made a voluntary offering of his reason7 on the altars of Jupiter and Apollo. One of the orations of Julian is consecrated to the honour of Cybele, the mother of the gods, who required from her effeminate priests the bloody sacrifice, so rashly performed by the madness of the Phrygian boy. The pious emperor condescends to relate, without a blush, and without a smile, the voyage of the goddess from the shores of Pergamus to the mouth of the Tiber, and the stupendous miracle, which convinced the senate and people of Rome that the lump of clay which their ambassadors had transported over the seas was endowed with life, and sentiment, and divine7 power. For the truth7 of this prodigy, he appeals to the public monuments of the city; and censures, with some acrimony, the sickly and affected taste of those men who impertinently derided the sacred traditions of their ancestors.
But the devout7 philosopher, who sincerely embraced and warmly encouraged the superstition7 of the people, reserved for himself the privilege of a liberal interpretation; and silently withdrew from the foot of the altars into the sanctuary of the temple. The extravagance of the Grecian mythology proclaimed with a clear and audible voice that the pious inquirer, instead of being scandalised or satisfied with the literal sense, should diligently explore the occult wisdom which had been disguised, by the prudence of antiquity, under the mask of folly and of fable. The philosophers of the Platonic school, Plotinus, Porphyry, and the divine7 Iamblichus, were admired as the most skilful masters of this allegorical science which laboured to soften and harmonise the deformed features of paganism. Julian himself, who was directed in the mysterious pursuit by Aedesius, the venerable successor of Iamblichus, aspired to the possession of a treasure which he esteemed, if we may credit his solemn asseverations, far above the empire of the world. It was indeed a treasure which derived its value only from opinion; and every artist who flattered himself that he had extracted the precious ore from the surrounding dross claimed an equal right of stamping the name and figure the most agreeable to his peculiar fancy. The fable of ATys and Cybele had been already explained by Porphyry; but his labours served only to animate the pious industry of Julian, who invented and published his own allegory of that ancient and mystic tale. This freedom of interpretation, which might gratify the pride of the Platonists, exposed the vanity of their art. Without a tedious detail, the modern reader could not form a just idea of the strange allusions, the forced etymologies, the solemn trifling, and the impenetrable obscurity of these sages, who professed to reveal the system of the universe. As the traditions of Pagan mythology were variously related, the sacred interpreters were at liberty to select the most convenient circumstances; and, as they translated an arbitrary cypher, they could extract from any fable any sense which was adapted to their favourite system of religion7 and philosophy. The lascivious form of a naked Venus was tortured into the discovery of some moral precept or some physical truth7: and the castration of Atys explained the revolution of the sun between the tropics or the separation of the human7 soul from vice and error.
The theological system of Julian8 appears to have contained the sublime and important principles of natural religion8. But, as the faith8 which is not founded on revelation must remain destitute of any firm assurance, the disciple of Plato imprudently relapsed into the habits of vulgar superstition8; and the popular and philosophic notion of the Deity8 seems to have been confounded in the practice8, the writings, and even in the mind8 of Julian8. The pious emperor acknowledged and adored the Eternal Cause of the universe, to whom he ascribed all the perfections of an infinite nature8, invisible to the eyes, and inaccessible to the understanding, of feeble mortals. The Supreme God8 had created, or rather, in the Platonic language, had generated, the gradual succession of dependent spirits, of gods8, of daemons, of heroes, and of men; and every being which derived its existence immediately from the First Cause received the inherent gift of immortality. That so precious an advantage might not be lavished upon unworthy objects, the Creator had entrusted to the skill and power of the inferior gods8 the office of forming the human8 body, and of arranging the beautiful harmony of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. To the conduct of these divine8 ministers he delegated the temporal government of this lower world8; but their imperfect administration is not exempt from discord or error. The earth, and its inhabitants, are divided among them, and the characters of Mars or Minerva, of Mercury or Venus, may be distinctly traced in the laws8 and manners of their peculiar votaries. As long as our immortal souls are confined in a mortal prison, it is our interest, as well as our duty, to solicit the favour, and to deprecate the wrath, of the powers of heaven; whose pride is gratified by the devotion8 of mankind8; and whose grosser parts may be supposed to derive some nourishment from the fumes of sacrifice. The inferior gods8 might sometimes condescend to animate the statues, and to inhabit the temples8, which were dedicated to their honour. They might occasionally visit the earth, but the heavens were the proper throne and symbol of their glory. The invariable order of the sun, moon, and stars was hastily admitted by Julian8 as a proof of their eternal duration; and their eternity was a sufficient evidence that they were the workmanship, not of an inferior deity8, but of the Omnipotent King. In the system of the Platonists, the visible, was a type of the invisible, world8. The celestial bodies, as they were informed by a divine8 spirit, might be considered as the objects the most worthy of religious8 worship8. The Sun, whose genial influence pervades and sustains the universe, justly claimed the adoration of mankind8, as the bright representative of the Logos, the lively, the rational, the beneficent image of the intellectual Father.
In every age8, the absence of genuine inspiration is supplied by the strong illusions of enthusiasm and the mimic arts of imposture. If, in the time8 of Julian8, these arts had been practised only by the Pagan8 priests, for the support of an expiring cause, some indulgence might perhaps be allowed to the interest and habits of the sacerdotal character8. But it may appear a subject of surprise and scandal that the philosophers themselves should have contributed to abuse the superstitious credulity of mankind8, and that the Grecian mysteries should have been supported by the magic or theurgy of the modern Platonists. They arrogantly pretended to control the order of nature8, to explore the secrets of futurity, to command the service of the inferior daemons, to enjoy the view and conversation of the superior gods8, and, by disengaging the soul from her material bands, to re-unite that immortal particle with the Infinite and Divine8 Spirit.
The devout and fearless curiosity of Julian8 tempted the philosophers with the hopes of an easy conquest; which, from the situation of their young proselyte, might be productive of the most important consequences. Julian8 imbibed the first rudiments of the Platonic doctrines from the mouth of Aedesius, who had fixed at Pergamus his wandering and persecuted school. But, as the declining strength of that venerable sage was unequal to the ardour, the diligence, the rapid conception of his pupil, two of his most learned disciples, Chrysanthes and Eusebius, supplied, at his own desire, the place of their aged master. These philosophers seem to have prepared and distributed their respective parts; and they artfully contrived, by dark hints and affected disputes, to excite the impatient hopes of the aspirant, till they delivered him into the hands of their associate Maximus, the boldest and most skilful master of the Theurgic science. By his hands Julian8 was secretly initiated at Ephesus, in the twentieth year of his age8. His residence at Athens confirmed this unnatural alliance of philosophy and superstition8. He obtained the privilege of a solemn initiation into the mysteries of Eleusis, which, amidst the general decay of the Grecian worship8, still retained some vestiges of their primeval sanctity; and such was the zeal8 of Julian8 that he afterwards invited the Eleusinian pontiff to the court of Gaul, for the sole purpose of consummating, by mystic rites and sacrifices, the great work of his sanctification. As these ceremonies were performed in the depth of caverns, and in the silence of the night, and as the inviolable secret of the mysteries was preserved by the discretion of the initiated, I shall not presume to describe the horrid sounds and fiery apparitions, which were presented to the senses, or the imagination, of the credulous aspirant, till the visions of comfort and knowledge broke upon him in a blaze of celestial light. In the caverns of Ephesus and Eleusis, the mind8 of Julian8 was penetrated with sincere, deep, and unalterable enthusiasm; though he might sometimes exhibit the vicissitudes of pious fraud and hypocrisy, which may be observed, or at least suspected, in the characters of the most conscientious fanatics. From that moment he consecrated his life8 to the service of the gods8; and, while the occupations of war, of government, and of study seemed to claim the whole measure of his time8, a stated portion of the hours of the night was invariably reserved for the exercise of private8 devotion8. The temperance which adorned the severe manners of the soldier and the philosopher8 was connected with some strict and frivolous rules of religious8 abstinence; and it was in honour of Pan or Mercury, of Hecate or Isis, that Julian8, on particular days, denied himself the use8 of some particular food, which might have been offensive to his tutelar deities. By these voluntary fasts, he prepared his senses and his understanding for the frequent and familiar visits with which he was honoured by the celestial powers. Notwithstanding the modest silence of Julian8 himself, we may learn from his faithful friend, the orator Libanius, that he lived in a perpetual intercourse with the gods8 and goddesses; that they descended upon earth, to enjoy the conversation of their favourite hero; that they gently interrupted his slumbers, by touching his hand or his hair; that they warned him of every impending danger, and conducted him, by their infallible wisdom, in every action of his life8; and that he had acquired such an intimate knowledge of his heavenly guests, as readily to distinguish the voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the form of Apollo from the figure of Hercules. These sleeping or waking visions, the ordinary effects of abstinence and fanaticism, would almost degrade the emperor to the level of an Egyptian monk. But the useless lives of Antony or Pachomius were consumed in these vain occupations. Julian8 could break from the dream of superstition8 to arm himself for battle; and, after vanquishing in the field the enemies of Rome, he calmly retired into his tent, to dictate the wise and salutary laws8 of an empire8, or to indulge his genius in the elegant pursuits of literature and philosophy.
The important secret of the apostacy of Julian8 was entrusted to the fidelity of the initiated, with whom he was united by the sacred8 ties of friendship and religion8. The pleasing rumour was cautiously circulated among the adherents of the ancient8 worship8; and his future greatness became the object of the hopes, the prayers, and the predictions of the Pagans8, in every province of the empire8. From the zeal8 and virtues of their royal proselyte, they fondly expected the cure of every evil and the restoration of every blessing; and, instead of disapproving of the ardour of their pious wishes, Julian8 ingenuously confessed that he was ambitious to attain a situation in which he might be useful to his country and to his religion8. But this religion8 was viewed with an hostile eye by the successor of Constantine8, whose capricious passions8 alternately saved and threatened the life8 of Julian8. The arts of magic and divination were strictly prohibited under a despotic government which condescended to fear them; and, if the Pagans8 were reluctantly indulged in the exercise of their superstition8, the rank of Julian8 would have excepted him from the general toleration. The apostate soon became the presumptive heir of the monarchy, and his death8 could alone have appeased the just apprehensions of the Christians8. But the young prince, who aspired to the glory of a hero rather than of a martyr, consulted his safety by dissembling his religion8; and the easy temper of polytheism permitted him to join in the public8 worship8 of a sect which he inwardly despised. Libanius has considered the hypocrisy of his friend as a subject, not of censure, but of praise. As the statues of the gods8, says that orator, which have been defiled with filth, are again placed in a magnificent temple8; so the beauty of truth8 was seated in the mind8 of Julian8, after it had been purified from the errors and follies of his education. His sentiments were changed; but, as it would have been dangerous to have avowed his sentiments, his conduct still continued the same. Very different from the ass in Aesop, who disguised himself with a lion's hide, our lion was obliged to conceal himself under the skin of an ass; and, while he embraced the dictates of reason8, to obey the laws8 of prudence and necessity. The dissimulation of Julian8 lasted above ten years, from his secret initiation at Ephesus to the beginning of the civil war; when he declared himself at once the implacable enemy of Christ and of Constantius. This state of constraint might contribute to strengthen his devotion8; and, as soon as he had satisfied the obligation of assisting, on solemn festivals, at the assemblies of the Christians8, Julian8 returned, with the impatience of a lover, to burn his free and voluntary incense on the domestic chapels of Jupiter and Mercury. But, as every act of dissimulation must be painful to an ingenuous spirit, the profession of Christianity8 increased the aversion of Julian8 for a religion8 which oppressed the freedom of his mind8 and compelled him to hold a conduct repugnant to the noblest attributes of human8 nature8, sincerity and courage.
The inclination of Julian8 might prefer the gods8 of Homer, and of the Scipios, to the new faith8 which his uncle had established in the Roman empire8; and in which he himself had been sanctified by the sacrament of baptism. But, as a philosopher8, it was incumbent on him to justify his dissent from Christianity8, which was supported by the number of its converts, by the chain of prophecy, the splendour of miracles, and the weight of evidence. The elaborate work, which he composed amidst the preparations of the Persian war, contained the substance of those arguments which he had long revolved in his mind8. Some fragments have been transcribed and preserved by his adversary, the vehement Cyril of Alexandria; and they exhibit a very singular mixture of wit and learning, of sophistry and fanaticism. The elegance of the style, and the rank of the author, recommended his writings to the public8 attention; and in the impious list of the enemies of Christianity8, the celebrated name of Porphyry was effaced by the superior merit or reputation of Julian8. The minds of the faithful were either seduced, or scandalised, or alarmed; and the Pagans8, who sometimes presumed to engage in the unequal dispute, derived from the popular work of their Imperial missionary an inexhaustible supply of fallacious objections. But in the assiduous prosecution of these theological studies, the emperor of the Romans imbibed the illiberal prejudices and passions8 of a polemic divine8. He contracted an irrevocable obligation to maintain and propagate his religious8 opinions; and, whilst he secretly applauded the strength and dexterity with which he wielded the weapons of controversy, he was tempted to distrust the sincerity, or to despise the understandings, of his antagonists, who could obstinately resist the force of reason8 and eloquence.
The Christians, who beheld with horror and indignation the apostacy of Julian, had much more to fear from his power47 than from his arguments. The Pagans, who were conscious of his fervent zeal, expected, perhaps with impatience, that the flames of persecution should be immediately kindled against the enemies of the gods; and that the ingenious malice of Julian would invent some cruel refinements of death47 and torture, which had been unknown to the rude and inexperienced fury of his predecessors. But the hopes, as well as the fears, of the religious factions were apparently disappointed by the prudent humanity of a prince47 who was careful of his own fame, of the public47 peace, and of the rights of mankind. Instructed by history and reflection, Julian was persuaded that, if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind. The reluctant victim may be dragged to the foot of the altar; but the heart still abhors and disclaims the sacrilegious act of the hand. Religious obstinacy is hardened and exasperated by oppression; and, as soon47 as the persecution subsides, those who have yielded are restored as penitents, and those who have resisted are honoured as saints and martyrs. If Julian adopted the unsuccessful cruelty of Diocletian and his colleagues, he was sensible that he should stain his memory with the name of tyrant47, and add new glories to the Catholic church, which had derived strength and increase from the severity of the pagan magistrates. Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an unsettled reign47, Julian surprised the world by an edict which was not unworthy of a statesman or a philosopher. He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman47 world the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power47 of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics. The Pagans received a gracious permission, or rather an express order, to open all their temples; and they were at once delivered from the oppressive laws and arbitrary vexations which they had sustained under the reign47 of Constantine47 and of his sons. At the same time, the bishops and clergy who had been banished by the Arian monarch were recalled from exile and restored to their respective churches; the Donatists, the Novatians, the Macedonians, the Eunomians, and those who, with a more prosperous fortune, adhered to the doctrine of the council of Nice. Julian, who understood and derided their theological disputes, invited to the palace47 the leaders of the hostile sects, that he might enjoy the agreeable spectacle of their furious encounters. The clamour of controversy sometimes provoked the emperor47 to exclaim, Hear me! the Franks have heard me, and the Alemanni; but he soon47 discovered that he was now engaged with more obstinate and implacable enemies; and, though he exerted the powers of oratory to persuade them to live in concord, or at least in peace, he was perfectly satisfied, before he dismissed them from his presence, that he had nothing to dread from the union of the Christians. The impartial Ammianus has ascribed this affected clemency to the desire of fomenting the intestine divisions of the church; and the insidious design of undermining the foundations of Christianity was inseparably connected with the zeal which Julian professed to restore the ancient religion of the empire47.
As soon as he ascended the throne, he assumed, according to the custom of his predecessors, the character8 of supreme pontiff; not only as the most honourable title of Imperial greatness, but as a sacred8 and important office, the duties of which he was resolved to execute with pious diligence. As the business of the state prevented the emperor from joining every day in the public8 devotion8 of his subjects8, he dedicated a domestic chapel to his tutelar deity8 the Sun; his gardens were filled with statues and altars of the gods8; and each apartment of the palace displayed the appearance of a magnificent temple8. Every morning he saluted the parent of light with a sacrifice; the blood of another victim was shed at the moment when the Sun sunk below the horizon; and the Moon, the Stars, and the Genii of the night received their respective and seasonable honours from the indefatigable devotion8 of Julian8. On solemn festivals, he regularly visited the temple8 of the god8 or goddess to whom the day was peculiarly consecrated, and endeavoured to excite the religion8 of the magistrates and people by the example of his own zeal8. Instead of maintaining the lofty state of a monarch, distinguished by the splendour of his purple, and encompassed by the golden shields of his guards, Julian8 solicited, with respectful eagerness, the meanest offices which contributed to the worship8 of the gods8. Amidst the sacred8 but licentious crowd of priests, of inferior ministers, and of female dancers, who were dedicated to the service of the temple8, it was the business of the emperor to bring the wood, to blow the fire, to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and, thrusting his bloody hand into the bowels of the expiring animal, to draw forth the heart or liver, and to read, with the consummate skill of an haruspex, the imaginary signs of future events. The wisest of the Pagans8 censured this extravagant superstition8 which affected to despise the restraints of prudence and decency. Under the reign8 of a prince who practised the rigid maxims of economy the expense of religious8 worship8 consumed a very large portion of the revenue; a constant supply of the scarcest and most beautiful birds was transported from distant climates, to bleed on the altars of the gods8; an hundred oxen were frequently sacrificed by Julian8 on one and the same day; and it soon became a popular jest that, if he should return with conquest from the Persian war, the breed of horned cattle must infallibly be extinguished. Yet this expense may appear inconsiderable, when it is compared with the splendid presents which were offered, either by the hand or by order of the emperor, to all the celebrated places of devotion8 in the Roman world8; and with the sums allotted to repair and decorate the ancient8 temples8, which had suffered the silent decay of time8 or the recent injuries of Christian8 rapine. Encouraged by the example, the exhortations, the liberality, of their pious sovereign, the cities and families resumed the practice8 of their neglected ceremonies. Every part of the world8, exclaims Libanius with devout transport, displayed the triumph of religion8; and the grateful prospect of flaming altars, bleeding victims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn train of priests and prophets, without fear and without danger. The sound of prayer and of music was heard on the tops of the highest mountains; and the same ox afforded a sacrifice for the gods8 and a supper for their joyous votaries.
But the genius and power42 of Julian were unequal to the enterprise of restoring a religion42 which was destitute of theological principles, of moral precepts, and of ecclesiastical discipline; which rapidly hastened to decay and dissolution, and was not susceptible of any solid or consistent reformation. The jurisdiction of the supreme pontiff, more especially after that office had been united with the Imperial dignity42, comprehended the whole extent of the Roman42 empire. Julian named for his vicars, in the several provinces, the priests and philosophers whom he esteemed the best qualified to coöperate in the execution of his great42 design; and his pastoral letters, if we may use42 that name, still represent a very curious sketch of his wishes and intentions. He directs that in every city42 the sacerdotal order should be composed, without any distinction of birth42 or fortune42, of those persons who were the most conspicuous for their love of the gods and of men. If they are guilty, continues he, of any scandalous offence, they should be censured or degraded by the superior pontiff; but, as long42 as they retain their rank, they are entitled to the respect of the magistrates and people42. Their humility may be shown in the plainness of their domestic garb; their dignity42, in the pomp of holy42 vestments. When they are summoned in their turn to officiate before the altar, they ought not, during the appointed number of days, to depart from the precincts of the temple42; nor should a single day be suffered to elapse without the prayers and the sacrifice, which they are obliged42 to offer for the prosperity of the state and of individuals. The exercise of their sacred functions requires an immaculate purity, both of mind and body; and, even when they are dismissed from the temple42 to the occupations of common42 life, it is incumbent on them to excel in decency and virtue the rest of their fellow-citizens. The priest of the gods should never be seen in theatres or taverns. His conversation should be chaste, his diet temperate, his friends of honourable reputation; and, if he sometimes visits the Forum or the Palace, he should appear only as the advocate of those who have vainly solicited either justice or mercy. His studies should be suited to the sanctity of his profession. Licentious tales, or comedies, or satires, must be banished from his library; which ought solely to consist of historical and philosophical writings; of history which is founded in truth, and of philosophy which is connected with religion42. The impious opinions of the Epicureans and Sceptics deserve his abhorrence and contempt; but he should diligently study the systems of Pythagoras, of Plato, and of the Stoics, which unanimously teach that there are gods; that the world is governed by their providence; that their goodness is the source of every temporal blessing; and that they have prepared for the human soul a future42 state of reward or punishment. The Imperial pontiff inculcates, in the most persuasive language, the duties of benevolence and hospitality; exhorts his inferior clergy42 to recommend the universal practice of those virtues42; promises to assist their indigence from the public42 treasury; and declares his resolution of establishing hospitals in every city42, where the poor should be received42 without any invidious distinction of country42 or of religion42. Julian beheld with envy the wise and humane regulations of the church; and he very frankly confesses his intention to deprive the Christians of the applause, as well as advantage, which they had acquired by the exclusive practice of charity and beneficence. The same spirit of imitation might dispose the emperor42 to adopt several ecclesiastical institutions, the use42 and importance of which were approved by the success of his enemies. But, if these imaginary plans of reformation had been realised, the forced and imperfect copy would have been less beneficial to Paganism than honourable to Christianity. The Gentiles, who peaceably followed the customs of their ancestors, were rather surprised than pleased with the introduction of foreign manners; and, in the short period of his reign, Julian had frequent occasions to complain of the want of fervour of his own party.
The enthusiasm of Julian prompted him to embrace the friends of Jupiter as his personal friends and brethren; and, though he partially overlooked the merit of Christian33 constancy, he admired and rewarded the noble perseverance of those Gentiles who had preferred the favour of the gods to that of the emperor33. If they cultivated the literature, as well as the religion33, of the Greeks33, they acquired an additional claim to the friendship of Julian, who ranked the Muses in the number of his tutelar deities. In the religion33 which he had adopted, piety and learning were almost synonymous; and a crowd of poets, of rhetoricians, and of philosophers hastened to the Imperial court, to occupy the vacant places of the bishops33 who had seduced the credulity of Constantius. His successor esteemed the ties of common initiation as far more sacred than those of consanguinity: he chose his favourites among the sages who were deeply skilled in the occult sciences of magic and divination; and every impostor who pretended to reveal the secrets of futurity was assured of enjoying the present hour in honour and affluence. Among the philosophers, Maximus obtained the most eminent rank in the friendship of his royal disciple, who communicated, with unreserved confidence, his actions, his sentiments, and his religious33 designs, during the anxious suspense of the civil war. As soon as Julian had taken possession of the palace of Constantinople33, he despatched an honourable and pressing invitation to Maximus; who then resided at Sardes in Lydia, with Chrysanthius, the associate of his art and studies. The prudent and superstitious Chrysanthius refused to undertake a journey which showed itself, according to the rules of divination, with the most threatening and malignant aspect: but his companion, whose fanaticism was of a bolder cast, persisted in his interrogations, till he had extorted from the gods a seeming consent to his own wishes and those of the emperor33. The journey of Maximus through the cities of Asia displayed the triumph of philosophic vanity; and the magistrates vied with each other in the honourable reception which they prepared for the friend of their sovereign. Julian was pronouncing an oration before the senate, when he was informed of the arrival of Maximus. The emperor33 immediately interrupted his discourse, advanced to meet him, and, after a tender embrace, conducted him by the hand into the midst of the assembly; where he publicly acknowledged the benefits which he had derived from the instructions of the philosopher. Maximus, who soon acquired the confidence, and influenced the councils, of Julian, was insensibly corrupted by the temptations of a court. His dress became more splendid, his demeanour more lofty, and he was exposed, under a succeeding reign, to a disgraceful inquiry into the means by which the disciple of Plato had accumulated, in the short duration of his favour, a very scandalous proportion of wealth. Of the other philosophers and sophists, who were invited to the Imperial residence by the choice of Julian or by the success of Maximus, few were able to preserve their innocence or their reputation. The liberal gifts of money, lands, and houses were insufficient to satiate their rapacious avarice; and the indignation of the people33 was justly excited by the remembrance of their abject poverty and disinterested professions. The penetration of Julian could not always be deceived: but he was unwilling to despise the characters of those men whose talents deserved his esteem; he desired to escape the double reproach of imprudence and inconstancy; and he was apprehensive of degrading, in the eyes of the profane, the honour of letters and of religion33.
The favour of Julian8 was almost equally divided between the Pagans8, who had firmly adhered to the worship8 of their ancestors, and the Christians8, who prudently embraced the religion8 of their sovereign. The acquisition of new proselytes gratified the ruling passions8 of his soul, superstition8 and vanity; and he was heard to declare with the enthusiasm of a missionary that, if he could render each individual richer than Midas, and every city greater than Babylon, he should not esteem himself the benefactor of mankind8, unless, at the same time8, he could reclaim his subjects8 from their impious revolt against the immortal gods8. A prince, who had studied human8 nature8, and who possessed the treasures of the Roman empire8, could adapt his arguments, his promises, and his rewards to every order of Christians8; and the merit of a seasonable conversion was allowed to supply the defects of a candidate, or even to expiate the guilt of a criminal. As the army is the most forcible engine of absolute power, Julian8 applied himself, with peculiar diligence, to corrupt the religion8 of his troops, without whose hearty concurrence every measure must be dangerous and unsuccessful; and the natural temper of soldiers made this conquest as easy as it was important. The legions of Gaul devoted themselves to the faith8, as well as to the fortunes, of their victorious leader; and even before the death8 of Constantius, he had the satisfaction of announcing to his friends that they assisted with fervent devotion8, and voracious appetite, at the sacrifices, which were repeatedly offered in his camp, of whole hecatombs of fat oxen. The armies of the East, which had been trained under the standard of the cross, and of Constantius, required a more artful and expensive mode of persuasion. On the days of solemn and public8 festivals, the emperor received the homage, and rewarded the merits, of the troops. His throne of state was encircled with the military ensigns of Rome and the republic; the holy name of Christ was erased from the Labarum; and the symbols of war, of majesty, and of Pagan8 superstition8 were so dexterously blended, that the faithful subject incurred the guilt of idolatry, when he respectfully saluted the person or image of his sovereign. The soldiers passed successively in review; and each of them, before he received from the hand of Julian8 a liberal donative, proportioned to his rank and services, was required to cast a few grains of incense into the flame which burnt upon the altar. Some Christian8 confessors might resist, and others might repent; but the far greater number, allured by the prospect of gold and awed by the presence of the emperor, contracted the criminal engagement; and their future perseverance in the worship8 of the gods8 was enforced by every consideration of duty and of interest. By the frequent repetition of these arts, and at the expense of sums which would have purchased the service of half the nations of Scythia, Julian8 gradually acquired for his troops the imaginary protection of the gods8, and for himself the firm and effectual support of the Roman legions. It is indeed more than probable that the restoration and encouragement of Paganism revealed a multitude of pretended Christians8, who, from motives of temporal advantage, had acquiesced in the religion8 of the former reign8; and who afterwards returned, with the same flexibility of conscience, to the faith8 which was professed by the successors of Julian8.
While the devout monarch incessantly laboured to restore and propagate the religion42 of his ancestors, he embraced the extraordinary design of rebuilding the temple42 of Jerusalem42. In a public42 epistle to the nation or community of the Jews42, dispersed through the provinces, he pities their misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their constancy, declares himself their gracious protector, and expresses a pious hope that, after his return42 from the Persian war, he may be permitted to pay his grateful vows to the Almighty in his holy42 city42 of Jerusalem42. The blind superstition and abject slavery of those unfortunate exiles must excite the contempt of a philosophic emperor42; but they deserved the friendship of Julian by their implacable hatred of the Christian42 name. The barren synagogue42 abhorred and envied the fecundity of the rebellious church: the power42 of the Jews42 was not equal to their malice; but their gravest rabbis approved the private murder of an apostate; and their seditious clamours had often awakened the indolence of the Pagan magistrates. Under the reign of Constantine, the Jews42 became the subjects of their revolted children42, nor was it long42 before they experienced the bitterness of domestic tyranny. The civil immunities which had been granted, or confirmed, by Severus were gradually repealed by the Christian42 princes; and a rash tumult excited by the Jews42 of Palestine42 seemed to justify the lucrative modes of oppression, which were invented by the bishops and eunuchs of the court of Constantius. The Jewish patriarch, who was still permitted to exercise a precarious jurisdiction, held his residence at Tiberias; and the neighbouring cities of Palestine42 were filled with the remains of a people42 who fondly adhered to the promised land. But the edict of Hadrian was renewed and enforced; and they viewed from afar the walls of the holy42 city42, which were profaned in their eyes by the triumph of the cross and the devotion of the Christians.
In the midst of a rocky and barren country9, the walls9 of Jerusalem enclosed the two mountains9 of Sion and Acra, within an oval figure of about three English miles9. Towards the south, the upper town and the fortress of David were erected on the lofty ascent of Mount Sion: on the north9 side, the buildings of the lower town covered the spacious summit of Mount Acra; and a part of the hill, distinguished by the name of Moriah and levelled by human industry, was crowned with the stately temple of the Jewish nation9. After the final destruction of the temple, by the arms9 of Titus and Hadrian, a ploughshare was drawn over the consecrated ground, as a sign of perpetual interdiction. Sion was deserted; and the vacant space of the lower city9 was filled with the public and private edifices of the Aelian colony, which spread themselves over the adjacent hill of Calvary. The holy places were polluted with monuments of idolatry; and, either from design or accident, a chapel was dedicated to Venus on the spot which had been sanctified by the death and resurrection of Christ. Almost three hundred years after those stupendous events, the profane chapel of Venus was demolished by the order of Constantine; and the removal of the earth and stones revealed the holy sepulchre to the eyes of mankind. A magnificent church was erected on that mystic ground, by the first Christian emperor; and the effects of his pious munificence were extended to every spot which had been consecrated by the footsteps of patriarchs, of prophets, and of the Son of God.
The passionate desire of contemplating the original monuments of their redemption attracted to Jerusalem a successive crowd of pilgrims, from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and the most distant countries of the East; and their piety was authorised by the example of the empress Helena, who appears to have united the credulity of age with the warm feelings of a recent conversion. Sages and heroes, who have visited the memorable scenes of ancient1 wisdom or glory, have confessed the inspiration of the genius of the place; and the Christian1 who knelt before the holy sepulchre ascribed his lively faith and his fervent devotion to the more immediate influence of the Divine spirit. The zeal, perhaps the avarice, of the clergy1 of Jerusalem cherished and multiplied these beneficial visits. They fixed, by unquestionable tradition, the scene of each memorable event. They exhibited the instruments which had been used in the passion of Christ; the nails and the lance that had pierced his hands, his feet, and his side; the crown of thorns that was planted on his head, the pillar at which he was scourged; and, above all, they shewed the cross on which he suffered, and which was dug out of the earth in the reign1 of those princes1 who inserted the symbol of Christianity in the banners of the Roman1 legions. Such miracles as seemed necessary to account for its extraordinary preservation and seasonable discovery were gradually propagated without opposition. The custody of the true cross, which on Easter Sunday was solemnly exposed to the people1, was entrusted to the bishop1 of Jerusalem; and he alone might gratify the curious devotion of the pilgrims, by the gift of small pieces, which they enchased in gold or gems, and carried away in triumph to their respective countries. But, as this gainful branch of commerce must soon have been annihilated, it was found convenient to suppose that the marvellous wood possessed a secret power1 of vegetation; and that its substance, though continually diminished, still remained entire and unimpaired. It might perhaps have been expected that the influence of the place, and the belief of a perpetual miracle, should have produced some salutary effects on the morals as well as on the faith of the people1. Yet the most respectable of the ecclesiastical1 writers have been obliged to confess, not only that the streets of Jerusalem were filled with the incessant tumult of business and pleasure, but that every species of vice, adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning, murder, was familiar to the inhabitants of the holy city1. The wealth and preeminence of the church1 of Jerusalem excited the ambition of Arian, as well as orthodox, candidates; and the virtues of Cyril, who, since his death, has been honoured with the title1 of Saint, were displayed in the exercise, rather than in the acquisition, of his episcopal dignity.
The vain and ambitious mind34 of Julian34 might aspire to restore the ancient glory of the temple of Jerusalem. As the Christians34 were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction had been pronounced against the whole fabric of the Mosaic law, the Imperial sophist34 would have converted the success of his undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of the prophecy and the truth34 of revelation. He was displeased with the spiritual worship of the synagogue; but he approved the institutions of Moses, who had not disdained to adopt many of the rites and ceremonies of Egypt. The local and national deity of the Jews was sincerely adored by a polytheist who desired only to multiply the number of the gods; and such was the appetite of Julian34 for bloody sacrifice that his emulation might be excited by the piety of Solomon, who had offered, at the feast of the dedication, twenty-two thousand34 oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand34 sheep. These considerations might influence his designs; but the prospect of an immediate and important advantage would not suffer the impatient monarch34 to expect the remote and uncertain event34 of the Persian war34. He resolved to erect, without delay, on the commanding eminence of Moriah, a stately temple which might eclipse the splendour of the church of the Resurrection on the adjacent hill of Calvary; to establish an order of priests, whose interested zeal would detect the arts, and resist the ambition, of their Christian34 rivals; and to invite a numerous colony of Jews, whose stern fanaticism would be always prepared to second, and even to anticipate, the hostile measures of the Pagan government. Among the friends of the emperor34 (if the names of emperor34 and of friend34 are not incompatible) the first place34 was assigned, by Julian34 himself, to the virtuous and learned Alypius. The humanity of Alypius was tempered by severe justice34 and manly fortitude; and, while he exercised his abilities in the civil administration of Britain, he imitated, in his poetical compositions, the harmony and softness of the odes of Sappho. This minister, to whom Julian34 communicated, without reserve, his most careless levities and his most serious counsels, received an extraordinary commission to restore, in its pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem; and the diligence of Alypius required and obtained the strenuous support of the governor of Palestine. At the call of their great deliverer, the Jews, from all the provinces of the empire34, assembled on the holy34 mountain of their fathers; and their insolent triumph alarmed and exasperated the Christian34 inhabitants of Jerusalem. The desire of rebuilding the temple has, in every age34, been the ruling passion of the children of Israel. In this propitious moment the men forgot their avarice, and the women their delicacy; spades and pickaxes of silver were provided by the vanity of the rich, and the rubbish was transported in mantles of silk and purple. Every purse was opened in liberal contributions, every hand claimed a share in the pious labour; and the commands of a great monarch34 were executed by the enthusiasm of a whole people.
Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power22 and enthusiasm were unsuccessful; and the ground of the Jewish temple, which is now covered by a Mahometan mosque, still continued to exhibit the same edifying spectacle of ruin and desolation. Perhaps the absence and death22 of the emperor22, and the new22 maxims of a Christian reign22, might explain the interruption of an arduous work22, which was attempted only in the last six months of the life of Julian. But the Christians entertained a natural and pious expectation that, in this memorable contest, the honour of religion would be vindicated by some signal miracle. An earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new22 foundations of the temple, are attested, with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence. This public22 event is described by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in an epistle to the emperor22 Theodosius, which must provoke the severe animadversion of the Jews; by the eloquent Chrysostom, who might appeal to the memory of the elder part of his congregation at Antioch; and by Gregory Nazianzen, who published his account of the miracle before the expiration of the same year. The last of these writers has boldly declared that this preternatural event was not disputed by the infidels; and his assertion, strange as it may seem, is confirmed by the unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus. The philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues22, without adopting the prejudices, of his master, has recorded, in his judicious and candid history22 of his own times22, the extraordinary obstacles which interrupted the restoration of the temple of Jerusalem. Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged with vigour and diligence the execution of the work22, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundations with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time22 to time22, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and, the victorious element continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was abandoned. Such authority should satisfy a believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet a philosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial and intelligent spectators. At this important crisis, any singular22 accident of nature would assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a real prodigy. This glorious deliverance would be speedily improved and magnified by the pious art of the clergy of Jerusalem and the active credulity of the Christian world22; and, at the distance of twenty years22, a Roman22 historian22, careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work22 with the specious and splendid miracle.
The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with the ruin of the Christian1 church1. Julian still continued to maintain the freedom1 of religious worship, without distinguishing whether this universal toleration proceeded from his justice1 or his clemency. He affected to pity the unhappy Christians1, who were mistaken in the most important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly wound whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that the Christians1 gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honourable appellation of Galilaeans. He declared that, by the folly of the Galilaeans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics, contemptible to men, and odious to the gods, the empire1 had been reduced to the brink of destruction; and he insinuates in a public1 edict that a frantic patient might sometimes be cured by salutary violence. An ungenerous distinction was admitted into the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according to the difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his subjects1 deserved his favour and friendship, while the other was entitled only to the common benefits that his justice1 could not refuse to an obedient people1. According to a principle, pregnant with mischief and oppression, the emperor1 transferred to the pontiffs of his own religion1 the management of the liberal allowances from the public1 revenue which had been granted to the church1 by the piety of Constantine1 and his sons. The proud system of clerical honours1 and immunities, which had been constructed with so much art and labour, was levelled to the ground; the hopes of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigour of the laws1; and the priests of the Christian1 sect were confounded with the last and most ignominious class of the people1. Such of these regulations as appeared necessary to check the ambition and avarice of the ecclesiastics were soon afterwards imitated by the wisdom of an orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which policy1 has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the sacerdotal order1 must be confined to those priests who profess the religion1 of the state1. But the will of the legislator was not exempt from prejudice and passion; and it was the object of the insidious policy1 of Julian to deprive the Christians1 of all the temporal honours1 and advantages which rendered them respectable in the eyes of the world.
A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law6 which prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts6 of grammar and rhetoric. The motives alleged by the emperor to justify this partial and oppressive measure might command, during his lifetime, the silence of slaves and the applause of flatterers. Julian6 abuses the ambiguous meaning of a word which might be indifferently applied to the language and the religion6 of the Greeks: he contemptuously observes that the men who exalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the advantages of science; and he vainly contends that, if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the churches of the Galilaeans. In all the cities of the Roman6 world6, the education of the youth was entrusted to masters of grammar and rhetoric; who were elected by the magistrates, maintained at the public6 expense, and distinguished by many lucrative and honourable privileges. The edict of Julian6 appears to have included the physicians, and professors of all the liberal arts6; and the emperor, who reserved to himself the approbation of the candidates, was authorised by the laws6 to corrupt, or to punish, the religious constancy of the most learned of the Christians. As soon6 as the resignation of the more obstinate teachers had established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists, Julian6 invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the public6 schools, in a just confidence that their tender minds would receive the impressions of literature and idolatry. If the greatest part of the Christian youth should be deterred by their own scruples, or by those of their parents, from accepting this dangerous mode of instruction, they must at the same time6 relinquish the benefits of a liberal education. Julian6 had reason to expect that, in the space of a few years, the church would relapse into its primeval simplicity, and that the theologians, who possessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of the age6, would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their own principles or of exposing the various6 follies of Polytheism.
It was undoubtedly the wish and the design of Julian to deprive the Christians1 of the advantages of wealth, of knowledge, and of power1; but the injustice of excluding them from all offices of trust and profit seems to have been the result of his general policy1 rather than the immediate consequence of any positive law. Superior merit might deserve, and obtain, some extraordinary exceptions; but the greater part of the Christian1 officers were gradually removed from their employments in the state1, the army, and the provinces1. The hopes of future candidates were extinguished by the declared partiality of a prince who maliciously reminded them that it was unlawful for a Christian1 to use the sword either of justice1 or of war; and who studiously guarded the camp and the tribunals with the ensigns of idolatry. The powers of government1 were entrusted to the Pagans, who professed an ardent zeal for the religion1 of their ancestors; and, as the choice of the emperor1 was often directed by the rules of divination, the favourites whom he preferred as the most agreeable to the gods did not always obtain the approbation of mankind. Under the administration of their enemies, the Christians1 had much to suffer, and more to apprehend. The temper of Julian was averse to cruelty; and the care of his reputation, which was exposed to the eyes of the universe, restrained the philosophic monarch from violating the laws1 of justice1 and toleration which he himself had so recently established. But the provincial ministers of his authority1 were placed in a less conspicuous station. In the exercise of arbitrary power1, they consulted the wishes, rather than the commands, of their sovereign; and ventured to exercise a secret and vexatious tyranny against the sectaries, on whom they were not permitted to confer the honours1 of martyrdom. The emperor1, who dissembled as long1 as possible his knowledge of the injustice that was exercised in his name, expressed his real sense of the conduct of his officers by gentle reproofs and substantial rewards.
The most effectual instrument of oppression with which they were armed was the law that obliged the Christians to make full and ample satisfaction for the temples which they had destroyed under the preceding reign. The zeal of the triumphant church had not always expected the sanction of the public authority; and the bishops, who were secure of impunity, had often marched, at the head30 of their congregations, to attack and demolish the fortresses of the prince30 of darkness. The consecrated lands, which had increased the patrimony of the sovereign or of the clergy, were clearly defined, and easily restored. But on these lands, and on the ruins of Pagan superstition, the Christians had frequently erected their own religious edifices: and, as it was necessary to remove the church before the temple could be rebuilt, the justice and piety of the emperor30 were applauded by one party, while the other deplored and execrated his sacrilegious violence. After the ground was cleared, the restitution of those stately structures which had been levelled with the dust and of the precious ornaments which had been converted to Christian uses swelled into a very large account of damages and debt. The authors of the injury had neither the ability nor the inclination to discharge this accumulated demand: and the impartial wisdom of a legislator would have been displayed in balancing the adverse claims and complaints, by an equitable and temperate arbitration. But the whole empire30, and particularly the East, was thrown into confusion by the rash edicts of Julian; and the Pagan magistrates, inflamed by zeal and revenge, abused the rigorous privilege of the Roman30 law, which substitutes, in the place of his inadequate property, the person of the insolvent debtor. Under the preceding reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa, had laboured in the conversion of his people30 with arms30 more effectual than those of persuasion. The magistrates required the full value of a temple which had been destroyed by his intolerant zeal: but, as they were satisfied of his poverty, they desired only to bend his inflexible spirit to the promise of the slightest compensation. They apprehended the aged prelate, they inhumanly scourged him, they tore his beard; and his naked body, anointed with honey, was suspended in a net between heaven and earth, and exposed to the stings of insects and the rays of a Syrian sun. From this lofty station, Mark still persisted to glory in his crime and to insult the impotent rage of his persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and dismissed to enjoy the honour of his divine triumph. The Arians celebrated the virtue of their pious confessor; the Catholics ambitiously claimed his alliance; and the Pagans, who might be susceptible of shame or remorse, were deterred from the repetition of such unavailing cruelty. Julian spared his life: but, if the bishop of Arethusa had saved the infancy of Julian, posterity will condemn the ingratitude, instead of praising the clemency, of the emperor30.
At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the Macedonian kings of Syria had consecrated to Apollo one of the most elegant places of devotion8 in the Pagan8 world8. A magnificent temple8 rose in honour of the god8 of light; and his colossal figure almost filled the capacious sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and gems, and adorned by the skill of the Grecian artists. The deity8 was represented in a bending attitude, with a golden cup in his hand, pouring out a libation on the earth; as if he supplicated the venerable mother to give to his arms the cold and beauteous Daphne: for the spot was ennobled by fiction; and the fancy of the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tale from the banks of the Peneus to those of the Orontes. The ancient8 rites of Greece were imitated by the royal colony of Antioch. A stream of prophecy, which rivalled the truth8 and reputation of the Delphic oracle, flowed from the Castalian fountain of Daphne. In the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege, which had been purchased from Elis; the Olympic games were celebrated at the expense of the city; and a revenue of thirty thousand pounds sterling was annually applied to the public8 pleasures. The perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectators insensibly formed, in the neighbourhood of the temple8, the stately and populous village of Daphne, which emulated the splendour, without acquiring the title, of a provincial city. The temple8 and the village were deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and cypresses, which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every hill, preserved the verdure of the earth and the temperature of the air; the senses were gratified with harmonious sounds and aromatic odours; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to health and joy, to luxury and love. The vigorous youth pursued, like Apollo, the object of his desires; and the blushing maid was warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly of unseasonable coyness. The soldier and the philosopher8 wisely avoided the temptation of this sensual paradise; where pleasure, assuming the character8 of religion8, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness of manly virtue8. But the groves of Daphne continued for many ages to enjoy the veneration of natives and strangers; the privileges of the holy ground were enlarged by the munificence of succeeding emperors; and every generation added new ornaments to the splendour of the temple8.
When Julian8, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to adore the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion8 was raised to the highest pitch of eagerness and impatience. His lively imagination anticipated the grateful pomp of victims, of libations, and of incense; a long procession of youths and virgins, clothed in white robes, the symbol of their innocence; and the tumultuous concourse of an innumerable people. But the zeal8 of Antioch was diverted, since the reign8 of Christianity8, into a different channel. Instead of hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the tribes of a wealthy city to their tutelar deity8, the emperor complains that he found only a single goose, provided at the expense of a priest, the pale and solitary inhabitant of this decayed temple8. The altar was deserted, the oracle had been reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the introduction of Christian8 and funereal rites. After Babylas (a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of Decius) had rested near a century in his grave, his body, by the order of the Caesar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the grove of Daphne. A magnificent church8 was erected over his remains; a portion of the sacred8 lands was usurped for the maintenance of the clergy, and for the burial of the Christians8 of Antioch who were ambitious of lying at the feet of their bishop; and the priests of Apollo retired, with their affrighted and indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution seemed to restore the fortune of Paganism, the church8 of St. Babylas was demolished, and new buildings were added to the mouldering edifice which had been raised by the piety of Syrian kings. But the first and most serious care of Julian8 was to deliver his oppressed deity8 from the odious presence of the dead and living Christians8 who had so effectually suppressed the voice of fraud or enthusiasm. The scene of infection was purified, according to the forms of ancient8 rituals; the bodies were decently removed; and the ministers of the church8 were permitted to convey the remains of St. Babylas to their former habitation within the walls of Antioch. The modest behaviour which might have assuaged the jealousy of an hostile government was neglected on this occasion by the zeal8 of the Christians8. The lofty car that transported the relics of Babylas was followed, and accompanied, and received, by an innumerable multitude; who chanted, with thundering acclamations, the Psalms of David the most expressive of their contempt for idols and idolaters. The return of the saint was a triumph; and the triumph was an insult on the religion8 of the emperor, who exerted his pride to dissemble his resentment. During the night which terminated this indiscreet procession, the temple8 of Daphne was in flames; the statue of Apollo was consumed; and the walls of the edifice were left a naked and awful monument of ruin. The Christians8 of Antioch asserted, with religious8 confidence, that the powerful intercession of St. Babylas had pointed the lightnings of heaven against the devoted roof: but, as Julian8 was reduced to the alternative of believing either a crime or a miracle, he chose, without hesitation, without evidence, but with some colour of probability, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of the Galilaeans. Their offence, had it been sufficiently proved, might have justified the retaliation which was immediately executed by the order of Julian8, of shutting the doors, and confiscating the wealth, of the cathedral of Antioch. To discover the criminals who were guilty of the tumult, of the fire, or of secreting the riches of the church8, several ecclesiastics were tortured; and a presbyter, of the name of Theodoret, was beheaded by the sentence of the Count of the East. But this hasty act was blamed by the emperor; who lamented, with real or affected concern, that the imprudent zeal8 of his ministers would tarnish his reign8 with the disgrace of persecution.
The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly checked by the frown of their sovereign; but, when the father of his country declares himself the leader of a faction, the licence of popular fury cannot easily be restrained nor consistently punished. Julian, in a public23 composition, applauds the devotion and loyalty of the holy cities23 of Syria, whose pious inhabitants had destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchres of the Galilaeans; and faintly complains that they had revenged the injuries of the gods with less moderation than he should have recommended. This imperfect and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the ecclesiastical narratives: that in the cities23 of Gaza, Ascalon, Caesarea, Heliopolis, &c., the Pagans abused, without prudence or remorse, the moment of their prosperity; that the unhappy objects of their cruelty were released from torture only by death23; that, as their mangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they were pierced (such was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks and the distaffs of enraged women; and that the entrails of Christian priests and virgins, after they had been tasted by those bloody fanatics, were mixed with barley, and contemptuously thrown to the unclean animals of the city23. Such scenes of religious madness exhibit the most contemptible and odious picture of human nature23; but the massacre of Alexandria attracts still more attention, from the certainty of the fact, the rank of the victims, and the splendour of the capital23 of Egypt.
George, from his parents or his education surnamed the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller's shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite: and the patrons, whom he assiduously flattered, procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army28 with bacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basest arts28 of fraud and corruption; but his malversations were so notorious that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his honour, he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation, of learning, he collected a valuable library of history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology; and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new28 archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each moment of his reign28 was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned28 to a tyrant, qualified, by nature28 and education, to exercise the office of persecution; but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust, and almost universal, monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt, paper, funerals, &c. and the spiritual father of a great28 people28 condescended to practice the vile and pernicious arts28 of an informer. The Alexandrians could never forget nor forgive the tax which he suggested on all the houses of the city28; under an obsolete claim that the royal founder had conveyed to his successors28, the Ptolemies and the Caesars, the perpetual property of the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered with the hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devout avarice; and the rich temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate, who exclaimed, in a loud and threatening tone, How long28 will these sepulchres be permitted to stand? Under the reign28 of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, or rather by the justice, of the people28; and it was not without a violent struggle that the civil and military28 powers of the state28 could restore his authority and gratify his revenge. The messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian announced the downfall of the archbishop. George, with two of his obsequious ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint, were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public28 prison. At the end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced open by the rage of a superstitious multitude28, impatient of the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men28 expired under their cruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the archbishop and his associates were carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel; and the inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience. The remains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; and the popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and to intercept the future honours of these martyrs, who had been punished, like their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion28. The fears of the Pagans were just, and their precautions ineffectual. The meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholic church. The odious stranger, disguising every circumstance of time28 and place, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms28, of chivalry, and of the garter.
About the same time that Julian36 was informed of the tumult of Alexandria36, he received intelligence from Edessa that the proud and wealthy faction of the Arians had insulted the weakness of the Valentinians, and committed such disorders as ought not to be suffered with impunity in a well-regulated state. Without expecting the slow forms of justice, the exasperated prince directed his mandate to the magistrates of Edessa, by which he confiscated the whole property of the church: the money was distributed among the soldiers; the lands36 were added to the domain; and this act of oppression was aggravated by the most ungenerous irony. I shew myself, says Julian36, the true friend of the Galilaeans. Their admirable law has promised the kingdom of heaven to the poor; and they will advance with more diligence in the paths of virtue and salvation, when they are relieved by my assistance from the load of temporal possessions. Take care, pursued the monarch36, in a more serious tone, take care how you provoke my patience and humanity. If these disorders continue, I will revenge on the magistrates the crimes of the people36; and you will have reason36 to dread, not only confiscation and exile, but fire and the sword. The tumults of Alexandria36 were doubtless of a more bloody and dangerous36 nature: but a Christian bishop had fallen by the hands of the Pagans; and the public epistle of Julian36 affords a very lively proof of the partial spirit36 of his administration. His reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria36 are mingled with expressions of esteem and tenderness; and he laments that on this occasion they should have departed from the gentle and generous manners which attested their Grecian extraction. He gravely censures the offence which they had committed against the laws of justice and humanity; but he recapitulates, with visible complacency, the intolerable provocations which they had so long36 endured from the impious tyranny of George of Cappadocia. Julian36 admits the principle that a wise and vigorous government should chastise the insolence of the people36: yet, in consideration of their founder Alexander and of Serapis36 their tutelar deity, he grants a free and gracious pardon to the guilty city36, for which he again feels the affection of a brother.
After the tumult of Alexandria33 had subsided, Athanasius, amidst the public acclamations, seated himself on the throne33 from whence his unworthy competitor had been precipitated; and, as the zeal33 of the archbishop was tempered with discretion, the exercise of his authority tended not to inflame, but to reconcile, the minds of the people33. His pastoral labours were not confined to the narrow limits of Egypt33. The state of the Christian33 world was present to his active and capacious mind; and the age, the merit, the reputation of Athanasius enabled him to assume, in a moment of danger, the office of Ecclesiastical33 Dictator. Three years were not yet elapsed since the majority of the bishops33 of the West33 had ignorantly, or reluctantly, subscribed the Confession of Rimini. They repented, they believed, but they dreaded the unseasonable rigour of their orthodox33 brethren, and, if their pride was stronger than their faith33, they might throw themselves into the arms of the Arians, to escape the indignity of a public penance, which must degrade them to the condition of obscure laymen. At the same time, the domestic differences concerning the union33 and distinction of the divine persons were agitated with some heat among the Catholic33 doctors; and the progress of this metaphysical controversy33 seemed to threaten a public and lasting division of the Greek33 and Latin33 churches33. By the wisdom of a select synod33, to which the name and presence of Athanasius gave the authority of a general council33, the bishops33 who had unwarily deviated into error were admitted to the communion of the church33, on the easy condition of subscribing the Nicene Creed33; without any formal acknowledgment of their past fault or any minute definition of their scholastic opinions. The advice of the primate of Egypt33 had already prepared the clergy33 of Gaul and Spain, of Italy and Greece, for the reception of this salutary measure; and, notwithstanding the opposition of some ardent spirits, the fear of the common enemy promoted the peace and harmony of the Christians.
The skill and diligence of the primate of Egypt had improved the season of tranquillity, before it was interrupted by the hostile edicts of the emperor3. Julian3, who despised the Christians, honoured Athanasius3 with his sincere and peculiar hatred. For his sake alone, he introduced an arbitrary distinction, repugnant, at least, to the spirit of his former declarations. He maintained that the Galilaeans whom he had recalled from exile were not restored, by that general3 indulgence, to the possession of their respective churches: and he expressed his astonishment that a criminal, who had been repeatedly condemned by the judgment of the emperors, should dare to insult the majesty of the laws, and insolently usurp the archiepiscopal throne3 of Alexandria, without expecting the orders of his sovereign. As a punishment for the imaginary offence, he again banished Athanasius3 from the city3: and he was pleased to suppose that this act of justice would be highly agreeable to his pious subjects. The pressing solicitations of the people soon3 convinced him that the majority of the Alexandrians were Christians; and that the greatest part of the Christians were firmly attached to the cause of their oppressed primate. But the knowledge of their sentiments, instead of persuading him to recall his decree, provoked him to extend to all Egypt the term of the exile of Athanasius3. The zeal of the multitude rendered Julian3 still more inexorable: he was alarmed by the danger of leaving at the head3 of a tumultuous city3 a daring and popular leader: and the language of his resentment discovers the opinion which he entertained of the courage and abilities of Athanasius3. The execution of the sentence was still delayed, by the caution or negligence of Ecdicius, prefect of Egypt, who was at length awakened from his lethargy by a severe reprimand. Though you neglect, says Julian3, to write to me on any other subject, at least it is your duty to inform me of your conduct towards Athanasius3, the enemy3 of the gods. My intentions have been long3 since communicated to you. I swear by the great3 Serapis that unless, on the calends of December, Athanasius3 has departed from Alexandria, nay from Egypt, the officers of your government shall pay a fine of one hundred pounds of gold. You know my temper: I am slow to condemn, but I am still slower to forgive. This epistle was enforced by a short postscript, written with the emperor3's own hand. The contempt that is shewn for all the gods fills me with grief and indignation. There is nothing that I should see, nothing that I should hear with more pleasure than the expulsion of Athanasius3 from all Egypt. The abominable wretch! Under my reign3, the baptism of several Grecian ladies of the highest rank has been the effect of his persecutions. The death3 of Athanasius3 was not expressly commanded; but the prefect of Egypt understood that it was safer for him to exceed, than to neglect, the orders of an irritated master. The archbishop prudently retired to the monasteries of the Desert: eluded, with his usual dexterity, the snares of the enemy3; and lived to triumph over the ashes of a prince3 who, in words of formidable import, had declared his wish that the whole venom of the Galilaean school were contained in the single person of Athanasius3.
I have endeavoured faithfully to represent the artful system by which Julian proposed to obtain the effects, without incurring the guilt, or reproach, of persecution. But, if the deadly spirit47 of fanaticism perverted the heart and understanding of a virtuous prince47, it must, at the same time, be confessed, that the real sufferings of the Christians were inflamed and magnified by human passions and religious enthusiasm. The meekness and resignation which had distinguished the primitive disciples of the gospel was the object of the applause rather than of the imitation of their successors. The Christians, who had now possessed about forty years the civil47 and ecclesiastical government47 of the empire47, had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity, and the habit of believing that the saints alone were entitled to reign47 over the earth. As soon47 as the enmity of Julian deprived the clergy of the privileges which had been conferred by the favour of Constantine47, they complained of the most cruel oppression; and the free toleration of idolaters and heretics was a subject of grief and scandal to the orthodox party. The acts of violence, which were no longer countenanced by the magistrates, were still committed by the zeal of the people47. At Pessinus, the altar of Cybele was overturned almost in the presence of the emperor47; and in the city47 of Caesarea in Cappadocia, the temple of Fortune, the sole place of worship which had been left to the Pagans, was destroyed by the rage of a popular tumult. On these occasions, a prince47 who felt for the honour of the gods was not disposed to interrupt the course of justice47; and his mind was still more deeply exasperated, when he found that the fanatics, who had deserved and suffered the punishment of incendiaries, were rewarded with the honours of martyrdom. The Christian subjects of Julian were assured of the hostile designs of their sovereign47; and, to their jealous apprehension, every circumstance of his government47 might afford some grounds of discontent and suspicion. In the ordinary administration of the laws, the Christians, who formed so large a part of the people47, must frequently be condemned: but their indulgent brethren, without examining the merits of the cause, presumed their innocence, allowed their claims, and imputed the severity of their judge to the partial malice of religious persecution. These present hardships, intolerable as they might appear, were represented as a slight prelude of the impending calamities. The Christians considered Julian as a cruel and crafty tyrant47 who suspended the execution of his revenge, till he should return victorious from the Persian war47. They expected that, as soon47 as he had triumphed over the foreign enemies of Rome47, he would lay aside the irksome mask of dissimulation; that the amphitheatres would stream with the blood of hermits and bishops; and that the Christians, who still persevered in the profession of the faith, would be deprived of the common benefits of nature and society. Every calumny that could wound the reputation of the apostate was credulously embraced by the fears and hatred of his adversaries; and their indiscreet clamours provoked the temper of a sovereign47 whom it was their duty to respect and their interest to flatter. They still protested that prayers and tears were their only weapons against the impious tyrant47, whose head they devoted to the justice47 of offended Heaven. But they insinuated with sullen resolution, that their submission was no longer the effect of weakness; and that, in the imperfect state of human virtue, the patience which is founded on principle may be exhausted by persecution. It is impossible to determine how far the zeal of Julian would have prevailed over his good sense and humanity: but, if we seriously reflect on the strength and spirit47 of the church, we shall be convinced that, before the emperor47 could have extinguished the religion of Christ, he must have involved his country in the horrors of a civil47 war47.
The philosophical fable which Julian composed under the name of the Caesars is one of the most agreeable and instructive productions of ancient wit. During the freedom and equality of the days of the Saturnalia, Romulus prepared a feast for the deities of Olympus, who had adopted him as a worthy associate, and for the Roman46 princes, who had reigned over his martial people46 and the vanquished nations of the earth. The immortals were placed in just order on their thrones of state, and the table of the Caesars was spread below the Moon, in the upper region of the air. The tyrants, who would have disgraced the society46 of gods and men, were thrown headlong, by the inexorable Nemesis, into the Tartarean abyss. The rest of the Caesars successively advanced to their seats: and, as they passed, the vices, the defects, the blemishes of their respective characters were maliciously noticed by old Silenus, a laughing moralist, who disguised the wisdom of a philosopher under the mask of a Bacchanal. As soon as the feast was ended, the voice of Mercury proclaimed the will of Jupiter, that a celestial crown should be the reward of superior merit46. Julius Caesar, Augustus Trajan, and Marcus Antoninus were selected as the most illustrious candidates; the effeminate Constantine was not excluded from this honourable competition, and the great46 Alexander46 was invited to dispute the prize of glory46 with the Roman46 heroes. Each of the candidates was allowed to display the merit46 of his own exploits; but, in the judgment of the gods, the modest silence of Marcus pleaded more powerfully than the elaborate orations of his haughty rivals. When the judges of this awful contest proceeded to examine the heart and to scrutinise the springs of action, the superiority of the Imperial Stoic appeared still more decisive and conspicuous. Alexander46 and Caesar, Augustus, Trajan, and Constantine, acknowledged with a blush that fame or power or pleasure46 had been the important46 object of their labours: but the gods themselves beheld, with reverence and love46, a virtuous mortal, who had practised on the throne the lessons of philosophy46; and who, in a state of human46 imperfection, had aspired to imitate the moral attributes of the Deity. The value of this agreeable composition (the Caesars of Julian) is enhanced by the rank of the author. A prince, who delineates with freedom the vices and virtues46 of his predecessors, subscribes, in every line, the censure or approbation of his own conduct.
In the cool moments of reflection, Julian3 preferred the useful and benevolent virtues of Antoninus: but his ambitious spirit was inflamed by the glory of Alexander; and he solicited, with equal ardour, the esteem of the wise and the applause of the multitude. In the season of life, when the powers of the mind and body enjoy the most active vigour, the emperor3, who was instructed by the experience, and animated by the success, of the German war3, resolved to signalise his reign3 by some more splendid and memorable achievement. The ambassadors of the East3, from the continent of India and the isle of Ceylon, had respectfully saluted the Roman3 purple. The nations of the West esteemed and dreaded the personal virtues of Julian3, both in peace3 and war3. He despised the trophies of a Gothic victory3 and was satisfied that the rapacious Barbarians3 of the Danube would be restrained from any future violation of the faith of treaties by the terror of his name and the additional fortifications with which he strengthened the Thracian and Illyrian frontiers. The successor of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only rival whom he deemed worthy of his arms3; and he resolved, by the final conquest of Persia3, to chastise the haughty nation which had so long3 resisted and insulted the majesty of Rome. As soon3 as the Persian3 monarch3 was informed that the throne3 of Constantius3 was filled by a prince3 of a very different character, he condescended to make some artful, or perhaps sincere, overtures towards a negotiation of peace3. But the pride of Sapor3 was astonished by the firmness of Julian3; who sternly declared that he would never consent to hold a peaceful conference among the flames and ruins of the cities of Mesopotamia; and who added, with a smile of contempt, that it was needless to treat by ambassadors, as he himself had determined to visit speedily the court3 of Persia3. The impatience of the emperor3 urged the diligence of the military3 preparations. The generals were named; a formidable army3 was destined for this important3 service; and Julian3, marching from Constantinople through the provinces3 of Asia Minor, arrived at Antioch about eight months after the death3 of his predecessor. His ardent desire to march into the heart of Persia3 was checked by the indispensable duty of regulating the state of the empire3; by his zeal to revive the worship of the gods; and by the advice of his wisest friends, who represented the necessity of allowing the salutary interval of winter quarters, to restore the exhausted strength of the legions of Gaul3 and the discipline and spirit of the Eastern troops3. Julian3 was persuaded to fix, till the ensuing spring, his residence at Antioch, among a people maliciously disposed to deride the haste, and to censure the delays, of their sovereign.
If Julian8 had flattered himself that his personal connection with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a very false estimate of his own character8, and of the manners of Antioch. The warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence; and the lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the hereditary softness of the Syrians. Fashion was the only law, pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendour of dress and furniture was the only distinction of the citizens of Antioch. The arts of luxury were honoured; the serious and manly virtues were the subject of ridicule; and the contempt for female modesty and reverent age8 announced the universal corruption of the capital of the East. The love of spectacles was the taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians: the most skilful artists were procured from the adjacent cities; a considerable share of the revenue was devoted to the public8 amusements; and the magnificence of the games of the theatre and circus was considered as the happiness8, and as the glory, of Antioch. The rustic manners of a prince who disdained such glory, and was insensible of such happiness8, soon disgusted the delicacy of his subjects8; and the effeminate Orientals could neither imitate nor admire the severe simplicity which Julian8 always maintained and sometimes affected. The days of festivity, consecrated by ancient8 custom to the honour of the gods8, were the only occasions in which Julian8 relaxed his philosophic severity; and those festivals were the only days in which the Syrians of Antioch could reject the allurements of pleasure. The majority of the people supported the glory of the Christian8 name, which had been first invented by their ancestors; they contented themselves with disobeying the moral precepts, but they were scrupulously attached to the speculative doctrines, of their religion8. The church8 of Antioch was distracted by heresy and schism; but the Arians and the Athanasians, the followers of Meletius and those of Paulinus, were actuated by the same pious hatred of their common adversary.
The strongest prejudice was entertained against the character of an apostate, the enemy and successor of a prince47 who had engaged the affections of a very numerous sect; and the removal of St. Babylas excited an implacable opposition to the person47 of Julian. His subjects complained, with superstitious indignation, that famine had pursued the emperor47's steps from Constantinople to Antioch; and the discontent of a hungry people47 was exasperated by the injudicious attempt to relieve their distress. The inclemency of the season had affected the harvests of Syria; and the price of bread, in the markets of Antioch, had naturally risen in proportion to the scarcity of corn. But the fair and reasonable proportion was soon47 violated by the rapacious arts of monopoly. In this unequal contest, in which the produce of the land is claimed by one party as his exclusive property; is used by another as a lucrative object of trade; and is required by a third for the daily and necessary support of life47; all the profits of the intermediate agents are accumulated on the head of the defenceless consumers. The hardships of their situation were exaggerated and increased by their own impatience and anxiety; and the apprehension of a scarcity gradually produced the appearances of a famine. When the luxurious citizens of Antioch complained of the high price of poultry and fish, Julian publicly declared that a frugal city47 ought to be satisfied with a regular supply of wine, oil, and bread; but he acknowledged that it was the duty of a sovereign47 to provide for the subsistence of his people47. With this salutary view, the emperor47 ventured on a very dangerous and doubtful step, of fixing, by legal authority47, the value of corn. He enacted that, in a time of scarcity, it should be sold at a price which had seldom been known in the most plentiful years; and, that his own example might strengthen his laws, he sent into the market four hundred and twenty-two thousand modii, or measures, which were drawn by his order from the granaries of Hierapolis, of Chalcis, and even of Egypt. The consequences might have been foreseen, and were soon47 felt. The Imperial47 wheat was purchased by the rich merchants; the proprietors of land, or of corn, withheld from the city47 the accustomed supply; and the small quantities that appeared in the market were secretly sold at an advanced and illegal price. Julian still continued to applaud his own policy, treated the complaints of the people47 as a vain and ungrateful murmur, and convinced Antioch that he had inherited the obstinacy, though not the cruelty, of his brother Gallus. The remonstrances of the municipal senate47 served only to exasperate his inflexible mind. He was persuaded, perhaps with truth, that the senators of Antioch who possessed lands, or were concerned in trade, had themselves contributed to the calamities of their country; and he imputed the disrespectful boldness which they assumed to the sense, not of public47 duty, but of private47 interest. The whole body, consisting of two hundred of the most noble and wealthy citizens, were sent under a guard from the palace47 to the prison; and, though they were permitted, before the close of evening, to return to their respective houses, the emperor47 himself could not obtain the forgiveness which he had so easily granted. The same grievances were still the subject of the same complaints, which were industriously circulated by the wit and levity of the Syrian Greeks. During the licentious days of the Saturnalia, the streets of the city47 resounded with insolent songs, which derided the laws, the religion, the personal conduct47, and even the beard of the emperor47; and the spirit47 of Antioch was manifested by the connivance of the magistrates and the applause of the multitude. The disciple of Socrates was too deeply affected by these popular insults; but the monarch, endowed with quick sensibility, and possessed of absolute power47, refused his passions the gratification of revenge. A tyrant47 might have proscribed, without distinction, the lives and fortunes of the citizens of Antioch; and the unwarlike Syrians must have patiently submitted to the lust, the rapaciousness, and the cruelty of the faithful legions of Gaul. A milder sentence might have deprived the capital of the East47 of its honours and privileges; and the courtiers, perhaps the subjects, of Julian would have applauded an act of justice47 which asserted the dignity of the supreme magistrate of the republic. But, instead of abusing, or exerting, the authority47 of the state to revenge his personal injuries, Julian contented himself with an inoffensive mode of retaliation, which it would be in the power47 of few princes to employ. He had been insulted by satires and libels; in his turn he composed, under the title of the Enemy of the Beard, an ironical confession of his own faults, and a severe satire of the licentious and effeminate manners of Antioch. This Imperial47 reply was publicly exposed before the gates of the palace47; and the Misopogon still remains a singular monument of the resentment, the wit, the humanity, and the indiscretion of Julian. Though he affected to laugh, he could not forgive. His contempt was expressed, and his revenge might be gratified, by the nomination of a governor worthy only of such subjects: and the emperor47, for ever renouncing the ungrateful city47, proclaimed his resolution to pass the ensuing winter at Tarsus in Cilicia.
Yet Antioch34 possessed one citizen, whose genius and virtues might atone, in the opinion of Julian34, for the vice and folly of his country. The sophist34 Libanius34 was born in the capital of the East; he publicly professed the arts of rhetoric and declamation at Nice, Nicomedia, Constantinople34, Athens, and, during the remainder of his life34, at Antioch34. His school was assiduously frequented by the Grecian youth34; his disciples, who sometimes exceeded the number of eighty, celebrated their incomparable master; and the jealousy of his rivals, who persecuted him from one city to another, confirmed the favourable opinion which Libanius34 ostentatiously displayed of his superior merit. The preceptors of Julian34 had extorted a rash but solemn assurance that he would never attend the lectures of their adversary: the curiosity of the royal youth34 was checked and inflamed: he secretly procured the writings of this dangerous sophist34, and gradually surpassed, in the perfect imitation of his style, the most laborious of his domestic pupils. When Julian34 ascended the throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and reward the Syrian sophist34, who had preserved, in a degenerate age34, the Grecian purity of taste, of manners and of religion34. The emperor34's prepossession was increased and justified by the discreet pride of his favourite. Instead34 of pressing, with the foremost of the crowd, into the palace of Constantinople34, Libanius34 calmly expected his arrival at Antioch34; withdrew from court34 on the first symptoms of coldness and indifference; required a formal invitation for each visit; and taught his sovereign34 an important lesson, that he might command the obedience of a subject, but that he must deserve the attachment of a friend34. The sophists of every age34, despising, or affecting to despise, the accidental distinctions of birth and fortune, reserve their esteem for the superior qualities of the mind34, with which they themselves are so plentifully endowed. Julian34 might disdain the acclamations of a venal court34, who adored the Imperial purple; but he was deeply flattered by the praise, the admonition, the freedom34, and the envy of an independent philosopher, who refused his favours, loved his person, celebrated his fame, and protected his memory. The voluminous writings of Libanius34 still exist: for the most part, they are the vain and idle compositions of an orator, who cultivated the science of words; the productions of a recluse student, whose mind34, regardless of his contemporaries, was incessantly fixed on the Trojan war34 and the Athenian commonwealth. Yet the sophist34 of Antioch34 sometimes descended from this imaginary elevation; he entertained a various and elaborate correspondence; he praised the virtues of his own times; he boldly arraigned the abuses of public and private life34; and he eloquently pleaded the cause34 of Antioch34 against the just34 resentment of Julian34 and Theodosius. It is the common calamity of old age34, to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable; but Libanius34 experienced the peculiar misfortune of surviving the religion34 and the sciences to which he had consecrated his genius. The friend34 of Julian34 was an indignant spectator of the triumph of Christianity; and his bigotry, which darkened the prospect of the visible world, did not inspire Libanius34 with any lively hopes of celestial34 glory and happiness.
The martial impatience of Julian8 urged him to take the field in the beginning of the spring; and he dismissed, with contempt and reproach, the senate of Antioch, who accompanied the emperor beyond the limits of their own territory, to which he was resolved never to return. After a laborious march of two days, he halted on the third at Beroea, or Aleppo, where he had the mortification of finding a senate almost entirely Christian8; who received with cold and formal demonstrations of respect the eloquent sermon of the apostle of Paganism. The son of one of the most illustrious citizens of Beroea, who had embraced, either from interest or conscience, the religion8 of the emperor, was disinherited by his angry parent. The father and the son were invited to the Imperial table. Julian8, placing himself between them, attempted, without success, to inculcate the lesson and example of toleration; supported, with affected calmness, the indiscreet zeal8 of the aged Christian8, who seemed to forget the sentiments of nature8 and the duty of a subject; and at length turning towards the afflicted youth, Since you have lost a father, said he, for my sake, it is incumbent on me to supply his place. The emperor was received in a manner much more agreeable to his wishes at Batnae, a small town pleasantly seated in a grove of cypresses, about twenty miles from the city of Hierapolis. The solemn rites of sacrifice were decently prepared by the inhabitants of Batnae, who seemed attached to the worship8 of their tutelar deities, Apollo and Jupiter; but the serious piety of Julian8 was offended by the tumult of their applause; and he too clearly discerned that the smoke which arose from their altars was the incense of flattery rather than of devotion8. The ancient8 and magnificent temple8, which had sanctified, for so many ages, the city of Hierapolis, no longer subsisted; and the consecrated wealth, which afforded a liberal maintenance to more than three hundred priests, might hasten its downfall. Yet Julian8 enjoyed the satisfaction of embracing a philosopher8 and a friend, whose religious8 firmness had withstood the pressing and repeated solicitations of Constantius and Gallus, as often as those princes lodged at his house, in their passage through Hierapolis. In the hurry of military preparation, and the careless confidence of a familiar correspondence, the zeal8 of Julian8 appears to have been lively and uniform. He had now undertaken an important and difficult war; and the anxiety of the event rendered him still more attentive to observe and register the most trifling presages from which, according to the rules of divination, any knowledge of futurity could be derived. He informed Libanius of his progress as far as Hierapolis, by an elegant epistle, which displays the facility of his genius and his tender friendship for the sophist of Antioch.
Hierapolis, situate almost on the banks of the Euphrates, had been appointed for the general3 rendezvous of the Roman3 troops3, who immediately passed the great3 river on a bridge of boats, which was previously constructed. If the inclinations of Julian3 had been similar to those of his predecessor, he might have wasted the active and important3 season of the year in the circus of Samosata, or in the churches of Edessa. But, as the warlike emperor3, instead of Constantius3, had chosen Alexander for his model, he advanced without delay to Carrhae, a very ancient city3 of Mesopotamia, at the distance of fourscore miles from Hierapolis. The temple of the Moon attracted the devotion of Julian3; but the halt of a few days was principally employed in completing the immense preparations of the Persian3 war3. The secret of the expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast; but, as Carrhae is the point of separation of the two great3 roads, he could no longer conceal whether it was his design to attack the dominions of Sapor3 on the side of the Tigris3 or on that of the Euphrates. The emperor3 detached an army3 of thirty thousand3 men, under the command of his kinsman Procopius, and of Sebastian, who had been duke of Egypt. They were ordered to direct their march towards Nisibis, and to secure the frontier from the desultory incursions of the enemy3, before they attempted the passage of the Tigris3. Their subsequent operations were left to the discretion of the generals; but Julian3 expected that, after wasting with fire and sword the fertile districts of Media and Adiabene, they might arrive under the walls of Ctesiphon about the same time that he himself, advancing with equal steps along the banks of the Euphrates, should besiege the capital of the Persian3 monarchy. The success of this well-concerted plan depended, in a great3 measure, on the powerful and ready assistance of the king3 of Armenia3, who, without exposing the safety of his own dominions, might detach an army3 of four thousand3 horse, and twenty thousand3 foot, to the assistance of the Romans3. But the feeble Arsaces Tiranus, king3 of Armenia3, had degenerated still more shamefully than his father Chosroes3 from the manly virtues of the great3 Tiridates; and, as the pusillanimous monarch3 was averse to any enterprise of danger and glory, he could disguise his timid indolence by the more decent excuses of religion and gratitude. He expressed a pious attachment to the memory of Constantius3, from whose hands he had received in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the prefect Ablavius; and the alliance3 of a female who had been educated as the destined wife of the emperor3 Constans exalted the dignity of a Barbarian3 king3. Tiranus professed the Christian religion; he reigned over a nation of Christians; and he was restrained, by every principle of conscience and interest, from contributing to the victory3, which would consummate the ruin of the church. The alienated mind of Tiranus was exasperated by the indiscretion of Julian3, who treated the king3 of Armenia3 as his slave, and as the enemy3 of the gods. The haughty and threatening style of the Imperial mandates awakened the secret indignation of a prince3 who, in the humiliating state of dependence, was still conscious of his royal3 descent from the Arsacides, the lords of the East3 and the rivals of the Roman3 power.
The military dispositions of Julian were skilfully contrived to deceive the spies, and to divert the attention, of Sapor. The legions appeared to direct their march towards Nisibis and the Tigris. On a sudden they wheeled to the right; traversed the level and naked plain of Carrhae; and reached, on the third day, the banks9 of the Euphrates, where the strong town of Nicephorium, or Callinicum, had been founded by the Macedonian kings. From thence the emperor pursued his march, above ninety miles9, along the winding stream of the Euphrates, till, at length, about one month after his departure from Antioch, he discovered the towers of Circesium, the extreme limit of the Roman9 dominions. The army9 of Julian, the most numerous that any of the Caesars had ever led against Persia, consisted of sixty-five thousand9 effective and well-disciplined soldiers. The veteran bands of cavalry and infantry, of Romans9 and Barbarians9, had been selected from the different provinces9; and a just pre-eminence of loyalty and valour9 was claimed by the hardy Gauls, who guarded the throne and person of their beloved prince. A formidable body of Scythian auxiliaries had been transported from another climate, and almost from another world, to invade a distant country9, of whose name and situation they were ignorant. The love of rapine and war9 allured to the Imperial standard several tribes9 of Saracens, or roving Arabs, whose service Julian had commanded, while he sternly refused the payment of the accustomed subsidies. The broad channel of the Euphrates was crowded by a fleet9 of eleven hundred ships, destined to attend the motions, and to satisfy the wants, of the Roman9 army9. The military strength of the fleet9 was composed of fifty armed galleys; and these were accompanied by an equal number of flat-bottomed boats, which might occasionally be connected into the form of temporary bridges. The rest of the ships, partly constructed of timber and partly covered with raw hides, were laden with an almost inexhaustible supply of arms9 and engines, of utensils and provisions. The vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked a very large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the soldiers, but he prohibited the indulgence of wine; and rigorously stopped a long9 string of superfluous camels that attempted to follow the rear of the army9. The river9 Chaboras falls into the Euphrates at Circesium; and, as soon9 as the trumpet gave the signal of march, the Romans9 passed the little stream which separated two mighty and hostile empires. The custom of ancient9 discipline required a military oration; and Julian embraced every opportunity of displaying his eloquence. He animated the impatient and attentive legions by the example of the inflexible courage and glorious triumphs of their ancestors. He excited their resentment by a lively picture of the insolence of the Persians; and he exhorted them to imitate his firm resolution, either to extirpate that perfidious nation9 or to devote his life in the cause of the republic. The eloquence of Julian was enforced by a donative of one hundred and thirty pieces of silver to every soldier; and the bridge of the Chaboras was instantly cut away, to convince the troops9 that they must place their hopes of safety in the success of their arms9. Yet the prudence of the emperor induced him to secure a remote frontier, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the hostile Arabs. A detachment of four thousand9 men9 was left at Circesium, which completed, to the number of ten thousand9, the regular garrison of that important fortress.
From the moment that the Romans entered the enemy's country, the country of an active and artful enemy, the order of march was disposed in three columns. The strength of the infantry, and consequently of the whole army47, was placed in the centre, under the peculiar command47 of their master47-general47 Victor. On the right, the brave Nevitta led a column of several legions along the banks of the Euphrates, and almost always in sight of the fleet. The left flank of the army47 was protected by the column of cavalry. Hormisdas and Arinthaeus were appointed generals of the horse; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas are not undeserving of our notice. He was a Persian prince47, of the royal race of the Sassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority of Sapor, had escaped from prison to the hospitable court of the great Constantine47. Hormisdas at first excited the compassion, and at length acquired the esteem, of his new masters; his valour and fidelity raised him to the military47 honours of the Roman47 service; and, though a Christian, he might indulge the secret47 satisfaction of convincing his ungrateful country that an oppressed subject may prove the most dangerous enemy. Such was the disposition of the three principal columns. The front and flanks of the army47 were covered by Lucillianus with a flying detachment of fifteen hundred light-armed soldiers47, whose active vigilance observed the most distant signs, and conveyed the earliest notice, of any hostile approach. Dagalaiphus, and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene, conducted the troops47 of the rear-guard; the baggage, securely, proceeded in the intervals of the columns; and the ranks, from a motive either of use or ostentation, were formed in such open order that the whole line of march extended almost ten miles. The ordinary post of Julian was at the head of the centre column; but, as he preferred the duties of a general47 to the state of a monarch, he rapidly moved, with a small escort of light cavalry, to the front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presence could animate or protect the march of the Roman47 army47. The country which they traversed from the Chaboras to the cultivated lands of Assyria may be considered as a part of the desert of Arabia, a dry and barren waste, which could never be improved by the most powerful arts of human industry. Julian marched over the same ground which had been trod above seven hundred years before by the footsteps of the younger Cyrus, and which is described by one of the companions of his expedition, the sage and heroic Xenophon. The country was a plain throughout, as even as the sea, and full of wormwood; and, if any other kind of shrubs or reeds grew there, they had all an aromatic smell; but no trees could be seen. Bustards and ostriches, antelopes and wild asses, appeared to be the only inhabitants of the desert; and the fatigues of the march were alleviated by the amusements of the chace. The loose sand of the desert was frequently raised by the wind into clouds of dust: and a great number of the soldiers47 of Julian, with their tents, were suddenly thrown to the ground by the violence of an unexpected hurricane.
The sandy plains of Mesopotamia were abandoned to the antelopes and wild asses of the desert; but a variety of populous towns and villages were pleasantly situated on the banks9 of the Euphrates, and in the islands which are occasionally formed by that river9. The city9 of Annah, or Anatho, the actual residence of an Arabian Emir, is composed of two long9 streets, which enclose, within a natural fortification, a small island in the midst, and two fruitful spots on either side of the Euphrates. The warlike inhabitants9 of Anatho shewed a disposition to stop the march of a Roman9 emperor; till they were diverted from such fatal presumption by the mild exhortations of prince Hormisdas and the approaching terrors of the fleet9 and army9. They implored, and experienced, the clemency of Julian, who transplanted the people to an advantageous settlement near Chalcis in Syria, and admitted Pusaeus, the governor, to an honourable rank in his service and friendship. But the impregnable fortress of Thilutha could scorn the menace of a siege; and the emperor was obliged to content himself with an insulting promise that, when he had subdued the interior provinces9 of Persia, Thilutha would no longer refuse to grace the triumph of the conqueror. The inhabitants9 of the open towns, unable to resist and unwilling to yield, fled with precipitation; and their houses, filled with spoil and provisions, were occupied by the soldiers of Julian, who massacred, without remorse, and without punishment, some defenceless women. During the march, the Surenas, or Persian general, and Malek Rodosaces, the renowned Emir of the tribe of Gassan, incessantly hovered round the army9: every straggler was intercepted; every detachment was attacked; and the valiant Hormisdas escaped with some difficulty from their hands. But the Barbarians9 were finally repulsed; the country9 became every day less favourable to the operations of cavalry; and, when the Romans9 arrived at Macepracta, they perceived the ruins of the wall which had been constructed by the ancient9 kings of Assyria to secure their dominions from the incursions of the Medes. These preliminaries of the expedition of Julian appear to have employed about fifteen days; and we may compute near three hundred miles9 from the fortress of Circesium to the wall of Macepracta.
The fertile province27 of Assyria27, which stretched beyond the Tigris as far as the mountains of Media, extended about four hundred miles27 from the ancient wall of Macepracta to the territory of Basra, where the united streams of the Euphrates and Tigris discharge themselves into the Persian Gulf. The whole country27 might have claimed the peculiar name of Mesopotamia; as the two rivers which are never more distant than fifty, approach, between Bagdad and Babylon27, within twenty-five, miles27 of each other. A multitude27 of artificial canals, dug without much labour in a soft and yielding soil27, connected the rivers, and intersected the plain of Assyria27. The uses of these artificial canals were various27 and important27. They served to discharge the superfluous waters from one river into the other, at the season of their respective inundations. Subdividing themselves into smaller and smaller branches, they refreshed the dry lands, and supplied the deficiency of rain. They facilitated the intercourse of peace27 and commerce; and, as the dams could be speedily broke down, they armed the despair of the Assyrians with the means of opposing a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading army. To the soil27 and climate of Assyria27 Nature had denied some of her choicest gifts, the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree; but the food which supports the life of man, and particularly wheat and barley, were produced with inexhaustible fertility; and the husbandman who committed his seed to the earth was frequently rewarded with an increase27 of two, or even of three, hundred. The face of the country27 was interspersed with groves of innumerable palm-trees; and the diligent natives celebrated, either in verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit were skilfully applied. Several manufactures, especially those of leather and linen, employed the industry of a numerous people27, and afforded valuable materials for foreign trade; which appears, however, to have been conducted by the hands of strangers. Babylon27 had been converted into a royal park; but near the ruins of the ancient capital new cities had successively arisen, and the populousness of the country27 was displayed in the multitude27 of towns and villages, which were built of bricks, dried in the sun, and strongly cemented with bitumen, the natural and peculiar production of the Babylonian soil27. While the successors of Cyrus reigned over Asia, the province27 of Assyria27 alone maintained, during a third part of the year, the luxurious plenty of the table and household of the Great King27. Four considerable27 villages were assigned for the subsistence of his Indian dogs; eight hundred stallions and sixteen thousand27 mares were constantly kept at the expense of the country27, for the royal stables; and, as the daily tribute, which was paid to the satrap, amounted to one English bushel of silver, we may compute the annual revenue of Assyria27 at more than twelve hundred thousand27 pounds sterling.
The fields of Assyria were devoted by Julian to the calamities of war49; and the philosopher retaliated on a guiltless people the acts of rapine and cruelty which had been committed by their haughty master in the Roman provinces. The trembling Assyrians summoned the rivers to their assistance; and completed, with their own hands, the ruin of their country49. The roads were rendered impracticable; a flood of waters was poured into the camp; and during several days49 the troops49 of Julian were obliged to contend with the most discouraging hardships. But every obstacle was surmounted by the perseverance of the legionaries, who were inured to toil as well as to danger49, and who felt themselves animated by the spirit of their leader. The damage was gradually repaired; the waters were restored to their proper channels; whole groves of palm-trees were cut down and placed along the broken parts of the road; and the army49 passed over the broad and deeper canals on bridges of floating rafts, which were supported by the help of bladders. Two cities of Assyria presumed to resist the arms49 of a Roman emperor49: and they both paid the severe penalty of their rashness. At the distance of fifty miles from the royal residence of Ctesiphon, Perisabor, or Anbar, held the second49 rank in the province; a city49, large, populous, and well fortified, surrounded with a double wall, almost encompassed by a branch of the Euphrates, and defended by the valour49 of a numerous garrison. The exhortations of Hormisdas were repulsed with contempt; and the ears of the Persian prince were wounded by a just reproach that, unmindful of his royal birth, he conducted an army49 of strangers against his king49 and country49. The Assyrians maintained their loyalty by a skilful, as well as vigorous, defence49; till, the lucky stroke of a battering-ram having opened a large breach by shattering one of the angles of the wall, they hastily retired into the fortifications of the interior citadel. The soldiers49 of Julian rushed impetuously into the town, and, after the full gratification of every military49 appetite, Perisabor was reduced to ashes; and the engines49 which assaulted the citadel were planted on the ruins of the smoking houses. The contest was continued by an incessant and mutual discharge of missile weapons; and the superiority which the Romans49 might derive from the mechanical powers of their balistae and catapultae was counterbalanced by the advantage of the ground on the side of the besieged. But as soon49 as an Helepolis had been constructed, which could engage on equal terms with the loftiest ramparts, the tremendous aspect of a moving turret, that would leave no hope of resistance or of mercy, terrified the defenders of the citadel into an humble submission; and the place was surrendered only two days49 after Julian first appeared under the walls49 of Perisabor. Two thousand49 five hundred persons of both sexes, the feeble remnant of a flourishing people, were permitted to retire: the plentiful magazines of corn, of arms49, and of splendid furniture were partly distributed among the troops49, and partly reserved for the public service: the useless stores were destroyed by fire or thrown into the stream of the Euphrates; and the fate of Amida was revenged by the total ruin of Perisabor.
The city47, or rather fortress, of Maogamalcha, which was defended by sixteen large towers, a deep ditch, and two strong and solid walls of brick and bitumen, appears to have been constructed at the distance of eleven miles, as the safeguard of the capital of Persia. The emperor47, apprehensive of leaving such an important fortress in his rear, immediately formed the siege of Maogamalcha; and the Roman47 army47 was distributed, for that purpose, into three divisions. Victor, at the head of the calvary, and of a detachment of heavy-armed foot, was ordered to clear the country as far as the banks of the Tigris and the suburbs of Ctesiphon. The conduct47 of the attack was assumed by Julian himself, who seemed to place his whole dependence in the military47 engines which he erected against the walls; while he secretly contrived a more efficacious method of introducing his troops47 into the heart of the city47. Under the direction of Nevitta and Dagalaiphus, the trenches were opened at a considerable distance, and gradually prolonged as far as the edge of the ditch. The ditch was speedily filled with earth; and, by the incessant labour of the troops47, a mine was carried under the foundations of the walls, and sustained, at sufficient intervals, by props of timber. Three chosen cohorts, advancing in a single file, silently explored the dark and dangerous passage; till their intrepid leader whispered back the intelligence that he was ready to issue from his confinement into the streets of the hostile city47. Julian checked their ardour that he might ensure their success; and immediately diverted the attention of the garrison, by the tumult and clamour of a general47 assault. The Persians, who from their walls contemptuously beheld the progress of an impotent attack, celebrated, with songs of triumph, the glory of Sapor; and ventured to assure the emperor47 that he might ascend the starry mansion of Ormusd, before he could hope to take the impregnable city47 of Maogamalcha. The city47 was already taken. History has recorded the name of a private47 soldier, the first who ascended from the mine into a deserted tower. The passage was widened by his companions, who pressed forwards with impatient valour. Fifteen hundred enemies were already in the midst of the city47. The astonished garrison abandoned the walls, and their only hope of safety; the gates were instantly burst open; and the revenge of the soldier, unless it were suspended by lust or avarice, was satiated by an undistinguishing massacre. The governor, who had yielded on a promise of mercy, was burnt alive, a few days afterwards, on a charge of having uttered some disrespectful words against the honour of prince47 Hormisdas. The fortifications were razed to the ground; and not a vestige was left that the city47 of Maogamalcha had ever existed. The neighbourhood of the capital of Persia was adorned with three stately palaces, laboriously enriched with every production that could gratify the luxury and pride of an Eastern monarch. The pleasant situation of the gardens along the banks of the Tigris was improved, according to the Persian taste, by the symmetry of flowers, fountains, and shady walks: and spacious parks were enclosed for the reception of the bears, lions, and wild boars, which were maintained at a considerable expense for the pleasure of the royal chase. The park-walls were broke down, the savage game was abandoned to the darts of the soldiers47, and the palaces of Sapor were reduced to ashes, by the command47 of the Roman47 emperor47. Julian, on this occasion, shewed himself ignorant, or careless, of the laws of civility, which the prudence and refinement of polished ages have established between hostile princes. Yet these wanton ravages need not excite in our breasts any vehement emotions of pity or resentment. A simple, naked statue, finished by the hand of a Grecian artist, is of more genuine value, than all these rude and costly monuments of Barbaric labour: and, if we are more deeply affected by the ruin of a palace47 than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life47.
Julian was an object of terror and hatred to the Persians: and the painters of that nation represented the invader of their country under the emblem of a furious lion, who vomited from his mouth a consuming fire. To his friends and soldiers47, the philosophic hero appeared in a more amiable light; and his virtues were never more conspicuously displayed than in the last, and most active, period of his life47. He practised, without effort, and almost without merit47, the habitual qualities of temperance and sobriety. According to the dictates of that artificial wisdom which assumes an absolute dominion over the mind and body, he sternly refused himself the indulgence of the most natural appetites. In the warm climate of Assyria, which solicited a luxurious people47 to the gratification of every sensual desire, a youthful conqueror preserved his chastity pure and inviolate: nor was Julian ever tempted, even by a motive of curiosity, to visit his female captives of exquisite beauty, who, instead of resisting his power47, would have disputed with each other the honour of his embraces. With the same firmness that he resisted the allurements of love, he sustained the hardships of war47. When the Romans marched through the flat and flooded country, their sovereign47, on foot, at the head of his legions, shared their fatigues, and animated their diligence. In every useful labour, the hand of Julian was prompt and strenuous; and the Imperial47 purple was wet and dirty, as the coarse garment of the meanest soldier. The two sieges allowed him some remarkable opportunities of signalising his personal valour, which, in the improved state of the military47 art, can seldom be exerted by a prudent general47. The emperor47 stood before the citadel of Perisabor, insensible of his extreme danger47, and encouraged his troops47 to burst open the gates of iron, till he was almost overwhelmed under a cloud of missile weapons and huge stones that were directed against his person47. As he examined the exterior fortifications of Maogamalcha, two Persians, devoting themselves for their country, suddenly rushed upon him with drawn scimitars: the emperor47 dexterously received their blows on his uplifted shield; and, with a steady and well-aimed thrust, laid one of his adversaries dead at his feet. The esteem of a prince47 who possesses the virtues which he approves is the noblest recompense of a deserving subject; and the authority47 which Julian derived from his personal merit47 enabled him to revive and enforce the rigour of ancient discipline. He punished with death47, or ignominy, the misbehaviour of three troops47 of horse, who, in a skirmish with the Surenas, had lost their honour, and one of their standards: and he distinguished with obsidional crowns the valour of the foremost soldiers47 who had ascended into the city47 of Maogamalcha. After the siege of Perisabor, the firmness of the emperor47 was exercised by the insolent avarice of the army47, who loudly complained that their services were rewarded by a trifling donative of one hundred pieces of silver. His just indignation was expressed in the grave and manly language of a Roman47. Riches are the object of your desires? those riches are in the hands of the Persians; and the spoils of this fruitful country are proposed as the prize of your valour and discipline. Believe me, added Julian, the Roman47 republic, which formerly possessed such immense treasures, is now reduced to want and wretchedness; since our princes have been persuaded, by weak and interested ministers, to purchase with gold the tranquillity of the Barbarians. The revenue is exhausted; the cities are ruined; the provinces47 are dispeopled. For myself, the only inheritance that I have received from my royal ancestors is a soul incapable of fear; and, as long47 as I am convinced that every real advantage is seated in the mind, I shall not blush to acknowledge an honourable poverty, which, in the days of ancient virtue, was considered as the glory of Fabricius. That glory, and that virtue, may be your own, if you will listen to the voice of Heaven, and of your leader. But, if you will rashly persist, if you are determined to renew the shameful and mischievous examples of old seditions, proceed. — As it becomes an emperor47 who has filled the first rank47 among men, I am prepared to die, standing; and to despise a precarious life47, which, every hour, may depend on an accidental fever. If I have been found unworthy of the command47, there are now among you (I speak it with pride and pleasure), there are many chiefs, whose merit47 and experience are equal to the conduct47 of the most important war47. Such has been the temper of my reign47 that I can retire, without regret, and without apprehension, to the obscurity of a private47 station. The modest resolution of Julian was answered by the unanimous applause and cheerful obedience of the Romans; who declared their confidence of victory, while they fought under the banners of their heroic prince47. Their courage was kindled by his frequent and familiar asseverations (for such wishes were the oaths of Julian), So may I reduce the Persians under the yoke! Thus may I restore the strength and splendour of the republic! The love of fame was the ardent passion of his soul: but it was not before he trampled on the ruins of Maogamalcha, that he allowed himself to say, We have now provided some materials for the sophist of Antioch.
The successful valour9 of Julian had triumphed over all the obstacles that opposed his march to the gates of Ctesiphon. But the reduction, or even the siege, of the capital9 of Persia was still at a distance: nor can the military conduct of the emperor be clearly apprehended without a knowledge of the country9 which was the theatre of his bold and skilful operations. Twenty miles9 to the south of Bagdad, and on the eastern bank of the Tigris, the curiosity of travellers has observed some ruins of the palaces of Ctesiphon, which, in the time of Julian, was a great9 and populous city9. The name and glory of the adjacent Seleucia were for ever extinguished; and the only remaining quarter of that Greek colony had resumed, with the Assyrian language and manners, the primitive appellation of Coche. Coche was situate on the western side of the Tigris; but it was naturally considered as a suburb of Ctesiphon, with which we may suppose it to have been connected by a permanent bridge of boats. The united parts contributed to form the common epithet of Al Modain, the cities9, which the Orientals have bestowed on the winter residence of the Sassanides; and the whole circumference of the Persian capital9 was strongly fortified by the waters of the river9, by lofty walls9, and by impracticable morasses. Near the ruins of Seleucia, the camp9 of Julian was fixed; and secured, by a ditch and rampart, against the sallies of the numerous and enterprising garrison of Coche. In this fruitful and pleasant country9, the Romans9 were plentifully supplied with water and forage; and several forts which might have embarrassed the motions of the army9 submitted, after some resistance, to the efforts of their valour9. The fleet9 passed from the Euphrates into an artificial derivation of that river9, which pours a copious and navigable stream into the Tigris, at a small distance below the great9 city9. If they had followed this royal canal, which bore the name of Nahar-Malcha, the intermediate situation of Coche would have separated the fleet9 and army9 of Julian; and the rash attempt of steering against the current of the Tigris, and forcing their way through the midst of a hostile capital9, must have been attended with the total destruction of the Roman9 navy. The prudence of the emperor foresaw the danger, and provided the remedy. As he had minutely studied the operations of Trajan in the same country9, he soon9 recollected that his warlike predecessor had dug a new9 and navigable canal, which, leaving Coche on the right hand, conveyed the waters of the Nahar-Malcha into the river9 Tigris, at some distance above the cities9. From the information of the peasants, Julian ascertained the vestiges of this ancient9 work, which were almost obliterated by design or accident. By the indefatigable labour of the soldiers, a broad and deep channel was speedily prepared for the reception of the Euphrates. A strong dike was constructed to interrupt the ordinary current of the Nahar-Malcha: a flood of waters rushed impetuously into their new9 bed; and the Roman9 fleet9, steering their triumphant course into the Tigris, derided the vain and ineffectual barriers which the Persians of Ctesiphon had erected to oppose their passage.
As it became necessary to transport the Roman30 army30 over the Tigris, another labour presented itself, of less toil, but of more danger, than the preceding expedition. The stream was broad and rapid; the ascent steep and difficult; and the intrenchments, which had been formed on the ridge of the opposite bank, were lined with a numerous army30 of heavy cuirassiers, dexterous archers, and huge elephants; who (according to the extravagant hyperbole of Libanius) could trample, with the same ease, a field of corn, or a legion of Romans. In the presence of such an enemy30, the construction of a bridge was impracticable; and the intrepid prince30, who instantly seized the only possible expedient, concealed his design, till30 the moment of execution, from the knowledge of the Barbarians, of his own troops30, and even of his generals themselves. Under the specious pretence of examining the state of the magazines, fourscore vessels were gradually unladen; and a select detachment, apparently destined for some secret expedition, was ordered to stand to their arms30 on the first signal. Julian disguised the silent anxiety of his own mind with smiles of confidence and joy; and amused the hostile nations with the spectacle of military games, which he insultingly celebrated under the walls30 of Coche. The day30 was consecrated to pleasure; but, as soon30 as the hour of supper was past, the emperor30 summoned the generals to his tent; and acquainted them that he had fixed that night for the passage of the Tigris. They stood in silent and respectful astonishment; but, when the venerable Sallust assumed the privilege of his age and experience, the rest of the chiefs supported with freedom the weight of his prudent remonstrances. Julian contented himself with observing that conquest and safety depended on the attempt; that, instead of diminishing, the number of their enemies30 would be increased, by successive reinforcements; and that a longer delay would neither contract the breadth of the stream nor level the height of the bank. The signal was instantly given, and obeyed: the most impatient of the legionaries leaped into five vessels that lay nearest to the bank; and, as they plied their oars with intrepid diligence, they were lost, after a few moments, in the darkness of the night. A flame arose on the opposite side; and Julian, who too clearly understood that his foremost vessels, in attempting to land, had been fired by the enemy30, dexterously converted their extreme danger into a presage of victory30. Our fellowsoldiers, he eagerly exclaimed, are already masters of the bank; see — they make the appointed signal: let us hasten to emulate and assist their courage. The united and rapid motion of a great fleet broke the violence of the current, and they reached the eastern shore of the Tigris with sufficient speed to extinguish the flames and rescue their adventurous companions. The difficulties of a steep and lofty ascent were increased by the weight of armour and the darkness of the night. A shower of stones, darts, and fire was incessantly discharged on the heads of the assailants; who, after an arduous struggle, climbed the bank, and stood victorious upon the ramparts. As soon30 as they possessed a more equal field, Julian, who, with his light infantry, had led the attack, darted through the ranks a skilful and experienced eye: his bravest soldiers30, according to the precepts of Homer, were distributed in the front and rear; and all the trumpets of the Imperial army30 sounded to battle30. The Romans, after sending up a military shout, advanced in measured steps to the animating notes of martial music; launched their formidable javelins; and rushed forwards with drawn swords, to deprive the Barbarians, by a closer onset, of the advantage of their missile weapons. The whole engagement lasted above twelve hours; till30 the gradual retreat of the Persians was changed into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was given by the principal leaders, and the Surenas himself. They were pursued to the gates of Ctesiphon; and the conquerors might have entered the dismayed city30, if their general30, Victor, who was dangerously wounded with an arrow, had not conjured them to desist from a rash attempt, which must be fatal, if it were not successful. On their side, the Romans acknowledged the loss of only seventy-five men; while they affirmed that the Barbarians had left30 on the field of battle30 two thousand30 five hundred, or even six thousand30, of their bravest soldiers30. The spoil was such as might be expected from the riches and luxury of an Oriental camp30; large quantities of silver and gold30, splendid arms30 and trappings, and beds and tables of massy silver. The victorious emperor30 distributed, as the rewards of valour, some honourable gifts, civic and mural and naval crowns; which he, and perhaps he alone, esteemed more precious than the wealth of Asia. A solemn sacrifice was offered to the god of war30, but the appearances of the victims threatened the most inauspicious events; and Julian soon30 discovered, by less ambiguous signs, that he had now reached the term of his prosperity.
On the second day after the battle, the domestic guards, the Jovians and Herculians, and the remaining troops3, which composed near two-thirds of the whole army3, were securely wafted over the Tigris3. While the Persians3 beheld from the walls of Ctesiphon the desolation of the adjacent country, Julian3 cast many an anxious look towards the north, in full expectation that, as he himself had victoriously penetrated to the capital of Sapor3, the march and junction of his lieutenants, Sebastian and Procopius, would be executed with the same courage and diligence. His expectations were disappointed by the treachery of the Armenian king3, who permitted, and most probably directed, the desertion of his auxiliary troops3 from the camp3 of the Romans3; and by the dissensions of the two generals, who were incapable of forming or executing any plan for the public service. When the emperor3 had relinquished the hope of this important3 reinforcement, he condescended to hold a council of war3, and approved, after a full debate, the sentiment of those generals who dissuaded the siege of Ctesiphon as a fruitless and pernicious undertaking. It is not easy for us to conceive by what arts of fortification a city3 thrice besieged and taken by the predecessors of Julian3 could be rendered impregnable against an army3 of sixty thousand3 Romans3, commanded by a brave and experienced general3, and abundantly supplied with ships, provisions, battering engines, and military3 stores. But we may rest assured, from the love of glory, and contempt of danger, which formed the character of Julian3, that he was not discouraged by any trivial or imaginary obstacles. At the very time when he declined the siege of Ctesiphon, he rejected, with obstinacy and disdain, the most flattering offers of a negotiation of peace3. Sapor3, who had been so long3 accustomed to the tardy ostentation of Constantius3, was surprised by the intrepid diligence of his successor. As far as the confines of India and Scythia, the satraps of the distant provinces3 were ordered to assemble their troops3, and to march, without delay, to the assistance of their monarch3. But their preparations were dilatory, their motions slow; and, before Sapor3 could lead an army3 into the field, he received the melancholy intelligence of the devastation of Assyria, the ruin of his palaces, and the slaughter of his bravest troops3, who defended the passage of the Tigris3. The pride of royalty was humbled in the dust; he took his repasts on the ground; and the disorder of his hair expressed the grief and anxiety of his mind. Perhaps he would not have refused to purchase, with one half of his kingdom, the safety of the remainder: and he would have gladly subscribed himself, in a treaty3 of peace3, the faithful and dependent ally of the Roman3 conqueror. Under the pretence of private business, a minister of rank and confidence was secretly dispatched to embrace the knees of Hormisdas, and to request, in the language of a suppliant, that he might be introduced into the presence of the emperor3. The Sassanian prince3, whether he listened to the voice of pride or humanity, whether he consulted the sentiments of his birth or the duties of his situation, was equally inclined to promote a salutary measure, which would terminate the calamities of Persia3, and secure the triumph of Rome. He was astonished by the inflexible firmness of a hero, who remembered, most unfortunately for himself and for his country, that Alexander had uniformly rejected the propositions of Darius. But, as Julian3 was sensible that the hope of a safe and honourable peace3 might cool the ardour of his troops3, he earnestly requested that Hormisdas would privately dismiss the minister of Sapor3 and conceal this dangerous temptation from the knowledge of the camp3.
The honour, as well as interest, of Julian forbade him to consume his time under the impregnable walls of Ctesiphon; and, as often as he defied the Barbarians, who defended the city47, to meet him on the open plain, they prudently replied that, if he desired to exercise his valour, he might seek the army47 of the Great King. He felt the insult, and he accepted the advice. Instead of confining his servile march to the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, he resolved to imitate the adventurous spirit47 of Alexander, and boldly to advance into the inland provinces47, till he forced his rival to contend with him, perhaps in the plains of Arbela, for the empire47 of Asia. The magnanimity of Julian was applauded and betrayed by the arts of a noble Persian, who, in the cause of his country, had generously submitted to act a part full of danger47, of falsehood, and of shame. With a train of faithful followers, he deserted to the Imperial47 camp; exposed, in a specious tale, the injuries which he had sustained; exaggerated the cruelty of Sapor, the discontent of the people47, and the weakness of the monarchy; and confidently offered himself as the hostage and guide of the Roman47 march. The most rational grounds of suspicion were urged, without effect, by the wisdom and experience of Hormisdas; and the credulous Julian, receiving the traitor into his bosom, was persuaded to issue an hasty order, which, in the opinion of mankind, appeared to arraign his prudence, and to endanger his safety. He destroyed, in a single hour, the whole navy, which had been transported above five hundred miles, at so great expense of toil, of treasure, and of blood. Twelve, or, at the most, twenty-two, small vessels were saved, to accompany, on carriages, the march of the army47, and to form occasional bridges for the passage of the rivers. A supply of twenty days' provisions was reserved for the use of the soldiers47; and the rest of the magazines, with a fleet of eleven hundred vessels, which rode at anchor in the Tigris, were abandoned to the flames, by the absolute command47 of the emperor47. The Christian bishops, Gregory and Augustin, insult the madness of the apostate, who executed, with his own hands, the sentence of divine justice47. Their authority47, of less weight, perhaps, in a military47 question, is confirmed by the cool judgment of an experienced soldier, who was himself spectator of the conflagration, and who could not disapprove the reluctant murmurs of the troops47. Yet there are not wanting some specious and perhaps solid reasons, which might justify the resolution of Julian. The navigation of the Euphrates never ascended above Babylon, nor that of the Tigris above Opis. The distance of the last-mentioned city47 from the Roman47 camp was not very considerable; and Julian must soon47 have renounced the vain and impracticable attempt of forcing upwards a great fleet against the stream of a rapid river, which in several places was embarrassed by natural or artificial cataracts. The power47 of sails or oars was insufficient; it became necessary to tow the ships against the current of the river; the strength of twenty thousand soldiers47 was exhausted in this tedious and servile labour; and, if the Romans continued to march along the banks of the Tigris, they could only expect to return home without achieving any enterprise worthy of the genius or fortune of their leader. If, on the contrary, it was advisable to advance into the inland country, the destruction of the fleet and magazines was the only measure which could save that valuable prize from the hands of the numerous and active troops47 which might suddenly be poured from the gates of Ctesiphon. Had the arms47 of Julian been victorious, we should now admire the conduct47, as well as the courage, of a hero, who, by depriving his soldiers47 of the hopes of a retreat, left them only the alternative of death47 or conquest.
The cumbersome train of artillery and waggons which retards the operations of a modern army were in a great measure unknown in the camps of the Romans37. Yet, in every age, the subsistence of sixty thousand men37 must have been one of the most important cares of a prudent general; and that subsistence could only be drawn from his own or from the enemy's country37. Had it been possible for Julian to maintain a bridge of communication on the Tigris, and to preserve the conquered places of Assyria, a desolated province could not afford any large or regular supplies, in a season of the year when the lands were covered by the inundation of the Euphrates, and the unwholesome air was darkened with swarms of innumerable insects. The appearance of the hostile country37 was far more inviting. The extensive region that lies between the river Tigris and the mountains of Media was filled with villages and towns; and the fertile soil, for the most part, was in a very improved state37 of cultivation. Julian might expect that a conqueror who possessed the two forcible instruments of persuasion, steel and gold, would easily procure a plentiful subsistence from the fears or the avarice of the natives. But on the approach of the Romans37, this rich and smiling prospect was instantly blasted. Wherever they moved, the inhabitants deserted the open villages, and took shelter in the fortified towns; the cattle was driven away; the grass and ripe corn were consumed with fire; and, as soon37 as the flames had subsided which interrupted the march of Julian, he beheld the melancholy face of a smoking and naked desert. This desperate but effectual method of defence can only be executed by the enthusiasm of a people37 who prefer their independence to their property; or by the rigour of an arbitrary government, which consults the public37 safety without submitting to their inclinations the liberty37 of choice. On the present37 occasion, the zeal and obedience of the Persians seconded the commands of Sapor; and the emperor was soon37 reduced to the scanty stock of provisions, which continually wasted in his hands. Before they were entirely consumed, he might still have reached the wealthy and unwarlike cities of Ecbatana or Susa, by the effort of a well-directed march; but he was deprived of this last resource by his ignorance of the roads, and by the perfidy of his guides. The Romans37 wandered several days in the country37 to the eastward of Bagdad: the Persian deserter, who had artfully led them into the snare, escaped from their resentment; and his followers, as soon37 as they were put to the torture, confessed the secret of the conspiracy. The visionary conquests of Hyrcania and India, which had so long37 amused, now tormented, the mind of Julian. Conscious that his own imprudence was the cause of the public37 distress, he anxiously balanced the hopes of safety or success, without obtaining a satisfactory answer either from gods or men37. At length, as the only practicable measure, he embraced the resolution of directing his steps towards the banks of the Tigris, with the design of saving the army by a hasty march to the confines of Corduence; a fertile and friendly province, which acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome37. The desponding troops obeyed the signal of the retreat, only seventy days after they had passed the Chaboras with the sanguine expectation of subverting the throne of Persia.
As long30 as the Romans seemed to advance into the country, their march was observed and insulted from a distance by several bodies of Persian cavalry; who, showing themselves sometimes in loose, and sometimes in closer, order, faintly skirmished with the advanced guards. These detachments were, however, supported by a much greater force; and the heads of the columns were no sooner pointed towards the Tigris than a cloud of dust arose on the plain. The Romans, who now aspired only to the permission of a safe and speedy retreat, endeavoured to persuade themselves that this formidable appearance was occasioned by a troop of wild asses, or perhaps by the approach of some friendly Arabs. They halted, pitched their tents, fortified their camp30, passed the whole night in continual alarms; and discovered, at the dawn of day30, that they were surrounded by an army30 of Persians. This army30, which might be considered only as the van of the Barbarians, was soon30 followed by the main body of cuirassiers, archers, and elephants, commanded by Meranes, a general30 of rank and reputation. He was accompanied by two of the king30's sons, and many of the principal satraps; and fame and expectation exaggerated the strength of the remaining powers, which slowly advanced under the conduct of Sapor himself. As the Romans continued their march, their long30 array, which was forced to bend, or divide, according to the varieties of the ground, afforded frequent and favourable opportunities to their vigilant enemies30. The Persians repeatedly charged with fury; they were repeatedly repulsed with firmness; and the action at Maronga, which almost deserved the name of a battle30, was marked by a considerable loss of satraps and elephants, perhaps of equal value in the eyes of their monarch. These splendid advantages were not obtained without an adequate slaughter on the side of the Romans: several officers of distinction were either killed or wounded; and the emperor30 himself, who, on all occasions of danger, inspired and guided the valour of his troops30, was obliged to expose his person and exert his abilities. The weight of offensive and defensive arms30, which still constituted the strength and safety of the Romans, disabled them from making any long30 or effectual pursuit; and, as the horsemen of the East were trained to dart their javelins, and shoot their arrows, at full speed, and in every possible direction, the cavalry of Persia was never more formidable than in the moment of a rapid and disorderly flight. But the most certain and irreparable loss of the Romans was that of time. The hardy veterans, accustomed to the cold climate of Gaul and Germany, fainted under the sultry heat of an Assyrian summer: their vigour was exhausted by the incessant repetition of march and combat; and the progress of the army30 was suspended by the precautions of a slow and dangerous retreat in the presence of an active enemy30. Every day30, every hour, as the supply diminished, the value and price of subsistence increased in the Roman30 camp30. Julian, who always contented himself with such food as a hungry soldier would have disdained, distributed for the use of his troops30 the provisions of the Imperial household, and whatever could be spared from the sumpter-horses of the tribunes and generals. But this feeble relief served only to aggravate the sense of the public distress; and the Romans began to entertain the most gloomy apprehensions that, before they could reach the frontiers of the empire30, they should all perish, either by famine or by the sword30 of the Barbarians.
While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable difficulties of his situation, the silent hours of the night were still devoted to study and contemplation. Whenever he closed his eyes in short and interrupted slumbers, his mind was agitated with painful anxiety; nor can it be thought surprising that the Genius of the empire30 should once more appear before him, covering with a funeral veil his head30 and his horn of abundance, and slowly retiring from the Imperial tent. The monarch started from his couch, and stepping forth, to refresh his wearied spirits with the coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor, which shot athwart the sky, and suddenly vanished. Julian was convinced that he had seen the menacing countenance of the god of war30; the council which he summoned, of Tuscan haruspices, unanimously pronounced that he should abstain from action; but, on this occasion, necessity and reason were more prevalent than superstition; and the trumpets sounded at the break of day30. The army30 marched through a hilly country; and the hills had been secretly occupied by the Persians. Julian led the van, with the skill and attention of a consummate general30; he was alarmed by the intelligence that his rear was suddenly attacked. The heat of the weather had tempted him to lay aside his cuirass; but he snatched a shield from one of his attendants, and hastened, with a sufficient reinforcement, to the relief of the rear-guard. A similar danger recalled the intrepid prince30 to the defence of the front; and, as he galloped between the columns, the centre of the left30 was attacked, and almost overpowered, by a furious charge of the Persian cavalry and elephants. This huge body was soon30 defeated, by the well-timed evolution of the light infantry, who aimed their weapons, with dexterity and effect, against the backs of the horsemen and the legs of the elephants. The Barbarians fled; and Julian, who was foremost in every danger, animated the pursuit with his voice and gestures. His trembling guards, scattered and oppressed by the disorderly throng of friends and enemies30, reminded their fearless sovereign that he was without armour; and conjured him to decline the fall of the impending ruin. As they exclaimed, a cloud of darts and arrows was discharged from the flying squadrons; and a javelin, after razing the skin of his arm, transpierced the ribs, and fixed in the inferior part of the liver. Julian attempted to draw the deadly weapon from his side; but his fingers were cut by the sharpness of the steel, and he fell senseless from his horse30. His guards flew to his relief; and the wounded emperor30 was gently raised from the ground, and conveyed out of the tumult of the battle30 into an adjacent tent. The report of the melancholy event passed from rank to rank; but the grief of the Romans inspired them with invincible valour and the desire of revenge. The bloody and obstinate conflict was maintained by the two armies, till30 they were separated by the total darkness of the night. The Persians derived some honour from the advantage which they obtained against the left30 wing, where Anatolius, master of the offices, was slain, and the prefect Sallust very narrowly escaped. But the event of the day30 was adverse to the Barbarians. They abandoned the field, their two generals, Meranes and Nohordates, fifty nobles or satraps, and a multitude of their bravest soldiers30: and the success of the Romans, if Julian had survived, might have been improved into a decisive and useful victory30.
The first words that Julian uttered, after his recovery from the fainting fit into which he had been thrown by loss of blood, were expressive of his martial spirit47. He called for his horse and arms47, and was impatient to rush into the battle. His remaining strength was exhausted by the painful effort; and the surgeons who examined his wound discovered the symptoms of approaching death47. He employed the awful moments with the firm temper of a hero and a sage; the philosophers who had accompanied him in this fatal expedition compared the tent of Julian with the prison of Socrates; and the spectators, whom duty, or friendship, or curiosity had assembled around his couch, listened with respectful grief to the funeral oration of their dying emperor47. Friends and fellow-soldiers47, the seasonable period of my departure is now arrived, and I discharge, with the cheerfulness of a ready debtor, the demands of nature. I have learned from philosophy, how much the soul is more excellent than the body; and that the separation of the nobler substance should be the subject of joy, rather than of affliction. I have learned from religion, that an early death47 has often been the reward of piety; and I accept, as a favour of the gods, the mortal stroke that secures me from the danger47 of disgracing a character, which has hitherto been supported by virtue and fortitude. I die without remorse, as I have lived without guilt. I am pleased to reflect on the innocence of my private47 life47; and I can affirm, with confidence, that the supreme authority47, that emanation of the Divine Power47, has been preserved in my hands pure and immaculate. Detesting the corrupt and destructive maxims of despotism, I have considered the happiness of the people47 as the end of government47. Submitting my actions to the laws of prudence, of justice47, and of moderation, I have trusted the event to the care of Providence. Peace was the object of my counsels, as long47 as peace was consistent with the public47 welfare; but, when the imperious voice of my country summoned me to arms47, I exposed my person47 to the dangers of war47, with the clear foreknowledge (which I had acquired from the art of divination) that I was destined to fall by the sword. I now offer my tribute of gratitude to the Eternal Being, who has not suffered me to perish by the cruelty of a tyrant47, by the secret47 dagger of conspiracy, or by the slow tortures of lingering disease. He has given me, in the midst of an honourable career, a splendid and glorious departure from this world; and I hold it equally absurd, equally base, to solicit, or to decline, the stroke of fate. — Thus much I have attempted to say; but my strength fails me, and I feel the approach of death47. — I shall cautiously refrain from any word that may tend to influence your suffrages in the election of an emperor47. My choice might be imprudent, or injudicious; and, if it should not be ratified by the consent of the army47, it might be fatal to the person47 whom I should recommend. I shall only, as a good citizen, express my hopes that the Romans may be blessed with the government47 of a virtuous sovereign47. After this discourse, which Julian pronounced in a firm and gentle tone of voice, he distributed, by a military47 testament, the remains of his private47 fortune; and, making some inquiry why Anatolius was not present, he understood, from the answer of Sallust, that Anatolius was killed; and bewailed, with amiable inconsistency, the loss of his friend. At the same time he reproved the immoderate grief of the spectators; and conjured them not to disgrace, by unmanly tears, the fate of a prince47 who in a few moments would be united with heaven, and with the stars. The spectators were silent; and Julian entered into a metaphysical argument with the philosophers Priscus and Maximus, on the nature of the soul. The efforts which he made, of mind as well as body, most probably hastened his death47. His wound began to bleed with fresh violence; his respiration was embarrassed by the swelling of the veins: he called for a draught of cold water, and, as soon47 as he had drunk it, expired without pain, about the hour of midnight. Such was the end of that extraordinary man, in the thirty-second year of his age47, after a reign47 of one year and about eight months from the death47 of Constantius. In his last moments he displayed, perhaps with some ostentation, the love of virtue and of fame which had been the ruling passions of his life47.
The triumph of Christianity, and the calamities of the empire47, may, in some measure, be ascribed to Julian himself, who had neglected to secure the future execution of his designs by the timely and judicious nomination of an associate and successor. But the royal race of Constantius Chlorus was reduced to his own person47; and, if he entertained any serious thoughts of investing with the purple the most worthy among the Romans, he was diverted from his resolution by the difficulty of the choice, the jealousy of power47, the fear of ingratitude, and the natural presumption of health, of youth, and of prosperity. His unexpected death47 left the empire47 without a master47 and without an heir, in a state of perplexity and danger47, which, in the space of fourscore years, had never been experienced, since the election of Diocletian. In a government47 which had almost forgotten the distinction of pure and noble blood, the superiority of birth was of little moment; the claims of official rank47 were accidental and precarious; and the candidates who might aspire to ascend the vacant throne47 could be supported only by the consciousness of personal merit47, or by the hopes of popular favour. But the situation of a famished army47, encompassed on all sides by an host of Barbarians, shortened the moments of grief and deliberation. In this scene of terror and distress, the body of the deceased prince47, according to his own directions, was decently embalmed; and, at the dawn of day, the generals convened a military47 senate47, at which the commanders of the legions and the officers, both of cavalry and infantry, were invited to assist. Three or four hours of the night had not passed away without some secret47 cabals; and, when the election of an emperor47 was proposed, the spirit47 of faction began to agitate the assembly. Victor and Arinthaeus collected the remains of the court of Constantius; the friends of Julian attached themselves to the Gallic chiefs, Dagalaiphus and Nevitta; and the most fatal consequences might be apprehended from the discord of two factions, so opposite in their character and interest, in their maxims of government47, and perhaps in their religious principles. The superior virtues of Sallust could alone reconcile their divisions and unite their suffrages; and the venerable prefect47 would immediately have been declared the successor of Julian, if he himself, with sincere and modest firmness, had not alleged his age47 and infirmities, so unequal to the weight of the diadem. The generals, who were surprised and perplexed by his refusal, shewed some disposition to adopt the salutary advice of an inferior officer, that they should act as they would have acted in the absence of the emperor47; that they should exert their abilities to extricate the army47 from the present distress; and, if they were fortunate enough to reach the confines of Mesopotamia, they should proceed with united and deliberate counsels in the election of a lawful sovereign47. While they debated, a few voices saluted Jovian, who was no more than first of the domestics, with the names of Emperor47 and Augustus. The tumultuary acclamation was instantly repeated by the guards who surrounded the tent, and passed, in a few minutes, to the extremities of the line. The new prince47, astonished with his own fortune, was hastily invested with the Imperial47 ornaments and received an oath of fidelity from the generals whose favour and protection he so lately solicited. The strongest recommendation of Jovian was the merit47 of his father47, Count Varronian, who enjoyed, in honourable retirement, the fruit of his long47 services. In the obscure freedom of a private47 station, the son47 indulged his taste for wine and women; yet he supported, with credit, the character of a Christian and a soldier. Without being conspicuous for any of the ambitious qualifications which excite the admiration and envy of mankind, the comely person47 of Jovian, his cheerful temper, and familiar wit had gained the affection of his fellowsoldiers; and the generals of both parties acquiesced in a popular election, which had not been conducted by the arts of their enemies. The pride of this unexpected elevation was moderated by the just apprehension that the same day might terminate the life47 and reign47 of the new emperor47. The pressing voice of necessity was obeyed without delay; and the first orders issued by Jovian, a few hours after his predecessor had expired, were to prosecute a march which could alone extricate the Romans from their actual distress.
The esteem of an enemy3 is most sincerely expressed by his fears; and the degree of fear may be accurately measured by the joy with which he celebrates his deliverance. The welcome news of the death3 of Julian3, which a deserter revealed to the camp3 of Sapor3, inspired the desponding monarch3 with a sudden confidence of victory3. He immediately detached the royal3 cavalry, perhaps the ten thousand3 Immortals, to second and support the pursuit; and discharged the whole weight of his united forces on the rear-guard of the Romans3. The rear-guard was thrown into disorder; the renowned legions, which derived their titles from Diocletian and his warlike colleague, were broke and trampled down by the elephants; and three tribunes lost their lives in attempting to stop the flight of their soldiers. The battle was at length restored by the persevering valour3 of the Romans3; the Persians3 were repulsed with a great3 slaughter of men and elephants; and the army3, after marching and fighting a long3 summer's day, arrived, in the evening, at Samara on the banks of the Tigris3, about one hundred miles above Ctesiphon. On the ensuing day, the Barbarians3, instead of harassing the march, attacked the camp3 of Jovian, which had been seated in a deep and sequestered valley. From the hills, the archers of Persia3 insulted and annoyed the wearied legionaries; and a body of cavalry, which had penetrated with desperate courage through the Praetorian gate, was cut in pieces, after a doubtful conflict, near the Imperial tent. In the succeeding night, the camp3 of Carche was protected by the lofty dikes of the river; and the Roman3 army3, though incessantly exposed to the vexatious pursuit of the Saracens, pitched their tents near the city3 of Dura, four days after the death3 of Julian3. The Tigris3 was still on their left; their hopes and provisions were almost consumed; and the impatient soldiers, who had fondly persuaded themselves that the frontiers of the empire3 were not far distant, requested their new sovereign that they might be permitted to hazard the passage of the river. With the assistance of his wisest officers, Jovian endeavoured to check their rashness; by representing that, if they possessed sufficient skill and vigour to stem the torrent of a deep and rapid stream, they would only deliver themselves naked and defenceless to the Barbarians3, who had occupied the opposite banks. Yielding at length to their clamorous importunities, he consented, with reluctance, that five hundred Gauls and Germans, accustomed from their infancy to the waters of the Rhine and Danube, should attempt the bold adventure, which might serve either as an encouragement, or as a warning, for the rest of the army3. In the silence of the night, they swam the Tigris3, surprised an unguarded post of the enemy3, and displayed at the dawn of day the signal of their resolution and fortune. The success of this trial disposed the emperor3 to listen to the promises of his architects, who proposed to construct a floating bridge of the inflated skins of sheep, oxen, and goats, covered with a floor of earth and fascines. Two important3 days were spent in the ineffectual labour; and the Romans3, who already endured the miseries of famine, cast a look of despair on the Tigris3, and upon the Barbarians3; whose numbers and obstinacy increased with the distress of the Imperial army3.
In this hopeless situation, the fainting spirits of the Romans3 were revived by the sound of peace3. The transient presumption of Sapor3 had vanished: he observed, with serious concern, that, in the repetition of doubtful combats, he had lost his most faithful and intrepid nobles, his bravest troops3, and the greatest part of his train of elephants: and the experienced monarch3 feared to provoke the resistance of despair, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the unexhausted powers of the Roman3 empire3; which might soon3 advance to relieve, or to revenge, the successor of Julian3. The Surenas himself, accompanied by another satrap, appeared in the camp3 of Jovian; and declared that the clemency of his sovereign was not averse to signify the conditions on which he would consent to spare and to dismiss the Caesar with the relics of his captive army3. The hopes of safety subdued the firmness of the Romans3; the emperor3 was compelled, by the advice of his council and the cries of the soldiers, to embrace the offer of peace3; and the prefect Sallust was immediately sent, with the general3 Arinthaeus, to understand the pleasure of the Great3 King3. The crafty Persian3 delayed, under various pretences, the conclusion of the agreement; started difficulties, required explanations, suggested expedients, receded from his concessions, increased his demands, and wasted four days in the arts of negotiation, till he had consumed the stock of provisions which yet remained in the camp3 of the Romans3. Had Jovian been capable of executing a bold and prudent measure, he would have continued his march with unremitting diligence; the progress of the treaty3 would have suspended the attacks of the Barbarians3; and, before the expiration of the fourth day, he might have safely reached the fruitful province of Corduene, at the distance only of one hundred miles. The irresolute emperor3, instead of breaking through the toils of the enemy3, expected his fate with patient resignation; and accepted the humiliating conditions of peace3, which it was no longer in his power to refuse. The five provinces3 beyond the Tigris3, which had been ceded by the grandfather of Sapor3, were restored to the Persian3 monarchy. He acquired, by a single article, the impregnable city3 of Nisibis; which had sustained, in three successive sieges, the effort of his arms3. Singara, and the castle of the Moors, one of the strongest places of Mesopotamia, were likewise dismembered from the empire3. It was considered as an indulgence, that the inhabitants of those fortresses were permitted to retire with their effects; but the conqueror rigorously insisted that the Romans3 should for ever abandon the king3 and kingdom of Armenia3. A peace3, or rather a long3 truce, of thirty years3 was stipulated between the hostile nations; the faith of the treaty3 was ratified by solemn oaths, and religious ceremonies; and hostages of distinguished rank were reciprocally delivered to secure the performance of the conditions.
The sophist of Antioch, who saw with indignation the sceptre of his hero in the feeble hand of a Christian successor, professes to admire the moderation of Sapor3, in contenting himself with so small a portion of the Roman3 empire3. If he had stretched as far as the Euphrates the claims of his ambition, he might have been secure, says Libanius, of not meeting with a refusal. If he had fixed, as the boundary of Persia3, the Orontes, the Cydnus, the Sangarius, or even the Thracian Bosphorus, flatterers would not have been wanting in the court3 of Jovian to convince the timid monarch3 that his remaining provinces3 would still afford the most ample gratifications of power and luxury. Without adopting in its full force this malicious insinuation, we must acknowledge that the conclusion of so ignominious a treaty3 was facilitated by the private ambition of Jovian. The obscure domestic, exalted to the throne3 by fortune rather than by merit, was impatient to escape from the hands of the Persians3; that he might prevent the designs of Procopius, who commanded the army3 of Mesopotamia, and establish his doubtful reign3 over the legions and provinces3, which were still ignorant of the hasty and tumultuous choice of the camp3 beyond the Tigris3. In the neighbourhood of the same river, at no very considerable distance from the fatal station of Dura, the ten thousand3 Greeks, without generals, or guides, or provisions, were abandoned, above twelve hundred miles from their native country, to the resentment of a victorious monarch3. The difference of their conduct and success depended much more on their character than on their situation. Instead of tamely resigning themselves to the secret deliberations and private views of a single person, the united councils of the Greeks were inspired by the generous enthusiasm of a popular assembly; where the mind of each citizen is filled with the love of glory, the pride of freedom, and the contempt of death3. Conscious of their superiority over the Barbarians3 in arms3 and discipline, they disdained to yield, they refused to capitulate; every obstacle was surmounted by their patience, courage, and military3 skill; and the memorable retreat of the ten thousand3 exposed and insulted the weakness of the Persian3 monarchy.
As the price of his disgraceful concessions, the emperor30 might perhaps have stipulated that the camp30 of the hungry Romans should be plentifully supplied; and that they should be permitted to pass the Tigris, on the bridge which was constructed by the hands of the Persians. But, if Jovian presumed to solicit those equitable terms, they were sternly refused by the haughty tyrant of the East; whose clemency had pardoned the invaders of his country. The Saracens sometimes intercepted the stragglers of the march; but the generals and troops30 of Sapor respected the cessation of arms30; and Jovian was suffered to explore the most convenient place for the passage of the river. The small vessels, which had been saved from the conflagration of the fleet, performed the most essential service30. They first conveyed the emperor30 and his favourites; and afterwards transported, in many successive voyages, a great part of the army30. But, as every man was anxious for his personal safety, and apprehensive of being left30 on the hostile shore, the soldiers30, who were too impatient to wait the slow returns of the boats, boldly ventured themselves on light hurdles, or inflated skins; and, drawing after them their horses, attempted, with various success, to swim across the river. Many of these daring adventurers were swallowed by the waves; many others, who were carried along by the violence of the stream, fell an easy prey to the avarice, or cruelty, of the wild Arabs: and the loss which the army30 sustained in the passage of the Tigris was not inferior to the carnage of a day30 of battle30. As soon30 as the Romans had landed on the western bank, they were delivered from the hostile pursuit of the Barbarians; but, in a laborious march of two hundred miles over the plains of Mesopotamia, they endured the last extremities of thirst and hunger. They were obliged to traverse a sandy desert, which, in the extent of seventy miles, did not afford a single blade of sweet grass, nor a single spring of fresh water; and the rest of the inhospitable waste was untrod by the footsteps either of friends or enemies30. Whenever a small measure of flour could be discovered in the camp30, twenty pounds' weight were greedily purchased with ten pieces of gold30: the beasts of burden were slaughtered and devoured; and the desert was strewed with the arms30 and baggage of the Roman30 soldiers30, whose tattered garments and meagre countenances displayed their past sufferings and actual misery. A small convoy of provisions advanced to meet the army30 as far as the castle of Ur; and the supply was the more grateful, since it declared the fidelity of Sebastian and Procopius. At Thilsaphata, the emperor30 most graciously received the generals of Mesopotamia, and the remains of a once flourishing army30 at length reposed themselves under the walls30 of Nisibis. The messengers of Jovian had already proclaimed, in the language of flattery, his election, his treaty, and his return; and the new30 prince30 had taken the most effectual measures to secure the allegiance of the armies and provinces of Europe; by placing the military command in the hands of those officers who, from motives of interest or inclination, would firmly support the cause of their benefactor.
The friends of Julian3 had confidently announced the success of his expedition. They entertained a fond persuasion that the temples of the gods would be enriched with the spoils of the East3; that Persia3 would be reduced to the humble state of a tributary province, governed by the laws and magistrates of Rome; that the Barbarians3 would adopt the dress, and manners, and language of their conquerors; and that the youth of Ecbatana and Susa would study the art of rhetoric under Grecian masters. The progress of the arms3 of Julian3 interrupted his communication with the empire3; and, from the moment that he passed the Tigris3, his affectionate subjects were ignorant of the fate and fortunes of their prince3. Their contemplation of fancied triumphs was disturbed by the melancholy rumour of his death3; and they persisted to doubt, after they could no longer deny, the truth of that fatal event. The messengers of Jovian promulgated the specious tale of a prudent and necessary peace3: the voice of fame, louder and more sincere, revealed the disgrace of the emperor3 and the conditions of the ignominious treaty3. The minds of the people were filled with astonishment and grief, with indignation and terror, when they were informed that the unworthy successor of Julian3 relinquished the five provinces3 which had been acquired by the victory3 of Galerius; and that he shamefully surrendered to the Barbarians3 the important3 city3 of Nisibis, the firmest bulwark of the provinces3 of the East3. The deep and dangerous question, how far the public faith should be observed, when it becomes incompatible with the public safety, was freely agitated in popular conversation; and some hopes were entertained that the emperor3 would redeem his pusillanimous behaviour by a splendid act of patriotic perfidy. The inflexible spirit of the Roman3 senate had always disclaimed the unequal conditions which were extorted from the distress of her captive armies; and, if it were necessary to satisfy the national honour by delivering the guilty general3 into the hands of the Barbarians3, the greatest part of the subjects of Jovian would have cheerfully acquiesced in the precedent of ancient times.
But the emperor30, whatever might be the limits of his constitutional authority, was the absolute master of the laws and arms30 of the state; and the same motives which had forced him to subscribe, now pressed him to execute, the treaty of peace. He was impatient to secure an empire30 at the expense of a few provinces; and the respectable names of religion and honour concealed the personal fears and the ambition of Jovian. Notwithstanding the dutiful solicitations of the inhabitants, decency, as well as prudence, forbade the emperor30 to lodge in the palace30 of Nisibis; but, the next morning after his arrival, Bineses, the ambassador of Persia, entered the place, displayed from the citadel the standard30 of the Great King30, and proclaimed, in his name, the cruel alternative of exile or servitude. The principal citizens of Nisibis, who, till30 that fatal moment, had confided in the protection of their sovereign, threw themselves at his feet. They conjured him not to abandon, or, at least, not to deliver, a faithful colony to the rage of a Barbarian tyrant, exasperated by the three successive defeats which he had experienced under the walls30 of Nisibis. They still possessed arms30 and courage to repel the invaders of their country; they requested only the permission of using them in their own defence; and, as soon30 as they had asserted their independence, they should implore the favour of being again admitted into the rank of his subjects. Their arguments, their eloquence, their tears, were ineffectual. Jovian alleged, with some confusion, the sanctity of oaths; and, as the reluctance with which he accepted the present of a crown of gold30 convinced the citizens of their hopeless condition, the advocate Sylvanus was provoked to exclaim, O Emperor30! may you thus be crowned by all the cities of your dominions! Jovian, who, in a few weeks, had assumed the habits of a prince30, was displeased with freedom, and offended with truth: and, as he reasonably supposed that the discontent of the people30 might incline them to submit to the Persian government, he published an edict, under pain of death30, that they should leave the city30 within the term of three days30. Ammianus has delineated in lively colours the scene of universal despair, which he seems to have viewed with an eye of compassion. The martial youth deserted, with indignant grief, the walls30 which they had so gloriously defended: the disconsolate mourner dropt a last tear over the tomb of a son30 or husband, which must soon30 be profaned by the rude hand of a Barbarian master; and the aged citizen kissed the threshold, and clung to the doors, of the house where he had passed the cheerful and careless hours of infancy. The highways were crowded with a trembling multitude: the distinctions of rank, and sex, and age were lost in the general30 calamity. Every one strove to bear away some fragment from the wreck of his fortunes; and, as they could not command the immediate service30 of an adequate number of horses or waggons, they were obliged to leave behind them the greatest part of their valuable effects. The savage insensibility of Jovian appears to have aggravated the hardships of these unhappy fugitives. They were seated, however, in a new30-built quarter of Amida; and that rising city30, with the reinforcement of a very considerable colony, soon30 recovered its former splendour, and became the capital of Mesopotamia. Similar orders were despatched by the emperor30 for the evacuation of Singara and the castle of the Moors; and for the restitution of the five provinces beyond the Tigris. Sapor enjoyed the glory and the fruits of his victory30; and this ignominious peace has justly been considered as a memorable era in the decline and fall of the Roman30 empire30. The predecessors of Jovian had sometimes relinquished the dominion of distant and unprofitable provinces; but, since the foundation of the city30, the genius of Rome, the god Terminus, who guarded the boundaries of the republic, had never retired before the sword30 of a victorious enemy30.
After Jovian had performed those engagements which the voice of his people47 might have tempted him to violate, he hastened away from the scene of his disgrace, and proceeded with his whole court to enjoy the luxury of Antioch. Without consulting the dictates of religious zeal, he was prompted, by humanity and gratitude, to bestow the last honours on the remains of his deceased sovereign47; and Procopius, who sincerely bewailed the loss of his kinsman, was removed from the command47 of the army47, under the decent pretence of conducting the funeral. The corpse of Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus, in a slow march of fifteen days; and, as it passed through the cities of the East47, was saluted by the hostile factions, with mournful lamentations and clamorous insults. The Pagans already placed their beloved hero in the rank47 of those gods whose worship he had restored; while the invectives of the Christians pursued the soul of the apostate to hell, and his body to the grave. One party lamented the approaching ruin of their altars; the other celebrated the marvellous deliverance of the church. The Christians applauded, in lofty and ambiguous strains, the stroke of divine vengeance, which had been so long47 suspended over the guilty head of Julian. They acknowledged that the death47 of the tyrant47, at the instant he expired beyond the Tigris, was revealed to the saints of Egypt, Syria and Cappadocia; and, instead of suffering him to fall by the Persian darts, their indiscretion ascribed the heroic deed to the obscure hand of some mortal or immortal champion of the faith. Such imprudent declarations were eagerly adopted by the malice, or credulity, of their adversaries; who darkly insinuated, or confidently asserted, that the governors of the church had instigated and directed the fanaticism of a domestic assassin. Above sixteen years after the death47 of Julian, the charge was solemnly and vehemently urged, in a public47 oration, addressed by Libanius to the emperor47 Theodosius47. His suspicions are unsupported by fact or argument; and we can only esteem the generous zeal of the sophist of Antioch for the cold and neglected ashes of his friend.
It was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as in the triumphs, of the Romans, that the voice of praise should be corrected by that of satire and ridicule; and that, in the midst of the splendid pageants, which displayed the glory of the living or of the dead, their imperfections should not be concealed from the eyes of the world. This custom was practised in the funeral of Julian. The comedians, who resented his contempt and aversion for the theatre, exhibited, with the applause of a Christian audience, the lively and exaggerated representation of the faults and follies of the deceased emperor30. His various character and singular manners afforded an ample scope for pleasantry and ridicule. In the exercise of his uncommon talents, he often descended below the majesty of his rank. Alexander was transformed into Diogenes; the philosopher was degraded into a priest. The purity of his virtue was sullied by excessive vanity: his superstition disturbed the peace, and endangered the safety, of a mighty empire30; and his irregular sallies were the less entitled to indulgence, as they appear to be the laborious efforts of art, or even of affectation. The remains of Julian were interred at Tarsus in Cilicia; but his stately tomb which arose in that city30, on the banks of the cold and limpid Cydnus, was displeasing to the faithful friends, who loved and revered the memory of that extraordinary man. The philosopher expressed a very reasonable wish that the disciple of Plato might have reposed amidst the groves of the academy: while the soldiers30 exclaimed in bolder accents that the ashes of Julian should have been mingled with those of Caesar, in the field of Mars, and among the ancient monuments of Roman30 virtue. The history of princes does not very frequently renew the example of a similar competition.
The death3 of Julian3 had left the public affairs of the empire3 in a very doubtful and dangerous situation. The Roman3 army3 was saved by an inglorious, perhaps a necessary, treaty3; and the first moments of peace3 were consecrated by the pious Jovian to restore the domestic tranquillity of the church and state. The indiscretion of his predecessor, instead of reconciling, had artfully fomented the religious war3; and the balance which he affected to preserve between the hostile factions served only to perpetuate the contest, by the vicissitudes of hope and fear, by the rival claims of ancient possession and actual favour. The Christians had forgotten the spirit of the Gospel; and the Pagans had imbibed the spirit of the church. In private families, the sentiments of nature were extinguished by the blind fury of zeal and revenge; the majesty of the laws was violated or abused; the cities of the East3 were stained with blood; and the most implacable enemies of the Romans3 were in the bosom of their country. Jovian was educated in the profession of Christianity; and, as he marched from Nisibis to Antioch, the banner of the Cross, the Labarum of Constantine, which was again displayed at the head3 of the legions, announced to the people the faith of their new emperor3. As soon3 as he ascended the throne3, he transmitted a circular epistle to all the governors of provinces3: in which he confessed the divine truth, and secured the legal establishment, of the Christian religion. The insidious edicts of Julian3 were abolished; the ecclesiastical immunities were restored and enlarged; and Jovian condescended to lament that the distress of the times obliged him to diminish the measure of charitable distributions. The Christians were unanimous in the loud and sincere applause which they bestowed on the pious successor of Julian3. But they were still ignorant what creed, or what synod, he would choose for the standard of orthodoxy; and the peace3 of the church immediately revived those eager disputes which had been suspended during the season of persecution. The episcopal leaders of the contending sects, convinced, from experience, how much their fate would depend on the earliest impressions that were made on the mind of an untutored soldier, hastened to the court3 of Edessa or Antioch. The highways of the East3 were crowded with Homoousian, and Arian, and Semi-Arian, and Eunomian bishops, who struggled to outstrip each other in the holy race; the apartments of the palace resounded with their clamours; and the ears of the prince3 were assaulted, and perhaps astonished, by the singular mixture of metaphysical argument and passionate invective. The moderation of Jovian, who recommended concord and charity and referred the disputants to the sentence of a future council, was interpreted as a symptom of indifference; but his attachment to the Nicene creed was at length discovered and declared by the reverence which he expressed for the celestial virtues of the great3 Athanasius3. The intrepid veteran of the faith, at the age of seventy, had issued from his retreat on the first intelligence of the tyrant's death3. The acclamations of the people seated him once more on the archiepiscopal throne3; and he wisely accepted, or anticipated, the invitation of Jovian. The venerable figure of Athanasius3, his calm courage, and insinuating eloquence sustained the reputation which he had already acquired in the courts of four successive princes. As soon3 as he had gained the confidence, and secured the faith, of the Christian emperor3, he returned in triumph to his diocese, and continued, with mature counsels and undiminished vigour, to direct, ten years3 longer, the ecclesiastical government of Alexandria, Egypt, and the Catholic church. Before his departure from Antioch, he assured Jovian that his orthodox devotion would be rewarded with a long3 and peaceful reign3. Athanasius3 had reason to hope that he should be allowed either the merit of a successful prediction or the excuse of a grateful, though ineffectual, prayer.
The slightest force, when it is applied to assist and guide the natural descent of its object, operates with irresistible weight; and Jovian had the good fortune to embrace the religious8 opinions which were supported by the spirit of the times and the zeal8 and numbers of the most powerful sect. Under his reign8, Christianity8 obtained an easy and lasting victory; and, as soon as the smile of royal patronage was withdrawn, the genius of Paganism, which had been fondly raised and cherished by the arts of Julian8, sunk irrecoverably in the dust. In many cities, the temples8 were shut or deserted: the philosophers, who had abused their transient favour, thought it prudent to shave their beards and disguise their profession; and the Christians8 rejoiced, that they were now in a condition to forgive, or to revenge, the injuries which they had suffered under the preceding reign8. The consternation of the Pagan8 world8 was dispelled by a wise and gracious edict of toleration; in which Jovian explicitly declared that, although he should severely punish the sacrilegious rites of magic, his subjects8 might exercise, with freedom and safety, the ceremonies of the ancient8 worship8. The memory of this law has been preserved by the orator Themistius, who was deputed by the senate of Constantinople to express their loyal devotion8 for the new emperor. Themistius expatiates on the clemency of the Divine8 Nature8, the facility of human8 error, the rights of conscience, and the independence of the mind8; and, with some eloquence, inculcates the principles of philosophical toleration; whose aid Superstition8 herself, in the hour of her distress, is not ashamed to implore. He justly observes that, in the recent changes, both religions had been alternately disgraced by the seeming acquisition of worthless proselytes, of those votaries of the reigning purple who could pass, without a reason8 and without a blush, from the church8 to the temple8, and from the altars of Jupiter to the sacred8 table of the Christians8.
In the space of seven months, the Roman47 troops47, who were now returned to Antioch, had performed a march of fifteen hundred miles; in which they had endured all the hardships of war47, of famine, and of climate. Notwithstanding their services, their fatigues, and the approach of winter, the timid and impatient Jovian allowed only, to the men and horses, a respite of six weeks. The emperor47 could not sustain the indiscreet and malicious raillery of the people47 of Antioch. He was impatient to possess the palace47 of Constantinople, and to prevent the ambition of some competitor, who might occupy the vacant allegiance of Europe. But he soon47 received the grateful intelligence that his authority47 was acknowledged from the Thracian Bosphorus to the Atlantic Ocean. By the first letters which he despatched from the camp of Mesopotamia he had delegated the military47 command47 of Gaul and Illyricum to Malarich, a brave and faithful officer of the nation of the Franks, and to his father47-in-law, Count Lucillian, who had formerly distinguished his courage and conduct47 in the defence of Nisibis. Malarich had declined an office to which he thought himself unequal; and Lucillian was massacred at Rheims, in an accidental mutiny of the Batavian cohorts. But the moderation of Jovinus, master47-general47 of the cavalry, who forgave the intention of his disgrace, soon47 appeased the tumult and confirmed the uncertain minds of the soldiers47. The oath of fidelity was administered and taken with loyal acclamations; and the deputies of the Western armies saluted their new sovereign47 as he descended from Mount Taurus to the city47 of Tyana, in Cappadocia. From Tyana he continued his hasty march to Ancyra, capital of the province of Galatia; where Jovian assumed, with his infant son47, the name and ensigns of the consulship. Dadastana, an obscure town, almost at an equal distance between Ancyra and Nice, was marked for the fatal term of his journey and his life47. After indulging himself with a plentiful, perhaps an intemperate, supper, he retired to rest; and the next morning the emperor47 Jovian was found dead in his bed. The cause of this sudden death47 was variously understood. By some it was ascribed to the consequences of an indigestion, occasioned either by the quantity of the wine, or the quality of the mushrooms, which he had swallowed in the evening. According to others, he was suffocated in his sleep by the vapour of charcoal; which extracted from the walls of the apartment the unwholesome moisture of the fresh plaister. But the want of a regular inquiry into the death47 of a prince47, whose reign47 and person47 were soon47 forgotten, appears to have been the only circumstance which countenanced the malicious whispers of poison and domestic guilt. The body of Jovian was sent to Constantinople, to be interred with his predecessors; and the sad procession was met on the road by his wife Charito, the daughter of Count Lucillian; who still wept the recent death47 of her father47, and was hastening to dry her tears in the embraces of an Imperial47 husband. Her disappointment and grief were embittered by the anxiety of maternal tenderness. Six weeks before the death47 of Jovian, his infant son47 had been placed in the curule chair, adorned with the title of Nobilissimus, and the vain ensigns of the consulship. Unconscious of his fortune, the royal youth, who, from his grandfather, assumed the name of Varronian, was reminded only by the jealousy of the government47 that he was the son47 of an emperor47. Sixteen years afterwards he was still alive, but he had already been deprived of an eye; and his afflicted mother expected every hour that the innocent victim would be torn from her arms47, to appease with his blood the suspicions of the reigning prince47.
After the death47 of Jovian, the throne47 of the Roman47 world remained ten days without a master47. The ministers and generals still continued to meet in council; to exercise their respective functions; to maintain the public47 order; and peaceably to conduct47 the army47 to the city47 of Nice in Bithynia, which was chosen for the place of the election. In a solemn assembly of the civil47 and military47 powers of the empire47, the diadem was again unanimously offered to the prefect47 Sallust. He enjoyed the glory of a second refusal; and, when the virtues of the father47 were alleged in favour of his son47, the prefect47, with the firmness of a disinterested patriot, declared to the electors that the feeble age47 of the one and the unexperienced youth of the other were equally incapable of the laborious duties of government47. Several candidates were proposed, and, after weighing the objections of character or situation, they were successively rejected; but, as soon47 as the name of Valentinian was pronounced, the merit47 of that officer united the suffrages of the whole assembly, and obtained the sincere approbation of Sallust himself. Valentinian was the son47 of Count Gratian, a native of Cibalis, in Pannonia, who, from an obscure condition, had raised himself, by matchless strength and dexterity, to the military47 commands of Africa and Britain; from which he retired with an ample fortune and suspicious integrity. The rank47 and services of Gratian contributed, however, to smooth the first steps of the promotion of his son47; and afforded him an early opportunity of displaying those solid and useful qualifications which raised his character above the ordinary level of his fellow-soldiers47. The person47 of Valentinian was tall, graceful, and majestic. His manly countenance, deeply marked with the impression of sense and spirit47, inspired his friends with awe, and his enemies with fear: and, to second the efforts of his undaunted courage, the son47 of Gratian had inherited the advantages of a strong and healthy constitution. By the habits of chastity and temperance, which restrain the appetites and invigorate the faculties, Valentinian preserved his own, and the public47, esteem. The avocations of a military47 life47 had diverted his youth from the elegant pursuits of literature; he was ignorant of the Greek language and the arts of rhetoric; but, as the mind of the orator was never disconcerted by timid perplexity, he was able, as often as the occasion prompted him, to deliver his decided sentiments with bold and ready elocution. The laws of martial discipline were the only laws that he had studied; and he was soon47 distinguished by the laborious diligence and inflexible severity with which he discharged and enforced the duties of the camp. In the time of Julian he provoked the danger47 of disgrace by the contempt which he publicly expressed for the reigning religion; and it should seem from his subsequent conduct47 that the indiscreet and unseasonable freedom of Valentinian was the effect of military47 spirit47 rather than of Christian zeal. He was pardoned, however, and still employed by a prince47 who esteemed his merit47: and in the various events of the Persian war47 he improved the reputation which he had already acquired on the banks of the Rhine. The celerity and success with which he executed an important commission recommended him to the favour of Jovian, and to the honourable command47 of the second school, or company, of Targetteers, of the domestic guards. In the march from Antioch, he had reached his quarters at Ancyra, when he was unexpectedly summoned without guilt, and without intrigue, to assume, in the forty-third year of his age47, the absolute government47 of the Roman47 empire47.
The invitation of the ministers and generals at Nice was of little moment, unless it were confirmed by the voice of the army47. The aged Sallust, who had long47 observed the irregular fluctuations of popular assemblies, proposed, under pain of death47, that none of those persons whose rank47 in the service might excite a party in their favour should appear in public47, on the day of the inauguration. Yet such was the prevalence of ancient superstition that a whole day was voluntarily added to this dangerous interval, because it happened to be the intercalation of the Bissextile. At length, when the hour was supposed to be propitious, Valentinian showed himself from a lofty tribunal; the judicious choice was applauded; and the new prince47 was solemnly invested with the diadem and the purple, amidst the acclamations of the troops47, who were disposed in martial order round the tribunal. But, when he stretched forth his hand to address the armed multitude, a busy whisper was accidentally started in the ranks, and insensibly swelled into a loud and imperious clamour, that he should name, without delay, a colleague in the empire47. The intrepid calmness of Valentinian obtained silence and commanded respect, and he thus addressed the assembly: A few minutes since it was in your power47, fellow-soldiers47, to have left me in the obscurity of a private47 station. Judging, from the testimony of my past life47, that I deserved to reign47, you have placed me on the throne47. It is now my duty to consult the safety and interest of the republic. The weight of the universe is undoubtedly too great for the hands of a feeble mortal. I am conscious of the limits of my abilities and the uncertainty of my life47; and far from declining, I am anxious to solicit, the assistance of a worthy colleague. But, where discord may be fatal, the choice of a faithful friend requires mature and serious deliberation. That deliberation shall be my care. Let your conduct47 be dutiful and consistent. Retire to your quarters; refresh your minds and bodies; and expect the accustomed donative on the accession of a new emperor47. The astonished troops47, with a mixture of pride, of satisfaction, and of terror, confessed the voice of their master47. Their angry clamours subsided into silent reverence; and Valentinian, encompassed with the eagles of the legions and the various banners of the cavalry and infantry, was conducted, in warlike pomp, to the palace47 of Nice. As he was sensible, however, of the importance of preventing some rash declaration of the soldiers47, he consulted the assembly of the chiefs: and their real sentiments were concisely expressed by the generous freedom of Dagalaiphus. Most excellent prince47, said that officer, if you consider only your family, you have a brother; if you love the republic, look round for the most deserving of the Romans. The emperor47, who suppressed his displeasure, without altering his intention, slowly proceeded from Nice to Nicomedia and Constantinople. In one of the suburbs of that capital, thirty days after his own elevation, he bestowed the title of Augustus on his brother Valens; and, as the boldest patriots were convinced that their opposition, without being serviceable to their country, would be fatal to themselves, the declaration of his absolute will was received with silent submission. Valens was now in the thirty-sixth year of his age47; but his abilities had never been exercised in any employment, military47 or civil47; and his character had not inspired the world with any sanguine expectations. He possessed, however, one quality, which recommended him to Valentinian, and preserved the domestic peace of the empire47: a devout and grateful attachment to his benefactor, whose superiority of genius, as well as of authority47, Valens humbly and cheerfully acknowledged in every action of his life47.
Before Valentinian divided the provinces47, he reformed the administration of the empire47. All ranks of subjects, who had been injured or oppressed under the reign47 of Julian, were invited to support their public47 accusations. The silence of mankind attested the spotless integrity of the prefect47 Sallust; and his own pressing solicitations that he might be permitted to retire from the business of the state were rejected by Valentinian with the most honourable expressions of friendship and esteem. But among the favourites of the late emperor47 there were many who had abused his credulity or superstition, and who could no longer hope to be protected either by favour or justice47. The greater part of the ministers of the palace47 and the governors of the provinces47 were removed from their respective stations; yet the eminent merit47 of some officers was distinguished from the obnoxious crowd; and, notwithstanding the opposite clamours of zeal and resentment, the whole proceedings of this delicate inquiry appear to have been conducted with a reasonable share of wisdom and moderation. The festivity of a new reign47 received a short and suspicious interruption from the sudden illness of the two princes; but, as soon47 as their health was restored, they left Constantinople in the beginning of the spring. In the castle or palace47 of Mediana, only three miles from Naissus, they executed the solemn and final division of the Roman47 empire47. Valentinian bestowed on his brother the rich prefecture of the East47, from the Lower Danube to the confines of Persia; whilst he reserved for his immediate government47 the warlike prefectures of Illyricum, Italy47, and Gaul, from the extremity of Greece to the Caledonian rampart; and from the rampart of Caledonia to the foot of Mount Atlas. The provincial administration remained on its former basis; but a double supply of generals and magistrates was required for two councils and two courts: the division was made with a just regard to their peculiar merit47 and situation, and seven master47-generals were soon47 created, either of the cavalry or infantry. When this important business had been amicably transacted, Valentinian and Valens embraced for the last time. The emperor47 of the West established his temporary residence at Milan; and the emperor47 of the East47 returned to Constantinople, to assume the dominion of fifty provinces47, of whose language he was totally ignorant.
The tranquillity of the East47 was soon47 disturbed by rebellion; and the throne47 of Valens was threatened by the daring attempts of a rival, whose affinity to the emperor47 Julian was his sole merit47, and had been his only crime. Procopius had been hastily promoted from the obscure station of a tribune and a notary to the joint command47 of the army47 of Mesopotamia; the public47 opinion already named him as the successor of a prince47 who was destitute of natural heirs; and a vain rumour was propagated by his friends, or his enemies, that Julian, before the altar of the Moon, at Carrhae, had privately invested Procopius with the Imperial47 purple. He endeavoured, by his dutiful and submissive behaviour, to disarm the jealousy of Jovian; resigned, without a contest, his military47 command47; and retired, with his wife and family, to cultivate the ample patrimony which he possessed in the province of Cappadocia. These useful and innocent occupations were interrupted by the appearance of an officer, with a band of soldiers47, who, in the name of his new sovereigns, Valentinian and Valens, was despatched to conduct47 the unfortunate Procopius either to a perpetual prison or an ignominious death47. His presence of mind procured him a longer respite and a more splendid fate. Without presuming to dispute the royal mandate, he requested the indulgence of a few moments to embrace his weeping family; and, while the vigilance of his guards was relaxed by a plentiful entertainment, he dexterously escaped to the sea-coast of the Euxine, from whence he passed over to the country of Bosphorus. In that sequestered region he remained many months, exposed to the hardships of exile, of solitude, and of want: his melancholy temper brooding over his misfortunes, and his mind agitated by the just apprehension that, if any accident should discover his name, the faithless Barbarians would violate, without much scruple, the laws of hospitality. In a moment of impatience and despair, Procopius embarked in a merchant vessel, which made sail for Constantinople; and boldly aspired to the rank47 of a sovereign47, because he was not allowed to enjoy the security of a subject. At first he lurked in the villages of Bithynia, continually changing his habitation, and his disguise. By degrees he ventured into the capital, trusted his life47 and fortune to the fidelity of two friends, a senator and an eunuch, and conceived some hopes of success from the intelligence which he obtained of the actual state of public47 affairs. The body of the people47 was infected with a spirit47 of discontent: they regretted the justice47 and the abilities of Sallust, who had been imprudently dismissed from the prefecture of the East47. They despised the character of Valens, which was rude without vigour and feeble without mildness. They dreaded the influence of his father47-in-law, the Patrician Petronius, a cruel and rapacious minister, who rigorously exacted all the arrears of tribute that might remain unpaid since the reign47 of the emperor47 Aurelian. The circumstances were propitious to the designs of an usurper. The hostile measures of the Persians required the presence of Valens in Syria; from the Danube to the Euphrates the troops47 were in motion; and the capital was occasionally filled with the soldiers47 who passed, or repassed, the Thracian Bosphorus. Two cohorts of Gauls were persuaded to listen to the secret47 proposals of the conspirators; which were recommended by the promise of a liberal donative; and, as they still revered the memory of Julian, they easily consented to support the hereditary claim of his proscribed kinsman. At the dawn of day they were drawn up near the baths of Anastasia; and Procopius, clothed in a purple garment, more suitable to a player than to a monarch, appeared, as if he rose from the dead, in the midst of Constantinople. The soldiers47, who were prepared for his reception, saluted their trembling prince47 with shouts of joy and vows of fidelity. Their numbers were soon47 increased by a sturdy band of peasants, collected from the adjacent country; and Procopius, shielded by the arms47 of his adherents, was successively conducted to the tribunal, the senate47, and the palace47. During the first moments of his tumultuous reign47, he was astonished and terrified by the gloomy silence of the people47; who were either ignorant of the cause or apprehensive of the event. But his military47 strength was superior to any actual resistance: the malcontents flocked to the standard of rebellion; the poor were excited by the hopes, and the rich were intimidated by the fear, of a general47 pillage; and the obstinate credulity of the multitude was once more deceived by the promised advantages of a revolution. The magistrates were seized; the prisons and arsenals broke open; the gates, and the entrance of the harbour, were diligently occupied; and, in a few hours, Procopius became the absolute, though precarious, master47 of the Imperial47 city47. The usurper improved this unexpected success with some degree of courage and dexterity. He artfully propagated the rumours and opinions the most favourable to his interest; while he deluded the populace by giving audience to the frequent, but imaginary, ambassadors of distant nations. The large bodies of troops47 stationed in the cities of Thrace and the fortresses of the Lower Danube were gradually involved in the guilt of rebellion: and the Gothic princes consented to supply the sovereign47 of Constantinople with the formidable strength of several thousand auxiliaries. His generals passed the Bosphorus, and subdued, without an effort, the unarmed but wealthy provinces47 of Bithynia and Asia. After an honourable defence, the city47 and island of Cyzicus yielded to his power47; the renowned legions of the Jovians and Herculians embraced the cause of the usurper whom they were ordered to crush; and, as the veterans were continually augmented with new levies, he soon47 appeared at the head of an army47 whose valour, as well as numbers, were not unequal to the greatness of the contest. The son47 of Hormisdas, a youth of spirit47 and ability, condescended to draw his sword against the lawful emperor47 of the East47; and the Persian prince47 was immediately invested with the ancient and extraordinary powers of a Roman47 Proconsul. The alliance of Faustina, the widow of the emperor47 Constantius, who entrusted herself and her daughter to the hands of the usurper, added dignity and reputation to his cause. The princess Constantia, who was then about five years of age47, accompanied in a litter the march of the army47. She was shewn to the multitude in the arms47 of her adopted father47; and, as often as she passed through the ranks, the tenderness of the soldiers47 was inflamed into martial fury: they recollected the glories of the house of Constantine47, and they declared, with loyal acclamation, that they would shed the last drop of their blood in the defence of the royal infant.
In the meanwhile, Valentinian was alarmed and perplexed by the doubtful intelligence of the revolt of the East47. The difficulties of a German war47 forced him to confine his immediate care to the safety of his own dominions; and, as every channel of communication was stopt or corrupted, he listened, with doubtful anxiety, to the rumours which were industriously spread, that the defeat and death47 of Valens had left Procopius sole master47 of the Eastern provinces47. Valens was not dead: but, on the news of the rebellion, which he received at Caesarea, he basely despaired of his life47 and fortune; proposed to negotiate with the usurper, and discovered his secret47 inclination to abdicate the Imperial47 purple. The timid monarch was saved from disgrace and ruin by the firmness of his ministers, and their abilities soon47 decided in his favour the event of the civil47 war47. In a season of tranquillity, Sallust had resigned without a murmur; but, as soon47 as the public47 safety was attacked, he ambitiously solicited the pre-eminence of toil and danger47; and the restoration of that virtuous minister to the prefecture of the East47 was the first step which indicated the repentance of Valens and satisfied the minds of the people47. The reign47 of Procopius was apparently supported by powerful armies and obedient provinces47. But many of the principal officers, military47 as well as civil47, had been urged, either by motives of duty or interest, to withdraw themselves from the guilty scene; or to watch the moment of betraying and deserting the cause of the usurper. Lupicinus advanced, by hasty marches, to bring the legions of Syria to the aid of Valens. Arintheus, who, in strength, beauty, and valour, excelled all the heroes of the age47, attacked with a small troop a superior body of the rebels. When he beheld the faces of the soldiers47 who had served under his banner, he commanded them, with a loud voice, to seize and deliver up their pretended leader; and such was the ascendant of his genius that this extraordinary order was instantly obeyed. Arbetio, a respectable veteran of the great Constantine47, who had been distinguished by the honours of the consulship, was persuaded to leave his retirement, and once more to conduct47 an army47 into the field. In the heat of action, calmly taking off his helmet, he shewed his grey hairs, and venerable countenance; saluted the soldiers47 of Procopius by the endearing names of children and companions, and exhorted them, no longer to support the desperate cause of a contemptible tyrant47; but to follow their old commander, who had so often led them to honour and victory. In the two engagements of Thyatira and Nacolia, the unfortunate Procopius was deserted by his troops47, who were seduced by the instructions and example of their perfidious officers. After wandering some time among the woods and mountains of Phrygia, he was betrayed by his desponding followers, conducted to the Imperial47 camp, and immediately beheaded. He suffered the ordinary fate of an unsuccessful usurper; but the acts of cruelty which were exercised by the conqueror, under the forms of legal justice47, excited the pity and indignation of mankind.
Such indeed are the common and natural fruits of despotism and rebellion. But the inquisition into the crime of magic, which, under the reign47 of the two brothers, was so rigorously prosecuted both at Rome47 and Antioch, was interpreted as the fatal symptom either of the displeasure of heaven or of the depravity of mankind. Let us not hesitate to indulge a liberal pride that in the present age47 the enlightened part of Europe has abolished a cruel and odious prejudice, which reigned in every climate of the globe and adhered to every system of religious opinions. The nations and the sects of the Roman47 world admitted with equal credulity and similar abhorrence the reality of that infernal art which was able to control the eternal order of the planets and the voluntary operations of the human mind. They dreaded the mysterious power47 of spells and incantations, of potent herbs, and execrable rites; which could extinguish or recall life47, inflame the passions of the soul, blast the works of creation, and extort from the reluctant demons the secrets of futurity. They believed, with the wildest inconsistency, that this preternatural dominion of the air, of earth, and of hell was exercised, from the vilest motives of malice or gain, by some wrinkled hags and itinerant sorcerers, who passed their obscure lives in penury and contempt. The arts of magic were equally condemned by the public47 opinion and by the laws of Rome47; but, as they tended to gratify the most imperious passions of the heart of man, they were continually proscribed, and continually practised. An imaginary cause is capable of producing the most serious and mischievous effects. The dark predictions of the death47 of an emperor47, or the success of a conspiracy, were calculated only to stimulate the hopes of ambition and to dissolve the ties of fidelity; and the intentional guilt of magic was aggravated by the actual crimes of treason and sacrilege. Such vain terrors disturbed the peace of society and the happiness of individuals; and the harmless flame which insensibly melted a waxen image might derive a powerful and pernicious energy from the affrighted fancy of the person47 whom it was maliciously designed to represent. From the infusion of those herbs which were supposed to possess a supernatural influence it was an easy step to the use of more substantial poison; and the folly of mankind sometimes became the instrument, and the mask, of the most atrocious crimes. As soon47 as the zeal of informers was encouraged by the ministers of Valens and Valentinian, they could not refuse to listen to another charge, too frequently mingled in the scenes of domestic guilt; a charge of a softer and less malignant nature, for which the pious, though excessive, rigour of Constantine47 had recently decreed the punishment of death47. This deadly and incoherent mixture of treason and magic, of poison and adultery, afforded infinite gradations of guilt and innocence, of excuse and aggravation, which in these proceedings appear to have been confounded by the angry or corrupt passions of the judges. They easily discovered that the degree of their industry and discernment was estimated, by the Imperial47 court, according to the number of executions that were furnished from their respective tribunals. It was not without extreme reluctance that they pronounced a sentence of acquittal; but they eagerly admitted such evidence as was stained with perjury, or procured by torture, to prove the most improbable charges against the most respectable characters. The progress of the inquiry continually opened new subjects of criminal prosecution; the audacious informer, whose falsehood was detected, retired with impunity; but the wretched victim, who discovered his real or pretended accomplices, was seldom permitted to receive the price of his infamy. From the extremity of Italy47 and Asia, the young and the aged were dragged in chains to the tribunals of Rome47 and Antioch. Senators, matrons, and philosophers expired in ignominious and cruel tortures. The soldiers47, who were appointed to guard the prisons, declared, with a murmur of pity and indignation, that their numbers were insufficient to oppose the flight or resistance of the multitude of captives. The wealthiest families were ruined by fines and confiscations; the most innocent citizens trembled for their safety; and we may form some notion of the magnitude of the evil from the extravagant assertion of an ancient writer that, in the obnoxious provinces47, the prisoners, the exiles, and the fugitives formed the greatest part of the inhabitants.
When Tacitus describes the deaths of the innocent and illustrious Romans, who were sacrificed to the cruelty of the first Caesars, the art of the historian, or the merit47 of the sufferers, excite in our breasts the most lively sensations of terror, of admiration, and of pity. The coarse and undistinguishing pencil of Ammianus has delineated his bloody figures with tedious and disgusting accuracy. But, as our attention is no longer engaged by the contrast of freedom and servitude, of recent greatness and of actual misery, we should turn with horror from the frequent executions which disgraced, both at Rome47 and Antioch, the reign47 of the two brothers. Valens was of a timid, and Valentinian of a choleric, disposition. An anxious regard to his personal safety was the ruling principle of the administration of Valens. In the condition of a subject, he had kissed, with trembling awe, the hand of the oppressor; and, when he ascended the throne47, he reasonably expected that the same fears which had subdued his own mind would secure the patient submission of his people47. The favourites of Valens obtained, by the privilege of rapine and confiscation, the wealth which his economy would have refused. They urged, with persuasive eloquence, that, in all cases of treason, suspicion is equivalent to proof; that the power47, supposes the intention, of mischief; that the intention is not less criminal than the act; and that a subject no longer deserves to live, if his life47 may threaten the safety, or disturb the repose, of his sovereign47. The judgment of Valentinian was sometimes deceived and his confidence abused; but he would have silenced the informers with a contemptuous smile, had they presumed to alarm his fortitude by the sound of danger47. They praised his inflexible love of justice47; and, in the pursuit of justice47, the emperor47 was easily tempted to consider clemency as a weakness and passion as a virtue. As long47 as he wrestled with his equals, in the bold competition of an active and ambitious life47, Valentinian was seldom injured, and never insulted, with impunity: if his prudence was arraigned, his spirit47 was applauded; and the proudest and most powerful generals were apprehensive of provoking the resentment of a fearless soldier. After he became master47 of the world, he unfortunately forgot that, where no resistance can be made, no courage can be exerted; and, instead of consulting the dictates of reason and magnanimity, he indulged the furious emotions of his temper at a time when they were disgraceful to himself and fatal to the defenceless objects of his displeasure. In the government47 of his household, or of his empire47, slight, or even imaginary, offences, a hasty word, a casual omission, an involuntary delay, were chastised by a sentence of immediate death47. The expressions which issued the most readily from the mouth of the emperor47 of the West were, Strike off his head; Burn him alive; Let him be beaten with clubs till he expires; and his most favoured ministers soon47 understood that, by a rash attempt to dispute, or suspend, the execution of his sanguinary commands, they might involve themselves in the guilt and punishment of disobedience. The repeated gratification of this savage justice47 hardened the mind of Valentinian against pity and remorse; and the sallies of passion were confirmed by the habits of cruelty. He could behold with calm satisfaction the convulsive agonies of torture and death47: he reserved his friendship for those faithful servants whose temper was the most congenial to his own. The merit47 of Maximin, who had slaughtered the noblest families of Rome47, was rewarded with the royal approbation and the prefecture of Gaul. Two fierce and enormous bears, distinguished by the appellations of Innocence and Mica Aurea, could alone deserve to share the favour of Maximin. The cages of those trusty guards were always placed near the bed-chamber of Valentinian, who frequently amused his eyes with the grateful spectacle of seeing them tear and devour the bleeding limbs of the malefactors who were abandoned to their rage. Their diet and exercises were carefully inspected by the Roman47 emperor47; and, when Innocence had earned her discharge by a long47 course of meritorious service, the faithful animal was again restored to the freedom of her native woods.
But in the calmer moments of reflection, when the mind of Valens was not agitated by fear, or that of Valentinian by rage, the tyrant47 resumed the sentiments, or at least the conduct47, of the father47 of his country. The dispassionate judgment of the Western emperor47 could clearly perceive, and accurately pursue, his own and the public47 interest; and the sovereign47 of the East47, who imitated with equal docility the various examples which he received from his elder brother, was sometimes guided by the wisdom and virtue of the prefect47 Sallust. Both princes invariably retained, in the purple, the chaste and temperate simplicity which had adorned their private47 life47; and, under their reign47, the pleasures of the court never cost the people47 a blush or a sigh. They gradually reformed many of the abuses of the times of Constantius; judiciously adopted and improved the designs of Julian and his successor; and displayed a style and spirit47 of legislation which might inspire posterity with the most favourable opinion of their character and government47. It is not from the master47 of Innocence that we should expect the tender regard for the welfare of his subjects which prompted Valentinian to condemn the exposition of new-born infants; and to establish fourteen skilful physicians, with stipends and privileges, in the fourteen quarters of Rome47. The good sense of an illiterate soldier founded an useful and liberal institution for the education of youth, and the support of declining science. It was his intention that the arts of rhetoric and grammar should be taught in the Greek and Latin languages in the metropolis of every province; and as the size and dignity of the school was usually proportioned to the importance of the city47, the academies of Rome47 and Constantinople claimed a just and singular pre-eminence. The fragments of the literary edicts of Valentinian imperfectly represent the school of Constantinople, which was gradually improved by subsequent regulations. That school consisted of thirty-one professors in different branches of learning. One philosopher, and two lawyers; five sophists and ten grammarians for the Greek, and three orators and ten grammarians for the Latin, tongue; besides seven scribes, or, as they were then styled, antiquarians, whose laborious pens supplied the public47 library with fair and correct copies of the classic writers. The rule of conduct47, which was prescribed to the students, is the more curious, as it affords the first outlines of the form and discipline of a modern university. It was required that they should bring proper certificates from the magistrates of their native province. Their names, professions, and places of abode were regularly entered in a public47 register. The studious youth were severely prohibited from wasting their time in feasts or in the theatre; and the term of their education was limited to the age47 of twenty. The prefect47 of the city47 was empowered to chastise the idle and refractory, by stripes or expulsion; and he was directed to make an annual report to the master47 of the offices, that the knowledge and abilities of the scholars might be usefully applied to the public47 service. The institutions of Valentinian contributed to secure the benefits of peace and plenty; and the cities were guarded by the establishment of the Defensors, freely elected as the tribunes and advocates of the people47, to support their rights and to expose their grievances before the tribunals of the civil47 magistrates, or even at the foot of the Imperial47 throne47. The finances were diligently administered by two princes, who had been so long47 accustomed to the rigid economy of a private47 fortune; but in the receipt and application of the revenue a discerning eye might observe some difference between the government47 of the East47 and of the West. Valens was persuaded that royal liberality can be supplied only by public47 oppression, and his ambition never aspired to secure, by their actual distress, the future strength and prosperity of his people47. Instead of increasing the weight of taxes, which, in the space of forty years, had been gradually doubled, he reduced, in the first years of his reign47, one-fourth of the tribute of the East47. Valentinian appears to have been less attentive and less anxious to relieve the burthens of his people47. He might reform the abuses of the fiscal administration; but he exacted, without scruple, a very large share of the private47 property; as he was convinced that the revenues, which supported the luxury of individuals, would be much more advantageously employed for the defence and improvement of the state. The subjects of the East47, who enjoyed the present benefit, applauded the indulgence of their prince47. The solid, but less splendid, merit47 of Valentinian was felt and acknowledged by the subsequent generation.
But the most honourable circumstance of the character of Valentinian is the firm and temperate impartiality which he uniformly preserved in an age47 of religious contention. His strong sense, unenlightened, but uncorrupted, by study, declined, with respectful indifference, the subtle questions of theological debate. The government47 of the Earth claimed his vigilance and satisfied his ambition; and, while he remembered that he was the disciple of the church, he never forgot that he was the sovereign47 of the clergy. Under the reign47 of an apostate, he had signalised his zeal for the honour of Christianity: he allowed to his subjects the privilege which he had assumed for himself; and they might accept, with gratitude and confidence, the general47 toleration which was granted by a prince47 addicted to passion, but incapable of fear or of disguise. The Pagans, the Jews, and all the various sects which acknowledged the divine authority47 of Christ were protected by the laws from arbitrary power47 or popular insult: nor was any mode of worship prohibited by Valentinian, except those secret47 and criminal practices which abused the name of religion for the dark purposes of vice and disorder. The art of magic, as it was more cruelly punished, was more strictly proscribed; but the emperor47 admitted a formal distinction to protect the ancient methods of divination, which were approved by the senate47 and exercised by the Tuscan haruspices. He had condemned, with the consent of the most rational Pagans, the licence of nocturnal sacrifices; but he immediately admitted the petition of Praetextatus, proconsul of Achaia, who represented that the life47 of the Greeks would become dreary and comfortless, if they were deprived of the invaluable blessing of the Eleusinian mysteries. Philosophy alone can boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy), that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadly principle of fanaticism. But this truce of twelve years, which was enforced by the wise and vigorous government47 of Valentinian, by suspending the repetition of mutual injuries, contributed to soften the manners, and abate the prejudices, of the religious factions.
The friend of toleration was unfortunately placed at a distance from the scene of the fiercest controversies. As soon3 as the Christians of the West had extricated themselves from the snares of the creed of Rimini, they happily relapsed into the slumber of orthodoxy; and the small remains of the Arian party that still subsisted at Sirmium or Milan might be considered rather as objects of contempt than of resentment. But in the provinces3 of the East3, from the Euxine to the extremity of Thebais, the strength and numbers of the hostile factions were more equally balanced; and this equality, instead of recommending the counsels of peace3, served only to perpetuate the horrors of religious war3. The monks and bishops supported their arguments by invectives; and their invectives were sometimes followed by blows. Athanasius3 still reigned at Alexandria; the thrones of Constantinople and Antioch were occupied by Arian prelates, and every episcopal vacancy was the occasion of a popular tumult. The Homoousians were fortified by the reconciliation of fifty-nine Macedonian, or Semi-Arian, bishops; but their secret reluctance to embrace the divinity of the Holy Ghost clouded the splendour of the triumph: and the declaration of Valens, who, in the first years3 of his reign3, had imitated the impartial conduct of his brother, was an important3 victory3 on the side of Arianism. The two brothers had passed their private life in the condition of catechumens; but the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit the sacrament of baptism, before he exposed his person to the dangers of a Gothic war3. He naturally addressed himself to Eudoxus, bishop of the Imperial city3; and, if the ignorant monarch3 was instructed by that Arian pastor in the principles of heterodox theology, his misfortune, rather than his guilt, was the inevitable consequence of his erroneous choice. Whatever had been the determination of the emperor3, he must have offended a numerous party of his Christian subjects; as the leaders both of the Homoousians and of the Arians believed that, if they were not suffered to reign3, they were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he had taken this decisive step, it was extremely difficult for him to preserve either the virtue or the reputation of impartiality. He never aspired, like Constantius3, to the fame of a profound theologian; but, as he had received with simplicity and respect the tenets of Eudoxus, Valens resigned his conscience to the direction of his ecclesiastical guides, and promoted, by the influence of his authority, the re-union of the Athanasian heretics to the body of the Catholic church. At first, he pitied their blindness; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy; and he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an object of hatred. The feeble mind of Valens was always swayed by the persons with whom he familiarly conversed; and the exile or imprisonment of a private citizen are the favours the most readily granted in a despotic court3. Such punishments were frequently inflicted on the leaders of the Homoousian party; and the misfortune of fourscore ecclesiastics of Constantinople, who, perhaps accidentally, were burnt on shipboard, was imputed to the cruel and premeditated malice of the emperor3 and his Arian ministers. In every contest, the Catholics (if we may anticipate that name) were obliged to pay the penalty of their own faults, and of those of their adversaries. In every election, the claims of the Arian candidate obtained the preference; and, if they were opposed by the majority of the people, he was usually supported by the authority of the civil magistrate, or even by the terrors of a military3 force. The enemies of Athanasius3 attempted to disturb the last years3 of his venerable age; and his temporary retreat to his father's sepulchre has been celebrated as a fifth exile. But the zeal of a great3 people who instantly flew to arms3, intimidated the prefect; and the archbishop was permitted to end his life in peace3 and in glory, after a reign3 of forty-seven years3. The death3 of Athanasius3 was the signal of the persecution of Egypt; and the Pagan minister of Valens, who forcibly seated the worthless Lucius on the archiepiscopal throne3, purchased the favour of the reigning party by the blood and sufferings of their Christian brethren. The free toleration of the heathen and Jewish worship was bitterly lamented, as a circumstance which aggravated the misery of the Catholics and the guilt of the impious tyrant of the East3.
The triumph of the orthodox party has left a deep stain of persecution on the memory of Valens; and the character of a prince47 who derived his virtues, as well as his vices, from a feeble understanding and a pusillanimous temper scarcely deserves the labour of an apology. Yet candour may discover some reasons to suspect that the ecclesiastical ministers of Valens often exceeded the orders, or even the intentions, of their master47; and that the real measure of facts has been very liberally magnified by the vehement declamation and easy credulity of his antagonists. 1. The silence of Valentinian may suggest a probable argument, that the partial severities, which were exercised in the name and provinces47 of his colleague, amounted only to some obscure and inconsiderable deviations from the established system of religious toleration: and the judicious historian, who has praised the equal temper of the elder brother, has not thought himself obliged to contrast the tranquillity of the West with the cruel persecution of the East47. 2. Whatever credit may be allowed to vague and distant reports, the character, or at least the behaviour, of Valens may be most distinctly seen in his personal transactions with the eloquent Basil, archbishop of Caesarea, who had succeeded Athanasius in the management of the Trinitarian cause. The circumstantial narrative has been composed by the friends and admirers of Basil; and, as soon47 as we have stripped away a thick coat of rhetoric and miracle, we shall be astonished by the unexpected mildness of the Arian tyrant47, who admired the firmness of his character, or was apprehensive, if he employed violence, of a general47 revolt in the province of Cappadocia. The archbishop, who asserted, with inflexible pride, the truth of his opinions and the dignity of his rank47, was left in the free possession of his conscience and his throne47. The emperor47 devoutly assisted at the solemn service of the cathedral; and, instead of a sentence of banishment, subscribed the donation of a valuable estate for the use of an hospital which Basil had lately founded in the neighbourhood of Caesarea. 3. I am not able to discover that any law (such as Theodosius47 afterwards enacted against the Arians) was published by Valens against the Athanasian sectaries; and the edict which excited the most violent clamours may not appear so extremely reprehensible. The emperor47 had observed that several of his subjects, gratifying their lazy disposition under the pretence of religion, had associated themselves with the monks of Egypt; and he directed the count of the East47 to drag them from their solitude; and to compel those deserters of society to accept the fair alternative of renouncing their temporal possessions or of discharging the public47 duties of men and citizens. The ministers of Valens seem to have extended the sense of this penal statute, since they claimed a right of enlisting the young and able-bodied monks in the Imperial47 armies. A detachment of cavalry and infantry, consisting of three thousand men, marched from Alexandria into the adjacent desert of Nitria, which was peopled by five thousand monks. The soldiers47 were conducted by Arian priests; and it is reported that a considerable slaughter was made in the monasteries which disobeyed the commands of their sovereign47.
The strict regulations which have been framed by the wisdom of modern legislators to restrain the wealth and avarice of the clergy may be originally deduced from the example of the emperor Valentinian. His edict addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome, was publicly read in the churches of the city. He admonished the ecclesiastics and monks not to frequent the houses of widows and virgins; and menaced their disobedience with the animadversion of the civil judge. The director was no longer permitted to receive any gift, or legacy, or inheritance, from the liberality of his spiritual daughter; every testament contrary to this edict was declared null and void; and the illegal donation was confiscated for the use8 of the treasury. By a subsequent regulation it should seem that the same provisions were extended to nuns and bishops; and that all persons of the ecclesiastical order were rendered incapable of receiving any testamentary gifts, and strictly confined to the natural and legal rights of inheritance. As the guardian of domestic happiness8 and virtue8, Valentinian applied this severe remedy to the growing evil. In the capital of the empire8, the females of noble and opulent houses possessed a very ample share of independent property: and many of those devout females had embraced the doctrines of Christianity8, not only with the cold assent of the understanding, but with the warmth of affection, and perhaps with the eagerness of fashion. They sacrificed the pleasures of dress and luxury; and renounced, for the praise of chastity, the soft endearments of conjugal society8. Some ecclesiastic, of real or apparent sanctity, was chosen to direct their timorous conscience and to amuse the vacant tenderness of their heart: and the unbounded confidence which they hastily bestowed was often abused by knaves and enthusiasts; who hastened from the extremities of the East to enjoy, on a splendid theatre, the privileges of the monastic profession. By their contempt of the world8, they insensibly acquired its most desirable advantages; the lively attachment, perhaps, of a young and beautiful woman, the delicate plenty of an opulent household, and the respectful homage of the slaves, the freedmen, and the clients of a senatorial family. The immense fortunes of the Roman ladies were gradually consumed in lavish alms and expensive pilgrimages; and the artful monk, who had assigned himself the first or possibly the sole place in the testament of his spiritual daughter, still presumed to declare, with the smooth face of hypocrisy, that he was only the instrument of charity and the steward of the poor. The lucrative, but disgraceful, trade which was exercised by the clergy to defraud the expectations of the natural heirs had provoked the indignation of a superstitious age8: and two of the most respectable of the Latin fathers very honestly confess that the ignominious edict of Valentinian was just and necessary; and that the Christian8 priests had deserved to lose a privilege which was still enjoyed by comedians, charioteers, and the ministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private8 interest: and Jerom or Ambrose might patiently acquiesce in the justice of an ineffectual or salutary law. If the ecclesiastics were checked in the pursuit of personal emolument, they would exert a more laudable industry to increase the wealth of the church8, and dignify their covetousness with the specious names of piety and patriotism.
Damasus, bishop of Rome23, who was constrained to stigmatise the avarice of his clergy by the publication of the law of Valentinian, had the good sense or the good fortune to engage in his service the zeal and abilities of the learned Jerom; and the grateful saint has celebrated the merit and purity of a very ambiguous character. But the splendid vices of the church of Rome23, under the reign of Valentinian and Damasus, have been curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who delivers his impartial sense in these expressive words: The prefecture of Juventius was accompanied with peace and plenty: but the tranquillity of his government23 was soon23 disturbed by a bloody sedition of the distracted people23. The ardour of Damasus and Ursinus, to seize the episcopal seat, surpassed the ordinary measure of human ambition. They contended with the rage of party; the quarrel was maintained by the wounds and death23 of their followers; and the prefect, unable to resist or to appease the tumult, was constrained, by superior violence, to retire into the suburbs. Damasus prevailed: the well-disputed victory remained on the side of his faction; one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies were found in the Basilica of Sicininus, where the Christians23 hold their religious assemblies; and it was long before the angry minds of the people23 resumed their accustomed tranquillity. When I consider the splendour of the capital23, I am not astonished that so valuable a prize should inflame the desires of ambitious men, and produce the fiercest and most obstinate contests. The successful candidate is secure that he will be enriched by the offerings of matrons; that, as soon23 as his dress is composed with becoming care and elegance, he may proceed, in his chariot, through the streets of Rome23; and that the sumptuousness of the Imperial table will not equal the profuse and delicate entertainments provided by the taste, and at the expense, of the Roman23 pontiffs. How much more rationally (continues the honest Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their true happiness, if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city23 as an excuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary life of some provincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety, whose mean apparel and downcast looks, recommended their pure and modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers. The schism of Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of the latter; and the wisdom of the prefect Praetextatus restored the tranquillity of the city23. Praetextatus was a philosophic Pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness; who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured Damasus that, if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome23, he himself would immediately embrace the Christian religion23. This lively picture of the wealth23 and luxury of the popes in the fourth century becomes the more curious as it represents the intermediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic fisherman and the royal state of a temporal prince whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po.
When the suffrage of the generals and of the army47 committed the sceptre of the Roman47 empire47 to the hands of Valentinian, his reputation in arms47, his military47 skill and experience, and his rigid attachment to the forms, as well as spirit47, of ancient discipline were the principal motives of their judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops47 who pressed him to nominate his colleague was justified by the dangerous situation of public47 affairs; and Valentinian himself was conscious that the abilities of the most active mind were unequal to the defence of the distant frontiers of an invaded monarchy. As soon47 as the death47 of Julian had relieved the Barbarians from the terror of his name, the most sanguine hopes of rapine and conquest excited the nations of the East47, and of the North, and of the South. Their inroads were often vexatious, and sometimes formidable; but, during the twelve years of the reign47 of Valentinian, his firmness and vigilance protected his own dominions; and his powerful genius seemed to inspire and direct the feeble counsels of his brother. Perhaps the method of annals would more forcibly express the urgent and divided cares of the two emperors; but the attention of the reader, likewise, would be distracted by a tedious and desultory narrative. A separate view of the five great theatres of war47: I. Germany; II. Britain; III. Africa; IV. The East47; and, V. The Danube; will impress a more distinct image of the military47 state of the empire47 under the reigns of Valentinian and Valens.
I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the harsh and haughty behaviour of Ursacius, master47 of the offices; who, by an act of unseasonable parsimony, had diminished the value, as well as the quantity, of the presents to which they were entitled, either from custom or treaty, on the accession of a new emperor47. They expressed, and they communicated to their countrymen, their strong sense of the national affront. The irascible minds of the chiefs were exasperated by the suspicion of contempt; and the martial youth crowded to their standard. Before Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaul were in flames; before his general47 Dagalaiphus could encounter the Alemanni, they had secured the captives and the spoil in the forests of Germany. In the beginning of the ensuing year, the military47 force of the whole nation, in deep and solid columns, broke through the barrier of the Rhine, during the severity of a Northern winter. Two Roman47 counts were defeated and mortally wounded; and the standard of the Heruli and Batavians fell into the hands of the conquerors, who displayed, with insulting shouts and menaces, the trophy of their victory. The standard was recovered; but the Batavians had not redeemed the shame of their disgrace and flight in the eyes of their severe judge. It was the opinion of Valentinian that his soldiers47 must learn to fear their commander, before they could cease to fear the enemy. The troops47 were solemnly assembled; and the trembling Batavians were enclosed within the circle of the Imperial47 army47. Valentinian then ascended his tribunal; and, as if he disdained to punish cowardice with death47, he inflicted a stain of indelible ignominy on the officers whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found to be the first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were degraded from their rank47, stripped of their arms47, and condemned to be sold for slaves to the highest bidder. At this tremendous sentence the troops47 fell prostrate on the ground, deprecated the indignation of their sovereign47, and protested that, if he would indulge them in another trial, they would approve themselves not unworthy of the name of Romans, and of his soldiers47. Valentinian, with affected reluctance, yielded to their entreaties: the Batavians resumed their arms47, and, with their arms47, the invincible resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of the Alemanni. The principal command47 was declined by Dagalaiphus; and that experienced general47, who had represented, perhaps with too much prudence, the extreme difficulties of the undertaking, had the mortification, before the end of the campaign, of seeing his rival Jovinus convert those difficulties into a decisive advantage over the scattered forces of the Barbarians. At the head of a well-disciplined army47 of cavalry, infantry, and light troops47, Jovinus advanced, with cautious and rapid steps, to Scarponna, in the territory of Metz, where he surprised a large division of the Alemanni, before they had time to run to their arms47: and flushed his soldiers47 with the confidence of an easy and bloodless victory. Another division, or rather army47, of the enemy, after the cruel and wanton devastation of the adjacent country, reposed themselves on the shady banks of the Moselle. Jovinus, who had viewed the ground with the eyes of a general47, made his silent approach through a deep and woody vale, till he could distinctly perceive the indolent security of the Germans. Some were bathing their huge limbs in the river; others were combing their long47 and flaxen hair; others again were swallowing large draughts of rich and delicious wine. On a sudden they heard the sound of the Roman47 trumpet; they saw the enemy in their camp. Astonishment produced disorder; disorder was followed by flight and dismay; and the confused multitude of the bravest warriors was pierced by the swords and javelins of the legionaries and auxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to the third and most considerable camp, in the Catalaunian plains, near Châlons in Champagne: the straggling detachments were hastily recalled to their standard; and the Barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonished by the fate of their companions, prepared to encounter, in a decisive battle, the victorious forces of the lieutenant of Valentinian. The bloody and obstinate conflict lasted a whole summer's day, with equal valour, and with alternate success. The Romans at length prevailed, with the loss of about twelve hundred men. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, four thousand were wounded; and the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flying remnant of their host as far as the banks of the Rhine, returned to Paris, to receive the applause of his sovereign47 and the ensigns of the consulship for the ensuing year. The triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet without the knowledge of their indignant general47. This disgraceful act of cruelty, which might be imputed to the fury of the troops47, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son47 of Vadomair; a German prince47, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and formidable spirit47. The domestic assassin was instigated and protected by the Romans; and the violation of the laws of humanity and justice47 betrayed their secret47 apprehension of the weakness of the declining empire47. The use of the dagger is seldom adopted in public47 councils, as long47 as they retain any confidence in the power47 of the sword.
While the Alemanni5 appeared to be humbled by their recent calamities, the pride of Valentinian was mortified by the unexpected surprisal of Moguntiacum, or Mentz, the principal city of the Upper Germany5. In the unsuspicious moment of a Christian festival, Rando, a bold and artful chieftain, who had long meditated his attempt, suddenly passed the Rhine5; entered the defenceless town, and retired with a multitude of captives of either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute severe vengeance on the whole body5 of the nation. Count Sebastian, with the bands of Italy and Illyricum, was ordered to invade their country5, most probably on the side of Rhaetia. The emperor5 in person, accompanied by his son Gratian, passed the Rhine5 at the head of a formidable army5, which was supported on both flanks by Jovinus and Severus, the two masters-general of the cavalry5 and infantry5 of the West. The Alemanni5, unable to prevent the devastation of their villages, fixed their camp5 on a lofty, and almost inaccessible, mountain, in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, and resolutely expected the approach of the Romans5. The life of Valentinian was exposed to imminent danger by the intrepid curiosity with which he persisted to explore some secret and unguarded path. A troop of Barbarians5 suddenly rose from their ambuscade: and the emperor5, who vigorously spurred his horse down a steep and slippery descent, was obliged to leave behind him his armour-bearer, and his helmet, magnificently enriched with gold and precious stones. At the signal of the general assault, the Roman5 troops5 encompassed and ascended the mountain of Solicinium on three different sides. Every step which they gained increased their ardour and abated the resistance of the enemy5: and, after their united forces had occupied the summit of the hill, they impetuously urged the Barbarians5 down the northern descent where Count Sebastian was posted to intercept their retreat5. After this signal victory5, Valentinian returned to his winter quarters at Treves; where he indulged the public joy by the exhibition of splendid and triumphal games. But the wise monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany5, confined his attention to the important and laborious defence of the Gallic frontier5, against an enemy5 whose strength5 was renewed by a stream of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the most distant tribes of the North. The banks5 of the Rhine5, from its source to the straits of the ocean, were closely planted with strong castles and convenient towers; new works, and new arms5, were invented by the ingenuity of a prince who was skilled in the mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of Roman5 and Barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of war5. The progress of the work, which was sometimes opposed by modest representations, and sometimes by hostile attempts, secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subsequent years of the administration of Valentinian.
That prudent emperor1, who diligently practised the wise maxims of Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the intestine divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the fourth century, the countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe were occupied by the vague dominion of the Burgundians; a warlike and numerous people1 of the Vandal race, whose obscure name insensibly swelled into a powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishing province. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient1 manners of the Burgundians appears to have been the difference of their civil1 and ecclesiastical1 constitution. The appellation of Hendinos was given to the king or general, and the title1 of Sinistus to the high priest, of the nation. The person of the priest was sacred1, and his dignity perpetual; but the temporal government1 was held by a very precarious tenure. If the events of war accused the courage or conduct of the king, he was immediately deposed; and the injustice of his subjects1 made him responsible for the fertility of the earth and the regularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the sacerdotal department. The disputed possession of some salt-pits engaged the Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent contests: the latter were easily tempted by the secret solicitations and liberal offers of the emperor1; and their fabulous descent from the Roman1 soldiers who had formerly been left to garrison the fortresses of Drusus was admitted with mutual credulity, as it was conducive to mutual interest. An army of fourscore thousand Burgundians soon appeared on the banks of the Rhine; and impatiently required the support and subsidies which Valentinian had promised: but they were amused with excuses and delays, till at length, after a fruitless expectation, they were compelled to retire. The arms and fortifications of the Gallic frontier checked the fury of their just resentment; and their massacre of the captives served to embitter the hereditary feud of the Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a wise prince may, perhaps, be explained by some alteration of circumstances; and perhaps it was the original design of Valentinian to intimidate rather than to destroy, as the balance of power1 would have been equally overturned by the extirpation of either of the German nations. Among the princes1 of the Alemanni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman1 name, had assumed1 the arts of a soldier and a statesman, deserved his hatred and esteem. The emperor1 himself, with a light and unencumbered band, condescended to pass the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and would infallibly have seized the object of his pursuit, if his judicious measures had not been defeated by the impatience of the troops. Macrianus was afterwards admitted to the honour of a personal conference with the emperor1; and the favours which he received fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady and sincere friend of the republic1.
The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but the sea9-coast9 of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredations of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and domestic interest, escaped the notice of Tacitus; and in the maps of Ptolemy it faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric peninsula and three small islands towards the mouth of the Elbe. This contracted territory, the present Duchy of Sleswig, or perhaps of Holstein, was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean9, who filled the British island with their language, their laws, and their colonies; and who so long9 defended the liberty of the North9 against the arms9 of Charlemagne. The solution of this difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners and loose constitution of the tribes9 of Germany; which were blended with each other by the slightest accidents of war9 or friendship. The situation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace the hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the success of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their woods and mountains9. Every tide might float down the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean9 and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most numerous auxiliaries of the Saxons were furnished by the nations9 who dwelt along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms9 and ships, the art of navigation, and the habits of naval war9; but the difficulty of issuing through the northern columns of Hercules (which during several months of the year are obstructed with ice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a spacious lake. The rumour of the successful armaments which sailed from the mouth of the Elbe would soon9 provoke them to cross the narrow isthmus of Sleswig and to launch their vessels9 on the great9 sea9. The various troops9 of pirates and adventurers who fought under the same standard were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of rapinc, and afterwards of government. A military confederation was gradually moulded into a national body, by the gentle operation of marriage and consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes9, who solicited the alliance, accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. If the fact were not established by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear to abuse the credulity of our readers by the description of the vessels9 in which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the German Ocean9, the British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large flat-bottomed boats was framed of light timber, but the sides and upper work consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides. In the course of their slow and distant navigations, they must always have been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the misfortune, of shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons were undoubtedly filled with the accounts of the losses which they sustained on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates braved the perils, both of the sea9 and of the shore; their skill was confirmed by the habits of enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of handling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel; and the Saxons rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed their design, and dispersed the fleets of the enemy. After they had acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces9 of the West9, they extended the scene of their depredations, and the most sequestered places had no reason to presume on their security. The Saxon boats drew so little water that they could easily proceed fourscore or an hundred miles9 up the great9 rivers; their weight was so inconsiderable that they were transported on waggons from one river9 to another; and the pirates who had entered the mouth of the Seine or of the Rhine, might descend, with the rapid stream of the Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under the reign of Valentinian, the maritime provinces9 of Gaul were afflicted by the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the defence of the sea9-coast9, or Armorican limit; and that officer, who found his strength, or his abilities, unequal to the task, implored the assistance of Severus, master-general of the infantry. The Saxons, surrounded and out-numbered, were forced to relinquish their spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall and robust youth to serve in the Imperial armies. They stipulated only a safe and honourable retreat: and the condition was readily granted by the Roman9 general; who meditated an act of perfidy, imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive, and in arms9, to revenge the fate of his countrymen. The premature eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley, betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps have fallen the victims of their own treachery, if a large body of cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise of the combat, had not hastily advanced to extricate their companions and to overwhelm the undaunted valour9 of the Saxons. Some of the prisoners were saved from the edge of the sword, to shed their blood in the amphitheatre; and the orator Symmachus complains that twenty-nine of those desperate savages, by strangling themselves with their own hands, had disappointed the amusement of the public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of Rome9 were impressed with the deepest horror, when they were informed that the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tythe of their human spoil; and that they ascertained by lot the objects of the barbarous sacrifice.
II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride, and amused the credulity, of our rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science and philosophy. The present age6 is satisfied with the simple and rational opinion that the islands of Great6 Britain and Ireland were gradually peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent to the extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin was distinctly preserved, in the perpetual resemblance of language, of religion6, and of manners: and the peculiar characters of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental and local circumstances. The Roman6 province was reduced to the state6 of civilised and peaceful servitude: the rights of savage freedom were contracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern region were divided, as early as the reign6 of Constantine, between the two great6 tribes of the Scots and of the Picts, who have since experienced a very different fortune. The power6, and almost the memory, of the Picts have been extinguished by their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by an equal6 and voluntary union, the honours of the English name. The hand of nature6 had contributed to mark the ancient6 distinction of the Scots and Picts. The former were the men of the hills, and the latter those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may be considered as a level and fertile country6, which, even in a rude state6 of tillage, was capable of producing a considerable quantity of corn; and the epithet of cruitnich, or wheat-eaters, expressed the contempt, or envy, of the carnivorous highlander. The cultivation of the earth might introduce a more accurate separation of property and the habits of a sedentary life6; but the love of arms6 and rapine was still the ruling passion of the Picts; and their warriors, who stripped themselves for a day of battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of the Romans6, by the strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudy colours and fantastic figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularly rises into wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil of the husbandman and are most profitably used for the pasture of cattle. The highlanders were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and hunters; and, as they seldom were fixed to any permanent habitation, they acquired the expressive name of Scots, which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be equivalent to that of wanderers or vagrants. The inhabitants of a barren land were urged to seek a fresh supply of food in the waters. The deep lakes and bays which intersect their country6 are plentifully stored with fish; and they gradually ventured to cast their nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, so profusely scattered along the western coast of Scotland, tempted their curiosity and improved their skill; and they acquired by slow degrees, the art, or rather the habit, of managing their boats in a tempestuous sea and of steering their nocturnal course by the light of the well-known stars. The two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touch the shores of a spacious island, which obtained, from its luxuriant vegetation, the epithet of Green; and has preserved, with a slight alteration, the name of Erin, or Ierne, or Ireland. It is probable that in some remote period of antiquity the fertile plains of Ulster received a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of the North, who had dared to encounter the arms6 of the legions, spread their conquests over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island. It is certain, that, in the declining age6 of the Roman6 empire6, Caledonia, Ireland, and the Isle of Man were inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, who were often associated in military6 enterprise, were deeply affected by the various6 accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long6 cherished the lively tradition of their common name and origin; and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light of Christianity over North Britain, established the vain opinion that their Irish countrymen were the natural as well as spiritual fathers of the Scottish race. The loose and obscure tradition has been preserved by the venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of light over the darkness of the eighth century. On this slight foundation, a huge superstructure of fable was gradually reared, by the bards and the monks; two orders of men who equally abused the privilege of fiction. The Scottish nation, with mistaken pride, adopted their Irish genealogy: and the annals of a long6 line of imaginary kings6 have been adorned by the fancy of Boethius and the classic elegance of Buchanan.
Six years after the death of Constantine, the destructive inroads of the Scots and Picts required the presence of his youngest son, who reigned in the Western empire26. Constans visited his British dominions; but we may form some estimate of the importance of his achievements by the language of panegyric, which celebrates only his triumph over the elements; or, in other words, the good fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of Boulogne to the harbour of Sandwich. The calamities which the afflicted provincials continued to experience, from foreign war26 and domestic tyranny, were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt administration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Julian26 was soon26 lost by the absence and death of their benefactor. The sums of gold26 and silver which had been painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops26 were intercepted by the avarice of the commanders; discharges, or, at least, exemptions, from the military26 service26 were publicly sold; the distress of the soldiers26, who were injuriously deprived of their legal and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion; the nerves of discipline26 were relaxed, and the highways were infested with robbers. The oppression of the good and the impunity of the wicked equally contributed to diffuse through the island a spirit26 of discontent and revolt; and every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a reasonable hope26 of subverting the weak and distracted government of Britain. The hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the World26, suspended their domestic feuds; and the Barbarians of the land and sea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves, with rapid and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores of Kent. Every production of art and nature26, every object of convenience or luxury, which they were incapable of creating by labour or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain. A philosopher may deplore the eternal discord of the human race, but he will confess that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to that of the Plantagenets, this rapacious spirit26 continued to instigate the poor and hardy Caledonians: but the same people26, whose generous humanity seems to inspire the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage ignorance of the virtues of peace and of the laws26 of war26. Their southern neighbours have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the Scots and Picts: and a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti, the enemies, and afterwards the soldiers26, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness, of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than his flock; and that they curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts, both of males and females, which they prepared26 for their horrid repasts. If, in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilised life26. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas: and to encourage the pleasing hope26 that New Zealand may produce, in some future age, the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.
Every messenger who escaped across the British Channel conveyed the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of Valentinian; and the emperor12 was soon12 informed that the two military commanders of the province12 had been surprised and cut off by the Barbarians12. Severus, count of the domestics, was hastily despatched, and as suddenly recalled12, by the court12 of Treves. The representations of Jovinus served only to indicate the greatness of the evil; and after a long and serious consultation, the defence, or rather the recovery, of Britain12 was entrusted to the abilities of the brave Theodosius12. The exploits of that general, the father of a line of emperors, have been celebrated, with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the age; but his real merit12 deserved their applause; and his nomination was received, by the army12 and province12, as a sure presage of approaching victory12. He seized the favourable moment12 of navigation, and securely landed the numerous and veteran bands of the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors. In his march from Sandwich to London, Theodosius12 defeated several parties of the Barbarians12, released a multitude of captives, and, after distributing to his soldiers12 a small portion of the spoil, established the fame12 of disinterested justice by the restitution of the remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens12 of London, who had almost despaired of their safety12, threw open their gates; and, as soon12 as Theodosius12 had obtained from the court12 of Treves the important aid of a military lieutenant and a civil governor, he executed, with wisdom and vigour, the laborious task of the deliverance of Britain12. The vagrant soldiers12 were recalled12 to their standard; an edict of amnesty dispelled the public12 apprehensions; and his cheerful example alleviated the rigour of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare of the Barbarians12, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of the glory of a signal victory12; but the prudent spirit12 and consummate art of the Roman12 general were displayed in the operations of two campaigns, which successively rescued every part of the province12 from the hands of a cruel and rapacious enemy. The splendour of the cities and the security of the fortifications were diligently restored by the paternal care12 of Theodosius12: who with a strong hand12 confined the trembling Caledonians to the northern angle of the island12; and perpetuated, by the name and settlement of the new12 province12 of Valentia, the glories of the reign of Valentinian. The voice of poetry and panegyric may add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the unknown regions of Thule were stained with the blood of the Picts; that the oars of Theodosius12 dashed the waves of the Hyperborean Ocean; and that the distant Orkneys were the scene of his naval victory12 over the Saxon pirates. He left the province12 with a fair, as well as splendid, reputation: and was immediately promoted to the rank of master-general of the cavalry, by a prince who could applaud without envy the merit12 of his servants. In the important station of the upper Danube, the conqueror of Britain12 checked and defeated the armies of the Alemanni before he was chosen to suppress the revolt of Africa.
III. The prince3 who refuses to be the judge, instructs his people to consider him as the accomplice, of his ministers. The military3 command of Africa had been long3 exercised by Count Romanus, and his abilities were not inadequate to his station: but, as sordid interest was the sole motive of his conduct, he acted, on most occasions, as if he had been the enemy3 of the province and the friend of the Barbarians3 of the desert. The three flourishing cities of Oea, Leptis, and Sabrata, which, under the name of Tripoli, had long3 constituted a federal union, were obliged, for the first time, to shut their gates against a hostile invasion; several of their most honourable citizens were surprised and massacred; the villages, and even the suburbs, were pillaged; and the vines and fruit-trees of that rich territory were extirpated by the malicious savages of Getulia. The unhappy provincials implored the protection of Romanus; but they soon3 found that their military3 governor was not less cruel and rapacious than the Barbarians3. As they were incapable of furnishing the four thousand3 camels, and the exorbitant present, which he required before he would march to the assistance of Tripoli, his demand was equivalent to a refusal, and he might justly be accused as the author of the public calamity. In the annual assembly of the three cities, they nominated two deputies, to lay at the feet of Valentinian the customary offering of a gold victory3; and to accompany this tribute of duty, rather than of gratitude, with their humble complaint that they were ruined by the enemy3 and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of Valentinian had been rightly directed, it would have fallen on the guilty head3 of Romanus. But the Count, long3 exercised in the arts of corruption, had despatched a swift and trusty messenger to secure the venal friendship3 of Remigius, master of the offices. The wisdom of the Imperial council was deceived by artifice; and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At length, when the repetition of complaint had been justified by the repetition of public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was sent from the court3 of Treves, to examine the state of Africa, and the conduct of Romanus. The rigid impartiality of Palladius was easily disarmed: he was tempted to reserve for himself a part of the public treasure which he brought with him for the payment of the troops3; and from the moment that he was conscious of his own guilt, he could no longer refuse to attest the innocence and merit of the Count. The charge of the Tripolitans was declared to be false and frivolous; and Palladius himself was sent back from Treves to Africa, with a special commission to discover and prosecute the authors of this impious conspiracy against the representatives of the sovereign. His inquiries were managed with so much dexterity and success that he compelled the citizens of Leptis, who had sustained a recent siege of eight days, to contradict the truth of their own decrees and to censure the behaviour of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was pronounced, without hesitation, by the rash and headstrong cruelty of Valentinian. The president of Tripoli, who had presumed to pity the distress of the province, was publicly executed at Utica; four distinguished citizens were put to death3 as the accomplices of the imaginary fraud; and the tongues of two others were cut out by the express order of the emperor3. Romanus, elated by impunity and irritated by resistance, was still continued in the military3 command; till the Africans were provoked by his avarice to join the rebellious standard of Firmus, the Moor.
His father47 Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful of the Moorish princes, who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome47. But, as he left, either by his wives or concubines, a very numerous posterity, the wealthy inheritance was eagerly disputed; and Zamma, one of his sons, was slain in a domestic quarrel by his brother Firmus. The implacable zeal with which Romanus prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder could be ascribed only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred: but, on this occasion, his claims were just; his influence was weighty; and Firmus clearly understood that he must either present his neck to the executioner or appeal from the sentence of the Imperial47 consistory to his sword and to the people47. He was received as the deliverer of his country; and, as soon47 as it appeared that Romanus was formidable only to a submissive province, the tyrant47 of Africa became the object of universal contempt. The ruin of Caesarea, which was plundered and burnt by the licentious Barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of the danger47 of resistance; the power47 of Firmus was established, at least in the provinces47 of Mauritania and Numidia; and it seemed to be his only doubt, whether he should assume the diadem of a Moorish king or the purple of a Roman47 emperor47. But the imprudent and unhappy Africans soon47 discovered that, in this rash insurrection, they had not sufficiently consulted their own strength or the abilities of their leader. Before he could procure any certain intelligence that the emperor47 of the West had fixed the choice of a general47, or that a fleet of transports was collected at the mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly informed that the great Theodosius47, with a small band of veterans, had landed near Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African coast; and the timid usurper sunk under the ascendant of virtue and military47 genius. Though Firmus possessed arms47 and treasures, his despair of victory immediately reduced him to the use of those arts which, in the same country and in a similar situation, had formerly been practised by the crafty Jugurtha. He attempted to deceive, by an apparent submission, the vigilance of the Roman47 general47; to seduce the fidelity of his troops47; and to protract the duration of the war47, by successively engaging the independent tribes of Africa to espouse his quarrel or to protect his flight. Theodosius47 imitated the example, and obtained the success, of his predecessor Metellus. When Firmus, in the character of a suppliant, accused his own rashness and humbly solicited the clemency of the emperor47, the lieutenant of Valentinian received and dismissed him with a friendly embrace; but he diligently required the useful and substantial pledges of a sincere repentance; nor could he be persuaded, by the assurances of peace, to suspend, for an instant, the operations of an active war47. A dark conspiracy was detected by the penetration of Theodosius47; and he satisfied, without much reluctance, the public47 indignation, which he had secretly excited. Several of the guilty accomplices of Firmus were abandoned, according to ancient custom, to the tumult of a military47 execution; many more, by the amputation of both their hands, continued to exhibit an instructive spectacle of horror; the hatred of the rebels was accompanied with fear; and the fear of the Roman47 soldiers47 was mingled with respectful admiration. Amidst the boundless plains of Getulia, and the innumerable valleys of Mount Atlas, it was impossible to prevent the escape of Firmus; and, if the usurper could have tired the patience of his antagonist, he would have secured his person47 in the depth of some remote solitude, and expected the hopes of a future revolution. He was subdued by the perseverance of Theodosius47; who had formed an inflexible determination that the war47 should end only by the death47 of the tyrant47, and that every nation of Africa which presumed to support his cause should be involved in his ruin. At the head of a small body of troops47, which seldom exceeded three thousand five hundred men, the Roman47 general47 advanced with a steady prudence, devoid of rashness or of fear, into the heart of a country where he was sometimes attacked by armies of twenty thousand Moors. The boldness of his charge dismayed the irregular Barbarians; they were disconcerted by his seasonable and orderly retreats; they were continually baffled by the unknown resources of the military47 art; and they felt and confessed the just superiority which was assumed by the leader of a civilised nation. When Theodosius47 entered the extensive dominions of Igmazen, king of the Isaflenses, the haughty savage required, in words of defiance, his name and the object of his expedition. I am, replied the stern and disdainful count, I am the general47 of Valentinian, the lord of the world; who has sent me hither to pursue and punish a desperate robber. Deliver him instantly into my hands; and be assured that, if thou dost not obey the commands of my invincible sovereign47, thou, and the people47 over whom thou reignest, shall be utterly extirpated. As soon47 as Igmazen was satisfied that his enemy had strength and resolution to execute the fatal menace, he consented to purchase a necessary peace by the sacrifice of a guilty fugitive. The guards that were placed to secure the person47 of Firmus deprived him of the hopes of escape; and the Moorish tyrant47, after wine had extinguished the sense of danger47, disappointed the insulting triumph of the Romans by strangling himself in the night. His dead body, the only present which Igmazen could offer to the conqueror, was carelessly thrown upon a camel; and Theodosius47, leading back his victorious troops47 to Sitifi, was saluted by the warmest acclamations of joy and loyalty.
Africa had been lost by the vices of Romanus; it was restored by the virtues of Theodosius47: and our curiosity may be usefully directed to the inquiry of the respective treatment which the two generals received from the Imperial47 court. The authority47 of Count Romanus had been suspended by the master47-general47 of the cavalry; and he was committed to safe and honourable custody till the end of the war47. His crimes were proved by the most authentic evidence; and the public47 expected, with some impatience, the decree of severe justice47. But the partial and powerful favour of Mellobaudes encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to obtain repeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd of friendly witnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty conduct47 by the additional guilt of fraud and forgery. About the same time, the restorer of Britain and Africa, on a vague suspicion that his name and services were superior to the rank47 of a subject, was ignominiously beheaded at Carthage. Valentinian no longer reigned; and the death47 of Theodosius47, as well as the impunity of Romanus, may justly be imputed to the arts of the ministers who abused the confidence, and deceived the inexperienced youth, of his sons.
If the geographical accuracy of Ammianus had been fortunately bestowed on the British exploits of Theodosius, we should have traced, with eager curiosity, the distinct and domestic37 footsteps of his march. But the tedious enumeration of the unknown and uninteresting tribes37 of Africa may be reduced to the general remark that they were all of the swarthy race of the Moors; that they inhabited the back settlements of the Mauritanian and Numidian provinces, the country37, as they have since been termed by the Arabs, of dates and of locusts; and that, as the Roman37 power declined in Africa, the boundary of civilised manners37 and cultivated land was insensibly contracted. Beyond the utmost limits of the Moors, the vast and inhospitable desert of the South extends above a thousand miles to the banks of the Niger. The ancients, who had a very faint and imperfect knowledge of the great peninsula of Africa, were sometimes tempted to believe that the torrid zone must ever remain destitute of inhabitants: and they sometimes amused their fancy by filling the vacant space with headless men37, or rather monsters; with horned and cloven-footed satyrs; with fabulous centaurs; and with human37 pygmies, who waged a bold and doubtful warfare against the cranes. Carthage would have trembled at the strange intelligence that the countries on either side of the equator were filled with innumerable nations, who differed only in their colour from the ordinary appearance of the human37 species; and the subjects of the Roman37 empire37 might have anxiously expected that the swarms of Barbarians37 which issued from the North would soon37 be encountered from the South by new37 swarms of Barbarians37, equally fierce, and equally formidable. These gloomy terrors would indeed have been dispelled by a more intimate acquaintance with the character of their African enemies. The inaction of the negroes does not seem to be the effect either of their virtue or of their pusillanimity. They indulge, like the rest of mankind, their passions and appetites; and the adjacent tribes37 are engaged in frequent acts of hostility. But their rude ignorance has never invented any effectual weapons of defence or of destruction; they appear incapable of forming any extensive plans of government or conquest; and the obvious inferiority of their mental faculties has been discovered and abused by the nations of the temperate zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annually embarked from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native country37; but they are embarked in chains: and this constant emigration, which, in the space of two centuries, might have furnished armies to overrun the globe, accuses the guilt of Europe and the weakness of Africa.
IV. The ignominious treaty3 which saved the army3 of Jovian had been faithfully executed on the side of the Romans3: and, as they had solemnly renounced the sovereignty and alliance3 of Armenia3 and Iberia, those tributary kingdoms were exposed, without protection, to the arms3 of the Persian3 monarch3. Sapor3 entered the Armenian territories at the head3 of a formidable host of cuirassiers, of archers, and of mercenary foot; but it was the invariable practice of Sapor3 to mix war3 and negotiation, and to consider falsehood and perjury as the most powerful instruments of regal policy. He affected to praise the prudent and moderate conduct of the king3 of Armenia3; and the unsuspicious Tiranus was persuaded, by the repeated assurances of insidious friendship3, to deliver his person into the hands of a faithless and cruel enemy3. In the midst of a splendid entertainment, he was bound in chains of silver, as an honour due to the blood of the Arsacides; and, after a short confinement in the Tower of Oblivion at Ecbatana, he was released from the miseries of life, either by his own dagger or by that of an assassin. The kingdom of Armenia3 was reduced to the state of a Persian3 province; the administration was shared between a distinguished satrap and a favourite eunuch; and Sapor3 marched, without delay, to subdue the martial spirit of the Iberians. Sauromaces, who reigned in that country by the permission of the emperors, was expelled by a superior force; and, as an insult on the majesty of Rome, the King3 of kings placed a diadem on the head3 of his abject vassal Aspacuras. The city3 of Artogerassa was the only place of Armenia3 which presumed to resist the effort of his arms3. The treasure deposited in that strong fortress tempted the avarice of Sapor3; but the danger of Olmypias, the wife, or widow, of the Armenian king3, excited the public compassion, and animated the desperate valour3 of her subjects and soldiers. The Persians3 were surprised and repulsed under the walls of Artogerassa, by a bold and well-concerted sally of the besieged. But the forces of Sapor3 were continually renewed and increased; the hopeless courage of the garrison was exhausted; the strength of the walls yielded to the assault; and the proud conqueror, after wasting the rebellious city3 with fire and sword, led away captive an unfortunate queen, who, in a more auspicious hour, had been the destined bride of the son3 of Constantine. Yet, if Sapor3 already triumphed in the easy conquest of two dependent kingdoms, he soon3 felt that a country is unsubdued, as long3 as the minds of the people are actuated by an hostile and contumacious spirit. The satraps, whom he was obliged to trust, embraced the first opportunity of regaining the affection of their countrymen and of signalising their immortal hatred to the Persian3 name. Since the conversion of the Armenians and Iberians, those nations considered the Christians as the favourites, and the Magians as the adversaries, of the Supreme Being; the influence of the clergy over a superstitious people was uniformly exerted in the cause of Rome; and, as long3 as the successors of Constantine disputed with those of Artaxerxes the sovereignty of the intermediate provinces3, the religious connection always threw a decisive advantage into the scale of the empire3. A numerous and active party acknowledged Para, the son3 of Tiranus, as the lawful sovereign of Armenia3; and his title to the throne3 was deeply rooted in the hereditary succession of five hundred years3. By the unanimous consent of the Iberians, the country was equally divided between the rival princes; and Aspacuras, who owed his diadem to the choice of Sapor3, was obliged to declare that his regard for his children, who were detained as hostages by the tyrant, was the only consideration which prevented him from openly renouncing the alliance3 of Persia3. The emperor3 Valens, who respected the obligations of the treaty3, and who was apprehensive of involving the East3 in a dangerous war3, ventured, with slow and cautious measures, to support the Roman3 party in the kingdoms of Iberia and Armenia3. Twelve legions established the authority of Sauromaces on the banks of the Cyrus. The Euphrates was protected by the valour3 of Arintheus. A powerful army3, under the command of Count Trajan, and of Vadomair, king3 of the Alemanni, fixed their camp3 on the confines of Armenia3. But they were strictly enjoined not to commit the first hostilities, which might be understood as a breach of the treaty3: and such was the implicit obedience of the Roman3 general3 that they retreated, with exemplary patience, under a shower of Persian3 arrows, till they had clearly acquired a just title to an honourable and legitimate victory3. Yet these appearances of war3 insensibly subsided in a vain and tedious negotiation. The contending parties supported their claims by mutual reproaches of perfidy and ambition; and it should seem that the original treaty3 was expressed in very obscure terms, since they were reduced to the necessity of making their inconclusive appeal to the partial testimony of the generals of the two nations who had assisted at the negotiations. The invasion of the Goths and Huns, which soon3 afterwards shook the foundations of the Roman3 empire3, exposed the provinces3 of Asia to the arms3 of Sapor3. But the declining age, and perhaps the infirmities, of the monarch3 suggested new maxims of tranquillity and moderation. His death3, which happened in the full maturity of a reign3 of seventy years3, changed in a moment the court3 and councils of Persia3; and their attention was most probably engaged by domestic troubles, and the distant efforts of a Carmanian war3. The remembrance of ancient injuries was lost in the enjoyment of peace3. The kingdoms of Armenia3 and Iberia were permitted, by the mutual, though tacit, consent of both empires, to resume their doubtful neutrality. In the first years3 of the reign3 of Theodosius, a Persian3 embassy arrived at Constantinople, to excuse the unjustifiable measures of the former reign3; and to offer, as the tribute of friendship3, or even of respect, a splendid present of gems, of silk, and of Indian elephants.
In the general47 picture of the affairs of the East47 under the reign47 of Valens, the adventures of Para form one of the most striking and singular objects. The noble youth, by the persuasion of his mother Olympias, had escaped through the Persian host that besieged Artogerassa, and implored the protection of the emperor47 of the East47. By his timid councils, Para was alternately supported, and recalled, and restored, and betrayed. The hopes of the Armenians were sometimes raised by the presence of their natural sovereign47; and the ministers of Valens were satisfied that they preserved the integrity of the public47 faith, if their vassal was not suffered to assume the diadem and title of King. But they soon47 repented of their own rashness. They were confounded by the reproaches and threats of the Persian monarch. They found reason to distrust the cruel and inconstant temper of Para himself, who sacrificed, to the slightest suspicions, the lives of his most faithful servants; and held a secret47 and disgraceful correspondence with the assassin of his father47 and the enemy of his country. Under the specious pretence of consulting with the emperor47 on the subject of their common interest, Para was persuaded to descend from the mountains of Armenia, where his party was in arms47, and to trust his independence and safety to the discretion of a perfidious court. The king of Armenia, for such he appeared in his own eyes and in those of his nation, was received with due honours by the governors of the provinces47 through which he passed; but, when he arrived at Tarsus in Cilicia, his progress was stopped under various pretences; his motions were watched with respectful vigilance; and he gradually discovered that he was a prisoner in the hands of the Romans. Para suppressed his indignation, dissembled his fears, and, after secretly preparing his escape, mounted on horseback with three hundred of his faithful followers. The officer stationed at the door of his apartment immediately communicated his flight to the consular of Cilicia, who overtook him in the suburbs, and endeavoured, without success, to dissuade him from prosecuting his rash and dangerous design. A legion was ordered to pursue the royal fugitive; but the pursuit of infantry could not be very alarming to a body of light cavalry; and upon the first cloud of arrows that was discharged into the air they retreated with precipitation to the gates of Tarsus. After an incessant march of two days and two nights, Para and his Armenians reached the banks of the Euphrates; but the passage of the river, which they were obliged to swim, was attended with some delay and some loss. The country was alarmed; and the two roads, which were only separated by an interval of three miles, had been occupied by a thousand archers on horseback, under the command47 of a count and a tribune. Para must have yielded to superior force, if the accidental arrival of a friendly traveller had not revealed the danger47, and the means of escape. A dark and almost impervious path securely conveyed the Armenian troop through the thicket; and Para had left behind him the count and the tribune, while they patiently expected his approach along the public47 highways. They returned to the Imperial47 court to excuse their want of diligence or success: and seriously alleged that the king of Armenia, who was a skilful magician, had transformed himself and his followers, and passed before their eyes under a borrowed shape. After his return to his native kingdom, Para still continued to profess himself the friend and ally of the Romans; but the Romans had injured him too deeply ever to forgive, and the secret47 sentence of his death47 was signed in the council of Valens. The execution of the bloody deed was committed to the subtle prudence of Count Trajan; and he had the merit47 of insinuating himself into the confidence of the credulous prince47, that he might find an opportunity of stabbing him to the heart. Para was invited to a Roman47 banquet, which had been prepared with all the pomp and sensuality of the East47: the hall resounded with cheerful music, and the company was already heated with wine; when the count retired for an instant, drew his sword, and gave the signal of the murder. A robust and desperate Barbarian instantly rushed on the king of Armenia; and, though he bravely defended his life47 with the first weapon that chance offered to his hand, the table of the Imperial47 general47 was stained with the royal blood of a guest, and an ally. Such were the weak and wicked maxims of the Roman47 administration, that, to attain a doubtful object of political interest, the laws of nations and the sacred rights of hospitality were inhumanly violated in the face of the world.
V. During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans5 secured their frontiers, and the Goths5 extended their dominions. The victories5 of the great5 Hermanric, king of the Ostrogoths, and the most noble of the race of the Amali, have been compared, by the enthusiasm of his countrymen, to the exploits of Alexander: with this singular, and almost incredible, difference, that the martial spirit of the Gothic5 hero, instead of being supported by the vigour of youth, was displayed with glory5 and success5 in the extreme period of human life; between the age of fourscore and one hundred and ten years. The independent tribes were persuaded, or compelled, to acknowledge the king of the Ostrogoths as the sovereign of the Gothic5 nation: the chiefs5 of the Visigoths, or Thervingi, renounced the royal title, and assumed the more humble appellation of Judges; and, among those judges, Athanaric, Fritigern, and Alavivus were the most illustrious, by their personal merit, as well as by their vicinity to the Roman5 provinces5. These domestic conquests, which increased the military5 power of Hermanric, enlarged his ambitious designs. He invaded the adjacent countries of the North; and twelve considerable5 nations, whose names and limits cannot be accurately defined, successively yielded to the superiority of the Gothic5 arms5. The Heruli, who inhabited the marshy lands near5 the lake Maeotis, were renowned for their strength5 and agility; and the assistance of their light infantry5 was eagerly solicited, and highly esteemed, in all the wars of the Barbarians5. But the active spirit of the Heruli was subdued by the slow and steady perseverance of the Goths5; and, after a bloody action, in which the king was slain, the remains of that warlike tribe became an useful accession to the camp5 of Hermanric. He then marched against the Venedi; unskilled in the use of arms5, and formidable only by their numbers5, which filled the wide extent of the plains of modern Poland. The victorious Goths5, who were not inferior in numbers5, prevailed in the contest, by the decisive5 advantages of exercise and discipline5. After the submission of the Venedi, the conqueror advanced, without resistance, as far5 as the confines of the Aestii; an ancient people, whose name is still preserved in the province of Esthonia. Those distant inhabitants of the Baltic coast were supported by the labours5 of agriculture, enriched by the trade of amber, and consecrated by the peculiar worship of the Mother of the Gods. But the scarcity of iron obliged the Aestian warriors to content themselves with wooden clubs; and the reduction of that wealthy country5 is ascribed to the prudence, rather than to the arms5, of Hermanric. His dominions, which extended from the Danube5 to the Baltic, included the native seats, and the recent acquisitions, of the Goths5; and he reigned over the greatest part of Germany5 and Scythia with the authority of a conqueror, and sometimes with the cruelty of a tyrant. But he reigned over a part of the globe incapable of perpetuating and adorning the glory5 of its heroes. The name of Hermanric is almost buried in oblivion; his exploits are imperfectly known; and the Romans5 themselves appeared unconscious of the progress of an aspiring power, which threatened the liberty of the North and the peace of the empire5.
The Goths had contracted an hereditary attachment for the Imperial house of Constantine, of whose power and liberality they had received so many signal proofs. They respected the public peace3; and, if an hostile band sometimes presumed to pass the Roman3 limit, their irregular conduct was candidly ascribed to the ungovernable spirit of the Barbarian3 youth. Their contempt for two new and obscure princes, who had been raised to the throne3 by a popular election, inspired the Goths with bolder hopes; and, while they agitated some design of marching their confederate force under the national standard, they were easily tempted to embrace the party of Procopius, and to foment, by their dangerous aid, the civil discord of the Romans3. The public treaty3 might stipulate no more than ten thousand3 auxiliaries; but the design was so zealously adopted by the chiefs of the Visigoths that the army3 which passed the Danube amounted to the number of thirty thousand3 men. They marched with the proud confidence that their invincible valour3 would decide the fate of the Roman3 empire3; and the provinces3 of Thrace groaned under the weight of the Barbarians3, who displayed the insolence of masters and the licentiousness of enemies. But the intemperance which gratified their appetites retarded their progress; and, before the Goths could receive any certain intelligence of the defeat and death3 of Procopius, they perceived, by the hostile state of the country, that the civil and military3 powers were resumed by his successful rival. A chain of posts and fortifications, skilfully disposed by Valens, or the generals of Valens, resisted their march, prevented their retreat, and intercepted their subsistence. The fierceness of the Barbarians3 was tamed and suspended by hunger; they indignantly threw down their arms3 at the feet of the conqueror, who offered them food and chains; the numerous captives were distributed in all the cities of the East3; and the provincials, who were soon3 familiarised with their savage appearance, ventured, by degrees, to measure their own strength with these formidable adversaries, whose name had so long3 been the object of their terror. The king3 of Scythia (and Hermanric alone could deserve so lofty a title) was grieved and exasperated by this national calamity. His ambassadors loudly complained, at the court3 of Valens, of the infraction of the ancient and solemn alliance3 which had so long3 subsisted between the Romans3 and the Goths. They alleged that they had fulfilled the duty of allies by assisting the kinsman and successor of the emperor3 Julian3; they required the immediate restitution of the noble captives; and they urged a very singular claim, that the Gothic generals, marching in arms3 and in hostile array, were entitled to the sacred character and privileges of ambassadors. The decent but peremptory refusal of these extravagant demands was signified to the Barbarians3 by Victor, master-general3 of the cavalry; who expressed, with force and dignity, the just complaints of the emperor3 of the East3. The negotiation was interrupted; and the manly exhortations of Valentinan encouraged his timid brother to vindicate the insulted majesty of the empire3.
The splendour and magnitude of this Gothic war47 are celebrated by a contemporary historian; but the events scarcely deserve the attention of posterity, except as the preliminary steps of the approaching decline and fall of the empire47. Instead of leading the nations of Germany and Scythia to the banks of the Danube, or even to the gates of Constantinople, the aged monarch of the Goths resigned to the brave Athanaric the danger47 and glory of a defensive war47, against an enemy who wielded with a feeble hand the powers of a mighty state. A bridge of boats was established upon the Danube; the presence of Valens animated his troops47; and his ignorance of the art of war47 was compensated by personal bravery and a wise deference to the advice of Victor and Arintheus, his masters-general47 of the cavalry and infantry. The operations of the campaign were conducted by their skill and experience; but they found it impossible to drive the Visigoths from their strong posts in the mountains: and the devastation of the plains obliged the Romans themselves to repass the Danube on the approach of winter. The incessant rains, which swelled the waters of the river, produced a tacit suspension of arms47, and confined the emperor47 Valens, during the whole course of the ensuing summer, to his camp of Marcianopolis. The third year of the war47 was more favourable to the Romans and more pernicious to the Goths. The interruption of trade deprived the Barbarians of the objects of luxury which they already confounded with the necessaries of life47; and the desolation of a very extensive tract of country threatened them with the horrors of famine. Athanaric was provoked, or compelled, to risk a battle, which he lost, in the plains; and the pursuit was rendered more bloody by the cruel precaution of the victorious generals, who had promised a large reward for the head of every Goth that was brought into the Imperial47 camp. The submission of the Barbarians appeased the resentment of Valens and his council; the emperor47 listened with satisfaction to the flattering and eloquent remonstrance of the senate47 of Constantinople, which assumed, for the first time, a share in the public47 deliberations; and the same generals, Victor and Arintheus, who had successfully directed the conduct47 of the war47, were empowered to regulate the conditions of peace. The freedom of trade, which the Goths had hitherto enjoyed, was restricted to two cities on the Danube; the rashness of their leaders was severely punished by the suppression of their pensions and subsidies; and the exception, which was stipulated in favour of Athanaric alone, was more advantageous than honourable to the Judge of the Visigoths. Athanaric, who, on this occasion, appears to have consulted his private47 interest, without expecting the orders of his sovereign47, supported his own dignity, and that of his tribe, in the personal interview which was proposed by the ministers of Valens. He persisted in his declaration that it was impossible for him, without incurring the guilt of perjury, ever to set his foot on the territory of the empire47; and it is more than probable that his regard for the sanctity of an oath was confirmed by the recent and fatal examples of Roman47 treachery. The Danube, which separated the dominions of the two independent nations, was chosen for the scene of the conference. The emperor47 of the East47 and the Judge of the Visigoths, accompanied by an equal number of armed followers, advanced in their respective barges to the middle of the stream. After the ratification of the treaty, and the delivery of hostages, Valens returned in triumph to Constantinople; and the Goths remained in a state of tranquillity about six years; till they were violently impelled against the Roman47 empire47 by an innumerable host of Scythians, who appeared to issue from the frozen regions of the North.
The emperor47 of the West, who had resigned to his brother the command47 of the Lower Danube, reserved for his immediate care the defence of the Rhaetian and Illyrian provinces47, which spread so many hundred miles along the greatest of the European rivers. The active policy of Valentinian was continually employed in adding new fortifications to the security of the frontier; but the abuse of this policy provoked the just resentment of the Barbarians. The Quadi complained that the ground for an intended fortress had been marked out on their territories; and their complaints were urged with so much reason and moderation that Equitius, master47-general47 of Illyricum, consented to suspend the prosecution of the work, till he should be more clearly informed of the will of his sovereign47. This fair occasion of injuring a rival, and of advancing the fortune of his son47, was eagerly embraced by the inhuman Maximin, the prefect47, or rather tyrant47, of Gaul. The passions of Valentinian were impatient of control; and he credulously listened to the assurances of his favourite that, if the government47 of Valeria, and the direction of the work, were entrusted to the zeal of his son47 Marcellinus, the emperor47 should no longer be importuned with the audacious remonstrances of the Barbarians. The subjects of Rome47, and the natives of Germany, were insulted by the arrogance of a young and worthless minister, who considered his rapid elevation as the proof and reward of his superior merit47. He affected, however, to receive the modest application of Gabinius, king of the Quadi, with some attention and regard; but this artful civility concealed a dark and bloody design, and the credulous prince47 was persuaded to accept the pressing invitation of Marcellinus. I am at a loss how to vary the narrative of similar crimes; or how to relate that, in the course of the same year, but in remote parts of the empire47, the inhospitable table of two Imperial47 generals was stained with the royal blood of two guests and allies, inhumanly murdered by their order and in their presence. The fate of Gabinius and of Para was the same: but the cruel death47 of their sovereign47 was resented in a very different manner by the servile temper of the Armenians and the free and daring spirit47 of the Germans. The Quadi were much declined from that formidable power47 which, in the time of Marcus Antoninus, had spread terror to the gates of Rome47. But they still possessed arms47 and courage; their courage was animated by despair, and they obtained the usual reinforcement of the cavalry of their Sarmatian allies. So improvident was the assassin Marcellinus that he chose the moment when the bravest veterans had been drawn away to suppress the revolt of Firmus; and the whole province was exposed, with a very feeble defence, to the rage of the exasperated Barbarians. They invaded Pannonia in the season of harvest; unmercifully destroyed every object of plunder which they could not easily transport; and either disregarded or demolished the empty fortifications. The princess Constantia, the daughter of the emperor47 Constantius and the grand-daughter of the great Constantine47, very narrowly escaped. That royal maid, who had innocently supported the revolt of Procopius, was now the destined wife of the heir of the Western empire47. She traversed the peaceful province with a splendid and unarmed train. Her person47 was saved from danger47, and the republic from disgrace, by the active zeal of Messalla, governor of the provinces47. As soon47 as he was informed that the village, where she stopped only to dine, was almost encompassed by the Barbarians, he hastily placed her in his own chariot, and drove full speed till he reached the gates of Sirmium, which were at the disstance of six and twenty miles. Even Sirmium might not have been secure, if the Quadi and Sarmatians had diligently advanced during the general47 consternation of the magistrates and people47. Their delay allowed Probus, the Praetorian prefect47, sufficient time to recover his own spirits and to revive the courage of the citizens. He skilfully directed their strenuous efforts to repair and strengthen the decayed fortifications; and procured the seasonable and effectual assistance of a company of archers, to protect the capital of the Illyrian provinces47. Disappointed in their attempts against the walls of Sirmium, the indignant Barbarians turned their arms47 against the master47-general47 of the frontier, to whom they unjustly attributed the murder of their king. Equitius could bring into the field no more than two legions; but they contained the veteran strength of the Maesian and Pannonian bands. The obstinacy with which they disputed the vain honours of rank47 and precedency was the cause of their destruction; and, while they acted with separate forces and divided councils, they were surprised and slaughtered by the active vigour of the Sarmatian horse. The success of this invasion provoked the emulation of the bordering tribes; and the province of Maesia would infallibly have been lost, if young Theodosius47, the duke, or military47 commander, of the frontier, had not signalised, in the defeat of the public47 enemy, an intrepid genius, worthy of his illustrious father47, and of his future greatness.
The mind of Valentinian, who then resided at Treves, was deeply affected by the calamities of Illyricum; but the lateness of the season suspended the execution of his designs till the ensuing spring. He marched in person47, with a considerable part of the forces of Gaul, from the banks of the Moselle: and to the suppliant ambassadors of the Sarmatians, who met him on the way, he returned a doubtful answer that, as soon47 as he reached the scene of action, he should examine and pronounce. When he arrived at Sirmium, he gave audience to the deputies of the Illyrian provinces47; who loudly congratulated their own felicity under the auspicious government47 of Probus, his Praetorian prefect47. Valentinian, who was flattered by these demonstrations of their loyalty and gratitude, imprudently asked the deputy of Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepid sincerity, whether he was freely sent by the wishes of the province? With tears and groans am I sent (replied Iphicles) by a reluctant people47. The emperor47 paused: but the impunity of his ministers established the pernicious maxim that they might oppress his subjects without injuring his service. A strict inquiry into their conduct47 would have relieved the public47 discontent. The severe condemnation of the murder of Gabinius was the only measure which could restore the confidence of the Germans and vindicate the honour of the Roman47 name. But the haughty monarch was incapable of the magnanimity which dares to acknowledge a fault. He forgot the provocation, remembered only the injury, and advanced into the country of the Quadi with an insatiate thirst of blood and revenge. The extreme devastation and promiscuous massacre of a savage war47 were justified, in the eyes of the emperor47, and perhaps in those of the world, by the cruel equity of retaliation; and such was the discipline of the Romans, and the consternation of the enemy, that Valentinian repassed the Danube without the loss of a single man. As he had resolved to complete the destruction of the Quadi by a second campaign, he fixed his winter quarters at Bregetio, on the Danube, near the Hungarian city47 of Presburg. While the operations of war47 were suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi made an humble attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror; and, at the earnest persuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors were introduced into the Imperial47 council. They approached the throne47 with bended bodies and dejected countenances; and, without daring to complain of the murder of their king, they affirmed, with solemn oaths, that the late invasion was the crime of some irregular robbers, which the public47 council of the nation condemned and abhorred. The answer of the emperor47 left them but little to hope from his clemency or compassion. He reviled, in the most intemperate language, their baseness, their ingratitude, their insolence. — His eyes, his voice, his colour, his gestures, expressed the violence of his ungoverned fury; and, while his whole frame was agitated with convulsive passion, a large blood-vessel suddenly burst in his body; and Valentinian fell speechless into the arms47 of his attendants. Their pious care immediately concealed his situation from the crowd; but, in a few minutes, the emperor47 of the West expired in an agony of pain, retaining his senses till the last, and struggling, without success, to declare his intentions to the generals and ministers who surrounded the royal couch. Valentinian was about fifty-four years of age47; and he wanted only one hundred days to accomplish the twelve years of his reign47.
The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an ecclesiastical historian. The empress Severa (I relate the fable) admitted into her familiar society the lovely Justina, the daughter of an Italian governor; her admiration of those naked charms which she had often seen in the bath was expressed with such lavish and imprudent praise that the emperor47 was tempted to introduce a second wife into his bed; and his public47 edict extended to all the subjects of the empire47 the same domestic privilege which he had assumed for himself. But we may be assured, from the evidence of reason as well as history, that the two marriages of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were successively contracted; and that he used the ancient permission of divorce, which was still allowed by the laws, though it was condemned by the church. Severa was the mother of Gratian, who seemed to unite every claim which could entitle him to the undoubted succession of the Western empire47. He was the eldest son47 of a monarch, whose glorious reign47 had confirmed the free and honourable choice of his fellow-soldiers47. Before he had attained the ninth year of his age47, the royal youth received from the hands of his indulgent father47 the purple robe and diadem, with the title of Augustus: the election was solemnly ratified by the consent and applause of the armies of Gaul; and the name of Gratian was added to the names of Valentinian and Valens, in all the legal transactions of the Roman47 government47. By his marriage with the grand-daughter of Constantine47, the son47 of Valentinian acquired all the hereditary rights of the Flavian family; which, in a series of three Imperial47 generations, were sanctified by time, religion, and the reverence of the people47. At the death47 of his father47, the royal youth was in the seventeenth year of his age47; and his virtues already justified the favourable opinion of the army47 and people47. But Gratian resided, without apprehension, in the palace47 of Treves; whilst, at the distance of many hundred miles, Valentinian suddenly expired in the camp of Bregetio. The passions, which had been so long47 suppressed by the presence of a master47, immediately revived in the Imperial47 council; and the ambitious design of reigning in the name of an infant was artfully executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius, who commanded the attachment of the Illyrian and Italian bands. They contrived the most honourable pretences to remove the popular leaders and the troops47 of Gaul, who might have asserted the claims of the lawful successor; they suggested the necessity of extinguishing the hopes of foreign and domestic enemies by a bold and decisive measure. The empress Justina, who had been left in a palace47 about one hundred miles from Bregetio, was respectfully invited to appear in the camp, with the son47 of the deceased emperor47. On the sixth day after the death47 of Valentinian, the infant prince47 of the same name, who was only four years old, was shewn in the arms47 of his mother to the legions; and solemnly invested by military47 acclamation with the titles and ensigns of supreme power47. The impending dangers of a civil47 war47 were seasonably prevented by the wise and moderate conduct47 of the emperor47 Gratian. He cheerfully accepted the choice of the army47; declared that he should always consider the son47 of Justina as a brother, not as a rival; and advised the empress, with her son47 Valentinian, to fix their residence at Milan, in the fair and peaceful province of Italy47; while he assumed the more arduous command47 of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian dissembled his resentment till he could safely punish, or disgrace, the authors of the conspiracy; and, though he uniformly behaved with tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he gradually confounded, in the administration of the Western empire47, the office of a guardian with the authority47 of a sovereign47. The government47 of the Roman47 world was exercised in the united names of Valens and his two nephews; but the feeble emperor47 of the East47, who succeeded to the rank47 of his elder brother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils of the West.
In the second year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens, on the morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the Roman9 world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. The impression was communicated to the waters; the shores of the Mediterranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea9; great9 quantities of fish were caught with the hand; large vessels9 were stranded on the mud; and a curious spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appearance of valleys and mountains9, which had never, since the formation of the globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon9 returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was severely felt on the coast9 of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece, and of Egypt; large boats were transported, and lodged on the roofs of houses, or at the distance of two miles9 from the shore; the people, with their habitations, were swept away by the waters; and the city9 of Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal day on which fifty thousand9 persons had lost their lives in the inundation. This calamity, the report of which was magnified from one province9 to another, astonished and terrified the subjects of Rome9; and their affrighted imagination enlarged the real extent of a momentary evil. They recollected the preceding earthquakes, which had subverted the cities9 of Palestine and Bithynia; they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to confound the symptoms of a declining empire9 and a sinking world. It was the fashion of the times to attribute every remarkable event to the particular will of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected, by an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of the human mind; and the most sagacious divines could distinguish, according to the colour of their respective prejudices, that the establishment of heresy tended to produce an earthquake, or that a deluge was the inevitable consequence of the progress of sin and error. Without presuming to discuss the truth or propriety of these lofty speculations, the historian may content himself with an observation, which seems to be justified by experience, that man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures than from the convulsions of the elements. The mischievous effects of an earthquake or deluge, a hurricane, or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very inconsiderable proportion to the ordinary calamities of war9, as they are now moderated by the prudence or humanity of the princes of Europe9, who amuse their own leisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in the practice of the military art. But the laws and manners of modern nations9 protect the safety and freedom of the vanquished soldier; and the peaceful citizen has seldom reason to complain that his life, or even his fortune, is exposed to the rage of war9. In the disastrous period of the fall of the Roman9 empire9, which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the happiness and security of each individual were personally attacked; and the arts and labours of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbarians9 of Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns9 precipitated on the provinces9 of the West9 the Gothic nation9, which advanced, in less than forty years, from the Danube9 to the Atlantic, and opened a way, by the success of their arms9, to the inroads of so many hostile tribes9, more savage than themselves. The original principle of motion was concealed in the remote countries of the North9; and the curious observation of the pastoral life of the Scythians, or Tartars, will illustrate the latent cause of these destructive emigrations.
The different characters that mark the civilised nations11 of the globe may be ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of reason; which so variously shapes, and so artificially composes, the manners11 and opinions of an European or a Chinese. But the operation of instinct is more sure and simple than that of reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetites of a quadruped than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savage tribes11 of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of animals, preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to each other. The uniform stability of their manners11 is the natural consequence of the imperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a similar situation, their wants, their desires, their enjoyments, still continue the same; and the influence11 of food or climate, which, in a more improved state11 of society, is suspended or subdued by so many moral causes, most powerfully contributes to form11 and to maintain the national character of Barbarians11. In every age11, the immense plains of Scythia or Tartary have been inhabited by vagrant tribes11 of hunters and shepherds, whose indolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless spirit disdains the confinement of a sedentary life11. In every age11, the Scythians and Tartars11 have been renowned for their invincible courage11 and rapid conquests. The thrones of Asia11 have been repeatedly overturned by the shepherds of the North; and their arms11 have spread terror and devastation over the most fertile and warlike countries of Europe11. On this occasion, as well as on many others, the sober historian is forcibly awakened from a pleasing vision; and is compelled, with some reluctance, to confess that the pastoral manners11 which have been adorned with the fairest attributes of peace11 and innocence are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military11 life11. To illustrate this observation, I shall11 now proceed to consider a nation11 of shepherds and of warriors, in the three important articles of, I. Their diet; II. Their habitations; and, III. Their exercises. The narratives of antiquity are justified by the experience of modern11 times; and the banks of the Borysthenes, of the Volga, or of the Selinga will indifferently present11 the same uniform spectacle of similar and native manners11.
I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and wholesome food of a civilised people, can be obtained only by the patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages who dwell between the tropics are plentifully nourished by the liberality of nature8; but in the climates of the North a nation of shepherds is reduced to their flocks and herds. The skilful practitioners of the medical art will determine (if they are able to determine) how far the temper of the human8 mind8 may be affected by the use8 of animal or of vegetable food; and whether the common association of carnivorous and cruel deserves to be considered in any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a salutary, prejudice of humanity. Yet, if it be true that the sentiment of compassion is imperceptibly weakened by the sight and practice8 of domestic cruelty, we may observe that the horrid objects which are disguised by the arts of European refinement are exhibited, in their naked and most disgusting simplicity, in the tent of a Tartarian shepherd. The ox or the sheep are slaughtered by the same hand from which they were accustomed to receive their daily food; and the bleeding limbs are served, with very little preparation, on the table of their unfeeling murderer. In the military profession, and especially in the conduct of a numerous army, the exclusive use8 of animal food appears to be productive of the most solid advantages. Corn is a bulky and perishable commodity; and the large magazines, which are indispensably necessary for the subsistence of our troops, must be slowly transported by the labour of men or horses. But the flocks and herds, which accompany the march of the Tartars, afford a sure and increasing supply of flesh and milk; in the far greater part of the uncultivated waste, the vegetation of the grass is quick and luxuriant; and there are few places so extremely barren that the hardy cattle of the North cannot find some tolerable pasture. The supply is multiplied and prolonged by the undistinguishing appetite and patient abstinence of the Tartars. They indifferently feed on the flesh of those animals that have been killed for the table or have died of disease. Horse-flesh, which in every age8 and country has been proscribed by the civilised nations of Europe and Asia, they devour with peculiar greediness; and this singular taste facilitates the success of their military operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble the speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the Barbarians. Many are the resources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a camp of Tartars is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest part of their cattle, and preserve the flesh either smoked or dried in the sun. On the sudden emergency of a hasty march, they provide themselves with a sufficient quantity of little balls of cheese, or rather of hard curd, which they occasionally dissolve in water; and this unsubstantial diet will support, for many days, the life8, and even the spirits, of the patient warrior. But this extraordinary abstinence, which the Stoic would approve and the hermit might envy, is commonly succeeded by the most voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate are the most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity, that can be offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their industry seems to consist in the art of extracting from mares' milk a fermented liquor, which possesses a very strong power of intoxication. Like the animals of prey, the savages, both of the old and new world8, experience the alternate vicissitudes of famine and plenty; and their stomach is enured to sustain, without much inconvenience, the opposite extremes of hunger and of intemperance.
II. In the ages of rustic and martial simplicity, a people of soldiers and husbandmen are dispersed over the face of an extensive and cultivated country9, and some time must elapse before the warlike youth of Greece or Italy9 could be assembled under the same standard, either to defend their own confines or to invade the territories of the adjacent tribes9. The progress of manufactures and commerce insensibly collects a large multitude within the walls9 of a city9; but these citizens are no longer soldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the state of civil society corrupt the habits of a military life. The pastoral manners of the Scythians seem to unite the different advantages of simplicity and refinement. The individuals of the same tribe are constantly assembled, but they are assembled in a camp9; and the native spirit of these dauntless shepherds is animated by mutual support and emulation. The houses of the Tartars are no more than small tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold and dirty habitation for the promiscuous youth of both sexes. The palaces of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a size that they may be conveniently fixed on large waggons and drawn by a team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds, after grazing all day in the adjacent pastures, retire, on the approach of night, within the protection of the camp9. The necessity of preventing the most mischievous confusion, in such a perpetual concourse of men9 and animals, must gradually introduce, in the distribution, the order, and the guard of the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As soon9 as the forage of a certain district is consumed, the tribe, or rather army9, of shepherds makes a regular march to some fresh pastures; and thus acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the pastoral life, the practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult operations of war9. The choice of stations is regulated by the difference of the seasons: in the summer, the Tartars advance towards the North9, and pitch their tents on the banks9 of a river9, or, at least, in the neighbourhood of a running stream. But in the winter they return to the South, and shelter their camp9 behind some convenient eminence, against the winds which are chilled in their passage over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. These manners are admirably adapted to diffuse, among the wandering tribes9, the spirit of emigration and conquest9. The connection between the people and their territory is of so frail a texture that it may be broken by the slightest accident. The camp9, and not the soil, is the native country9 of the genuine Tartar. Within the precincts of that camp9, his family, his companions, his property, are always included; and in the most distant marches he is still surrounded by the objects which are dear, or valuable, or familiar in his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear or the resentment of injury, the impatience of servitude, have, in every age, been sufficient causes to urge the tribes9 of Scythia boldly to advance into some unknown countries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful subsistence or a less formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North9 have frequently determined the fate of the South; and, in the conflict of hostile nations9, the victor and the vanquished have alternately drove and been driven, from the confines of China to those of Germany. These great9 emigrations, which have been sometimes executed with almost incredible diligence, were rendered more easy by the peculiar nature of the climate. It is well known that the cold of Tartary is much more severe than in the midst of the temperate zone might reasonably be expected: this uncommon rigour is attributed to the height of the plains, which rise, especially towards the East, more than half a mile above the level of the sea9; and to the quantity of saltpetre with which the soil is deeply impregnated. In the winter-season, the broad and rapid rivers, that discharge their waters into the Euxine, the Caspian, or the Icy Sea9, are strongly frozen; the fields are covered with a bed of snow; and the fugitive or victorious tribes9 may securely traverse, with their families, their waggons, and their cattle, the smooth and hard surface of an immense plain.
III. The pastoral life48, compared with the labours of agriculture and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life48 of idleness; and, as the most honourable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives the domestic48 management of the cattle, their own leisure is seldom disturbed by any servile and assiduous cares. But this leisure, instead of being devoted to the soft enjoyments of love and harmony, is usefully spent in the violent and sanguinary exercise of the chase. The plains of Tartary are filled with a strong and serviceable breed of horses48, which are easily trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constant practice had seated them so firmly on horseback that they were supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life48, to eat, to drink, and even to sleep, without dismounting from their steeds. They excel in the dexterous management of the lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim and irresistible force. These arrows are often pointed against the harmless animals of the desert, which increase and multiply in the absence of their most formidable enemy: the hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and the antelope. The vigour and patience both of the men and horses48 are continually exercised by the fatigues of the chase; and the plentiful supply of game contributes to the subsistence, and even luxury48, of a Tartar camp48. But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not confined to the destruction of timid or innoxious beasts; they boldly encounter the angry wild boar, when he turns against his pursuers, excite the sluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tiger, as he slumbers in the thicket. Where there is danger48, there may be glory; and the mode of hunting which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valour may justly be considered as the image and as the school of war. The general48 hunting-matches, the pride48 and delight of the Tartar princes, compose an instructive exercise for their numerous cavalry. A circle is drawn, of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of an extensive district; and the troops48 that form the circle regularly advance towards a common centre; where the captive animals, surrounded on every side, are abandoned to the darts of the hunters. In this march, which frequently continues many days48, the cavalry are obliged to climb the hills, to swim the rivers, and to wind through the valleys, without interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progress. They acquire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a remote object; of preserving their intervals; of suspending, or accelerating, their pace, according to the motions of the troops48 on their right and left; and of watching and repeating the signals of their leaders. Their leaders study, in this practical school, the most important lesson of the military48 art: the prompt and accurate judgment of ground48, of distance, and of time. To employ against a human enemy the same patience and valour, the same skill and discipline, is the only alteration which is required in real war; and the amusements of the chase serve as a prelude to the conquest of an empire.
The political society8 of the ancient8 Germans has the appearance of a voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of Scythia, distinguished by the modern appellation of Hords, assume the form of a numerous and increasing family; which, in the course of successive generations, has been propagated from the same original stock. The meanest and most ignorant of the Tartars preserve, with conscious pride, the inestimable treasure of their genealogy; and, whatever distinctions of rank may have been introduced by the unequal distribution of pastoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, and each other, as the descendants of the first founder of the tribe. The custom, which still prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithful of the captives may countenance the very probable suspicion that this extensive consanguinity is, in a great measure, legal and fictitious. But the useful prejudice, which has obtained the sanction of time8 and opinion, produces the effects of truth8; the haughty Barbarians yield a cheerful and voluntary obedience to the head of their blood; and their chief or mursa, as the representative of their great father, exercises the authority of a judge, in peace, and of a leader, in war. In the original state of the pastoral world8, each of the mursas (if we may continue to use8 a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief of a large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiar territories were gradually fixed by superior force or mutual consent. But the constant operation of various8 and permanent causes contributed to unite the vagrant Hords into national communities, under the command of a supreme head. The weak were desirous of support, and the strong were ambitious of dominion; the power, which is the result of union, oppressed and collected the divided forces of the adjacent tribes; and, as the vanquished were freely admitted to share the advantages of victory, the most valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and their followers under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The most successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to which he was entitled by the superiority either of merit or of power. He was raised to the throne by the acclamations of his equals; and the title of Khan expresses, in the language of the North of Asia, the full extent of the regal dignity. The right of hereditary succession was long confined to the blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this moment all the Khans, who reign8 from Crimea to the wall of China, are the lineal descendants of the renowned Zingis. But, as it is the indispensable duty of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike subjects8 into the field, the claims of an infant are often disregarded; and some royal kinsman, distinguished by his age8 and valour, is entrusted with the sword and sceptre of his predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are levied on the tribes, to support the dignity of their national monarch and of their peculiar chiefs; and each of those contributions amounts to the tythe both of their property and of their spoil. A Tartar sovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his people; and, as his own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much larger proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic splendour of his court, to reward the most deserving, or the most favoured, of his followers, and to obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption, the obedience which might be sometimes refused to the stern mandates of authority. The manners of his subjects8, accustomed, like himself, to blood and rapine, might excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts of tyranny as would excite the horror of a civilised people; but the power of a despot has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. The immediate jurisdiction of the Khan is confined within the limits of his own tribe; and the exercise of his royal prerogative has been moderated by the ancient8 institution of a national council. The Coroultai, or Diet, of the Tartars was regularly held in the spring and autumn, in the midst of a plain; where the princes of the reigning family and the mursas of the respective tribes may conveniently assemble on horseback, with their martial and numerous trains; and the ambitious monarch, who reviewed the strength, must consult the inclination, of an armed people. The rudiments of a feudal government may be discovered in the constitution of the Scythian or Tartar nations; but the perpetual conflict of these hostile nations has sometimes terminated in the establishment of a powerful and despotic empire8. The victor, enriched by the tribute, and fortified by the arms, of dependent kings, has spread his conquests over Europe or Asia; the successful shepherds of the North have submitted to the confinement of arts, of laws8, and of cities; and the introduction of luxury, after destroying the freedom of the people, has undermined the foundations of the throne.
The memory of past events cannot long9 be preserved, in the frequent and remote emigrations of illiterate Barbarians9. The modern Tartars are ignorant of the conquests of their ancestors; and our knowledge of the history of the Scythians is derived from their intercourse with the learned and civilised nations9 of the South, the Greeks, the Persians, and the Chinese. The Greeks, who navigated the Euxine, and planted their colonies along the sea9-coast9, made the gradual and imperfect discovery of Scythia; from the Danube9, and the confines of Thrace, as far9 as the frozen Maeotis, the seat of eternal winter, and Mount Caucasus, which, in the language of poetry, was described as the utmost boundary of the earth. They celebrated, with simple credulity, the virtues of the pastoral life. They entertained a more rational apprehension of the strength and numbers of the warlike Barbarians9, who contemptuously baffled the immense armament of Darius, the son of Hystaspes. The Persian monarchs had extended their western conquests to the banks9 of the Danube9 and the limits of European Scythia. The eastern provinces9 of their empire9 were exposed to the Scythians of Asia9: the wild inhabitants9 of the plains beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes, two mighty rivers, which direct their course towards the Caspian Sea9. The long9 and memorable quarrel of Iran and Touran is still the theme of history or romance; the famous, perhaps the fabulous, valour9 of the Persian heroes, Rustan and Asfendiar, was signalised in the defence of their country9 against the Afrasiabs of the North9; and the invincible spirit of the same Barbarians9 resisted, on the same ground, the victorious arms9 of Cyrus and Alexander. In the eyes of the Greeks and Persians, the real geography of Scythia was bounded, on the East, by the mountains9 of Imaus, or Caf; and their distant prospect of the extreme and inaccessible parts of Asia9 was clouded by ignorance or perplexed by fiction. But those inaccessible regions are the ancient9 residence of a powerful and civilised nation9, which ascends, by a probable tradition, above forty centuries; and which is able to verify a series of near two thousand9 years, by the perpetual testimony of accurate and contemporary historians. The annals of China illustrate the state and revolutions of the pastoral tribes9, which may still be distinguished by the vague appellation of Scythians, or Tartars; the vassals, the enemies, and sometimes the conquerors, of a great9 empire9; whose policy has uniformly opposed the blind and impetuous valour9 of the Barbarians9 of the North9. From the mouth of the Danube9 to the sea9 of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundred and ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are equal to more than five thousand9 miles9. The latitude of these extensive deserts cannot be so easily or so accurately measured; but from the fortieth degree, which touches the wall of China, we may securely advance above a thousand9 miles9 to the northward, till our progress is stopped by the excessive cold of Siberia. In that dreary climate, instead of the animated picture of a Tartar camp9, the smoke which issues from the earth, or rather from the snow, betrays the subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses and the Samoiedes: the want of horses and oxen is imperfectly supplied by the use of reindeer and of large dogs; and the conquerors of the earth insensibly degenerate into a race of deformed and diminutive savages, who tremble at the sound of arms9.
The Huns9, who under the reign of Valens threatened the empire9 of Rome9, had been formidable, in a much earlier period, to the empire9 of China. Their ancient9, perhaps their original, seat was an extensive, though dry and barren, tract of country9, immediately on the north9 side of the great9 wall. Their place is at present occupied by the forty-nine Hords or Banners of the Mongous, a pastoral nation9, which consists of about two hundred thousand9 families. But the valour9 of the Huns9 had extended the narrow limits of their dominions; and their rustic chiefs, who assumed the appellation of Tanjou, gradually became the conquerors, and the sovereigns, of a formidable empire9. Towards the east, their victorious arms9 were stopped only by the ocean9; and the tribes9, which are thinly scattered between the Amoor and the extreme peninsula of Corea, adhered with reluctance to the standard of the Huns9. On the west9, near the head of the Irtish and in the valleys of Imaus, they found a more ample space, and more numerous enemies. One of the lieutenants of the Tanjou subdued in a single expedition twenty-six nations9; the Igours, distinguished above the Tartar race by the use of letters, were in the number of his vassals; and by the strange connection of human events, the flight of one of those vagrant tribes9 recalled the victorious Parthians from the invasion of Syria. On the side of the north9, the ocean9 was assigned as the limit of the power of the Huns9. Without enemies to resist their progress or witnesses to contradict their vanity, they might securely achieve a real, or imaginary, conquest9 of the frozen regions of Siberia. The Northern Sea9 was fixed as the remote boundary of their empire9. But the name of that sea9, on whose shores the patriot Sovou embraced the life of a shepherd and an exile, may be transferred, with much more probability, to the Baikal, a capacious basin, above three hundred miles9 in length, which disdains the modest appellation of a lake, and which actually communicates with the seas of the North9, by the long9 course of the Angara, the Tonguska, and the Jenissea. The submission of so many distant nations9 might flatter the pride of the Tanjou; but the valour9 of the Huns9 could be rewarded only by the enjoyment of the wealth and luxury of the empire9 of the South. In the third century before the Christian era, a wall of fifteen hundred miles9 in length was constructed, to defend the frontiers of China against the inroads of the Huns9; but this stupendous work, which holds a conspicuous place in the map of the world, has never contributed to the safety of an unwarlike people. The cavalry of the Tanjou frequently consisted of two or three hundred thousand9 men9, formidable by the matchless dexterity with which they managed their bows and their horses; by their hardy patience in supporting the inclemency of the weather; and by the incredible speed of their march, which was seldom checked by torrents or precipices, by the deepest rivers or by the most lofty mountains9. They spread themselves at once over the face of the country9; and their rapid impetuosity surprised, astonished, and disconcerted the grave and elaborate tactics of a Chinese army9. The emperor Kaoti, a soldier of fortune, whose personal merit had raised him to the throne, marched against the Huns9 with those veteran troops9 which had been trained in the civil wars of China. But he was soon9 surrounded by the Barbarians9; and after a siege of seven days, the monarch, hopeless of relief, was reduced to purchase his deliverance by an ignominious capitulation. The successors of Kaoti, whose lives were dedicated to the arts of peace or the luxury of the palace, submitted to a more permanent disgrace. They too hastily confessed the insufficiency of arms9 and fortifications. They were too easily convinced that, while the blazing signals announced on every side the approach of the Huns9, the Chinese troops9, who slept with the helmet on their head and the cuirass on their back, were destroyed by the incessant labour of ineffectual marches. A regular payment of money and silk was stipulated as the condition of a temporary and precarious peace; and the wretched expedient of disguising a real tribute under the names of a gift or a subsidy was practised by the emperors of China, as well as by those of Rome9. But there still remained a more disgraceful article of tribute, which violated the sacred feelings of humanity and nature. The hardships of the savage life, which destroy in their infancy the children who are born with a less healthy and robust constitution, introduce a remarkable disproportion between the numbers of the two sexes. The Tartars are an ugly, and even deformed race; and, while they consider their own women as the instruments of domestic labour, their desires, or rather their appetites, are directed to the enjoyment of more elegant beauty. A select band of the fairest maidens of China was annually devoted to the rude embraces of the Huns9; and the alliance of the haughty Tanjous was secured by their marriage with the genuine, or adopted, daughters of the Imperial family, which vainly attempted to escape the sacrilegious pollution. The situation of these unhappy victims is described in the verses of a Chinese princess, who laments that she had been condemned by her parents to a distant exile, under a Barbarian husband; who complains that sour milk was her only drink, raw flesh her only food, a tent her only palace; and who expresses, in a strain of pathetic simplicity, the natural wish that she were transformed into a bird, to fly back to her dear country9; the object of her tender and perpetual regret.
The conquest9 of China has been twice achieved by the pastoral tribes9 of the North9: the forces of the Huns9 were not inferior to those of the Moguls, or of the Mantcheoux; and their ambition might entertain the most sanguine hopes of success. But their pride was humbled, and their progress was checked, by the arms9 and policy of Vouti, the fifth emperor of the powerful dynasty of the Han. In his long9 reign of fifty-four years, the Barbarians9 of the southern provinces9 submitted to the laws and manners of China; and the ancient9 limits of the monarchy were enlarged, from the great9 river9 of Kiang to the port of Canton. Instead of confining himself to the timid operations of a defensive war9, his lieutenants penetrated many hundred miles9 into the country9 of the Huns9. In those boundless deserts, where it is impossible to form magazines and difficult to transport a sufficient supply of provisions, the armies of Vouti were repeatedly exposed to intolerable hardships: and, of one hundred and forty thousand9 soldiers, who marched against the Barbarians9, thirty thousand9 only returned in safety to the feet of their master. These losses, however, were compensated by splendid and decisive success. The Chinese generals improved the superiority which they derived from the temper of their arms9, their chariots of war9, and the service of their Tartar auxiliaries. The camp9 of the Tanjou was surprised in the midst of sleep and intemperance; and, though the monarch of the Huns9 bravely cut his way through the ranks of the enemy, he left above fifteen thousand9 of his subjects on the field of battle. Yet this signal victory, which was preceded and followed by many bloody engagements, contributed much less to the destruction of the power of the Huns9 than the effectual policy which was employed to detach the tributary nations9 from their obedience. Intimidated by the arms9, or allured by the promises, of Vouti and his successors, the most considerable tribes9, both of the East and of the West9, disclaimed the authority of the Tanjou. While some acknowledged themselves the allies or vassals of the empire9, they all became the implacable enemies of the Huns9: and the numbers of that haughty people, as soon9 as they were reduced to their native strength, might, perhaps, have been contained within the walls9 of one of the great9 and populous cities9 of China. The desertion of his subjects, and the perplexity of a civil war9, at length compelled the Tanjou himself to renounce the dignity of an independent sovereign and the freedom of a warlike and high-spirited nation9. He was received at Sigan, the capital9 of the monarchy, by the troops9, the Mandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the honours that could adorn and disguise the triumph of Chinese vanity. A magnificent palace was prepared for his reception; his place was assigned above all the princes of the royal family; and the patience of the Barbarian king was exhausted by the ceremonies of a banquet, which consisted of eight courses of meat, and of nine solemn pieces of music. But he performed, on his knees, the duty of a respectful homage to the emperor of China; pronounced, in his own name, and in the name of his successors, a perpetual oath of fidelity; and gratefully accepted a seal, which was bestowed as the emblem of his regal dependence. After this humiliating submission, the Tanjous sometimes departed from their allegiance, and seized the favourable moments of war9 and rapine; but the monarchy of the Huns9 gradually declined, till it was broken, by civil dissension, into two hostile and separate kingdoms. One of the princes of the nation9 was urged, by fear and ambition, to retire towards the south with eight hords, which composed between forty and fifty thousand9 families. He obtained, with the title of Tanjou, a convenient territory on the verge of the Chinese provinces9; and his constant attachment to the service of the empire9 was secured by weakness and the desire of revenge. From the time of this fatal schism, the Huns9 of the north9 continued to languish about fifty years; till they were oppressed on every side by their foreign and domestic enemies. The proud inscription of a column, erected on a lofty mountain, announced to posterity that a Chinese army9 had marched seven hundred miles9 into the heart of their country9. The Sienpi, a tribe of Oriental Tartars, retaliated the injuries which they had formerly sustained; and the power of the Tanjous, after a reign of thirteen hundred years, was utterly destroyed before the end of the first century of the Christian era.
The fate of the vanquished Huns9 was diversified by the various influence of character and situation. Above one hundred thousand9 persons, the poorest, indeed, and the most pusillanimous of the people, were contented to remain in their native country9, to renounce their peculiar name and origin, and to mingle with the victorious nation9 of the Sienpi. Fifty-eight hords, about two hundred thousand9 men9, ambitious of a more honourable servitude, retired towards the south; implored the protection of the emperors of China; and were permitted to inhabit, and to guard, the extreme frontiers of the province9 of Chansi and the territory of Ortous. But the most warlike and powerful tribes9 of the Huns9 maintained, in their adverse fortune, the undaunted spirit of their ancestors. The Western world was open to their valour9; and they resolved, under the conduct of their hereditary chieftains, to discover and subdue some remote country9, which was still inaccessible to the arms9 of the Sienpi and to the laws of China. The course of their emigration soon9 carried them beyond the mountains9 of Imaus, and the limits of the Chinese geography; but we are able to distinguish the two great9 divisions of these formidable exiles, which directed their march towards the Oxus, and towards the Volga. The first of these colonies established their dominion in the fruitful and extensive plains of Sogdiana, on the eastern side of the Caspian: where they preserved the name of Huns9, with the epithet of Euthalites or Nepthalites. Their manners were softened, and even their features were insensibly improved, by the mildness of the climate and their long9 residence in a flourishing province9 which might still retain a faint impression of the arts of Greece. The white Huns9, a name which they derived from the change of their complexions, soon9 abandoned the pastoral life of Scythia. Gorgo, which, under the appellation of Carizme, has since enjoyed a temporary splendour, was the residence of the king, who exercised a legal authority over an obedient people. Their luxury was maintained by the labour of the Sogdians; and the only vestige of their ancient9 barbarism was the custom which obliged all the companions, perhaps to the number of twenty, who had shared the liberality of a wealthy lord, to be buried alive in the same grave. The vicinity of the Huns9 to the provinces9 of Persia involved them in frequent and bloody contests with the power of that monarchy. But they respected, in peace, the faith of treaties; in war9, the dictates of humanity; and their memorable victory over Peroses, or Firuz, displayed the moderation, as well as the valour9, of the Barbarians9. The second division of their countrymen, the Huns9, who gradually advanced towards the north9-west9, were exercised by the hardships of a colder climate and a more laborious march. Necessity compelled them to exchange the skils of China for the furs of Siberia; the imperfect rudiments of civilised life were obliterated; and the native fierceness of the Huns9 was exasperated by their intercourse with the savage tribes9, who were compared, with some propriety, to the wild beasts of the desert. Their independent spirit soon9 rejected the hereditary succession of the Tanjous; and, while each hord was governed by its peculiar mursa, their tumultuary council directed the public measures of the whole nation9. As late as the thirteenth century, their transient residence on the eastern banks9 of the Volga was attested by the name of Great9 Hungary. In the winter, they descended with their flocks and herds towards the mouth of that mighty river9; and their summer excursions reached as high as the latitude of Saratoff, or perhaps the conflux of the Kama. Such at least were the recent limits of the black Calmucks, who remained about a century under the protection of Russia; and who have since returned to their native seats on the frontiers of the Chinese empire9. The march and the return of those wandering Tartars, whose united camp9 consists of fifty thousand9 tents or families, illustrate the distant emigrations of the ancient9 Huns9.
It is impossible to fill the dark interval of time, which elapsed, after the Huns9 of the Volga were lost in the eyes of the Chinese, and before they shewed themselves to those of the Romans9. There is some reason, however, to apprehend, that the same force which had driven them from their native seats, still continued to impel their march towards the frontiers of Europe9. The power of the Sienpi, their implacable enemies, which extended above three thousand9 miles9 from east to west9, must have gradually oppressed them by the weight and terror of a formidable neighbourhood; and the flight of the tribes9 of Scythia would inevitably tend to increase the strength, or to contract the territories, of the Huns9. The harsh and obscure appellations of those tribes9 would offend the ear, without informing the understanding, of the reader; but I cannot suppress the very natural suspicion, that the Huns9 of the north9 derived a considerable reinforcement from the ruin of the dynasty of the south, which, in the course of the third century, submitted to the dominion of China; that the bravest warriors marched away in search of their free and adventurous countrymen; and that, as they had been divided by prosperity, they were easily reunited by the common hardships of their adverse fortune. The Huns9, with their flocks and herds, their wives and children, their dependants and allies, were transported to the west9 of the Volga, and they boldly advanced to invade the country9 of the Alani, a pastoral people who occupied, or wasted, an extensive tract of the deserts of Scythia. The plains between the Volga and the Tanais were covered with the tents of the Alani, but their name and manners were diffused over the wide extent of their conquests; and the painted tribes9 of the Agathyrsi and Geloni were confounded among their vassals. Towards the north9, they penetrated into the frozen regions of Siberia, among the savages who were accustomed, in their rage or hunger, to the taste of human flesh; and their southern inroads were pushed as far9 as the confines of Persia and India. The mixture of Sarmatic and German blood had contributed to improve the features of the Alani, to whiten their swarthy complexions, and to tinge their hair with a yellowish cast, which is seldom found in the Tartar race. They were less deformed in their persons, less brutish in their manners, than the Huns9; but they did not yield to those formidable Barbarians9 in their martial and independent spirit; in the love of freedom, which rejected even the use of domestic slaves; and in the love of arms9, which considered war9 and rapine as the pleasure and the glory of mankind. A naked scymetar, fixed in the ground, was the only object of their religious worship; the scalps of their enemies formed the costly trappings of their horses; and they viewed, with pity and contempt, the pusillanimous warriors, who patiently expected the infirmities of age and the tortures of lingering disease. On the banks9 of the Tanais, the military power of the Huns9 and the Alani encountered each other with equal valour9, but with unequal success. The Huns9 prevailed in the bloody contest: the king of the Alani was slain; and the remains of the vanquished nation9 were dispersed by the ordinary alternative of flight or submission. A colony of exiles found a secure refuge in the mountains9 of Caucasus, between the Euxine and the Caspian; where they still preserve their name and their independence. Another colony advanced, with more intrepid courage, towards the shores of the Baltic; associated themselves with the northern tribes9 of Germany; and shared the spoil of the Roman9 provinces9 of Gaul and Spain. But the greatest part of the nation9 of the Alani embraced the offers of an honourable and advantageous union; and the Huns9, who esteemed the valour9 of their less fortunate enemies, proceeded, with an increase of numbers and confidence, to invade the limits of the Gothic empire9.
The great Hermanric, whose dominions extended from the Baltic to the Euxine, enjoyed, in the full maturity of age47 and reputation, the fruit of his victories, when he was alarmed by the formidable approach of an host of unknown enemies, on whom his barbarous subjects might, without injustice, bestow the epithet of Barbarians. The numbers, the strength, the rapid motions, and the implacable cruelty of the Huns were felt and dreaded and magnified by the astonished Goths; who beheld their fields and villages consumed with flames and deluged with indiscriminate slaughter. To these real terrors they added the surprise and abhorrence which were excited by the shrill voice, the uncouth gestures, and the strange deformity of the Huns. These savages of Scythia were compared (and the picture had some resemblance) to the animals who walk very awkwardly on two legs; and to the misshapen figures, the Termini, which were often placed on the bridges of antiquity. They were distinguished from the rest of the human species by their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply buried in the head; and, as they were almost destitute of beards, they never enjoyed either the manly graces of youth or the venerable aspect of age47. A fabulous origin was assigned worthy of their form and manners; that the witches of Scythia, who, for their foul and deadly practices, had been driven from society, had copulated in the desert with infernal spirits; and that the Huns were the offspring of this execrable conjunction. The tale, so full of horror and absurdity, was greedily embraced by the credulous hatred of the Goths; but, while it gratified their hatred, it increased their fear; since the posterity of demons and witches might be supposed to inherit some share of the preternatural powers, as well as of the malignant temper, of their parents. Against these enemies, Hermanric prepared to exert the united forces of the Gothic state; but he soon47 discovered that his vassal tribes, provoked by oppression, were much more inclined to second, than to repel, the invasion of the Huns. One of the chiefs of the Roxolani had formerly deserted the standard of Hermanric, and the cruel tyrant47 had condemned the innocent wife of the traitor to be torn asunder by wild horses. The brothers of that unfortunate woman seized the favourable moment of revenge. The aged king of the Goths languished some time after the dangerous wound which he received from their daggers; but the conduct47 of the war47 was retarded by his infirmities, and the public47 councils of the nation were distracted by a spirit47 of jealousy and discord. His death47, which has been imputed to his own despair, left the reins of government47 in the hands of Withimer, who, with the doubtful aid of some Scythian mercenaries, maintained the unequal contest against the arms47 of the Huns and the Alani, till he was defeated and slain in a decisive battle. The Ostrogoths submitted to their fate; and the royal race of the Amali will hereafter be found among the subjects of the haughty Attila. But the person47 of Witheric, the infant king, was saved by the diligence of Alatheus and Saphrax: two warriors of approved valour and fidelity; who, by cautious marches, conducted the independent remains of the nation of the Ostrogoths towards the Danastus, or Dniester, a considerable river, which now separates the Turkish dominions from the empire47 of Russia. On the banks of the Dniester the prudent Athanaric, more attentive to his own than to the general47 safety, had fixed the camp of the Visigoths; with the firm resolution of opposing the victorious Barbarians whom he thought it less advisable to provoke. The ordinary speed of the Huns was checked by the weight of baggage, and the encumbrance of captives; but their military47 skill deceived, and almost destroyed, the army47 of Athanaric. While the judge of the Visigoths defended the banks of the Dniester, he was encompassed and attacked by a numerous detachment of cavalry, who, by the light of the moon, had passed the river in a fordable place; and it was not without the utmost efforts of courage and conduct47 that he was able to effect his retreat towards the hilly country. The undaunted general47 had already formed a new and judicious plan of defensive war47; and the strong lines, which he was preparing to construct between the mountains, the Pruth, and the Danube would have secured the extensive and fertile territory that bears the modern name of Walachia from the destructive inroads of the Huns. But the hopes and measures of the judge of the Visigoths were soon47 disappointed by the trembling impatience of his dismayed countrymen; who were persuaded by their fears that the interposition of the Danube was the only barrier that could save them from the rapid pursuit and invincible valour of the Barbarians of Scythia. Under the command47 of Fritigern and Alavivus, the body of the nation hastily advanced to the banks of the great river, and implored the protection of the Roman47 emperor47 of the East47. Athanaric himself, still anxious to avoid the guilt of perjury, retired with a band of faithful followers into the mountainous country of Caucaland; which appears to have been guarded, and almost concealed, by the impenetrable forests of Transylvania.
After Valens had terminated the Gothic war47 with some appearance of glory and success, he made a progress through his dominions of Asia, and at length fixed his residence in the capital of Syria. The five years which he spent at Antioch were employed to watch, from a secure distance, the hostile designs of the Persian monarch; to check the depredations of the Saracens and Isaurians; to enforce, by arguments more prevalent than those of reason and eloquence, the belief of the Arian theology; and to satisfy his anxious suspicions by the promiscuous execution of the innocent and the guilty. But the attention of the emperor47 was most seriously engaged by the important intelligence which he received from the civil47 and military47 officers who were entrusted with the defence of the Danube. He was informed that the North was agitated by a furious tempest; that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous race of savages, had subverted the power47 of the Goths; and that the suppliant multitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride was now humbled in the dust, covered a space of many miles along the banks of the river. With outstretched arms47 and pathetic lamentations, they loudly deplored their past misfortunes and their present danger47; acknowledged that their only hope of safety was in the clemency of the Roman47 government47; and most solemnly protested that, if the gracious liberality of the emperor47 would permit them to cultivate the waste lands of Thrace, they should ever hold themselves bound, by the strongest obligations of duty and gratitude, to obey the laws, and to guard the limits, of the republic. These assurances were confirmed by the ambassadors of the Goths, who impatiently expected, from the mouth of Valens, an answer that must finally determine the fate of their unhappy countrymen. The emperor47 of the East47 was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority47 of his elder brother, whose death47 happened towards the end of the preceding year: and, as the distressful situation of the Goths required an instant and peremptory decision, he was deprived of the favourite resource of feeble and timid minds; who consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence. As long47 as the same passions and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war47 and peace, of justice47 and policy, which were debated in the councils of antiquity, will frequently present themselves as the subject of modern deliberation. But the most experienced statesman of Europe has never been summoned to consider the propriety or the danger47 of admitting or rejecting an innumerable multitude of Barbarians, who are driven by despair and hunger to solicit a settlement on the territories of a civilised nation. When that important proposition, so essentially connected with the public47 safety, was referred to the ministers of Valens, they were perplexed and divided; but they soon47 acquiesced in the flattering sentiment which seemed the most favourable to the pride, the indolence, and the avarice of their sovereign47. The slaves, who were decorated with the titles of prefects and generals, dissembled or disregarded the terrors of this national emigration, so extremely different from the partial and accidental colonies which had been received on the extreme limits of the empire47. But they applauded the liberality of fortune, which had conducted, from the most distant countries of the globe, a numerous and invincible army47 of strangers, to defend the throne47 of Valens; who might now add to the royal treasures the immense sums of gold supplied by the provincials to compensate their annual proportion of recruits. The prayers of the Goths were granted, and their service was accepted by the Imperial47 court: and orders were immediately despatched to the civil47 and military47 governors of the Thracian diocese, to make the necessary preparations for the passage and subsistence of a great people47, till a proper and sufficient territory could be allotted for their future residence. The liberality of the emperor47 was accompanied, however, with two harsh and rigorous conditions, which prudence might justify on the side of the Romans but which distress alone could extort from the indignant Goths. Before they passed the Danube, they were required to deliver their arms47; and it was insisted that their children should be taken from them and dispersed through the provinces47 of Asia, where they might be civilised by the arts of education and serve as hostages to secure the fidelity of their parents.
During this suspense of a doubtful and distant negotiation, the impatient Goths made some rash attempts to pass the Danube, without the permission of the government47 whose protection they had implored. Their motions were strictly observed by the vigilance of the troops47 which were stationed along the river, and their foremost detachments were defeated with considerable slaughter; yet such were the timid councils of the reign47 of Valens that the brave officers who had served their country in the execution of their duty were punished by the loss of their employments and narrowly escaped the loss of their heads. The Imperial47 mandate was at length received for transporting over the Danube the whole body of the Gothic nation; but the execution of this order was a task of labour and difficulty. The stream of the Danube, which in those parts is above a mile broad, had been swelled by incessant rains; and, in this tumultuous passage, many were swept away and drowned by the rapid violence of the current. A large fleet of vessels, of boats, and of canoes was provided; many days and nights they passed and repassed with indefatigable toil; and the most strenuous diligence was exerted by the officers of Valens that not a single Barbarian, of those who were reserved to subvert the foundations of Rome47, should be left on the opposite shore. It was thought expedient that an accurate account should be taken of their numbers; but the persons who were employed soon47 desisted, with amazement and dismay, from the prosecution of the endless and impracticable task; and the principal historian of the age47 most seriously affirms that the prodigious armies of Darius and Xerxes, which had so long47 been considered as the fables of vain and credulous antiquity, were now justified, in the eyes of mankind, by the evidence of fact and experience. A probable testimony has fixed the number of the Gothic warriors at two hundred thousand men; and, if we can venture to add the just proportion of women, of children, and of slaves, the whole mass of people47 which composed this formidable emigration must have amounted to near a million of persons, of both sexes and of all ages. The children of the Goths, those at least of a distinguished rank47, were separated from the multitude. They were conducted, without delay, to the distant seats assigned for their residence and education; and, as the numerous train of hostages or captives passed through the cities, their gay and splendid apparel, their robust and martial figure, excited the surprise and envy of the Provincials. But the stipulation, the most offensive to the Goths and the most important to the Romans, was shamefully eluded. The Barbarians, who considered their arms47 as the ensigns of honour and the pledges of safety, were disposed to offer a price which the lust or avarice of the Imperial47 officers was easily tempted to accept. To preserve their arms47, the haughty warriors consented, with some reluctance, to prostitute their wives or their daughters; the charms of a beauteous maid, or a comely boy, secured the connivance of the inspectors; who sometimes cast an eye of covetousness on the fringed carpets and linen garments of their new allies, or who sacrificed their duty to the mean consideration of filling their farms with cattle and their houses with slaves. The Goths, with arms47 in their hands, were permitted to enter the boats; and, when their strength was collected on the other side of the river, the immense camp which was spread over the plains and the hills of the Lower Maesia assumed a threatening and even hostile aspect. The leaders of the Ostrogoths, Alatheus and Saphrax, the guardians of their infant king, appeared soon47 afterwards on the northern banks of the Danube; and immediately despatched their ambassadors to the court of Antioch, to solicit, with the same professions of allegiance and gratitude, the same favour which had been granted to the suppliant Visigoths. The absolute refusal of Valens suspended their progress, and discovered the repentance, the suspicions, and the fears of the Imperial47 council.
An undisciplined and unsettled nation of Barbarians required the firmest temper and the most dexterous management. The daily subsistence of near a million of extraordinary subjects could be supplied only by constant and skilful diligence, and might continually be interrupted by mistake or accident. The insolence or the indignation of the Goths, if they conceived themselves to be the objects either of fear or of contempt, might urge them to the most desperate extremities; and the fortune of the state seemed to depend on the prudence, as well as the integrity, of the generals of Valens. At this important crisis, the military47 government47 of Thrace was exercised by Lupicinus and Maximus, in whose venal minds the slightest hope of private47 emolument outweighed every consideration of public47 advantage; and whose guilt was only alleviated by their incapacity of discerning the pernicious effects of their rash and criminal administration. Instead of obeying the orders of their sovereign47 and satisfying with decent liberality the demands of the Goths, they levied an ungenerous and oppressive tax on the wants of the hungry Barbarians. The vilest food was sold at an extravagant price; and, in the room of wholesome and substantial provisions, the markets were filled with the flesh of dogs, and of unclean animals, who had died of disease. To obtain the valuable acquisition of a pound of bread, the Goths resigned the possession of an expensive, though serviceable, slave; and a small quantity of meat was greedily purchased with ten pounds of a precious, but useless, metal. When their property was exhausted, they continued this necessary traffic by the sale of their sons and daughters; and notwithstanding the love of freedom, which animated every Gothic breast, they submitted to the humiliating maxim that it was better for their children to be maintained in a servile condition than to perish in a state of wretched and helpless independence. The most lively resentment is excited by the tyranny of pretended benefactors, who sternly exact the debt of gratitude which they have cancelled by subsequent injuries: a spirit47 of discontent insensibly arose in the camp of the Barbarians, who pleaded, without success, the merit47 of their patient and dutiful behaviour; and loudly complained of the inhospitable treatment which they had received from their new allies. They beheld around them the wealth and plenty of a fertile province, in the midst of which they suffered the intolerable hardships of artificial famine. But the means of relief, and even of revenge, were in their hands; since the rapaciousness of their tyrants had left, to an injured people47, the possession and the use of arms47. The clamours of a multitude, untaught to disguise their sentiments, announced the first symptoms of resistance, and alarmed the timid and guilty minds of Lupicinus and Maximus. Those crafty ministers, who substituted the cunning of temporary expedients to the wise and salutary counsels of general47 policy, attempted to remove the Goths from their dangerous station on the frontiers of the empire47, and to disperse them in separate quarters of cantonment through the interior provinces47. As they were conscious how ill they had deserved the respect, or confidence, of the Barbarians, they diligently collected, from every side, a military47 force, that might urge the tardy and reluctant march of a people47 who had not yet renounced the title, or the duties, of Roman47 subjects. But the generals of Valens, while their attention was solely directed to the discontented Visigoths, imprudently disarmed the ships and fortifications which constituted the defence of the Danube. The fatal oversight was observed and improved by Alatheus and Saphrax, who anxiously watched the favourable moment of escaping from the pursuit of the Huns. By the help of such rafts and vessels as could be hastily procured, the leaders of the Ostrogoths transported, without opposition, their king and their army47; and boldly fixed an hostile and independent camp on the territories of the empire47.
Under the name of judges, Alavivus and Fritigern were the leaders of the Visigoths in peace and war47; and the authority47 which they derived from their birth was ratified by the free consent of the nation. In a season of tranquillity, their power47 might have been equal, as well as their rank47; but, as soon47 as their countrymen were exasperated by hunger and oppression, the superior abilities of Fritigern assumed the military47 command47, which he was qualified to exercise for the public47 welfare. He restrained the impatient spirit47 of the Visigoths, till the injuries and the insults of their tyrants should justify their resistance in the opinion of mankind; but he was not disposed to sacrifice any solid advantages for the empty praise of justice47 and moderation. Sensible of the benefits which would result from the union of the Gothic powers under the same standard, he secretly cultivated the friendship of the Ostrogoths; and, while he professed an implicit obedience to the orders of the Roman47 generals, he proceeded by slow marches towards Marcianopolis, the capital of the Lower Maesia, about seventy miles from the banks of the Danube. On that fatal spot, the flames of discord and mutual hatred burst forth into a dreadful conflagration. Lupicinus had invited the Gothic chiefs to a splendid entertainment; and their martial train remained under arms47 at the entrance of the palace47. But the gates of the city47 were strictly guarded; and the Barbarians were sternly excluded from the use of a plentiful market, to which they asserted their equal claim of subjects and allies. Their humble prayers were rejected with insolence and derision; and, as their patience was now exhausted, the townsmen, the soldiers47, and the Goths were soon47 involved in a conflict of passionate altercation and angry reproaches. A blow was imprudently given; a sword was hastily drawn; and the first blood that was spilt in this accidental quarrel became the signal of a long47 and destructive war47. In the midst of noise and brutal intemperance, Lupicinus was informed, by a secret47 messenger, that many of his soldiers47 were slain and despoiled of their arms47; and, as he was already inflamed by wine and oppressed by sleep, he issued a rash command47 that their death47 should be revenged by the massacre of the guards of Fritigern and Alavivus. The clamorous shouts and dying groans apprised Fritigern of his extreme danger47; and, as he possessed the calm and intrepid spirit47 of a hero, he saw that he was lost if he allowed a moment of deliberation to the man who had so deeply injured him. A trifling dispute, said the Gothic leader, with a firm but gentle tone of voice, appears to have arisen between the two nations; but it may be productive of the most dangerous consequences, unless the tumult is immediately pacified by the assurance of our safety and the authority47 of our presence. At these words, Fritigern and his companions drew their swords, opened their passage through the unresisting crowd which filled the palace47, the streets, and the gates of Marcianopolis, and, mounting their horses, hastily vanished from the eyes of the astonished Romans. The generals of the Goths were saluted by the fierce and joyful acclamations of the camp; war47 was instantly resolved, and the resolution was executed without delay; the banners of the nation were displayed according to the custom of their ancestors; and the air resounded with the harsh and mournful music of the Barbarian trumpet. The weak and guilty Lupicinus, who had dared to provoke, who had neglected to destroy, and who still presumed to despise his formidable enemy, marched against the Goths, at the head of such a military47 force as could be collected on this sudden emergency. The Barbarians expected his approach about nine miles from Marcianopolis; and on this occasion the talents of the general47 were found to be of more prevailing efficacy than the weapons and discipline of the troops47. The valour of the Goths was so ably directed by the genius of Fritigern that they broke, by a close and vigorous attack, the ranks of the Roman47 legions. Lupicinus left his arms47 and standards, his tribunes and his bravest soldiers47, on the field of battle; and their useless courage served only to protect the ignominious flight of their leader. That successful day put an end to the distress of the Barbarians and the security of the Romans: from that day, the Goths, renouncing the precarious condition of strangers and exiles, assumed the character of citizens and masters, claimed an absolute dominion over the possessors of land, and held, in their own right, the northern provinces47 of the empire47, which are bounded by the Danube. Such are the words of the Gothic historian, who celebrates, with rude eloquence, the glory of his countrymen. But the dominion of the Barbarians was exercised only for the purposes of rapine and destruction. As they had been deprived, by the ministers of the emperor47, of the common benefits of nature and the fair intercourse of social life47, they retaliated the injustice on the subjects of the empire47; and the crimes of Lupicinus were expiated by the ruin of the peaceful husbandmen of Thrace, the conflagration of their villages, and the massacre, or captivity, of their innocent families. The report of the Gothic victory was soon47 diffused over the adjacent country; and, while it filled the minds of the Romans with terror and dismay, their own hasty prudence contributed to increase the forces of Fritigern and the calamities of the province. Some time before the great emigration, a numerous body of Goths, under the command47 of Suerid and Colias, had been received into the protection and service of the empire47. They were encamped under the walls of Hadrianople: but the ministers of Valens were anxious to remove them beyond the Hellespont, at a distance from the dangerous temptation which might so easily be communicated by the neighbourhood, and the success, of their countrymen. The respectful submission with which they yielded to the order of their march might be considered as a proof of their fidelity; and their moderate request of a sufficient allowance of provisions, and of a delay of only two days, was expressed in the most dutiful terms. But the first magistrate of Hadrianople, incensed by some disorders which had been committed at his country-house, refused this indulgence; and arming against them the inhabitants and manufacturers of a populous city47, he urged, with hostile threats, their instant departure. The Barbarians stood silent and amazed, till they were exasperated by the insulting clamours, and missile weapons, of the populace: but, when patience or contempt was fatigued, they crushed the undisciplined multitude, inflicted many a shameful wound on the backs of their flying enemies, and despoiled them of the splendid armour which they were unworthy to bear. The resemblance of their sufferings and their actions soon47 united this victorious detachment to the nation of the Visigoths; the troops47 of Colias and Suerid expected the approach of the great Fritigern, ranged themselves under his standard, and signalised their ardour in the siege of Hadrianople. But the resistance of the garrison informed the Barbarians that, in the attack of regular fortifications, the efforts of unskilful courage are seldom effectual. Their general47 acknowledged his error, raised the siege, declared that he was at peace with stone walls, and revenged his disappointment on the adjacent country. He accepted, with pleasure, the useful reinforcement of hardy workmen, who laboured in the gold mines of Thrace for the emolument, and under the lash, of an unfeeling master47: and these new associates conducted the Barbarians, through the secret47 paths, to the most sequestered places, which had been chosen to secure the inhabitants, the cattle, and the magazines of corn. With the assistance of such guides, nothing could remain impervious or inaccessible; resistance was fatal; flight was impracticable; and the patient submission of helpless innocence seldom found mercy from the Barbarian conqueror. In the course of these depredations, a great number of the children of the Goths, who had been sold into captivity, were restored to the embraces of their afflicted parents; but these tender interviews, which might have revived and cherished in their minds some sentiments of humanity, tended only to stimulate their native fierceness by the desire of revenge. They listened, with eager attention, to the complaints of their captive children, who had suffered the most cruel indignities from the lustful or angry passions of their masters; and the same cruelties, the same indignities, were severely retaliated on the sons and daughters of the Romans.
The imprudence of Valens and his ministers had introduced into the heart of the empire47 a nation of enemies; but the Visigoths might even yet have been reconciled, by the manly confession of past errors and the sincere performance of former engagements. These healing and temperate measures seemed to concur with the timorous disposition of the sovereign47 of the East47; but, on this occasion alone, Valens was brave; and his unseasonable bravery was fatal to himself and to his subjects. He declared his intention of marching from Antioch to Constantinople, to subdue this dangerous rebellion; and, as he was not ignorant of the difficulties of the enterprise, he solicited the assistance of his nephew, the emperor47 Gratian, who commanded all the forces of the West. The veteran troops47 were hastily recalled from the defence of Armenia; that important frontier was abandoned to the discretion of Sapor; and the immediate conduct47 of the Gothic war47 was entrusted, during the absence of Valens, to his lieutenants Trajan and Profuturus, two generals who indulged themselves in a very false and favourable opinion of their own abilities. On their arrival in Thrace, they were joined by Richomer, count of the domestics; and the auxiliaries of the West, that marched under his banner, were composed of the Gallic legions, reduced indeed by a spirit47 of desertion to the vain appearances of strength and numbers. In a council of war47, which was influenced by pride rather than by reason, it was resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarians, who lay encamped in the spacious and fertile meadows near the most southern of the six mouths of the Danube. Their camp was surrounded by the usual fortification of waggons; and the Barbarians, secure within the vast circle of the enclosure, enjoyed the fruits of their valour and the spoils of the province. In the midst of riotous intemperance, the watchful Fritigern observed the motions, and penetrated the designs, of the Romans. He perceived that the numbers of the enemy were continually increasing; and, as he understood their intention of attacking his rear as soon47 as the scarcity of forage should oblige him to remove his camp, he recalled to their standard his predatory detachments which covered the adjacent country. As soon47 as they descried the flaming beacons, they obeyed, with incredible speed, the signal of their leader; the camp was filled with the martial crowd of Barbarians; their impatient clamours demanded the battle, and their tumultuous zeal was approved and animated by the spirit47 of their chiefs. The evening was already far advanced; and the two armies prepared themselves for the approaching combat, which was deferred only till the dawn of day. While the trumpets sounded to arms47, the undaunted courage of the Goths was confirmed by the mutual obligation of a solemn oath; and, as they advanced to meet the enemy, the rude songs, which celebrated the glory of their forefathers, were mingled with their fierce and dissonant outcries, and opposed to the artificial harmony of the Roman47 shout. Some military47 skill was displayed by Fritigern to gain the advantage of a commanding eminence; but the bloody conflict, which began and ended with the light, was maintained, on either side, by the personal and obstinate efforts of strength, valour, and agility. The legions of Armenia supported their fame in arms47; but they were oppressed by the irresistible weight of the hostile multitude; the left wing of the Romans was thrown into disorder, and the field was strewed with their mangled carcasses. This partial defeat was balanced, however, by partial success; and when the two armies, at a late hour of the evening, retreated to their respective camps, neither of them could claim the honours, or the effects, of a decisive victory. The real loss was more severely felt by the Romans, in proportion to the smallness of their numbers; but the Goths were so deeply confounded and dismayed by this vigorous, and perhaps unexpected, resistance that they remained seven days within the circle of their fortifications. Such funeral rites as the circumstances of time and place would admit were piously discharged to some officers of distinguished rank47; but the indiscriminate vulgar was left unburied on the plain. Their flesh was greedily devoured by the birds of prey, who, in that age47, enjoyed very frequent and delicious feasts; and several years afterwards the white and naked bones which covered the wide extent of the fields presented to the eyes of Ammianus a dreadful monument of the battle of Salices.
The progress of the Goths had been checked by the doubtful event of that bloody day; and the Imperial generals, whose army36 would have been consumed by the repetition of such a contest, embraced the more rational plan of destroying the Barbarians36 by the wants and pressure of their own multitudes. They prepared to confine the Visigoths in the narrow angle of land between the Danube36, the desert of Scythia, and the mountains of Haemus, till their strength36 and spirit36 should be insensibly wasted by the inevitable operation of famine. The design was prosecuted with some conduct and success; the Barbarians36 had almost exhausted their own magazines, and the harvests of the country36; and the diligence of Saturninus, the master-general36 of the cavalry, was employed to improve the strength36, and to contract the extent, of the Roman36 fortifications. His labours were interrupted by the alarming intelligence that new36 swarms of Barbarians36 had passed the unguarded Danube36, either to support the cause, or to imitate the example, of Fritigern. The just apprehension, that he himself might be surrounded, and overwhelmed, by the arms36 of hostile and unknown nations, compelled Saturninus to relinquish the siege of the Gothic camp: and the indignant Visigoths, breaking from their confinement, satiated their hunger and revenge, by the repeated devastation of the fruitful country36, which extends above three hundred miles from the banks of the Danube36 to the straits of the Hellespont. The sagacious Fritigern had successfully appealed to the passions, as well as to the interest, of his Barbarian allies36; and the love of rapine and the hatred of Rome seconded, or even prevented, the eloquence of his ambassadors. He cemented a strict and useful alliance with the great body of his countrymen, who obeyed Alatheus and Saphrax as the guardians of their infant king; the long36 animosity of rival tribes was suspended by the sense of their common interest; the independent part of the nation36 was associated under one standard; and the chiefs of the Ostrogoths appear to have yielded to the superior genius of the general36 of the Visigoths. He obtained the formidable aid36 of the Taifalae, whose military renown was disgraced and polluted by the public infamy of their domestic manners. Every youth36, on his entrance into the world, was united by the ties of honourable friendship, and brutal love, to some warrior of the tribe; nor could he hope36 to be released from this unnatural connection, till he had approved his manhood by slaying, in single combat, a huge bear, or a wild boar of the forest. But the most powerful auxiliaries of the Goths were drawn from the camp of those enemies who had expelled them from their native seats. The loose subordination, and extensive possessions, of the Huns and the Alani delayed the conquests, and distracted the councils, of that victorious people36. Several of the hords were allured by the liberal promises of Fritigern; and the rapid cavalry of Scythia added weight36 and energy to the steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry. The Sarmatians36, who could never forgive the successor of Valentinian, enjoyed and increased the general36 confusion; and a seasonable irruption of the Alemanni into the provinces36 of Gaul36 engaged the attention, and diverted the forces, of the emperor36 of the West.
One of the most dangerous inconveniences of the introduction of the Barbarians into the army47 and the palace47, was sensibly felt in their correspondence with their hostile countrymen, to whom they imprudently, or maliciously, revealed the weakness of the Roman47 empire47. A soldier, of the life47-guards of Gratian, was of the nation of the Alemanni, and of the tribe of the Lentienses, who dwelt beyond the lake of Constance. Some domestic business obliged him to request a leave of absence. In a short visit to his family and friends, he was exposed to their curious inquiries; and the vanity of the loquacious soldier tempted him to display his intimate acquaintance with the secrets of the state and the designs of his master47. The intelligence that Gratian was preparing to lead the military47 force of Gaul and of the West to the assistance of his uncle Valens pointed out to the restless spirit47 of the Alemanni the moment, and the mode, of a successful invasion. The enterprise of some light detachments, who, in the month of February, passed the Rhine upon the ice, was the prelude of a more important war47. The boldest hopes of rapine, perhaps of conquest, outweighed the consideration of timid prudence or national faith. Every forest and every village poured forth a band of hardy adventurers; and the great army47 of the Alemanni, which, on their approach, was estimated at forty thousand men by the fears of the people47, was afterwards magnified to the number of seventy thousand by the vain and credulous flattery of the Imperial47 court. The legions which had been ordered to march into Pannonia were immediately recalled or detained for the defence of Gaul; the military47 command47 was divided between Nanienus and Mellobaudes; and the youthful emperor47, though he respected the long47 experience and sober wisdom of the former, was much more inclined to admire and to follow the martial ardour of his colleague; who was allowed to unite the incompatible characters of count of the domestics and of king of the Franks. His rival Priarius, king of the Alemanni, was guided, or rather impelled, by the same headstrong valour; and, as their troops47 were animated by the spirit47 of their leaders, they met, they saw, they encountered, each other, near the town of Argentaria, or Colmar, in the plains of Alsace. The glory of the day was justly ascribed to the missile weapons and well-practised evolutions of the Roman47 soldiers47; the Alemanni, who long47 maintained their ground, were slaughtered with unrelenting fury; five thousand only of the Barbarians escaped to the woods and mountains; and the glorious death47 of their king on the field of battle saved him from the reproaches of the people47, who are always disposed to accuse the justice47, or policy, of an unsuccessful war47. After this signal victory, which secured the peace of Gaul and asserted the honour of the Roman47 arms47, the emperor47 Gratian appeared to proceed without delay on his Eastern expedition; but, as he approached the confines of the Alemanni, he suddenly inclined to the left, surprised them by his unexpected passage of the Rhine, and boldly advanced into the heart of their country. The Barbarians opposed to his progress the obstacles of nature and of courage; and still continued to retreat from one hill to another, till they were satisfied, by repeated trials, of the power47 and perseverance of their enemies. Their submission was accepted as a proof, not indeed of their sincere repentance, but of their actual distress; and a select number of their brave and robust youth was exacted from the faithless nation, as the most substantial pledge of their future moderation. The subjects of the empire47, who had so often experienced that the Alemanni could neither be subdued by arms47 nor restrained by treaties, might not promise themselves any solid or lasting tranquillity: but they discovered, in the virtues of their young sovereign47, the prospect of a long47 and auspicious reign47. When the legions climbed the mountains, and scaled the fortifications, of the Barbarians, the valour of Gratian was distinguished in the foremost ranks; and the gilt and variegated armour of his guards was pierced and shattered by the blows which they had received in their constant attachment to the person47 of their sovereign47. At the age47 of nineteen, the son47 of Valentinian seemed to possess the talents of peace and war47; and his personal success against the Alemanni was interpreted as a sure presage of his Gothic triumphs.
While Gratian deserved and enjoyed the applause of his subjects, the emperor47 Valens, who, at length, had removed his court and army47 from Antioch, was received by the people47 of Constantinople as the author of the public47 calamity. Before he had reposed himself ten days in the capital, he was urged, by the licentious clamours of the Hippodrome, to march against the Barbarians whom he had invited into his dominions: and the citizens, who are always brave at a distance from any real danger47, declared, with confidence, that, if they were supplied with arms47, they alone would undertake to deliver the province from the ravages of an insulting foe. The vain reproaches of an ignorant multitude hastened the downfall of the Roman47 empire47; they provoked the desperate rashness of Valens, who did not find, either in his reputation or in his mind, any motives to support with firmness the public47 contempt. He was soon47 persuaded, by the successful achievements of his lieutenants, to despise the power47 of the Goths, who, by the diligence of Fritigern, were now collected in the neighbourhood of Hadrianople. The march of the Taifalae had been intercepted by the valiant Frigerid; the king of those licentious Barbarians was slain in battle; and the suppliant captives were sent into distant exile to cultivate the lands of Italy47 which were assigned for their settlement in the vacant territories of Modena and Parma. The exploits of Sebastian, who was recently engaged in the service of Valens and promoted to the rank47 of master47-general47 of the infantry, were still more honourable to himself and useful to the republic. He obtained the permission of selecting three hundred soldiers47 from each of the legions; and this separate detachment soon47 acquired the spirit47 of discipline and the exercise of arms47, which were almost forgotten under the reign47 of Valens. By the vigour and conduct47 of Sebastian, a large body of the Goths was surprised in their camp: and the immense spoil which was recovered from their hands filled the city47 of Hadrianople and the adjacent plain. The splendid narratives which the general47 transmitted of his own exploits alarmed the Imperial47 court by the appearance of superior merit47; and, though he cautiously insisted on the difficulties of the Gothic war47, his valour was praised, his advice was rejected; and Valens, who listened with pride and pleasure to the flattering suggestions of the eunuchs of the palace47, was impatient to seize the glory of an easy and assured conquest. His army47 was strengthened by a numerous reinforcement of veterans; and his march from Constantinople to Hadrianople was conducted with so much military47 skill that he prevented the activity of the Barbarians, who designed to occupy the intermediate defiles and to intercept either the troops47 themselves or their convoys of provisions. The camp of Valens, which he pitched under the walls of Hadrianople, was fortified, according to the practice of the Romans, with a ditch and rampart; and a most important council was summoned, to decide the fate of the emperor47 and of the empire47. The party of reason and of delay was strenuously maintained by Victor, who had corrected, by the lessons of experience, the native fierceness of the Sarmatian character; while Sebastian, with the flexible and obsequious eloquence of a courtier, represented every precaution and every measure that implied a doubt of immediate victory as unworthy of the courage and majesty of their invincible monarch. The ruin of Valens was precipitated by the deceitful arts of Fritigern and the prudent admonitions of the emperor47 of the West. The advantages of negotiating in the midst of war47 were perfectly understood by the general47 of the Barbarians; and a Christian ecclesiastic was despatched, as the holy minister of peace, to penetrate, and to perplex, the councils of the enemy. The misfortunes, as well as the provocations, of the Gothic nation were forcibly and truly described by their ambassador; who protested, in the name of Fritigern, that he was still disposed to lay down his arms47, or to employ them only in the defence of the empire47 if he could secure, for his wandering countrymen, a tranquil settlement on the waste lands of Thrace and a sufficient allowance of corn and cattle. But he added, in a whisper of confidential friendship, that the exasperated Barbarians were averse to these reasonable conditions; and that Fritigern was doubtful whether he could accomplish the conclusion of the treaty, unless he found himself supported by the presence and terrors of an Imperial47 army47. About the same time Count Richomer returned from the West, to announce the defeat and submission of the Alemanni; to inform Valens that his nephew advanced by rapid marches at the head of the veteran and victorious legions of Gaul; and to request, in the name of Gratian and of the republic, that every dangerous and decisive measure might be suspended, till the junction of the two emperors should ensure the success of the Gothic war47. But the feeble sovereign47 of the East47 was actuated only by the fatal illusions of pride and jealousy. He disdained the importunate advice; he rejected the humiliating aid; he secretly compared the ignominious, or at least the inglorious, period of his own reign47 with the fame of a beardless youth: and Valens rushed into the field, to erect his imaginary trophy, before the diligence of his colleague could usurp any share of the triumphs of the day.
On the ninth of August, a day which has deserved to be marked among the most inauspicious of the Roman47 Calendar, the emperor47 Valens, leaving, under a strong guard, his baggage and military47 treasure, marched from Hadrianople to attack the Goths, who were encamped about twelve miles from the city47. By some mistake of the orders, or ignorance of the ground, the right wing, or column of cavalry, arrived in sight of the enemy, whilst the left was still at a considerable distance; the soldiers47 were compelled, in the sultry heat of summer, to precipitate their pace; and the line of battle was formed with tedious confusion and irregular delay. The Gothic cavalry had been detached to forage in the adjacent country; and Fritigern still continued to practise his customary arts. He despatched messengers of peace, made proposals, required hostages, and wasted the hours, till the Romans, exposed without shelter to the burning rays of the sun, were exhausted by thirst, hunger, and intolerable fatigue. The emperor47 was persuaded to send an ambassador to the Gothic camp; the zeal of Richomer, who alone had courage to accept the dangerous commission, was applauded: and the count of the domestics, adorned with the splendid ensigns of his dignity, had proceeded some way in the space between the two armies when he was suddenly recalled by the alarm of battle. The hasty and imprudent attack was made by Bacurius the Iberian, who commanded a body of archers and targetteers; and, as they advanced with rashness, they retreated with loss and disgrace. In the same moment, the flying squadrons of Alatheus and Saphrax, whose return was anxiously expected by the general47 of the Goths, descended like a whirlwind from the hills, swept across the plain, and added new terrors to the tumultuous, but irresistible, charge of the Barbarian host. The event of the battle of Hadrianople, so fatal to Valens and to the empire47, may be described in a few words: the Roman47 cavalry fled; the infantry was abandoned, surrounded, and cut in pieces. The most skilful evolutions, the firmest courage, are scarcely sufficient to extricate a body of foot, encompassed, on an open plain, by superior numbers of horse; but the troops47 of Valens, oppressed by the weight of the enemy and their own fears, were crowded into a narrow space, where it was impossible for them to extend their ranks, or even to use, with effect, their swords and javelins. In the midst of tumult, of slaughter, and of dismay, the emperor47, deserted by his guards and wounded, as it was supposed, with an arrow, sought protection among the Lancearii and the Mattiarii, who still maintained their ground with some appearance of order and firmness. His faithful generals, Trajan and Victor, who perceived his danger47, loudly exclaimed that all was lost unless the person47 of the emperor47 could be saved. Some troops47, animated by their exhortation, advanced to his relief: they found only a bloody spot, covered with a heap of broken arms47 and mangled bodies, without being able to discover their unfortunate prince47, either among the living or the dead. Their search could not indeed be successful, if there is any truth in the circumstances with which some historians have related the death47 of the emperor47. By the care of his attendants, Valens was removed from the field of battle to a neighbouring cottage, where they attempted to dress his wound and to provide for his future safety. But this humble retreat was instantly surrounded by the enemy; they tried to force the door; they were provoked by a discharge of arrows from the roof, till at length, impatient of delay, they set fire to a pile of dry faggots, and consumed the cottage with the Roman47 emperor47 and his train. Valens perished in the flames; and a youth, who dropt from the window, alone escaped, to attest the melancholy tale and to inform the Goths of the inestimable prize which they had lost by their own rashness. A great number of brave and distinguished officers perished in the battle of Hadrianople, which equalled in the actual loss, and far surpassed in the fatal consequences, the misfortune which Rome47 had formerly sustained in the field of Cannae. Two master47-generals of the cavalry and infantry, two great officers of the palace47 and thirty-five tribunes were found among the slain; and the death47 of Sebastian might satisfy the world that he was the victim, as well as the author, of the public47 calamity. Above two-thirds of the Roman47 army47 were destroyed; and the darkness of the night was esteemed a very favourable circumstance, as it served to conceal the flight of the multitude and to protect the more orderly retreat of Victor and Richomer, who alone, amidst the general47 consternation, maintained the advantage of calm courage and regular discipline.
While the impressions of grief and terror were still recent in the minds of men, the most celebrated rhetorician of the age27 composed the funeral oration of a vanquished army and of an unpopular prince, whose throne was already occupied by a stranger. There are not wanting, says the candid Libanius, those who arraign the prudence of the emperor, or who impute the public27 misfortune to the want of courage and discipline in the troops. For my own part, I reverence27 the memory of their former exploits: I reverence27 the glorious death which they bravely received, standing, and fighting in their ranks: I reverence27 the field of battle, stained with their blood and the blood of the Barbarians27. Those honourable marks have been already washed away by the rains; but the lofty monuments of their bones, the bones of generals, of centurions, and of valiant warriors, claim a longer period of duration. The king27 himself fought and fell in the foremost ranks of the battle. His attendants presented him with the fleetest horses of the Imperial stable, that would soon27 have carried him beyond the pursuit of the enemy. They vainly pressed him to reserve his important27 life for the future service27 of the republic27. He still declared that he was unworthy to survive so many of the bravest and most faithful of his subjects; and the monarch was nobly buried under a mountain of the slain. Let none, therefore, presume to ascribe the victory of the Barbarians27 to the fear, the weakness, or the imprudence of the Roman27 troops. The chiefs and the soldiers27 were animated by the virtue27 of their ancestors, whom they equalled in discipline and the arts27 of war27. Their generous emulation was supported by the love of glory, which prompted them to contend at the same time27 with heat and thirst, with fire and the sword; and cheerfully to embrace an honourable death as their refuge against flight and infamy. The indignation of the gods has been the only cause of the success of our enemies. The truth of history may disclaim some parts of this panegyric, which cannot strictly be reconciled with the character of Valens or the circumstances of the battle; but the fairest commendation is due to the eloquence, and still more to the generosity, of the sophist of Antioch.
The pride of the Goths was elated by this memorable victory; but their avarice was disappointed by the mortifying discovery that the richest part of the Imperial47 spoil had been within the walls of Hadrianople. They hastened to possess the reward of their valour; but they were encountered by the remains of a vanquished army47 with an intrepid resolution, which was the effect of their despair and the only hope of their safety. The walls of the city47 and the ramparts of the adjacent camp were lined with military47 engines, that threw stones of an enormous weight; and astonished the ignorant Barbarians by the noise and velocity, still more than by the real effects, of the discharge. The soldiers47, the citizens, the provincials, the domestics of the palace47, were united in the danger47 and in the defence; the furious assault of the Goths was repulsed; their secret47 arts of treachery and treason were discovered; and, after an obstinate conflict of many hours, they retired to their tents; convinced, by experience, that it would be far more advisable to observe the treaty which their sagacious leader had tacitly stipulated with the fortifications of great and populous cities. After the hasty and impolitic massacre of three hundred deserters, an act of justice47 extremely useful to the discipline of the Roman47 armies, the Goths indignantly raised the siege of Hadrianople. The scene of war47 and tumult was instantly converted into a silent solitude; the multitude suddenly disappeared; the sacred paths of the wood and mountains were marked with the footsteps of the trembling fugitives, who sought a refuge in the distant cities of Illyricum and Macedonia; and the faithful officers of the household and the treasury cautiously proceeded in search of the emperor47, of whose death47 they were still ignorant. The tide of the Gothic inundation rolled from the walls of Hadrianople to the suburbs of Constantinople. The Barbarians were surprised with the splendid appearance of the capital of the East47, the height and extent of the walls, the myriads of wealthy and affrighted citizens who crowded the ramparts, and the various prospect of the sea and land. While they gazed with hopeless desire on the inaccessible beauties of Constantinople, a sally was made from one of the gates by a party of Saracens, who had been fortunately engaged in the service of Valens. The cavalry of Scythia was forced to yield to the admirable swiftness and spirit47 of the Arabian horses; their riders were skilled in the evolutions of irregular war47; and the Northern Barbarians were astonished, and dismayed, by the inhuman ferocity of the Barbarians of the South. A Gothic soldier was slain by the dagger of an Arab; and the hairy, naked savage, applying his lips to the wound, expressed a horrid delight, while he sucked the blood of his vanquished enemy. The army47 of the Goths, laden with the spoils of the wealthy suburbs and the adjacent territory, slowly moved from the Bosphorus to the mountains which form the western boundary of Thrace. The important pass of Succi was betrayed by the fear, or the misconduct, of Maurus; and the Barbarians, who no longer had any resistance to apprehend from the scattered and vanquished troops47 of the East47, spread themselves over the face of a fertile and cultivated country, as far as the confines of Italy47 and the Hadriatic Sea.
The Romans25, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence25 for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms25 of the successful Barbarians. The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single25 town, of the misfortunes of a single25 family, might exhibit an interesting and instructive picture of human25 manners25; but the tedious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader. The same censure may be applied25, though not perhaps in an equal25 degree, to the profane25 and the ecclesiastical writers of this unhappy period; that their minds were inflamed by popular and religious animosity; and that the true size and colour of every object is falsified by the exaggerations of their corrupt eloquence25. The vehement Jerom might justly deplore the calamities inflicted by the Goths and their barbarous allies on his native country of Pannonia and the wide extent of the provinces, from the walls of Constantinople25 to the foot of the Julian Alps; the rapes, the massacres, the conflagrations; and, above all, the profanation of the churches, that were turned into stables, and the contemptuous treatment of the relics of holy martyrs. But the Saint is surely transported beyond the limits of nature25 and history, when he affirms that, in those desert countries, nothing was left except the sky and the earth; that, after the destruction of the cities and the extirpation of the human25 race, the land was overgrown with thick forests and inextricable brambles; and that the universal desolation, announced by the prophet Zephaniah, was accomplished, in the scarcity of the beasts, the birds, and even of the fish. These complaints were pronounced about twenty years25 after the death of Valens; and the Illyrian provinces, which were constantly exposed to the invasion and passage of the Barbarians, still continued, after a calamitous period of ten centuries, to supply new materials for rapine and destruction. Could it even be supposed that a large tract of country had been left without cultivation and without inhabitants, the consequences might not have been so fatal to the inferior productions of animated nature25. The useful25 and feeble animals, which are nourished by the hand of man, might suffer and perish, if they were deprived of his protection; but the beasts of the forest, his enemies, or his victims, would multiply in the free and undisturbed possession of their solitary domain. The various tribes that people25 the air, or the waters, are still less connected with the fate of the human25 species; and it is highly probable that the fish of the Danube would have felt more terror and distress from the approach of a voracious pike than from the hostile inroad of a Gothic army.
Whatever may have been the just measure of the calamities of Europe, there was reason to fear that the same calamities would soon47 extend to the peaceful countries of Asia. The sons of the Goths had been judiciously distributed through the cities of the East47; and the arts of education were employed to polish and subdue the native fierceness of their temper. In the space of about twelve years, their numbers had continually increased; and the children, who, in the first emigration, were sent over the Hellespont, had attained, with rapid growth, the strength and spirit47 of perfect manhood. It was impossible to conceal from their knowledge the events of the Gothic war47; and, as those daring youths had not studied the language of dissimulation, they betrayed their wish, their desire, perhaps their intention, to emulate the glorious example of their fathers. The danger47 of the times seemed to justify the jealous suspicions of the provincials; and these suspicions were admitted as unquestionable evidence that the Goths of Asia had formed a secret47 and dangerous conspiracy against the public47 safety. The death47 of Valens had left the East47 without a sovereign47; and Julius, who filled the important station of master47-general47 of the troops47, with a high reputation of diligence and ability, thought it his duty to consult the senate47 of Constantinople; which he considered, during the vacancy of the throne47, as the representative council of the nation. As soon47 as he had obtained the discretionary power47 of acting as he should judge most expedient for the good of the republic, he assembled the principal officers; and privately concerted effectual measures for the execution of his bloody design. An order was immediately promulgated that, on a stated day, the Gothic youth should assemble in the capital cities of their respective provinces47; and, as a report was industriously circulated that they were summoned to receive a liberal gift of lands and money, the pleasing hope allayed the fury of their resentment and perhaps suspended the motions of the conspiracy. On the appointed day, the unarmed crowd of the Gothic youth was carefully collected in the square, or Forum; the streets and avenues were occupied by the Roman47 troops47; and the roofs of the houses were covered with archers and slingers. At the same hour, in all the cities of the East47, the signal was given of indiscriminate slaughter; and the provinces47 of Asia were delivered, by the cruel prudence of Julius, from a domestic enemy, who, in a few months, might have carried fire and sword from the Hellespont to the Euphrates. The urgent consideration of the public47 safety may undoubtedly authorise the violation of every positive law. How far that, or any other, consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice47 is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant.
The emperor47 Gratian was far advanced on his march towards the plains of Hadrianople when he was informed, at first by the confused voice of fame, and afterwards by the more accurate reports of Victor and Richomer, that his impatient colleague had been slain in battle, and that twothirds of the Roman47 army47 were exterminated by the sword of the victorious Goths. Whatever resentment the rash and jealous vanity of his uncle might deserve, the resentment of a generous mind is easily subdued by the softer emotions of grief and compassion: and even the sense of pity was soon47 lost in the serious and alarming consideration of the state of the republic. Gratian was too late to assist, he was too weak to revenge, his unfortunate colleague: and the valiant and modest youth felt himself unequal to the support of a sinking world. A formidable tempest of the Barbarians of Germany seemed ready to burst over the provinces47 of Gaul; and the mind of Gratian was oppressed and distracted by the administration of the Western empire47. In this important crisis, the government47 of the East47 and the conduct47 of the Gothic war47 required the undivided attention of a hero and a statesman. A subject invested with such ample command47 would not long47 have preserved his fidelity to a distant benefactor; and the Imperial47 council embraced the wise and manly resolution of conferring an obligation rather than of yielding to an insult. It was the wish of Gratian to bestow the purple as the reward of virtue; but, at the age47 of nineteen, it is not easy for a prince47, educated in the supreme rank47, to understand the true characters of his ministers and generals. He attempted to weigh, with an impartial hand, their various merits and defects; and, whilst he checked the rash confidence of ambition, he distrusted the cautious wisdom which despaired of the republic. As each moment of delay diminished something of the power47 and resources of the future sovereign47 of the East47, the situation of the times would not allow a tedious debate. The choice of Gratian was soon47 declared in favour of an exile, whose father47, only three years before, had suffered, under the sanction of his authority47, an unjust and ignominious death47. The great Theodosius47, a name celebrated in history and dear to the Catholic church, was summoned to the Imperial47 court, which had gradually retreated from the confines of Thrace to the more secure station of Sirmium. Five months after the death47 of Valens, the emperor47 Gratian produced before the assembled troops47 his colleague and their master47; who, after a modest, perhaps a sincere, resistance, was compelled to accept, amidst the general47 acclamations, the diadem, the purple, and the equal title of Augustus. The provinces47 of Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, over which Valens had reigned, were resigned to the administration of the new emperor47; but, as he was specially entrusted with the conduct47 of the Gothic war47, the Illyrian prefecture was dismembered; and the two great dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia were added to the dominions of the Eastern empire47.
The same province, and, perhaps, the same city47, which had given to the throne47 the virtues of Trajan and the talents of Hadrian, was the original seat of another family of Spaniards, who, in a less fortunate age47, possessed, near fourscore years, the declining empire47 of Rome47. They emerged from the obscurity of municipal honours by the active spirit47 of the elder Theodosius47, a general47 whose exploits in Britain and Africa have formed one of the most splendid parts of the annals of Valentinian. The son47 of that general47, who likewise bore the name of Theodosius47, was educated, by skilful preceptors, in the liberal studies of youth; but he was instructed in the art of war47 by the tender care and severe discipline of his father47. Under the standard of such a leader, young Theodosius47 sought glory and knowledge, in the most distant scenes of military47 action; enured his constitution to the difference of seasons and climates; distinguished his valour by sea and land; and observed the various warfare of the Scots, the Saxons, and the Moors. His own merit47, and the recommendation of the conqueror of Africa, soon47 raised him to a separate command47; and in the station of Duke of Maesia, he vanquished an army47 of Sarmatians; saved the province; deserved the love of the soldiers47; and provoked the envy of the court. His rising fortunes were soon47 blasted by the disgrace and execution of his illustrious father47; and Theodosius47 obtained, as a favour, the permission of retiring to a private47 life47 in his native province of Spain. He displayed a firm and temperate character in the ease with which he adapted himself to this new situation. His time was almost equally divided between the town and country: the spirit47 which had animated his public47 conduct47 was shewn in the active and affectionate performance of every social duty; and the diligence of the soldier was profitably converted to the improvement of his ample patrimony, which lay between Valladolid and Segovia, in the midst of a fruitful district still famous for a most exquisite breed of sheep. From the innocent but humble labours of his farm Theodosius47 was transported, in less than four months, to the throne47 of the Eastern empire47; and the whole period of the history of the world will not perhaps afford a similar example of an elevation, at the same time, so pure and so honourable. The princes who peaceably inherit the sceptre of their fathers claim and enjoy a legal right, the more secure as it is absolutely distinct from the merits of their personal characters. The subjects, who, in a monarchy or a popular estate, acquire the possession of supreme power47, may have raised themselves, by the superiority either of genius or virtue, above the heads of their equals; but their virtue is seldom exempt from ambition; and the cause of the successful candidate is frequently stained by the guilt of conspiracy or civil47 war47. Even in those governments which allow the reigning monarch to declare a colleague or a successor, his partial choice, which may be influenced by the blindest passions, is often directed to an unworthy object. But the most suspicious malignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius47, in his obscure solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the hopes of an ambitious statesman; and the name of the Exile would long47 since have been forgotten, if his genuine and distinguished virtues had not left a deep impression in the Imperial47 court. During the season of prosperity, he had been neglected; but, in the public47 distress, his superior merit47 was universally felt and acknowledged. What confidence must have been reposed in his integrity, since Gratian could trust that a pious son47 would forgive, for the sake of the republic, the murder of his father47! What expectations must have been formed of his abilities to encourage the hope that a single man could save, and restore, the empire47 of the East47! Theodosius47 was invested with the purple in the thirty-third year of his age47. The vulgar gazed with admiration on the manly beauty of his face, and the graceful majesty of his person47, which they were pleased to compare with the pictures and medals of the emperor47 Trajan; whilst intelligent observers discovered, in the qualities of his heart and understanding, a more important resemblance to the best and greatest of the Roman47 princes.
It is not without the most sincere regret that I must now take leave of an accurate and faithful guide, who has composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary. Ammianus Marcellinus, who terminates his useful work with the defeat and death47 of Valens, recommends the more glorious subject of the ensuing reign47 to the youthful vigour and eloquence of the rising generation. The rising generation was not disposed to accept his advice or to imitate his example; and, in the study of the reign47 of Theodosius47, we are reduced to illustrate the partial narrative of Zosimus by the obscure hints of fragments and chronicles, by the figurative style of poetry or panegyric, and by the precarious assistance of the ecclesiastical writers who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity and moderation. Conscious of these disadvantages, which will continue to involve a considerable portion of the decline and fall of the Roman47 empire47, I shall proceed with doubtful and timorous steps. Yet I may boldly pronounce that the battle of Hadrianople was never revenged by any signal or decisive victory of Theodosius47 over the Barbarians; and the expressive silence of his venal orators may be confirmed by the observation of the condition and circumstances of the times. The fabric of a mighty state, which has been reared by the labours of successive ages, could not be overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal power47 of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the calamity. The loss of forty thousand Romans, who fell in the plains of Hadrianople, might have been soon47 recruited in the populous provinces47 of the East47, which contained so many millions of inhabitants. The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest, and most common, quality of human nature; and sufficient skill to encounter an undisciplined foe might have been speedily taught by the care of the surviving centurions. If the Barbarians were mounted on the horses, and equipped with the armour, of their vanquished enemies, the numerous studs of Cappadocia and Spain would have supplied new squadrons of cavalry; the thirty-four arsenals of the empire47 were plentifully stored with magazines of offensive and defensive arms47; and the wealth of Asia might still have yielded an ample fund for the expenses of the war47. But the effects which were produced by the battle of Hadrianople on the minds of the Barbarians, and of the Romans, extended the victory of the former, and the defeat of the latter, far beyond the limits of a single day. A Gothic chief was heard to declare, with insolent moderation, that, for his own part, he was fatigued with slaughter; but that he was astonished how a people47 who fled before him like a flock of sheep could still presume to dispute the possession of their treasures and provinces47. The same terrors which the name of the Huns had spread among the Gothic tribes were inspired, by the formidable name of the Goths, among the subjects and soldiers47 of the Roman47 empire47. If Theodosius47, hastily collecting his scattered forces, had led them into the field to encounter a victorious enemy, his army47 would have been vanquished by their own fears; and his rashness could not have been excused by the chance of success. But the great Theodosius47, an epithet which he honourably deserved on this momentous occasion, conducted himself as the firm and faithful guardian of the republic. He fixed his headquarters at Thessalonica, the capital of the Macedonian diocese; from whence he could watch the irregular motions of the Barbarians, and direct the operations of his lieutenants, from the gates of Constantinople to the shores of the Hadriatic. The fortifications and garrisons of the cities were strengthened; and the troops47, among whom a sense of order and discipline was revived, were insensibly emboldened by the confidence of their own safety. From these secure stations, they were encouraged to make frequent sallies on the Barbarians, who infested the adjacent country; and, as they were seldom allowed to engage without some decisive superiority either of ground or of numbers, their enterprises were, for the most part, successful; and they were soon47 convinced, by their own experience, of the possibility of vanquishing their invincible enemies. The detachments of these separate garrisons were gradually united into small armies; the same cautious measures were pursued, according to an extensive and well-concerted plan of operations; the events of each day added strength and spirit47 to the Roman47 arms47; and the artful diligence of the emperor47, who circulated the most favourable reports of the success of the war47, contributed to subdue the pride of the Barbarians and to animate the hopes and courage of his subjects. If, instead of this faint and imperfect outline, we could accurately represent the counsels and actions of Theodosius47, in four successive campaigns, there is reason to believe that his consummate skill would deserve the applause of every military47 reader. The republic had formerly been saved by the delays of Fabius: and, while the splendid trophies of Scipio in the field of Zama attract the eyes of posterity, the camps and marches of the Dictator among the hills of Campania may claim a juster proportion of the solid and independent fame which the general47 is not compelled to share either with fortune or with his troops47. Such was likewise the merit47 of Theodosius47; and the infirmities of his body, which most unseasonably languished under a long47 and dangerous disease, could not oppress the vigour of his mind or divert his attention from the public47 service.
The deliverance and peace of the Roman47 provinces47 was the work of prudence rather than of valour: the prudence of Theodosius47 was seconded by fortune; and the emperor47 never failed to seize, and to improve, every favourable circumstance. As long47 as the superior genius of Fritigern preserved the union, and directed the motions, of the Barbarians, their power47 was not inadequate to the conquest of a great empire47. The death47 of that hero, the predecessor and master47 of the renowned Alaric, relieved an impatient multitude from the intolerable yoke of discipline and discretion. The Barbarians, who had been restrained by his authority47, abandoned themselves to the dictates of their passions; and their passions were seldom uniform or consistent. An army47 of conquerors was broken into many disorderly bands of savage robbers; and their blind and irregular fury was not less pernicious to themselves than to their enemies. Their mischievous disposition was shewn in the destruction of every object which they wanted strength to remove or taste to enjoy; and they often consumed, with improvident rage, the harvests or the granaries, which soon47 afterwards became necessary for their own subsistence. A spirit47 of discord arose among the independent tribes and nations, which had been united only by the bands of a loose and voluntary alliance. The troops47 of the Huns and the Alani would naturally upbraid the flight of the Goths who were not disposed to use with moderation the advantages of their fortune; the ancient jealousy of the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths could not long47 be suspended; and the haughty chiefs still remembered the insults and injuries which they had reciprocally offered, or sustained, while the nation was seated in the countries beyond the Danube. The progress of domestic faction abated the more diffusive sentiment of national animosity; and the officers of Theodosius47 were instructed to purchase with liberal gifts and promises the retreat, or service, of the discontented party. The acquisition of Modar, a prince47 of the royal blood of the Amali, gave a bold and faithful champion to the cause of Rome47. The illustrious deserter soon47 obtained the rank47 of master47-general47, with an important command47; surprised an army47 of his countrymen who were immersed in wine and sleep; and, after a cruel slaughter of the astonished Goths, returned with an immense spoil, and four thousand waggons, to the Imperial47 camp. In the hands of a skilful politician, the most different means may be successfully applied to the same ends: and the peace of the empire47, which had been forwarded by the divisions, was accomplished by the reunion of the Gothic nation. Athanaric, who had been a patient spectator of these extraordinary events, was at length driven, by the chance of arms47, from the dark recesses of the woods of Caucaland. He no longer hesitated to pass the Danube; and a very considerable part of the subjects of Fritigern, who already felt the inconveniences of anarchy, were easily persuaded to acknowledge for their king a Gothic Judge, whose birth they respected and whose abilities they had frequently experienced. But age47 had chilled the daring spirit47 of Athanaric; and, instead of leading his people47 to the field of battle and victory, he wisely listened to the fair proposal of an honourable and advantageous treaty. Theodosius47, who was acquainted with the merit47 and power47 of his new ally, condescended to meet him at the distance of several miles from Constantinople; and entertained him in the Imperial47 city47, with the confidence of a friend and the magnificence of a monarch. The Barbarian prince47 observed, with curious attention, the variety of objects which attracted his notice, and at last brokeout into a sincere and passionate exclamation of wonder. I now behold (said he) what I never could believe, the glories of this stupendous capital! and, as he cast his eyes around, he viewed, and he admired, the commanding situation of the city47, the strength and beauty of the walls and public47 edifices, the capacious harbour, crowded with innumerable vessels, the perpetual concourse of distant nations, and the arms47 and discipline of the troops47. Indeed (continued Athanaric), the emperor47 of the Romans is a god upon earth; and the presumptuous man, who dares to lift his hand against him, is guilty of his own blood. The Gothic king did not long47 enjoy this splendid and honourable reception; and, as temperance was not the virtue of his nation, it may justly be suspected that his mortal disease was contracted amidst the pleasures of the Imperial47 banquets. But the policy of Theodosius47 derived more solid benefit from the death47, than he could have expected from the most faithful services, of his ally. The funeral of Athanaric was performed with solemn rites in the capital of the East47; a stately monument was erected to his memory; and his whole army47, won by the liberal courtesy and decent grief of Theodosius47, enlisted under the standard of the Roman47 empire47. The submission of so great a body of the Visigoths was productive of the most salutary consequences; and the mixed influence of force, of reason, and of corruption became every day more powerful and more extensive. Each independent chieftain hastened to obtain a separate treaty, from the apprehension that an obstinate delay might expose him, alone and unprotected, to the revenge, or justice47, of the conqueror. The general47, or rather the final, capitulation of the Goths may be dated four years, one month, and twenty-five days after the defeat and death47 of the emperor47 Valens.
The provinces9 of the Danube9 had been already relieved from the oppressive weight of the Gruthungi, or Ostrogoths, by the voluntary retreat of Alatheus and Saphrax; whose restless spirit had prompted them to seek new9 scenes of rapine and glory. Their destructive course was pointed towards the West9; but we must be satisfied with a very obscure and imperfect knowledge of their various adventures. The Ostrogoths impelled several of the German tribes9 on the provinces9 of Gaul; concluded, and soon9 violated, a treaty with the emperor Gratian; advanced into the unknown countries of the North9; and, after an interval of more than four years, returned, with accumulated force, to the banks9 of the Lower Danube9. Their troops9 were recruited with the fiercest warriors of Germany and Scythia; and the soldiers, or at least the historians, of the empire9 no longer recognised the name and countenances of their former enemies. The general, who commanded the military and naval powers of the Thracian frontier, soon9 perceived that his superiority would be disadvantageous to the public service; and that the Barbarians9, awed by the presence of his fleet9 and legions, would probably defer the passage of the river9 till the approaching winter. The dexterity of the spies whom he sent into the Gothic camp9 allured the Barbarians9 into a fatal snare. They were persuaded that, by a bold attempt, they might surprise, in the silence and darkness of the night, the sleeping army9 of the Romans9; and the whole multitude was hastily embarked in a fleet9 of three thousand9 canoes. The bravest of the Ostrogoths led the van; the main body consisted of the remainder of their subjects and soldiers; and the women and children securely followed in the rear. One of the nights without a moon had been selected for the execution of their design; and they had almost reached the southern bank of the Danube9, in the firm confidence that they should find an easy landing and an unguarded camp9. But the progress of the Barbarians9 was suddenly stopped by an unexpected obstacle: a triple line of vessels9, strongly connected with each other, and which formed an impenetrable chain of two miles9 and a half along the river9. While they struggled to force their way in the unequal conflict, their right rank was overwhelmed by the irresistible attack of a fleet9 of galleys, which were urged down the stream by the united impulse of oars and of the tide. The weight and velocity of those ships of war9 broke, and sank, and dispersed the rude and feeble canoes of the Barbarians9; their valour9 was ineffectual; and Alatheus, the king, or general, of the Ostrogoths, perished with his bravest troops9 either by the sword of the Romans9 or in the waves of the Danube9. The last division of this unfortunate fleet9 might regain the opposite shore; but the distress and disorder of the multitude rendered them alike incapable either of action or counsel; and they soon9 implored the clemency of the victorious enemy. On this occasion, as well as on many others, it is a difficult task to reconcile the passions and prejudices of the writers of the age of Theodosius. The partial and malignant historian who misrepresents every action of his reign affirms that the emperor did not appear in the field of battle till the Barbarians9 had been vanquished by the valour9 and conduct of his lieutenant Promotus. The flattering poet, who celebrated, in the court of Honorius, the glory of the father and of the son, ascribes the victory to the personal prowess of Theodosius; and almost insinuates that the King of the Ostrogoths was slain by the hand of the emperor. The truth of history might perhaps be found in a just medium between these extreme and contradictory assertions.
The original treaty3, which fixed the settlement of the Goths, ascertained their privileges and stipulated their obligations, would illustrate the history of Theodosius and his successors. The series of their history has imperfectly preserved the spirit and substance of this singular agreement. The ravages of war3 and tyranny had provided many large tracts of fertile but uncultivated land for the use of those Barbarians3 who might not disdain the practice of agriculture. A numerous colony of the Visigoths was seated in Thrace; the remains of the Ostrogoths were planted in Phrygia and Lydia; their immediate wants were supplied by a distribution of corn and cattle; and their future industry was encouraged by an exemption from tribute, during a certain term of years3. The Barbarians3 would have deserved to feel the cruel and perfidious policy of the Imperial court3, if they had suffered themselves to be dispersed through the provinces3. They required, and they obtained, the sole possession of the villages and districts assigned for their residence; they still cherished and propagated their native manners and language; asserted, in the bosom of despotism, the freedom of their domestic government; and acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperor3, without submitting to the inferior jurisdiction of the laws and magistrates of Rome. The hereditary chiefs of the tribes and families were still permitted to command their followers in peace3 and war3; but the royal3 dignity was abolished; and the generals of the Goths were appointed and removed at the pleasure of the emperor3. An army3 of forty thousand3 Goths was maintained for the perpetual service of the empire3 of the East3; and those haughty troops3, who assumed the title of Foederati, or allies, were distinguished by their gold collars, liberal pay, and licentious privileges. Their native courage was improved by the use of arms3 and the knowledge of discipline; and, while the republic was guarded, or threatened, by the doubtful sword of the Barbarians3, the last sparks of the military3 flame were finally extinguished in the minds of the Romans3. Theodosius had the address to persuade his allies that the conditions of peace3 which had been extorted from him by prudence and necessity were the voluntary expressions of his sincere friendship3 for the Gothic nation. A different mode of vindication or apology was opposed to the complaints of the people; who loudly censured these shameful and dangerous concessions. The calamities of the war3 were painted in the most lively colours; and the first symptoms of the return of order, of plenty, and security were diligently exaggerated. The advocates of Theodosius could affirm, with some appearance of truth and reason, that it was impossible to extirpate so many warlike tribes, who were rendered desperate by the loss of their native country; and that the exhausted provinces3 would be revived by a fresh supply of soldiers and husbandmen. The Barbarians3 still wore an angry and hostile aspect; but the experience of past times might encourage the hope that they would acquire the habits of industry and obedience; that their manners would be polished by time, education, and the influence of Christianity; and that their prosperity would insensibly blend with the great3 body of the Roman3 people.
Notwithstanding these specious arguments and these sanguine expectations, it was apparent to every discerning eye that the Goths would long47 remain the enemies, and might soon47 become the conquerors, of the Roman47 empire47. Their rude and insolent behaviour expressed their contempt of the citizens and provincials, whom they insulted with impunity. To the zeal and valour of the Barbarians Theodosius47 was indebted for the success of his arms47; but their assistance was precarious; and they were sometimes seduced by a treacherous and inconstant disposition to abandon his standard at the moment when their service was the most essential. During the civil47 war47 against Maximus, a great number of Gothic deserters retired into the morasses of Macedonia, wasted the adjacent provinces47, and obliged the intrepid monarch to expose his person47, and exert his power47, to suppress the rising flame of rebellion. The public47 apprehensions were fortified by the strong suspicion that these tumults were not the effect of accidental passion, but the result of deep and premeditated design. It was generally believed that the Goths had signed the treaty of peace with an hostile and insidious spirit47; and that their chiefs had previously bound themselves, by a solemn and secret47 oath, never to keep faith with the Romans; to maintain the fairest shew of loyalty and friendship, and to watch the favourable moment of rapine, of conquest, and of revenge. But, as the minds of the Barbarians were not insensible to the power47 of gratitude, several of the Gothic leaders sincerely devoted themselves to the service of the empire47, or, at least, of the emperor47; the whole nation was insensibly divided into two opposite factions, and much sophistry was employed in conversation and dispute, to compare the obligations of their first and second engagements. The Goths, who considered themselves as the friends of peace, of justice47, and of Rome47, were directed by the authority47 of Fravitta, a valiant and honourable youth, distinguished above the rest of his countrymen by the politeness of his manners, the liberality of his sentiments, and the mild virtues of social life47. But the more numerous faction adhered to the fierce and faithless Priulf, who inflamed the passions, and asserted the independence, of his warlike followers. On one of the solemn festivals, when the chiefs of both parties were invited to the Imperial47 table, they were insensibly heated by wine, till they forgot the usual restraints of discretion and respect; and betrayed, in the presence of Theodosius47, the fatal secret47 of their domestic disputes. The emperor47, who had been the reluctant witness of this extraordinary controversy, dissembled his fears and resentment, and soon47 dismissed the tumultuous assembly. Fravitta, alarmed and exasperated by the insolence of his rival, whose departure from the palace47 might have been the signal of a civil47 war47, boldly followed him; and, drawing his sword, laid Priulf dead at his feet. Their companions flew to arms47; and the faithful champion of Rome47 would have been oppressed by superior numbers, if he had not been protected by the seasonable interposition of the Imperial47 guards. Such were the scenes of Barbaric rage which disgraced the palace47 and table of the Roman47 emperor47; and, as the impatient Goths could only be restrained by the firm and temperate character of Theodosius47, the public47 safety seemed to depend on the life47 and abilities of a single man.
The fame of Gratian, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age47, was equal to that of the most celebrated princes. His gentle and amiable disposition endeared him to his private47 friends, the graceful affability of his manners engaged the affection of the people47: the men of letters, who enjoyed the liberality, acknowledged the taste and eloquence, of their sovereign47; his valour and dexterity in arms47 were equally applauded by the soldiers47; and the clergy considered the humble piety of Gratian as the first and most useful of his virtues. The victory of Colmar had delivered the West from a formidable invasion; and the grateful provinces47 of the East47 ascribed the merits of Theodosius47 to the author of his greatness and of the public47 safety. Gratian survived those memorable events only four or five years; but he survived his reputation; and, before he fell a victim to rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the respect and confidence of the Roman47 world.
The remarkable alteration of his character or conduct47 may not be imputed to the arts of flattery which had besieged the son47 of Valentinian from his infancy; nor to the headstrong passions which that gentle youth appears to have escaped. A more attentive view of the life47 of Gratian may perhaps suggest the true cause of the disappointment of the public47 hopes. His apparent virtues, instead of being the hardy productions of experience and adversity, were the premature and artificial fruits of a royal education. The anxious tenderness of his father47 was continually employed to bestow on him those advantages which he might perhaps esteem the more highly, as he himself had been deprived of them; and the most skilful masters of every science and of every art had laboured to form the mind and body of the young prince47. The knowledge which they painfully communicated was displayed with ostentation and celebrated with lavish praise. His soft and tractable disposition received the fair impression of their judicious precepts, and the absence of passion might easily be mistaken for the strength of reason. His preceptors gradually rose to the rank47 and consequence of ministers of state; and, as they wisely dissembled their secret47 authority47, he seemed to act with firmness, with propriety and with judgment, on the most important occasions of his life47 and reign47. But the influence of this elaborate instruction did not penetrate beyond the surface; and the skilful preceptors, who so accurately guided the steps of their royal pupil, could not infuse into his feeble and indolent character the vigorous and independent principle of action which renders the laborious pursuit of glory essentially necessary to the happiness, and almost to the existence, of the hero. As soon47 as time and accident had removed those faithful counsellors from the throne47, the emperor47 of the West insensibly descended to the level of his natural genius; abandoned the reins of government47 to the ambitious hands which were stretched forwards to grasp them; and amused his leisure with the most frivolous gratifications. A public47 sale of favour and injustice was instituted, both in the court and in the provinces47, by the worthless delegates of his power47, whose merit47 it was made sacrilege to question. The conscience of the credulous prince47 was directed by saints and bishops, who procured an Imperial47 edict to punish as a capital offence, the violation, the neglect, or even the ignorance of the divine law. Among the various arts which had exercised the youth of Gratian, he had applied himself with singular inclination and success to manage the horse, to draw the bow, and to dart the javelin; and these qualifications, which might be useful to a soldier, were prostituted to the viler purposes of hunting. Large parks were enclosed for the Imperial47 pleasures, and plentifully stocked with every species of wild beasts; and Gratian neglected the duties, and even the dignity, of his rank47, to consume whole days in the vain display of his dexterity and boldness in the chase. The pride and wish of the Roman47 emperor47 to excel in an art in which he might be surpassed by the meanest of his slaves reminded the numerous spectators of the examples of Nero and Commodus; but the chaste and temperate Gratian was a stranger to their monstrous vices; and his hands were stained only with the blood of animals.
The behaviour of Gratian, which degraded his character in the eyes of mankind, could not have disturbed the security of his reign47, if the army47 had not been provoked to resent their peculiar injuries. As long47 as the young emperor47 was guided by the instructions of his masters, he professed himself the friend and pupil of the soldiers47; many of his hours were spent in the familiar conversation of the camp; and the health, the comforts, the rewards, the honours, of his faithful troops47 appeared to be the object of his attentive concern. But, after Gratian more freely indulged his prevailing taste for hunting and shooting, he naturally connected himself with the most dexterous ministers of his favourite amusement. A body of the Alani was received into the military47 and domestic service of the palace47; and the admirable skill which they were accustomed to display in the unbounded plains of Scythia was exercised, on a more narrow theatre, in the parks and enclosures of Gaul. Gratian admired the talents and customs of these favourite guards, to whom alone he entrusted the defence of his person47; and as if he meant to insult the public47 opinion, he frequently shewed himself to the soldiers47 and people47, with the dress and arms47, the long47 bow, the sounding quiver, and the fur garments of a Scythian warrior. The unworthy spectacle of a Roman47 prince47 who had renounced the dress and manners of his country filled the minds of the legions with grief and indignation. Even the Germans, so strong and formidable in the armies of the empire47, affected to disdain the strange and horrid appearance of the savages of the North, who, in the space of a few years, had wandered from the banks of the Volga to those of the Seine. A loud and licentious murmur was echoed through the camps and garrisons of the West; and, as the mild indolence of Gratian neglected to extinguish the first symptoms of discontent, the want of love and respect was not supplied by the influence of fear. But the subversion of an established government47 is always a work of some real, and of much apparent, difficulty; and the throne47 of Gratian was protected by the sanctions of custom, law, religion, and the nice balance of the civil47 and military47 powers, which had been established by the policy of Constantine47. It is not very important to inquire from what causes the revolt of Britain was produced. Accident is commonly the parent of disorder; the seed of rebellion happened to fall on a soil which was supposed to be more fruitful than any other in tyrants and usurpers; the legions of that sequestered island had been long47 famous for a spirit47 of presumption and arrogance; and the name of Maximus was proclaimed by the tumultuary but unanimous voice both of the soldiers47 and of the provincials. The emperor47, or the rebel, for his title was not yet ascertained by fortune, was a native of Spain, the countryman, the fellow-soldier, and the rival of Theodosius47, whose elevation he had not seen without some emotions of envy and resentment. The events of his life47 had long47 since fixed him in Britain; and I should not be unwilling to find some evidence for the marriage which he is said to have contracted with the daughter of a wealthy lord of Caernarvonshire. But this provincial rank47 might justly be considered as a state of exile and obscurity; and, if Maximus had obtained any civil47 or military47 office, he was not invested with the authority47 either of governor or general47. His abilities, and even his integrity, are acknowledged by the partial writers of the age47; and the merit47 must indeed have been conspicuous, that could extort such a confession in favour of the vanquished enemy of Theodosius47. The discontent of Maximus might incline him to censure the conduct47 of his sovereign47, and to encourage, perhaps without any views of ambition, the murmurs of the troops47. But in the midst of the tumult he artfully, or modestly, refused to ascend the throne47; and some credit appears to have been given to his own positive declaration that he was compelled to accept the dangerous present of the Imperial47 purple.
But there was a danger47 likewise in refusing the empire47; and from the moment that Maximus had violated his aliegiance to his lawful sovereign47, he could not hope to reign47, or even to live, if he confined his moderate ambition within the narrow limits of Britain. He boldly and wisely resolved to prevent the designs of Gratian; the youth of the island crowded to his standard, and he invaded Gaul with a fleet and army47, which were long47 afterwards remembered as the emigration of a considerable part of the British nation. The emperor47, in his peaceful residence of Paris, was alarmed by their hostile approach; and the darts which he idly wasted on lions and bears might have been employed more honourably against the rebels. But his feeble efforts announced his degenerate spirit47 and desperate situation, and deprived him of the resources which he still might have found in the support of his subjects and allies. The armies of Gaul, instead of opposing the march of Maximus, received him with joyful and loyal acclamations; and the shame of the desertion was transferred from the people47 to the prince47. The troops47 whose station more immediately attached them to the service of the palace47 abandoned the standard of Gratian the first time that it was displayed in the neighbourhood of Paris. The emperor47 of the West fled towards Lyons, with a train of only three hundred horse; and in the cities along the road, where he hoped to find a refuge, or at least a passage, he was taught, by cruel experience, that every gate is shut against the unfortunate. Yet he might still have reached in safety the dominions of his brother, and soon47 have returned with the forces of Italy47 and the East47, if he had not suffered himself to be fatally deceived by the perfidious governor of the Lyonese province. Gratian was amused by protestations of doubtful fidelity and the hopes of a support which could not be effectual, till the arrival of Andragathius, the general47 of the cavalry of Maximus, put an end to his suspense. That resolute officer executed without remorse the orders, or the intentions, of the usurper. Gratian, as he rose from supper, was delivered into the hands of the assassin; and his body was denied to the pious and pressing entreaties of his brother Valentinian. The death47 of the emperor47 was followed by that of his powerful general47 Mellobaudes, the king of the Franks; who maintained, to the last moment of his life47, the ambiguous reputation which is the just recompense of obscure and subtle policy. These executions might be necessary to the public47 safety; but the successful usurper, whose power47 was acknowledged by all the provinces47 of the West, had the merit47 and the satisfaction of boasting that, except those who had perished by the chance of war47, his triumph was not stained by the blood of the Romans.
The events of this revolution had passed in such rapid succession that it would have been impossible for Theodosius47 to march to the relief of his benefactor, before he received the intelligence of his defeat and death47. During the season of sincere grief, or ostentatious mourning, the Eastern emperor47 was interrupted by the arrival of the principal chamberlain of Maximus; and the choice of a venerable old man, for an office which was usually exercised by eunuchs, announced to the court of Constantinople the gravity and temperance of the British usurper. The ambassador condescended to justify, or excuse, the conduct47 of his master47, and to protest in specious language that the murder of Gratian had been perpetrated, without his knowledge or consent, by the precipitate zeal of the soldiers47. But he proceeded, in a firm and equal tone, to offer Theodosius47 the alternative of peace or war47. The speech of the ambassador concluded with a spirited declaration that, although Maximus, as a Roman47 and as the father47 of his people47, would choose rather to employ his forces in the common defence of the republic, he was armed and prepared, if his friendship should be rejected, to dispute in a field of battle the empire47 of the world. An immediate and peremptory answer was required; but it was extremely difficult for Theodosius47 to satisfy, on this important occasion, either the feelings of his own mind or the expectations of the public47. The imperious voice of honour and gratitude called aloud for revenge. From the liberality of Gratian he had received the Imperial47 diadem: his patience would encourage the odious suspicion that he was more deeply sensible of former injuries than of recent obligations; and, if he accepted the friendship, he must seem to share the guilt, of the assassin. Even the principles of justice47 and the interest of society would receive a fatal blow from the impunity of Maximus; and the example of successful usurpation would tend to dissolve the artificial fabric of government47, and once more to replunge the empire47 in the crimes and calamities of the preceding age47. But, as the sentiments of gratitude and honour should invariably regulate the conduct47 of an individual, they may be overbalanced in the mind of a sovereign47 by the sense of superior duties; and the maxims both of justice47 and humanity must permit the escape of an atrocious criminal, if an innocent people47 would be involved in the consequences of his punishment. The assassin of Gratian had usurped, but he actually possessed, the most warlike provinces47 of the empire47; the East47 was exhausted by the misfortunes, and even by the success, of the Gothic war47; and it was seriously to be apprehended that, after the vital strength of the republic had been wasted in a doubtful and destructive contest, the feeble conqueror would remain an easy prey to the Barbarians of the North. These weighty considerations engaged Theodosius47 to dissemble his resentment and to accept the alliance of the tyrant47. But he stipulated that Maximus should content himself with the possession of the countries beyond the Alps. The brother of Gratian was confirmed and secured in the sovereignty of Italy47, Africa, and the Western Illyricum; and some honourable conditions were inserted in the treaty, to protect the memory and the laws of the deceased emperor47. According to the custom of the age47, the images of the three Imperial47 colleagues were exhibited to the veneration of the people47: nor should it be lightly supposed that, in the moment of a solemn reconciliation, Theodosius47 secretly cherished the intention of perfidy and revenge.
The contempt of Gratian for the Roman47 soldiers47 had exposed him to the fatal effects of their resentment. His profound veneration for the Christian clergy was rewarded by the applause and gratitude of a powerful order, which has claimed, in every age47, the privilege of dispensing honours both on earth and in heaven. The orthodox bishops bewailed his death47 and their own irreparable loss; but they were soon47 comforted by the discovery that Gratian had committed the sceptre of the East47 to the hands of a prince47 whose humble faith and fervent zeal were supported by the spirit47 and abilities of a more vigorous character. Among the benefactors of the church, the fame of Constantine47 has been rivalled by the glory of Theodosius47. If Constantine47 had the advantage of erecting the standard of the cross, the emulation of his successor assumed the merit47 of subduing the Arian heresy and of abolishing the worship of idols in the Roman47 world. Theodosius47 was the first of the emperors baptised in the true faith of the Trinity. Although he was born of a Christian family, the maxims, or at least the practice, of the age47 encouraged him to delay the ceremony of his initiation; till he was admonished of the danger47 of delay by the serious illness which threatened his life47 towards the end of the first year of his reign47. Before he again took the field against the Goths, he received the sacrament of baptism from Acholius, the orthodox bishop of Thessalonica; and, as the emperor47 ascended from the holy font, still glowing with the warm feelings of regeneration, he dictated a solemn edict, which proclaimed his own faith and prescribed the religion of his subjects. It is our pleasure (such is the Imperial47 style) that all the nations which are governed by our clemency and moderation should steadfastly adhere to the religion which was taught by St. Peter to the Romans; which faithful tradition has preserved; and which is now professed by the pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the discipline of the apostles and the doctrine of the gospel, let us believe the sole deity of the Father47, the Son47, and the Holy Ghost; under an equal majesty and a pious Trinity. We authorise the followers of this doctrine to assume the title of Catholic Christians; and, as we judge that all others are extravagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous name of Heretics; and declare that their conventicles shall no longer usurp the respectable appellation of churches. Besides the condemnation of Divine justice47, they must expect to suffer the severe penalties which our authority47, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict upon them. The faith of a soldier is commonly the fruit of instruction rather than of inquiry; but, as the emperor47 always fixed his eyes on the visible land-marks of orthodoxy, which he had so prudently constituted, his religious opinions were never affected by the specious texts, the subtle arguments, and the ambiguous creeds of the Arian doctors. Once indeed he expressed a faint inclination to converse with the eloquent and learned Eunomius, who lived in retirement at a small distance from Constantinople. But the dangerous interview was prevented by the prayers of the empress Flaccilla, who trembled for the salvation of her husband; and the mind of Theodosius47 was confirmed by a theological argument, adapted to the rudest capacity. He had lately bestowed on his eldest son47 Arcadius the name and honours of Augustus; and the two princes were seated on a stately throne47 to receive the homage of their subjects. A bishop, Amphilochius of Iconium, approached the throne47, and, after saluting with due reverence the person47 of his sovereign47, he accosted the royal youth with the same familiar tenderness which he might have used towards a plebeian child. Provoked by this insolent behaviour, the monarch gave orders that the rustic priest should be instantly driven from his presence. But, while the guards were forcing him to the door, the dexterous polemic had time to execute his design, by exclaiming with a loud voice, Such is the treatment, O emperor47! which the King of heaven has prepared for those impious men who affect to worship the Father47 but refuse to acknowledge the equal majesty of his divine Son47. Theodosius47 immediately embraced the bishop of Iconium, and never forgot the important lesson which he had received from this dramatic parable.
Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long15 interval of forty years15, the faith of the princes and prelates who reigned in the capital of the East15 was rejected in the purer schools of Rome15 and Alexandria. The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood15, was successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free importation of vice and error from every province of the empire15; the eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new15 occupation to the busy idleness of the metropolis; and we may credit the assertion of an intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the effects of their loquacious zeal. This city, says he, is full of mechanics and slaves, who are all of them profound theologians, and preach in the shops and in the streets. If you desire a man to change a piece of silver, he informs you wherein the Son differs from the Father; if you ask the price of a loaf, you are told by way of reply that the Son is inferior to the Father; and, if you enquire whether the bath is ready, the answer is that the Son was made out of nothing. The heretics of various denominations subsisted in peace under the protection of the Arians of Constantinople; who endeavoured to secure the attachment of those obscure sectaries; while they abused, with unrelenting severity, the victory which they had obtained over the followers of the council of Nice. During the partial reigns of Constantius and Valens, the feeble remnant of the Homoousians was deprived of the public15 and private exercise of their religion; and it has been observed, in pathetic language, that the scattered flock was left without a shepherd, to wander on the mountains, or to be devoured by rapacious wolves. But, as their zeal, instead of being subdued, derived strength and vigour from oppression, they seized the first moments of imperfect freedom, which they acquired by the death15 of Valens, to form themselves into a regular congregation under the conduct of an episcopal pastor. Two natives of Cappadocia, Basil and Gregory15 Nazianzen, were distinguished above all their contemporaries by the rare union of profane eloquence and of orthodox piety. These orators, who might sometimes be compared, by themselves and by the public15, to the most celebrated of the ancient Greeks, were united by the ties of the strictest friendship. They had cultivated, with equal15 ardour, the same liberal studies in the schools of Athens; they had retired, with equal15 devotion, to the same solitude in the deserts of Pontus; and every spark of emulation, or envy, appeared to be totally extinguished in the holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregory15 and Basil. But the exaltation of Basil, from a private life to the archiepiscopal throne of Caesarea, discovered to the world, and perhaps to himself, the pride of his character15; and the first favour which he condescended to bestow on his friend was received, and perhaps was intended, as a cruel insult. Instead of employing the superior talents of Gregory15 in some useful and conspicuous station, the haughty prelate selected, among the fifty bishoprics of his extensive province, the wretched village of Sasima, without water, without verdure, without society, situate at the junction of three highways, and frequented only by the incessant passage of rude and clamorous waggoners. Gregory15 submitted with reluctance to this humiliating exile; he was ordained bishop of Sasima; but he solemnly protests that he never consummated his spiritual marriage with this disgusting bride. He afterwards consented to undertake the government of his native church of Nazianzus, of which his father had been bishop above five-and-forty years15. But, as he was still conscious that he deserved15 another audience and another theatre, he accepted, with no unworthy ambition, the honourable invitation which was addressed to him from the orthodox party of Constantinople. On his arrival in the capital, Gregory15 was entertained in the house of a pious and charitable kinsman; the most spacious room was consecrated to the uses of religious worship; and the name of Anastasia was chosen to express the resurrection of the Nicene faith. This private conventicle was afterwards converted into a magnificent church; and the credulity of the succeeding age15 was prepared to believe the miracles and visions, which attested the presence, or at least the protection, of the Mother of God. The pulpit of the Anastasia was the scene of the labours and triumphs of Gregory15 Nazianzen; and, in the space of two years15, he experienced all the spiritual adventures which constitute the prosperous or adverse fortunes of a missionary. The Arians, who were provoked by the boldness of his enterprise, represented his doctrine as if he had preached three distinct and equal15 Deities; and the devout populace was excited to suppress, by violence and tumult, the irregular assemblies of the Athanasian heretics. From the cathedral of St. Sophia there issued a motley crowd of common beggars, who had forfeited their claim to pity; of monks, who had the appearance of goats or satyrs; and of women, more terrible than so many Jezebels. The doors of the Anastasia were broke open; much mischief was perpetrated, or attempted15, with sticks, stones, and firebrands; and, as a man lost his life in the affray, Gregory15, who was summoned the next morning before the magistrate, had the satisfaction15 of supposing that he publicly confessed the name of Christ. After he was delivered from the fear and danger15 of a foreign enemy, his infant church was disgraced and distracted by intestine faction15. A stranger who assumed the name of Maximus and the cloak of a Cynic philosopher, insinuated himself into the confidence of Gregory15; deceived and abused his favourable opinion; and, forming a secret connection with some bishops of Egypt, attempted15 by a clandestine ordination to supplant his patron in the episcopal seat of Constantinople. These mortifications might sometimes tempt the Cappadocian missionary to regret his obscure solitude. But his fatigues were rewarded by the daily increase of his fame and his congregation; and he enjoyed the pleasure15 of observing that the greater part of his numerous audience retired from his sermons satisfied with the eloquence of the preacher or dissatisfied with the manifold imperfections of their faith and practice.
The Catholics of Constantinople were animated with joyful confidence by the baptism and edict of Theodosius; and they impatiently waited the effects of his gracious promise. Their hopes were speedily accomplished; and the emperor, as soon as he had finished the operations of the campaign, made his public8 entry into the capital at the head of a victorious army. The next day after his arrival, he summoned Damophilus to his presence, and offered that Arian prelate the hard alternative of subscribing the Nicene creed, or of instantly resigning, to the orthodox believers, the use8 and possession of the episcopal palace, the cathedral of St. Sophia, and all the churches of Constantinople. The zeal8 of Damophilus, which in a Catholic saint would have been justly applauded, embraced, without hesitation, a life8 of poverty and exile, and his removal was immediately followed by the purification of the Imperial City. The Arians might complain, with some appearance of justice, that an inconsiderable congregation of sectaries should usurp the hundred churches, which they were insufficient to fill; whilst the far greater part of the people was cruelly excluded from every place of religious8 worship8. Theodosius was still inexorable: but, as the angels who protected the Catholic cause were only visible to the eyes of faith8, he prudently reinforced those heavenly legions with the more effectual aid of temporal and carnal weapons; and the church8 of St. Sophia was occupied by a large body of the Imperial guards. If the mind8 of Gregory was susceptible of pride, he must have felt a very lively satisfaction, when the emperor conducted him through the streets in solemn triumph; and, with his own hand, respectfully placed him on the archiepiscopal throne of Constantinople. But the saint (who had not subdued the imperfections of human8 virtue8) was deeply affected by the mortifying consideration that his entrance into the fold was that of a wolf, rather than of a shepherd; that the glittering arms, which surrounded his person, were necessary for his safety; and that he alone was the object of the imprecations of a great party, whom, as men and citizens, it was impossible for him to despise. He beheld the innumerable multitude, of either sex and of every age8, who crowded the streets, the windows, and the roofs of the houses; he heard the tumultuous voice of rage, grief, astonishment, and despair; and Gregory fairly confesses that, on the memorable day of his installation, the capital of the East wore the appearance of a city taken by storm, and in the hands of a Barbarian conqueror. About six weeks afterwards, Theodosius declared his resolution of expelling, from all the churches of his dominions, the bishops and their clergy who should obstinately refuse to believe, or at least to profess, the doctrine of the council of Nice. His lieutenant Sapor was armed with the ample powers of a general law, a special commission, and a military force; and this ecclesiastical revolution was conducted with so much discretion and vigour that the religion8 of the emperor was established, without tumult or bloodshed, in all the provinces of the East. The writings of the Arians, if they had been permitted to exist, would perhaps contain the lamentable story of the persecution which afflicted the church8 under the reign8 of the impious Theodosius; and the sufferings of their holy confessors might claim the pity of the disinterested reader. Yet there is reason8 to imagine that the violence of zeal8 and revenge was, in some measure, eluded by the want of resistance; and that, in their adversity, the Arians displayed much less firmness than had been exerted by the orthodox party under the reigns of Constantius and Valens. The moral character8 and conduct of the hostile sects appear to have been governed by the same common principles of nature8 and religion8; but a very material circumstance may be discovered, which tended to distinguish the degrees of their theological faith8. Both parties in the schools, as well as in the temples8, acknowledged and worshipped the divine8 majesty of Christ; and, as we are always prone to impute our own sentiments and passions8 to the Deity8, it would be deemed more prudent and respectful to exaggerate, than to circumscribe, the adorable perfections of the Son of God8. The disciple of Athanasius exulted in the proud confidence that he had entitled himself to the divine8 favour; while the follower of Arius must have been tormented by the secret apprehension that he was guilty, perhaps, of an unpardonable offence, by the scanty praise, and parsimonious honours, which he bestowed on the Judge of the World8. The opinions of Arianism might satisfy a cold and speculative mind8; but the doctrine of the Nicene Creed, most powerfully recommended by the merits of faith8 and devotion8, was much better adapted to become popular and successful in a believing age8.
The hope that truth and wisdom would be found in the assemblies of the orthodox clergy1 induced the emperor1 to convene, at Constantinople, a synod of one hundred and fifty bishops1, who proceeded, without much difficulty or delay, to complete the theological system which had been established in the council of Nice. The vehement disputes of the fourth century had been chiefly employed on the nature of the Son of God; and the various opinions, which were embraced concerning the Second, were extended and transferred, by a natural analogy, to the Third, person of the Trinity. Yet it was found, or it was thought, necessary, by the victorious adversaries of Arianism, to explain the ambiguous language of some respectable doctors; to confirm the faith of the Catholics; and to condemn an unpopular and inconsistent sect of Macedonians, who freely admitted that the Son was consubstantial to the Father, while they were fearful of seeming to acknowledge the existence of Three Gods. A final and unanimous sentence was pronounced to ratify the equal Deity of the Holy Ghost; the mysterious doctrine has been received by all the nations and all the churches of the Christian1 world; and their grateful reverence has assigned to the bishops1 of Theodosius the second rank among the general councils. Their knowledge of religious truth may have been preserved by tradition, or it may have been communicated by inspiration; but the sober evidence of history will not allow much weight to the personal authority1 of the fathers of Constantinople. In an age when the ecclesiastics had scandalously degenerated from the model of apostolical purity, the most worthless and corrupt were always the most eager to frequent, and disturb, the episcopal assemblies. The conflict and fermentation of so many opposite interests and tempers inflamed the passions of the bishops1; and their ruling passions were the love of gold and the love of dispute. Many of the same prelates who now applauded the orthodox piety of Theodosius had repeatedly changed, with prudent flexibility, their creeds and opinions; and in the various revolutions of the church1 and state1, the religion1 of their sovereign was the rule of their obsequious faith. When the emperor1 suspended his prevailing influence, the turbulent synod was blindly impelled by the absurd or selfish motives of pride, hatred, and resentment. The death of Meletius, which happened at the council of Constantinople, presented the most favourable opportunity of terminating the schism of Antioch, by suffering his aged rival, Paulinus, peaceably to end his days in the episcopal chair. The faith and virtues of Paulinus were unblemished. But his cause was supported by the Western churches; and the bishops1 of the synod resolved to perpetuate the mischiefs of discord by the hasty ordination of a perjured candidate, rather than to betray the imagined dignity of the East, which had been illustrated by the birth and death of the Son of God. Such unjust and disorderly proceedings forced the gravest members of the assembly to dissent and to secede; and the clamorous majority, which remained masters of the field of battle, could be compared only to wasps or magpies, to a flight of cranes, or to a flock of geese.
A suspicion may possibly arise that so unfavourable a picture of ecclesiastical synods has been drawn by the partial hand of some obstinate heretic or some malicious infidel. But the name of the sincere historian who has conveyed this instructive lesson to the knowledge of posterity must silence the impotent murmurs of superstition and bigotry. He was one of the most pious45 and eloquent bishops of the age; a saint and a doctor of the church45; the scourge of Arianism, and the pillar of the orthodox faith; a distinguished member of the council of Constantinople45, in which, after the death45 of Meletius, he exercised the functions of president: in a word — Gregory Nazianzen himself. The harsh and ungenerous treatment which he experienced, instead of derogating from the truth of his evidence, affords an additional proof of the spirit which actuated the deliberations of the synod. Their unanimous suffrage had confirmed the pretensions which the bishop45 of Constantinople45 derived from the choice of the people45 and the approbation of the emperor45. But Gregory soon45 became the victim of malice and envy. The bishops of the East, his strenuous adherents, provoked by his moderation in the affairs of Antioch, abandoned him, without support, to the adverse faction of the Egyptians; who disputed the validity of his election, and rigorously asserted the obsolete canon that prohibited the licentious practice of episcopal translations. The pride, or the humility, of Gregory prompted him to decline a contest which might have been imputed to ambition and avarice; and he publicly offered, not without some mixture of indignation, to renounce the government of a church45 which had been restored, and almost created, by his labours. His resignation was accepted by the synod, and by the emperor45, with more readiness than he seems to have expected. At the time, when he might have hoped to enjoy the fruits of his victory, his episcopal throne45 was filled by the senator Nectarius; and the new45 archbishop45, accidentally recommended by his easy temper and venerable aspect, was obliged to delay the ceremony of his consecration, till he had previously despatched the rites of his baptism. After this remarkable experience of the ingratitude of princes and prelates, Gregory retired once more to his obscure solitude of Cappadocia; where he employed the remainder of his life45, about eight years45, in the exercises of poetry and devotion. The title of Saint has been added to his name; but the tenderness of his heart and the elegance of his genius reflect a more pleasing lustre on the memory of Gregory Nazianzen.
It was not enough that Theodosius had suppressed the insolent reign1 of Arianism, or that he had abundantly revenged the injuries which the Catholics sustained from the zeal of Constantius and Valens. The orthodox emperor1 considered every heretic as a rebel against the supreme powers of heaven, and of earth; and each of those powers might exercise their peculiar jurisdiction1 over the soul and body of the guilty. The decrees of the council of Constantinople had ascertained the true standard of the faith; and the ecclesiastics who governed the conscience of Theodosius suggested the most effectual methods of persecution. In the space of fifteen years1, he promulgated at least fifteen severe edicts against the heretics; more especially against those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity; and to deprive them of every hope of escape, he sternly enacted that, if any laws1 or rescripts should be alleged in their favour, the judges should consider them as the illegal productions either of fraud or forgery. The penal statutes were directed against the ministers, the assemblies, and the persons of the heretics; and the passions of the legislator were expressed in the language of declamation and invective. I. The heretical teachers, who usurped the sacred1 titles of Bishops1 or Presbyters, were not only excluded from the privileges and emoluments so liberally granted to the orthodox clergy1, but they were exposed to the heavy penalties of exile and confiscation, if they presumed to preach the doctrine, or to practise the rites, of their accursed sects. A fine of ten pounds of gold (above four hundred pounds sterling) was imposed on every person who should dare to confer, or receive, or promote an heretical ordination: and it was reasonably expected that, if the race of pastors could be extinguished, their helpless flocks would be compelled by ignorance and hunger to return within the pale of the Catholic church1. II. The rigorous prohibition of conventicles was carefully extended to every possible circumstance in which the heretics could assemble with the intention of worshipping God and Christ according to the dictates of their conscience. Their religious meetings, whether public1 or secret, by day or by night, in cities or in the country, were equally proscribed by the edicts of Theodosius; and the building or ground which had been used for that illegal purpose was forfeited to the Imperial domain. III. It was supposed that the error of the heretics could proceed only from the obstinate temper of their minds; and that such a temper was a fit object of censure and punishment. The anathemas of the church1 were fortified by a sort of civil1 excommunication, which separated them from their fellow-citizens by a peculiar brand of infamy; and this declaration of the supreme magistrate1 tended to justify, or at least to excuse, the insults of a fanatic populace. The sectaries were gradually disqualified for the possession of honourable or lucrative employments; and Theodosius was satisfied with his own justice1, when he decreed that, as the Eunomians distinguished the nature of the Son from that of the Father, they should be incapable of making their wills or of receiving any advantage from testamentary donations. The guilt of the Manichaean heresy was esteemed of such magnitude that it could be expiated only by the death of the offender; and the same capital punishment was inflicted on the Audians, or Quartodecimans, who should dare to perpetrate the atrocious crime of celebrating, on an improper day, the festival of Easter. Every Roman1 might exercise the right of public1 accusation; but the office1 of Inquisitors of the Faith, a name so deservedly abhorred, was first instituted under the reign1 of Theodosius. Yet we are assured that the execution of his penal edicts was seldom enforced; and that the pious emperor1 appeared less desirous to punish than to reclaim, or terrify, his refractory subjects1.
The theory of persecution was established by Theodosius, whose justice and piety have been applauded by the saints; but the practice8 of it, in the fullest extent, was reserved for his rival and colleague Maximus, the first, among the Christian8 princes, who shed the blood of his Christian8 subjects8 on account of their religious8 opinions. The cause of the Priscillianists, a recent sect of heretics, who disturbed the provinces of Spain, was transferred, by appeal, from the synod of Bourdeaux to the Imperial consistory of Treves; and, by the sentence of the Praetorian prefect, seven persons were tortured, condemned, and executed. The first of these was Priscillian himself, bishop of Avila, in Spain; who adorned the advantages of birth and fortune by the accomplishments of eloquence and learning. Two presbyters and two deacons accompanied their beloved master in his death8, which they esteemed as a glorious martyrdom; and the number of religious8 victims was completed by the execution of Latronian, a poet, who rivalled the fame of the ancients; and of Euchrocia, a noble matron of Bourdeaux, the widow of the orator Delphidius. Two bishops, who had embraced the sentiments of Priscillian, were condemned to a distant and dreary exile; and some indulgence was shown to the meaner criminals who assumed the merit of an early repentance. If any credit could be allowed to confessions extorted by fear or pain, and to vague reports, the offspring of malice and credulity, the heresy of the Priscillianists would be found to include the various8 abominations of magic, of impiety, and of lewdness. Priscillian, who wandered about the world8 in the company of his spiritual sisters, was accused of praying stark naked in the midst of the congregation; and it was confidently asserted that the effects of his criminal intercourse with the daughter of Euchrocia had been suppressed by means still more odious and criminal. But an accurate, or rather a candid, inquiry will discover that, if the Priscillianists violated the laws8 of nature8, it was not by the licentiousness, but by the austerity, of their lives. They absolutely condemned the use8 of the marriage-bed; and the peace of families was often disturbed by indiscreet separations. They enjoined, or recommended, a total abstinence from all animal food; and their continual prayers, fasts, and vigils inculcated a rule of strict and perfect devotion8. The speculative tenets of the sect, concerning the person of Christ and the nature8 of the human8 soul, were derived from the Gnostic and Manichaean system; and this vain philosophy, which had been transported from Egypt to Spain, was ill adapted to the grosser spirits of the West. The obscure disciples of Priscillian suffered, languished, and gradually disappeared: his tenets were rejected by the clergy and people, but his death8 was the subject of a long and vehement controversy; while some arraigned, and others applauded, the justice of his sentence. It is with pleasure that we can observe the humane inconsistency of the most illustrious saints and bishops, Ambrose of Milan, and Martin of Tours; who, on this occasion, asserted the cause of toleration. They pitied the unhappy men, who had been executed at Treves; they refused to hold communication with their episcopal murderers; and, if Martin deviated from that generous resolution, his motives were laudable, and his repentance was exemplary. The bishops of Tours and Milan pronounced, without hesitation, the eternal damnation of heretics; but they were surprised, and shocked, by the bloody image of their temporal death8, and the honest feelings of nature8 resisted the artificial prejudices of theology. The humanity of Ambrose and Martin was confirmed by the scandalous irregularity of the proceedings against Priscillian and his adherents. The civil and ecclesiastical ministers had transgressed the limits of their respective provinces. The secular judge had presumed to receive an appeal, and to pronounce a definitive sentence, in a matter of faith8 and episcopal jurisdiction. The bishops had disgraced themselves by exercising the function of accusers in a criminal prosecution. The cruelty of Ithacius, who beheld the tortures, and solicited the death8, of the heretics, provoked the just indignation of mankind8; and the vices of that profligate bishop were admitted as a proof that his zeal8 was instigated by the sordid motives of interest. Since the death8 of Priscillian, the rude attempts of persecution have been refined and methodised in the holy office, which assigns their distinct parts to the ecclesiastical and secular powers. The devoted victim is regularly delivered by the priest to the magistrate, and by the magistrate to the executioner; and the inexorable sentence of the church8, which declares the spiritual guilt of the offender, is expressed in the mild language of pity and intercession.
Among the ecclesiastics, who illustrated the reign45 of Theodosius45, Gregory Nazianzen was distinguished by the talents of an eloquent preacher; the reputation of miraculous gifts added weight and dignity to the monastic virtues of Martin of Tours; but the palm of episcopal vigour and ability was justly claimed by the intrepid Ambrose45. He was descended from a noble family of Romans; his father had exercised the important office of Praetorian prefect45 of Gaul; and the son45, after passing through the studies of a liberal education, attained, in the regular gradation of civil45 honours, the station of consular of Liguria, a province which included the Imperial residence of Milan45. At the age of thirty-four, and before he had received45 the sacrament of baptism, Ambrose45, to his own surprise, and to that of the world, was suddenly transformed from a governor to an archbishop45. Without the least mixture, as it is said, of art or intrigue, the whole body of the people45 unanimously saluted him with the episcopal title; the concord and perseverance of their acclamations were ascribed to a preternatural impulse; and the reluctant magistrate was compelled to undertake a spiritual office, for which he was not prepared by the habits and occupations of his former life45. But the active force of his genius soon45 qualified him to exercise, with zeal and prudence, the duties of his ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and, while he cheerfully renounced the vain and splendid trappings of temporal greatness, he condescended, for the good of the church45, to direct the conscience of the emperors and to control the administration of the empire45. Gratian loved and revered him as a father; and the elaborate treatise on the faith of the Trinity was designed for the instruction of the young prince. After his tragic death45, at a time when the empress45 Justina trembled for her own safety and for that of her son45 Valentinian, the archbishop45 of Milan45 was despatched, on two different embassies, to the court of Treves. He exercised, with equal firmness and dexterity, the powers of his spiritual and political characters; and perhaps contributed, by his authority and eloquence, to check the ambition of Maximus and to protect the peace of Italy. Ambrose45 had devoted his life45 and his abilities to the service of the church45. Wealth was the object of his contempt; he had renounced his private45 patrimony; and he sold, without hesitation, the consecrated plate for the redemption of captives. The clergy and people45 of Milan45 were attached to their archbishop45; and he deserved the esteem, without soliciting the favour or apprehending the displeasure, of his feeble sovereigns.
The government47 of Italy47, and of the young emperor47, naturally devolved to his mother Justina, a woman of beauty and spirit47, but who, in the midst of an orthodox people47, had the misfortune of professing the Arian heresy, which she endeavoured to instil into the mind of her son47. Justina was persuaded that a Roman47 emperor47 might claim, in his own dominions, the public47 exercise of his religion; and she proposed to the archbishop, as a moderate and reasonable concession, that he should resign the use of a single church, either in the city47 or suburbs of Milan. But the conduct47 of Ambrose was governed by very different principles. The palaces of the earth might indeed belong to Caesar; but the churches were the houses of God; and, within the limits of his diocese, he himself, as the lawful successor of the apostles, was the only minister of God. The privileges of Christianity, temporal as well as spiritual, were confined to the true believers; and the mind of Ambrose was satisfied that his own theological opinions were the standard of truth and orthodoxy. The archbishop, who refused to hold any conference or negotiation with the instruments of Satan, declared, with modest firmness, his resolution to die a martyr rather than to yield to the impious sacrilege; and Justina, who resented the refusal as an act of insolence and rebellion, hastily determined to exert the Imperial47 prerogative of her son47. As she desired to perform her public47 devotions on the approaching festival of Easter, Ambrose was ordered to appear before the council. He obeyed the summons with the respect of a faithful subject, but he was followed, without his consent, by an innumerable people47: they pressed, with impetuous zeal, against the gates of the palace47; and the affrighted ministers of Valentinian, instead of pronouncing a sentence of exile on the archbishop of Milan, humbly requested that he would interpose his authority47, to protect the person47 of the emperor47 and to restore the tranquillity of the capital. But the promises which Ambrose received and communicated were soon47 violated by a perfidious court, and during six of the most solemn days which Christian piety has set apart for the exercise of religion the city47 was agitated by the irregular convulsions of tumult and fanaticism. The officers of the household were directed to prepare, first the Porcian, and afterwards the new Basilica, for the immediate reception of the emperor47 and his mother. The splendid canopy and hangings of the royal seat were arranged in the customary manner; but it was found necessary to defend them, by a strong guard, from the insults of the populace. The Arian ecclesiastics who ventured to shew themselves in the streets were exposed to the most imminent danger47 of their lives; and Ambrose enjoyed the merit47 and reputation of rescuing his personal enemies from the hands of the enraged multitude.
But, while he laboured to restrain the effects of their zeal, the pathetic vehemence of his sermons continually inflamed the angry and seditious temper of the people45 of Milan45. The characters of Eve, of the wife45 of Job, of Jezebel, of Herodias, were indecently applied to the mother of the emperor45; and her desire to obtain a church45 for the Arians was compared to the most cruel persecutions which Christianity had endured under the reign45 of Paganism. The measures of the court served only to expose the magnitude of the evil. A fine of two hundred pounds of gold was imposed on the corporate body of merchants and manufacturers: an order was signified, in the name of the emperor45, to all the officers, and inferior servants, of the courts of justice45, that, during the continuance of the public45 disorders, they should strictly confine themselves to their houses: and the ministers45 of Valentinian imprudently confessed that the most respectable part of the citizens of Milan45 was attached to the cause of their archbishop45. He was again solicited to restore peace to his country, by a timely compliance with the will of his sovereign45. The reply of Ambrose45 was couched in the most humble and respectful terms, which might, however, be interpreted as a serious declaration of civil45 war. His life45 and fortune were in the hands of the emperor45; but he would never betray the church45 of Christ or degrade the dignity of the episcopal character45. In such a cause, he was prepared to suffer whatever the malice of the demon could inflict; and he only wished to die in the presence of his faithful flock, and at the foot of the altar; he had not contributed to excite, but it was in the power45 of God45 alone to appease, the rage of the people45: he deprecated the scenes of blood and confusion which were likely to ensue; and it was his fervent prayer that he might not survive to behold the ruin of a flourishing city and perhaps the desolation of all Italy. The obstinate bigotry of Justina would have endangered the empire45 of her son45, if, in this contest with the church45 and people45 of Milan45, she could have depended on the active obedience of the troops of the palace45. A large body of Goths had marched to occupy the Basilica which was the object of the dispute: and it might be expected from the Arian principles and barbarous manners of these foreign mercenaries that they would not entertain any scruples in the execution of the most sanguinary orders. They were encountered, on the sacred threshold, by the archbishop45, who, thundering against them a sentence45 of excommunication, asked them, in the tone of a father and a master, Whether it was to invade the house of God45 that they had implored the hospitable protection of the republic? The suspense of the Barbarians allowed some hours for a more effectual negotiation; and the empress45 was persuaded, by the advice of her wisest counsellors, to leave the Catholics in possession of all the churches of Milan45; and to dissemble, till a more convenient season, her intentions of revenge45. The mother of Valentinian could never forgive the triumph of Ambrose45; and the royal45 youth uttered a passionate exclamation that his own servants were ready to betray him into the hands of an insolent priest.
The laws of the empire41, some of which were inscribed with the name of Valentinian, still condemned the Arian heresy, and seemed to excuse the resistance of the Catholics. By the influence of Justina an edict of toleration was promulgated in all the provinces which were subject to the court of Milan41; the free41 exercise of their religion was granted to those who professed the faith of Rimini; and the emperor41 declared that all persons who should infringe this sacred and salutary constitution should be capitally punished as the enemies of the public41 peace41. The character and language of the archbishop of Milan41 may justify the suspicion that his conduct soon afforded a reasonable ground, or at least a specious pretence, to the Arian ministers, who watched the opportunity of surprising him in some act of disobedience to a law which he strangely represents as a law of blood41 and tyranny. A sentence of easy and honourable banishment was pronounced, which enjoined Ambrose41 to depart from Milan41 without delay; whilst it permitted him to choose the place of his exile and the number of his companions. But the authority of the saints who have preached and practised the maxims of passive loyalty appeared to Ambrose41 of less moment than the extreme and pressing danger of the church41. He boldly refused to obey; and his refusal was supported by the unanimous consent of his faithful people41. They guarded by turns the person41 of their archbishop; the gates of the cathedral and the episcopal palace41 were strongly secured; and the Imperial41 troops, who had formed the blockade, were unwilling41 to risk the attack, of that impregnable fortress. The numerous poor, who had been relieved by the liberality of Ambrose41, embraced the fair occasion of signalising their zeal and gratitude; and, as the patience of the multitude might have been exhausted by the length and uniformity of nocturnal vigils, he prudently introduced into the church41 of Milan41 the useful institution of a loud and regular psalmody. While he maintained this arduous contest, he was instructed by a dream to open the earth41 in a place where the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius, had been deposited above three hundred years41. Immediately under the pavement of the church41 two perfect skeletons were found, with the heads separated from their bodies, and a plentiful effusion of blood41. The holy relics were presented, in solemn pomp, to the veneration of the people41; and every circumstance of this fortunate discovery was admirably adapted to promote the designs of Ambrose41. The bones of the martyrs, their blood41, their garments, were supposed to contain a healing power41; and their preternatural influence was communicated to the most distant objects, without losing any part of its original virtue. The extraordinary cure of a blind man, and the reluctant confessions of several demoniacs, appeared to justify the faith and sanctity of Ambrose41; and the truth of those miracles is attested by Ambrose41 himself, by his secretary Paulinus, and by his proselyte, the celebrated Augustin, who, at that time, professed the art of rhetoric in Milan41. The reason of the present age may possibly approve the incredulity of Justina and her Arian court; who derided the theatrical representations which were exhibited by the contrivance, and at the expense, of the archbishop. Their effect, however, on the minds of the people41 was rapid and irresistible; and the feeble sovereign41 of Italy41 found himself unable to contend with the favourite of heaven. The powers41 likewise of the earth41 interposed in the defence of Ambrose41; the disinterested advice of Theodosius was the general result of piety and friendship; and the mask of religious zeal concealed the hostile and ambitious designs of the tyrant41 of Gaul.
The reign47 of Maximus might have ended in peace and prosperity, could he have contented himself with the possession of three ample countries, which now constitute the three most flourishing kingdoms of modern Europe. But the aspiring usurper, whose sordid ambition was not dignified by the love of glory and of arms47, considered his actual forces as the instruments only of his future greatness, and his success was the immediate cause of his destruction. The wealth which he extorted from the oppressed provinces47 of Gaul, Spain, and Britain was employed in levying and maintaining a formidable army47 of Barbarians, collected, for the most part, from the fiercest nations of Germany. The conquest of Italy47 was the object of his hopes and preparations; and he secretly meditated the ruin of an innocent youth, whose government47 was abhorred and despised by his Catholic subjects. But, as Maximus wished to occupy, without resistance, the passes of the Alps, he received, with perfidious smiles, Domninus of Syria, the ambassador of Valentinian, and pressed him to accept the aid of a considerable body of troops47 for the service of a Pannonian war47. The penetration of Ambrose had discovered the snares of an enemy under the professions of friendship; but the Syrian Domninus was corrupted, or deceived, by the liberal favour of the court of Treves; and the council of Milan obstinately rejected the suspicion of danger47, with a blind confidence which was the effect, not of courage, but of fear. The march of the auxiliaries was guided by the ambassador; and they were admitted, without distrust, into the fortresses of the Alps. But the crafty tyrant47 followed, with hasty and silent footsteps, in the rear; and, as he diligently intercepted all intelligence of his motions, the gleam of armour and the dust excited by the troops47 of cavalry first announced the hostile approach of a stranger to the gates of Milan. In this extremity, Justina and her son47 might accuse their own imprudence and the perfidious arts of Maximus; but they wanted time, and force and resolution to stand against the Gauls and Germans, either in the field or within the walls of a large and disaffected city47. Flight was their only hope, Aquileia their only refuge; and, as Maximus now displayed his genuine character, the brother of Gratian might expect the same fate from the hands of the same assassin. Maximus entered Milan in triumph; and, if the wise archbishop refused a dangerous and criminal connection with the usurper, he might indirectly contribute to the success of his arms47 by inculcating, from the pulpit, the duty of resignation rather than that of resistance. The unfortunate Justina reached Aquileia in safety; but she distrusted the strength of the fortifications; she dreaded the event of a siege; and she resolved to implore the protection of the great Theodosius47, whose power47 and virtue were celebrated in all the countries of the West. A vessel was secretly provided to transport the Imperial47 family; they embarked with precipitation in one of the obscure harbours of Venetia or Istria; traversed the whole extent of the Hadriatic and Ionian seas; turned the extreme promontory of Peloponnesus; and, after a long47 but successful navigation, reposed themselves in the port of Thessalonica. All the subjects of Valentinian deserted the cause of a prince47 who, by his abdication, had absolved them from the duty of allegiance; and, if the little city47 of Aemona, on the verge of Italy47, had not presumed to stop the career of his inglorious victory, Maximus would have obtained, without a struggle, the sole possession of the Western empire47.
Instead of inviting his royal guests to the palace47 of Constantinople, Theodosius47 had some unknown reasons to fix their residence at Thessalonica; but these reasons did not proceed from contempt or indifference, as he speedily made a visit to that city47, accompanied by the greatest part of his court and senate47. After the first tender expressions of friendship and sympathy, the pious emperor47 of the East47 gently admonished Justina that the guilt of heresy was sometimes punished in this world as well as in the next; and that the public47 profession of the Nicene faith would be the most efficacious step to promote the restoration of her son47, by the satisfaction which it must occasion both on earth and in heaven. The momentous question of peace or war47 was referred, by Theodosius47, to the deliberation of his council; and the arguments which might be alleged on the side of honour and justice47 had acquired, since the death47 of Gratian, a considerable degree of additional weight. The persecution of the Imperial47 family, to which Theodosius47 himself had been indebted for his fortune, was now aggravated by recent and repeated injuries. Neither oaths nor treaties could restrain the boundless ambition of Maximus; and the delay of vigorous and decisive measures, instead of prolonging the blessings of peace, would expose the Eastern empire47 to the danger47 of an hostile invasion. The Barbarians, who had passed the Danube, had lately assumed the character of soldiers47 and subjects, but their native fierceness was yet untamed; and the operations of a war47 which would exercise their valour and diminish their numbers might tend to relieve the provinces47 from an intolerable oppression. Notwithstanding these specious and solid reasons, which were approved by a majority of the council, Theodosius47 still hesitated whether he should draw the sword in a contest which could no longer admit any terms of reconciliation; and his magnanimous character was not disgraced by the apprehensions which he felt for the safety of his infant sons and the welfare of his exhausted people47. In this moment of anxious doubt, while the fate of the Roman47 world depended on the resolution of a single man, the charms of the princess Galla most powerfully pleaded the cause of her brother Valentinian. The heart of Theodosius47 was softened by the tears of beauty; his affections were insensibly engaged by the graces of youth and innocence; the art of Justina managed and directed the impulse of passion; and the celebration of the royal nuptials was the assurance and signal of the civil47 war47. The unfeeling critics, who consider every amorous weakness as an indelible stain on the memory of a great and orthodox emperor47, are inclined, on this occasion, to dispute the suspicious evidence of the historian Zosimus. For my own part, I shall frankly confess that I am willing to find, or even to seek, in the revolutions of the world some traces of the mild and tender sentiments of domestic life47; and, amidst the crowd of fierce and ambitious conquerors, I can distinguish, with peculiar complacency, a gentle hero, who may be supposed to receive his armour from the hands of love. The alliance of the Persian king was secured by the faith of treaties; the martial Barbarians were persuaded to follow the standard, or to respect the frontiers, of an active and liberal monarch; and the dominions of Theodosius47, from the Euphrates to the Hadriatic, resounded with the preparations of war47 both by land and sea. The skilful disposition of the forces of the East47 seemed to multiply their numbers, and distracted the attention of Maximus. He had reason to fear that a chosen body of troops47, under the command47 of the intrepid Arbogastes, would direct their march along the banks of the Danube and boldly penetrate through the Rhaetian provinces47 into the centre of Gaul. A powerful fleet was equipped in the harbours of Greece and Epirus, with an apparent design that, as soon47 as a passage had been opened by a naval victory, Valentinian and his mother should land in Italy47, proceed, without delay, to Rome47, and occupy the majestic seat of religion and empire47. In the meanwhile, Theodosius47 himself advanced at the head of a brave and disciplined army47, to encounter his unworthy rival, who, after the siege of Aemona, had fixed his camp in the neighbourhood of Siscia, a city47 of Pannonia, strongly fortified by the broad and rapid stream of the Save.
The veterans, who still remembered the long47 resistance and successive resources of the tyrant47 Magnentius, might prepare themselves for the labours of three bloody campaigns. But the contest with his successor, who, like him, had usurped the throne47 of the West, was easily decided in the term of two months and within the space of two hundred miles. The superior genius of the emperor47 of the East47 might prevail over the feeble Maximus; who, in this important crisis, shewed himself destitute of military47 skill or personal courage; but the abilities of Theodosius47 were seconded by the advantage which he possessed of a numerous and active cavalry. The Huns, the Alani, and, after their example, the Goths themselves, were formed into squadrons of archers; who fought on horseback and confounded the steady valour of the Gauls and Germans by the rapid motions of a Tartar war47. After the fatigue of a long47 march, in the heat of summer, they spurred their foaming horses into the waters of the Save, swam the river in the presence of the enemy, and instantly charged and routed the troops47 who guarded the high ground on the opposite side. Marcellinus, the tyrant47's brother, advanced to support them with the select cohorts which were considered as the hope and strength of the army47. The action, which had been interrupted by the approach of night, was renewed in the morning; and, after a sharp conflict, the surviving remnant of the bravest soldiers47 of Maximus threw down their arms47 at the feet of the conqueror. Without suspending his march to receive the loyal acclamations of the citizens of Aemona, Theodosius47 pressed forwards, to terminate the war47 by the death47 or captivity of his rival, who fled before him with the diligence of fear. From the summit of the Julian Alps, he descended with such incredible speed into the plain of Italy47 that he reached Aquileia on the evening of the first day; and Maximus, who found himself encompassed on all sides, had scarcely time to shut the gates of the city47. But the gates could not long47 resist the effort of a victorious enemy; and the despair, the disaffection, the indifference of the soldiers47 and people47, hastened the downfall of the wretched Maximus. He was dragged from his throne47, rudely stripped of the Imperial47 ornaments, the robe, the diadem, and the purple slippers; and conducted, like a malefactor, to the camp and presence of Theodosius47, at a place about three miles from Aquileia. The behaviour of the emperor47 was not intended to insult, and he shewed some disposition to pity and forgive, the tyrant47 of the West, who had never been his personal enemy and was now become the object of his contempt. Our sympathy is the most forcibly excited by the misfortunes to which we are exposed; and the spectacle of a proud competitor, now prostrate at his feet, could not fail of producing very serious and solemn thoughts in the mind of the victorious emperor47. But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity was checked by his regard for public47 justice47 and the memory of Gratian; and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of the soldiers47, who drew him out of the Imperial47 presence and instantly separated his head from his body. The intelligence of his defeat and death47 was received with sincere, or well-dissembled, joy: his son47 Victor, on whom he had conferred the title of Augustus, died by the order, perhaps by the hand, of the bold Arbogastes; and all the military47 plans of Theodosius47 were successfully executed. When he had thus terminated the civil47 war47 with less difficulty and bloodshed than he might naturally expect, he employed the winter months of his residence at Milan to restore the state of the afflicted provinces47; and early in the spring he made, after the example of Constantine47 and Constantius, his triumphal entry into the ancient capital of the Roman47 empire47.
The orator, who may be silent without danger47, may praise without difficulty and without reluctance; and posterity will confess that the character of Theodosius47 might furnish the subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws, and the success of his arms47, rendered his administration respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life47, which seldom hold their residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius47 was chaste and temperate; he enjoyed, without excess, the sensual and social pleasures of the table; and the warmth of his amorous passions was never diverted from their lawful objects. The proud titles of Imperial47 greatness were adorned by the tender names of a faithful husband, an indulgent father47; his uncle was raised, by his affectionate esteem, to the rank47 of a second parent; Theodosius47 embraced, as his own, the children of his brother and sister; and the expressions of his regard were extended to the most distant and obscure branches of his numerous kindred. His familiar friends were judiciously selected from among those persons who, in the equal intercourse of private47 life47, had appeared before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of personal and superior merit47 enabled him to despise the accidental distinction of the purple; and he proved by his conduct47 that he had forgotten all the injuries, while he most gratefully remembered all the favours and services, which he had received before he ascended the throne47 of the Roman47 empire47. The serious, or lively, tone of his conversation was adapted to the age47, the rank47, or the character of his subjects whom he admitted into his society; and the affability of his manners displayed the image of his mind. Theodosius47 respected the simplicity of the good and virtuous; every art, every talent, of an useful, or even of an innocent, nature was rewarded by his judicious liberality; and, except the heretics whom he persecuted with implacable hatred, the diffusive circle of his benevolence was circumscribed only by the limits of the human race. The government47 of a mighty empire47 may assuredly suffice to occupy the time and the abilities of a mortal; yet the diligent prince47, without aspiring to the unsuitable reputation of profound learning, always reserved some moments of his leisure for the instructive amusement of reading. History, which enlarged his experience, was his favourite study. The annals of Rome47, in the long47 period of eleven hundred years, presented him with a various and splendid picture of human life47; and it has been particularly observed that, whenever he perused the cruel acts of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla, he warmly expressed his generous detestation of those enemies of humanity and freedom. His disinterested opinion of past events was usefully applied as the rule of his own actions; and Theodosius47 has deserved the singular commendation that his virtues always seemed to expand with his fortune; the season of his prosperity was that of his moderation; and his clemency appeared the most conspicuous after the danger47 and success of the civil47 war47. The Moorish guards of the tyrant47 had been massacred in the first heat of the victory; and a small number of the most obnoxious criminals suffered the punishment of the law. But the emperor47 shewed himself much more attentive to relieve the innocent than to chastise the guilty. The oppressed subjects of the West, who would have deemed themselves happy in the restoration of their lands, were astonished to receive a sum of money equivalent to their losses; and the liberality of the conqueror supported the aged mother, and educated the orphan daughters, of Maximus. A character thus accomplished might almost excuse the extravagant supposition of the orator Pacatus, that, if the elder Brutus could be permitted to revisit the earth, the stern republican would abjure, at the feet of Theodosius47, his hatred of kings; and ingenuously confess that such a monarch was the most faithful guardian of the happiness and dignity of the Roman47 people47.
Yet the piercing eye of the founder of the republic must have discerned two essential imperfections, which might, perhaps, have abated his recent love of despotism. The virtuous mind of Theodosius47 was often relaxed by indolence, and it was sometimes inflamed by passion. In the pursuit of an important object, his active courage was capable of the most vigorous exertions; but, as soon47 as the design was accomplished or the danger47 was surmounted, the hero sunk into inglorious repose; and, forgetful that the time of a prince47 is the property of his people47, resigned himself to the enjoyment of the innocent, but trifling, pleasures of a luxurious court. The natural disposition of Theodosius47 was hasty and choleric; and, in a station where none could resist and few would dissuade the fatal consequence of his resentment, the humane monarch was justly alarmed by the consciousness of his infirmity, and of his power47. It was the constant study of his life47 to suppress or regulate the intemperate sallies of passion; and the success of his efforts enhanced the merit47 of his clemency. But the painful virtue which claims the merit47 of victory is exposed to the danger47 of defeat; and the reign47 of a wise and merciful prince47 was polluted by an act of cruelty which would stain the annals of Nero or Domitian. Within the space of three years, the inconsistent historian of Theodosius47 must relate the generous pardon of the citizens of Antioch and the inhuman massacre of the people47 of Thessalonica.
The lively impatience of the inhabitants of Antioch was never satisfied with their own situation, or with the character or conduct47 of their successive sovereigns. The Arian subjects of Theodosius47 deplored the loss of their churches; and, as three rival bishops disputed the throne47 of Antioch, the sentence which decided their pretensions excited the murmurs of the two unsuccessful congregations. The exigencies of the Gothic war47, and the inevitable expense that accompanied the conclusion of the peace, had constrained the emperor47 to aggravate the weight of the public47 impositions; and the provinces47 of Asia, as they had not been involved in the distress, were the less inclined to contribute to the relief, of Europe. The auspicious period now approached of the tenth year of his reign47; a festival more grateful to the soldiers47, who received a liberal donative, than to the subjects, whose voluntary offerings had been long47 since converted into an extraordinary and oppressive burthen. The edicts of taxation interrupted the repose and pleasures of Antioch; and the tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant crowd; who, in pathetic, but, at first, in respectful language, solicited the redress of their grievances. They were gradually incensed by the pride of their haughty rulers, who treated their complaints as a criminal resistance; their satirical wit degenerated into sharp and angry invectives; and, from the subordinate powers of government47, the invectives of the people47 insensibly rose to attack the sacred character of the emperor47 himself. Their fury, provoked by a feeble opposition, discharged itself on the images of the Imperial47 family, which were erected as objects of public47 veneration in the most conspicuous places of the city47. The statues of Theodosius47, of his father47, of his wife Flaccilla, of his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, were insolently thrown down from their pedestals, broken in pieces, or dragged with contempt through the streets; and the indignities which were offered to the representations of Imperial47 majesty, sufficiently declared the impious and treasonable wishes of the populace. The tumult was almost immediately suppressed by the arrival of a body of archers; and Antioch had leisure to reflect on the nature and consequences of her crime. According to the duty of his office, the governor of the province despatched a faithful narrative of the whole transaction; while the trembling citizens entrusted the confession of their crime, and the assurance of their repentance, to the zeal of Flavian their bishop and to the eloquence of the senator Hilarius, the friend, and most probably the disciple, of Libanius, whose genius, on this melancholy occasion, was not useless to his country. But the two capitals, Antioch and Constantinople, were separated by the distance of eight hundred miles; and, notwithstanding the diligence of the Imperial47 posts, the guilty city47 was severely punished by a long47 and dreadful interval of suspense. Every rumour agitated the hopes and fears of the Antiochians, and they heard with terror that their sovereign47, exasperated by the insult which had been offered to his own statues, and, more especially, to those of his beloved wife, had resolved to level with the ground the offending city47; and to massacre, without distinction of age47 or sex, the criminal inhabitants; many of whom were actually driven by their apprehensions to seek a refuge in the mountains of Syria and the adjacent desert. At length, twenty-four days after the sedition, the general47 Hellebicus and Caesarius, master47 of the offices, declared the will of the emperor47 and the sentence of Antioch. That proud capital was degraded from the rank47 of a city47; and the metropolis of the East47, stripped of its lands, its privileges, and its revenues, was subjected, under the humiliating denomination of a village, to the jurisdiction of Laodicea. The baths, the circus, and the theatres were shut; and, that every source of plenty and pleasure might at the same time be intercepted, the distribution of corn was abolished by the severe instructions of Theodosius47. His commissioners then proceeded to inquire into the guilt of individuals; of those who had perpetrated, and of those who had not prevented, the destruction of the sacred statues. The tribunal of Hellebicus and Caesarius, encompassed with armed soldiers47, was erected in the midst of the Forum. The noblest and most wealthy of the citizens of Antioch appeared before them in chains; the examination was assisted by the use of torture, and their sentence was pronounced or suspended, according to the judgment of these extraordinary magistrates. The houses of the criminals were exposed to sale, their wives and children were suddenly reduced, from affluence and luxury, to the most abject distress; and a bloody execution was expected to conclude the horrors of a day which the preacher of Antioch, the eloquent Chrysostom, has represented as a lively image of the last and universal judgment of the world. But the ministers of Theodosius47 performed, with reluctance, the cruel task which had been assigned them; they dropped a gentle tear over the calamities of the people47; and they listened with reverence to the pressing solicitations of the monks and hermits, who descended in swarms from the mountains. Hellebicus and Caesarius were persuaded to suspend the execution of their sentence; and it was agreed that the former should remain at Antioch, while the latter returned, with all possible speed, to Constantinople; and presumed once more to consult the will of his sovereign47. The resentment of Theodosius47 had already subsided; the deputies of the people47, both the bishop and the orator, had obtained a favourable audience; and the reproaches of the emperor47 were the complaints of injured friendship rather than the stern menaces of pride and power47. A free and general47 pardon was granted to the city47 and citizens of Antioch; the prison-doors were thrown open; the senators who despaired of their lives recovered the possession of their houses and estates; and the capital of the East47 was restored to the enjoyment of her ancient dignity and splendour. Theodosius47 condescended to praise the senate47 of Constantinople, who had generously interceded for their distressed brethren; he rewarded the eloquence of Hilarius with the government47 of Palestine; and dismissed the bishop of Antioch with the warmest expressions of his respect and gratitude. A thousand new statues arose to the clemency of Theodosius47; the applause of his subjects was ratified by the approbation of his own heart; and the emperor47 confessed that, if the exercise of justice47 is the most important duty, the indulgence of mercy is the most exquisite pleasure, of a sovereign47.
The sedition of Thessalonica is ascribed to a more shameful cause, and was productive of much more dreadful consequences. That great city47, the metropolis of all the Illyrian provinces47, had been protected from the dangers of the Gothic war47 by strong fortifications and a numerous garrison. Botheric, the general47 of those troops47, and, as it should seem from his name, a Barbarian, had among his slaves a beautiful boy, who excited the impure desires of one of the charioteers of the Circus. The insolent and brutal lover was thrown into prison by the order of Botheric; and he sternly rejected the importunate clamours of the multitude, who, on the day of the public47 games, lamented the absence of their favourite, and considered the skill of a charioteer as an object of more importance than his virtue. The resentment of the people47 was embittered by some previous disputes; and, as the strength of the garrison had been drawn away for the service of the Italian war47, the feeble remnant, whose numbers were reduced by desertion, could not save the unhappy general47 from their licentious fury. Botheric, and several of his principal officers, were inhumanly murdered; their mangled bodies were dragged about the streets; and the emperor47, who then resided at Milan, was surprised by the intelligence of the audacious and wanton cruelty of the people47 of Thessalonica. The sentence of a dispassionate judge would have inflicted a severe punishment on the authors of the crime; and the merit47 of Botheric might contribute to exasperate the grief and indignation of his master47. The fiery and choleric temper of Theodosius47 was impatient of the dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry; and he hastily resolved that the blood of his lieutenant should be expiated by the blood of the guilty people47. Yet his mind still fluctuated between the counsels of clemency and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had almost extorted from the reluctant emperor47 the promise of a general47 pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering suggestions of his minister Rufinus; and, after Theodosius47 had despatched the messengers of death47, he attempted, when it was too late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The punishment of a Roman47 city47 was blindly committed to the undistinguishing sword of the Barbarians; and the hostile preparations were concerted with the dark and perfidious artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The people47 of Thessalonica were treacherously invited, in the name of their sovereign47, to the games of the Circus; and such was their insatiate avidity for those amusements that every consideration of fear, or suspicion, was disregarded by the numerous spectators. As soon47 as the assembly was complete, the soldiers47, who had secretly been posted round the Circus, received the signal, not of the races, but of a general47 massacre. The promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination of strangers or natives, of age47 or sex, of innocence or guilt; the most moderate accounts state the number of the slain at seven thousand; and it is affirmed by some writers, that more than fifteen thousand victims were sacrificed to the manes of Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had probably no concern in his murder, offered his own life47 and all his wealth, to supply the place of one of his two sons; but, while the father47 hesitated with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose and unwilling to condemn, the soldiers47 determined his suspense by plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the defenceless youths. The apology of the assassins that they were obliged to produce the prescribed number of heads serves only to increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of the massacre which was executed by the commands of Theodosius47. The guilt of the emperor47 is aggravated by his long47 and frequent residence at Thessalonica. The situation of the unfortunate city47, the aspect of the streets and buildings, the dress and faces of the inhabitants, were familiar and even present to his imagination; and Theodosius47 possessed a quick and lively sense of the existence of the people47 whom he detroyed.
The respectful attachment of the emperor45 for the orthodox clergy had disposed him to love and admire the character45 of Ambrose45; who united all the episcopal virtues in the most eminent degree. The friends and ministers45 of Theodosius45 imitated the example of their sovereign45; and he observed, with more surprise than displeasure, that all his secret counsels were immediately communicated to the archbishop45; who acted from the laudable persuasion that every measure of civil45 government may have some connection with the glory of God45 and the interest of the true religion. The monks and populace of Callinicum, an obscure town on the frontier of Persia, excited by their own fanaticism and by that of their bishop45, had tumultuously burnt a conventicle of the Valentinians and a synagogue of the Jews. The seditious prelate was condemned45 by the magistrate of the province either to rebuild the synagogue or to repay the damage, and this moderate sentence45 was confirmed by the emperor45. But it was not confirmed by the archbishop45 of Milan45. He dictated an epistle of censure and reproach, more suitable, perhaps, if the emperor45 had received45 the mark of circumcision and renounced the faith of his baptism. Ambrose45 considers the toleration of the Jewish, as the persecution of the Christian, religion; boldly declares that he himself and every true believer would eagerly dispute with the bishop45 of Callinicum the merit45 of the deed and the crown of martyrdom; and laments, in the most pathetic terms, that the execution of the sentence45 would be fatal to the fame and salvation of Theodosius45. As this private45 admonition did not produce an immediate effect, the archbishop45, from his pulpit, publicly addressed the emperor45 on his throne45; nor would he consent to offer the oblation of the altar, till he had obtained from Theodosius45 a solemn and positive declaration, which secured the impunity of the bishop45 and monks of Callinicum. The recantation of Theodosius45 was sincere; and, during the term of his residence at Milan45, his affection for Ambrose45 was continually increased by the habits of pious45 and familiar conversation.
When Ambrose was informed of the massacre of Thessalonica, his mind was filled with horror and anguish. He retired into the country to indulge his grief, and to avoid the presence of Theodosius47. But, as the archbishop was satisfied that a timid silence would render him the accomplice of his guilt, he represented, in a private47 letter, the enormity of the crime; which could only be effaced by the tears of penitence. The episcopal vigour of Ambrose was tempered by prudence; and he contented himself with signifying an indirect sort of excommunication, by the assurance that he had been warned in a vision not to offer the oblation in the name or in the presence of Theodosius47; and by the advice that he would confine himself to the use of prayer, without presuming to approach the altar of Christ or to receive the holy eucharist with those hands that were still polluted with the blood of an innocent people47. The emperor47 was deeply affected by his own reproaches and by those of his spiritual father47; and, after he had bewailed the mischievous and irreparable consequences of his rash fury, he proceeded, in the accustomed manner, to perform his devotions in the great church of Milan. He was stopped in the porch by the archbishop; who, in the tone and language of an ambassador of Heaven, declared to his sovereign47 that private47 contrition was not sufficient to atone for a public47 fault or to appease the justice47 of the offended Deity. Theodosius47 humbly represented that, if he had contracted the guilt of homicide, David, the man after God's own heart, had been guilty, not only of murder, but of adultery. You have imitated David in his crime, imitate then his repentance, was the reply of the undaunted Ambrose. The rigorous conditions of peace and pardon were accepted; and the public47 penance of the emperor47 Theodosius47 has been recorded as one of the most honourable events in the annals of the church. According to the mildest rules of ecclesiastical discipline which were established in the fourth century the crime of homicide was expiated by the penitence of twenty years; and, as it was impossible, in the period of human life47, to purge the accumulated guilt of the massacre of Thessalonica, the murderer should have been excluded from the holy communion till the hour of his death47. But the archbishop, consulting the maxims of religious policy, granted some indulgence to the rank47 of his illustrious penitent, who humbled in the dust the pride of the diadem; and the public47 edification might be admitted as a weighty reason to abridge the duration of his punishment. It was sufficient that the emperor47 of the Romans, stripped of the ensigns of royalty, should appear in a mournful and suppliant posture; and that, in the midst of the church of Milan, he should humbly solicit, with sighs and tears, the pardon of his sins. In this spiritual cure, Ambrose employed the various methods of mildness and severity. After a delay of about eight months, Theodosius47 was restored to the communion of the faithful; and the edict, which interposes a salutary interval of thirty days between the sentence and the execution, may be accepted as the worthy fruits of his repentance. Posterity has applauded the virtuous firmness of the archbishop; and the example of Theodosius47 may prove the beneficial influence of those principles which could force a monarch, exalted above the apprehension of human punishment, to respect the laws, and ministers, of an invisible Judge. The prince47, says Montesquieu, who is actuated by the hopes and fears of religion, may be compared to a lion, docile only to the voice, and tractable to the hand, of his keeper. The motions of the royal animal will therefore depend on the inclination and interest of the man who has acquired such dangerous authority47 over him; and the priest who holds in his hand the conscience of a king may inflame or moderate his sanguinary passions. The cause of humanity, and that of persecution, have been asserted by the same Ambrose, with equal energy and with equal success.
After the defeat and death47 of the tyrant47 of Gaul, the Roman47 world was in the possession of Theodosius47. He derived from the choice of Gratian his honourable title to the provinces47 of the East47; he had acquired the West by the right of conquest; and the three years which he spent in Italy47 were usefully employed to restore the authority47 of the laws, and to correct the abuses, which had prevailed with impunity under the usurpation of Maximus and the minority of Valentinian. The name of Valentinian was regularly inserted in the public47 acts; but the tender age47, and doubtful faith, of the son47 of Justina appeared to require the prudent care of an orthodox guardian; and his specious ambition might have excluded the unfortunate youth, without a struggle and almost without a murmur, from the administration, and even from the inheritance, of the empire47. If Theodosius47 had consulted the rigid maxims of interest and policy, his conduct47 would have been justified by his friends; but the generosity of his behaviour on this memorable occasion has extorted the applause of his most inveterate enemies. He seated Valentinian on the throne47 of Milan; and, without stipulating any present or future advantages, restored him to the absolute dominion of all the provinces47 from which he had been driven by the arms47 of Maximus. To the restitution of his ample patrimony, Theodosius47 added the free and generous gift of the countries beyond the Alps, which his successful valour had recovered from the assassin of Gratian. Satisfied with the glory which he had acquired, by revenging the death47 of his benefactor and delivering the West from the yoke of tyranny, the emperor47 returned from Milan to Constantinople; and, in the peaceful possession of the East47, insensibly relapsed into his former habits of luxury and indolence. Theodosius47 discharged his obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal tenderness to the sister, of Valentinian; and posterity, which admires the pure and singular glory of his elevation, must applaud his unrivalled generosity in the use of victory.
The empress Justina did not long47 survive her return to Italy47; and, though she beheld the triumph of Theodosius47, she was not allowed to influence the government47 of her son47. The pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian had imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon47 erased by the lessons of a more orthodox education. His growing zeal for the faith of Nice and his filial reverence for the character and authority47 of Ambrose disposed the Catholics to entertain the most favourable opinion of the virtues of the young emperor47 of the West. They applauded his chastity and temperance, his contempt of pleasure, his application to business, and his tender affection for his two sisters; which could not, however, seduce his impartial equity to pronounce an unjust sentence against the meanest of his subjects. But this amiable youth, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age47, was oppressed by domestic treason; and the empire47 was again involved in the horrors of a civil47 war47. Arbogastes, a gallant soldier of the nation of the Franks, held the second rank47 in the service of Gratian. On the death47 of his master47, he joined the standard of Theodosius47; contributed, by his valour and military47 conduct47, to the destruction of the tyrant47; and was appointed, after the victory, master47-general47 of the armies of Gaul. His real merit47 and apparent fidelity had gained the confidence both of the prince47 and people47; his boundless liberality corrupted the allegiance of the troops47; and, whilst he was universally esteemed as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian was secretly determined either to rule or to ruin the empire47 of the West. The important commands of the army47 were distributed among the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the honours and offices of the civil47 government47; the progress of the conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the presence of Valentinian; and the emperor47, without power47 and without intelligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and dependent condition of a captive. The indignation which he expressed, though it might arise only from the rash and impatient temper of youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit47 of a prince47 who felt that he was not unworthy to reign47. He secretly invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake the office of a mediator, as the pledge of his sincerity and the guardian of his safety. He contrived to apprise the emperor47 of the East47 of his helpless situation; and he declared that, unless Theodosius47 could speedily march to his assistance, he must attempt to escape from the palace47, or rather prison, of Vienna in Gaul, where he had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst of the hostile faction. But the hopes of relief were distant and doubtful; and, as every day furnished some new provocation, the emperor47, without strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to risk an immediate contest with his powerful general47. He received Arbogastes on the throne47; and, as the count approached with some appearance of respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed him from all his employments. My authority47, replied Arbogastes with insulting coolness, does not depend on the smile, or the frown, of a monarch; and he contemptuously threw the paper on the ground. The indignant monarch snatched at the sword of one of the guards, which he struggled to draw from its scabbard; and it was not without some degree of violence that he was prevented from using the deadly weapon against his enemy, or against himself. A few days after this extraordinary quarrel, in which he had exposed his resentment and his weakness, the unfortunate Valentinian was found strangled in his apartment; and some pains were employed to disguise the manifest guilt of Arbogastes, and to persuade the world that the death47 of the young emperor47 had been the voluntary effect of his own despair. His body was conducted with decent pomp to the sepulchre of Milan; and the archbishop pronounced a funeral oration, to commemorate his virtue and his misfortunes. On this occasion, the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make a singular breach in his theological system, and to comfort the weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the firm assurance that their pious brother, though he had not received the sacrament of baptism, was introduced, without difficulty, into the mansions of eternal bliss.
The prudence of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his ambitious designs; and the provincials, in whose breasts every sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected, with tame resignation, the unknown master47, whom the choice of a Frank might place on the Imperial47 throne47. But some remains of pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more advisible to reign47 under the name of some dependent Roman47. He bestowed the purple on the rhetorician Eugenius; whom he had already raised from the place of his domestic secretary to the rank47 of master47 of the offices. In the course both of his private47 and public47 service, the count had always approved the attachment and abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence, supported by the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem of the people47; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend the throne47 may inspire a favourable prejudice of his virtue and moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor47 were immediately despatched to the court of Theodosius47, to communicate, with affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death47 of Valentinian; and, without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to request that the monarch of the East47 would embrace, as his lawful colleague, the respectable citizen who had obtained the unanimous suffrage of the armies and provinces47 of the West. Theodosius47 was justly provoked that the perfidy of a Barbarian should have destroyed, in a moment, the labours and the fruit of his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of his beloved wife to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother and once more to assert by arms47 the violated majesty of the throne47. But, as the second conquest of the West was a task of difficulty and danger47, he dismissed, with splendid presents and an ambiguous answer, the ambassadors of Eugenius; and almost two years were consumed in the preparations of the civil47 war47. Before he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor47 was anxious to discover the will of Heaven; and, as the progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the age47, the gift of miracles and the knowledge of futurity. Eutropius, one of the favourite eunuchs of the palace47 of Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up the Nile as far as the city47 of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the remote province of Thebais. In the neighbourhood of that city47, and on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John had constructed, with his own hands, an humble cell, in which he had dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door, without seeing the face of a woman, and without tasting any food that had been prepared by fire or any human art. Five days of the week he spent in prayer and meditation; but on Saturdays and Sundays he regularly opened a small window, and gave audience to the crowd of suppliants who successively flowed from every part of the Christian world. The eunuch of Theodosius47 approached the window with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the event of the civil47 war47, and soon47 returned with a favourable oracle, which animated the courage of the emperor47 by the assurance of a bloody but infallible victory. The accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the means that human prudence could supply. The industry of the two master47-generals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to recruit the numbers, and to revive the discipline, of the Roman47 legions. The formidable troops47 of Barbarians marched under the ensigns of their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth, who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were enlisted in the service of the same prince47; and the renowned Alaric acquired, in the school of Theodosius47, the knowledge of the art of war47 which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the destruction of Rome47.
The emperor47 of the West, or, to speak more properly, his general47 Arbogastes, was instructed by the misconduct and misfortune of Maximus, how dangerous it might prove to extend the line of defence against a skilful antagonist, who was free to press or to suspend, to contract or to multiply, his various methods of attack. Arbogastes fixed his station on the confines of Italy47: the troops47 of Theodosius47 were permitted to occupy without resistance the provinces47 of Pannonia as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; and even the passages of the mountains were negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned to the bold invader. He descended from the hills, and beheld, with some astonishment, the formidable camp of the Gauls and Germans that covered with arms47 and tents the open country which extends to the walls of Aquileia and the banks of the Frigidus, or Cold River. This narrow theatre of the war47, circumscribed by the Alps and the Hadriatic, did not allow much room for the operations of military47 skill; the spirit47 of Arbogastes would have disdained a pardon; his guilt extinguished the hope of a negotiation; and Theodosius47 was impatient to satisfy his glory and revenge by the chastisement of the assassins of Valentinian. Without weighing the natural and artificial obstacles that opposed his efforts, the emperor47 of the East47 immediately attacked the fortifications of his rivals, assigned the post of honourable danger47 to the Goths, and cherished a secret47 wish that the bloody conflict might diminish the pride and numbers of the conquerors. Ten thousand of those auxiliaries, and Bacurius, general47 of the Iberians, died bravely on the field of battle. But the victory was not purchased by their blood; the Gauls maintained their advantage; and the approach of night protected the disorderly flight, or retreat, of the troops47 of Theodosius47. The emperor47 retired to the adjacent hills; where he passed a disconsolate night, without sleep, without provisions, and without hopes; except that strong assurance which, under the most desperate circumstances, the independent mind may derive from the contempt of fortune and of life47. The triumph of Eugenius was celebrated by the insolent and dissolute joy of his camp; whilst the active and vigilant Arbogastes secretly detached a considerable body of troops47, to occupy the passes of the mountains, and to encompass the rear of the Eastern army47. The dawn of day discovered to the eyes of Theodosius47 the extent and the extremity of his danger47: but his apprehensions were soon47 dispelled by a friendly message from the leaders of those troops47, who expressed their inclination to desert the standard of the tyrant47. The honourable and lucrative rewards, which they stipulated as the price of their perfidy, were granted without hesitation; and, as ink and paper could not easily be procured, the emperor47 subscribed, on his own tablets, the ratification of the treaty. The spirit47 of his soldiers47 was revived by this seasonable reinforcement; and they again marched with confidence, to surprise the camp of a tyrant47 whose principal officers appeared to distrust either the justice47 or the success of his arms47. In the heat of the battle, a violent tempest, such as is often felt among the Alps, suddenly arose from the East47. The army47 of Theodosius47 was sheltered by their position from the impetuosity of the wind, which blew a cloud of dust in the faces of the enemy, disordered their ranks, wrested their weapons from their hands, and diverted or repelled their ineffectual javelins. This accidental advantage was skilfully improved; the violence of the storm was magnified by the superstitious terrors of the Gauls; and they yielded without shame to the invisible powers of heaven, who seemed to militate on the side of the pious emperor47. His victory was decisive; and the deaths of his two rivals were distinguished only by the difference of their characters. The rhetorician Eugenius, who had almost acquired the dominion of the world, was reduced to implore the mercy of the conqueror; and the unrelenting soldiers47 separated his head from his body, as he lay prostrate at the feet of Theodosius47. Arbogastes, after the loss of a battle in which he had discharged the duties of a soldier and a general47, wandered several days among the mountains. But, when he was convinced that his cause was desperate, and his escape impracticable, the intrepid Barbarian imitated the example of the ancient Romans, and turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the empire47 was determined in a narrow corner of Italy47, and the legitimate successor of the house of Valentinian embraced the archbishop of Milan, and graciously received the submission of the provinces47 of the West. Those provinces47 were involved in the guilt of rebellion; while the inflexible courage of Ambrose alone had resisted the claims of successful usurpation. With a manly freedom, which might have been fatal to any other subject, the archbishop rejected the gifts of Eugenius, declined his correspondence, and withdrew himself from Milan, to avoid the odious presence of a tyrant47, whose downfall he predicted in discreet and ambiguous language. The merit47 of Ambrose was applauded by the conqueror, who secured the attachment of the people47 by his alliance with the church; and the clemency of Theodosius47 is ascribed to the humane intercession of the archbishop of Milan.
After the defeat of Eugenius, the merit47, as well as the authority47, of Theodosius47 was cheerfully acknowledged by all the inhabitants of the Roman47 world. The experience of his past conduct47 encouraged the most pleasing expectations of his future reign47; and the age47 of the emperor47, which did not exceed fifty years, seemed to extend the prospect of the public47 felicity. His death47, only four months after his victory, was considered by the people47 as an unforeseen and fatal event, which destroyed in a moment the hopes of the rising generation. But the indulgence of ease and luxury had secretly nourished the principles of disease. The strength of Theodosius47 was unable to support the sudden and violent transition from the palace47 to the camp; and the increasing symptoms of a dropsy announced the speedy dissolution of the emperor47. The opinion, and perhaps the interest, of the public47 had confirmed the division of the Eastern and Western empires; and the two royal youths, Arcadius and Honorius, who had already obtained, from the tenderness of their father47, the title of Augustus, were destined to fill the thrones of Constantinople and of Rome47. Those princes were not permitted to share the danger47 and glory of the civil47 war47; but, as soon47 as Theodosius47 had triumphed over his unworthy rivals, he called his younger son47 Honorius to enjoy the fruits of the victory and to receive the sceptre of the West from the hands of his dying father47. The arrival of Honorius at Milan was welcomed by a splendid exhibition of the games of the Circus; and the emperor47, though he was oppressed by the weight of his disorder, contributed by his presence to the public47 joy. But the remains of his strength were exhausted by the painful effort which he made to assist at the spectacles of the morning. Honorius supplied, during the rest of the day, the place of his father47; and the great Theodosius47 expired in the ensuing night. Notwithstanding the recent animosities of a civil47 war47, his death47 was universally lamented. The Barbarians, whom he had vanquished, and the churchmen, by whom he had been subdued, celebrated with loud and sincere applause, the qualities of the deceased emperor47 which appeared the most valuable in their eyes. The Romans were terrified by the impending dangers of a feeble and divided administration; and every disgraceful moment of the unfortunate reigns of Arcadius and Honorius revived the memory of their irreparable loss.
In the faithful picture of the virtues of Theodosius, his imperfections have not been dissembled: the act of cruelty, and the habits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one of the greatest of the Roman princes. An historian, perpetually adverse to the fame of Theodosius, has exaggerated his vices and their pernicious effects; he boldly asserts that every rank of subjects8 imitated the effeminate manners of their sovereign; that every species of corruption polluted the course of public8 and private8 life8; and that the feeble restraints of order and decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that degenerate spirit which sacrifices, without a blush, the consideration of duty and interest to the base indulgence of sloth and appetite. The complaints of contemporary writers, who deplore the increase of luxury and depravation of manners, are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation. There are few observers who possess a clear and comprehensive view of the revolutions of society8; and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret springs of action which impel, in the same uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions8 of a multitude of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any degree of truth8, that the luxury of the Romans was more shameless and dissolute in the reign8 of Theodosius than in the age8 of Constantine8, perhaps, or of Augustus, the alteration cannot be ascribed to any beneficial improvements, which had gradually increased the stock of national riches. A long period of calamity or decay must have checked the industry, and diminished the wealth, of the people; and their profuse luxury must have been the result of that indolent despair which enjoys the present hour and declines the thoughts of futurity. The uncertain condition of their property discouraged the subjects8 of Theodosius from engaging in those useful and laborious undertakings which require an immediate expense and promise a slow and distant advantage. The frequent examples of ruin and desolation tempted them not to spare the remains of a patrimony which might, every hour, become the prey of the rapacious Goth. And the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion of a shipwreck or a siege may serve to explain the progress of luxury amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking nation.
The effeminate luxury which infected the manners10 of courts and cities10 had instilled a secret and destructive poison into the camps10 of the legions10; and their degeneracy has been marked by the pen of a military10 writer who had accurately studied the genuine and ancient principles of Roman10 discipline10. It is the just and important observation of Vegetius that the infantry was invariably covered10 with defensive armour10, from the foundation of the city to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The relaxation of discipline10 and the disuse of exercise10 rendered the soldiers10 less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the service10; they complained of the weight of the armour10, which they seldom wore; and they successfully obtained the permission of laying aside both their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy weapons10 of their ancestors, the short sword and the formidable pilum, which had subdued the world, insensibly dropped from their feeble hands. As the use10 of the shield is incompatible with that of the bow10, they reluctantly marched into the field; condemned to suffer either the pain of wounds or the ignominy of flight, and always disposed to prefer the more shameful alternative. The cavalry of the Goths, the Huns and the Alani had felt the benefits, and adopted the use10, of defensive armour10; and, as they excelled in the management of missile weapons10, they easily overwhelmed the naked and trembling legions10, whose heads and breasts were exposed, without defence10, to the arrows of the Barbarians. The loss of armies, the destruction of cities10, and the dishonour of the Roman10 name ineffectually solicited the successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and cuirasses of the infantry. The enervated soldiers10 abandoned their own and the public10 defence10; and their pusillanimous indolence may be considered as the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire10.
The ruin of Paganism, in the age8 of Theodosius, is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient8 and popular superstition8; and may therefore deserve to be considered as a singular event in the history of the human8 mind8. The Christians8, more especially the clergy, had impatiently supported the prudent delays of Constantine8 and the equal toleration of the elder Valentinian; nor could they deem their conquest perfect or secure, as long as their adversaries were permitted to exist. The influence which Ambrose and his brethren had acquired over the youth of Gratian and the piety of Theodosius was employed to infuse the maxims of persecution into the breasts of their Imperial proselytes. Two specious principles of religious8 jurisprudence were established, from whence they deduced a direct and rigorous conclusion against the subjects8 of the empire8 who still adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors: that the magistrate is, in some measure, guilty of the crimes which he neglects to prohibit or to punish; and, that the idolatrous worship8 of fabulous deities and real demons is the most abominable crime against the supreme majesty of the Creator. The laws8 of Moses and the examples of Jewish history were hastily, perhaps erroneously, applied by the clergy to the mild and universal reign8 of Christianity8. The zeal8 of the emperors was excited to vindicate their own honour, and that of the Deity8; and the temples8 of the Roman world8 were subverted, about sixty years after the conversion of Constantine8.
From the age of Numa to the reign1 of Gratian the Romans1 preserved the regular succession of the several colleges of the sacerdotal order1. Fifteen Pontiffs exercised their supreme jurisdiction1 over all things and persons that were consecrated to the service of the gods; and the various questions which perpetually arose in a loose and traditionary system were submitted to the judgment of their holy tribunal. Fifteen grave and learned Augurs observed the face of the heavens, and prescribed the actions of heroes, according to the flight of birds. Fifteen keepers of the Sybilline books (their name of Quindecemvirs was derived from their number) occasionally consulted the history of future, and as it should seem, of contingent, events. Six Vestals devoted their virginity to the guard of the sacred1 fire and of the unknown pledges of the duration of Rome1; which no mortal had been suffered to behold with impunity. Seven Epulos prepared the table of the gods, conducted the solemn procession, and regulated the ceremonies of the annual festival. The three Flamens of Jupiter, of Mars, and of Quirinus were considered as the peculiar ministers of the three most powerful deities who watched over the fate of Rome1 and of the universe. The King of the Sacrifices represented the person of Numa, and of his successors1, in the religious functions which could be performed only by royal hands. The confraternities of the Salians, the Lupercals, &c., practised such rites as might extort a smile of contempt from every reasonable man, with a lively confidence of recommending themselves to the favour of the immortal gods. The authority1 which the Roman1 priests had formerly obtained in the counsels of the republic1 was gradually abolished by the establishment of monarchy and the removal of the seat of empire1. But the dignity of their sacred1 character was still protected by the laws1 and manners of their country; and they still continued, more especially the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capital, and sometimes in the provinces1, the rights of their ecclesiastical1 and civil1 jurisdiction1. Their robes of purple, chariots of state1, and sumptuous entertainments attracted the admiration of the people1; and they received, from the consecrated lands and the public1 revenue, an ample stipend, which liberally supported the splendour of the priesthood and all the expenses of the religious worship of the state1. As the service of the altar was not incompatible with the command of armies, the Romans1, after their consulships and triumphs, aspired to the place of pontiff or of augur; the seats of Cicero and Pompey were filled, in the fourth century, by the most illustrious members of the senate1; and the dignity of their birth reflected additional splendour on their sacerdotal character. The fifteen priests who composed the college of pontiffs enjoyed a more distinguished rank as the companions of their sovereign; and the Christian1 emperors1 condescended to accept the robe and ensigns which were appropriated to the office1 of supreme pontiff. But, when Gratian ascended the throne, more scrupulous, or more enlightened, he sternly rejected those profane symbols; applied to the service of the state1, or of the church1, the revenues of the priests and vestals; abolished their honours1 and immunities; and dissolved the ancient1 fabric of Roman1 superstition, which was supported by the opinions and habits of eleven hundred years1. Paganism was still the constitutional religion1 of the senate1. The hall, or temple, in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue and altar of Victory; a majestic female standing on a globe, with flowing garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her outstretched hand. The senators were sworn on the altar of the goddess to observe the laws1 of the emperor1 and of the empire1; and a solemn offering of wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of their public1 deliberations. The removal of this ancient1 monument was the only injury which Constantius had offered to the superstition of the Romans1. The altar of Victory was again restored by Julian, tolerated by Valentinian, and once more banished from the senate1 by the zeal of Gratian. But the emperor1 yet spared the statues of the gods, which were exposed to the public1 veneration; four hundred and twenty-four temples, or chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion of the people1; and in every quarter of Rome1 the delicacy of the Christians1 was offended by the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice.
But the Christians8 formed the least numerous party in the senate of Rome; and it was only by their absence that they could express their dissent from the legal, though profane, acts of a Pagan8 majority. In that assembly, the dying embers of freedom were, for a moment, revived and inflamed by the breath of fanaticism. Four respectable deputations were successively voted to the Imperial court to represent the grievances of the priesthood and the senate; and to solicit the restoration of the altar of Victory. The conduct of this important business was entrusted to the eloquent Symmachus, a wealthy and noble senator, who united the sacred8 characters of pontiff and augur with the civil dignities of proconsul of Africa and prefect of the city. The breast of Symmachus was animated by the warmest zeal8 for the cause of expiring Paganism; and his religious8 antagonists lamented the abuse of his genius, and the inefficacy of his moral virtues. The orator, whose petition is extant to the emperor Valentinian, was conscious of the difficulty and danger of the office which he had assumed. He cautiously avoids every topic which might appear to reflect on the religion8 of his sovereign; humbly declares that prayers and entreaties are his only arms; and artfully draws his arguments from the schools of rhetoric rather than from those of philosophy. Symmachus endeavours to seduce the imagination of a young prince, by displaying the attributes of the goddess of victory; he insinuates that the confiscation of the revenues, which were consecrated to the service of the gods8, was a measure unworthy of his liberal and disinterested character8; and he maintains that the Roman sacrifices would be deprived of their force and energy, if they were no longer celebrated at the expense, as well as in the name, of the republic. Even scepticism is made to supply an apology for superstition8. The great and incomprehensible secret of the universe eludes the inquiry of man8. Where reason8 cannot instruct, custom may be permitted to guide; and every nation seems to consult the dictates of prudence by a faithful attachment to those rites and opinions which have received the sanction of ages. If those ages have been crowned with glory and prosperity, if the devout people has frequently obtained the blessings which they have solicited at the altars of the gods8, it must appear still more advisable to persist in the same salutary practice8; and not to risk the unknown perils that may attend any rash innovations. The test of antiquity and success was applied with singular advantage to the religion8 of Numa; and Rome herself, the celestial genius that presided over the fates of the city, is introduced by the orator to plead her own cause before the tribunal of the emperors. Most excellent princes, says the venerable matron, fathers of your country! pity and respect my age8, which has hitherto flowed in an uninterrupted course of piety. Since I do not repent, permit me to continue in the practice8 of my ancient8 rites. Since I am born free, allow me to enjoy my domestic institutions. This religion8 has reduced the world8 under my laws8. These rites have repelled Hannibal from the city, and the Gauls from the capitol. Were my grey hairs reserved for such intolerable disgrace? I am ignorant of the new system that I am required to adopt; but I am well assured that the correction of old age8 is always an ungrateful and ignominious office. The fears of the people supplied what the discretion of the orator had suppressed; and the calamities which afflicted, or threatened, the declining empire8 were unanimously imputed, by the Pagans8, to the new religion8 of Christ and of Constantine8.
But the hopes42 of Symmachus were repeatedly baffled by the firm and dexterous opposition of the archbishop of Milan; who fortified the emperors against the fallacious eloquence of the advocate of Rome42. In this controversy, Ambrose condescends to speak the language of a philosopher, and to ask, with some contempt, why it should be thought necessary to introduce an imaginary and invisible power42, as the cause of those victories which were sufficiently explained by the valour and discipline of the legions? He justly derides the absurd reverence for antiquity which could only tend to discourage the improvements of art and to replunge the human race into their original barbarism. From thence gradually rising to a more lofty and theological tone, he pronounces that Christianity alone is the doctrine of truth and salvation, and that every mode of Polytheism conducts its deluded votaries42, through the paths of error, to the abyss of eternal perdition. Arguments like these, when they were suggested by a favourite42 bishop, had power42 to prevent the restoration of the altar of Victory; but the same arguments fell, with much more energy and effect, from the mouth of a conqueror; and the gods of antiquity were dragged in triumph at the chariot-wheels of Theodosius. In a full meeting of the senate42, the emperor42 proposed, according to the forms of the republic, the important question, Whether the worship of Jupiter or that of Christ should be the religion42 of the Romans? The liberty of suffrages, which he affected to allow, was destroyed by the hopes42 and fears that his presence inspired; and the arbitrary exile42 of Symmachus was a recent admonition that it might be dangerous to oppose the wishes of the monarch. On a regular division of the senate42, Jupiter was condemned and degraded by the sense of a very large majority; and it is rather surprising that any members should be found bold enough to declare by their speeches and votes that they were still attached to the interest of an abdicated deity. The hasty conversion of the senate42 must be attributed either to supernatural or to sordid motives; and many of these reluctant proselytes betrayed, on every favourable occasion, their secret disposition to throw aside the mask of odious dissimulation. But they were gradually fixed in the new religion42, as the cause of the ancient became more hopeless; they yielded to the authority of the emperor42, to the fashion of the times, and to the entreaties of their wives and children42, who were instigated and governed by the clergy42 of Rome42 and the monks of the East42. The edifying example of the Anician family42 was soon42 imitated by the rest of the nobility: the Bassi, the Paullini, the Gracchi, embraced the Christian42 religion42; and the luminaries of the world, the venerable assembly of Catos (such are the high-flown expressions of Prudentius), were impatient to strip themselves of their pontifical garment: to cast the skin of the old serpent; to assume the snowy robes of baptismal innocence; and to humble42 the pride of the consular fasces before the tombs of the martyrs. The citizens, who subsisted by their own industry, and the populace, who were supported by the public42 liberality, filled the churches of the Lateran and Vatican with an incessant throng of devout proselytes. The decrees of the senate42, which proscribed the worship of idols, were ratified by the general consent of the Romans; the splendour of the capitol was defaced, and the solitary temples were abandoned to ruin and contempt. Rome42 submitted to the yoke of the Gospel; and the vanquished provinces had not yet lost their reverence for the name and authority of Rome42.
The filial piety of the emperors themselves engaged them to proceed, with some caution and tenderness, in the reformation of the eternal city30. Those absolute monarchs acted with less regard to the prejudices of the provincials. The pious labour, which had been suspended near twenty years30 since the death30 of Constantius, was vigorously resumed, and finally accomplished, by the zeal of Theodosius. Whilst that warlike prince30 yet struggled with the Goths, not for the glory, but for the safety, of the republic, he ventured to offend a considerable party of his subjects, by some acts which might perhaps secure the protection of Heaven, but which must seem rash and unseasonable in the eye of human prudence. The success of his first experiments against the Pagans encouraged the pious emperor30 to reiterate and enforce his edicts of proscription; the same laws which had been originally published in the provinces of the East were applied, after the defeat of Maximus, to the whole extent of the Western empire30; and every victory30 of the orthodox Theodosius contributed to the triumph of the Christian and Catholic faith. He attacked superstition in her most vital part by prohibiting the use of sacrifices, which he declared to be criminal as well as infamous; and, if the terms of his edicts more strictly condemned the impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the victims, every subsequent explanation tended to involve, in the same guilt, the general30 practice of immolation, which essentially constituted the religion of the Pagans. As the temples had been erected for the purpose of sacrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent prince30 to remove from his subjects the dangerous temptation of offending against the laws which he had enacted. A special commission was granted to Cynegius, the Praetorian prefect of the East, and afterwards to the counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two officers of distinguished rank in the West; by which they were directed to shut the temples, to seize or destroy the instruments of idolatry, to abolish the privileges of the priests, and to confiscate the consecrated property for the benefit of the emperor30, of the church, or of the army30. Here the desolation might have stopped, and the naked edifices, which were no longer employed in the service30 of idolatry, might have been protected from the destructive rage of fanaticism. Many of those temples were the most splendid and beautiful monuments of Grecian architecture: and the emperor30 himself was interested not to deface the splendour of his own cities or to diminish the value of his own possessions. Those stately edifices might be suffered to remain as so many lasting trophies of the victory30 of Christ. In the decline of the arts, they might be usefully converted into magazines, manufactures, or places of public assembly; and perhaps, when the walls30 of the temple had been sufficiently purified by holy30 rites, the worship of the true Deity might be allowed to expiate the ancient guilt of idolatry. But, as long30 as they subsisted, the Pagans fondly cherished the secret hope that an auspicious revolution, a second30 Julian, might again restore the altars of the gods; and the earnestness with which they addressed their unavailing prayers to the throne increased the zeal of the Christian reformers to extirpate, without mercy, the root of superstition. The laws of the emperors exhibit some symptoms of a milder disposition; but their cold and languid efforts were insufficient to stem the torrent of enthusiasm and rapine, which was conducted, or rather impelled, by the spiritual rulers of the church. In Gaul, the holy30 Martin, bishop of Tours, marched at the head30 of his faithful monks, to destroy the idols, the temples, and the consecrated trees of his extensive diocese; and in the execution of this arduous task, the prudent reader will judge whether Martin was supported by the aid of miraculous powers or of carnal weapons. In Syria, the divine and excellent Marcellus, as he is styled by Theodoret, a bishop animated with apostolic fervour, resolved to level with the ground the stately temples within the diocese of Apamea. His attack was resisted by the skill and solidity with which the temple of Jupiter had been constructed. The building was seated on an eminence; on each of the four sides, the lofty roof was supported by fifteen massy columns, sixteen feet in circumference; and the large stones, of which they were composed, were firmly cemented with lead and iron. The force of the strongest and sharpest tools had been tried without effect. It was found necessary to undermine the foundations of the columns, which fell down as soon30 as the temporary wooden props had been consumed with fire; and the difficulties of the enterprise are described under the allegory of a black demon, who retarded, though he could not defeat, the operations of the Christian engineers. Elated with victory30, Marcellus took the field in person against the powers of darkness; a numerous troop of soldiers30 and gladiators marched under the episcopal banner, and he successively attacked the villages and country temples of the diocese of Apamea. Whenever any resistance or danger was apprehended, the champion of the faith, whose lameness would not allow him either to fight or fly, placed himself at a convenient distance, beyond the reach of darts. But this prudence was the occasion of his death30; he was surprised and slain by a body of exasperated rustics; and the synod of the province pronounced, without hesitation, that the holy30 Marcellus had sacrificed his life in the cause of God. In the support of this cause, the monks, who rushed with tumultuous fury from the desert, distinguished themselves by their zeal and diligence. They deserved the enmity of the Pagans; and some of them might deserve the reproaches of avarice and intemperance: of avarice, which they gratified with holy30 plunder, and of intemperance, which they indulged at the expense of the people30, who foolishly admired their tattered garments, loud psalmody, and artificial paleness. A small number of temples was protected by the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence, of the civil and ecclesiastical governors. The temple of the celestial Venus at Carthage, whose sacred precincts formed a circumference of two miles, was judiciously converted into a Christian church; and a similar consecration has preserved inviolate the majestic dome of the Pantheon at Rome. But, in almost every province of the Roman30 world, an army30 of fanatics, without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of those Barbarians, who alone had time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction.
In this wide and various prospect of devastation, the spectator may distinguish the ruins of the temple of Serapis36, at Alexandria36. Serapis36 does not appear to have been one of the native gods, or monsters, who sprung from the fruitful soil of superstitious Egypt. The first of the Ptolemies had been commanded, by a dream, to import the mysterious stranger from the coast of Pontus, where he had been long36 adored by the inhabitants of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign36 were so imperfectly understood that it became a subject of dispute, whether he represented the bright orb of day or the gloomy monarch36 of the subterraneous regions. The Egyptians, who were obstinately devoted to the religion of their fathers, refused to admit this foreign deity within the walls of their cities36. But the obsequious priests, who were seduced by the liberality of the Ptolemies, submitted, without resistance, to the power36 of the god of Pontus; an honourable and domestic genealogy was provided; and this fortunate usurper was introduced into the throne and bed of Osiris, the husband of Isis, and the celestial monarch36 of Egypt. Alexandria36, which claimed his peculiar protection, gloried in the name of the city36 of Serapis36. His temple, which rivalled the pride and magnificence of the capitol, was erected on the spacious summit of an artificial mount, raised one hundred steps above the level of the adjacent parts of the city36; and the interior cavity was strongly supported by arches, and distributed into vaults and subterraneous apartments. The consecrated buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular portico; the stately halls, and exquisite statues, displayed the triumph of the arts; and the treasures of ancient36 learning were preserved in the famous Alexandrian library, which had arisen with new36 splendour from its ashes. After the edicts of Theodosius had severely prohibited the sacrifices of the Pagans, they were still tolerated in the city36 and temple of Serapis36; and this singular indulgence was imprudently ascribed to the superstitious terrors of the Christians themselves: as if they had feared to abolish those ancient36 rites which could alone secure the inundations of the Nile, the harvests of Egypt, and the subsistence of Constantinople.
At that time the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was filled by Theophilus, the perpetual enemy30 of peace and virtue; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold30 and with blood. His pious indignation was excited by the honours of Serapis; and the insults which he offered to an ancient chapel of Bacchus convinced the Pagans that he meditated a more important and dangerous enterprise. In the tumultuous capital of Egypt, the slightest provocation was sufficient to inflame a civil war30. The votaries of Serapis, whose strength and numbers were much inferior to those of their antagonists, rose in arms30 at the instigation of the philosopher Olympius, who exhorted them to die in the defence of the altars of the gods. These Pagan fanatics fortified themselves in the temple, or rather fortress, of Serapis; repelled the besiegers by daring sallies and a resolute defence; and, by the inhuman cruelties which they exercised on their Christian prisoners, obtained the last consolation of despair. The efforts of the prudent magistrate were usefully exerted for the establishment of a truce till30 the answer of Theodosius should determine the fate of Serapis. The two parties assembled, without arms30, in the principal square; and the Imperial rescript was publicly read. But, when a sentence of destruction against the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the Christians set up a shout of joy and exultation, whilst the unfortunate Pagans, whose fury had given way to consternation, retired with hasty and silent steps, and eluded, by their flight or obscurity, the resentment of their enemies30. Theophilus proceeded to demolish the temple of Serapis, without any other difficulties than those which he found in the weight and solidity of the materials; but these obstacles proved so insuperable that he was obliged to leave the foundations and to content himself with reducing the edifice itself to a heap of rubbish; a part of which was soon30 afterwards cleared away, to make room for a church erected in honour of the Christian martyrs. The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed; and, near twenty years30 afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice. The compositions of ancient genius, so many of which have irretrievably perished, might surely have been excepted from the wreck of idolatry, for the amusement and instruction of succeeding ages; and either the zeal or the avarice of the archbishop might have been satiated with the rich spoils which were the reward of his victory30. While the images and vases of gold30 and silver were carefully melted, and those of a less valuable metal were contemptuously broken and cast into the streets, Theophilus laboured to expose the frauds and vices of the ministers of the idols; their dexterity in the management of the loadstone; their secret methods of introducing an human actor into a hollow statue; and their scandalous abuse of the confidence of devout husbands and unsuspecting females. Charges like these may seem to deserve some degree of credit, as they are not repugnant to the crafty and interested spirit of superstition. But the same spirit is equally prone to the base practice of insulting and calumniating a fallen enemy30; and our belief is naturally checked by the reflection that it is much less difficult to invent a fictitious story than to support a practical fraud. The colossal statue of Serapis was involved in the ruin of his temple and religion. A great number of plates of different metals, artificially joined together, composed the majestic figure of the Deity, who touched on either side the walls30 of the sanctuary. The aspect of Serapis, his sitting posture, and the sceptre which he bore in his left30 hand were extremely similar to the ordinary representations of Jupiter. He was distinguished from Jupiter by the basket, or bushel, which was placed on his head30; and by the emblematic monster, which he held in his right hand: the head30 and body of a serpent branching into three tails, which were again terminated by the triple heads of a dog, a lion, and a wolf. It was confidently affirmed that, if any impious hand should dare to violate the majesty of the god, the heavens and the earth would instantly return to their original chaos. An intrepid solider, animated by zeal and armed with a weighty battle30-axe, ascended the ladder; and even the Christian multitude expected, with some anxiety, the event of the combat. He aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of Serapis; the cheek fell to the ground; the thunder was still silent, and both the heavens and the earth continued to preserve their accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier repeated his blows; the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcase was burnt in the Amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace; and many persons attributed their conversion to this discovery of the impotence of their tutelar deity. The popular modes of religion that propose any visible and material objects of worship have the advantage of adapting and familiarising themselves to the senses of mankind; but this advantage is counterbalanced by the various and inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater is exposed. It is scarcely possible that, in every disposition of mind, he should preserve his implicit reverence for the idols or the relics which the naked eye and the profane hand are unable to distinguish from the most common productions of art or nature; and, if, in the hour of danger, their secret and miraculous virtue does not operate for their own preservation, he scorns the vain apologies of his priest, and justly derides the object, and the folly, of his superstitious attachment. After the fall of Serapis, some hopes were still entertained by the Pagans that the Nile would refuse his annual supply to the impious masters of Egypt; and the extraordinary delay of the inundation seemed to announce the displeasure of the river-god. But this delay was soon30 compensated by the rapid swell of the waters. They suddenly rose to such an unusual height as to comfort the discontented party with the pleasing expectation of a deluge; till30 the peaceful river again subsided to the well-known and fertilising level of sixteen cubits, or about thirty English feet.
The temples of the Roman2 empire2 were deserted, or destroyed; but the ingenious superstition of the Pagans still attempted to elude the laws of Theodosius2, by which all sacrifices had been severely prohibited. The inhabitants of the country, whose conduct was less exposed to the eye of malicious curiosity, disguised their religious, under the appearance of convivial, meetings. On the days of solemn festivals, they assembled in great2 numbers2 under the spreading shade of some consecrated trees; sheep and oxen were slaughtered and roasted; and this rural entertainment was sanctified by the use of incense, and by the hymns which were sung in honour of the gods. But it was alleged that, as no part of the animal was made a burnt-offering, as no altar was provided to receive the blood, and as the previous oblation of salt cakes and the concluding ceremony of libations were carefully omitted, these festal meetings did not involve the guests in the guilt2, or penalty, of an illegal sacrifice. Whatever might be the truth2 of the facts or the merit2 of the distinction, these vain pretences were swept away by the last edict of Theodosius2; which inflicted a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans. This prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and comprehensive terms. It is our will and pleasure, says the emperor2, that none of our subjects2, whether magistrates or private2 citizens, however exalted or however humble may be their rank and condition, shall2 presume, in any city or in any place, to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim. The act of sacrificing and the practice of divination by the entrails of the victim are declared (without any regard to the object of the inquiry) a crime of high-treason against the state2; which can be expiated only by the death of the guilty. The rites of Pagan superstition, which might seem less bloody and atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth2 and honour of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and libations of wine are specially enumerated and condemned; and the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the household gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The use of any of these profane and illegal ceremonies subjects2 the offender to the forfeiture of the house or estate where they have been performed; and, if he has artfully chosen the property of another for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge, without delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of gold, or more than one thousand2 pounds sterling. A fine, not less considerable, is imposed on the connivance of the secret2 enemies2 of religion, who shall2 neglect the duty of their respective stations, either to reveal or to punish the guilt2 of idolatry. Such was the persecuting spirit2 of the laws of Theodosius2, which were repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with the loud and unanimous applause of the Christian2 world.
In the cruel reigns of Decius and Diocletian, Christianity8 had been proscribed, as a revolt from the ancient8 and hereditary religion8 of the empire8; and the unjust suspicions which were entertained of a dark and dangerous faction were, in some measure, countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid conquests of the Catholic church8. But the same excuses of fear and ignorance cannot be applied to the Christian8 emperors, who violated the precepts of humanity and of the Gospel. The experience of ages had betrayed the weakness, as well as folly, of Paganism; the light of reason8 and of faith8 had already exposed, to the greatest part of mankind8, the vanity of idols; and the declining sect, which still adhered to their worship8, might have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and obscurity, the religious8 customs of their ancestors. Had the Pagans8 been animated by the undaunted zeal8 which possessed the minds of the primitive believers, the triumph of the church8 must have been stained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might have embraced the glorious opportunity of devoting their lives and fortunes at the foot of their altars. But such obstinate zeal8 was not congenial to the loose and careless temper of Polytheism. The violent and repeated strokes of the orthodox princes were broken by the soft and yielding substance against which they were directed; and the ready obedience of the Pagans8 protected them from the pains and penalties of the Theodosian Code. Instead of asserting that the authority of the gods8 was superior to that of the emperor, they desisted, with a plaintive murmur, from the use8 of those sacred8 rites which their sovereign had condemned. If they were sometimes tempted, by a sally of passion or by the hopes of concealment, to indulge their favourite superstition8, their humble repentance disarmed the severity of the Christian8 magistrate; and they seldom refused to atone for their rashness by submitting, with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the Gospel. The churches were filled with the increasing multitude of these unworthy proselytes, who had conformed, from temporal motives, to the reigning religion8; and, whilst they devoutly imitated the postures, and recited the prayers, of the faithful, they satisfied their conscience by the silent and sincere invocation of the gods8 of antiquity. If the Pagans8 wanted patience to suffer, they wanted spirit to resist; and the scattered myriads, who deplored the ruin of the temples8, yielded, without a contest, to the fortune of their adversaries. The disorderly opposition of the peasants of Syria, and the populace of Alexandria, to the rage of private8 fanaticism was silenced by the name and authority of the emperor. The Pagans8 of the West, without contributing to the elevation of Eugenius, disgraced, by their partial attachment, the cause and character8 of the usurper. The clergy vehemently exclaimed that he aggravated the crime of rebellion by the guilt of apostacy; that, by his permission, the altar of Victory was again restored; and that the idolatrous symbols of Jupiter and Hercules were displayed in the field against the invincible standard of the cross. But the vain hopes of the Pagans8 were soon annihilated by the defeat of Eugenius; and they were left exposed to the resentment of the conqueror, who laboured to deserve the favour of heaven by the extirpation of idolatry.
A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master, who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression. Theodosius might undoubtedly have proposed to his Pagan8 subjects8 the alternative of baptism or of death8; and the eloquent Libanius has praised the moderation of a prince, who never enacted, by any positive law, that all his subjects8 should immediately embrace and practise the religion8 of their sovereign. The profession of Christianity8 was not made an essential qualification for the enjoyment of the civil rights of society8, nor were any peculiar hardships imposed on the sectaries who credulously received the fables of Ovid and obstinately rejected the miracles of the Gospel. The palace, the schools, the army, and the senate were filled with declared and devout Pagans8; they obtained, without distinction, the civil and military honours of the empire8. Theodosius distinguished his liberal regard for virtue8 and genius, by the consular dignity which he bestowed on Symmachus, and by the personal friendship which he expressed to Libanius; and the two eloquent apologists of Paganism were never required either to change or to dissemble their religious8 opinions. The Pagans8 were indulged in the most licentious freedom of speech and writing; the historical and philosophical remains of Eunapius, Zosimus, and the fanatic teachers of the school of Plato, betray the most furious animosity, and contain the sharpest invectives, against the sentiments and conduct of their victorious adversaries. If these audacious libels were publicly known, we must applaud the good sense of the Christian8 princes who viewed, with a smile of contempt, the last struggles of superstition8 and despair. But the Imperial laws8 which prohibited the sacrifices and ceremonies of Paganism were rigidly executed; and every hour contributed to destroy the influence of a religion8 which was supported by custom rather than by argument. The devotion8 of the poet or the philosopher8 may be secretly nourished by prayer, meditation, and study; but the exercise of public8 worship8 appears to be the only solid foundation of the religious8 sentiments of the people, which derive their force from imitation and habit. The interruption of that public8 exercise may consummate, in the period of a few years, the important work of a national revolution. The memory of theological opinions cannot long be preserved without the artificial helps of priests, of temples8, and of books. The ignorant vulgar, whose minds are still agitated by the blind hopes and terrors of superstition8, will be soon persuaded by their superiors to direct their vows to the reigning deities of the age8; and will insensibly imbibe an ardent zeal8 for the support and propagation of the new doctrine, which spiritual hunger at first compelled them to accept. The generation that arose in the world8 after the promulgation of the Imperial laws8 was attracted within the pale of the Catholic church8: and so rapid, yet so gentle, was the fall of Paganism that only twenty-eight years after the death8 of Theodosius the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the legislator.
The ruin of the Pagan8 religion8 is described by the sophists as a dreadful and amazing prodigy which covered the earth with darkness and restored the ancient8 dominion of chaos and of night. They relate, in solemn and pathetic strains, that the temples8 were converted into sepulchres, and that the holy places, which had been adorned by the statues of the gods8, were basely polluted by the relics of Christian8 martyrs. The monks (a race of filthy animals, to whom Eunapius is tempted to refuse the name of men) are the authors of the new worship8, which, in the place of one of those deities, who are conceived by the understanding, has substituted the meanest and most contemptible slaves. The heads, salted and pickled, of those infamous malefactors, who for the multitude of their crimes have suffered a just and ignominious death8; their bodies, still marked by the impression of the lash, and the scars of those tortures which were inflicted by the sentence of the magistrate; such (continues Eunapius) are the gods8 which the earth produces in our days; such are the martyrs, the supreme arbitrators of our prayers and petitions to the Deity8, whose tombs are now consecrated as the objects of the veneration of the people. Without approving the malice, it is natural enough to share the surprise, of the Sophist, the spectator of a revolution which raised those obscure victims of the laws8 of Rome to the rank of celestial and invisible protectors of the Roman empire8. The grateful respect of the Christians8 for the martyrs of the faith8 was exalted, by time8 and victory, into religious8 adoration; and the most illustrious of the saints and prophets were deservedly associated to the honours of the martyrs. One hundred and fifty years after the glorious deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vitican and the Ostian road were distinguished by the tombs, or rather by the trophies, of those spiritual heroes. In the age8 which followed the conversion of Constantine8, the emperors, the consuls, and the generals of armies devoutly visited the sepulchres of a tent-maker and a fisherman; and their venerable bones were deposited under the altars of Christ, on which the bishops of the royal city continually offered the unbloody sacrifice. The new capital of the Eastern world8, unable to produce any ancient8 and domestic trophies, was enriched by the spoils of dependent provinces. The bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy had reposed, near three hundred years, in the obscure graves from whence they were sent, in solemn pomp, to the church8 of the Apostles, which the magnificence of Constantine8 had founded on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus. About fifty years afterwards, the same banks were honoured by the presence of Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of Israel. His ashes, deposited in a golden vase and covered with a silken veil, were delivered by the bishops into each other's hands. The relics of Samuel were received by the people with the same joy and reverence which they would have shown to the living prophet; the highways, from Palestine to the gates of Constantinople, were filled with an uninterrupted procession; and the emperor Arcadius himself, at the head of the most illustrious members of the clergy and senate, advanced to meet his extraordinary guest, who had always deserved and claimed the homage of kings. The example of Rome and Constantinople confirmed the faith8 and discipline of the Catholic world8. The honours of the saints and martyrs, after a feeble and ineffectual murmur of profane reason8, were universally established; and in the age8 of Ambrose and Jerom, something was still deemed wanting to the sanctity of a Christian8 church8, till it had been consecrated by some portion of holy relics, which fixed and inflamed the devotion8 of the faithful.
In the long period of twelve hundred years which elapsed between the reign8 of Constantine8 and the reformation of Luther the worship8 of saints and relics corrupted the pure and perfect simplicity of the Christian8 model; and some symptoms of degeneracy may be observed even in the first generations which adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation.
I. The satisfactory experience that the relics of saints were more valuable than gold or precious stones stimulated the clergy to multiply the treasures of the church8. Without much regard for truth8 or probability, they invented names for skeletons and actions for names. The fame of the apostles, and of the holy men who had imitated their virtues, was darkened by religious8 fiction. To the invincible band of genuine and primitive martyrs, they added myriads of imaginary heroes, who had never existed except in the fancy of crafty or credulous legendaries; and there is reason8 to suspect that Tours might not be the only diocese in which the bones of a malefactor were adored instead of those of a saint. A superstitious practice8, which tended to increase the temptations of fraud and credulity, insensibly extinguished the light of history and of reason8 in the Christian8 world8.
II. But the progress of superstition would have been much less rapid and victorious, if the faith of the people22 had not been assisted by the seasonable aid of visions and miracles, to ascertain the authenticity and virtue22 of the most suspicious relics. In the reign22 of the younger Theodosius, Lucian, a presbyter of Jerusalem, and the ecclesiastical minister of the village of Caphargamala, about twenty miles from the city, related a very singular22 dream, which, to remove his doubts, had been repeated on three successive Saturdays. A venerable figure stood before him, in the silence of the night, with a long22 beard, a white robe, and a gold rod; announced himself by the name of Gamaliel, and revealed to the astonished presbyter that his own corpse, with the bodies of his son22 Abibas, his friend Nicodemus, and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He added, with some impatience, that it was time22 to release himself and his companions from their obscure prison; that their appearance would be salutary to a distressed world22; and that they had made choice of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their situation and their wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still retarded this important discovery were successively removed by new22 visions; and the ground was opened by the bishop, in the presence of an innumerable multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel, of his son22, and of his friend were found in regular order; but when the fourth coffin, which contained the remains of Stephen, was shown to the light, the earth trembled, and an odour, such as that of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the various22 diseases of seventy-three of the assistants. The companions of Stephen were left in their peaceful residence of Caphargamala; but the relics of the first martyr were transported in solemn procession to a church constructed in their honour on Mount Sion; and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of blood22, or the scrapings of a bone were acknowledged in almost every province of the Roman22 world22 to possess a divine and miraculous virtue22. The grave and learned Augustin, whose understanding scarcely admits the excuse of credulity, has attested the innumerable prodigies which were performed in Africa by the relics of St. Stephen; and this marvellous narrative is inserted in the elaborate work22 of the City of God, which the bishop of Hippo designed as a solid and immortal proof of the truth of Christianity. Augustin solemnly declares that he has selected those miracles only which were publicly certified by the persons who were either the objects, or the spectators, of the power22 of the martyr. Many prodigies were omitted or forgotten; and Hippo had been less favourably treated than the other cities of the province. And yet the bishop enumerates above seventy miracles, of which three were resurrections from the dead, in the space of two years22 and within the limits of his own diocese. If we enlarge our view to all the dioceses and all the saints of the Christian world22, it will not be easy to calculate the fables and the errors which issued from this inexhaustible source. But we may surely be allowed to observe that a miracle, in that age22 of superstition and credulity, lost22 its name and its merit22, since it could scarcely be considered as a deviation from the ordinary and established laws of nature.
III. The innumerable miracles of which the tombs of the martyrs were the perpetual theatre revealed to the pious believer the actual state and constitution of the invisible world8; and his religious8 speculations appeared to be founded on the firm basis of fact and experience. Whatever might be the condition of vulgar souls, in the long interval between the dissolution and the resurrection of their bodies, it was evident that the superior spirits of the saints and martyrs did not consume that portion of their existence in silent and inglorious sleep. It was evident (without presuming to determine the place of their habitation or the nature8 of their felicity) that they enjoyed the lively and active consciousness of their happiness8, their virtue8, and their powers; and that they had already secured the possession of their eternal reward. The enlargement of their intellectual faculties surpassed the measure of the human8 imagination; since it was proved by experience that they were capable of hearing and understanding the various8 petitions of their numerous votaries; who, in the same moment of time8, but in the most distant parts of the world8, invoked the name and assistance of Stephen or of Martin. The confidence of their petitioners was founded on the persuasion that the saints, who reigned with Christ, cast an eye of pity upon earth; that they were warmly interested in the prosperity of the Catholic church8; and that the individuals, who imitated the example of their faith8 and piety, were the peculiar and favourite objects of their most tender regard. Sometimes, indeed, their friendship might be influenced by considerations of a less exalted kind: they viewed, with partial affection, the places which had been consecrated by their birth, their residence, their death8, their burial, or the possession of their relics. The meaner passions8 of pride, avarice, and revenge may be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast; yet the saints themselves condescended to testify their grateful approbation of the liberality of their votaries; and the sharpest bolts of punishment were hurled against those impious wretches who violated their magnificent shrines or disbelieved their supernatural power. Atrocious, indeed, must have been the guilt, and strange would have been the scepticism, of those men, if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine8 agency which the elements, the whole range of the animal creation, and even the subtle and invisible operations of the human8 mind8 were compelled to obey. The immediate, and almost instantaneous, effects, that were supposed to follow the prayer or the offence, satisfied the Christians8 of the ample measure of favour and authority which the saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme God8; and it seemed almost superfluous to inquire whether they were continually obliged to intercede before the throne of grace, or whether they might not be permitted to exercise, according to the dictates of their benevolence and justice, the delegated powers of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which had been raised by a painful effort to the contemplation and worship8 of the Universal Cause, eagerly embraced such inferior objects of adoration as were more proportioned to its gross conceptions and imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians8 was gradually corrupted; and the monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to restore the reign8 of polytheism.
IV. As the objects of religion40 were gradually reduced to the standard of the imagination, the rites and ceremonies were introduced that seemed most powerfully to affect the senses of the vulgar. If, in the beginning of the fifth century, Tertullian or Lactantius had been suddenly raised from the dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint or martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment and indignation on the profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian congregation. As soon40 as the doors of the church were thrown open, they must have been offended by the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noon-day, a gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their way through the prostrate crowd, consisting, for the most part, of strangers and pilgrims, who restored to the city40 on the vigil of the feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and, perhaps, of wine40. Their devout kisses were imprinted on the walls and pavement of the sacred edifice; and their fervent prayers were directed, whatever might be the language of their church, to the bones, the blood, or the ashes of the saints, which were usually concealed by a linen or silken veil from the eyes40 of the vulgar. The Christians40 frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of obtaining, from their powerful intercession, every sort of spiritual, but more especially of temporal, blessings. They implored the preservation of their health or the cure of their infirmities; the fruitfulness of their barren wives or the safety and happiness of their children. Whenever they undertook any distant or dangerous journey, they requested that the holy40 martyrs would be their guides and protectors on the road; and, if they returned without having experienced any misfortune, they again hastened to the tombs of the martyrs, to celebrate, with grateful thanksgivings, their obligations to the memory and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with symbols of the favours which they had received40; eyes40, and hands, and feet, of gold and silver; and edifying pictures, which could not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion40, represented the image, the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint. The same uniform original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the most distant ages and countries, the same methods of deceiving the credulity, and of affecting the senses, of mankind; but it must ingenuously be confessed that the ministers of the Catholic church imitated the profane model which they were impatient to destroy. The most respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion40 of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman40 empire40: but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals.
The genius of Rome47 expired with Theodosius47; the last of the successors of Augustus and Constantine47, who appeared in the field at the head of their armies, and whose authority47 was universally acknowledged throughout the whole extent of the empire47. The memory of his virtues still continued, however, to protect the feeble and inexperienced youth of his two sons. After the death47 of their father47, Arcadius and Honorius were saluted, by the unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East47, and of the West; and the oath of fidelity was eagerly taken by every order of the state; the senates of old and new Rome47, the clergy, the magistrates, the soldiers47, and the people47. Arcadius, who then was about eighteen years of age47, was born in Spain, in the humble habitation of a private47 family. But he received a princely education in the palace47 of Constantinople; and his inglorious life47 was spent in that peaceful and splendid seat of royalty, from whence he appeared to reign47 over the provinces47 of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the Lower Danube to the confines of Persia and Aethiopia. His younger brother, Honorius, assumed, in the eleventh year of his age47, the nominal government47 of Italy47, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain; and the troops47 which guarded the frontiers of his kingdom were opposed, on one side, to the Caledonians, and on the other, to the Moors. The great and martial prefecture of Illyricum was divided between the two princes; the defence and possession of the provinces47 of Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia still belonged to the Western empire47; but the two large dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia, which Gratian had entrusted to the valour of Theodosius47, were for ever united to the empire47 of the East47. The boundary in Europe was not very different from the line which now separates the Germans and the Turks; and the respective advantages of territory, riches, populousness, and military47 strength were fairly balanced and compensated in this final and permanent division of the Roman47 empire47. The hereditary sceptre of the sons of Theodosius47 appeared to be the gift of nature, and of their father47; the generals and ministers had been accustomed to adore the majesty of the royal infants; and the army47 and people47 were not admonished of their rights and of their power47 by the dangerous example of a recent election. The gradual discovery of the weakness of Arcadius and Honorius, and the repeated calamities of their reign47, were not sufficient to obliterate the deep and early impressions of loyalty. The subjects of Rome47, who still reverenced the persons or rather the names of their sovereigns, beheld, with equal abhorrence, the rebels who opposed, and the ministers who abused, the authority47 of the throne47.
Theodosius had tarnished the glory of his reign47 by the elevation of Rufinus: an odious favourite, who, in an age47 of civil47 and religious faction, has deserved, from every party, the imputation of every crime. The strong impulse of ambition and avarice had urged Rufinus to abandon his native country, an obscure corner of Gaul, to advance his fortune in the capital of the East47; the talent of bold and ready elocution qualified him to succeed in the lucrative profession of the law; and his success in that profession was a regular step to the most honourable and important employments of the state. He was raised, by just degrees, to the station of master47 of the offices. In the exercise of his various functions, so essentially connected with the whole system of civil47 government47, he acquired the confidence of a monarch, who soon47 discovered his diligence and capacity in business, and who long47 remained ignorant of the pride, the malice, and the covetousness of his disposition. These vices were concealed beneath the mask of profound dissimulation; his passions were subservient only to the passions of his master47; yet, in the horrid massacre of Thessalonica, the cruel Rufinus inflamed the fury, without imitating the repentance, of Theodosius47. The minister, who viewed with proud indifference the rest of mankind, never forgave the appearance of an injury; and his personal enemies had forfeited in his opinion the merit47 of all public47 services. Promotus, the master47-general47 of the infantry, had saved the empire47 from the invasion of the Ostrogoths; but he indignantly supported the pre-eminence of a rival whose character and profession he despised; and, in the midst of a public47 council, the impatient soldier was provoked to chastise with a blow the indecent pride of the favourite. This act of violence was represented to the emperor47 as an insult which it was incumbent on his dignity to resent. The disgrace and exile of Promotus were signified by a peremptory order to repair, without delay, to a military47 station on the banks of the Danube; and the death47 of that general47 (though he was slain in a skirmish with the Barbarians) was imputed to the perfidious arts of Rufinus. The sacrifice of an hero gratified his revenge; the honours of the consulship elated his vanity; but his power47 was still imperfect and precarious, as long47 as the important posts of prefect47 of the East47 and of prefect47 of Constantinople were filled by Tatian and his son47 Proculus; whose united authority47 balanced, for some time, the ambition and favour of the master47 of the offices. The two prefects were accused of rapine and corruption in the administration of the laws and finances. For the trial of these illustrous offenders, the emperor47 constituted a special commission; several judges were named to share the guilt and reproach of injustice; but the right of pronouncing sentence was reserved to the president alone, and that president was Rufinus himself. The father47, stripped of the prefecture of the East47, was thrown into a dungeon; but the son47, conscious that few ministers can be found innocent where an enemy is their judge, had secretly escaped; and Rufinus must have been satisfied with the least obnoxious victim, if despotism had not condescended to employ the basest and most ungenerous artifice. The prosecution was conducted with an appearance of equity and moderation, which flattered Tatian with the hope of a favourable event; his confidence was fortified by the solemn assurances and perfidious oaths of the president, who presumed to interpose the sacred name of Theodosius47 himself; and the unhappy father47 was at last persuaded to recall, by a private47 letter, the fugitive Proculus. He was instantly seized, examined, condemned, and beheaded, in one of the suburbs of Constantinople, with a precipitation which disappointed the clemency of the emperor47. Without respecting the misfortunes of a consular senator, the cruel judges of Tatian compelled him to behold the execution of his son47; the fatal cord was fastened round his own neck; but, in the moment when he expected, and perhaps desired, the relief of a speedy death47, he was permitted to consume the miserable remnant of his old age47 in poverty and exile. The punishment of the two prefects might perhaps be excused by the exceptionable parts of their own conduct47; the enmity of Rufinus might be palliated by the jealous and unsociable nature of ambition. But he indulged a spirit47 of revenge, equally repugnant to prudence and to justice47, when he degraded their native country of Lycia from the rank47 of Roman47 provinces47; stigmatised a guiltless people47 with a mark of ignominy; and declared that the countrymen of Tatian and Proculus should ever remain incapable of holding any employment of honour or advantage under the Imperial47 government47. The new prefect47 of the East47 (for Rufinus instantly succeeded to the vacant honours of his adversary) was not diverted, however, by the most criminal pursuits, from the performance of the religious duties which in that age47 were considered as the most essential to salvation. In the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, he had built a magnificent villa; to which he devoutly added a stately church, consecrated to the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and continually sanctified by the prayers and penance of a regular society of monks. A numerous, and almost general47, synod of the bishops of the Eastern empire47 was summoned to celebrate, at the same time, the dedication of the church and the baptism of the founder. This double ceremony was performed with extraordinary pomp; and, when Rufinus was purified, in the holy font, from all the sins that he had hitherto committed, a venerable hermit of Egypt rashly proposed himself as the sponsor of a proud and ambitious statesman.
The character of Theodosius47 imposed on his minister the task of hypocrisy, which disguised, and sometimes restrained, the abuse of power47; and Rufinus was apprehensive of disturbing the indolent slumber of a prince47, still capable of exerting the abilities and the virtue which had raised him to the throne47. But the absence, and soon47 afterwards the death47, of the emperor47 confirmed the absolute authority47 of Rufinus over the person47 and dominions of Arcadius: a feeble youth, whom the imperious prefect47 considered as his pupil rather than his sovereign47. Regardless of the public47 opinion, he indulged his passions without remorse and without resistance; and his malignant and rapacious spirit47 rejected every passion that might have contributed to his own glory or the happiness of the people47. His avarice, which seems to have prevailed in his corrupt mind over every other sentiment, attracted the wealth of the East47 by the various arts of partial, and general47, extortion: oppressive taxes, scandalous bribery, immoderate fines, unjust confiscations, forced or fictitious testaments, by which the tyrant47 despoiled of their lawful inheritance the children of strangers, or enemies; and the public47 sale of justice47, as well as of favour, which he instituted in the palace47 of Constantinople. The ambitious candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense of the fairest part of his patrimony, the honours and emoluments of some provincial government47; the lives and fortunes of the unhappy people47 were abandoned to the most liberal purchaser; and the public47 discontent was sometimes appeased by the sacrifice of an unpopular criminal, whose punishment was profitable only to the prefect47 of the East47, his accomplice and his judge. If avarice were not the blindest of the human passions, the motives of Rufinus might excite our curiosity; and we might be tempted to inquire, with what view he violated every principle of humanity and justice47, to accumulate those immense treasures which he could not spend without folly nor possess without danger47. Perhaps he vainly imagined that he laboured for the interest of an only daughter, on whom he intended to bestow his royal pupil and the august rank47 of empress of the East47. Perhaps he deceived himself by the opinion that his avarice was the instrument of his ambition. He aspired to place his fortune on a secure and independent basis, which should no longer depend on the caprice of the young emperor47; yet he neglected to conciliate the hearts of the soldiers47 and people47, by the liberal distribution of those riches which he had acquired with so much toil, and with so much guilt. The extreme parsimony of Rufinus left him only the reproach and envy of ill-gotten wealth; his dependents served him without attachment; the universal hatred of mankind was repressed only by the influence of servile fear. The fate of Lucian proclaimed to the East47 that the prefect47 whose industry was much abated in the despatch of ordinary business was active and indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, the son47 of the prefect47 Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and the enemy of Julian, had employed a considerable part of his inheritance, the fruit of rapine and corruption, to purchase the friendship of Rufinus and the high office of Count of the East47. But the new magistrate imprudently departed from the maxims of the court and of the times; disgraced his benefactor, by the contrast of a virtuous and temperate administration; and presumed to refuse an act of injustice, which might have tended to the profit of the emperor47's uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to resent the supposed insult; and the prefect47 of the East47 resolved to execute in person47 the cruel vengeance which he meditated against this ungrateful delegate of his power47. He performed with incessant speed the journey of seven or eight hundred miles from Constantinople to Antioch, entered the capital of Syria at the dead of night, and spread universal consternation among a people47 ignorant of his design but not ignorant of his character. The count of the fifteen provinces47 of the East47 was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an accuser, Lucian was condemned, almost without a trial, to suffer a cruel and ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant47, by the order, and in the presence, of their master47, beat him on the neck with leather thongs, armed at the extremities with lead; and, when he fainted under the violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter, to conceal his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city47. No sooner had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his expedition, than he returned, amidst the deep and silent curses of a trembling people47, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his diligence was accelerated by the hope of accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials of his daughter with the emperor47 of the East47.
But Rufinus soon47 experienced that a prudent minister should constantly secure his royal captive by the strong, though invisible, chain of habit; and that the merit47, and much more easily the favour, of the absent are obliterated in a short time from the mind of a weak and capricious sovereign47. While the prefect47 satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret47 conspiracy of the favourite eunuchs, directed by the great chamberlain Eutropius, undermined his power47 in the palace47 of Constantinople. They discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to love the daughter of Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his consent, for his bride; and they contrived to substitute in her place the fair Eudoxia, the daughter of Bauto, a general47 of the Franks in the service of Rome47; and who was educated, since the death47 of her father47, in the family of the sons of Promotus. The young emperor47, whose chastity had been strictly guarded by the pious care of his tutor Arsenius, eagerly listened to the artful and flattering descriptions of the charms of Eudoxia; he gazed with impatient ardour on her picture, and he understood the necessity of concealing his amorous designs from the knowledge of a minister who was so deeply interested to oppose the consummation of his happiness. Soon47 after the return of Rufinus, the approaching ceremony of the royal nuptials was announced to the people47 of Constantinople, who prepared to celebrate, with false and hollow acclamations, the fortune of his daughter. A splendid train of eunuchs and officers issued, in hymeneal pomp, from the gates of the palace47; bearing aloft the diadem, the robes and the inestimable ornaments of the future empress. The solemn procession passed through the streets of the city47, which were adorned with garlands and filled with spectators; but, when it reached the house of the sons of Promotus, the principal eunuch respectfully entered the mansion, invested the fair Eudoxia with the Imperial47 robes, and conducted her in triumph to the palace47 and bed of Arcadius. The secrecy and success with which this conspiracy against Rufinus had been conducted imprinted a mark of indelible ridicule on the character of a minister who had suffered himself to be deceived in a post where the arts of deceit and dissimulation constitute the most distinguished merit47. He considered, with a mixture of indignation and fear, the victory of an aspiring eunuch, who had secretly captivated the favour of his sovereign47; and the disgrace of his daughter, whose interest was inseparably connected with his own, wounded the tenderness, or, at least, the pride, of Rufinus. At the moment when he flattered himself that he should become the father47 of a line of kings, a foreign maid, who had been educated in the house of his implacable enemies, was introduced into the Imperial47 bed; and Eudoxia soon47 displayed a superiority of sense and spirit47, to improve the ascendant which her beauty must acquire over the mind of a fond and youthful husband. The emperor47 would soon47 be instructed to hate, to fear, and to destroy the powerful subject whom he had injured; and the consciousness of guilt deprived Rufinus of every hope, either of safety or comfort, in the retirement of a private47 life47. But he still possessed the most effectual means of defending his dignity, and perhaps of oppressing his enemies. The prefect47 still exercised an uncontrolled authority47 over the civil47 and military47 government47 of the East47; and his treasures, if he could resolve to use them, might be employed to procure proper instruments for the execution of the blackest designs that pride, ambition, and revenge could suggest to a desperate statesman. The character of Rufinus seemed to justify the accusations that he conspired against the person47 of his sovereign47 to seat himself on the vacant throne47; and that he had secretly invited the Huns and the Goths to invade the provinces47 of the empire47 and to increase the public47 confusion. The subtle prefect47, whose life47 had been spent in the intrigues of the palace47, opposed, with equal arms47, the artful measures of the eunuch Eutropius; but the timid soul of Rufinus was astonished by the hostile approach of a more formidable rival, of the great Stilicho, the general47, or rather the master47, of the empire47 of the West.
The celestial gift which Achilles obtained, and Alexander envied, of a poet worthy to celebrate the actions of heroes has been enjoyed by Stilicho in a much higher degree than might have been expected from the declining state of genius and of art. The muse of Claudian, devoted to his service, was always prepared to stigmatise his adversaries, Rufinus or Eutropius, with eternal infamy; or to paint, in the most splendid colours, the victories and virtues of a powerful benefactor. In the review of a period indifferently supplied with authentic materials, we cannot refuse to illustrate the annals of Honorius from the invectives or the panegyrics of a contemporary writer; but, as Claudian appears to have indulged the most ample privilege of a poet and a courtier, some criticism will be requisite to translate the language of fiction or exaggeration into the truth and simplicity of historic prose. His silence concerning the family of Stilicho may be admitted as a proof that his patron was neither able nor desirous to boast a long47 series of illustrious progenitors; and the slight mention of his father47, an officer of Barbarian cavalry in the service of Valens, seems to countenance the assertion that the general47 who so long47 commanded the armies of Rome47 was descended from the savage and perfidious race of the Vandals. If Stilicho had not possessed the external advantages of strength and stature, the most flattering bard, in the presence of so many thousand spectators, would have hesitated to affirm that he surpassed the measure of the demigods of antiquity; and that, whenever he moved, with lofty steps, through the streets of the capital, the astonished crowd made room for the stranger, who displayed, in a private47 condition, the awful majesty of a hero. From his earliest youth he embraced the profession of arms47; his prudence and valour were soon47 distinguished in the field; the horsemen and archers of the East47 admired his superior dexterity; and in each degree of his military47 promotions the public47 judgment always prevented and approved the choice of the sovereign47. He was named by Theodosius47 to ratify a solemn treaty with the monarch of Persia; he supported, during that important embassy, the dignity of the Roman47 name; and, after his return to Constantinople, his merit47 was rewarded by an intimate and honourable alliance with the Imperial47 family. Theodosius47 had been prompted by a pious motive of fraternal affection to adopt for his own the daughter of his brother Honorius; the beauty and accomplishments of Serena were universally admired by the obsequious court; and Stilicho obtained the preference over a crowd of rivals, who ambitiously disputed the hand of the princess and the favour of her adoptive father47. The assurance that the husband of Serena would be faithful to the throne47, which he was permitted to approach, engaged the emperor47 to exalt the fortunes and to employ the abilities of the sagacious and intrepid Stilicho. He rose, through the successive steps of master47 of the horse and count of the domestics, to the supreme rank47 of master47-general47 of all the cavalry and infantry of the Roman47, or at least of the Western, empire47; and his enemies confessed that he invariably disdained to barter for gold the rewards of merit47, or to defraud the soldiers47 of the pay and gratifications which they deserved or claimed from the liberality of the State. The valour and conduct47 which he afterwards displayed in the defence of Italy47 against the arms47 of Alaric and Radagaisus may justify the fame of his early achievements; and, in an age47 less attentive to the laws of honour or of pride, the Roman47 generals might yield the pre-eminence of rank47 to the ascendant of superior genius. He lamented and revenged the murder of Promotus, his rival and his friend; and the massacre of many thousands of the flying Bastarnae is represented by the poet as a bloody sacrifice which the Roman47 Achilles offered to the manes of another Patroclus. The virtues and victories of Stilicho deserved the hatred of Rufinus; and the arts of calumny might have been successful, if the tender and vigilant Serena had not protected her husband against his domestic foes, whilst he vanquished in the field the enemies of the empire47. Theodosius47 continued to support an unworthy minister, to whose diligence he delegated the government47 of the palace47 and of the East47; but, when he marched against the tyrant47 Eugenius, he associated his faithful general47 to the labours and glories of the civil47 war47; and, in the last moments of his life47, the dying monarch recommended to Stilicho the care of his sons, and of the republic. The ambition and the abilities of Stilicho were not unequal to the important trust; and he claimed the guardianship of the two empires during the minority of Arcadius and Honorius. The first measure of his administration, or rather of his reign47, displayed to the nations the vigour and activity of a spirit47 worthy to command47. He passed the Alps in the depth of winter; descended the stream of the Rhine from the fortress of Basel to the marshes of Batavia; reviewed the state of the garrisons; repressed the enterprises of the Germans; and, after establishing along the banks a firm and honourable peace, returned with incredible speed to the palace47 of Milan. The person47 and court of Honorius were subject to the master47-general47 of the West; and the armies and provinces47 of Europe obeyed, without hesitation, a regular authority47, which was exercised in the name of their young sovereign47. Two rivals only remained to dispute the claims, and to provoke the vengeance, of Stilicho. Within the limits of Africa, Gildo, the Moor, maintained a proud and dangerous independence; and the minister of Constantinople asserted his equal reign47 over the emperor47 and the empire47 of the East47.
The impartiality which Stilicho affected, as the common guardian of the royal brothers, engaged him to regulate the equal division of the arms47, the jewels, and the magnificent wardrobe and furniture of the deceased emperor47. But the most important object of the inheritance consisted of the numerous legions, cohorts and squadrons of Romans or Barbarians, whom the event of the civil47 war47 had united under the standard of Theodosius47. The various multitudes of Europe and Asia, exasperated by recent animosities, were overawed by the authority47 of a single man; and the rigid discipline of Stilicho protected the lands of the citizen from the rapine of the licentious soldier. Anxious, however, and impatient to relieve Italy47 from the presence of this formidable host, which could be useful only on the frontiers of the empire47, he listened to the just requisition of the minister of Arcadius, declared his intention of re-conducting in person47 the troops47 of the East47, and dexterously employed the rumour of a Gothic tumult to conceal his private47 designs of ambition and revenge. The guilty soul of Rufinus was alarmed by the approach of a warrior and a rival, whose enmity he deserved; he computed with increasing terror the narrow space of his life47 and greatness: and, as the last hope of safety, he interposed the authority47 of the emperor47 Arcadius. Stilicho, who appears to have directed his march along the sea coast of the Hadriatic, was not far distant from the city47 of Thessalonica, when he received a peremptory message to recall the troops47 of the East47 and to declare that his nearer approach would be considered by the Byzantine court as an act of hostility. The prompt and unexpected obedience of the general47 of the West convinced the vulgar of his loyalty and moderation; and, as he had already engaged the affection of the Eastern troops47, he recommended to their zeal the execution of his bloody design, which might be accomplished in his absence with less danger47, perhaps, and with less reproach. Stilicho left the command47 of the troops47 of the East47 to Gainas the Goth, on whose fidelity he firmly relied; with an assurance, at least, that the hardy Barbarian would never be diverted from his purpose by any consideration of fear or remorse. The soldiers47 were easily persuaded to punish the enemy of Stilicho and of Rome47; and such was the general47 hatred which Rufinus had excited that the fatal secret47, communicated to thousands, was faithfully preserved during the long47 march from Thessalonica to the gates of Constantinople. As soon47 as they had resolved his death47, they condescended to flatter his pride; the ambitious prefect47 was seduced to believe that those powerful auxiliaries might be tempted to place the diadem on his head; and the treasures which he distributed with a tardy and reluctant hand were accepted by the indignant multitude as an insult rather than as a gift. At the distance of a mile from the capital, in the field of Mars, before the palace47 of Hebdomon, the troops47 halted; and the emperor47, as well as his minister, advanced according to ancient custom respectfully to salute the power47 which supported their throne47. As Rufinus passed along the ranks and disguised with studied courtesy his innate haughtiness, the wings insensibly wheeled from the right and left and enclosed the devoted victim within the circle of their arms47. Before he could reflect on the danger47 of his situation Gainas gave the signal of death47; a daring and forward soldier plunged his sword into the breast of the guilty prefect47, and Rufinus fell, groaned and expired at the feet of the affrighted emperor47. If the agonies of a moment could expiate the crimes of a whole life47, or if the outrages inflicted on a breathless corpse could be the object of pity, our humanity might perhaps be affected by the horrid circumstances which accompanied the murder of Rufinus. His mangled body was abandoned to the brutal fury of the populace of either sex, who hastened in crowds from every quarter of the city47 to trample on the remains of the haughty minister at whose frown they had so lately trembled. His right hand was cut off and carried through the streets of Constantinople in cruel mockery to extort contributions for the avaricious tyrant47, whose head was publicly exposed, borne aloft on the point of a long47 lance. According to the savage maxims of the Greek republics his innocent family would have shared the punishment of his crimes. The wife and daughter of Rufinus were indebted for their safety to the influence of religion. Her sanctuary protected them from the raging madness of the people47; and they were permitted to spend the remainder of their lives in the exercises of Christian devotion in the peaceful retirement of Jerusalem.
The servile poet of Stilicho applauds, with ferocious joy, this horrid deed, which, in the execution, perhaps, of justice47, violated every law of nature and society, profaned the majesty of the prince47, and renewed the dangerous examples of military47 licence. The contemplation of the universal order and harmony had satisfied Claudian of the existence of the Deity; but the prosperous impunity of vice appeared to contradict his moral attributes; and the fate of Rufinus was the only event which could dispel the religious doubts of the poet. Such an act might vindicate the honour of Providence; but it did not much contribute to the happiness of the people47. In less than three months they were informed of the maxims of the new administration by a singular edict, which established the exclusive right of the treasury over the spoils of Rufinus; and silenced, under heavy penalties, the presumptuous claims of the subjects of the Eastern empire47, who had been injured by his rapacious tyranny. Even Stilicho did not derive from the murder of his rival the fruit which he had proposed; and, though he gratified his revenge, his ambition was disappointed. Under the name of a favourite, the weakness of Arcadius required a master47; but he naturally preferred the obsequious arts of the eunuch Eutropius, who had obtained his domestic confidence; and the emperor47 contemplated, with terror and aversion, the stern genius of a foreign warrior. Till they were divided by the jealousy of power47, the sword of Gainas and the charms of Eudoxia supported the favour of the great chamberlain of the palace47; the perfidious Goth, who was appointed master47-general47 of the East47, betrayed, without scruple, the interest of his benefactor; and the same troops47 who had so lately massacred the enemy of Stilicho were engaged to support, against him, the independence of the throne47 of Constantinople. The favourites of Arcadius fomented a secret47 and irreconcileable war47 against a formidable hero who aspired to govern and to defend the two empires of Rome47 and the two sons of Theodosius47. They incessantly laboured, by dark and treacherous machinations, to deprive him of the esteem of the prince47, the respect of the people47, and the friendship of the Barbarians. The life47 of Stilicho was repeatedly attempted by the dagger of hired assassins; and a decree was obtained, from the senate47 of Constantinople, to declare him an enemy of the republic and to confiscate his ample possessions in the provinces47 of the East47. At a time when the only hope of delaying the ruin of the Roman47 name depended on the firm union, and reciprocal aid, of all the nations to whom it had been gradually communicated, the subjects of Arcadius and Honorius were instructed, by their respective masters, to view each other in a foreign, and even hostile, light; to rejoice in their mutual calamities, and to embrace, as their faithful allies, the Barbarians whom they excited to invade the territories of their countrymen. The natives of Italy47 affected to despise the servile and effeminate Greeks of Byzantium, who presumed to imitate the dress, and to usurp the dignity, of Roman47 senators; and the Greeks had not yet forgot the sentiments of hatred and contempt which their polished ancestors had so long47 entertained for the rude inhabitants of the West. The distinction of two governments, which soon47 produced the separation of two nations, will justify my design of suspending the series of the Byzantine history, to prosecute, without interruption, the disgraceful, but memorable, reign47 of Honorius.
The prudent Stilicho, instead of persisting to force the inclinations of a prince47 and people47 who rejected his government47, wisely abandoned Arcadius to his unworthy favourites; and his reluctance to involve the two empires in a civil47 war47 displayed the moderation of a minister who had so often signalised his military47 spirit47 and abilities. But, if Stilicho had any longer endured the revolt of Africa, he would have betrayed the security of the capital and the majesty of the Western emperor47 to the capricious insolence of a Moorish rebel. Gildo, the brother of the tyrant47 Firmus, had preserved and obtained, as the reward of his apparent fidelity, the immense patrimony which was forfeited by treason; long47 and meritorious service, in the armies of Rome47, raised him to the dignity of a military47 count; the narrow policy of the court of Theodosius47 had adopted the mischievous expedient of supporting a legal government47 by the interest of a powerful family; and the brother of Firmus was invested with the command47 of Africa. His ambition soon47 usurped the administration of justice47 and of the finances, without account and without control; and he maintained, during a reign47 of twelve years, the possession of an office from which it was impossible to remove him without the danger47 of a civil47 war47. During those twelve years, the province of Africa groaned under the dominion of a tyrant47 who seemed to unite the unfeeling temper of a stranger with the partial resentments of domestic faction. The forms of law were often superseded by the use of poison; and, if the trembling guests, who were invited to the table of Gildo, presumed to express their fears, the insolent suspicion served only to excite his fury, and he loudly summoned the ministers of death47. Gildo alternately indulged the passions of avarice and lust; and, if his days were terrible to the rich, his nights were not less dreadful to husbands and parents. The fairest of their wives and daughters were prostituted to the embraces of the tyrant47; and afterwards abandoned to a ferocious troop of Barbarians and assassins, the black, or swarthy, natives of the desert, whom Gildo considered as the only guardians of his throne47. In the civil47 war47 between Theodosius47 and Eugenius, the count, or rather the sovereign47, of Africa maintained a haughty and suspicious neutrality; refused to assist either of the contending parties with troops47 or vessels, expected the declaration of fortune, and reserved for the conqueror the vain professions of his allegiance. Such professions would not have satisfied the master47 of the Roman47 world; but the death47 of Theodosius47, and the weakness and discord of his sons, confirmed the power47 of the Moor; who condescended, as a proof of his moderation, to abstain from the use of the diadem and to supply Rome47 with the customary tribute, or rather subsidy, of corn. In every division of the empire47, the five provinces47 of Africa were invariably assigned to the West; and Gildo had consented to govern that extensive country in the name of Honorius; but his knowledge of the character and designs of Stilicho soon47 engaged him to address his homage to a more distant and feeble sovereign47. The ministers of Arcadius embraced the cause of a perfidious rebel; and the delusive hope of adding the numerous cities of Africa to the empire47 of the East47 tempted them to assert a claim which they were incapable of supporting either by reason or by arms47.
When Stilicho had given a firm and decisive answer to the pretensions of the Byzantine court, he solemnly accused the tyrant47 of Africa before the tribunal which had formerly judged the kings and nations of the earth; and the image of the republic was revived, after a long47 interval, under the reign47 of Honorius. The emperor47 transmitted an accurate and ample detail of the complaints of the provincials and the crimes of Gildo to the Roman47 senate47; and the members of that venerable assembly were required to pronounce the condemnation of the rebel. Their unanimous suffrage declared him the enemy of the republic; and the decree of the senate47 added a sacred and legitimate sanction to the Roman47 arms47. A people47 who still remembered that their ancestors had been the masters of the world would have applauded, with conscious pride, the representation of ancient freedom; if they had not long47 since been accustomed to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the unsubstantial visions of liberty and greatness. The subsistence of Rome47 depended on the harvests of Africa; and it was evident that a declaration of war47 would be the signal of famine. The prefect47 Symmachus, who presided in the deliberations of the senate47, admonished the ministers of his just apprehension that, as soon47 as the revengeful Moor should prohibit the exportation of corn, the tranquillity, and perhaps the safety, of the capital would be threatened by the hungry rage of a turbulent multitude. The prudence of Stilicho conceived and executed without delay the most effectual measure for the relief of the Roman47 people47. A large and seasonable supply of corn, collected in the inland provinces47 of Gaul, was embarked on the rapid stream of the Rhone, and transported, by an easy navigation, from the Rhone to the Tiber. During the whole term of the African war47, the granaries of Rome47 were continually filled, her dignity was vindicated from the humiliating dependence, and the minds of an immense people47 were quieted by the calm confidence of peace and plenty.
The cause of Rome and the conduct of the African war were entrusted, by Stilicho, to a general active and ardent to avenge his private45 injuries on the head of the tyrant45. The spirit of discord which prevailed in the house of Nabal had excited a deadly quarrel between two of his sons, Gildo and Mascezel. The usurper pursued, with implacable rage, the life45 of his younger brother45, whose courage and abilities he feared; and Mascezel, oppressed by superior power45, took refuge in the court of Milan45; where he soon45 received45 the cruel intelligence that his two innocent and helpless children had been murdered by their inhuman uncle. The affliction of the father was suspended only by the desire of revenge45. The vigilant Stilicho already prepared to collect the naval and military forces of the Western empire45; and he had resolved, if the tyrant45 should be able to wage an equal and doubtful war, to march against him in person. But, as Italy required his presence, and as it might be dangerous to weaken the defence of the frontier, he judged it more advisable that Mascezel should attempt this arduous adventure, at the head of a chosen body of Gallic veterans, who had lately served under the standard of Eugenius. These troops, who were exhorted to convince the world that they could subvert, as well as defend, the throne45 of an usurper, consisted of the Jovian, the Herculian, and the Augustan legions; of the Nervian auxiliaries; of the soldiers who displayed in their banners the symbol of a lion, and of the troops which were distinguished by the auspicious names of Fortunate and Invincible. Yet such was the smallness of their establishments, or the difficulty of recruiting, that these seven bands, of high dignity and reputation in the service of Rome, amounted to no more than five thousand effective men. The fleet of galleys and transports sailed in tempestuous weather from the port of Pisa, in Tuscany, and steered their course to the little island of Capraria; which had borrowed that name from the wild goats, its original inhabitants, whose place was now occupied by a new45 colony of a strange and savage appearance. The whole island (says an ingenious traveller of those times) is filled, or rather defiled, by men who fly from the light. They call themselves Monks, or solitaries, because they choose to live alone, without any witnesses of their actions. They fear the gifts of fortune, from the apprehension of losing them; and, lest they should be miserable, they embrace a life45 of voluntary wretchedness. How absurd is their choice! how perverse their understanding! to dread the evils, without being able to support the blessings, of the human condition. Either this melancholy madness is the effect of disease, or else the consciousness of guilt urges these unhappy men to exercise on their own bodies the tortures which are inflicted on fugitive slaves by the hand of justice45. Such was the contempt of a profane magistrate for the monks of Capraria, who were revered, by the pious45 Mascezel, as the chosen servants of God45. Some of them were persuaded, by his entreaties, to embark on board the fleet; and it is observed, to the praise of the Roman general, that his days and nights were employed in prayer, fasting, and the occupation of singing psalms. The devout leader, who, with such a reinforcement, appeared confident of victory, avoided the dangerous rocks of Corsica, coasted along the eastern side of Sardinia, and secured his ships against the violence of the south wind, by casting anchor in the safe and capacious harbour of Cagliari, at the distance of one hundred and forty miles from the African shores.
Gildo was prepared to resist the invasion with all the forces of Africa. By the liberality of his gifts and promises, he endeavoured to secure the doubtful allegiance of the Roman47 soldiers47, whilst he attracted to his standard the distant tribes of Gaetulia and Aethiopia. He proudly reviewed an army47 of seventy thousand men, and boasted, with the rash presumption which is the forerunner of disgrace, that his numerous cavalry would trample under their horses' feet the troops47 of Mascezel and involve, in a cloud of burning sand, the natives of the cold regions of Gaul and Germany. But the Moor who commanded the legions of Honorius was too well acquainted with the manners of his countrymen to entertain any serious apprehension of a naked and disorderly host of Barbarians; whose left arm, instead of a shield, was protected only by a mantle; who were totally disarmed as soon47 as they had darted their javelin from their right hand; and whose horses had never been taught to bear the control, or to obey the guidance, of the bridle. He fixed his camp of five thousand veterans in the face of a superior enemy, and, after the delay of three days, gave the signal of a general47 engagement. As Mascezel advanced before the front with fair offers of peace and pardon, he encountered one of the foremost standard-bearers of the Africans, and, on his refusal to yield, struck him on the arm with his sword. The arm, and the standard, sunk under the weight of the blow; and the imaginary act of submission was hastily repeated by all the standards of the line. At this signal, the disaffected cohorts proclaimed the name of their lawful sovereign47; the Barbarians, astonished by the defection of their Roman47 allies, dispersed, according to their custom, in tumultuary flight; and Mascezel obtained the honours of an easy, and almost bloodless, victory. The tyrant47 escaped from the field of battle to the seashore, and threw himself into a small vessel, with the hope of reaching in safety some friendly port of the empire47 of the East47; but the obstinacy of the wind drove him back into the harbour of Tabraca, which had acknowledged, with the rest of the province, the dominion of Honorius and the authority47 of his lieutenant. The inhabitants, as a proof of their repentance and loyalty, seized and confined the person47 of Gildo in a dungeon; and his own despair saved him from the intolerable torture of supporting the presence of an injured and victorious brother. The captives and the spoils of Africa were laid at the feet of the emperor47; but Stilicho, whose moderation appeared more conspicuous and more sincere in the midst of prosperity, still affected to consult the laws of the republic, and referred to the senate47 and people47 of Rome47 the judgment of the most illustrious criminals. Their trial was public47 and solemn; but the judges, in the exercise of this obsolete and precarious jurisdiction, were impatient to punish the African magistrates, who had intercepted the subsistence of the Roman47 people47. The rich and guilty province was impressed by the Imperial47 ministers, who had a visible interest to multiply the number of the accomplices of Gildo; and, if an edict of Honorius seems to check the malicious industry of informers, a subsequent edict, at the distance of ten years, continues and renews the prosecution of the offences which had been committed in the time of the general47 rebellion. The adherents of the tyrant47 who escaped the first fury of the soldiers47 and the judges might derive some consolation from the tragic fate of his brother, who could never obtain his pardon for the extraordinary services which he had performed. After he had finished an important war47 in the space of a single winter, Mascezel was received at the court of Milan with loud applause, affected gratitude, and secret47 jealousy; and his death47, which, perhaps, was the effect of accident, has been considered as the crime of Stilicho. In the passage of a bridge, the Moorish prince47, who accompanied the master47-general47 of the West, was suddenly thrown from his horse into the river; the officious haste of the attendants was restrained by a cruel and perfidious smile which they observed on the countenance of Stilicho; and, while they delayed the necessary assistance, the unfortunate Mascezel was irrecoverably drowned.
The joy of the African triumph was happily connected with the nuptials of the emperor Honorius and of his cousin Maria, the daughter of Stilicho: and this equal and honourable alliance seemed to invest the powerful minister with the authority of a parent over his submissive pupil. The muse of Claudian was not silent on this propitious day: he sung, in various8 and lively strains, the happiness8 of the royal pair, and the glory of the hero, who confirmed their union and supported their throne. The ancient8 fables of Greece, which had almost ceased to be the object of religious8 faith8, were saved from oblivion by the genius of poetry. The picture of the Cyprian grove, the seat of harmony and love; the triumphant progress of Venus over her native seas, and the mild influence which her presence diffused in the palace of Milan; express to every age8 the natural sentiments of the heart, in the just and pleasing language of allegorical fiction. But the amorous impatience which Claudian attributes to the young prince must excite the smiles of the court; and his beauteous spouse (if she deserved the praise of beauty) had not much to fear or to hope from the passions8 of her lover. Honorius was only in the fourteenth year of his age8; Serena, the mother of his bride, deferred, by art or persuasion, the consummation of the royal nuptials; Maria died a virgin, after she had been ten years a wife; and the chastity of the emperor was secured by the coldness, or perhaps the debility, of his constitution. His subjects8, who attentively studied the character8 of their young sovereign, discovered that Honorius was without passions8, and consequently without talents; and that his feeble and languid disposition was alike incapable of discharging the duties of his rank or of enjoying the pleasures of his age8. In his early youth he made some progress in the exercises of riding and drawing the bow: but he soon relinquished these fatiguing occupations, and the amusement of feeding poultry became the serious and daily care of the monarch of the West, who resigned the reins of empire8 to the firm and skilful hand of his guardian Stilicho. The experience of history will countenance the suspicion that a prince who was born in the purple received a worse education than the meanest peasant of his dominions; and that the ambitious minister suffered him to attain the age8 of manhood without attempting to excite his courage or to enlighten his understanding. The predecessors of Honorius were accustomed to animate by their example, or at least by their presence, the valour of the legions; and the dates of their laws8 attest the perpetual activity of their motions through the provinces of the Roman world8. But the son of Theodosius passed the slumber of his life8, a captive in his palace, a stranger in his country, and the patient, almost the indifferent, spectator of the ruin of the Western empire8, which was repeatedly attacked, and finally subverted, by the arms of the Barbarians. In the eventful history of a reign8 of twenty-eight years, it will seldom be necessary to mention the name of the emperor Honorius.
If the subjects of Rome47 could be ignorant of their obligations to the great Theodosius47, they were too soon47 convinced how painfully the spirit47 and abilities of their deceased emperor47 had supported the frail and mouldering edifice of the republic. He died in the month of January; and before the end of the winter of the same year the Gothic nation was in arms47. The Barbarian auxiliaries erected their independent standard; and boldly avowed the hostile designs which they had long47 cherished in their ferocious minds. Their countrymen, who had been condemned by the conditions of the last treaty to a life47 of tranquillity and labour, deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet, and eagerly resumed the weapons which they had reluctantly laid down. The barriers of the Danube were thrown open; the savage warriors of Scythia issued from their forests; and the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the poet to remark that they rolled their ponderous waggons over the broad and icy back of the indignant river. The unhappy natives of the provinces47 to the south of the Danube submitted to the calamities which, in the course of twenty years, were almost grown familiar to their imagination; and the various troops47 of Barbarians who gloried in the Gothic name were irregularly spread from the woody shores of Dalmatia to the walls of Constantinople. The interruption, or at least the diminution, of the subsidy which the Goths had received from the prudent liberality of Theodosius47 was the specious pretence of their revolt; the affront was embittered by their contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius47; and their resentment was inflamed by the weakness or treachery of the minister of Arcadius. The frequent visits of Rufinus to the camp of the Barbarians, whose arms47 and apparel he affected to imitate, were considered as a sufficient evidence of his guilty correspondence: and the public47 enemy, from a motive either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst the general47 devastation, to spare the private47 estates of the unpopular prefect47. The Goths, instead of being impelled by the blind and headstrong passions of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genius of Alaric. That renowned leader was descended from the noble race of the Balti; which yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali: he had solicited the command47 of the Roman47 armies; and the Imperial47 court provoked him to demonstrate the folly of their refusal and the importance of their loss. Whatever hopes might be entertained of the conquest of Constantinople, the judicious general47 soon47 abandoned an impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided court and a discontented people47, the emperor47 Arcadius was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms47; but the want of wisdom and valour was supplied by the strength of the city47; and the fortifications, both of the sea and land, might securely brave the impotent and random darts of the Barbarians. Alaric disdained to trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war47.
The character of the civil and military officers, on whom Rufinus had devolved the government of Greece, confirmed the public suspicion that he had betrayed the ancient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic invader. The proconsul Antiochus was the unworthy son30 of a respectable father; and Gerontius, who commanded the provincial troops30, was much better qualified to execute the oppressive orders of a tyrant than to defend, with courage and ability, a country most remarkably fortified by the hand of nature. Alaric had traversed, without resistance, the plains of Macedonia and Thessaly, as far as the foot of Mount Oeta, a steep and woody range of hills, almost impervious to his cavalry. They stretched from east to west, to the edge of the seashore; and left30, between the precipice and the Malian Gulf, an interval of three hundred feet, which, in some places, was contracted to a road capable of admitting only a single carriage. In this narrow pass of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans had gloriously devoted their lives, the Goths might have been stopped, or destroyed, by a skilful general30; and perhaps the view of that sacred spot might have kindled some sparks of military ardour in the breasts of the degenerate Greeks30. The troops30 which had been posted to defend the straits of Thermopylae retired, as they were directed, without attempting to disturb the secure and rapid passage of Alaric; and the fertile fields of Phocis and Boeotia were instantly covered by a deluge of Barbarians, who massacred the males of an age of bear arms30, and drove away the beautiful females, with the spoil and cattle, of the flaming villages. The travellers who visited Greece several years30 afterwards could easily discover the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths; and Thebes was less indebted for her preservation to the strength of her seven gates than to the eager haste of Alaric, who advanced to occupy the city30 of Athens and the important harbour of the Piraeus. The same impatience urged him to prevent the delay and danger of a siege30, by the offer of a capitulation: and, as soon30 as the Athenians heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they were easily persuaded to deliver the greatest part of their wealth, as the ransom of the city30 of Minerva and its inhabitants. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and observed with mutual fidelity. The Gothic prince30, with a small and select train, was admitted within the walls30; he indulged himself in the refreshment of the bath, accepted a splendid banquet which was provided by the magistrate, and affected to show that he was not ignorant of the manners of civilised nations. But the whole territory of Attica, from the promontory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was blasted by his baleful presence; and, if we may use the comparison of a contemporary philosopher, Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered victim. The distance between Megara and Corinth could not much exceed thirty miles; but the bad road, an expressive name, which it still bears among the Greeks30, was, or might easily have been made, impassable for the march of an enemy30. The thick and gloomy woods of Mount Cithaeron covered the inland country; the Scironian rocks approached the water's edge, and hung over the narrow and winding path, which was confined above six miles along the seashore. The passage of those rocks, so infamous in every age, was terminated by the isthmus of Corinth; and a small body of firm and intrepid soldiers30 might have successfully defended a temporary intrenchment of five or six miles from the Ionian to the Aegean Sea. The confidence of the cities of Peloponnesus in their natural rampart had tempted them to neglect the care of their antique walls30; and the avarice of the Roman30 governors had exhausted and betrayed the unhappy province. Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms30 of the Goths; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved by death30 from beholding the slavery of their families and the conflagration of their cities. The vases and statues were distributed among the Barbarians, with more regard to the value of the materials than to the elegance of the workmanship; the female captives submitted to the laws of war30; the enjoyment of beauty was the reward of valour; and the Greeks30 could not reasonably complain of an abuse, which was justified by the example of the heroic times. The descendants of that extraordinary people30, who had considered valour and discipline as the walls30 of Sparta, no longer remembered the generous reply of their ancestors to an invader more formidable than Alaric: If thou art a god, thou wilt not hurt those who have never injured thee; if thou art a man, advance: — and thou wilt find men equal to thyself. From Thermopylae to Sparta, the leader of the Goths pursued his victorious march without encountering any mortal antagonists; but one of the advocates of expiring Paganism has confidently asserted that the walls30 of Athens were guarded by the goddess Minerva, with her formidable Aegis, and by the angry phantom of Achilles; and that the conqueror was dismayed by the presence of the hostile deities of Greece. In an age of miracles, it would perhaps be unjust to dispute the claim of the historian Zosimus to the common benefit; yet it cannot be dissembled that the mind of Alaric was ill prepared to receive, either in sleeping or waking visions, the impressions of Greek30 superstition. The songs of Homer and the fame of Achilles had probably never reached the ear of the illiterate Barbarian; and the Christian faith, which he had devoutly embraced, taught him to despise the imaginary deities of Rome and Athens. The invasion of the Goths, instead of vindicating the honour, contributed, at least accidentally, to extirpate the last remains, of Paganism; and the mysteries of Ceres, which had subsisted eighteen hundred years30, did not survive the destruction of Eleusis and the calamities of Greece.
The last hope of a people who could no longer depend on their arms9, their gods, or their sovereign was placed in the powerful assistance of the general of the West9; and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to repulse, advanced to chastise the invaders of Greece. A numerous fleet9 was equipped in the ports of Italy9; and the troops9, after a short and prosperous navigation over the Ionian Sea9, were safely disembarked on the isthmus, near the ruins of Corinth. The woody and mountainous country9 of Arcadia, the fabulous residence of Pan and the Dryads, became the scene of a long9 and doubtful conflict between two generals not unworthy of each other. The skill and perseverance of the Roman9 at length prevailed; and the Goths9, after sustaining a considerable loss from disease and desertion, gradually retreated to the lofty mountain of Pholoe, near the sources of the Peneus, and on the frontiers of Elis: a sacred country9, which had formerly been exempted from the calamities of war9. The camp9 of the Barbarians9 was immediately besieged; the waters of the river9 were diverted into another channel; and, while they laboured under the intolerable pressure of thirst and hunger, a strong line of circumvallation was formed to prevent their escape. After these precautions, Stilicho, too confident of victory, retired to enjoy his triumph in the theatrical games and lascivious dances of the Greeks; his soldiers, deserting their standards, spread themselves over the country9 of their allies, which they stripped of all that had been saved from the rapacious hands of the enemy. Alaric appears to have seized the favourable moment to execute one of those hardy enterprises, in which the abilities of a general are displayed with more genuine lustre than in the tumult of a day of battle. To extricate himself from the prison of Peloponnesus, it was necessary that he should pierce the intrenchments which surrounded his camp9; that he should perform a difficult and dangerous march of thirty miles9 as far9 as the Gulf of Corinth; and that he should transport his troops9, his captives, and his spoil over an arm of the sea9 which, in the narrow interval between Rhium and the opposite shore, is at least half a mile in breadth. The operations of Alaric must have been secret, prudent, and rapid; since the Roman9 general was confounded by the intelligence that the Goths9, who had eluded his efforts, were in full possession of the important province9 of Epirus. This unfortunate delay allowed Alaric sufficient time to conclude the treaty, which he secretly negotiated with the ministers of Constantinople. The apprehension of a civil war9 compelled Stilicho to retire, at the haughty mandate of his rivals, from the dominions of Arcadius; and he respected in the enemy of Rome9 the honourable character of the ally and servant of the emperor of the East.
A Grecian philosopher, who visited Constantinople soon47 after the death47 of Theodosius47, published his liberal opinions concerning the duties of kings and the state of the Roman47 republic. Synesius observes and deplores the fatal abuse which the imprudent bounty of the late emperor47 had introduced into the military47 service. The citizens and subjects had purchased an exemption from the indispensable duty of defending their country; which was supported by the arms47 of Barbarian mercenaries. The fugitives of Scythia were permitted to disgrace the illustrious dignities of the empire47; their ferocious youth, who disdained the salutary restraint of laws, were more anxious to acquire the riches than to imitate the arts of a people47, the object of their contempt and hatred; and the power47 of the Goths was the stone of Tantalus, perpetually suspended over the peace and safety of the devoted state. The measures which Synesius recommends are the dictates of a bold and generous patriot. He exhorts the emperor47 to revive the courage of his subjects by the example of manly virtue; to banish luxury from the court and from the camp; to substitute in the place of the Barbarian mercenaries, an army47 of men interested in the defence of their laws and of their property; to force, in such a moment of public47 danger47, the mechanic from his shop and the philosopher from his school; to rouse the indolent citizen from his dream of pleasure, and to arm, for the protection of agriculture, the hands of the laborious husbandman. At the head of such troops47, who might deserve the name, and would display the spirit47, of Romans, he animates the son47 of Theodosius47 to encounter a race of Barbarians who were destitute of any real courage; and never to lay down his arms47, till he had chased them far away into the solitudes of Scythia; or had reduced them to the state of ignominious servitude which the Lacedaemonians formerly imposed on the captive Helots. The court of Arcadius indulged the zeal, applauded the eloquence, and neglected the advice of Synesius. Perhaps the philosopher, who addresses the emperor47 of the East47 in the language of reason and virtue which he might have used to a Spartan king, had not condescended to form a practicable scheme, consistent with the temper and circumstances of a degenerate age47. Perhaps the pride of the ministers, whose business was seldom interrupted by reflection, might reject as wild and visionary every proposal which exceeded the measure of their capacity and deviated from the forms and precedents of office. While the oration of Synesius and the downfall of the Barbarians were the topics of popular conversation, an edict was published at Constantinople, which declared the promotion of Alaric to the rank47 of master47-general47 of the Eastern Illyricum. The Roman47 provincials and the allies, who had respected the faith of treaties, were justly indignant that the ruin of Greece and Epirus should be so liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror was received as a lawful magistrate, in the cities which he had so lately besieged. The fathers whose sons he had massacred, the husbands whose wives he had violated, were subject to his authority47; and the success of his rebellion encouraged the ambition of every leader of the foreign mercenaries. The use to which Alaric applied his new command47 distinguishes the firm and judicious character of his policy. He issued his orders to the four magazines and manufactures of offensive and defensive arms47, Margus, Ratiaria, Naissus, and Thessalonica, to provide his troops47 with an extraordinary supply of shields, helmets, swords, and spears; the unhappy provincials were compelled to forge the instruments of their own destruction; and the Barbarians removed the only defect which had sometimes disappointed the efforts of their courage. The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and the confidence in his future designs insensibly united the body of the nation under his victorious standard; and with the unanimous consent of the Barbarian chieftains, the mastergeneral of Illyricum was elevated, according to ancient custom, on a shield, and solemnly proclaimed king of the Visigoths. Armed with this double power47, seated on the verge of the two empires, he alternately sold his deceitful promises to the courts of Arcadius and Honorius; till he declared and executed his resolution of invading the dominions of the West. The provinces47 of Europe which belonged to the Eastern emperor47 were already exhausted; those of Asia were inaccessible; and the strength of Constantinople had resisted his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the beauty, the wealth of Italy47, which he had twice visited; and he secretly aspired to plant the Gothic standard on the walls of Rome47, and to enrich his army47 with the accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs.
The scarcity of facts and the uncertainty of dates oppose our attempts to describe the circumstances of the first invasion of Italy47 by the arms47 of Alaric. His march, perhaps from Thessalonica, through the warlike and hostile country of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; his passage of those mountains, which were strongly guarded by troops47 and intrenchments; the siege of Aquileia, and the conquest of the provinces47 of Istria and Venetia, appear to have employed a considerable time. Unless his operations were extremely cautious and slow, the length of the interval would suggest a probable suspicion that the Gothic king retreated towards the banks of the Danube and reinforced his army47 with fresh swarms of Barbarians, before he again attempted to penetrate into the heart of Italy47. Since the public47 and important events escape the diligence of the historian, he may amuse himself with contemplating, for a moment, the influence of the arms47 of Alaric on the fortunes of two obscure individuals, a presbyter of Aquileia and an husbandman of Verona. The learned Rufinus, who was summoned by his enemies to appear before a Roman47 synod, wisely preferred the dangers of a besieged city47; and the Barbarians, who furiously shook the walls of Aquileia, might save him from the cruel sentence of another heretic, who, at the request of the same bishops, was severely whipped and condemned to perpetual exile on a desert island. The old man, who had passed his simple and innocent life47 in the neighbourhood of Verona, was a stranger to the quarrels both of kings and of bishops; his pleasures, his desires, his knowledge, were confined within the little circle of his paternal farm; and a staff supported his aged steps, on the same ground where he had sported in his infancy. Yet even this humble and rustic felicity (which Claudian describes with so much truth and feeling) was still exposed to the undistinguishing rage of war47. His trees, his old contemporary trees, must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country; a detachment of Gothic cavalry might sweep away his cottage and his family; and the power47 of Alaric could destroy this happiness which he was not able either to taste or to bestow. Fame, says the poet, encircling with terror her gloomy wings, proclaimed the march of the Barbarian army47, and filled Italy47 with consternation; the apprehensions of each individual were increased in just proportion to the measure of his fortune; and the most timid, who had already embarked their valuable effects, meditated their escape to the island of Sicily or the African coast. The public47 distress was aggravated by the fears and reproaches of superstition. Every hour produced some horrid tale of strange and portentous accidents; the Pagans deplored the neglect of omens and the interruption of sacrifices; but the Christians still derived some comfort from the powerful intercession of the saints and martyrs.
The emperor47 Honorius was distinguished, above his subjects, by the pre-eminence of fear, as well as of rank47. The pride and luxury in which he was educated had not allowed him to suspect that there existed on the earth any power47 presumptuous enough to invade the repose of the successor of Augustus. The arts of flattery concealed the impending danger47, till Alaric approached the palace47 of Milan. But, when the sound of war47 had awakened the young emperor47, instead of flying to arms47 with the spirit47, or even the rashness, of his age47, he eagerly listened to those timid counsellors who proposed to convey his sacred person47 and his faithful attendants to some secure and distant station in the provinces47 of Gaul. Stilicho alone had courage and authority47 to resist this disgraceful measure, which would have abandoned Rome47 and Italy47 to the Barbarians; but, as the troops47 of the palace47 had been lately detached to the Rhaetian frontier, and as the resource of new levies was slow and precarious, the general47 of the West could only promise that, if the court of Milan would maintain their ground during his absence, he would soon47 return with an army47 equal to the encounter of the Gothic king. Without losing a moment (while each moment was so important to the public47 safety) Stilicho hastily embarked on the Larian lake, ascended the mountains of ice and snow, amidst the severity of an Alpine winter, and suddenly repressed, by his unexpected presence, the enemy who had disturbed the tranquillity of Rhaetia. The Barbarians, perhaps some tribes of the Alemanni, respected the firmness of a chief who still assumed the language of command47; and the choice which he condescended to make of a select number of their bravest youths was considered as a mark of his esteem and favour. The cohorts, who were delivered from the neighbouring foe, diligently repaired to the Imperial47 standard; and Stilicho issued his orders to the most remote troops47 of the West to advance, by rapid marches, to the defence of Honorius and of Italy47. The fortresses of the Rhine were abandoned; and the safety of Gaul was protected only by the faith of the Germans and the ancient terror of the Roman47 name. Even the legion which had been stationed to guard the wall of Britain against the Caledonians of the North was hastily recalled; and a numerous body of the cavalry of the Alani was persuaded to engage in the service of the emperor47, who anxiously expected the return of his general47. The prudence and vigour of Stilicho were conspicuous on this occasion, which revealed, at the same time, the weakness of the falling empire47. The legions of Rome47, which had long47 since languished in the gradual decay of discipline and courage, were exterminated by the Gothic and civil47 wars; and it was found impossible, without exhausting and exposing the provinces47, to assemble an army47 for the defence of Italy47.
When Stilicho seemed to abandon his sovereign in the unguarded palace of Milan, he had probably calculated the term of his absence, the distance of the enemy, and the obstacles that might retard their march. He principally depended on the rivers of Italy9, the Adige, the Mincius, the Oglio, and the Addua; which, in the winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and impetuous torrents. But the season happened to be remarkably dry; and the Goths9 could traverse, without impediment, the wide and stony beds, whose centre was faintly marked by the course of a shallow stream. The bridge and passage of the Addua were secured by a strong detachment of the Gothic army9; and, as Alaric approached the walls9, or rather the suburbs, of Milan, he enjoyed the proud satisfaction of seeing the emperor of the Romans9 fly before him. Honorius, accompanied by a feeble train of statesmen and eunuchs, hastily retreated towards the Alps, with a design of securing his person in the city9 of Arles, which had often been the royal residence of his predecessors. But Honorius had scarcely passed the Po, before he was overtaken by the speed of the Gothic cavalry; since the urgency of the danger compelled him to seek a temporary shelter within the fortification of Asta, a town of Liguria or Piemont, situate on the banks9 of the Tanarus. The siege of an obscure place, which contained so rich a prize and seemed incapable of a long9 resistance, was instantly formed and indefatigably pressed by the king of the Goths9; and the bold declaration, which the emperor might afterwards make, that his breast had never been susceptible of fear, did not probably obtain much credit, even in his own court. In the last and almost hopeless extremity, after the Barbarians9 had already proposed the indignity of a capitulation, the Imperial captive was suddenly relieved by the fame, the approach, and at length the presence of the hero whom he had so long9 expected. At the head of a chosen and intrepid vanguard, Stilicho swam the stream of the Addua, to gain the time which he must have lost in the attack of the bridge; the passage of the Po was an enterprise of much less hazard and difficulty; and the successful action, in which he cut his way through the Gothic camp9 under the walls9 of Asta, revived the hopes, and vindicated the honour, of Rome9. Instead of grasping the fruit of his victory, the Barbarian was gradually invested, on every side, by the troops9 of the West9, who successively issued through all the passes of the Alps; his quarters were straitened; his convoys were intercepted; and the vigilance of the Romans9 prepared to form a chain of fortifications, and to besiege the lines of the besiegers. A military council was assembled of the longhaired chiefs of the Gothic nation9; of aged warriors, whose bodies were wrapped in furs, and whose stern countenances were marked with honourable wounds. They weighed the glory of persisting in their attempt against the advantage of securing their plunder; and they recommended the prudent measure of a seasonable retreat. In this important debate, Alaric displayed the spirit of the conqueror of Rome9; and, after he had reminded his countrymen of their achievements and of their designs, he concluded his animating speech by the solemn and positive assurance that he was resolved to find in Italy9 either a kingdom or a grave.
The loose discipline of the Barbarians always exposed them to the danger of a surprise; but, instead of choosing the dissolute hours of riot and intemperance, Stilicho resolved to attack the Christian Goths, whilst they were devoutly employed in celebrating the festival of Easter. The execution of the stratagem, or, as it was termed by the clergy, of the sacrilege, was entrusted to Saul, a Barbarian and a Pagan, who had served, however, with distinguished reputation among the veteran generals of Theodosius. The camp30 of the Goths, which Alaric had pitched in the neighbourhood of Pollentia, was thrown into confusion by the sudden and impetuous charge of the Imperial cavalry; but, in a few moments, the undaunted genius of their leader gave them an order, and a field, of battle30; and, as soon30 as they had recovered from their astonishment, the pious confidence, that the God of the Christians would assert their cause, added new30 strength to their native valour. In this engagement, which was long30 maintained with equal courage and success, the chief of the Alani, whose diminutive and savage form concealed a magnanimous soul, approved his suspected loyalty by the zeal with which he fought, and fell, in the service30 of the republic; and the fame of this gallant Barbarian has been imperfectly preserved in the verses of Claudian, since the poet, who celebrates his virtue, has omitted the mention of his name. His death30 was followed by the flight and dismay of the squadrons which he commanded; and the defeat of the wing of cavalry might have decided the victory30 of Alaric, if Stilicho had not immediately led the Roman30 and Barbarian infantry to the attack. The skill of the general30 and the bravery of the soldiers30 surmounted every obstacle. In the evening of the bloody day30, the Goths retreated from the field of battle30; the intrenchments of their camp30 were forced, and the scene of rapine and slaughter made some atonement for the calamities which they had inflicted on the subjects of the empire30. The magnificent spoils of Corinth and Argos enriched the veterans of the West; the captive wife of Alaric, who had impatiently claimed his promise of Roman30 jewels and Patrician handmaids, was reduced to implore the mercy of the insulting foe; and many thousand30 prisoners, released from the Gothic chains, dispersed through the provinces of Italy the praises of their heroic deliverer. The triumph of Stilicho was compared by the poet, and perhaps by the public, to that of Marius; who, in the same part of Italy, had encountered and destroyed another army30 of Northern Barbarians. The huge bones, and the empty helmets, of the Cimbri and of the Goths would easily be confounded by succeeding generations; and posterity might erect a common trophy to the memory of the two most illustrious generals who had vanquished, on the same memorable ground, the two most formidable enemies30 of Rome.
The eloquence of Claudian has celebrated with lavish applause the victory of Pollentia, one of the most glorious days in the life47 of his patron; but his reluctant and partial muse bestows more genuine praise on the character of the Gothic king. His name is indeed branded with the reproachful epithets of pirate and robber, to which the conquerors of every age47 are so justly entitled; but the poet of Stilicho is compelled to acknowledge that Alaric possessed the invincible temper of mind which rises superior to every misfortune and derives new resources from adversity. After the total defeat of his infantry he escaped, or rather withdrew, from the field of battle, with the greatest part of his cavalry entire and unbroken. Without wasting a moment to lament the irreparable loss of so many brave companions, he left his victorious enemy to bind in chains the captive images of a Gothic king; and boldly resolved to break through the unguarded passes of the Apennine, to spread desolation over the fruitful face of Tuscany, and to conquer or die before the gates of Rome47. The capital was saved by the active and incessant diligence of Stilicho: but he respected the despair of his enemy; and, instead of committing the fate of the republic to the chance of another battle, he proposed to purchase the absence of the Barbarians. The spirit47 of Alaric would have rejected such terms, the permission of a retreat and the offer of a pension, with contempt and indignation; but he exercised a limited and precarious authority47 over the independent chieftains, who had raised him, for their service, above the rank47 of his equals; they were still less disposed to follow an unsuccessful general47, and many of them were tempted to consult their interest by a private47 negotiation with the minister of Honorious. The king submitted to the voice of his people47, ratified the treaty with the empire47 of the West, and repassed the Po, with the remains of the flourishing army47 which he had led into Italy47. A considerable part of the Roman47 forces still continued to attend his motions; and Stilicho, who maintained a secret47 correspondence with some of the Barbarian chiefs, was punctually apprized of the designs that were formed in the camp and council of Alaric. The king of the Goths, ambitious to signalise his retreat by some splendid achievement, had resolved to occupy the important city47 of Verona, which commands the principal passage of the Rhaetian Alps; and directing his march through the territories of those German tribes, whose alliance would restore his exhausted strength, to invade, on the side of the Rhine, the wealthy and unsuspecting provinces47 of Gaul. Ignorant of the treason, which had already betrayed his bold and judicious enterprise, he advanced towards the passes of the mountains, already possessed by the Imperial47 troops47; where he was exposed, almost at the same instant, to a general47 attack in the front, on his flanks, and in the rear. In this bloody action, at a small distance from the walls of Verona, the loss of the Goths was not less heavy than that which they had sustained in the defeat of Pollentia; and their valiant king, who escaped by the swiftness of his horse, must either have been slain or made prisoner, if the hasty rashness of the Alani had not disappointed the measures of the Roman47 general47. Alaric secured the remains of his army47 on the adjacent rocks; and prepared himself with undaunted resolution to maintain a siege against the superior numbers of the enemy, who invested him on all sides. But he could not oppose the destructive progress of hunger and disease; nor was it possible for him to check the continual desertion of his impatient and capricious Barbarians. In this extremity he still found resources in his own courage, or in the moderation of his adversary; and the retreat of the Gothic king was considered as the deliverance of Italy47. Yet the people47 and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational judgment of the business of peace and war47, presumed to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often vanquished, so often surrounded, and so often dismissed the implacable enemy of the republic. The first moment of the public47 safety is devoted to gratitude and joy; but the second is diligently occupied by envy and calumny.
The citizens of Rome47 had been astonished by the approach of Alaric; and the diligence with which they laboured to restore the walls of the capital confessed their own fears and the decline of the empire47. After the retreat of the Barbarians, Honorius was directed to accept the dutiful invitation of the senate47, and to celebrate in the Imperial47 city47 the auspicious era of the Gothic victory and of his sixth consulship. The suburbs and the streets from the Milvian bridge to the Palatine mount, were filled by the Roman47 people47, who, in the space of an hundred years, had only thrice been honoured with the presence of their sovereigns. While their eyes were fixed on the chariot where Stilicho was deservedly seated by the side of his royal pupil, they applauded the pomp of a triumph, which was not stained, like that of Constantine47, or of Theodosius47, with civil47 blood. The procession passed under a lofty arch, which had been purposely erected: but in less than seven years the Gothic conquerors of Rome47 might read, if they were able to read, the superb inscription of that monument, which attested the total defeat and destruction of their nation. The emperor47 resided several months in the capital, and every part of his behaviour was regulated with care to conciliate the affection of the clergy, the senate47, and the people47 of Rome47. The clergy was edified by his frequent visits and liberal gifts to the shrines of the apostles. The senate47, who in the triumphal procession had been excused from the humiliating ceremony of preceding on foot the Imperial47 chariot, was treated with the decent reverence which Stilicho always affected for that assembly. The people47 was repeatedly gratified by the attention and courtesy of Honorius in the public47 games, which were celebrated on that occasion with a magnificence not unworthy of the spectator. As soon47 as the appointed number of chariot races was concluded, the decoration of the Circus was suddenly changed; the hunting of wild beasts afforded a various and splendid entertainment; and the chase was succeeded by a military47 dance, which seems in the lively description of Claudian to present the image of a modern tournament.
In these games of Honorius, the inhuman combats of gladiators polluted, for the last time, the amphitheatre of Rome47. The first Christian emperor47 may claim the honour of the first edict which condemned the art and amusement of shedding human blood; but this benevolent law expressed the wishes of the prince47, without reforming an inveterate abuse, which degraded a civilised nation below the condition of savage cannibals. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, victims were annually slaughtered in the great cities of the empire47; and the month of December, more peculiarly devoted to the combats of gladiators, still exhibited to the eyes of the Roman47 people47 a grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty. Amidst the general47 joy of the victory of Pollentia, a Christian poet exhorted the emperor47 to extirpate by his authority47 the horrid custom which had so long47 resisted the voice of humanity and religion. The pathetic representations of Prudentius were less effectual than the generous boldness of Telemachus, an Asiatic monk, whose death47 was more useful to mankind than his life47. The Romans were provoked by the interruption of their pleasures; and the rash monk, who had descended into the arena to separate the gladiators, was overwhelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness of the people47 soon47 subsided; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honours of martyrdom; and they submitted, without a murmur, to the laws of Honorius, which abolished for ever the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre. The citizens who adhered to the manners of their ancestors, might perhaps insinuate that the last remains of a martial spirit47 were preserved in this school of fortitude, which accustomed the Romans to the sight of blood and to the contempt of death47: a vain and cruel prejudice, so nobly confuted by the valour of ancient Greece and of modern Europe.
The recent danger to which the person of the emperor had been exposed in the defenceless palace of Milan urged him to seek a retreat in some inaccessible fortress of Italy9, where he might securely remain while the open country9 was covered by a deluge of Barbarians9. On the coast9 of the Hadriatic, about ten or twelve miles9 from the most southern of the seven mouths of the Po, the Thessalians had founded the ancient9 colony of Ravenna, which they afterwards resigned to the natives of Umbria. Augustus, who had observed the opportunity of the place, prepared, at the distance of three miles9 from the old town, a capacious harbour for the reception of two hundred and fifty ships of war9. This naval establishment, which included the arsenals and magazines, the barracks of the troops9, and the houses of the artificers, derived its origin and name from the permanent station of the Roman9 fleet9; the intermediate space was soon9 filled with buildings and inhabitants9, and the three extensive and populous quarters of Ravenna gradually contributed to form one of the most important cities9 of Italy9. The principal canal of Augustus poured a copious stream of the waters of the Po through the midst of the city9 to the entrance of the harbour; the same waters were introduced into the profound ditches that encompassed the walls9; they were distributed by a thousand9 subordinate canals into every part of the city9, which they divided into a variety of small islands; the communication was maintained only by the use of boats and bridges; and the houses of Ravenna, whose appearance may be compared to that of Venice, were raised on the foundation of wooden piles. The adjacent country9, to the distance of many miles9, was a deep and impassable morass; and the artificial causeway, which connected Ravenna with the continent, might be easily guarded or destroyed on the approach of an hostile army9. These morasses were interspersed, however, with vineyards; and, though the soil was exhausted by four or five crops, the town enjoyed a more plentiful supply of wine than of fresh water. The air, instead of receiving the sickly and almost pestilential exhalations of low and marshy grounds, was distinguished, like the neighbourhood of Alexandria, as uncommonly pure and salubrious; and this singular advantage was ascribed to the regular tides of the Hadriatic, which swept the canals, interrupted the unwholesome stagnation of the waters, and floated every day the vessels9 of the adjacent country9 into the heart of Ravenna. The gradual retreat of the sea9 has left the modern city9 at the distance of four miles9 from the Hadriatic; and as early as the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era the port of Augustus was converted into pleasant orchards, and a lonely grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman9 fleet9 once rode at anchor. Even this alteration contributed to increase the natural strength of the place; and the shallowness of the water was a sufficient barrier against the large ships of the enemy. This advantageous situation was fortified by art and labour; and in the twentieth year of his age the emperor of the West9, anxious only for his personal safety, retired to the perpetual confinement of the walls9 and morasses of Ravenna. The example of Honorius was imitated by his feeble successors, the Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who occupied the throne and palace of the emperors; and, till the middle of the eighth century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of government and the capital9 of Italy9.
The fears of Honorius were not without foundation, nor were his precautions without effect. While Italy9 rejoiced in her deliverance from the Goths9, a furious tempest was excited among the nations9 of Germany, who yielded to the irresistible impulse that appears to have been gradually communicated from the eastern extremity of the continent of Asia9. The Chinese annals, as they have been interpreted by the learned industry of the present age, may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote causes of the fall of the Roman9 empire9. The extensive territory to the north9 of the great9 wall was possessed, after the flight of the Huns9, by the victorious Sien-pi, who were sometimes broken into independent tribes9, and re-united under a supreme chief; till at length, styling themselves Topa, or masters of the earth, they acquired a more solid consistence and a more formidable power. The Topa soon9 compelled the pastoral nations9 of the eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of their arms9; they invaded China in a period of weakness and intestine discord; and these fortunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the vanquished people, founded an Imperial dynasty, which reigned near one hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces9 of the monarchy. Some generations before they ascended the throne of China one of the Topa princes had enlisted in his cavalry a slave of the name of Moko, renowned for his valour9; but who was tempted by the fear of punishment to desert his standard and to range the desert at the head of an hundred followers. This gang of robbers and outlaws swelled into a camp9, a tribe, a numerous people, distinguished by the appellation of Geougen; and their hereditary chieftains, the posterity of Moko, the slave, assumed their rank among the Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the greatest of his descendants, was exercised by those misfortunes which are the school of heroes. He bravely struggled with adversity, broke the imperious yoke of the Topa, and became the legislator of his nation9 and the conqueror of Tartary. His troops9 were distributed into regular bands of an hundred and of a thousand9 men9; cowards were stoned to death; the most splendid honours were proposed as the reward of valour9; and Toulun, who had knowledge enough to despise the learning of China, adopted only such arts and institutions as were favourable to the military spirit of his government. His tents, which he removed in the winter season to a more southern latitude, were pitched during the summer on the fruitful banks9 of the Selinga. His conquests stretched from Corea far9 beyond the river9 Irtish. He vanquished in the country9 to the north9 of the Caspian Sea9 the nation9 of the Huns9; and the new9 title of Khan or Cagan expressed the fame and power which he derived from this memorable victory.
The chain of events is interrupted, or rather is concealed, as it passes from the Volga to the Vistula, through the dark interval which separates the extreme limits of the Chinese and of the Roman9 geography. Yet the temper of the Barbarians9 and the experience of successive emigrations sufficiently declare that the Huns9, who were oppressed by the arms9 of the Geougen, soon9 withdrew from the presence of an insulting victor. The countries towards the Euxine were already occupied by their kindred tribes9; and their hasty flight, which they soon9 converted into a bold attack, would more naturally be directed towards the rich and level plains through which the Vistula gently flows into the Baltic Sea9. The North9 must again have been alarmed and agitated by the invasion of the Huns9; and the nations9 who retreated before them must have pressed with incumbent weight on the confines of Germany. The inhabitants9 of those regions which the ancients have assigned to the Suevi, the Vandals9, and the Burgundians might embrace the resolution of abandoning to the fugitives of Sarmatia their woods and morasses; or at least of discharging their superfluous numbers on the provinces9 of the Roman9 empire9. About four years after the victorious Toulun had assumed the title of Khan of the Geougen, another Barbarian, the haughty Rhodogast or Radagaisus, marched from the northern extremities of Germany almost to the gates of Rome9, and left the remains of his army9 to achieve the destruction of the West9. The Vandals9, the Suevi, and the Burgundians formed the strength of this mighty host; but the Alani, who had found an hospitable reception in their new9 seats, added their active cavalry to the heavy infantry of the Germans; and the Gothic adventurers crowded so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus that, by some historians, he has been styled the king of the Goths9. Twelve thousand9 warriors, distinguished above the vulgar by their noble birth or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van; and the whole multitude, which was not less than two hundred thousand9 fighting men9, might be increased by the accession of women, of children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand9 persons. This formidable emigration issued from the same coast9 of the Baltic which had poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and Teutones to assault Rome9 and Italy9 in the vigour of the republic. After the departure of those Barbarians9, their native country9, which was marked by the vestiges of their greatness, long9 ramparts and gigantic moles, remained during some ages a vast and dreary solitude; till the human species was renewed by the powers of generation, and the vacancy was filled by the influx of new9 inhabitants9. The nations9 who now usurp an extent of land which they are unable to cultivate would soon9 be assisted by the industrious poverty of their neighbours, if the government of Europe9 did not protect the claims of dominion and property.
The correspondence of nations15 was in that age15 so imperfect and precarious that the revolutions of the North might escape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud which was collected along the coast of the Baltic burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube. The emperor15 of the West, if his ministers disturbed his amusements by the news of the impending danger15, was satisfied with being the occasion, and the spectator, of the war. The safety of Rome15 was entrusted to the counsels and the sword of Stilicho15; but such was the feeble and exhausted state15 of the empire15 that it was impossible to restore the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous effort, the invasion of the Germans. The hopes of the vigilant minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He once more abandoned the provinces15, recalled the troops, pressed the new15 levies, which were rigorously exacted and pusillanimously eluded, employed the most efficacious means to arrest, or allure, the deserters, and offered the gift of freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the slaves who would enlist. By these efforts he painfully collected, from the subjects of a great15 empire15, an army of thirty or forty thousand men, which, in the days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been instantly furnished by the free citizens of the territory of Rome15. The thirty legions of Stilicho15 were reinforced by a large body of Barbarian auxiliaries; the faithful Alani were personally attached to his service; and the troops of Huns and of Goths, who marched under the banners of their native princes, Huldin and Sarus, were animated by interest and resentment to oppose the ambition of Radagaisus15. The king of the confederate Germans passed, without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and the Apennine, leaving on one hand the inaccessible palace of Honorius, securely buried among the marshes of Ravenna, and, on the other, the camp of Stilicho15, who had fixed his headquarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who seems to have avoided a decisive battle, till he had assembled his distant forces. Many cities of Italy were pillaged, or destroyed, and the siege of Florence by Radagaisus15 is one of the earliest events in the history of that celebrated republic, whose firmness checked and delayed the unskilful fury of the Barbarians. The senate15 and people15 trembled at their approach within an hundred and eighty miles of Rome15, and anxiously compared the danger15 which they had escaped with the new15 perils to which they were exposed. Alaric was a Christian and a soldier, the leader of a disciplined army; who understood the laws of war, who respected the sanctity of treaties, and who had familiarly conversed with the subjects of the empire15 in the same camps, and the same churches. The savage Radagaisus15 was a stranger to the manners, the religion, and even the language of the civilised nations15 of the South. The fierceness of his temper was exasperated by cruel superstition, and it was universally believed that he had bound himself by a solemn vow to reduce the city into a heap of stones and ashes, and to sacrifice the most illustrious of the Roman15 senators15 on the altars of those gods who were appeased by human blood15. The public15 danger15, which should have reconciled all domestic animosities, displayed the incurable madness of religious faction15. The oppressed votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable enemy of Rome15, the character15 of a devout Pagan; loudly declared that they were more apprehensive of the sacrifices than of the arms15 of Radagaisus15, and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their country, which condemned the faith of their Christian adversaries.
Florence was reduced32 to the last extremity, and the fainting courage of the citizens was supported only by the authority of St32. Ambrose, who had communicated, in a dream, the promise of a speedy deliverance. On a sudden, they beheld, from their walls32, the banners of Stilicho, who advanced, with his united force, to the relief of the faithful city32, and who soon marked that fatal spot for the grave of the Barbarian host. The apparent contradictions of those writers who variously relate the defeat of Radagaisus may be reconciled, without offering much violence to their respective testimonies. Orosius and Augustin, who were intimately connected by friendship and religion, ascribe this miraculous victory to the providence of God rather than to the valour of man. They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even of bloodshed, and positively affirm that the Romans32, whose camp was the scene of plenty and idleness, enjoyed the distress of the Barbarians, slowly expiring on the sharp and barren ridge of the hills of Faesulae, which rise above the city32 of Florence. Their extravagant assertion that not a single soldier of the Christian army was killed, or even wounded, may be dismissed with silent contempt; but the rest of the narrative of Augustin and Orosius is consistent with the state32 of the war and the character of Stilicho. Conscious that he commanded the last army of the republic, his prudence would not expose it in the open field to the headstrong fury of the Germans. The method of surrounding the enemy with strong lines of circumvallation, which he had twice employed against the Gothic king, was repeated on a larger scale, and with more considerable effect. The examples of Caesar must have been familiar to the most illiterate of the Roman32 warriors; and the fortifications of Dyrrachium, which connected twenty-four castles by a perpetual ditch and rampart of fifteen miles, afforded the model of an intrenchment which might confine and starve the most numerous host of Barbarians. The Roman32 troops had less degenerated from the industry than from the valour of their ancestors, and, if the servile and laborious work offended the pride of the soliders, Tuscany could supply many thousand peasants who would labour32, though perhaps they would not fight, for the salvation of their native country32. The imprisoned multitude of horses and men was gradually destroyed by famine rather than by the sword; but the Romans32 were exposed, during the progress of such an extensive work, to the frequent attacks of an impatient enemy. The despair of the hungry Barbarians would precipitate them against the fortifications of Stilicho; the general might sometimes indulge the ardour of his brave auxiliaries, who eagerly pressed to assault the camp of the Germans; and these various incidents might produce the sharp and bloody conflicts which dignify the narrative of Zosimus and the Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus. A seasonable supply of men and provisions had been introduced into the walls32 of Florence, and the famished host of Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The proud monarch of so many warlike nations, after the loss of his bravest warriors, was reduced32 to confide either in the faith of a capitulation or in the clemency of Stilicho. But the death of the royal captive, who was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of Rome32 and of Christianity, and the short delay of his execution was sufficient to brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and deliberate cruelty. The famished Germans who escaped the fury of the auxiliaries were sold as slaves, at the contemptible price of as many single pieces of gold; but the difference of food and climate swept away great numbers of those unhappy strangers; and it was observed that the inhuman purchasers, instead of reaping the fruits of their labour32, were soon obliged to provide the expense of their interment. Stilicho informed the emperor and the senate32 of his success; and deserved, a second time32, the glorious title of Deliverer of Italy.
The fame of the victory, and more especially of the miracle, has encouraged a vain persuasion that the whole army, or rather nation11, of Germans11, who migrated from the shores of the Baltic, miserably perished under the walls of Florence. Such indeed was the fate of Radagaisus himself, of his brave and faithful companions, and of more than one third of the various multitude of Sueves and Vandals, of Alani and Burgundians, who adhered to the standard of their general11. The union of such an army might excite our surprise, but the causes of separation are obvious and forcible; the pride of birth, the insolence of valour11, the jealousy of command, the impatience of subordination, and the obstinate conflict of opinions, of interests, and of passions, among so many kings and warriors, who were untaught to yield, or to obey. After the defeat of Radagaisus, two parts of the German host, which must have exceeded the number of one hundred thousand11 men, still remained in arms11, between the Apennine and the Alps, or between the Alps and the Danube11. It is uncertain whether they attempted to revenge the death of their general11; but their irregular fury was soon diverted by the prudence and firmness of Stilicho, who opposed their march11, and facilitated their retreat; who considered the safety of Rome11 and Italy as the great11 object of his care, and who sacrificed, with too much indifference, the wealth and tranquillity of the distant provinces11. The Barbarians11 acquired, from the junction of some Pannonian deserters, the knowledge of the country11 and of the roads; and the invasion of Gaul, which Alaric had designed, was executed by the remains of the great11 army of Radagaisus.
Yet, if they expected to derive any assistance from the tribes9 of Germany, who inhabited the banks9 of the Rhine, their hopes were disappointed: The Alemanni preserved a state of inactive neutrality; and the Franks distinguished their zeal and courage in the defence of the empire9. In the rapid progress down the Rhine, which was the first act of the administration of Stilicho, he had applied himself, with peculiar attention, to secure the alliance of the warlike Franks, and to remove the irreconcileable enemies of peace and of the republic. Marcomir, one of their kings, was publicly convicted before the tribunal of the Roman9 magistrate, of violating the faith of treaties. He was sentenced to a mild, but distant, exile in the province9 of Tuscany; and this degradation of the regal dignity was so far9 from exciting the resentment of his subjects that they punished with death the turbulent Sunno, who attempted to revenge his brother; and maintained a dutiful allegiance to the princes who were established on the throne by the choice of Stilicho. When the limits of Gaul and Germany were shaken by the northern emigration, the Franks bravely encountered the single force of the Vandals9, who, regardless of the lessons of adversity, had again separated their troops9 from the standard of their Barbarian allies. They paid the penalty of their rashness, and twenty thousand9 Vandals9, with their king Godigisclus, were slain in the field of battle. The whole people must have been extirpated if the squadrons of the Alani, advancing to their relief, had not trampled down the infantry of the Franks, who, after an honourable resistance, were compelled to relinquish the unequal contest. The victorious confederates pursued their march; and on the last day of the year, in a season when the waters of the Rhine were most probably frozen, they entered, without opposition, the defenceless provinces9 of Gaul. This memorable passage of the Suevi, the Vandals9, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall of the Roman9 empire9 in the countries beyond the Alps; and the barriers, which had so long9 separated the savage and the civilised nations9 of the earth, were from that fatal moment levelled with the ground.
While the peace of Germany was secured by the attachment of the Franks, and the neutrality of the Alemanni, the subjects of Rome9, unconscious of their approaching calamities, enjoyed the state of quiet and prosperity, which had seldom blessed the frontiers of Gaul. Their flocks and herds were permitted to graze in the pastures of the Barbarians9; their huntsmen penetrated, without fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of the Hercynian wood. The banks9 of the Rhine were crowned, like those of the Tiber, with elegant houses, and well-cultivated farms; and, if a poet descended the river9, he might express his doubt on which side was situated the territory of the Romans9. This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the desolation of man. The flourishing city9 of Mentz was surprised and destroyed; and many thousand9 Christians were inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished after a long9 and obstinate siege; Strasburg, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke; and the consuming flames of war9 spread from the banks9 of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces9 of Gaul. That rich and extensive country9, as far9 as the ocean9, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the Barbarians9, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars. The ecclesiastics, to whom we are indebted for this vague description of the public calamities, embraced the opportunity of exhorting the Christians to repent of the sins which had provoked the Divine Justice, and to renounce the perishable goods of a wretched and deceitful world. But, as the Pelagian controversy, which attempts to sound the abyss of grace and predestination, soon9 became the serious employment of the Latin clergy; the Providence which had decreed, or foreseen, or permitted such a train of moral and natural evils was rashly weighed in the imperfect and fallacious balance of reason. The crimes and the misfortunes of the suffering people were presumptuously compared with those of their ancestors; and they arraigned the Divine Justice, which did not exempt from the common destruction the feeble, the guiltless, the infant portion of the human species. These idle disputants overlooked the invariable laws of nature, which have connected peace with innocence, plenty with industry, and safety with valour9. The timid and selfish policy of the court of Ravenna might recall the Palatine legions for the protection of Italy9; the remains of the stationary troops9 might be unequal to the arduous task; and the Barbarian auxiliaries might prefer the unbounded licence of spoil to the benefits of a moderate and regular stipend. But the provinces9 of Gaul were filled with a numerous race of hardy and robust youth, who, in the defence of their houses, their families, and their altars, if they had dared to die, would have deserved to vanquish. The knowledge of their native country9 would have enabled them to oppose continual and insuperable obstacles to the progress of an invader; and the deficiency of the Barbarians9, in arms9 as well as in discipline, removed the only pretence which excuses the submission of a populous country9 to the inferior numbers of a veteran army9. When France was invaded by Charles the Fifth, he inquired of a prisoner how many days Paris might be distant from the frontier. Perhaps twelve, but they will be days of battle; such was the gallant answer which checked the arrogance of that ambitious prince. The subjects of Honorius and those of Francis I. were animated by a very different spirit; and in less than two years the divided troops9 of the savages of the Baltic, whose numbers, were they fairly stated, would appear contemptible, advanced without a combat to the foot of the Pyrenaean mountains9.
In the early part of the reign47 of Honorius, the vigilance of Stilicho had successfully guarded the remote island of Britain from her incessant enemies of the ocean, the mountains, and the Irish coast. But those restless Barbarians could not neglect the fair opportunity of the Gothic war47, when the walls and stations of the province were stripped of the Roman47 troops47. If any of the legionaries were permitted to return from the Italian expedition, their faithful report of the court and character of Honorius must have tended to dissolve the bonds of allegiance and to exasperate the seditious temper of the British army47. The spirit47 of revolt, which had formerly disturbed the age47 of Gallienus, was revived by the capricious violence of the soldiers47; and the unfortunate, perhaps the ambitious, candidates, who were the objects of their choice, were the instruments, and at length the victims, of their passion. Marcus was the first whom they placed on the throne47, as the lawful emperor47 of Britain, and of the West. They violated, by the hasty murder of Marcus, the oath of fidelity which they had imposed on themselves; and their disapprobation of his manners may seem to inscribe an honourable epitaph on his tomb. Gratian was the next whom they adorned with the diadem and the purple; and, at the end of four months, Gratian experienced the fate of his predecessor. The memory of the great Constantine47, whom the British legions had given to the church and to the empire47, suggested the singular motive of their third choice. They discovered in the ranks a private47 soldier of the name of Constantine47, and their impetuous levity had already seated him on the throne47, before they perceived his incapacity to sustain the weight of that glorious appellation. Yet the authority47 of Constantine47 was less precarious, and his government47 was more successful, than the transient reigns of Marcus and of Gratian. The danger47 of leaving his inactive troops47 in those camps which had been twice polluted with blood and sedition urged him to attempt the reduction of the Western provinces47. He landed at Boulogne with an inconsiderable force; and, after he had reposed himself some days, he summoned the cities of Gaul, which had escaped the yoke of the Barbarians, to acknowledge their lawful sovereign47. They obeyed the summons without reluctance. The neglect of the court of Ravenna had absolved a deserted people47 from the duty of allegiance; their actual distress encouraged them to accept any circumstances of change, without apprehension, and perhaps with some degree of hope; and they might flatter themselves that the troops47, the authority47, and even the name of a Roman47 emperor47, who fixed his residence in Gaul, would protect the unhappy country from the rage of the Barbarians. The first successes of Constantine47 against the detached parties of the Germans were magnified by the voice of adulation into splendid and decisive victories; which the reunion and insolence of the enemy soon47 reduced to their just value. His negotiations procured a short and precarious truce; and, if some tribes of the Barbarians were engaged, by the liberality of his gifts and promises, to undertake the defence of the Rhine, these expensive and uncertain treaties, instead of restoring the pristine vigour of the Gallic frontier, served only to disgrace the majesty of the prince47 and to exhaust what yet remained of the treasures of the republic. Elated, however, with this imaginary triumph, the vain deliverer of Gaul advanced into the provinces47 of the South, to encounter a more pressing and personal danger47. Sarus the Goth was ordered to lay the head of the rebel at the feet of the emperor47 Honorius; and the forces of Britain and Italy47 were unworthily consumed in this domestic quarrel. After the loss of his two bravest generals Justinian and Nevigastes, the former of whom was slain in the field of battle, the latter in a peaceful and treacherous interview, Constantine47 fortified himself within the walls of Vienna. The place was ineffectually attacked seven days; and the Imperial47 army47 supported, in a precipitate retreat, the ignominy of purchasing a secure passage from the freebooters and outlaws of the Alps. Those mountains now separated the dominions of two rival monarchs: and the fortifications of the double frontier were guarded by the troops47 of the empire47, whose arms47 would have been more usefully employed to maintain the Roman47 limits against the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia.
On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of Constantine47 might be justified by the proximity of danger47; but his throne47 was soon47 established by the conquest, or rather submission, of Spain; which yielded to the influence of regular and habitual subordination, and received the laws and magistrates of the Gallic prefecture. The only opposition which was made to the authority47 of Constantine47 proceeded not so much from the powers of government47, or the spirit47 of the people47, as from the private47 zeal and interest of the family of Theodosius47. Four brothers had obtained by the favour of their kinsman, the deceased emperor47, an honourable rank47, and ample possessions, in their native country; and the grateful youths resolved to risk those advantages in the service of his son47. After an unsuccessful effort to maintain their ground at the head of the stationary troops47 of Lusitania, they retired to their estates; where they armed and levied, at their own expense, a considerable body of slaves and dependents, and boldly marched to occupy the strong posts of the Pyrenaean mountains. This domestic insurrection alarmed and perplexed the sovereign47 of Gaul and Britain; and he was compelled to negotiate with some troops47 of Barbarian auxiliaries, for the service of the Spanish war47. They were distinguished by the title of Honorians; a name which might have reminded them of their fidelity to their lawful sovereign47; and, if it should candidly be allowed that the Scots were influenced by any partial affection for a British prince47, the Moors and Marcomanni could be tempted only by the profuse liberality of the usurper, who distributed among the Barbarians the military47, and even the civil47, honours of Spain. The nine bands of Honorians, which may be easily traced on the establishment of the Western empire47, could not exceed the number of five thousand men; yet this inconsiderable force was sufficient to terminate a war47 which had threatened the power47 and safety of Constantine47. The rustic army47 of the Theodosian family was surrounded and destroyed in the Pyrenees: two of the brothers had the good fortune to escape by sea to Italy47, or the East47; the other two, after an interval of suspense, were executed at Arles; and, if Honorius could remain insensible of the public47 disgrace, he might perhaps be affected by the personal misfortunes of his generous kinsmen. Such were the feeble arms47 which decided the possession of the Western provinces47 of Europe, from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules. The events of peace and war47 have undoubtedly been diminished by the narrow and imperfect view of the historians of the times, who were equally ignorant of the causes and of the effects of the most important revolutions. But the total decay of the national strength had annihilated even the last resource of a despotic government47; and the revenue of exhausted provinces47 could no longer purchase the military47 service of a discontented and pusillanimous people47.
The poet whose flattery has ascribed to the Roman3 eagle the victories of Pollentia and Verona pursues the hasty retreat of Alaric, from the confines of Italy, with a horrid train of imaginary spectres, such as might hover over an army3 of Barbarians3, which was almost exterminated by war3, famine, and disease. In the course of this unfortunate expedition, the king3 of the Goths must indeed have sustained a considerable loss, and his harassed forces required an interval of repose, to recruit their numbers and revive their confidence. Adversity had exercised, and displayed, the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his valour3 invited to the Gothic standard the bravest of the Barbarian3 warriors, who, from the Euxine to the Rhine, were agitated by the desire of rapine and conquest. He had deserved the esteem, and he soon3 accepted the friendship3, of Stilicho himself. Renouncing the service of the emperor3 of the East3, Alaric concluded, with the court3 of Ravenna, a treaty3 of peace3 and alliance3, by which he was declared master-general3 of the Roman3 armies throughout the prefecture of Illyricum; as it was claimed, according to the true and ancient limits, by the minister of Honorius. The execution of the ambitious design, which was either stipulated, or implied, in the articles of the treaty3, appears to have been suspended by the formidable irruption of Radagaisus; and the neutrality of the Gothic king3 may perhaps be compared to the indifference of Caesar, who, in the conspiracy of Catiline, refused either to assist or to oppose the enemy3 of the republic. After the defeat of the Vandals, Stilicho resumed his pretensions to the provinces3 of the East3; appointed civil magistrates for the administration of justice, and of the finances; and declared his impatience to lead to the gates of Constantinople the united armies of the Romans3 and of the Goths. The prudence, however, of Stilicho, his aversion to civil war3, and his perfect knowledge of the weakness of the state may countenance the suspicion that domestic peace3, rather than foreign conquest, was the object of his policy; and that his principal care was to employ the forces of Alaric at a distance from Italy. This design could not long3 escape the penetration of the Gothic king3, who continued to hold a doubtful, and perhaps a treacherous, correspondence with the rival courts, who protracted, like a dissatisfied mercenary, his languid operations in Thessaly and Epirus, and who soon3 returned to claim the extravagant reward of his ineffectual services. From his camp3 near Aemona, on the confines of Italy, he transmitted, to the emperor3 of the West, a long3 account of promises, of expenses, and of demands; called for immediate satisfaction and clearly intimated the consequences of a refusal. Yet, if his conduct was hostile, his language was decent and dutiful. He humbly professed himself the friend of Stilicho, and the soldier of Honorius; offered his person and his troops3 to march, without delay, against the usurper of Gaul3; and solicited, as a permanent retreat for the Gothic nation, the possession of some vacant province of the Western empire3.
The political and secret47 transactions of two statesmen, who laboured to deceive each other and the world, must for ever have been concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the cabinet, if the debates of a popular assembly had not thrown some rays of light on the correspondence of Alaric and Stilicho. The necessity of finding some artificial support for a government47, which, from a principle, not of moderation, but of weakness, was reduced to negotiate with its own subjects, had insensibly revived the authority47 of the Roman47 senate47; and the minister of Honorius respectfully consulted the legislative council of the republic. Stilicho assembled the senate47 in the palace47 of the Caesars; represented, in a studied oration, the actual state of affairs; proposed the demands of the Gothic king, and submitted to their consideration the choice of peace or war47. The senators, as if they had been suddenly awakened from a dream of four hundred years, appeared on this important occasion to be inspired by the courage, rather than by the wisdom, of their predecessors. They loudly declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary acclamations, that it was unworthy of the majesty of Rome47 to purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce from a Barbarian king; and that, in the judgment of a magnanimous people47, the chance of ruin was always preferable to the certainty of dishonour. The minister, whose pacific intentions were seconded only by the voices of a few servile and venal followers, attempted to allay the general47 ferment, by an apology for his own conduct47, and even for the demands of the Gothic prince47. The payment of a subsidy, which had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought not (such was the language of Stilicho) to be considered in the odious light either of a tribute or of a ransom, extorted by the menaces of a Barbarian enemy. Alaric had faithfully asserted the just pretensions of the republic to the provinces47 which were usurped by the Greeks of Constantinople; he modestly required the fair and stipulated recompense of his services; and, if he had desisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, he had obeyed, in his retreat, the peremptory though private47 letters of the emperor47 himself. These contradictory orders (he would not dissemble the errors of his own family) had been procured by the intercession of Serena. The tender piety of his wife had been too deeply affected by the discord of the royal brothers, the sons of her adopted father47; and the sentiments of nature had too easily prevailed over the stern dictates of the public47 welfare. These ostensible reasons, which faintly disguise the obscure intrigues of the palace47 of Ravenna, were supported by the authority47 of Stilicho; and obtained, after a warm debate, the reluctant approbation of the senate47. The tumult of virtue and freedom subsided; and the sum of four thousand pounds of gold was granted, under the name of a subsidy, to secure the peace of Italy47, and to conciliate the friendship of the king of the Goths. Lampadius alone, one of the most illustrious members of the assembly, still persisted in his dissent; exclaimed with a loud voice, This is not a treaty of peace, but of servitude; and escaped the danger47 of such bold opposition by immediately retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church.
But the reign47 of Stilicho drew towards its end, and the proud minister might perceive the symptoms of his approaching disgrace. The generous boldness of Lampadius had been applauded; and the senate47, so patiently resigned to a long47 servitude, rejected with disdain the offer of invidious and imaginary freedom. The troops47, who still assumed the name and prerogatives of the Roman47 legions, were exasperated by the partial affection of Stilicho for the Barbarians; and the people47 imputed to the mischievous policy of the minister the public47 misfortunes, which were the natural consequence of their own degeneracy. Yet Stilicho might have continued to brave the clamours of the people47, and even of the soldiers47, if he could have maintained his dominion over the feeble mind of his pupil. But the respectful attachment of Honorius was converted into fear, suspicion, and hatred. The crafty Olympius, who concealed his vices under the mask of Christian piety, had secretly undermined the benefactor by whose favour he was promoted to the honourable offices of the Imperial47 palace47. Olympius revealed to the unsuspecting emperor47, who had attained the twenty-fifth year of his age47, that he was without weight, or authority47, in his own government47; and artfully alarmed his timid and indolent disposition by a lively picture of the designs of Stilicho, who already mediated the death47 of his sovereign47, with the ambitious hope of placing the diadem on the head of his son47 Eucherius. The emperor47 was instigated, by his new favourite, to assume the tone of independent dignity; and the minister was astonished to find that secret47 resolutions were formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his interest or to his intentions. Instead of residing in the palace47 at Rome47, Honorius declared that it was his pleasure to return to the secure fortress of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the death47 of his brother Arcadius, he prepared to visit Constantinople, and to regulate, with the authority47 of a guardian, the provinces47 of the infant Theodosius47. The representation of the difficulty and expense of such a distant expedition checked this strange and sudden sally of active diligence; but the dangerous project of showing the emperor47 to the camp of Pavia, which was composed of the Roman47 troops47, the enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained fixed and unalterable. The minister was pressed, by the advice of his confidant Justinian, a Roman47 advocate of a lively and penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial to his reputation and safety. His strenuous, but ineffectual, efforts confirmed the triumph of Olympius; and the prudent lawyer withdrew himself from the impending ruin of his patron.
In the passage of the emperor47 through Bologna, a mutiny of the guards was excited and appeased by the secret47 policy of Stilicho; who announced his instructions to decimate the guilty, and ascribed to his own intercession the merit47 of their pardon. After this tumult, Honorious embraced, for the last time, the minister whom he now considered as a tyrant47, and proceeded on his way to the camp of Pavia, where he was received by the loyal acclamations of the troops47 who were assembled for the service of the Gallic war47. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced, as he had been taught, a military47 oration in the presence of the soldiers47, whom the charitable visits, and artful discourses, of Olympius had prepared to execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At the first signal, they massacred the friends of Stilicho, the most illustrious officers of the empire47; two Praetorian prefects, of Gaul, and of Italy47; two masters-general47, of the cavalry and infantry; the master47 of the offices; the quaestor, the treasurer, and the count of the domestics. Many lives were lost; many houses were plundered; the furious sedition continued to rage till the close of the evening; and the trembling emperor47, who was seen in the streets of Pavia without his robes or diadem, yielded to the persuasions of his favourite, condemned the memory of the slain, and solemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their assassins. The intelligence of the massacre of Pavia filled the mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy apprehensions; and he instantly summoned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the confederate leaders who were attached to his service, and would be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the assembly called aloud for arms47, and for revenge; to march, without a moment's delay, under the banners of a hero whom they had so often followed to victory; to surprise, to oppress, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate Romans; and perhaps to fix the diadem on the head of their injured general47. Instead of executing a resolution, which might have been justified by success, Stilicho hesitated till he was irrecoverably lost. He was still ignorant of the fate of the emperor47; he distrusted the fidelity of his own party; and he viewed with horror the fatal consequences of arming a crowd of licentious Barbarians against the soldiers47 and people47 of Italy47. The confederates, impatient of his timorous and doubtful delay, hastily retired, with fear and indignation. At the hour of midnight, Sarus, a Gothic warrior, renowned among the Barbarians themselves for his strength and valour, suddenly invaded the camp of his benefactor, plundered the baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns, who guarded his person47, and penetrated to the tent, where the minister, pensive and sleepless, meditated on the dangers of his situation. Stilicho escaped with difficulty from the sword of the Goths; and, after issuing a last and generous admonition to the cities of Italy47, to shut their gates against the Barbarians, his confidence, or his despair, urged him to throw himself into Ravenna, which was already in the absolute possession of his enemies. Olympius, who had assumed the dominion of Honorius, was speedily informed that his rival had embraced, as a suppliant, the altar of the Christian church. The base and cruel disposition of the hypocrite was incapable of pity or remorse; but he piously affected to elude, rather than to violate, the privilege of the sanctuary. Count Heraclian, with a troop of soldiers47, appeared, at the dawn of day, before the gates of the church of Ravenna. The bishop was satisfied by a solemn oath that the Imperial47 mandate only directed them to secure the person47 of Stilicho: but, as soon47 as the unfortunate minister had been tempted beyond the holy threshold, he produced the warrant for his instant execution. Stilicho supported, with calm resignation, the injurious names of traitor and parricide; repressed the unseasonable zeal of his followers, who were ready to attempt an ineffectual rescue; and, with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman47 generals, submitted his neck to the sword of Heraclian.
The servile crowd of the palace, who had so long3 adored the fortune of Stilicho, affected to insult his fall, and the most distant connection with the master-general3 of the West, which had so lately been a title to wealth and honours, was studiously denied and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple alliance3 with the family of Theodosius, might envy the condition of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son3 Eucherius was intercepted, and the death3 of that innocent youth soon3 followed the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her sister Maria, and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial bed. The friends of Stilicho, who had escaped the massacre of Pavia, were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius, and the most exquisite cruelty was employed to extort the confession of a treasonable and sacrilegious conspiracy. They died in silence: their firmness justified the choice, and perhaps absolved the innocence, of their patron, and the despotic power which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatise his memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial suffrage of posterity. The services of Stilicho are great3 and manifest; his crimes, as they are vaguely stated in the language of flattery and hatred, are obscure, at least, and improbable. About four months after his death3 an edict was published in the name of Honorius to restore the free communication of the two empires which had been so long3 interrupted by the public enemy3. The minister whose fame and fortune depended on the prosperity of the state was accused of betraying Italy to the Barbarians3, whom he repeatedly vanquished at Pollentia, at Verona, and before the walls of Florence. His pretended design of placing the diadem on the head3 of his son3 Eucherius could not have been conducted without preparations or accomplices, and the ambitious father would not surely have left the future emperor3, till the twentieth year of his age, in the humble station of tribune of the notaries. Even the religion of Stilicho was arraigned by the malice of his rival. The seasonable and almost miraculous deliverance was devoutly celebrated by the applause of the clergy, who asserted that the restoration of idols and the persecution of the church would have been the first measure of the reign3 of Eucherius. The son3 of Stilicho, however, was educated in the bosom of Christianity, which his father had uniformly professed and zealously supported. Serena had borrowed her magnificent necklace from the statue of Vesta, and the Pagans execrated the memory of the sacrilegious minister, by whose order the Sybilline books, the oracles of Rome, had been committed to the flames. The pride and power of Stilicho constituted his real guilt. An honourable reluctance to shed the blood of his countrymen appears to have contributed to the success of his unworthy rival; and it is the last humiliation of the character of Honorius that posterity has not condescended to reproach him with his base ingratitude to the guardian of his youth and the support of his empire3.
Among the train of dependents whose wealth and dignity attracted the notice of their own times our curiosity is excited by the celebrated name of the poet Claudian41, who enjoyed the favour of Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his patron. The titular offices of tribune and notary fixed his rank in the Imperial41 court; he was indebted to the powerful intercession of Serena for his marriage with a very rich heiress of the province of Africa, and the statue of Claudian41, erected in the forum of Trajan, was a monument of the taste and liberality of the Roman41 senate41. After the praises of Stilicho became offensive and criminal, Claudian41 was exposed to the enmity of a powerful and unforgiving courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence of wit. He had compared, in a lively epigram, the opposite characters of two Praetorian prefects of Italy41; he contrasts the innocent repose of a philosopher who sometimes resigned the hours of business to slumber, perhaps to study, with the interested diligence of a rapacious minister, indefatigable in the pursuit of unjust or sacrilegious gain. How happy, continues Claudian41, how happy might it be for the people41 of Italy41 if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Hadrian would always sleep! The repose of Mallius was not disturbed by this friendly and gentle admonition, but the cruel vigilance of Hadrian watched the opportunity of revenge41, and easily obtained from the enemies of Stilicho the trifling sacrifice of an obnoxious poet. The poet concealed himself, however, during the tumult of the revolution, and, consulting the dictates of prudence rather than of honour, he addressed, in the form of an epistle, a suppliant and humble recantation to the offended prefect. He deplores, in mournful strains, the fatal indiscretion into which he had been hurried by passion and folly; submits to the imitation of his adversary the generous examples of the clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions; and expresses his hope that the magnanimity of Hadrian will not trample on a defenceless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace41 and poverty, and deeply wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the death41 of his dearest friends. Whatever might be the success of his prayer, or the accidents of his future life, the period of a few years41 levelled in the grave the minister and the poet: but the name of Hadrian is almost sunk in oblivion, while Claudian41 is read with pleasure in every country which has retained, or acquired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we fairly balance his merits and his defects, we shall acknowledge that Claudian41 does not either satisfy or silence our reason. It would not be easy to produce a passage that deserves the epithet of sublime or pathetic; to select a verse that melts the heart or enlarges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in the poems of Claudian41, the happy invention and artificial conduct of an interesting fable, or the just and lively representation of the characters and situations of real life. For the service of his patron he published occasional panegyrics and invectives; and the design of these slavish compositions encouraged his propensity to exceed the limits of truth and nature. These imperfections, however, are compensated in some degree by the poetical virtues of Claudian41. He was endowed with the rare and precious talent of raising the meanest, of adoring the most barren, and of diversifying the most similar topics; his colouring, more especially in descriptive poetry, is soft and splendid; and he seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, the advantages of a cultivated understanding, a copious fancy, an easy, and sometimes forcible, expression, and a perpetual flow of harmonious versifications. To these commendations, independent of any accidents of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit which Claudian41 derived from the unfavourable circumstances of his birth. In the decline of arts and of empire41 a native of Egypt, who had received the education of a Greek41, assumed, in a mature age, the familiar use and absolute command of the Latin language, soared above the heads of his feeble contemporaries, and placed himself, after an interval of three hundred years41, among the poets of ancient Rome41.
The incapacity of a weak and distracted government47 may often assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable correspondence with the public47 enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius. The king of the Goths would have conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to destroy the formidable adversary by whose arms47, in Italy47 as well as in Greece, he had been twice overthrown. Their active and interested hatred laboriously accomplished the disgrace and ruin of the great Stilicho. The valour of Sarus, his fame in arms47, and his personal, or hereditary, influence over the confederate Barbarians could recommend him only to the friends of their country, who despised, or detested, the worthless characters of Turpilio, Varanes, and Vigilantius. By the pressing instances of the new favourites, these generals, unworthy as they had shewn themselves of the name of soldiers47, were promoted to the command47 of the cavalry, of the infantry, and of the domestic troops47. The Gothic prince47 would have subscribed with pleasure the edict which the fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and devout emperor47. Honorius excluded all persons who were adverse to the catholic church from holding any office in the state; obstinately rejected the service of all those who dissented from his religion; and rashly disqualified many of his bravest and most skilful officers, who adhered to the Pagan worship, or who had imbibed the opinions of Arianism. These measures, so advantageous to an enemy, Alaric would have approved, and might perhaps have suggested; but it may seem doubtful whether the Barbarian would have promoted his interest at the expense of the inhuman and absurd cruelty which was perpetrated by the direction, or at least with the connivance, of the Imperial47 ministers. The foreign auxiliaries who had been attached to the person47 of Stilicho lamented his death47; but the desire of revenge was checked by a natural apprehension for the safety of their wives and children; who were detained as hostages in the strong cities of Italy47, where they had likewise deposited their most valuable effects. At the same hour, and as if by a common signal, the cities of Italy47 were polluted by the same horrid scenes of universal massacre and pillage, which involved, in promiscuous destruction, the families and fortunes of the Barbarians. Exasperated by such an injury, which might have awakened the tamest and most servile spirit47, they cast a look of indignation and hope towards the camp of Alaric, and unanimously swore to pursue, with just and implacable war47, the perfidious nation that had so basely violated the laws of hospitality. By the imprudent conduct47 of the ministers of Honorius, the republic lost the assistance, and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of her bravest soldiers47; and the weight of that formidable army47, which alone might have determined the event of the war47, was transferred from the scale of the Romans into that of the Goths.
In the arts of negotiation, as well as in those of war5, the Gothic5 king maintained his superior ascendant over an enemy5 whose seeming changes proceeded from the total want of counsel and design. From his camp5, on the confines of Italy, Alaric attentively observed the revolutions of the palace, watched the progress of faction and discontent, disguised the hostile aspect of a Barbarian invader, and assumed the more popular appearance of the friend and ally of the great5 Stilicho; to whose virtues, when they were no longer formidable, he could pay a just tribute of sincere praise and regret. The pressing invitation of the malcontents, who urged the king of the Goths5 to invade Italy, was enforced by a lively sense of his personal injuries; and he might speciously complain that the Imperial ministers still delayed and eluded the payment of the four thousand5 pounds of gold, which had been granted by the Roman5 senate either to reward his services or to appease his fury. His decent firmness was supported by an artful moderation, which contributed to the success5 of his designs. He required a fair and reasonable satisfaction; but he gave the strongest assurances that, as soon5 as he had obtained it, he would immediately retire. He refused to trust the faith of the Romans5, unless Aetius and Jason, the sons of two great5 officers of state, were sent as hostages to his camp5; but he offered to deliver, in exchange, several of the noblest youths of the Gothic5 nation. The modesty of Alaric was interpreted, by the ministers of Ravenna, as a sure evidence of his weakness and fear. They disdained either to negotiate a treaty or to assemble an army5; and with a rash confidence, derived only from their ignorance of the extreme danger, irretrievably wasted the decisive5 moments of peace and war5. While they expected, in sullen silence, that the Barbarians5 should evacuate the confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and rapid marches, passed the Alps and the Po; hastily pillaged the cities of Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia, and Cremona, which yielded to his arms5; increased his forces by the accession of thirty thousand5 auxiliaries; and without meeting a single enemy5 in the field, advanced as far5 as the edge of the morass which protected the impregnable residence of the emperor5 of the West. Instead of attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, the prudent leader of the Goths5 proceeded to Rimini, stretched his ravages along the sea-coast of the Hadriatic, and meditated the conquest of the ancient mistress of the world. An Italian hermit, whose zeal and sanctity were respected by the Barbarians5 themselves, encountered the victorious monarch, and boldly denounced the indignation of heaven against the oppressors of the earth; but the saint himself was so confounded by the solemn asseveration of Alaric, that he felt a secret and preternatural impulse, which directed, and even compelled, his march to the gates of Rome. He felt that his genius and his fortune were equal to the most arduous enterprises; and the enthusiasm which he communicated to the Goths5 insensibly removed the popular, and almost superstitious, reverence of the nations for the majesty of the Roman5 name. His troops5, animated by the hopes of spoil, followed the course of the Flaminian way, occupied the unguarded passes of the Apennine, descended into the rich plains of Umbria; and, as they lay encamped on the banks5 of the Clitumnus, might wantonly slaughter and devour the milk-white oxen, which had been so long reserved for the use of Roman5 triumphs. A lofty situation and a seasonable tempest of thunder and lightning preserved the little city of Narni; but the king of the Goths5, despising the ignoble prey, still advanced with unabated vigour; and, after he had passed through the stately arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric victories5, he pitched his camp5 under the walls of Rome.
During a period of six hundred and nineteen years30, the seat of empire30 had never been violated by the presence of a foreign enemy30. The unsuccessful expedition of Hannibal served only to display the character of the senate and people30; of a senate degraded, rather than ennobled, by the comparison of an assembly of kings; and of a people30 to whom the ambassador of Pyrrhus ascribed the inexhaustible resources of the Hydra. Each of the senators, in the time of the Punic war30, had accomplished his term of military service30, either in a subordinate or a superior station; and the decree which invested with temporary command all those who had been consuls or censors or dictators gave the republic the immediate assistance of many brave and experienced generals. In the beginning of the war30, the Roman30 people30 consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand30 citizens of an age to bear arms30. Fifty thousand30 had already died in the defence of their country; and the twenty-three legions which were employed in the different camps of Italy, Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, and Spain required about one hundred thousand30 men. But there still remained an equal number in Rome, and the adjacent territory, who were animated by the same intrepid courage; and every citizen was trained, from his earliest youth, in the discipline and exercises of a soldier. Hannibal was astonished by the constancy of the senate, who, without raising the siege30 of Capua or recalling their scattered forces, expected his approach. He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance of three miles from the city30; and he was soon30 informed that the ground on which he had pitched his tent was sold for an adequate price at a public auction and that a body of troops30 was dismissed by an opposite road, to reinforce the legions of Spain. He led his Africans to the gates of Rome, where he found three armies in order of battle30, prepared to receive him; but Hannibal dreaded the event of a combat from which he could not hope to escape, unless he destroyed the last of his enemies30; and his speedy retreat confessed the invincible courage of the Romans.
From the time of the Punic war the uninterrupted succession of senators had preserved the name and image of the republic; and the degenerate subjects of Honorius ambitiously derived their descent from the heroes who had repulsed the arms of Hannibal and subdued the nations of the earth7. The temporal7 honours which the devout7 Paula inherited and despised are carefully recapitulated by Jerom, the guide of her conscience and the historian of her life. The genealogy of her father, Rogatus, which ascended as high as Agamemnon, might seem to betray a Grecian origin; but her mother, Blaesilla, numbered the Scipios, Aemilius Paulus and the Gracchi, in the list of her ancestors; and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage from Aeneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of the rich who desired to be noble was gratified by these lofty pretensions. Encouraged by the applause of their parasites, they easily imposed on the credulity of the vulgar, and were countenanced in some measure by the custom of adopting the name of their patron, which had always prevailed among the freedmen and clients of illustrious families. Most of those families, however, attacked by so many causes of external violence or internal decay, were gradually extirpated; and it would be more reasonable to seek for a lineal descent of twenty generations among the mountains of the Alps, or in the peaceful solitude of Apulia, than on the theatre of Rome, the seat of fortune, of danger, and of perpetual revolutions. Under each successive reign and from every province of the empire, a crowd of hardy adventurers, rising to eminence by their talents or their vices, usurped the wealth, the honours, and the palaces of Rome; and oppressed or protected the poor and humble remains of consular families; who were ignorant perhaps of the glory of their ancestors.
In the time of Jerom and Claudian, the senators unanimously yielded the pre-eminence to the Anician line; and a slight view of their history will serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of the noble families which contended only for the second13 place. During the first five ages of the city the name of the Anicians was unknown; they appear to have derived their origin from Praeneste; and the ambition of those new13 citizens was long satisfied with the Plebeian honours of tribunes of the people. One hundred and sixty-eight years13 before the Christian era, the family13 was ennobled by the praetorship of Anicius, who gloriously terminated the Illyrian war by the conquest of the nation and the captivity of their king. From the triumph of that general, three consulships in distant periods mark the succession of the Anician name. From the reign of Diocletian to the final extinction of the Western13 empire13 that name shone with a lustre which was not eclipsed in the public estimation by the majesty of the Imperial13 purple13. The several branches to whom it was communicated united, by marriage13 or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim. The Anician family13 excelled in faith and in riches; they were the first of the Roman13 senate who embraced Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and prefect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party of Maxentius by the readiness with which he accepted the religion of Constantine13. Their ample patrimony was increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family13; who shared with Gratian the honours of the consulship, and exercised four times the high office of Praetorian prefect. His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman13 world; and, though the public might suspect or disapprove the methods by which they had been acquired, the generosity and magnificence of that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude of his clients and the admiration of strangers. Such was the respect entertained for his memory that the two sons13 of Probus in their earliest youth13, and at the request of the senate, were associated in the consular dignity13: a memorable distinction without example in the annals of Rome.
The marbles of the Anician palace was used as a proverbial expression of opulence and splendour; but the nobles and senators of Rome23 aspired in due gradation to imitate that illustrious family. The accurate description of the city23, which was composed in the Theodosian age23, enumerates one thousand23 seven hundred and eighty houses23, the residence of wealthy and honourable citizens23. Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet: that Rome23 contained a multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city23; since it included within its own precincts everything which could be subservient either to use23 or luxury: markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial aviaries. The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state of Rome23 when it was besieged by the Goths, continues to observe that several of the richest senators received from their estates an annual income of four thousand23 pounds23 of gold23, above one hundred and sixty thousand23 pounds23 sterling; without computing the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold, might have equalled in value23 one third of the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth23, an ordinary revenue of a thousand23 or fifteen hundred pounds23 of gold23 might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of the senatorian rank, which required many expenses of a public23 and ostentatious kind. Several examples are recorded in the age23 of Honorius, of vain and popular nobles who celebrated the year of their praetorship by a festival, which lasted seven days and cost above one hundred thousand23 pounds23 sterling. The estates of the Roman23 senators, which so far23 exceeded the proportion23 of modern wealth23, were not confined to the limits of Italy. Their possessions extended far23 beyond the Ionian and Aegean seas to the most distant provinces23; the city23 of Nicopolis, which Augustus had founded as an eternal monument of the Actian victory, was the property23 of the devout Paula; and it is observed by Seneca that the rivers which had divided hostile nations now flowed through the lands23 of private23 citizens23. According23 to their temper and circumstances, the estates of the Romans23 were either cultivated by the labour of their slaves23 or granted, for a certain and stipulated rent, to the industrious farmer. The economical writers of antiquity strenuously recommend the former method whereever it may be practicable; but, if the object should be removed by its distance or magnitude from the immediate eye of the master, they prefer the active care of an old hereditary tenant, attached to the soil and interested in the produce, to the mercenary administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful, steward.
The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never excited by the pursuit of military glory46, and seldom engaged in the occupations of civil government, naturally resigned their leisure to the business46 and amusements of private life46. At Rome46, commerce was always held in contempt; but the senators, from the first age46 of the republic, increased their patrimony, and multiplied their clients, by the lucrative practice of usury; and the obsolete laws46 were eluded, or violated, by the mutual inclinations and interest of both parties. A considerable mass of treasure must always have existed at Rome46, either in the current coin of the empire46 or in the form of gold and silver plate; and there were many sideboards, in the time46 of Pliny, which contained more solid silver than had been transported by Scipio from vanquished Carthage. The greater part of the nobles, who dissipated their fortunes in profuse luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of wealth, and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the labour of a thousand hands; of the numerous train of their domestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of punishment; and of the various professions of artificers and merchants, who were more powerfully impelled by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniencies of life46 which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern46 nations of Europe than the senators of Rome46 could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury. Their luxury and their manners have been the subject of minute and laborious disquisition; but, as such inquiries would divert me too long from the design of the present46 work, I shall produce an authentic state of Rome46 and its inhabitants, which is more peculiarly applicable to the period46 of the Gothic invasion. Ammianus Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire46 as the residence the best adapted to the historian of his own times, has mixed with the narrative of public46 events a lively representation of the scenes with which he was familiarly conversant. The judicious reader will not always approve the asperity of censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of expression; he will perhaps detect the latent prejudices and personal resentments which soured the temper of Ammianus himself; but he will surely observe, with philosophic46 curiosity46, the interesting and original picture of the manners of Rome46.
The greatness of Rome47 (such is the language of the historian) was founded on the rare and almost incredible alliance of virtue and of fortune. The long47 period of her infancy was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy47, the neighbours and enemies of the rising city47. In the strength and ardour of youth, she sustained the storms of war47; carried her victorious arms47 beyond the seas and the mountains; and brought home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. At length, verging towards old age47, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquillity. The venerable city47, which had trampled on the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the perpetual guardians of justice47 and freedom, was content, like a wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Caesars, her favourite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony. A secure and profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the reign47 of Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic; while Rome47 was still adored as the queen of the earth, and the subject nations still reverenced the name of the people47 and the majesty of the senate47. But this native splendour (continues Ammianus) is degraded and sullied by the conduct47 of some nobles; who, unmindful of their own dignity and of that of their country, assume an unbounded licence of vice and folly. They contend with each other in the empty vanity of titles and surnames; and curiously select or invent the most lofty and sonorous appellations, Reburrus, or Fabunius, Pagonius, or Tarrasius, which may impress the ears of the vulgar with astonishment and respect. From a vain ambition of perpetuating their memory, they affect to multiply their likeness in statues of bronze and marble; nor are they satisfied, unless those statues are covered with plates of gold: an honourable distinction, first granted to Acilius the consul, after he had subdued, by his arms47 and counsels, the power47 of king Antiochus. The ostentation of displaying, of magnifying perhaps, the rent-roll of the estates which they possess in all the provinces47, from the rising to the setting sun, provokes the just resentment of every man who recollects that their poor and invincible ancestors were not distinguished from the meanest of the soldiers47 by the delicacy of their food or the splendour of their apparel. But the modern nobles measure their rank47 and consequence according to the loftiness of their chariots and the weighty magnificence of their dress. Their long47 robes of silk and purple float in the wind; and, as they are agitated, by art or accident, they occasionally discover the under garments, the rich tunics, embroidered with the figures of various animals. Followed by a train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, they move along the streets with the same impetuous speed as if they travelled with post horses; and the example of the senators is boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies, whose covered carriages are continually driving round the immense space of the city47 and suburbs. Whenever these persons of high distinction condescend to visit the public47 baths, they assume, on their entrance, a tone of loud and insolent command47, and appropriate to their own use the conveniencies which were designed for the Roman47 people47. If, in these places of mixed and general47 resort, they meet any of the infamous ministers of their pleasures, they express their affection by a tender embrace; while they proudly decline the salutations of their fellow-citizens, who are not permitted to aspire above the honour of kissing their hands or their knees. As soon47 as they have indulged themselves in the refreshment of the bath, they resume their rings, and the other ensigns of their dignity; select from their private47 wardrobe of the finest linen, such as might suffice for a dozen persons, the garments the most agreeable to their fancy, and maintain till their departure the same haughty demeanour; which perhaps might have been excused in the great Marcellus, after the conquest of Syracuse. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous achievements; they visit their estates in Italy47, and procure themselves, by the toil of servile hands, the amusements of the chase. If at any time, but more especially on a hot day, they have courage to sail, in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine lake to their elegant villas on the sea-coast of Puteoli and Caieta, they compare their own expeditions to the marches of Caesar and Alexander. Yet should a fly presume to settle on the silken folds of their gilded umbrellas, should a sunbeam penetrate through some unguarded and imperceptible chink, they deplore their intolerable hardships, and lament in affected language that they were not born in the land of the Cimmerians, the regions of eternal darkness. In these journeys into the country the whole body of the household marches with their master47. In the same manner as the cavalry and infantry, the heavy and the light armed troops47, the advanced guard and the rear, are marshalled by the skill of their military47 leaders; so the domestic officers, who bear a rod as an ensign of authority47, distribute and arrange the numerous train of slaves and attendants. The baggage and wardrobe move in the front; and are immediately followed by a multitude of cooks and inferior ministers employed in the service of the kitchens and of the table. The main body is composed of a promiscuous crowd of slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle or dependent plebeians. The rear is closed by the favourite band of eunuchs, distributed from age47 to youth, according to the order of seniority. Their numbers and their deformity excite the horror of the indignant spectators, who are ready to execrate the memory of Semiramis for the cruel art which she invented of frustrating the purposes of nature and of blasting in the bud the hopes of future generations. In the exercise of domestic jurisdiction the nobles of Rome47 express an exquisite sensibility for any personal injury, and a contemptuous indifference for the rest of the human species. When they have called for warm water, if a slave has been tardy in his obedience, he is instantly chastised with three hundred lashes: but should the same slave commit wilful murder, the master47 will mildly observe that he is a worthless fellow; but that, if he repeats the offence, he shall not escape punishment. Hospitality was formerly the virtue of the Romans; and every stranger who could plead either merit47 or misfortune was relieved or rewarded by their generosity. At present, if a foreigner, perhaps of no contemptible rank47, is introduced to one of the proud and wealthy senators, he is welcomed indeed in the first audience, with such warm professions and such kind inquiries that he retires, enchanted with the affability of his illustrious friend, and full of regret that he had so long47 delayed his journey to Rome47, the native seat of manners as well as of empire47. Secure of a favourable reception, he repeats his visit the ensuing day, and is mortified by the discovery that his person47, his name, and his country are already forgotten. If he still has resolution to persevere, he is gradually numbered in the train of dependents, and obtains the permission to pay his assiduous and unprofitable court to a haughty patron, incapable of gratitude or friendship; who scarcely deigns to remark his presence, his departure, or his return. Whenever the rich prepare a solemn and popular entertainment; whenever they celebrate, with profuse and pernicious luxury, their private47 banquets; the choice of the guests is the subject of anxious deliberation. The modest, the sober, and the learned are seldom preferred; and the nomenclators, who are commonly swayed by interested motives, have the address to insert, in the list of invitations, the obscure names of the most worthless of mankind. But the frequent and familiar companions of the great are those parasites who practise the most useful of all arts, the art of flattery; who eagerly applaud each word and every action of their immortal patron; gaze with rapture on his marble columns and variegated pavements; and strenuously praise the pomp and elegance which he is taught to consider as a part of his personal merit47. At the Roman47 tables the birds, the squirrels, or the fish, which appear of an uncommon size, are contemplated with curious attention; a pair of scales is accurately applied to ascertain their real weight; and, while the more rational guests are disgusted by the vain and tedious repetition, notaries are summoned to attest by an authentic record the truth of such a marvellous event. Another method of introduction into the houses and society of the great is derived from the profession of gaming, or, as it is more politely styled, of play. The confederates are united by a strict and indissoluble bond of friendship, or rather of conspiracy; a superior degree of skill in the Tesserarian art (which may be interpreted the game of dice and tables) is a sure road to wealth and reputation. A master47 of that sublime science, who in a supper or assembly is placed below a magistrate, displays in his countenance the surprise and indignation which Cato might be supposed to feel when he was refused the praetorship by the votes of a capricious people47. The acquisition of knowledge seldom engages the curiosity of the nobles, who abhor the fatigue and disdain the advantages of study; and the only books which they peruse are the satires of Juvenal, and the verbose and fabulous histories of Marius Maximus. The libraries which they have inherited from their fathers are secluded, like dreary sepulchres, from the light of day. But the costly instruments of the theatre, flutes, and enormous lyres, and hydraulic organs, are constructed for their use; and the harmony of vocal and instrumental music is incessantly repeated in the palaces of Rome47. In those palaces sound is preferred to sense; and the care of the body to that of the mind. It is allowed as a salutary maxim that the light and frivolous suspicion of a contagious malady is of sufficient weight to excuse the visits of the most intimate friends; and even the servants who are despatched to make the decent inquiries are not suffered to return home till they have undergone the ceremony of a previous ablution. Yet this selfish and unmanly delicacy occasionally yields to the more imperious passion of avarice. The prospect of gain will urge a rich and gouty senator as far as Spoleto; every sentiment of arrogance and dignity is subdued by the hopes of an inheritance, or even of a legacy; and a wealthy, childless citizen is the most powerful of the Romans. The art of obtaining the signature of a favourable testament, and sometimes of hastening the moment of its execution, is perfectly understood; and it has happened that in the same house, though in different apartments, a husband and a wife, with the laudable design of over-reaching each other, have summoned their respective lawyers, to declare, at the same time, their mutual but contradictory intentions. The distress which follows and chastises extravagant luxury often reduces the great to the use of the most humiliating expedients. When they desire to borrow, they employ the base and supplicating style of the slave in the comedy; but, when they are called upon to pay, they assume the royal and tragic declamation of the grandsons of Hercules. If the demand is repeated, they readily procure some trusty sycophant, instructed to maintain a charge of poison or magic against the insolent creditor; who is seldom released from prison till he has signed a discharge of the whole debt. These vices, which degrade the moral character of the Romans, are mixed with a puerile superstition that disgraces their understanding. They listen with confidence to the predictions of haruspices, who pretend to read in the entrails of victims the signs of future greatness and prosperity; and there are many who do not presume either to bathe, or to dine, or to appear in public47, till they have diligently consulted, according to the rules of astrology, the situation of Mercury and the aspect of the moon. It is singular enough that this vain credulity may often be discovered among the profane sceptics, who impiously doubt or deny the existence of a celestial power47.
In populous cities which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the dexterity or labour of their hands, are commonly the most prolific, the most useful, and in that sense the most respectable part of the community. But the plebeians37 of Rome37, who disdained such sedentary and servile37 arts, had been oppressed from the earliest times37, by the weight37 of debt and usury; and the husbandman, during the term of his military service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm. The lands of Italy, which had been originally divided among the families of free and indigent proprietors, were insensibly purchased or usurped by the avarice of the nobles37; and in the age which preceded the fall of the republic it was computed that only two thousand citizens were possessed of any independent37 substance. Yet, as long37 as the people37 bestowed, by their suffrages, the honours of the state37, the command of the legions, and the administration of wealthy provinces, their conscious pride alleviated, in some measure, the hardships of poverty37; and their wants were seasonably supplied by the ambitious liberality of the candidates, who aspired to secure a venal majority in the thirty-five tribes37, or the hundred and ninety-three centuries, of Rome37. But, when the prodigal commons37 had imprudently alienated not only the use37, but the inheritance, of power, they sunk, under the reign of the Caesars, into a vile and wretched populace which must, in a few generations, have been totally extinguished, if it had not been continually recruited by the manumission of slaves37 and the influx of strangers. As early as the time of Hadrian it was the just complaint of the ingenuous natives that the capital had attracted the vices of the universe and the manners37 of the most opposite nations. The intemperance of the Gauls, the cunning and levity of the Greeks, the savage obstinacy of the Egyptians and Jews, the servile37 temper of the Asiatics, and the dissolute, effeminate prostitution of the Syrians, were mingled in the various multitude, which, under the proud and false denomination of Romans37, presumed to despise their fellow-subjects, and even their sovereigns, who dwelt beyond the precincts of the eternal city.
Yet the name of that city40 was still pronounced with respect: the frequent and capricious tumults of its inhabitants were indulged with impunity; and the successors of Constantine, instead of crushing the last remains of the democracy by the strong arm of military40 power40, embraced the mild policy of Augustus, and studied to relieve the poverty, and to amuse the idleness, of an innumerable people. I. For the convenience of the lazy plebeians the monthly distributions of corn were converted into a daily allowance of bread; a great40 number40 of ovens was constructed and maintained at the public40 expense; and at the appointed hour each citizen who was furnished with a ticket ascended the flight of steps which had been assigned to his peculiar quarter or division, and received40, either as a gift or at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the weight of three pounds40 for the use40 of his family. II. The forests of Lucania, whose acorns fattened large droves of wild hogs, afforded, as a species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome meat. During five months of the year a regular allowance of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens40; and the annual consumption of the capital40, at a time40 when it was much declined from its former lustre, was ascertained by an edict of Valentinian the Third, at three millions40 six hundred and twenty-eight thousand40 pounds40. III. In the manners of antiquity the use40 of oil was indispensable for the lamp as well as for the bath; and the annual tax, which was imposed on Africa40 for the benefit of Rome40, amounted to the weight of three millions40 of pounds40, to the measure, perhaps, of three hundred thousand40 English gallons. IV. The anxiety of Augustus to provide the metropolis with sufficient plenty of corn was not extended beyond that necessary article of human subsistence; and, when the popular clamour accused the dearness and scarcity of wine40, a proclamation was issued by the grave reformer to remind his subjects40 that no man could reasonably complain of thirst since the aqueducts of Agrippa had introduced into the city40 so many copious streams of pure and salubrious water. This rigid sobriety was insensibly relaxed; and, although the generous design of Aurelian does not appear to have been executed in its full extent, the use40 of wine40 was allowed on very easy40 and liberal terms. The administration of the public40 cellars was delegated to a magistrate of honourable rank; and a considerable part of the vintage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate inhabitants of Rome40.
The stupendous aqueducts, so justly celebrated by the praises of Augustus himself, replenished the Thermae, or baths, which had been constructed in every part of the city9, with Imperial magnificence. The baths of Antoninus Caracalla, which were open, at stated hours, for the indiscriminate service of the senators and the people, contained about sixteen hundred seats of marble; and more than three thousand9 were reckoned in the baths of Diocletian. The walls9 of the lofty apartments were covered with curious mosaics, that imitated the art of the pencil in the elegance of design and the variety of colours. The Egyptian granite was beautifully incrusted with the precious green marble of Numidia; the perpetual stream of hot water was poured into the capacious basons, through so many wide mouths of bright and massy silver; and the meanest Roman9 could purchase, with a small copper coin, the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury, which might excite the envy of the kings of Asia9. From these stately palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without shoes, and without a mantle; who loitered away whole days in the street or Forum, to hear news, and to hold disputes; who dissipated, in extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their wives and children; and spent the hours of the night in obscure taverns and brothels in the indulgence of gross and vulgar sensuality.
But the most lively and splendid27 amusement of the idle multitude27 depended on the frequent exhibition of public27 games and spectacles. The piety of Christian princes had suppressed the inhuman combats of gladiators; but the Roman27 people27 still considered the Circus as their home, their temple, and the seat of the republic27. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to secure their places, and there were many who passed a sleepless and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the morning to the evening, careless of the sun or of the rain, the spectators, who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thousand27, remained in eager attention; their eyes fixed on the horses and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear, for the success of the colours which they espoused: and the happiness of Rome27 appeared to hang on the event of a race. The same immoderate ardour inspired their clamours and their applause, as often as they were entertained with the hunting of wild beasts and the various27 modes of theatrical representation. These representations in modern capitals may deserve to be considered as a pure and elegant school of taste, and perhaps of virtue27. But the Tragic and Comic Muse of the Romans, who seldom aspired beyond the imitation of Attic genius, had been almost totally silent since the fall of the republic27; and their place was unworthily occupied by licentious farce, effeminate music, and splendid27 pageantry. The pantomimes, who maintained their reputation from the age27 of Augustus to the sixth century, expressed, without the use of words, the various27 fables of the gods and heroes of antiquity; and the perfection of their art, which sometimes disarmed the gravity of the philosopher, always excited the applause and wonder of the people27. The vast and magnificent theatres of Rome27 were filled by three thousand27 female dancers, and by three thousand27 singers, with the masters of the respective choruses. Such was the popular favour which they enjoyed that, in a time27 of scarcity, when all strangers were banished from the city27, the merit of contributing to the public27 pleasures exempted them from a law which was strictly executed against the professors of the liberal arts27.
It is said that the foolish curiosity of Elagabalus attempted to discover, from the quantity of spiders' webs, the number of the inhabitants of Rome23. A more rational method of inquiry might not have been undeserving of the attention of the wisest princes, who could easily have resolved a question so important for the Roman23 government23 and so interesting to succeeding ages. The births and deaths of the citizens23 were duly registered; and, if any writer of antiquity had condescended to mention the annual amount, or the common23 average, we might now produce some satisfactory calculation, which would destroy the extravagant assertions of critics, and perhaps confirm the modest and probable conjectures of philosophers. The most diligent researches have collected only the following circumstances; which, slight and imperfect as they are, may tend, in some degree, to illustrate the question of the populousness of ancient Rome23. I. When the capital23 of the empire23 was besieged by the Goths, the circuit of the walls was accurately measured by Ammonius, the mathematician, who found it equal to twenty-one miles. It should not be forgotten that the form of the city23 was almost that of a circle, the geometrical figure which is known to contain the largest space within any given circumference. II. The architect Vitruvius, who flourished in the Augustan age23, and whose evidence on this occasion has peculiar weight and authority, observes that the innumerable habitations of the Roman23 people23 would have spread themselves far23 beyond the narrow limits of the city23; and that the want of ground, which was probably contracted on every side by gardens and villas, suggested the common23, though inconvenient, practice of raising the houses23 to a considerable height in the air. But the loftiness of these buildings, which often consisted of hasty work and insufficient materials23, was the cause of frequent and fatal accidents; and it was repeatedly enacted by Augustus, as well as by Nero, that the height of private23 edifices within the walls of Rome23 should not exceed the measure of seventy feet from the ground. III. Juvenal laments, as it should seem from his own experience, the hardships of the poorer citizens23, to whom he addresses the salutary advice of emigrating, without delay, from the smoke of Rome23, since they might purchase, in the little towns of Italy, a cheerful, commodious dwelling, at the same price which they annually paid for a dark and miserable lodging. House-rent was therefore immoderately dear; the rich acquired, at an enormous expense, the ground, which they covered with palaces and gardens; but the body of the Roman23 people23 was crowded into a narrow space; and the different floors and apartments of the same house were divided, as it is still the custom of Paris and other cities23, among several families of plebeians. IV. The total number of houses23 in the fourteen regions of the city23 is accurately stated in the description of Rome23 composed under the reign of Theodosius, and they amount to forty-eight thousand23 three hundred and eighty-two. The two classes of domus and of insulae, into which they are divided, include all the habitations of the capital23, of every rank and condition, from the marble palace of the Anicii, with a numerous establishment of freedmen and slaves23, to the lofty and narrow lodging-house, where the poet Codrus and his wife were permitted to hire a wretched garret immediately under the tiles. If we adopt the same average which, under similar circumstances, has been found applicable to Paris, and indifferently allow about twenty-five persons23 for each house of every degree, we may fairly estimate the inhabitants of Rome23 at twelve hundred thousand23: a number which cannot be thought excessive for the capital23 of a mighty empire23, though it exceeds the populousness of the greatest cities23 of modern Europe.
Such was the state of Rome47 under the reign47 of Honorius; at the time when the Gothic army47 formed the siege, or rather the blockade, of the city47. By a skilful disposition of his numerous forces, who impatiently watched the moment of an assault, Alaric encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates, intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tiber, from which the Romans derived the surest and most plentiful supply of provisions. The first emotions of the nobles and of the people47 were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile Barbarian should dare to insult the capital of the world; but their arrogance was soon47 humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage, instead of being directed against an enemy in arms47, was meanly exercised on a defenceless and innocent victim. Perhaps in the person47 of Serena the Romans might have respected the niece of Theodosius47, the aunt, nay even the adopted mother, of the reigning emperor47: but they abhorred the widow of Stilicho; and they listened with credulous passion to the tale of calumny which accused her of maintaining a secret47 and criminal correspondence with the Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by the same popular frenzy, the senate47, without requiring any evidence of her guilt, pronounced the sentence of her death47. Serena was ignominiously stranged; and the infatuated multitude were astonished to find that this cruel act of injustice did not immediately produce the retreat of the Barbarians and the deliverance of the city47. That unfortunate city47 gradually experienced the distress of scarcity, and at length the horrid calamities of famine. The daily allowance of three pounds of bread was reduced to one half, to one third, to nothing; and the price of corn still continued to rise in a rapid and extravagant proportion. The poorer citizens, who were unable to purchase the necessaries of life47, solicited the precarious charity of the rich; and for a while the public47 misery was alleviated by the humanity of Laeta, the widow of the emperor47 Gratian, who had fixed her residence at Rome47, and consecrated to the use of the indigent the princely revenue which she annually received from the grateful successors of her husband. But these private47 and temporary donatives were insufficient to appease the hunger of a numerous people47; and the progress of famine invaded the marble palaces of the senators themselves. The persons of both sexes, who had been educated in the enjoyment of ease and luxury, discovered how little is requisite to supply the demands of nature; and lavished their unavailing treasures of gold and silver, to obtain the coarse and scanty sustenance which they would formerly have rejected with disdain. The food the most repugnant to sense or imagination, the aliments the most unwholesome and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly devoured and fiercely disputed by the rage of hunger. A dark suspicion was entertained that some desperate wretches fed on the bodies of their fellow-creatures, whom they had secretly murdered; and even mothers (such was the horrid conflict of the two most powerful instincts implanted by nature in the human breast) — even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their slaughtered infants! Many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome47 expired in their houses, or in the streets, for want of sustenance; and, as the public47 sepulchres without the walls were in the power47 of the enemy, the stench which arose from so many putrid and unburied carcases infected the air, and the miseries of famine were succeeded and aggravated by the contagion of pestilential disease. The assurances of speedy and effectual relief, which were repeatedly transmitted from the court of Ravenna, supported for some time the fainting resolution of the Romans, till at length the despair of any human aid tempted them to accept the offers of a preternatural deliverance. Pompeianus, prefect47 of the city47, had been persuaded, by the art or fanaticism of some Tuscan diviners, that, by the mysterious force of spells and sacrifices, they could extract the lightning from the clouds, and point those celestial fires against the camp of the Barbarians. The important secret47 was communicated to Innocent, the bishop of Rome47; and the successor of St. Peter is accused, perhaps without foundation, of preferring the safety of the republic to the rigid severity of the Christian worship. But, when the question was agitated in the senate47; when it was proposed, as an essential condition, that those sacrifices should be performed in the Capitol, by the authority47, and in the presence, of the magistrates; the majority of that respectable assembly, apprehensive either of the Divine or of the Imperial47 displeasure, refused to join in an act which appeared almost equivalent to the public47 restoration of Paganism.
The last resource of the Romans was in the clemency, or at least in the moderation, of the king of the Goths. The senate47, who in this emergency assumed the supreme powers of government47, appointed two ambassadors to negotiate with the enemy. This important trust was delegated to Basilius, a senator, of Spanish extraction, and already conspicuous in the administration of provinces47: and to John, the first tribune of the notaries, who was peculiarly qualified by his dexterity in business as well as by his former intimacy with the Gothic prince47. When they were introduced into his presence, they declared, perhaps in a more lofty style than became their abject condition, that the Romans were resolved to maintain their dignity, either in peace or war47; and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and honourable capitulation, he might sound his trumpets, and prepare to give battle to an innumerable people47, exercised in arms47 and animated by despair. The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed, was the concise reply of the Barbarian; and this rustic metaphor was accompanied by a loud and insulting laugh, expressive of his contempt for the menaces of an unwarlike populace, enervated by luxury before they were emaciated by famine. He then condescended to fix the ransom, which he would accept as the price of his retreat from the walls of Rome47: all the gold and silver in the city47, whether it were the property of the state or of individuals; all the rich and precious moveables; and all the slaves who could prove their title to the name of Barbarians. The ministers of the senate47 presumed to ask, in a modest and suppliant tone, If such, O king! are your demands, what do you intend to leave us? Your lives, replied the haughty conqueror: they trembled and retired. Yet, before they retired, a short suspension of arms47 was granted, which allowed some time for a more temperate negotiation. The stern features of Alaric were insensibly relaxed; he abated much of the rigour of his terms; and at length consented to raise the siege, on the immediate payment of five thousand pounds of gold, of thirty thousand pounds of silver, of four thousand robes of silk, of three thousand pieces of fine scarlet cloth, and of three thousand pounds weight of pepper. But the public47 treasury was exhausted; the annual rents of the great estates in Italy47 and the provinces47 were intercepted by the calamities of war47; the gold and gems had been exchanged during the famine for the vilest sustenance; the hoards of secret47 wealth were still concealed by the obstinacy of avarice; and some remains of consecrated spoils afforded the only resource that could avert the impending ruin of the city47. As soon47 as the Romans had satisfied the rapacious demands of Alaric, they were restored, in some measure, to the enjoyment of peace and plenty. Several of the gates were cautiously opened; the importation of provisions from the river and the adjacent country was no longer obstructed by the Goths; the citizens resorted in crowds to the free market, which was held during three days in the suburbs; and, while the merchants who undertook this gainful trade made a considerable profit, the future subsistence of the city47 was secured by the ample magazines which were deposited in the public47 and private47 granaries. A more regular discipline than could have been expected was maintained in the camp of Alaric; and the wise Barbarian justified his regard for the faith of treaties by the just severity with which he chastised a party of licentious Goths, who had insulted some Roman47 citizens on the road to Ostia. His army47, enriched by the contributions of the capital, slowly advanced into the fair and fruitful province of Tuscany, where he proposed to establish his winter-quarters; and the Gothic standard became the refuge of forty thousand Barbarian slaves, who had broke their chains, and aspired, under the command47 of their great deliverer, to revenge the injuries and the disgrace of their cruel servitude. About the same time, he received a more honourable reinforcement of Goths and Huns, whom Adolphus, the brother of his wife, had conducted, at his pressing invitation, from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tiber, and who had cut their way, with some difficulty and loss, through the superior numbers of the Imperial47 troops47. A victorious leader, who united the daring spirit47 of a Barbarian with the art and discipline of a Roman47 general47, was at the head of an hundred thousand fighting men; and Italy47 pronounced, with terror and respect, the formidable name of Alaric.
At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied with relating the military3 exploits of the conquerors of Rome without presuming to investigate the motives of their political conduct. In the midst of his apparent prosperity, Alaric was conscious, perhaps, of some secret weakness, some internal defect; or perhaps the moderation which he displayed was intended only to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the ministers of Honorius. The king3 of the Goths repeatedly declared that it was his desire to be considered as the friend of peace3 and of the Romans3. Three senators, at his earnest request, were sent ambassadors to the court3 of Ravenna, to solicit the exchange of hostages and the conclusion of the treaty3; and the proposals, which he more clearly expressed during the course of the negotiations, could only inspire a doubt of his sincerity, as they might seem inadequate to the state of his fortune. The Barbarian3 still aspired to the rank of master-general3 of the armies of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and money; and he chose the provinces3 of Dalmatia, Noricum, and Venetia for the seat of his new kingdom, which would have commanded the important3 communication between Italy and the Danube. If these modest terms should be rejected, Alaric shewed a disposition to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even to content himself with the possession of Noricum: an exhausted and impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the Barbarians3 of Germany. But the hopes of peace3 were disappointed by the weak obstinacy, or interested views, of the minister Olympius. Without listening to the salutary remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed their ambassadors under the conduct of a military3 escort, too numerous for a retinue of honour and too feeble for an army3 of defence. Six thousand3 Dalmatians, the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to march from Ravenna to Rome, through an open country, which was occupied by the formidable myriads of the Barbarians3. These brave legionaries, encompassed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to ministerial folly; their general3, Valens, with an hundred soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of the ambassadors, who could no longer claim the protection of the law of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of thirty thousand3 pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act of impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals of peace3; and the second embassy of the Roman3 senate, which derived weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, bishop of the city3, was guarded from the dangers of the road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers.
Olympius might have continued to insult the just resentment of a people47 who loudly accused him as the author of the public47 calamities; but his power47 was undermined by the secret47 intrigues of the palace47. The favourite eunuchs transferred the government47 of Honorius and the empire47 to Jovius, the Praetorian prefect47: an unworthy servant, who did not atone by the merit47 of personal attachment for the errors and misfortunes of his administration. The exile or escape of the guilty Olympius reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune: he experienced the adventures of an obscure and wandering life47; he again rose to power47; he fell a second time into disgrace; his ears were cut off; he expired under the lash; and his ignominious death47 afforded a grateful spectacle to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal of Olympius, whose character was deeply tainted with religious fanaticism, the Pagans and heretics were delivered from the impolitic proscription which excluded them from the dignities of the state. The brave Gennerid, a soldier of Barbarian origin who still adhered to the worship of his ancestors, had been obliged to lay aside the military47 belt; and, though he was repeatedly assured by the emperor47 himself that laws were not made for persons of his rank47 or merit47, he refused to accept any partial dispensation, and persevered in honourable disgrace till he had extorted a general47 act of justice47 from the distress of the Roman47 government47. The conduct47 of Gennerid in the important station, to which he was promoted or restored, of master47-general47 of Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum and Rhaetia seemed to revive the discipline and spirit47 of the republic. From a life47 of idleness and want his troops47 were soon47 habituated to severe exercise and plentiful subsistence; and his private47 generosity often supplied the rewards which were denied by the avarice or poverty of the court of Ravenna. The valour of Gennerid, formidable to the adjacent Barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the Illyrian frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the empire47 with a reinforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines of Italy47, attended by such a convoy of provisions and such a numerous train of sheep and oxen as might have been sufficient not only for the march of an army47 but for the settlement of a colony. But the court and councils of Honorius still remained a scene of weakness and distraction, of corruption and anarchy. Instigated by the prefect47 Jovius the guards rose in furious mutiny, and demanded the heads of two generals, and of the two principal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious promise of safety, were sent on shipboard, and privately executed; while the favour of the eunuchs procured them a mild and secure exile at Milan and Constantinople. Eusebius the eunuch and the Barbarian Allobich succeeded to the command47 of the bedchamber and of the guards; and the mutual jealousy of these subordinate ministers was the cause of their mutual destruction. By the insolent order of the count of the domestics the great chamberlain was shamefully beaten to death47 with sticks before the eyes of the astonished emperor47; and the subsequent assassination of Allobich in the midst of a public47 procession is the only circumstance of his life47 in which Honorius discovered the faintest symptom of courage or resentment. Yet, before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had contributed their part to the ruin of the empire47 by opposing the conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish and perhaps a criminal motive, had negotiated with Alaric in a personal interview under the walls of Rimini. During the absence of Jovius the emperor47 was persuaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity, such as neither his situation nor his character could enable him to support: and a letter signed with the name of Honorius was immediately despatched to the Praetorian prefect47, granting him a free permission to dispose of the public47 money, but sternly refusing to prostitute the military47 honours of Rome47 to the proud demands of a Barbarian. This letter was imprudently communicated to Alaric himself; and the Goth, who in the whole transaction had behaved with temper and decency, expressed in the most outrageous language his lively sense of the insult so wantonly offered to his person47 and to his nation. The conference of Rimini was hastily interrupted; and the prefect47 Jovius on his return to Ravenna was compelled to adopt, and even to encourage, the fashionable opinions of the court. By his advice and example the principal officers of the state and army47 were obliged to swear that, without listening, in any circumstances, to any condition of peace, they would still persevere in perpetual and implacable war47 against the enemy of the republic. This rash engagement opposed an insuperable bar to all future negotiation. The ministers of Honorius were heard to declare that, if they had only invoked the name of the Deity, they would consult the public47 safety and trust their souls to the mercy of Heaven; but they had sworn by the sacred head of the emperor47 himself; they had touched in solemn ceremony that august seat of majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their oath would expose them to the temporal penalties of sacrilege and rebellion.
While the emperor3 and his court3 enjoyed, with sullen pride, the security of the marshes and fortifications of Ravenna, they abandoned Rome almost without defence to the resentment of Alaric. Yet such was the moderation which he still preserved or affected that, as he moved with his army3 along the Flaminian way, he successively despatched the bishops of the towns of Italy to reiterate his offers of peace3 and to conjure the emperor3 that he would save the city3 and its inhabitants from hostile fire and the sword of the Barbarians3. These impending calamities were however averted, not indeed by the wisdom of Honorius, but by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king3; who employed a milder, though not less effectual, method of conquest. Instead of assaulting the capital, he successfully directed his efforts against the Port of Ostia, one of the boldest and most stupendous works of Roman3 magnificence. The accidents to which the precarious subsistence of the city3 was continually exposed in a winter-navigation and an open road had suggested to the genius of the first Caesar the useful design which was executed under the reign3 of Claudius. The artificial moles which formed the narrow entrance advanced far into the sea and firmly repelled the fury of the waves, while the largest vessels securely rode at anchor within three deep and capacious basons, which received the northern branch of the Tiber, about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia. The Roman3 Port insensibly swelled to the size of an episcopal city3, where the corn of Africa was deposited in spacious granaries for the use of the capital. As soon3 as Alaric was in possession of that important3 place, he summoned the city3 to surrender at discretion, and his demands were enforced by the positive declaration that a refusal or even a delay should be instantly followed by the destruction of the magazines, on which the life of the Roman3 people depended. The clamours of that people and the terror of famine subdued the pride of the senate; they listened without reluctance to the proposal of placing a new emperor3 on the throne3 of the unworthy Honorius; and the suffrage of the Gothic conqueror bestowed the purple on Attalus, prefect of the city3. The grateful monarch3 immediately acknowledged his protector as master-general3 of the armies of the West; Adolphus, with the rank of count of the domestics, obtained the custody of the person of Attalus; and the two hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of friendship3 and alliance3.
The gates of the city3 were thrown open, and the new emperor3 of the Romans3, encompassed on every side by the Gothic arms3, was conducted in tumultuous procession, to the palace of Augustus and Trajan. After he had distributed the civil and military3 dignities among his favourites and followers, Attalus convened an assembly of the senate; before whom, in a formal and florid speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the majesty of the republic, and of uniting to the empire3 the provinces3 of Egypt and the East3, which had once acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome. Such extravagant promises inspired every reasonable citizen with a just contempt for the character of an unwarlike usurper; whose elevation was the deepest and most ignominious wound which the republic had yet sustained from the insolence of the Barbarians3. But the populace, with their usual levity, applauded the change of masters. The public discontent was favourable to the rival of Honorius; and the sectaries, oppressed by his persecuting edicts, expected some degree of countenance, or at least of toleration, from a prince3 who, in his native country of Ionia, had been educated in the Pagan superstition, and who had since received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of an Arian bishop. The first days of the reign3 of Attalus were fair and prosperous. An officer of confidence was sent with an inconsiderable body of troops3 to secure the obedience of Africa; the greatest part of Italy submitted to the terror of the Gothic powers; and, though the city3 of Bologna made a vigorous and effectual resistance, the people of Milan, dissatisfied perhaps with the absence of Honorius, accepted, with loud acclamations, the choice of the Roman3 senate. At the head3 of a formidable army3 Alaric conducted his royal3 captive almost to the gates of Ravenna; and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers, of Jovius, the Praetorian prefect, of Valens, master of the cavalry and infantry, of the quaestor Potamius, and of Julian3, the first of the notaries, was introduced with martial pomp into the Gothic camp3. In the name of their sovereign they consented to acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and to divide the provinces3 of Italy and the West between the two emperors. Their proposals were rejected with disdain; and the refusal was aggravated by the insulting clemency of Attalus, who condescended to promise that, if Honorius would instantly resign the purple, he should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in the peaceful exile of some remote island. So desperate indeed did the situation of the son3 of Theodosius appear to those who were the best acquainted with his strength and resources, that Jovius and Valens, his minister and his general3, betrayed their trust, infamously deserted the sinking cause of their benefactor, and devoted their treacherous allegiance to the service of his more fortunate rival. Astonished by such examples of domestic treason, Honorius trembled at the approach of every servant, at the arrival of every messenger. He dreaded the secret enemies, who might lurk in his capital, his palace, his bedchamber; and some ships lay ready in the harbour of Ravenna to transport the abdicated monarch3 to the dominions of his infant nephew, the emperor3 of the East3.
But there is a Providence (such at least was the opinion of the historian Procopius) that watches over innocence and folly; and the pretensions of Honorius to its peculiar care cannot reasonably be disputed. At the moment when his despair, incapable of any wise or manly resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a seasonable reinforcement of four thousand veterans unexpectedly landed in the port of Ravenna. To these valiant strangers, whose fidelity had not been corrupted by the factions of the court, he committed the walls and gates of the city47; and the slumbers of the emperor47 were no longer disturbed by the apprehension of imminent and internal danger47. The favourable intelligence which was received from Africa suddenly changed the opinions of men, and the state of public47 affairs. The troops47 and officers whom Attalus had sent into that province were defeated and slain; and the active zeal of Heraclian maintained his own allegiance and that of his people47. The faithful count of Africa transmitted a large sum of money, which fixed the attachment of the Imperial47 guards; and his vigilance, in preventing the exportation of corn and oil, introduced famine, tumult, and discontent into the walls of Rome47. The failure of the African expedition was the source of mutual complaint and recrimination in the party of Attalus; and the mind of his protector was insensibly alienated from the interest of a prince47 who wanted spirit47 to command47 or docility to obey. The most imprudent measures were adopted, without the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and the obstinate refusal of the senate47 to allow, in the embarkation, the mixture even of five hundred Goths betrayed a suspicious and distrustful temper, which, in their situation, was neither generous nor prudent. The resentment of the Gothic king was exasperated by the malicious arts of Jovius, who had been raised to the rank47 of patrican, and who afterwards excused his double perfidy by declaring, without a blush, that he had only seemed to abandon the service of Honorius, more effectually to ruin the cause of the usurper. In a large plain near Rimini, and in the presence of an innumerable multitude of Romans and Barbarians, the wretched Attalus was publicly despoiled of the diadem and purple; and those ensigns of royalty were sent by Alaric, as the pledge of peace and friendship, to the son47 of Theodosius47. The officers who returned to their duty were reinstated in their employments, and even the merit47 of a tardy repentance was graciously allowed; but the degraded emperor47 of the Romans, desirous of life47 and insensible of disgrace, implored the permission of following the Gothic camp in the train of a haughty and capricious Barbarian.
The degradation of Attalus removed the only real obstacle to the conclusion of the peace3; and Alaric advanced within three miles of Ravenna, to press the irresolution of the Imperial ministers, whose insolence soon3 returned with the return of fortune. His indignation was kindled by the report that a rival chieftain, that Sarus, the personal enemy3 of Adolphus and the hereditary foe of the house of Balti, had been received into the palace. At the head3 of three hundred followers, that fearless Barbarian3 immediately sallied from the gates of Ravenna; surprised, and cut in pieces, a considerable body of Goths; re-entered the city3 in triumph; and was permitted to insult his adversary by the voice of a herald, who publicly declared that the guilt of Alaric had for ever excluded him from the friendship3 and alliance3 of the emperor3. The crime and folly of the court3 of Ravenna was expiated a third time by the calamities of Rome. The king3 of the Goths, who no longer dissembled his appetite for plunder and revenge, appeared in arms3 under the walls of the capital; and the trembling senate, without any hopes of relief, prepared, by a desperate resistance, to delay the ruin of their country. But they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their slaves and domestics; who, either from birth or interest, were attached to the cause of the enemy3. At the hour of midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years3 after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city3, which had subdued and civilised so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia.
The proclamation of Alaric, when he forced his entrance into a vanquished city30, discovered, however, some regard for the laws of humanity and religion. He encouraged his troops30 boldly to seize the rewards of valour, and to enrich themselves with the spoils of a wealthy and effeminate people30; but he exhorted them at the same time to spare the lives of the unresisting citizens, and to respect the churches of the apostles St30. Peter and St30. Paul, as holy30 and inviolable sanctuaries. Amidst the horrors of a nocturnal tumult, several of the Christian Goths displayed the fervour of a recent conversion; and some instances of their uncommon piety and moderation are related, and perhaps adorned, by the zeal of ecclesiastical writers. While the Barbarians roamed through the city30 in quest of prey, the humble dwelling of an aged virgin, who had devoted her life to the service30 of the altar, was forced open by one of the powerful Goths. He immediately demanded, though in civil language, all the gold30 and silver in her possession; and was astonished at the readiness with which she conducted him to a splendid hoard of massy plate, of the richest materials, and the most curious workmanship. The Barbarian viewed with wonder and delight this valuable acquisition, till30 he was interrupted by a serious admonition, addressed to him in the following words: These, said she, are the consecrated vessels belonging to St30. Peter; if you presume to touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain on your conscience. For my part, I dare not keep what I am unable to defend. The Gothic captain, struck with reverential awe, despatched a messenger to inform the king30 of the treasure which he had discovered; and received a peremptory order from Alaric that all the consecrated plate and ornaments should be transported, without damage or delay, to the church of the apostle. From the extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill to the distant quarter of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of Goths, marching in order of battle30 through the principal streets, protected, with glittering arms30, the long30 train of their devout companions, who bore aloft, on their heads, the sacred vessels of gold30 and silver; and the martial shouts of the Barbarians were mingled with the sound of religious psalmody. From all the adjacent houses, a crowd of Christians hastened to join this edifying procession; and a multitude of fugitives, without distinction of age, or rank, or even of sect, had the good fortune to escape to the secure and hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican. The learned work, concerning the City30 of God, was professedly composed by St30. Augustin, to justify the ways of Providence in the destruction of the Roman30 greatness. He celebrates with peculiar satisfaction this memorable triumph of Christ; and insults his adversaries by challenging them to produce some similar example of a town taken by storm in which the fabulous gods of antiquity had been able to protect either themselves or their deluded votaries.
In the sack of Rome23, some rare and extraordinary examples of Barbarian virtue have been deservedly applauded. But the holy precincts of the Vatican and the apostolic churches could receive a very small proportion23 of the Roman23 people23: many thousand23 warriors, more especially of the Huns, who served under the standard of Alaric, were strangers to the name, or at least to the faith, of Christ; and we may suspect, without any breach of charity or candour, that in the hour of savage licence, when every passion was inflamed and every restraint was removed, the precepts of the gospel seldom influenced the behaviour of the Gothic Christians23. The writers, the best disposed to exaggerate their clemency, have freely confessed that a cruel slaughter was made of the Romans23; and that the streets of the city23 were filled with dead bodies, which remained without burial during the general23 consternation. The despair of the citizens23 was sometimes converted into fury; and, whenever the Barbarians23 were provoked by opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, and the helpless. The private23 revenge of forty thousand23 slaves23 was exercised without pity or remorse; and the ignominious lashes, which they had formerly received, were washed away in the blood of the guilty, or obnoxious, families. The matrons and virgins of Rome23 were exposed23 to injuries more dreadful in the apprehension of chastity than death23 itself; and the ecclesiastical historian has selected an example23 of female virtue, for the admiration of future ages. A Roman23 lady of singular beauty and orthodox faith had excited the impatient desires of a young Goth, who, according23 to the sagacious remark of Sozomen, was attached to the Arian heresy. Exasperated by her obstinate resistance, he drew his sword, and, with the anger of a lover, slightly wounded her neck. The bleeding heroine still continued to brave his resentment and to repel his love, till the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts, respectfully conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vatican, and gave six pieces of gold23 to the guards of the church, on condition that they should restore her inviolate to the arms of her husband. Such instances of courage and generosity were not extremely common23. The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites, without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their female captives; and a nice question of casuistry was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which they sustained had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. There were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind and more general23 concern. It cannot be presumed that all the Barbarians23 were at all times capable of perpetrating such amorous outrages; and the want of youth or beauty or chastity protected the greatest part of the Roman23 women from the danger of a rape. But avarice is an insatiate and universal passion; since the enjoyment of almost every object that can afford pleasure to the different tastes and tempers of mankind23 may be procured by the possession of wealth23. In the pillage of Rome23, a just preference was given to gold23 and jewels, which contain the greatest value23 in the smallest compass and weight; but, after these portable riches had been removed by the more diligent robbers, the palaces of Rome23 were rudely stripped of their splendid and costly furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, and the variegated wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly piled in the waggons that always followed the march of a Gothic army. The most exquisite works of art23 were roughly handled or wantonly destroyed: many a statue was melted for the sake of the precious materials23; and many a vase, in the division of the spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe. The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of the rapacious Barbarians23, who proceeded by threats, by blows, and by tortures to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden treasure. Visible splendour and expense were alleged as the proof of a plentiful fortune; the appearance of poverty was imputed to a parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of some misers, who endured the most cruel torments before they would discover the secret object of their affection, was fatal to many unhappy wretches, who expired under the lash for refusing to reveal their imaginary treasures. The edifices of Rome23, though the damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury23 from the violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the Salarian gate, they fired the adjacent houses23, to guide their march and to distract the attention of the citizens23; the flames, which encountered no obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed many private23 and public23 buildings; and the ruins of the palace of Sallust remained in the age23 of Justinian, a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration. Yet a contemporary historian has observed that fire could scarcely consume the enormous beams of solid brass, and that the strength of man was insufficient to subvert the foundations of ancient structures. Some truth may possibly be concealed in his devout assertion that the wrath of Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage, and that the proud Forum of Rome23, decorated with the statues of so many gods and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the stroke of lightning.
Whatever might be the numbers, of equestrian or plebeian rank, who perished in the massacre of Rome9, it is confidently affirmed that only one senator lost his life by the sword of the enemy. But it was not easy to compute the multitudes, who, from an honourable station and a prosperous fortune, were suddenly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles. As the Barbarians9 had more occasion for money than for slaves, they fixed at a moderate price the redemption of their indigent prisoners; and the ransom was often paid by the benevolence of their friends or the charity of strangers. The captives, who were regularly sold, either in open market or by private contract, would have legally regained their native freedom, which it was impossible for a citizen to lose or to alienate. But, as it was soon9 discovered that the vindication of their liberty would endanger their lives, and that the Goths9, unless they were tempted to sell, might be provoked to murder, their useless prisoners, the civil jurisprudence had been already qualified by a wise regulation that they should be obliged to serve the moderate term of five years, till they had discharged by their labour the price of their redemption. The nations9 who invaded the Roman9 empire9 had driven before them, into Italy9, whole troops9 of hungry and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servitude than of famine. The calamities of Rome9 and Italy9 dispersed the inhabitants9 to the most lonely, the most secure, the most distant places of refuge. While the Gothic cavalry spread terror and desolation along the sea9-coast9 of Campania and Tuscany, the little Island of Igilium, separated by a narrow channel from the Argentarian promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their hostile attempts; and, at so small a distance from Rome9, great9 numbers of citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods of that sequestered spot. The ample patrimonies, which many senatorian families possessed in Africa9, invited them, if they had time and prudence, to escape from the ruin of their country9, to embrace the shelter of that hospitable province9. The most illustrious of these fugitives was the noble and pious Proba, the widow of the prefect Petronius. After the death of her husband, the most powerful subject of Rome9, she had remained at the head of the Anician family, and successively supplied, from her private fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three sons. When the city9 was besieged and taken by the Goths9, Proba supported, with Christian resignation, the loss of immense riches; embarked in a small vessel, from whence she beheld, at sea9, the flames of her burning palace; and fled with her daughter Laeta, and her granddaughter, the celebrated virgin Demetrias, to the coast9 of Africa9. The benevolent profusion with which the matron distributed the fruits, or the price, of her estates contributed to alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity. But even the family of Proba herself was not exempt from the rapacious oppression of Count Heraclian, who basely sold, in matrimonial prostitution, the noblest maidens of Rome9 to the lust or avarice of the Syrian merchants. The Italian fugitives were dispersed through the provinces9, along the coast9 of Egypt and Asia9, as far9 as Constantinople and Jerusalem; and the village of Bethlem, the solitary residence of St. Jerom and his female converts, was crowded with illustrious beggars of either sex and every age, who excited the public compassion by the remembrance of their past fortune. This awful catastrophe of Rome9 filled the astonished empire9 with grief and terror. So interesting a contrast of greatness and ruin disposed the fond credulity of the people to deplore, and even to exaggerate, the afflictions of the queen of cities9. The clergy, who applied to recent events the lofty metaphors of Oriental prophecy, were sometimes tempted to confound the destruction of the capital9 and the dissolution of the globe.
There exists in human nature a strong11 propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present11 times. Yet, when the first emotions had subsided, and a fair estimate was made of the real damage, the more learned and judicious contemporaries were forced to confess that infant Rome11 had formerly received more essential injury from the Gauls than she had now sustained from the Goths in her declining age11. The experience of eleven centuries has enabled posterity to produce a much more singular parallel; and to affirm with confidence that the ravages of the Barbarians11, whom Alaric had led from the banks of the Danube11, were less destructive than the hostilities exercised by the troops of Charles the Fifth, a Catholic prince, who styled himself Emperor of the Romans. The Goths evacuated the city at the end of six days, but Rome11 remained above nine months in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was stained by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The authority11 of Alaric preserved some order and moderation among the ferocious multitude, which acknowledged him for their leader and king; but the constable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the attack of the walls; and the death of the general11 removed every restraint of discipline from an army which consisted of three independent nations11, the Italians11, the Spaniards, and the Germans11. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the manners11 of Italy exhibited a remarkable scene of the depravity of mankind. They united the sanguinary crimes that prevail in an unsettled state11 of society, with the polished vices that spring from the abuse of art and luxury; and the loose adventurers, who had violated every prejudice of patriotism and superstition to assault the palace of the Roman11 pontiff, must deserve to be considered as the most profligate of the Italians11. At the same era, the Spaniards were the terror both of the Old and New World; but their high-spirited valour11 was disgraced by gloomy pride, rapacious avarice, and unrelenting cruelty. Indefatigable in the pursuit of fame and riches, they had improved, by repeated practice, the most exquisite and effectual methods of torturing their prisoners; many of the Castillans, who pillaged Rome11, were familiars of the holy inquisition; and some volunteers, perhaps, were lately returned from the conquest of Mexico. The Germans11 were less corrupt than the Italians11, less cruel than the Spaniards; and the rustic, or even savage, aspect of those Tramontane warriors often disguised a simple and merciful disposition. But they had imbibed, in the first fervour of the reformation, the spirit, as well as the principles, of Luther. It was their favourite amusement to insult or destroy the consecrated objects of Catholic superstition; they indulged, without pity or remorse, a devout hatred against the clergy of every denomination and degree, who form11 so considerable a part of the inhabitants of modern11 Rome11; and their fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the throne of Anti-christ, to purify, with blood and fire, the abominations of the spiritual Babylon.
The retreat of the victorious Goths19, who evacuated Rome19 on the sixth day, might be the result of prudence, but it was not surely the effect of fear. At the head of an army, encumbered with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced19 along the Appian way19 into the southern provinces19 of Italy19, destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the unresisting country19. The fate of Capua, the proud and luxurious metropolis of Campania, and which was respected, even in its decay, as the eighth city19 of the empire19, is buried in oblivion; whilst the adjacent town of Nola has been illustrated, on this occasion, by the sanctity of Paulinus, who was successively a consul, a monk, and a bishop. At the age19 of forty, he renounced the enjoyment of wealth and honour, of society and literature, to embrace a life19 of solitude and penance; and the loud applause of the clergy encouraged him to despise the reproaches of his worldly friends, who ascribed this desperate act to some disorder of the mind or body. An early and passionate attachment determined him to fix his humble dwelling in one of the suburbs of Nola, near the miraculous tomb of St19. Felix, which the public19 devotion had already surrounded with five large and populous churches. The remains of his fortune, and of his understanding, were dedicated to the service of the glorious martyr; whose praise, on the day of his festival, Paulinus never failed to celebrate by a solemn hymn; and in whose name he erected a sixth church, of superior elegance and beauty, which was decorated with many curious pictures, from the history of the Old and New19 Testament. Such assiduous zeal secured the favour of the saint, or at least of the people19; and, after fifteen years19' retirement, the Roman19 consul was compelled to accept the bishopric of Nola, a few months before the city19 was invested by the Goths19. During the siege, some religious persons were satisfied that they had seen, either in dreams or visions, the divine form of their tutelar patron; yet it soon19 appeared by the event that Felix wanted power, or inclination, to preserve the flock of which he had formerly been the shepherd. Nola was not saved from the general19 devastation; and the captive bishop was protected only by the general19 opinion of his innocence and poverty. Above four years19 elapsed from the successful invasion of Italy19 by the arms of Alaric to the voluntary retreat of the Goths19 under the conduct of his successor Adolphus; and, during the whole time19, they reigned without control over a country19 which, in the opinion of the ancients, had united all the various excellencies of nature19 and art. The prosperity, indeed, which Italy19 had attained in the auspicious age19 of the Antonines, had gradually declined with the decline of the empire19. The fruits of a long19 peace perished under the rude grasp of the Barbarians19; and they themselves were incapable of tasting the more elegant refinements of luxury which had been prepared for the use of the soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, however, claimed an ample portion of the substantial plenty, the corn and cattle, oil and wine, that was daily collected and consumed in the Gothic19 camp; and the principal warriors insulted the villas and gardens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the beauteous coast of Campania. Their trembling captives, the sons and daughters of Roman19 senators, presented in goblets of gold19 and gems large draughts of Falernian wine to the haughty victors; who stretched their huge limbs under the shade of plane-trees, artificially disposed to exclude the scorching rays, and to admit the genial warmth, of the sun. These delights were enhanced by the memory of past hardships; the comparison of their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the frozen banks of the Elbe and Danube, added new19 charms to the felicity of the Italian climate.
Whether fame or conquest9 or riches were the object of Alaric, he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardour, which could neither be quelled by adversity nor satiated by success. No sooner had he reached the extreme land of Italy9 than he was attacked by the neighbouring prospect of a fertile and peaceful island. Yet even the possession of Sicily he considered only as an intermediate step to the important expedition which he already meditated against the continent of Africa9. The straits of Rhegium and Messina are twelve miles9 in length, and in the narrowest passage about one mile and a half broad; and the fabulous monsters of the deep, the rocks of Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and unskilful mariners. Yet, as soon9 as the first division of the Goths9 had embarked, a sudden tempest arose, which sunk or scattered many of the transports; their courage was daunted by the terrors of a new9 element; and the whole design was defeated by the premature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a short illness, the fatal term of his conquests. The ferocious character of the Barbarians9 was displayed in the funeral of a hero, whose valour9 and fortune they celebrated with mournful applause. By the labour of a captive multitude they forcibly diverted the course of the Busentinus, a small river9 that washes the walls9 of Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome9, was constructed in the vacant bed the waters were then restored to their natural channel, and the secret spot, where the remains of Alaric had been deposited, was for ever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute the work.
The personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the Barbarians3 were suspended by the strong necessity of their affairs; and the brave Adolphus, the brother-in-law of the deceased monarch3, was unanimously elected to succeed to his throne3. The character and political system of the new king3 of the Goths may be best understood from his own conversation with an illustrious citizen of Narbonne, who afterwards, in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, related it to St. Jerom, in the presence of the historian Orosius. In the full confidence of valour3 and victory3 I once aspired (said Adolphus) to change the face of the universe; to obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on its ruins the dominion of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augustus, the immortal fame of the founder of a new empire3. By repeated experiments I was gradually convinced that laws are essentially necessary to maintain and regulate a well-constituted state, and that the fierce untractable humour of the Goths was incapable of bearing the salutary yoke of laws and civil government. From that moment I proposed to myself a different object of glory and ambition; and it is now my sincere wish that the gratitude of future ages should acknowledge the merit of a stranger who employed the sword of the Goths, not to subvert, but to restore and maintain, the prosperity of the Roman3 empire3. With these pacific views the successor of Alaric suspended the operations of war3, and seriously negotiated with the Imperial court3 a treaty3 of friendship3 and alliance3. It was the interest of the ministers of Honorius, who were now released from the obligation of their extravagant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of the Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their service against the tyrants and barbarians3 who infested the provinces3 beyond the Alps. Adolphus, assuming the character of a Roman3 general3, directed his march from the extremity of Campania to the southern provinces3 of Gaul3. His troops3, either by force or agreement, immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bourdeaux; and though they were repulsed by Count Boniface from the walls of Marseilles, they soon3 extended their quarters from the Mediterranean to the Ocean. The oppressed provincials might exclaim that the miserable remnant which the enemy3 had spared was cruelly ravished by their pretended allies; yet some specious colours were not wanting to palliate, or justify, the violence of the Goths. The cities of Gaul3 which they attacked might perhaps be considered as in a state of rebellion against the government of Honorius; the articles of the treaty3, or the secret instructions of the court3, might sometimes be alleged in favour of the seeming usurpations of Adolphus; and the guilt of any irregular, unsuccessful act of hostility might always be imputed, with an appearance of truth, to the ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian3 host, impatient of peace3 or discipline. The luxury of Italy had been less effectual to soften the temper than to relax the courage of the Goths; and they had imbibed the vices, without imitating the arts and institutions, of civilised society.
The professions of Adolphus were probably sincere, and his attachment to the cause of the republic was secured by the ascendant which a Roman3 princess had acquired over the heart and understanding of the Barbarian3 king3. Placidia, the daughter of the great3 Theodosius and of Galla, his second wife, had received a royal3 education in the palace of Constantinople; but the eventful story of her life is connected with the revolutions which agitated the Western empire3 under the reign3 of her brother Honorius. When Rome was first invested by the arms3 of Alaric, Placidia, who was then about twenty years3 of age, resided in the city3; and her ready consent to the death3 of her cousin Serena has a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which, according to the circumstances of the action, may be aggravated or excused by the consideration of her tender age. The victorious Barbarians3 detained, either as a hostage or a captive, the sister of Honorius; but, while she was exposed to the disgrace of following round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp3, she experienced, however, a decent and respectful treatment. The authority of Jornandes, who praises the beauty of Placidia, may perhaps be counterbalanced by the silence, the expressive silence, of her flatterers; yet the splendour of her birth, the bloom of youth, the elegance of manners, and the dexterous insinuation which she condescended to employ, made a deep impression on the mind of Adolphus; and the Gothic king3 aspired to call himself the brother of the emperor3. The ministers of Honorius rejected with disdain the proposal of an alliance3 so injurious to every sentiment of Roman3 pride, and repeatedly urged the restitution of Placidia as an indispensable condition of the treaty3 of peace3. But the daughter of Theodosius submitted, without reluctance, to the desires of the conqueror, a young and valiant prince3, who yielded to Alaric in loftiness of stature, but who excelled in the more attractive qualities of grace and beauty. The marriage of Adolphus and Placidia was consummated before the Goths retired from Italy; and the solemn, perhaps the anniversary, day of their nuptials was afterwards celebrated in the house of Ingenuus, one of the most illustrious citizens of Narbonne in Gaul3. The bride, attired and adorned like a Roman3 empress, was placed on a throne3 of state; and the king3 of the Goths, who assumed on this occasion the Roman3 habit, contented himself with a less honourable seat by her side. The nuptial gift, which according to the custom of his nation was offered to Placidia, consisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her country. Fifty beautiful youths, in silken robes; carried a bason in each hand; and one of these basons was filled with pieces of gold, the other with precious stones of an inestimable value. Attalus, so long3 the sport of fortune and of the Goths, was appointed to lead the chorus of the Hymenaeal song, and the degraded emperor3 might aspire to the praise of a skilful musician. The Barbarians3 enjoyed the insolence of their triumph; and the provincials rejoiced in this alliance3, which tempered by the mild influence of love and reason the fierce spirit of their Gothic lord.
The hundred basons of gold30 and gems, presented to Placidia at her nuptial feast, formed an inconsiderable portion of the Gothic treasures; of which some extraordinary specimens may be selected from the history of the successors of Adolphus. Many curious and costly ornaments of pure gold30, enriched with jewels, were found in their palace30 of Narbonne when it was pillaged in the sixth century by the Franks: sixty cups or chalices; fifteen patens, or plates, for the use of the communion; twenty boxes, or cases, to hold the books of the gospel; this consecrated wealth was distributed by the son30 of Clovis among the churches of his dominions, and his pious liberality seems to upbraid some former sacrilege of the Goths. They possessed, with more security of conscience, the famous missorium, or great dish for the service30 of the table, of massy gold30 of the weight of five hundred pounds, and of far superior value from the precious stones, the exquisite workmanship, and the tradition that it had been presented by Aetius the patrician to Torismond king30 of the Goths. One of the successors of Torismond purchased the aid of the French monarch by the promise of this magnificent gift. When he was seated on the throne of Spain, he delivered it with reluctance to the ambassadors of Dagobert; despoiled them on the road; stipulated, after a long30 negotiation, the inadequate ransom of two hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30; and preserved the missorium as the pride of the Gothic treasury. When that treasury, after the conquest of Spain, was plundered by the Arabs, they admired, and they have celebrated, another object still more remarkable, a table of considerable size, of one single piece of solid emerald, encircled with three rows of fine pearls, supported by three hundred and sixty-five feet of gems and massy gold30, and estimated at the price of five hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30. Some portion of the Gothic treasures might be the gift of friendship or the tribute of obedience; but the far greater part had been the fruits of war30 and rapine, the spoils of the empire30, and perhaps of Rome.
After the deliverance of Italy47 from the oppression of the Goths some secret47 counsellor was permitted, amidst the factions of the palace47, to heal the wounds of that afflicted country. By a wise and humane regulation the eight provinces47 which had been the most deeply injured, Campania, Tuscany, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Calabria, Bruttium, and Lucania, obtained an indulgence of five years: the ordinary tribute was reduced to one fifth, and even that fifth was destined to restore and support the useful institution of the public47 posts. By another law the lands which had been left without inhabitants or cultivation were granted, with some diminution of taxes, to the neighbours who should occupy, or the strangers who should solicit, them; and the new possessors were secured against the future claims of the fugitive proprietors. About the same time a general47 amnesty was published in the name of Honorius, to abolish the guilt and memory of all the involuntary offences which had been committed by his unhappy subjects during the term of the public47 disorder and calamity. A decent and respectful attention was paid to the restoration of the capital; the citizens were encouraged to rebuild the edifices which had been destroyed or damaged by hostile fire; and extraordinary supplies of corn were imported from the coast of Africa. The crowds that so lately fled before the sword of the Barbarians were soon47 recalled by the hopes of plenty and pleasure; and Albinus, prefect47 of Rome47, informed the court, with some anxiety and surprise, that in a single day he had taken an account of the arrival of fourteen thousand strangers. In less than seven years the vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated, and the city47 appeared to resume its former splendour and tranquillity. The venerable matron replaced her crown of laurel which had been ruffled by the storms of war47; and was still amused, in the last moment of her decay, with the prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal dominion.
This apparent tranquillity was soon9 disturbed by the approach of an hostile armament from the country9 which afforded the daily subsistence of the Roman9 people. Heraclian, count of Africa9, who, under the most difficult and distressful circumstances, had supported, with active loyalty, the cause of Honorius, was tempted, in the year of his consulship, to assume the character of a rebel and the title of emperor. The ports of Africa9 were immediately filled with the naval forces, at the head of which he prepared to invade Italy9; and his fleet9, when it cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber, indeed surpassed the fleets of Xerxes and Alexander, if all the vessels9, including the royal galley and the smallest boat, did actually amount to the incredible number of three thousand9 two hundred. Yet with such an armament, which might have subverted or restored the greatest empires of the earth, the African usurper made a very faint and feeble impression on the provinces9 of his rival. As he marched from the port along the road which leads to the gates of Rome9, he was encountered, terrified, and routed by one of the Imperial captains; and the lord of this mighty host, deserting his fortune and his friends, ignominiously fled with a single ship. When Heraclian landed in the harbour of Carthage, he found that the whole province9, disdaining such an unworthy ruler, had returned to their allegiance. The rebel was beheaded in the ancient9 temple of Memory; his consulship was abolished; and the remains of his private fortune, not exceeding the moderate sum of four thousand9 pounds of gold, were granted to the brave Constantius, who had already defended the throne which he afterwards shared with his feeble sovereign. Honorius viewed with supine indifference the calamities of Rome9 and Italy9; but the rebellious attempts of Attalus and Heraclian against his personal safety awakened, for a moment, the torpid instinct of his nature. He was probably ignorant of the causes and events which preserved him from these impending dangers; and, as Italy9 was no longer invaded by any foreign or domestic enemies, he peaceably existed in the palace of Ravenna, while the tyrants beyond the Alps were repeatedly vanquished in the name, and by the lieutenants, of the son of Theodosius. In the course of a busy and interesting narrative, I might possibly forget to mention the death of such a prince, and I shall therefore take the precaution of observing, in this place, that he survived the last siege of Rome9 about thirteen years.
The usurpation of Constantine47, who received the purple from the legions of Britain, had been successful; and seemed to be secure. His title was acknowledged, from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules; and, in the midst of the public47 disorder, he shared the dominion, and the plunder, of Gaul and Spain with the tribes of Barbarians, whose destructive progress was no longer checked by the Rhine or Pyrenees. Stained with the blood of the kinsmen of Honorius, he extorted from the court of Ravenna, with which he secretly corresponded, the ratification of his rebellious claims. Constantine47 engaged himself by a solemn promise to deliver Italy47 from the Goths; advanced as far as the banks of the Po; and, after alarming rather than assisting his pusillanimous ally, hastily returned to the palace47 of Arles, to celebrate, with intemperate luxury, his vain and ostentatious triumph. But this transient prosperity was soon47 interrupted and destroyed by the revolt of Count Gerontius, the bravest of his generals; who, during the absence of his son47 Constans, a prince47 already invested with the Imperial47 purple, had been left to command47 in the provinces47 of Spain. For some reason of which we are ignorant, Gerontius, instead of assuming the diadem, placed it on the head of his friend Maximus, who fixed his residence at Tarragona, while the active count pressed forwards, through the Pyrenees, to surprise the two emperors, Constantine47 and Constans, before they could prepare for their defence. The son47 was made prisoner at Vienna and immediately put to death47; and the unfortunate youth had scarcely leisure to deplore the elevation of his family, which had tempted or compelled him sacrilegiously to desert the peaceful obscurity of the monastic life47. The father47 maintained a siege within the walls of Arles; but those walls must have yielded to the assailants had not the city47 been unexpectedly relieved by the approach of an Italian army47. The name of Honorius, the proclamation of a lawful emperor47, astonished the contending parties of the rebels. Gerontius, abandoned by his own troops47, escaped to the confines of Spain; and rescued his name from oblivion by the Roman47 courage which appeared to animate the last moments of his life47. In the middle of the night, a great body of his perfidious soldiers47 surrounded and attacked his house, which he had strongly barricaded. His wife, a valiant friend of the nation of the Alani, and some faithful slaves were still attached to his person47; and he used with so much skill and resolution a large magazine of darts and arrows that above three hundred of the assailants lost their lives in the attempt. His slaves, when all the missile weapons were spent, fled at the dawn of day; and Gerontius, if he had not been restrained by conjugal tenderness, might have imitated their example; till the soldiers47, provoked by such obstinate resistance, applied fire on all sides to the house. In this fatal extremity, he complied with the request of his Barbarian friend, and cut off his head. The wife of Gerontius, who conjured him not to abandon her to a life47 of misery and disgrace, eagerly presented her neck to his sword; and the tragic scene was terminated by the death47 of the count himself, who, after three ineffectual strokes, drew a short dagger, and sheathed it in his heart. The unprotected Maximus, whom he had invested with the purple, was indebted for his life47 to the contempt that was entertained of his power47 and abilities. The caprice of the Barbarians, who ravaged Spain, once more seated this Imperial47 phantom on the throne47; but they soon47 resigned him to the justice47 of Honorius; and the tyrant47 Maximus, after he had been shown to the people47 of Ravenna and Rome47, was publicly executed.
The general47, Constantius was his name, who raised by his approach the siege of Arles, and dissipated the troops47 of Gerontius, was born a Roman47; and this remarkable distinction is strongly expressive of the decay of military47 spirit47 among the subjects of the empire47. The strength and majesty which were conspicuous in the person47 of that general47 marked him, in the popular opinion, as a candidate worthy of the throne47 which he afterwards ascended. In the familiar intercourse of private47 life47 his manners were cheerful and engaging; nor would he sometimes disdain, in the licence of convivial mirth, to vie with the pantomimes themselves in the exercises of their ridiculous profession. But, when the trumpet summoned him to arms47; when he mounted his horse, and, bending down (for such was his singular practice) almost upon the neck, fiercely rolled his large animated eyes round the field, Constantius then struck terror into his foes, and inspired his soldiers47 with the assurance of victory. He had received from the court of Ravenna the important commission of extirpating rebellion in the provinces47 of the West; and the pretended emperor47 Constantine47, after enjoying a short and anxious respite, was again besieged in his capital by the arms47 of a more formidable enemy. Yet this interval allowed time for a successful negotiation with the Franks and Alemanni; and his ambassador, Edobic, soon47 returned, at the head of an army47, to disturb the operations of the siege of Arles. The Roman47 general47, instead of expecting the attack in his lines, boldly, and perhaps wisely, resolved to pass the Rhone, and to meet the Barbarians. His measures were conducted with so much skill and secrecy that, while they engaged the infantry of Constantius in the front, they were suddenly attacked, surrounded, and destroyed by the cavalry of his lieutenant Ulphilas, who had silently gained an advantageous post in their rear. The remains of the army47 of Edobic were preserved by flight or submission, and their leader escaped from the field of battle to the house of a faithless friend; who too clearly understood that the head of his obnoxious guest would be an acceptable and lucrative present for the Imperial47 general47. On this occasion, Constantius behaved with the magnanimity of a genuine Roman47. Subduing or suppressing every sentiment of jealousy, he publicly acknowledged the merit47 and services of Ulphilas; but he turned with horror from the assassin of Edobic; and sternly intimated his commands that the camp should no longer be polluted by the presence of an ungrateful wretch, who had violated the laws of friendship and hospitality. The usurper, who beheld from the walls of Arles the ruin of his last hopes, was tempted to place some confidence in so generous a conqueror. He required a solemn promise for his security; and after receiving, by the imposition of hands, the sacred character of a Christian Presbyter, he ventured to open the gates of the city47. But he soon47 experienced that the principles of honour and integrity, which might regulate the ordinary conduct47 of Constantius, were superseded by the loose doctrines of political morality. The Roman47 general47, indeed, refused to sully his laurels with the blood of Constantine47; but the abdicated emperor47 and his son47 Julian were sent under a strong guard into Italy47; and before they reached the palace47 of Ravenna they met the ministers of death47.
At a time when it was universally confessed that almost every man in the empire3 was superior in personal merit to the princes whom the accident of their birth had seated on the throne3, a rapid succession of usurpers, regardless of the fate of their predecessors, still continued to arise. This mischief was peculiarly felt in the provinces3 of Spain and Gaul3, where the principles of order and obedience had been extinguished by war3 and rebellion. Before Constantine resigned the purple, and in the fourth month of the siege of Arles, intelligence was received in the Imperial camp3 that Jovinus had assumed the diadem at Mentz in the Upper Germany, at the instigation of Goar, king3 of the Alani, and of Guntiarius, king3 of the Burgundians; and that the candidate on whom they had bestowed the empire3 advanced with a formidable host of Barbarians3 from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Rhone. Every circumstance is dark and extraordinary in the short history of the reign3 of Jovinus. It was natural to expect that a brave and skilful general3, at the head3 of a victorious army3, would have asserted in a field of battle the justice of the cause of Honorius. The hasty retreat of Constantius3 might be justified by weighty reasons; but he resigned, without a struggle, the possession of Gaul3: and Dardanus, the Praetorian prefect, is recorded as the only magistrate who refused to yield obedience to the usurper. When the Goths, two years3 after the siege of Rome, established their quarters in Gaul3, it was natural to suppose that their inclinations could be divided only between the emperor3 Honorius, with whom they had formed a recent alliance3, and the degraded Attalus, whom they reserved in their camp3 for the occasional purpose of acting the part of a musician or a monarch3. Yet in a moment of disgust (for which it is not easy to assign a cause or a date) Adolphus connected himself with the usurper of Gaul3, and imposed on Attalus the ignominious task of negotiating the treaty3 which ratified his own disgrace. We are again surprised to read that, instead of considering the Gothic alliance3 as the firmest support of his throne3, Jovinus upbraided, in dark and ambiguous language, the officious importunity of Attalus; that, scorning the advice of his great3 ally, he invested with the purple his brother Sebastian; and that he most imprudently accepted the service of Sarus, when that gallant chief, the soldier of Honorius, was provoked to desert the court3 of a prince3 who knew not how to reward or punish. Adolphus, educated among a race of warriors, who esteemed the duty of revenge as the most precious and sacred portion of their inheritance, advanced with a body of ten thousand3 Goths to encounter the hereditary enemy3 of the house of Balti. He attacked Sarus at an unguarded moment, when he was accompanied only by eighteen or twenty of his valiant followers. United by friendship3, animated by despair, but at length oppressed by multitudes, this band of heroes deserved the esteem, without exciting the compassion, of their enemies; and the lion was no sooner taken in the toils than he was instantly despatched. The death3 of Sarus dissolved the loose alliance3 which Adolphus still maintained with the usurpers of Gaul3. He again listened to the dictates of love and prudence; and soon3 satisfied the brother of Placidia, by the assurance that he would immediately transmit to the palace of Ravenna the heads of the two tyrants, Jovinus and Sebastian. The king3 of the Goths executed his promise without difficulty or delay; the helpless brothers, unsupported by any personal merit, were abandoned by their Barbarian3 auxiliaries; and the short opposition of Valentia was expiated by the ruin of one of the noblest cities of Gaul3. The emperor3, chosen by the Roman3 senate, who had been promoted, degraded, insulted, restored, again degraded, and again insulted, was finally abandoned to his fate; but, when the Gothic king3 withdrew his protection, he was restrained by pity or contempt from offering any violence to the person of Attalus. The unfortunate Attalus, who was left without subjects or allies, embarked in one of the ports of Spain, in search of some secure and solitary retreat; but he was intercepted at sea, conducted to the presence of Honorius, led in triumph through the streets of Rome or Ravenna, and publicly exposed to the gazing multitude, on the second step of the throne3 of his invincible conqueror. The same measure of punishment with which, in the days of his prosperity, he was accused of menacing his rival was inflicted on Attalus himself: he was condemned, after the amputation of two fingers, to a perpetual exile in the isle of Lipari, where he was supplied with the decent necessaries of life. The remainder of the reign3 of Honorius was undisturbed by rebellion; and it may be observed that, in the space of five years3, seven usurpers had yielded to the fortunes of a prince3, who was himself incapable either of counsel or of action.
The situation of Spain6, separated, on all sides, from the enemies of Rome6, by the sea, by the mountains, and by intermediate provinces6, had secured the long6 tranquillity of that remote and sequestered country6; and we may observe, as a sure symptom of domestic6 happiness, that in a period of four hundred years Spain6 furnished very few materials to the history of the Roman6 empire6. The footsteps of the Barbarians6, who, in the reign6 of Gallienus, had penetrated beyond the Pyrenees, were soon6 obliterated by the return of peace6; and in the fourth century of the Christian era, the cities of Emerita, or Merida, of Corduba, Seville, Bracara, and Tarragona, were numbered with the most illustrious of the Roman6 world6. The various6 plenty of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms was improved and manufactured by the skill of an industrious people6; and the peculiar advantages of naval stores contributed to support an extensive and profitable trade. The arts6 and sciences flourished under the protection of the emperors6; and, if the character of the Spaniards was enfeebled by peace6 and servitude, the hostile approach of the Germans, who had spread terror and desolation from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed to rekindle some sparks of military6 ardour. As long6 as the defence of the mountains was entrusted to the hardy and faithful militia of the country6, they successfully repelled the frequent attempts of the Barbarians6. But no sooner had the national troops been compelled to resign their post to the Honorian bands in the service of Constantine than the gates of Spain6 were treacherously betrayed to the public6 enemy, about ten months before the sack of Rome6 by the Goths. The consciousness of guilt and the thirst of rapine promoted the mercenary guards of the Pyrenees to desert their station; to invite the arms6 of the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Alani; and to swell the torrent which was poured with irresistible violence from the frontiers of Gaul to the sea of Africa. The misfortunes of Spain6 may be described in the language of its most eloquent historian, who has concisely expressed the passionate, and perhaps exaggerated, declamations of contemporary writers. The irruption of these nations was followed by the most dreadful calamities; as the Barbarians6 exercised their indiscriminate cruelty on the fortunes of the Romans6 and the Spaniards, and ravaged with equal6 fury the cities and the open country6. The progress of famine reduced the miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their fellow-creatures; and even the wild beasts, who multiplied, without control, in the desert, were exasperated, by the taste of blood and the impatience of hunger, boldly to attack and devour their human6 prey. Pestilence soon6 appeared6, the inseparable companion of famine; a large proportion of the people6 was swept away; and the groans of the dying excited only the envy of their surviving friends. At length the Barbarians6, satiated with carnage and rapine, and afflicted by the contagious evils which they themselves had introduced6, fixed their permanent seats in the depopulated country6. The ancient6 Gallicia, whose limits included the kingdom of Old Castille, was divided between the Suevi and the Vandals; the Alani were scattered over the provinces6 of Carthagena and Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean; and the fruitful territory of Baetica was allotted to the Silingi, another branch of the Vandalic nation. After regulating this partition, the conquerors contracted with their new subjects6 some reciprocal engagements of protection and obedience; the lands were again cultivated; and the towns and villages were again occupied by a captive people6. The greatest part of the Spaniards was even disposed to prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarism to the severe oppressions of the Roman6 government6; yet there were many who still asserted their native freedom; and who refused, more especially in the mountains of Gallicia, to submit to the Barbarian yoke.
The important present of the heads of Jovinus and Sebastian had approved the friendship of Adolphus and restored Gaul to the obedience of his brother Honorius. Peace was incompatible with the situation and temper of the king of the Goths. He readily accepted the proposal of turning his victorious arms47 against the Barbarians of Spain; the troops47 of Constantius intercepted his communication with the seaports of Gaul, and gently pressed his march towards the Pyrenees; he passed the mountains, and surprised, in the name of the emperor47, the city47 of Barcelona. The fondness of Adolphus for his Roman47 bride was not abated by time or possession; and the birth of a son47, surnamed, from his illustrious grandsire, Theodosius47, appeared to fix him for ever in the interest of the republic. The loss of that infant, whose remains were deposited in a silver coffin in one of the churches near Barcelona, afflicted his parents; but the grief of the Gothic king was suspended by the labours of the field; and the course of his victories was soon47 interrupted by domestic treason. He had imprudently received into his service one of the followers of Sarus: a Barbarian of a daring spirit47, but of a diminutive stature; whose secret47 desire of revenging the death47 of his beloved patron was continually irritated by the sarcasms of his insolent master47. Adolphus was assassinated in the palace47 of Barcelona; the laws of the succession were violated by a tumultuous faction; and a stranger to the royal race, Singeric, the brother of Sarus himself, was seated on the Gothic throne47. The first act of his reign47 was the inhuman murder of the six children of Adolphus, the issue of a former marriage, whom he tore, without pity, from the feeble arms47 of a venerable bishop. The unfortunate Placidia, instead of the respectful compassion which she might have excited in the most savage breasts, was treated with cruel and wanton insult. The daughter of the emperor47 Theodosius47, confounded among a crowd of vulgar captives, was compelled to march on foot above twelve miles, before the horse of a Barbarian, the assassin of a husband whom Placidia loved and lamented.
But Placidia soon3 obtained the pleasure of revenge; and the view of her ignominious sufferings might rouse an indignant people against the tyrant who was assassinated on the seventh day of his usurpation. After the death3 of Singeric, the free choice of the nation bestowed the Gothic sceptre on Wallia; whose warlike and ambitious temper appeared in the beginning of his reign3 extremely hostile to the republic. He marched in arms3 from Barcelona to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which the ancients revered and dreaded as the boundary of the world. But, when he reached the southern promontory of Spain, and, from the rock now covered by the fortress of Gibraltar, contemplated the neighbouring and fertile coast of Africa, Wallia resumed the designs of conquest which had been interrupted by the death3 of Alaric. The winds and waves again disappointed the enterprise of the Goths, and the minds of a superstitious people were deeply affected by the repeated disasters of storms and shipwrecks. In this disposition, the successor of Adolphus no longer refused to listen to a Roman3 ambassador, whose proposals were enforced by the real, or supposed, approach of a numerous army3 under the conduct of the brave Constantius3. A solemn treaty3 was stipulated and observed: Placidia was honourably restored to her brother; six hundred thousand3 measures of wheat were delivered to the hungry Goths; and Wallia engaged to draw his sword in the service of the empire3. A bloody war3 was instantly excited among the Barbarians3 of Spain; and the contending princes are said to have addressed their letters, their ambassadors, and their hostages to the throne3 of the Western emperor3, exhorting him to remain a tranquil spectator of their contest; the events of which must be favourable to the Romans3, by the mutual slaughter of their common enemies. The Spanish war3 was obstinately supported, during three campaigns, with desperate valour3 and various success; and the martial achievements of Wallia diffused through the empire3 the superior renown of the Gothic hero. He exterminated the Silingi, who had irretrievably ruined the elegant plenty of the province of Baetica. He slew, in battle, the king3 of the Alani; and the remains of those Scythian wanderers who escaped from the field, instead of choosing a new leader, humbly sought a refuge under the standard of the Vandals, with whom they were ever afterwards confounded. The Vandals themselves and the Suevi yielded to the efforts of the invincible Goths. The promiscuous multitude of Barbarians3, whose retreat had been intercepted, were driven into the mountains of Gallicia; where they still continued, in a narrow compass and on a barren soil, to exercise their domestic and implacable hostilities. In the pride of victory3, Wallia was faithful to his engagements: he restored his Spanish conquests to the obedience of Honorius; and the tyranny of the Imperial officers soon3 reduced an oppressed people to regret the time of their Barbarian3 servitude. While the event of the war3 was still doubtful, the first advantages obtained by the arms3 of Wallia had encouraged the court3 of Ravenna to decree the honours of a triumph to their feeble sovereign. He entered Rome like the ancient conquerors of nations; and, if the monuments of servile corruption had not long3 since met with the fate which they deserved, we should probably find that a crowd of poets and orators, of magistrates and bishops, applauded the fortune, the wisdom, and the invincible courage, of the emperor3 Honorius.
Such a triumph might have been justly claimed by the ally of Rome9, if Wallia, before he repassed the Pyrenees, had extirpated the seeds of the Spanish war9. His victorious Goths9, forty-three years after they had passed the Danube9, were established, according to the faith of treaties, in the possession of the second Aquitain: a maritime province9 between the Garonne and the Loire, under the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Bourdeaux. That metropolis, advantageously situated for the trade of the ocean9, was built in a regular and elegant form; and its numerous inhabitants9 were distinguished among the Gauls by their wealth, their learning, and the politeness of their manners. The adjacent province9, which has been fondly compared to the garden of Eden, is blessed with a fruitful soil and a temperate climate: the face of the country9 displayed the arts and the rewards of industry; and the Goths9, after their martial toils, luxuriously exhausted the rich vineyards of Aquitain. The Gothic limits were enlarged by the additional gift of some neighbouring dioceses; and the successors of Alaric fixed their royal residence at Toulouse, which included five populous quarters, or cities9, within the spacious circuit of its walls9. About the same time, in the last years of the reign of Honorius, the Goths9, the Burgundians, and the Franks obtained a permanent seat and dominion in the provinces9 of Gaul. The liberal grant of the usurper Jovinus to his Burgundian allies was confirmed by the lawful emperor; the lands of the First, or Upper, Germany were ceded to those formidable Barbarians9; and they gradually occupied, either by conquest9 or treaty, the two provinces9 which still retain, with the titles of Duchy and of County, the national appellation of Burgundy. The Franks, the valiant and faithful allies of the Roman9 republic, were soon9 tempted to imitate the invaders, whom they had so bravely resisted. Treves, the capital9 of Gaul, was pillaged by their lawless bands; and the humble colony, which they so long9 maintained in the district of Toxandria, in Brabant, insensibly multiplied along the banks9 of the Meuse and Scheld, till their independent power filled the whole extent of the Second or Lower Germany. These facts may be sufficiently justified by historic evidence; but the foundation of the French monarchy by Pharamond, the conquests, the laws, and even the existence of that hero, have been justly arraigned by the impartial severity of modern criticism.
The ruin of the opulent provinces47 of Gaul may be dated from the establishment of these Barbarians, whose alliance was dangerous and oppressive, and who were capriciously impelled, by interest or passion, to violate the public47 peace. A heavy and partial ransom was imposed on the surviving provincials, who had escaped the calamities of war47; the fairest and most fertile lands were assigned to the rapacious strangers, for the use of their families, their slaves, and their cattle; and the trembling natives relinquished with a sigh the inheritance of their fathers. Yet these domestic misfortunes, which are seldom the lot of a vanquished people47, had been felt and inflicted by the Romans themselves, not only in the insolence of foreign conquest, but in the madness of civil47 discord. The Triumvirs proscribed eighteen of the most flourshing colonies of Italy47; and distributed their lands and houses to the veterans who revenged the death47 of Caesar and oppressed the liberty of their country. Two poets, of unequal fame, have deplored, in similar circumstances, the loss of their patrimony; but the legionaries of Augustus appeared to have surpassed, in violence and injustice, the Barbarians who invaded Gaul under the reign47 of Honorius. It was not without the utmost difficulty that Virgil escaped from the sword of the centurion who had usurped his farm in the neighbourhood of Mantua; but Paulinus of Bourdeaux received a sum of money from his Gothic purchaser, which he accepted with pleasure and surprise; and, though it was much inferior to the real value of his estate, this act of rapine was disguised by some colours of moderation and equity. The odious name of conquerors, was softened into the mild and friendly appellation of the guests, of the Romans; and the Barbarians of Gaul, more especially the Goths, repeatedly declared that they were bound to the people47 by the ties of hospitality and to the emperor47 by the duty of allegiance and military47 service. The title of Honorius and his successors, their laws, and their civil47 magistrates, were still respected in the provinces47 of Gaul of which they had resigned the possession to the Barbarian allies; and the kings, who exercised a supreme and independent authority47 over their native subjects, ambitiously solicited the more honourable rank47 of master47-generals of the Imperial47 armies. Such was the involuntary reverence which the Roman47 name still impressed on the minds of those warriors who had borne away in triumph the spoils of the Capitol.
Whilst Italy was ravaged by the Goths and a succession of feeble tyrants oppressed the provinces36 beyond the Alps, the British island36 separated itself from the body of the Roman36 empire36. The regular forces, which guarded that remote province36, had been gradually withdrawn; and Britain36 was abandoned, without defence36, to the Saxon pirates and the savages of Ireland and Caledonia. The Britons, reduced to this extremity, no longer relied on the tardy and doubtful aid36 of a declining monarch36. They assembled in arms36, repelled the invaders, and rejoiced in the important36 discovery of their own strength36. Afflicted by similar calamities and actuated by the same spirit36, the Armorican provinces36 (a name which comprehended the maritime countries of Gaul36 between the Seine and the Loire) resolved to imitate the example of the neighbouring island36. They expelled the Roman36 magistrates who acted under the authority of the usurper Constantine; and a free government was established among a people36 who had so long36 been subject to the arbitrary will of a master. The independence of Britain36 and Armorica was soon36 confirmed by Honorius himself, the lawful emperor36 of the West; and the letters, by which he committed to the new36 states the care of their own safety, might be interpreted as an absolute and perpetual abdication of the exercise and rights of sovereignty. This interpretation was, in some measure, justified by the event. After the usurpers of Gaul36 had successively fallen, the maritime provinces36 were restored to the empire36. Yet their obedience was imperfect and precarious: the vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition of the people36 was incompatible either with freedom or servitude, and Armorica, though it could not long36 maintain the form of a republic, was agitated by frequent and destructive revolts. Britain36 was irrecoverably lost. But, as the emperors wisely acquiesced in the independence of a remote province36, the separation was not embittered by the reproach of tyranny or rebellion; and the claims of allegiance and protection were succeeded by the mutual and voluntary offices of national friendship.
This revolution dissolved the artificial fabric of civil1 and military government1; and the independent country, during a period of forty years1, till the descent of the Saxons, was ruled by the authority1 of the clergy1, the nobles, and the municipal towns. I. Zosimus, who alone has preserved the memory of this singular transaction, very accurately observes that the letters of Honorius were addressed to the cities of Britain. Under the protection of the Romans1, ninety-two considerable towns had arisen in the several parts of that great province; and, among these, thirty-three cities were distinguished above the rest by their superior privileges and importance. Each of these cities, as in all the other provinces1 of the empire1, formed a legal corporation, for the purpose of regulating their domestic policy1; and the powers of municipal government1 were distributed among annual magistrates1, a select senate1, and the assembly of the people1, according to the original model of the Roman1 constitution. The management of a common revenue, the exercise of civil1 and criminal jurisdiction1, and the habits of public1 counsel and command were inherent to these petty republics; and, when they asserted their independence, the youth of the city1 and of the adjacent districts would naturally range themselves under the standard of the magistrate1. But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burdens, of political society is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor can it reasonably be presumed that the restoration of British freedom1 was exempt from tumult and faction. The pre-eminence of birth and fortune must have been frequently violated by bold and popular citizens; and the haughty nobles, who complained that they were become the subjects1 of their own servants, would sometimes regret the reign1 of an arbitrary monarch. II. The jurisdiction1 of each city1 over the adjacent country was supported by the patrimonial influence of the principal senators; and the smaller towns, the villages, and the proprietors of land consulted their own safety by adhering to the shelter of these rising republics. The sphere of their attraction was proportioned to the respective degrees of their wealth and populousness; but the hereditary lords of ample possessions, who were not oppressed by the neighbourhood of any powerful city1, aspired to the rank of independent princes1, and boldly exercised the rights of peace1 and war. The gardens and villas, which exhibited some faint imitation of Italian elegance, would soon be converted into strong castles, the refuge, in time of danger, of the adjacent country; the produce of the land was applied to purchase arms and horses, to maintain a military force of slaves, of peasants, and of licentious followers; and the chieftain might assume, within his own domain, the powers of a civil1 magistrate1. Several of these British chiefs might be the genuine posterity of ancient1 kings; and many more would be tempted to adopt this honourable genealogy, and to vindicate their hereditary claims, which had been suspended by the usurpation of the Caesars. Their situation and their hopes would dispose them to affect the dress, the language, and the customs of their ancestors. If the princes1 of Britain relapsed into barbarism, while the cities studiously preserved the laws1 and manners of Rome1, the whole island must have been gradually divided by the distinction of two national parties; again broken into a thousand subdivisions of war and faction, by the various provocations of interest and resentment. The public1 strength, instead of being united against a foreign enemy, was consumed in obscure and intestine quarrels; and the personal merit which had placed a successful leader at the head of his equals might enable him to subdue the freedom1 of some neighbouring cities, and to claim a rank among the tyrants who infested Britain after the dissolution of the Roman1 government1. III. The British church1 might be composed of thirty or forty bishops1, with an adequate proportion of the inferior clergy1; and the want of riches (for they seem to have been poor) would compel them to deserve the public1 esteem by a decent and exemplary behaviour. The interest, as well as the temper, of the clergy1 was favourable to the peace1 and union of their distracted country; those salutary lessons might be frequently inculcated in their popular discourses; and the episcopal synods were the only councils that could pretend to the weight and authority1 of a national assembly. In such councils, where the princes1 and magistrates1 sat promiscuously with the bishops1, the important affairs of the state1, as well as of the church1, might be freely debated; differences reconciled, alliances formed, contributions imposed, wise resolutions often concerted, and sometimes executed; and there is reason to believe that, in moments of extreme danger, a Pendragon, or Dictator, was elected by the general consent of the Britons. These pastoral cares, so worthy of the episcopal character, were interrupted, however, by zeal and superstition; and the British clergy1 incessantly laboured to eradicate the Pelagian heresy, which they abhorred as the peculiar disgrace of their native country.
It is somewhat remarkable, or rather it is extremely natural, that the revolt of Britain and Armorica should have introduced an appearance of liberty into the obedient provinces47 of Gaul. In a solemn edict, filled with the strongest assurances of that paternal affection which princes so often express and so seldom feel, the emperor47 Honorius promulgated his intention of convening an annual assembly of the seven provinces47: a name peculiarly appropriated to Aquitain, and the ancient Narbonnese, which had long47 since exchanged their Celtic rudeness for the useful and elegant arts of Italy47. Arles, the seat of government47 and commerce, was appointed for the place of the assembly; which regularly continued twenty-eight days, from the fifteenth of August to the thirteenth of September, of every year. It consisted of the Praetorian prefect47 of the Gauls; of seven provincial governors, one consular and six presidents; of the magistrates, and perhaps the bishops, of about sixty cities; and of a competent, though indefinite, number of the most honourable and opulent possessors of land, who might justly be considered as the representatives of their country. They were empowered to interpret and communicate the laws of their sovereign47; to expose the grievances and wishes of their constituents; to moderate the excessive or unequal weight of taxes; and to deliberate on every subject of local or national importance, that could tend to the restoration of the peace and prosperity of the seven provinces47. If such an institution, which gave the people47 an interest in their own government47, had been universally established by Trajan or the Antonines, the seeds of public47 wisdom and virtue might have been cherished and propagated in the empire47 of Rome47. The privileges of the subject would have secured the throne47 of the monarch; the abuses of an arbitrary administration might have been prevented, in some degree, or corrected, by the interposition of these representative assemblies; and the country would have been defended against a foreign enemy by the arms47 of natives and freemen. Under the mild and generous influence of liberty, the Roman47 empire47 might have remained invincible and immortal; or, if its excessive magnitude and the instability of human affairs had opposed such perpetual continuance, its vital and constituent members might have separately preserved their vigour and independence. But in the decline of the empire47, when every principle of health and life47 had been exhausted, the tardy application of this partial remedy was incapable of producing any important or salutary effects. The emperor47 Honorius expresses his surprise that he must compel the reluctant provinces47 to accept a privilege which they should ardently have solicited. A fine of three or even five pounds of gold was imposed on the absent representatives; who seem to have declined this imaginary gift of a free constitution, as the last and most cruel insult of their oppressors.
The division of the Roman30 world between the sons of Theodosius marks the final establishment of the empire30 of the East, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople30 by the Turks30, subsisted one thousand30 and fifty-eight years30, in a state of premature and perpetual decay. The sovereign of that empire30 assumed, and obstinately retained, the vain, and at length fictitious, title of Emperor30 of the Romans; and the hereditary appellations of Caesar and Augustus continued to declare that he was the legitimate successor of the first of men, who had reigned over the first of nations. The palace30 of Constantinople30 rivalled, and perhaps excelled, the magnificence of Persia; and the eloquent sermons of St30. Chrysostom celebrate, while they condemn, the pompous luxury of the reign of Arcadius. The emperor30, says he, wears on his head30 either a diadem or a crown of gold30, decorated with precious stones of inestimable value. These ornaments and his purple garments are reserved for his sacred person alone; and his robes of silk are embroidered with the figures of golden dragons. His throne is of massy gold30. Whenever he appears in public, he is surrounded by his courtiers, his guards, and his attendants. Their spears, their shields, their cuirasses, the bridles and trappings of their horses, have either the substance or the appearance of gold30; and the large splendid boss in the midst of their shield is encircled with smaller bosses, which represent the shape of the human eye. The two mules that draw the chariot of the monarch are perfectly white, and shining all over with gold30. The chariot itself, of pure and solid gold30, attracts the admiration of the spectators, who contemplate the purple curtains, the snowy carpet, the size of the precious stones, and the resplendent plates of gold30, that glitter as they are agitated by the motion of the carriage. The Imperial pictures are white on a blue ground; the emperor30 appears seated on his throne, with his arms30, his horses, and his guards beside him; and his vanquished enemies30 in chains at his feet. The successors of Constantine established their perpetual residence in the royal30 city30 which he had erected on the verge of Europe and Asia. Inaccessible to the menaces of their enemies30, and perhaps to the complaints of their people30, they received, with each wind, the tributary productions of every climate; while the impregnable strength of their capital continued for ages to defy the hostile attempts of the Barbarians. Their dominions were bounded by the Hadriatic and Tigris; and the whole interval of twenty-five days30' navigation, which separated the extreme cold of Scythia from the torrid zone of Ethiopia, was comprehended within the limits of the empire30 of the East. The populous countries of that empire30 were the seat of art and learning, of luxury and wealth; and the inhabitants, who had assumed the language and manners of Greeks30, styled themselves, with some appearance of truth, the most enlightened and civilised portion of the human species. The form of government was a pure and simple monarchy; the name of the Roman30 Republic, which so long30 preserved a faint tradition of freedom, was confined to the Latin provinces; and the princes of Constantinople30 measured their greatness by the servile obedience of their people30. They were ignorant how much this passive disposition enervates and degrades every faculty of the mind. The subjects, who had resigned their will to the absolute commands of a master, were equally incapable of guarding their lives and fortunes against the assaults of the Barbarians or of defending their reason from the terrors of superstition.
The first events of the reign45 of Arcadius and Honorius are so intimately connected that the rebellion of the Goths and the fall of Rufinus have already claimed a place in the history of the West. It has already been observed that Eutropius, one of the principal eunuchs of the palace45 of Constantinople45, succeeded the haughty minister whose ruin he had accomplished, and whose vices he soon45 imitated. Every order of the state bowed to the new45 favourite; and their tame and obsequious submission encouraged him to insult the laws, and, what is still more difficult and dangerous, the manners, of his country. Under the weakest of the predecessors of Arcadius, the reign45 of the eunuchs had been secret and almost invisible. They insinuated themselves into the confidence of the prince; but their ostensible functions were confined to the menial service of the wardrobe and Imperial bed-chamber. They might direct, in a whisper, the public45 counsels, and blast, by their malicious suggestions, the fame and fortunes of the most illustrious citizens; but they never presumed to stand forward in the front of empire45, or to profane the public45 honours of the state. Eutropius was the first of his artificial sex, who dared to assume the character45 of a Roman magistrate and general. Sometimes in the presence of the blushing senate he ascended the tribunal, to pronounce judgment or to repeat elaborate harangues; and sometimes appeared on horseback, at the head of his troops, in the dress and armour of a hero. The disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak and ill-regulated mind; nor does Eutropius seem to have compensated for the folly of the design by any superior merit45 or ability in the execution. His former habits of life45 had not introduced him to the study of the laws or the exercises of the field; his awkward and unsuccessful attempts provoked the secret contempt of the spectators; the Goths expressed their wish that such a general might always command the armies of Rome; and the name of the minister was branded with ridicule, more pernicious perhaps than hatred to a republic character45. The subjects of Arcadius were exasperated by the recollection that this deformed and decrepid eunuch, who so perversely mimicked the actions of a man, was born in the most abject condition of servitude; that, before he entered the Imperial palace45, he had been successively sold and purchased by an hundred masters, who had exhausted his youthful strength in every mean and infamous office, and at length dismissed him, in his old age, to freedom and poverty. While these disgraceful stories were circulated, and perhaps exaggerated, in private45 conversations, the vanity of the favourite was flattered with the most extraordinary honours. In the senate, in the capital, in the provinces, the statues of Eutropius were erected in brass or marble, decorated with the symbols of his civil45 and military virtues, and inscribed with the pompous title of the third founder of Constantinople45. He was promoted to the rank of patrician, which began to signify, in a popular and even legal acceptation, the father of the emperor45; and the last year of the fourth century was polluted by the consulship of an eunuch and a slave. This strange and inexpiable prodigy awakened, however, the prejudices of the Romans. The effeminate consul was rejected by the West, as an indelible stain to the annals of the republic; and, without invoking the shades of Brutus and Camillus, the colleague of Eutropius, a learned and respectable magistrate, sufficiently represented the different maxims of the two administrations.
The bold and vigorous mind of Rufinus seems to have been actuated by a more sanguinary and revengeful spirit47; but the avarice of the eunuch was not less insatiate than that of the prefect47. As long47 as he despoiled the oppressors who had enriched themselves with the plunder of the people47, Eutropius might gratify his covetous disposition without much envy or injustice; but the progress of his rapine soon47 invaded the wealth which had been acquired by lawful inheritance or laudable industry. The usual methods of extortion were practised and improved; and Claudian has sketched a lively and original picture of the public47 auction of the state. The impotence of the eunuch (says that agreeable satirist) has served only to stimulate his avarice: the same hand which, in his servile condition, was exercised in petty thefts, to unlock the coffers of his master47, now grasps the riches of the world; and this infamous broker of the empire47 appreciates and divides the Roman47 provinces47, from Mount Haemus to the Tigris. One man, at the expense of his villa, is made proconsul of Asia; a second purchases Syria with his wife's jewels; and a third laments that he has exchanged his paternal estate for the government47 of Bithynia. In the ante-chamber of Eutropius, a large tablet is exposed to public47 view, which marks the respective prices of the provinces47. The different value of Pontus, of Galatia, of Lydia, is accurately distinguished. Lycia may be obtained for so many thousand pieces of gold; but the opulence of Phrygia will require a more considerable sum. The eunuch wishes to obliterate, by the general47 disgrace, his personal ignominy; and, as he has been sold himself, he is desirous of selling the rest of mankind. In the eager contention, the balance, which contains the fate and fortunes of the province, often trembles on the beam; and, till one of the scales is inclined, by a superior weight, the mind of the impartial judge remains in anxious suspense. Such (continues the indignant poet) are the fruits of Roman47 valour, of the defeat of Antiochus, and of the triumph of Pompey. This venal prostitution of public47 honours secured the impunity of future crimes; but the riches which Eutropius derived from confiscation were already stained with injustice; since it was decent to accuse, and to condemn, the proprietors of the wealth which he was impatient to confiscate. Some noble blood was shed by the hand of the executioner; and the most inhospitable extremities of the empire47 were filled with innocent and illustrious exiles. Among the generals and consuls of the East47, Abundantius had reason to dread the first effects of the resentment of Eutropius. He had been guilty of the unpardonable crime of introducing that abject slave to the palace47 of Constantinople; and some degree of praise must be allowed to a powerful and ungrateful favourite, who was satisfied with the disgrace of his benefactor. Abundantius was stripped of his ample fortunes by an Imperial47 rescript, and banished to Pityus on the Euxine, the last frontier of the Roman47 world; where he subsisted by the precarious mercy of the Barbarians, till he could obtain, after the fall of Eutropius, a milder exile at Sidon in Phoenicia. The destruction of Timasius required a more serious and regular mode of attack. That great officer, the master47-general47 of the armies of Theodosius47, had signalised his valour by a decisive victory, which he obtained over the Goths of Thessaly; but he was too prone, after the example of his sovereign47, to enjoy the luxury of peace, and to abandon his confidence to wicked and designing flatterers. Timasius had despised the public47 clamour, by promoting an infamous dependent to the command47 of a cohort; and he deserved to feel the ingratitude of Bargus, who was secretly instigated by the favourite to accuse his patron of a treasonable conspiracy. The general47 was arraigned before the tribunal of Arcadius himself; and the principal ennuch stood by the side of the throne47, to suggest the questions and answers of his sovereign47. But, as this form of trial might be deemed partial and arbitrary, the farther inquiry into the crimes of Timasius was delegated to Saturninus and Procopius: the former of consular rank47, the latter still respected as the father47-in-law of the emperor47 Valens. The appearances of a fair and legal proceeding were maintained by the blunt honesty of Procopius; and he yielded with reluctance to the obsequious dexterity of his colleague, who pronounced a sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate Timasius. His immense riches were confiscated, in the name of the emperor47, and for the benefit of the favourite; and he was doomed to perpetual exile at Oasis, a solitary spot in the midst of the sandy deserts of Libya. Secluded from all human converse, the master47-general47 of the Roman47 armies was lost for ever to the world; but the circumstances of his fate have been related in a various and contradictory manner. It is insinuated that Eutropius despatched a private47 order for his secret47 execution. It was reported that, in attempting to escape from Oasis, he perished in the desert, of thirst and hunger; and that his dead body was found on the sands of Libya. It has been asserted with more confidence that his son47 Syagrius, after successfully eluding the pursuit of the agents and emissaries of the court, collected a band of African robbers; that he rescued Timasius from the place of his exile; and that both the father47 and son47 disappeared from the knowledge of mankind. But the ungrateful Bargus, instead of being suffered to possess the reward of guilt, was soon47 afterwards circumvented and destroyed by the more powerful villany of the minister himself; who retained sense and spirit47 enough to abhor the instrument of his own crimes.
The public47 hatred and the despair of individuals continually threatened, or seemed to threaten, the personal safety of Eutropius; as well as of the numerous adherents who were attached to his fortune and had been promoted by his venal favour. For their mutual defence, he contrived the safeguard of a law, which violated every principle of humanity and justice47. I. It is enacted, in the name and by the authority47 of Arcadius, that all those who shall conspire, either with subjects or with strangers, against the lives of any of the persons whom the emperor47 considers as the members of his own body, shall be punished with death47 and confiscation. This species of fictitious and metaphorical treason is extended to protect, not only the illustrious officers of the state and army47, who are admitted into the sacred consistory, but likewise the principal domestics of the palace47, the senators of Constantinople, the military47 commanders, and the civil47 magistrates of the provinces47: a vague and indefinite list, which, under the successors of Constantine47, included an obscure and numerous train of subordinate ministers. II. This extreme severity might perhaps be justified, had it been only directed to secure the representatives of the sovereign47 from any actual violence in the execution of their office. But the whole body of Imperial47 dependents claimed a privilege, or rather impunity, which screened them, in the loosest moments of their lives, from the hasty, perhaps the justifiable, resentment of their fellow-citizens; and, by a strange perversion of the laws, the same degree of guilt and punishment was applied to a private47 quarrel and to a deliberate conspiracy against the emperor47 and the empire47. The edict of Arcadius most positively and most absurdly declares that in such cases of treason thoughts and actions ought to be punished with equal severity; that the knowledge of a mischievous intention, unless it be instantly revealed, becomes equally criminal with the intention itself; and that those rash men who shall presume to solicit the pardon of traitors shall themselves be branded with public47 and perpetual infamy. III. With regard to the sons of the traitors (continues the emperor47), although they ought to share the punishment, since they will probably imitate the guilt, of their parents, yet, by the special effect of our Imperial47 lenity, we grant them their lives; but, at the same time, we declare them incapable of inheriting, either on the father47's or on the mother's side, or of receiving any gift or legacy from the testament either of kinsmen or of strangers. Stigmatised with hereditary infamy, excluded from the hopes of honours or fortune, let them endure the pangs of poverty and contempt, till they shall consider life47 as a calamity, and death47 as a comfort and relief. In such words, so well adapted to insult the feelings of mankind, did the emperor47, or rather his favourite eunuch, applaud the moderation of a law which transferred the same unjust and inhuman penalties to the children of all those who had seconded, or who had not disclosed, these fictitious conspiracies. Some of the noblest regulations of Roman47 jurisprudence have been suffered to expire; but this edict, a convenient and forcible engine of ministerial tyranny, was carefully inserted in the codes of Theodosius47 and Justinian; and the same maxims have been revived in modern ages, to protect the electors of Germany and the cardinals of the church of Rome47.
Yet these sanguinary laws, which spread terror among a disarmed and dispirited people, were of too weak a texture to restrain the bold enterprise of Tribigild the Ostrogoth. The colony of that warlike nation, which had been planted by Theodosius in one of the most fertile districts of Phrygia, impatiently compared the slow returns of laborious husbandry with the successful rapine and liberal rewards of Alaric; and their leader resented, as a personal affront, his own ungracious reception in the palace of Constantinople49. A soft and wealthy province, in the heart of the empire, was astonished by the sound of war49; and the faithful vassal, who had been disregarded or oppressed, was again respected, as soon49 as he resumed the hostile character of a Barbarian. The vineyards and fruitful fields, between the rapid Marsyas and the winding Maeander, were consumed with fire; the decayed walls49 of the city49 crumbled into dust, at the first stroke of an enemy; the trembling inhabitants escaped from a bloody massacre to the shores of the Hellespont; and a considerable part of Asia Minor was desolated by the rebellion of Tribigild. His rapid progress was checked by the resistance of the peasants of Pamphylia; and the Ostrogoths, attacked in a narrow pass, between the city49 of Selgae, a deep morass, and the craggy cliffs of Mount Taurus, were defeated with the loss of their bravest troops49. But the spirit of their chief was not daunted by misfortune; and his army49 was continually recruited by swarms of Barbarians and outlaws, who were desirous of exercising the profession of robbery, under the more honourable names of war49 and conquest. The rumours of the success49 of Tribigild might for some time be suppressed by fear or disguised by flattery; yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the capital. Every misfortune was exaggerated in dark and doubtful hints; and the future designs of the rebels became the subject of anxious conjecture. Whenever Tribigild advanced into the inland country49, the Romans49 were inclined to suppose that he meditated the passage of Mount Taurus and the invasion of Syria. If he descended towards the sea49, they imputed, and perhaps suggested, to the Gothic chief the more dangerous project of arming a fleet in the harbours of Ionia, and of extending his depredations along the maritime coast, from the mouth of the Nile to the port of Constantinople49. The approach of danger49, and the obstinacy of Tribigild, who refused all terms of accommodation, compelled Eutropius to summon a council of war49. After claiming for himself the privilege of a veteran soldier, the eunuch entrusted the guard of Thrace and the Hellespont to Gainas the Goth; and the command of the Asiatic army49 to his favourite Leo: two generals who differently, but effectually, promoted the cause of the rebels. Leo, who, from the bulk of his body and the dulness of his mind, was surnamed the Ajax of the East, had deserted his original trade of a wool comber, to exercise, with much less skill and success49, the military49 profession; and his uncertain operations were capriciously framed and executed, with an ignorance of real difficulties and a timorous neglect of every favourable opportunity. The rashness of the Ostrogoths had drawn them into a disadvantageous position between the rivers Melas and Eurymedon, where they were almost besieged by the peasants of Pamphylia; but the arrival of an Imperial army49, instead of completing their destruction, afforded the means of safety and victory49. Tribigild surprised the unguarded camp of the Romans49, in the darkness of the night; seduced the faith of the greater part of the Barbarian auxiliaries; and dissipated, without much effort, the troops49 which had been corrupted by the relaxation of discipline and the luxury of the capital. The discontent of Gainas, who had so boldly contrived and executed the death of Rufinus, was irritated by the fortune of his unworthy successor; he accused his own dishonourable patience under the servile reign of an eunuch; and the ambitious Goth was convicted, at least in the public opinion, of secretly fomenting the revolt of Tribigild, with whom he was connected by a domestic, as well as by a national, alliance. When Gainas passed the Hellespont, to unite under his standard the remains of the Asiatic troops49, he skilfully adapted his motions to the wishes of the Ostrogoths; abandoning, by his retreat, the country49 which they desired to invade; or facilitating, by his approach, the desertion of the Barbarian auxiliaries. To the Imperial court he repeatedly magnified the valour49, the genius, the inexhaustible resources of Tribigild; confessed his own inability to prosecute the war49; and extorted the permission of negotiating with his invincible adversary. The conditions of peace were dictated by the haughty rebel; and the peremptory demand of the head of Eutropius revealed the author and the design of this hostile conspiracy.
The bold satirist, who has indulged his discontent by the partial and passionate censure of the Christian emperors, violates the dignity rather than the truth of history, by comparing the son47 of Theodosius47 to one of those harmless and simple animals who scarcely feel that they are the property of their shepherd. Two passions, however, fear and conjugal affection, awakened the languid soul of Arcadius: he was terrified by the threats of a victorious Barbarian; and he yielded to the tender eloquence of his wife Eudoxia, who, with a flood of artificial tears, presenting her infant children to their father47, implored his justice47 for some real or imaginary insult which she imputed to the audacious eunuch. The emperor47's hand was directed to sign the condemnation of Eutropius; the magic spell, which during four years had bound the prince47 and the people47, was instantly dissolved; and the acclamations that so lately hailed the merit47 and fortune of the favourite were converted into the clamours of the soldiers47 and the people47, who reproached his crimes and pressed his immediate execution. In this hour of distress and despair his only refuge was in the sanctuary of the church, whose privileges he had wisely, or profanely, attempted to circumscribe; and the most eloquent of the saints, John Chrysostom, enjoyed the triumph of protecting a prostrate minister, whose choice had raised him to the ecclesiastical throne47 of Constantinople. The archbishop, ascending the pulpit of the cathedral, that he might be distinctly seen and heard by an innumerable crowd of either sex and of every age47, pronounced a seasonable and pathetic discourse on the forgiveness of injuries and the instability of human greatness. The agonies of the pale and affrighted wretch, who lay grovelling under the table of the altar, exhibited a solemn and instructive spectacle; and the orator, who was afterwards accused of insulting the misfortunes of Eutropius, laboured to excite the contempt, that he might assuage the fury, of the people47. The powers of humanity, of superstition, and of eloquence prevailed. The empress Eudoxia was restrained, by her own prejudices, or by those of her subjects, from violating the sanctuary of the church; and Eutropius was tempted to capitulate, by the milder arts of persuasion, and by an oath that his life47 should be spared. Careless of the dignity of their sovereign47, the new ministers of the palace47 immediately published an edict, to declare that his late favourite had disgraced the names of consul and patrician, to abolish his statues, to confiscate his wealth, and to inflict a perpetual exile in the island of Cyprus. A despicable and decrepid eunuch could no longer alarm the fears of his enemies; nor was he capable of enjoying what yet remained, the comforts of peace, of solitude, and of a happy climate. But their implacable revenge still envied him the last moments of a miserable life47, and Eutropius had no sooner touched the shores of Cyprus than he was hastily recalled. The vain hope of eluding, by a change of place, the obligation of an oath engaged the empress to transfer the scene of his trial and execution from Constantinople to the adjacent suburb of Chalcedon. The consul Aurelian pronounced the sentence; and the motives of that sentence expose the jurisprudence of a despotic government47. The crimes which Eutropius had committed against the people47 might have justified his death47; but he was found guilty of harnessing to his chariot the sacred animals, who, from their breed or colour, were reserved for the use of the emperor47 alone.
While this domestic revolution was transacted, Gainas openly revolted from his allegiance; united his forces, at Thyatira in Lydia, with those of Tribigild; and still maintained his superior ascendant over the rebellious leader of the Ostrogoths. The confederate armies advanced, without resistance, to the straits of the Hellespont and the Bosphorus; and Arcadius was instructed to prevent the loss of his Asiatic dominions by resigning his authority47 and his person47 to the faith of the Barbarians. The church of the holy martyr Euphemia, situate on a lofty eminence near Chalcedon, was chosen for the place of the interview. Gainas bowed, with reverence, at the feet of the emperor47, whilst he required the sacrifice of Aurelian and Saturninus, two ministers of consular rank47; and their naked necks were exposed, by the haughty rebel, to the edge of the sword, till he condescended to grant them a precarious and disgraceful respite. The Goths, according to the terms of the agreement, were immediately transported from Asia into Europe; and their victorious chief, who accepted the title of master47-general47 of the Roman47 armies, soon47 filled Constantinople with his troops47, and distributed among his dependents the honours and rewards of the empire47. In his early youth, Gainas had passed the Danube as a suppliant and a fugitive; his elevation had been the work of valour and fortune; and his indiscreet, or perfidious, conduct47 was the cause of his rapid downfall. Notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of the archbishop, he importunately claimed, for his Arian sectaries, the possession of a peculiar church; and the pride of the catholics was offended by the public47 toleration of heresy. Every quarter of Constantinople was filled with tumult and disorder; and the Barbarians gazed with such ardour on the rich shops of the jewellers, and the tables of the bankers, which were covered with gold and silver, that it was judged prudent to remove those dangerous temptations from their sight. They resented the injurious precaution; and some alarming attempts were made, during the night, to attack and destroy with fire the Imperial47 palace47. In this state of mutual and suspicious hostility, the guards and the people47 of Constantinople shut the gates, and rose in arms47 to prevent, or to punish, the conspiracy of the Goths. During the absence of Gainas, his troops47 were surprised and oppressed; seven thousand Barbarians perished in this bloody massacre. In the fury of the pursuit, the catholics uncovered the roof, and continued to throw down flaming logs of wood, till they overwhelmed their adversaries, who had retreated to the church or conventicle of the Arians. Gainas was either innocent of the design or too confident of his success; he was astonished by the intelligence that the flower of his army47 had been ingloriously destroyed; that he himself was declared a public47 enemy; and that his countryman, Fravitta, a brave and loyal confederate, had assumed the management of the war47 by sea and land. The enterprises of the rebel against the cities of Thrace were encountered by a firm and well-ordered defence; his hungry soldiers47 were soon47 reduced to the grass that grew on the margin of the fortifications; and Gainas, who vainly regretted the wealth and luxury of Asia, embraced a desperate resolution of forcing the passage of the Hellespont. He was destitute of vessels; but the woods of the Chersonesus afforded materials for rafts, and his intrepid Barbarians did not refuse to trust themselves to the waves. But Fravitta attentively watched the progress of their undertaking. As soon47 as they had gained the middle of the stream, the Roman47 galleys, impelled by the full force of oars, of the current, and of the favourable wind, rushed forwards in compact order and with irresistible weight; and the Hellespont was covered with the fragments of the Gothic shipwreck. After the destruction of his hopes, and the loss of many thousands of his bravest soldiers47, Gainas, who could no longer aspire to govern, or to subdue, the Romans, determined to resume the independence of a savage life47. A light and active body of Barbarian horse, disengaged from their infantry and baggage, might perform, in eight or ten days, a march of three hundred miles from the Hellespont to the Danube; the garrisons of that important frontier had been gradually annihilated; the river, in the month of December, would be deeply frozen; and the unbounded prospect of Scythia was opened to the ambition of Gainas. This design was secretly communicated to the national troops47, who devoted themselves to the fortunes of their leader; and, before the signal of departure was given, a great number of provincial auxiliaries, whom he suspected of an attachment to their native country, were perfidiously massacred. The Goths advanced, by rapid marches, through the plains of Thrace; and they were soon47 delivered from the fear of a pursuit by the vanity of Fravitta, who, instead of extinguishing the war47, hastened to enjoy the popular applause and to assume the peaceful honours of the consulship. But a formidable ally appeared in arms47 to vindicate the majesty of the empire47 and to guard the peace and liberty of Scythia. The superior forces of Uldin, king of the Huns, opposed the progress of Gainas; an hostile and ruined country prohibited his retreat; he disdained to capitulate; and, after repeatedly attempting to cut his way through the ranks of the enemy, he was slain, with his desperate followers, in the field of battle. Eleven days after the naval victory of the Hellespont, the head of Gainas, the inestimable gift of the conqueror, was received at Constantinople with the most liberal expressions of gratitude, and the public47 deliverance was celebrated by festivals and illuminations. The triumphs of Arcadius became the subject of epic poems; and the monarch, no longer oppressed by any hostile terrors, resigned himself to the mild and absolute dominion of his wife, the fair and artful Eudoxia; who has sullied her fame by the persecution of St. John Chrysostom.
After the death45 of the indolent Nectarius, the successor of Gregory Nazianzen, the church45 of Constantinople45 was distracted by the ambition of rival candidates, who were not ashamed to solicit, with gold or flattery, the suffrage of the people45, or of the favourite. On this occasion, Eutropius seems to have deviated from his ordinary maxims; and his uncorrupted judgment was determined only by the superior merit45 of a stranger. In a late journey into the East, he had admired the sermons of John45, a native and presbyter of Antioch, whose name has been distinguished by the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. A private45 order was despatched to the governor of Syria; and, as the people45 might be unwilling to resign their favourite preacher, he was transported with speed and secrecy, in a post-chariot, from Antioch to Constantinople45. The unanimous and unsolicited consent of the court, the clergy, and the people45 ratified the choice of the minister; and, both as a saint and as an orator, the new45 archbishop45 surpassed the sanguine expectations of the public45. Born of a noble and opulent family, in the capital of Syria, Chrysostom had been educated by the care of a tender mother, under the tuition of the most skilful masters. He studied the art of rhetoric in the school of Libanius; and that celebrated sophist, who soon45 discovered the talents of his disciple, ingenuously confessed that John45 would have deserved to succeed him, had he not been stolen away by the Christians. His piety soon45 disposed him to receive the sacrament of baptism; to renounce the lucrative and honourable profession of the law; and to bury himself in the adjacent desert, where he subdued the lusts of the flesh by an austere penance45 of six years45. His infirmities compelled him to return to the society of mankind; and the authority of Meletius devoted his talents to the service of the church45; but in the midst of his family, and afterwards on the archiepiscopal throne45, Chrysostom still persevered in the practice of the monastic virtues. The ample revenues, which his predecessors had consumed in pomp and luxury, he diligently applied to the establishment of hospitals; and the multitudes, who were supported by his charity, preferred the eloquent and edifying discourses of their archbishop45 to the amusements of the theatre or the circus. The monuments of that eloquence, which was admired near twenty years45 at Antioch and Constantinople45, have been carefully preserved, and the possession of near one thousand sermons, or homilies, has authorised the critics of succeeding times to appreciate the genuine merit45 of Chrysostom. They unanimously attribute to the Christian orator the free command of an elegant and copious language; the judgment to conceal the advantages which he derived from the knowledge of rhetoric and philosophy; an inexhaustible fund of metaphors and similitudes, of ideas and images, to vary and illustrate the most familiar topics; the happy art of engaging the passions in the service of virtue; and of exposing the folly as well as the turpitude of vice, almost with the truth and spirit of a dramatic representation.
The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople2 provoked, and gradually united against him, two sorts of enemies2: the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom2 thundered, from the pulpit of St. Sophia, against the degeneracy of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without wounding, or even marking, the character2 of any individual. When he declaimed against the peculiar vices2 of the rich, poverty2 might obtain a transient consolation from his invectives; but the guilty were still sheltered by their numbers2, and the reproach itself was dignified by some ideas of superiority and enjoyment. But, as the pyramid rose towards the summit, it insensibly diminished to a point; and the magistrates, the ministers, the favourite2 eunuchs, the ladies of the court, the empress Eudoxia herself, had a much larger share of guilt2 to divide among a smaller proportion of criminals. The personal applications of the audience were anticipated, or confirmed, by the testimony of their own conscience; and the intrepid preacher assumed the dangerous right of exposing both the offence and the offender to the public abhorrence. The secret2 resentment of the court encouraged the discontent of the clergy and monks of Constantinople2, who were too hastily reformed by the fervent zeal of their archbishop. He had condemned, from the pulpit, the domestic females of the clergy of Constantinople2, who, under the name of servants or sisters, afforded a perpetual occasion either of sin or of scandal. The silent and solitary ascetics who had secluded themselves from the world were intitled to the warmest approbation of Chrysostom2; but he despised and stigmatised, as the disgrace of their holy profession, the crowd of degenerate monks, who, from some unworthy motives of pleasure or profit, so frequently infested the streets of the capital. To the voice of persuasion the archbishop was obliged to add the terrors of authority; and his ardour, in the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was not always exempt from passion; nor was it always guided by prudence. Chrysostom2 was naturally of a choleric disposition. Although he struggled, according to the precepts of the gospel, to love his private2 enemies2, he indulged himself in the privilege of hating the enemies2 of God and of the church; and his sentiments were sometimes delivered with too much energy of countenance and expression. He still maintained, from some considerations of health or abstinence, his former habits of taking his repasts alone; and this inhospitable custom, which his enemies2 imputed to pride2, contributed, at least, to nourish the infirmity of a morose and unsocial humour. Separated from that familiar intercourse which facilitates the knowledge and the despatch of business, he reposed an unsuspecting confidence in his deacon Serapion; and seldom applied his speculative knowledge of human nature to the particular characters either of his dependents or of his equals. Conscious of the purity of his intentions, and perhaps of the superiority of his genius, the archbishop of Constantinople2 extended the jurisdiction of the Imperial city that he might enlarge the sphere of his pastoral labours; and the conduct which the profane imputed to an ambitious motive appeared to Chrysostom2 himself in the light2 of a sacred and indispensable duty. In his visitation through the Asiatic provinces2, he deposed thirteen bishops of Lydia and Phrygia; and indiscreetly declared that a deep corruption of simony and licentiousness had infected the whole episcopal order. If those bishops were innocent, such a rash and unjust condemnation must excite a well-grounded discontent. If they were guilty, the numerous associates of their guilt2 would soon discover that their own safety depended on the ruin of the archbishop; whom they studied to represent as the tyrant of the Eastern church.
This ecclesiastical conspiracy was managed by Theophilus, archbishop of Alexandria, an active and ambitious prelate, who displayed the fruits of rapine in monuments of ostentation. His national dislike to the rising greatness of a city49 which degraded him from the second49 to the third rank in the Christian world was exasperated by some personal disputes with Chrysostom himself. By the private invitation of the empress, Theophilus landed at Constantinople49, with a stout body of Egyptian mariners, to encounter the populace; and a train of attendant bishops, to secure, by their voices, the majority of a synod. The synod was convened in the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, where Rufinus had erected a stately church and monastery, and their proceedings were continued during fourteen days49, or sessions. A bishop and a deacon accused the archbishop of Constantinople49; but the frivolous or improbable nature of the forty-seven articles which they presented against him may justly be considered as a fair and unexceptionable panegyric. Four successive summons were signified to Chrysostom, but he still refused to trust either his person or his reputation in the hands of his implacable enemies, who, prudently declining the examination of any particular charges, condemned his contumacious disobedience, and hastily pronounced a sentence of deposition. The synod of the Oak immediately addressed the emperor49 to ratify and execute their judgment, and charitably insinuated that the penalties of treason might be inflicted on the audacious preacher who had reviled, under the name of Jezebel, the empress Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely arrested, and conducted through the city49, by one of the Imperial messengers, who landed him, after a short navigation, near the entrance of the Euxine; from whence, before the expiration of two days49, he was gloriously recalled.
The first astonishment of his faithful people47 had been mute and passive; they suddenly rose with unanimous and irresistible fury. Theophilus escaped; but the promiscuous crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners were slaughtered without pity in the streets of Constantinople. A seasonable earthquake justified the interposition of heaven; the torrent of sedition rolled forwards to the gates of the palace47; and the empress, agitated by fear or remorse, threw herself at the feet of Arcadius, and confessed that the public47 safety could be purchased only by the restoration of Chrysostom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable vessels; the shores of Europe and Asia were profusely illuminated; and the acclamations of a victorious people47 accompanied, from the port to the cathedral, the triumph of the archbishop; who, too easily, consented to resume the exercise of his functions, before his sentence had been legally reversed by the authority47 of an ecclesiastical synod. Ignorant or careless of the impending danger47, Chrysostom indulged his zeal, or perhaps his resentment; declaimed with peculiar asperity against female vices; and condemned the profane honours which were addressed almost in the precincts of St. Sophia, to the statue of the empress. His imprudence tempted his enemies to inflame the haughty spirit47 of Eudoxia by reporting, or perhaps inventing, the famous exordium of a sermon: Herodias is again furious; Herodias again dances; she once more requires the head of John: an insolent allusion, which, as a woman and a sovereign47, it was impossible for her to forgive. The short interval of a perfidious truce was employed to concert more effectual measures for the disgrace and ruin of the archbishop. A numerous council of the Eastern prelates, who were guided from a distance by the advice of Theophilus, confirmed the validity, without examining the justice47, of the former sentence; and a detachment of Barbarian troops47 was introduced into the city47, to suppress the emotions of the people47. On the vigil of Easter, the solemn administration of baptism was rudely interrupted by the soldiers47, who alarmed the modesty of the naked catechumens, and violated, by their presence, the awful mysteries of the Christian worship. Arsacius occupied the church of St. Sophia and the archiepiscopal throne47. The catholics retreated to the baths of Constantine47, and afterwards to the fields; where they were still pursued and insulted by the guards, the bishops, and the magistrates. The fatal day of the second and final exile of Chrysostom was marked by the conflagration of the cathedral, of the senate47 house, and of the adjacent buildings; and this calamity was imputed, without proof but not without probability, to the despair of a persecuted faction.
Cicero might claim some merit2, if his voluntary banishment preserved the peace of the republic; but the submission of Chrysostom2 was the indispensable duty of a Christian2 and a subject. Instead of listening to his humble prayer that he might be permitted to reside at Cyzicus or Nicomedia, the inflexible empress assigned for his exile the remote and desolate town of Cucusus, among the ridges of Mount Taurus, in the Lesser Armenia. A secret2 hope was entertained that the archbishop might perish in a difficult and dangerous march of seventy days in the heat of summer through the provinces2 of Asia2 Minor, where he was continually threatened by the hostile attacks of the Isaurians and the more implacable fury of the monks. Yet Chrysostom2 arrived in safety at the place of his confinement; and the three years which he spent at Cucusus and the neighbouring town of Arabissus were the last and most glorious of his life. His character2 was consecrated by absence and persecution; the faults of his administration were no longer remembered; but every tongue repeated the praises of his genius and virtue, and the respectful attention of the Christian2 world was fixed on a desert spot among the mountains of Taurus. From that solitude the archbishop, whose active mind2 was invigorated by misfortunes, maintained a strict and frequent correspondence with the most distant provinces2; exhorted the separate congregation of his faithful adherents to persevere in their allegiance; urged the destruction of the temples of Phoenicia, and the extirpation of heresy in the isle of Cyprus; extended his pastoral care2 to the missions of Persia and Scythia; negotiated, by his ambassadors, with the Roman2 pontiff and the emperor2 Honorius; and boldly appealed, from a partial synod, to the supreme tribunal of a free and general2 council. The mind2 of the illustrious exile was still independent; but his captive body was exposed to the revenge of the oppressors, who continued to abuse the name and authority of Arcadius. An order was despatched for the instant removal of Chrysostom2 to the extreme desert of Pityus: and his guards so faithfully obeyed their cruel instructions that, before he reached the sea-coast of the Euxine, he expired at Comana, in Pontus, in the sixtieth year of his age2. The succeeding generation acknowledged his innocence and merit2. The archbishops of the East2, who might blush that their predecessors had been the enemies2 of Chrysostom2, were gradually disposed, by the firmness of the Roman2 pontiff, to restore the honours of that venerable name. At the pious solicitation of the clergy and people2 of Constantinople2, his relics, thirty years after his death, were transported from their obscure sepulchre to the royal2 city. The emperor2 Theodosius2 advanced to receive them as far as Chalcedon; and, falling prostrate on the coffin, implored, in the name of his guilty parents, Arcadius and Eudoxia, the forgiveness of the injured saint.
Yet a reasonable doubt may be entertained, whether any stain of hereditary guilt could be derived from Arcadius to his successor. Eudoxia was a young and beautiful woman, who indulged her passions and despised her husband; Count John enjoyed, at least, the familiar confidence of the empress; and the public47 named him as the real father47 of Theodosius47 the younger. The birth of a son47 was accepted, however, by the pious husband, as an event the most fortunate and honourable to himself, to his family, and to the eastern world; and the royal infant, by an unprecedented favour, was invested with the titles of Caesar and Augustus. In less than four years afterwards, Eudoxia, in the bloom of youth, was destroyed by the consequences of a miscarriage; and this untimely death47 confounded the prophecy of a holy bishop, who, amidst the universal joy, had ventured to foretell that she should behold the long47 and auspicious reign47 of her glorious son47. The catholics applauded the justice47 of heaven, which avenged the persecution of St. Chrysostom; and perhaps the emperor47 was the only person47 who sincerely bewailed the loss of the haughty and rapacious Eudoxia. Such a domestic misfortune afflicted him more deeply than the public47 calamities of the East47; the licentious excursions, from Pontus to Palestine, of the Isaurian robbers, whose impunity accused the weakness of the government47; and the earthquakes, the conflagrations, the famine, and the flights of locusts, which the popular discontent was equally disposed to attribute to the incapacity of the monarch. At length, in the thirty-first year of his age47, after a reign47 (if we may abuse that word) of thirteen years, three months, and fifteen days, Arcadius expired in the palace47 of Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his character; since, in a period very copiously furnished with historical materials, it has not been possible to remark one action that properly belongs to the son47 of the great Theodosius47.
The historian22 Procopius has indeed illuminated the mind of the dying emperor22 with a ray of human22 prudence22 or celestial wisdom. Arcadius considered, with anxious foresight, the helpless condition of his son22 Theodosius, who was no more than seven years22 of age22, the dangerous factions of a minority, and the aspiring spirit of Jezdegerd, the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the allegiance of an ambitious subject22 by the participation of supreme power22, he boldly appealed to the magnanimity of a king; and placed, by a solemn testament, the sceptre of the East22 in the hands22 of Jezdegerd himself. The royal guardian accepted and discharged this honourable trust with unexampled fidelity; and the infancy of Theodosius was protected by the arms and councils of Persia. Such is the singular22 narrative of Procopius; and his veracity is not disputed by Agathias, while he presumes to dissent from his judgment and to arraign the wisdom of a Christian emperor22, who so rashly, though so fortunately, committed his son22 and his dominions to the unknown faith of a stranger, a rival, and a heathen. At the distance of one hundred and fifty years22, this political question might be debated in the court of Justinian22; but a prudent historian22 will refuse to examine the propriety, till he has ascertained the truth, of the testament of Arcadius. As it stands without a parallel in the history22 of the world22, we may justly require that it should be attested by the positive and unanimous evidence of contemporaries. The strange novelty of the event, which excites our distrust, must have attracted their notice; and their universal silence annihilates the vain tradition of the succeeding age22.
The maxims of Roman3 jurisprudence, if they could fairly be transferred from private property to public dominion, would have adjudged to the emperor3 Honorius the guardianship of his nephew, till he had attained, at least, the fourteenth year of his age. But the weakness of Honorius and the calamities of his reign3 disqualified him from prosecuting this natural claim; and such was the absolute separation of the two monarchies, both in interest and affection, that Constantinople would have obeyed with less reluctance the orders of the Persian3, than those of the Italian, court3. Under a prince3 whose weakness is disguised by the external signs of manhood and discretion the most worthless favourites may secretly dispute the empire3 of the palace, and dictate to submissive provinces3 the commands of a master whom they direct and despise. But the ministers of a child who is incapable of arming them with the sanction of the royal3 name must acquire and exercise an independent authority. The great3 officers of the state and army3, who had been appointed before the death3 of Arcadius, formed an aristocracy, which might have inspired them with the idea of a free republic; and the government of the Eastern empire3 was fortunately assumed by the prefect Anthemius, who obtained, by his superior abilities, a lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals. The safety of the young emperor3 proved the merit and integrity of Anthemius; and his prudent firmness sustained the force and reputation of an infant reign3. Uldin, with a formidable host of Barbarians3, was encamped in the heart of Thrace: he proudly rejected all terms of accommodation; and, pointing to the rising sun, declared to the Roman3 ambassadors that the course of that planet should alone terminate the conquests of the Huns. But the desertion of his confederates, who were privately convinced of the justice and liberality of the Imperial ministers, obliged Uldin to repass the Danube; the tribe of the Scyrri, which composed his rear-guard, was almost extirpated; and many thousand3 captives were dispersed to cultivate, with servile labour, the fields of Asia. In the midst of the public triumph, Constantinople was protected by a strong enclosure of new and more extensive walls; the same vigilant care was applied to restore the fortifications of the Illyrian cities; and a plan was judiciously conceived, which, in the space of seven years3, would have secured the command of the Danube, by establishing on that river a perpetual fleet of two hundred and fifty armed vessels.
But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority of a monarch, that the first, even among the females, of the Imperial family who displayed any courage or capacity was permitted to ascend the vacant throne33 of Theodosius. His sister Pulcheria, who was only two years older than himself, received at the age of sixteen the title of Augusta; and, though her favour might be sometimes clouded by caprice or intrigue, she continued to govern the Eastern empire near forty years; during the long minority of her brother, and, after his death, in her own name, and in the name of Marcian, her nominal husband. From a motive, either of prudence or religion33, she embraced a life of celibacy; and, notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of Pulcheria, this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia and Marina, was celebrated by the Christian33 world, as the sublime effort of heroic piety. In the presence of the clergy33 and people33, the three daughters of Arcadius dedicated their virginity to God; and the obligation of their solemn vow was inscribed on a tablet of gold and gems; which they publicly offered in the great church33 of Constantinople33. Their palace was converted into a monastery; and all males, except the guides of their conscience, the saints who had forgotten the distinction of sexes, were scrupulously excluded from the holy33 threshold. Pulcheria, her two sisters, and a chosen train of favourite damsels formed a religious33 community: they renounced the vanity of dress; interrupted, by frequent fasts, their simple and frugal diet; allotted a portion of their time to works of embroidery; and devoted several hours of the day and night to the exercises of prayer and psalmody. The piety of a Christian33 virgin was adorned by the zeal33 and liberality of an empress. Ecclesiastical33 history describes the splendid churches33 which were built at the expense of Pulcheria, in all the provinces of the East33; her charitable foundations for the benefit of strangers and the poor; the ample donations which she assigned for the perpetual maintenance of monastic societies; and the active severity with which she laboured to suppress the opposite heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches. Such virtues were supposed to deserve the peculiar favour of the Deity; and the relics of martyrs, as well as the knowledge of future events, were communicated in visions and revelations to the Imperial saint. Yet the devotion of Pulcheria never diverted her indefatigable attention from temporal affairs; and she alone, among all the descendants of the great Theodosius, appears to have inherited any share of his manly spirit and abilities. The elegant and familiar use which she had acquired both of the Greek33 and Latin33 languages was readily applied to the various occasions of speaking or writing on public business; her deliberations were maturely weighed; her actions were prompt and decisive; and, while she moved, without noise or ostentation, the wheel of government, she discreetly attributed to the genius of the emperor33 the long tranquillity of his reign. In the last years of his peaceful life Europe was indeed afflicted by the arms of Attila; but the more extensive provinces of Asia still continued to enjoy a profound and permanent repose. Theodosius the younger was never reduced to the disgraceful necessity of encountering and punishing a rebellious subject; and, since we cannot applaud the vigour, some praise may be due to the mildness and prosperity, of the administration of Pulcheria.
The Roman2 world was deeply interested in the education2 of its master. A regular course of study and exercise was judiciously instituted; of the military exercises of riding and shooting with the bow; of the liberal2 studies of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy; the most skilful masters of the East2 ambitiously solicited the attention of their royal2 pupil; and several noble youths were introduced into the palace, to animate his diligence by the emulation of friendship2. Pulcheria alone discharged the important task of instructing her brother in the arts2 of government; but her precepts may countenance some suspicion of the extent of her capacity or of the purity of her intentions. She taught him to maintain a grave and majestic deportment; to walk, to hold his robes, to seat himself on his throne, in a manner worthy of a great2 prince2; to abstain from laughter; to listen with condescension; to return suitable answers; to assume, by turns, a serious or a placid countenance; in a word, to represent with grace and dignity the external figure of a Roman2 emperor2. But Theodosius2 was never excited to support the weight and glory2 of an illustrious name; and, instead of aspiring to imitate his ancestors, he degenerated (if we may presume to measure the degrees of incapacity) below the weakness of his father and his uncle. Arcadius and Honorius had been assisted by the guardian care2 of a parent whose lessons were enforced by his authority and example. But the unfortunate prince2 who is born in the purple must remain a stranger to the voice of truth2; and the son of Arcadius was condemned to pass his perpetual infancy, encompassed only by a servile train of women and eunuchs. The ample leisure, which he acquired by neglecting the essential duties of his high office, was filled by idle amusements and unprofitable studies. Hunting was the only active pursuit that could tempt him beyond the limits of the palace; but he most assiduously laboured, sometimes by the light2 of a midnight lamp, in the mechanic occupations of painting and carving; and the elegance with which he transcribed religious books entitled the Roman2 emperor2 to the singular epithet of Calligraphes, or a fair writer. Separated from the world by an impenetrable veil, Theodosius2 trusted the persons whom he loved; he loved those who were accustomed to amuse and flatter his indolence; and, as he never perused the papers that were presented for the royal2 signature, the acts of injustice the most repugnant to his character2 were frequently perpetrated in his name. The emperor2 himself was chaste, temperate liberal2, and merciful; but these qualities, which can only deserve the name of virtues2 when they are supported by courage and regulated by discretion, were seldom beneficial, and they sometimes proved mischievous, to mankind. His mind2, enervated by a royal2 education2, was oppressed and degraded by abject superstition; he fasted, he sung psalms, he blindly accepted the miracles and doctrines with which his faith was continually nourished. Theodosius2 devoutly worshipped the dead and living saints of the Catholic church; and he once refused to eat, till an insolent monk, who had cast an excommunication on his sovereign, condescended to heal the spiritual wound which he had inflicted.
The story of a fair and virtuous maiden, exalted from a private47 condition to the Imperial47 throne47, might be deemed an incredible romance, if such a romance had not been verified in the marriage of Theodosius47. The celebrated Athenais was educated by her father47 Leontius in the religion and sciences of the Greeks; and so advantageous was the opinion which the Athenian philosopher entertained of his contemporaries, that he divided his patrimony between his two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a small legacy of one hundred pieces of gold, in the lively confidence that her beauty and merit47 would be a sufficient portion. The jealousy and avarice of her brothers soon47 compelled Athenais to seek a refuge at Constantinople; and with some hopes, either of justice47 or favour, to throw herself at the feet of Pulcheria. That sagacious princess listened to her eloquent complaint; and secretly destined the daughter of the philosopher Leontius for the future wife of the emperor47 of the East47, who had now attained the twentieth year of his age47. She easily excited the curiosity of her brother by an interesting picture of the charms of Athenais; large eyes, a well-proportioned nose, a fair complexion, golden locks, a slender person47, a graceful demeanour, an understanding improved by study, and a virtue tried by distress. Theodosius47, concealed behind a curtain in the apartment of his sister, was permitted to behold the Athenian virgin; the modest youth immediately declared his pure and honourable love; and the royal nuptials were celebrated amidst the acclamations of the capital and the provinces47. Athenais, who was easily persuaded to renounce the errors of Paganism, received at her baptism the Christian name of Eudocia; but the cautious Pulcheria withheld the title of Augusta, till the wife of Theodosius47 had approved her fruitfulness by the birth of a daughter, who espoused, fifteen years afterwards, the emperor47 of the West. The brothers of Eudocia obeyed, with some anxiety, her Imperial47 summons; but, as she could easily forgive their fortunate unkindness, she indulged the tenderness, or perhaps the vanity, of a sister by promoting them to the rank47 of consuls and prefects. In the luxury of the palace47, she still cultivated those ingenuous arts which had contributed to her greatness; and wisely dedicated her talents to the honour of religion and of her husband. Eudocia composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the Old Testament, and of the prophecies of Daniel and Zachariah; a cento of the verses of Homer, applied to the life47 and miracles of Christ; the legend of St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian victories of Theodosius47; and her writings, which were applauded by a servile and superstitious age47, have not been disdained by the candour of impartial criticism. The fondness of the emperor47 was not abated by time and possession; and Eudocia, after the marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful vows by a solemn progress to Jerusalem. Her ostentatious progress through the East47 may seem inconsistent with the spirit47 of Christian humility; she pronounced, from a throne47 of gold and gems, an eloquent oration to the senate47 of Antioch, declared her royal intention of enlarging the walls of the city47, bestowed a donative of two hundred pounds of gold to restore the public47 baths, and accepted the statues which were decreed by the gratitude of Antioch. In the Holy Land, her alms and pious foundations exceeded the munificence of the great Helena; and, though the public47 treasure might be impoverished by this excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious satisfaction of returning to Constantinople with the chains of St. Peter, the right arm of St. Stephen, and an undoubted picture of the Virgin, painted by St. Luke. But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of the glories of Eudocia. Satiated with empty pomp, and unmindful, perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she ambitiously aspired to the government47 of the Eastern empire47; the palace47 was distracted by female discord; but the victory was at last decided by the superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius47. The execution of Paulinus, master47 of the offices, and the disgrace of Cyrus, Praetorian prefect47 of the East47, convinced the public47 that the favour of Eudocia was insufficient to protect her most faithful friends; and the uncommon beauty of Paulinus encouraged the secret47 rumour that his guilt was that of a successful lover. As soon47 as the empress perceived that the affection of Theodosius47 was irretrievably lost, she requested the permission of retiring to the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She obtained her request; but the jealousy of Theodosius47, or the vindictive spirit47 of Pulcheria, pursued her in her last retreat; and Saturninus, count of the domestics, was directed to punish with death47 two ecclesiastics, her most favoured servants. Eudocia instantly revenged them by the assassination of the count; the furious passions, which she indulged on this suspicious occasion, seemed to justify the severity of Theodosius47; and the empress, ignominiously stript of the honours of her rank47, was disgraced, perhaps unjustly, in the eyes of the world. The remainder of the life47 of Eudocia, about sixteen years, was spent in exile and devotion; and the approach of age47, the death47 of Theodosius47, the misfortunes of her only daughter, who was led a captive from Rome47 to Carthage, and the society of the Holy Monks of Palestine, insensibly confirmed the religious temper of her mind. After a full experience of the vicissitudes of human life47, the daughter of the philosopher Leontius expired at Jerusalem, in the sixty-seventh year of her age47; protesting, with her dying breath, that she had never transgressed the bounds of innocence and friendship.
The gentle mind of Theodosius was never inflamed by the ambition of conquest43 or military renown; and the slight alarm of a Persian war43 scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the East. The motives of this war43 were just43 and honourable. In the last year of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of Theodosius, a bishop, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of the fire temples of Susa. His zeal and obstinacy were revenged on his brethren; the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by his son Vararanes, or Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne43. Some Christian43 fugitives, who escaped to the Roman43 frontier, were sternly demanded and generously refused; and the refusal, aggravated by commercial disputes, soon kindled a war43 between the rival monarchies. The mountains of Armenia and the plains of Mesopotamia were filled with hostile armies; but the operations of two successive campaigns were not productive of any decisive or memorable events. Some engagements were fought, some towns were besieged, with various and doubtful success; and, if the Romans failed in their attempt to recover the long43-lost possession of Nisibis, the Persians were repulsed from the walls of a Mesopotamian city43 by the valour of a martial bishop, who pointed his thundering engine in the name of St. Thomas the Apostle. Yet the splendid victories, which the incredible speed of the messenger Palladius repeatedly announced to the palace of Constantinople43, were celebrated with festivals and panegyrics. From these panegyrics the historians of the age43 might borrow their extraordinary and, perhaps, fabulous tales; of the proud challenge of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and despatched by the sword, of Areobindus the Goth; of the ten thousand43 Immortals, who were slain in the attack of the Roman43 camp; and of the hundred thousand43 Arabs, or Saracens, who were impelled by a panic of terror to throw themselves headlong into the Euphrates. Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar, shall43 not be lost in oblivion. Boldly declaring that vases of gold and silver are useless to a God who neither eats nor drinks, the generous prelate sold the plate of the church of Amida; employed the price in the redemption of seven43 thousand43 Persian captives; supplied their wants with affectionate liberality; and dismissed them to their native country43, to inform the king of the true spirit of the religion which he persecuted. The practice of benevolence in the midst of war43 must always tend to assuage the animosity of contending nations; and I wish to persuade myself that Acacius contributed to the restoration of peace. In the conference which was held on the limits of the two empires, the Roman43 ambassadors degraded the personal character of their sovereign by a vain attempt to magnify the extent of his power; when they seriously advised the Persians to prevent, by a timely accommodation, the wrath of a monarch who was yet ignorant of this distant war43. A truce of one hundred years was solemnly ratified; and, although the revolutions of Armenia might threaten the public43 tranquillity, the essential conditions of this treaty were respected near fourscore years by the successors of Constantine and Artaxerxes.
Since the Roman3 and Parthian standards first encountered on the banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia3 was alternately oppressed by its formidable protectors; and, in the course of this History, several events, which inclined the balance of peace3 and war3, have been already related. A disgraceful treaty3 had resigned Armenia3 to the ambition of Sapor3; and the scale of Persia3 appeared to preponderate. But the royal3 race of Arsaces impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the turbulent nobles asserted or betrayed their hereditary independence; and the nation was still attached to the Christian princes of Constantinople. In the beginning of the fifth century, Armenia3 was divided by the progress of war3 and faction; and the unnatural division precipitated the downfall of that ancient monarchy. Chosroes3, the Persian3 vassal, reigned over the eastern and most extensive portion of the country; while the western province acknowledged the jurisdiction of Arsaces and the supremacy of the emperor3 Arcadius. After the death3 of Arsaces, the Romans3 suppressed the regal government and imposed on their allies the condition of subjects. The military3 command was delegated to the count of the Armenian frontier; the city3 of Theodosiopolis was built and fortified in a strong situation, on a fertile and lofty ground near the sources of the Euphrates; and the dependent territories were ruled by five satraps, whose dignity was marked by a peculiar habit of gold and purple. The less fortunate nobles, who lamented the loss of their king3 and envied the honours of their equals, were provoked to negotiate their peace3 and pardon at the Persian3 court3; and, returning, with their followers, to the palace of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes3 for their lawful sovereign. About thirty years3 afterwards, Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes3, fell under the displeasure of the haughty and capricious nobles of Armenia3; and they unanimously desired a Persian3 governor in the room of an unworthy king3. The answer of the archbishop Isaac, whose sanction they earnestly solicited, is expressive of the character of a superstitious people. He deplored the manifest and inexcusable vices of Artasires; and declared that he should not hesitate to accuse him before the tribunal of a Christian emperor3 who would punish, without destroying, the sinner. Our king3, continued Isaac, is too much addicted to licentious pleasures, but he has been purified in the holy waters of baptism. He is a lover of women, but he does not adore the fire or the elements. He may deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted Catholic; and his faith is pure, though his manners are flagitious. I will never consent to abandon my sheep to the rage of devouring wolves; and you would soon3 repent your rash exchange of the infirmities of a believer for the specious virtues of an heathen. Exasperated by the firmness of Isaac, the factious nobles accused both the king3 and the archbishop as the secret adherents of the emperor3; and absurdly rejoiced in the sentence of condemnation, which, after a partial hearing, was solemnly pronounced by Bahram himself. The descendants of Arsaces were degraded from the royal3 dignity, which they had possessed above five hundred and sixty years3, and the dominions of the unfortunate Artasires, under the new and significant appellation of Persarmenia, were reduced into the form of a province. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the Roman3 government; but the rising disputes were soon3 terminated by an amicable, though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of Armenia3; and a territorial acquisition, which Augustus might have despised, reflected some lustre on the declining empire3 of the younger Theodosius.
During a long47 and disgraceful reign47 of twenty-eight years, Honorius, emperor47 of the West, was separated from the friendship of his brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who reigned over the East47; and Constantinople beheld, with apparent indifference and secret47 joy, the calamities of Rome47. The strange adventures of Placidia gradually renewed and cemented the alliance of the two empires. The daughter of the great Theodosius47 had been the captive and the queen of the Goths; she lost an affectionate husband; she was dragged in chains by his insulting assassin; she tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, in the treaty of peace, for six hundred thousand measures of wheat. After her return from Spain to Italy47, Placidia experienced a new persecution in the bosom of her family. She was averse to a marriage which had been stipulated without her consent; and the brave Constantius, as a noble reward for the tyrants whom he had vanquished, received, from the hand of Honorius himself, the struggling and reluctant hand of the widow of Adolphus. But her resistance ended with the ceremony of the nuptials; nor did Placidia refuse to become the mother of Honoria and Valentinian the Third, or to assume and exercise an absolute dominion over the mind of her grateful husband. The generous soldier, whose time had hitherto been divided between social pleasure and military47 service, was taught new lessons of avarice and ambition; he extorted the title of Augustus; and the servant of Honorius was associated to the empire47 of the West. The death47 of Constantius, in the seventh month of his reign47, instead of diminishing, seemed to increase, the power47 of Placidia; and the indecent familiarity of her brother, which might be no more than the symptoms of a childish affection, were universally attributed to incestuous love. On a sudden, by some base intrigues of a steward and a nurse, this excessive fondness was converted into an irreconcilable quarrel; the debates of the emperor47 and his sister were not long47 confined within the walls of the palace47; and, as the Gothic soldiers47 adhered to their queen, the city47 of Ravenna was agitated with bloody and dangerous tumults, which could only be appeased by the forced or voluntary retreat of Placidia and her children. The royal exiles landed at Constantinople, soon47 after the marrige of Theodosius47, during the festival of the Persian victories. They were treated with kindness and magnificence; but, as the statues of the emperor47 Constantius had been rejected by the Eastern court, the title of Augusta could not decently be allowed to his widow. Within a few months after the arrival of Placidia, a swift messenger announced the death47 of Honorius, the consequence of a dropsy; but the important secret47 was not divulged, till the necessary orders had been despatched for the march of a large body of troops47 to the seacoast of Dalmatia. The shops and the gates of Constantinople remained shut during seven days; and the loss of a foreign prince47, who could neither be esteemed nor regretted, was celebrated with loud and affected demonstrations of the public47 grief.
While the ministers of Constantinople deliberated, the vacant throne of Honorius was usurped by the ambition of a stranger. The name of the rebel was John26; he filled the confidential office of Primicerius, or principal secretary; and history has attributed to his character more virtues than can easily be reconciled with the violation of the most sacred duty26. Elated by the submission of Italy26 and the hope26 of an alliance with the Huns, John26 presumed to insult, by an embassy, the majesty of the Eastern emperor; but, when he understood that his agents had been banished, imprisoned, and at length chased away with deserved ignominy, John26 prepared26 to assert, by arms, the injustice of his claims. In such a cause26, the grandson of the great26 Theodosius should have marched in person26; but the young emperor was easily diverted, by his physicians, from so rash and hazardous a design; and the conduct of the Italian expedition was prudently entrusted to Ardaburius and his son Aspar, who had already signalised their valour against the Persians. It was resolved that Ardaburius should embark with the infantry; whilst Aspar, at the head of the cavalry, conducted Placidia and her son Valentinian along the sea-coast of the Hadriatic. The march of the cavalry was performed with such active diligence that they surprised, without resistance, the important26 city of Aquileia; when the hopes of Aspar were unexpectedly confounded by the intelligence that a storm had dispersed the Imperial fleet; and that his father, with only two galleys, was taken and carried a prisoner into the port of Ravenna. Yet this incident, unfortunate as it might seem, facilitated the conquest of Italy26. Ardaburius employed, or abused, the courteous freedom which he was permitted to enjoy, to revive among the troops26 a sense of loyalty and gratitude; and, as soon26 as the conspiracy was ripe for execution, he invited, by private messages, and pressed the approach of, Aspar. A shepherd, whom the popular credulity transformed into an angel, guided the Eastern cavalry, by a secret and, it was thought, an impassable road, through the morasses of the Po; the gates of Ravenna, after a short struggle, were thrown open; and the defenceless tyrant was delivered to the mercy, or rather to the cruelty, of the conquerors. His right hand was first cut off; and, after he had been exposed, mounted on an ass, to the public26 derision, John26 was beheaded in the circus of Aquileia. The emperor Theodosius, when he received26 the news of the victory, interrupted the horse-races; and, singing, as he marched through the streets, a suitable psalm, conducted his people26 from the Hippodrome to the church, where he spent the remainder of the day in grateful devotion.
In a monarchy, which, according to various precedents, might be considered as elective, or hereditary, or patrimonial, it was impossible that the intricate claims of female and collateral succession should be clearly defined; and Theodosius47, by the right of consanguinity or conquest, might have reigned the sole legitimate emperor47 of the Romans. For a moment, perhaps, his eyes were dazzled by the prospect of unbounded sway; but his indolent temper gradually acquiesced in the dictates of sound policy. He contented himself with the possession of the East47; and wisely relinquished the laborious task of waging a distant and doubtful war47 against the Barbarians beyond the Alps; or of securing the obedience of the Italians and Africans, whose minds were alienated by the irreconcileable difference of language and interest. Instead of listening to the voice of ambition, Theodosius47 resolved to imitate the moderation of his grandfather, and to seat his cousin Valentinian on the throne47 of the West. The royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople by the title of Nobilissimus; he was promoted, before his departure from Thessalonica, to the rank47 and dignity of Caesar; and, after the conquest of Italy47, the patrician Helion, by the authority47 of Theodosius47, and in the presence of the senate47, saluted Valentinian the Third by the name of Augustus, and solemnly invested him with the diadem and the Imperial47 purple. By the agreement of the three females who governed the Roman47 world, the son47 of Placidia was betrothed to Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius47 and Athenais; and, as soon47 as the lover and his bride had attained the age47 of puberty, this honourable alliance was faithfully accomplished. At the same time, as a compensation, perhaps, for the expenses of the war47, the Western Illyricum was detached from the Italian dominions and yielded to the throne47 of Constantinople. The emperor47 of the East47 acquired the useful dominion of the rich and maritime province of Dalmatia, and the dangerous sovereignty of Pannonia and Noricum, which had been filled and ravaged above twenty years by a promiscuous crowd of Huns, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Bavarians. Theodosius47 and Valentinian continued to respect the obligations of their public47 and domestic alliance; but the unity of the Roman47 government47 was finally dissolved. By a positive declaration, the validity of all future laws was limited to the dominions of their peculiar author; unless he should think proper to communicate them, subscribed with his own hand, for the approbation of his independent colleague.
Valentinian, when he received the title of Augustus, was no more than six years3 of age; and his long3 minority was entrusted to the guardian care of a mother, who might assert a female claim to the succession of the Western Empire3. Placidia envied, but she could not equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and sister of Theodosius: the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was jealous of the power, which she was incapable of exercising; she reigned twenty-five years3, in the name of her son3; and the character of that unworthy emperor3 gradually countenanced the suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute education and studiously diverted his attention from every manly and honourable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military3 spirit, her armies were commanded by two generals, Aetius and Boniface, who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans3. Their union might have supported a sinking empire3; their discord was the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The invasion and defeat of Attila has immortalised the fame of Aetius; and, though time has thrown a shade over the exploits of his rival, the defence of Marseilles and the deliverance of Africa attest the military3 talents of Count Boniface. In the field of battle, in partial encounters, in single combats, he was still the terror of the Barbarians3; the clergy, and particularly his friend Augustin, were edified by the Christian piety which had once tempted him to retire from the world; the people applauded his spotless integrity; the army3 dreaded his equal and inexorable justice, which may be displayed in a very singular example. A peasant, who complained of the criminal intimacy between his wife and a Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his tribunal the following day; in the evening the count, who had diligently informed himself of the time and place of the assignation, mounted his horse, rode ten miles into the country, surprised the guilty couple, punished the soldier with instant death3, and silenced the complaints of the husband by presenting him, the next morning, with the head3 of the adulterer. The abilities of Aetius and Boniface might have been usefully employed against the public enemies, in separate and important3 commands; but the experience of their past conduct should have decided the real favour and confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melancholy season of her exile and distress, Boniface alone had maintained her cause with unshaken fidelity; and the troops3 and treasures of Africa had essentially contributed to extinguish the rebellion. The same rebellion had been supported by the zeal and activity of Aetius, who brought an army3 of sixty thousand3 Huns from the Danube to the confines of Italy, for the service of the usurper. The untimely death3 of John compelled him to accept an advantageous treaty3; but he still continued, the subject and the soldier of Valentinian, to entertain a secret, perhaps a treasonable, correspondence with his Barbarian3 allies, whose retreat had been purchased by liberal gifts and more liberal promises. But Aetius possessed an advantage of singular moment in a female reign3: he was present; he besieged, with artful and assiduous flattery, the palace of Ravenna; disguised his dark designs with the mask of loyalty and friendship3; and at length deceived both his mistress and his absent rival by a subtle conspiracy, which a weak woman and a brave man could not easily suspect. He secretly persuaded Placidia to recall Boniface from the government of Africa; he secretly advised Boniface to disobey the Imperial summons: to the one he represented the order as a sentence of death3; to the other he stated the refusal as a signal of revolt; and, when the credulous and unsuspectful count had armed the province in his defence, Aetius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the rebellion which his own perfidy had excited. A temperate inquiry into the real motives of Boniface would have restored a faithful servant to his duty and to the republic; but the arts of Aetius still continued to betray and to inflame, and the count was urged by persecution to embrace the most desperate counsels. The success with which he eluded or repelled the first attacks could not inspire a vain confidence that, at the head3 of some loose, disorderly Africans, he should be able to withstand the regular forces of the West, commanded by a rival whose military3 character it was impossible for him to despise. After some hesitation, the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface despatched a trusty friend to the court3, or rather to the camp3, of Gonderic, king3 of the Vandals, with the proposal of a strict alliance3, and the offer of an advantageous and perpetual settlement.
After the retreat of the Goths9, the authority of Honorius had obtained a precarious establishment in Spain; except only in the province9 of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals9 had fortified their camps, in mutual discord and hostile independence. The Vandals9 prevailed; and their adversaries were besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or rather provoked, the victorious Barbarians9 to remove the scene of the war9 to the plains of Baetica. The rapid progress of the Vandals9 soon9 required a more effectual opposition; and the master-general Castinus marched against them with a numerous army9 of Romans9 and Goths9. Vanquished in battle by an inferior enemy, Castinus fled with dishonour to Tarragona; and this memorable defeat, which has been represented as the punishment, was most probably the effect, of his rash presumption. Seville and Carthagena became the reward, or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquerors, and the vessels9 which they found in the harbour of Carthagena might easily transport them to the isles of Majorca and Minorca, where the Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed their families and their fortunes. The experience of navigation, and perhaps the prospect of Africa9, encouraged the Vandals9 to accept the invitation which they received from Count Boniface; and the death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the bold enterprise. In the room of a prince, not conspicuous for any superior powers of the mind or body, they acquired his bastard brother, the terrible Genseric: a name which, in the destruction of the Roman9 empire9, has deserved an equal rank with the names of Alaric and Attila. The king of the Vandals9 is described to have been of a middle stature, with a lameness in one leg, which he had contracted by an accidental fall from his horse. His slow and cautious speech seldom declared the deep purposes of his soul: he disdained to imitate the luxury of the vanquished; but he indulged the sterner passions of anger and revenge. The ambition of Genseric was without bounds, and without scruples; and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark engines of policy to solicit the allies who might be useful to his success, or to scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred and contention. Almost in the moment of his departure he was informed that Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to ravage the Spanish territories, which he was resolved to abandon. Impatient of the insult, Genseric pursued the hasty retreat of the Suevi as far9 as Merida; precipitated the king and his army9 into the river9 Anas; and calmly returned to the sea9-shore, to embark his victorious troops9. The vessels9 which transported the Vandals9 over the modern Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only twelve miles9 in breadth, were furnished by the Spaniards, who anxiously wished their departure, and by the African general, who had implored their formidable assistance.
Our fancy, so long9 accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the martial swarms of Barbarians9 that seemed to issue from the North9, will perhaps be surprised by the account of the army9 which Genseric mustered on the coast9 of Mauritania. The Vandals9, who in twenty years had penetrated from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were united under the command of their warlike king; and he reigned with equal authority over the Alani, who had passed, within the term of human life, from the cold of Scythia to the excessive heat of an African climate. The hopes of the bold enterprise had excited many brave adventurers of the Gothic nation9; and many desperate provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by the same means which had occasioned their ruin. Yet this various multitude amounted only to fifty thousand9 effective men9; and, though Genseric artfully magnified his apparent strength, by appointing eighty chiliarchs, or commanders of thousands, the fallacious increase of old men9, of children, and of slaves would scarcely have swelled his army9 to the number of fourscore thousand9 persons. But his own dexterity, and the discontents of Africa9, soon9 fortified the Vandal powers by the accession of numerous and active allies. The parts of Mauritania, which border on the great9 desert and the Atlantic ocean9, were filled with a fierce and untractable race of men9, whose savage temper had been exasperated, rather than reclaimed, by their dread of the Roman9 arms9. The wandering Moors, as they gradually ventured to approach the seashore and the camp9 of the Vandals9, must have viewed with terror and astonishment the dress, the armour, the martial pride and discipline of the unknown strangers, who had landed on their coast9; and the fair complexions of the blueeyed warriors of Germany formed a very singular contrast with the swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighbourhood of the torrid zone. After the first difficulties had in some measure been removed, which arose from the mutual ignorance of their respective language, the Moors, regardless of any future consequence, embraced the alliance of the enemies of Rome9; and a crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and valleys of Mount Atlas, to satiate their revenge on the polished tyrants who had injuriously expelled them from the native sovereignty of the land.
The persecution of the Donatists was an event not less favourable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen years13 before he landed in Africa, a public conference was held at Carthage, by the order of the magistrate. The Catholics were satisfied that, after the invincible reasons which they had alleged, the obstinacy of the schismatics must be inexcusable and voluntary; and the emperor13 Honorius was persuaded to inflict the most rigorous penalties on a faction which had so long abused his patience and clemency. Three hundred bishops, with many thousands of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the islands, and proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous congregations, both in cities and in the country, were deprived of the rights of citizens, and of the exercise of religious worship. A regular scale of fines, from ten to two hundred pounds of silver, was curiously ascertained, according to the distinctions of rank and fortune13, to punish the crime of assisting at a schismatic conventicle; and, if the fine had been levied five times, without subduing the obstinacy of the offender, his future punishment was referred to the discretion of the Imperial13 court. By these severities, which obtained the warmest approbation of St. Augustin, great13 numbers of Donatists were reconciled to the Catholic church; but the fanatics, who still persevered in their opposition, were provoked to madness and despair; the distracted country was filled with tumult and bloodshed; the armed troops of Circumcellions alternately pointed their rage against themselves or against their adversaries; and the calendar of martyrs received on both sides a considerable augmentation. Under these circumstances, Genseric, a Christian, but an enemy of the orthodox communion, showed himself to the Donatists as a powerful deliverer, from whom they might reasonably expect the repeal of the odious and oppressive edicts of the Roman13 emperors. The conquest of Africa was facilitated by the active zeal, or the secret favour, of a domestic faction; the wanton outrages against the churches and the clergy, of which the Vandals are accused, may be fairly imputed to the fanaticism of their allies; and the intolerant spirit, which disgraced the triumph of Christianity, contributed to the loss of the most important province of the West.
The court and the people36 were astonished by the strange intelligence that a virtuous hero, after so many favours and so many services, had renounced his allegiance, and invited the Barbarians36 to destroy the province36 entrusted to his command. The friends of Boniface, who still believed that his criminal behaviour might be excused by some honourable motive, solicited, during the absence of Aetius, a free conference with the count of Africa, and Darius, an officer of high distinction, was named for the important36 embassy. In their first interview at Carthage, the imaginary provocations were mutually explained; the opposite letters of Aetius were produced and compared; and the fraud was easily detected. Placidia and Boniface lamented their fatal error; and the count had sufficient magnanimity to confide in the forgiveness of his sovereign or to expose his head36 to her future resentment. His repentance was fervent and sincere; but he soon36 discovered that it was no longer in his power36 to restore the edifice which he had shaken to its foundations. Carthage, and the Roman36 garrisons, returned with their general36 to the allegiance of Valentinian; but the rest of Africa was still distracted with war36 and faction; and the inexorable king of the Vandals, disdaining all terms of accommodation, sternly refused to relinquish the possession of his prey. The band of veterans, who marched under the standard of Boniface, and his hasty levies of provincial troops, were defeated with considerable36 loss; the victorious Barbarians36 insulted the open country36; and Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius were the only cities36 that appeared to rise above the general36 inundation.
The long47 and narrow tract of the African coast was filled with frequent monuments of Roman47 art and magnificence; and the respective degrees of improvement might be accurately measured by the distance from Carthage and the Mediterranean. A simple reflection will impress every thinking mind with the clearest idea of fertility and cultivation: the country was extremely populous; the inhabitants reserved a liberal subsistence for their own use; and the annual exportation, particularly of wheat, was so regular and plentiful that Africa deserved the name of the common granary of Rome47 and of mankind. On a sudden the seven fruitful provinces47, from Tangier to Tripoli, were overwhelmed by the invasion of the Vandals; whose destructive rage has perhaps been exaggerated by popular animosity, religious zeal, and extravagant declamation. War47, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice47; and the hostilities of Barbarians are inflamed by the fierce and lawless spirit47 which incessantly disturbs their peaceful and domestic society. The Vandals, where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter; and the deaths of their valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the distinctions of age47, or sex, or rank47, they employed every species of indignity and torture, to force from the captives a discovery of their hidden wealth. The stern policy of Genseric justified his frequent examples of military47 execution: he was not always the master47 of his own passions, or of those of his followers; and the calamities of war47 were aggravated by the licentiousness of the Moors and the fanaticism of the Donatists. Yet I shall not easily be persuaded that it was the common practice of the Vandals to extirpate the olives, and other fruit trees, of a country where they intended to settle; nor can I believe that it was a usual stratagem to slaughter great numbers of their prisoners before the walls of a besieged city47, for the sole purpose of infecting the air and producing a pestilence of which they themselves must have been the first victims.
The generous mind18 of Count18 Boniface was tortured by the exquisite distress of beholding the ruin which he had occasioned, and whose rapid progress18 he was unable to check. After the loss of a battle18 he retired into Hippo Regius; where he was immediately besieged by an enemy who considered him as the real bulwark of Africa. The maritime colony of Hippo, about two hundred miles westward of Carthage, had formerly acquired the distinguishing epithet of Regius, from the residence of Numidian kings; and some remains of trade and populousness still adhere to the modern city18, which is known in Europe18 by the corrupted name of Bona. The military labours and anxious reflections of Count18 Boniface were alleviated by the edifying conversation of his friend St18. Augustin; till that bishop18, the light18 and pillar of the Catholic church18, was gently released, in the third month of the siege, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age18, from the actual and the impending calamities of his country. The youth of Augustin had been stained by the vices and errors which he so ingenuously confesses; but from the moment of his conversion to that of his death18 the manners of the bishop18 of Hippo were pure and austere; and the most conspicuous of his virtues was an ardent zeal against heretics of every denomination: the Manichaeans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians, against whom he waged a perpetual controversy. When the city18, some months after his death18, was burnt by the Vandals, the library was fortunately saved, which contained his voluminous writings: two hundred and thirty-two separate books, or treatises, on theological subjects, besides a complete exposition of the psalter and the gospel, and a copious magazine of epistles and homilies. According to the judgment of the most impartial critics, the superficial learning of Augustin was confined18 to the Latin language18; and his style, though sometimes animated by the eloquence18 of passion, is usually clouded by false and affected rhetoric. But he possessed a strong, capacious, argumentative mind18; he boldly sounded the dark abyss of grace, predestination, freewill, and original sin; and the rigid system of Christianity, which he framed or restored, has been entertained, with public applause and secret reluctance, by the Latin church18.
By the skill of Boniface, and perhaps by the ignorance of the Vandals, the siege of Hippo was protracted above fourteen months; the sea was continually open, and, when the adjacent country had been exhausted by irregular rapine, the besiegers themselves were compelled by famine to relinquish their enterprise. The importance and danger47 of Africa were deeply felt by the regent of the West. Placidia implored the assistance of her Eastern ally; and the Italian fleet and army47 were reinforced by Aspar, who sailed from Constantinople with a powerful armament. As soon47 as the force of the two empires was united under the command47 of Boniface, he boldly marched against the Vandals; and the loss of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of despair, and the people47 of Hippo were permitted, with their families and effects, to occupy the vacant place of the soldiers47, the greatest part of whom were either slain or made prisoners by the Vandals. The count, whose fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the republic, might enter the palace47 of Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon47 removed by the smiles of Placidia. Boniface accepted with gratitude the rank47 of patrician, and the dignity of master47-general47 of the Roman47 armies; but he must have blushed at the sight of those medals in which he was represented with the name and attributes of victory. The discovery of his fraud, the displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished favour of his rival exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of Aetius. He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy47, with a retinue, or rather with an army47, of Barbarian followers; and such was the weakness of the government47 that the two generals decided their private47 quarrel in a bloody battle. Boniface was successful; but he received in the conflict a mortal wound from the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a few days, in such Christian and charitable sentiments that he exhorted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to accept Aetius for her second husband. But Aetius could not derive any immediate advantage from the generosity of his dying enemy; he was proclaimed a rebel by the justice47 of Placidia, and, though he attempted to defend some strong fortresses erected on his patrimonial estate, the Imperial47 power47 soon47 compelled him to retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. The republic was deprived, by their mutual discord, of the service of her two most illustrious champions.
It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of Boniface, that the Vandals9 would achieve, without resistance or delay, the conquest9 of Africa9. Eight years however elapsed from the evacuation of Hippo to the reduction of Carthage. In the midst of that interval the ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of apparent prosperity, negotiated a treaty of peace, by which he gave his son Hunneric for an hostage, and consented to leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three Mauritanias. This moderation, which cannot be imputed to the justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror. His throne was encompassed with domestic enemies, who accused the baseness of his birth and asserted the legitimate claims of his nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he sacrificed to his safety; and their mother, the widow of the deceased king, was precipitated, by his order, into the river9 Ampsaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and frequent conspiracies; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to have shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner than in the field of battle. The convulsions of Africa9, which had favoured his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power, and the various seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists and Catholics, continually disturbed, or threatened, the unsettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Carthage, he was forced to withdraw his troops9 from the Western provinces9; the sea9-coast9 was exposed to the naval enterprises of the Romans9 of Spain and Italy9; and, in the heart of Numidia, the strong inland city9 of Cirta still persisted in obstinate independence. These difficulties were gradually subdued by the spirit, the perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric, who alternately applied the arts of peace and war9 to the establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn treaty, with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of its continuance and the moment of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship which concealed his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length surprised by the Vandals9, five hundred and eighty-five years after the destruction of the city9 and republic by the younger Scipio.
A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a colony; and, though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives of Constantinople33, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria33 or the splendour of Antioch33, she still maintained the second rank in the West33; as the Rome (if we may use the style of contemporaries) of the African world. That wealthy and opulent metropolis displayed, in a dependent condition, the image of a flourishing republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the treasures of the six provinces. A regular subordination of civil honours gradually ascended from the procurators of the streets and quarters of the city to the tribunal of the supreme magistrate, who, with the title of proconsul, represented the state and dignity of a consul of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were instituted for the education of the African youth, and the liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were publicly taught in the Greek33 and Latin33 languages. The buildings of Carthage were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was planted in the midst of the capital; the new port, a secure and capacious harbour, was subservient to the commercial industry of citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and theatre were exhibited almost in the presence of the Barbarians. The reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their country, and the reproach of Punic faith33 still adhered to their subtle and faithless character. The habits of trade and the abuse of luxury had corrupted their manners; but their impious contempt of monks33 and the shameless practice of unnatural lusts are the two abominations which excite the pious vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age. The king of the Vandals severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people33; and the ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these expressions of Victor are not without energy) was reduced by Genseric into a state of ignominious servitude. After he had permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular system of rapine and oppression. An edict was promulgated, which enjoined all persons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, silver, jewels, and valuable furniture or apparel to the royal officers; and the attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony was inexorably punished with death and torture, as an act of treason against the state. The lands of the proconsular province, which formed the immediate district of Carthage, were accurately measured and divided among the Barbarians; and the conqueror reserved for his peculiar domain the fertile territory of Byzacium, and the adjacent parts of Numidia and Getulia.
It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom he had injured; the nobility and senators of Carthage were exposed to his jealousy and resentment; and all those who refused the ignominious terms, which their honour and religion44 forbade them to accept, were compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the condition of perpetual banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the East were filled with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives, and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the public44 compassion; and the benevolent epistles of Theodoret still preserve the names and misfortunes of Caelestian and Maria44. The Syrian bishop44 deplores the misfortunes of Caelestian, who, from the state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced44, with his wife and family44, and servants, to beg his bread in a foreign country44; but he applauds the resignation of the Christian exile, and the philosophic temper which, under the pressure of such calamities, could enjoy more real happiness than was the ordinary lot of wealth and prosperity. The story of Maria44, the daughter44 of the magnificent Eudaemon, is singular and interesting. In the sack of Carthage, she was purchased from the Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who afterwards sold her as a slave in their native country44. A female attendant, transported in the same ship, and sold in the same family44, still continued to respect a mistress whom fortune had reduced44 to the common44 level of servitude; and the daughter44 of Eudaemon received44 from her grateful affection the domestic services which she had once required from her obedience. This remarkable behaviour divulged the real condition of Maria44, who, in the absence of the bishop44 of Cyrrhus, was redeemed from slavery by the generosity of some soldiers44 of the garrison. The liberality of Theodoret provided for her decent maintenance; and she passed ten months among the deaconesses of the church; till she was unexpectedly informed that her father44, who had escaped from the ruin of Carthage, exercised an honourable office in one of the Western provinces. Her filial impatience was seconded by the pious bishop44: Theodoret, in a letter still extant, recommends Maria44 to the bishop44 of Aegae, a maritime city44 of Cilicia, which was frequented, during the annual fair, by the vessels of the West, most earnestly requesting that his colleague would use the maiden with a tenderness suitable to her birth, and that he would entrust her to the care of such faithful44 merchants as would esteem it a sufficient gain if they restored a daughter44, lost beyond all human hope, to the arms of her afflicted parent.
Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am tempted to distinguish the memorable fable of the Seven19 Sleepers; whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger Theodosius and the conquest of Africa by the Vandals. When the emperor19 Decius persecuted the Christians, seven19 noble youths of Ephesus19 concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of an adjacent mountain; where they were doomed to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life19, during a period of one hundred and eighty-seven19 years19. At the end of that time19, the slaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had descended, removed the stones, to supply materials for some rustic edifice; the light of the sun darted into the cavern, and the seven19 sleepers were permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they thought, of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger; and resolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, should secretly return to the city19, to purchase bread for the use of his companions. The youth (if we may still employ that appellation) could no longer recognise the once familiar aspect of his native country19; and his surprise was increased by the appearance of a large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus19. His singular dress and obsolete language confounded the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the current coin of the empire19; and Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual inquiries produced the amazing discovery that two centuries were almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had escaped from the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephesus19, the clergy, the magistrates, the people19, and, as it is said, the emperor19 Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of the Seven19 Sleepers; who bestowed their benediction, related their story, and at the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and credulity of the modern Greeks, since the authentic tradition may be traced within half a century of the supposed miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was born only two years19 after the death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his two hundred and thirty19 homilies to the praise of the young men of Ephesus19. Their legend, before the end of the sixth century, was translated from the Syriac into the Latin language, by the care of Gregory of Tours. The hostile communions of the East preserve their memory with equal reverence; and their names are honourably inscribed in the Roman19, the Abyssinian, and the Russian calendar. Nor has their reputation been confined to the Christian world. This popular tale, which Mahomet might learn when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced, as a divine revelation, into the Koran. The story of the Seven19 Sleepers has been adopted, and adorned, by the nations, from Bengal to Africa, who profess the Mahometan religion19; and some vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in the remote extremities of Scandinavia. This easy and universal belief, so expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascribed to the genuine merit of the fable itself. We imperceptibly advance from youth to age19, without observing the gradual, but incessant, change of human affairs, and, even in our larger experiences of history, the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual series of causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolutions. But, if the interval between two memorable eras could be instantly annihilated; if it were possible, after a momentary slumber of two hundred years19, to display the new19 world to the eyes of a spectator, who still retained a lively and recent impression of the old; his surprise and his reflections would furnish the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance. The scene could not be more advantageously placed than in the two centuries which elapsed between the reigns of Decius and of Theodosius the younger. During this period, the seat of government had been transported from Rome19 to a new19 city19 on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus; and the abuse of military spirit19 had been suppressed by an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude. The throne19 of the persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of Christian and orthodox princes, who had extirpated the fabulous gods of antiquity; and the public19 devotion of the age19 was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic church on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman19 empire19 was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown Barbarians19, issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces19 of Europe and Africa.
The Western world was oppressed by the Goths9 and Vandals9, who fled before the Huns9; but the achievements of the Huns9 themselves were not adequate to their power and prosperity. Their victorious hordes had spread from the Volga to the Danube9; but the public force was exhausted by the discord of independent chieftains; their valour9 was idly consumed in obscure and predatory excursions; and they often degraded their national dignity by condescending, for the hopes of spoil, to enlist under the banners of their fugitive enemies. In the reign of Attila, the Huns9 again became the terror of the world; and I shall now describe the character and actions of that formidable Barbarian, who alternately insulted and invaded the East and the West9, and urged the rapid downfall of the Roman9 empire9.
In the tide of emigration which impetuously rolled from the confines of China to those of Germany, the most powerful and populous tribes may commonly be found on the verge of the Roman3 provinces3. The accumulated weight was sustained for a while by artificial barriers; and the easy condescension of the emperors invited, without satisfying, the insolent demands of the Barbarians3, who had acquired an eager appetite for the luxuries of civilised life. The Hungarians, who ambitiously insert the name of Attila among their native kings, may affirm with truth that the hordes which were subject to his uncle Roas, or Rugilas, had formed their encampments within the limits of modern Hungary, in a fertile country which liberally supplied the wants of a nation of hunters and shepherds. In this advantageous situation, Rugilas and his valiant brothers, who continually added to their power and reputation, commanded the alternative of peace3 or war3 with the two empires. His alliance3 with the Romans3 of the West was cemented by his personal friendship3 for the great3 Aetius; who was always secure of finding in the Barbarian3 camp3 a hospitable reception and a powerful support. At his solicitation, in the name of John the usurper, sixty thousand3 Huns advanced to the confines of Italy; their march and their retreat were alike expensive to the state; and the grateful policy of Aetius abandoned the possession of Pannonia to his faithful confederates. The Romans3 of the East3 were not less apprehensive of the arms3 of Rugilas, which threatened the provinces3, or even the capital. Some ecclesiastical historians have destroyed the Barbarians3 with lightning and pestilence; but Theodosius was reduced to the more humble expedient of stipulating an annual payment of three hundred and fifty pounds of gold, and of disguising this dishonourable tribute by the title of general3, which the king3 of the Huns condescended to accept. The public tranquillity was frequently interrupted by the fierce impatience of the Barbarians3 and the perfidious intrigues of the Byzantine court3. Four dependent nations, among whom we may distinguish the Bavarians, disclaimed the sovereignty of the Huns; and their revolt was encouraged and protected by a Roman3 alliance3; till the just claims and formidable power of Rugilas were effectually urged by the voice of Eslaw, his ambassador. Peace3 was the unanimous wish of the senate; their decree was ratified by the emperor3; and two ambassadors were named, Plinthas, a general3 of Scythian extraction, but of consular rank, and the quaestor Epigenes, a wise and experienced statesman, who was recommended to that office by his ambitious colleague.
The death3 of Rugilas suspended the progress of the treaty3. His two nephews, Attila and Bleda, who succeeded to the throne3 of their uncle, consented to a personal interview with the ambassadors of Constantinople; but, as they proudly refused to dismount, the business was transacted on horseback, in a spacious plain near the city3 of Margus in the Upper Maesia. The kings of the Huns assumed the solid benefits, as well as the vain honours, of the negotiation. They dictated the conditions of peace3, and each condition was an insult on the majesty of the empire3. Besides the freedom of a safe and plentiful market on the banks of the Danube, they required that the annual contribution should be augmented from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred pounds of gold; that a fine, or ransom, of eight pieces of gold should be paid for every Roman3 captive who had escaped from his Barbarian3 master; that the emperor3 should renounce all treaties and engagements with the enemies of the Huns; and that all the fugitives, who had taken refuge in the court3 or provinces3 of Theodosius, should be delivered to the justice of their offended sovereign. This justice was rigorously inflicted on some unfortunate youths of a royal3 race. They were crucified on the territories of the empire3, by the command of Attila: and, as soon3 as the king3 of the Huns had impressed the Romans3 with the terror of his name, he indulged them in a short and arbitrary respite, whilst he subdued the rebellious or independent nations of Scythia and Germany.
Attila, the son of Mundzuk, deduced his noble, perhaps his regal, descent from the ancient8 Huns, who had formerly contended with the monarchs of China. His features, according to the observation of a Gothic historian, bore the stamp of his national origin; and the portrait of Attila exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck: a large head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength, though of a disproportioned form. The haughty step and demeanour of the king of the Huns expressed the consciousness of his superiority above the rest of mankind8; and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he inspired. Yet this savage hero was not inaccessible to pity: his suppliant enemies might confide in the assurance of peace or pardon; and Attila was considered by his subjects8 as a just and indulgent master. He delighted in war; but, after he had ascended the throne in a mature age8, his head, rather than his hand, achieved the conquest of the North; and the fame of an adventurous soldier was usefully exchanged for that of a prudent and successful general. The effects of personal valour are so inconsiderable, except in poetry or romance, that victory, even among Barbarians, must depend on the degree of skill with which the passions8 of the multitude are combined and guided for the service of a single man8. The Scythian conquerors, Attila and Zingis, surpassed their rude countrymen in art rather than in courage; and it may be observed that the monarchies, both of the Huns and of the Moguls, were erected by their founders on the basis of popular superstition8. The miraculous conception, which fraud and credulity ascribed to the virgin-mother of Zingis, raised him above the level of human8 nature8; and the naked prophet, who, in the name of the Deity8, invested him with the empire8 of the earth, pointed the valour of the Moguls with irresistible enthusiasm. The religious8 arts of Attila were not less skilfully adapted to the character8 of his age8 and country. It was natural enough that the Scythians should adore, with peculiar devotion8, the god8 of war; but, as they were incapable of forming either an abstract idea or a corporeal representation, they worshipped their tutelar deity8 under the symbol of an iron cimeter. One of the shepherds of the Huns perceived that a heifer, who was grazing, had wounded herself in the foot, and curiously followed the track of the blood, till he discovered, among the long grass, the point of an ancient8 sword, which he dug out of the ground and presented to Attila. That magnanimous, or rather that artful, prince accepted, with pious gratitude, this celestial favour; and, as the rightful possessor of the sword of Mars, asserted his divine8 and indefeasible claim to the dominion of the earth. If the rites of Scythia were practised on this solemn occasion, a lofty altar, or rather pile of faggots, three hundred yards in length and in breadth, was raised in a spacious plain; and the sword of Mars was placed erect on the summit of this rustic altar, which was annually consecrated by the blood of sheep, horses, and of the hundredth captive. Whether human8 sacrifices formed any part of the worship8 of Attila, or whether he propitiated the god8 of war with the victims which he continually offered in the field of battle, the favourite of Mars soon acquired a sacred8 character8, which rendered his conquests more easy, and more permanent; and the Barbarian princes confessed, in the language of devotion8 and flattery, that they could not presume to gaze, with a steady eye, on the divine8 majesty of the king of the Huns. His brother Bleda, who reigned over a considerable part of the nation, was compelled to resign his sceptre and his life8. Yet even this cruel act was attributed to a supernatural impulse; and the vigour with which Attila wielded the sword of Mars convinced the world8 that it had been reserved alone for his invincible arm. But the extent of his empire8 affords the only remaining evidence of the number and importance of his victories; and the Scythian monarch, however ignorant of the value of science and philosophy, might, perhaps, lament that his illiterate subjects8 were destitute of the art which could perpetuate the memory of his exploits.
If a line of separation were drawn between the civilised and the savage20 climates of the globe; between the inhabitants of cities, who cultivated the earth, and the hunters and shepherds, who dwelt in tents; Attila20 might aspire to the title of supreme and sole monarch20 of the Barbarians. He alone, among the conquerors of ancient and modern times, united the two mighty kingdoms of Germany and Scythia; and those vague appellations, when they are applied to his reign20, may be understood with an ample latitude. Thuringia, which stretched beyond its actual limits as far as the Danube, was in the number of his provinces; he interposed, with the weight of a powerful neighbour, in the domestic affairs of the Franks20; and one of his lieutenants chastised, and almost exterminated, the Burgundians of the Rhine. He subdued the islands of the ocean, the kingdoms of Scandinavia, encompassed and divided by the waters of the Baltic; and the Huns20 might derive a tribute of furs from that Northern region which has been protected from all other conquerors by the severity of the climate and the courage of the natives. Towards the east, it is difficult to circumscribe the dominion of Attila20 over the Scythian deserts; yet we may be assured that he reigned on the banks of the Volga; that the king20 of the Huns20 was dreaded, not only as a warrior, but as a magician; that he insulted and vanquished the Khan of the formidable Geougen; and that he sent ambassadors20 to negotiate an equal alliance with the empire20 of China. In the proud review of the nations20 who acknowledged the sovereignty of Attila20, and who never entertained, during his lifetime, the thought of a revolt, the Gepidae20 and the Ostrogoths were distinguished by their numbers, their bravery, and the personal merit of their chiefs. The renowned Ardaric, king20 of the Gepidae20, was the faithful and sagacious counsellor of the monarch20, who esteemed his intrepid genius, whilst he loved the mild and discreet virtues of the noble Walamir, king20 of the Ostrogoths. The crowd of vulgar kings, the leaders of so many martial tribes, who served under the standard of Attila20, were ranged in the submissive order of guards and domestics, round the person20 of their master20. They watched his nod; they trembled at his frown; and, at the first signal of his will, they executed, without murmur or hesitation, his stern and absolute commands. In time of peace, the dependent princes, with their national troops, attended the royal20 camp in regular succession; but, when Attila20 collected his military force, he was able to bring into the field an army of five, or according to another account of seven, hundred thousand Barbarians.
The ambassadors of the Huns9 might awaken the attention of Theodosius, by reminding him that they were his neighbours both in Europe9 and Asia9; since they touched the Danube9 on one hand, and reached, with the other, as far9 as the Tanais. In the reign of his father Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns9 had ravaged the provinces9 of the East; from whence they brought away rich spoils and innumerable captives.
They advanced, by a secret path, along the shores of the Caspian Sea; traversed the snowy mountains of Armenia3; passed the Tigris3, the Euphrates, and the Halys; recruited their weary cavalry with the generous breed of Cappadocian horses; occupied the hilly country of Cilicia; and disturbed the festal songs and dances of the citizens of Antioch. Egypt trembled at their approach; and the monks and pilgrims of the Holy Land prepared to escape their fury by a speedy embarkation. The memory of this invasion was still recent in the minds of the Orientals. The subjects of Attila might execute, with superior forces, the design which these adventurers had so boldly attempted; and it soon3 became the subject of anxious conjecture, whether the tempest would fall on the dominions of Rome or of Persia3. Some of the great3 vassals of the king3 of the Huns, who were themselves in the rank of powerful princes, had been sent to ratify an alliance3 and society of arms3 with the emperor3, or rather with the general3, of the West. They related, during their residence at Rome, the circumstances of an expedition which they had lately made into the East3. After passing a desert and a morass, supposed by the Romans3 to be the lake Maeotis, they penetrated through the mountains, and arrived, at the end of fifteen days' march, on the confines of Media; where they advanced as far as the unknown cities of Basic and Cursic. They encountered the Persian3 army3 in the plains of Media; and the air, according to their own expression, was darkened by a cloud of arrows. But the Huns were obliged to retire, before the numbers of the enemy3. Their laborious retreat was effected by a different road; they lost the greatest part of their booty; and at length returned to the royal3 camp3, with some knowledge of the country, and an impatient desire of revenge. In the free conversation of the Imperial ambassadors, who discussed, at the court3 of Attila, the character and designs of their formidable enemy3, the ministers of Constantinople expressed their hope that his strength might be diverted and employed in a long3 and doubtful contest with the princes of the house of Sassan. The more sagacious Italians admonished their Eastern brethren of the folly and danger of such a hope, and convinced them that the Medes and Persians3 were incapable of resisting the arms3 of the Huns, and that the easy and important3 acquisition would exalt the pride, as well as power, of the conqueror. Instead of contenting himself with a moderate contribution, and a military3 title which equalled him only to the generals of Theodosius, Attila would proceed to impose a disgraceful and intolerable yoke on the necks of the prostrate and captive Romans3, who would then be encompassed, on all sides, by the empire3 of the Huns.
While the powers of Europe9 and Asia9 were solicitous to avert the impending danger, the alliance of Attila maintained the Vandals9 in the possession of Africa9. An enterprise had been concerted between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, for the recovery of that valuable province9; and the ports of Sicily were already filled with the military and naval forces of Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotiations round the world, prevented their designs by exciting the king of the Huns9 to invade the Eastern empire9; and a trifling incident soon9 became the motive, or pretence, of a destructive war9. Under the faith of the treaty of Margus, a free market was held on the northern side of the Danube9, which was protected by a Roman9 fortress surnamed Constantia. A troop of Barbarians9 violated the commercial security, killed, or dispersed, the unsuspecting traders, and levelled the fortress with the ground. The Huns9 justified this outrage as an act of reprisal; alleged that the bishop of Margus had entered their territories, to discover and steal a secret treasure of their kings; and sternly demanded the guilty prelate, the sacrilegious spoil, and the fugitive subjects, who had escaped from the justice of Attila. The refusal of the Byzantine court was the signal of war9; and the Maesians at first applauded the generous firmness of their sovereign. But they were soon9 intimidated by the destruction of Viminacium and the adjacent towns; and the people were persuaded to adopt the convenient maxim that a private citizen, however innocent or respectable, may be justly sacrificed to the safety of his country9. The bishop of Margus, who did not possess the spirit of a martyr, resolved to prevent the designs which he suspected. He boldly treated with the princes of the Huns9; secured, by solemn oaths, his pardon and reward; posted a numerous detachment of Barbarians9, in silent ambush, on the banks9 of the Danube9; and at the appointed hour opened, with his own hand, the gates of his episcopal city9. This advantage, which had been obtained by treachery, served as a prelude to more honourable and decisive victories. The Illyrian frontier was covered by a line of castles and fortresses; and, though the greatest part of them consisted only of a single tower, with a small garrison, they were commonly sufficient to repel, or to intercept, the inroads of an enemy who was ignorant of the art, and impatient of the delay, of a regular siege. But these slight obstacles were instantly swept away by the inundation of the Huns9. They destroyed, with fire and sword, the populous cities9 of Sirmium and Singidunum, of Ratiaria and Marcianopolis, of Naissus and Sardica; where every circumstance, in the discipline of the people and the construction of the buildings, had been gradually adapted to the sole purpose of defence. The whole breadth of Europe9, as it extends above five hundred miles9 from the Euxine to the Hadriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and desolated by the myriads of Barbarians9 whom Attila led into the field. The public danger and distress could not, however, provoke Theodosius to interrupt his amusements and devotion, or to appear in person at the head of the Roman9 legions. But the troops9 which had been sent against Genseric were hastily recalled from Sicily; the garrisons on the side of Persia were exhausted; and a military force was collected in Europe9, formidable by their arms9 and numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command, and their soldiers the duty of obedience. The armies of the Eastern empire9 were vanquished in three successive engagements; and the progress of Attila may be traced by the fields of battle. The two former, on the banks9 of the Utus, and under the walls9 of Marcianopolis, were fought in the extensive plains between the Danube9 and Mount Haemus. As the Romans9 were pressed by a victorious enemy, they gradually, and unskilfully, retired towards the Chersonesus of Thrace; and that narrow peninsula, the last extremity of the land, was marked by their third, and irreparable, defeat. By the destruction of this army9, Attila acquired the indisputable possession of the field. From the Hellespont to Thermopylae and the suburbs of Constantinople, he ravaged, without resistance, and without mercy, the provinces9 of Thrace and Macedonia. Heraclea and Hadrianople might, perhaps, escape this dreadful irruption of the Huns9; but the words the most expressive of total extirpation and erasure are applied to the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities9 of the Eastern empire9. Theodosius, his court, and the unwarlike people were protected by the walls9 of Constantinople; but those walls9 had been shaken by a recent earthquake, and the fall of fifty-eight towers had opened a large and tremendous breach. The damage indeed was speedily repaired; but this accident was aggravated by a superstitious fear that Heaven itself had delivered the Imperial city9 to the shepherds of Scythia, who were strangers to the laws, the language, and the religion of the Romans9.
In all their invasions of the civilised empires of the South, the Scythian shepherds have been uniformly actuated by a savage and destructive spirit. The laws of war9, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of conquest9; and a just apprehension lest the desolation which we inflict on the enemy's country9 may be retaliated on our own. But these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the pastoral state of nations9. The Huns9 of Attila may, without injustice, be compared to the Moguls and Tartars, before their primitive manners were changed by religion and luxury; and the evidence of Oriental history may reflect some light on the short and imperfect annals of Rome9. After the Moguls had subdued the northern provinces9 of China, it was seriously proposed, not in the hour of victory and passion, but in calm deliberate council, to exterminate all the inhabitants9 of that populous country9, that the vacant land might be converted to the pasture of cattle. The firmness of a Chinese mandarin, who insinuated some principles of rational policy into the mind of Zingis, diverted him from the execution of this horrid design. But in the cities9 of Asia9, which yielded to the Moguls, the inhuman abuse of the rights of war9 was exercised, with a regular form of discipline, which may, with equal reason, though not with equal authority, be imputed to the victorious Huns9. The inhabitants9, who had submitted to their discretion, were ordered to evacuate their houses, and to assemble in some plain adjacent to the city9; where a division was made of the vanquished into three parts. The first class consisted of the soldiers of the garrison, and of the young men9 capable of bearing arms9; and their fate was instantly decided: they were either enlisted among the Moguls, or they were massacred on the spot by the troops9, who, with pointed spears and bended bows, had formed a circle round the captive multitude. The second class, composed of the young and beautiful women, of the artificers of every rank and profession, and of the more wealthy or honourable citizens, from whom a private ransom might be expected, was distributed in equal or proportionable lots. The remainder, whose life or death was alike useless to the conquerors, were permitted to return to the city9; which, in the meanwhile, had been stripped of its valuable furniture; and a tax was imposed on those wretched inhabitants9 for the indulgence of breathing their native air. Such was the behaviour of the Moguls, when they were not conscious of any extraordinary rigour. But the most casual provocation, the slightest motive of caprice or convenience, often provoked them to involve a whole people in an indiscriminate massacre; and the ruin of some flourishing cities9 was executed with such unrelenting perseverance that, according to their own expression, horses might run, without stumbling, over the ground where they had once stood. The three great9 capitals of Khorasan, Maru, Neisabour, and Herat were destroyed by the armies of Zingis; and the exact account which was taken of the slain amounted to four millions three hundred and forty-seven thousand9 persons. Timur, or Tamerlane, was educated in a less barbarous age, and in the profession of the Mahometan religion; yet, if Attila equalled the hostile ravages of Tamerlane, either the Tartar or the Hun might deserve the epithet of the Scourge of God.
It may be affirmed, with bolder assurance, that the Huns depopulated the provinces29 of the empire29, by the number of Roman29 subjects whom they led away into captivity. In the hands of a wise legislator, such an industrious colony might have contributed to diffuse, through the deserts of Scythia, the rudiments of the useful29 and ornamental arts; but these captives, who had been taken in war, were accidentally dispersed among the hordes that obeyed the empire29 of Attila. The estimate of their respective value was formed by the simple judgment of unenlightened and unprejudiced Barbarians29. Perhaps they might not understand the merit of a theologian, profoundly skilled in the controversies of the Trinity and the Incarnation; yet they respected the ministers of every religion; and the active zeal of the Christian missionaries, without approaching the person or the palace of the monarch, successfully laboured in the propagation of the gospel. The pastoral tribes, who were ignorant of the distinction of landed property, must have disregarded the use, as well as the abuse, of civil jurisprudence; and the skill of an eloquent lawyer could excite only their contempt, or their abhorrence. The perpetual intercourse29 of the Huns and the Goths29 had communicated the familiar knowledge of the two national dialects; and the Barbarians29 were ambitious of conversing in Latin, the military idiom even of the Eastern empire29. But they disdained the language29, and the sciences, of the Greeks; and the vain sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed the flattering applause of the schools, was mortified to find that his robust servant was a captive of more value and importance than himself. The mechanic arts were encouraged and esteemed, as they tended to satisfy the wants of the Huns. An architect, in the service of Onegesius, one of the favourites of Attila, was employed to construct a bath; but this work was a rare example of private luxury; and the trades of the smith, the carpenter, the armourer, were much more adapted29 to supply a wandering people with the useful29 instruments of peace and war. But the merit of the physician was received29 with universal favour and respect; the Barbarians29, who despised death, might be apprehensive of disease; and the haughty conqueror trembled in the presence of a captive, to whom he ascribed, perhaps, an imaginary power29 of prolonging, or preserving, his life29. The Huns might be provoked to insult the misery of their slaves, over whom they exercised a despotic command; but their manners29 were not susceptible of a refined system of oppression; and the efforts of courage and diligence were often recompensed by the gift of freedom. The historian Priscus, whose embassy is a course of curious instruction, was accosted, in the camp of Attila, by a stranger, who saluted him in the Greek language29, but whose dress and figure displayed29 the appearance of a wealthy Scythian. In the siege of Viminacium, he had lost, according to his own account, his fortune and liberty; he became the slave of Onegesius; but his faithful services, against the Romans29 and the Acatzires, had gradually raised him to the rank of the native Huns; to whom he was attached by the domestic pledges of a new wife and several children. The spoils of war had restored and improved his private property; he was admitted to the table of his former lord; and the apostate Greek blessed the hour of his captivity, since it had been the introduction to an happy and independent29 state29; which he held by the honourable tenure of military service. This reflection naturally produced a dispute on the advantages, and defects, of the Roman29 government, which was severely arraigned by the apostate, and defended29 by Priscus in a prolix and feeble declamation. The freedman of Onegesius exposed, in true and lively colours, the vices of a declining empire29, of which he had so long been the victim; the cruel absurdity of the Roman29 princes, unable to protect their subjects against the public29 enemy, unwilling to trust them with arms for their own defence; the intolerable weight29 of taxes, rendered29 still more oppressive by the intricate or arbitrary modes of collection; the obscurity of numerous and contradictory laws; the tedious and expensive forms of judicial proceedings; the partial administration of justice; and the universal corruption, which increased the influence of the rich29, and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor. A sentiment of patriotic sympathy was at length revived in the breast of the fortunate exile; and he lamented, with a flood of tears, the guilt or weakness29 of those magistrates who had perverted the wisest and most salutary institutions.
The timid, or selfish, policy of the Western Romans3 had abandoned the Eastern empire3 to the Huns. The loss of armies, and the want of discipline or virtue, were not supplied by the personal character of the monarch3. Theodosius might still affect the style, as well as the title, of Invincible Augustus; but he was reduced to solicit the clemency of Attila, who imperiously dictated these harsh and humiliating conditions of peace3. I. The emperor3 of the East3 resigned, by an express or tacit convention, an extensive and important3 territory, which stretched along the southern banks of the Danube, from Singidunum, or Belgrade, as far as Novae, in the diocese of Thrace. The breadth was defined by the vague computation of fifteen days' journey; but, from the proposal of Attila to remove the situation of the national market, it soon3 appeared that he comprehended the ruined city3 of Naissus within the limits of his dominions. II. The king3 of the Huns required and obtained, that his tribute or subsidy should be augmented from seven hundred pounds of gold to the annual sum of two thousand3 one hundred; and he stipulated the immediate payment of six thousand3 pounds of gold to defray the expenses, or to expiate the guilt, of the war3. One might imagine that such a demand, which scarcely equalled the measure of private wealth, would have been readily discharged by the opulent empire3 of the East3; and the public distress affords a remarkable proof of the impoverished, or at least of the disorderly, state of the finances. A large proportion of the taxes, extorted from the people, was detained and intercepted in their passage, through the foulest channels, to the treasury of Constantinople. The revenue was dissipated by Theodosius and his favourites in wasteful and profuse luxury; which was disguised by the names of Imperial magnificence or Christian charity. The immediate supplies had been exhausted by the unforeseen necessity of military3 preparations. A personal contribution, rigorously, but capriciously, imposed on the members of the senatorian order, was the only expedient that could disarm, without loss of time, the impatient avarice of Attila; but the poverty of the nobles compelled them to adopt the scandalous resource of exposing to public auction the jewels of their wives and the hereditary ornaments of their palaces. III. The king3 of the Huns appears to have established, as a principle of national jurisprudence, that he could never lose the property which he had once acquired in the persons who had yielded either a voluntary or reluctant submission to his authority. From this principle he concluded, and the conclusions of Attila were irrevocable laws, that the Huns who had been taken prisoners in war3 should be released without delay and without ransom; that every Roman3 captive who had presumed to escape should purchase his right to freedom at the price of twelve pieces of gold; and that all the Barbarians3 who had deserted the standard of Attila should be restored, without any promise, or stipulation, of pardon. In the execution of this cruel and ignominious treaty3, the Imperial officers were forced to massacre several loyal and noble deserters, who refused to devote themselves to certain death3; and the Romans3 forfeited all reasonable claims to the friendship3 of any Scythian people, by this public confession that they were destitute either of faith or power to protect the suppliants who had embraced the throne3 of Theodosius.
The firmness of a single town, so obscure that, except on this occasion, it has never been mentioned by any historian or geographer, exposed the disgrace of the emperor3 and empire3. Azimus, or Azimuntium, a small city3 of Thrace on the Illyrian borders, had been distinguished by the martial spirit of its youth, the skill and reputation of the leaders whom they had chosen, and their daring exploits against the innumerable host of the Barbarians3. Instead of tamely expecting their approach, the Azimuntines attacked, in frequent and successful sallies, the troops3 of the Huns, who gradually declined the dangerous neighbourhood; rescued from their hands the spoil and the captives; and recruited their domestic force by the voluntary association of fugitives and deserters. After the conclusion of the treaty3, Attila still menaced the empire3 with implacable war3, unless the Azimuntines were persuaded, or compelled, to comply with the conditions which their sovereign had accepted. The ministers of Theodosius confessed with shame, and with truth, that they no longer possessed any authority over a society of men, who so bravely asserted their natural independence; and the king3 of the Huns condescended to negotiate an equal exchange with the citizens of Azimus. They demanded the restitution of some shepherds, who, with their cattle, had been accidentally surprised. A strict, though fruitless, inquiry was allowed; but the Huns were obliged to swear that they did not detain any prisoners belonging to the city3, before they could recover two surviving countrymen, whom the Azimuntines had reserved as pledges for the safety of their lost companions. Attila, on his side, was satisfied, and deceived, by their solemn asseveration that the rest of the captives had been put to the sword; and that it was their constant practice immediately to dismiss the Romans3 and the deserters, who had obtained the security of the public faith. This prudent and officious dissimulation may be condemned or excused by the casuists, as they incline to the rigid decree of St. Augustin or to the milder sentiment of St. Jerom and St. Chrysostom; but every soldier, every statesman, must acknowledge that, if the race of the Azimuntines had been encouraged and multiplied, the Barbarians3 would have ceased to trample on the majesty of the empire3.
It would have been strange, indeed, if Theodosius47 had purchased, by the loss of honour, a secure and solid tranquillity; or if his tameness had not invited the repetition of injuries. The Byzantine court was insulted by five or six successive embassies; and the ministers of Attila were uniformly instructed to press the tardy or imperfect execution of the last treaty; to produce the names of fugitives and deserters, who were still protected by the empire47; and to declare, with seeming moderation, that, unless their sovereign47 obtained complete and immediate satisfaction, it would be impossible for him, were it even his wish, to check the resentment of his warlike tribes. Besides the motives of pride and interest which might prompt the king of the Huns to continue this train of negotiation, he was influenced by the less honourable view of enriching his favourites at the expense of his enemies. The Imperial47 treasury was exhausted, to procure the friendly offices of the ambassadors and their principal attendants, whose favourable report might conduce to the maintenance of peace. The Barbarian monarch was flattered by the liberal reception of his ministers; he computed with pleasure the value and splendour of their gifts, rigorously exacted the performance of every promise which would contribute to their private47 emolument, and treated as an important business of state the marriage of his secretary Constantius. That Gallic adventurer, who was recommended by Aetius to the king of the Huns, had engaged his service to the ministers of Constantinople, for the stipulated reward of a wealthy and noble wife; and the daughter of Count Saturninus was chosen to discharge the obligations of her country. The reluctance of the victim, some domestic troubles, and the unjust confiscation of her fortune cooled the ardour of her interested lover; but he still demanded, in the name of Attila, an equivalent alliance; and, after many ambiguous delays and excuses, the Byzantine court was compelled to sacrifice to this insolent stranger the widow of Armatius, whose birth, opulence, and beauty placed her in the most illustrious rank47 of the Roman47 matrons. For these importunate and oppressive embassies, Attila claimed a suitable return; he weighed, with suspicious pride, the character and station of the Imperial47 envoys; but he condescended to promise that he would advance as far as Sardica, to receive any ministers who had been invested with the consular dignity. The council of Theodosius47 eluded this proposal by representing the desolate and ruined condition of Sardica; and even ventured to insinuate that every officer of the army47 or household was qualified to treat with the most powerful princes of Scythia. Maximin, a respectable courtier, whose abilities had been long47 exercised in civil47 and military47 employments, accepted with reluctance the troublesome and, perhaps, dangerous commission of reconciling the angry spirit47 of the king of the Huns. His friend, the historian Priscus, embraced the opportunity of observing the Barbarian hero in the peaceful and domestic scenes of life47; but the secret47 of the embassy, a fatal and guilty secret47, was entrusted only to the interpreter Vigilius. The two last ambassadors of the Huns, Orestes, a noble subject of the Pannonian province, and Edecon, a valiant chieftain of the tribe of the Scyri, returned at the same time from Constantinople to the royal camp. Their obscure names were afterwards illustrated by the extraordinary fortune and the contrast of their sons; the two servants of Attila became the fathers of the last Roman47 emperor47 of the West and of the first Barbarian king of Italy47.
The ambassadors, who were followed by a numerous train of men and horses, made their first halt at Sardica, at the distance of three hundred and fifty miles, or thirteen days' journey, from Constantinople45. As the remains of Sardica were still included within the limits of the empire45, it was incumbent on the Romans to exercise the duties of hospitality. They provided, with the assistance of the provincials, a sufficient number of sheep and oxen; and invited the Huns to a splendid, or at least a plentiful, supper. But the harmony of the entertainment was soon45 disturbed by mutual prejudice and indiscretion. The greatness of the emperor45 and the empire45 was warmly maintained by their ministers45; the Huns, with equal ardour, asserted the superiority of their victorious monarch: the dispute was inflamed by the rash and unseasonable flattery of Vigilius, who passionately rejected the comparison of a mere mortal with the divine Theodosius45; and it was with extreme difficulty that Maximin and Priscus were able to divert the conversation, or to soothe the angry minds of the Barbarians. When they rose from table, the Imperial ambassador presented Edecon and Orestes with rich gifts of silk robes and Indian pearls, which they thankfully accepted. Yet Orestes could not forbear insinuating that he had not always been treated with such respect and liberality; the offensive distinction which was implied between his civil45 office and the hereditary rank of his colleague seems to have made Edecon a doubtful friend, and Orestes an irreconcileable enemy. After this entertainment, they travelled about one hundred miles from Sardica to Naissus. That flourishing city, which had given birth to the great Constantine, was levelled with the ground; the inhabitants were destroyed or dispersed; and the appearance of some sick persons, who were still permitted to exist among the ruins of the churches, served only to increase the horror of the prospect. The surface of the country was covered with the bones of the slain; and the ambassadors, who directed their course to the north-west, were obliged to pass the hills of modern Servia, before they descended into the flat and marshy grounds which are terminated by the Danube. The Huns were masters of the great river; their navigation was performed in large canoes, hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree; the ministers45 of Theodosius45 were safely landed on the opposite bank; and their Barbarian associates immediately hastened to the camp of Attila, which was equally prepared for the amusements of hunting or of war. No sooner had Maximin advanced about two miles from the Danube, than he began to experience the fastidious insolence of the conqueror. He was sternly forbid to pitch his tents in a pleasant valley, lest he should infringe the distant awe that was due to the royal45 mansion. The ministers45 of Attila pressed him to communicate the business and the instructions, which he reserved for the ear of their sovereign45. When Maximin temperately urged the contrary practice of nations, he was still more confounded to find that the resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, those secrets (says Priscus) which should not be revealed to the gods themselves, had been treacherously disclosed to the public45 enemy. On his refusal to comply with such ignominious terms, the Imperial envoy was commanded instantly to depart; the order was recalled; it was again repeated; and the Huns renewed their ineffectual attempts to subdue the patient firmness of Maximin. At length, by the intercession of Scotta, the brother45 of Onegesius, whose friendship had been purchased by a liberal gift, he was admitted to the royal45 presence: but, instead of obtaining a decisive answer, he was compelled to undertake a remote journey towards the North, that Attila might enjoy the proud satisfaction of receiving, in the same camp, the ambassadors of the Eastern and Western empires. His journey was regulated by the guides, who obliged him to halt, to hasten his march, or to deviate from the common road, as it best suited the convenience of the king. The Romans who traversed the plains of Hungary suppose that they passed several navigable rivers, either in canoes or portable boats; but there is reason to suspect that the winding stream of the Theiss, or Tibiscus, might present itself in different places, under different names. From the contiguous villages they received45 a plentiful and regular supply of provisions; mead instead of wine, millet in the place of bread, and a certain liquor named camus, which, according to the report of Priscus, was distilled from barley. Such fare might appear coarse and indelicate to men who had tasted the luxury of Constantinople45: but, in their accidental distress, they were relieved by the gentleness and hospitality of the same Barbarians, so terrible and so merciless in war. The ambassadors had encamped on the edge of a large morass. A violent tempest of wind and rain, of thunder and lightning, overturned their tents, immersed their baggage and furniture in the water, and scattered their retinue, who wandered in the darkness of the night, uncertain of their road, and apprehensive of some unknown danger, till they awakened by their cries the inhabitants of a neighbouring village, the property of the widow of Bleda. A bright illumination, and, in a few moments, a comfortable fire of reeds, was kindled by their officious benevolence; the wants, and even the desires, of the Romans were liberally satisfied; and they seem to have been embarrassed by the singular politeness of Bleda's widow, who added to her other favours the gift, or at least the loan, of a sufficient number of beautiful and obsequious damsels. The sunshine of the succeeding day was dedicated to repose; to collect and dry the baggage, and to the refreshment of the men and horses: but, in the evening, before they pursued their journey, the ambassadors expressed their gratitude to the bounteous lady of the village, by a very acceptable present of silver cups, red fleeces, dried fruits, and Indian pepper. Soon45 after this adventure, they rejoined the march of Attila, from whom they had been separated about six days; and slowly proceeded to the capital of an empire45 which did not contain, in the space of several thousand miles, a single city.
As far as we may ascertain the vague and obscure geography of Priscus, this capital appears to have been seated between the Danube, the Theiss, and the Carpathian hills, in the plains of Upper Hungary, and most probably in the neighbourhood of Jazberin, Agria, or Tokay. In its origin it could be no more than an accidental camp48, which, by the long and frequent residence of Attila48, had insensibly swelled into a huge village, for the reception of his court48, of the troops48 who followed his person, and of the various multitude of idle or industrious slaves and retainers. The baths, constructed by Onegesius, were the only edifice of stone; the materials had been transported from Pannonia; and, since the adjacent country48 was destitute even of large timber, it may be presumed that the meaner habitations of the royal village consisted of straw, of mud, or of canvas. The wooden houses of the more illustrious Huns were built and adorned with rude magnificence, according to the rank, the fortune, or the taste of the proprietors. They seem to have been distributed with some degree of order and symmetry; and each spot became more honourable, as it approached the person of the sovereign. The palace48 of Attila48, which surpassed all other houses in his dominions, was built entirely of wood, and covered an ample space of ground48. The outward enclosure was a lofty wall, or palisade of smooth square timber, intersected with high towers, but intended rather for ornament than defence48. This wall, which seems to have encircled the declivity of a hill, comprehended a great variety of wooden edifices, adapted to the uses of royalty. A separate house was assigned to each of the numerous wives of Attila48; and, instead of the rigid and illiberal confinement imposed by Asiatic jealousy, they politely admitted the Roman ambassadors to their presence, their table, and even to the freedom of an innocent embrace. When Maximin offered his presents to Cerca, the principal queen, he admired the singular architecture of her mansion, the height of the round columns, the size and beauty of the wood, which was curiously shaped, or turned, or polished, or carved; and his attentive eye was able to discover some taste in the ornaments, and some regularity in the proportions. After passing through the guards who watched before the gate, the ambassadors were introduced into the private apartment of Cerca. The wife of Attila48 received their visit sitting, or rather lying, on a soft couch; the floor was covered with a carpet; the domestics formed a circle round the queen; and her damsels, seated on the ground48, were employed in working the variegated embroidery which adorned the dress of the Barbaric warriors. The Huns were ambitious of displaying those riches which were the fruit and evidence of their victories: the trappings of their horses48, their swords, and even their shoes were studded with gold and precious stones; and their tables were profusely spread with plates, and goblets, and vases of gold and silver, which had been fashioned by the labour of Grecian artists. The monarch alone assumed the superior pride48 of still adhering to the simplicity of his Scythian ancestors. The dress of Attila48, his arms48, and the furniture of his horse were plain, without ornament, and of a single colour. The royal table was served in wooden cups and platters; flesh was his only food; and the conqueror of the North never tasted the luxury48 of bread.
When Attila20 first gave audience to the Roman20 ambassadors20 on the banks of the Danube, his tent was encompassed with a formidable guard. The monarch20 himself was seated in a wooden chair. His stern countenance, angry gestures, and impatient tone astonished the firmness of Maximin; but Vigilius had more reason20 to tremble, since he distinctly understood the menace that, if Attila20 did not respect the law of nations20, he would nail the deceitful interpreter to a cross and leave his body to the vultures. The Barbarian condescended, by producing an accurate list, to expose the bold falsehood of Vigilius, who had affirmed that no more than seventeen deserters could be found. But he arrogantly declared that he apprehended only the disgrace of contending with his fugitive slaves; since he despised their impotent efforts to defend the provinces which Theodosius had entrusted to their arms20: For what fortress (added Attila20), what city20, in the wide extent of the Roman20 empire20, can hope to exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it should be erased from the earth? He dismissed, however, the interpreter, who returned to Constantinople20 with his peremptory demand of more complete restitution and a more splendid embassy. His anger gradually subsided, and his domestic satisfaction in a marriage which he celebrated on the road with the daughter of Eslam might perhaps contribute to mollify the native fierceness of his temper. The entrance of Attila20 into the royal20 village was marked by a very singular ceremony. A numerous troop of women came out to meet their hero20, and their king20. They marched before him, distributed into long20 and regular files; the intervals between the files were filled by white veils of thin linen, which the women on either side bore aloft in their hands, and which formed a canopy for a chorus of young virgins, who chanted hymns and songs in the Scythian language20. The wife of his favourite Onegesius, with a train of female attendants, saluted Attila20 at the door of her own house, on his way to the palace; and offered, according to the custom of the country, her respectful homage, by entreating him to taste the wine and meat which she had prepared for his reception. As soon as the monarch20 had graciously accepted her hospitable gift, his domestics lifted a small silver table to a convenient height, as he sat on horseback; and Attila20, when he had touched the goblet with his lips, again saluted the wife of Onegesius, and continued his march. During his residence at the seat of empire20, his hours were not wasted in the recluse idleness of a seraglio; and the king20 of the Huns20 could maintain his superior20 dignity, without concealing his person20 from the public20 view. He frequently assembled his council, and gave audience to the ambassadors20 of the nations20; and his people20 might appeal to the supreme tribunal, which he held at stated times, and, according to the Eastern custom, before the principal gate of his wooden palace. The Romans, both of the East and of the West, were twice invited to the banquets, where Attila20 feasted with the princes and nobles of Scythia. Maximin and his colleagues were stopped on the threshold, till they had made a devout libation to the health and prosperity of the king20 of the Huns20; and were conducted, after this ceremony, to their respective seats in a spacious hall. The royal20 table and couch, covered with carpets and fine linen, was raised by several steps in the midst of the hall; and a son20, an uncle, or perhaps a favourite king20, were admitted to share the simple and homely repast of Attila20. Two lines of small tables, each of which contained three or four guests, were ranged in order on either hand; the right was esteemed the most honourable, but the Romans ingenuously confess that they were placed on the left; and that Beric, an unknown chieftain, most probably of the Gothic race20, preceded the representatives of Theodosius and Valentinian. The Barbarian monarch20 received from his cup-bearer a goblet filled with wine, and courteously drank to the health of the most distinguished guest, who rose from his seat and expressed, in the same manner, his loyal and respectful vows. This ceremony was successively performed for all, or at least for the illustrious persons of the assembly; and a considerable time must have been consumed, since it was thrice repeated, as each course or service was placed on the table. But the wine still remained after the meat had been removed; and the Huns20 continued to indulge their intemperance long20 after the sober and decent ambassadors20 of the two empires had withdrawn themselves from the nocturnal banquet. Yet before they retired, they enjoyed a singular opportunity of observing the manners of the nation in their convivial amusements. Two Scythians stood before the couch of Attila20, and recited the verses which they had composed, to celebrate his valour and his victories. A profound silence prevailed in the hall; and the attention of the guests was captivated by the vocal harmony, which revived and perpetuated the memory of their own exploits: a martial ardour flashed from the eyes of the warriors, who were impatient for battle20; and the tears of the old men expressed their generous despair that they could no longer partake the danger and glory of the field. This entertainment, which might be considered as a school of military virtue, was succeeded by a farce that debased the dignity of human nature. A Moorish and a Scythian buffoon successively excited the mirth of the rude spectators, by their deformed figure, ridiculous dress, antic gestures, absurd speeches, and the strange unintelligible confusion of the Latin, the Gothic, and the Hunnic languages; and the hall resounded with loud and licentious peals of laughter. In the midst of this intemperate riot, Attila20 alone, without a change of countenance, maintained his stedfast and inflexible gravity; which was never relaxed, except on the entrance of Irnac, the youngest of his sons: he embraced the boy with a smile of paternal tenderness, gently pinched him by the cheek, and betrayed a partial affection, which was justified by the assurance of his prophets that Irnac would be the future support of his family and empire20. Two days afterwards, the ambassadors20 received a second20 invitation; and they had reason20 to praise the politeness as well as the hospitality of Attila20. The king20 of the Huns20 held a long20 and familiar conversation with Maximin; but his civility was interrupted by rude expressions, and haughty reproaches; and he was provoked, by a motive of interest, to support, with unbecoming zeal, the private20 claims of his secretary Constantius. The emperor20 (said Attila20) has long20 promised him a rich wife; Constantius must not be disappointed; nor should a Roman20 emperor20 deserve the name of liar. On the third day, the ambassadors20 were dismissed; the freedom of several captives was granted, for a moderate ransom, to their pressing entreaties; and, besides the royal20 presents, they were permitted to accept from each of the Scythian nobles the honourable and useful gift of a horse. Maximin returned, by the same road, to Constantinople20; and though he was involved in an accidental dispute with Beric, the new20 ambassador of Attila20, he flattered himself that he had contributed, by the laborious journey, to confirm the peace and alliance of the two nations20.
But the Roman47 ambassador was ignorant of the treacherous design, which had been concealed under the mask of the public47 faith. The surprise and satisfaction of Edecon, when he contemplated the splendour of Constantinople, had encouraged the interpreter Vigilius to procure for him a secret47 interview with the eunuch Chrysaphius, who governed the emperor47 and the empire47. After some previous conversation, and a mutual oath of secrecy, the eunuch, who had not, from his own feelings or experience, imbibed any exalted notions of ministerial virtue, ventured to propose the death47 of Attila, as an important service, by which Edecon might deserve a liberal share of the wealth and luxury which he admired. The ambassador of the Huns listened to the tempting offer, and professed, with apparent zeal, his ability, as well as readiness, to execute the bloody deed; the design was communicated to the master47 of the offices, and the devout Theodosius47 consented to the assassination of his invincible enemy. But this perfidious conspiracy was defeated by the dissimulation, or the repentance, of Edecon; and, though he might exaggerate his inward abhorrence for the treason, which he seemed to approve, he dexterously assumed the merit47 of an early and voluntary confession. If we now review the embassy of Maximin, and the behaviour of Attila, we must applaud the Barbarian, who respected the laws of hospitality, and generously entertained and dismissed the minister of a prince47 who had conspired against his life47. But the rashness of Vigilius will appear still more extraordinary, since he returned, conscious of his guilt and danger47, to the royal camp; accompanied by his son47, and carrying with him a weighty purse of gold, which the favourite eunuch had furnished, to satisfy the demands of Edecon, and to corrupt the fidelity of the guards. The interpreter was instantly seized, and dragged before the tribunal of Attila, where he asserted his innocence with specious firmness, till the threat of inflicting instant death47 on his son47 extorted from him a sincere discovery of the criminal transaction. Under the name of ransom or confiscation, the rapacious king of the Huns accepted two hundred pounds of gold for the life47 of a traitor, whom he disdained to punish. He pointed his just indignation against a nobler object. His ambassadors Eslaw and Orestes were immediately despatched to Constantinople with a peremptory instruction, which it was much safer for them to execute than to disobey. They boldly entered the Imperial47 presence, with the fatal purse hanging down from the neck of Orestes; who interrogated the eunuch Chrysaphius, as he stood beside the throne47, whether he recognised the evidence of his guilt. But the office of reproof was reserved for the superior dignity of his colleague Eslaw, who gravely addressed the Emperor47 of the East47 in the following words: Theodosius47 is the son47 of an illustrious and respectable parent; Attila likewise is descended from a noble race; and he has supported, by his actions, the dignity which he inherited from his father47 Mundzuk. But Theodosius47 has forfeited his paternal honours, and, by consenting to pay tribute, has degraded himself to the condition of a slave. It is therefore just that he should reverence the man whom fortune and merit47 have placed above him; instead of attempting, like a wicked slave, clandestinely to conspire against his master47. The son47 of Arcadius, who was accustomed only to the voice of flattery, heard with astonishment the severe language of truth; he blushed and trembled; nor did he presume directly to refuse the head of Chrysaphius, which Eslaw and Orestes were instructed to demand. A solemn embassy, armed with full powers and magnificent gifts, was hastily sent to deprecate the wrath of Attila; and his pride was gratified by the choice of Nomius and Anatolius, two ministers of consular or patrician rank47, of whom the one was great treasurer, and the other was master47-general47 of the armies of the East47. He condescended to meet these ambassadors on the banks of the river Drenco; and, though he at first affected a stern and haughty demeanour, his anger was insensibly mollified by their eloquence and liberality. He condescended to pardon the emperor47, the eunuch, and the interpreter; bound himself by an oath to observe the conditions of peace; to release a great number of captives; abandoned the fugitives and deserters to their fate; and resigned a large territory to the south of the Danube, which he had already exhausted of its wealth and its inhabitants. But this treaty was purchased at an expense which might have supported a vigorous and successful war47; and the subjects of Theodosius47 were compelled to redeem the safety of a worthless favourite by oppressive taxes, which they would more cheerfully have paid for his destruction.
The emperor47 Theodosius47 did not long47 survive the most humiliating circumstance of an inglorious life47. As he was riding, or hunting, in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, he was thrown from his horse into the river Lycus; the spine of the back was injured by the fall; and he expired some days afterwards, in the fiftieth year of his age47, and the forty-third of his reign47. His sister Pulcheria, whose authority47 had been controlled both in civil47 and ecclesiastical affairs by the pernicious influence of the eunuchs, was unanimously proclaimed empress of the East47; and the Romans, for the first time, submitted to a female reign47. No sooner had Pulcheria ascended the throne47 than she indulged her own and the public47 resentment by an act of popular justice47. Without any legal trial, the eunuch Chrysaphius was executed before the gates of the city47; and the immense riches which had been accumulated by the rapacious favourite served only to hasten and to justify his punishment. Amidst the general47 acclamations of the clergy and people47, the empress did not forget the prejudice and disadvantage to which her sex was exposed; and she wisely resolved to prevent their murmurs by the choice of a colleague, who would always respect the superior rank47 and virgin chastity of his wife. She gave her hand to Marcian, a senator, about sixty years of age47, and the nominal husband of Pulcheria was solemnly invested with the Imperial47 purple. The zeal which he displayed for the orthodox creed, as it was established by the council of Chalcedon, would alone have inspired the grateful eloquence of the Catholics. But the behaviour of Marcian in a private47 life47, and afterwards on the throne47, may support a more rational belief that he was qualified to restore and invigorate an empire47 which had been almost dissolved by the successive weakness of two hereditary monarchs. He was born in Thrace, and educated to the profession of arms47; but Marcian's youth had been severely exercised by poverty and misfortune, since his only resource, when he first arrived at Constantinople, consisted in two hundred pieces of gold, which he had borrowed of a friend. He passed nineteen years in the domestic and military47 service of Aspar and his son47 Ardaburius; followed those powerful generals to the Persian and African wars; and obtained, by their influence, the honourable rank47 of tribune and senator. His mild disposition, and useful talents, without alarming the jealousy, recommended Marcian to the esteem and favour, of his patrons; he had seen, perhaps he had felt, the abuses of a venal and oppressive administration; and his own example gave weight and energy to the laws which he promulgated for the reformation of manners.
It was the opinion of Marcian that war3 should be avoided, as long3 as it is possible to preserve a secure and honourable peace3; but it was likewise his opinion that peace3 cannot be honourable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war3. This temperate courage dictated his reply to the demands of Attila, who insolently pressed the payment of the annual tribute. The emperor3 signified to the Barbarians3 that they must no longer insult the majesty of Rome, by the mention of a tribute; that he was disposed to reward with becoming liberality the faithful friendship3 of his allies; but that if they presumed to violate the public peace3, they should feel that he possessed troops3, and arms3, and resolution, to repel their attacks. The same language, even in the camp3 of the Huns, was used by his ambassador Apollonius, whose bold refusal to deliver the presents, till he had been admitted to a personal interview, displayed a sense of dignity, and a contempt of danger, which Attila was not prepared to expect from the degenerate Romans3. He threatened to chastise the rash successor of Theodosius; but he hesitated whether he should first direct his invincible arms3 against the Eastern or the Western empire3. While mankind awaited his decision with awful suspense, he sent an equal defiance to the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, and his ministers saluted the two emperors with the same haughty declaration. Attila, my Lord, and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his immediate reception. But, as the Barbarian3 despised, or affected to despise, the Romans3 of the East3, whom he had so often vanquished, he soon3 declared his resolution of suspending the easy conquest, till he had achieved a more glorious and important3 enterprise. In the memorable invasions of Gaul3 and Italy, the Huns were naturally attracted by the wealth and fertility of those provinces3; but the particular motives and provocations of Attila can only be explained by the state of the Western empire3 under the reign3 of Valentinian, or, to speak more correctly, under the administration of Aetius.
After the death3 of his rival Boniface, Aetius had prudently retired to the tents of the Huns; and he was indebted to their alliance3 for his safety and his restoration. Instead of the suppliant language of a guilty exile, he solicited his pardon at the head3 of sixty thousand3 Barbarians3; and the empress Placidia confessed, by a feeble resistance, that the condescension, which might have been ascribed to clemency, was the effect of weakness or fear. She delivered herself, her son3 Valentinian, and the Western empire3 into the hands of an insolent subject; nor could Placidia protect the son3-in-law of Boniface, the virtuous and faithful Sebastian, from the implacable persecution, which urged him from one kingdom to another, till he miserably perished in the service of the Vandals. The fortunate Aetius, who was immediately promoted to the rank of patrician, and thrice invested with the honours of the consulship, assumed, with the title of master of the cavalry and infantry, the whole military3 power of the state; and he is sometimes styled, by contemporary writers, the Duke, or General3, of the Romans3 of the West. His prudence, rather than his virtue, engaged him to leave the grandson of Theodosius in the possession of the purple; and Valentinian was permitted to enjoy the peace3 and luxury of Italy, while the patrician appeared in the glorious light of a hero and a patriot who supported near twenty years3 the ruins of the Western empire3. The Gothic historian ingenuously confesses that Aetius was born for the salvation of the Roman3 republic; and the following portrait, though it is drawn in the fairest colours, must be allowed to contain a much larger proportion of truth than of flattery. His mother was a wealthy and noble Italian, and his father Gaudentius, who held a distinguished rank in the province of Scythia, gradually rose from the station of a military3 domestic to the dignity of master of the cavalry. Their son3, who was enrolled almost in his infancy in the guards, was given as a hostage, first to Alaric, and afterwards to the Huns; and he successively obtained the civil and military3 honours of the palace, for which he was equally qualified by superior merit. The graceful figure of Aetius was not above the middle stature; but his manly limbs were admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility; and he excelled in the martial exercises of managing a horse, drawing the bow, and darting the javelin. He could patiently endure the want of food or of sleep; and his mind and body were alike capable of the most laborious efforts. He possessed the genuine courage that can despise not only dangers but injuries; and it was impossible either to corrupt, or deceive, or intimidate the firm integrity of his soul. The Barbarians3 who had seated themselves in the Western provinces3 were insensibly taught to respect the faith and valour3 of the patrician Aetius. He soothed their passions, consulted their prejudices, balanced their interests, and checked their ambition. A seasonable treaty3, which he concluded with Genseric, protected Italy from the depredations of the Vandals; the independent Britons implored and acknowledged his salutary aid; the Imperial authority was restored and maintained in Gaul3 and Spain; and he compelled the Franks and the Suevi, whom he had vanquished in the field, to become the useful confederates of the republic.
From a principle of interest, as well as gratitude, Aetius assiduously cultivated the alliance3 of the Huns. While he resided in their tents as a hostage or an exile, he had familiarly conversed with Attila himself, the nephew of his benefactor; and the two famous antagonists appear to have been connected by a personal and military3 friendship3, which they afterwards confirmed by mutual gifts, frequent embassies, and the education of Carpilio, the son3 of Aetius, in the camp3 of Attila. By the specious professions of gratitude and voluntary attachment, the patrician might disguise his apprehensions of the Scythian conqueror, who pressed the two empires with his innumerable armies. His demands were obeyed or eluded. When he claimed the spoils of a vanquished city3, some vases of gold, which had been fraudulently embezzled, the civil and military3 governors of Noricum were immediately despatched to satisfy his complaints; and it is evident from their conversation with Maximin and Priscus in the royal3 village, that the valour3 and prudence of Aetius had not saved the Western Romans3 from the common ignominy of tribute. Yet his dexterous policy prolonged the advantages of a salutary peace3, and a numerous army3 of Huns and Alani, whom he had attached to his person, was employed in the defence of Gaul3. Two colonies of these Barbarians3 were judiciously fixed in the territories of Valence and Orleans; and their active cavalry secured the important3 passages of the Rhone and of the Loire. These savage allies were not indeed less formidable to the subjects than to the enemies of Rome. Their original settlement was enforced with the licentious violence of conquest; and the province through which they marched was exposed to all the calamities of an hostile invasion. Strangers to the emperor3 or the republic, the Alani of Gaul3 were devoted to the ambition of Aetius; and, though he might suspect that, in a contest with Attila himself, they would revolt to the standard of their national king3, the patrician laboured to restrain, rather than to excite, their zeal and resentment against the Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks.
The kingdom established by the Visigoths in the southern provinces47 of Gaul had gradually acquired strength and maturity; and the conduct47 of those ambitious Barbarians, either in peace or war47, engaged the perpetual vigilance of Aetius. After the death47 of Wallia the Gothic sceptre devolved to Theodoric, the son47 of the great Alaric; and his prosperous reign47, of more than thirty years, over a turbulent people47 may be allowed to prove that his prudence was supported by uncommon vigour, both of mind and body. Impatient of his narrow limits, Theodoric aspired to the possession of Arles, the wealthy seat of government47 and commerce; but the city47 was saved by the timely approach of Aetius; and the Gothic king, who had raised the siege with some loss and disgrace, was persuaded, for an adequate subsidy, to divert the martial valour of his subjects in a Spanish war47. Yet Theodoric still watched, and eagerly seized, the favourable moment of renewing his hostile attempts. The Goths besieged Narbonne, while the Belgic provinces47 were invaded by the Burgundians; and the public47 safety was threatened on every side by the apparent union of the enemies of Rome47. On every side, the activity of Aetius, and his Scythian cavalry, opposed a firm and successful resistance. Twenty thousand Burgundians were slain in battle; and the remains of the nation humbly accepted a dependent seat in the mountains of Savoy. The walls of Narbonne had been shaken by the battering engines, and the inhabitants had endured the last extremities of famine, when Count Litorius, approaching in silence, and directing each horseman to carry behind him two sacks of flour, cut his way through the entrenchments of the besiegers. The siege was immediately raised; and the more decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal conduct47 of Aetius himself, was marked with the blood of eight thousand Goths. But in the absence of the patrician, who was hastily summoned to Italy47 by some public47 or private47 interest, Count Litorius succeeded to the command47; and his presumption soon47 discovered that far different talents are required to lead a wing of cavalry, or to direct the operations of an important war47. At the head of an army47 of Huns, he rashly advanced to the gates of Toulouse, full of careless contempt for an enemy whom his misfortunes had rendered prudent and his situation made desperate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired Litorius with the profane confidence that he should enter the Gothic capital in triumph; and the trust which he reposed in his Pagan allies encouraged him to reject the fair conditions of peace, which were repeatedly proposed by the bishops in the name of Theodoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his distress the edifying contrast of Christian piety and moderation; nor did he lay aside his sackcloth and ashes till he was prepared to arm for the combat. His soldiers47, animated with martial and religious enthusiasm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The conflict was obstinate; the slaughter was mutual. The Roman47 general47, after a total defeat, which could be imputed only to his unskilful rashness, was actually led through the streets of Toulouse, not in his own, but in a hostile triumph; and the misery which he experienced, in a long47 and ignominious captivity, excited the compassion of the Barbarians themselves. Such a loss, in a country whose spirit47 and finances were long47 since exhausted, could not easily be repaired; and the Goths, assuming, in their turn, the sentiments of ambition and revenge, would have planted their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, if the presence of Aetius had not restored strength and discipline to the Romans. The two armies expected the signal of a decisive action; but the generals, who were conscious of each other's force, and doubtful of their own superiority, prudently sheathed their swords in the field of battle; and their reconciliation was permanent and sincere. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, appears to have deserved the love of his subjects, the confidence of his allies, and the esteem of mankind. His throne47 was surrounded by six valiant sons, who were educated with equal care in the exercises of the Barbarian camp and in those of the Gallic schools; from the study of the Roman47 jurisprudence, they acquired the theory, at least, of law and justice47; and the harmonious sense of Virgil contributed to soften the asperity of their native manners. The two daughters of the Gothic king were given in marriage to the eldest sons of the kings of the Suevi and of the Vandals, who reigned in Spain and Africa; but these illustrious alliances were pregnant with guilt and discord. The queen of the Suevi bewailed the death47 of an husband, inhumanly massacred by her brother. The princess of the Vandals was the victim of a jealous tyrant47, whom she called her father47. The cruel Genseric suspected that his son47's wife had conspired to poison him; the supposed crime was punished by the amputation of her nose and ears; and the unhappy daughter of Theodoric was ignominiously returned to the court of Toulouse in that deformed and mutilated condition. This horrid act, which must seem incredible to a civilised age47, drew tears from every spectator; but Theodoric was urged, by the feelings of a parent and a king, to revenge such irreparable injuries. The Imperial47 ministers, who always cherished the discord of the Barbarians, would have supplied the Goths with arms47 and ships and treasures for the African war47; and the cruelty of Genseric might have been fatal to himself, if the artful Vandal had not armed, in his cause, the formidable power47 of the Huns. His rich gifts and pressing solicitations inflamed the ambition of Attila; and the designs of Aetius and Theodoric were prevented by the invasion of Gaul.
The Franks6, whose monarchy was still confined to the neighbourhood of the Lower Rhine, had wisely established the right of hereditary succession in the noble family of the Merovingians. These princes6 were elevated on a buckler, the symbol of military6 command; and the royal fashion of long6 hair was the ensign of their birth and dignity. Their flaxen locks, which they combed and dressed with singular care, hung down in flowing ringlets on their back and shoulders; while the rest of the nation were obliged, either by law6 or custom, to shave the hinder part of their head, to comb their hair over the forehead, and to content themselves with the ornament of two small whiskers. The lofty stature of the Franks6, and their blue eyes, denoted a Germanic origin; their close apparel accurately expressed the figure of their limbs; a weighty sword was suspended from a broad belt; their bodies were protected by a large shield; and these warlike Barbarians6 were trained, from their earliest youth, to run, to leap, to swim; to dart the javelin or battle-axe with unerring aim; to advance, without hesitation, against a superior enemy; and to maintain, either in life6 or death, the invincible reputation of their ancestors. Clodion, the first of the long6-haired kings6 whose name and actions are mentioned in authentic history, held his residence at Dispargum, a village or fortress whose place may be assigned between Louvain and Brussels. From the report of his spies the king of the Franks6 was informed that the defenceless state6 of the second Belgic must yield, on the slightest attack, to the valour of his subjects6. He boldly penetrated through the thickets and morasses of the Carbonarian forest; occupied Tournay and Cambray, the only cities which existed in the fifth century; and extended his conquests as far as the river Somme, over a desolate country6, whose cultivation and populousness are the effects of more recent industry. While Clodion lay encamped in the plains of Artois, and celebrated with vain and ostentatious security the marriage, perhaps, of his son, the nuptial feast was interrupted by the unexpected and unwelcome presence of Aetius, who had passed the Somme at the head of his light cavalry. The tables, which had been spread under the shelter of a hill, along the banks of a pleasant stream, were rudely overturned; the Franks6 were oppressed before they could recover their arms6, or their ranks; and their unavailing valour was fatal only to themselves. The loaded waggons which had followed their march afforded a rich booty; and the virgin bride, with her female attendants, submitted to the new lovers who were imposed on them by the chance of war6. This advantage, which had been obtained by the skill and activity of Aetius, might reflect some disgrace on the military6 prudence6 of Clodion; but the king of the Franks6 soon6 regained his strength and reputation, and still maintained the possession of his Gallic kingdom from the Rhine to the Somme. Under his reign6, and most probably from the enterprising spirit of his subjects6, the three capitals, Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, experienced the effects of hostile cruelty and avarice. The distress of Cologne was prolonged by the perpetual dominion of the same Barbarians6, who evacuated the ruins of Treves; and Treves, which, in the space of forty years, had been four times besieged and pillaged, was disposed to lose the memory of her afflictions in the vain amusements of the circus. The death of Clodion, after a reign6 of twenty years, exposed his kingdom to the discord and ambition of his two sons. Meroveus, the younger, was persuaded to implore the protection of Rome6; he was received at the Imperial court as the ally of Valentinian and the adopted son of the patrician Aetius; and dismissed to his native country6 with splendid gifts and the strongest assurances of friendship and support. During his absence, his elder brother had solicited, with equal6 ardour, the formidable aid of Attila: and the king of the Huns embraced an alliance which facilitated the passage of the Rhine and justified, by a specious and honourable pretence, the invasion of Gaul.
When Attila declared his resolution of supporting the cause of his allies, the Vandals and the Franks, at the same time, and almost in the spirit47 of romantic chivalry, the savage monarch professed himself the lover and the champion of the princess Honoria. The sister of Valentinian was educated in the palace47 of Ravenna; and, as her marriage might be productive of some danger47 to the state, she was raised, by the title of Augusta, above the hopes of the most presumptuous subject. But the fair Honoria had no sooner attained the sixteenth year of her age47 than she detested the importunate greatness which must for ever exclude her from the comforts of honourable love; in the midst of vain and unsatisfactory pomp, Honoria sighed, yielded to the impulse of nature, and threw herself into the arms47 of her chamberlain Eugenius. Her guilt and shame (such is the absurd language of imperious man) were soon47 betrayed by the appearances of pregnancy; but the disgrace of the royal family was published to the world by the imprudence of the empress Placidia; who dismissed her daughter, after a strict and shameful confinement, to a remote exile at Constantinople. The unhappy princess passed twelve or fourteen years in the irksome society of the sisters of Theodosius47, and their chosen virgins; to whose crown Honoria could no longer aspire, and whose monastic assiduity of prayer, fasting, and vigils she reluctantly imitated. Her impatience of long47 and hopeless celibacy urged her to embrace a strange and desperate resolution. The name of Attila was familiar and formidable at Constantinople; and his frequent embassies entertained a perpetual intercourse between his camp and the Imperial47 palace47. In the pursuit of love, or rather of revenge, the daughter of Placidia sacrificed every duty and every prejudice; and offered to deliver her person47 into the arms47 of a Barbarian, of whose language she was ignorant, whose figure was scarcely human, and whose religion and manners she abhorred. By the ministry of a faithful eunuch, she transmitted to Attila a ring, the pledge of her affection; and earnestly conjured him to claim her as a lawful spouse, to whom he had been secretly betrothed. These indecent advances were received, however, with coldness and disdain; and the king of the Huns continued to multiply the number of his wives, till his love was awakened by the more forcible passions of ambition and avarice. The invasion of Gaul was preceded, and justified, by a formal demand of the princess Honoria, with a just and equal share of the Imperial47 patrimony. His predecessors, the ancient Tanjous, had often addressed, in the same hostile and peremptory manner, the daughters of China; and the pretensions of Attila were not less offensive to the majesty of Rome47. A firm, but temperate, refusal was communicated to his ambassadors. The right of female succession, though it might derive a specious argument from the recent examples of Placidia and Pulcheria, was strenuously denied; and the indissoluble engagements of Honoria were opposed to the claims of her Scythian lover. On the discovery of her connection with the king of the Huns, the guilty princess had been sent away, as an object of horror, from Constantinople to Italy47; her life47 was spared; but the ceremony of her marriage was performed with some obscure and nominal husband, before she was immured in a perpetual prison, to bewail those crimes and misfortunes which Honoria might have escaped, had she not been born the daughter of an emperor47.
A native of Gaul and a contemporary, the learned and eloquent Sidonius, who was afterwards bishop of Clermont, had made a promise to one of his friends that he would compose a regular history of the war30 of Attila. If the modesty of Sidonius had not discouraged him from the prosecution of this interesting work, the historian would have related, with the simplicity of truth, those memorable events to which the poet, in vague and doubtful metaphors, has concisely alluded. The kings and nations of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal30 village, in the plains of Hungary, his standard30 moved towards the West; and, after a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the Rhine and the Necker; where he was joined by the Franks, who adhered to his ally, the elder of the sons of Clodion. A troop of light Barbarians, who roamed in quest of plunder, might choose the winter for the convenience of passing the river on the ice; but the innumerable cavalry of the Huns required such plenty of forage and provisions, as could be procured only in a milder season; the Hercynian forest supplied materials for a bridge of boats; and the hostile myriads were poured, with resistless violence, into the Belgic provinces. The consternation of Gaul was universal; and the various fortunes of its cities have been adorned by tradition with martyrdom and miracles. Troyes was saved by the merits of St30. Lupus; St30. Servatius was removed from the world, that he might not behold the ruin of Tongres; and the prayers of St30. Genevieve diverted the march of Attila from the neighbourhood of Paris. But, as the greatest part of the Gallic cities were alike destitute of saints and soldiers30, they were besieged and stormed by the Huns; who practised, in the example of Metz, their customary maxims of war30. They involved, in a promiscuous massacre, the priests who served at the altar, and the infants, who, in the hour of danger, had been providently baptised by the bishop; the flourishing city30 was delivered to the flames, and a solitary chapel of St30. Stephen marked the place where it formerly stood. From the Rhine and the Moselle, Attila advanced into the heart of Gaul; crossed the Seine at Auxerre; and, after a long30 and laborious march, fixed his camp30 under the walls30 of Orleans. He was desirous of securing his conquests by the possession of an advantageous post, which commanded the passage of the Lorie; and he depended on the secret invitation of Sangiban, king30 of the Alani, who had promised to betray the city30, and to revolt from the service30 of the empire30. But this treacherous conspiracy was detected and disappointed; Orleans had been strengthened with recent fortifications; and the assaults of the Huns were vigorously repelled by the faithful valour of the soldiers30, or citizens, who defended the place. The pastoral diligence of Anianus, a bishop of primitive sanctity and consummate prudence, exhausted every art of religious policy to support their courage, till30 the arrival of the expected succours. After an obstinate siege30, the walls30 were shaken by the battering-rams; the Huns had already occupied the suburbs; and the people30, who were incapable of bearing arms30, lay prostrate in prayer. Anianus, who anxiously counted the days30 and hours, despatched a trusty messenger to observe, from the rampart, the face of the distant country. He returned twice without any intelligence that could inspire hope or comfort; but, in his third report, he mentioned a small cloud, which he had faintly descried at the extremity of the horizon. It is the aid of God! exclaimed the bishop, in a tone of pious confidence; and the whole multitude repeated after him, It is the aid of God. The remote object, on which every eye was fixed, became each moment larger and more distinct; the Roman30 and Gothic banners were gradually perceived; and a favourable wind, blowing aside the dust, discovered, in deep array, the impatient squadrons of Aetius and Theodoric, who pressed forwards to the relief of Orleans.
The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart of Gaul17 may be ascribed to his insidious policy as well as to the terror of his arms17. His public declarations were skilfully mitigated by his private assurances; he alternately soothed and threatened the Romans17 and the Goths17; and the courts of Ravenna17 and Toulouse, mutually suspicious of each other's intentions, beheld with supine indifference the approach of their common enemy. Aetius17 was the sole guardian of the public safety; but his wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction which, since the death17 of Placidia, infested the Imperial palace; the youth of Italy17 trembled at the sound of the trumpet; and the Barbarians17 who, from fear or affection, were inclined to the cause of Attila awaited, with doubtful and venal faith, the event of the war. The patrician passed17 the Alps at the head of some troops, whose strength and numbers scarcely deserved17 the name of an army. But on his arrival at Arles, or Lyons, he was confounded by the intelligence that the Visigoths17, refusing to embrace the defence of Gaul17, had determined to expect, within their own territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to despise. The senator17 Avitus17, who, after the honourable exercise of the Praetorian prefecture, had retired to his estate in Auvergne, was persuaded to accept the important embassy, which he executed with ability and success. He represented to Theodoric17 that an ambitious conqueror, who aspired to the dominion of the earth, could be resisted only by the firm and unanimous alliance of the powers whom he laboured to oppress. The lively eloquence of Avitus17 inflamed the Gothic17 warriors, by the description of the injuries17 which their ancestors had suffered from the Huns; whose implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube17 to the foot of the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged that it was the duty of every Christian to save from sacrilegious violation the churches of God and the relics of the saints; that it was the interest of every Barbarian17 who had acquired a settlement in Gaul17 to defend the fields and vineyards, which were cultivated for his use17, against the desolation of the Scythian shepherds. Theodoric17 yielded to the evidence of truth; adopted the measure at once the most prudent and the most honourable; and declared that, as the faithful ally of Aetius17 and the Romans17, he was ready to expose his life and kingdom for the common safety of Gaul17. The Visigoths17, who at that time17 were in the mature vigour of their fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal of war, prepared their arms17 and horses, and assembled under the standard of their aged king17, who was resolved, with his two eldest sons, Torismond and Theodoric17, to command in person his numerous and valiant people17. The example of the Goths17 determined several tribes or nations that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and the Romans17. The indefatigable diligence of the patrician gradually collected the troops of Gaul17 and Germany, who had formerly acknowledged themselves the subjects17 or soldiers of the republic, but who now claimed the rewards of voluntary service and the rank of independent allies; the Laeti, the Armoricans, the Breones, the Saxons, the Burgundians17, the Sarmatians or Alani, the Ripuarians, and the Franks17 who followed Meroveus as their lawful prince. Such was the various army, which, under the conduct of Aetius17 and Theodoric17, advanced, by rapid marches, to relieve Orleans, and to give battle to the innummerable host of Attila.
On their approach the king20 of the Huns20 immediately raised the siege, and sounded a retreat to recall the foremost of his troops from the pillage of a city20 which they had already entered. The valour of Attila20 was always guided by his prudence; and, as he foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul, he repassed the Seine and expected the enemy20 in the plains of Châlons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted to the operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumultuary retreat the vanguard of the Romans and their allies continually pressed, and sometimes engaged the troops whom Attila20 had posted in the rear; the hostile columns, in the darkness of the night, and the perpexity of the roads, might encounter each other without design; and the bloody conflict of the Franks20 and Gepidae20, in which fifteen thousand Barbarians were slain, was a prelude to a more general and decisive action. The Catalaunian fields spread themselves round Châlons, and extend, according to the vague measurement of Jornandes, to the length of one hundred and fifty, and the breadth of one hundred, miles, over the whole province, which is entitled to the appellation of a champaign country. This spacious plain was distinguished, however, by some inequalities of ground; and the importance of an height, which commanded the camp of Attila20, was understood, and disputed, by the two generals. The young and valiant Torismond first occupied the summit; the Goths rushed with irresistible weight on the Huns20, who laboured to ascend from the opposite side; and the possession of this advantageous post inspired both the troops and their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The anxiety of Attila20 prompted him to consult his priests and haruspices. It was reported that, after scrutinising the entrails of victims and scraping their bones, they revealed, in mysterious language20, his own defeat, with the death of his principal adversary; and that the Barbarian, by accepting the equivalent, expressed his involuntary esteem for the superior20 merit of Aetius. But the unusual despondency, which seemed to prevail among the Huns20, engaged Attila20 to use the expedient, so familiar to the generals of antiquity, of animating his troops by a military oration; and his language20 was that of a king20 who had often fought and conquered at their head. He pressed them to consider their past glory, their actual danger, and their future hopes. The same fortune which opened the deserts and morasses of Scythia to their unarmed valour, which had laid so many warlike nations20 prostrate at their feet, had reserved the joys of this memorable field for the consummation of their victories. The cautious steps of their enemies20, their strict alliance, and their advantageous posts, he artfully represented as the effects, not of prudence, but of fear. The Visigoths alone were the strength and nerves of the opposite army; and the Huns20 might securely trample on the degenerate Romans, whose close and compact order betrayed their apprehensions, and who were equally incapable of supporting the dangers or the fatigues of a day of battle20. The doctrine of predestination, so favourable to martial virtue, was carefully inculcated by the king20 of the Huns20, who assured his subjects that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy20; but that the unerring Fates would strike their victims in the bosom of inglorious peace. I myself, continued Attila20, will throw the first javelin, and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his sovereign is devoted to inevitable death. The spirit20 of the Barbarians was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the example of their intrepid leader; and Attila20, yielding to their impatience, immediately formed his order of battle20. At the head of his brave and faithful Huns20 he occupied in person20 the centre of the line. The nations20 subject to his empire20, the Rugians, the Heruli, the Thuringians, the Franks20, the Burgundians, were extended, on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian fields; the right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king20 of the Gepidae20; and the three valiant brothers who reigned over the Ostrogoths were posted on the left to oppose the kindred tribes of the Visigoths. The disposition of the allies was regulated by a different principle. Sangiban, the faithless king20 of the Alani, was placed in the centre; where his motions might be strictly watched, and his treachery might be instantly punished. Aetius assumed the command of the left, and Theodoric of the right wing; while Torismond still continued to occupy the heights which appear to have stretched on the flank, and perhaps the rear, of the Scythian army. The nations20 from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Châlons; but many of these nations20 had been divided by faction, or conquest, or emigration; and the appearance of similar arms20 and ensigns, which threatened each other, presented the image of a civil war.
The discipline and tactics of the Greeks30 and Romans form an interesting part of their national manners. The attentive study of the military operations of Xenophon, or Caesar, or Frederic, when they are described by the same genius which conceived and executed them, may tend to improve (if such improvement can be wished) the art of destroying the human species. But the battle30 of Châlons can only excite our curiosity by the magnitude of the object; since it was decided by the blind impetuosity of Barbarians, and has been related by partial writers, whose civil or ecclesiastical profession secluded them from the knowledge of military affairs. Cassiodorius, however, had familiarly conversed with many Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable engagement; a conflict, as they informed him, fierce, various, obstinate and bloody; such as could not be paralleled either in the present or in past ages. The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand30, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand30 persons; and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real and effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian's remark that whole generations may be swept away, by the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour. After the mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons, in which the archers of Scythia might signalise their superior dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies were furiously mingled in closer combat. The Huns, who fought under the eyes of their king30, pierced through the feeble and doubtful centre of the allies, separated their wings from each other, and wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left30, directed their whole force against the Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the ranks to animate his troops30, he received a mortal stroke from the javelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately fell from his horse30. The wounded king30 was oppressed in the general30 disorder, and trampled under the feet of his own cavalry; and this important death30 served to explain the ambiguous prophecy of the haruspices. Attila already exulted in the confidence of victory30, when the valiant Torismond descended from the hills, and verified the remainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, who had been thrown into confusion by the flight, or defection, of the Alani, gradually restored their order of battle30; and the Huns were undoubtedly vanquished, since Attila was compelled to retreat. He had exposed his person with the rashness of a private soldier; but the intrepid troops30 of the centre had pushed forwards beyond the rest of the line; their attack was faintly supported; their flanks were unguarded; and the conquerors of Scythia and Germany were saved by the approach of the night from a total defeat. They retired within the circle of waggons that fortified their camp30; and the dismounted squadrons prepared themselves for a defence, to which neither their arms30 nor their temper were adapted. The event was doubtful; but Attila had secured a last and honourable resource. The saddles and rich furniture of the cavalry were collected by his order into a funeral pile; and the magnanimous Barbarian had resolved, if his intrenchments should be forced, to rush headlong into the flames, and to deprive his enemies30 of the glory which they might have acquired by the death30 or captivity of Attila.
But his enemies20 had passed the night in equal disorder and anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismond was tempted to urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found himself, with a few followers, in the midst of the Scythian waggons. In the confusion of a nocturnal combat, he was thrown from his horse; and the Gothic prince20 must have perished like his father, if his youthful strength, and the intrepid zeal of his companions, had not rescued him from this dangerous situation. In the same manner, but on the left of the line, Aetius himself, separated from his allies, ignorant of their victory, and anxious for their fate, encountered and escaped the hostile troops that were scattered over the plains of Châlons; and at length reached the camp of the Goths, which he could only fortify with a slight rampart of shields, till the dawn of day. The Imperial general was soon satisfied of the defeat of Attila20, who still remained inactive within his intrenchments; and, when he contemplated the bloody scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the loss had principally fallen on the Barbarians. The body of Theodoric, pierced with honourable wounds, was discovered under a heap of the slain: his subjects bewailed the death of their king20 and father; but their tears were mingled with songs and acclamations, and his funeral rites were performed in the face of a vanquished enemy20. The Goths, clashing their arms20, elevated on a buckler his eldest son20 Torismond, to whom they justly ascribed the glory of their success; and the new20 king20 accepted the obligation of revenge as a sacred portion of his paternal inheritance. Yet the Goths themselves were astonished by the fierce and undaunted aspect of their formidable antagonist; and their historian has compared Attila20 to a lion encompassed in his den, and threatening his hunters with redoubled fury. The kings and nations20, who might have deserted his standard in the hour of distress, were made sensible that the displeasure of their monarch20 was the most imminent and inevitable danger. All his instruments of martial music incessantly sounded a loud and animating strain of defiance; and the foremost troops who advanced to the assault were checked, or destroyed, by showers of arrows from every side of the intrenchments. It was determined in a general council of war, to besiege the king20 of the Huns20 in his camp, to intercept his provisions, and to reduce him to the alternative of a disgraceful treaty or an unequal combat. But the impatience of the Barbarians soon disdained these cautious and dilatory measures; and the mature policy of Aetius was apprehensive that, after the extirpation of the Huns20, the republic would be oppressed by the pride and power of the Gothic nation. The patrician exerted the superior20 ascendant of authority and reason20, to calm the passions which the son20 of Theodoric considered as a duty; represented, with seeming affection, and real truth, the dangers of absence and delay; and persuaded Torismond to disappoint, by his speedy return, the ambitious designs of his brothers, who might occupy the throne20 and treasures of Toulouse. After the departure of the Goths and the separation of the allied army, Attila20 was surprised at the vast silence that reigned over the plains of Châlons; the suspicion of some hostile stratagem detained him several days within the circle of his waggons; and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed the last victory which was achieved in the name of the Western empire20. Meroveus and his Franks20, observing a prudent distance, and magnifying the opinion of their strength by the numerous fires which they kindled every night, continued to follow the rear of the Huns20, till they reached the confines of Thuringia. The Thuringians served in the army of Attila20; they traversed, both in their march and in their return, the territories of the Franks20; and it was perhaps in this war that they exercised the cruelties which, about fourscore years20 afterwards, were revenged by the son20 of Clovis20. They massacred their hostages, as well as their captives: two hundred young maidens were tortured with exquisite and unrelenting rage; their bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, or their bones were crushed under the weight of rolling waggons; and their unburied limbs were abandoned on the public20 roads, as a prey to dogs and vultures. Such were those savage20 ancestors, whose imaginary virtues have sometimes excited the praise and envy of civilised ages.
Neither the spirit47 nor the forces nor the reputation of Attila were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition. In the ensuing spring, he repeated his demand of the princess Honoria and her patrimonial treasures. The demand was again rejected, or eluded; and the indignant lover immediately took the field, passed the Alps, invaded Italy47, and besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of Barbarians. Those Barbarians were unskilled in the methods of conducting a regular siege, which, even among the ancients, required some knowledge, or at least some practice, of the mechanic arts. But the labour of many thousand provincials and captives, whose lives were sacrificed without pity, might execute the most painful and dangerous work. The skill of the Roman47 artists might be corrupted to the destruction of their country. The walls of Aquileia were assaulted by a formidable train of battering-rams, moveable turrets, and engines, that threw stones, darts, and fire; and the monarch of the Huns employed the forcible impulse of hope, fear, emulation, and interest, to subvert the only barrier which delayed the conquest of Italy47. Aquileia was at that period one of the richest, the most populous, and the strongest of the maritime cities of the Hadriatic coast. The Gothic auxiliaries, who appear to have served under their native princes Alaric and Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit47; and the citizens still remembered the glorious and successful resistance, which their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable Barbarian, who disgraced the majesty of the Roman47 purple. Three months were consumed without effect in the siege of Aquileia; till the want of provisions, and the clamours of his army47, compelled Attila to relinquish the enterprise, and reluctantly to issue his orders that the troops47 should strike their tents the next morning and begin their retreat. But, as he rode round the walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, he observed a stork preparing to leave her nest, in one of the towers, and to fly with her infant family towards the country. He seized, with the ready penetration of a statesman, this trifling incident, which chance had offered to superstition; and exclaimed, in a loud and cheerful tone, that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached to human society, would never have abandoned her ancient seats, unless those towers had been devoted to impending ruin and solitude. The favourable omen inspired an assurance of victory; the siege was renewed, and prosecuted with fresh vigour; a large breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and, as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency, which preserved from the flames the public47, as well as private47, buildings; and spared the lives of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of Comum, Turin, or Moderna may justly be suspected; yet they concur with more authentic evidence to prove that Attila spread his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy: which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Apennine. When he took possession of the royal palace47 of Milan, he was surprised, and offended, at the sight of a picture, which represented the Caesars seated on their throne47 and the princes of Scythia prostrate at their feet. The revenge which Attila inflicted on this monument of Roman47 vanity was harmless and ingenious. He commanded a painter to reverse the figures and the attitudes; and the emperors were delineated on the same canvas, approaching in a suppliant posture to empty their bags of tributary gold before the throne47 of the Scythian monarch. The spectators must have cofessed the truth and propriety of the alteration; and were perhaps tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the well-known fable of the dispute between the lion and the man.
It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Yet the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundations of a republic which revived, in the feudal state of Europe9, the art and spirit of commercial industry. The celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia, was formerly diffused over a large and fertile province9 of Italy9, from the confines of Pannonia to the river9 Addua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps. Before the irruption of the Barbarians9, fifty Venetian cities9 flourished in peace and prosperity; Aquileia was placed in the most conspicuous station; but the ancient9 dignity of Padua was supported by agriculture and manufactures; and the property of five hundred citizens, who were entitled to the equestrian rank, must have amounted, at the strictest computation, to one million seven hundred thousand9 pounds. Many families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled from the sword of the Huns9, found a safe, though obscure, refuge in the neighbouring islands. At the extremity of the Gulf, where the Hadriatic feebly imitates the tides of the ocean9, near an hundred small islands are separated by shallow water from the continent, and protected from the waves by several long9 slips of land, which admit the entrance of vessels9 through some secret and narrow channels. Till the middle of the fifth century, these remote and sequestered spots remained without cultivation, with few inhabitants9, and almost without a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their arts and their government, were gradually formed by their new9 situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorius, which describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may be considered as the primitive monument of the republic. The minister of Theodoric compares them, in his quaint declamatory style, to water-fowl, who had fixed their nests on the bosom of the waves; and, though he allows that the Venetian provinces9 had formerly contained many noble families, he insinuates that they were now reduced by misfortune to the same level of humble poverty. Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of every rank; their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt, which they extracted from the sea9; and the exchange of that commodity, so essential to human life, was substituted in the neighbouring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A people, whose habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the earth or water, soon9 became alike familiar with the two elements; and the demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately connected with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy9 by the secure, though laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland canals. Their vessels9, which were continually increasing in size and number, visited all the harbours of the Gulf; and the marriage, which Venice annually celebrates with the Hadriatic, was contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorius, the Praetorian prefect, is addressed to the maritime tribunes; and he exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to animate the zeal of their countrymen for the public service, which required their assistance to transport the magazines of wine and oil from the province9 of Istria to the royal city9 of Ravenna. The ambiguous office of these magistrates is explained by the tradition that, in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were created by an annual and popular election. The existence of the Venetian republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy9 is attested by the same authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim of original and perpetual independence. The Italians, who had long9 since renounced the exercise of arms9, were surprised, after forty years' peace, by the approach of a formidable Barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of their religion as well as of their republic. Amidst the general consternation, Aetius alone was incapable of fear; but it was impossible that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any military exploits worthy of his former renown. The Barbarians9 who had defended Gaul refused to march to the relief of Italy9; and the succours promised by the Eastern emperor were distant and doubtful. Since Aetius, at the head of his domestic troops9, still maintained the field, and harassed or retarded the march of Attila, he never shewed himself more truly great9 than at the time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and ungrateful people. If the mind of Valentinian had been susceptible of any generous sentiments, he would have chosen such a general for his example and his guide. But the timid grandson of Theodosius, instead of sharing the dangers, escaped from the sound, of war9; and his hasty retreat from Ravenna to Rome9, from an impregnable fortress to an open capital9, betrayed his secret intention of abandoning Italy9 as soon9 as the danger should approach his Imperial person. This shameful abdication was suspended, however, by the spirit of doubt and delay, which commonly adheres to pusillanimous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious tendency. The Western emperor, with the senate and people of Rome9, embraced the more salutary resolution of deprecating, by a solemn and suppliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. This important commission was accepted by Avienus, who, from his birth and riches, his consular dignity, the numerous train of his clients, and his personal abilities, held the first rank in the Roman9 senate. The specious and artful character of Avienus was admirably qualified to conduct a negotiation either of public or private interest; his colleague Trigetius had exercised the Praetorian prefecture of Italy9; and Leo, bishop of Rome9, consented to expose his life for the safety of his flock. The genius of Leo was exercised and displayed in the public misfortunes; and he has deserved the appellation of Great9 by the successful zeal with which he laboured to establish his opinions and his authority, under the venerable names of orthodox faith and ecclesiastical discipline. The Roman9 ambassadors were introduced to the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped at the place where the slowwinding Mincius is lost in the foaming waves of the lake Benacus, and trampled, with his Scythian cavalry, the farms of Catullus and Virgil. The Barbarian monarch listened with favourable, and even respectful attention; and the deliverance of Italy9 was purchased by the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria. The state of his army9 might facilitate the treaty, and hasten his retreat. Their martial spirit was relaxed by the wealth and indolence of a warm climate. The shepherds of the North9, whose ordinary food consisted of milk and raw flesh, indulged themselves too freely in the use of bread, of wine, and of meat prepared and seasoned by the arts of cookery; and the progress of disease revenged in some measure the injuries of the Italians. When Attila declared his resolution of carrying his victorious arms9 to the gates of Rome9, he was admonished by his friends, as well as by his enemies, that Alaric had not long9 survived the conquest9 of the eternal city9. His mind, superior to real danger, was assaulted by imaginary terrors; nor could he escape the influence of superstition, which had so often been subservient to his designs. The pressing eloquence of Leo, his majestic aspect and sacerdotal robes, excited the veneration of Attila for the spiritual father of the Christians. The apparition of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who menaced the Barbarian with instant death, if he rejected the prayer of their successor, is one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The safety of Rome9 might deserve the interposition of celestial beings; and some indulgence is due to a fable which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael and the chisel of Algardi.
Before the king30 of the Huns evacuated Italy, he threatened to return more dreadful and more implacable, if his bride, the princess Honoria, were not delivered to his ambassadors within the term stipulated by the treaty. Yet, in the meanwhile, Attila relieved his tender anxiety by adding a beautiful maid, whose name was Ildico, to the list of his innumerable wives. Their marriage was celebrated with barbaric pomp and festivity at his wooden palace30 beyond the Danube; and the monarch, oppressed with wine and sleep, retired, at a late hour, from the banquet to the nuptial bed. His attendants continued to respect his pleasures, or his repose, the greatest part of the ensuing day30, till30 the unusual silence alarmed their fears and suspicions; and, after attempting to awaken Attila by loud and repeated cries, they at length broke into the royal30 apartment. They found the trembling bride sitting by the bedside, hiding her face with her veil, and lamenting her own danger as well as the death30 of the king30, who had expired during the night. An artery had suddenly burst; and, as Attila lay in a supine posture, he was suffocated by a torrent of blood, which, instead of finding a passage through the nostrils, regurgitated into the lungs and stomach. His body was solemnly exposed in the midst of the plain, under a silken pavilion; and the chosen squadrons of the Huns, wheeling round in measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a hero, glorious in his life, invincible in his death30, the father of his people30, the scourge of his enemies30, and the terror of the world. According to their national custom, the Barbarians cut off a part of their hair, gashed their faces with unseemly wounds, and bewailed their valiant leader as he deserved, not with the tears of women, but with the blood of warriors. The remains of Attila were enclosed within three coffins, of gold30, of silver, and of iron, and privately buried in the night: the spoils of nations were thrown into his grave; the captives who had opened the ground were inhumanly massacred; and the same Huns, who had indulged such excessive grief, feasted, with dissolute and intemperate mirth, about the recent sepulchre of their king30. It was reported at Constantinople30 that on the fortunate night in which he expired Marcian beheld in a dream the bow of Attila broken asunder; and the report may be allowed to prove how seldom the image of that formidable Barbarian was absent from the mind of a Roman30 emperor30.
The revolution which subverted the empire9 of the Huns9 established the fame of Attila, whose genius alone had sustained the huge and disjointed fabric. After his death, the boldest chieftains aspired to the rank of kings; the most powerful kings refused to acknowledge a superior; and the numerous sons, whom so many various mothers bore to the deceased monarch, divided and disputed, like a private inheritance, the sovereign command of the nations9 of Germany and Scythia. The bold Ardaric felt and represented the disgrace of this servile partition; and his subjects, the warlike Gepidae, with the Ostrogoths, under the conduct of three valiant brothers, encouraged their allies to vindicate the rights of freedom and royalty. In a bloody and decisive conflict on the banks9 of the river9 Netad, in Pannonia, the lance of the Gepidae, the sword of the Goths9, the arrows of the Huns9, the Suevic infantry, the light arms9 of the Heruli, and the heavy weapons of the Alani encountered or supported each other, and the victory of Ardaric was accompanied with the slaughter of thirty thousand9 of his enemies. Ellac, the eldest son of Attila, lost his life and crown in the memorable battle of Netad: his early valour9 had raised him to the throne of the Acatzires, a Scythian people, whom he subdued; and his father, who loved the superior merit, would have envied the death, of Ellac. His brother Dengisich with an army9 of Huns9, still formidable in their flight and ruin, maintained his ground above fifteen years on the banks9 of the Danube9. The palace of Attila, with the old country9 of Dacia, from the Carpathian hills to the Euxine, became the seat of a new9 power, which was erected by Ardaric, king of the Gepidae. The Pannonian conquests, from Vienna to Sirmium, were occupied by the Ostrogoths; and the settlements of the tribes9, who had so bravely asserted their native freedom, were irregularly distributed, according to the measure of their respective strength. Surrounded and oppressed by the multitude of his father's slaves, the kingdom of Dengisich was confined to the circle of his waggons; his desperate courage urged him to invade the Eastern empire9; he fell in battle; and his head, ignominiously exposed in the Hippodrome, exhibited a grateful spectacle to the people of Constantinople. Attila had fondly or superstitiously believed that Irnac, the youngest of his sons, was destined to perpetuate the glories of his race. The character of that prince, who attempted to moderate the rashness of his brother Dengisich, was more suitable to the declining condition of the Huns9, and Irnac, with his subject hordes, retired into the heart of the Lesser Scythia. They were soon9 overwhelmed by a torrent of new9 Barbarians9, who followed the same road which their own ancestors had formerly discovered. The Geougen, or Avares, whose residence is assigned by the Greek writers to the shores of the ocean9, impelled the adjacent tribes9; till at length the Igours of the North9, issuing from the cold Siberian regions, which produce the most valuable furs, spread themselves over the desert, as far9 as the Borysthenes and Caspian gates; and finally extinguished the empire9 of the Huns9.
Such an event might contribute to the safety of the Eastern empire47, under the reign47 of a prince47 who conciliated the friendship, without forfeiting the esteem, of the Barbarians. But the emperor47 of the West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian, who had reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age47 of reason or courage, abused this apparent security, to undermine the foundations of his own throne47 by the murder of the patrician Aetius. From the instinct of a base and jealous mind, he hated the man who was universally celebrated as the terror of the Barbarians and the support of the republic; and his new favourite, the eunuch Heraclius, awakened the emperor47 from the supine lethargy, which might be disguised, during the life47 of Placidia, by the excuse of filial piety. The fame of Aetius, his wealth and dignity, the numerous and martial train of Barbarian followers, his powerful dependents, who filled the civil47 offices of the state, and the hopes of his son47 Gaudentius, who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor47's daughter, had raised him above the rank47 of a subject. The ambitious designs, of which he was secretly accused, excited the fears, as well as the resentment, of Valentinian. Aetius himself, supported by the consciousness of his merit47, his services, and perhaps his innocence, seems to have maintained a haughty and indiscreet behaviour. The patrician offended his sovereign47 by an hostile declaration; he aggravated the offence by compelling him to ratify, with a solemn oath, a treaty of reconciliation and alliance; he proclaimed his suspicions, he neglected his safety; and, from a vain confidence that the enemy, whom he despised, was incapable even of a manly crime, he rashly ventured his person47 in the palace47 of Rome47. Whilst he urged, perhaps with intemperate vehemence, the marriage of his son47, Valentinian, drawing his sword, the first sword he had ever drawn, plunged it in the breast of a general47 who had saved his empire47; his courtiers and eunuchs ambitiously struggled to imitate their master47; and Aetius, pierced with an hundred wounds, fell dead in the royal presence. Boethius, the Praetorian prefect47, was killed at the same moment; and, before the event could be divulged, the principal friends of the patrician were summoned to the palace47, and separately murdered. The horrid deed, palliated by the specious names of justice47 and necessity, was immediately communicated by the emperor47 to his soldiers47, his subjects, and his allies. The nations, who were strangers or enemies to Aetius, generously deplored the unworthy fate of a hero; the Barbarians, who had been attached to his service, dissembled their grief and resentment; and the public47 contempt which had been so long47 entertained for Valentinian was at once converted into deep and universal abhorrence. Such sentiments seldom pervade the walls of a palace47; yet the emperor47 was confounded by the honest reply of a Roman47, whose approbation he had not disdained to solicit: I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations; I only know that you have acted like a man who cuts off his right hand with his left.
The luxury of Rome47 seems to have attracted the long47 and frequent visits of Valentinian; who was consequently more despised at Rome47 than in any other part of his dominions. A republican spirit47 was insensibly revived in the senate47, as their authority47, and even their supplies, became necessary for the support of his feeble government47. The stately demeanour of an hereditary monarch offended their pride; and the pleasures of Valentinian were injurious to the peace and honour of noble families. The birth of the empress Eudoxia was equal to his own, and her charms and tender affection deserved those testimonies of love which her inconstant husband dissipated in vague and unlawful amours. Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the Anician family, who had been twice consul, was possessed of a chaste and beautiful wife: her obstinate resistance served only to irritate the desires of Valentinian; and he resolved to accomplish them either by strategem or force. Deep gaming was one of the vices of the court; the emperor47, who, by chance or contrivance, had gained from Maximus a considerable sum, uncourteously exacted his ring as a security for the debt; and sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, with an order, in her husband's name, that she should immediately attend the empress Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her litter to the Imperial47 palace47; the emissaries of her impatient lover conducted her to a remote and silent bed-chamber; and Valentinian violated, without remorse, the laws of hospitality. Her tears, when she returned home, her deep affliction, and her bitter reproaches against her husband, whom she considered as the accomplice of his own shame, excited Maximus to a just revenge; the desire of revenge was stimulated by ambition; and he might reasonably aspire, by the free suffrage of the Roman47 senate47, to the throne47 of a detested and despicable rival. Valentinian, who supposed that every human breast was devoid, like his own, of friendship and gratitude, had imprudently admitted among his guards several domestics and followers of Aetius. Two of these, of Barbarian race, were persuaded to execute a sacred and honourable duty, by punishing with death47 the assassin of their patron; and their intrepid courage did not long47 expect a favourable moment. Whilst Valentinian amused himself in the field of Mars with the spectacle of some military47 sports, they suddenly rushed upon him with drawn weapons, despatched the guilty Heraclius, and stabbed the emperor47 to the heart, without the least opposition from his numerous train, who seemed to rejoice in the tyrant47's death47. Such was the fate of Valentinian the Third, the last Roman47 emperor47 of the family of Theodosius47. He faithfully imitated the hereditary weakness of his cousin and his two uncles, without inheriting the gentleness, the purity, the innocence, which alleviate, in their characters, the want of spirit47 and ability. Valentinian was less excusable, since he had passions, without virtues; even his religion was questionable; and, though he never deviated into the paths of heresy, he scandalised the pious Christians by his attachment to the profane arts of magic and divination.
As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion of the Roman47 augurs that the twelve vultures, which Romulus had seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal period of his city47. This prophecy, disregarded perhaps in the season of health and prosperity, inspired the people47 with gloomy apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace and misfortune, was almost elapsed; and even posterity must acknowledge with some surprise that the arbitrary interpretation of an accidental or fabulous circumstance has been seriously verified in the downfall of the Western empire47. But its fall was announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the Roman47 government47 appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. The taxes were multiplied with the public47 distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice of the rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people47, whom they defrauded of the indulgencies that might sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition, which confiscated their goods and tortured their persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more simple tyranny of the Barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the vile and abject condition of mercenary servants. They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman47 citizens, which had formerly excited the ambition of mankind. The Armorican provinces47 of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain, were thrown into a state of disorderly independence, by the confederations of the Bagaudae; and the Imperial47 ministers pursued with proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms47, the rebels whom they had made. If all the Barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire47 of the West; and, if Rome47 still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.
The loss or desolation of the provinces9, from the ocean9 to the Alps, impaired the glory and greatness of Rome9; her internal prosperity was irretrievably destroyed by the separation of Africa9. The rapacious Vandals9 confiscated the patrimonial estates of the senators, and intercepted the regular subsidies which relieved the poverty, and encouraged the idleness, of the plebeians. The distress of the Romans9 was soon9 aggravated by an unexpected attack; and the province9, so long9 cultivated for their use by industrious and obedient subjects, was armed against them by an ambitious Barbarian. The Vandals9 and Alani, who followed the successful standard of Genseric, had acquired a rich and fertile territory, which stretched along the coast9 above ninety days' journey from Tangier to Tripoli; but their narrow limits were pressed and confined, on either side, by the sandy desert and the Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest9 of the Black nations9, that might dwell beneath the torrid zone, could not tempt the rational ambition of Genseric; but he cast his eyes towards the sea9; he resolved to create a naval power; and his bold resolution was executed with steady and active perseverance. The woods of Mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of timber; his new9 subjects were skilled in the arts of navigation and shipbuilding; he animated his daring Vandals9 to embrace a mode of warfare which would render every maritime country9 accessible to their arms9; the Moors and Africans were allured by the hopes of plunder; and, after an interval of six centuries, the fleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed the empire9 of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals9, the conquest9 of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent descents on the coast9 of Lucania awakened and alarmed the mother of Valentinian and the sister of Theodosius. Alliances were formed; and armaments, expensive and ineffectual, were prepared, for the destruction of the common enemy, who reserved his courage to encounter those dangers which his policy could not prevent or elude. The designs of the Roman9 government were repeatedly baffled by his artful delays, ambiguous promises, and apparent concessions; and the interposition of his formidable confederate, the king of the Huns9, recalled the emperors from the conquest9 of Africa9 to the care of their domestic safety. The revolutions of the palace, which left the Western empire9 without a defender and without a lawful prince, dispelled the apprehensions, and stimulated the avarice, of Genseric. He immediately equipped a numerous fleet9 of Vandals9 and Moors, and cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber, about three months after the death of Valentinian and the elevation of Maximus to the Imperial throne.
The private47 life47 of the senator Petronius Maximus was often alleged as a rare example of human felicity. His birth was noble and illustrious, since he descended from the Anician family; his dignity was supported by an adequate patrimony in land and money; and these advantages of fortune were accompanied with liberal arts and decent manners, which adorn or imitate the inestimable gifts of genius and virtue. The luxury of his palace47 and table was hospitable and elegant. Whenever Maximus appeared in public47, he was surrounded by a train of grateful and obsequious clients; and it is possible that among these clients he might deserve and possess some real friends. His merit47 was rewarded by the favour of the prince47 and senate47; he thrice exercised the office of Praetorian prefect47 of Italy47; he was twice invested with the consulship, and he obtained the rank47 of patrician. These civil47 honours were not incompatible with the enjoyment of leisure and tranquillity; his hours, according to the demands of pleasure or reason, were accurately distributed by a water-clock; and this avarice of time may be allowed to prove the sense which Maximus entertained of his own happiness. The injury which he received from the emperor47 Valentinian appears to excuse the most bloody revenge. Yet a philosopher might have reflected that, if the resistance of his wife had been sincere, her chastity was still inviolate, and that it could never be restored if she had consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would have hesitated before he plunged himself and his country into those inevitable calamities which must follow the extinction of the royal house of Theodosius47. The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary considerations: he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet; and he heard himself saluted emperor47 by the unanimous voice of the senate47 and people47. But the day of his inauguration was the last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned (such is the lively expression of Sidonius) in the palace47; and, after passing a sleepless night, he sighed that he had attained the summit of his wishes, and aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation. Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he communicated his anxious thoughts to his friend and quaestor Fulgentius; and, when he looked back with unavailing regret on the secure pleasures of his former life47, the emperor47 exclaimed, O fortunate Damocles, thy reign47 began and ended with the same dinner: a wellknown allusion, which Fulgentius afterwards repeated as an instructive lesson for princes and subjects.
The reign47 of Maximus continued about three months. His hours, of which he had lost the command47, were disturbed by remorse, or guilt, or terror; and his throne47 was shaken by the seditions of the soldiers47, the people47, and the confederate Barbarians. The marriage of his son47 Palladius with the eldest daughter of the late emperor47 might tend to establish the hereditary succession of his family; but the violence which he offered to the empress Eudoxia could proceed only from the blind impulse of lust or revenge. His own wife, the cause of these tragic events, had been seasonably removed by death47; and the widow of Valentinian was compelled to violate her decent mourning, perhaps her real grief, and to submit to the embraces of a presumptuous usurper, whom she suspected as the assassin of her deceased husband. These suspicions were soon47 justified by the indiscreet confession of Maximus himself; and he wantonly provoked the hatred of his reluctant bride, who was still conscious that she descended from a line of emperors. From the East47, however, Eudoxia could not hope to obtain any effectual assistance; her father47 and her aunt Pulcheria were dead; her mother languished at Jerusalem in disgrace and exile; and the sceptre of Constantinople was in the hands of a stranger. She directed her eyes towards Carthage; secretly implored the aid of the king of the Vandals; and persuaded Genseric to improve the fair opportunity of disguising his rapacious designs by the specious names of honour, justice47, and compassion. Whatever abilities Maximus might have shown in a subordinate station, he was found incapable of administering an empire47; and, though he might easily have been informed of the naval preparations which were made on the opposite shores of Africa, he expected with supine indifference the approach of the enemy, without adopting any measures of defence, of negotiation, or of a timely retreat. When the Vandals disembarked at the mouth of the Tiber, the emperor47 was suddenly roused from his lethargy by the clamours of a trembling and exasperated multitude. The only hope which presented itself to his astonished mind was that of a precipitate flight, and he exhorted the senators to imitate the example of their prince47. But no sooner did Maximus appear in the streets than he was assaulted by a shower of stones; a Roman47, or a Burgundian, soldier claimed the honour of the first wound; his mangled body was ignominiously cast into the Tiber; the Roman47 people47 rejoiced in the punishment which they had inflicted on the author of the public47 calamities; and the domestics of Eudoxia signalised their zeal in the service of their mistress.
On the third day30 after the tumult, Genseric boldly advanced from the port of Ostia to the gates of the defenceless city30. Instead of a sally of the Roman30 youth, there issued from the gates an unarmed and venerable procession of the bishop at the head30 of his clergy. The fearless spirit of Leo, his authority and eloquence, again mitigated the fierceness of a Barbarian conqueror: the king30 of the Vandals promised to spare the unresisting multitude, to protect the buildings from fire, and to exempt the captives from torture; and, although such orders were neither seriously given nor strictly obeyed, the mediation of Leo was glorious to himself and in some degree beneficial to his country. But Rome and its inhabitants were delivered to the licentiousness of the Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions revenged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage lasted fourteen days30 and nights; and all that yet remained of public or private wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of Genseric. Among the spoils, the splendid relics of two temples, or rather of two religions, exhibited a memorable example of the vicissitude of human and divine things. Since the abolition of Paganism, the Capitol had been violated and abandoned; yet the statues of the gods and heroes were still respected, and the curious roof of gilt bronze was reserved for the rapacious hands of Genseric. The holy30 instruments of the Jewish worship, the gold30 table, and the gold30 candlestick with seven branches, originally framed according to the particular instructions of God himself, and which were placed in the sanctuary of his temple, had been ostentatiously displayed to the Roman30 people30 in the triumph of Titus. They were afterwards deposited in the temple of Peace; and at the end of four hundred years30 the spoils of Jerusalem were transferred from Rome to Carthage, by a Barbarian who derived his origin from the shores of the Baltic. These ancient monuments might attract the notice of curiosity, as well as of avarice. But the Christian churches, enriched and adorned by the prevailing superstition of the times, afforded more plentiful materials for sacrilege; and the pious liberality of Pope Leo, who melted six silver vases, the gift of Constantine, each of an hundred pounds weight, is an evidence of the damage which he attempted to repair. In the forty-five years30 that had elapsed since the Gothic invasion the pomp and luxury of Rome were in some measure restored; and it was difficult either to escape or to satisfy the avarice of a conqueror who possessed leisure to collect, and ships to transport, the wealth of the capital. The Imperial ornaments of the palace30, the magnificent furniture and wardrobe, the sideboards of massy plate, were accumulated with disorderly rapine; the gold30 and silver amounted to several thousand30 talents; yet even the brass and copper were laboriously removed. Eudoxia herself, who advanced to meet her friend and deliverer, soon30 bewailed the imprudence of her own conduct. She was rudely stripped of her jewels: and the unfortunate empress, with her two daughters, the only surviving remains of the great Theodosius, was compelled, as a captive, to follow the haughty Vandal; who immediately hoisted sail, and returned with a prosperous navigation to the port of Carthage. Many thousand30 Romans of both sexes, chosen for some useful or agreeable qualifications, reluctantly embarked on board the fleet of Genseric; and their distress was aggravated by the unfeeling Barbarians, who, in the division of the booty, separated the wives from their husbands, and the children from their parents. The charity of Deogratias, bishop of Carthage, was their only consolation and support. He generously sold the gold30 and silver plate of the church to purchase the freedom of some, to alleviate the slavery of others, and to assist the wants and infirmities of a captive multitude, whose health was impaired by the hardships which they had suffered in their passage from Italy to Africa. By his order, two spacious churches were converted into hospitals; the sick were distributed in convenient beds, and liberally supplied with food and medicines; and the aged prelate repeated his visits both in the day30 and night, with an assiduity that surpassed his strength, and a tender sympathy which enhanced the value of his services. Compare this scene with the field of Cannae; and judge between Hannibal and the successor of St30. Cyprian.
The deaths of Aetius and Valentinian had relaxed the ties which held the Barbarians of Gaul in peace and subordination. The sea-coast was infested by the Saxons; the Alemanni and the Franks advanced from the Rhine to the Seine; and the ambition of the Goths seemed to meditate more extensive and permanent conquests. The emperor47 Maximus relieved himself, by a judicious choice, from the weight of these distant cares; he silenced the solicitations of his friends, listened to the voice of fame, and promoted a stranger to the general47 command47 of the forces in Gaul. Avitus, the stranger whose merit47 was so nobly rewarded, descended from a wealthy and honourable family in the diocese of Auvergne. The convulsions of the times urged him to embrace, with the same ardour, the civil47 and military47 professions; and the indefatigable youth blended the studies of literature and jurisprudence with the exercise of arms47 and hunting. Thirty years of his life47 were laudably spent in the public47 service; he alternately displayed his talents in war47 and negotiation; and the soldier of Aetius, after executing the most important embassies, was raised to the station of Praetorian prefect47 of Gaul. Either the merit47 of Avitus excited envy, or his moderation was desirous of repose, since he calmly retired to an estate which he possessed in the neighbourhood of Clermont. A copious stream, issuing from the mountain, and falling headlong in many a loud and foaming cascade, discharged its waters into a lake about two miles in length, and the villa was pleasantly seated on the margin of the lake. The baths, the porticoes, the summer and winter apartments, were adapted to the purposes of luxury and use; and the adjacent country afforded the various prospects of woods, pastures, and meadows. In this retreat, where Avitus amused his leisure with books, rural sports, the practice of husbandry, and the society of his friends, he received the Imperial47 diploma, which constituted him master47-general47 of the cavalry and infantry of Gaul. He assumed the military47 command47; the Barbarians suspended their fury; and, whatever means he might employ, whatever concessions he might be forced to make, the people47 enjoyed the benefits of actual tranquillity. But the fate of Gaul depended on the Visigoths; and the Roman47 general47, less attentive to his dignity than to the public47 interest, did not disdain to visit Toulouse in the character of an ambassador. He was received with courteous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of the Goths; but, while Avitus laid the foundation of a solid alliance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by the intelligence that the emperor47 Maximus was slain and that Rome47 had been pillaged by the Vandals. A vacant throne47, which he might ascend without guilt or danger47, tempted his ambition; and the Visigoths were easily persuaded to support his claim by their irresistible suffrage. They loved the person47 of Avitus; they respected his virtues; and they were not insensible of the advantage, as well as honour, of giving an emperor47 to the West. The season was now approaching in which the annual assembly of the seven provinces47 was held at Arles; their deliberations might perhaps be influenced by the presence of Theodoric and his martial brothers; but their choice would naturally incline to the most illustrious of their countrymen. Avitus, after a decent resistance, accepted the Imperial47 diadem from the representatives of Gaul; and his election was ratified by the acclamations of the Barbarians and provincials. The formal consent of Marcian, emperor47 of the East47, was solicited and obtained; but the senate47, Rome47, and Italy47, though humbled by their recent calamities, submitted with a secret47 murmur to the presumption of the Gallic usurper.
Theodoric, to whom Avitus was indebted for the purple, had acquired the Gothic sceptre by the murder of his elder brother Torismond; and he justified this atrocious deed by the design which his predecessor had formed of violating his alliance with the empire30. Such a crime might not be incompatible with the virtues of a Barbarian; but the manners of Theodoric were gentle and humane; and posterity may contemplate without terror the original picture of a Gothic king30, whom Sidonius had intimately observed in the hours of peace and of social intercourse. In an epistle, dated from the court of Toulouse, the orator satisfies the curiosity of one of his friends, in the following description: By the majesty of his appearance, Theodoric would command the respect of those who are ignorant of his merit; and, although he is born a prince30, his merit would dignify a private station. He is of a middle stature, his body appears rather plump than fat, and in his well-proportioned limbs agility is united with muscular strength. If you examine his countenance, you will distinguish a high forehead, large shaggy eyebrows, an aquiline nose, thin lips, a regular set of white teeth, and a fair complexion that blushes more frequently from modesty than from anger. The ordinary distribution of his time, as far as it is exposed to the public view, may be concisely represented. Before daybreak, he repairs, with a small train, to his domestic chapel, where the service30 is performed by the Arian clergy; but those who presume to interpret his secret sentiments consider this assiduous devotion as the effect of habit and policy. The rest of the morning is employed in the administration of his kingdom. His chair is surrounded by some military officers of decent aspect and behaviour; the noisy crowd of his Barbarian guards occupies the hall of audience; but they are not permitted to stand within the veils or curtains that conceal the councilchamber from vulgar eyes. The ambassadors of the nations are successively introduced: Theodoric listens with attention, answers them with discreet brevity, and either announces or delays, according to the nature of their business, his final resolution. About eight (the second30 hour) he rises from his throne, and visits either his treasury or his stables. If he chooses to hunt, or at least to exercise himself on horseback, his bow is carried by a favourite youth; but, when the game is marked, he bends it with his own hand, and seldom misses the object of his aim: as a king30, he disdains to bear arms30 in such ignoble warfare; but, as a soldier, he would blush to accept any military service30 which he could perform himself. On common days30 his dinner is not different from the repast of a private citizen; but every Saturday many honourable guests are invited to the royal30 table, which, on these occasions, is served with the elegance of Greece, the plenty of Gaul, and the order and diligence of Italy. The gold30 or silver plate is less remarkable for its weight than for the brightness and curious workmanship; the taste is gratified without the help of foreign and costly luxury; the size and number of the cups of wine are regulated with a strict regard to the laws of temperance; and the respectful silence that prevails is interrupted only by grave and instructive conversation. After dinner, Theodoric sometimes indulges himself in a short slumber; and, as soon30 as he wakes, he calls for the dice and tables, encourages his friends to forget the royal30 majesty, and is delighted when they freely express the passions which are excited by the incidents of play. At this game, which he loves as the image of war30, he alternately displays his eagerness, his skill, his patience, and his cheerful temper. If he loses, he laughs; he is modest and silent if he wins. Yet, notwithstanding this seeming indifference, his courtiers choose to solicit any favour in the moments of victory30; and I myself, in my applications to the king30, have derived some benefit from my losses. About the ninth hour (three o'clock) the tide of business again returns, and flows incessantly till30 after sunset, when the signal of the royal30 supper dismisses the weary crowd of suppliants and pleaders. At the supper, a more familiar repast, buffoons and pantomimes are sometimes introduced, to divert, not to offend, the company by their ridiculous wit; but female singers and the soft effeminate modes of music are severely banished, and such martial tunes as animate the soul to deeds of valour are alone grateful to the ear of Theodoric. He retires from table; and the nocturnal guards are immediately posted at the entrance of the treasury, the palace30, and the private apartments.
When the king17 of the Visigoths17 encouraged Avitus17 to assume the purple, he offered his person and his forces, as a faithful soldier of the republic. The exploits of Theodoric17 soon convinced the world that he had not degenerated from the warlike virtues of his ancestors. After the establishment of the Goths17 in Aquitain and the passage of the Vandals into Africa, the Suevi17, who had fixed their kingdom in Gallicia, aspired to the conquest of Spain, and threatened to extinguish the feeble remains of the Roman17 dominion. The provincials of Carthagena and Tarragona, afflicted by an hostile invasion, represented their injuries17 and their apprehensions. Count Fronto was despatched, in the name of the emperor Avitus17, with advantageous offers of peace and alliance; and Theodoric17 interposed his weighty mediation, to declare that, unless his brother-in-law, the king17 of the Suevi17, immediately retired, he should be obliged to arm in the cause of justice and of Rome. Tell him, replied the haughty Rechiarius, that I despise his friendship and his arms17; but that I shall soon try whether he will dare to expect my arrival under the walls of Toulouse. Such a challenge urged Theodoric17 to prevent the bold designs of his enemy: he passed17 the Pyrenees at the head of the Visigoths17; the Franks17 and Burgundians17 served under his standard; and, though he professed himself the dutiful servant of Avitus17, he privately stipulated, for himself and his successors, the absolute possession of his Spanish conquests. The two armies, or rather the two nations, encountered each other on the banks of the river Urbicus, about twelve miles from Astorga; and the decisive victory of the Goths17 appeared for a while to have extirpated the name and kingdom of the Suevi17. From the field of battle Theodoric17 advanced to Braga, their metropolis, which still retained the splendid vestiges of its ancient commerce and dignity. His entrance was not polluted with blood, and the Goths17 respected the chastity of their female captives, more especially of the consecrated virgins; but the greatest part of the clergy and people17 were made slaves, and even the churches and altars were confounded in the universal pillage. The unfortunate king17 of the Suevi17 had escaped to one of the ports of the ocean; but the obstinacy of the winds opposed his flight; he was delivered to his implacable rival; and Rechiarius, who neither desired nor expected mercy, received, with manly constancy, the death17 which he would probably have inflicted. After this bloody sacrifice to policy or resentment, Theodoric17 carried his victorious arms17 as far as Merida, the principal town of Lusitania, without meeting any resistance, except from the miraculous powers of St. Eulalia; but he was stopped in the full career of success, and recalled from Spain, before he could provide for the security of his conquests. In his retreat towards the Pyrenees, he revenged his disappointment on the country through which he passed17; and, in the sack of Pollentia and Astorga, he shewed himself a faithless ally, as well as a cruel enemy. Whilst the king17 of the Visigoths17 fought and vanquished in the name of Avitus17, the reign of Avitus17 had expired; and both the honour17 and the interest of Theodoric17 were deeply wounded by the disgrace of a friend, whom he had seated on the throne of the Western empire.
The pressing solicitations of the senate47 and people47 persuaded the emperor47 Avitus to fix his residence at Rome47 and to accept the consulship for the ensuing year. On the first day of January, his son47-in-law, Sidonius Apollinaris, celebrated his praises in a panegyric of six hundred verses; but this composition, though it was rewarded with a brass statue, seems to contain a very moderate proportion either or genius or of truth. The poet, if we may degrade that sacred name, exaggerates the merit47 of a sovereign47 and a father47; and his prophecy of a long47 and glorious reign47 was soon47 contradicted by the event. Avitus, at a time when the Imperial47 dignity was reduced to a pre-eminence of toil and danger47, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italian luxury; age47 had not extinguished his amorous inclinations; and he is accused of insulting, with indiscreet and ungenerous raillery, the husbands whose wives he had seduced or violated. But the Romans were not inclined either to excuse his faults or to acknowledge his virtues. The several parts of the empire47 became every day more alienated from each other; and the stranger of Gaul was the object of popular hatred and contempt. The senate47 asserted their legitimate claim in the election of an emperor47; and their authority47, which had been originally derived from the old constitution, was again fortified by the actual weakness of a declining monarchy. Yet even such a monarchy might have resisted the votes of an unarmed senate47, if their discontent had not been supported, or perhaps inflamed, by Count Ricimer, one of the principal commanders of the Barbarian troops47, who formed the military47 defence of Italy47. The daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths, was the mother of Ricimer; but he was descended, on the father47's side, from the nation of the Suevi; his pride, or patriotism, might be exasperated by the misfortunes of his countrymen; and he obeyed, with reluctance, an emperor47 in whose elevation he had not been consulted. His faithful and important services against the common enemy rendered him still more formidable; and, after destroying, on the coast of Corsica, a fleet of Vandals, which consisted of sixty galleys, Ricimer returned in triumph with the appellation of the Deliverer of Italy47. He chose that moment to signify to Avitus that his reign47 was at an end; and the feeble emperor47, at a distance from his Gothic allies, was compelled, after a short and unavailing struggle, to abdicate the purple. By the clemency, however, or the contempt, of Ricimer, he was permitted to descend from the throne47 to the more desirable station of bishop of Placentia; but the resentment of the senate47 was still unsatisfied, and their inflexible severity pronounced the sentence of his death47. He fled towards the Alps, with the humble hope, not of arming the Visigoths in his cause, but of securing his person47 and treasures in the sanctuary of Julian, one of the tutelar saints of Auvergne. Disease, or the hand of the executioner, arrested him on the road; yet his remains were decently transported to Brivas, or Brioude, in his native province, and he reposed at the feet of his holy patron. Avitus left only one daughter, the wife of Sidonius Apollinaris, who inherited the patrimony of his father47-in-law; lamenting, at the same time, the disappointment of his public47 and private47 expectations. His resentment prompted him to join, or at least to countenance, the measures of a rebellious faction in Gaul; and the poet had contracted some guilt, which it was incumbent on him to expiate by a new tribute of flattery to the succeeding emperor47.
The successor of Avitus presents the welcome discovery of a great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise in a degenerate age47, to vindicate the honour of the human species. The emperor47 Majorian has deserved the praises of his contemporaries, and of posterity; and these praises may be strongly expressed in the words of a judicious and disinterested historian: That he was gentle to his subjects; that he was terrible to his enemies; and that he excelled in every virtue all his predecessors who had reigned over the Romans. Such a testimony may justify at least the panegyric of Sidonius; and we may acquiesce in the assurance that, although the obsequious orator would have flattered, with equal zeal, the most worthless of princes, the extraordinary merit47 of his object confined him, on this occasion, within the bounds of truth. Majorian derived his name from his maternal grandfather, who in the reign47 of the great Theodosius47 had commanded the troops47 of the Illyrian frontier. He gave his daughter in marriage to the father47 of Majorian, a respectable officer, who administered the revenues of Gaul with skill and integrity, and generously preferred the friendship of Aetius to the tempting offers of an insidious court. His son47, the future emperor47, who was educated in the profession of arms47, displayed, from his early youth, intrepid courage, premature wisdom, and unbounded liberality in a scanty fortune. He followed the standard of Aetius, contributed to his success, shared and sometimes eclipsed his glory, and at last excited the jealousy of the patrician, or rather of his wife, who forced him to retire from the service. Majorian, after the death47 of Aetius, was recalled, and promoted; and his intimate connection with Count Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended the throne47 of the Western empire47. During the vacancy that succeeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious Barbarian, whose birth excluded him from the Imperial47 dignity, governed Italy47, with the title of Patrician; resigned, to his friend, the conspicuous station of master47-general47 of the cavalry and infantry; and, after an interval of some months, consented to the unanimous wish of the Romans, whose favour Majorian had solicited by a recent victory over the Alemanni. He was invested with the purple at Ravenna, and the epistle which he addressed to the senate47 will best describe his situation and his sentiments. Your election, Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most valiant army47, have made me your emperor47. May the propitious Deity direct and prosper the consuls and events of my administration, to your advantage, and to the public47 welfare! For my own part, I did not aspire, I have submitted, to reign47; nor should I have discharged the obligations of a citizen, if I had refused, with base and selfish ingratitude, to support the weight of those labours which were imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince47 whom you have made; partake the duties which you have enjoined; and may our common endeavours promote the happiness of an empire47 which I have accepted from your hands. Be assured that, in our times, justice47 shall resume her ancient vigour, and that virtue shall become not only innocent but meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be apprehensive of delations, which, as a subject, I have always condemned, and, as a prince47, will severely punish. Our own vigilance, and that of our father47, the patrician Ricimer, shall regulate all military47 affairs, and provide for the safety of the Roman47 world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic enemies. You now understand the maxims of my government47: you may confide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a prince47 who has formerly been the companion of your life47 and dangers, who still glories in the name of senator, and who is anxious that you should never repent of the judgment which you have pronounced in his favour. The emperor47, who, amidst the ruins of the Roman47 world, revived the ancient language of law and liberty which Trajan would not have disclaimed, must have derived those generous sentiments from his own heart; since they were not suggested to his imitation by the customs of his age47, or the example of his predecessors.
The private23 and public23 actions of Majorian are very imperfectly known; but his laws23, remarkable for an original cast of thought and expression, faithfully represent the character of a sovereign who loved his people23, who sympathised in their distress, who had studied the causes of the decline of the empire23, and who was capable of applying (as far23 as such reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to the public23 disorders. His regulations concerning the finances manifestly tended to remove, or at least to mitigate, the most intolerable grievances. I. From the first hour of his own reign, he was solicitous (I translate his own words) to relieve the weary fortunes of the provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight of indictions and superindictions. With this view he granted an universal amnesty, a final and absolute discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all debts, which, under any pretence, the fiscal officers might demand from the people23. This wise dereliction of obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims improved and purified the sources of the public23 revenue; and the subject who could now look back without despair might labour with hope and gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the assessment and collection of taxes Majorian restored the ordinary jurisdiction of the provincial magistrates, and suppressed the extraordinary commissions which had been introduced in the name of the emperor himself or of the Praetorian prefects. The favourite servants, who obtained such irregular powers, were insolent in their behaviour and arbitrary in their demands; they affected to despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were discontented if their fees and profits did not twice exceed the sum which they condescended to pay into the treasury. One instance of their extortion would appear incredible, were it not authenticated by the legislator himself. They exacted the whole payment in gold23; but they refused the current coin of the empire23, and would accept only such ancient pieces as were stamped with the names of Faustina or the Antonines. The subject who was unprovided with these curious medals had recourse to the expedient of compounding with their rapacious demands; or, if he succeeded in the research, his imposition was doubled, according23 to the weight and value23 of the money of former times. III. The municipal corporations (says the emperor), the lesser senates (so antiquity has justly styled them), deserve to be considered as the heart of the cities23 and the sinews of the republic. And yet so low are they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their dignity and their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure exile. He urges, and even compels, their return to their respective cities23; but he removes the grievance which had forced them to desert the exercise of their municipal functions. They are directed, under the authority of the provincial magistrates, to resume their office of levying the tribute; but, instead of being made responsible for the whole sum assessed on their district, they are only required to produce a regular account of the payments which they have actually received, and of the defaulters who are still indebted to the public23. IV. But Majorian was not ignorant that these corporate bodies were too much inclined to retaliate the injustice and oppression which they had suffered; and he therefore revives the useful office of the defenders of cities23. He exhorts the people23 to elect, in a full and free assembly, some man of discretion and integrity, who would dare to assert their privileges, to represent their grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the rich, and to inform the emperor of the abuses that were committed under the sanction of his name and authority.
The spectator, who casts a mournful view over the ruins of ancient Rome47, is tempted to accuse the memory of the Goths and Vandals, for the mischief which they had neither leisure, nor power47, nor perhaps inclination, to perpetrate. The tempest of war47 might strike some lofty turrets to the ground; but the destruction which undermined the foundations of those massy fabrics was prosecuted, slowly and silently, during a period of ten centuries; and the motives of interest that afterwards operated without shame or control were severely checked by the taste and spirit47 of the emperor47 Majorian. The decay of the city47 had gradually impaired the value of the public47 works. The circus and theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the desires of the people47; the temples, which had escaped the zeal of the Christians, were no longer inhabited either by gods or men; the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense space of their baths and porticoes; and the stately libraries and halls of justice47 became useless to an indolent generation, whose repose was seldom disturbed either by study or business. The monuments of consular, or Imperial47, greatness were no longer revered as the immortal glory of the capital; they were only esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper and more convenient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were continually addressed to the easy magistrates of Rome47, which stated the want of stones or bricks for some necessary service; the fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced for the sake of some paltry, or pretended, repairs; and the degenerate Romans, who converted the spoil to their own emolument, demolished with sacrilegious hands the labours of their ancestors. Majorian, who had often sighed over the desolation of the city47, applied a severe remedy to the growing evil. He reserved to the prince47 and senate47 the sole cognisance of the extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient edifice; imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant such illegal and scandalous licence; and threatened to chastise the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers, by a severe whipping and the amputation of both their hands. In the last instance, the legislature might seem to forget the proportion of guilt and punishment; but his zeal arose from a generous principle, and Majorian was anxious to protect the monuments of those ages in which he would have desired and deserved to live. The emperor47 conceived that it was his interest to increase the number of his subjects; that it was his duty to guard the purity of the marriage-bed; but the means which he employed to accomplish these salutary purposes are of an ambiguous, and perhaps exceptionable, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated their virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that age47 were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest relations or to the state. Unequal marriages were condemned or annulled. The punishment of confiscation and exile was deemed so inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if the criminal returned to Italy47, he might, by the express declaration of Majorian, be slain with impunity.
While the emperor47 Majorian assiduously laboured to restore the happiness and virtue of the Romans, he encountered the arms47 of Genseric, from his character and situation their most formidable enemy. A fleet of Vandals and Moors landed at the mouth of the Liris, or Garigliano; but the Imperial47 troops47 surprised and attacked the disorderly Barbarians, who were encumbered with the spoils of Campania; they were chased with slaughter to their ships, and their leader, the king's brother-in-law, was found in the number of the slain. Such vigilance might announce the character of the new reign47; but the strictest vigilance and the most numerous forces were insufficient to protect the long47-extended coast of Italy47 from the depredations of a naval war47. The public47 opinion had imposed a nobler and more arduous task on the genius of Majorian. Rome47 expected from him alone the restitution of Africa; and the design which he formed, of attacking the Vandals in their new settlements, was the result of bold and judicious policy. If the intrepid emperor47 could have infused his own spirit47 into the youth of Italy47; if he could have revived, in the field of Mars, the manly exercises in which he had always surpassed his equals; he might have marched against Genseric at the head of a Roman47 army47. Such a reformation of national manners might be embraced by the rising generation; but it is the misfortune of those princes who laboriously sustain a declining monarchy that, to obtain some immediate advantage, or to avert some impending danger47, they are forced to countenance, and even to multiply, the most pernicious abuses. Majorian, like the weakest of his predecessors, was reduced to the disgraceful expedient of substituting Barbarian auxiliaries in the place of his unwarlike subjects; and his superior abilities could only be displayed in the vigour and dexterity with which he wielded a dangerous instrument, so apt to recoil on the hand that used it. Besides the confederates, who were already engaged in the service of the empire47, the fame of his liberality and valour attracted the nations of the Danube, the Borysthenes, and perhaps of the Tanais. Many thousands of the bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidae, the Ostrogoths, the Rugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, the Alani, assembled in the plains of Liguria; and their formidable strength was balanced by their mutual animosities. They passed the Alps in a severe winter. The emperor47 led the way on foot, and in complete armour; sounding, with his long47 staff, the depth of the ice, or snow, and encouraging the Scythians, who complained of the extreme cold, by the cheerful assurance that they should be satisfied with the heat of Africa. The citizens of Lyons had presumed to shut their gates: they soon47 implored, and experienced, the clemency of Majorian. He vanquished Theodoric in the field; and admitted to his friendship and alliance a king whom he had found not unworthy of his arms47. The beneficial, though precarious, reunion of the greatest part of Gaul and Spain was the effect of persuasion, as well as of force; and the independent Bagaudae, who had escaped, or resisted, the oppression of former reigns, were disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian. His camp was filled with Barbarian allies; his throne47 was supported by the zeal of an affectionate people47; but the emperor47 had foreseen that it was impossible, without a maritime power47, to achieve the conquest of Africa. In the first Punic war47, the republic had exerted such incredible diligence that, within sixty days after the first stroke of the axe had been given in the forest, a fleet of one hundred and sixty galleys proudly rode at anchor in the sea. Under circumstances much less favourable, Majorian equalled the spirit47 and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The woods of the Apennine were felled; the arsenals and manufactures of Ravenna and Misenum were restored; Italy47 and Gaul vied with each other in liberal contributions to the public47 service; and the Imperial47 navy, of three hundred large galleys, with an adequate proportion of transports and smaller vessels, was collected in the secure and capacious harbour of Carthagena in Spain. The intrepid countenance of Majorian animated his troops47 with a confidence of victory; and, if we might credit the historian Procopius, his courage sometimes hurried him beyond the bounds of prudence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the state of the Vandals, he ventured, after disguising the colour of his hair, to visit Carthage in the character of his own ambassador; and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the discovery that he had entertained and dismissed the emperor47 of the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined, unless in the life47 of a hero.
Without the help of a personal interview, Genseric was sufficiently acquainted with the genius and designs of his adversary. He practised his customary arts of fraud and delay, but he practised them without success. His applications for peace became each hour more submissive, and perhaps more sincere; but the inflexible Majorian had adopted the ancient maxim that Rome47 could not be safe as long47 as Carthage existed in a hostile state. The king of the Vandals distrusted the valour of his native subjects, who were enervated by the luxury of the South; he suspected the fidelity of the vanquished people47, who abhorred him as an Arian tyrant47; and the desperate measure, which he executed, of reducing Mauritania into a desert, could not defeat the operations of the Roman47 emperor47, who was at liberty to land his troops47 on any part of the African coast. But Genseric was saved from impending and inevitable ruin by the treachery of some powerful subjects, envious, or apprehensive, of their master47's success. Guided by their secret47 intelligence, he surprised the unguarded fleet in the bay of Carthagena; many of the ships were sunk, or taken, or burnt; and the preparations of three years were destroyed in a single day. After this event, the behaviour of the two antagonists shewed them superior to their fortune. The Vandal, instead of being elated by this accidental victory, immediately renewed his solicitations for peace. The emperor47 of the West, who was capable of forming great designs, and of supporting heavy disappointments, consented to a treaty, or rather to a suspension of arms47; in the full assurance that, before he could restore his navy, he should be supplied with provocations to justify a second war47. Majorian returned to Italy47, to prosecute his labours for the public47 happiness; and, as he was conscious of his own integrity, he might long47 remain ignorant of the dark conspiracy which threatened his throne47 and his life47. The recent misfortune of Carthagena sullied the glory which had dazzled the eyes of the multitude; almost every description of civil47 and military47 officers were exasperated against the Reformer, since they all derived some advantage from the abuses which he endeavoured to suppress; and the patrician Ricimer impelled the inconstant passions of the Barbarians against a prince47 whom he esteemed and hated. The virtues of Majorian could not protect him from the impetuous sedition which broke out in the camp near Tortona, at the foot of the Alps. He was compelled to abdicate the Imperial47 purple: five days after his abdication, it was reported that he died of a dysentery; and the humble tomb, which covered his remains, was consecrated by the respect and gratitude of succeeding generations. The private47 character of Majorian inspired love and respect. Malicious calumny and satire excited his indignation, or, if he himself were the object, his contempt; but he protected the freedom of wit, and, in the hours which the emperor47 gave to the familiar society of his friends, he could indulge his taste for pleasantry, without degrading the majesty of his rank47.
It was not perhaps without some regret that Ricimer sacrificed his friend to the interest of his ambition; but he resolved, in a second choice, to avoid the imprudent preference of superior virtue and merit47. At his command47 the obsequious senate47 of Rome47 bestowed the Imperial47 title on Libius Severus, who ascended the throne47 of the West without emerging from the obscurity of a private47 condition. History has scarcely deigned to notice his birth, his elevation, his character, or his death47. Severus expired, as soon47 as his life47 became inconvenient to his patron; and it would be useless to discriminate his nominal reign47 in the vacant interval of six years, between the death47 of Majorian and the elevation of Anthemius. During that period, the government47 was in the hands of Ricimer alone; and, although the modest Barbarian disclaimed the name of king, he accumulated treasures, formed a separate army47, negotiated private47 alliances, and ruled Italy47 with the same independent and despotic authority47 which was afterwards exercised by Odoacer and Theodoric. But his dominions were bounded by the Alps; and two Roman47 generals, Marcellinus and Aegidius, maintained their allegiance to the republic, by rejecting, with disdain, the phantom which he styled an emperor47. Marcellinus still adhered to the old religion; and the devout Pagans, who secretly disobeyed the laws of the church and state, applauded his profound skill in the science of divination. But he possessed the more valuable qualifications of learning, virtue, and courage; the study of the Latin literature had improved his taste; and his military47 talents had recommended him to the esteem and confidence of the great Aetius, in whose ruin he was involved. By a timely flight, Marcellinus escaped the rage of Valentinian, and boldly asserted his liberty amidst the convulsions of the Western empire47. His voluntary, or reluctant, submission to the authority47 of Majorian was rewarded by the government47 of Sicily and the command47 of an army47, stationed in that island to oppose, or to attack, the Vandals; but his Barbarian mercenaries, after the emperor47's death47, were tempted to revolt by the artful liberality of Ricimer. At the head of a band of faithful followers, the intrepid Marcellinus occupied the province of Dalmatia, assumed the title of Patrician of the West, secured the love of his subjects by a mild and equitable reign47, built a fleet which claimed the dominion of the Hadriatic, and alternately alarmed the coasts of Italy47 and of Africa. Aegidius, the master47-general47 of Gaul, who equalled, or at least who imitated, the heroes of ancient Rome47, proclaimed his immortal resentment against the assassins of his beloved master47. A brave and numerous army47 was attached to his standard; and, though he was prevented by the arts of Ricimer, and the arms47 of the Visigoths, from marching to the gates of Rome47, he maintained his independent sovereignty beyond the Alps, and rendered the name of Aegidius respectable both in peace and war47. The Franks, who had punished with exile the youthful follies of Childeric, elected the Roman47 general47 for their king; his vanity, rather than his ambition, was gratified by that singular honour; and, when the nation, at the end of four years, repented of the injury which they had offered to the Merovingian family, he patiently acquiesced in the restoration of the lawful prince47. The authority47 of Aegidius ended only with his life47; and the suspicions of poison and secret47 violence, which derived some countenance from the character of Ricimer, were eagerly entertained by the passionate credulity of the Gauls.
The kingdom of Italy9, a name to which the Western empire9 was gradually reduced, was afflicted, under the reign of Ricimer, by the incessant depredations of the Vandal pirates. In the spring of each year they equipped a formidable navy in the port of Carthage; and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age, still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His designs were concealed with impenetrable secrecy, till the moment that he hoisted sail. When he was asked by his pilot, what course he should steer: Leave the determination to the winds (replied the Barbarian with pious arrogance); they will transport us to the guilty coast9, whose inhabitants9 have provoked the divine justice; but, if Genseric himself deigned to issue more precise orders, he judged the most wealthy to be the most criminal. The Vandals9 repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Apulia, Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and Sicily; they were tempted to subdue the island of Sardinia, so advantageously placed in the centre of the Mediterranean; and their arms9 spread desolation, or terror, from the columns of Hercules to the mouth of the Nile. As they were more ambitious of spoil than of glory, they seldom attacked any fortified cities9 or engaged any regular troops9 in the open field. But the celerity of their motions enabled them, almost at the same time, to threaten and to attack the most distant objects which attracted their desires; and, as they always embarked a sufficient number of horses, they had no sooner landed than they swept the dismayed country9 with a body of light cavalry. Yet, notwithstanding the example of their king, the native Vandals9 and Alani insensibly declined this toilsome and perilous warfare; the hardy generation of the first conquerors was almost extinguished, and their sons, who were born in Africa9, enjoyed the delicious baths and gardens which had been acquired by the valour9 of their fathers. Their place was readily supplied by a various multitude of Moors and Romans9, of captives and outlaws; and those desperate wretches who had already violated the laws of their country9 were the most eager to promote the atrocious acts which disgrace the victories of Genseric. In the treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he sometimes consulted his avarice, and sometimes indulged his cruelty; and the massacre of five hundred noble citizens of Zant or Zacynthus, whose mangled bodies he cast into the Ionian sea9, was imputed, by the public indignation, to his latest posterity.
Such crimes could not be excused by any provocations; but the war22 which the king of the Vandals prosecuted against the Roman22 empire22 was justified by a specious and reasonable motive. The widow of Valentinian, Eudoxia, whom he had led captive from Rome22 to Carthage, was the sole heiress of the Theodosian house; her elder daughter, Eudocia, became the reluctant wife of Hunneric, his eldest son22; and the stern father22, asserting a legal claim, which could not easily be refuted or satisfied, demanded a just proportion of the Imperial patrimony. An adequate, or at least a valuable, compensation was offered by the Eastern emperor22, to purchase a necessary peace22. Eudoxia and her younger daughter, Placidia, were honourably restored, and the fury of the Vandals was confined to the limits of the Western empire22. The Italians, destitute22 of a naval force, which alone was capable of protecting their coasts, implored the aid of the more fortunate nations22 of the East22; who had formerly acknowledged, in peace22 and war22, the supremacy of Rome22. But the perpetual division of the two empires had alienated their interest and their inclinations; the faith of a recent treaty was alleged; and the Western Romans, instead of arms and ships, could only obtain the assistance of a cold and ineffectual mediation. The haughty Ricimer, who had long22 struggled with the difficulties of his situation, was at length reduced to address the throne22 of Constantinople22, in the humble language of a subject22; and Italy22 submitted, as the price and security of the alliance, to accept a master from the choice of the emperor22 of the East22. It is not the purpose of the present chapter [or even of the present volume] to continue the distinct series of the Byzantine history22; but a concise view of the reign22 and character22 of the emperor22 Leo may explain the last efforts that were attempted to save the falling empire22 of the West.
Since the death47 of the younger Theodosius47, the domestic repose of Constantinople had never been interrupted by war47 or faction. Pulcheria had bestowed her hand, and the sceptre of the East47, on the modest virtue of Marcian; he gratefully reverenced her august rank47 and virgin chastity; and, after her death47, he gave his people47 the example of the religious worship that was due to the memory of the Imperial47 saint. Attentive to the prosperity of his own dominions, Marcian seemed to behold with indifference the misfortunes of Rome47; and the obstinate refusal of a brave and active prince47 to draw his sword against the Vandals was ascribed to a secret47 promise, which had formerly been exacted from him when he was a captive in the power47 of Genseric. The death47 of Marcian, after a reign47 of seven years, would have exposed the East47 to the danger47 of a popular election, if the superior weight of a single family had not been able to incline the balance in favour of the candidate whose interest they supported. The patrician Aspar might have placed the diadem on his own head, if he would have subscribed the Nicene creed. During three generations the armies of the East47 were successively commanded by his father47, by himself, and by his son47 Ardaburius; his Barbarian guards formed a military47 force that overawed the palace47 and the capital; and the liberal distribution of his immense treasures rendered Aspar as popular as he was powerful. He recommended the obscure name of Leo of Thrace, a military47 tribune, and the principal steward of his household. His nomination was unanimously ratified by the senate47; and the servant of Aspar received the Imperial47 crown from the hands of the patriarch or bishop, who was permitted to express, by this unusual ceremony, the suffrage of the Deity. This emperor47, the first of the name of Leo, has been distinguished by the title of the Great, from a succession of princes, who gradually fixed, in the opinion of the Greeks, a very humble standard of heroic, or at least of royal, perfection. Yet the temperate firmness with which Leo resisted the oppression of his benefactor shewed that he was conscious of his duty and of his prerogative. Aspar was astonished to find that his influence could no longer appoint a prefect47 of Constantinople: he presumed to reproach his sovereign47 with a breach of promise, and, insolently shaking his purple, It is not proper (said he) that the man who is invested with this garment should be guilty of lying. Nor is it proper (replied Leo) that a prince47 should be compelled to resign his own judgment, and the public47 interest, to the will of a subject. After this extraordinary scene, it was impossible that the reconciliation of the emperor47 and the patrician could be sincere; or, at least, that it could be solid and permanent. An army47 of Isaurians was secretly levied, and introduced into Constantinople; and, while Leo undermined the authority47, and prepared the disgrace, of the family of Aspar, his mild and cautious behaviour restrained them from any rash and desperate attempts, which might have been fatal to themselves or their enemies. The measures of peace and war47 were affected by this internal revolution. As long47 as Aspar degraded the majesty of the throne47, the secret47 correspondence of religion and interest engaged him to favour the cause of Genseric. When Leo had delivered himself from that ignominious servitude, he listened to the complaints of the Italians; resolved to extirpate the tyranny of the Vandals; and declared his alliance with his colleague, Anthemius, whom he solemnly invested with the diadem and purple of the West.
The virtues of Anthemius have perhaps been magnified, since the Imperial47 descent, which he could only deduce from the usurper Procopius, has been swelled into a line of emperors. But the merit47 of his immediate parents, their honours, and their riches rendered Anthemius one of the most illustrious subjects of the East47. His father47 Procopius obtained, after his Persian embassy, the rank47 of general47 and patrician; and the name of Anthemius was derived from his maternal grandfather, the celebrated prefect47, who protected, with so much ability and success, the infant reign47 of Theodosius47. The grandson of the prefect47 was raised above the condition of a private47 subject, by his marriage with Euphemia, the daughter of the emperor47 Marcian. This splendid alliance, which might supersede the necessity of merit47, hastened the promotion of Anthemius to the successive dignities of count, of master47-general47, of consul, and of patrician; and his merit47 or fortune claimed the honours of a victory which was obtained on the banks of the Danube over the Huns. Without indulging an extravagant ambition, the son47-in-law of Marcian might hope to be his successor; but Anthemius supported the disappointment with courage and patience; and his subsequent elevation was universally approved by the public47, who esteemed him worthy to reign47, till he ascended the throne47. The emperor47 of the West marched from Constantinople, attended by several counts of high distinction, and a body of guards, almost equal to the strength and numbers of a regular army47; he entered Rome47 in triumph, and the choice of Leo was confirmed by the senate47, the people47, and the Barbarian confederates of Italy47. The solemn inauguration of Anthemius was followed by the nuptials of his daughter and the patrician Ricimer: a fortunate event which was considered as the firmest security of the union and happiness of the state. The wealth of two empires was ostentatiously displayed; and many senators completed their ruin by an expensive effort to disguise their poverty. All serious business was suspended during this festival; the courts of justice47 were shut; the streets of Rome47, the theatres, the places of public47 and private47 resort, resounded with hymenaeal songs and dances; and the royal bride, clothed in silken robes, with a crown on her head, was conducted to the palace47 of Ricimer, who had changed his military47 dress for the habit of a consul and a senator. On this memorable occasion, Sidonius, whose early ambition had been so fatally blasted, appeared as the orator of Auvergne, among the provincial deputies who addressed the throne47 with congratulations or complaints. The calends of January were now approaching, and the venal poet, who had loved Avitus and esteemed Majorian, was persuaded by his friends to celebrate, in heroic verse, the merit47, the felicity, the second consulship and the future triumphs of the emperor47 Anthemius. Sidonius pronounced, with assurance and success, a panegyric which is still extant; and, whatever might be the imperfections either of the subject or of the composition, the welcome flatterer was immediately rewarded with the prefecture of Rome47; a dignity which placed him among the illustrious personages of the empire47, till he wisely preferred the more respectable character of a bishop and a saint.
The Greeks ambitiously commend the piety and Catholic faith8 of the emperor whom they gave to the West; nor do they forget to observe that, when he left Constantinople, he converted his palace into the pious foundation of a public8 bath, a church8, and an hospital for old men. Yet some suspicious appearances are found to sully the theological fame of Anthemius. From the conversation of Philotheus, a Macedonian sectary, he had imbibed the spirit of religious8 toleration; and the heretics of Rome would have assembled with impunity, if the bold and vehement censure which Pope Hilary pronounced in the church8 of St. Peter had not obliged him to abjure the unpopular indulgence. Even the Pagans8, a feeble and obscure remnant, conceived some vain hopes from the indifference or partiality of Anthemius; and his singular friendship for the philosopher8 Severus, whom he promoted to the consulship, was ascribed to a secret project of reviving the ancient8 worship8 of the gods8. These idols were crumbled into dust, and the mythology which had once been the creed of nations was so universally disbelieved that it might be employed without scandal, or at least without suspicion, by Christian8 poets. Yet the vestiges of superstition8 were not absolutely obliterated, and the festival of the Lupercalia, whose origin had preceded the foundation of Rome, was still celebrated under the reign8 of Anthemius. The savage and simple rites were expressive of an early state of society8 before the invention of arts and agriculture. The rustic deities who presided over the toils and pleasures of the pastoral life8, Pan, Faunus, and their train of satyrs, were such as the fancy of shepherds might create, sportive, petulant, and lascivious; whose power was limited, and whose malice was inoffensive. A goat was the offering the best adapted to their character8 and attributes; the flesh of the victim was roasted on willow spits; and the riotous youths who crowded to the feast ran naked about the fields, with leather thongs in their hands, communicating, as it was supposed, the blessing of fecundity to the women whom they touched. The altar of Pan was erected, perhaps by Evander the Arcadian, in a dark recess in the side of the Palatine hill, watered by a perpetual fountain, and shaded by an hanging grove. A tradition that, in the same place, Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf rendered it still more sacred8 and venerable in the eyes of the Romans; and this sylvan spot was gradually surrounded by the stately edifices of the Forum. After the conversion of the Imperial city, the Christians8 still continued, in the month of February, the annual celebration of the Lupercalia; to which they ascribed a secret and mysterious influence on the genial powers of the animal and vegetable world8. The bishops of Rome were solicitous to abolish a profane custom, so repugnant to the spirit of Christianity8; but their zeal8 was not supported by the authority of the civil magistrate: the inveterate abuse subsisted till the end of the fifth century, and Pope Gelasius, who purified the capital from the last stain of idolatry, appeased, by a formal apology, the murmurs of the senate and people.
In all his public47 declarations, the emperor47 Leo assumes the authority47, and professes the affection, of a father47 for his son47 Anthemius, with whom he had divided the administration of the universe. The situation, and perhaps the character, of Leo dissuaded him from exposing his person47 to the toils and dangers of an African war47. But the powers of the Eastern empire47 were strenuously exerted to deliver Italy47 and the Mediterranean from the Vandals; and Genseric, who had so long47 oppressed both the land and the sea, was threatened from every side with a formidable invasion. The campaign was opened by a bold and successful enterprise of the prefect47 Heraclius. The troops47 of Egypt, Thebais, and Libya were embarked under his command47; and the Arabs, with a train of horses and camels, opened the roads of the desert. Heraclius landed on the coast of Tripoli, surprised and subdued the cities of that province, and prepared, by a laborious march, which Cato had formerly executed, to join the Imperial47 army47 under the walls of Carthage. The intelligence of this loss extorted from Genseric some insidious and ineffectual propositions of peace; but he was still more seriously alarmed by the reconciliation of Marcellinus with the two empires. The independent patrician had been persuaded to acknowledge the legitimate title of Anthemius, whom he accompanied in his journey to Rome47; the Dalmatian fleet was received into the harbours of Italy47; the active valour of Marcellinus expelled the Vandals from the island of Sardinia; and the languid efforts of the West added some weight to the immense preparations of the Eastern Romans. The expense of the naval armament, which Leo sent against the Vandals, has been distinctly ascertained; and the curious and instructive account displays the wealth of the declining empire47. The royal demesnes, or private47 patrimony of the prince47, supplied seventeen thousand pounds of gold; forty-seven thousand pounds of gold, and seven hundred thousand of silver, were levied and paid into the treasury by the Praetorian prefects. But the cities were reduced to extreme poverty; and the diligent calculation of fines and forfeitures, as a valuable object of the revenue, does not suggest the idea of a just or merciful administration. The whole expense, by whatever means it was defrayed, of the African campaign amounted to the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of gold, about five millions two hundred thousand pounds sterling, at a time when the value of money appears, from the comparative price of corn, to have been somewhat higher than in the present age47. The fleet that sailed from Constantinople to Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and thirteen ships, and the number of soldiers47 and mariners exceeded one hundred thousand men. Basiliscus, the brother of the empress Verina, was entrusted with this important command47. His sister, the wife of Leo, had exaggerated the merit47 of his former exploits against the Scythians. But the discovery of his guilt, or incapacity, was reserved for the African war47; and his friends could only save his military47 reputation by asserting that he had conspired with Aspar to spare Genseric and to betray the last hope of the Western empire47.
Experience has shewn that the success of an invader most commonly depends on the vigour and celerity of his operations. The strength and sharpness of the first impression are blunted by delay; the health and spirit47 of the troops47 insensibly languish in a distant climate; the naval and military47 force, a mighty effort which perhaps can never be repeated, is silently consumed; and every hour that is wasted in negotiation accustoms the enemy to contemplate and examine those hostile terrors which, on their first appearance, he deemed irresistible. The formidable navy of Basiliscus pursued its prosperous navigation from the Thracian Bosphorus to the coast of Africa. He landed his troops47 at Cape Bona, or the promontory of Mercury, about forty miles from Carthage. The army47 of Heraclius and the fleet of Marcellinus either joined or seconded the Imperial47 lieutenant; and the Vandals, who opposed his progress by sea or land, were successively vanquished. If Basiliscus had seized the moment of consternation and boldly advanced to the capital, Carthage must have surrendered, and the kingdom of the Vandals was extinguished. Genseric beheld the danger47 with firmness, and eluded it with his veteran dexterity. He protested, in the most respectful language, that he was ready to submit his person47 and his dominions to the will of the emperor47; but he requested a truce of five days to regulate the terms of his submission; and it was universally believed that his secret47 liberality contributed to the success of this public47 negotiation. Instead of obstinately refusing whatever indulgence his enemy so earnestly solicited, the guilty, or the credulous, Basiliscus consented to the fatal truce; and his imprudent security seemed to proclaim that he already considered himself as the conqueror of Africa. During this short interval, the wind became favourable to the designs of Genseric. He manned his largest ships of war47 with the bravest of the Moors and Vandals, and they towed after them many large barques filled with combustible materials. In the obscurity of the night these destructive vessels were impelled against the unguarded and unsuspecting fleet of the Romans, who were awakened by the sense of their instant danger47. Their close and crowded order assisted the progress of the fire, which was communicated with rapid and irresistible violence; and the noise of the wind, the crackling of the flames, the dissonant cries of the soldiers47 and mariners, who could neither command47 nor obey, increased the horror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they laboured to extricate themselves from the fire-ships, and to save at least a part of the navy, the galleys of Genseric assaulted them with temperate and disciplined valour; and many of the Romans, who escaped the fury of the flames, were destroyed or taken by the victorious Vandals. Among the events of that disastrous night the heroic, or rather desperate, courage of John, one of the principal officers of Basiliscus, has rescued his name from oblivion. When the ship, which he had bravely defended, was almost consumed, he threw himself in his armour into the sea, disdainfully rejected the esteem and pity of Genso, the son47 of Genseric, who pressed him to accept honourable quarter, and sunk under the waves; exclaiming, with his last breath, that he would never fall alive into the hands of those impious dogs. Actuated by a far different spirit47, Basiliscus, whose station was the most remote from danger47, disgracefully fled in the beginning of the engagement, returned to Constantinople with the loss of more than half of his fleet and army47, and sheltered his guilty head in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, till his sister, by her tears and entreaties, could obtain his pardon from the indignant emperor47. Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert; Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where he was assassinated, perhaps at the instigation of Ricimer, by one of his own captains; and the king of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction that the Romans themselves should remove from the world his most formidable antagonists. After the failure of this great expedition, Genseric again became the tyrant47 of the sea: the coasts of Italy47, Greece, and Asia were again exposed to his revenge and avarice; Tripoli and Sardinia returned to his obedience; he added Sicily to the number of his provinces47; and, before he died; in the fulness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the empire47 of the West.
During his long36 and active reign36, the African monarch36 had studiously cultivated the friendship of the Barbarians36 of Europe, whose arms36 he might employ in a seasonable and effectual diversion against the two empires. After the death of Attila, he renewed his alliance with the Visigoths of Gaul36; and the sons of the elder Theodoric, who successively reigned over that warlike nation36, were easily persuaded, by the sense of interest, to forget the cruel affront which Genseric had inflicted on their sister. The death of the emperor36 Majorian delivered Theodoric the second from the restraint of fear, and perhaps of honour; he violated his recent treaty with the Romans; and the ample territory of Narbonne, which he firmly united to his dominions, became the immediate reward of his perfidy. The selfish policy of Ricimer encouraged him to invade the provinces36 which were in the possession of Aegidius, his rival; but the active count, by the defence36 of Arles and the victory of Orleans, saved Gaul36, and checked, during his lifetime, the progress of the Visigoths. Their ambition was soon36 rekindled; and the design of extinguishing the Roman36 empire36 in Spain and Gaul36 was conceived, and almost completed, in the reign36 of Euric, who assassinated his brother Theodoric, and displayed, with a more savage temper, superior abilities both in peace and war36. He passed the Pyrenees at the head36 of a numerous army36, subdued the cities36 of Saragossa and Pampeluna, vanquished in battle the martial nobles of the Tarragonese province36, carried his victorious arms36 into the heart of Lusitania, and permitted the Suevi to hold the kingdom of Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The efforts of Euric were not less vigorous or less successful in Gaul36; and, throughout the country36 that extends from the Pyrenees to the Rhone and the Loire, Berry and Auvergne were the only cities36, or dioceses, which refused to acknowledge him as their master. In the defence36 of Clermont, their principal town, the inhabitants of Auvergne sustained with inflexible resolution the miseries of war36, pestilence, and famine; and the Visigoths, relinquishing the fruitless siege, suspended the hopes of that important36 conquest. The youth36 of the province36 were animated by the heroic and almost incredible valour of Ecdicius, the son of the emperor36 Avitus, who made a desperate sally with only eighteen horsemen, boldly attacked the Gothic army36, and, after maintaining a flying skirmish, retired safe and victorious within the walls of Clermont. His charity was equal to his courage: in a time of extreme scarcity four thousand36 poor were fed at his expense, and his private influence levied an army36 of Burgundians for the deliverance of Auvergne. From his virtues alone the faithful citizens of Gaul36 derived any hopes of safety or freedom; and even such virtues were insufficient to avert the impending ruin of their country36, since they were anxious to learn from his authority and example, whether they should prefer the alternative of exile or servitude. The public confidence was lost; the resources of the state were exhausted; and the Gauls had too much reason36 to believe that Anthemius, who reigned in Italy, was incapable of protecting his distressed subjects beyond the Alps. The feeble emperor36 could only procure for their defence36 the service of twelve thousand36 British auxiliaries. Riothamus, one of the independent kings, or chieftains, of the island36, was persuaded to transport his troops to the continent of Gaul36; he sailed up the Loire, and established his quarters in Berry, where the people36 complained of these oppressive allies36, till they were destroyed, or dispersed, by the arms36 of the Visigoths.
One of the last acts of jurisdiction, which the Roman47 senate47 exercised over their subjects of Gaul, was the trial and condemnation of Arvandus the Praetorian prefect47. Sidonius, who rejoices that he lived under a reign47 in which he might pity and assist a state criminal, has expressed with tenderness and freedom, the faults of his indiscreet and unfortunate friend. From the perils which he had escaped, Arvandus imbibed confidence rather than wisdom; and such was the various, though uniform, imprudence of his behaviour that his prosperity must appear much more surprising than his downfall. The second prefecture, which he obtained within the term of five years, abolished the merit47 and popularity of his preceding administration. His easy temper was corrupted by flattery and exasperated by opposition; he was forced to satisfy his importunate creditors with the spoils of the province; his capricious insolence offended the nobles of Gaul, and he sunk under the weight of the public47 hatred. The mandate of his disgrace summoned him to justify his conduct47 before the senate47; and he passed the sea of Tuscany with a favourable wind, the presage, as he vainly imagined, of his future fortunes. A decent respect was still observed for the Praefectorian rank47; and, on his arrival at Rome47, Arvandus was committed to the hospitality, rather than to the custody, of Flavius Asellus, the count of the sacred largesses, who resided in the Capitol. He was eagerly pursued by his accusers, the four deputies of Gaul, who were all distinguished by their birth, their dignities, or their eloquence. In the name of a great province, and according to the forms of Roman47 jurisprudence, they instituted a civil47 and criminal action, requiring such a restitution as might compensate the losses of individuals, and such punishment as might satisfy the justice47 of the state. Their charges of corrupt oppression were numerous and weighty; but they placed their secret47 dependence on a letter, which they had intercepted, and which they could prove, by the evidence of his secretary, to have been dictated by Arvandus himself. The author of this letter seemed to dissuade the king of the Goths from a peace with the Greek emperor47; he suggested the attack of the Britons on the Loire; and he recommended a division of Gaul, according to the law of nations, between the Visigoths and the Burgundians. These pernicious schemes, which a friend could only palliate by the reproaches of vanity and indiscretion, were susceptible of a treasonable interpretation; and the deputies had artfully resolved not to produce their most formidable weapons till the decisive moment of the contest. But their intentions were discovered by the zeal of Sidonius. He immediately apprised the unsuspecting criminal of his danger47; and sincerely lamented, without any mixture of anger, the haughty presumption of Arvandus, who rejected, and even resented, the salutary advice of his friends. Ignorant of his real situation, Arvandus shewed himself in the Capitol in the white robe of a candidate, accepted indiscriminate salutations and offers of service, examined the shops of the merchants, the silks and gems, sometimes with the indifference of a spectator, and sometimes with the attention of a purchaser; and complained of the times, of the senate47, of the prince47, and of the delays of justice47. His complaints were soon47 removed. An early day was fixed for his trial; and Arvandus appeared, with his accusers, before a numerous assembly of the Roman47 senate47. The mournful garb which they affected excited the compassion of the judges, who were scandalised by the gay and splendid dress of their adversary; and, when the prefect47 Arvandus, with the first of the Gallic deputies, were directed to take their places on the senatorial benches, the same contrast of pride and modesty was observed in their behaviour. In this memorable judgment, which presented a lively image of the old republic, the Gauls exposed, with force and freedom, the grievances of the province; and, as soon47 as the minds of the audience were sufficiently inflamed, they recited the fatal epistle. The obstinacy of Arvandus was founded on the strange supposition that a subject could not be convicted of treason, unless he had actually conspired to assume the purple. As the paper was read, he repeatedly, and with a loud voice, acknowledged it for his genuine composition; and his astonishment was equal to his dismay, when the unanimous voice of the senate47 declared him guilty of a capital offence. By their decree, he was degraded from the rank47 of a prefect47 to the obscure condition of a plebeian, and ignominiously dragged by servile hands to the public47 prison. After a fortnight's adjournment, the senate47 was again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death47; but, while he expected, in the island of Aesculapius, the expiration of the thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the vilest malefactors, his friends interposed, the emperor47 Anthemius relented, and the prefect47 of Gaul obtained the milder punishment of exile and confiscation. The faults of Arvandus might deserve compassion; but the impunity of Seronatus accused the justice47 of the republic, till he was condemned, and executed, on the complaint of the people47 of Auvergne. That flagitious minister, the Catiline of his age47 and country, held a secret47 correspondence with the Visigoths, to betray the province which he oppressed; his industry was continually exercised in the discovery of new taxes and obsolete offences; and his extravagant vices would have inspired contempt, if they had not excited fear and abhorrence.
Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice47; but whatever might be the guilt of Ricimer, that powerful Barbarian was able to contend or to negotiate with the prince47 whose alliance he had condescended to accept. The peaceful and prosperous reign47 which Anthemius had promised to the West was soon47 clouded by misfortune and discord. Ricimer, apprehensive, or impatient, of a superior, retired from Rome47, and fixed his residence at Milan, an advantageous situation either to invite or to repel the warlike tribes that were seated between the Alps and the Danube. Italy47 was gradually divided into two independent and hostile kingdoms; and the nobles of Liguria, who trembled at the near approach of a civil47 war47, fell prostrate at the feet of the patrician, and conjured him to spare their unhappy country. For my own part, replied Ricimer in a tone of insolent moderation, I am still inclined to embrace the friendship of the Galatian; but who will undertake to appease his anger, or to mitigate the pride which always rises in proportion to our submission? They informed him that Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia, united the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; and appeared confident that the eloquence of such an ambassador must prevail against the strongest opposition either of interest or passion. Their recommendation was approved; and Epiphanius, assuming the benevolent office of mediation, proceeded without delay to Rome47, where he was received with the honours due to his merit47 and reputation. The oration of a bishop in favour of peace may be easily supposed: he argued, that in all possible circumstances the forgiveness of injuries must be an act of mercy, or magnanimity, or prudence; and he seriously admonished the emperor47 to avoid a contest with a fierce Barbarian, which might be fatal to himself, and must be ruinous to his dominions. Anthemius acknowledged the truth of his maxims; but he deeply felt, with grief and indignation, the behaviour of Ricimer, and his passion gave eloquence and energy to his discourse. What favours, he warmly exclaimed, have we refused to this ungrateful man? What provocations have we not endured? Regardless of the majesty of the purple, I gave my daughter to a Goth; I sacrificed my own blood to the safety of the republic. The liberality which ought to have secured the eternal attachment of Ricimer has exasperated him against his benefactor. What wars has he not excited against the empire47? How often has he instigated and assisted the fury of hostile nations? Shall I now accept his perfidious friendship? Can I hope that he will respect the engagements of a treaty, who has already violated the duties of a son47? But the anger of Anthemius evaporated in these passionate exclamations; he insensibly yielded to the proposals of Epiphanius; and the bishop returned to his diocese with the satisfaction of restoring the peace of Italy47, by a reconciliation, of which the sincerity and continuance might be reasonably suspected. The clemency of the emperor47 was extorted from his weakness; and Ricimer suspended his ambitious designs, till he had secretly prepared the engines with which he resolved to subvert the throne47 of Anthemius. The mask of peace and moderation was then thrown aside. The army47 of Ricimer was fortified by a numerous reinforcement of Burgundians and Oriental Suevi; he disclaimed all allegiance to the Greek emperor47, marched from Milan to the gates of Rome47, and, fixing his camp on the banks of the Anio, impatiently expected the arrival of Olybrius, his Imperial47 candidate.
The senator Olybrius, of the Anician family13, might esteem himself the lawful heir13 of the Western13 empire13. He had married Placidia, the younger13 daughter13 of Valentinian, after she was restored by Genseric; who still detained her sister13 Eudoxia, as the wife13, or rather as the captive, of his son13. The king of the Vandals supported, by threats and solicitations, the fair pretensions of his Roman13 ally; and assigned, as one of the motives of the war, the refusal of the senate and people to acknowledge their lawful prince, and the unworthy preference which they had given to a stranger. The friendship of the public enemy might render Olybrius still more unpopular to the Italians; but, when Ricimer meditated the ruin of the emperor13 Anthemius, he tempted with the offer of a diadem the candidate who could justify his rebellion by an illustrious13 name and a royal13 alliance. The husband13 of Placidia, who, like most of his ancestors, had been invested with the consular dignity13, might have continued to enjoy a secure and splendid fortune13 in the peaceful residence of Constantinople; nor does he appear to have been tormented by such a genius as cannot be amused or occupied unless by the administration of an empire13. Yet Olybrius yielded to the importunities of his friends, perhaps of his wife13; rashly plunged into the dangers and calamities of a civil war; and, with the secret connivance of the emperor13 Leo, accepted the Italian purple13, which was bestowed13 and resumed at the capricious will of a Barbarian. He landed without obstacle (for Genseric was master of the sea) either at Ravenna or the port of Ostia, and immediately proceeded to the camp of Ricimer, where he was received as the sovereign of the Western13 world.
The patrician, who had extended his posts from the Anio to the Milvian bridge, already possessed two quarters of Rome47, the Vatican and the Janiculum, which are separated by the Tiber from the rest of the city47; and it may be conjectured that an assembly of seceding senators imitated, in the choice of Olybrius, the forms of a legal election. But the body of the senate47 and people47 firmly adhered to the cause of Anthemius; and the more effectual support of a Gothic army47 enabled him to prolong his reign47, and the public47 distress, by a resistance of three months, which produced the concomitant evils of famine and pestilence. At length Ricimer made a furious assault on the bridge of Hadrian, or St. Angelo; and the narrow pass was defended with equal valour by the Goths, till the death47 of Gilimer, their leader. The victorious troops47, breaking down every barrier, rushed with irresistible violence into the heart of the city47, and Rome47 (if we may use the language of a contemporary pope) was subverted by the civil47 fury of Anthemius and Ricimer. The unfortunate Anthemius was dragged from his concealment and inhumanly massacred by the command47 of his son47-in-law; who thus added a third, or perhaps a fourth, emperor47 to the number of his victims. The soldiers47, who united the rage of factious citizens with the savage manners of Barbarians, were indulged, without control, in the licence of rapine and murder; the crowd of slaves and plebeians, who were unconcerned in the event, could only gain by the indiscriminate pillage; and the face of the city47 exhibited the strange contrast of stern cruelty and dissolute intemperance. Forty days after this calamitous event, the subject not of glory but of guilt, Italy47 was delivered, by a painful disease, from the tyrant47 Ricimer, who bequeathed the command47 of his army47 to his nephew Gundobald, one of the princes of the Burgundians. In the same year, all the principal actors in this great revolution were removed from the stage; and the whole reign47 of Olybrius, whose death47 does not betray any symptoms of violence, is included within the term of seven months. He left one daughter, the offspring of his marriage with Placidia; and the family of the great Theodosius47, transplanted from Spain to Constantinople, was propagated in the female line as far as the eighth generation.
Whilst the vacant throne3 of Italy was abandoned to lawless Barbarians3, the election of a new colleague was seriously agitated in the council of Leo. The empress Verina, studious to promote the greatness of her own family, had married one of her nieces to Julius Nepos, who succeeded his uncle Marcellinus in the sovereignty of Dalmatia, a more solid possession than the title which he was persuaded to accept, of Emperor3 of the West. But the measures of the Byzantine court3 were so languid and irresolute that many months elapsed after the death3 of Anthemius, and even of Olybrius, before their destined successor could shew himself, with a respectable force, to his Italian subjects. During that interval, Glycerius, an obscure soldier, was invested with the purple by his patron Gundobald; but the Burgundian prince3 was unable, or unwilling, to support his nomination by a civil war3: the pursuits of domestic ambition recalled him beyond the Alps, and his client was permitted to exchange the Roman3 sceptre for the bishopric of Salona. After extinguishing such a competitor, the emperor3 Nepos was acknowledged by the senate, by the Italians, and by the provincials of Gaul3; his moral virtues and military3 talents were loudly celebrated; and those who derived any private benefit from his government announced, in prophetic strains, the restoration of the public felicity. Their hopes (if such hopes had been entertained) were confounded within the term of a single year; and the treaty3 of peace3, which ceded Auvergne to the Visigoths, is the only event of his short and inglorious reign3. The most faithful subjects of Gaul3 were sacrificed by the Italian emperor3 to the hope of domestic security; but his repose was soon3 invaded by a furious sedition of the Barbarian3 confederates, who, under the command of Orestes, their general3, were in full march from Rome to Ravenna. Nepos trembled at their approach; and, instead of placing a just confidence in the strength of Ravenna, he hastily escaped to his ships, and retired to his Dalmatian principality, on the opposite coast of the Hadriatic. By this shameful abdication, he protracted his life about five years3, in a very ambiguous state, between an emperor3 and an exile, till he was assassinated at Salona by the ungrateful Glycerius, who was translated, perhaps as the reward of his crime, to the archbishopric of Milan.
The nations who had asserted their independence after the death47 of Attila were established, by the right of possession or conquest, in the boundless countries to the north of the Danube, or in the Roman47 provinces47 between the river and the Alps. But the bravest of their youth enlisted in the army47 of confederates, who formed the defence and the terror of Italy47; and in this promiscuous multitude, the names of the Heruli, the Scyri, the Alani, the Turcilingi, and the Rugians appear to have predominated. The example of these warriors was imitated by Orestes, the son47 of Tatullus, and the father47 of the last Roman47 emperor47 of the West. Orestes, who has been already mentioned in this history, had never deserted his country. His birth and fortunes rendered him one of the most illustrious subjects of Pannonia. When that province was ceded to the Huns, he entered into the service of Attila, his lawful sovereign47, obtained the office of his secretary, and was repeatedly sent ambassador to Constantinople, to represent the person47, and signify the commands, of the imperious monarch. The death47 of that conqueror restored him to his freedom; and Orestes might honourably refuse either to follow the sons of Attila into the Scythian desert or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had usurped the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service of the Italian princes, the successors of Valentinian; and, as he possessed the qualifications of courage, industry, and experience, he advanced with rapid steps in the military47 profession, till he was elevated, by the favour of Nepos himself, to the dignities of patrician and master47-general47 of the troops47. These troops47 had been long47 accustomed to reverence the character and authority47 of Orestes, who affected their manners, conversed with them in their own language, and was intimately connected with their national chieftains, by long47 habits of familiarity and friendship. At his solicitation they rose in arms47 against the obscure Greek, who presumed to claim their obedience; and, when Orestes, from some secret47 motive, declined the purple, they consented, with the same facility, to acknowledge his son47 Augustulus as the emperor47 of the West. By the abdication of Nepos, Orestes had now attained the summit of his ambitious hopes; but he soon47 discovered, before the end of the first year, that the lessons of perjury and ingratitude, which a rebel must inculcate, will be retorted against himself; and that the precarious sovereign47 of Italy47 was only permitted to choose whether he would be the slave or the victim of his Barbarian mercenaries. The dangerous alliance of these strangers had oppressed and insulted the last remains of Roman47 freedom and dignity. At each revolution, their pay and privileges were augmented; but their insolence increased in a still more extravagant degree; they envied the fortune of their brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms47 had acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they insisted on their peremptory demand that a third part of the lands of Italy47 should be immediately divided among them. Orestes, with a spirit47 which, in another situation, might be entitled to our esteem, chose rather to encounter the rage of an armed multitude than to subscribe the ruin of an innocent people47. He rejected the audacious demand; and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer; a bold Barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers47 that, if they dared to associate under his command47, they might soon47 extort the justice47 which had been denied to their dutiful petitions. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy47, the confederates, actuated by the same resentment and the same hopes, impatiently flocked to the standard of this popular leader; and the unfortunate patrician, overwhelmed by the torrent, hastily retreated to the strong city47 of Pavia, the episcopal seat of the holy Epiphanius. Pavia was immediately besieged, the fortifications were stormed, the town was pillaged; and, although the bishop might labour, with much zeal and some success, to save the property of the church and the chastity of female captives, the tumult could only be appeased by the execution of Orestes. His brother Paul was slain in an action near Ravenna; and the helpless Augustulus, who could no longer command47 the respect, was reduced to implore the clemency, of Odoacer.
That successful Barbarian3 was the son3 of Edecon: who, in some remarkable transactions, particularly described in a preceding chapter, had been the colleague of Orestes himself. The honour of an ambassador should be exempt from suspicion; and Edecon had listened to a conspiracy against the life of his sovereign. But this apparent guilt was expiated by his merit or repentance; his rank was eminent and conspicuous; he enjoyed the favour of Attila; and the troops3 under his command, who guarded in their turn the royal3 village, consisted in a tribe of Scyrri, his immediate and hereditary subjects. In the revolt of the nations, they still adhered to the Huns; and, more than twelve years3 afterwards, the name of Edecon is honourably mentioned, in their unequal contest with the Ostrogoths; which was terminated, after two bloody battles, by the defeat and dispersion of the Scyrri. Their gallant leader, who did not survive this national calamity, left two sons, Onulf and Odoacer, to struggle with adversity, and to maintain as they might, by rapine or service, the faithful followers of their exile. Onulf directed his steps towards Constantinople, where he sullied, by the assassination of a generous benefactor, the fame which he had acquired in arms3. His brother Odoacer led a wandering life among the Barbarians3 of Noricum, with a mind and a fortune suited to the most desperate adventures; and, when he had fixed his choice, he piously visited the cell of Severinus, the popular saint of the country, to solicit his approbation and blessing. The lowness of the door would not admit the lofty stature of Odoacer: he was obliged to stoop: but in that humble attitude the saint could discern the symptoms of his future greatness; and, addressing him in a prophetic tone, Pursue (said he) your design; proceed to Italy; you will soon3 cast away this coarse garment of skins; and your wealth will be adequate to the liberality of your mind. The Barbarian3, whose daring spirit accepted and ratified the prediction, was admitted into the service of the Western empire3, and soon3 obtained an honourable rank in the guards. His manners were gradually polished, his military3 skill was improved, and the confederates of Italy would not have elected him for their general3, unless the exploits of Odoacer had established a high opinion of his courage and capacity. Their military3 acclamations saluted him with the title of King3; but he abstained, during his whole reign3, from the use of the purple and diadem, lest he should offend those princes whose subjects, by their accidental mixture, had formed the victorious army3 which time and policy might insensibly unite into a great3 nation.
Royalty was familiar to the Barbarians, and the submissive people41 of Italy41 was prepared to obey, without a murmur, the authority which he should condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the emperor41 of the West. But Odoacer had resolved to abolish that useless and expensive office; and such is the weight of antique prejudice that it required some boldness and penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise. The unfortunate41 Augustulus was made the instrument of his own disgrace41; he signified his resignation to the senate41; and that assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Roman41 prince41, still affected the spirit of freedom and the forms of the constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous decree, to the emperor41 Zeno, the son41-in-law and successor41 of Leo; who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the Byzantine throne41. They solemnly disclaim the necessity, or even the wish, of continuing any longer the Imperial41 succession in Italy41; since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and protect, at the same time, both the East and the West. In their own name, and in the name of the people41, they consent that the seat of universal empire41 shall be transferred from Rome41 to Constantinople; and they basely renounce the right of choosing their master, the only vestige that yet remained of the authority which had given laws to the world. The republic (they repeat that name without a blush) might safely confide in the civil and military virtues of Odoacer; and they humbly request that the emperor41 would invest him with the title of Patrician and the administration of the diocese of Italy41. The deputies of the senate41 were received at Constantinople with some marks of displeasure and indignation; and, when they were admitted to the audience of Zeno, he sternly reproached them with their treatment of the two emperors, Anthemius and Nepos, whom the East had successively granted to the prayers of Italy41. The first (continued he) you have murdered; the second41 you have expelled; but the second41 is still alive, and whilst he lives he is your lawful sovereign41. But the prudent Zeno soon deserted the hopeless cause of his abdicated colleague. His vanity was gratified by the title of sole emperor41 and by the statues erected to his honour in the several quarters of Rome41; he entertained a friendly, though ambiguous, correspondence with the patrician Odoacer; and he gratefully accepted the Imperial41 ensigns, the sacred ornaments of the throne41 and palace41, which the Barbarian was not unwilling41 to remove from the sight of the people41.
In the space of twenty years24 since the death24 of Valentinian, nine emperors had successively disappeared; and the son24 of Orestes, a youth recommended only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of posterity, if his reign24, which was marked by the extinction of the Roman24 empire24 in the West, did not leave a memorable era in the history of mankind. The patrician Orestes had married the daughter of count Romulus, of Petovio, in Noricum; the name of Augustus, notwithstanding the jealousy of power, was known at Aquileia as a familiar surname; and the appellations of the two great24 founders, of the city24 and of the monarchy, were thus strangely united in the last of their successors. The son24 of Orestes assumed and disgraced the names of Romulus Augustus; but the first was corrupted into Momyllus, by the Greeks24, and the second has been changed by the Latins into the contemptible diminutive Augustulus. The life24 of this inoffensive youth was spared by the generous clemency of Odoacer; who dismissed him, with his whole family, from the Imperial palace24, fixed his annual24 allowance at six thousand24 pieces24 of gold24, and assigned the castle of Lucullus, in Campania, for the place of his exile or retirement. As soon as the Romans breathed from the toils of the Punic war, they were attracted by the beauties and the pleasures of Campania; and the country house of the elder Scipio at Liternum exhibited a lasting model of their rustic simplicity. The delicious shores of the bay of Naples were crowded with villas; and Sylla applauded the masterly skill of his rival, who had seated himself on the lofty promontory of Misenum, that commands, on every side, the sea24 and land, as far as the boundaries of the horizon. The villa of Marius was purchased, within a few years24, by Lucullus, and the price had increased from two thousand24 five hundred to more than fourscore thousand24 pounds sterling. It was adorned by the new24 proprietor with Grecian arts, and Asiatic treasures; and the houses and gardens of Lucullus obtained a distinguished rank in the list of Imperial palaces. When the Vandals became formidable to the sea24-coast, the Lucullan villa, on the promontory of Misenum, gradually assumed the strength and appellation of a strong castle, the obscure retreat of the last emperor of the West. About twenty years24 after that great24 revolution it was converted into a church and monastery, to receive the bones of St. Severinus. They securely reposed, amidst the broken trophies of Cimbric and Armenian victories, till24 the beginning of the tenth century; when the fortifications, which might afford a dangerous shelter to the Saracens24, were demolished by the people24 of Naples.
Odoacer was the first Barbarian who reigned in Italy1, over a people1 who had once asserted their just superiority above the rest of mankind. The disgrace of the Romans1 still excites our respectful compassion, and we fondly sympathise with the imaginary grief and indignation of their degenerate posterity. But the calamities of Italy1 had gradually subdued the proud consciousness of freedom1 and glory. In the age of Roman1 virtue, the provinces1 were subject to the arms, and the citizens to the laws1, of the republic1; till those laws1 were subverted by civil1 discord, and both the city1 and the provinces1 became the servile property of a tyrant. The forms of the constitution, which alleviated or disguised their abject slavery, were abolished by time and violence; the Italians alternately lamented the presence or the absence of the sovereigns, whom they detested or despised; and the succession of five centuries inflicted the various evils of military licence, capricious despotism, and elaborate oppression. During the same period, the Barbarians had emerged from obscurity and contempt, and the warriors of Germany and Scythia were introduced into the provinces1, as the servants, the allies, and at length the masters of the Romans1, whom they insulted or protected. The hatred of the people1 was suppressed by fear; they respected the spirit and splendour of the martial chiefs who were invested with the honours1 of the empire1; and the fate of Rome1 had long1 depended on the sword of those formidable strangers. The stern Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of Italy1, had exercised the power1, without assuming the title1, of a king; and the patient Romans1 were insensibly prepared to acknowledge the royalty of Odoacer and his Barbaric successors1.
The King3 of Italy was not unworthy of the high station to which his valour3 and fortune had exalted him; his savage manners were polished by the habits of conversation; and he respected, though a conqueror and a Barbarian3, the institutions, and even the prejudices, of his subjects. After an interval of seven years3, Odoacer restored the consulship of the West. For himself, he modestly, or proudly, declined an honour which was still accepted by the emperors of the East3; but the curule chair was successively filled by eleven of the most illustrious senators; and the list is adorned by the respectable name of Basilius, whose virtues claimed the friendship3 and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client. The laws of the emperors were strictly enforced, and the civil administration of Italy was still exercised by the Praetorian prefect and his subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman3 magistrates the odious and oppressive task of collecting the public revenue; but he reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular indulgence. Like the rest of the Barbarians3, he had been instructed in the Arian heresy; but he revered the monastic and episcopal characters; and the silence of the Catholics attests the toleration which they enjoyed. The peace3 of the city3 required the interposition of his prefect Basilius in the choice of a woman pontiff; the decree which restrained the clergy from alienating the lands was ultimately designed for the benefit of the people, whose devotion would have been taxed to repair the dilapidations of the church. Italy was protected by the arms3 of its conqueror; and its frontiers were respected by the Barbarians3 of Gaul3 and Germany, who had so long3 insulted the feeble race of Theodosius. Odoacer passed the Hadriatic, to chastise the assassins of the emperor3 Nepos, and to acquire the maritime province of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to rescue the remains of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king3 of the Rugians, who held his residence beyond the Danube. The king3 was vanquished in battle, and led away prisoner; a numerous colony of captives and subjects was transplanted into Italy; and Rome, after a long3 period of defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph of her Barbarian3 master.
Notwithstanding the prudence6 and success of Odoacer, his kingdom exhibited the sad prospect of misery and desolation. Since the age6 of Tiberius, the decay of agriculture had been felt in Italy; and it was a subject of complaint that the life6 of the Roman6 people6 depended on the accidents of the winds and waves. In the division and the decline of the empire6, the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn; the numbers of the inhabitants continually diminished with the means of subsistence; and the country6 was exhausted by the irretrievable losses of war6, famine, and pestilence. St. Ambrose has deplored the ruin of a populous district, which had been once adorned with the flourishing cities of Bologna, Modena, Regium, and Placentia. Pope Gelasius was a subject of Odoacer, and he affirms, with strong exaggeration, that in Aemilia, Tuscany, and the adjacent provinces6, the human6 species was almost extirpated. The plebeians of Rome6, who were fed by the hand of their master, perished or disappeared, as soon6 as his liberality was suppressed; the decline of the arts6 reduced the industrious mechanic to idleness and want; and the senators, who might support with patience the ruin of their country6, bewailed their private6 loss of wealth and luxury. One third of those ample estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, was extorted for the use6 of the conquerors. Injuries were aggravated by insults; the sense of actual sufferings was embittered by the fear of more dreadful evils; and, as new lands were allotted to new swarms of Barbarians6, each senator was apprehensive lest the arbitrary surveyors should approach his favourite villa or his most profitable farm. The least unfortunate were those who submitted without a murmur to the power6 which it was impossible to resist. Since they desired to live, they owed some gratitude to the tyrant who had spared their lives; and, since he was the absolute6 master of their fortunes, the portion which he left must be accepted as his pure and voluntary gift. The distress of Italy was mitigated by the prudence6 and humanity of Odoacer, who had bound himself, as the price of his elevation, to satisfy the demands of a licentious and turbulent multitude. The kings6 of the Barbarians6 were frequently resisted, deposed, or murdered by their native subjects6; and the various6 bands of Italian mercenaries, who associated under the standard of an elective general, claimed a larger privilege of freedom and rapine. A monarchy destitute of national union, and hereditary right, hastened to its dissolution. After a reign6 of fourteen years, Odoacer was oppressed by the superior genius of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, a hero alike excellent in the arts6 of war6 and of government6, who restored an age6 of peace6 and prosperity, and whose name still excites and deserves the attention of mankind.
The indissoluble connection of civil6 and ecclesiastical affairs has compelled and encouraged me to relate the progress, the persecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual corruption of Christianity. I have purposely delayed the consideration of two religious events, interesting in the study of human6 nature6, and important in the decline and fall of the Roman6 empire6: I. The institution of the monastic life6; and, II. The conversion of the Northern Barbarians6.
I. Prosperity and peace introduced the distinction of the vulgar and the Ascetic Christians8. The loose and imperfect practice8 of religion8 satisfied the conscience of the multitude. The prince or magistrate, the soldier or merchant, reconciled their fervent zeal8, and implicit faith8, with the exercise of their profession, the pursuit of their interest, and the indulgence of their passions8; but the Ascetics, who obeyed and abused the rigid precepts of the gospel, were inspired by the savage enthusiasm which represents man8 as a criminal and God8 as a tyrant. They seriously renounced the business, and the pleasures, of the age8; abjured the use8 of wine, of flesh, and of marriage; chastised their body, mortified their affections, and embraced a life8 of misery, as the price of eternal happiness8. In the reign8 of Constantine8, the Ascetics fled from a profane and degenerate world8, to perpetual solitude, or religious8 society8. Like the first Christians8 of Jerusalem, they resigned the use8, or the property, of their temporal possessions; established regular communities of the same sex, and a similar disposition; and assumed the names of Hermits, Monks, and Anachorets, expressive of their lonely retreat in a natural or artificial desert. They soon acquired the respect of the world8, which they despised; and the loudest applause was bestowed on this Divine8 Philosophy, which surpassed, without the aid of science or reason8, the laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed contend with the Stoics in the contempt of fortune, of pain, and of death8; the Pythagorean silence and submission were revived in their servile discipline; and they disdained, as firmly as the Cynics themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil society8. But the votaries of this Divine8 Philosophy aspired to imitate a purer and more perfect model. They trod in the footsteps of the prophets, who had retired to the desert; and they restored the devout and contemplative life8, which had been instituted by the Essenians, in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic eye of Pliny had surveyed with astonishment a solitary people, who dwelt among the palmtrees near the Dead Sea; who subsisted without money, who were propagated without women; and who derived from the disgust and repentance of mankind8 a perpetual supply of voluntary associates.
Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example of the monastic life. Antony, an illiterate youth of the lower parts of Thebais, distributed his patrimony, deserted his family and native home, and executed his monastic penance with original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long9 and painful novitiate among the tombs and in a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the desert three days' journey to the eastward of the Nile; discovered a lonely spot, which possessed the advantages of shade and water; and fixed his last residence on Mount Colzim near the Red Sea9, where an ancient9 monastery still preserves the name and memory of the saint. The curious devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert; and, when he was obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind, he supported his fame with discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, whose doctrine he approved; and the Egyptian peasant respectfully declined a respectful invitation from the emperor Constantine. The venerable patriarch (for Antony attained the age of one hundred and five years) beheld the numerous progeny which had been formed by his example and his lessons. The prolific colonies of monks multiplied with rapid increase on the sands of Libya, upon the rocks of Thebais, and in the cities9 of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain, and adjacent desert, of Nitria were peopled by 5000 anachorets; and the traveller may still investigate the ruins of fifty monasteries, which were planted in that barren soil by the disciples of Antony. In the Upper Thebais, the vacant Island of Tabenne was occupied by Pachomius, and fourteen hundred of his brethren. That holy abbot successively founded nine monasteries of men9, and one of women; and the festival of Easter sometimes collected fifty thousand9 religious persons, who followed his angelic rule of discipline. The stately and populous city9 of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the ramparts, to pious and charitable uses; and the bishop, who might preach in twelve churches, computed ten thousand9 females, and twenty thousand9 males, of the monastic profession. The Egyptians, who gloried in this marvellous revolution, were disposed to hope, and to believe, that the number of the monks was equal to the remainder of the people; and posterity might repeat the saying, which had formerly been applied to the sacred animals of the same country9, That, in Egypt, it was less difficult to find a god than a man.
Athanasius introduced into Rome9 the knowledge and practice of the monastic life; and a school of this new9 philosophy was opened by the disciples of Antony, who accompanied their primate to the holy threshold of the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance of these Egyptians excited, at first, horror and contempt, and at length applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more especially the matrons, transformed their palaces and villas into religious houses; and the narrow institution of six Vestals was eclipsed by the frequent monasteries, which were seated on the ruins of ancient9 temples, and in the midst of the Roman9 Forum. Inflamed by the example of Antony, a Syrian youth, whose name was Hilarion, fixed his dreary abode on a sandy beach, between the sea9 and a morass, about seven miles9 from Gaza. The austere penance, in which he persisted forty-eight years, diffused a similar enthusiasm; and the holy man was followed by a train of two or three thousand9 anachorets, whenever he visited the innumerable monasteries of Palestine. The fame of Basil is immortal in the monastic history of the East. With a mind that had tasted the learning and eloquence of Athens, with an ambition scarcely to be satisfied by the archbishopric of Caesarea, Basil retired to a savage solitude in Pontus; and deigned, for a while, to give laws to the spiritual colonies which he profusely scattered along the coast9 of the Black Sea9. In the West9, Martin of Tours, a soldier, an hermit, a bishop, and a saint, established the monasteries of Gaul; two thousand9 of his disciples followed him to the grave; and his eloquent historian challenges the deserts of Thebais to produce, in a more favourable climate, a champion of equal virtue. The progress of the monks was not less rapid or universal than that of Christianity itself. Every province9, and at last every city9, of the empire9 was filled with their increasing multitudes; and the bleak and barren isles, from Lerins to Lipari, that arise out of the Tuscan sea9, were chosen by the anachorets, for the place of their voluntary exile. An easy and perpetual intercourse by sea9 and land connected the provinces9 of the Roman9 world; and the life of Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent hermit of Palestine might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily, escape to Epirus, and finally settle in the island of Cyprus. The Latin Christians embraced the religious institutions of Rome9. The pilgrims, who visited Jerusalem, eagerly copied, in the most distant climates of the earth, the faithful model of the monastic life. The disciples of Antony spread themselves beyond the tropic, over the Christian empire9 of Ethiopia. The monastery of Banchor, in Flintshire, which contained above two thousand9 brethren, dispersed a numerous colony among the Barbarians9 of Ireland; and Iona, one of the Hebrides, which was planted by the Irish monks, diffused over the Northern regions a doubtful ray of science and superstition.
These unhappy exiles from social life47 were impelled by the dark and implacable genius of superstition. Their mutual resolution was supported by the example of millions, of either sex, of every age47, and of every rank47; and each proselyte, who entered the gates of a monastery, was persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness. But the operation of these religious motives was variously determined by the temper and situation of mankind. Reason might subdue, or passion might suspend, their influence; but they acted most forcibly on the infirm minds of children and females; they were strengthened by secret47 remorse or accidental misfortune; and they might derive some aid from the temporal considerations of vanity or interest. It was naturally supposed that the pious and humble monks, who had renounced the world to accomplish the work of their salvation, were the best qualified for the spiritual government47 of the Christians. The reluctant hermit was torn from his cell, and seated, amidst the acclamations of the people47, on the episcopal throne47; the monasteries of Egypt, of Gaul, and of the East47 supplied a regular succession of saints and bishops; and ambition soon47 discovered the secret47 road which led to the possession of wealth and honours. The popular monks, whose reputation was connected with the fame and success of the order, assiduously laboured to multiply the number of their fellow-captives. They insinuated themselves into noble and opulent families; and the specious arts of flattery and seduction were employed to secure those proselytes who might bestow wealth or dignity on the monastic profession. The indignant father47 bewailed the loss, perhaps, of an only son47; the credulous maid was betrayed by vanity to violate the laws of nature; and the matron aspired to imaginary perfection, by renouncing the virtues of domestic life47. Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence of Jerom; and the profane title of mother-in-law of God tempted that illustrious widow to consecrate the virginity of her daughter Eustochium. By the advice, and in the company, of her spiritual guide, Paula abandoned Rome47 and her infant son47; retired to the holy village of Bethlem; founded an hospital and four monasteries; and acquired, by her alms and penance, an eminent and conspicuous station in the Catholic church. Such rare and illustrious penitents were celebrated as the glory and example of their age47; but the monasteries were filled by a crowd of obscure and abject plebeians, who gained in the cloister much more than they had sacrificed in the world. Peasants, slaves, and mechanics might escape from poverty and contempt to a safe and honourable profession, whose apparent hardships are mitigated by custom, by popular applause, and by the secret47 relaxation of discipline. The subjects of Rome47, whose persons and fortunes were made responsible for unequal and exorbitant tributes, retired from the oppression of the Imperial47 government47; and the pusillanimous youth preferred the penance of a monastic, to the dangers of a military47, life47. The affrighted provincials, of every rank47, who fled before the Barbarians, found shelter and subsistence; whole legions were buried in these religious sanctuaries; and the same cause, which relieved the distress of individuals, impaired the strength and fortitude of the empire47.
The monastic profession of the ancients was an act of voluntary devotion. The inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God25 whom he deserted; but the doors of the monastery were still open for repentance. Those monks, whose conscience was fortified by reason or passion, were at liberty to resume the character25 of men and citizens; and even the spouses of Christ might accept the legal embraces of an earthly lover. The examples of scandal and the progress25 of superstition suggested the propriety of more forcible restraints. After a sufficient trial, the fidelity of the novice was secured by a solemn and perpetual vow; and his irrevocable engagement was ratified by the laws of the church25 and state. A guilty fugitive was pursued, arrested, and restored25 to his perpetual prison; and the interposition of the magistrate oppressed the freedom25 and merit25 which had alleviated, in some degree, the abject slavery of the monastic discipline. The actions of a monk, his words and even his thoughts, were determined by an inflexible rule, or a capricious superior25; the slightest offences were corrected by disgrace or confinement, extraordinary fasts or bloody flagellation; and disobedience, murmur, or delay were ranked in the catalogue of the most heinous sins. A blind submission to the commands of the abbot, however absurd, or even criminal, they might seem, was the ruling principle, the first virtue25 of the Egyptian monks; and their patience was frequently exercised by the most extravagant trials. They were directed to remove an enormous rock; assiduously to water a barren staff, that was planted in the ground, till, at the end of three years25, it should vegetate and blossom like a tree; to walk into a fiery furnace; or to cast their infant into a deep pond: and several saints, or madmen, have been immortalised in monastic story by their thoughtless and fearless obedience. The freedom25 of the mind, the source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by the habits of credulity and submission; and the monk, contracting the vices of a slave, devoutly followed the faith and passions25 of his ecclesiastical tyrant. The peace of the Eastern church25 was invaded by a swarm of fanatics, incapable of fear, or reason, or humanity; and the Imperial troops acknowledged, without shame, that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest Barbarians.
Superstition has often framed and consecrated the fantastic garments of the monks; but their apparent singularity sometimes proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple and primitive model, which the revolutions of fashion have made ridiculous in the eyes of mankind8. The father of the Benedictines expressly disclaims all idea of choice or merit, and soberly exhorts his disciples to adopt the coarse and convenient dress of the countries which they may inhabit. The monastic habits of the ancients varied with the climate and their mode of life8; and they assumed, with the same indifference, the sheepskin of the Egyptian peasants or the cloak of the Grecian philosophers. They allowed themselves the use8 of linen in Egypt, where it was a cheap and domestic manufacture; but in the West they rejected such an expensive article of foreign luxury. It was the practice8 of the monks either to cut or shave their hair; they wrapped their heads in a cowl, to escape the sight of profane objects; their legs and feet were naked, except in the extreme cold of winter; and their slow and feeble steps were supported by a long staff. The aspect of a genuine anachoret was horrid and disgusting; every sensation that is offensive to man8 was thought acceptable to God8; and the angelic rule of Tabenne condemned the salutary custom of bathing the limbs in water and of anointing them with oil. The austere monks slept on the ground, on a hard mat or a rough blanket, and the same bundle of palm-leaves served them as a seat in the day and a pillow in the night. Their original cells were low narrow huts, built of the slightest materials; which formed, by the regular distribution of the streets, a large and populous village, enclosing within the common wall a church8, an hospital, perhaps a library, some necessary offices, a garden, and a fountain or reservoir of fresh water. Thirty or forty brethren composed a family of separate discipline and diet; and the great monasteries of Egypt consisted of thirty or forty families.
Pleasure and guilt are synonymous terms in the language of the monks; and they had discovered, by experience, that rigid fasts and abstemious diet are the most effectual preservatives against the impure desires of the flesh. The rules of abstinence, which they imposed, or practised, were not uniform or perpetual: the cheerful festival of the Pentecost was balanced by the extraordinary mortification of Lent; the fervour of new monasteries was insensibly relaxed; and the voracious appetite of the Gauls could not imitate the patient and temperate virtue6 of the Egyptians. The disciples of Antony and Pachomius were satisfied with their daily pittance of twelve ounces of bread, or rather biscuit, which they divided into two frugal repasts, of the afternoon and of the evening. It was esteemed a merit, and almost a duty, to abstain from the boiled vegetables which were provided for the refectory; but the extraordinary bounty of the abbot sometimes indulged them with the luxury of cheese, fruit, salad, and the small dried fish of the Nile. A more ample latitude of sea and river fish was gradually allowed or assumed; but the use6 of flesh was long6 confined to the sick or travellers; and, when it gradually prevailed in the less rigid monasteries of Europe, a singular distinction was introduced6; as if birds, whether wild or domestic6, had been less profane than the grosser animals of the field. Water was the pure and innocent beverage of the primitive monks; and the founder of the Benedictines regrets the daily portion of half a pint of wine, which had been extorted from him by the intemperance of the age6. Such an allowance might be easily supplied by the vineyards of Italy; and his victorious disciples, who passed the Alps, the Rhine, and the Baltic, required, in the place of wine, an adequate compensation of strong beer or cyder.
The candidate who aspired to the virtue of evangelical poverty abjured, at his first entrance into a regular community, the idea, and even the name, of all separate or exclusive possession. The brethren were supported by their manual labour; and the duty of labour was strenuously recommended as a penance, as an exercise, and as the most laudable means of securing their daily sustenance. The garden and fields, which the industry of the monks had often rescued from the forest or the morass, were diligently cultivated by their hands. They performed, without reluctance, the menial offices of slaves and domestics; and the several trades that were necessary to provide their habits, their utensils, and their lodging were exercised within the precincts of the great monasteries. The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition. Yet the curiosity or zeal of some learned solitaries has cultivated the ecclesiastical, and even the profane, sciences; and posterity must gratefully acknowledge that the monuments of Greek and Roman17 literature have been preserved and multiplied by their indefatigable pens. But the more humble industry of the monks, especially in Egypt, was contented with the silent, sedentary occupation of making wooden sandals or of twisting the leaves of the palm-trees into mats and baskets. The superfluous stock, which was not consumed in domestic use17, supplied, by trade, the wants of the community; the boats of Tabenne, and the other monasteries of Thebais, descended the Nile as far as Alexandria; and, in a Christian market, the sanctity of the workmen might enhance the intrinsic value of the work.
But the necessity of manual labour was insensibly superseded. The novice was tempted to bestow his fortune2 on the saints, in whose society he was resolved to spend the remainder of his life; and the pernicious indulgence of the laws permitted him to receive, for their use, any future accessions of legacy or inheritance. Melania contributed her plate, three hundred pounds weight of silver, and Paula contracted an immense debt, for the relief of their favourite2 monks; who kindly imparted the merits of their prayers and penance to a rich and liberal2 sinner. Time continually increased, and accidents could seldom diminish, the estates of the popular monasteries, which spread over the adjacent country and cities; and, in the first century of their institution, the infidel Zosimus has maliciously observed that, for the benefit of the poor, the Christian2 monks had reduced a great2 part of mankind to a state2 of beggary. As long as they maintained their original fervour, they approved themselves, however, the faithful and benevolent stewards of the charity which was entrusted to their care2. But their discipline was corrupted by prosperity: they gradually assumed the pride2 of wealth, and at last indulged the luxury of expense. Their public luxury might be excused by the magnificence of religious worship and the decent motive of erecting durable habitations for an immortal society. But every age2 of the church has accused the licentiousness of the degenerate monks; who no longer remembered the object of their institution, embraced the vain and sensual pleasures of the world which they had renounced, and scandalously abused the riches which had been acquired by the austere virtues2 of their founders. Their natural descent from such painful and dangerous virtue to the common vices2 of humanity will not, perhaps, excite much grief or indignation in the mind2 of a philosopher.
The lives of the primitive monks were consumed in penance and solitude, undisturbed by the various22 occupations which fill the time22, and exercise22 the faculties, of reasonable, active, and social beings. Whenever they were permitted to step beyond the precincts of the monastery, two jealous companions were the mutual guards and spies of each other's actions; and, after their return, they were condemned to forget, or, at least, to suppress, whatever they had seen or heard in the world22. Strangers, who professed the orthodox faith, were hospitably entertained in a separate apartment; but their dangerous conversation was restricted to some chosen elders of approved discretion and fidelity. Except in their presence, the monastic slave might not receive the visits of his friends or kindred; and it was deemed highly meritorious if he afflicted a tender sister or an aged parent by the obstinate refusal of a word or look. The monks themselves passed their lives, without personal attachments, among a crowd, which had been formed by accident and was detained, in the same prison, by force or prejudice. Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate; a special licence of the abbot regulated the time22 and duration of their familiar visits; and, at their silent meals, they were enveloped in their cowls, inaccessible, and almost invisible, to each other. Study is the resource of solitude; but education had not prepared and qualified for any liberal studies the mechanics and peasants, who filled the monastic communities. They might work22; but the vanity of spiritual perfection was tempted to disdain the exercise22 of manual labour, and the industry must be faint and languid which is not excited by the sense of personal interest.
According to their faith and zeal, they might employ the day, which they passed in their cells, either in vocal or mental prayer; they assembled in the evening, and they were awakened in the night, for the public28 worship of the monastery. The precise moment was determined by the stars, which are seldom clouded in the serene sky of Egypt; and a rustic horn or trumpet, the signal of devotion, twice interrupted the vast silence of the desert. Even sleep, the last refuge of the unhappy, was rigorously measured; the vacant hours of the monk heavily rolled along, without business or pleasure; and, before the close of each day, he had repeatedly accused the tedious progress28 of the Sun. In this comfortless state28, superstition still pursued and tormented her wretched votaries. The repose which they had sought in the cloister was disturbed by tardy repentance, profane doubts, and guilty desires; and, while they considered each natural impulse as an unpardonable sin, they perpetually trembled on the edge of a flaming and bottomless abyss. From the painful struggles of disease and despair these unhappy victims were sometimes relieved by madness or death; and, in the sixth century, an hospital was founded at Jerusalem for a small portion of the austere penitents, who were deprived of their senses. Their visions, before they attained this extreme and acknowledged term of frenzy, have afforded ample materials of supernatural history. It was their firm persuasion that the air which they breathed was peopled with invisible enemies; with innumerable demons, who watched every occasion, and assumed every form, to terrify, and above all to tempt, their unguarded virtue. The imagination, and even the senses, were deceived by the illusions of distempered fanaticism; and the hermit, whose midnight prayer was oppressed by involuntary slumber, might easily confound the phantoms of horror or delight which had occupied his sleeping and his waking dreams.
The monks were divided into two classes: the Caenobites, who lived under a common37 and regular discipline; and the Anachorets, who indulged their unsocial, independent37 fanaticism. The most devout, or the most ambitious, of the spiritual brethren renounced the convent, as they had renounced the world. The fervent monasteries of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria were surrounded by a Laura, a distant circle of solitary cells; and the extravagant penance of the Hermits was stimulated by applause and emulation. They sunk under the painful weight37 of crosses and chains; and their emaciated limbs were confined by collars, bracelets, gauntlets, and greaves, of massy and rigid iron. All superfluous incumbrance of dress they contemptuously cast away; and some savage saints of both sexes have been admired, whose naked bodies were only covered by their long37 hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to the rude and miserable state37 in which the human37 brute is scarcely distinguished37 above his kindred animals; and a numerous sect of Anachorets derived their name from their humble practice of grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia with the common37 herd. They often usurped the den of some wild beast whom they affected to resemble; they buried themselves in some gloomy cavern which art or nature had scooped out of the rock; and the marble quarries of Thebais are still inscribed with the monuments of their penance. The most perfect hermits are supposed to have passed many days without food, many nights without sleep, and many years without speaking; and glorious was the man (I abuse that name) who contrived any cell, or seat, of a peculiar construction, which might expose him, in the most inconvenient posture, to the inclemency of the seasons.
Among these heroes of the monastic life35, the name and genius35 of Simeon Stylites have been immortalised by the singular invention of an aerial penance. At the age35 of thirteen, the young Syrian deserted the profession of a shepherd and threw himself into an austere monastery. After a long and painful novitiate, in which Simeon was repeatedly saved from pious suicide, he established his residence on a mountain about thirty or forty miles to the east of Antioch. Within the space of a mandra, or circle of stones, to which he had attached himself by a ponderous chain, he ascended a column, which was successively raised from the height of nine, to that of sixty, feet from the ground. In this last and lofty station, the Syrian Anachoret resisted the heat of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear or giddiness, and successively to assume the different35 postures of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude with his outstreched arms35 in the figure of a cross35; but his most familiar practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to the feet; and a curious spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and forty-four repetitions, at length desisted from the endless account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh might shorten, but it could not disturb, this celestial life35; and the patient Hermit expired without descending from his column. A prince who should capriciously inflict such tortures would be deemed a tyrant; but it would surpass the power of a tyrant to impose a long and miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cruelty. This voluntary martyrdom must have gradually destroyed the sensibility both of the mind and body; nor can it be presumed that the fanatics, who torment themselves, are susceptible of any lively affection for the rest of mankind. A cruel unfeeling temper has distinguished the monks of every age35 and country35: their stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship, is inflamed by religious hatred; and their merciless zeal has strenuously administered the holy35 office of the Inquisition.
The monastic saints, who excite only the contempt and pity of a philosopher, were respected, and almost adored, by the prince20 and people20. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar of Simeon; the tribes of Saracens disputed in arms20 the honour of his benediction; the queens of Arabia and Persia gratefully confessed his supernatural virtue; and the angelic Hermit was consulted by the younger Theodosius, in the most important concerns of the church and state. His remains were transported from the mountain of Telenissa, by a solemn procession of the patriarch, the master20-general of the East, six bishops, twenty-one counts or tribunes, and six thousand soldiers; and Antioch revered his bones, as her glorious ornament and impregnable defence. The fame of the apostles and martyrs was gradually eclipsed by these recent and popular Anachorets; the Christian world fell prostrate before their shrines; and the miracles ascribed to their relics exceeded, at least in number and duration, the spiritual exploits of their lives. But the golden legend of their lives was embellished by the artful credulity of their interested brethren; and a believing age20 was easily persuaded that the slightest caprice of an Egyptian or a Syrian monk had been sufficient to interrupt the eternal laws of the universe. The favourites of Heaven were accustomed to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, a word, or a distant message; and to expel the most obstinate demons from the souls, or bodies, which they possessed. They familiarly accosted, or imperiously commanded, the lions and serpents of the desert; infused vegetation into a sapless trunk; suspended iron on the surface of the water; passed the Nile on the back of a crocodile, and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. These extravagant tales, which display the fiction, without the genius, of poetry, have seriously affected the reason20, the faith, and the morals of the Christians. Their credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind; they corrupted the evidence of history; and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science. Every mode of religious worship which had been practised by the saints, every mysterious doctrine which they believed, was fortified by the sanction of divine revelation, and all the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign20 of the monks. If it be possible to measure the interval between the philosophic writings of Cicero and the sacred legend of Theodoret, between the character of Cato and that of Simeon, we may appreciate the memorable revolution which was accomplished in the Roman20 empire20 within a period of five hundred years20.
II. The progress of Christianity has been marked by two glorious and decisive victories: over the learned and luxurious citizens of the Roman9 empire9; and over the warlike Barbarians9 of Scythia and Germany, who subverted the empire9, and embraced the religion, of the Romans9. The Goths9 were the foremost of these savage proselytes; and the nation9 was indebted for its conversion to a countryman, or, at least, to a subject, worthy to be ranked among the inventors of useful arts, who have deserved the remembrance and gratitude of posterity. A great9 number of Roman9 provincials had been led away into captivity by the Gothic bands who ravaged Asia9 in the time of Gallienus; and of these captives, many were Christians, and several belonged to the ecclesiastical order. Those involuntary missionaries, dispersed as slaves in the villages of Dacia, successively laboured for the salvation of their masters. The seeds, which they planted, of the evangelic doctrine, were gradually propagated; and before the end of a century, the pious work was achieved by the labours of Ulphilas, whose ancestors had been transported beyond the Danube9 from a small town of Cappadocia.
Ulphilas, the bishop and apostle of the Goths27, acquired their love and reverence27 by his blameless life and indefatigable zeal; and they received, with implicit confidence, the doctrines of truth and virtue27 which he preached and practised. He executed the arduous task of translating the Scriptures into their native tongue, a dialect of the German or Teutonic language; but he prudently suppressed the four books of Kings, as they might tend to irritate the fierce and sanguinary spirit of the Barbarians27. The rude, imperfect idiom of soldiers27 and shepherds, so ill-qualified to communicate any spiritual ideas, was improved and modulated by his genius; and Ulphilas, before he could frame his version, was obliged to compose a new alphabet of twenty-four letters; four of which he invented, to express the peculiar sounds that were unknown to the Greek, and Latin, pronunciation. But the prosperous state of the Gothic church was soon27 afflicted by war27 and intestine discord, and the chieftains were divided by religion as well as by interest. Fritigern27, the friend of the Romans, became the proselyte of Ulphilas; while the haughty soul of Athanaric disdained the yoke of the empire27, and of the Gospel. The faith of the new converts was tried by the persecution which he excited. A waggon, bearing aloft the shapeless image of Thor, perhaps, or of Woden, was conducted in solemn procession through the streets of the camp; and the rebels, who refused to worship the God of their fathers, were immediately burned, with their tents and families. The character of Ulphilas recommended him to the esteem of the Eastern court, where he twice appeared as the minister of peace27; he pleaded the cause of the distressed Goths27, who implored the protection of Valens; and the name of Moses was applied to this spiritual guide, who conducted his people27, through the deep waters of the Danube, to the Land of Promise. The devout shepherds, who were attached to his person and tractable to his voice, acquiesced in their settlement, at the foot of the Maesian mountains, in a country27 of woodlands and pastures, which supported their flocks and herds and enabled them to purchase the corn27 and wine of the more plentiful provinces. These harmless Barbarians27 multiplied in obscure peace27 and the profession of Christianity.
Their fiercer brethren, the formidable Visigoths, universally adopted the religion of the Romans9, with whom they maintained a perpetual intercourse, of war9, of friendship, or of conquest9. In their long9 and victorious march from the Danube9 to the Atlantic Ocean9, they converted their allies; they educated the rising generation; and the devotion which reigned in the camp9 of Alaric, or the court of Toulouse, might edify, or disgrace, the palaces of Rome9 and Constantinople. During the same period, Christianity was embraced by almost all the Barbarians9, who established their kingdoms on the ruins of the Western empire9; the Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals9 in Africa9, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the various bands of mercenaries that raised Odoacer to the throne of Italy9. The Franks and the Saxons still persevered in the errors of Paganism; but the Franks obtained the monarchy of Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis; and the Saxon conquerors of Britain were reclaimed from their savage superstition by the missionaries of Rome9. These Barbarian proselytes displayed an ardent and successful zeal in the propagation of the faith. The Merovingian kings, and their successors, Charlemagne and the Othos, extended, by their laws and victories, the dominion of the cross. England produced the apostle of Germany; and the evangelic light was gradually diffused from the neighbourhood of the Rhine to the nations9 of the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic.
The different motives which influenced the reason, or the passions, of the Barbarian converts cannot easily be ascertained. They were often capricious and accidental; a dream, an omen, the report of a miracle, the example of some priest or hero, the charms of a believing wife, and, above all, the fortunate event of a prayer or vow which, in a moment of danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians. The early prejudices of education were insensibly erased by the habits of frequent and familiar society46; the moral precepts of the Gospel were protected by the extravagant virtues46 of the monks; and a spiritual theology was supported by the visible power of relics and the pomp of religious worship. But the rational and ingenious mode of persuasion which a Saxon bishop suggested to a popular saint might sometimes be employed46 by the missionaries who laboured for the conversion of infidels. Admit, says the sagacious disputant, whatever they are pleased to assert of the fabulous, and carnal, genealogy of their gods and goddesses, who are propagated from each other. From this principle deduce their imperfect nature46, and human46 infirmities, the assurance they were born, and the probability that they will die. At what time46, by what means, from what cause, were the eldest of the gods or goddesses produced? Do they still continue, or have they ceased, to propagate? If they have ceased, summon your antagonists to declare the reason of this strange alteration. If they still continue, the number of the gods must become infinite; and shall we not risk, by the indiscreet worship of some impotent deity, to excite the resentment of his jealous superior? The visible heavens and earth, the whole system of the universe, which may be conceived by the mind46, is it created or eternal? If created, how, or where, could the gods themselves exist before the creation? If eternal, how could they assume the empire46 of an independent and pre-existing world46? Urge these arguments with temper and moderation; insinuate, at seasonable intervals, the truth46, and beauty, of the Christian revelation; and endeavour to make the unbelievers ashamed, without making them angry. This metaphysical reasoning, too refined perhaps for the Barbarians of Germany, was fortified by the grosser weight of authority and popular consent. The advantage of temporal prosperity46 had deserted the Pagan cause, and passed over to the service of Christianity. The Romans themselves, the most powerful and enlightened nation of the globe, had renounced their ancient superstition; and, if the ruin of their empire46 seemed to accuse the efficacy of the new faith, the disgrace was already retrieved by the conversion of the victorious Goths. The valiant and fortunate Barbarians, who subdued the provinces of the West, successively received, and reflected, the same edifying example. Before the age46 of Charlemagne, the Christian nations of Europe might exult in the exclusive possession of the temperate climates, of the fertile lands, which produced corn, wine, and oil, while the savage idolaters, and their helpless idols, were confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark and frozen regions of the North.
Christianity, which opened the gates of Heaven to the Barbarians, introduced an important change in their moral and political condition. They received, at the same time, the use of letters, so essential to a religion1 whose doctrines are contained in a sacred1 book, and, while they studied the divine truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their conversion, must excite, among their clergy1, some curiosity to read the original text, to understand the sacred1 liturgy of the church1, and to examine, in the writings of the fathers, the chain of ecclesiastical1 tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved in the Greek and Latin languages, which concealed the inestimable monuments of ancient1 learning. The immortal productions of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian1 Barbarians, maintained a silent intercourse between the reign1 of Augustus and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne. The emulation of mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect state1; and the flame of science was secretly kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of the Western world. In the most corrupt state1 of Christianity, the Barbarians might learn justice1 from the law, and mercy from the gospel; and, if the knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide their actions or to regulate their passions, they were sometimes restrained by conscience, and frequently punished by remorse. But the direct authority1 of religion1 was less effectual than the holy communion which united them with their Christian1 brethren in spiritual friendship. The influence of these sentiments contributed to secure their fidelity in the service, or the alliance, of the Romans1, to alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the insolence of conquest, and to preserve, in the downfall of the empire1, a permanent respect for the name and institutions of Rome1. In the days of Paganism, the priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people1, and controlled the jurisdiction1 of the magistrates1; and the zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or more ample, measure of devout obedience to the pontiffs of the Christian1 faith. The sacred1 character of the bishops1 was supported by their temporal possessions; they obtained an honourable seat in the legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen; and it was their interest, as well as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful counsels, the fierce spirit of the Barbarians. The perpetual correspondence of the Latin clergy1, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome1 and Jerusalem, and the growing authority1 of the popes1, cemented the union of the Christian1 republic1; and gradually produced the similar manners, and common jurisprudence, which have distinguished, from the rest of mankind, the independent, and even hostile, nations of modern Europe.
But the operation of these causes was checked and retarded by the unfortunate accident which infused a deadly poison into the cup of Salvation. Whatever might be the early sentiments of Ulphilas, his connections with the empire and the church33 were formed during the reign of Arianism. The apostle of the Goths subscribed the creed33 of Rimini; professed with freedom, and perhaps with sincerity, that the Son was not equal or consubstantial to the Father; communicated these errors to the clergy33 and people33; and infected the Barbaric world with an heresy33 which the great Theodosius proscribed and extinguished among the Romans. The temper and understanding of the new proselytes were not adapted to metaphysical subtleties; but they strenuously maintained what they had piously received, as the pure and genuine doctrines of Christianity. The advantage of preaching and expounding the Scriptures in the Teutonic language promoted the apostolic labours of Ulphilas and his successors; and they ordained a competent number of bishops33 and presbyters, for the instruction of the kindred tribes. The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin33 clergy33, preferred the more intelligible lessons of their domestic teachers; and Arianism was adopted as the national faith33 of the warlike converts who were seated on the ruins of the Western empire. This irreconcileable difference of religion33 was a perpetual source of jealousy and hatred; and the reproach of Barbarian was embittered by the more odious epithet of Heretic. The heroes of the North, who had submitted, with some reluctance, to believe that all their ancestors were in hell, were astonished and exasperated to learn that they themselves had only changed the mode of their eternal condemnation. Instead of the smooth applause which Christian33 kings are accustomed to expect from their loyal prelates33, the orthodox33 bishops33 and their clergy33 were in a state of opposition to the Arian33 courts; and their indiscreet opposition frequently became criminal, and might sometimes be dangerous. The pulpit, that safe and sacred organ of sedition, resounded with the names of Pharaoh and Holofernes; the public discontent was inflamed by the hope or promise of a glorious deliverance; and the seditious saints were tempted to promote the accomplishment of their own predictions. Notwithstanding these provocations, the Catholics33 of Gaul, Spain, and Italy enjoyed, under the reign of the Arians, the free and peaceful exercise of their religion33. Their haughty masters respected the zeal33 of a numerous people33, resolved to die at the foot of their altars; and the example of their devout constancy was admired and imitated by the Barbarians themselves. The conquerors evaded, however, the disgraceful reproach, or confession, of fear, by attributing their toleration to the liberal motives of reason and humanity; and, while they affected the language, they imperceptibly imbibed the spirit, of genuine Christianity.
The peace41 of the church41 was sometimes interrupted. The Catholics were indiscreet, the Barbarians were impatient; and the partial acts of severity or injustice which had been recommended by the Arian clergy were exaggerated by the orthodox writers. The guilt of persecution may be imputed to Euric, king of the Visigoths; who suspended the exercise of ecclesiastical, or, at least, of episcopal, functions, and punished the popular bishops of Aquitain with imprisonment, exile, and confiscation. But the cruel and absurd enterprise of subduing the minds of a whole people41 was undertaken by the Vandals alone. Genseric himself, in his early youth, had renounced the orthodox communion; and the apostate could neither grant nor expect a sincere forgiveness. He was exasperated to find that the Africans who had fled before him in the field still presumed to dispute his will in synods and churches; and his ferocious mind was incapable of fear or of compassion. His Catholic subjects were oppressed41 by intolerant laws and arbitrary punishments. The language of Genseric was furious and formidable41; the knowledge of his intentions might justify the most unfavourable interpretations of his actions; and the Arians were reproached with the frequent executions which stained the palace41 and the dominions of the tyrant41. Arms and ambition were, however, the ruling passions of the monarch of the sea. But Hunneric41, his inglorious son41, who seemed to inherit only his vices, tormented the Catholics with the same unrelenting fury which had been fatal to his brother, his nephews, and the friends and favourites of his father, and, even to the Arian patriarch, who was inhumanly burnt alive in the midst of Carthage. The religious war was preceded and prepared by an insidious truce; persecution was made the serious and important business of the Vandal court; and the loathsome disease, which hastened the death41 of Hunneric41, revenged the injuries, without contributing to the deliverance, of the church41. The throne41 of Africa was successively filled by the two nephews of Hunneric41; by Gundamund, who reigned about twelve, and by Thrasimund, who governed the nation above twenty-seven, years41. Their administration was hostile and oppressive to the orthodox party. Gundamund appeared to emulate, or even to surpass, the cruelty of his uncle; and, if at length he relented, if he recalled the bishops and restored the freedom of Athanasian worship, a premature death41 intercepted the benefits of his tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund, was the greatest and most accomplished of the Vandal kings, whom he excelled in beauty, prudence, and magnanimity of soul. But this magnanimous character was degraded by his intolerant zeal and deceitful clemency. Instead of threats and tortures, he employed the gentle but efficacious powers41 of seduction. Wealth, dignity, and the royal favour were the liberal rewards of apostacy; the Catholics, who had violated the laws, might purchase their pardon by the renunciation of their faith; and, whenever Thrasimund meditated any rigorous measure, he patiently waited till41 the indiscretion of his adversaries furnished him with a specious opportunity. Bigotry was his last sentiment in the hour of death41; and he exacted from his successor41 a solemn oath that he would never tolerate the sectaries of Athanasius41. But his successor41, Hilderic, the gentle son41 of the savage Hunneric41, preferred the duties of humanity and justice to the vain obligation of an impious oath; and his accession was gloriously marked by the restoration of peace41 and universal freedom. The throne41 of that virtuous, though feeble, monarch was usurped by his cousin Gelimer, a zealous Arian; but the Vandal kingdom, before he could enjoy or abuse his power41, was subverted by the arms of Belisarius; and the orthodox party retaliated the injuries which they had endured.
The passionate declamations of the Catholics, the sole historians of this persecution, cannot afford any distinct series of causes and events, any impartial view of characters or counsels; but the most remarkable circumstances, that deserve either credit or notice, may be referred to the following heads: I. In the original law, which is still extant, Hunneric expressly declares, and the declaration appears to be correct, that he had faithfully transcribed the regulations and penalties of the Imperial47 edicts, against the heretical congregations, the clergy, and the people47, who dissented from the established religion. If the rights of conscience had been understood, the Catholics must have condemned their past conduct47, or acquiesced in their actual sufferings. But they still persisted to refuse the indulgence which they claimed. While they trembled under the lash of persecution, they praised the laudable severity of Hunneric himself, who burnt or banished great numbers of Manichaeans: and they rejected, with horror, the ignominious compromise that the disciples of Arius and of Athanasius should enjoy a reciprocal and similar toleration in the territories of the Romans and in those of the Vandals. II. The practice of a conference, which the Catholics had so frequently used to insult and punish their obstinate antagonists, was retorted against themselves. At the command47 of Hunneric, four hundred and sixty-six orthodox bishops assembled at Carthage; but, when they were admitted into the hall of audience, they had the mortification of beholding the Arian Cyrila exalted on the patriarchal throne47. The disputants were separated, after the mutual and ordinary reproaches of noise and silence, of delay and precipitation, of military47 force and of popular clamour. One martyr and one confessor were selected among the Catholic bishops; twenty-eight escaped by flight, and eighty-eight by conformity, forty-six were sent into Corsica to cut timber for the royal navy; and three hundred and two were banished to the different parts of Africa, exposed to the insults of their enemies, and carefully deprived of all the temporal and spiritual comforts of life47. The hardships of ten years' exile must have reduced their numbers; and, if they had complied with the law of Thrasimund, which prohibited any episcopal consecrations, the orthodox church of Africa must have expired with the lives of its actual members. They disobeyed; and their disobedience was punished by a second exile of two hundred and twenty bishops into Sardinia; where they languished fifteen years, till the accession of the gracious Hilderic. The two islands were judiciously chosen by the malice of their Arian tyrants. Seneca, from his own experience, has deplored and exaggerated the miserable state of Corsica, and the plenty of Sardinia was over-balanced by the unwholesome quality of the air. III. The zeal of Genseric and his successors for the conversion of the Catholics must have rendered them still more jealous to guard the purity of the Vandal faith. Before the churches were finally shut, it was a crime to appear in a Barbarian dress; and those who presumed to neglect the royal mandate were rudely dragged backwards by their long47 hair. The Palatine officers who refused to profess the religion of their prince47 were ignominiously stripped of their honours and employments; banished to Sardinia and Sicily; or condemned to the servile labours of slaves and peasants in the field of Utica. In the districts which had been peculiarly allotted to the Vandals, the exercise of the Catholic worship was more strictly prohibited: and severe penalties were denounced against the guilt both of the missionary and the proselyte. By these arts, the faith of the Barbarians was preserved, and their zeal was inflamed; they discharged, with devout fury, the office of spies informers, or executioners; and, whenever their cavalry took the field, it was the favourite amusement of the march to defile the churches and to insult the clergy of the adverse faction. IV. The citizens who had been educated in the luxury of the Roman47 province were delivered, with exquisite cruelty, to the Moors of the desert. A venerable train of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, with a faithful crowd of four thousand and ninety-six persons, whose guilt is not precisely ascertained, were torn from their native homes, by the command47 of Hunneric. During the night, they were confined, like a herd of cattle, amidst their own ordure; during the day, they pursued their march over the burning sands; and, if they fainted under the heat and fatigue, they were goaded or dragged along, till they expired in the hands of their tormentors. These unhappy exiles, when they reached the Moorish huts, might excite the compassion of a people47, whose native humanity was neither improved by reason nor corrupted by fanaticism; but, if they escaped the dangers, they were condemned to share the distress, of a savage life47. V. It is incumbent on the authors of persecution previously to reflect, whether they are determined to support it in the last extreme. They excite the flame which they strive to extinguish; and it soon47 becomes necessary to chastise the contumacy, as well as the crime, of the offender. The fine, which he is unable or unwilling to discharge, exposes his person47 to the severity of the law; and his contempt of lighter penalties suggests the use and propriety of capital punishment. Through the veil of fiction and declamation, we may clearly perceive that the Catholics, more especially under the reign47 of Hunneric, endured the most cruel and ignominious treatment. Respectable citizens, noble matrons, and consecrated virgins were stripped naked, and raised in the air by pulleys, with a weight suspended at their feet. In this painful attitude their naked bodies were torn with scourges, or burnt in the most tender parts with red-hot plates of iron. The amputation of the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the right hand was inflicted by the Arians; and, although the precise number cannot be defined, it is evident that many persons, among whom a bishop and a proconsul may be named, were entitled to the crown of martyrdom. The same honour has been ascribed to the memory of Count Sebastian, who professed the Nicene creed with unshaken constancy; and Genseric might detest, as an heretic, the brave and ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a rival. VI. A new mode of conversion, which might subdue the feeble, and alarm the timorous, was employed by the Arian ministers. They imposed, by fraud or violence, the rites of baptism; and punished the apostacy of the Catholics, if they disclaimed this odious and profane ceremony, which scandalously violated the freedom of the will and the unity of the sacrament. The hostile sects had formerly allowed the validity of each other's baptism; and the innovation, so fiercely maintained by the Vandals, can be imputed only to the example and advice of the Donatists. VII. The Arian clergy surpassed, in religious cruelty, the king and his Vandals; but they were incapable of cultivating the spiritual vineyard which they were so desirous to possess. A patriarch might seat himself on the throne47 of Carthage; some bishops, in the principal cities, might usurp the place of their rivals; but the smallness of their numbers and their ignorance of the Latin language disqualified the Barbarians for the ecclesiastical ministry of a great church; and the Africans, after the loss of their orthodox pastors, were deprived of the public47 exercise of Christianity. VIII. The emperors were the natural protectors of the Homoousian doctrine; and the faithful people47 of Africa, both as Romans and as Catholics, preferred their lawful sovereignty to the usurpation of the Barbarous heretics. During an interval of peace and friendship, Hunneric restored the cathedral of Carthage, at the intercession of Zeno, who reigned in the East47, and of Placidia, the daughter and relict of emperors, and the sister of the queen of the Vandals. But this decent regard was of short duration; and the haughty tyrant47 displayed his contempt for the religion of the Empire47 by studiously arranging the bloody images of persecution in all the principal streets through which the Roman47 ambassador must pass in his way to the palace47. An oath was required from the bishops, who were assembled at Carthage, that they would support the succession of his son47 Hilderic, and that they would renounce all foreign or transmarine correspondence. This engagement, consistent as it should seem with their moral and religious duties, was refused by the more sagacious members of the assembly. Their refusal, faintly coloured by the pretence that it is unlawful for a Christian to swear, must provoke the suspicions of a jealous tyrant47.
The Catholics, oppressed by royal and military6 force, were far superior to their adversaries in numbers and learning. With the same weapons which the Greek and Latin fathers had already provided for the Arian controversy, they repeatedly silenced, or vanquished, the fierce and illiterate successors of Ulphilas. The consciousness of their own superiority might have raised them above the arts6 and passions of religious warfare. Yet, instead of assuming such honourable pride, the orthodox theologians were tempted, by the assurance of impunity, to compose fictions, which must be stigmatised with the epithets of fraud and forgery. They ascribed their own polemical works to the most venerable names of Christian antiquity; the characters of Athanasius and Augustin were awkwardly personated by Vigilius and his disciples; and the famous creed which so clearly expounds the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation is deduced, with strong probability, from this African school. Even the scriptures themselves were profaned by their rash and sacrilegious hands. The memorable text which asserts the unity of the Three who bear witness in heaven is condemned by the universal silence of the orthodox fathers, ancient6 versions, and authentic manuscripts. It was first alleged by the Catholic bishops whom Hunneric summoned to the conference of Carthage. An allegorical interpretation, in the form, perhaps, of a marginal note, invaded the text of the Latin Bibles, which were renewed and corrected in a dark period of ten centuries. After the invention of printing, the editors of the Greek Testament yielded to their own prejudices, or those of the times; and the pious fraud, which was embraced with equal6 zeal at Rome6 and at Geneva, has been infinitely multiplied in every country6 and every language of modern Europe.
The example of fraud must excite suspicion; and the specious miracles7 by which the African Catholics7 have defended the truth7 and justice of their cause may be ascribed, with more reason7, to their own industry than to the visible7 protection of Heaven7. Yet the historian, who views this religious conflict with an impartial eye, may condescend to mention one preternatural event which will edify the devout7 and surprise the incredulous. Tipasa, a maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen miles to the east of Caesarea, had been distinguished, in every age, by the orthodox7 zeal7 of its inhabitants. They had braved the fury of the Donatists; they resisted, or eluded, the tyranny of the Arians. The town was deserted on the approach of an heretical bishop: most of the inhabitants who could procure ships passed over to the coast of Spain; and the unhappy remnant, refusing all communion with the usurper, still presumed to hold their pious, but illegal, assemblies. Their disobedience exasperated the cruelty of Hunneric. A military count was despatched from Carthage to Tipasa; he collected the Catholics7 in the Forum, and, in the presence of the whole province, deprived the guilty of their right hands and their tongues. But the holy7 confessors continued to speak without tongues; and this miracle is attested by Victor, an African bishop, who published an history of the persecution within two years7 after the event. If any one, says Victor, should doubt of the truth7, let him repair to Constantinople, and listen to the clear and perfect7 language of Restitutus, the subdeacon, one of these glorious sufferers, who is now lodged in the palace of the emperor Zeno, and is respected by the devout7 empress. At Constantinople we are astonished to find a cool, a learned, an unexceptionable witness, without interest, and without passion. Aeneas of Gaza, a Platonic philosopher, has accurately described his own observations on these African sufferers. I saw them myself: I heard them speak: I diligently enquired by what means such an articulate voice could be formed without any organ of speech: I used my eyes to examine the report of my ears: I opened their mouth, and saw that the whole tongue had been completely torn away by the roots, an operation which the physicians generally suppose to be mortal. The testimony of Aeneas of Gaza might be confirmed by the superfluous evidence of the emperor Justinian, in a perpetual edict; of Count Marcellinus, in his Chronicle of the times; and of Pope Gregory I., who had resided at Constantinople, as the minister of the Roman pontiff. They all lived within the compass of a century7; and they all appeal to their personal knowledge, or the public notoriety, for the truth7 of a miracle which was repeated in several instances, displayed on the greatest theatre of the world, and submitted, during a series of years7, to the calm examination of the senses. This supernatural gift of the African confessors, who spoke without tongues, will command the assent of those, and of those only, who already believe that their language was pure and orthodox7. But the stubborn mind of an infidel is guarded by secret incurable suspicion; and the Arian, or Socinian, who has seriously rejected the doctrine7 of the Trinity, will not be shaken by the most plausible evidence of an Athanasian miracle.
The Vandals and the Ostrogoths persevered in the profession of Arianism till the final ruin of the kingdoms which they had founded in Africa and Italy. The Barbarians of Gaul submitted to the orthodox33 dominion of the Franks; and Spain was restored to the Catholic33 church33 by the voluntary conversion of the Visigoths.
This salutary revolution was hastened by the example of a royal martyr, whom our calmer reason may style an ungrateful rebel. Leovigild, the Gothic monarch of Spain, deserved the respect of his enemies, and the love of his subjects: the Catholics enjoyed a free toleration, and his Arian synods attempted, without much success, to reconcile their scruples by abolishing the unpopular rite of a second baptism. His eldest son47 Hermenegild, who was invested by his father47 with the royal diadem, and the fair principality of Baetica, contracted an honourable and orthodox alliance with a Merovingian princess, the daughter of Sigibert, king of Austrasia, and of the famous Brunechild. The beauteous Ingundis, who was no more than thirteen years of age47, was received, beloved, and persecuted in the Arian court of Toledo; and her religious constancy was alternately assaulted with blandishments and violence by Goisvintha, the Gothic queen, who abused the double claim of maternal authority47. Incensed by her resistance, Goisvintha seized the Catholic princess by her long47 hair, inhumanly dashed her against the ground, kicked her till she was covered with blood, and at last gave orders that she should be stripped, and thrown into a bason, or fish-pond. Love and honour might excite Hermenegild to resent this injurious treatment of his bride; and he was gradually persuaded that Ingundis suffered for the cause of divine truth. Her tender complaints and the weighty arguments of Leander, archbishop of Seville, accomplished his conversion; and the heir of the Gothic monarchy was initiated in the Nicene faith by the solemn rite of confirmation. The rash youth, inflamed by zeal, and perhaps by ambition, was tempted to violate the duties of a son47, and a subject; and the Catholics of Spain, although they could not complain of persecution, applauded his pious rebellion against an heretical father47. The civil47 war47 was protracted by the long47 and obstinate sieges of Merida, Cordova, and Seville, which had strenuously espoused the party of Hermenegild. He invited the orthodox Barbarians, the Suevi, and the Franks, to the destruction of his native land; he solicited the dangerous aid of the Romans, who possessed Africa and a part of the Spanish coast; and his holy ambassador, the archbishop Leander, effectually negotiated in person47 with the Byzantine court. But the hopes of the Catholics were crushed by the active diligence of a monarch who commanded the troops47 and treasures of Spain; and the guilty Hermenegild, after his vain attempts to resist or to escape, was compelled to surrender himself into the hands of an incensed father47. Leovigild was still mindful of that sacred character; and the rebel, despoiled of the regal ornaments, was still permitted, in a decent exile, to profess the Catholic religion. His repeated and unsuccessful treasons at length provoked the indignation of the Gothic king; and the sentence of death47, which he pronounced with apparent reluctance, was privately executed in the tower of Seville. The inflexible constancy with which he refused to accept the Arian communion, as the price of his safety, may excuse the honours that have been paid to the memory of St. Hermenegild. His wife and infant son47 were detained by the Romans in ignominious captivity; and this domestic misfortune tarnished the glories of Leovigild, and embittered the last moments of his life47.
His son30 and successor, Recared, the first Catholic king30 of Spain, had imbibed the faith of his unfortunate brother, which he supported with more prudence and success. Instead of revolting against his father, Recared patiently expected the hour of his death30. Instead of condemning his memory, he piously supposed that the dying monarch had abjured the errors of Arianism and recommended to his son30 the conversion of the Gothic nation. To accomplish that salutary end, Recared convened an assembly of the Arian clergy and nobles, declared himself a Catholic, and exhorted them to imitate the example of their prince30. The laborious interpretation of doubtful texts, or the curious pursuit of metaphysical arguments, would have excited an endless controversy; and the monarch discreetly proposed to his illiterate audience two substantial and visible arguments, the testimony of Earth and of Heaven. The Earth had submitted to the Nicene synod: the Romans, the Barbarians, and the inhabitants of Spain unanimously professed the same orthodox creed; and the Visigoths resisted, almost alone, the consent of the Christian world. A superstitious age was prepared to reverence, as the testimony of Heaven, the preternatural cures, which were performed by the skill or virtue of the Catholic clergy; the baptismal fonts of Osset in Baetica, which were spontaneously replenished each year on the vigil of Easter; and the miraculous shrine of St30. Martin of Tours, which had already converted the Suevic prince30 and people30 of Gallicia. The Catholic king30 encountered some difficulties on this important change of the national religion. A conspiracy, secretly fomented by the queen-dowager, was formed against his life; and two counts excited a dangerous revolt in the Narbonnese Gaul. But Recared disarmed the conspirators, defeated the rebels, and executed severe justice; which the Arians, in their turn, might brand with the reproach of persecution. Eight bishops, whose names betray their Barbaric origin, abjured their errors; and all the books of Arian theology were reduced to ashes, with the house in which they had been purposely collected. The whole body of the Visigoths and Suevi were allured or driven into the pale of the Catholic communion; the faith, at least of the rising generation, was fervent and sincere; and the devout liberality of the Barbarians enriched the churches and monasteries of Spain. Seventy bishops, assembled in the council of Toledo, received the submission of their conquerors; and the zeal of the Spaniards improved the Nicene creed, by declaring the procession of the Holy30 Ghost from the Son30, as well as from the Father: a weighty point of doctrine, which produced, long30 afterwards, the schism of the Greek30 and Latin Churches. The royal30 proselyte immediately saluted and consulted Pope Gregory, surnamed the Great, a learned and holy30 prelate, whose reign was distinguished by the conversion of heretics and infidels. The ambassadors of Recared respectfully offered on the threshold of the Vatican his rich presents of gold30 and gems; they accepted, as a lucrative exchange, the hairs of St30. John the Baptist, a cross which enclosed a small piece of the true wood, and a key that contained some particles of iron which had been scraped from the chains of St30. Peter.
The same Gregory, the spiritual conqueror of Britain36, encouraged the pious Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, to propagate the Nicene faith among the victorious savages, whose recent Christianity was polluted by the Arian heresy. Her devout labours still left room for the industry and success of future missionaries; and many cities36 of Italy were still disputed by hostile bishops. But the cause of Arianism was gradually suppressed by the weight36 of truth, of interest, and of example; and the controversy, which Egypt had derived from the Platonic school, was terminated, after a war36 of three hundred years, by the final conversion of the Lombards of Italy.
The first missionaries who preached the gospel to the Barbarians appealed to the evidence of reason, and claimed the benefit of toleration. But no sooner had they established their spiritual dominion than they exhorted the Christian kings to extirpate, without mercy, the remains of Roman or Barbaric superstition. The successors of Clovis inflicted one hundred lashes on the peasants who refused to destroy their idols; the crime of sacrificing to the demons was punished by the Anglo-Saxon laws with the heavier penalties of imprisonment and confiscation; and even the wise Alfred adopted, as an indispensable duty, the extreme rigour of the Mosaic institutions. But the punishment, and the crime, were gradually abolished among a Christian people; the theological disputes of the schools were suspended by propitious ignorance; and the intolerant spirit, which could find neither idolaters nor heretics, was reduced to the persecution of the Jews. That exiled nation had founded some synagogues in the cities of Gaul; but Spain49, since the time of Hadrian, was filled with their numerous colonies. The wealth which they accumulated by trade, and the management of the finances, invited the pious avarice of their masters; and they might be oppressed without danger49, as they had lost49 the use, and even the remembrance, of arms49. Sisebut, a Gothic king49, who reigned in the beginning of the seventh century, proceeded at once to the last extremes of persecution. Ninety thousand49 Jews were compelled to receive the sacrament of baptism; the fortunes of the obstinate infidels were confiscated, their bodies were tortured; and it seems doubtful whether they were permitted to abandon their native country49. The excessive zeal of the Catholic king49 was moderated, even by the clergy of Spain49, who solemnly pronounced an inconsistent sentence: that the sacraments should not be forcibly imposed; but that the Jews who had been baptised should be constrained, for the honour of the church, to persevere in the external practice of a religion which they disbelieved and detested. Their frequent relapses provoked one of the successors of Sisebut to banish the whole nation from his dominions; and a council of Toledo published a decree that every Gothic king49 should swear to maintain this salutary edict. But the tyrants were unwilling to dismiss the victims, whom they delighted to torture, or to deprive themselves of the industrious slaves, over whom they might exercise a lucrative oppression. The Jews still continued in Spain49, under the weight of the civil and ecclesiastical laws, which in the same country49 have been faithfully transcribed in the Code of the Inquisition. The Gothic kings and bishops at length discovered that injuries will produce hatred and that hatred will find the opportunity of revenge. A nation, the secret or professed enemies of Christianity, still multiplied in servitude and distress; and the intrigues of the Jews promoted the rapid success49 of the Arabian conquerors.
As soon as the Barbarians withdrew their powerful support, the unpopular heresy33 of Arius sunk into contempt and oblivion. But the Greeks33 still retained their subtle and loquacious disposition; the establishment of an obscure doctrine suggested new questions and new disputes; and it was always in the power of an ambitious prelate, or a fanatic monk, to violate the peace of the church33, and, perhaps, of the empire. The historian of the empire may overlook those disputes which were confined to the obscurity of schools and synods33. The Manichaeans, who laboured to reconcile the religions of Christ33 and of Zoroaster, had secretly introduced themselves into the provinces; but these foreign sectaries were involved in the common disgrace of the Gnostics, and the Imperial laws were executed by the public hatred. The rational opinions of the Pelagians were propagated from Britain to Rome, Africa and Palestine, and silently expired in a superstitious age. But the East33 was distracted by the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies; which attempted to explain the mystery of the incarnation, and hastened the ruin of Christianity in her native land. These controversies were first agitated under the reign of the younger Theodosius; but their important consequences extend far beyond the limits of the present volume. The metaphysical chain of argument, the contests of ecclesiastical33 ambition, and their political influence on the decline of the Byzantine empire, may afford an interesting and instructive series of history, from the general councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon33 to the conquest of the East33 by the successors of Mahomet.
The Gauls14, who impatiently supported the Roman yoke, received a memorable lesson from one of the lieutenants of Vespasian, whose weighty sense has been refined and expressed by the genius of Tacitus. The protection of the republic has delivered Gaul14 from internal discord and foreign14 invasions. By the loss of national independence, you have acquired the name and privileges of Roman citizens. You enjoy, in common with ourselves, the permanent benefits of civil14 government; and your remote situation is less exposed to the accidental mischiefs of tyranny. Instead of exercising the rights14 of conquest, we have been contented to impose such tributes as are requisite for your own preservation. Peace cannot be secured without armies14; and armies14 must be supported at the expense of the people14. It is for your sake, not for our own, that we guard the barrier of the Rhine against the ferocious Germans14, who have so often attempted, and who will always desire, to exchange the solitude of their woods and morasses for the wealth and fertility of Gaul14. The fall of Rome would be fatal to the provinces; and you would be buried in the ruins of that mighty fabric which has been raised by the valour and wisdom of eight hundred years14. Your imaginary freedom would be insulted and oppressed by a savage master; and the expulsion of the Romans would be succeeded by the eternal hostilities of the Barbarian conquerors. This salutary advice was accepted14, and this strange prediction was accomplished. In the space of four hundred years14, the hardy Gauls14, who had encountered the arms of Caesar, were imperceptibly melted into the general mass of citizens and subjects14; the Western empire was dissolved; and the Germans14, who had passed the Rhine, fiercely contended for the possession of Gaul14, and excited the contempt or abhorrence of its peaceful and polished inhabitants. With that conscious pride which the pre-eminence of knowledge and luxury seldom fails to inspire, they derided the hairy and gigantic savages14 of the North, — their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and to the smell. The liberal studies were still cultivated in the schools of Autun and Bordeaux; and the language of Cicero and Virgil was familiar to the Gallic youth14. Their ears were astonished by the harsh and unknown sounds of the Germanic dialect, and they ingeniously lamented that the trembling muses fled from the harmony of a Burgundian lyre. The Gauls14 were endowed with all the advantages of art and nature14; but, as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned14 to obey, and even to flatter, the victorious Barbarians14, by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives.
As soon21 as Odoacer had extinguished the Western empire, he sought the friendship of the most powerful of the Barbarians. The new sovereign21 of Italy21 resigned to Euric, king21 of the Visigoths, all the Roman21 conquests beyond the Alps21, as far as the Rhine and the Ocean; and the senate21 might confirm this liberal gift with some ostentation of power, and without any real loss of revenue or dominion. The lawful21 pretensions of Euric were justified by ambition and success; and the Gothic nation might aspire, under his command, to the monarchy21 of Spain and Gaul. Arles and Marseilles surrendered to his arms; he oppressed the freedom of Auvergne; and the bishop condescended to purchase his recall from exile by a tribute of just, but reluctant, praise. Sidonius waited before the gates of the palace21 among a crowd of ambassadors21 and suppliants; and their various business at the court of Bordeaux attested the power and the renown of the king21 of the Visigoths. The Heruli of the distant ocean, who painted their naked bodies with its caerulean colour, implored his protection; and the Saxons respected the maritime provinces of a prince who was destitute of any naval force. The tall Burgundians submitted to his authority; nor did he restore the captive Franks, till he had imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal peace. The Vandals of Africa cultivated his useful friendship; and the Ostrogoths of Pannonia were supported by his powerful aid against the oppression of the neighbouring Huns. The North (such are the lofty strains of the poet21) was agitated, or appeased, by the nod of Euric; the great king21 of Persia consulted the oracle of the West; and the aged god of the Tiber was protected by the swelling genius of the Garonne. The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents; and France may ascribe her greatness to the premature death of the Gothic king21, at a time when his son Alaric was an helpless infant, and his adversary Clovis an ambitious and valiant youth.
While Childeric, the father of Clovis, lived an exile in Germany, he was hospitably entertained by the queen as well as by the king3 of the Thuringians. After his restoration, Basina escaped from her husband's bed to the arms3 of her lover; freely declaring that, if she had known a man wiser, stronger, or more beautiful than Childeric, that man should have been the object of her preference. Clovis was the offspring of this voluntary union; and, when he was no more than fifteen years3 of age, he succeeded, by his father's death3, to the command of the Salian tribe. The narrow limits of his kingdom were confined to the island of the Batavians, with the ancient dioceses of Tournay and Arras; and, at the baptism of Clovis, the number of his warriors could not exceed five thousand3. The kindred tribes of the Franks, who had seated themselves along the Belgic rivers, the Scheld, the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, were governed by their independent kings of the Merovingian race; the equals, the allies, and sometimes the enemies of the Salic prince3. But the Germans, who obeyed, in peace3, the hereditary jurisdiction of their chiefs, were free to follow the standard of a popular and victorious general3; and the superior merit of Clovis attracted the respect and allegiance of the national confederacy. When he first took the field, he had neither gold and silver in his coffers, nor wine and corn in his magazines; but he imitated the example of Caesar, who, in the same country, had acquired wealth by the sword and purchased soldiers with the fruits of conquest. After each successful battle or expedition, the spoils were accumulated in one common mass; every warrior received his proportionable share, and the royal3 prerogative submitted to the equal regulations of military3 law. The untamed spirit of the Barbarians3 was taught to acknowledge the advantages of regular discipline. At the annual review of the month of March, their arms3 were diligently inspected; and, when they traversed a peaceful territory, they were prohibited from touching a blade of grass. The justice of Clovis was inexorable; and his careless or disobedient soldiers were punished with instant death3. It would be superfluous to praise the valour3 of a Frank; but the valour3 of Clovis was directed by cool and consummate prudence. In all his transactions with mankind, he calculated the weight of interest, of passion, and of opinion; and his measures were sometimes adapted to the sanguinary manners of the Germans, and sometimes moderated by the milder genius of Rome and Christianity. He was intercepted in the career of victory3, since he died in the forty-fifth year of his age; but he had already accomplished, in a reign3 of thirty years3, the establishment of the French monarchy in Gaul3.
The first exploit of Clovis20 was the defeat of Syagrius, the son20 of Aegidius; and the public20 quarrel might, on this occasion, be inflamed by private20 resentment. The glory of the father still insulted the Merovingian race20; the power of the son20 might excite the jealous ambition of the king20 of the Franks20. Syagrius inherited, as a patrimonial estate, the city20 and diocese of Soissons, the desolate remnant of the second20 Belgic, Rheims and Troyes, Beauvais and Amiens, would naturally submit to the count or patrician; and after the dissolution of the Western empire20 he might reign20 with the title, or at least with the authority, of king20 of the Romans. As a Roman20, he had been educated in the liberal studies of rhetoric and jurisprudence; but he was engaged by accident and policy in the familiar use of the Germanic idiom. The independent Barbarians resorted to the tribunal of a stranger, who possessed the singular talent of explaining, in their native tongue, the dictates of reason20 and equity. The diligence and affability of their judge rendered him popular, the impartial wisdom of his decrees obtained their voluntary obedience, and the reign20 of Syagrius over the Franks20 and Burgundians seemed to revive the original institution of civil society. In the midst of these peaceful occupations, Syagrius received, and boldly accepted, the hostile defiance of Clovis20; who challenged his rival in the spirit20, and almost in the language20, of chivalry, to appoint the day and the field of battle20. In the time of Caesar, Soissons would have poured forth a body of fifty thousand horse; and such an army might have been plentifully supplied with shields, cuirasses, and military engines, from the three arsenals, or manufactures, of the city20. But the courage and numbers of the Gallic youth were long20 since exhausted; and the loose bands of volunteers, or mercenaries, who marched under the standard of Syagrius, were incapable of contending with the national valour of the Franks20. It would be ungenerous, without some more accurate knowledge of his strength and resources, to condemn the rapid flight of Syagrius, who escaped, after the loss of a battle20, to the distant court of Toulouse. The feeble minority of Alaric could not assist or protect an unfortunate fugitive; the pusillanimous Goths were intimidated by the menaces of Clovis20; and the Roman20 king20, after a short confinement, was delivered into the hands of the executioner. The Belgic cities surrendered to the king20 of the Franks20; and his dominions were enlarged towards the east by the ample diocese of Tongres, which Clovis20 subdued in the tenth year20 of his reign20.
The name of the Alemanni has been absurdly derived from their imaginary settlement on the banks9 of the Leman lake. That fortunate district, from the lake to Avenche and Mount Jura, was occupied by the Burgundians. The northern parts of Helvetia had indeed been subdued by the ferocious Alemanni, who destroyed with their own hands the fruits of their conquest9. A province9, improved and adorned by the arts of Rome9, was again reduced to a savage wilderness; and some vestige of the stately Vindonissa may still be discovered in the fertile and populous valley of the Aar. From the source of the Rhine to its conflux with the Main and the Moselle, the formidable swarms of the Alemanni commanded either side of the river9, by the right of ancient9 possession or recent victory. They had spread themselves into Gaul, over the modern provinces9 of Alsace and Lorraine; and their bold invasion of the kingdom of Cologne summoned the Salic prince to the defence of his Ripuarian allies. Clovis encountered the invaders of Gaul in the plain of Tolbiac, about twenty-four miles9 from Cologne; and the two fiercest nations9 of Germany were mutually animated by the memory of past exploits and the prospect of future greatness. The Franks, after an obstinate struggle, gave way; and the Alemanni, raising a shout of victory, impetuously pressed their retreat. But the battle was restored by the valour9, the conduct, and perhaps by the piety of Clovis; and the event of the bloody day decided for ever the alternative of empire9 or servitude. The last king of the Alemanni was slain in the field, and his people was slaughtered and pursued, till they threw down their arms9 and yielded to the mercy of the conqueror. Without discipline it was impossible for them to rally; they had contemptuously demolished the walls9 and fortifications which might have protected their distress; and they were followed into the heart of their forests by an enemy, not less active or intrepid than themselves. The great9 Theodoric congratulated the victory of Clovis, whose sister Albofleda the king of Italy9 had lately married; but he mildly interceded with his brother in favour of the suppliants and fugitives who had implored his protection. The Gallic territories, which were possessed by the Alemanni, became the prize of their conqueror; and the haughty nation9, invincible or rebellious to the arms9 of Rome9, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Merovingian kings, who graciously permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and institutions, under the government of official, and, at length, of hereditary, dukes. After the conquest9 of the Western provinces9, the Franks alone maintained their ancient9 habitations beyond the Rhine. They gradually subdued and civilised the exhausted countries, as far9 as the Elbe and the mountains9 of Bohemia; and the peace of Europe9 was secured by the obedience of Germany.
Till the thirtieth year of his age47, Clovis continued to worship the gods of his ancestors. His disbelief, or rather disregard, of Christianity might encourage him to pillage with less remorse the churches of an hostile territory; but his subjects of Gaul enjoyed the free exercise of religious worship, and the bishops entertained a more favourable hope of the idolater than of the heretics. The Merovingian prince47 had contracted a fortunate alliance with the fair Clotilda, the niece of the king of Burgundy, who, in the midst of an Arian court, was educated in the profession of the Catholic faith. It was her interest, as well as her duty, to achieve the conversion of a Pagan husband; and Clovis insensibly listened to the voice of love and religion. He consented (perhaps such terms had been previously stipulated) to the baptism of his eldest son47; and, though the sudden death47 of the infant excited some superstitious fears, he was persuaded, a second time, to repeat the dangerous experiment. In the distress of the battle of Tolbiac, Clovis loudly invoked the god of Clotilda and the Christians; and victory disposed him to hear, with respectful gratitude, the eloquent Remigius, bishop of Rheims, who forcibly displayed the temporal and spiritual advantages of his conversion. The king declared himself satisfied of the truth of the Catholic faith; and the political reasons which might have suspended his public47 profession were removed by the devout or loyal acclamations of the Franks, who showed themselves alike prepared to follow their heroic leader to the field of battle or to the baptismal font. The important ceremony was performed in the cathedral of Rheims, with every circumstance of magnificence and solemnity that could impress an awful sense of religion on the minds of its rude proselytes. The new Constantine47 was immediately baptised, with three thousand of his warlike subjects; and their example was imitated by the remainder of the gentle Barbarians, who, in obedience to the victorious prelate, adored the cross which they had burnt, and burnt the idols which they had formerly adored. The mind of Clovis was susceptible of transient fervour: he was exasperated by the pathetic tale of the passion and death47 of Christ; and, instead of weighing the salutary consequences of that mysterious sacrifice, he exclaimed, with indiscreet fury, Had I been present at the head of my valiant Franks, I would have revenged his injuries. But the savage conqueror of Gaul was incapable of examining the proofs of a religion which depends on the laborious investigation of historic evidence and speculative theology. He was still more incapable of feeling the mild influence of the gospel, which persuades and purifies the heart of a genuine convert. His ambitious reign47 was a perpetual violation of moral and Christian duties; his hands were stained with blood, in peace as well as in war47; and, as soon47 as Clovis had dismissed a synod of the Gallican church, he calmly assassinated all the princes of the Merovingian race. Yet the king of the Franks might sincerely worship the Christian God, as a Being more excellent and powerful than his national deities; and the signal deliverance and victory of Tolbiac encouraged Clovis to confide in the future protection of the Lord of Hosts. Martin, the most popular of the saints, had filled the Western world with the fame of those miracles which were incessantly performed at his holy sepulchre of Tours. His visible or invisible aid promoted the cause of a liberal and orthodox prince47; and the profane remark of Clovis himself that St. Martin was an expensive friend need not be interpreted as the symptom of any permanent, or rational, scepticism. But earth, as well as heaven, rejoiced in the conversion of the Franks. On the memorable day when Clovis ascended from the baptismal font, he alone, in the Christian world, deserved the name and prerogatives of a Catholic king. The emperor47 Anastasius entertained some dangerous errors concerning the nature of the divine incarnation; and the Barbarians of Italy47, Africa, Spain, and Gaul were involved in the Arian heresy. The eldest, or rather the only, son47 of the church was acknowledged by the clergy as their lawful sovereign47, or glorious deliverer; and the arms47 of Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal and favour of the Catholic faction.
Under the Roman0 empire0, the wealth and jurisdiction of the bishops, their sacred character, and perpetual office, their numerous dependents, popular eloquence, and provincial assemblies had rendered them always respectable, and sometimes dangerous. Their influence was augmented with the progress of superstition, and the establishment of the French monarchy may, in some degree, be ascribed to the firm alliance of an hundred prelates, who reigned in the discontented, or independent, cities of Gaul0. The slight foundations of the Armorican republic had been repeatedly shaken, or overthrown; but the same people still guarded their domestic freedom; asserted the dignity of the Roman0 name; and bravely resisted the predatory inroads and regular attacks of Clovis, who laboured to extend his conquests from the Seine to the Loire. Their successful opposition introduced an equal and honourable union. The Franks0 esteemed the valour of the Armoricans, and the Armoricans were reconciled by the religion of the Franks0. The military force which had been stationed for the defence of Gaul0 consisted of one hundred different bands of cavalry or infantry; and these troops, while they assumed the title and privileges of Roman0 soldiers, were renewed by an incessant supply of the Barbarian youth. The extreme fortifications, and scattered fragments, of the empire0 were still defended by their hopeless courage. But their retreat was intercepted, and their communication was impracticable: they were abandoned by the Greek0 princes0 of Constantinople, and they piously disclaimed all connection with the Arian usurpers of Gaul0. They accepted, without shame or reluctance, the generous capitulation, which was proposed by a Catholic hero; and this spurious, or legitimate, progeny of the Roman0 legions was distinguished in the succeeding age0 by their arms, their ensigns, and their peculiar dress and institutions. But the national strength was increased by these powerful and voluntary accessions; and the neighbouring kingdoms dreaded the numbers, as well as the spirit0, of the Franks0. The reduction of the northern provinces of Gaul0, instead of being decided by the chance of a single combat, appears to have been slowly effected by the gradual operation of war and treaty; and Clovis acquired each object of his ambition by such efforts, or such concessions, as were adequate to its real value. His savage character and the virtues of Henry IV. suggest the most opposite ideas of human0 nature; yet some resemblance may be found in the situation of two princes0, who conquered France0 by their valour, their policy, and the merits of a seasonable conversion.
The kingdom of the Burgundians, which was defined by the course of two Gallic rivers, the Saône and the Rhone, extended from the forest of Vosges to the Alps and the sea of Marseilles. The sceptre was in the hands of Gundobald. That valiant and ambitious prince20 had reduced the number of royal20 candidates by the death of two brothers, one of whom was the father of Clotilda; but his imperfect prudence still permitted Godegesil, the youngest of his brothers, to possess the dependent principality of Geneva. The Arian monarch20 was justly alarmed by the satisfaction, and the hopes, which seemed to animate his clergy and people20 after the conversion of Clovis20; and Gundobald convened at Lyons an assembly of his bishops, to reconcile, if it were possible, their religious and political discontents. A vain conference was agitated between the two factions. The Arians upbraided the Catholics with the worship of three Gods; the Catholics defended their cause20 by theological distinctions; and the usual arguments, objections, and replies were reverberated with obstinate clamour, till the king20 revealed his secret apprehensions, by an abrupt but decisive question, which he addressed to the orthodox bishops: If you truly profess the Christian religion, why do you not restrain the king20 of the Franks20? He has declared war against me, and forms alliances with my enemies20 for my destruction. A sanguinary and covetous mind is not the symptom of a sincere conversion: let him shew his faith by his works. The answer of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, who spoke in the name of his brethren, was delivered with the voice and countenance of an angel: We are ignorant of the motives and intentions of the king20 of the Franks20; but we are taught by scripture that the kingdoms which abandon the divine law are frequently subverted; and that enemies20 will arise on every side against those who have made God their enemy20. Return, with thy people20, to the law of God, and he will give peace and security to thy dominions. The king20 of Burgundy20, who was not prepared to accept the condition which the Catholics considered as essential to the treaty, delayed and dismissed the ecclesiastical conference; after reproaching his bishops, that Clovis20, their friend and proselyte, had privately tempted the allegiance of his brother.
The allegiance of his brother was already seduced; and the obedience of Godegesil, who joined the royal3 standard with the troops3 of Geneva, more effectually promoted the success of the conspiracy. While the Franks and Burgundians contended with equal valour3, his seasonable desertion decided the event of the battle; and, as Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected Gauls, he yielded to the arms3 of Clovis, and hastily retreated from the field, which appears to have been situate between Langres and Dijon. He distrusted the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular fortress, encompassed by two rivers, and by a wall thirty feet high, and fifteen thick, with four gates, and thirty-three towers; he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the important3 cities of Lyons and Vienna; and Gundobald still fled with precipitation, till he had reached Avignon, at the distance of two hundred and fifty miles from the field of battle. A long3 siege, and an artful negotiation, admonished the king3 of the Franks of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise. He imposed a tribute on the Burgundian prince3, compelled him to pardon and reward his brother's treachery, and proudly returned to his own dominions, with the spoils and captives of the southern provinces3. This splendid triumph was soon3 clouded by the intelligence that Gundobald had violated his recent obligations, and that the unfortunate Godegesil, who was left at Vienna with a garrison of five thousand3 Franks had been besieged, surprised, and massacred by his inhuman brother. Such an outrage might have exasperated the patience of the most peaceful sovereign; yet the conqueror of Gaul3 dissembled the injury, released the tribute, and accepted the alliance3 and military3 service of the king3 of Burgundy. Clovis no longer possessed these advantages which had assured the success of the preceding war3; and his rival, instructed by adversity, had found new resources in the affections of his people. The Gauls or Romans3 applauded the mild and impartial laws of Gundobald, which almost raised them to the same level with their conquerors. The bishops were reconciled and flattered by the hopes, which he artfully suggested, of his approaching conversion; and, though he eluded their accomplishment to the last moment of his life, his moderation secured the peace3, and suspended the ruin, of the kingdom of Burgundy.
I am impatient to pursue the final ruin of that kingdom, which was accomplished under the reign47 of Sigismond, the son47 of Gundobald. The Catholic Sigismond has acquired the honours of a saint and martyr; but the hands of the royal saint were stained with the blood of his innocent son47, whom he inhumanly sacrificed to the pride and resentment of a stepmother. He soon47 discovered his error, and bewailed the irreparable loss. While Sigismond embraced the corpse of the unfortunate youth, he received a severe admonition from one of his attendants: It is not his situation, O king! it is thine which deserves pity and lamentation. The reproaches of a guilty conscience were alleviated, however, by his liberal donations to the monastery of Agaunum, or St. Maurice, in Vallais; which he himself had founded in honour of the imaginary martyrs of the Thebaean legion. A full chorus of perpetual psalmody was instituted by the pious king; he assiduously practised the austere devotion of the monks; and it was his humble prayer that heaven would inflict in this world the punishment of his sins. His prayer was heard; the avengers were at hand; and the provinces47 of Burgundy were overwhelmed by an army47 of victorious Franks. After the event of an unsuccessful battle, Sigismond, who wished to protract his life47 that he might prolong his penance, concealed himself in the desert in a religious habit, till he was discovered and betrayed by his subjects, who solicited the favour of their new masters. The captive monarch, with his wife and two children, were transported to Orleans, and buried alive in a deep well, by the stern command47 of the sons of Clovis; whose cruelty might derive some excuse from the maxims and examples of their barbarous age47. Their ambition, which urged them to achieve the conquest of Burgundy, was inflamed, or disguised, by filial piety; and Clotilda, whose sanctity did not consist in the forgiveness of injuries, pressed them to revenge her father47's death47 on the family of his assassin. The rebellious Burgundians, for they attempted to break their chains, were still permitted to enjoy their national laws under the obligation of tribute and military47 service; and the Merovingian princes peaceably reigned over a kingdom whose glory and greatness had been first overthrown by the arms47 of Clovis.
The first victory3 of Clovis had insulted the honour of the Goths. They viewed his rapid progress with jealousy and terror; and the youthful fame of Alaric was oppressed by the more potent genius of his rival. Some disputes inevitably arose on the edge of their contiguous dominions; and, after the delays of fruitless negotiation, a personal interview of the two kings was proposed and accepted. This conference of Clovis and Alaric was held in a small island of the Loire, near Amboise. They embraced, familiarly conversed, and feasted together; and separated with the warmest professions of peace3 and brotherly love. But their apparent confidence concealed a dark suspicion of hostile and treacherous designs; and their mutual complaints solicited, eluded, and disclaimed a final arbitration. At Paris, which he already considered as his royal3 seat, Clovis declared to an assembly of the princes and warriors the pretence, and the motive, of a Gothic war3. It grieves me to see that the Arians still possess the fairest portion of Gaul3. Let us march against them with the aid of God; and, having vanquished the heretics, we will possess, and divide, their fertile provinces3. The Franks, who were inspired by hereditary valour3 and recent zeal, applauded the generous design of their monarch3; expressed their resolution to conquer or die, since death3 and conquest would be equally profitable; and solemnly protested that they should never shave their beards, till victory3 would absolve them from that inconvenient vow. The enterprise was promoted by the public, or private, exhortations of Clotilda. She reminded her husband, how effectually some pious foundation would propitiate the Deity and his servants; and the Christian hero, darting his battle-axe with a skilful and nervous hand, There (said he), on that spot where my Francisca shall fall, will I erect a church in honour of the holy apostles. This ostentatious piety confirmed and justified the attachment of the Catholics, with whom he secretly corresponded; and their devout wishes were gradually ripened into a formidable conspiracy. The people of Aquitain was alarmed by the indiscreet reproaches of their Gothic tyrants, who justly accused them of preferring the dominion of the Franks; and their zealous adherent Quintianus, bishop of Rodez, preached more forcibly in his exile than in his diocese. To resist these foreign and domestic enemies, who were fortified by the alliance3 of the Burgundians, Alaric collected his troops3, far more numerous than the military3 powers of Clovis. The Visigoths resumed the exercise of arms3, which they had neglected in a long3 and luxurious peace3; a select band of valiant and robust slaves attended their masters to the field; and the cities of Gaul3 were compelled to furnish their doubtful and reluctant aid. Theodoric, king3 of the Ostrogoths, who reigned in Italy, had laboured to maintain the tranquillity of Gaul3; and he assumed, or affected for that purpose, the impartial character of a mediator. But the sagacious monarch3 dreaded the rising empire3 of Clovis, and he was firmly engaged to support the national and religious cause of the Goths.
The accidental, or artificial, prodigies, which adorned the expedition of Clovis, were accepted, by a superstitious age47, as the manifest declaration of the Divine favour. He marched from Paris; and, as he proceeded with decent reverence through the holy diocese of Tours, his anxiety tempted him to consult the shrine of St. Martin, the sanctuary and the oracle of Gaul. His messengers were instructed to remark the words of the Psalm, which should happen to be chaunted at the precise moment when they entered the church. Those words most fortunately expressed the valour and victory of the champions of Heaven, and the application was easily transferred to the new Joshua, the new Gideon, who went forth to battle against the enemies of the Lord. Orleans secured to the Franks a bridge on the Loire; but, at the distance of forty miles from Poitiers, their progress was intercepted by an extraordinary swell of the river Vigenna, or Vienne; and the opposite banks were covered by the encampment of the Visigoths. Delay must be always dangerous to Barbarians, who consume the country through which they march; and, had Clovis possessed leisure and materials, it might have been impracticable to construct a bridge, or to force a passage, in the face of a superior enemy. But the affectionate peasants, who were impatient to welcome their deliverer, could easily betray some unknown, or unguarded, ford; the merit47 of the discovery was enhanced by the useful interposition of fraud or fiction; and a white hart, of singular size and beauty, appeared to guide and animate the march of the Catholic army47. The counsels of the Visigoths were irresolute and distracted. A crowd of impatient warriors, presumptuous in their strength, and disdaining to fly before the robbers of Germany, excited Alaric to assert in arms47 the name and blood of the conqueror of Rome47. The advice of the graver chieftains pressed him to elude the first ardour of the Franks, and to expect, in the southern provinces47 of Gaul, the veteran and victorious Ostrogoths, whom the king of Italy47 had already sent to his assistance. The decisive moments were wasted in idle deliberation; the Goths too hastily abandoned, perhaps, an advantageous post; and the opportunity of a sure retreat was lost by their slow and disorderly motions. After Clovis had passed the ford, as it is still named, of the Hart, he advanced with bold and hasty steps to prevent the escape of the enemy. His nocturnal march was directed by a flaming meteor, suspended in the air above the cathedral of Poitiers; and this signal, which might be previously concerted with the orthodox successor of St. Hilary, was compared to the column of fire that guided the Israelites in the desert. At the third hour of the day, about ten miles beyond Poitiers, Clovis overtook, and instantly attacked, the Gothic army47; whose defeat was already prepared by terror and confusion. Yet they rallied in their extreme distress, and the martial youths, who had clamorously demanded the battle, refused to survive the ignominy of flight. The two kings encountered each other in single combat. Alaric fell by the hand of his rival; and the victorious Frank was saved by the goodness of his cuirass, and the vigour of his horse, from the spears of two desperate Goths, who furiously rode against him to revenge the death47 of their sovereign47. The vague expression of a mountain of the slain serves to indicate a cruel, though indefinite, slaughter; but Gregory has carefully observed that his valiant countryman Apollinaris, the son47 of Sidonius, lost his life47 at the head of the nobles of Auvergne. Perhaps these suspected Catholics had been maliciously exposed to the blind assault of the enemy; and perhaps the influence of religion was superseded by personal attachment or military47 honour.
Such is the empire9 of Fortune (if we may still disguise our ignorance under that popular name), that it is almost equally difficult to foresee the events of war9 or to explain their various consequences. A bloody and complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field; and the loss of ten thousand9 men9 has sometimes been sufficient to destroy, in a single day, the work of ages. The decisive battle of Poitiers was followed by the conquest9 of Aquitain. Alaric had left behind him an infant son, a bastard competitor, factious nobles, and a disloyal people; and the remaining forces of the Goths9 were oppressed by the general consternation, or opposed to each other in civil discord. The victorious king of the Franks proceeded without delay to the siege of Angoulême. At the sound of his trumpets the walls9 of the city9 imitated the example of Jericho, and instantly fell to the ground: a splendid miracle which may be reduced to the supposition that some clerical engineers had secretly undermined the foundations of the rampart. At Bordeaux, which had submitted without resistance, Clovis established his winter quarters; and his prudent economy transported from Toulouse the royal treasures, which were deposited in the capital9 of the monarchy. The conqueror penetrated as far9 as the confines of Spain; restored the honours of the Catholic church; fixed in Aquitain a colony of Franks; and delegated to his lieutenants the easy task of subduing, or extirpating, the nation9 of the Visigoths. But the Visigoths were protected by the wise and powerful monarch of Italy9. While the balance was still equal, Theodoric had perhaps delayed the march of the Ostrogoths; but their strenuous efforts successfully resisted the ambition of Clovis; and the army9 of the Franks and their Burgundian allies was compelled to raise the siege of Arles, with the loss, as it is said, of thirty thousand9 men9. These vicissitudes inclined the fierce spirit of Clovis to acquiesce in an advantageous treaty of peace. The Visigoths were suffered to retain the possession of Septimania, a narrow tract of sea9-coast9, from the Rhone to the Pyrenees; but the ample province9 of Aquitain, from those mountains9 to the Loire, was indissolubly united to the kingdom of France.
After the success of the Gothic war, Clovis accepted the honours1 of the Roman1 consulship. The emperor1 Anastasius ambitiously bestowed on the most powerful rival of Theodoric the title1 and ensigns of that eminent dignity; yet, from some unknown cause, the name of Clovis has not been inscribed in the Fasti either of the East or West. On the solemn day, the monarch of Gaul, placing a diadem on his head, was invested in the church1 of St. Martin, with a purple tunic and mantle. From thence he proceeded on horseback to the cathedral of Tours; and, as he passed through the streets, profusely scattered, with his own hand, a donative of gold and silver to the joyful multitude, who incessantly repeated their acclamations of Consul and Augustus. The actual, or legal, authority1 of Clovis could not receive any new1 accessions from the consular dignity. It was a name, a shadow, an empty pageant; and, if the conqueror had been instructed to claim the ancient1 prerogatives of that high office1, they must have expired with the period of its annual duration. But the Romans1 were disposed to revere, in the person of their master, that antique title1, which the emperors1 condescended to assume; the Barbarian himself seemed to contract a sacred1 obligation to respect the majesty of the republic1; and the successors1 of Theodosius, by soliciting his friendship, tacitly forgave, and almost ratified, the usurpation of Gaul.
Twenty-five years3 after the death3 of Clovis, this important3 concession was more formally declared, in a treaty3 between his sons and the emperor3 Justinian. The Ostrogoths of Italy, unable to defend their distant acquisitions, had resigned to the Franks the cities of Arles and Marseilles: of Arles, still adorned with the seat of a Praetorian prefect, and of Marseilles, enriched by the advantages of trade and navigation. This transaction was confirmed by the Imperial authority; and Justinian, generously yielding to the Franks the sovereignty of the countries beyond the Alps which they already possessed, absolved the provincials from their allegiance; and established on a more lawful, though not more solid, foundation the throne3 of the Merovingians. From that era, they enjoyed the right of celebrating, at Arles, the games of the Circus; and by a singular privilege, which was denied even to the Persian3 monarch3, the gold coin, impressed with their name and image, obtained a legal currency in the empire3. A Greek historian of that age has praised the private and public virtues of the Franks, with a partial enthusiasm, which cannot be sufficiently justified by their domestic annals. He celebrates their politeness and urbanity, their regular government, and orthodox religion; and boldly asserts that these Barbarians3 could be distinguished only by their dress and language from the subjects of Rome. Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social disposition and lively graces, which in every age have disguised their vices and sometimes concealed their intrinsic merit. Perhaps Agathias and the Greeks were dazzled by the rapid progress of their arms3 and the splendour of their empire3. Since the conquest of Burgundy, Gaul3, except the Gothic province of Septimania, was subject, in its whole extent, to the sons of Clovis. They had extinguished the German kingdom of Thuringia, and their vague dominion penetrated beyond the Rhine into the heart of their native forests. The Alemanni and Bavarians who had occupied the Roman3 provinces3 of Rhaetia and Noricum, to the south of the Danube, confessed themselves the humble vassals of the Franks; and the feeble barrier of the Alps was incapable of resisting their ambition. When the last survivor of the sons of Clovis united the inheritance and conquests of the Merovingians, his kingdom extended far beyond the limits of modern France. Yet modern France, such has been the progress of arts and policy, far surpasses in wealth, populousness, and power the spacious but savage realms of Clotaire or Dagobert.
The Franks0, or French, are the only people of Europe0 who can deduce a perpetual succession from the conquerors of the Western0 empire0. But their conquest of Gaul0 was followed by ten centuries of anarchy and ignorance0. On the revival of learning0, the students who had been formed in the schools0 of Athens and Rome0 disdained their Barbarian ancestors; and a long0 period elapsed before patient labour could provide the requisite materials to satisfy, or rather to excite, the curiosity0 of more enlightened times0. At length the eye of criticism and philosophy0 was directed to the antiquities of France0; but even philosophers have been tainted by the contagion of prejudice and passion. The most extreme and exclusive systems of the personal servitude of the Gauls, or of their voluntary and equal alliance with the Franks0, have been rashly conceived and obstinately defended; and the intemperate disputants have accused each other of conspiring against the prerogative of the crown, the dignity of the nobles, or the freedom of the people. Yet the sharp conflict has usefully exercised the adverse powers of learning0 and genius0; and each antagonist, alternately vanquished and victorious, has extirpated some ancient0 errors, and established some interesting truths. An impartial stranger, instructed by their discoveries, their disputes, and even their faults, may describe, from the same original materials, the state0 of the Roman0 provincials, after Gaul0 had submitted to the arms and laws of the Merovingian kings.
The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human8 society8 is regulated however by some fixed and general rules. When Tacitus surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he discovered some permanent maxims, or customs, of public8 and private8 life8, which were preserved by faithful tradition till the introduction of the art of writing and of the Latin tongue. Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most powerful tribe, or nation, of the Franks appointed four venerable chieftains to compose the Salic laws8; and their labours were examined and approved in three successive assemblies of the people. After the baptism of Clovis, he reformed several articles that appeared incompatible with Christianity8; the Salic law was again amended by his sons; and at length, under the reign8 of Dagobert, the code was revised and promulgated in its actual form, one hundred years after the establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the customs of the Ripuarians were transcribed and published; and Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age8 and country, had accurately studied the two national laws8 which still prevailed among the Franks. The same care was extended to their vassals; and the rude institutions of the Alemanni and Bavarians were diligently compiled and ratified by the supreme authority of the Merovingian kings. The Visigoths and Burgundians, whose conquests in Gaul preceded those of the Franks, shewed less impatience to attain one of the principal benefits of civilised society8. Euric was the first of the Gothic princes who expressed in writing the manners and customs of his people; and the composition of the Burgundian laws8 was a measure of policy rather than of justice: to alleviate the yoke and regain the affections of their Gallic subjects8. Thus, by a singular coincidence, the Germans framed their artless institutions at a time8 when the elaborate system of Roman jurisprudence was finally consummated. In the Salic laws8 and the Pandects of Justinian we may compare the first rudiments and the full maturity of civil wisdom; and, whatever prejudices may be suggested in favour of Barbarism, our calmer reflections will ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages, not only of science and reason8, but of humanity and justice. Yet the laws8 of the Barbarians were adapted to their wants and desires, their occupations, and their capacity; and they all contribute to preserve the peace, and promote the improvements, of the society8 for whose use8 they were originally established. The Merovingians, instead of imposing an uniform rule of conduct on their various8 subjects8, permitted each people, and each family of their empire8, freely to enjoy their domestic institutions; nor were the Romans excluded from the common benefits of this legal toleration. The children embraced the law of their parents, the wife that of her husband, the freedman that of his patron; and, in all causes, where the parties were of different nations, the plaintiff, or accuser, was obliged to follow the tribunal of the defendant, who may always plead a judicial presumption of right or innocence. A more ample latitude was allowed, if every citizen, in the presence of the judge, might declare the law under which he desired to live and the national society8 to which he chose to belong. Such an indulgence would abolish the partial distinctions of victory, and the Roman provincials might patiently acquiesce in the hardships of their condition; since it depended on themselves to assume the privilege, if they dared to assert the character8, of free and warlike Barbarians.
When justice inexorably requires the death17 of a murderer, each private citizen is fortified by the assurance that the laws, the magistrate, and the whole community are the guardians of his personal safety. But in the loose society of the Germans17 revenge was always honourable, and often meritorious; the independent warrior chastised, or vindicated, with his own hand, the injuries17 which he had offered, or received; and he had only to dread the resentment of the sons, and kinsmen, of the enemy whom he had sacrificed to his selfish or angry passions. The magistrate, conscious of his weakness, interposed, not to punish, but to reconcile; and he was satisfied if he could persuade, or compel, the contending parties to pay, and to accept, the moderate fine which had been ascertained as the price of blood. The fierce spirit of the Franks17 would have opposed a more rigorous sentence; the same fierceness despised these ineffectual restraints; and, when their simple manners had been corrupted by the wealth of Gaul17, the public peace was continually violated by acts of hasty or deliberate guilt. In every just government, the same penalty is inflicted, or at least is imposed, for the murder of a peasant or a prince. But the national inequality established by the Franks17, in their criminal proceedings, was the last insult and abuse of conquest. In the calm moments of legislation, they solemnly pronounced that the life of a Roman17 was of smaller value than that of a Barbarian17. The Antrustion, a name expressive of the most illustrious birth or dignity among the Franks17, was appreciated at the sum of six hundred pieces of gold; while the noble provincial, who was admitted to the king17's table, might be legally murdered at the expense of three hundred pieces. Two hundred were deemed sufficient for a Frank of ordinary condition; but the meaner Romans17 were exposed to disgrace and danger by a trifling compensation of one hundred, or even fifty, pieces of gold. Had these laws been regulated by any principle of equity or reason, the public protection should have supplied in just proportion the want of personal strength. But the legislator had weighed in the scale, not of justice, but of policy, the loss of a soldier against that of a slave; the head of an insolent and rapacious Barbarian17 was guarded by an heavy fine; and the slightest aid was afforded to the most defenceless subjects17. Time17 insensibly abated the pride of the conquerors and the patience of the vanquished; and the boldest citizen was taught by experience that he might suffer more injuries17 than he could inflict. As the manners of the Franks17 became less ferocious, their laws were rendered more severe; and the Merovingian kings attempted to imitate the impartial rigour of the Visigoths17 and Burgundians17. Under the empire of Charlemagne, murder was universally punished with death17; and the use17 of capital punishments has been liberally multiplied in the jurisprudence of modern Europe.
The civil47 and military47 professions, which had been separated by Constantine47, were again united by the Barbarians. The harsh sound of the Teutonic appellations was mollified into the Latin titles of Duke, of Count, or of Prefect47; and the same officer assumed, within his district, the command47 of the troops47 and the administration of justice47. But the fierce and illiterate chieftain was seldom qualified to discharge the duties of a judge, which require all the faculties of a philosophic mind, laboriously cultivated by experience and study; and his rude ignorance was compelled to embrace some simple and visible methods of ascertaining the cause of justice47. In every religion, the Deity has been invoked to confirm the truth, or to punish the falsehood, of human testimony; but this powerful instrument was misapplied and abused by the simplicity of the German legislators. The party accused might justify his innocence by producing before their tribunal a number of friendly witnesses, who solemnly declared their belief, or assurance, that he was not guilty. According to the weight of the charge, this legal number of compurgators was multiplied; seventy-two voices were required to absolve an incendiary or assassin: and, when the chastity of a queen of France was suspected, three hundred gallant nobles swore, without hesitation, that the infant prince47 had been actually begotten by her deceased husband. The sin and scandal of manifest and frequent perjuries engaged the magistrates to remove these dangerous temptations; and to supply the defects of human testimony by the famous experiments of fire and water. These extraordinary trials were so capriciously contrived that in some cases guilt, and innocence in others, could not be proved without the interposition of a miracle. Such miracles were readily provided by fraud and credulity; the most intricate causes were determined by this easy and infallible method; and the turbulent Barbarians, who might have disdained the sentence of the magistrate, submissively acquiesced in the judgment of God.
But the trials by single combat gradually obtained superior20 credit and authority among a warlike people20, who could not believe that a brave man deserved to suffer, or that a coward deserved to live. Both in civil and criminal proceedings, the plaintiff, or accuser, the defender, or even the witness, were exposed to mortal challenge from the antagonist who was destitute of legal proofs; and it was incumbent on them either to desert their cause20 or publicly to maintain their honour in the lists of battle20. They fought either on foot or on horseback, according to the custom of their nation; and the decision of the sword or lance was ratified by the sanction of Heaven, of the judge, and of the people20. This sanguinary law was introduced into Gaul by the Burgundians; and their legislator Gundobald condescended to answer the complaints and objections of his subject Avitus. Is it not true, said the king20 of Burgundy20 to the bishop, that the event of national wars, and private20 combats, is directed by the judgment of God; and that his providence awards the victory to the juster cause20? By such prevailing arguments, the absurd and cruel practice of judicial duels, which had been peculiar to some tribes of Germany, was propagated and established in all the monarchies of Europe, from Sicily to the Baltic. At the end of ten centuries, the reign20 of legal violence was not totally extinguished; and the ineffectual censures of saints, of popes, and of synods may seem to prove that the influence of superstition is weakened by its unnatural alliance with reason20 and humanity. The tribunals were stained with the blood, perhaps, of innocent and respectable citizens; the law, which now favours the rich, then yielded to the strong; and the old, the feeble, and the infirm were condemned either to renounce their fairest claims and possessions, to sustain the dangers of an unequal conflict, or to trust the doubtful aid of a mercenary champion. This oppressive jurisprudence was imposed on the provincials of Gaul, who complained of any injuries in their persons and property. Whatever might be the strength or courage of individuals, the victorious Barbarians excelled in the love and exercise of arms20; and the vanquished Roman20 was unjustly summoned to repeat, in his own person20, the bloody contest which had been already decided against his country.
A devouring host of one hundred and twenty thousand4 Germans had formerly passed the Rhine under the command of Ariovistus. One third part of the fertile lands of the Sequani was appropriated to their use; and the conqueror soon repeated his oppressive demand of another third, for the accommodation of a new colony of twenty-four thousand4 Barbarians, whom he had invited to share the rich harvest of Gaul. At the distance of five hundred years, the Visigoths and Burgundians, who revenged the defeat of Ariovistus, usurped the same unequal proportion of two thirds of the subject lands. But this distribution, instead of spreading over the province, may be reasonably confined to the peculiar districts where the victorious people4 had been planted by their own choice or by the policy of their leader. In these districts, each Barbarian was connected by the ties of hospitality with some Roman provincial. To this unwelcome guest, the proprietor was compelled to abandon two thirds of his patrimony; but the German, a shepherd and a hunter, might sometimes content himself with a spacious range of wood and pasture, and resign the smallest, though most valuable, portion to the toil of the industrious husbandman. The silence of ancient and authentic testimony has encouraged an opinion that the rapine of the Franks was not moderated, or disguised, by the forms of a legal division; that they dispersed themselves over the provinces of Gaul, without order or control; and that each victorious robber, according to his wants, his avarice, and his strength, measured, with his sword4, the extent of his new inheritance. At a distance from their sovereign, the Barbarians might indeed be tempted to exercise such arbitrary depredation; but the firm and artful policy of Clovis must curb a licentious spirit, which would aggravate the misery of the vanquished, whilst it corrupted the union and discipline of the conquerors. The memorable vase of Soissons is a monument, and a pledge, of the regular distribution of the Gallic spoils. It was the duty, and the interest, of Clovis to provide rewards for a successful army, and settlements for a numerous people4; without inflicting any wanton or superfluous injuries on the royal Catholics of Gaul. The ample fund, which he might lawfully acquire, of the Imperial patrimony, vacant lands, and Gothic usurpations, would diminish the cruel necessity of seizure and confiscation; and the humble provincials would more patiently acquiesce in the equal and regular distribution of their loss.
The wealth of the Merovingian princes consisted in their extensive domain. After the conquest of Gaul, they still delighted in the rustic simplicity of their ancestors; the cities were abandoned to solitude and decay; and their coins, their charters, and their synods are still inscribed with the names of the villas, or rural palaces, in which they successively resided. One hundred and sixty of these palaces, a title which need not excite any unseasonable ideas of art or luxury, were scattered through the provinces of their kingdom; and, if some might claim the honours of a fortress, the far greater part could be esteemed only in the light of profitable farms. The mansion of the long-haired kings was surrounded with convenient yards and stables for the cattle and the poultry; the garden was planted with useful vegetables; the various8 trades, the labours of agriculture, and even the arts of hunting and fishing were exercised by servile hands for the emolument of the sovereign; his magazines were filled with corn and wine, either for sale or consumption; and the whole administration was conducted by the strictest maxims of private8 economy. This ample patrimony was appropriated to supply the hospitable plenty of Clovis and his successors, and to reward the fidelity of their brave companions, who, both in peace and war, were devoted to their personal service. Instead of an horse, or a suit of armour, each companion, according to his rank or merit or favour, was invested with a benefice, the primitive name, and most simple form, of the feudal possessions. These gifts might be resumed at the pleasure of the sovereign; and his feeble prerogative derived some support from the influence of his liberality. But this dependent tenure was gradually abolished by the independent and rapacious nobles of France, who established the perpetual property, and hereditary succession, of their benefices: a revolution salutary to the earth, which had been injured, or neglected, by its precarious masters. Besides these royal and beneficiary estates, a large proportion had been assigned, in the division of Gaul, of allodial and Salic lands; they were exempt from tribute, and the Salic lands were equally shared among the male descendants of the Franks.
In the bloody discord and silent decay of the Merovingian line, a new19 order of tyrants arose in the provinces19, who, under the appellation of Seniors, or Lords, usurped a right to govern, and a licence to oppress, the subjects of their peculiar territory. Their ambition might be checked by the hostile resistance of an equal: but the laws were extinguished; and the sacrilegious Barbarians19, who dared to provoke the vengeance of a saint or bishop, would seldom respect the landmarks of a profane and defenceless neighbour. The common, or public19, rights of nature19, such as they had always been deemed by the Roman19 jurisprudence, were severely restrained by the German conquerors, whose amusement, or rather passion, was the exercise of hunting. The vague dominion which Man has assumed over the wild inhabitants of the earth, the air, and the waters, was confined to some fortunate individuals of the human species. Gaul was again overspread with woods; and the animals, who were reserved for the use, or pleasure, of the lord, might ravage, with impunity, the fields of his industrious vassals. The chase was the sacred privilege of the nobles, and their domestic servants. Plebeian transgressors were legally chastised with stripes and imprisonment; but, in an age19 which admitted a slight composition for the life19 of a citizen, it was a capital crime to destroy a stag or a wild bull within the precincts of the royal forests.
According to the maxims of ancient37 war, the conqueror became the lawful master of the enemy whom he had subdued and spared; and the fruitful cause of personal slavery, which had been almost suppressed by the peaceful sovereignty of Rome37, was again revived and multiplied by the perpetual hostilities of the independent37 Barbarians37. The Goth, the Burgundian, or the Frank, who returned from a successful expedition, dragged after him a long37 train of sheep, of oxen, and of human37 captives, whom he treated with the same brutal contempt. The youths of an elegant form and ingenuous aspect were set apart for the domestic37 service: a doubtful situation, which alternately exposed them to the favourable or cruel impulse of passion. The useful mechanics and servants37 (smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, cooks, gardeners, dyers, and workmen in gold and silver, &c.) employed their skill for the use37 or profit of their master. But the Roman37 captives who were destitute of art, but capable of labour, were condemned, without regard to their former rank, to tend the cattle and cultivate the lands of the Barbarians37. The number of the hereditary bondsmen who were attached to the Gallic estates was continually increased by new37 supplies; and the servile37 people37, according37 to the situation and temper of their lords, was sometimes raised by precarious indulgence, and more frequently depressed by capricious despotism. An absolute power of life37 and death was exercised by these lords; and, when they married their daughters, a train of useful servants37, chained on the waggons to prevent their escape, was sent as a nuptial present37 into a distant country37. The majesty of the Roman37 laws37 protected the liberty37 of each citizen, against the rash effects of his own distress or despair. But the subjects of the Merovingian kings might alienate their personal freedom37; and this act of legal suicide, which was familiarly practised, is expressed in terms most disgraceful and afflicting to the dignity of human37 nature. The example of the poor, who purchased life37 by the sacrifice of all that can render life37 desirable, was gradually imitated by the feeble and the devout, who, in times37 of public37 disorder, pusillanimously crowded to shelter themselves under the battlements of a powerful chief, and around the shrine of a popular saint. Their submission was accepted by these temporal, or spiritual, patrons; and the hasty transaction irrecoverably fixed their own condition, and that of their latest posterity. From the reign of Clovis, during five successive centuries, the laws37 and manners37 of Gaul uniformly tended to promote the increase, and to confirm the duration, of personal servitude. Time and violence almost obliterated the intermediate ranks of society, and left an obscure and narrow interval between the noble and the slave. This arbitrary and recent division has been transformed by pride and prejudice into a national distinction37, universally established by the arms37 and the laws37 of the Merovingians. The nobles37, who claimed their genuine, or fabulous, descent from the independent37 and victorious Franks, have asserted, and abused, the indefeasible right of conquest, over a prostrate crowd of slaves37 and plebeians37, to whom they imputed the imaginary disgrace of a Gallic, or Roman37, extraction.
The general30 state and revolutions of France, a name which was imposed by the conquerors, may be illustrated by the particular example of a province, a diocese, or a senatorial family. Auvergne had formerly maintained a just preeminence among the independent states and cities of Gaul. The brave and numerous inhabitants displayed a singular trophy: the sword30 of Caesar himself, which he had lost when he was repulsed before the walls30 of Gergovia. As the common offspring of Troy, they claimed a fraternal alliance with the Romans; and, if each province had imitated the courage and loyalty of Auvergne, the fall of the Western empire30 might have been prevented, or delayed. They firmly maintained the fidelity which they had reluctantly sworn to the Visigoths; but, when their bravest nobles had fallen in the battle30 of Poitiers, they accepted, without resistance, a victorious and Catholic sovereign. This easy and valuable conquest was achieved, and possessed, by Theodoric, the eldest son30 of Clovis; but the remote province was separated from his Austrasian dominions by the intermediate kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and Orleans, which formed, after their father's death30, the inheritance of his three brothers. The king30 of Paris, Childebert, was tempted by the neighbourhood and beauty of Auvergne. The Upper country, which rises towards the south into the mountains of the Cevennes, presented a rich and various prospect of woods and pastures; the sides of the hills were clothed with vines; and each eminence was crowned with a villa or castle. In the Lower Auvergne, the river Allier flows through the fair and spacious plain of Limagne; and the inexhaustible fertility of the soil supplied, and still supplies, without any interval of repose, the constant repetition of the same harvests. On the false report that their lawful sovereign had been slain in Germany, the city30 and diocese of Auvergne were betrayed by the grandson of Sidonius Apollinaris. Childebert enjoyed this clandestine victory30; and the free subjects of Theodoric threatened to desert his standard30, if he indulged his private resentment while the nation was engaged in the Burgundian war30. But the Franks of Austrasia soon30 yielded to the persuasive eloquence of their king30. Follow me, said Theodoric, into Auvergne: I will lead you into a province where you may acquire gold30, silver, slaves, cattle, and precious apparel, to the full extent of your wishes. I repeat my promise; I give you the people30, and their wealth, as your prey; and you may transport them at pleasure into your own country. By the execution of this promise, Theodoric justly forfeited the allegiance of a people30 whom he devoted to destruction. His troops30, reinforced by the fiercest Barbarians of Germany, spread desolation over the fruitful face of Auvergne; and two places only, a strong castle and a holy30 shrine, were saved, or redeemed, from their licentious fury. The castle of Meroliac was seated on a lofty rock, which rose an hundred feet above the surface of the plain; and a large reservoir of fresh water was enclosed, with some arable lands, within the circle of its fortifications. The Franks beheld with envy and despair this impregnable fortress; but they surprised a party of fifty stragglers; and, as they were oppressed by the number of their captives, they fixed, at a trifling ransom, the alternative of life or death30 for these wretched victims, whom the cruel Barbarians were prepared to massacre on the refusal of the garrison. Another detachment penetrated as far as Brivas, or Brioude, where the inhabitants, with their valuable effects, had taken refuge in the sanctuary of St30. Julian. The doors of the church resisted the assault; but a daring soldier entered through a window of the choir and opened a passage to his companions. The clergy and people30, the sacred and the profane spoils, were rudely torn from the altar; and the sacrilegious division was made at a small distance from the town of Brioude. But this act of impiety was severely chastised by the devout son30 of Clovis. He punished with death30 the most atrocious offenders; left30 their secret accomplices to the vengeance of St30. Julian; released the captives; restored the plunder; and extended the rights of sanctuary five miles round the sepulchre of the holy30 martyr.
Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, Theodoric exacted some pledges of the future loyalty of a people48 whose just48 hatred could be restrained only by their fear. A select band of noble youths, the sons of the principal senators, was delivered to the conqueror, as the hostages of the faith of Childebert and of their countrymen. On the first rumour of war, or conspiracy, those guiltless youths were reduced to a state of servitude; and one of them, Attalus, whose adventures are more particularly related, kept his master48's horses48 in the diocese of Treves. After a painful search, he was discovered, in this unworthy occupation, by the emissaries of his grandfather, Gregory bishop48 of Langres; but his offers of ransom were sternly rejected by the avarice48 of the Barbarian, who required an exorbitant sum of ten pounds of gold for the freedom of his noble captive. His deliverance48 was effected by the hardy stratagem of Leo48, a slave belonging to the kitchens of the bishop48 of Langres. An unknown agent easily introduced him into the same family. The Barbarian purchased Leo48 for the price of twelve pieces of gold; and was pleased to learn that he was deeply skilled in the luxury48 of an episcopal table. Next Sunday, said the Frank, I shall48 invite my neighbours and kinsmen. Exert thy art, and force them to confess that they have never seen, or tasted, such an entertainment, even in the king's house. Leo48 assured him that, if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poultry, his wishes should be satisfied. The master48, who already aspired to the merit of elegant hospitality, assumed, as his own, the praise which the voracious guests unanimously bestowed on his cook; and the dexterous Leo48 insensibly acquired the trust and management of his household. After the patient expectation of a whole year, he cautiously whispered his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to prepare for flight in the ensuing night. At the hour of midnight, the intemperate guests retired from table; and the Frank's son-in-law, whom Leo48 attended to his apartment with a nocturnal potation, condescended to jest on the facility with which he might betray his trust. The intrepid slave, after sustaining this dangerous raillery, entered his master48's bed-chamber; removed his spear and shield; silently drew the fleetest horses48 from the stable; unbarred the ponderous gates; and excited Attalus to save his life48 and liberty by incessant diligence. Their apprehensions urged them to leave their horses48 on the banks of the Meuse; they swam the river, wandered three days48 in the adjacent forest, and subsisted only by the accidental discovery of a wild plum-tree. As they lay concealed in a dark thicket, they heard48 the noise of horses48; they were terrified by the angry countenance of their master48, and they anxiously listened to his declaration that, if he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he would cut in pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on a gibbet. At length Attalus and his faithful Leo48 reached the friendly habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their fainting strength with bread and wine, concealed them from the search of their enemy, and safely conducted them, beyond the limits of the Austrasian kingdom, to the episcopal palace48 of Langres. Gregory embraced his grandson with tears of joy, gratefully delivered Leo48, with his whole family, from the yoke of servitude, and bestowed on him the property of a farm, where he might end his days48 in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this singular adventure, which is marked with so many circumstances of truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself, to his cousin, or nephew, the first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours was born about sixty years48 after the death48 of Sidonius Apollinaris; and their situation was almost similar, since each of them was a native of Auvergne, a senator, and a bishop48. The difference of their style and sentiments may, therefore, express the decay of Gaul, and clearly ascertain how much, in so short a space, the human mind had lost of its energy and refinement.
We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and perhaps artful, misrepresentations which have softened, or exaggerated, the oppression of the Romans1 of Gaul under the reign1 of the Merovingians. The conquerors never promulgated any universal edict of servitude or confiscation; but a degenerate people1, who excused their weakness by the specious names of politeness and peace1, was exposed to the arms and laws1 of the ferocious Barbarians, who contemptuously insulted their possessions, their freedom1, and their safety. Their personal injuries were partial and irregular; but the great body of the Romans1 survived the revolution, and still preserved the property and privileges of citizens. A large portion of their lands was exacted for the use of the Franks; but they enjoyed the remainder, exempt from tribute; and the same irresistible violence which swept away the arts and manufactures of Gaul destroyed the elaborate and expensive system of Imperial despotism. The Provincials must frequently deplore the savage jurisprudence of the Salic or Ripuarian laws1; but their private life, in the important concerns of marriage, testaments, or inheritance, was still regulated by the Theodosian Code; and a discontented Roman1 might freely aspire, or descend, to the character and title1 of a Barbarian. The honours1 of the state1 were accessible to his ambition; the education and temper of the Romans1 more peculiarly qualified them for the offices of civil1 government1; and, as soon as emulation had rekindled their military ardour, they were permitted to march in the ranks, or even at the head, of the victorious Germans. I shall not attempt to enumerate the generals and magistrates1, whose names attest the liberal policy1 of the Merovingians. The supreme command of Burgundy, with the title1 of Patrician, was successively entrusted to three Romans1; and the last and most powerful, Mummolus, who alternately saved and disturbed the monarchy, had supplanted his father in the station of count of Autun, and left a treasure of thirty talents of gold and two hundred and fifty talents of silver. The fierce and illiterate Barbarians were excluded, during several generations, from the dignities, and even from the orders, of the church1. The clergy1 of Gaul consisted almost entirely of native Provincials; the haughty Franks fell prostrate at the feet of their subjects1, who were dignified with the episcopal character; and the power1 and riches which had been lost in war were insensibly recovered by superstition. In all temporal affairs, the Theodosian Code was the universal law of the clergy1; but the Barbaric jurisprudence had liberally provided for their personal safety: a sub-deacon was equivalent to two Franks; the antrustion and priest were held in similar estimation; and the life of a bishop1 was appreciated far above the common standard, at the price of nine hundred pieces of gold. The Romans1 communicated to their conquerors the use of the Christian1 religion1 and Latin language; but their language and their religion1 had alike degenerated from the simple purity of the Augustan, and Apostolic, age. The progress of superstition and Barbarism was rapid and universal; the worship of the saints concealed from vulgar eyes the God of the Christians1; and the rustic dialect of peasants and soldiers was corrupted by a Teutonic idiom and pronunciation. Yet such intercourse of sacred1 and social communion eradicated the distinctions of birth and victory; and the nations of Gaul were gradually confounded under the name and government1 of the Franks.
The Franks, after they mingled with their Gallic subjects, might have imparted the most valuable of human gifts, a spirit47 and system of constitutional liberty. Under a king hereditary but limited, the chiefs and counsellors might have debated, at Paris, in the palace47 of the Caesars; the adjacent field, where the emperors reviewed their mercenary legions, would have admitted the legislative assembly of freemen and warriors; and the rude model, which had been sketched in the woods of Germany, might have been polished and improved by the civil47 wisdom of the Romans. But the careless Barbarians, secure of their personal independence, disdained the labour of government47; the annual assemblies of the month of March were silently abolished; and the nation was separated and almost dissolved by the conquest of Gaul. The monarchy was left without any regular establishment of justice47, of arms47, or of revenue. The successors of Clovis wanted resolution to assume, or strength to exercise, the legislative and executive powers which the people47 had abdicated; the royal prerogative was distinguished only by a more ample privilege of rapine and murder; and the love of freedom, so often invigorated and disgraced by private47 ambition, was reduced, among the licentious Franks, to the contempt of order and the desire of impunity. Seventy-five years after the death47 of Clovis, his grandson, Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army47 to invade the Gothic possessions of Septimania, or Languedoc. The troops47 of Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, and the adjacent territories were excited by the hopes of spoil. They marched, without discipline, under the banners of German, or Gallic, counts; their attack was feeble and unsuccessful; but the friendly and hostile provinces47 were desolated with indiscriminate rage. The corn-fields, the villages, the churches themselves, were consumed by fire; the inhabitants were massacred or dragged into captivity; and, in the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these inhuman savages were destroyed by hunger or intestine discord. When the pious Gontran reproached the guilt, or neglect, of their leaders, and threatened to inflict, not a legal sentence, but instant and arbitrary execution, they accused the universal and incurable corruption of the people47. No one, they said, any longer fears or respects his king, his duke, or his count. Each man loves to do evil, and freely indulges his criminal inclinations. The most gentle correction provokes an immediate tumult, and the rash magistrate who presumes to censure or restrain his seditious subjects seldom escapes alive from their revenge. It has been reserved for the same nation to expose, by their intemperate vices, the most odious abuse of freedom; and to supply its loss by the spirit47 of honour and humanity, which now alleviates and dignifies their obedience to an absolute sovereign47.
The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the greatest part of their Gallic possessions; but their loss was amply compensated by the easy conquest9, and secure enjoyment, of the provinces9 of Spain. From the monarchy of the Goths9, which soon9 involved the Suevic kingdom of Gallicia, the modern Spaniards still derive some national vanity; but the historian of the Roman9 Empire9 is neither invited nor compelled to pursue the obscure and barren series of their annals. The Goths9 of Spain were separated from the rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenaean mountains9; their manners and institutions, as far9 as they were common to the Germanic tribes9, have been already explained. I have anticipated, in the preceding chapter, the most important of their ecclesiastical events, the fall of Arianism and the persecution of the Jews; and it only remains to observe some interesting circumstances which relate to the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the Spanish kingdom.
After their conversion from idolatry, or heresy, the Franks and the Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with equal submission, the inherent evils, and the accidental benefits, of superstition. But the prelates of France, long1 before the extinction of the Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting Barbarians. They disdained the use of synods; forgot the laws1 of temperance and chastity; and preferred the indulgence of private ambition and luxury to the general interest of the sacerdotal profession. The bishops1 of Spain respected themselves and were respected by the public1; their indissoluble union disguised their vices and confirmed their authority1; and the regular discipline of the church1 introduced peace1, order1, and stability into the government1 of the state1. From the reign1 of Recared, the first Catholic king, to that of Witiza, the immediate predecessor of the unfortunate Roderic, sixteen national councils were successively convened. The six metropolitans, Toledo, Seville, Merida, Braga, Tarragona, and Narbonne, presided according to their respective seniority; the assembly was composed of their suffragan bishops1, who appeared in person or by their proxies; and a place was assigned to the most holy or opulent of the Spanish abbots. During the first three days of the convocation, as long1 as they agitated the ecclesiastical1 questions of doctrine and discipline, the profane laity was excluded from their debates; which were conducted, however, with decent solemnity. But on the morning of the fourth day, the doors were thrown open for the entrance of the great officers of the palace, the dukes and counts of the provinces1, the judges of the cities, and the Gothic nobles; and the decrees of Heaven were ratified by the consent of the people1. The same rules were observed in the provincial assemblies, the annual synods which were empowered to hear complaints, and to redress grievances; and a legal government1 was supported by the prevailing influence of the Spanish clergy1. The bishops1, who, in each revolution, were prepared to flatter the victorious and to insult the prostrate, laboured, with diligence and success, to kindle the flames of persecution and to exalt the mitre above the crown. Yet the national councils of Toledo, in which the free spirit of the Barbarians was tempered and guided by episcopal policy1, have established some prudent laws1 for the common benefit of the king and people1. The vacancy of the throne was supplied by the choice of the bishops1 and palatines; and, after the failure of the line of Alaric, the regal dignity was still limited to the pure and noble blood of the Goths. The clergy1, who anointed their lawful prince, always recommended, and sometimes practised, the duty of allegiance: and the spiritual censures were denounced on the heads of the impious subjects1 who should resist his authority1, conspire against his life, or violate, by an indecent union, the chastity even of his widow. But the monarch himself, when he ascended the throne, was bound by a reciprocal oath to God and his people1 that he would faithfully execute his important trust. The real or imaginary faults of his administration were subject to the control of a powerful aristocracy; and the bishops1 and palatines were guarded by a fundamental privilege, that they should not be degraded, imprisoned, tortured, nor punished with death, exile, or confiscation, unless by the free and public1 judgment of their peers.
One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and ratified the code of laws6 which had been compiled by a succession of Gothic kings6, from the fierce Euric to the devout Egica. As long6 as the Visigoths themselves were satisfied with the rude customs of their ancestors, they indulged their subjects6 of Aquitain and Spain6 in the enjoyment of the Roman6 law6. Their gradual improvements in arts6, in policy, and at length in religion6, encouraged them to imitate, and to supersede, these foreign institutions; and to compose a code of civil6 and criminal jurisprudence, for the use6 of a great6 and united people6. The same obligations and the same privileges were communicated to the nations of the Spanish monarchy: and the conquerors, insensibly renouncing the Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of equity, and exalted the Romans6 to the participation of freedom. The merit of this impartial policy was enhanced by the situation of Spain6, under the reign6 of the Visigoths. The Provincials were long6 separated from their Arian masters, by the irreconcileable difference of religion6. After the conversion of Recared had removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the coasts, both of the Ocean and Mediterranean, were still possessed by the Eastern emperors6; who secretly excited a discontented people6 to reject the yoke of the Barbarians6 and to assert the name and dignity of Roman6 citizens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects6 is indeed most effectually secured by their own persuasion that they hazard more in a revolt than they can hope to obtain by a revolution; but it has appeared6 so natural to oppress those whom we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the praise of wisdom and moderation.
While the kingdoms35 of the Franks and Visigoths were established in Gaul and Spain, the Saxons35 achieved the conquest of Britain35, the third great35 diocese of the Prefecture of the West. Since Britain35 was already separated from the Roman empire35, I might, without reproach, decline35 a story, familiar to the most illiterate, and obscure35 to the most learned, of my readers. The Saxons35, who excelled in the use of the oar or the battle-axe, were ignorant of the art which could alone perpetuate35 the fame35 of their exploits; the Provincials, relapsing into barbarism, neglected to describe the ruin of their country35; and the doubtful tradition was almost extinguished, before the missionaries35 of Rome restored the light of science35 and Christianity. The declamations of Gildas, the fragments or fables of Nennius, the obscure35 hints of the Saxon35 laws and chronicles, and the ecclesiastical tales of the venerable Bede have been illustrated by the diligence, and sometimes embellished35 by the fancy, of succeeding writers, whose works I am not ambitious either to censure or to transcribe. Yet the historian of the empire35 may be tempted to pursue the revolutions of a Roman province, till it vanishes from his sight; and an Englishman may curiously trace the establishment of the Barbarians from whom he derives his name, his laws, and perhaps his origin.
About forty years after the dissolution of the Roman36 government, Vortigern appears to have obtained the supreme, though precarious, command of the princes and cities36 of Britain36. That unfortunate monarch36 has been almost unanimously condemned for the weak and mischievous policy of inviting a formidable stranger to repel the vexatious inroads of a domestic foe. His ambassadors are despatched, by the gravest historians, to the coast of Germany36; they address a pathetic oration to the general36 assembly of the Saxons, and those warlike Barbarians36 resolve to assist with a fleet and army36 the suppliants of a distant and unknown island36. If Britain36 had indeed been unknown to the Saxons, the measure of its calamities would have been less complete. But the strength36 of the Roman36 government could not always guard the maritime province36 against the pirates of Germany36; the independent and divided states were exposed to their attacks; and the Saxons might sometimes join the Scots and the Picts in a tacit, or express, confederacy of rapine and destruction. Vortigern could only balance the various perils which assaulted on every side his throne and his people36; and his policy may deserve either praise or excuse, if he preferred the alliance of those Barbarians36 whose naval power36 rendered them the most dangerous36 enemies and the most serviceable allies36. Hengist and Horsa, as they ranged along the eastern coast with three ships, were engaged, by the promise of an ample stipend, to embrace the defence36 of Britain36; and their intrepid valour soon36 delivered the country36 from the Caledonian invaders. The isle of Thanet, a secure and fertile district, was allotted for the residence of these German auxiliaries, and they were supplied, according to the treaty, with a plentiful allowance of clothing and provisions. This favourable reception encouraged five thousand36 warriors to embark with their families in seventeen vessels, and the infant power36 of Hengist was fortified by this strong and seasonable reinforcement. The crafty Barbarian suggested to Vortigern the obvious advantage of fixing, in the neighbourhood of the Picts, a colony of faithful allies36; a third fleet of forty ships, under the command of his son and nephew, sailed from Germany36, ravaged the Orkneys, and disembarked a new36 army36 on the coast of Northumberland, or Lothian, at the opposite extremity of the devoted land. It was easy to foresee, but it was impossible to prevent, the impending evils. The two nations were soon36 divided and exasperated by mutual jealousies. The Saxons magnified all that they had done and suffered in the cause of an ungrateful people36; while the Britons regretted the liberal rewards which could not testify the avarice of those haughty mercenaries. The causes of fear and hatred were inflamed into an irreconcileable quarrel. The Saxons flew to arms36; and, if they perpetrated a treacherous massacre during the security of a feast, they destroyed the reciprocal confidence which sustains the intercourse of peace and war36.
Hengist, who boldly aspired to the conquest9 of Britain, exhorted his countrymen to embrace the glorious opportunity: he painted in lively colours the fertility of the soil, the wealth of the cities9, the pusillanimous temper of the natives, and the convenient situation of a spacious, solitary island, accessible on all sides to the Saxon fleets. The successive colonies which issued, in the period of a century, from the mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Rhine, were principally composed of three valiant tribes9 or nations9 of Germany: the Jutes, the old Saxons, and the Angles. The Jutes, who fought under the peculiar banner of Hengist, assumed the merit of leading their countrymen in the paths of glory and of erecting in Kent the first independent kingdom. The fame of the enterprise was attributed to the primitive Saxons; and the common laws and language of the conquerors are described by the national appellation of a people which, at the end of four hundred years, produced the first monarchs of South Britain. The Angles were distinguished by their numbers and their success; and they claimed the honour of fixing a perpetual name on the country9 of which they occupied the most ample portion. The Barbarians9, who followed the hopes of rapine either on the land or sea9, were insensibly blended with this triple confederacy; the Frisians, who had been tempted by their vicinity to the British shores, might balance, during a short space, the strength and reputation of the native Saxons; the Danes, the Prussians, the Rugians, are faintly described; and some adventurous Huns9, who had wandered as far9 as the Baltic, might embark on board the German vessels9, for the conquest9 of a new9 world. But this arduous achievement was not prepared or executed by the union of national powers. Each intrepid chieftain, according to the measure of his fame and fortunes, assembled his followers; equipped a fleet9 of three, or perhaps of sixty, vessels9; chose the place of the attack; and conducted his subsequent operations according to the events of the war9 and the dictates of his private interest. In the invasion of Britain many heroes vanquished and fell; but only seven victorious leaders assumed, or at least maintained, the title of kings. Seven independent thrones, the Saxon Heptarchy, were founded by the conquerors, and seven families, one of which has been continued, by female succession, to our present sovereign, derived their equal and sacred lineage from Woden, the god of war9. It has been pretended that this republic of kings was moderated by a general council and a supreme magistrate. But such an artificial scheme of policy is repugnant to the rude and turbulent spirit of the Saxons; their laws are silent; and their imperfect annals afford only a dark and bloody prospect of intestine discord.
A monk, who, in the profound ignorance of human6 life6, has presumed to exercise the office of historian, strangely disfigures the state6 of Britain at the time6 of its separation from the Western empire6. Gildas describes, in florid language, the improvements of agriculture, the foreign trade which flowed with every tide into the Thames and the Severn, the solid and lofty construction of public6 and private6 edifices; he accuses the sinful luxury of the British people6; of a people6, according to the same writer, ignorant of the most simple arts6, and incapable, without the aid of the Romans6, of providing walls of stone or weapons of iron for the defence of their native land. Under the long6 dominion of the emperors6, Britain had been insensibly moulded into the elegant and servile form of a Roman6 province, whose safety was entrusted to a foreign power6. The subjects6 of Honorius contemplated their new freedom with surprise and terror; they were left destitute of any civil6 or military6 constitution; and their uncertain rulers wanted either skill, or courage, or authority, to direct the public6 force against the common enemy. The introduction of the Saxons betrayed their internal weakness and degraded the character both of the prince and people6. Their consternation magnified the danger; the want of union diminished their resources; and the madness of civil6 factions was more solicitous to accuse than to remedy the evils which they imputed to the misconduct of their adversaries. Yet the Britons were not ignorant, they could not be ignorant of the manufacture or the use6 of arms6: the successive and disorderly attacks of the Saxons allowed them to recover from their amazement, and the prosperous or adverse events of the war6 added discipline and experience to their native valour.
While the continent of Europe9 and Africa9 yielded, without resistance, to the Barbarians9, the British island, alone and unaided, maintained a long9, a vigorous, though an unsuccessful struggle against the formidable pirates who, almost at the same instant, assaulted the northern, the eastern, and the southern coasts. The cities9, which had been fortified with skill, were defended with resolution; the advantages of ground, hills, forests, and morasses were diligently improved by the inhabitants9; the conquest9 of each district was purchased with blood; and the defeats of the Saxons are strongly attested by the discreet silence of their annalist. Hengist might hope to achieve the conquest9 of Britain; but his ambition, in an active reign of thirty-five years, was confined to the possession of Kent; and the numerous colony which he had planted in the north9 was extirpated by the sword of the Britons. The monarchy of the West9 Saxons was laboriously founded by the persevering efforts of three martial generations. The life of Cerdic, one of the bravest of the children of Woden, was consumed in the conquest9 of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; and the loss which he sustained in the battle of Mount Badon reduced him to a state of inglorious repose. Kenric, his valiant son, advanced into Wiltshire; besieged Salisbury, at that time seated on a commanding eminence; and vanquished an army9 which advanced to the relief of the city9. In the subsequent battle of Marlborough, his British enemies displayed their military science. Their troops9 were formed in three lines; each line consisted of three distinct bodies, and the cavalry, the archers, and the pikemen were distributed according to the principles of Roman9 tactics. The Saxons charged in one mighty column, boldly encountered with their short swords the long9 lances of the Britons, and maintained an equal conflict till the approach of night. Two decisive victories, the death of three British kings, and the reduction of Cirencester, Bath, and Gloucester established the fame and power of Ceaulin, the grandson of Cerdic, who carried his victorious arms9 to the banks9 of the Severn.
After a war of an hundred years12, the independent Britons12 still occupied the whole extent of the western coast, from the wall of Antoninus to the extreme promontory of Cornwall; and the principal cities of the inland country still opposed the arms of the Barbarians12. Resistance became more languid, as the number and boldness of the assailants continually increased. Winning their way by slow and painful efforts, the Saxons12, the Angles, and their various confederates advanced from the north, from the east, and from the south, till their victorious banners were united in the centre of the island12. Beyond the Severn the Britons12 still asserted their national freedom12, which survived the heptarchy, and even the monarchy, of the Saxons12. The bravest warriors, who preferred exile to slavery, found a secure refuge in the mountains of Wales; the reluctant submission of Cornwall was delayed for some ages; and a band of fugitives acquired a settlement in Gaul12, by their own valour or the liberality of the Merovingian kings12. The western angle of Armorica acquired the new12 appellations of Cornwall and the Lesser Britain12; and the vacant lands of the Osismii were filled by a strange people12, who, under the authority of their counts and bishops, preserved the laws and language of their ancestors. To the feeble descendants of Clovis and Charlemagne, the Britons12 of Armorica refused the customary tribute, subdued the neighbouring dioceses of Vannes, Rennes, and Nantes, and formed a powerful, though vassal, state, which has been united to the crown of France.
In a century of perpetual, or at least implacable, war43, much courage, and some skill, must have been exerted for the defence of Britain. Yet, if the memory of its champions is almost buried in oblivion, we need not repine; since every age43, however destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of blood43 and military renown. The tomb of Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, was erected on the margin of the sea-shore, as a landmark formidable to the Saxons, whom he had thrice vanquished in the fields of Kent. Ambrosius Aurelian was descended from a noble family of Romans, his modesty was equal to his valour, and his valour, till the last fatal action, was crowned with splendid success. But every British name is effaced by the illustrious name of Arthur, the hereditary prince of the Silures, in South Wales, and the elective king or general43 of the nation. According to the most rational account, he defeated, in twelve successive battles, the Angles of the north and the Saxons of the west; but the declining age43 of the hero was embittered by popular ingratitude and domestic misfortunes. The events of his life are less interesting than the singular revolutions of his fame. During a period of five hundred years the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and rudely embellished, by the obscure bards of Wales and Armorica, who were odious to the Saxons and unknown to the rest of mankind. The pride and curiosity of the Norman conquerors prompted them to inquire into the ancient43 history43 of Britain: they listened with fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly applauded the merit of a prince who had triumphed over the Saxons, their common enemies. His romance, transcribed in the Latin of Jeffrey of Monmouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable idiom of the times, was enriched with the various, though incoherent, ornaments which were familiar to the experience, the learning, or the fancy of the twelfth century. The progress of a Phrygian colony, from the Tiber to the Thames, was easily engrafted on the fable of the Aeneid; and the royal ancestors of Arthur derived their origin from Troy, and claimed their alliance with the Caesars. His trophies were decorated with captive provinces43 and Imperial titles; and his Danish victories avenged the recent injuries of his country43. The gallantry and superstition of the British hero, his feasts and tournaments, and the memorable institution of his Knights of the Round Table were faithfully copied from the reigning manners of chivalry; and the fabulous exploits of Uther's son appear less incredible than the adventures which were achieved by the enterprising valour of the Normans. Pilgrimage and the holy wars introduced into Europe the specious miracles of Arabian magic. Fairies and giants, flying dragons and enchanted palaces, were blended with the more simple fictions of the west; and the fate of Britain depended on the art, or the predictions, of Merlin. Every nation embraced and adorned the popular romance of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; their names were celebrated in Greece and Italy; and the voluminous tales of Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristram were devoutly studied by the princes and nobles, who disregarded the genuine heroes and historians of antiquity. At length the light of science and reason was rekindled; the talisman was broken; the visionary fabric melted into air; and, by a natural, though unjust, reverse of the public43 opinion, the severity of the present age43 is inclined to question the existence of Arthur.
Resistance, if it cannot avert, must increase the miseries of conquest; and conquest has never appeared more dreadful and destructive than in the hands of the Saxons, who hated the valour of their enemies, disdained the faith of treaties, and violated, without remorse, the most sacred1 objects of the Christian1 worship. The fields of battle might be traced, almost in every district, by monuments of bones; the fragments of falling towers were stained with blood; the last of the Britons, without distinction of age or sex, were massacred in the ruins of Anderida; and the repetition of such calamities was frequent and familiar under the Saxon heptarchy. The arts and religion1, the laws1 and language, which the Romans1 had so carefully planted in Britain, were extirpated by their barbarous successors1. After the destruction of the principal churches, the bishops1, who had declined the crown of martyrdom, retired with the holy relics into Wales and Armorica; the remains of their flocks were left destitute of any spiritual food; the practice, and even the remembrance, of Christianity were abolished; and the British clergy1 might obtain some comfort from the damnation of the idolatrous strangers. The kings of France maintained the privileges of their Roman1 subjects1; but the ferocious Saxons trampled on the laws1 of Rome1 and of the emperors1. The proceedings of civil1 and criminal jurisdiction1, the titles of honour, the forms of office1, the ranks of society, and even the domestic rights of marriage, testament, and inheritance, were finally suppressed; and the indiscriminate crowd of noble and plebeian slaves was governed by the traditionary customs which had been coarsely framed for the shepherds and pirates of Germany. The language of science, of business, and of conversation, which had been introduced by the Romans1, was lost in the general desolation. A sufficient number of Latin or Celtic words might be assumed1 by the Germans, to express their new1 wants and ideas; but those illiterate Pagans preserved and established the use of their national dialect. Almost every name, conspicuous either in the church1 or state1, reveals its Teutonic origin; and the geography of England was universally inscribed with foreign characters and appellations. The example of a revolution, so rapid and so complete, may not easily be found; but it will excite a probable suspicion that the arts of Rome1 were less deeply rooted in Britain than in Gaul or Spain; and that the native rudeness of the country and its inhabitants was covered by a thin varnish of Italian manners.
This strange alteration has persuaded historians, and even philosophers, that the provincials of Britain were totally exterminated; and that the vacant land was again peopled by the perpetual influx and rapid increase of the German colonies. Three hundred thousand Saxons are said to have obeyed the summons of Hengist; the entire emigration of the Angles was attested, in the age14 of Bede, by the solitude of their native14 country14; and our experience has shown the free propagation of the human race, if they are cast on a fruitful wilderness, where their steps are unconfined and their subsistence is plentiful. The Saxon kingdoms displayed the face of recent discovery and cultivation; the towns were small, the villages were distant; the husbandry was languid and unskilful; four sheep were equivalent to an acre of the best land; an ample space of wood and morass was resigned to the vague dominion of nature14: and the modern bishopric of Durham, the whole territory from the Tyne to the Tees, had returned to its primitive state14 of a savage and solitary forest. Such imperfect population might have been supplied, in some generations, by the English colonies; but neither reason nor facts can justify the unnatural supposition that the Saxons of Britain remained alone in the desert which they had subdued. After the sanguinary Barbarians14 had secured their dominion, and gratified their revenge, it was their interest to preserve the peasants, as well as the cattle, of the unresisting country14. In each successive revolution, the patient herd becomes the property of its new masters; and the salutary compact of food and labour is silently ratified by their mutual necessities. Wilfrid, the apostle14 of Sussex, accepted14 from his royal convert the gift of the peninsula of Selsey, near Chichester, with the persons and property of its inhabitants, who then amounted to eighty-seven14 families. He released them at once from spiritual and temporal bondage, and two hundred and fifty slaves, of both sexes, were baptised by their indulgent master. The kingdom of Sussex, which spread from the sea to the Thames, contained seven14 thousand families; twelve hundred were ascribed to the Isle of Wight; and, if we multiply this vague computation, it may seem probable that England was cultivated by a million of servants, or villains, who were attached to the estates of their arbitrary landlords. The indigent Barbarians14 were often tempted to sell their children14 or themselves into perpetual, and even foreign14, bondage; yet the special exemptions which were granted to national slaves sufficiently declare that they were much less numerous than the strangers and captives14 who had lost their liberty, or changed their masters, by the accidents of war. When time and religion14 had mitigated the fierce spirit of the Anglo-Saxons, the laws14 encouraged the frequent practice of manumission; and their subjects14, of Welsh or Cambrian extraction, assumed the respectable station of inferior freemen, possessed of lands and entitled to the rights14 of civil14 society. Such gentle treatment might secure the allegiance of a fierce people14, who had been recently subdued on the confines of Wales and Cornwall. The sage Ina, the legislator of Wessex, united the two nations in the bands of domestic14 alliance; and four British lords of Somersetshire may be honourably distinguished in the court of a Saxon monarch.
The independent37 Britons appear to have relapsed into the state37 of original barbarism, from whence they had been imperfectly reclaimed. Separated by their enemies from the rest of mankind, they soon37 became an object of scandal and abhorrence to the Catholic world. Christianity was still professed in the mountains of Wales; but the rude schismatics, in the form of the clerical tonsure, and in the day of the celebration of Easter, obstinately resisted the imperious mandates of the Roman37 pontiffs. The use37 of the Latin language37 was insensibly abolished, and the Britons were deprived of the arts and learning which Italy communicated to her Saxon proselytes. In Wales and Armorica, the Celtic tongue, the native idiom of the West, was preserved and propagated; and the Bards, who had been the companions of the Druids, were still protected, in the sixteenth century, by the laws37 of Elizabeth. Their chief, a respectable officer of the courts of Pengwern, or Aberfraw, or Caermarthaen, accompanied the king's servants37 to war; the monarchy of the Britons, which he sung in the front of battle, excited their courage and justified their depredations; and the songster claimed for his legitimate prize the fairest heifer of the spoil. His subordinate ministers, the masters and disciples of vocal and instrumental Music, visited, in their respective circuits, the royal, the noble, and the plebeian37 houses; and the public37 poverty37, almost exhausted by the clergy, was oppressed by the importunate demands of the bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained by solemn trials, and the strong belief of supernatural inspiration exalted the fancy of the poet and of his audience. The last retreats of Celtic freedom37, the extreme territories of Gaul and Britain, were less adapted to agriculture than to pasturage; the wealth of the Britons consisted in their flocks and herds; milk and flesh were their ordinary food; and bread was sometimes esteemed, or rejected, as a foreign luxury. Liberty37 had peopled the mountains of Wales and the morasses of Armorica; but their populousness has been maliciously ascribed to the loose practice of polygamy; and the houses of these licentious Barbarians37 have been supposed to contain ten wives and perhaps fifty children. Their disposition was rash and choleric; they were bold in action and in speech; and, as they were ignorant of the arts of peace, they alternately indulged their passions in foreign and domestic37 war. The cavalry of Armorica, the spearmen of Gwent, and the archers of Merioneth were equally formidable; but their poverty37 could seldom procure either shields or helmets; and the inconvenient weight37 would have retarded the speed and agility of their desultory operations. One of the greatest of the English monarchs was requested to satisfy the curiosity of a Greek emperor concerning the state37 of Britain; and Henry II. could assert, from his personal experience, that Wales was inhabited by a race of naked warriors, who encountered, without fear, the defensive armour of their enemies.
By the revolution of Britain, the limits of science, as well as of empire24, were contracted. The dark cloud, which had been cleared by the Phoenician discoveries and finally dispelled by the arms of Caesar, again settled on the shores of the Atlantic, and a Roman24 province was again lost among the fabulous islands of the ocean. One hundred and fifty years24 after the reign24 of Honorius, the gravest historian of the times describes the wonders of a remote isle, whose eastern and western parts are divided by an antique wall, the boundary of life24 and death24, or, more properly, of truth and fiction. The east24 is a fair country, inhabited by a civilised people24: the air is healthy, the waters are pure and plentiful, and the earth yields her regular and fruitful increase. In the west, beyond the wall, the air is infectious and mortal; the ground is covered with serpents; and this dreary solitude is the region of departed spirits, who are transported from the opposite shores in substantial boats, and by living rowers. Some families of fishermen, the subjects of the Franks, are excused from tribute24, in consideration of the mysterious office which is performed by these Charons of the ocean. Each in his turn is summoned at the hour of midnight, to hear the voices, and even the names, of the ghosts; he is sensible of their weight, and he feels himself impelled by an unknown, but irresistible, power. After this dream of fancy we read with astonishment, that the name of this island is Brittia; that it lies in the ocean, against the mouth of the Rhine, and less than thirty miles from the continent; that it is possessed by three nations, the Frisians, the Angles, and the Britons; and that some Angles had appeared at Constantinople24, in the train of the French ambassadors. From these ambassadors Procopius might be informed of a singular, though an improbable, adventure, which announces the spirit, rather than the delicacy, of an English heroine. She had been betrothed to Radiger king of the Varni, a tribe of Germans who touched the ocean and the Rhine; but the perfidious lover was tempted by motives of policy to prefer his father's widow, the sister of Theodebert king of the Franks. The forsaken princess of the Angles, instead of bewailing, revenged her disgrace. Her warlike subjects are said to have been ignorant of the use, and even of the form, of an horse; but she boldly sailed from Britain to the mouth of the Rhine, with a fleet of four hundred ships and an army of one hundred thousand24 men. After the loss of a battle, the captive Radiger implored the mercy of his victorious bride, who generously pardoned his offence, dismissed her rival, and compelled the king of the Varni to discharge with honour and fidelity the duties of an husband. This gallant exploit appears to be the last naval enterprise of the Anglo-Saxons. The arts of navigation, by which they had acquired the empire24 of Britain and of the sea24, were soon neglected by the indolent Barbarians, who supinely renounced all the commercial advantages of their insular situation. Seven independent kingdoms were agitated by perpetual discord; and the British world was seldom connected, either in peace or war, with the nations of the continent.
I have now accomplished the laborious narrative of the decline and fall of the Roman9 empire9, from the fortunate age of Trajan and the Antonines to its total extinction in the West9 about five centuries after the Christian era. At that unhappy period, the Saxons fiercely struggled with the natives for the possession of Britain; Gaul and Spain were divided between the powerful monarchies of the Franks and Visigoths, and the dependent kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians; Africa9 was exposed to the cruel persecution of the Vandals9 and the savage insults of the Moors; Rome9 and Italy9, as far9 as the banks9 of the Danube9, were afflicted by an army9 of Barbarian mercenaries, whose lawless tyranny was succeeded by the reign of Theodoric the Ostrogoth. All the subjects of the empire9, who, by the use of the Latin language, more particularly deserved the name and privileges of Romans9, were oppressed by the disgrace and calamities of foreign conquest9; and the victorious nations9 of Germany established a new9 system of manners and government in the western countries of Europe9. The majesty of Rome9 was faintly represented by the princes of Constantinople, the feeble and imaginary successors of Augustus. Yet they continued to reign over the East, from the Danube9 to the Nile and Tigris; the Gothic and Vandal kingdoms of Italy9 and Africa9 were subverted by the arms9 of Justinian; and the history of the Greek emperors may still afford a long9 series of instructive lessons and interesting revolutions.
The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome47, not to the merit47, but to the fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly distributes and resumes her favours, had now consented (such was the language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend from her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne47 on the banks of the Tiber. A wiser Greek, who has composed, with a philosophic spirit47, the memorable history of his own times, deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort by opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome47. The fidelity of the citizens to each other, and to the state, was confirmed by the habits of education and the prejudices of religion. Honour, as well as virtue, was the principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens laboured to deserve the solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardour of the Roman47 youth was kindled into active emulation, as often as they beheld the domestic images of their ancestors. The temperate struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally established the firm and equal balance of the constitution; which united the freedom of popular assemblies with the authority47 and wisdom of a senate47 and the executive powers of a regal magistrate. When the consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country, till he had discharged the sacred duty by a military47 service of ten years. This wise institution continually poured into the field the rising generations of freemen and soldiers47; and their numbers were reinforced by the warlike and populous states of Italy47, who, after a brave resistance, had yielded to the valour, and embraced the alliance, of the Romans. The sage historian, who excited the virtue of the younger Scipio and beheld the ruin of Carthage, has accurately described their military47 system; their levies, arms47, exercises, subordination, marches, encampments; and the invincible legion, superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx of Philip and Alexander. From these institutions of peace and war47, Polybius has deduced the spirit47 and success of a people47 incapable of fear and impatient of repose. The ambitious design of conquest, which might have been defeated by the seasonable conspiracy of mankind, was attempted and achieved; and the perpetual violation of justice47 was maintained by the political virtues of prudence and courage. The arms47 of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war47, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the Ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome47.
The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire34, may deserve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic mind34. But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and, instead34 of inquiring why the Roman34 empire34 was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long34. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom34 of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign34 and to the enemy; the vigour of the military34 government was relaxed, and finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of Constantine34; and the Roman34 world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.
The decay of Rome1 has been frequently ascribed to the translation of the seat of empire1; but this history has already shewn that the powers of government1 were divided rather than removed. The throne of Constantinople was erected in the East; while the West was still possessed by a series of emperors1 who held their residence in Italy1 and claimed their equal inheritance of the legions and provinces1. This dangerous novelty impaired the strength, and fomented the vices, of a double reign1; the instruments of an oppressive and arbitrary system were multiplied; and a vain emulation of luxury, not of merit, was introduced and supported between the degenerate successors1 of Theodosius. Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free people1, embitters the factions of a declining monarchy. The hostile favourites of Arcadius and Honorius betrayed the republic1 to its common enemies; and the Byzantine court beheld with indifference, perhaps with pleasure, the disgrace of Rome1, the misfortunes of Italy1, and the loss of the West. Under the succeeding reigns, the alliance of the two empires was restored; but the aid of the Oriental Romans1 was tardy, doubtful, and ineffectual; and the national schism of the Greeks and Latins was enlarged by the perpetual difference of language and manners, of interest, and even of religion1. Yet the salutary event approved in some measure the judgment of Constantine1. During a long1 period of decay, his impregnable city1 repelled the victorious armies of Barbarians, protected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in peace1 and war, the important straits which connect the Euxine and Mediterranean seas. The foundation of Constantinople more essentially contributed to the preservation of the East than to the ruin of the West.
As the happiness8 of a future life8 is the great object of religion8, we may hear, without surprise or scandal, that the introduction, or at least the abuse, of Christianity8 had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire8. The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active virtues of society8 were discouraged; and the last remains of the military spirit were buried in the cloister; a large portion of public8 and private8 wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion8; and the soldiers' pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both sexes, who could only plead the merits of abstinence and chastity. Faith8, zeal8, curiosity, and the more earthly passions8 of malice and ambition kindled the flame of theological discord; the church8, and even the state, were distracted by religious8 factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody, and always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted from camps to synods; the Roman world8 was oppressed by a new species of tyranny; and the persecuted sects became the secret enemies of their country. Yet party-spirit, however pernicious or absurd, is a principle of union as well as of dissension. The bishops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the duty of passive obedience to a lawful and orthodox sovereign; their frequent assemblies, and perpetual correspondence, maintained the communion of distant churches: and the benevolent temper of the gospel was strengthened, though confined, by the spiritual alliance of the Catholics. The sacred8 indolence of the monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age8; but, if superstition8 had not afforded a decent retreat, the same vices would have tempted the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser motives, the standard of the republic. Religious8 precepts are easily obeyed, which indulge and sanctify the natural inclinations of their votaries; but the pure and genuine influence of Christianity8 may be traced in its beneficial, though imperfect, effects on the Barbarian proselytes of the North. If the decline of the Roman empire8 was hastened by the conversion of Constantine8, his victorious religion8 broke the violence of the fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors.
This awful revolution may be usefully applied to the instruction of the present46 age46. It is the duty of a patriot to prefer and promote the exclusive interest and glory46 of his native country46; but a philosopher may be permitted to enlarge his views, and to consider Europe as one great46 republic, whose various inhabitants have attained almost the same level of politeness and cultivation. The balance of power will continue to fluctuate, and the prosperity46 of our own or the neighbouring kingdoms may be alternately exalted or depressed; but these partial events cannot essentially injure our general state of happiness46, the system of arts46, and laws46, and manners, which so advantageously distinguish, above the rest of mankind46, the Europeans and their colonies. The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilised society46; and we may inquire with anxious curiosity46, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome46. Perhaps the same reflections will illustrate the fall of that mighty empire46, and explain the probable causes of our actual security.
I. The Romans9 were ignorant of the extent of their danger, and the number of their enemies. Beyond the Rhine and Danube9, the northern countries of Europe9 and Asia9 were filled with innumerable tribes9 of hunters and shepherds, poor, voracious, and turbulent; bold in arms9, and impatient to ravish the fruits of industry. The Barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse of war9; and the peace of Gaul or Italy9 was shaken by the distant revolutions of China. The Huns9, who fled before a victorious enemy, directed their march towards the West9; and the torrent was swelled by the gradual accession of captives and allies. The flying tribes9 who yielded to the Huns9 assumed in their turn the spirit of conquest9; the endless column of Barbarians9 pressed on the Roman9 empire9 with accumulated weight; and, if the foremost were destroyed, the vacant space was instantly replenished by new9 assailants. Such formidable emigrations can no longer issue from the North9; and the long9 repose, which has been imputed to the decrease of population, is the happy consequence of the progress of arts and agriculture. Instead of some rude villages, thinly scattered among its woods and morasses, Germany now produces a list of two thousand9 three hundred walled towns; the Christian kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland have been successively established; and the Hanse merchants, with the Teutonic knights, have extended their colonies along the coast9 of the Baltic, as far9 as the Gulf of Finland. From the Gulf of Finland to the Eastern Ocean9, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and civilised empire9. The plough, the loom, and the forge are introduced on the banks9 of the Volga, the Oby, and the Lena; and the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been taught to tremble and obey. The reign of independent Barbarism is now contracted to a narrow span; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uzbecks, whose forces may be almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the apprehensions of the great9 republic of Europe9. Yet this apparent security should not tempt us to forget that new9 enemies, and unknown dangers, may possibly arise from some obscure people, scarcely visible in the map of the world. The Arabs or Saracens, who spread their conquests from India to Spain, had languished in poverty and contempt, till Mahomet breathed into those savage bodies the soul of enthusiasm.
II. The empire1 of Rome1 was firmly established by the singular and perfect coalition of its members. The subject nations, resigning the hope, and even the wish, of independence, embraced the character of Roman1 citizens; and the provinces1 of the West were reluctantly torn by the Barbarians from the bosom of their mother-country. But this union was purchased by the loss of national freedom1 and military spirit; and the servile provinces1, destitute of life and motion, expected their safety from the mercenary troops and governors, who were directed by the orders of a distant court. The happiness of an hundred millions depended on the personal merit of one or two men, perhaps children, whose minds were corrupted by education, luxury, and despotic power1. The deepest wounds were inflicted on the empire1 during the minorities of the sons and grandsons of Theodosius; and, after those incapable princes1 seemed to attain the age of manhood, they abandoned the church1 to the bishops1, the state1 to the eunuchs, and the provinces1 to the Barbarians. Europe is now divided into twelve powerful, though unequal, kingdoms, three respectable commonwealths, and a variety of smaller, though independent, states; the chances of royal and ministerial talents are multiplied, at least with the number of its rulers; and a Julian, or Semiramis, may reign1 in the North, while Arcadius and Honorius again slumber on the thrones of the South. The abuses of tyranny are restrained by the mutual influence of fear and shame; republics have acquired order1 and stability; monarchies have imbibed the principles of freedom1, or, at least, of moderation; and some sense of honour and justice1 is introduced into the most defective constitutions by the general manners of the times. In peace1, the progress of knowledge and industry is accelerated by the emulation of so many active rivals: in war, the European forces are exercised by temperate and undecisive contests. If a savage conqueror should issue from the deserts of Tartary, he must repeatedly vanquish the robust peasants of Russia, the numerous armies of Germany, the gallant nobles of France, and the intrepid freemen of Britain; who, perhaps, might confederate for their common defence. Should the victorious Barbarians carry slavery and desolation as far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thousand vessels would transport beyond their pursuit the remains of civilised society; and Europe would revive and flourish in the American world, which is already filled with her colonies and institutions.
III. Cold, poverty, and a life11 of danger and fatigue fortify the strength and courage11 of Barbarians11. In every age11 they have oppressed the polite and peaceful nations11 of China, India, and Persia, who neglected, and still neglect, to counterbalance these natural powers11 by the resources of military11 art. The warlike states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome11, educated a race of soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage11, multiplied their forces by regular evolutions, and converted the iron which they possessed, into strong11 and serviceable weapons. But this superiority insensibly declined with their laws and manners11; and the feeble policy11 of Constantine11 and his successors armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire11, the rude valour11 of the Barbarian mercenaries. The military11 art has been changed by the invention of gunpowder; which enables man to command the two most powerful agents of nature, air and fire. Mathematics, chymistry, mechanics, architecture, have been applied to the service of war11; and the adverse parties oppose to each other the most elaborate modes of attack and of defence. Historians may indignantly observe that the preparations of a siege would found and maintain a flourishing colony; yet we cannot be displeased that the subversion of a city should be a work of cost and difficulty, or that an industrious people11 should be protected by those arts11, which survive and supply the decay of military11 virtue. Cannon and fortifications now form11 an impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse; and Europe11 is secure from any future irruption of Barbarians11; since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous. Their gradual advances in the science of war11 would always be accompanied, as we may learn from the example of Russia, with a proportionable improvement in the arts11 of peace11 and civil11 policy11; and they themselves must deserve a place among the polished nations11 whom they subdue.
Should these speculations be found doubtful or fallacious, there still remains a more humble source of comfort and hope. The discoveries of ancient and modern navigators, and the domestic history22, or tradition, of the most enlightened nations22, represent the human22 savage, naked both in mind and body, and destitute22 of laws, of arts22, of ideas, and almost of language. From this abject condition, perhaps the primitive and universal state of man, he has gradually arisen to command the animals, to fertilise the earth, to traverse the ocean, and to measure the heavens. His progress in the improvement and exercise22 of his mental and corporeal faculties has been irregular and various22, infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasing by degrees with redoubled velocity; ages of laborious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid downfall; and the several climates of the globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experience of four thousand years22 should enlarge our hopes, and diminish our apprehensions; we cannot determine to what height the human22 species may aspire in their advances towards perfection; but it may safely be presumed that no people22, unless the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original barbarism. The improvements of society may be viewed under a threefold aspect. 1. The poet or philosopher illustrates his age22 and country by the efforts of a single mind; but these superior powers of reason or fancy are rare and spontaneous productions, and the genius of Homer, or Cicero, or Newton would excite less admiration, if they could be created by the will of a prince22 or the lessons of a preceptor. 2. The benefits of law and policy22, of trade and manufactures, of arts22 and sciences, are more solid and permanent; and many individuals may be qualified, by education and discipline, to promote, in their respective stations, the interest of the community. But this general order is the effect of skill and labour; and the complex machinery may be decayed by time22 or injured by violence. 3. Fortunately for mankind, the more useful, or, at least, more necessary arts22 can be performed without superior talents or national subordination; without the powers of one or the union of many. Each village, each family, each individual, must always possess both ability and inclination to perpetuate the use of fire and of metals; the propagation and service of domestic animals; the methods of hunting and fishing; the rudiments of navigation; the imperfect cultivation of corn or other nutritive grain; and the simple practice of the mechanic trades. Private genius and public22 industry may be extirpated; but these hardy plants survive the tempest, and strike an everlasting root into the most unfavourable soil. The splendid days of Augustus and Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance; and the Barbarians subverted the laws and palaces of Rome22. But the scythe, the invention or emblem of Saturn, still continued annually to mow the harvests of Italy22: and the human22 feasts of the Laestrygons have never been renewed on the coast of Campania.
Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce, and religious zeal have diffused, among the savages14 of the Old and New World14, those inestimable gifts: they have been successively propagated; they can never be lost. We may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion that every age14 of the world14 has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue of the human race.
After the fall of the Roman0 empire0 in the West, an interval of fifty years0, till the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the obscure names0 and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who successively ascended the throne of Constantinople. During the same period, Italy0 revived and flourished under the government of a Gothic king, who might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the ancient0 Romans.
Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of the royal3 line of the Amali, was born in the neighbourhood of Vienna two years3 after the death3 of Attila. A recent victory3 had restored the independence of the Ostrogoths; and the three brothers, Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled that warlike nation with united counsels, had separately pitched their habitations in the fertile though desolate province of Pannonia. The Huns still threatened their revolted subjects, but their hasty attack was repelled by the single forces of Walamir, and the news of his victory3 reached the distant camp3 of his brother in the same auspicious moment that the favourite concubine of Theodemir was delivered of a son3 and heir. In the eighth year of his age, Theodoric was reluctantly yielded by his father to the public interest, as the pledge of an alliance3 which Leo, emperor3 of the East3, had consented to purchase by an annual subsidy of three hundred pounds of gold. The royal3 hostage was educated at Constantinople with care and tenderness. His body was formed to all the exercises of war3, his mind was expanded by the habits of liberal conversation; he frequented the schools of the most skilful masters; but he disdained or neglected the arts of Greece, and so ignorant did he always remain of the first elements of science that a rude mark was contrived to represent the signature of the illiterate king3 of Italy. As soon3 as he had attained the age of eighteen, he was restored to the wishes of the Ostrogoths, whom the emperor3 aspired to gain by liberality and confidence. Walamir had fallen in battle; the youngest of the brothers, Widimir, had led away into Italy and Gaul3 an army3 of Barbarians3, and the whole nation acknowledged for their king3 the father of Theodoric. His ferocious subjects admired the strength and stature of their young prince3; and he soon3 convinced them that he had not degenerated from the valour3 of his ancestors. At the head3 of six thousand3 volunteers he secretly left the camp3 in quest of adventures, descended the Danube as far as Singidunum or Belgrade, and soon3 returned to his father with the spoils of a Sarmatian king3 whom he had vanquished and slain. Such triumphs, however, were productive only of fame, and the invincible Ostrogoths were reduced to extreme distress by the want of clothing and food. They unanimously resolved to desert their Pannonian encampments, and boldly to advance into the warm and wealthy neighbourhood of the Byzantine court3, which already maintained in pride and luxury so many bands of confederate Goths. After proving by some acts of hostility that they could be dangerous, or at least troublesome, enemies, the Ostrogoths sold at a high price their reconciliation and fidelity, accepted a donative of lands and money, and were entrusted with the defence of the lower Danube, under the command of Theodoric, who succeeded after his father's death3 to the hereditary throne3 of the Amali.
An hero, descended from a race of kings, must have depised the base Isaurian who was invested with the Roman47 purple, without any endowments of mind or body, without any advantages of royal birth or superior qualifications. After the failure of the Theodosian line, the choice of Pulcheria and of the senate47 might be justified in some measure by the characters of Marcian and Leo, but the latter of these princes confirmed and dishonoured his reign47 by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his sons, who too rigorously exacted the debt of gratitude and obedience. The inheritance of Leo and of the East47 was peaceably devolved on his infant grandson, the son47 of his daughter Ariadne; and her Isaurian husband, the fortunate Trascalisseus, exchanged that barbarous sound for the Grecian appellation of Zeno. After the decease of the elder Leo, he approached with unnatural respect the throne47 of his son47, humbly received, as a gift, the second rank47 in the empire47, and soon47 excited the public47 suspicion on the sudden and premature death47 of his young colleague, whose life47 could no longer promote the success of his ambition. But the palace47 of Constantinople was ruled by female influence, and agitated by female passions; and Verina, the widow of Leo, claiming his empire47 as her own, pronounced a sentence of deposition against the worthless and ungrateful servant on whom she alone had bestowed the sceptre of the East47. As soon47 as she sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, he fled with precipitation into the mountains of Isauria, and her brother Basiliscus, already infamous by his African expedition, was unanimously proclaimed by the servile senate47. But the reign47 of the usurper was short and turbulent. Basiliscus presumed to assassinate the lover of his sister; he dared to offend the lover of his wife, the vain and insolent Harmatius, who, in the midst of Asiatic luxury, affected the dress, the demeanour, and the surname of Achilles. By the conspiracy of the malcontents, Zeno was recalled from exile; the armies, the capital, the person47, of Basiliscus were betrayed; and his whole family was condemned to the long47 agony of cold and hunger by the inhuman conqueror, who wanted courage to encounter or to forgive his enemies. The haughty spirit47 of Verina was still incapable of submission or repose. She provoked the enmity of a favourite general47, embraced his cause as soon47 as he was disgraced, created a new emperor47 in Syria and Egypt, raised an army47 of seventy thousand men, and persisted to the last moment of her life47 in a fruitless rebellion, which, according to the fashion of the age47, had been predicted by Christian hermits and Pagan magicians. While the East47 was afflicted by the passions of Verina, her daughter Ariadne was distinguished by the female virtues of mildness and fidelity; she followed her husband in his exile, and after his restoration she implored his clemency in favour of her mother. On the decease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, the mother, and the widow of an emperor47, gave her hand and the Imperial47 title to Anastasius, an aged domestic of the palace47, who survived his elevation above twenty-seven years, and whose character is attested by the acclamation of the people47, Reign47 as you have lived!
Whatever fear or affection could bestow, was profusely lavished by Zeno on the king of the Ostrogoths: the rank47 of patrician and consul, the command47 of the Palatine troops47, an equestrian statue, a treasure in gold and silver of many thousand pounds, the name of son47, and the promise of a rich and honourable wife. As long47 as Theodoric condescended to serve, he supported with courage and fidelity the cause of his benefactor: his rapid march contributed to the restoration of Zeno; and in the second revolt, the Walamirs, as they were called, pursued and pressed the Asiatic rebels, till they left an easy victory to the Imperial47 troops47. But the faithful servant was suddenly converted into a formidable enemy, who spread the flames of war47 from Constantinople to the Adriatic; many flourishing cities were reduced to ashes, and the agriculture of Thrace was almost extirpated by the wanton cruelty of the Goths, who deprived their captive peasants of the right hand, that guided the plough. On such occasions, Theodoric sustained the loud and specious reproach of disloyalty, of ingratitude, and of insatiate avarice, which could be only excused by the hard necessity of his situation. He reigned, not as the monarch, but as the minister of a ferocious people47, whose spirit47 was unbroken by slavery, and impatient of real or imaginary insults. Their poverty was incurable; since the most liberal donatives were soon47 dissipated in wasteful luxury, and the most fertile estates became barren in their hands; they despised, but they envied, the laborious provincials; and, when their subsistence had failed, the Ostrogoths embraced the familiar resources of war47 and rapine. It had been the wish of Theodoric (such at least was his declaration) to lead a peaceful, obscure, obedient life47, on the confines of Scythia, till the Byzantine court, by splendid and fallacious promises, seduced him to attack a confederate tribe of Goths, who had been engaged in the party of Basiliscus. He marched from his station in Maesia, on the solemn assurance that before he reached Hadrianople he should meet a plentiful convoy of provisions and a reinforcement of eight thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, while the legions of Asia were encamped at Heraclea to second his operations. These measures were disappointed by mutual jealousy. As he advanced into Thrace, the son47 of Theodemir found an inhospitable solitude, and his Gothic followers, with an heavy train of horses, of mules, and of waggons, were betrayed by their guides among the rocks and precipices of Mount Sondis, where he was assaulted by the arms47 and invectives of Theodoric the son47 of Triarius. From a neighbouring height, his artful rival harangued the camp of the Walamirs, and branded their leader with the opprobrious names of child, of madman, of perjured traitor, the enemy of his blood and nation. Are you ignorant, exclaimed the son47 of Triarius, that it is the constant policy of the Romans to destroy the Goths by each other's swords? Are you insensible that the victor in this unnatural contest will be exposed, and justly exposed, to their implacable revenge? Where are those warriors, my kinsmen and thy own, whose widows now lament that their lives were sacrificed to thy rash ambition? Where is the wealth which thy soldiers47 possessed when they were first allured from their native homes to enlist under thy standard? Each of them was then master47 of three or four horses; they now follow thee on foot like slaves, through the deserts of Thrace; those men who were tempted by the hope of measuring gold with a bushel, those brave men who are as free and as noble as thyself. A language so well suited to the temper of the Goths excited clamour and discontent; and the son47 of Theodemir, apprehensive of being left alone, was compelled to embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example of Roman47 perfidy.
In every state11 of his fortune, the prudence and firmness of Theodoric were equally conspicuous; whether he threatened Constantinople at the head of the confederate Goths, or retreated with a faithful band to the mountains and sea-coast of Epirus. At length the accidental death of the son of Triarius destroyed the balance which the Romans had been so anxious to preserve, the whole nation11 acknowledged the supremacy of the Amali, and the Byzantine court subscribed an ignominious and oppressive treaty. The senate had already declared that it was necessary to choose a party among the Goths, since the public11 was unequal to the support of their united forces; a subsidy of two thousand11 pounds of gold, with the ample pay of thirteen thousand11 men, were required for the least considerable of their armies; and the Isaurians, who guarded not the empire11 but the emperor, enjoyed, besides the privilege of rapine, an annual pension of five thousand11 pounds. The sagacious mind of Theodoric soon perceived that he was odious to the Romans, and suspected by the Barbarians11; he understood the popular murmur that his subjects were exposed in their frozen huts to intolerable hardships, while their king was dissolved in the luxury of Greece; and he prevented the painful alternative of encountering the Goths, as the champion, or of leading them to the field as the enemy, of Zeno. Embracing an enterprise worthy of his courage11 and ambition, Theodoric addressed the emperor in the following words: Although your servant is maintained in affluence by your liberality, graciously listen to the wishes of my heart! Italy, the inheritance of your predecessors, and Rome11 itself, the head and mistress of the world, now fluctuate under the violence and oppression of Odoacer the mercenary. Direct me, with my national troops, to march11 against the tyrant. If I fall, you will be relieved from an expensive and troublesome friend; if, with the Divine permission, I succeed, I shall11 govern in your name, and to your glory, the Roman11 senate, and the part of the republic delivered from slavery by my victorious arms11. The proposal of Theodoric was accepted, and perhaps had been suggested, by the Byzantine court. But the forms of the commission or grant appear to have been expressed with a prudent ambiguity, which might be explained by the event; and it was left doubtful, whether the conqueror of Italy should reign as the lieutenant, the vassal, or the ally of the emperor of the East.
The reputation both of the leader and of the war30 diffused an universal ardour; the Walamirs were multiplied by the Gothic swarms already engaged in the service30, or seated in the provinces, of the empire30; and each bold Barbarian, who had heard of the wealth and beauty of Italy, was impatient to seek, through the most perilous adventures, the possession of such enchanting objects. The march of Theodoric must be considered as the emigration of an entire people30; the wives and children of the Goths, their aged parents, and most precious effects were carefully transported; and some idea may be formed of the heavy baggage that now followed the camp30, by the loss of two thousand30 waggons, which had been sustained in a single action in the war30 of Epirus. For their subsistence, the Goths depended on the magazines of corn which was ground in portable mills by the hands of their women; on the milk and flesh of their flocks and herds; on the casual produce of the chase, and upon the contributions which they might impose on all who should presume to dispute the passage or to refuse their friendly assistance. Notwithstanding these precautions, they were exposed to the danger, and almost to the distress, of famine, in a march of seven hundred miles, which had been undertaken in the depth of a rigorous winter. Since the fall of the Roman30 power, Dacia and Pannonia no longer exhibited the rich prospect of populous cities, well-cultivated fields, and convenient highways: the reign of barbarism and desolation was restored, and the tribes of Bulgarians, Gepidae, and Sarmatians, who had occupied the vacant province, were prompted by their native fierceness, or the solicitations of Odoacer, to resist the progress of his enemy30. In many obscure though bloody battles, Theodoric fought and vanquished; till30 at length, surmounting every obstacle by skilful conduct and persevering courage, he descended from the Julian Alps, and displayed his invincible banners on the confines of Italy.
Odoacer, a rival not unworthy of his arms30, had already occupied the advantageous and well-known post of the river Sontius near the ruins of Aquileia; at the head30 of a powerful host, whose independent kings or leaders disdained the duties of subordination and the prudence of delays. No sooner had Theodoric granted a short repose and refreshment to his wearied cavalry, than he boldly attacked the fortifications of the enemy30; the Ostrogoths shewed more ardour to acquire, than the mercenaries to defend, the lands of Italy; and the reward of the first victory30 was the possession of the Venetian province as far as the walls30 of Verona. In the neighbourhood of that city30, on the steep banks of the rapid Adige, he was opposed by a new30 army30, reinforced in its numbers and not impaired in its courage: the contest was more obstinate, but the event was still more decisive; Odoacer fled to Ravenna, Theodoric advanced to Milan, and the vanquished troops30 saluted their conqueror with loud acclamations of respect and fidelity. But their want either of constancy or of faith soon30 exposed him to the most imminent danger; his vanguard, with several Gothic counts, which had been rashly entrusted to a deserter, was betrayed and destroyed near Faenza by his double treachery; Odoacer again appeared master of the field, and the invader, strongly intrenched in his camp30 of Pavia, was reduced to solicit the aid of a kindred nation, the Visigoths of Gaul. In the course of this history, the most voracious appetite for war30 will be abundantly satiated; nor can I much lament that our dark and imperfect materials do not afford a more ample narrative of the distress of Italy and of the fierce conflict which was finally decided by the abilities, experience, and valour of the Gothic king30. Immediately before the battle30 of Verona, he visited the tent of his mother and sister, and requested that on a day30, the most illustrious festival of his life, they would adorn him with the rich garments which they had worked with their own hands. Our glory, said he, is mutual and inseparable. You are known to the world as the mother of Theodoric; and it becomes me to prove that I am the genuine offspring of those heroes from whom I claim my descent. The wife or concubine of Theodemir was inspired with the spirit of the German matrons who esteemed their sons' honour far above their safety; and it is reported that in a desperate action, when Theodoric himself was hurried along by the torrent of a flying crowd, she boldly met them at the entrance of the camp30, and, by her generous reproaches, drove them back on the swords of the enemy30.
From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, Theodoric reigned by the right of conquest; the vandal ambassadors surrendered the land of Sicily, as a lawful appendage of his kingdom; and he was accepted as the deliverer of Rome47 by the senate47 and people47, who had shut their gates against the flying usurper. Ravenna alone, secure in the fortifications of art and nature, still sustained a siege of almost three years; and the daring sallies of Odoacer carried slaughter and dismay into the Gothic camp. At length, destitute of provisions and hopeless of relief, that unfortunate monarch yielded to the groans of his subjects and the clamours of his soldiers47. A treaty of peace was negotiated by the bishop of Ravenna; the Ostrogoths were admitted into the city47; and the hostile kings consented, under the sanction of an oath, to rule with equal and undivided authority47 the provinces47 of Italy47. The event of such an agreement may be easily foreseen. After some days had been devoted to the semblance of joy and friendship, Odoacer, in the midst of a solemn banquet, was stabbed by the hand, or at least by the command47, of his rival. Secret47 and effectual orders had been previously despatched; the faithless and rapacious mercenaries, at the same moment and without resistance, were universally massacred; and the royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths, with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the emperor47 of the East47. The design of a conspiracy was imputed, according to the usual forms, to the prostrate tyrant47; but his innocence and the guilt of his conqueror are sufficiently proved by the advantageous treaty which force would not sincerely have granted nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy of power47 and the mischiefs of discord may suggest a more decent apology, and a sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a crime which was necessary to introduce into Italy47 a regeneration of public47 felicity. The living author of this felicity was audaciously praised in his own presence by sacred and profane orators; but history (in his time she was mute and inglorious) has not left any just representation of the events which displayed, or of the defects which clouded, the virtues of Theodoric. One record of his fame, the volume of public47 epistles composed by Cassiodorius in the royal name, is still extant, and has obtained more implicit credit than it seems to deserve. They exhibit the forms, rather than the substance, of his government47; and we should vainly search for the pure and spontaneous sentiments of the Barbarian amidst the declamation and learning of a sophist, the wishes of a Roman47 senator, the precedents of office, and the vague professions which, in every court and on every occasion, compose the language of discreet ministers. The reputation of Theodoric may repose with more confidence on the visible peace and prosperity of a reign47 of thirty-three years, the unanimous esteem of his own times, and the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice47 and humanity, which was deeply impressed on the minds of the Goths and Italians.
The partition of the lands of Italy26, of which Theodoric assigned the third part to his soldiers26, is honourably arraigned as the sole injustice of his life26. And even this act may be fairly justified by the example of Odoacer, the rights of conquest, the true interest of the Italians, and the sacred duty26 of subsisting a whole people26, who, on the faith of his promises, had transported themselves into a distant land. Under the reign of Theodoric, and in the happy climate of Italy26, the Goths soon26 multiplied to a formidable host of two hundred thousand men26, and the whole amount of their families may be computed by the ordinary addition of women and children. Their invasion of property, a part of which must have been already vacant, was disguised by the generous but improper name of hospitality; these unwelcome guests were irregularly dispersed over the face of Italy26, and the lot of each Barbarian was adequate to his birth and office, the number of his followers, and the rustic wealth which he possessed in slaves and cattle. The distinctions of noble and plebeian were acknowledged; but the lands of every freeman were exempt from taxes, and he enjoyed the inestimable privilege of being subject only to the laws26 of his country. Fashion, and even convenience, soon26 persuaded the conquerors to assume the more elegant dress of the natives, but they still persisted in the use26 of their mother-tongue; and their contempt for the Latin schools was applauded by Theodoric himself, who gratified their prejudices, or his own, by declaring that the child who had trembled at a rod would never dare to look upon a sword. Distress might sometimes provoke the indigent Roman26 to assume the ferocious manners which were insensibly relinquished by the rich and luxurious Barbarian; but these mutual conversions were not encouraged by the policy of a monarch who perpetuated the separation of the Italians and Goths; reserving the former for the arts26 of peace and the latter for the service26 of war26. To accomplish this design, he studied to protect his industrious subjects, and to moderate the violence without enervating the valour of his soldiers26, who were maintained for the public26 defence. They held their lands and benefices as a military26 stipend; at the sound of the trumpet they were prepared26 to march under the conduct of their provincial officers; and the whole extent of Italy26 was distributed into the several quarters of a well-regulated camp. The service26 of the palace and of the frontiers was performed by choice or by rotation; and each extraordinary26 fatigue was recompensed by an increase of pay and occasional donatives. Theodoric had convinced his brave companions that empire26 must be acquired and defended by the same arts26. After his example, they strove to excel in the use26, not only of the lance and sword, the instruments of their victories, but of the missile weapons, which they were too much inclined to neglect; and the lively image of war26 was displayed in the daily exercise and annual reviews of the Gothic cavalry. A firm though gentle discipline26 imposed the habits of modesty, obedience, and temperance; and the Goths were instructed to spare the people26, to reverence the laws26, to understand the duties of civil society, and to disclaim the barbarous licence of judicial combat and private revenge.
Among the Barbarians9 of the West9, the victory of Theodoric had spread a general alarm. But, as soon9 as it appeared that he was satisfied with conquest9 and desirous of peace, terror was changed into respect, and they submitted to a powerful mediation, which was uniformly employed for the best purposes of reconciling their quarrels and civilising their manners. The ambassadors who resorted to Ravenna from the most distant countries of Europe9, admired his wisdom, magnificence, and courtesy; and, if he sometimes accepted either slaves or arms9, white horses or strange animals, the gift of a sundial, a water-clock, or a musician, admonished even the princes of Gaul, of the superior art and industry of his Italian subjects. His domestic alliances, a wife, two daughters, a sister, and a niece, united the family of Theodoric with the kings of the Franks, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the Vandals9, and the Thuringians; and contributed to maintain the harmony, or at least the balance, of the great9 republic of the West9. It is difficult in the dark forests of Germany and Poland to pursue the emigrations of the Heruli, a fierce people who disdained the use of armour, and who condemned their widows and aged parents not to survive the loss of their husbands or the decay of their strength. The king of these savage warriors solicited the friendship of Theodoric, and was elevated to the rank of his son, according to the barbaric rites of a military adoption. From the shores of the Baltic, the Aestians or Livonians laid their offerings of native amber at the feet of a prince whose fame had excited them to undertake an unknown and dangerous journey of fifteen hundred miles9. With the country9 from whence the Gothic nation9 derived their origin he maintained a frequent and friendly correspondence; the Italians were clothed in the rich sables of Sweden; and one of its sovereigns, after a voluntary or reluctant abdication, found an hospitable retreat in the palace of Ravenna. He had reigned over one of the thirteen populous tribes9 who cultivated a small portion of the great9 island or peninsula of Scandinavia, to which the vague appellation of Thule has been sometimes applied. That Northern region was peopled, or had been explored, as high as the sixty-eighth degree of latitude, where the natives of the polar circle enjoy and lose the presence of the sun at each summer and winter solstice during an equal period of forty days. The long9 night of his absence or death was the mournful season of distress and anxiety, till the messengers who had been sent to the mountain tops descried the first rays of returning light and proclaimed to the plain below the festival of his resurrection.
The life of Theodoric represents the rare and meritorious example of a Barbarian, who sheathed his sword in the pride of victory and the vigour of his age. A reign of three and thirty years was consecrated to the duties of civil government, and the hostilities in which he was sometimes involved were speedily terminated by the conduct of his lieutenants, the discipline of his troops9, the arms9 of his allies, and even by the terror of his name. He reduced, under a strong and regular government, the unprofitable countries of Rhaetia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube9 and the territory of the Bavarians, to the petty kingdom erected by the Gepidae on the ruins of Sirmium. His prudence could not safely entrust the bulwark of Italy9 to such feeble and turbulent neighbours; and his justice might claim the lands which they oppressed, either as a part of his kingdom or as the inheritance of his father. The greatness of a servant, who was named perfidious because he was successful, awakened the jealousy of the emperor Anastasius; and a war9 was kindled on the Dacian frontier, by the protection which the Gothic king, in the vicissitude of human affairs, had granted to one of the descendants of Attila. Sabinian, a general illustrious by his own and father's merit, advanced at the head of ten thousand9 Romans9; and the provisions and arms9, which filled a long9 train of waggons, were distributed to the fiercest of the Bulgarian tribes9. But, in the fields of Margus, the Eastern powers were defeated by the inferior forces of the Goths9 and Huns9; the flower, and even the hope, of the Roman9 armies was irretrievably destroyed; and such was the temperance with which Theodoric had inspired his victorious troops9, that, as their leader had not given the signal of pillage, the rich spoils of the enemy lay untouched at their feet. Exasperated by this disgrace, the Byzantine court despatched two hundred ships and eight thousand9 men9 to plunder the sea9-coast9 of Calabria and Apulia; they assaulted the ancient9 city9 of Tarentum, interrupted the trade and agriculture of an happy country9, and sailed back to the Hellespont, proud of their piratical victory over a people whom they still presumed to consider as their Roman9 brethren. Their retreat was possibly hastened by the activity of Theodoric; Italy9 was covered by a fleet9 of a thousand9 light vessels9, which he constructed with incredible despatch; and his firm moderation was soon9 rewarded by a solid and honourable peace. He maintained with a powerful hand the balance of the West9, till it was at length overthrown by the ambition of Clovis; and, although unable to assist his rash and unfortunate kinsman the king of the Visigoths, he saved the remains of his family and people, and checked the Franks in the midst of their victorious career. I am not desirous to prolong or repeat this narrative of military events, the least interesting of the reign of Theodoric; and shall be content to add that the Alemanni were protected, that an inroad of the Burgundians was severely chastised, and that the conquest9 of Arles and Marseilles opened a free communication with the Visigoths, who revered him both as their national protector and as the guardian of his grandchild, the infant son of Alaric. Under this respectable character, the king of Italy9 restored the Praetorian prefecture of the Gauls, reformed some abuses in the civil government of Spain, and accepted the annual tribute and apparent submission of its military governor, who wisely refused to trust his person in the palace of Ravenna. The Gothic sovereignty was established from Sicily to the Danube9, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the Atlantic Ocean9; and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged that Theodoric reigned over the fairest portion of the Western empire9.
The union of the Goths and Romans might have fixed for ages the transient happiness of Italy47; and the first of nations, a new people47 of free subjects and enlightened soldiers47, might have gradually arisen from the mutual emulation of their respective virtues. But the sublime merit47 of guiding or seconding such a revolution was not reserved for the reign47 of Theodoric; he wanted either the genius or the opportunities of a legislator; and, while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment of rude liberty, he servilely copied the institutions, and even the abuses, of the political system which had been framed by Constantine47 and his successors. From a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of Rome47, the Barbarian declined the name, the purple, and the diadem of the emperors; but he assumed, under the hereditary title of king, the whole substance and plenitude of Imperial47 prerogative. His addresses to the Eastern throne47 were respectful and ambiguous; he celebrated in pompous style the harmony of the two republics, applauded his own government47 as the perfect similitude of a sole and undivided empire47, and claimed above the kings of the earth the same pre-eminence which he modestly allowed to the person47 or rank47 of Anastasius. The alliance of the East47 and West was annually declared by the unanimous choice of two consuls; but it should seem that the Italian candidate who was named by Theodoric accepted a formal confirmation from the sovereign47 of Constantinople. The Gothic palace47 of Ravenna reflected the image of the court of Theodosius47 or Valentinian. The Praetorian prefect47, the prefect47 of Rome47, the quaestor, the master47 of the offices, with the public47 and patrimonial treasures, whose functions are painted in gaudy colours by the rhetoric of Cassiodorius, still continued to act as the ministers of state. And the subordinate care of justice47 and the revenue was delegated to seven consulars, three correctors, and five presidents, who governed the fifteen regions of Italy47, according to the principles and even the forms of Roman47 jurisprudence. The violence of the conquerors was abated or eluded by the slow artifice of judicial proceedings; the civil47 administration with its honours and emoluments was confined to the Italians; and the people47 still preserved their dress and language, their laws and customs, their personal freedom, and two-thirds of their landed property. It had been the object of Augustus to conceal the introduction of monarchy; it was the policy of Theodoric to disguise the reign47 of a Barbarian. If his subjects were sometimes awakened from this pleasing vision of a Roman47 government47, they derived more substantial comfort from the character of a Gothic prince47 who had penetration to discern, and firmness to pursue, his own and the public47 interest. Theodoric loved the virtues which he possessed, and the talents of which he was destitute. Liberius was promoted to the office of Praetorian prefect47 for his unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate cause of Odoacer. The ministers of Theodoric, Cassiodorius and Boethius, have reflected on his reign47 the lustre of their genius and learning. More prudent or more fortunate than his colleague, Cassiodorius preserved his own esteem without forfeiting the royal favour; and, after passing thirty years in the honours of the world, he was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout and studious solitude of Squillace.
As the patron of the republic, it was the interest and duty of the Gothic king to cultivate the affections of the senate and people12. The nobles12 of Rome12 were flattered by sonorous epithets and formal professions of respect, which had been more justly applied to the merit12 and authority of their ancestors. The people12 enjoyed, without fear or danger, the three blessings of a capital, order12, plenty, and public12 amusements. A visible diminution of their numbers may be found even in the measure of liberality; yet Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily poured their tribute of corn into the granaries of Rome12; an allowance of bread and meat was distributed to the indigent citizens12; and every office was deemed honourable which was consecrated to the care12 of their health and happiness. The public12 games, such as a Greek12 ambassador might politely applaud, exhibited a faint and feeble copy of the magnificence of the Caesars, yet the musical, the gymnastic, and the pantomime arts had not totally sunk in oblivion; the wild beasts of Africa still exercised in the amphitheatre the courage and dexterity of the hunters; and the indulgent Goth either patiently tolerated or gently restrained the blue and green factions, whose contests so often filled the circus with clamour, and even with blood. In the seventh year of his peaceful reign, Theodoric visited the old capital of the world; the senate and people12 advanced in solemn procession to salute a second Trajan, a new12 Valentinian; and he nobly supported that character12 by the assurance of a just and legal government, in a discourse which he was not afraid to pronounce in public12 and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome12, in this august ceremony12, shot a last ray of declining glory; and a saint, the spectator of this pompous scene, could only hope, in his pious fancy, that it was excelled by the celestial splendour of the New12 Jerusalem. During a residence of six months, the fame12, the person, and the courteous demeanour of the Gothic king excited the admiration of the Romans, and he contemplated, with equal curiosity and surprise, the monuments that remained of their ancient greatness. He imprinted the footsteps of a conqueror on the Capitoline hill, and frankly confessed that each day he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and his lofty column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, even in its decay, as a huge mountain artificially hollowed and polished, and adorned by human industry; and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold must have been drained to erect the colossal amphitheatre of Titus. From the mouths of fourteen aqueducts, a pure and copious stream was diffused into every part of the city12; among these the Claudian water, which arose at the distance of thirty-eight miles in the Sabine mountains, was conveyed along a gentle though constant declivity of solid arches, till it descended on the summit of the Aventine hill. The long and spacious vaults which had been constructed for the purpose of common sewers, subsisted, after twelve centuries, in their pristine strength; and the subterraneous channels have been preferred to all the visible wonders of Rome12. The Gothic kings12, so injuriously accused of the ruin of antiquity, were anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whom they had subdued. The royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses, the neglect, or the depredations of the citizens12 themselves; and a professed architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds12 of gold, twenty-five thousand12 tiles, and the receipt of customs from the Lucrine port were assigned for the ordinary repairs of the walls and public12 edifices. A similar care12 was extended to the statues of metal or marble of men or animals. The spirit12 of the horses, which have given a modern name to the Quirinal, was applauded by the Barbarians12; the brazen elephants of the Via sacra were diligently restored; the famous heifer of Myron deceived the cattle, as they were driven through the forum of Peace; and an officer was created to protect those works of art, which Theodoric considered as the noblest ornament of his kingdom.
After the example of the last emperors, Theodoric preferred the residence of Ravenna, where he cultivated an orchard with his own hands. As often as the peace of his kingdom was threatened (for it was never invaded) by the Barbarians9, he removed his court to Verona on the northern frontier, and the image of his palace, still extant, on a coin, represents the oldest and most authentic model of Gothic architecture. These two capitals, as well as Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, and the rest of the Italian cities9, acquired under his reign the useful or splendid decorations of churches, aqueducts, baths, porticoes, and palaces. But the happiness of the subject was more truly conspicuous in the busy scene of labour and luxury, in the rapid increase and bold enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades of Tibur and Praeneste, the Roman9 senators still retired in the winter season to the warm sun and salubrious springs of Baiae; and their villas, which advanced on solid moles into the bay of Naples, commanded the various prospect of the sky, the earth, and the water. On the eastern side of the Hadriatic, a new9 campania was formed in the fair and fruitful province9 of Istria, which communicated with the palace of Ravenna by an easy navigation of one hundred miles9. The rich productions of Lucania and the adjacent provinces9 were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a populous fair annually dedicated to trade, intemperance, and superstition. In the solitude of Comum, which had once been animated by the mild genius of Pliny, a transparent bason above sixty miles9 in length still reflected the rural seats which encompassed the margin of the Larian lake; and the gradual ascent of the hills was covered by a triple plantation of olives, of vines, and of chestnut trees. Agriculture revived under the shadow of peace, and the number of husbandmen was multiplied by the redemption of captives. The iron mines of Dalmatia, a gold mine in Bruttium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine marshes, as well as those of Spoleto, were drained and cultivated by private undertakers, whose distant reward must depend on the continuance of the public prosperity. Whenever the seasons were less propitious, the doubtful precautions of forming magazines of corn, fixing the price, and prohibiting the exportation attested at least the benevolence of the state; but such was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious people produced from a grateful soil that a gallon of wine was sometimes sold in Italy9 for less than three farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about five shillings and sixpence. A country9 possessed of so many valuable objects of exchange soon9 attracted the merchants of the world, whose beneficial traffic was encouraged and protected by the liberal spirit of Theodoric. The free intercourse of the provinces9 by land and water was restored and extended; the city9 gates were never shut either by day or by night; and the common saying, that a purse of gold might be safely left in the fields, was expressive of the conscious security of the inhabitants9.
A difference of religion33 is always pernicious and often fatal to the harmony of the prince and people33; the Gothic conqueror had been educated in the profession of Arianism, and Italy was devoutly attached to the Nicene faith33. But the persuasion of Theodoric was not infected by zeal33, and he piously adhered to the heresy33 of his fathers, without condescending to balance the subtile arguments of theological33 metaphysics. Satisfied with the private toleration of his Arian33 sectaries, he justly conceived himself to be the guardian of the public worship, and his external reverence for a superstition which he despised may have nourished in his mind the salutary indifference of a statesman or philosopher. The Catholics33 of his dominions acknowledged, perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the church33; their clergy33, according to the degrees of rank or merit, were honourably entertained in the palace of Theodoric; he esteemed the living sanctity of Caesarius and Epiphanius, the orthodox33 bishops33 of Arles and Pavia; and presented a decent offering on the tomb of St33. Peter, without any scrupulous inquiry into the creed33 of the apostle. His favourite Goths, and even his mother, were permitted to retain or embrace the Athanasian faith33, and his long reign could not afford the example of an Italian Catholic33 who either from choice or compulsion had deviated into the religion33 of the conqueror. The people33, and the Barbarians themselves, were edified by the pomp and order of religious33 worship; the magistrates were instructed to defend the just immunities of ecclesiastical33 persons and possessions; the bishops33 held their synods33, the metropolitans exercised their jurisdiction, and the privileges of sanctuary were maintained or moderated according to the spirit of the Roman jurisprudence. With the protection, Theodoric assumed the legal supremacy of the church33; and his firm administration restored or extended some useful prerogatives which had been neglected by the feeble emperors of the West33. He was not ignorant of the dignity and importance of the Roman pontiff, to whom the venerable name of Pope33 was now appropriated. The peace or the revolt of Italy might depend on the character of a wealthy and popular bishop33, who claimed such ample dominion both in heaven and earth; who had been declared in a numerous synod33 to be pure from all sin, and exempt from all judgment. When at his summons the chair of St33. Peter was disputed by Symmachus and Lawrence, they appeared before the tribunal of an Arian33 monarch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy or the most obsequious candidate. At the end of his life, in a moment of jealousy and resentment, he prevented the choice of the Romans, by nominating a pope33 in the palace of Ravenna. The danger and furious contests of a schism33 were mildly restrained, and the last decree of the senate was enacted to extinguish, if it were possible, the scandalous venality of the papal elections.
I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate condition of Italy22; but our fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden age22 of the poets, a race of men without vice or misery, was realised under the Gothic conquest. The fair prospect was sometimes overcast with clouds; the wisdom of Theodoric might be deceived, his power22 might be resisted, and the declining age22 of the monarch was sullied with popular hatred and patrician blood22. In the first insolence of victory, he had been tempted to deprive the whole party of Odoacer of the civil and even the natural rights of society; a tax unseasonably imposed after the calamities of war22 would have crushed the rising agriculture of Liguria; a rigid pre-emption of corn, which was intended for the public22 relief, must have aggravated the distress of Campania. These dangerous projects were defeated by the virtue22 and eloquence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, in the presence of Theodoric himself, successfully pleaded the cause of the people22; but, if the royal ear was open to the voice of truth, a saint and a philosopher are not always to be found at the ear of kings. The privileges of rank, or office, or favour were too frequently abused by Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice of the king's nephew was publicly exposed, at first by the usurpation, and afterwards by the restitution, of the estates which he had unjustly extorted from his Tuscan neighbours. Two hundred thousand Barbarians, formidable even to their master, were seated in the heart of Italy22; they indignantly supported the restraints of peace22 and discipline; the disorders of their march were always felt and sometimes compensated; and, where it was dangerous to punish, it might be prudent to dissemble, the sallies of their native fierceness. When the indulgence of Theodoric had remitted two thirds of the Ligurian tribute, he condescended to explain the difficulties of his situation, and to lament the heavy though inevitable burdens which he imposed on his subjects for their own defence. These ungrateful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to the origin, the religion, of even the virtues22 of the Gothic conqueror; past calamities were forgotten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries was rendered still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times22.
Even the religious toleration which Theodoric had the glory of introducing into the Christian world was painful and offensive to the orthodox zeal of the Italians. They respected the armed heresy of the Goths; but their pious rage was safely pointed against the rich and defenceless Jews, who had formed their establishments at Naples, Rome47, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa, for the benefit of trade, and under the sanction of the laws. Their persons were insulted, their effects were pillaged, and their synagogues were burnt by the mad populace of Ravenna and Rome47, inflamed, as it should seem, by the most frivolous or extravagant pretences. The government47 which could neglect, would have deserved, such an outrage. A legal inquiry was instantly directed; and, as the authors of the tumult had escaped in the crowd, the whole community was condemned to repair the damage; and the obstinate bigots who refused their contributions were whipped through the streets by the hand of the executioner. This simple act of justice47 exasperated the discontent of the Catholics, who applauded the merit47 and patience of these holy confessors; three hundred pulpits deplored the persecution of the church; and, if the chapel of St. Stephen at Verona was demolished by the command47 of Theodoric, it is probable that some miracle hostile to his name and dignity had been performed on that sacred theatre. At the close of a glorious life47, the king of Italy47 discovered that he had excited the hatred of a people47 whose happiness he had so assiduously laboured to promote; and his mind was soured by indignation, jealousy, and the bitterness of unrequited love. The Gothic conqueror condescended to disarm the unwarlike natives of Italy47, interdicting all weapons of offence, and excepting only a small knife for domestic use. The deliverer of Rome47 was accused of conspiring with the vilest informers against the lives of senators whom he suspected of a secret47 and treasonable correspondence with the Byzantine court. After the death47 of Anastasius, the diadem had been placed on the head of a feeble old man; but the powers of government47 were assumed by his nephew Justinian, who already meditated the extirpation of heresy, and the conquest of Italy47 and Africa. A rigorous law which was published at Constantinople, to reduce the Arians by the dread of punishment within the pale of the church, awakened the just resentment of Theodoric, who claimed for his distressed brethren of the East47 the same indulgence which he had so long47 granted to the Catholics of his dominions. At his stern command47, the Roman47 pontiff, with four illustrious senators, embarked on an embassy, of which he must have alike dreaded the failure or the success. The singular veneration shewn to the first pope who had visited Constantinople was punished as a crime by his jealous monarch; the artful or peremptory refusal of the Byzantine court might excuse an equal, and would provoke a larger, measure of retaliation; and a mandate was prepared in Italy47, to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise of the Catholic worship. By the bigotry of his subjects and enemies, the most tolerant of princes was driven to the brink of persecution; and the life47 of Theodoric was too long47, since he lived to condemn the virtue of Boethius and Symmachus.
The senator Boethius is the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for their countryman. As a wealthy orphan, he inherited the patrimony and honours of the Anician family, a name ambitiously assumed by the kings and emperors of the age46; and the appellation of Manlius asserted his genuine or fabulous descent from a race of consuls and dictators, who had repulsed the Gauls from the Capitol and sacrificed their sons to the discipline of the republic. In the youth of Boethius, the studies of Rome46 were not totally abandoned; a Virgil is now extant, corrected by the hand of a consul; and the professors of grammar, rhetoric46, and jurisprudence46 were maintained in their privileges and pensions by the liberality of the Goths. But the erudition of the Latin language was insufficient to satiate his ardent curiosity46; and Boethius is said to have employed46 eighteen laborious years46 in the schools of Athens, which were supported by the zeal, the learning, and the diligence of Proclus and his disciples. The reason and piety of their Roman46 pupil were fortunately saved from the contagion of mystery and magic, which polluted the groves of the academy; but he imbibed the spirit, and imitated the method, of his dead and living masters, who attempted to reconcile the strong and subtle sense of Aristotle with the devout contemplation and sublime fancy of Plato46. After his return to Rome46 and his marriage with the daughter of his friend, the patrician Symmachus, Boethius still continued, in a palace of ivory and marble, to prosecute the same studies. The church was edified by his profound defence of the orthodox creed against the Arian, the Eutychian, and the Nestorian heresies; and the Catholic unity was explained or exposed in a formal treatise by the indifference of three distinct though consubstantial persons. For the benefit of his Latin readers, his genius46 submitted to teach the first elements of the arts46 and sciences of Greece. The geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics of Archimedes, the astronomy of Ptolemy, the theology of Plato46, and the logic of Aristotle, with the commentary of Porphyry, were translated and illustrated by the indefatigable pen of the Roman46 senator. And he alone was esteemed capable of describing the wonders of art, a sundial, a water-clock, or a sphere which represented the motions of the planets. From these abstruse speculations, Boethius stooped, or, to speak more truly, he rose to the social duties of public46 and private life46: the indigent were relieved by his liberality; and his eloquence46, which flattery might compare to the voice of Demosthenes or Cicero, was uniformly exerted in the cause of innocence and humanity. Such conspicuous merit46 was felt and rewarded by a discerning prince; the dignity46 of Boethius was adorned with the titles of consul and patrician, and his talents were usefully employed46 in the important46 station of master of the offices. Notwithstanding the equal claims of the East and West, his two sons were created, in their tender youth, the consuls of the same year. On the memorable day of their inauguration, they proceeded in solemn pomp from their palace to the forum, amidst the applause of the senate and people46; and their joyful father, the true consul of Rome46, after pronouncing an oration in the praise of his royal benefactor, distributed a triumphal largess in the games of the circus. Prosperous in his fame and fortunes, in his public46 honours and private alliances, in the cultivation of science and the consciousness of virtue46, Boethius might have been styled happy, if that precarious epithet could be safely applied before the last term of the life46 of man.
A philosopher, liberal of his wealth and parsimonious of his time, might be insensible to the common allurements of ambition, the thirst of gold and employment. And some credit may be due to the asseveration of Boethius, that he had reluctantly obeyed the divine Plato, who enjoins every virtuous citizen to rescue the state from the usurpation of vice and ignorance. For the integrity of his public47 conduct47 he appeals to the memory of his country. His authority47 had restrained the pride and oppression of the royal officers, and his eloquence had delivered Paulianus from the dogs of the palace47. He had always pitied, and often relieved, the distress of the provincials, whose fortunes were exhausted by public47 and private47 rapine; and Boethius alone had courage to oppose the tyranny of the Barbarians, elated by conquest, excited by avarice, and, as he complains, encouraged by impunity. In these honourable contests, his spirit47 soared above the consideration of danger47, and perhaps of prudence; and we may learn from the example of Cato that a character of pure and inflexible virtue is the most apt to be misled by prejudice, to be heated by enthusiasm, and to confound private47 enmities with public47 justice47. The disciple of Plato might exaggerate the infirmities of nature and the imperfections of society; and the mildest form of a Gothic kingdom, even the weight of allegiance and gratitude, must be insupportable to the free spirit47 of a Roman47 patriot. But the favour and fidelity of Boethius declined in just proportion with the public47 happiness; and an unworthy colleague was imposed, to divide and control the power47 of the master47 of the offices. In the last gloomy season of Theodoric, he indignantly felt that he was a slave; but, as his master47 had only power47 over his life47, he stood without arms47 and without fear against the face of an angry Barbarian, who had been provoked to believe that the safety of the senate47 was incompatible with his own. The senator Albinus was accused and already convicted on the presumption of hoping, as it was said, the liberty of Rome47. If Albinus be criminal, exclaimed the orator, the senate47 and myself are all guilty of the same crime. If we are innocent, Albinus is equally entitled to the protection of the laws. These laws might not have punished the simple and barren wish of an unattainable blessing; but they would have shewn less indulgence to the rash confession of Boethius that, had he known of a conspiracy, the tyrant47 never should. The advocate of Albinus was soon47 involved in the danger47 and perhaps the guilt of his client; their signature (which they denied as a forgery) was affixed to the original address, inviting the emperor47 to deliver Italy47 from the Goths; and three witnesses of honourable rank47, perhaps of infamous reputation, attested the treasonable designs of the Roman47 patrician. Yet his innocence must be presumed, since he was deprived by Theodoric of the means of justification, and rigorously confined in the tower of Pavia, while the senate47, at the distance of five hundred miles, pronounced a sentence of confiscation and death47 against the most illustrious of its members. At the command47 of the Barbarians, the occult science of a philosopher was stigmatised with the names of sacrilege and magic. A devout and dutiful attachment to the senate47 was condemned as criminal by the trembling voices of the senators themselves; and their ingratitude deserved the wish or prediction of Boethius, that, after him, none should be found guilty of the same offence.
While Boethius, oppressed with fetters, expected each moment the sentence or the stroke of death8, he composed in the tower of Pavia the Consolation of Philosophy; a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, but which claims incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the situation of the author. The celestial guide, whom he had so long invoked at Rome and Athens, now condescended to illumine his dungeon, to revive his courage, and to pour into his wounds her salutary balm. She taught him to compare his long prosperity and his recent distress, and to conceive new hopes from the inconstancy of fortune. Reason8 had informed him of the precarious condition of her gifts; experience had satisfied him of their real value; he had enjoyed them without guilt; he might resign them without a sigh, and calmly disdain the impotent malice of his enemies, who had left him happiness8, since they had left him virtue8. From the earth, Boethius ascended to heaven in search of the supreme good; explored the metaphysical labyrinth of chance and destiny, of prescience and free-will, of time8 and eternity; and generously attempted to reconcile the perfect attributes of the Deity8 with the apparent disorders of his moral and physical government. Such topics of consolation, so obvious, so vague, or so abstruse, are ineffectual to subdue the feelings of human8 nature8. Yet the sense of misfortune may be diverted by the labour of thought; and the sage who could artfully combine in the same work the various8 riches of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, must already have possessed the intrepid calmness which he affected to seek. Suspense, the worst of evils, was at length determined by the ministers of death8, who executed, and perhaps exceeded, the inhuman mandate of Theodoric. A strong cord was fastened round the head of Boethius and forcibly tightened, till his eyes almost started from their sockets; and some mercy may be discovered in the milder torture of beating him with clubs till he expired. But his genius survived to diffuse a ray of knowledge over the darkest ages of the Latin world8; the writings of the philosopher8 were translated by the most glorious of the English kings; and the third emperor of the name of Otho removed to a more honourable tomb the bones of a Catholic saint, who, from his Arian persecutors, had acquired the honours of martyrdom and the fame of miracles. In the last hours of Boethius, he derived some comfort from the safety of his two sons, of his wife, and of his father-in-law, the venerable Symmachus. But the grief of Symmachus was indiscreet, and perhaps disrespectful: he had presumed to lament, he might dare to revenge, the death8 of an injured friend. He was dragged in chains from Rome to the palace of Ravenna; and the suspicions of Theodoric could only be appeased by the blood of an innocent and aged senator.
Humanity will be disposed to encourage any report which testifies the jurisdiction of conscience and the remorse of kings; and philosophy is not ignorant that the most horrid spectres are sometimes created by the powers of a disordered fancy and the weakness of a distempered body. After a life8 of virtue8 and glory, Theodoric was now descending with shame and guilt into the grave: his mind8 was humbled by the contrast of the past, and justly alarmed by the invisible terrors of futurity. One evening, as it is related, when the head of a large fish was served on the royal table, he suddenly exclaimed that he beheld the angry countenance of Symmachus, his eyes glaring fury and revenge, and his mouth armed with long sharp teeth which threatened to devour him. The monarch instantly retired to his chamber, and, as he lay trembling with aguish cold, under a weight of bedclothes, he expressed in broken murmurs to his physician Elpidius his deep repentance for the murders of Boethius and Symmachus. His malady increased, and, after a dysentery which continued three days, he expired in the palace of Ravenna, in the thirty-third, or, if we compute from the invasion of Italy, in the thirty-seventh year of his reign8. Conscious of his approaching end, he divided his treasures and provinces between his two grandsons, and fixed the Rhone as their common boundary. Amalaric was restored to the throne of Spain. Italy, with all the conquests of the Ostrogoths, was bequeathed to Athalaric; whose age8 did not exceed ten years, but who was cherished as the last male offspring of the line of Amali, by the short-lived marriage of his mother Amalasuntha with a royal fugitive of the same blood. In the presence of the dying monarch, the Gothic chiefs and Italian magistrates mutually engaged their faith8 and loyalty to the young prince and to his guardian mother; and received, in the same awful moment, his last salutary advice, to maintain the laws8, to love the senate and people of Rome, and to cultivate with decent reverence the friendship of the emperor. The monument of Theodoric was erected by his daughter Amalasuntha, in a conspicuous situation, which commanded the city of Ravenna, the harbour, and the adjacent coast. A chapel of a circular form, thirty feet in diameter, is crowned by a dome of one entire piece of granite: from the centre of the dome four columns arose, which supported, in a vase of porphyry, the remains of the Gothic king, surrounded by the brazen statues of the twelve apostles. His spirit, after some previous expiation, might have been permitted to mingle with the benefactors of mankind8, if an Italian hermit had not been witness in a vision to the damnation of Theodoric, whose soul was plunged, by the ministers of divine8 vengeance, into the vulcano of Lipari, one of the flaming mouths of the infernal world8.
The emperor47 Justinian was born near the ruins of Sardica (the modern Sophia), of an obscure race of Barbarians, the inhabitants of a wild and desolate country, to which the names of Dardania, of Dacia, and of Bulgaria have been successively applied. His elevation was prepared by the adventurous spirit47 of his uncle Justin, who, with two other peasants of the same village, deserted, for the profession of arms47, the more useful employment of husbandmen or shepherds. On foot, with a scanty provision of biscuit in their knapsacks, the three youths followed the highroad of Constantinople, and were soon47 enrolled, for their strength and stature, among the guards of the emperor47 Leo. Under the two succeeding reigns, the fortunate peasant emerged to wealth and honours; and his escape from some dangers which threatened his life47 was afterwards ascribed to the guardian angel who watches over the fate of kings. His long47 and laudable service in the Isaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved from oblivion the name of Justin; yet they might warrant the military47 promotion which in the course of fifty years he gradually obtained; the rank47 of tribune, of count, and of general47, the dignity of senator, and the command47 of the guards, who obeyed him as their chief, at the important crisis when the emperor47 Anastasius was removed from the world. The powerful kinsmen whom he had raised and enriched were excluded from the throne47; and the eunuch Amantius, who reigned in the palace47, had secretly resolved to fix the diadem on the head of the most obsequious of his creatures. A liberal donative, to conciliate the suffrage of the guards, was entrusted for that purpose in the hands of their commander. But these weighty arguments were treacherously employed by Justin in his own favour; and, as no competitor presumed to appear, the Dacian peasant was invested with the purple, by the unanimous consent of the soldiers47 who knew him to be brave and gentle, of the clergy and people47 who believed him to be orthodox, and of the provincials who yielded a blind and implicit submission to the will of the capital. The elder Justin, as he is distinguished from another emperor47 of the same family and name, ascended the Byzantine throne47 at the age47 of sixty-eight years; and, had he been left to his own guidance, every moment of a nine years' reign47 must have exposed to his subjects the impropriety of their choice. His ignorance was similar to that of Theodoric; and it is remarkable that, in an age47 not destitute of learning, two contemporary monarchs had never been instructed in the knowledge of the alphabet. But the genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the Gothic king; the experience of a soldier had not qualified him for the government47 of an empire47; and, though personally brave, the consciousness of his own weakness was naturally attended with doubt, distrust, and political apprehension. But the official business of the state was diligently and faithfully transacted by the quaestor Proclus: and the aged emperor47 adopted the talents and ambition of his nephew Justinian, an aspiring youth, whom his uncle had drawn from the rustic solitude of Dacia, and educated at Constantinople, as the heir of his private47 fortune, and at length of the Eastern empire47.
Since the eunuch Amantius had been defrauded of his money, it became necessary to deprive him of his life47. The task was easily accomplished by the charge of a real or fictitious conspiracy; and the judges were informed, as an accumulation of guilt, that he was secretly addicted to the Manichaean heresy. Amantius lost his head; three of his companions, the first domestics of the palace47, were punished either with death47 or exile; and their unfortunate candidate for the purple was cast into a deep dungeon, overwhelmed with stones, and ignominiously thrown, without burial, into the sea. The ruin of Vitalian was a work of more difficulty and danger47. That Gothic chief had rendered himself popular by the civil47 war47 which he boldly waged against Anastasius for the defence of the orthodox faith, and, after the conclusion of an advantageous treaty, he still remained in the neighbourhood of Constantinople at the head of a formidable and victorious army47 of Barbarians. By the frail security of oaths, he was tempted to relinquish this advantageous situation, and to trust his person47 within the walls of a city47 whose inhabitants, particularly the blue faction, were artfully incensed against him by the remembrance even of his pious hostilities. The emperor47 and his nephew embraced him as the faithful and worthy champion of the church and state; and gratefully adorned their favourite with the titles of consul and general47; but, in the seventh month of his consulship, Vitalian was stabbed with seventeen wounds at the royal banquet; and Justinian, who inherited the spoil, was accused as the assassin of a spiritual brother, to whom he had recently pledged his faith in the participation of the Christian mysteries. After the fall of his rival, he was promoted, without any claim of military47 service, to the office of master47-general47 of the Eastern armies, whom it was his duty to lead into the field against the public47 enemy. But, in the pursuit of fame, Justinian might have lost his present dominion over the age47 and weakness of his uncle; and instead of acquiring by Scythian or Persian trophies the applause of his countrymen, the prudent warrior solicited their favour in the churches, the circus, and the senate47 of Constantinople. The Catholics were attached to the nephew of Justin, who, between the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, trod the narrow path of inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy. In the first days of the new reign47, he prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasm against the memory of the deceased emperor47. After a schism of thirty-four years, he reconciled the proud and angry spirit47 of the Roman47 pontiff, and spread among the Latins a favourable report of his pious respect for the apostolic see. The thrones of the East47 were filled with Catholic bishops devoted to his interest, the clergy and the monks were gained by his liberality, and the people47 were taught to pray for their future sovereign47, the hope and pillar of the true religion. The magnificence of Justinian was displayed in the superior pomp of his public47 spectacles, an object not less sacred and important in the eyes of the multitude than the creed of Nice or Chalcedon; the expense of his consulship was estimated at two hundred and eighty-eight thousand pieces of gold; twenty lions, and thirty leopards, were produced at the same time in the amphitheatre, and a numerous train of horses, with their rich trappings, was bestowed as an extraordinary gift on the victorious charioteers of the circus. While he indulged the people47 of Constantinople, and received the addresses of foreign kings, the nephew of Justin assiduously cultivated the friendship of the senate47. That venerable name seemed to qualify its members to declare the sense of the nation, and to regulate the succession of the Imperial47 throne47; the feeble Anastasius had permitted the vigour of government47 to degenerate into the form or substance of an aristocracy; and the military47 officers who had obtained the senatorial rank47 were followed by their domestic guards, a band of veterans, whose arms47 or acclamations might fix in a tumultuous moment the diadem of the East47. The treasures of the state were lavished to procure the voices of the senators, and their unanimous wish, that he would be pleased to adopt Justinian for his colleague, was communicated to the emperor47. But this request, which too clearly admonished him of his approaching end, was unwelcome to the jealous temper of an aged monarch, desirous to retain the power47 which he was incapable of exercising; and Justin, holding his purple with both his hands, advised them to prefer, since an election was so profitable, some older candidate. Notwithstanding this reproach, the senate47 proceeded to decorate Justinian with the royal epithet of nobilissimus; and their decree was ratified by the affection or the fears of his uncle. After some time the languor of mind and body, to which he was reduced by an incurable wound in his thigh, indispensably required the aid of a guardian. He summoned the patriarch and senators; and in their presence solemnly placed the diadem on the head of his nephew, who was conducted from the palace47 to the circus, and saluted by the loud and joyful applause of the people47. The life47 of Justin was prolonged about four months, but from the instant of this ceremony he was considered as dead to the empire47, which acknowledged Justinian, in the forty-fifth year of his age47, for the lawful sovereign47 of the East47.
From his elevation to his death22, Justinian22 governed the Roman22 empire22 thirty-eight years22, seven months, and thirteen days. The events of his reign22, which excite our curious attention by their number, variety, and importance, are diligently related by the secretary of Belisarius, a rhetorician whom eloquence had promoted to the rank of senator and prefect of Constantinople22. According to the vicissitudes of courage or servitude, of favour or disgrace, Procopius successively composed the history22, the panegyric, and the satire of his own times22. The eight books of the Persian, Vandalic, and Gothic wars, which are continued in the five books of Agathias, deserve our esteem as a laborious and successful imitation of the Attic, or at least of the Asiatic, writers of ancient Greece. His facts are collected from the personal experience and free conversation of a soldier, a statesman, and a traveller; his style continually aspires, and often attains, to the merit22 of strength and elegance; his reflections, more especially in the speeches, which he too frequently inserts, contain a rich fund of political knowledge; and the historian22, excited by the generous ambition of pleasing and instructing posterity, appears to disdain the prejudices of the people22 and the flattery of courts. The writings of Procopius were read and applauded by his contemporaries; but, although he respectfully laid them at the foot of the throne22, the pride of Justinian22 must have been wounded by the praise of an hero, who perpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive sovereign. The conscious dignity of independence was subdued by the hopes and fears of a slave; and the secretary of Belisarius laboured for pardon and reward in the six books of the Imperial edifices. He had dexterously chosen a subject22 of apparent splendour, in which he could loudly celebrate the genius, the magnificence, and the piety of a prince22 who, both as a conqueror and legislator, had surpassed the puerile virtues22 of Themistocles and Cyrus. Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge; and the first glance of favour might again tempt him to suspend and suppress a libel, in which the Roman22 Cyrus is degraded into an odious and contemptible tyrant, in which both the emperor22 and his consort Theodora are seriously represented as two demons, who had assumed an human22 form for the destruction of mankind. Such base inconsistency must doubtless sully the reputation, and detract from the credit, of Procopius; yet, after the venom of his malignity has been suffered to exhale, the residue of the anecdotes, even the most disgraceful facts, some of which had been tenderly hinted in his public22 history22, are established by their internal evidence, or the authentic monuments of the times22. From these various22 materials, I shall now proceed to describe the reign22 of Justinian22, which will deserve and occupy an ample space. The present chapter will explain the elevation and character22 of Theodora, the factions of the circus, and the peaceful administration of the sovereign of the East22. In the three succeeding chapters I shall relate the wars of Justinian22 which achieved the conquest of Africa and Italy22; and I shall follow the victories of Belisarius and Narses, without disguising the vanity of their triumphs, or the hostile virtue22 of the Persian and Gothic heroes. The series of this and the following volume will embrace the jurisprudence and theology of the emperor22; the controversies and sects which still divide the Oriental church; the reformation of the Roman22 law, which is obeyed or respected by the nations22 of modern Europe.
I. In the exercise of supreme power47, the first act of Justinian was to divide it with the woman whom he loved, the famous Theodora, whose strange elevation cannot be applauded as the triumph of female virtue. Under the reign47 of Anastasius, the care of the wild beasts maintained by the green faction of Constantinople was entrusted to Acacius, a native of the isle of Cyprus, who, from his employment, was surnamed the master47 of the bears. This honourable office was given after his death47 to another candidate, notwithstanding the diligence of his widow, who had already provided a husband and a successor. Acacius had left three daughters, Comito, Theodora, and Anastasia, the eldest of whom did not then exceed the age47 of seven years. On a solemn festival, these helpless orphans were sent by their distressed and indignant mother, in the garb of suppliants, into the midst of the theatre; the green faction received them with contempt, the blues with compassion; and this difference, which sunk deep into the mind of Theodora, was felt long47 afterwards in the administration of the empire47. As they improved in age47 and beauty, the three sisters were successively devoted to the public47 and private47 pleasures of the Byzantine people47; and Theodora, after following Comito on the stage, in the dress of a slave, with a stool on her head, was at length permitted to exercise her independent talents. She neither danced, nor sung, nor played on the flute; her skill was confined to the pantomime arts; she excelled in buffoon characters, and, as often as the comedian swelled her cheeks, and complained with a ridiculous tone and gesture of the blows that were inflicted, the whole theatre of Constantinople resounded with laughter and applause. The beauty of Theodora was the subject of more flattering praise, and the source of more exquisite delight. Her features were delicate and regular; her complexion, though somewhat pale, was tinged with a natural colour; every sensation was instantly expressed by the vivacity of her eyes; her easy motions displayed the graces of a small but elegant figure; and even love or adulation might proclaim that painting and poetry were incapable of delineating the matchless excellence of her form. But this form was degraded by the facility with which it was exposed to the public47 eye and prostituted to licentious desire. Her venal charms were abandoned to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers, of every rank47, and of every profession; the fortunate lover who had been promised a night of enjoyment was often driven from her bed by a stronger or more wealthy favourite; and, when she passed through the streets, her presence was avoided by all who wished to escape either the scandal or the temptation. The satirical historian has not blushed to describe the naked scenes which Theodora was not ashamed to exhibit in the theatre. After exhausting the arts of sensual pleasure, she most ungratefully murmured against the parsimony of Nature; but her murmurs, her pleasures, and her arts must be veiled in the obscurity of a learned language. After reigning for some time, the delight and contempt of the capital, she condescended to accompany Ecebolus, a native of Tyre, who had obtained the government47 of the African Pentapolis. But this union was frail and transient; Ecebolus soon47 rejected an expensive or faithless concubine; she was reduced at Alexandria to extreme distress; and, in her laborious return to Constantinople, every city47 of the East47 admired and enjoyed the fair Cyprian, whose merit47 appeared to justify her descent from the peculiar island of Venus. The vague commerce of Theodora, and the most detestable precautions, preserved her from the danger47 which she feared; yet once, and once only, she became a mother. The infant was saved and educated in Arabia, by his father47, who imparted to him on his death47-bed that he was the son47 of an empress. Filled with ambitious hopes, the unsuspecting youth immediately hastened to the palace47 of Constantinople, and was admitted to the presence of his mother. As he was never more seen, even after the decease of Theodora, she deserves the foul imputation of extinguishing with his life47 a secret47 so offensive to her Imperial47 virtue.
In the most abject state0 of her fortune0 and reputation, some vision, either of sleep or of fancy, had whispered to Theodora the pleasing assurance that she was destined to become the spouse of a potent monarch. Conscious of her approaching greatness, she returned from Paphlagonia to Constantinople; assumed, like a skilful actress, a more decent character; relieved her poverty by the laudable industry of spinning wool; and affected a life of chastity and solitude in a small house, which she afterwards changed into a magnificent temple. Her beauty, assisted by art0 or accident, soon attracted, captivated, and fixed the patrician Justinian, who already reigned with absolute sway under the name of his uncle. Perhaps she contrived to enhance the value of a gift which she had so often lavished on the meanest of mankind; perhaps she inflamed, at first by modest delays, and at last by sensual allurements, the desires of a lover, who from nature or devotion was addicted to long0 vigils and abstemious diet. When his first transports had subsided, she still maintained the same ascendant over his mind, by the more solid merit of temper and understanding. Justinian delighted to ennoble and enrich the object of his affection; the treasures of the East0 were poured at her feet; and the nephew of Justin was determined, perhaps by religious scruples, to bestow on his concubine the sacred and legal character of a wife. But the laws of Rome0 expressly prohibited the marriage of a senator with any female who had been dishonoured by a servile origin or theatrical profession; the empress Lupicina, or Euphemia, a Barbarian of rustic manners0 but of irreproachable virtue, refused to accept a prostitute for her niece; and even Vigilantia, the superstitious mother of Justinian, though she acknowledged the wit and beauty of Theodora, was seriously apprehensive lest the levity and arrogance of that artful paramour might corrupt the piety and happiness of her son. These obstacles were removed by the inflexible constancy of Justinian. He patiently expected the death of the empress; he despised the tears of his mother, who soon sunk under the weight of her affliction; and a law was promulgated in the name of the emperor Justin, which abolished the rigid jurisprudence of antiquity. A glorious repentance (the words of the edict) was left open for the unhappy females who had prostituted their persons on the theatre, and they were permitted to contract a legal union with the most illustrious of the Romans. This indulgence was speedily followed by the solemn nuptials of Justinian and Theodora; her dignity was gradually exalted with that of her lover; and, as soon as Justin had invested his nephew with the purple, the patriarch of Constantinople placed the diadem on the heads of the emperor and empress of the East0. But the usual honours which the severity of Roman0 manners0 had allowed to the wives of princes0 could not satisfy either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness of Justinian. He seated her on the throne as an equal and independent colleague in the sovereignty of the empire0, and an oath of allegiance was imposed on the governors of the provinces in the joint names0 of Justinian and Theodora. The Eastern world0 fell prostrate before the genius0 and fortune0 of the daughter of Acacius. The prostitute, who, in the presence of innumerable spectators, had polluted the theatre of Constantinople, was adored as a queen in the same city, by grave magistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious generals, and captive monarchs.
Those who believe that the female mind is totally depraved by the loss of chastity will eagerly listen to all the invectives of private47 envy or popular resentment, which have dissembled the virtues of Theodora, exaggerated her vices, and condemned with rigour the venal or voluntary sins of the youthful harlot. From a motive of shame or contempt, she often declined the servile homage of the multitude, escaped from the odious light of the capital, and passed the greatest part of the year in the palaces and gardens which were pleasantly seated on the sea-coast of the Propontis and the Bosphorus. Her private47 hours were devoted to the prudent as well as grateful care of her beauty, the luxury of the bath and table, and the long47 slumber of the evening and the morning. Her secret47 apartments were occupied by the favourite women and eunuchs, whose interests and passions she indulged at the expense of justice47; the most illustrious personages of the state were crowded into a dark and sultry antichamber, and when at last, after tedious attendance, they were admitted to kiss the feet of Theodora, they experienced, as her humour might suggest, the silent arrogance of an empress or the capricious levity of a comedian. Her rapacious avarice to accumulate an immense treasure may be excused by the apprehension of her husband's death47, which could leave no alternative between ruin and the throne47; and fear as well as ambition might exasperate Theodora against two generals, who, during a malady of the emperor47, had rashly declared that they were not disposed to acquiesce in the choice of the capital. But the reproach of cruelty, so repugnant even to her softer vices, has left an indelible stain on the memory of Theodora. Her numerous spies observed, and zealously reported, every action, or word, or look, injurious to their royal mistress. Whomsoever they accused were cast into her peculiar prisons, inaccessible to the inquiries of justice47; and it was rumoured that the torture of the rack or scourge had been inflicted in the presence of a female tyrant47, insensible to the voice of prayer or of pity. Some of these unhappy victims perished in deep unwholesome dungeons, while others were permitted, after the loss of their limbs, their reason, or their fortune, to appear in the world the living monuments of her vengeance, which was commonly extended to the children of those whom she had suspected or injured. The senator, or bishop, whose death47 or exile Theodora had pronounced, was delivered to a trusty messenger, and his diligence was quickened by a menace from her own mouth. If you fail in the execution of my commands, I swear by him who liveth for ever, that your skin shall be flayed from your body.
If the creed of Theodora45 had not been tainted with heresy, her exemplary devotion might have atoned, in the opinion of her contemporaries, for pride, avarice, and cruelty. But, if she employed her influence to assuage the intolerant fury of the emperor45, the present age will allow some merit45 to her religion, and much indulgence to her speculative errors. The name of Theodora45 was introduced, with equal honour, in all the pious45 and charitable foundations of Justinian45; and the most benevolent institution of his reign45 may be ascribed to the sympathy of the empress45 for her less fortunate sisters, who had been seduced or compelled to embrace the trade of prostitution. A palace45, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, was converted into a stately and spacious monastery, and a liberal maintenance was assigned to five hundred women, who had been collected from the streets and brothels of Constantinople45. In this safe and holy retreat, they were devoted to perpetual confinement; and the despair of some, who threw themselves headlong into the sea, was lost in the gratitude of the penitents, who had been delivered from sin and misery by their generous benefactress. The prudence of Theodora45 is celebrated by Justinian45 himself; and his laws are attributed to the sage counsels of his most reverend wife45, whom he had received45 as the gift of the Deity. Her courage was displayed amidst the tumult of the people45 and the terrors of the court. Her chastity, from the moment of her union with Justinian45, is founded on the silence of her implacable enemies; and, although the daughter of Acacius might be satiated with love, yet some applause is due to the firmness of a mind which could sacrifice pleasure and habit to the stronger sense either of duty or interest. The wishes and prayers of Theodora45 could never obtain the blessing of a lawful son45, and she buried an infant daughter, the sole offspring of her marriage. Notwithstanding this disappointment, her dominion was permanent and absolute; she preserved, by art or merit45, the affections of Justinian45; and their seeming dissensions were always fatal to the courtiers who believed them to be sincere. Perhaps her health had been impaired by the licentiousness of her youth; but it was always delicate, and she was directed by her physicians to use the Pythian warm baths. In this journey, the empress45 was followed by the Praetorian prefect45, the great treasurer, several counts and patricians, and a splendid train of four thousand attendants; the highways were repaired at her approach; a palace45 was erected for her reception; and, as she passed through Bithynia, she distributed liberal alms to the churches, the monasteries, and the hospitals, that they might implore heaven for the restoration of her health. At length, in the twenty-fourth year of her marriage, and the twenty-second of her reign45, she was consumed by a cancer; and the irreparable loss was deplored by her husband45, who, in the room of a theatrical prostitute, might have selected the purest and most noble virgin of the East.
II. A material difference may be observed in the games of antiquity: the most eminent of the Greeks were actors, the Romans9 were merely spectators. The Olympic stadium was open to wealth, merit, and ambition; and, if the candidates could depend on their personal skill and activity, they might pursue the footsteps of Diomede and Menelaus, and conduct their own horses in the rapid career. Ten, twenty, forty, chariots were allowed to start at the same instant; a crown of leaves was the reward of the victor; and his fame, with that of his family and country9, was chaunted in lyric strains more durable than monuments of brass and marble. But a senator, or even a citizen, conscious of his dignity, would have blushed to expose his person or his horses in the circus of Rome9. The games were exhibited at the expense of the republic, the magistrates, or the emperors: but the reins were abandoned to servile hands; and, if the profits of a favourite charioteer sometimes exceeded those of an advocate, they must be considered as the effects of popular extravagance, and the high wages of a disgraceful profession. The race, in its first institution, was a simple contest of two chariots, whose drivers were distinguished by white and red liveries; two additional colours, a light green and a caerulean blue, were afterwards introduced; and, as the races were repeated twenty-five times, one hundred chariots contributed in the same day to the pomp of the circus. The four factions soon9 acquired a legal establishment, and a mysterious origin; and their fanciful colours were derived from the various appearances of nature in the four seasons of the year: the red dog-star of summer, the snows of winter, the deep shades of autumn, and the cheerful verdure of the spring. Another interpretation preferred the elements to the seasons, and the struggle of the green and blue was supposed to represent the conflict of the earth and sea9. Their respective victories announced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous navigation, and the hostility of the husbandmen and mariners was somewhat less absurd than the blind ardour of the Roman9 people, who devoted their lives and fortunes to the colour which they had espoused. Such folly was disdained and indulged by the wisest princes; but the names of Caligula, Nero, Vitellius, Verus, Commodus, Caracalla, and Elagabalus were enrolled in the blue or green factions of the circus; they frequented their stables, applauded their favourites, chastised their antagonists, and deserved the esteem of the populace by the natural or affected imitation of their manners. The bloody and tumultuous contest continued to disturb the public festivity till the last age of the spectacles of Rome9; and Theodoric, from a motive of justice or affection, interposed his authority to protect the greens against the violence of a consul and a patrician, who were passionately addicted to the blue faction of the circus.
Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues, of ancient Rome47; and the same factions which had agitated the circus raged with redoubled fury in the hippodrome. Under the reign47 of Anastasius, this popular frenzy was inflamed by religious zeal; and the greens, who had treacherously concealed stones and daggers under baskets of fruit, massacred, at a solemn festival, three thousand of their blue adversaries. From the capital, this pestilence was diffused into the provinces47 and cities of the East47, and the sportive distinction of two colours produced two strong and irreconcileable factions, which shook the foundations of a feeble government47. The popular dissensions, founded on the most serious interest, or holy pretence, have scarcely equalled the obstinacy of this wanton discord, which invaded the peace of families, divided friends and brothers, and tempted the female sex, though seldom seen in the circus, to espouse the inclinations of their lovers or to contradict the wishes of their husbands. Every law, either human or divine, was trampled underfoot, and, as long47 as the party was successful, its deluded followers appeared careless of private47 distress or public47 calamity. The licence, without the freedom, of democracy was revived at Antioch and Constantinople, and the support of a faction became necessary to every candidate for civil47 or ecclesiastical honours. A secret47 attachment to the family or sect of Anastasius was imputed to the greens; the blues were zealously devoted to the cause of orthodoxy and Justinian, and their grateful patron protected, above five years, the disorders of a faction, whose seasonable tumults overawed the palace47, the senate47, and the capitals of the East47. Insolent with royal favour, the blues affected to strike terror by a peculiar and Barbaric dress, the long47 hair of the Huns, their close sleeves and ample garments, a lofty step, and a sonorous voice. In the day they concealed their two-edged poniards, but in the night they boldly assembled in arms47 and in numerous bands, prepared for every act of violence and rapine. Their adversaries of the green faction, or even inoffensive citizens, were stripped and often murdered by these nocturnal robbers, and it became dangerous to wear any gold buttons or girdles, or to appear at a late hour in the streets of a peaceful capital. A daring spirit47, rising with impunity, proceeded to violate the safeguard of private47 houses; and fire was employed to facilitate the attack, or to conceal the crimes, of these factious rioters. No place was safe or sacred from their depredations; to gratify either avarice or revenge, they profusely spilt the blood of the innocent; churches and altars were polluted by atrocious murders; and it was the boast of the assassins that their dexterity could always inflict a mortal wound with a single stroke of their dagger. The dissolute youth of Constantinople adopted the blue livery of disorder; the laws were silent, and the bonds of society were relaxed; creditors were compelled to resign their obligations; judges to reverse their sentence; masters to enfranchise their slaves; fathers to supply the extravagance of their children; noble matrons were prostituted to the lust of their servants; beautiful boys were torn from the arms47 of their parents; and wives, unless they preferred a voluntary death47, were ravished in the presence of their husbands. The despair of the greens, who were persecuted by their enemies, and deserted by the magistrate, assumed the privilege of defence, perhaps of retaliation; but those who survived the combat were dragged to execution, and the unhappy fugitives, escaping to woods and caverns, preyed without mercy on the society from whence they were expelled. Those ministers of justice47 who had courage to punish the crimes, and to brave the resentment, of the blues became the victims of their indiscreet zeal; a prefect47 of Constantinople fled for refuge to the holy sepulchre, a count of the East47 was ignominiously whipped, and a governor of Cilicia was hanged, by the order of Theodora, on the tomb of two assassins, whom he had condemned for the murder of his groom and a daring attack upon his own life47. An aspiring candidate may be tempted to build his greatness on the public47 confusion, but it is the interest as well as the duty of a sovereign47 to maintain the authority47 of the laws. The first edict of Justinian, which was often repeated and sometimes executed, announced his firm resolution to support the innocent and to chastise the guilty of every denomination and colour. Yet the balance of justice47 was still inclined in favour of the blue faction, by the secret47 affection, the habits, and the fears of the emperor47; his equity, after an apparent struggle, submitted, without reluctance, to the implacable passions of Theodora, and the empress never forgot, or forgave, the injuries of the comedian. At the accession of the younger Justin, the proclamation of equal and rigorous justice47 indirectly condemned the partiality of the former reign47. Ye blues, Justinian is no more! ye greens, he is still alive!
A sedition, which almost laid Constantinople30 in ashes, was excited by the mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation of the two factions. In the fifth year of his reign, Justinian30 celebrated the festival of the ides of January: the games were incessantly disturbed by the clamorous discontent of the greens; till30 the twenty-second30 race, the emperor30 maintained his silent gravity; at length, yielding to his impatience, he condescended to hold, in abrupt sentences, and by the voice of a crier, the most singular dialogue that ever passed between a prince30 and his subjects. Their first complaints were respectful and modest; they accused the subordinate ministers of oppression, and proclaimed their wishes for the long30 life and victory30 of the emperor30. Be patient and attentive, ye insolent railers! exclaimed Justinian30; be mute, ye Jews, Samaritans, and Manichaeans! The greens still attempted to awaken his compassion. We are poor, we are innocent, we are injured, we dare not pass through the streets: a general30 persecution is exercised against our name and colour. Let us die, O emperor30! but let us die by your command, and for your service30! But the repetition of partial and passionate invectives degraded, in their eyes, the majesty of the purple; they renounced allegiance to the prince30 who refused justice to his people30; lamented that the father of Justinian30 had been born; and branded his son30 with the opprobrious names of an homicide, an ass, and a perjured tyrant. Do you despise your lives? cried the indignant monarch: the blues rose with fury from their seats; their hostile clamours thundered in the hippodrome; and their adversaries, deserting the unequal contest, spread terror and despair through the streets of Constantinople30. At this dangerous moment, seven notorious assassins of both factions, who had been condemned by the prefect, were carried round the city30, and afterwards transported to the place of execution in the suburb of Pera. Four were immediately beheaded; a fifth was hanged; but when the same punishment was inflicted on the remaining two, the rope broke, they fell alive to the ground, the populace applauded their escape, and the monks of St30. Conon, issuing from the neighbouring convent, conveyed them in a boat to the sanctuary of the church. As one of these criminals was of the blue, and the other of the green, livery, the two factions were equally provoked by the cruelty of their oppressor, or the ingratitude of their patron; and a short truce was concluded, till30 they had delivered their prisoners and satisfied their revenge. The palace30 of the prefect, who withstood the seditious torrent, was instantly burnt, his officers and guards were massacred, the prisons were forced open, and freedom was restored to those who could only use it for the public destruction. A military force, which had been despatched to the aid of the civil magistrate, was fiercely encountered by an armed multitude, whose numbers and boldness continually increased; and the Heruli, the wildest Barbarians in the service30 of the empire30, overturned the priests and their relics, which, from a pious motive, had been rashly interposed to separate the bloody conflict. The tumult was exasperated by this sacrilege, the people30 fought with enthusiasm in the cause of God; the women, from the roofs and windows, showered stones on the heads of the soliders, who darted firebrands against the houses; and the various flames, which had been kindled by the hands of citizens and strangers spread without control over the face of the city30. The conflagration involved the cathedral of St30. Sophia, the baths of Zeuxippus, a part of the palace30, from the first entrance to the altar of Mars, and the long30 portico from the palace30 to the forum of Constantine; a large hospital, with the sick patients, was consumed; many churches and stately edifices were destroyed, and an immense treasure of gold30 and silver was either melted or lost. From such scenes of horror and distress, the wise and wealthy citizens escaped over the Bosphorus to the Asiatic side; and during five days30 Constantinople30 was abandoned to the factions, whose watch-word, Nika, vanquish! has given a name to this memorable sedition.
As long47 as the factions were divided, the triumphant blues and desponding greens appeared to behold with the same indifference the disorders of the state. They agreed to censure the corrupt management of justice47 and the finance; and the two responsible ministers, the artful Tribonian and the rapacious John of Cappadocia, were loudly arraigned as the authors of the public47 misery. The peaceful murmurs of the people47 would have been disregarded: they were heard with respect when the city47 was in flames; the quaestor and the prefect47 were instantly removed, and their offices were filled by two senators of blameless integrity. After this popular concession, Justinian proceeded to the hippodrome to confess his own errors and to accept the repentance of his grateful subjects; but they distrusted his assurances, though solemnly pronounced in the presence of the holy gospels; and the emperor47, alarmed by their distrust, retreated with precipitation to the strong fortress of the palace47. The obstinacy of the tumult was now imputed to a secret47 and ambitious conspiracy, and a suspicion was entertained that the insurgents, more especially the green faction, had been supplied with arms47 and money by Hypatius and Pompey, two patricians, who could neither forget with honour, nor remember with safety, that they were the nephews of the emperor47 Anastasius. Capriciously trusted, disgraced, and pardoned by the jealous levity of the monarch, they had appeared as loyal servants before the throne47; and, during five days of the tumult, they were detained as important hostages; till at length, the fears of Justinian prevailing over his prudence, he viewed the two brothers in the light of spies, perhaps of assassins, and sternly commanded them to depart from the palace47. After a fruitless representation that obedience might lead to involuntary treason, they retired to their houses, and in the morning of the sixth day Hypatius was surrounded and seized by the people47, who, regardless of his virtuous resistance and the tears of his wife, transported their favourite to the forum of Constantine47, and, instead of a diadem, placed a rich collar on his head. If the usurper, who afterwards pleaded the merit47 of his delay, had complied with the advice of his senate47, and urged the fury of the multitude, their first irresistible effort might have oppressed or expelled his trembling competitor. The Byzantine palace47 enjoyed a free communication with the sea; vessels lay ready at the garden-stairs; and a secret47 resolution was already formed to convey the emperor47 with his family and treasures to a safe retreat, at some distance from the capital.
Justinian was lost, if the prostitute whom he raised from the theatre had not renounced the timidity, as well as the virtues, of her sex. In the midst of a council, where Belisarius30 was present, Theodora alone displayed the spirit of an hero; and she alone, without apprehending his future hatred, could save the emperor30 from the imminent danger and his unworthy fears. If flight, said the consort of Justinian30, were the only means of safety, yet I should disdain to fly. Death30 is the condition of our birth; but they who have reigned should never survive the loss of dignity and dominion. I implore heaven that I may never be seen, not a day30, without my diadem and purple; that I may no longer behold the light, when I cease to be saluted with the name of queen. If you resolve, O Caesar! to fly, you have treasures; behold the sea, you have ships; but tremble lest the desire of life should expose you to wretched exile and ignominious death30. For my own part, I adhere to the maxim of antiquity, that the throne is a glorious sepulchre. The firmness of a woman restored the courage to deliberate and act, and courage soon30 discovers the resources of the most desperate situation. It was an easy and a decisive measure to revive the animosity of the factions; the blues were astonished at their own guilt and folly, that a trifling injury should provoke them to conspire with their implacable enemies30 against a gracious and liberal benefactor; they again proclaimed the majesty of Justinian30, and the greens, with their upstart emperor30, were left30 alone in the hippodrome. The fidelity of the guards was doubtful; but the military force of Justinian30 consisted in three thousand30 veterans, who had been trained to valour and discipline in the Persian and Illyrian wars. Under the command of Belisarius30 and Mundus, they silently marched in two divisions from the palace30, forced their obscure way through narrow passages, expiring flames, and falling edifices, and burst open at the same moment the two opposite gates of the hippodrome. In this narrow space, the disorderly and affrighted crowd was incapable of resisting on either side a firm and regular attack; the blues signalised the fury of their repentance; and it is computed that above thirty thousand30 persons were slain in the merciless and promiscuous carnage of the day30. Hypatius was dragged from his throne, and conducted with his brother Pompey to the feet of the emperor30; they implored his clemency; but their crime was manifest, their innocence uncertain, and Justinian30 had been too much terrified to forgive. The next morning the two nephews of Anastasius, with eighteen illustrious accomplices of patrician or consular rank, were privately executed by the soldiers30; their bodies were thrown into the sea, their palaces razed, and their fortunes confiscated. The hippodrome itself was condemned during several years30 to a mournful silence; with the restoration of the games, the same disorders revived; and the blue and green factions continued to afflict the reign of Justinian30, and to disturb the tranquillity of the Eastern empire30.
III. That empire5, after Rome was Barbarous, still embraced the nations whom she had conquered beyond the Hadriatic and as far5 as the frontiers of Ethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned over sixty-four provinces5 and nine hundred and thirty-five cities; his dominions were blessed by nature with the advantages of soil, situation, and climate; and the improvements of human art had been perpetually diffused along the coast of the Mediterranean and the banks5 of the Nile, from ancient Troy to the Egyptian Thebes. Abraham had been relieved by the well-known plenty of Egypt; the same country5, a small and populous tract, was still capable of exporting each year two hundred and sixty thousand5 quarters of wheat for the use of Constantinople; and the capital of Justinian was supplied with the manufactures of Sidon, fifteen centuries after they had been celebrated in the poems of Homer. The annual powers of vegetation, instead of being exhausted by two thousand5 harvests, were renewed and invigorated by skilful husbandry, rich manure, and seasonable repose. The breed of domestic animals was infinitely multiplied. Plantations, buildings, and the instruments of labour and luxury, which are more durable than the term of human life, were accumulated by the care of successive generations. Tradition preserved, and experience simplified, the humble practice of the arts; society was enriched by the division of labour and the facility of exchange; and every Roman5 was lodged, clothed, and subsisted by the industry of a thousand5 hands. The invention of the loom and distaff has been piously ascribed to the gods. In every age, a variety of animal and vegetable productions, hair, skins, wool, flax, cotton, and at length silk, have been skilfully manufactured to hide or adorn the human body5; they were stained with an infusion of permanent colours; and the pencil was successfully employed to improve the labours5 of the loom. In the choice of those colours which imitate the beauties of nature, the freedom of taste and fashion was indulged; but the deep purple which the Phoenicians extracted from a shell-fish was restrained to the sacred person and palace of the emperor5; and the penalties of treason were denounced against the ambitious subjects who dared to usurp the prerogative of the throne.
I need not explain that silk is originally spun from the bowels of a caterpillar, and that it composes the golden tomb from whence a worm emerges in the form of a butterfly. Till the reign8 of Justinian, the silk-worms who feed on the leaves of the white mulberry-tree were confined to China; those of the pine, the oak, and the ash were common in the forests both of Asia and Europe; but, as their education is more difficult and their produce more uncertain, they were generally neglected, except in the little island of Ceos, near the coast of Attica. A thin gauze was procured from their webs, and this Cean manufacture, the invention of a woman, for female use8, was long admired both in the East and at Rome. Whatever suspicions may be raised by the garments of the Medes and Assyrians, Virgil is the most ancient8 writer who expressly mentions the soft wool which was combed from the trees of the Seres or Chinese; and this natural error, less marvellous than the truth8, was slowly corrected by the knowledge of a valuable insect, the first artificer of the luxury of nations. That rare and elegant luxury was censured, in the reign8 of Tiberius, by the gravest of the Romans; and Pliny, in affected though forcible language, has condemned the thirst of gain, which explored the last confines of the earth for the pernicious purpose of exposing to the public8 eye naked draperies and transparent matrons. A dress which shewed the turn of the limbs and colour of the skin might gratify vanity or provoke desire; the silks which had been closely woven in China were sometimes unravelled by the Phoenician women, and the precious materials were multiplied by a looser texture and the intermixture of linen threads. Two hundred years after the age8 of Pliny, the use8 of pure or even of mixed silks was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarised with the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dignity of an emperor and a man8. Aurelian complained that a pound of silk was sold at Rome for twelve ounces of gold; but the supply increased with the demand, and the price diminished with the supply. If accident or monopoly sometimes raised the value even above the standard of Aurelian, the manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus were sometimes compelled, by the operation of the same causes, to content themselves with a ninth part of that extravagant rate. A law was thought necessary to discriminate the dress of comedians from that of senators; and of the silk exported from its native country the far greater part was consumed by the subjects8 of Justinian. They were still more intimately acquainted with a shell-fish of the Mediterranean, surnamed the silk-worm of the sea; the fine wool or hair by which the mother-of-pearl affixes itself to the rock is now manufactured for curiosity rather than use8; and a robe obtained from the same singular materials was the gift of the Roman emperor to the satraps of Armenia.
A valuable merchandise of small bulk is capable of defraying the expense of land carriage; and the caravans traversed the whole latitude of Asia9 in two hundred and forty-three days from the Chinese ocean9 to the sea9-coast9 of Syria. Silk was immediately delivered to the Romans9 by the Persian merchants, who frequented the fairs of Armenia and Nisibis; but this trade, which in the intervals of truce was oppressed by avarice and jealousy, was totally interrupted by the long9 wars of the rival monarchies. The great9 king might proudly number Sogdiana, and even Serica, among the provinces9 of his empire9; but his real dominion was bounded by the Oxus, and his useful intercourse with the Sogdoites, beyond the river9, depended on the pleasure of their conquerors, the white Huns9 and the Turks, who successively reigned over that industrious people. Yet the most savage dominion has not extirpated the seeds of agriculture and commerce in a region which is celebrated as one of the four gardens of Asia9; the cities9 of Samarcand and Bochara are advantageously seated for the exchange of its various productions; and their merchants purchased from the Chinese the raw or manufactured silk which they transported into Persia for the use of the Roman9 empire9. In the vain capital9 of China, the Sogdian caravans were entertained as the suppliant embassies of tributary kingdoms, and, if they returned in safety, the bold adventure was rewarded with exorbitant gain. But the difficult and perilous march from Samarcand to the first town of Shensi could not be performed in less than sixty, eighty, or one hundred days; as soon9 as they had passed the Jaxartes, they entered the desert; and the wandering hords, unless they are restrained by armies and garrisons, have always considered the citizen and the traveller as the objects of lawful rapine. To escape the Tartar robbers and the tyrants of Persia, the silk caravans explored a more southern road; they traversed the mountains9 of Thibet, descended the streams of the Ganges or the Indus, and patiently expected, in the ports of Guzerat and Malabar, the annual fleets of the West9. But the dangers of the desert were found less intolerable than toil, hunger, and the loss of time; the attempt was seldom renewed; and the only European who has passed that unfrequented way applauds his own diligence, that in nine months after his departure from Pekin he reached the mouth of the Indus. The ocean9, however, was open to the free communication of mankind. From the great9 river9 to the tropic of Cancer, the provinces9 of China were subdued and civilised by the emperors of the North9; they were filled about the time of the Christian era with cities9 and men9, mulberry-trees and their precious inhabitants9; and, if the Chinese, with the knowledge of the compass, had possessed the genius of the Greeks or Phoenicians, they might have spread their discoveries over the southern hemisphere. I am not qualified to examine, and I am not disposed to believe, their distant voyages to the Persian gulf or the Cape of Good Hope; but their ancestors might equal the labours and success of the present race, and the sphere of their navigation might extend from the isles of Japan to the straits of Malacca, the pillars, if we may apply that name, of an Oriental Hercules. Without losing sight of land, they might sail along the coast9 to the extreme promontory of Achin, which is annually visited by ten or twelve ships laden with the productions, the manufactures, and even the artificers of China; the island of Sumatra and the opposite peninsula are faintly delineated as the regions of gold and silver; and the trading cities9 named in the geography of Ptolemy may indicate that this wealth was not solely derived from the mines. The direct interval between Sumatra and Ceylon is about three hundred leagues; the Chinese and Indian navigators were conducted by the flight of birds and periodical winds, and the ocean9 might be securely traversed in square-built ships, which, instead of iron, were sewed together with the strong thread of the cocoa-nut. Ceylon, Serendib, or Taprobana was divided between two hostile princes; one of whom possessed the mountains9, the elephants, and the luminous carbuncle; and the other enjoyed the more solid riches of domestic industry, foreign trade, and the capacious harbour of Trinquemale, which received and dismissed the fleets of the East and West9. In this hospitable isle, at an equal distance (as it was computed) from their respective countries, the silk merchants of China, who had collected in their voyages aloes, cloves, nutmegs, and sandal-wood, maintained a free and beneficial commerce with the inhabitants9 of the Persian gulf. The subjects of the great9 king exalted, without a rival, his power and magnificence; and the Roman9, who confounded their vanity by comparing his paltry coin with a gold medal of the emperor Anastasius, had sailed to Ceylon in an Aethiopian ship, as a simple passenger.
As silk became of indispensable use, the emperor Justinian saw, with concern, that the Persians had occupied by land and sea24 the monopoly of this important supply, and that the wealth of his subjects was continually drained by a nation of enemies and idolaters. An active government24 would have restored the trade of Egypt24 and the navigation of the Red Sea24, which had decayed with the prosperity of the empire24; and the Roman24 vessels might have sailed, for the purchase of silk, to the ports of Ceylon, of Malacca, or even of China. Justinian embraced a more humble expedient, and solicited the aid of his Christian allies, the Aethiopians of Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts of navigation, the spirit of trade, and the seaport of Adulis, still decorated with the trophies of a Grecian conqueror. Along the African coast, they penetrated to the equator in search of gold24, emeralds, and aromatics; but they wisely declined an unequal competition, in which they must be always prevented by the vicinity of the Persians to the markets of India; and the emperor submitted to the disappointment, till24 his wishes were gratified by an unexpected event. The gospel had been preached to the Indians: a bishop already governed the Christians24 of St. Thomas on the pepper coast of Malabar; a church was planted in Ceylon; and the missionaries pursued the footsteps of commerce to the extremities of Asia24. Two Persian monks had long resided in China, perhaps in the royal24 city24 of Nankin, the seat of a monarch addicted to foreign superstitions, and who actually received an embassy from the isle of Ceylon. Amidst their pious occupations, they viewed with a curious eye the common dress of the Chinese, the manufactures of silk, and the myriads of silk-worms, whose education (either on trees or in houses) had once been considered as the labour of queens. They soon discovered that it was impracticable to transport the short-lived insect, but that in the eggs a numerous progeny might be preserved and multiplied in a distant climate. Religion24 or interest had more power over the Persian monks than the love of their country: after a long journey, they arrived at Constantinople24, imparted their project to the emperor, and were liberally encouraged by the gifts and promises of Justinian. To the historians of that prince, a campaign at the foot of Mount Caucasus has seemed more deserving of a minute relation than the labours of these missionaries of commerce, who again entered China, deceived a jealous people24 by concealing the eggs of the silk-worm in a hollow cane, and returned in triumph with the spoils of the East24. Under their direction, the eggs were hatched at the proper season by the artificial heat of dung; the worms were fed with mulberry leaves; they lived and laboured in a foreign climate; a sufficient number of butterflies was saved to propagate the race24; and trees were planted to supply the nourishment of the rising generations. Experience and reflection corrected the errors of a new24 attempt, and the Sogdoite ambassadors acknowledged, in the succeeding reign24, that the Romans were not inferior to the natives of China in the education of the insects and the manufactures of silk, in which both China and Constantinople24 have been surpassed by the industry of modern Europe24. I am not insensible of the benefits of elegant luxury; yet I reflect with some pain that, if the importers of silk had introduced the art of printing, already practised by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander and the entire decads of Livy would have been perpetuated in the editions of the sixth century. A larger view of the globe might at least have promoted the improvement of speculative science, but the Christian geography was forcibly extracted from texts of scripture, and the study of nature was the surest symptom of an unbelieving mind. The orthodox faith confined the habitable world to one temperate zone, and represented the earth as an oblong surface, four hundred days' journey in length, two hundred in breadth, encompassed by the ocean, and covered by the solid crystal of the firmament.
IV. The subjects of Justinian30 were dissatisfied with the times, and with the government. Europe was over-run by the Barbarians, and Asia by the monks; the poverty of the West discouraged the trade and manufactures of the East; the produce of labour was consumed by the unprofitable servants of the church, the state, and the army30; and a rapid decrease was felt in the fixed and circulating capitals which constitute the national wealth. The public distress had been alleviated by the economy of Anastasius, and that prudent emperor30 accumulated an immense treasure while he delivered his people30 from the most odious or oppressive taxes. Their gratitude universally applauded the abolition of the gold30 of affliction, a personal tribute on the industry of the poor, but more intolerable, as it should seem, in the form than in the substance, since the flourishing city30 of Edessa paid only one hundred and forty pounds of gold30, which was collected in four years30 from ten thousand30 artificers. Yet such was the parsimony which supported this liberal disposition that, in a reign of twenty-seven years30, Anastasius saved, from his annual revenue, the enormous sum of thirteen millions sterling, or three hundred and twenty thousand30 pounds of gold30. His example was neglected, and his treasure was abused, by the nephew of Justin. The riches of Justinian30 were speedily exhausted by alms and buildings, by ambitious wars, and ignominious treaties. His revenues were found inadequate to his expenses. Every art was tried to extort from the people30 the gold30 and silver which he scattered with a lavish hand from Persia to France; his reign was marked by the vicissitudes, or rather by the combat, of rapaciousness and avarice, of splendour and poverty; he lived with the reputation of hidden treasures, and bequeathed to his successor the payment of his debts. Such a character has been justly accused by the voice of the people30 and of posterity; but public discontent is credulous; private malice is bold; and a lover of truth will peruse with a suspicious eye the instructive anecdotes of Procopius. The secret historian represents only the vices of Justinian30, and those vices are darkened by his malevolent pencil. Ambiguous actions are imputed to the worst motives; error is confounded with guilt, accident with design, and laws with abuses; the partial injustice of a moment is dexterously applied as the general30 maxim of a reign of thirty-two years30; the emperor30 alone is made responsible for the faults of his officers, the disorders of the times, and the corruption of his subjects; and even the calamities of nature, plagues, earthquakes, and inundations are imputed to the prince30 of the demons, who had mischievously assumed the form of Justinian30.
After this precaution I shall briefly relate the anecdotes of avarice and rapine, under the following heads: I. Justinian30 was so profuse that he could not be liberal. The civil and military officers, when they were admitted into the service30 of the palace30, obtained an humble rank and a moderate stipend; they ascended by seniority to a station of affluence and repose; the annual pensions, of which the most honourable class was abolished by Justinian30, amounted to four hundred thousand30 pounds; and this domestic economy was deplored by the venal or indigent courtiers as the last outrage on the majesty of the empire30. The posts, the salaries of physicians, and the nocturnal illuminations were objects of more general30 concern; and the cities might justly complain that he usurped the municipal revenues which had been appropriated to these useful institutions. Even the soldiers30 were injured; and such was the decay of military spirit that they were injured with impunity. The emperor30 refused, at the return of each fifth year, the customary donative of five pieces of gold30, reduced his veterans to beg their bread, and suffered unpaid armies to melt away in the wars of Italy and Persia. II. The humanity of his predecessors had always remitted, in some auspicious circumstance of their reign, the arrears of the public tribute; and they dexterously assumed the merit of resigning those claims which it was impracticable to enforce. Justinian30 in the space of thirty-two years30 has never granted a similar indulgence; and many of his subjects have renounced the possession of those lands whose value is insufficient to satisfy the demands of the treasury. To the cities which had suffered by hostile inroads, Anastasius promised a general30 exemption of seven years30: the provinces of Justinian30 have been ravaged by the Persians and Arabs, the Huns and Sclavonians; but his vain and ridiculous dispensations of a single year have been confined to those places which were actually taken by the enemy30. Such is the language of the secret historian, who expressly denies that any indulgence was granted to Palestine after the revolt of the Samaritans: a false and odious charge, confuted by the authentic record, which attests a relief of thirteen centenaries of gold30 (fifty-two thousand30 pounds) obtained for that desolate province by the intercession of St30. Sabas. III. Procopius has not condescended to explain the system of taxation, which fell like a hail-storm upon the land, like a devouring pestilence on its inhabitants; but we should become the accomplices of his malignity, if we imputed to Justinian30 alone the ancient though rigorous principle that a whole district should be condemned to sustain the partial loss of the persons or property of individuals. The Annona, or supply of corn for the use of the army30 and capital, was a grievous and arbitrary exaction, which exceeded, perhaps in a tenfold proportion, the ability of the farmer; and his distress was aggravated by the partial injustice of weights and measures, and the expense and labour of distant carriage. In a time of scarcity an extraordinary requisition was made to the adjacent provinces of Thrace, Bithynia, and Phrygia; but the proprietors, after a wearisome journey and a perilous navigation, received so inadequate a compensation that they would have chosen the alternative of delivering both the corn and price at the doors of their granaries. These precautions might indicate a tender solicitude for the welfare of the capital; yet Constantinople30 did not escape the rapacious despotism of Justinian30. Till30 his reign, the straits of the Bosphorus and Hellespont were open to the freedom of trade, and nothing was prohibited except the exportation of arms30 for the service30 of the Barbarians. At each of these gates of the city30, a praetor was stationed, the minister of Imperial avarice; heavy customs were imposed on the vessels and their merchandise; the oppression was retaliated on the helpless consumer; the poor were afflicted by the artificial scarcity and exorbitant price of the market; and a people30, accustomed to depend on the liberality of their prince30, might sometimes complain of the deficiency of water and bread. The aerial tribute, without a name, a law, or a definite object, was an annual gift of one hundred and twenty thousand30 pounds, which the emperor30 accepted from his Praetorian prefect; and the means of payment were abandoned to the discretion of that powerful magistrate. IV. Even such a tax was less intolerable than the privilege of monopolies, which checked the fair competition of industry, and, for the sake of a small and dishonest gain, imposed an arbitrary burthen on the wants and luxury of the subject. As soon30 (I transcribe the Anecdotes) as the exclusive sale of silk was usurped by the Imperial treasurer, a whole people30, the manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus, was reduced to extreme misery, and either perished with hunger or fled to the hostile dominions of Persia. A province might suffer by the decay of its manufactures, but in this example of silk Procopius has partially overlooked the inestimable and lasting benefit which the empire30 received from the curiosity of Justinian30. His addition of one seventh to the ordinary price of copper money may be interpreted with the same candour; and the alteration, which might be wise, appears to have been innocent; since he neither alloyed the purity, nor enhanced the value, of the gold30 coin, the legal measure of public and private payments. V. The ample jurisdiction required by the farmers of the revenue to accomplish their engagements might be placed in an odious light, as if they had purchased from the emperor30 the lives and fortunes of their fellow-citizens. And a more direct sale of honours and offices was transacted in the palace30, with the permission, or at least with the connivance, of Justinian30 and Theodora. The claims of merit, even those of favour, were disregarded, and it was almost reasonable to expect that the bold adventurer who had undertaken the trade of a magistrate should find a rich compensation for infamy, labour, danger, the debts which he had contracted, and the heavy interest which he paid. A sense of the disgrace and mischief of this venal practice at length awakened the slumbering virtue of Justinian30; and he attempted, by the sanction of oaths and penalties, to guard the integrity of his government; but at the end of a year of perjury his rigorous edict was suspended, and corruption licentiously abused her triumph over the impotence of the laws. VI. The testament of Eulalius, count of the domestics, declared the emperor30 his sole heir, on condition, however, that he should discharge his debts and legacies, allow to his three daughters a decent maintenance, and bestow each of them in marriage, with a portion of ten pounds of gold30. But the splendid fortune of Eulalius had been consumed by fire; and the inventory of his goods did not exceed the trifling sum of five hundred and sixty-four pieces in gold30. A similar instance in Grecian history admonished the emperor30 of the honourable part prescribed for his imitation. He checked the selfish murmurs of the treasury, applauded the confidence of his friend, discharged the legacies and debts, educated the three virgins under the eye of the empress Theodora, and doubled the marriage portion which had satisfied the tenderness of their father. The humanity of a prince30 (for princes cannot be generous) is entitled to some praise; yet even in this act of virtue we may discover the inveterate custom of supplanting the legal or natural heirs, which Procopius imputes to the reign of Justinian30. His charge is supported by eminent names and scandalous examples; neither widows nor orphans were spared; and the art of soliciting, or extorting, or supposing testaments was beneficially practised by the agents of the palace30. This base and mischievous tyranny invades the security of private life; and the monarch who has indulged an appetite for gain will soon30 be tempted to anticipate the moment of succession, to interpret wealth as an evidence of guilt, and to proceed from the claim of inheritance to the power of confiscation. VII. Among the forms of rapine, a philosopher may be permitted to name the conversion of Pagan or heretical riches to the use of the faithful; but in the time of Justinian30 this holy30 plunder was condemned by the sectaries alone, who became the victims of his orthodox avarice.
Dishonour might be ultimately reflected on the character45 of Justinian45; but much of the guilt, and still more of the profit, was intercepted by the ministers45, who were seldom promoted for their virtues, and not always selected for their talents. The merits of Tribonian the quaestor will hereafter be weighed in the reformation of the Roman law; but the economy of the East was subordinate to the Praetorian prefect45, and Procopius has justified his Anecdotes by the portrait, which he exposes in his public45 history, of the notorious vices of John45 of Cappadocia. His knowledge was not borrowed from the schools, and his style was scarcely legible; but he excelled in the powers of native genius to suggest the wisest counsels and to find expedients in the most desperate situations. The corruption of his heart was equal to the vigour of his understanding. Although he was suspected of magic and Pagan superstition, he appeared insensible to the fear of God45 or the reproaches of man; and his aspiring fortune was raised on the death45 of thousands, the poverty of millions, the ruin of cities, and the desolation of provinces. From the dawn of light to the moment of dinner, he assiduously laboured to enrich his master and himself at the expense of the Roman world; the remainder of the day was spent in sensual and obscene pleasures; and the silent hours of the night were interrupted by the perpetual dread of the justice45 of an assassin. His abilities, perhaps his vices, recommended him to the lasting friendship of Justinian45; the emperor45 yielded with reluctance to the fury of the people45; his victory was displayed by the immediate restoration of their enemy; and they felt above ten years45, under his oppressive administration, that he was stimulated by revenge45 rather than instructed by misfortune. Their murmurs served only to fortify the resolution of Justinian45; but the prefect45 in the insolence of favour provoked the resentment of Theodora45, disdained a power45 before which every knee was bent, and attempted to sow the seeds of discord between the emperor45 and his beloved consort. Even Theodora45 herself was constrained to dissemble, to wait a favourable moment, and by an artful conspiracy to render John45 of Cappadocia the accomplice of his own destruction. At a time when Belisarius, unless he had been a hero, must have shewn himself a rebel, his wife45 Antonina45, who enjoyed the secret confidence of the empress45, communicated his feigned discontent to Euphemia, the daughter of the prefect45; the credulous virgin imparted to her father the dangerous project; and John45, who might have known the value of oaths and promises, was tempted to accept a nocturnal, and almost treasonable, interview with the wife45 of Belisarius. An ambuscade of guards and eunuchs had been posted by the command of Theodora45; they rushed with drawn swords to seize or to punish the guilty minister; he was saved by the fidelity of his attendants; but, instead of appealing to a gracious sovereign45 who had privately warned him of his danger, he pusillanimously fled to the sanctuary of the church45. The favourite of Justinian45 was sacrificed to conjugal tenderness or domestic tranquillity; the conversion of a prefect45 into a priest extinguished his ambitious hopes; but the friendship of the emperor45 alleviated his disgrace, and he retained in the mild exile45 of Cyzicus an ample portion of his riches. Such imperfect revenge45 could not satisfy the unrelenting hatred of Theodora45; the murder of his old enemy, the bishop45 of Cyzicus, afforded a decent pretence; and John45 of Cappadocia, whose actions had deserved a thousand deaths, was at last condemned45 for a crime of which he was innocent. A great minister, who had been invested with the honours of consul and patrician, was ignominiously scourged like the vilest of malefactors; a tattered cloak was the sole remnant of his fortunes; he was transported in a bark to the place of his banishment at Antinopolis in Upper Egypt, and the prefect45 of the East begged his bread through the cities which had trembled at his name. During an exile45 of seven years45, his life45 was protracted and threatened by the ingenious cruelty of Theodora45; and, when her death45 permitted the emperor45 to recall a servant whom he had abandoned with regret, the ambition of John45 of Cappadocia was reduced to the humble duties of the sacerdotal profession. His successors convinced the subjects of Justinian45 that the arts of oppression might still be improved by experience and industry; the frauds of a Syrian banker were introduced into the administration of the finances; and the example of the prefect45 was diligently copied by the quaestor, the public45 and private45 treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the principal magistrates of the Eastern empire45.
V. The edifices of Justinian2 were cemented with the blood and treasure of his people2; but those stately structures appeared to announce the prosperity of the empire2, and actually displayed the skill of their architects. Both the theory and practice of the arts2 which depend on mathematical science and mechanical power were cultivated under the patronage of the emperors; the fame of Archimedes was rivalled by Proclus and Anthemius; and, if their miracles had been related by intelligent spectators, they might now enlarge the speculations, instead of exciting the distrust, of philosophers. A tradition has prevailed that the Roman2 fleet was reduced to ashes in the port of Syracuse by the burning-glasses of Archimedes; and it is asserted that a similar expedient was employed by Proclus to destroy the Gothic vessels in the harbour of Constantinople2, and to protect his benefactor Anastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian. A machine was fixed on the walls of the city, consisting of an hexagon mirror of polished brass, with many smaller and moveable polygons to receive and reflect the rays of the meridian sun; and a consuming flame was darted to the distance, perhaps, of two hundred feet. The truth2 of these two extraordinary facts is invalidated by the silence of the most authentic historians; and the use of burning-glasses was never adopted in the attack or defence of places. Yet the admirable experiments of a French philosopher have demonstrated the possibility of such a mirror; and, since it is possible, I am more disposed to attribute the art2 to the greatest mathematicians of antiquity than to give the merit2 of the fiction to the idle fancy of a monk or a sophist. According to another story, Proclus applied sulphur to the destruction of the Gothic fleet; in a modern imagination, the name of sulphur is instantly connected with the suspicion of gunpowder, and that suspicion is propagated by the secret2 arts2 of his disciple Anthemius. A citizen of Tralles in Asia2 had five sons, who were all distinguished in their respective professions by merit2 and success. Olympius excelled in the knowledge and practice of the Roman2 jurisprudence. Dioscorus and Alexander became learned physicians; but the skill of the former was exercised2 for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, while his more ambitious brother acquired wealth and reputation at Rome. The fame of Metrodorus the grammarian, and of Anthemius the mathematician and architect, reached the ears of the emperor2 Justinian2, who invited them to Constantinople2; and, while the one instructed the rising generation in the schools2 of eloquence, the other filled the capital and provinces2 with more lasting monuments of his art2. In a trifling dispute relative to the walls or windows of their contiguous houses, he had been vanquished by the eloquence of his neighbour Zeno; but the orator was defeated in his turn by the master of mechanics, whose malicious, though harmless, stratagems are darkly represented by the ignorance of Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged several vessels or cauldrons of water, each of them covered by the wide bottom of a leathern tube, which rose to a narrow top, and was artificially conveyed among the joists and rafters of the adjacent building. A fire was kindled beneath the cauldron; the steam of the boiling water ascended through the tubes; the house was shaken by the efforts of imprisoned air, and its trembling inhabitants might wonder that the city was unconscious of the earthquake which they had felt. At another time, the friends of Zeno, as they sat at table, were dazzled by the intolerable light2 which flashed in their eyes from the reflecting mirrors of Anthemius; they were astonished by the noise which he produced from a collision of certain minute and sonorous particles; and the orator declared in tragic style to the senate, that a mere mortal must yield to the power of an antagonist who shook the earth with the trident of Neptune and imitated the thunder and lightning of Jove himself. The genius of Anthemius and his colleague Isidore the Milesian was excited and employed by a prince2 whose taste for architecture had degenerated into a mischievous and costly passion. His favourite2 architects submitted their designs and difficulties to Justinian2, and discreetly confessed how much their laborious meditations were surpassed by the intuitive knowledge or celestial inspiration of an emperor2, whose views were always directed to the benefit of his people2, the glory2 of his reign2, and the salvation of his soul.
The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder of Constantinople30 to Saint Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had been twice destroyed by fire: after the exile of John Chrysostom, and during the Nika of the blue and green factions. No sooner did the tumult subside than the Christian populace deplored their sacrilegious rashness; but they might have rejoiced in the calamity, had they foreseen the glory of the new30 temple, which at the end of forty days30 was strenuously undertaken by the piety of Justinian30. The ruins were cleared away, a more spacious plan was described, and, as it required the consent of some proprietors of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant terms from the eager desires and timorous conscience of the monarch. Anthemius formed the design, and his genius directed the hands of ten thousand30 workmen, whose payment in pieces of fine silver was never delayed beyond the evening. The emperor30 himself, clad in a linen tunic, surveyed each day30 their rapid progress, and encouraged their diligence by his familiarity, his zeal, and his rewards. The new30 cathedral of St30. Sophia was consecrated by the patriarch, five years30, eleven months, and ten days30 from the first foundation; and, in the midst of the solemn festival, Justinian30 exclaimed with devout vanity, Glory be to God who hath thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work; I have vanquished thee, O Solomon! But the pride of the Roman30 Solomon, before twenty years30 had elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which overthrew the eastern part of the dome. Its splendour was again restored by the perseverance of the same prince30; and in the thirty-sixth year of his reign Justinian30 celebrated the second30 dedication of a temple, which remains, after twelve centuries, a stately monument of his fame. The architecture of St30. Sophia, which is now converted into the principal mosch, has been imitated by the Turkish30 sultans, and that venerable pile continues to excite the fond admiration of the Greeks30, and the more rational curiosity of European travellers. The eye of the spectator is disappointed by an irregular prospect of half domes and shelving roofs; the western front, the principal approach, is destitute of simplicity and magnificence; and the scale of dimensions has been much surpassed by several of the Latin cathedrals. But the architect who first erected an aerial cupola is entitled to the praise of bold design and skilful execution. The dome of St30. Sophia, illuminated by four and twenty windows, is formed with so small a curve that the depth is equal only to one sixth of its diameter; the measure of that diameter is one hundred and fifteen feet; and the lofty centre, where a crescent has supplanted the cross, rises to the perpendicular height of one hundred and eighty feet above the pavement. The circle which encompasses the dome lightly reposes on four strong arches, and their weight is firmly supported by four massy piles whose strength is assisted on the northern and southern sides by four columns of Egyptian granite. A Greek30 cross, inscribed in a quadrangle, represents the form of the edifice; the exact breadth is two hundred and fortythree feet, and two hundred and sixty-nine may be assigned for the extreme length from the sanctuary in the east to the nine western doors which open into the vestibule, and from thence into the narthex or exterior portico. That portico was the humble station of the penitents. The nave or body of the church was filled by the congregation of the faithful; but the two sexes were prudently distinguished, and the upper and lower galleries were allotted for the more private devotion of the women. Beyond the northern and southern piles, a balustrade, terminated on either side by the thrones of the emperor30 and the patriarch, divided the nave from the choir; and the space, as far as the steps of the altar, was occupied by the clergy and singers. The altar itself, a name which insensibly became familiar to Christian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, artificially built in the form of a demi-cylinder; and this sanctuary communicated by several doors with the sacristy, the vestry, the baptistery, and the contiguous buildings subservient either to the pomp of worship or the private use of the ecclesiastical ministers. The memory of past calamities inspired Justinian30 with a wise resolution that no wood, except for the doors, should be admitted into the new30 edifice; and the choice of the materials was applied to the strength, the lightness, or the splendour of the respective parts. The solid piles which sustained the cupola were composed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into squares and triangles, fortified by circles of iron, and firmly cemented by the infusion of lead and quicklime; but the weight of the cupola was diminished by the levity of its substance, which consists either of pumice-stone that floats in the water or of bricks from the isle of Rhodes five times less ponderous than the ordinary sort. The whole frame of the edifice was constructed of brick; but those base materials were concealed by a crust of marble; and the inside of St30. Sophia, the cupola, the two larger and the six smaller semi-domes, the walls30, the hundred columns, and the pavement, delight even the eyes of Barbarians with a rich and variegated picture. A poet, who beheld the primitive lustre of St30. Sophia, enumerates the colours, the shades, and the spots of ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, which nature had profusely diversified, and which were blended and contrasted as it were by a skilful painter. The triumph of Christ was adorned with the last spoils of Paganism, but the greater part of these costly stones was extracted from the quarries of Asia Minor, the isles and continent of Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Gaul. Eight columns of porphyry, which Aurelian had placed in the temple of the sun, were offered by the piety of a Roman30 matron; eight others of green marble were presented by the ambitious zeal of the magistrates of Ephesus: both are admirable by their size and beauty, but every order of architecture disclaims their fantastic capitals. A variety of ornaments and figures was curiously expressed in mosaic; and the images of Christ, of the Virgin, of saints, and of angels, which have been defaced by Turkish30 fanaticism, were dangerously exposed to the superstition of the Greeks30. According to the sanctity of each object, the precious metals were distributed in thin leaves or in solid masses. The balustrade of the choir, the capitals of the pillars, the ornaments of the doors and galleries, were of gilt bronze; the spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect of the cupola; the sanctuary contained forty thousand30 pounds weight of silver; and the holy30 vases and vestments of the altar were of the purest gold30, enriched with inestimable gems. Before the structure of the church had risen two cubits above the ground, forty-five thousand30 two hundred pounds were already consumed; and the whole expense amounted to three hundred and twenty thousand30: each reader, according to the measure of his belief, may estimate their value either in gold30 or silver; but the sum of one million sterling is the result of the lowest computation. A magnificent temple is a laudable monument of national taste and religion, and the enthusiast who entered the dome of St30. Sophia might be tempted to suppose that it was the residence, or even the workmanship, of the Deity. Yet how dull is the artifice, how insignificant is the labour, if it be compared with the formation of the vilest insect that crawls upon the surface of the temple!
So minute a description of an edifice which time has respected may attest the truth, and excuse the relation, of the innumerable works, both in the capital and provinces, which Justinian30 constructed on a smaller scale and less durable foundations. In Constantinople30 alone, and the adjacent suburbs, he dedicated twenty-five churches to the honour of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints: most of these churches were decorated with marble and gold30; and their various situation was skilfully chosen in a populous square or a pleasant grove, on the margin of the sea-shore or on some lofty eminence which overlooked the continents of Europe and Asia. The church of the Holy30 Apostles at Constantinople30 and that of St30. John at Ephesus appear to have been framed on the same model: their domes aspired to imitate the cupolas of St30. Sophia; but the altar was more judiciously placed under the centre of the dome, at the junction of four stately porticoes, which more accurately expressed the figure of the Greek30 cross. The Virgin of Jerusalem might exult in the temple erected by her Imperial votary on a most ungrateful spot, which afforded neither ground nor materials to the architect. A level was formed, by raising part of a deep valley to the height of the mountain. The stones of a neighbouring quarry were hewn into regular forms; each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage drawn by forty of the strongest oxen; and the roads were widened for the passage of such enormous weights. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for the timbers of the church; and the seasonable discovery of a vein of red marble supplied its beautiful columns, two of which, the supporters of the exterior portico, were esteemed the largest in the world. The pious munificence of the emperor30 was diffused over the Holy30 Land; and, if reason should condemn the monasteries of both sexes which were built or restored by Justinian30, yet charity must applaud the wells which he sunk, and the hospitals which he founded, for the relief of the weary pilgrims. The schismatical temper of Egypt was ill-entitled to the royal30 bounty; but in Syria and Africa some remedies were applied to the disasters of wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch, emerging from their ruins, might revere the name of their gracious benefactor. Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the honours of a temple; almost every city30 of the empire30 obtained the solid advantages of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts; but the severe liberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his subjects in the popular luxury of baths and theatres. While Justinian30 laboured for the public service30, he was not unmindful of his own dignity and ease. The Byzantine30 palace30, which had been damaged by the conflagration, was restored with new30 magnificence; and some notion may be conceived of the whole edifice by the vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps or the roof, was surnamed chalce, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious quadrangle was supported by massy pillars; the pavement and walls30 were encrusted with many-coloured marbles — the emerald green of Laconia, the fiery red, and the white Phrygian stone intersected with veins of a sea-green hue: the mosaic paintings of the dome and sides represented the glories of the African and Italian triumphs. On the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, at a small distance to the east of Chalcedon, the costly palace30 and gardens of Heraeum were prepared for the summer residence of Justinian30, and more especially of Theodora. The poets of the age have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmony of the nymphs of the groves, the fountains, and the waves; yet the crowd of attendants who followed the court complained of their inconvenient lodgings, and the nymphs were too often alarmed by the famous Porphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in breadth and thirty in length, who was stranded at the mouth of the river Sangarius, after he had infested more than half a century the seas of Constantinople30.
The fortifications of Europe9 and Asia9 were multiplied by Justinian; but the repetition of those timid and fruitless precautions exposes to a philosophic eye the debility of the empire9. From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the Save to the mouth of the Danube9, a chain of above fourscore fortified places was extended along the banks9 of the great9 river9. Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels; vacant walls9, which the engineers contracted or enlarged according to the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons; a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge, and several military stations affected to spread beyond the Danube9 the pride of the Roman9 name. But that name was divested of its terrors; the Barbarians9, in their annual inroads, passed, and contemptuously repassed, before these useless bulwarks; and the inhabitants9 of the frontier, instead of reposing under the shadow of the general defence, were compelled to guard, with incessant vigilance, their separate habitations. The solitude of ancient9 cities9 was replenished; the new9 foundations of Justinian acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnable and populous; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted the grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name of Justiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresium became the seat of an archbishop and a prefect, whose jurisdiction extended over seven warlike provinces9 of Illyricum; and the corrupt appellation of Giustendil still indicates, about twenty miles9 to the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak. For the use of the emperor's countrymen, a cathedral, a palace, and an aqueduct were speedily constructed; the public and private edifices were adapted to the greatness of a royal city9; and the strength of the walls9 resisted, during the life-time of Justinian, the unskilful assaults of the Huns9 and Sclavonians. Their progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopes of rapine were disappointed, by the innumerable castles, which, in the provinces9 of Dacia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared to cover the whole face of the country9. Six hundred of these forts were built or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to believe that the far9 greater part consisted only of a stone or brick tower, in the midst of a square or circular area, which was surrounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment of danger some protection to the peasants and cattle of the neighbouring villages. Yet these military works, which exhausted the public treasure, could not remove the just apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. The warm baths of Anchialus in Thrace were rendered as safe as they were salutary; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by the Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred miles9 from the Danube9, was continually alarmed by the sound of war9; and no unfortified spot, however distant or solitary, could securely enjoy the blessings of peace. The straits of Thermopylae, which seemed to protect, but which had so often betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened by the labours of Justinian. From the edge of the seashore, through the forests and valleys, and as far9 as the summit of the Thessalian mountains9, a strong wall was continued, which occupied every practicable entrance. Instead of an hasty crowd of peasants, a garrison of two thousand9 soldiers was stationed along the rampart; granaries of corn and reservoirs of water were provided for their use; and, by a precaution that inspired the cowardice which it foresaw, convenient fortresses were erected for their retreat. The walls9 of Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and the mouldering bulwarks of Athens and Plataea, were carefully restored; the Barbarians9 were discouraged by the prospect of successive and painful sieges; and the naked cities9 of Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifications of the isthmus of Corinth. At the extremity of Europe9, another peninsula, the Thracian Chersonesus, runs three days' journey into the sea9, to form, with the adjacent shores of Asia9, the straits of the Hellespont. The intervals between eleven populous towns were filled by lofty woods, fair pastures, and arable lands; and the isthmus, of thirty-seven stadia or furlongs, had been fortified by a Spartan general nine hundred years before the reign of Justinian. In an age of freedom and valour9, the slightest rampart may prevent a surprise; and Procopius appears insensible of the superiority of ancient9 times, while he praises the solid construction and double parapet of a wall whose long9 arms9 stretched on either side into the sea9; but whose strength was deemed insufficient to guard the Chersonesus, if each city9, and particularly Gallipoli and Sestus, had not been secured by their peculiar fortifications. The long9 wall, as it was emphatically styled, was a work as disgraceful in the object, as it was respectable in the execution. The riches of a capital9 diffuse themselves over the neighbouring country9, and the territory of Constantinople, a paradise of nature, was adorned with the luxurious gardens and villas of the senators and opulent citizens. But their wealth served only to attract the bold and rapacious Barbarians9; the noblest of the Romans9, in the bosom of peaceful indolence, were led away into Scythian captivity, and their sovereign might view from his palace the hostile flames which were insolently spread to the gates of the Imperial city9. At the distance only of forty miles9 Anastasius was constrained to establish a last frontier; his long9 wall, of sixty miles9 from the Propontis to the Euxine, proclaimed the impotence of his arms9; and, as the danger became more imminent, new9 fortifications were added by the indefatigable prudence of Justinian.
Asia Minor, after the submission of the Isaurians, remained without enemies30 and without fortifications. Those bold savages, who had disdained to be the subjects of Gallienus, persisted two hundred and thirty years30 in a life of independence and rapine. The most successful princes respected the strength of the mountains and the despair of the natives; their fierce spirit was sometimes soothed with gifts, and sometimes restrained by terror; and a military count, with three legions, fixed his permanent and ignominious station in the heart of the Roman30 provinces. But no sooner was the vigilance of power relaxed or diverted, than the light-armed squadrons descended from the hills and invaded the peaceful plenty of Asia. Although the Isaurians were not remarkable for stature or bravery, want rendered them bold, and experience made them skilful, in the exercise of predatory war30. They advanced with secrecy and speed to the attack of villages and defenceless towns; their flying parties have sometimes touched the Hellespont, the Euxine, and the gates of Tarsus, Antioch, or Damascus; and the spoil was lodged in their inaccessible mountains, before the Roman30 troops30 had received their orders, or the distant province had computed its loss. The guilt of rebellion and robbery excluded them from the rights of national enemies30; and the magistrates were instructed by an edict, that the trial or punishment of an Isaurian, even on the festival of Easter, was a meritorious act of justice and piety. If the captives were condemned to domestic slavery, they maintained, with their sword30 or dagger, the private quarrel of their masters; and it was found expedient for the public tranquillity to prohibit the service30 of such dangerous retainers. When their countryman Tarcalissaeus or Zeno ascended the throne, he invited a faithful and formidable band of Isaurians, who insulted the court and city30, and were rewarded by an annual tribute of five thousand30 pounds of gold30. But the hopes of fortune depopulated the mountains, luxury enervated the hardiness of their minds and bodies, and, in proportion as they mixed with mankind, they became less qualified for the enjoyment of poor and solitary freedom. After the death30 of Zeno, his successor Anastasius suppressed their pensions, exposed their persons to the revenge of the people30, banished them from Constantinople30, and prepared to sustain a war30, which left30 only the alternative of victory30 or servitude. A brother of the last emperor30 usurped the title of Augustus, his cause was powerfully supported by the arms30, the treasures, and the magazines, collected by Zeno; and the native Isaurians must have formed the smallest portion of the hundred and fifty thousand30 Barbarians under his standard30, which was sanctified, for the first time, by the presence of a fighting bishop. Their disorderly numbers were vanquished in the plains of Phrygia by the valour and discipline of the Goths; but a war30 of six years30 almost exhausted the courage of the emperor30. The Isaurians retired to their mountains; their fortresses were successively besieged and ruined; their communication with the sea was intercepted; the bravest of their leaders died in arms30; the surviving chiefs, before their execution, were dragged in chains through the hippodrome; a colony of their youth was transplanted into Thrace, and the remnant of the people30 submitted to the Roman30 government. Yet some generations elapsed before their minds were reduced to the level of slavery. The populous villages of Mount Taurus were filled with horsemen and archers; they resisted the imposition of tributes, but they recruited the armies of Justinian30; and his civil magistrates, the proconsul of Cappadocia, the count of Isauria, and the praetors of Lycaonia and Pisidia, were invested with military power to restrain the licentious practice of rapes and assassinations.
If we extend our view from the tropic to the mouth of the Tanais, we may observe, on one hand, the precautions of Justinian30 to curb the savages of Aethiopia, and, on the other, the long30 walls30 which he constructed in Crimea for the protection of his friendly Goths, a colony of three thousand30 shepherds and warriors. From that peninsula to Trebizond, the eastern curve of the Euxine was secured by forts, by alliance, or by religion; and the possession of Lazica, the Colchos of ancient, the Mingrelia of modern, geography, soon30 became the object of an important war30. Trebizond, in after-times the seat of a romantic empire30, was indebted to the liberality of Justinian30 for a church, an aqueduct, and a castle, whose ditches are hewn in the solid rock. From that maritime city30, a frontier-line of five hundred miles may be drawn to the fortress of Circesium, the last Roman30 station on the Euphrates. Above Trebizond immediately, and five days30' journey to the south, the country rises into dark forests and craggy mountains, as savage though not so lofty as the Alps and the Pyrenees. In this rigorous climate, where the snows seldom melt, the fruits are tardy and tasteless, even honey is poisonous; the most industrious tillage would be confined to some pleasant valleys; and the pastoral tribes obtained a scanty sustenance from the flesh and milk of their cattle. The Chalybians derived their name and temper from the iron quality of the soil; and, since the days30 of Cyrus, they might produce, under the various appellations of Chaldaeans and Zanians, an uninterrupted prescription of war30 and rapine. Under the reign of Justinian30, they acknowledged the God and the emperor30 of the Romans, and seven fortresses were built in the most accessible passes, to exclude the ambition of the Persian monarch. The principal source of the Euphrates descends from the Chalybian mountains, and seems to flow towards the west and the Euxine; bending to the south-west, the river passes under the walls30 of Satala and Melitene (which were restored by Justinian30 as the bulwarks of the lesser Armenia), and gradually approaches the Mediterranean sea; till30 at length, repelled by Mount Taurus, the Euphrates inclines his long30 and flexible course to the south-east and the gulf of Persia. Among the Roman30 cities beyond the Euphrates, we distinguish two recent foundations, which were named from Theodosius and the relics of the Martyrs; and two capitals, Amida and Edessa, which are celebrated in the history of every age. Their strength was proportioned by Justinian30 to the danger of their situation. A ditch and palisade might be sufficient to resist the artless force of the cavalry of Scythia; but more elaborate works were required to sustain a regular siege30 against the arms30 and treasures of the great king30. His skilful engineers understood the methods of conducting deep mines, and of raising platforms to the level of the rampart; he shook the strongest battlements with his military engines, and sometimes advanced to the assault with a line of moveable turrets on the backs of elephants. In the great cities of the East, the disadvantage of space, perhaps of position, was compensated by the zeal of the people30, who seconded the garrison in the defence of their country and religion; and the fabulous promise of the Son30 of God, that Edessa should never be taken, filled the citizens with valiant confidence, and chilled the besiegers with doubt and dismay. The subordinate towns of Armenia and Mesopotamia were diligently strengthened, and the posts which appeared to have any command of ground or water were occupied by numerous forts, substantially built of stone, or more hastily erected with the obvious materials of earth and brick. The eye of Justinian30 investigated every spot; and his cruel precautions might attract the war30 into some lonely vale, whose peaceful natives, connected by trade and marriage, were ignorant of national discord and the quarrels of princes. Westward of the Euphrates, a sandy desert extends above six hundred miles to the Red Sea. Nature had interposed a vacant solitude between the ambition of two rival empires; the Arabians, till30 Mahomet arose, were formidable only as robbers; and, in the proud security of peace, the fortifications of Syria were neglected on the most vulnerable side.
But the national enmity, at least the effects of that enmity, had been suspended by a truce, which continued above four-score years30. An ambassador from the emperor30 Zeno accompanied the rash and unfortunate Perozes, in his expedition against the Nepthalites or white Huns, whose conquests had been stretched from the Caspian to the heart of India, whose throne was enriched with emeralds, and whose cavalry was supported by a line of two thousand30 elephants. The Persians were twice circumvented, in a situation which made valour useless and flight impossible; and the double victory30 of the Huns was achieved by military stratagem. They dismissed their royal30 captive after he had submitted to adore the majesty of a Barbarian; and the humiliation was poorly evaded by the casuistical subtilty of the Magi, who instructed Perozes to direct his attention to the rising sun. The indignant successor of Cyrus forgot his danger and his gratitude: he renewed the attack with headstrong fury, and lost both his army30 and his life. The death30 of Perozes abandoned Persia to her foreign and domestic enemies30; and twelve years30 of confusion elapsed before his son30 Cabades or Kobad could embrace any designs of ambition or revenge. The unkind parsimony of Anastasius was the motive or pretence of a Roman30 war30; the Huns and Arabs marched under the Persian standard30; and the fortifications of Armenia and Mesopotamia were at that time in a ruinous or imperfect condition. The emperor30 returned his thanks to the governor and people30 of Martyropolis for the prompt surrender of a city30 which could not be successfully defended, and the conflagration of Theodosiopolis might justify the conduct of their prudent neighbours. Amida sustained a long30 and destructive siege30: at the end of three months the loss of fifty thousand30 of the soldiers30 of Cabades was not balanced by any prospect of success, and it was in vain that the Magi deduced a flattering prediction from the indecency of the women on the ramparts, who had revealed their most secret charms to the eyes of the assailants. At length, in a silent night, they ascended the most accessible tower, which was guarded only by some monks, oppressed; after the duties of a festival, with sleep and wine. Scaling-ladders were applied at the dawn of day30; the presence of Cabades, his stern command, and his drawn sword30 compelled the Persians to vanquish; and, before it was sheathed, fourscore thousand30 of the inhabitants had expiated the blood of their companions. After the siege30 of Amida, the war30 continued three years30, and the unhappy frontier tasted the full measure of its calamities. The gold30 of Anastasius was offered too late; the number of his troops30 was defeated by the number of their generals; the country was stripped of its inhabitants; and both the living and the dead were abandoned to the wild beasts of the desert. The resistance of Edessa, and the deficiency of spoil, inclined the mind of Cabades to peace; he sold his conquests for an exorbitant price; and the same line, though marked with slaughter and devastation, still separated the two empires. To avert the repetition of the same evils, Anastasius resolved to form a new30 colony, so strong that it should defy the power of the Persian, so far advanced towards Assyria that its stationary troops30 might defend the province by the menace or operation of offensive war30. For this purpose, the town of Dara, fourteen miles from Nisibis, and four days30' journey from the Tigris, was peopled and adorned; the hasty works of Anastasius were improved by the perseverance of Justinian30; and, without insisting on places less important, the fortifications of Dara may represent the military architecture of the age. The city30 was surrounded with two walls30, and the interval between them, of fifty paces, afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall was a monument of strength and beauty: it measured sixty feet from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundred feet; the loop-holes, from whence an enemy30 might be annoyed with missile weapons, were small, but numerous; the soldiers30 were planted along the rampart, under the shelter of double galleries; and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the summit of the towers. The exterior wall appears to have been less lofty, but more solid; and each tower was protected by a quadrangular bulwark. A hard rocky soil resisted the tools of the miners, and on the south-east, where the ground was more tractable, their approach was retarded by a new30 work, which advanced in the shape of an half-moon. The double and treble ditches were filled with a stream of water; and in the management of the river the most skilful labour was employed to supply the inhabitants, to distress the besiegers, and to prevent the mischiefs of a natural or artificial inundation. Dara continued more than sixty years30 to fulfil the wishes of its founders, and to provoke the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly complained that this impregnable fortress had been constructed in manifest violation of the treaty of peace between the two empires.
Between the Euxine and the Caspian, the countries of Colchos, Iberia, and Albania are intersected in every direction by the branches of Mount Caucasus; and the two principal gates27 or passes from north to south have been frequently confounded in the geography both of the ancients and moderns. The name of Caspian or Albanian gates27 is properly applied to Derbend, which occupies a short declivity between the mountains and the sea; the city27, if we give credit to local tradition, had been founded by the Greeks; and this dangerous entrance was fortified by the kings of Persia with a mole, double walls, and doors of iron. The Iberian gates27 are formed by a narrow passage of six miles27 in Mount Caucasus, which opens from the northern side of Iberia or Georgia into the plain that reaches to the Tanais and the Volga. A fortress, designed by Alexander, perhaps, or one of his successors, to command that important27 pass, had descended by right of conquest or inheritance to a prince of the Huns, who offered it for a moderate price to the emperor; but, while Anastasius paused, while he timorously computed the cost and the distance, a more vigilant rival interposed, and Cabades forcibly occupied the straits of Caucasus. The Albanian and Iberian gates27 excluded the horsemen of Scythia from the shortest and most practicable roads, and the whole front of the mountains was covered by the rampart of Gog and Magog, the long wall which has excited the curiosity of an Arabian caliph and a Russian conqueror. According to a recent description, huge stones seven27 feet27 thick, twenty-one feet27 in length or height, are artificially joined without iron or cement, to compose a wall which runs above three hundred miles27 from the shores of Derbend, over the hills and through the valleys of Daghestan and Georgia. Without a vision, such a work might be undertaken by the policy of Cabades; without a miracle, it might be accomplished by his son, so formidable to the Romans under the name of Chosroes, so dear to the Orientals under the appellation of Nushirwan. The Persian monarch held in his hand the keys both of peace27 and war27; but he stipulated, in every treaty, that Justinian should contribute to the expense of a common barrier, which equally protected the two empires from the inroads of the Scythians.
VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of Athens and the consulship of Rome1, which had given so many sages and heroes to mankind. Both these institutions had long1 since degenerated from their primitive glory; yet some reproach may be justly inflicted on the avarice and jealousy of a prince by whose hands such venerable ruins were destroyed.
Athens, after her Persian triumphs, adopted the philosophy of Ionia and the rhetoric of Sicily; and these studies became the patrimony of a city whose inhabitants, about thirty thousand2 males, condensed, within the period of a single life, the genius of ages and millions. Our sense of the dignity of human nature is exalted by the simple recollection that Isocrates was the companion of Plato and Xenophon; that he assisted, perhaps with the historian Thucydides, at the first representations of the Oedipus of Sophocles and the Iphigenia of Euripides; and that his pupils Aeschines and Demosthenes contended for the crown of patriotism in the presence of Aristotle, the master of Theophrastus, who taught at Athens with the founders of the Stoic and Epicurean sects. The ingenuous youth of Attica enjoyed the benefits of their domestic education2, which was communicated without envy to the rival cities. Two thousand2 disciples heard the lessons of Theophrastus; the schools2 of rhetoric must have been still more populous than those of philosophy; and a rapid succession of students diffused the fame of their teachers as far as the utmost limits of the Grecian language and name. Those limits were enlarged by the victories of Alexander; the arts2 of Athens survived her freedom and dominion; and the Greek colonies which the Macedonians planted in Egypt, and scattered over Asia2, undertook long and frequent pilgrimages to worship the Muses in their favourite2 temple on the banks of the Ilissus. The Latin conquerors respectfully listened to the instructions of their subjects2 and captives; the names of Cicero and Horace were enrolled in the schools2 of Athens; and, after the perfect settlement of the Roman2 empire2, the natives of Italy, of Africa, and of Britain conversed in the groves of the academy with their fellow-students of the East2. The studies of philosophy and eloquence are congenial to a popular state2, which encourages the freedom of inquiry and submits only to the force of persuasion. In the republics of Greece and Rome, the art2 of speaking was the powerful engine of patriotism or ambition; and the schools2 of rhetoric poured forth a colony of statesmen and legislators. When the liberty of public debate was suppressed, the orator, in the honourable profession of an advocate, might plead the cause of innocence and justice; he might abuse his talents in the more profitable trade of panegyric; and the same precepts continued to dictate the fanciful declamations of the sophist and the chaster beauties of historical composition. The systems which professed to unfold the nature of God, of man, and of the universe entertained the curiosity of the philosophic student; and, according to the temper of his mind2, he might doubt with the sceptics or decide with the Stoics, sublimely speculate with Plato or severely argue with Aristotle. The pride2 of the adverse sects had fixed an unattainable term of moral happiness and perfection; but the race was glorious and salutary; the disciples of Zeno, and even those of Epicurus, were taught both to act and to suffer; and the death of Petronius was not less effectual than that of Seneca to humble a tyrant by the discovery of his impotence. The light2 of science could not indeed be confined within the walls of Athens. Her incomparable writers address themselves to the human race; the living masters emigrated to Italy and Asia2; Berytus, in later times2, was devoted to the study of the law; astronomy and physic were cultivated in the museum of Alexandria; but the Attic schools2 of rhetoric and philosophy maintained their superior reputation from the Peloponnesian war to the reign2 of Justinian2. Athens, though situate in a barren soil, possessed a pure air, a free navigation, and the monuments of ancient art2. That sacred retirement was seldom disturbed by the business of trade or government; and the last of the Athenians were distinguished by their lively wit, the purity of their taste and language, their social manners, and some traces, at least in discourse, of the magnanimity of their fathers. In the suburbs of the city, the academy of the Platonists, the lyceum of the Peripatetics, the portico of the Stoics, and the garden of the Epicureans were planted with trees and decorated with statues; and the philosophers, instead of being immured in a cloister, delivered their instructions in spacious and pleasant walks, which at different hours were consecrated to the exercises of the mind2 and body. The genius of the founders still lived in those venerable seats; the ambition of succeeding to the masters of human reason excited a generous emulation; and the merit2 of the candidates was determined, on each vacancy, by the free voices of an enlightened people2. The Athenian professors were paid by their disciples; according to their mutual wants and abilities, the price appears to have varied from a mina to a talent; and Isocrates himself, who derides the avarice of the sophists, required in his school of rhetoric about thirty pounds from each of his hundred pupils. The wages of industry are just and honourable, yet the same Isocrates shed tears at the first receipt of a stipend; the Stoic might blush when he was hired to preach the contempt of money; and I should be sorry to discover that Aristotle or Plato so far degenerated from the example of Socrates, as to exchange knowledge for gold. But some property of lands and houses was settled by the permission of the laws, and the legacies of deceased friends, on the philosophic chairs of Athens. Epicurus bequeathed to his disciples the gardens which he had purchased for eighty minae or two hundred and fifty pounds, with a fund sufficient for their frugal subsistence and monthly festivals; and the patrimony of Plato afforded an annual rent, which, in eight centuries, was gradually increased from three to one thousand2 pieces of gold. The schools2 of Athens were protected by the wisest and most virtuous of the Roman2 princes. The library which Hadrian founded was placed in a portico adorned with pictures, statues, and a roof of alabaster, and supported by one hundred columns of Phrygian marble. The public salaries were assigned by the generous spirit2 of the Antonines; and each professor, of politics, of rhetoric, of the Platonic, the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean philosophy, received an annual stipend of ten thousand2 drachmae, or more than three hundred pounds sterling. After the death of Marcus, these liberal2 donations, and the privileges attached to the thrones of science, were abolished and revived, diminished and enlarged; but some vestige of royal2 bounty may be found under the successors of Constantine; and their arbitrary choice of an unworthy candidate might tempt the philosophers of Athens to regret the days of independence and poverty2. It is remarkable that the impartial favour of the Antonines was bestowed on the four adverse sects of philosophy, which they considered as equally useful, or at least as equally innocent. Socrates had formerly been the glory2 and the reproach of his country; and the first lessons of Epicurus so strangely scandalised the pious ears of the Athenians that by his exile, and that of his antagonists, they silenced all vain disputes concerning the nature of the gods. But in the ensuing year they recalled the hasty decree, restored the liberty of the schools2, and were convinced, by the experience of ages, that the moral character2 of philosophers is not affected by the diversity of their theological speculations.
The Gothic arms were less fatal to the schools of Athens than the establishment of a new religion8, whose ministers superseded the exercise of reason8, resolved every question by an article of faith8, and condemned the infidel or sceptic to eternal flames. In many a volume of laborious controversy, they exposed the weakness of the understanding and the corruption of the heart, insulted human8 nature8 in the sages of antiquity, and proscribed the spirit of philosophical inquiry, so repugnant to the doctrine, or at least to the temper, of an humble believer. The surviving sect of the Platonists, whom Plato would have blushed to acknowledge, extravagantly mingled a sublime theory with the practice8 of superstition8 and magic; and, as they remained alone in the midst of a Christian8 world8, they indulged a secret rancour against the government of the church8 and state, whose severity was still suspended over their heads. About a century after the reign8 of Julian8, Proclus was permitted to teach in the philosophic chair of the academy, and such was his industry that he frequently, in the same day, pronounced five lessons and composed seven hundred lines. His sagacious mind8 explored the deepest questions of morals and metaphysics, and he ventured to urge eighteen arguments against the Christian8 doctrine of the creation of the world8. But in the intervals of study he personally conversed with Pan, Aesculapius, and Minerva, in whose mysteries he was secretly initiated, and whose prostrate statues he adored; in the devout persuasion that the philosopher8, who is a citizen of the universe, should be the priest of its various8 deities. An eclipse of the sun announced his approaching end; and his life8, with that of his scholar Isidore, compiled by two of their most learned disciples, exhibits a deplorable picture of the second childhood of human8 reason8. Yet the golden chain, as it was fondly styled, of the Platonic succession, continued forty-four years from the death8 of Proclus to the edict of Justinian, which imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of Athens, and excited the grief and indignation of the few remaining votaries of Grecian science and superstition8. Seven friends and philosophers, Diogenes and Hermias, Eulalius and Priscian, Damascius, Isidore, and Simplicius, who dissented from the religion8 of their sovereign, embraced the resolution of seeking, in a foreign land, the freedom which was denied in their native country. They had heard, and they credulously believed, that the republic of Plato was realised in the despotic government of Persia, and that a patriotic king reigned over the happiest and most virtuous of nations. They were soon astonished by the natural discovery that Persia resembled the other countries of the globe; that Chosroes, who affected the name of a philosopher8, was vain, cruel, and ambitious; that bigotry, and a spirit of intolerance, prevailed among the Magi; that the nobles were haughty, the courtiers servile, and the magistrates unjust; that the guilty sometimes escaped, and that the innocent were often oppressed. The disappointment of the philosophers provoked them to overlook the real virtues of the Persians; and they were scandalised, more deeply perhaps than became their profession, with the plurality of wives and concubines, the incestuous marriages, and the custom of exposing dead bodies to the dogs and vultures, instead of hiding them in the earth or consuming them with fire. Their repentance was expressed by a precipitate return, and they loudly declared that they had rather die on the borders of the empire8 than enjoy the wealth and favour of the Barbarian. From this journey, however, they derived a benefit which reflects the purest lustre on the character8 of Chosroes. He required that the seven sages who had visited the court of Persia should be exempted from the penal laws8 which Justinian enacted against his Pagan8 subjects8; and this privilege, expressly stipulated in a treaty of peace, was guarded by the vigilance of a powerful mediator. Simplicius and his companions ended their lives in peace and obscurity; and, as they left no disciples, they terminate the long list of Grecian philosophers, who may be justly praised, notwithstanding their defects, as the wisest and most virtuous of their contemporaries. The writings of Simplicius are now extant. His physical and metaphysical commentaries on Aristotle have passed away with the fashion of the times; but his moral interpretation of Epictetus is preserved in the library of nations, as a classic book, most excellently adapted to direct the will, to purify the heart, and to confirm the understanding, by a just confidence in the nature8 both of God8 and man8.
About the same time that Pythagoras first invented the appellation of philosopher, liberty and the consulship were founded at Rome1 by the elder Brutus. The revolutions of the consular office1, which may be viewed in the successive lights of a substance, a shadow, and a name, have been occasionally mentioned in the present history. The first magistrates1 of the republic1 had been chosen by the people1, to exercise, in the senate1 and in the camp, the powers of peace1 and war, which were afterwards translated to the emperors1. But the tradition of ancient1 dignity was long1 revered by the Romans1 and Barbarians. A Gothic historian applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the height of all temporal glory and greatness; the king of Italy1 himself congratulates those annual favourites of fortune who, without the cares, enjoyed the splendour of the throne; and at the end of a thousand years1 two consuls were created by the sovereigns of Rome1 and Constantinople, for the sole purpose of giving a date to the year and a festival to the people1. But the expenses of this festival, in which the wealthy and the vain aspired to surpass their predecessors, insensibly arose to the enormous sum of fourscore thousand pounds; the wisest senators declined an useless honour, which involved the certain ruin of their families; and to this reluctance I should impute the frequent chasms in the last age of the consular Fasti. The predecessors of Justinian had assisted from the public1 treasures the dignity of the less opulent candidates; the avarice of that prince preferred the cheaper and more convenient method of advice and regulation. Seven processions or spectacles were the number to which his edict confined the horse and chariot races, the athletic sports, the music and pantomimes of the theatre, and the hunting of wild beasts; and small pieces of silver were discreetly substituted to the gold medals, which had always excited tumult and drunkenness, when they were scattered with a profuse hand among the populace. Notwithstanding these precautions and his own example, the succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a title1 which admonished the Romans1 of their ancient1 freedom1. Yet the annual consulship still lived in the minds of the people1; they fondly expected its speedy restoration; they applauded the gracious condescension of successive princes1, by whom it was assumed1 in the first year of their reign1; and three centuries elapsed, after the death of Justinian, before that obsolete dignity, which had been suppressed by custom, could be abolished by law. The imperfect mode of distinguishing each year by the name of a magistrate1 was usefully supplied by the date of a permanent era: the creation of the world, according to the septuagint version, was adopted by the Greeks; and the Latins, since the age of Charlemagne, have computed their time from the birth of Christ.
When Justinian ascended the throne, about fifty years1 after the fall of the Western empire1, the kingdom of the Goths and Vandals had obtained a solid and, as it might seem, a legal establishment both in Europe and Africa. The titles which Roman1 victory had inscribed were erased with equal justice1 by the sword of the Barbarians; and their successful rapine derived a more venerable sanction from time, from treaties, and from the oaths of fidelity, already repeated by a second or third generation of obedient subjects1. Experience and Christianity had refuted the superstitious hope that Rome1 was founded by the gods to reign1 for ever over the nations of the earth. But the proud claim of perpetual and indefeasible dominion, which her soldiers could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her statesmen and lawyers, whose opinions have been sometimes revived and propagated in the modern schools of jurisprudence. After Rome1 herself had been stripped of the Imperial purple, the princes1 of Constantinople assumed1 the sole and sacred1 sceptre of the monarchy; demanded, as their rightful inheritance, the provinces1 which had been subdued by the consuls or possessed by the Caesars; and feebly aspired to deliver their faithful subjects1 of the West from the usurpation of heretics and Barbarians. The execution of this splendid design was in some degree reserved for Justinian. During the five first years1 of his reign1, he reluctantly waged a costly and unprofitable war against the Persians; till his pride submitted to his ambition, and he purchased, at the price of four hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling, the benefit of a precarious truce, which, in the language of both nations, was dignified with the appellation of the endless peace1. The safety of the East enabled the emperor1 to employ his forces against the Vandals; and the internal state1 of Africa afforded an honourable motive, and promised a powerful support, to the Roman1 arms.
According to the testament of the founder, the African kingdom had lineally descended to Hilderic the eldest of the Vandal princes. A mild disposition inclined the son47 of a tyrant47, the grandson of a conqueror, to prefer the counsels of clemency and peace; and his accession was marked by the salutary edict which restored two hundred bishops to their churches and allowed the free profession of the Athanasian creed. But the Catholics accepted with cold and transient gratitude a favour so inadequate to their pretensions, and the virtues of Hilderic offended the prejudices of his countrymen. The Arian clergy presumed to insinuate that he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers47 more loudly complained that he had degenerated from the courage, of his ancestors. His ambassadors were suspected of a secret47 and disgraceful negotiation in the Byzantine court; and his general47, the Achilles, as he was named, of the Vandals, lost a battle against the naked and disorderly Moors. The public47 discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose age47, descent, and military47 fame gave him an apparent title to the succession; he assumed, with the consent of the nation, the reins of government47; and his unfortunate sovereign47 sunk without a struggle from the throne47 to a dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a faithful counsellor and his unpopular nephew, the Achilles of the Vandals. But the indulgence which Hilderic had shewn to his Catholic subjects had powerfully recommended him to the favour of Justinian, who, for the benefit of his own sect, could acknowledge the use and justice47 of religious toleration; their alliance, while the nephew of Justin remained in a private47 station, was cemented by the mutual exchange of gifts and letters; and the emperor47 Justinian asserted the cause of royalty and friendship. In two successive embassies, he admonished the usurper to repent of his treason, or to abstain, at least, from any further violence, which might provoke the displeasure of God and of the Romans; to reverence the laws of kindred and succession; and to suffer an infirm old man peaceably to end his days either on the throne47 of Carthage or in the palace47 of Constantinople. The passions or even the prudence of Gelimer compelled him to reject these requests, which were urged in the haughty tone of menace and command47; and he justified his ambition in a language rarely spoken in the Byzantine court, by alleging the right of a free people47 to remove or punish their chief magistrate, who had failed in the execution of the kingly office. After this fruitless expostulation, the captive monarch was more rigorously treated, his nephew was deprived of his eyes, and the cruel Vandal, confident in his strength and distance, derided the vain threats and slow preparations of the emperor47 of the East47. Justinian resolved to deliver or revenge his friend, Gelimer to maintain his usurpation; and the war47 was preceded, according to the practice of civilised nations, by the most solemn protestations that each party was sincerely desirous of peace.
The report of an African war30 was grateful only to the vain and idle populace of Constantinople30, whose poverty exempted them from tribute, and whose cowardice was seldom exposed to military service30. But the wiser citizens, who judged of the future by the past, revolved in their memory the immense loss both of men and money, which the empire30 had sustained in the expedition of Basiliscus. The troops30, which, after five laborious campaigns, had been recalled from the Persian frontier, dreaded the sea, the climate, and the arms30 of an unknown enemy30. The ministers of the finances computed, as far as they might compute, the demands of an African war30; the taxes which must be found and levied to supply those insatiate demands; and the danger lest their own lives, or at least their lucrative employments, should be made responsible for the deficiency of the supply. Inspired by such selfish motives (for we may not suspect him of any zeal for the public good), John of Cappadocia ventured to oppose in full council the inclinations of his master. He confessed that a victory30 of such importance could not be too dearly purchased; but he represented in a grave discourse the certain difficulties and the uncertain event. You undertake, said the prefect, to besiege Carthage by land, the distance is not less than one hundred and forty days30' journey; on the sea, a whole year must elapse before you can receive any intelligence from your fleet. If Africa should be reduced, it cannot be preserved without the additional conquest of Sicily and Italy. Success will impose the obligation of new30 labours; a single misfortune will attract the Barbarians into the heart of your exhausted empire30. Justinian30 felt the weight of this salutary advice; he was confounded by the unwonted freedom of an obsequious servant; and the design of the war30 would perhaps have been relinquished, if his courage had not been revived by a voice which silenced the doubts of profane reason. I have seen a vision, cried an artful or fanatic bishop of the East. It is the will of heaven, O emperor30! that you should not abandon your holy30 enterprise for the deliverance of the African church. The God of battles will march before your standard30, and disperse your enemies30, who are the enemies30 of his Son30. The emperor30 might be tempted, and his counsellors were constrained, to give credit to this seasonable revelation; but they derived more rational hope from the revolt which the adherents of Hilderic or Athanasius had already excited on the borders of the Vandal monarchy. Pudentius, an African subject, had privately signified his loyal intentions, and a small military aid restored the province of Tripoli to the obedience of the Romans. The government of Sardinia had been entrusted to Godas, a valiant Barbarian; he suspended the payment of tribute, disclaimed his allegiance to the usurper, and gave audience to the emissaries of Justinian30, who found him master of that fruitful island, at the head30 of his guards, and proudly invested with the ensigns of royalty. The forces of the Vandals were diminished by discord and suspicion; the Roman30 armies were animated by the spirit of Belisarius30: one of those heroic names which are familiar to every age and to every nation.
The Africanus of new30 Rome was born, and perhaps educated, among the Thracian peasants, without any of those advantages which had formed the virtues of the elder and the younger Scipio: a noble origin, liberal studies, and the emulation of a free state. The silence of a loquacious secretary may be admitted to prove that the youth of Belisarius30 could not afford any subject of praise: he served, most assuredly with valour and reputation, among the private guards of Justinian30; and, when his patron became emperor30, the domestic was promoted to military command. After a bold inroad into Persarmenia, in which his glory was shared by a colleague and his progress was checked by an enemy30, Belisarius30 repaired to the important station of Dara, where he first accepted the service30 of Procopius, the faithful companion, and diligent historian, of his exploits. The Mirranes of Persia advanced, with forty thousand30 of her best troops30, to raze the fortifications of Dara; and signified the day30 and the hour on which the citizens should prepare a bath for his refreshment after the toils of victory30. He encountered an adversary equal to himself, by the new30 title of General30 of the East: his superior in the science of war30, but much inferior in the number and quality of his troops30, which amounted only to twenty-five thousand30 Romans and strangers, relaxed in their discipline, and humbled by recent disasters. As the level plain of Dara refused all shelter to stratagem and ambush, Belisarius30 protected his front with a deep trench, which was prolonged at first in perpendicular and afterwards in parallel lines, to cover the wings of cavalry advantageously posted to command the flanks and rear of the enemy30. When the Roman30 centre was shaken, their well-timed and rapid charge decided the conflict: the standard30 of Persia fell; the immortals fled; the infantry threw away their bucklers; and eight thousand30 of the vanquished were left30 on the field of battle30. In the next campaign, Syria was invaded on the side of the desert; and Belisarius30, with twenty thousand30 men, hastened from Dara to the relief of the province. During the whole summer, the designs of the enemy30 were baffled by his skilful dispositions: he pressed their retreat, occupied each night their camp30 of the preceding day30, and would have secured a bloodless victory30 if he could have resisted the impatience of his own troops30. Their valiant promise was faintly supported in the hour of battle30; the right wing was exposed by the treacherous or cowardly desertion of the Christian Arabs; the Huns, a veteran band of eight hundred warriors, were oppressed by superior numbers; the flight of the Isaurians was intercepted; but the Roman30 infantry stood firm on the left30, for Belisarius30 himself, dismounting from his horse30, shewed them that intrepid despair was their only safety. They turned their backs to the Euphrates, and their faces to the enemy30; innumerable arrows glanced without effect from the compact and shelving order of their bucklers; an impenetrable line of pikes was opposed to the repeated assaults of the Persian cavalry; and, after a resistance of many hours, the remaining troops30 were skilfully embarked under the shadow of the night. The Persian commander retired with disorder and disgrace, to answer a strict account of the lives of so many soldiers30 which he had consumed in a barren victory30. But the fame of Belisarius30 was not sullied by a defeat, in which he alone had saved his army30 from the consequences of their own rashness; the approach of peace relieved him from the guard of the eastern frontier, and his conduct in the sedition of Constantinople30 amply discharged his obligations to the emperor30. When the African war30 became the topic of popular discourse and secret deliberation, each of the Roman30 generals was apprehensive, rather than ambitious, of the dangerous honour; but, as soon30 as Justinian30 had declared his preference of superior merit, their envy was rekindled by the unanimous applause which was given to the choice of Belisarius30. The temper of the Byzantine30 court may encourage a suspicion that the hero was darkly assisted by the intrigues of his wife, the fair and subtle Antonina, who alternately enjoyed the confidence, and incurred the hatred, of the empress Theodora. The birth of Antonina was ignoble, she descended from a family of charioteers; and her chastity has been stained with the foulest reproach. Yet she reigned with long30 and absolute power over the mind of her illustrious husband; and, if Antonina disdained the merit of conjugal fidelity, she expressed a manly friendship to Belisarius30, whom she accompanied with undaunted resolution in all the hardships and dangers of a military life.
The preparations for the African war30 were not unworthy of the last contest between Rome and Carthage. The pride and flower of the army30 consisted of the guards of Belisarius30, who according to the pernicious indulgence of the times, devoted themselves by a particular oath of fidelity to the service30 of their patrons. Their strength and stature, for which they had been curiously selected, the goodness of their horses and armour, and the assiduous practice of all the exercises of war30, enabled them to act whatever their courage might prompt; and their courage was exalted by the social honour of their rank and the personal ambition of favour and fortune. Four hundred of the bravest of the Heruli marched under the banner of the faithful and active Pharas; their untractable valour was more highly prized than the tame submission of the Greeks30 and Syrians; and of such importance was it deemed to procure a reinforcement of six hundred Massagetae, or Huns, that they were allured by fraud and deceit to engage in a naval expedition. Five thousand30 horse30 and ten thousand30 foot were embarked at Constantinople30 for the conquest of Africa, but the infantry, for the most part levied in Thrace and Isauria, yielded to the more prevailing use and reputation of the cavalry; and the Scythian bow was the weapon on which the armies of Rome were now reduced to place their principal dependence. From a laudable desire to assert the dignity of his theme, Procopius defends the soldiers30 of his own time against the morose critics who confined that respectable name to the heavy-armed warriors of antiquity and maliciously observed that the word archer is introduced by Homer as a term of contempt. Such contempt might, perhaps, be due to the naked youths who appeared on foot in the fields of Troy, and, lurking behind a tomb-stone, or the shield of a friend, drew the bow-string to their breast, and dismissed a feeble and lifeless arrow. But our archers (pursues the historian), are mounted on horses, which they manage with admirable skill; their head30 and shoulders are protected by a cask or buckler; they wear greaves of iron on their legs, and their bodies are guarded by a coat of mail. On their right side hangs a quiver, a sword30 on their left30, and their hand is accustomed to wield a lance or javelin in closer combat. Their bows are strong and weighty; they shoot in every possible direction, advancing, retreating, to the front, to the rear, or to either flank; and, as they are taught to draw the bow-string not to the breast, but to the right ear, firm, indeed, must be the armour that can resist the rapid violence of their shaft. Five hundred transports, navigated by twenty thousand30 mariners of Egypt, Cilicia, and Ionia, were collected in the harbour of Constantinople30. The smallest of these vessels may be computed at thirty, the largest at five hundred, tons; and the fair average will supply an allowance, liberal but not profuse, of about one hundred thousand30 tons, for the reception of thirty-five thousand30 soldiers30 and sailors, of five thousand30 horses, of arms30, engines, and military stores, and of a sufficient stock of water and provisions for a voyage, perhaps, of three months. The proud galleys, which in former ages swept the Mediterranean with so many hundred oars, had long30 since disappeared; and the fleet of Justinian30 was escorted only by ninety-two light brigantines, covered from the missile weapons of the enemy30, and rowed by two thousand30 of the brave and robust youth of Constantinople30. Twenty-two generals are named, most of whom were afterwards distinguished in the wars of Africa and Italy; but the supreme command, both by land and sea, was delegated to Belisarius30 alone, with a boundless power of acting according to his discretion as if the emperor30 himself were present. The separation of the naval and military professions is at once the effect and the cause of the modern improvements in the science of navigation and maritime war30.
In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about the time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet9 of six hundred ships was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens of the palace. The patriarch pronounced his benediction, the emperor signified his last commands, the general's trumpet gave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to its fears or wishes, explored with anxious curiosity the omens of misfortune and success. The first halt was made at Perinthus or Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days to receive some Thracian horses, a military gift of his sovereign. From thence the fleet9 pursued their course through the midst of the Propontis; but, as they struggled to pass the straits of the Hellespont, an unfavourable wind detained them four days at Abydus, where the general exhibited a memorable lesson of firmness and severity. Two of the Huns9, who in a drunken quarrel had slain one of their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shewn to the army9 suspended on a lofty gibbet. The national indignity was resented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile laws of the empire9, and asserted the free privilege of Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the hasty sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints were specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans9 were not averse to the example of disorder and impunity. But the rising sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence of the general; and he represented to the assembled troops9 the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline, the rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather than excused by the vice of intoxication. In the navigation from the Hellespont to Peloponnesus, which the Greeks, after the siege of Troy, had performed in four days, the fleet9 of Belisarius was guided in their course by his master-galley, conspicuous in the day by the redness of the sails, and in the night by the torches blazing from the mast-head. It was the duty of the pilots, as they steered between the islands, and turned the capes of Malea and Taenarum, to preserve the just order and regular intervals of such a multitude of ships; as the wind was fair and moderate, their labours were not unsuccessful, and the troops9 were safely disembarked at Methone on the Messenian coast9, to repose themselves for a while after the fatigues of the sea9. In this place they experienced how avarice, invested with authority, may sport with the lives of thousands which are bravely exposed for the public service. According to military practice, the bread or biscuit of the Romans9 was twice prepared in the oven, and a diminution of one fourth was cheerfully allowed for the loss of weight. To gain this miserable profit, and to save the expense of wood, the prefect John of Cappadocia had given orders that the flour should be slightly baked by the same fire which warmed the baths of Constantinople; and, when the sacks were opened, a soft and mouldy paste was distributed to the army9. Such unwholesome food, assisted by the heat of the climate and season, soon9 produced an epidemical disease, which swept away five hundred soldiers. Their health was restored by the diligence of Belisarius, who provided fresh bread at Methone, and boldly expressed his just and humane indignation; the emperor heard his complaint; the general was praised; but the minister was not punished. From the port of Methone, the pilots steered along the western coast9 of Peloponnesus, as far9 as the isle of Zacynthus or Zant, before they undertook the voyage (in their eyes a most arduous voyage) of one hundred leagues over the Ionian sea9. As the fleet9 was surprised by a calm, sixteen days were consumed in the slow navigation; and even the general would have suffered the intolerable hardship of thirst, if the ingenuity of Antonina had not preserved the water in glass bottles, which she buried deep in the sand in a part of the ship impervious to the rays of the sun. At length the harbour of Caucana, on the southern side of Sicily, afforded a secure and hospitable shelter. The Gothic officers who governed the island in the name of the daughter and grandson of Theodoric obeyed their imprudent orders, to receive the troops9 of Justinian like friends and allies: provisions were liberally supplied, the cavalry was remounted, and Procopius soon9 returned from Syracuse with correct information of the state and designs of the Vandals9. His intelligence determined Belisarius to hasten his operations, and his wise impatience was seconded by the winds. The fleet9 lost sight of Sicily, passed before the isle of Malta, discovered the capes of Africa9, ran along the coast9 with a strong gale from the north9-east, and finally cast anchor at the promontory of Caput Vada, about five days' journey to the south of Carthage.
If Gelimer had been informed of the approach of the enemy30, he must have delayed the conquest of Sardinia, for the immediate defence of his person and kingdom. A detachment of five thousand30 soldiers30, and one hundred and twenty galleys, would have joined the remaining forces of the Vandals; and the descendant of Genseric might have surprised and oppressed a fleet of deep-laden transports incapable of action, and of light brigantines that seemed only qualified for flight. Belisarius30 had secretly trembled when he overheard his soldiers30, in the passage, emboldening each other to confess their apprehensions: if they were once on shore, they hoped to maintain the honour of their arms30; but, if they should be attacked at sea, they did not blush to acknowledge that they wanted courage to contend at the same time with the winds, the waves, and the Barbarians. The knowledge of their sentiments decided Belisarius30 to seize the first opportunity of landing them on the coast of Africa, and he prudently rejected, in a council of war30, the proposal of sailing with the fleet and army30 into the port of Carthage. Three months after their departure from Constantinople30, the men and horses, the arms30 and military stores, were safely disembarked, and five soldiers30 were left30 as a guard on board each of the ships, which were disposed in the form of a semicircle. The remainder of the troops30 occupied a camp30 on the sea-shore, which they fortified, according to ancient discipline, with a ditch and rampart; and the discovery of a source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited the superstitious confidence, of the Romans. The next morning, some of the neighbouring gardens were pillaged; and Belisarius30, after chastising the offenders, embraced the slight occasion, but the decisive moment, of inculcating the maxims of justice, moderation, and genuine policy. When I first accepted the commission of subduing Africa, I depended much less, said the general30, on the numbers, or even the bravery, of my troops30, than upon the friendly disposition of the natives and their immortal hatred to the Vandals. You alone can deprive me of this hope: if you continue to extort by rapine, what might be purchased for a little money, such acts of violence will reconcile these implacable enemies30, and unite them in a just and holy30 league against the invaders of their country. These exhortations were enforced by a rigid discipline, of which the soldiers30 themselves soon30 felt and praised the salutary effects. The inhabitants, instead of deserting their houses, or hiding their corn, supplied the Romans with a fair and liberal market; the civil officers of the province continued to exercise their functions in the name of Justinian30; and the clergy, from motives of conscience and interest, assiduously laboured to promote the cause of a Catholic emperor30. The small town of Sullecte, one day30's journey from the camp30, had the honour of being foremost to open her gates and to resume her ancient allegiance; the larger cities of Leptis and Adrumetum imitated the example of loyalty as soon30 as Belisarius30 appeared; and he advanced without opposition as far as Grassé, a palace30 of the Vandal kings, at the distance of fifty miles from Carthage. The weary Romans indulged themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool fountains, and delicious fruits; and the preference which Procopius allows to these gardens over any that he had seen, either in the East or West, may be ascribed either to the taste or the fatigue of the historian. In three generations prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hardy virtue of the Vandals, who insensibly became the most luxurious of mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve the Persian name of paradise, they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose; and, after the daily use of the bath, the Barbarians were seated at a table profusely spread with the delicacies of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely flowing after the fashion of the Medes, were embroidered with gold30; love and hunting were the labours of their life; and their vacant hours were amused by pantomimes, chariot-races, and the music and dances of the theatre.
In a march of ten or twelve days30, the vigilance of Belisarius30 was constantly awake and active against his unseen enemies30, by whom, in every place and at every hour, he might be suddenly attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the Armenian, led the vanguard of three hundred horse30; six hundred Massagetae covered at a certain distance the left30 flank; and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom lost sight of the army30, which moved each day30 about twelve miles, and lodged in the evening in strong camps or in friendly towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror. He prudently wished to protract the war30 till30 his brother, with his veteran troops30, should return from the conquest of Sardinia; and he now lamented the rash policy of his ancestors, who, by destroying the fortifications of Africa, had left30 him only the dangerous resource of risking a battle30 in the neighbourhood of his capital. The Vandal conquerors, from their original number of fifty thousand30, were multiplied, without including their women and children, to one hundred and sixty thousand30 fighting men; and such forces, animated with valour and union, might have crushed, at their first landing, the feeble and exhausted bands of the Roman30 general30. But the friends of the captive king30 were more inclined to accept the invitations, than to resist the progress, of Belisarius30; and many a proud Barbarian disguised his aversion to war30 under the more specious name of his hatred to the usurper. Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a formidable army30, and his plans were concerted with some degree of military skill. An order was despatched to his brother Ammatas, to collect all the forces of Carthage and to encounter the van of the Roman30 army30 at the distance of ten miles from the city30; his nephew Gibamund, with two thousand30 horse30, was destined to attack their left30, when the monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge their rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid or even the view of their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas was fatal to himself and his country. He anticipated the hour of attack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain, with his own hand, twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled to Carthage; the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with dead bodies; and it seemed incredible that such multitudes could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans. The nephew of Gelimer was defeated after a slight combat by the six hundred Massagetae; they did not equal the third part of his numbers; but each Scythian was fired by the example of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his family by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow against the enemy30. In the meanwhile, Gelimer himself, ignorant of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills, inadvertently passed the Roman30 army30, and reached the scene of action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the advancing squadrons, and might have pursued, and perhaps decided the victory30, if he had not wasted those inestimable moments in the discharge of a vain, though pious, duty to the dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, he heard the trumpet of Belisarius30, who, leaving Antonina and his infantry in the camp30, pressed forwards with his guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying troops30 and to restore the fortune of the day30. Much room could not be found in this disorderly battle30 for the talents of a general30; but the king30 fled before the hero; and the Vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish enemy30, were incapable of withstanding the arms30 and discipline of the Romans. Gelimer retired with hasty steps towards the desert of Numidia; but he had soon30 the consolation of learning that his private orders for the execution of Hilderic and his captive friends had been faithfully obeyed. The tyrant's revenge was useful only to his enemies30. The death30 of a lawful prince30 excited the compassion of his people30; his life might have perplexed the victorious Romans; and the lieutenant of Justinian30, by a crime of which he was innocent, was relieved from the painful alternative of forfeiting his honour or relinquishing his conquests.
As soon30 as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the army30 informed each other of the accidents of the day30; and Belisarius30 pitched his camp30 on the field of victory30, to which the tenth mile-stone from Carthage had applied the Latin appellation of Decimus. From a wise suspicion of the stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched the next day30 in order of battle30, halted in the evening before the gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he might not in darkness and disorder expose the city30 to the licentiousness of the soldiers30 or the soldiers30 themselves to the secret ambush of the city30. But, as the fears of Belisarius30 were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was soon30 satisfied that he might confide, without danger, in the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed with innumerable torches, the signals of the public joy; the chain was removed that guarded the entrance of the port; the gates were thrown open; and the people30, with acclamations of gratitude, hailed and invited their Roman30 deliverers. The defeat of the Vandals and the freedom of Africa were announced to the city30 on the eve of St30. Cyprian, when the churches were already adorned and illuminated for the festival of the martyr, whom three centuries of superstition had almost raised to a local deity. The Arians, conscious that their reign had expired, resigned the temple to the Catholics, who rescued their saint from profane hands, performed the holy30 rites, and loudly proclaimed the creed of Athanasius and Justinian30. One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The suppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of conquerors, sought an humble refuge in the sanctuary of the church; while the merchants of the East were delivered from the deepest dungeon of the palace30 by their affrighted keeper, who implored the protection of his captives, and shewed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sails of the Roman30 fleet. After their separation from the army30, the naval commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast, till30 they reached the Hermaean promontory and obtained the first intelligence of the victory30 of Belisarius30. Faithful to his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty miles from Carthage, if the more skilful seamen had not represented the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined, however, the rash attempt of forcing the chain of the port; and the adjacent harbour and suburb of Mandracium were insulted only by the rapine of a private officer who disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the Imperial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, steered through the narrow entrance of the Goletta, and occupied in the deep and capacious lake of Tunis a secure station about five miles from the capital. No sooner was Belisarius30 informed of their arrival than he despatched orders that the greatest part of the mariners should be immediately landed to join the triumph, and to swell the apparent numbers, of the Romans. Before he allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage, he exhorted them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not to disgrace the glory of their arms30; and to remember that the Vandals had been the tyrants, but that they were the deliverers, of the Africans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and affectionate subjects of their common sovereign. The Romans marched through the streets in close ranks, prepared for battle30 if an enemy30 had appeared; the strict order maintained by the general30 imprinted on their minds the duty of obedience; and, in an age in which custom and impunity almost sanctified the abuse of conquest, the genius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious army30. The voice of menace and complaint was silent; the trade of Carthage was not interrupted; while Africa changed her master and her government, the shops continued open and busy; and the soldiers30, after sufficient guards had been posted, modestly departed to the houses which were allotted for their reception. Belisarius30 fixed his residence in the palace30; seated himself on the throne of Genseric; accepted and distributed the Barbaric spoil; granted their lives to the suppliant Vandals; and laboured to repair the damage which the suburb of Mandracium had sustained in the preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal officers with the form and magnificence of a royal30 banquet. The victor was respectfully served by the captive officers of the household; and in the moments of festivity, when the impartial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of Belisarius30, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom on every word and gesture which might alarm the suspicions of a jealous monarch. One day30 was given to these pompous scenes, which may not be despised as useless, if they attracted the popular veneration; but the active mind of Belisarius30, which in the pride of victory30 could suppose a defeat, had already resolved that the Roman30 empire30 in Africa should not depend on the chance of arms30 or the favour of the people30. The fortifications of Carthage had alone been exempted from the general30 proscription; but in the reign of ninety-five years30 they were suffered to decay by the thoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror restored with incredible despatch the walls30 and ditches of the city30. His liberality encouraged the workmen; the soldiers30, the mariners, and the citizens vied with each other in the salutary labour; and Gelimer, who had feared to trust his person in an open town, beheld with astonishment and despair the rising strength of an impregnable fortress.
That unfortunate monarch, after the loss of his capital, applied himself to collect the remains of an army30 scattered, rather than destroyed, by the preceding battle30; and the hopes of pillage attracted some Moorish bands to the standard30 of Gelimer. He encamped in the fields of Bulla, four days30' journey from Carthage; insulted the capital, which he deprived of the use of an aqueduct; proposed an high reward for the head30 of every Roman30; affected to spare the persons and property of his African subjects; and secretly negotiated with the Arian sectaries and the confederate Huns. Under these circumstances, the conquest of Sardinia served only to aggravate his distress; he reflected, with the deepest anguish, that he had wasted in that useless enterprise five thousand30 of his bravest troops30; and he read, with grief and shame, the victorious letter of his brother Zano, who expressed a sanguine confidence that the king30, after the example of their ancestors, had already chastised the rashness of the Roman30 invader. Alas! my brother, replied Gelimer, Heaven has declared against our unhappy nation. While you have subdued Sardinia, we have lost Africa. No sooner did Belisarius30 appear with a handful of soldiers30 than courage and prosperity deserted the cause of the Vandals. Your nephew Gibamund, your brother Ammatas, have been betrayed to death30 by the cowardice of their followers. Our horses, our ships, Carthage itself, and all Africa are in the power of the enemy30. Yet the Vandals still prefer an ignominious repose at the expense of their wives and children, their wealth and liberty. Nothing now remains, except the field of Bulla and the hope of your valour. Abandon Sardinia; fly to our relief; restore our empire30, or perish by our side. On the receipt of this epistle, Zano imparted his grief to the principal Vandals; but the intelligence was prudently concealed from the natives of the island. The troops30 embarked in one hundred and twenty galleys at the port of Cagliari, cast anchor the third day30 on the confines of Mauritania, and hastily pursued their march to join the royal30 standard30 in the camp30 of Bulla. Mournful was the interview: the two brothers embraced; they wept in silence; no questions were asked of the Sardinian victory30; no inquiries were made of the African misfortunes; they saw before their eyes the whole extent of their calamities; and the absence of their wives and children afforded a melancholy proof that either death30 or captivity had been their lot. The languid spirit of the Vandals was at length awakened and united by the entreaties of their king30, the example of Zano, and the instant danger which threatened their monarchy and religion. The military strength of the nation advanced to battle30; and such was the rapid increase that, before their army30 reached Tricameron, about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, perhaps with some exaggeration, that they surpassed, in a tenfold proportion, the diminutive powers of the Romans. But these powers were under the command of Belisarius30; and, as he was conscious of their superior merit, he permitted the Barbarians to surprise him at an unseasonable hour. The Romans were instantly under arms30; a rivulet covered their front; the cavalry formed the first line, which Belisarius30 supported in the centre, at the head30 of five hundred guards; the infantry, at some distance, was posted in the second30 line; and the vigilance of the general30 watched the separate station and ambiguous faith of the Massagetae, who secretly reserved their aid for the conquerors. The historian has inserted, and the reader may easily supply, the speeches of the commanders, who, by arguments the most apposite to their situation, inculcated the importance of victory30 and the contempt of life. Zano, with the troops30 which had followed him to the conquest of Sardinia, was placed in the centre; and the throne of Genseric might have stood, if the multitude of Vandals had imitated their intrepid resolution. Casting away their lances and missile weapons, they drew their swords, and expected the charge; the Roman30 cavalry thrice passed the rivulet; they were thrice repulsed; and the conflict was firmly maintained, till30 Zano fell, and the standard30 of Belisarius30 was displayed. Gelimer retreated to his camp30; the Huns joined the pursuit; and the victors despoiled the bodies of the slain. Yet no more than fifty Romans and eight hundred Vandals were found on the field of battle30; so inconsiderable was the carnage of a day30 which extinguished a nation and transferred the empire30 of Africa. In the evening Belisarius30 led his infantry to the attack of the camp30; and the pusillanimous flight of Gelimer exposed the vanity of his recent declarations that, to the vanquished, death30 was a relief, life a burthen, and infamy the only object of terror. His departure was secret; but, as soon30 as the Vandals discovered that their king30 had deserted them, they hastily dispersed, anxious only for their personal safety, and careless of every object that is dear or valuable to mankind. The Romans entered the camp30 without resistance; and the wildest scenes of disorder were veiled in the darkness and confusion of the night. Every Barbarian who met their swords was inhumanly massacred; their widows and daughters, as rich heirs or beautiful concubines, were embraced by the licentious soldiers30; and avarice itself was almost satiated with the treasures of gold30 and silver, the accumulated fruits of conquest or economy in a long30 period of prosperity and peace. In this frantic search, the troops30 even of Belisarius30 forgot their caution and respect. Intoxicated with lust and rapine, they explored, in small parties, or alone, the adjacent fields, the woods, the rocks, and the caverns, that might possibly conceal any desirable prize; laden with booty, they deserted their ranks, and wandered, without a guide, on the high road to Carthage; and, if the flying enemies30 had dared to return, very few of the conquerors would have escaped. Deeply sensible of the disgrace and danger, Belisarius30 passed an apprehensive night on the field of victory30; at the dawn of day30 he planted his standard30 on a hill, recalled his guards and veterans, and gradually restored the modesty and obedience of the camp30. It was equally the concern of the Roman30 general30 to subdue the hostile, and to save the prostrate, Barbarian; and the suppliant Vandals, who could be found only in churches, were protected by his authority, disarmed, and separately confined, that they might neither disturb the public peace nor become the victims of popular revenge. After despatching a light detachment to tread the footsteps of Gelimer, he advanced with his whole army30, about ten days30' march, as far as Hippo Regius, which no longer possessed the relics of St30. Augustin. The season, and the certain intelligence that the Vandal had fled to the inaccessible country of the Moors, determined Belisarius30 to relinquish the vain pursuit and to fix his winter quarters at Carthage. From thence he despatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor30 that, in the space of three months, he had achieved the conquest of Africa.
Belisarius spoke the language of truth. The surviving Vandals yielded, without resistance, their arms47 and their freedom; the neighbourhood of Carthage submitted to his presence; and the more distant provinces47 were successively subdued by the report of his victory. Tripoli was confirmed in her voluntary allegiance; Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to an officer, who carried, instead of a sword, the head of the valiant Zano; and the isles of Majorca, Minorca, and Yvica consented to remain an humble appendage of the African kingdom. Caesarea, a royal city47, which in looser geography may be confounded with the modern Algiers, was situate thirty days' march to the westward of Carthage; by land the road was infested by the Moors; but the sea was open, and the Romans were now masters of the sea. An active and discreet tribune sailed as far as the Straits, where he occupied Septem or Ceuta, which rises opposite to Gibraltar on the African coast; that remote place was afterwards adorned and fortified by Justinian; and he seems to have indulged the vain ambition of extending his empire47 to the columns of Hercules. He received the messengers of victory at the time when he was preparing to publish the pandects of the Roman47 law; and the devout or jealous emperor47 celebrated the divine goodness, and confessed in silence the merit47 of his successful general47. Impatient to abolish the temporal and spiritual tyranny of the Vandals, he proceeded, without delay, to the full establishment of the Catholic church. Her jurisdiction, wealth, and immunities, perhaps the most essential part of episcopal religion, were restored and amplified with a liberal hand; the Arian worship was suppressed; the Donatist meetings were proscribed; and the synod of Carthage, by the voice of two hundred and seventeen bishops, applauded the just measure of pious retaliation. On such an occasion, it may not be presumed that many orthodox prelates were absent; but the comparative smallness of their number, which in ancient councils had been twice or even thrice multiplied, most clearly indicates the decay both of the church and state. While Justinian approved himself the defender of the faith, he entertained an ambitious hope that his victorious lieutenant would speedily enlarge the narrow limits of his dominion to the space which they occupied before the invasion of the Moors and Vandals; and Belisarius was instructed to establish five dukes or commanders in the convenient stations of Tripoli, Leptis, Cirta, Caesarea, and Sardinia, and to compute the military47 force of palatines or borderers that might be sufficient for the defence of Africa. The kingdom of the Vandals was not unworthy of the presence of a praetorian prefect47; and four consulars, three presidents, were appointed to administer the seven provinces47 under his civil47 jurisdiction. The number of their subordinate officers, clerks, messengers, or assistants was minutely expressed; three hundred and ninety-six for the prefect47 himself, fifty for each of his vicegerents; and the rigid definition of their fees and salaries was more effectual to confirm the right than to prevent the abuse. These magistrates might be oppressive, but they were not idle; and the subtle questions of justice47 and revenue were infinitely propagated under the new government47, which professed to revive the freedom and equity of the Roman47 republic. The conqueror was solicitous to extract a prompt and plentiful supply from his African subjects; and he allowed them to claim, even in the third degree, and from the collateral line, the houses and lands of which their families had been unjustly despoiled by the Vandals. After the departure of Belisarius, who acted by an high and special commission, no ordinary provision was made for a master47-general47 of the forces; but the office of Praetorian prefect47 was entrusted to a soldier; the civil47 and military47 powers were united, according to the practice of Justinian, in the chief governor; and the representative of the emperor47 in Africa, as well as in Italy47, was soon47 distinguished by the appellation of Exarch.
Yet the conquest of Africa was imperfect, till30 her former sovereign was delivered either alive or dead into the hands of the Romans. Doubtful of the event, Gelimer had given secret orders that a part of his treasure should be transported to Spain, where he hoped to find a secure refuge at the court of the king30 of the Visigoths. But these intentions were disappointed by accident, treachery, and the indefatigable pursuit of his enemies30, who intercepted his flight from the seashore, and chased the unfortunate monarch, with some faithful followers, to the inaccessible mountain of Papua, in the inland country of Numidia. He was immediately besieged by Pharas, an officer whose truth and sobriety were the more applauded, as such qualities could seldom be found among the Heruli, the most corrupt of the Barbarian tribes. To his vigilance Belisarius30 had entrusted this important charge; and, after a bold attempt to scale the mountain, in which he lost an hundred and ten soldiers30, Pharas expected, during a winter siege30, the operation of distress and famine on the mind of the Vandal king30. From the softest habits of pleasure, from the unbounded command of industry and wealth, he was reduced to share the poverty of the Moors, supportable only to themselves by their ignorance of a happier condition. In their rude hovels of mud and hurdles, which confined the smoke and excluded the light, they promiscuously slept on the ground, perhaps on a sheep-skin, with their wives, their children, and their cattle. Sordid and scanty were their garments; the use of bread and wine was unknown; and their oaten or barley cakes, imperfectly baked in the ashes, were devoured almost in a crude state by the hungry savages. The health of Gelimer must have sunk under these strange and unwonted hardships, from whatsoever cause they had been endured; but his actual misery was embittered by the recollection of past greatness, the daily insolence of his protectors, and the just apprehension that the light and venal Moors might be tempted to betray the rights of hospitality. The knowledge of his situation dictated the humane and friendly epistle of Pharas. Like yourself, said the chief of the Heruli, I am an illiterate Barbarian, but I speak the language of plain sense and an honest heart. Why will you persist in hopeless obstinacy? Why will you ruin yourself, your family, and nation? The love of freedom and abhorrence of slavery? Alas! my dearest Gelimer, are you not already the worst of slaves, the slave of the vile nation of the Moors? Would it not be preferable to sustain at Constantinople30 a life of poverty and servitude, rather than to reign the undoubted monarch of the mountain of Papua? Do you think it a disgrace to be the subject of Justinian30? Belisarius30 is his subject; and we ourselves, whose birth is not inferior to your own, are not ashamed of our obedience to the Roman30 emperor30. That generous prince30 will grant you a rich inheritance of lands, a place in the senate, and the dignity of Patrician: such are his gracious intentions, and you may depend with full assurance on the word of Belisarius30. So long30 as heaven has condemned us to suffer, patience is a virtue; but, if we reject the proffered deliverance, it degenerates into blind and stupid despair. I am not insensible, replied the king30 of the Vandals, how kind and rational is your advice. But I cannot persuade myself to become the slave of an unjust enemy30, who has deserved my implacable hatred. Him I had never injured either by word or deed; yet he has sent against me, I know not from whence, a certain Belisarius30, who has cast me headlong from the throne into this abyss of misery. Justinian30 is a man; he is a prince30; does he not dread for himself a similar reverse of fortune? I can write no more: my grief oppresses me. Send me, I beseech you, my dear Pharas, send me a lyre, a spunge, and a loaf of bread. From the Vandal messenger, Pharas was informed of the motives of this singular request. It was long30 since the king30 of Africa had tasted bread; a defluxion had fallen on his eyes, the effect of fatigue or incessant weeping; and he wished to solace the melancholy hours by singing to the lyre the sad story of his own misfortunes. The humanity of Pharas was moved; he sent the three extraordinary gifts; but even his humanity prompted him to redouble the vigilance of his guard, that he might sooner compel his prisoner to embrace a resolution advantageous to the Romans, but salutary to himself. The obstinacy of Gelimer at length yielded to reason and necessity; the solemn assurances of safety and honourable treatment were ratified in the emperor30's name, by the ambassador of Belisarius30; and the king30 of the Vandals descended from the mountain. The first public interview was in one of the suburbs of Carthage; and, when the royal30 captive accosted his conqueror, he burst into a fit of laughter. The crowd might naturally believe that extreme grief had deprived Gelimer of his senses; but in this mournful state unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent observers that the vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.
Their contempt was soon30 justified by a new30 example of a vulgar truth; that flattery adheres to power, and envy to superior merit. The chiefs of the Roman30 army30 presumed to think themselves the rivals of an hero. Their private despatches maliciously affirmed that the conqueror of Africa, strong in his reputation and the public love, conspired to seat himself on the throne of the Vandals. Justinian30 listened with too patient an ear; and his silence was the result of jealousy rather than of confidence. An honourable alternative, of remaining in the province or of returning to the capital, was indeed submitted to the discretion of Belisarius30; but he wisely concluded, from intercepted letters and the knowledge of his sovereign's temper, that he must either resign his head30, erect his standard30, or confound his enemies30 by his presence and submission. Innocence and courage decided his choice: his guards, captives, and treasures were diligently embarked; and so prosperous was the navigation that his arrival at Constantinople30 preceded any certain account of his departure from the port of Carthage. Such unsuspecting loyalty removed the apprehensions of Justinian30; envy was silenced and inflamed by the public gratitude; and the third Africanus obtained the honours of a triumph, a ceremony which the city30 of Constantine had never seen, and which ancient Rome, since the reign of Tiberius, had reserved for the auspicious arms30 of the Caesars. From the palace30 of Belisarius30, the procession was conducted through the principal streets to the hippodrome; and this memorable day30 seemed to avenge the injuries of Genseric, and to expiate the shame of the Romans. The wealth of nations was displayed, the trophies of martial or ineffeminate luxury: rich armour, golden thrones, and the chariots of state which had been used by the Vandal queen; the massy furniture of the royal30 banquet, the splendour of precious stones, the elegant forms of statues and vases, the more substantial treasure of gold30, and the holy30 vessels of the Jewish temple, which, after their long30 peregrination, were respectfully deposited in the Christian church of Jerusalem. A long30 train of the noblest Vandals reluctantly exposed their lofty stature and manly countenance. Gelimer slowly advanced: he was clad in a purple robe, and still maintained the majesty of a king30. Not a tear escaped from his eyes, not a sigh was heard; but his pride or piety derived some secret consolation from the words of Solomon, which he repeatedly pronounced, vanity! vanity! all is vanity! Instead of ascending a triumphal car drawn by four horses or elephants, the modest conqueror marched on foot at the head30 of his brave companions: his prudence might decline an honour too conspicuous for a subject; and his magnanimity might justly disdain what had been so often sullied by the vilest of tyrants. The glorious procession entered the gate of the hippodrome; was saluted by the acclamations of the senate and people30; and halted before the throne where Justinian30 and Theodora were seated to receive the homage of the captive monarch and the victorious hero. They both performed the customary adoration, and, falling prostrate on the ground, respectfully touched the footstool of a prince30 who had not unsheathed his sword30, and of a prostitute who had danced on the theatre; some gentle violence was used to bend the stubborn spirit of the grandson of Genseric; and, however, trained to servitude, the genius of Belisarius30 must have secretly rebelled. He was immediately declared consul for the ensuing year, and the day30 of his inauguration resembled the pomp of a second30 triumph: his curule chair was borne aloft on the shoulders of captive Vandals; and the spoils of war30, gold30 cups, and rich girdles were profusely scattered among the populace.
But the purest reward of Belisarius was in the faithful execution of a treaty for which his honour had been pledged to the king of the Vandals9. The religious scruples of Gelimer, who adhered to the Arian heresy, were incompatible with the dignity of senator or patrician; but he received from the emperor an ample estate in the province9 of Galatia, where the abdicated monarch retired with his family and friends, to a life of peace, of affluence, and perhaps of content. The daughters of Hilderic were entertained with the respectful tenderness due to their age and misfortune; and Justinian and Theodora accepted the honour of educating and enriching the female descendants of the great9 Theodosius. The bravest of the Vandal youth were distributed into five squadrons of cavalry, which adopted the name of their benefactor, and supported in the Persian wars the glory of their ancestors. But these rare exceptions, the reward of birth or valour9, are insufficient to explain the fate of a nation9, whose numbers, before a short and bloodless war9, amounted to more than six hundred thousand9 persons. After the exile of their king and nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their safety by abjuring their character, religion, and language; and their degenerate posterity would be insensibly mingled with the common herd of African subjects. Yet even in the present age, and in the heart of the Moorish tribes9, a curious traveller has discovered the white complexion and long9 flaxen hair of a Northern race; and it was formerly believed that the boldest of the Vandals9 fled beyond the power, or even the knowledge, of the Romans9, to enjoy their solitary freedom on the shores of the Atlantic ocean9. Africa9 had been their empire9, it became their prison; nor could they entertain an hope, or even a wish, of returning to the banks9 of the Elbe, where their brethren, of a spirit less adventurous, still wandered in their native forests. It was impossible for cowards to surmount the barriers of unknown seas and hostile Barbarians9; it was impossible for brave men9 to expose their nakedness and defeat before the eyes of their countrymen, to describe the kingdoms which they had lost, and to claim a share of the humble inheritance which, in a happier hour, they had almost unanimously renounced. In the country9 between the Elbe and the Oder, several populous villages of Lusatia are inhabited by the Vandals9: they still preserve their language, their customs, and the purity of their blood; support with some impatience, the Saxon or Prussian yoke; and serve with secret and voluntary allegiance the descendant of their ancient9 kings, who in his garb and present fortune is confounded with the meanest of his vassals. The name and situation of this unhappy people might indicate their descent from one common stock with the conquerors of Africa9. But the use of a Scalvonian dialect more clearly represents them as the last remnant of the new9 colonies, who succeeded to the genuine Vandals9, already scattered or destroyed in the age of Procopius.
If Belisarius had been tempted to hesitate in his allegiance, he might have urged, even against the emperor himself, the indispensable duty of saving Africa9 from an enemy more barbarous than the Vandals9. The origin of the Moors is involved in darkness; they were ignorant of the use of letters. Their limits cannot be precisely defined: a boundless continent was opened to the Libyan shepherds; the change of seasons and pastures regulated their motions; and their rude huts and slender furniture were transported with the same ease as their arms9, their families, and their cattle, which consisted of sheep, oxen, and camels. During the vigour of the Roman9 power, they observed a respectable distance from Carthage and the sea9-shore; under the feeble reign of the Vandals9 they invaded the cities9 of Numidia, occupied the sea9-coast9 from Tangier to Caesarea, and pitched their camps, with impunity, in the fertile province9 of Byzacium. The formidable strength and artful conduct of Belisarius secured the neutrality of the Moorish princes, whose vanity aspired to receive, in the emperor's name, the ensigns of their regal dignity. They were astonished by the rapid event, and trembled in the presence of their conqueror. But his approaching departure soon9 relieved the apprehensions of a savage and superstitious people; the number of their wives allowed them to disregard the safety of their infant hostages; and, when the Roman9 general hoisted sail in the port of Carthage, he heard the cries, and almost beheld the flames, of the desolated province9. Yet he persisted in his resolution; and, leaving only a part of his guards to reinforce the feeble garrisons, he entrusted the command of Africa9 to the eunuch Solomon, who proved himself not unworthy to be the successor of Belisarius. In the first invasion, some detachments, with two officers of merit, were surprised and intercepted; but Solomon speedily assembled his troops9, marched from Carthage into the heart of the country9, and in two great9 battles destroyed sixty thousand9 of the Barbarians9. The Moors depended on their multitude, their swiftness, and their inaccessible mountains9; and the aspect and smell of their camels are said to have produced some confusion in the Roman9 cavalry. But, as soon9 as they were commanded to dismount, they derided this contemptible obstacle; as soon9 as the columns ascended the hills, the naked and disorderly crowd was dazzled by glittering arms9 and regular evolutions; and the menace of their female prophets was repeatedly fulfilled, that the Moors should be discomfited by a beardless antagonist. The victorious eunuch advanced thirteen days' journey from Carthage, to besiege Mount Aurasius, the citadel, and at the same time the garden, of Numidia. That range of hills, a branch of the great9 Atlas, contains within a circumference of one hundred and twenty miles9, a rare variety of soil and climate; the intermediate valleys and elevated plains abound with rich pastures, perpetual streams, and fruits of a delicious taste and uncommon magnitude. This fair solitude is decorated with the ruins of Lambesa, a Roman9 city9, once the seat of a legion, and the residence of forty thousand9 inhabitants9. The Ionic temple of Aesculapius is encompassed with Moorish huts; and the cattle now graze in the midst of an amphitheatre, under the shade of Corinthian columns. A sharp perpendicular rock rises above the level of the mountain, where the African princes deposited their wives and treasures; and a proverb is familiar to the Arabs, that the man may eat fire, who dares to attack the craggy cliffs and inhospitable natives of Mount Aurasius. This hardy enterprise was twice attempted by the eunuch Solomon: from the first he retreated with some disgrace; and in the second, his patience and provisions were almost exhausted; and he must again have retired, if he had not yielded to the impetuous courage of his troops9, who audaciously scaled, to the astonishment of the Moors, the mountain, the hostile camp9, and the summit of the Geminian Rock. A citadel was erected to secure this important conquest9, and to remind the Barbarians9 of their defeat; and, as Solomon pursued his march to the west9, the long9-lost province9 of Mauritanian Sitifi was again annexed to the Roman9 empire9. The Moorish war9 continued several years after the departure of Belisarius; but the laurels which he resigned to a faithful lieutenant may be justly ascribed to his own triumph.
The experience of past faults, which may sometimes correct the mature age of an individual, is seldom profitable to the successive generations of mankind. The nations9 of antiquity, careless of each other's safety, were separately vanquished and enslaved by the Romans9. This awful lesson might have instructed the Barbarians9 of the West9 to oppose, with timely counsels and confederate arms9, the unbounded ambition of Justinian. Yet the same error was repeated, the same consequences were felt, and the Goths9, both of Italy9 and Spain, insensible of their approaching danger, beheld with indifference, and even with joy, the rapid downfall of the Vandals9. After the failure of the royal line, Theudes, a valiant and powerful chief, ascended the throne of Spain, which he had formerly administered in the name of Theodoric and his infant grandson. Under his command the Visigoths besieged the fortress of Ceuta on the African coast9; but, while they spent the Sabbath-day in peace and devotion, the pious security of their camp9 was invaded by a sally from the town; and the king himself, with some difficulty and danger, escaped from the hands of a sacrilegious enemy. It was not long9 before his pride and resentment were gratified by a suppliant embassy from the unfortunate Gelimer, who implored, in his distress, the aid of the Spanish monarch. But, instead of sacrificing these unworthy passions to the dictates of generosity and prudence, Theudes amused the ambassadors, till he was secretly informed of the loss of Carthage, and then dismissed them with obscure and contemptuous advice, to seek in their native country9 a true knowledge of the state of the Vandals9. The long9 continuance of the Italian war9 delayed the punishment of the Visigoths; and the eyes of Theudes were closed before they tasted the fruits of his mistaken policy. After his death, the sceptre of Spain was disputed by a civil war9. The weaker candidate solicited the protection of Justinian, and ambitiously subscribed a treaty of alliance, which deeply wounded the independence and happiness of his country9. Several cities9, both on the ocean9 and the Mediterranean, were ceded to the Roman9 troops9, who afterwards refused to evacuate those pledges, as it should seem, either of safety or payment; and, as they were fortified by perpetual supplies from Africa9, they maintained their impregnable stations, for the mischievous purpose of inflaming the civil and religious factions of the Barbarians9. Seventy years elapsed before this painful thorn could be extirpated from the bosom of the monarchy; and, as long9 as the emperors retained any share of these remote and useless possessions, their vanity might number Spain in the list of their provinces9, and the successors of Alaric in the rank of their vassals.
The error of the Goths who reigned in Italy47 was less excusable than that of their Spanish brethren, and their punishment was still more immediate and terrible. From a motive of private47 revenge, they enabled their most dangerous enemy to destroy their most valuable ally. A sister of the great Theodoric had been given in marriage to Thrasimond the African king: on this occasion, the fortress of Lilybaeum in Sicily was resigned to the Vandals; and the princess Amalafrida was attended by a martial train of one thousand nobles, and five thousand Gothic soldiers47, who signalised their valour in the Moorish wars. Their merit47 was over-rated by themselves, and perhaps neglected by the Vandals; they viewed the country with envy, and the conquerors with disdain; but their real or fictitious conspiracy was prevented by a massacre; the Goths were oppressed, and the captivity of Amalafrida was soon47 followed by her secret47 and suspicious death47. The eloquent pen of Cassiodorius was employed to reproach the Vandal court with the cruel violation of every social and public47 duty; but the vengeance which he threatened in the name of his sovereign47 might be derided with impunity, as long47 as Africa was protected by the sea, and the Goths were destitute of a navy. In the blind impotence of grief and indignation, they joyfully saluted the approach of the Romans, entertained the fleet of Belisarius in the ports of Sicily, and were speedily delighted or alarmed by the surprising intelligence that their revenge was executed beyond the measure of their hopes, or perhaps of their wishes. To their friendship the emperor47 was indebted for the kingdom of Africa, and the Goths might reasonably think that they were entitled to resume the possession of a barren rock, so recently separated as a nuptial gift from the island of Sicily. They were soon47 undeceived by the haughty mandate of Belisarius, which excited their tardy and unavailing repentance. The city47 and promontory of Lilybaeum, said the Roman47 general47, belonged to the Vandals, and I claim them by the right of conquest. Your submission may deserve the favour of the emperor47; your obstinacy will provoke his displeasure, and must kindle a war47 that can terminate only in your utter ruin. If you compel us to take up arms47, we shall contend, not to regain the possession of a single city47, but to deprive you of all the provinces47 which you unjustly withhold from their lawful sovereign47. A nation of two hundred thousand soldiers47 might have smiled at the vain menace of Justinian and his lieutenant; but a spirit47 of discord and disaffection prevailed in Italy47, and the Goths supported, with reluctance, the indignity of a female reign47.
The birth of Amalasontha, the regent and queen of Italy47, united the two most illustrious families of the Barbarians. Her mother, the sister of Clovis, was descended from the long47-haired kings of the Merovingian race; and the regal succession of the Amali was illustrated in the eleventh generation by her father47, the great Theodoric, whose merit47 might have ennobled a plebeian origin. The sex of his daughter excluded her from the Gothic throne47; but his vigilant tenderness for his family and his people47 discovered the last heir of the royal line, whose ancestors had taken refuge in Spain; and the fortunate Eutharic was suddenly exalted to the rank47 of a consul and a prince47. He enjoyed only a short time the charms of Amalasontha, and the hopes of the succession; and his widow, after the death47 of her husband and father47, was left the guardian of her son47 Athalaric, and the kingdom of Italy47. At the age47 of about twenty-eight years, the endowments of her mind and person47 had attained their perfect maturity. Her beauty, which, in the apprehension of Theodora herself, might have disputed the conquest of an emperor47, was animated by manly sense, activity, and resolution. Education and experience had cultivated her talents; her philosophic studies were exempt from vanity; and, though she expressed herself with equal elegance and ease in the Greek, the Latin, and the Gothic tongue, the daughter of Theodoric maintained in her counsels a discreet and impenetrable silence. By a faithful imitation of the virtues, she revived the prosperity, of his reign47; while she strove, with pious care, to expiate the faults, and to obliterate the darker memory, of his declining age47. The children of Boethius and Symmachus were restored to their paternal inheritance; her extreme lenity never consented to inflict any corporal or pecuniary penalties on her Roman47 subjects; and she generously despised the clamours of the Goths, who at the end of forty years still considered the people47 of Italy47 as their slaves or their enemies. Her salutary measures were directed by the wisdom, and celebrated by the eloquence, of Cassiodorius; she solicited and deserved the friendship of the emperor47; and the kingdoms of Europe respected, both in peace and war47, the majesty of the Gothic throne47. But the future happiness of the queen and of Italy47 depended on the education of her son47, who was destined, by his birth, to support the different and almost incompatible characters of the chief of a Barbarian camp and the first magistrate of a civilised nation. From the age47 of ten years, Athalaric was diligently instructed in the arts and sciences, either useful or ornamental for a Roman47 prince47; and three venerable Goths were chosen to instil the principles of honour and virtue into the mind of their young king. But the pupil who is insensible of the benefits, must abhor the restraints, of education; and the solicitude of the queen, which affection rendered anxious and severe, offended the untractable nature of her son47 and his subjects. On a solemn festival, when the Goths were assembled in the palace47 of Ravenna, the royal youth escaped from his mother's apartment, and, with tears of pride and anger, complained of a blow which his stubborn disobedience had provoked her to inflict. The Barbarians resented the indignity which had been offered to their king; accused the regent of conspiring against his life47 and crown; and imperiously demanded that the grandson of Theodoric should be rescued from the dastardly discipline of women and pedants, and educated, like a valiant Goth, in the society of his equals and the glorious ignorance of his ancestors. To this rude clamour, importunately urged as the voice of the nation, Amalasontha was compelled to yield her reason and the dearest wishes of her heart. The king of Italy47 was abandoned to wine, to women, and to rustic sports; and the indiscreet contempt of the ungrateful youth betrayed the mischievous designs of his favourites and her enemies. Encompassed with domestic foes, she entered into a secret47 negotiation with the emperor47 Justinian; obtained the assurance of a friendly reception; and had actually deposited at Dyrrachium in Epirus a treasure of forty thousand pounds of gold. Happy would it have been for her fame and safety, if she had calmly retired from barbarous faction to the peace and splendour of Constantinople. But the mind of Amalasontha was inflamed by ambition and revenge; and, while her ships lay at anchor in the port, she waited for the success of a crime which her passions excused or applauded as an act of justice47. Three of the most dangerous malecontents had been separately removed, under the pretence of trust and command47, to the frontiers of Italy47; they were assassinated by her private47 emissaries; and the blood of these noble Goths rendered the queen-mother absolute in the court of Ravenna, and justly odious to a free people47. But, if she had lamented the disorders of her son47, she soon47 wept his irreparable loss; and the death47 of Athalaric, who at the age47 of sixteen was consumed by premature intemperance, left her destitute of any firm support or legal authority47. Instead of submitting to the laws of her country, which held as a fundamental maxim that the succession could never pass from the lance to the distaff, the daughter of Theodoric conceived the impracticable design of sharing with one of her cousins the regal title, and of reserving in her own hands the substance of supreme power47. He received the proposal with profound respect and affected gratitude; and the eloquent Cassiodorius announced to the senate47 and the emperor47, that Amalasontha and Theodatus had ascended the throne47 of Italy47. His birth (for his mother was the sister of Theodoric) might be considered as an imperfect title; and the choice of Amalasontha was more strongly directed by her contempt of his avarice and pusillanimity, which had deprived him of the love of the Italians and the esteem of the Barbarians. But Theodatus was exasperated by the contempt which he deserved; her justice47 had repressed and reproached the oppression which he exercised against his Tuscan neighbours; and the principal Goths, united by common guilt and resentment, conspired to instigate his slow and timid disposition. The letters of congratulation were scarcely despatched before the queen of Italy47 was imprisoned in a small island of the lake of Bolsena, where, after a short confinement, she was strangled in the bath, by the order, or with the connivance, of the new king, who instructed his turbulent subjects to shed the blood of their sovereigns.
Justinian beheld with joy the dissensions of the Goths; and the mediation of an ally concealed and promoted the ambitious views of the conqueror. His ambassadors, in their public audience, demanded the fortress of Lilybaeum, ten Barbarian fugitives, and a just compensation for the pillage of a small town on the Illyrian borders; but they secretly negotiated with Theodatus to betray the province of Tuscany, and tempted Amalasontha to extricate herself from danger and perplexity by a free surrender of the kingdom of Italy. A false and servile epistle was subscribed by the reluctant hand of the captive queen; but the confession of the Roman30 senators, who were sent to Constantinople30, revealed the truth of her deplorable situation; and Justinian30, by the voice of a new30 ambassador, most powerfully interceded for her life and liberty. Yet the secret instructions of the same minister were adapted to serve the cruel jealousy of Theodora, who dreaded the presence and superior charms of a rival: he prompted with artful and ambiguous hints the execution of a crime so useful to the Romans; received the intelligence of her death30 with grief and indignation, and denounced, in his master's name, immortal war30 against the perfidious assassin. In Italy, as well as in Africa, the guilt of an usurper appeared to justify the arms30 of Justinian30; but the forces which he prepared were insufficient for the subversion of a mighty kingdom, if their feeble numbers had not been multiplied by the name, the spirit, and the conduct of an hero. A chosen troop of guards, who served on horseback and were armed with lances and bucklers, attended the person of Belisarius30; his cavalry was composed of two hundred Huns, three hundred Moors, and four thousand30 confederates, and the infantry consisted only of three thousand30 Isaurians. Steering the same course as in his former expedition, the Roman30 consul cast anchor before Catana in Sicily, to survey the strength of the island, and to decide whether he should attempt the conquest or peaceably pursue his voyage for the African coast. He found a fruitful land and a friendly people30. Notwithstanding the decay of agriculture, Sicily still supplied the granaries of Rome; the farmers were graciously exempted from the oppression of military quarters, and the Goths, who trusted the defence of the island to the inhabitants, had some reason to complain that their confidence was ungratefully betrayed. Instead of soliciting and expecting the aid of the king30 of Italy, they yielded to the first summons a cheerful obedience; and this province, the first fruits of the Punic wars, was again, after a long30 separation, united to the Roman30 empire30. The Gothic garrison of Palermo, which alone attempted to resist, was reduced, after a short siege30, by a singular stratagem. Belisarius30 introduced his ships into the deepest recess of the harbour; their boats were laboriously hoisted with ropes and pulleys to the topmast head30, and he filled them with archers, who from that superior station commanded the ramparts of the city30. After this easy though successful campaign, the conqueror entered Syracuse in triumph, at the head30 of his victorious bands, distributing gold30 medals to the people30, on the day30 which so gloriously terminated the year of the consulship. He passed the winter season in the palace30 of ancient kings, amidst the ruins of a Grecian colony, which once extended to a circumference of two and twenty miles; but in the spring, about the festival of Easter, the prosecution of his designs was interrupted by a dangerous revolt of the African forces. Carthage was saved by the presence of Belisarius30, who suddenly landed with a thousand30 guards. Two thousand30 soldiers30 of doubtful faith returned to the standard30 of their old commander; and he marched, without hesitation, above fifty miles, to seek an enemy30 whom he affected to pity and despise. Eight thousand30 rebels trembled at his approach; they were routed at the first onset by the dexterity of their master; and this ignoble victory30 would have restored the peace of Africa, if the conqueror had not been hastily recalled to Sicily, to appease a sedition which was kindled during his absence in his own camp30. Disorder and disobedience were the common malady of the times; the genius to command and the virtue to obey resided only in the mind of Belisarius30.
Although Theodatus descended from a race of heroes, he was ignorant of the art, and averse to the dangers, of war34. Although he had studied the writings of Plato and Tully, philosophy was incapable of purifying his mind34 from the basest passions, avarice and fear. He had purchased a sceptre by ingratitude and murder; at the first menace of an enemy he degraded his own majesty, and that of a nation which already disdained their unworthy sovereign34. Astonished by the recent example of Gelimer, he saw himself dragged in chains through the streets of Constantinople34; the terrors which Belisarius34 inspired, were heightened by the eloquence of Peter, the Byzantine ambassador; and that bold and subtle advocate persuaded him to sign34 a treaty, too ignominious to become the foundation of a lasting peace. It was stipulated that in the acclamations of the Roman34 people the name of the emperor34 should be always proclaimed before that of the Gothic king; and that, as often as the statue of Theodatus was erected in brass or marble, the divine image of Justinian should be placed on its right hand. Instead34 of conferring, the king of Italy was reduced to solicit, the honours of the senate; and the consent of the emperor34 was made indispensable before he could execute, against a priest or senator, the sentence either of death or confiscation. The feeble monarch34 resigned the possession of Sicily; offered, as the annual mark of his dependence, a crown34 of gold, of the weight of three hundred pounds; and promised to supply, at the requisition of his sovereign34, three thousand34 Gothic auxiliaries for the service of the empire34. Satisfied with these extraordinary concessions, the successful agent of Justinian hastened his journey to Constantinople34; but no sooner had he reached the Alban villa than he was recalled by the anxiety of Theodatus; and the dialogue which passed between the king and the ambassador deserves to be represented in its original simplicity. Are you of opinion that the emperor34 will ratify this treaty? Perhaps. If he refuses, what consequence will ensue? War34. Will such a war34 be just34 or reasonable? Most assuredly: every one should act according to his character. What is your meaning? You are a philosopher — Justinian is emperor34 of the Romans: it would ill become the disciple of Plato to shed the blood of thousands in his private quarrel; the successor of Augustus should vindicate his rights, and recover by arms the ancient provinces of his empire34. This reasoning might not convince, but it was sufficient to alarm and subdue, the weakness of Theodatus; and he soon descended to his last offer, that for the poor equivalent of a pension of forty-eight thousand34 pounds sterling he would resign the kingdom of the Goths and Italians, and spend the remainder of his days34 in the innocent pleasures of philosophy and agriculture. Both treaties were entrusted to the hands of the ambassador, on the frail security of an oath not to produce the second till the first had been positively rejected. The event34 may be easily foreseen: Justinian required and accepted34 the abdication of the Gothic king. His indefatigable agent returned from Constantinople34 to Ravenna, with ample instructions; and a fair epistle, which praised the wisdom and generosity of the royal philosopher, granted his pension, with the assurance of such honours as a subject and a Catholic might enjoy, and wisely referred the final execution of the treaty to the presence and authority of Belisarius34. But, in the interval of suspense, two Roman34 generals, who had entered the province of Dalmatia, were defeated and slain by the Gothic troops. From blind and abject despair, Theodatus capriciously rose to groundless and fatal presumption, and dared to receive with menace and contempt the ambassador of Justinian, who claimed his promise, solicited the allegiance of his subjects, and boldly asserted the inviolable privilege of his own character. The march of Belisarius34 dispelled this visionary pride; and, as the first campaign was employed in the reduction of Sicily, the invasion of Italy is applied by Procopius to the second year of the Gothic War34.
After Belisarius30 had left30 sufficient garrisons in Palermo and Syracuse, he embarked his troops30 at Messina, and landed them, without resistance, on the opposite shores of Rhegium. A Gothic prince30, who had married the daughter of Theodatus, was stationed with an army30 to guard the entrance of Italy; but he imitated, without scruple, the example of a sovereign faithless to his public and private duties. The perfidious Ebermor deserted with his followers to the Roman30 camp30, and was dismissed to enjoy the servile honours of the Byzantine30 court. From Rhegium to Naples, the fleet and army30 of Belisarius30, almost always in view of each other, advanced near three hundred miles along the sea-coast. The people30 of Bruttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the name and religion of the Goths, embraced the specious excuse that their ruined walls30 were incapable of defence; the soldiers30 paid a just equivalent for a plentiful market; and curiosity alone interrupted the peaceful occupations of the husbandman or artificer. Naples, which has swelled to a great and populous capital, long30 cherished the language and manners of a Grecian colony; and the choice of Virgil had ennobled this elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose and study, from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious opulence of Rome. As soon30 as the place was invested by sea and land, Belisarius30 gave audience to the deputies of the people30, who exhorted him to disregard a conquest unworthy of his arms30, to seek the Gothic king30 in a field of battle30, and, after his victory30, to claim, as the sovereign of Rome, the allegiance of the dependent cities. When I treat with my enemies30, replied the Roman30 chief, with an haughty smile, I am more accustomed to give than to receive counsel; but I hold in one hand inevitable ruin, and in the other, peace and freedom, such as Sicily now enjoys. The impatience of delay urged him to grant the most liberal terms; his honour secured their performance; but Naples was divided into two factions; and the Greek30 democracy was inflamed by their orators, who, with much spirit and some truth, represented to the multitude that the Goths would punish their defection and that Belisarius30 himself must esteem their loyalty and valour. Their deliberations, however, were not perfectly free: the city30 was commanded by eight hundred Barbarians, whose wives and children were detained at Ravenna as the pledge of their fidelity; and even the Jews, who were rich and numerous, resisted, with desperate enthusiasm, the intolerant laws of Justinian30. In a much later period, the circumference of Naples meassured only two thousand30 three hundred and sixty-three paces: the fortifications were defended by precipices or the sea; when the aqueducts were intercepted, a supply of water might be drawn from wells and fountains; and the stock of provisions was sufficient to consume the patience of the besiegers. At the end of twenty days30, that of Belisarius30 was almost exhausted, and he had reconciled himself to the disgrace of abandoning the siege30, that he might march, before the winter season, against Rome and the Gothic king30. But his anxiety was relieved by the bold curiosity of an Isaurian, who explored the dry channel of an aqueduct, and secretly reported that a passage might be perforated to introduce a file of armed soldiers30 into the heart of the city30. When the work had been silently executed, the humane general30 risked the discovery of his secret, by a last and fruitless admonition of the impending danger. In the darkness of the night, four hundred Romans entered the aqueduct, raised themselves by a rope, which they fastened to an olive tree, into the house or garden of a solitary matron, sounded their trumpets, surprised the sentinels, and gave admittance to their companions, who on all sides scaled the walls30 and burst open the gates of the city30. Every crime which is punished by social justice, was practised as the rights of war30; the Huns were distinguished by cruelty and sacrilege; and Belisarius30 alone appeared in the streets and churches of Naples to moderate the calamities which he predicted. The gold30 and silver, he repeatedly exclaimed, are the just rewards of your valour. But spare the inhabitants, they are Christians, they are suppliants, they are now your fellow-subjects. Restore the children to their parents, the wives to their husbands; and shew them, by your generosity, of what friends they have obstinately deprived themselves. The city30 was saved by the virtue and authority of its conqueror, and, when the Neapolitans returned to their houses, they found some consolation in the secret enjoyment of their hidden treasures. The Barbarian garrison enlisted in the service30 of the emperor30; Apulia and Calabria, delivered from the odious presence of the Goths, acknowledged his dominion; and the tusks of the Calydonian boar, which were still shewn at Beneventum, are curiously described by the historian of Belisarius30.
The faithful soldiers and citizens of Naples19 had expected their deliverance from a prince, who remained the inactive and almost indifferent spectator of their ruin. Theodatus secured his person within the walls of Rome19, while his cavalry advanced19 forty miles19 on the Appian way19, and encamped in the Pomptine marshes; which, by a canal of nineteen miles19 in length, had been recently drained and converted into excellent pastures. But the principal forces of the Goths19 were dispersed in Dalmatia, Venetia, and Gaul; and the feeble mind of their king was confounded by the unsuccessful event of a divination, which seemed to presage the downfall of his empire19. The most abject slaves have arraigned the guilt or weakness of an unfortunate master. The character of Theodatus was rigorously scrutinised by a free and idle camp of Barbarians19, conscious of their privilege and power; he was declared unworthy of his race, his nation, and his throne19; and their general19 Vitiges, whose valour had been signalised in the Illyrian war, was raised with unanimous applause on the bucklers of his companions. On the first rumour, the abdicated monarch19 fled from the justice of his country19; but he was pursued by private19 revenge. A Goth whom he had injured in his love overtook Theodatus on the Flaminian19 way19, and, regardless of his unmanly cries, slaughtered him as he lay prostrate on the ground, like a victim (says the historian) at the foot of the altar. The choice of the people19 is the best and purest title to reign over them; yet such is the prejudice of every age19, that Vitiges impatiently wished to return to Ravenna, where he might seize, with the reluctant hand19 of the daughter of Amalasontha, some faint shadow of hereditary right. A national council was immediately held, and the new19 monarch19 reconciled the impatient spirit19 of the Barbarians19 to a measure of disgrace which the misconduct of his predecessor rendered wise and indispensable. The Goths19 consented to retreat in the presence of a victorious enemy; to delay till the next spring the operations of offensive war; to summon their scattered forces; to relinquish their distant possessions; and to trust even Rome19 itself to the faith of its inhabitants. Leuderis, an aged warrior, was left in the capital with four thousand19 soldiers, a feeble garrison19, which might have seconded the zeal, though it was incapable of opposing the wishes, of the Romans. But a momentary enthusiasm of religion19 and patriotism was kindled in their minds. They furiously exclaimed that the apostolic throne19 should no longer be profaned by the triumph or toleration of Arianism; that the tombs of the Caesars should no longer be trampled by the savages of the North; and, without reflecting that Italy19 must sink into a province19 of Constantinople, they fondly hailed the restoration of a Roman19 emperor19 as a new19 era of freedom and prosperity. The deputies19 of the pope and clergy, of the senate and people19, invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and to enter the city19, whose gates would be thrown open for his reception. As soon19 as Belisarius had fortified his new19 conquests, Naples19 and Cumae, he advanced19 about twenty miles19 to the banks of the Vulturnus, contemplated the decayed grandeur of Capua, and halted at the separation of the Latin and Appian ways. The work of the censor, after the incessant use of nine centuries, still preserved its primaeval beauty, and not a flaw could be discovered in the large polished stones, of which that solid though narrow road was so firmly compacted. Belisarius, however, preferred the Latin way19, which, at a distance from the sea19 and the marshes, skirted in a space of one hundred and twenty miles19 along the foot of the mountains. His enemies had disappeared; when he made his entrance through the Asinarian gate, the garrison19 departed without molestation along the Flaminian19 way19; and the city19, after sixty years19' servitude, was delivered from the yoke of the Barbarians19. Leuderis alone, from a motive of pride or discontent, refused to accompany the fugitives; and the Gothic19 chief, himself a trophy of the victory, was sent with the keys of Rome19 to the throne19 of the emperor19 Justinian.
The first days30, which coincided with the old Saturnalia, were devoted to mutual congratulation and the public joy; and the Catholics prepared to celebrate, without a rival, the approaching festival of the nativity of Christ. In the familiar conversation of an hero, the Romans acquired some notion of the virtues which history ascribed to their ancestors; they were edified by the apparent respect of Belisarius30 for the successor of St30. Peter, and his rigid discipline secured in the midst of war30 the blessings of tranquillity and justice. They applauded the rapid success of his arms30, which overran the adjacent country, as far as Narni, Perusia, and Spoleto; but they trembled, the senate, the clergy, and the unwarlike people30, as soon30 as they understood that he had resolved, and would speedily be reduced, to sustain a siege30 against the powers of the Gothic monarchy. The designs of Vitiges were executed, during the winter season, with diligence and effect. From their rustic habitations, from their distant garrisons, the Goths assembled at Ravenna for the defence of their country; and such were their numbers that, after an army30 had been detached for the relief of Dalmatia, one hundred and fifty thousand30 fighting men marched under the royal30 standard30. According to the degrees of rank or merit, the Gothic king30 distributed arms30 and horses, rich gifts, and liberal promises; he moved along the Flaminian way, declined the useless sieges of Perusia and Spoleto, respected the impregnable rock of Narni, and arrived within two miles of Rome at the foot of the Milvian bridge. The narrow passage was fortified with a tower, and Belisarius30 had computed the value of the twenty days30 which must be lost in the construction of another bridge. But the consternation of the soldiers30 of the tower, who either fled or deserted, disappointed his hopes, and betrayed his person into the most imminent danger. At the head30 of one thousand30 horse30, the Roman30 general30 sallied from the Flaminian gate to mark the ground of an advantageous position, and to survey the camp30 of the Barbarians; but, while he still believed them on the other side of the Tiber, he was suddenly encompassed and assaulted by their innumerable squadrons. The fate of Italy depended on his life; and the deserters pointed to the conspicuous horse30, a bay, with a white face, which he rode on that memorable day30. Aim at the bay horse30, was the universal cry. Every bow was bent, every javelin was directed, against that fatal object, and the command was repeated and obeyed by thousands who were ignorant of its real motive. The bolder Barbarians advanced to the more honourable combat of swords and spears; and the praise of an enemy30 has graced the fall of Visandus, the standard30-bearer, who maintained his foremost station, till30 he was pierced with thirteen wounds, perhaps by the hand of Belisarius30 himself. The Roman30 general30 was strong, active, and dexterous; on every side he discharged his weighty and mortal strokes; his faithful guards imitated his valour and defended his person; and the Goths, after the loss of a thousand30 men, fled before the arms30 of an hero. They were rashly pursued to their camp30; and the Romans, oppressed by multitudes, made a gradual, and at length a precipitate, retreat to the gates of the city30; the gates were shut against the fugitives; and the public terror was increased by the report that Belisarius30 was slain. His countenance was indeed disfigured by sweat, dust, and blood; his voice was hoarse, his strength was almost exhausted; but his unconquerable spirit still remained; he imparted that spirit to his desponding companions; and their last desperate charge was felt by the flying Barbarians, as if a new30 army30, vigorous and entire, had been poured from the city30. The Flaminian gate was thrown open to a real triumph; but it was not before Belisarius30 had visited every post, and provided for the public safety, that he could be persuaded by his wife and friends to taste the needful refreshments of food and sleep. In the more improved state of the art of war30, a general30 is seldom required, or even permitted, to display the personal prowess of a soldier; and the example of Belisarius30 may be added to the rare examples of Henry IV., of Pyrrhus, and of Alexander.
After this first and unsuccessful trial of their enemies30, the whole army30 of the Goths passed the Tiber, and formed the siege30 of the city30, which continued above a year, till30 their final departure. Whatever fancy may conceive, the severe compass of the geographer defines the circumference of Rome within a line of twelve miles and three hundred and forty-five paces; and that circumference, except in the Vatican, has invariably been the same from the triumph of Aurelian to the peaceful but obscure reign of the modern popes. But in the day30 of her greatness, the space within her walls30 was crowded with habitations and inhabitants; and the populous suburbs, that stretched along the public roads, were darted like so many rays from one common centre. Adversity swept away these extraneous ornaments, and left30 naked and desolate a considerable part even of the seven hills. Yet Rome in its present state could send into the field above thirty thousand30 males of a military age; and, notwithstanding the want of discipline and exercise, the far greater part, inured to the hardships of poverty, might be capable of bearing arms30 for the defence of their country and religion. The prudence of Belisarius30 did not neglect this important resource. His soldiers30 were relieved by the zeal and diligence of the people30, who watched while they slept, and laboured while they reposed; he accepted the voluntary service30 of the bravest and most indigent of the Roman30 youth; and the companies of townsmen sometimes represented, in a vacant post, the presence of the troops30 which had been drawn away to more essential duties. But his just confidence was placed in the veterans who had fought under his banner in the Persian and African wars; and, although that gallant band was reduced to five thousand30 men, he undertook, with such contemptible numbers, to defend a circle of twelve miles, against an army30 of one hundred and fifty thousand30 Barbarians. In the walls30 of Rome, which Belisarius30 constructed or restored, the materials of ancient architecture may be discerned; and the whole fortification was completed, except in a chasm still extant between the Pincian and Flaminian gates, which the prejudices of the Goths and Romans left30 under the effectual guard of St30. Peter the apostle. The battlements or bastions were shaped in sharp angles; a ditch, broad and deep, protected the foot of the rampart; and the archers on the rampart were assisted by military engines: the balista, a powerful cross-bow, which darted short but massy arrows; the onagri, or wild asses, which, on the principle of a sling, threw stones and bullets of an enormous size. A chain was drawn across the Tiber; the arches of the aqueducts were made impervious, and the mole or sepulchre of Hadrian was converted, for the first time, to the uses of a citadel. That venerable structure, which contained the ashes of the Antonines, was a circular turret, rising from a quadrangular basis: it was covered with the white marble of Paros, and decorated by the statues of gods and heroes; and the lover of the arts must read with a sigh that the works of Praxiteles or Lysippus were torn from their lofty pedestals, and hurled into the ditch on the heads of the besiegers. To each of his lieutenants Belisarius30 assigned the defence of a gate with the wise and peremptory instruction that, whatever might be the alarm, they should steadily adhere to their respective posts and trust their general30 for the safety of Rome. The formidable host of the Goths was insufficient to embrace the ample measure of the city30; of the fourteen gates, seven only were invested from the Praenestine to the Flaminian way; and Vitiges divided his troops30 into six camps, each of which was fortified with a ditch and rampart. On the Tuscan side of the river, a seventh encampment was formed in the field or circus of the Vatican, for the important purpose of commanding the Milvian bridge and the course of the Tiber; but they approached with devotion the adjacent church of St30. Peter; and the threshold of the holy30 apostles was respected during the siege30 by a Christian enemy30. In the ages of victory30, as often as the senate decreed some distant conquest, the consul denounced hostilities, by unbarring in solemn pomp the gates of the temple of Janus. Domestic war30 now rendered the admonition superfluous, and the ceremony was superseded by the establishment of a new30 religion. But the brazen temple of Janus was left30 standing in the forum; of a size sufficient only to contain the statue of the god, five cubits in height, of a human form, but with two faces, directed to the east and west. The double gates were likewise of brass; and a fruitless effort to turn them on their rusty hinges revealed the scandalous secret that some Romans were still attached to the superstition of their ancestors.
Eighteen days30 were employed by the besiegers to provide all the instruments of attack which antiquity had invented. Fascines were prepared to fill the ditches, scaling ladders to ascend the walls30. The largest trees of the forest supplied the timbers of four battering-rams; their heads were armed with iron; they were suspended by ropes, and each of them was worked by the labour of fifty men. The lofty wooden turrets moved on wheels or rollers, and formed a spacious platform of the level of the rampart. On the morning of the nineteenth day30, a general30 attack was made from the Praenestine gate to the Vatican: seven Gothic columns, with their military engines, advanced to the assault; and the Romans who lined the ramparts listened with doubt and anxiety to the cheerful assurances of their commander. As soon30 as the enemy30 approached the ditch, Belisarius30 himself drew the first arrow; and such was his strength and dexterity that he transfixed the foremost of the Barbarian leaders. A shout of applause and victory30 was re-echoed along the wall. He drew a second30 arrow, and the stroke was followed with the same success and the same acclamation. The Roman30 general30 then gave the word that the archers should aim at the teams of oxen; they were instantly covered with mortal wounds; the towers which they drew remained useless and immoveable, and a single moment disconcerted the laborious projects of the king30 of the Goths. After this disappointment, Vitiges still continued, or feigned to continue, the assault of the Salarian gate, that he might divert the attention of his adversary, while his principal forces more strenuously attacked the Praenestine gate and the sepulchre of Hadrian, at the distance of three miles from each other. Near the former, the double walls30 of the Vivarium were low or broken; the fortifications of the latter were feebly guarded; the vigour of the Goths was excited by the hope of victory30 and spoil; and, if a single post had given way, the Romans, and Rome itself, were irrecoverably lost. This perilous day30 was the most glorious in the life of Belisarius30. Amidst tumult and dismay, the whole plan of the attack and defence was distinctly present to his mind; he observed the changes of each instant, weighed every possible advantage, transported his person to the scenes of danger, and communicated his spirit in calm and decisive orders. The contest was fiercely maintained from the morning to the evening; the Goths were repulsed on all sides, and each Roman30 might boast that he had vanquished thirty Barbarians, if the strange disproportion of numbers were not counterbalanced by the merit of one man. Thirty thousand30 Goths, according to the confession of their own chiefs, perished in this bloody action; and the multitude of the wounded was equal to that of the slain. When they advanced to the assault, their close disorder suffered not a javelin to fall without effect; and, as they retired, the populace of the city30 joined the pursuit, and slaughtered, with impunity, the backs of their flying enemies30. Belisarius30 instantly sallied from the gates; and, while the soldiers30 chaunted his name and victory30, the hostile engines of war30 were reduced to ashes. Such was the loss and consternation of the Goths hat, from this day30, the siege30 of Rome degenerated into a tedious and indolent blockade; and they were incessantly harassed by the Roman30 general30, who in frequent skirmishes destroyed above five thousand30 of their bravest troops30. Their cavalry was unpractised in the use of the bow; their archers served on foot; and this divided force was incapable of contending with their adversaries, whose lances and arrows, at a distance or at hand, were alike formidable. The consummate skill of Belisarius30 embraced the favourable opportunities; and, as he chose the ground and the moment, as he pressed the charge or sounded the retreat, the squadrons which he detached were seldom unsuccessful. These partial advantages diffused an impatient ardour among the soldiers30 and people30, who began to feel the hardships of a siege30, and to disregard the dangers of a general30 engagement. Each plebeian conceived himself to be an hero, and the infantry, who, since the decay of discipline, were rejected from the line of battle30, aspired to the ancient honours of the Roman30 legion. Belisarius30 praised the spirit of his troops30, condemned their presumption, yielded to their clamours, and prepared the remedies of a defeat, the possibility of which he alone had courage to suspect. In the quarter of the Vatican, the Romans prevailed; and, if the irreparable moments had not been wasted in the pillage of the camp30, they might have occupied the Milvian bridge, and charged in the rear of the Gothic host. On the other side of the Tiber, Belisarius30 advanced from the Pincian and Salarian gates. But his army30, four thousand30 soldiers30 perhaps, was lost in a spacious plain; they were encompassed and oppressed by fresh multitudes, who continually relieved the broken ranks of the Barbarians. The valiant leaders of the infantry were unskilled to conquer; they died; the retreat (an hasty retreat) was covered by the prudence of the general30, and the victors started back with affright from the formidable aspect of an armed rampart. The reputation of Belisarius30 was unsullied by a defeat; and the vain confidence of the Goths was not less serviceable to his designs than the repentance and modesty of the Roman30 troops30.
From the moment that Belisarius27 had determined to sustain a siege27, his assiduous care provided Rome27 against the danger of famine, more dreadful than the Gothic arms27. An extraordinary supply of corn27 was imported from Sicily; the harvests of Campania and Tuscany were forcibly swept for the use of the city27; and the rights of private property were infringed by the strong plea of the public27 safety. It might easily be foreseen that the enemy would intercept the aqueducts; and the cessation of the water-mills was the first inconvenience, which was speedily removed by mooring large vessels, and fixing mill-stones, in the current of the river. The stream was soon27 embarrassed by the trunks of trees, and polluted with dead bodies; yet so effectual were the precautions of the Roman27 general that the waters of the Tiber27 still continued to give motion to the mills and drink to the inhabitants27; the more distant quarters were supplied from domestic wells; and a besieged city27 might support, without impatience, the privation of her public27 baths. A large portion of Rome27, from the Praenestine gate to the church of St. Paul, was never invested by the Goths27; their excursions were restrained by the activity of the Moorish troops; the navigation of the Tiber27, and the Latin, Appian, and Ostian ways, were left free and unmolested for the introduction of corn27 and cattle, or the retreat of the inhabitants27, who sought a refuge in Campania or Sicily. Anxious to relieve himself from an useless and devouring multitude27, Belisarius27 issued his peremptory orders for the instant departure of the women, the children, and slaves; required his soldiers27 to dismiss their male and female attendants; and regulated their allowance, that one moiety should be given in provisions and the other in money. His foresight was justified by the increase27 of the public27 distress, as soon27 as the Goths27 had occupied two important27 posts in the neighbourhood of Rome27. By the loss of the port, or, as it is now called, the city27 of Porto, he was deprived of the country27 on the right of the Tiber27, and the best communication with the sea; and he reflected with grief and anger, that three hundred men, could he have spared such a feeble band, might have defended its impregnable works. Seven27 miles27 from the capital, between the Appian and the Latin ways, two principal aqueducts crossing, and again crossing each other, enclosed within their solid and lofty arches a fortified space, where Vitiges established a camp of seven27 thousand27 Goths27 to intercept the convoys of Sicily and Campania. The granaries of Rome27 were insensibly exhausted, the adjacent country27 had been wasted with fire and sword; such scanty supplies as might yet be obtained by hasty excursions were the reward of valour and the purchase of wealth: the forage of the horses and the bread of the soldiers27 never failed; but in the last months of the siege27 the people27 were exposed to the miseries of scarcity, unwholesome food, and contagious disorders. Belisarius27 saw and pitied their sufferings; but he had foreseen, and he watched, the decay of their loyalty and the progress of their discontent. Adversity had awakened the Romans from the dreams of grandeur and freedom, and taught them the humiliating lesson that it was of small moment to their real27 happiness whether the name of their master was derived from the Gothic or the Latin language. The lieutenant of Justinian listened to their just complaints, but he rejected with disdain the idea of flight or capitulation; repressed their clamorous impatience for battle; amused them with the prospect of sure and speedy relief; and secured himself and the city27 from the effects of their despair or treachery. Twice in each month he changed the station of the officers to whom the custody of the gates27 was committed; the various27 precautions of patrols, watch-words, lights, and music were repeatedly employed to discover whatever passed on the ramparts; out-guards were posted beyond the ditch, and the trusty vigilance of dogs supplied the more doubtful fidelity of mankind27. A letter was intercepted, which assured the king27 of the Goths27 that the Asinarian gate, adjoining to the Lateran church, should be secretly opened to his troops. On the proof or suspicion of treason, several senators were banished, and the pope Sylverius was summoned to attend the representative of his sovereign, at his head-quarters in the Pincian palace. The ecclesiastics who followed their bishop were detained in the first or second apartment, and he alone was admitted to the presence of Belisarius27. The conqueror of Rome27 and Carthage was modestly seated at the feet27 of Antonina, who reclined on a stately couch; the general was silent, but the voice of reproach and menace issued from the mouth of his imperious wife. Accused by credible witnesses, and the evidence of his own subscription, the successor of St. Peter was despoiled of his pontifical ornaments, clad in the mean habit of a monk, and embarked without delay for a distant exile in the East. At the emperor's command, the clergy of Rome27 proceeded to the choice of a new bishop; and, after a solemn invocation of the Holy Ghost, elected the deacon Vigilius, who had purchased the papal throne by a bribe of two hundred pounds of gold. The profit, and consequently the guilt, of this simony was imputed to Belisarius27; but the hero obeyed the orders of his wife; Antonina served the passions of the empress; and Theodora lavished her treasures, in the vain hope of obtaining a pontiff hostile or indifferent to the council of Chalcedon.
The epistle of Belisarius to the emperor announced his victory, his danger, and his resolution. According to your commands, we have entered the dominions of the Goths9, and reduced to your obedience Sicily, Campania, and the city9 of Rome9; but the loss of these conquests will be more disgraceful than their acquisition was glorious. Hitherto we have successfully fought against the multitude of the Barbarians9, but their multitudes may finally prevail. Victory is the gift of Providence, but the reputation of kings and generals depends on the success or the failure of their designs. Permit me to speak with freedom: if you wish that we should live, send us subsistence; if you desire that we should conquer, send us arms9, horses, and men9. The Romans9 have received us as friends and deliverers; but, in our present distress, they will be either betrayed by their confidence or we shall be oppressed by their treachery and hatred. For myself, my life is consecrated to your service: it is yours to reflect, whether my death in this situation will contribute to the glory and prosperity of your reign. Perhaps that reign would have been equally prosperous, if the peaceful master of the East had abstained from the conquest9 of Africa9 and Italy9; but, as Justinian was ambitious of fame, he made some efforts, they were feeble and languid, to support and rescue his victorious general. A reinforcement of sixteen hundred Sclavonians and Huns9 was led by Martin and Valerian; and, as they had reposed during the winter season in the harbours of Greece, the strength of the men9 and horses was not impaired by the fatigues of a sea9-voyage; and they distinguished their valour9 in the first sally against the besiegers. About the time of the summer solstice, Euthalius landed at Terracina with large sums of money for the payment of the troops9; he cautiously proceeded along the Appian way, and this convoy entered Rome9 through the gate Capena, while Belisarius, on the other side, diverted the attention of the Goths9 by a vigorous and successful skirmish. These seasonable aids, the use and reputation of which were dexterously managed by the Roman9 general, revived the courage, or at least the hopes, of the soldiers and people. The historian Procopius was despatched with an important commission, to collect the troops9 and provisions which Campania could furnish or Constantinople had sent; and the secretary of Belisarius was soon9 followed by Antonina herself, who boldly traversed the posts of the enemy, and returned with the Oriental succours to the relief of her husband and the besieged city9. A fleet9 of three thousand9 Isaurians cast anchor in the bay of Naples, and afterwards at Ostia. Above two thousand9 horse, of whom a part were Thracians, landed at Tarentum; and, after the junction of five hundred soldiers of Campania, and a train of waggons laden with wine and flour, they directed their march on the Appian way, from Capua to the neighbourhood of Rome9. The forces that arrived by land and sea9 were united at the mouth of the Tiber. Antonina convened a council of war9: it was resolved to surmount, with sails and oars, the adverse stream of the river9; and the Goths9 were apprehensive of disturbing, by any rash hostilities, the negotiation to which Belisarius had craftily listened. They credulously believed that they saw no more than the vanguard of a fleet9 and army9, which already covered the Ionian sea9 and the plains of Campania; and the illusion was supported by the haughty language of the Roman9 general, when he gave audience to the ambassadors of Vitiges. After a specious discourse to vindicate the justice of his cause, they declared that, for the sake of peace, they were disposed to announce the possession of Sicily. The emperor is not less generous, replied his lieutenant, with a disdainful smile, in return for a gift which you no longer possess; he presents you with an ancient9 province9 of the empire9; he resigns to the Goths9 the sovereignty of the British island. Belisarius rejected with equal firmness and contempt the offer of a tribute; but he allowed the Gothic ambassadors to seek their fate from the mouth of Justinian himself; and consented, with seeming reluctance, to a truce of three months, from the winter solstice to the equinox of spring. Prudence might not safely trust either the oaths or hostages of the Barbarians9, but the conscious superiority of the Roman9 chief was expressed in the distribution of his troops9. As soon9 as fear or hunger compelled the Goths9 to evacuate Alba, Porto, and Centumcellae, their place was instantly supplied; the garrisons of Narni, Spoleto, and Perusia were reinforced, and the seven camps of the besiegers were gradually encompassed with the calamities of a siege. The prayers and pilgrimage of Datius, bishop of Milan, were not without effect; and he obtained one thousand9 Thracians and Isaurians, to assist the revolt of Liguria against her Arian tyrant. At the same time, John the Sanguinary, the nephew of Vitalian, was detached with two thousand9 chosen horse, first to Alba on the Fucine lake, and afterwards to the frontiers of Picenum on the Hadriatic sea9. In that province9, said Belisarius, the Goths9 have deposited their families and treasures, without a guard or the suspicion of danger. Doubtless they will violate the truce: let them feel your presence, before they hear of your motions. Spare the Italians; suffer not any fortified places to remain hostile in your rear; and faithfully reserve the spoil for an equal and common partition. It would not be reasonable, he added with a laugh, that, whilst we are toiling to the destruction of the drones, our more fortunate brethren should rifle and enjoy the honey.
The whole nation9 of the Ostrogoths had been assembled for the attack, and was almost entirely consumed in the siege of Rome9. If any credit be due to an intelligent spectator, one third at least of their enormous host was destroyed, in frequent and bloody combats under the walls9 of the city9. The bad fame and pernicious qualities of the summer air might already be imputed to the decay of agriculture and population; and the evils of famine and pestilence were aggravated by their own licentiousness and the unfriendly disposition of the country9. While Vitiges struggled with his fortune; while he hesitated between shame and ruin; his retreat was hastened by domestic alarms. The king of the Goths9 was informed by trembling messengers, that John the Sanguinary spread the devastations of war9 from the Apennine to the Hadriatic; that the rich spoils and innumerable captives of Picenum were lodged in the fortifications of Rimini; and that this formidable chief had defeated his uncle, insulted his capital9, and seduced, by secret correspondence, the fidelity of his wife, the imperious daughter of Amalasontha. Yet, before he retired, Vitiges made a last effort either to storm or to surprise the city9. A secret passage was discovered in one of the aqueducts; two citizens of the Vatican were tempted by bribes to intoxicate the guards of the Aurelian gate; an attack was meditated on the walls9 beyond the Tiber in a place which was not fortified with towers; and the Barbarians9 advanced, with torches and scaling-ladders, to the assault of the Pincian gate. But every attempt was defeated by the intrepid vigilance of Belisarius and his band of veterans, who, in the most perilous moments, did not regret the absence of their companions; and the Goths9, alike destitute of hope and subsistence, clamorously urged their departure, before the truce should expire, and the Roman9 cavalry should again be united. One year and nine days after the commencement of the siege, an army9, so lately strong and triumphant, burnt their tents, and tumultuously repassed the Milvian bridge. They repassed not with impunity: their thronging multitudes, oppressed in a narrow passage, were driven headlong into the Tiber, by their own fears and the pursuit of the enemy; and the Roman9 general, sallying from the Pincian gate, inflicted a severe and disgraceful wound on their retreat. The slow length of a sickly and desponding host was heavily dragged along the Flaminian way; from whence the Barbarians9 were sometimes compelled to deviate, lest they should encounter the hostile garrisons that guarded the high road to Rimini and Ravenna. Yet so powerful was this flying army9 that Vitiges spared ten thousand9 men9 for the defence of the cities9 which he was most solicitous to preserve, and detached his nephew Uraias, with an adequate force, for the chastisement of rebellious Milan. At the head of his principal army9, he besieged Rimini, only thirty-three miles9 distant from the Gothic capital9. A feeble rampart and a shallow ditch were maintained by the skill and valour9 of John the Sanguinary, who shared the danger and fatigue of the meanest soldier, and emulated, on a theatre less illustrious, the military virtues of his great9 commander. The towers and battering engines of the Barbarians9 were rendered useless; their attacks were repulsed; and the tedious blockade, which reduced the garrison to the last extremity of hunger, afforded time for the union and march of the Roman9 forces. A fleet9, which had surprised Ancona, sailed along the coast9 of the Hadriatic, to the relief of the besieged city9. The enunch Narses landed in Picenum with two thousand9 Heruli and five thousand9 of the bravest troops9 of the East. The rock of the Apennine was forced; ten thousand9 veterans moved round the foot of the mountains9 under the command of Belisarius himself; and a new9 army9, whose encampment blazed with innumerable lights, appeared to advance along the Flaminian way. Overwhelmed with astonishment and despair, the Goths9 abandoned the siege of Rimini, their tents, their standards, and their leaders; and Vitiges, who gave or followed the example of flight, never halted till he found a shelter within the walls9 and morasses of Ravenna.
To these walls30, and to some fortresses destitute of any mutual support, the Gothic monarchy was now reduced. The provinces of Italy had embraced the party of the emperor30; and his army30, gradually recruited to the number of twenty thousand30 men, must have achieved an easy and rapid conquest, if their invincible powers had not been weakened by the discord of the Roman30 chiefs. Before the end of the siege30, an act of blood, ambiguous and indiscreet, sullied the fair fame of Belisarius30. Presidius, a loyal Italian, as he fled from Ravenna to Rome, was rudely stopped by Constantine, the military governor of Spoleto, and despoiled, even in a church, of two daggers richly inlaid with gold30 and precious stones. As soon30 as the public danger had subsided, Presidius complained of the loss and injury; his complaint was heard, but the order of restitution was disobeyed by the pride and avarice of the offender. Exasperated by the delay, Presidius boldly arrested the general30's horse30 as he passed through the forum; and with the spirit of a citizen demanded the common benefit of the Roman30 laws. The honour of Belisarius30 was engaged; he summoned a council; claimed the obedience of his subordinate officer; and was provoked, by an insolent reply, to call hastily for the presence of his guards. Constantine, viewing their entrance as the signal of death30, drew his sword30, and rushed on the general30, who nimbly eluded the stroke, and was protected by his friends; while the desperate assassin was disarmed, dragged into a neighbouring chamber, and executed, or rather murdered, by the guards, at the arbitrary command of Belisarius30. In this hasty act of violence, the guilt of Constantine was no longer remembered; the despair and death30 of that valiant officer were secretly imputed to the revenge of Antonina; and each of his colleagues, conscious of the same rapine, was apprehensive of the same fate. The fear of a common enemy30 suspended the effects of their envy and discontent; but, in the confidence of approaching victory30, they instigated a powerful rival to oppose the conqueror of Rome and Africa. From the domestic service30 of the palace30 and the administration of the private revenue, Narses the eunuch was suddenly exalted to the head30 of an army30; and the spirit of an hero, who afterwards equalled the merit and glory of Belisarius30, served only to perplex the operations of the Gothic war30. To his prudent counsels, the relief of Rimini was ascribed by the leaders of the discontented faction, who exhorted Narses to assume an independent and separate command. The epistle of Justinian30 had indeed enjoined his obedience to the general30; but the dangerous exception, as far as may be advantageous to the public service30, reserved some freedom of judgment to the discreet favourite, who had so lately departed from the sacred and familiar conversation of his sovereign. In the exercise of this doubtful right, the eunuch perpetually dissented from the opinions of Belisarius30; and, after yielding with reluctance to the siege30 of Urbino, he deserted his colleague in the night, and marched away to the conquest of the Aemilian province. The fierce and formidable bands of the Heruli were attached to the person of Narses; ten thousand30 Romans and confederates were persuaded to march under his banners; every malecontent embraced the fair opportunity of revenging his private or imaginary wrongs; and the remaining troops30 of Belisarius30 were divided and dispersed from the garrisons of Sicily to the shores of the Hadriatic. His skill and perseverance overcame every obstacle: Urbino was taken, the sieges of Faesulae, Orvieto, and Auximum were undertaken and vigorously prosecuted; and the eunuch Narses was at length recalled to the domestic cares of the palace30. All dissensions were healed, and all opposition was subdued, by the temperate authority of the Roman30 general30, to whom his enemies30 could not refuse their esteem; and Belisarius30 inculcated the salutary lesson that the forces of the state should compose one body and be animated by one soul. But in the interval of discord the Goths were permitted to breathe; an important season was lost, Milan was destroyed, and the northern provinces of Italy were afflicted by an inundation of the Franks.
When Justinian30 first meditated the conquest of Italy, he sent ambassadors to the kings of the Franks, and adjured them, by the common ties of alliance and religion, to join in the holy30 enterprise against the Arians. The Goths, as their wants were more urgent, employed a more effectual mode of persuasion, and vainly strove, by the gift of lands and money, to purchase the friendship, or at least the neutrality, of a light and perfidious nation. But the arms30 of Belisarius30 and the revolt of the Italians had no sooner shaken the Gothic monarchy than Theodebert of Austrasia, the most powerful and warlike of the Merovingian kings, was persuaded to succour their distress by an indirect and seasonable aid. Without expecting the consent of their sovereign, ten thousand30 Burgundians, his recent subjects, descended from the Alps, and joined the troops30 which Vitiges had sent to chastise the revolt of Milan. After an obstinate siege30, the capital of Liguria was reduced by famine, but no capitulation could be obtained, except for the safe retreat of the Roman30 garrison. Datius, the orthodox bishop, who had seduced his countrymen to rebellion and ruin, escaped to the luxury and honours of the Byzantine30 court; but the clergy, perhaps the Arian clergy, were slaughtered at the foot of their own altars by the defenders of the Catholic faith. Three hundred thousand30 males were reported to be slain; the female sex, and the more precious spoil, was resigned to the Burgundians; and the houses, or at least the walls30, of Milan were levelled with the ground. The Goths, in their last moments, were revenged by the destruction of a city30, second30 only to Rome in size and opulence, in the splendour of its buildings, or the number of its inhabitants; and Belisarius30 sympathised alone in the fate of his deserted and devoted friends. Encouraged by this successful inroad, Theodebert himself, in the ensuing spring, invaded the plains of Italy with an army30 of one hundred thousand30 Barbarians. The king30 and some chosen followers were mounted on horseback and armed with lances: the infantry, without bows or spears, were satisfied with a shield, a sword30, and a double-edged battle30-axe, which, in their hands, became a deadly and unerring weapon. Italy trembled at the march of the Franks; and both the Gothic prince30 and the Roman30 general30, alike ignorant of their designs, solicited, with hope and terror, the friendship of these dangerous allies. Till30 he had secured the passage of the Po on the bridge of Pavia, the grandson of Clovis dissembled his intentions, which he at length declared by assaulting, almost at the same instant, the hostile camps of the Romans and Goths. Instead of uniting their arms30, they fled with equal precipitation; and the fertile though desolate provinces of Liguria and Aemilia were abandoned to a licentious host of Barbarians, whose rage was not mitigated by any thoughts of settlement or conquest. Among the cities which they ruined, Genoa, not yet constructed of marble, is particularly enumerated; and the deaths of thousands, according to the regular practice of war30, appear to have excited less horror than some idolatrous sacrifices of women and children, which were performed with impunity in the camp30 of the most Christian king30. If it were not a melancholy truth that the first and most cruel sufferings must be the lot of the innocent and helpless, history might exult in the misery of the conquerors, who, in the midst of riches, were left30 destitute of bread or wine, reduced to drink the waters of the Po, and to feed on the flesh of distempered cattle. The dysentery swept away one third of their army30; and the clamours of his subjects, who were impatient to pass the Alps, disposed Theodebert to listen with respect to the mild exhortations of Belisarius30. The memory of this inglorious and destructive warfare was perpetuated on the medals of Gaul; and Justinian30, without unsheathing his sword30, assumed the title of conqueror of the Franks. The Merovingian prince30 was offended by the vanity of the emperor30; he affected to pity the fallen fortunes of the Goths; and his insidious offer of a federal union was fortified by the promise or menace of descending from the Alps at the head30 of five hundred thousand30 men. His plans of conquest were boundless and perhaps chimerical. The king30 of Austrasia threatened to chastise Justinian30, and to march to the gates of Constantinople30; he was overthrown and slain by a wild bull as he hunted in the Belgic or German forests.
As soon30 as Belisarius30 was delivered from his foreign and domestic enemies30, he seriously applied his forces to the final reduction of Italy. In the siege30 of Osimo, the general30 was nearly transpierced with an arrow, if the mortal stroke had not been intercepted by one of his guards, who lost, in that pious office, the use of his hand. The Goths of Osimo, four thousand30 warriors, with those of Faesulae and the Cottian Alps, were among the last who maintained their independence; and their gallant resistance, which almost tired the patience, deserved the esteem, of the conqueror. His prudence refused to subscribe the safe-conduct which they asked, to join their brethren of Ravenna; but they saved, by an honourable capitulation, one moiety at least of their wealth, with the free alternative of retiring peaceably to their estates, or enlisting to serve the emperor30 in his Persian wars. The multitudes which yet adhered to the standard30 of Vitiges far surpassed the number of the Roman30 troops30; but neither prayers, nor defiance, nor the extreme danger of his most faithful subjects could tempt the Gothic king30 beyond the fortifications of Ravenna. These fortifications were indeed impregnable to the assaults of art or violence; and, when Belisarius30 invested the capital, he was soon30 convinced that famine only could tame the stubborn spirit of the Barbarians. The sea, the land, and the channels of the Po were guarded by the vigilance of the Roman30 general30; and his morality extended the rights of war30 to the practice of poisoning the waters, and secretly firing the granaries, of a besieged city30. While he pressed the blockade of Ravenna, he was surprised by the arrival of two ambassadors from Constantinople30, with a treaty of peace which Justinian30 had imprudently signed without deigning to consult the author of his victory30. By this disgraceful and precarious agreement, Italy and the Gothic treasury were divided, and the provinces beyond the Po were left30 with the regal title to the successor of Theodoric. The ambassadors were eager to accomplish their salutary commission; the captive Vitiges accepted, with transport, the unexpected offer of a crown; honour was less prevalent among the Goths than the want and appetite of food; and the Roman30 chiefs, who murmured at the continuance of the war30, professed implicit submission to the commands of the emperor30. If Belisarius30 had possessed only the courage of a soldier, the laurel would have been snatched from his hand by timid and envious counsels; but, in this decisive moment, he resolved, with the magnanimity of a statesman, to sustain alone the danger and merit of generous disobedience. Each of his officers gave a written opinion that the siege30 of Ravenna was impracticable and hopeless: the general30 then rejected the treaty of partition, and declared his own resolution of leading Vitiges in chains to the feet of Justinian30. The Goths retired with doubt and dismay; this peremptory refusal deprived them of the only signature which they could trust, and filled their minds with a just apprehension that a sagacious enemy30 had discovered the full extent of their deplorable state. They compared the fame and fortune of Belisarius30 with the weakness of their ill-fated king30; and the comparison suggested an extraordinary project, to which Vitiges, with apparent resignation, was compelled to acquiesce. Partition would ruin the strength, exile would disgrace the honour, of the nation; but they offered their arms30, their treasures, and the fortifications of Ravenna, if Belisarius30 would disclaim the authority of a master, accept the choice of the Goths, and assume, as he had deserved, the kingdom of Italy. If the false lustre of a diadem could have tempted the loyalty of a faithful subject, his prudence must have foreseen the inconstancy of the Barbarians, and his rational ambition would prefer the safe and honourable station of a Roman30 general30. Even the patience and seeming satisfaction with which he entertained a proposal of treason might be susceptible of a malignant interpretation. But the lieutenant of Justinian30 was conscious of his own rectitude; he entered into a dark and crooked path, as it might lead to the voluntary submission of the Goths; and his dexterous policy persuaded them that he was disposed to comply with their wishes, without engaging an oath or a promise for the performance of a treaty which he secretly abhorred. The day30 of the surrender of Ravenna was stipulated by the Gothic ambassadors; a fleet, laden with provisions, sailed as a welcome guest into the deepest recess of the harbour; the gates were opened to the fancied king30 of Italy; and Belisarius30, without meeting an enemy30, triumphantly marched through the streets of an impregnable city30. The Romans were astonished by their success; the multitude of tall and robust Barbarians were confounded by the image of their own patience; and the masculine females, spitting in the faces of their sons and husbands, most bitterly reproached them for betraying their dominion and freedom to these pygmies of the South, contemptible in their numbers, diminutive in their stature. Before the Goths could recover from the first surprise and claim the accomplishment of their doubtful hopes, the victor established his power in Ravenna, beyond the danger of repentance and revolt. Vitiges, who perhaps had attempted to escape, was honourably guarded in his palace30; the flower of the Gothic youth was selected for the service30 of the emperor30; the remainder of the people30 was dismissed to their peaceful habitations in the southern provinces; and a colony of Italians was invited to replenish the depopulated city30. The submission of the capital was imitated in the towns and villages of Italy, which had not been subdued, or even visited, by the Romans; and the independent Goths who remained in arms30 at Pavia and Verona were ambitious only to become the subjects of Belisarius30. But his inflexible loyalty rejected, except as the substitute of Justinian30, their oaths of allegiance; and he was not offended by the reproach of their deputies, that he rather chose to be a slave than a king30.
After the second30 victory30 of Belisarius30, envy again whispered, Justinian30 listened, and the hero was recalled. The remnant of the Gothic war30 was no longer worthy of his presence; a gracious sovereign was impatient to reward his services, and to consult his wisdom; and he alone was capable of defending the East against the innumerable armies of Persia. Belisarius30 understood the suspicion, accepted the excuse, embarked at Ravenna his spoils and trophies; and proved, by his ready obedience, that such an abrupt removal from the government of Italy was not less unjust than it might have been indiscreet. The emperor30 received, with honourable courtesy, both Vitiges and his more noble consort; and, as the king30 of the Goths conformed to the Athanasian faith, he obtained, with a rich inheritance of lands in Asia, the rank of senator and patrician. Every spectator admired, without peril, the strength and stature of the young Barbarians; they adored the majesty of the throne, and promised to shed their blood in the service30 of their benefactor. Justinian30 deposited in the Byzantine30 palace30 the treasures of the Gothic monarchy. A flattering senate was sometimes admitted to gaze on the magnificent spectacle; but it was enviously secluded from the public view; and the conqueror of Italy renounced, without a murmur, perhaps without a sigh, the well-earned honours of a second30 triumph. His glory was indeed exalted above all external pomp; and the faint and hollow praises of the court were supplied, even in a servile age, by the respect and admiration of his country. Whenever he appeared in the streets and public places of Constantinople30, Belisarius30 attracted and satisfied the eyes of the people30. His lofty stature and majestic countenance fulfilled their expectations of an hero; the meanest of his fellow-citizens were emboldened by his gentle and gracious demeanour; and the martial train which attended his footsteps left30 his person more accessible than in a day30 of battle30. Seven thousand30 horsemen, matchless for beauty and valour, were maintained in the service30, and at the private expense, of the general30. Their prowess was always conspicuous in single combats, or in the foremost ranks; and both parties confessed that in the siege30 of Rome the guards of Belisarius30 had alone vanquished the Barbarian host. Their numbers were continually augmented by the bravest and most faithful of the enemy30; and his fortunate captives, the Vandals, the Moors, and the Goths, emulated the attachment of his domestic followers. By the union of liberality and justice, he acquired the love of the soldiers30, without alienating the affections of the people30. The sick and wounded were relieved with medicines and money; and, still more efficaciously, by the healing visits and smiles of their commander. The loss of a weapon or a horse30 was instantly repaired, and each deed of valour was rewarded by the rich and honourable gifts of a bracelet or a collar, which were rendered more precious by the judgment of Belisarius30. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the peace and plenty which they enjoyed under the shadow of his standard30. Instead of being injured, the country was enriched, by the march of the Roman30 armies; and such was the rigid discipline of their camp30 that not an apple was gathered from the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields of corn. Belisarius30 was chaste and sober. In the licence of a military life, none could boast that they had seen him intoxicated with wine; the most beautiful captives of Gothic or Vandal race were offered to his embraces; but he turned aside from their charms, and the husband of Antonina was never suspected of violating the laws of conjugal fidelity. The spectator and historian of his exploits has observed that, amidst the perils of war30, he was daring without rashness, prudent without fear, slow or rapid according to the exigencies of the moment; that in the deepest distress, he was animated by real or apparent hope; but that he was modest and humble in the most prosperous fortune. By these virtues he equalled, or excelled, the ancient masters of the military art. Victory30, by sea and land, attended his arms30. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands; led away captives the successors of Genseric and Theodoric; filled Constantinople30 with the spoils of their palaces; and in the space of six years30 recovered half the provinces of the Western empire30. In his fame and merit, in wealth and power, he remained without a rival, the first of the Roman30 subjects; the voice of envy could only magnify his dangerous importance; and the emperor30 might applaud his own discerning spirit which had discovered and raised the genius of Belisarius30.
It was the custom of the Roman47 triumphs that a slave should be placed behind the chariot to remind the conqueror of the instability of fortune and the infirmities of human nature. Procopius, in his Anecdotes, has assumed that servile and ungrateful office. The generous reader may cast away the libel, but the evidence of facts will adhere to his memory; and he will reluctantly confess that the fame, and even the virtue, of Belisarius were polluted by the lust and cruelty of his wife; and that the hero deserved an appellation which may not drop from the pen of the decent historian. The mother of Antonina was a theatrical prostitute, and both her father47 and grandfather exercised at Thessalonica and Constantinople the vile, though lucrative, profession of charioteers. In the various situations of their fortune, she became the companion, the enemy, the servant, and the favourite of the empress Theodora: these loose and ambitious females had been connected by similar pleasures; they were separated by the jealousy of vice, and at length reconciled by the partnership of guilt. Before her marriage with Belisarius, Antonina had one husband and many lovers; Photius, the son47 of her former nuptials, was of an age47 to distinguish himself at the siege of Naples; and it was not till the autumn of her age47 and beauty that she indulged a scandalous attachment to a Thracian youth. Theodosius47 had been educated in the Eunomian heresy; the African voyage was consecrated by the baptism and auspicious name of the first soldier who embarked; and the proselyte was adopted into the family of his spiritual parents, Belisarius and Antonina. Before they touched the shores of Africa, this holy kindred degenerated into sensual love; and, as Antonina soon47 overleaped the bounds of modesty and caution, the Roman47 general47 was alone ignorant of his own dishonour. During their residence at Carthage, he surprised the two lovers in a subterraneous chamber, solitary, warm, and almost naked. Anger flashed from his eyes. With the help of this young man, said the unblushing Antonina, I was secreting our most precious effects from the knowledge of Justinian. The youth resumed his garments, and the pious husband consented to disbelieve the evidence of his own senses. From this pleasing and perhaps voluntary elusion Belisarius was awakened at Syracuse, by the officious information of Macedonia; and that female attendant, after requiring an oath for her security, produced two chamberlains, who, like herself, had often beheld the adulteries of Antonina. An hasty flight into Asia saved Theodosius47 from the justice47 of an injured husband, who had signified to one of his guards the order of his death47; but the tears of Antonina, and her artful seductions, assured the credulous hero of her innocence; and he stooped, against his faith and judgment, to abandon those imprudent friends who had presumed to accuse or doubt the chastity of his wife. The revenge of a guilty woman is implacable and bloody: the unfortunate Macedonia, with the two witnesses, were secretly arrested by the minister of her cruelty; their tongues were cut out, their bodies were hacked into small pieces, and their remains were cast into the sea of Syracuse. A rash though judicious saying of Constantine47, I would sooner have punished the adulteress than the boy, was deeply remembered by Antonina; and two years afterwards, when despair had armed that officer against his general47, her sanguinary advice decided and hastened his execution. Even the indignation of Photius was not forgiven by his mother; the exile of her son47 prepared the recall of her lover; and Theodosius47 condescended to accept the pressing and humble invitation of the conqueror of Italy47. In the absolute direction of his household, and in the important commissions of peace and war47, the favourite youth most rapidly acquired a fortune of four hundred thousand pounds sterling; and, after their return to Constantinople, the passion of Antonina, at least, continued ardent and unabated. But fear, devotion, and lassitude perhaps, inspired Theodosius47 with more serious thoughts. He dreaded the busy scandal of the capital and the indiscreet fondness of the wife of Belisarius; escaped from her embraces, and, retiring to Ephesus, shaved his head and took refuge in the sanctuary of a monastic life47. The despair of the new Ariadne could scarcely have been excused by the death47 of her husband. She wept, she tore her hair, she filled the palace47 with her cries; she had lost the dearest of friends, a tender, a faithful, a laborious friend! But her warm entreaties, fortified by the prayers of Belisarius, were insufficient to draw the holy monk from the solitude of Ephesus. It was not till the general47 moved forward for the Persian war47, that Theodosius47 could be tempted to return to Constantinople; and the short interval before the departure of Antonina herself was boldly devoted to love and pleasure.
A philosopher may pity and forgive the infirmities of female nature, from which he receives no real injury; but contemptible is the husband who feels, and yet endures, his own infamy in that of his wife. Antonina pursued her son47 with implacable hatred; and the gallant Photius was exposed to her secret47 persecutions in the camp beyond the Tigris. Enraged by his own wrongs and by the dishonour of his blood, he cast away in his turn the sentiments of nature, and revealed to Belisarius the turpitude of a woman who had violated all the duties of a mother and a wife. From the surprise and indignation of the Roman47 general47, his former credulity appears to have been sincere: he embraced the knees of the son47 of Antonina, adjured him to remember his obligations rather than his birth, and confirmed at the altar their holy vows of revenge and mutual defence. The dominion of Antonina was impaired by absence; and, when she met her husband, on his return from the Persian confines, Belisarius, in his first and transient emotions, confined her person47 and threatened her life47. Photius was more resolved to punish, and less prompt to pardon: he flew to Ephesus; extorted from a trusty eunuch of his mother the full confession of her guilt; arrested Theodosius47 and his treasures in the church of St. John the Apostle; and concealed his captives, whose execution was only delayed, in a secure and sequestered fortress of Cilicia. Such a daring outrage against public47 justice47 could not pass with impunity; and the cause of Antonina was espoused by the empress, whose favour she had deserved by the recent services of the disgrace of a prefect47 and the exile and murder of a pope. At the end of the campaign, Belisarius was recalled; he complied, as usual, with the Imperial47 mandate. His mind was not prepared for rebellion; his obedience, however adverse to the dictates of honour, was consonant to the wishes of his heart; and, when he embraced his wife, at the command47, and perhaps in the presence, of the empress, the tender husband was disposed to forgive or to be forgiven. The bounty of Theodora reserved for her companion a more precious favour. I have found, she said, my dearest patrician, a pearl of inestimable value: it has not yet been viewed by any mortal eye; but the sight and the possession of this jewel are destined for my friend. As soon47 as the curiosity and impatience of Antonina were kindled, the door of a bed-chamber was thrown open, and she beheld her lover, whom the diligence of the eunuchs had discovered in his secret47 prison. Her silent wonder burst into passionate exclamations of gratitude and joy, and she named Theodora her queen, her benefactress, and her saviour. The monk of Ephesus was nourished in the palace47 with luxury and ambition; but, instead of assuming, as he was promised, the command47 of the Roman47 armies, Theodosius47 expired in the first fatigues of an amorous interview. The grief of Antonina could only be assuaged by the sufferings of her son47. A youth of consular rank47, and a sickly constitution, was punished, without a trial, like a malefactor and a slave; yet such was the constancy of his mind that Photius sustained the tortures of the scourge and the rack without violating the faith which he had sworn to Belisarius. After this fruitless cruelty, the son47 of Antonina, while his mother feasted with the empress, was buried in her subterraneous prisons, which admitted not the distinction of night and day. He twice escaped to the most venerable sanctuaries of Constantinople, the churches of St. Sophia and of the Virgin; but his tyrants were insensible of religion as of pity; and the helpless youth, amidst the clamours of the clergy and people47, was twice dragged from the altar to the dungeon. His third attempt was more successful. At the end of three years, the prophet Zachariah, or some mortal friend, indicated the means of an escape; he eluded the spies and guards of the empress, reached the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem, embraced the profession of a monk; and the abbot Photius was employed, after the death47 of Justinian, to reconcile and regulate the churches of Egypt. The son47 of Antonina suffered all that an enemy can inflict; her patient husband imposed on himself the more exquisite misery of violating his promise and deserting his friend.
In the succeeding campaign, Belisarius was again sent against the Persians: he saved the East47, but he offended Theodora, and perhaps the emperor47 himself. The malady of Justinian had countenanced the rumour of his death47; and the Roman47 general47, on the supposition of that probable event, spoke the free language of a citizen and a soldier. His colleague Buzes, who concurred in the same sentiments, lost his rank47, his liberty, and his health, by the persecution of the empress; but the disgrace of Belisarius was alleviated by the dignity of his own character, and the influence of his wife, who might wish to humble, but could not desire to ruin, the partner of her fortunes. Even his removal was coloured by the assurance that the sinking state of Italy47 would be retrieved by the single presence of its conqueror. But no sooner had he returned, alone and defenceless, than an hostile commission was sent to the East47, to seize his treasures and criminate his actions; the guards and veterans who followed his private47 banner were distributed among the chiefs of the army47, and even the eunuchs presumed to cast lots for the partition of his martial domestics. When he passed with a small and sordid retinue through the streets of Constantinople, his forlorn appearance excited the amazement and compassion of the people47. Justinian and Theodora received him with cold ingratitude; the servile crowd with insolence and contempt; and in the evening he retired with trembling steps to his deserted palace47. An indisposition, feigned or real, had confined Antonina to her apartment: and she walked disdainfully silent in the adjacent portico, while Belisarius threw himself on his bed, and expected, in an agony of grief and terror, the death47 which he had so often braved under the walls of Rome47. Long47 after sun-set a messenger was announced from the empress; he opened, with anxious curiosity, the letter which contained the sentence of his fate. You cannot be ignorant how much you have deserved my displeasure. I am not insensible of the services of Antonina. To her merits and intercession I have granted your life47, and permit you to retain a part of your treasures, which might be justly forfeited to the state. Let your gratitude, where it is due, be displayed, not in words, but in your future behaviour. I know not how to believe or to relate the transports with which the hero is said to have received this ignominious pardon. He fell prostrate before his wife; he kissed the feet of his saviour; and he devoutly promised to live the grateful and submissive slave of Antonina. A fine of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling was levied on the fortunes of Belisarius; and with the office of count, or master47 of the royal stables, he accepted the conduct47 of the Italian war47. At his departure from Constantinople, his friends, and even the public47, were persuaded that, as soon47 as he regained his freedom, he would renounce his dissimulation, and that his wife, Theodora, and perhaps the emperor47 himself, would be sacrificed to the just revenge of a virtuous rebel. Their hopes were deceived; and the unconquerable patience and loyalty of Belisarius appear either below or above the character of a man.
Our estimate of personal merit is relative to the common faculties of mankind. The aspiring efforts of genius or virtue, either in active or speculative life, are measured not so much by their real elevation as by the height to which they ascend above the level of their age or country; and the same stature, which in a people30 of giants would pass unnoticed, must appear conspicuous in a race of pygmies. Leonidas and his three hundred companions devoted their lives at Thermopylae; but the education of the infant, the boy, and the man had prepared, and almost ensured, this memorable sacrifice; and each Spartan would approve, rather than admire, an act of duty of which himself and eight thousand30 of his fellow-citizens were equally capable. The great Pompey might inscribe on his trophies, that he had defeated in battle30 two millions of enemies30 and reduced fifteen hundred cities from the lake Maeotis to the Red Sea; but the fortune of Rome flew before his eagles; the nations were oppressed by their own fears; and the invincible legions which he commanded had been formed by the habits of conquest and the discipline of ages. In this view, the character of Belisarius30 may be deservedly placed above the heroes of the ancient republics. His imperfections flowed from the contagion of the times; his virtues were his own, the free gift of nature or reflection; he raised himself without a master or a rival; and so inadequate were the arms30 committed to his hand that his sole advantage was derived from the pride and presumption of his adversaries. Under his command, the subjects of Justinian30 often deserved to be called Romans; but the unwarlike appellation of Greeks30 was imposed as a term of reproach by the haughty Goths; who affected to blush that they must dispute the kingdom of Italy with a nation of tragedians, pantomimes, and pirates. The climate of Asia has indeed been found less congenial than that of Europe to military spirit; those populous countries were enervated by luxury, despotism, and superstition; and the monks were more expensive and more numerous than the soldiers30 of the East. The regular force of the empire30 had once amounted to six hundred and forty-five thousand30 men: it was reduced, in the time of Justinian30, to one hundred and fifty thousand30; and this number, large as it may seem, was thinly scattered over the sea and land; in Spain and Italy, in Africa and Egypt, on the banks of the Danube, the coast of the Euxine, and the frontiers of Persia. The citizen was exhausted, yet the soldier was unpaid; his poverty was mischievously soothed by the privilege of rapine and indolence; and the tardy payments were detained and intercepted by the fraud of those agents who usurp, without courage or danger, the emoluments of war30. Public and private distress recruited the armies of the state; but in the field, and still more in the presence of the enemy30, their numbers were always defective. The want of national spirit was supplied by the precarious faith and disorderly service30 of Barbarian mercenaries. Even military honour, which has often survived the loss of virtue and freedom, was almost totally extinct. The generals, who were multiplied beyond the example of former times, laboured only to prevent the success, or to sully the reputation, of their colleagues; and they had been taught by experience that, if merit sometimes provoked the jealousy, error or even guilt would obtain the indulgence, of a gracious emperor30. In such an age the triumphs of Belisarius30, and afterwards of Narses, shine with incomparable lustre; but they are encompassed with the darkest shades of disgrace and calamity. While the lieutenant of Justinian30 subdued the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals, the emperor30, timid though ambitious, balanced the forces of the Barbarians, fomented their divisions by flattery and falsehood, and invited by his patience and liberality the repetition of injuries. The keys of Carthage, Rome, and Ravenna were presented to their conqueror, while Antioch was destroyed by the Persians and Justinian30 trembled for the safety of Constantinople30.
Even the Gothic victories of Belisarius were prejudicial to the state, since they abolished the important3 barrier of the Upper Danube, which had been so faithfully guarded by Theodoric and his daughter. For the defence of Italy, the Goths evacuated Pannonia and Noricum, which they left in a peaceful and flourishing condition; the sovereignty was claimed by the emperor3 of the Romans3; the actual possession was abandoned to the boldness of the first invader. On the opposite banks of the Danube, the plains of Upper Hungary and the Transylvanian hills were possessed, since the death3 of Attila, by the tribes of the Gepidae, who respected the Gothic arms3, and despised, not indeed the gold of the Romans3, but the secret motive of their annual subsidies. The vacant fortifications of the river were instantly occupied by these Barbarians3; their standards were planted on the walls of Sirmium and Belgrade; and the ironical tone of their apology aggravated this insult on the majesty of the empire3. So extensive, O Caesar, are your dominions, so numerous are your cities, that you are continually seeking for nations to whom, either in peace3 or war3, you may relinquish these useless possessions. The Gepidae are your brave and faithful allies; and, if they have anticipated your gifts, they have shewn a just confidence in your bounty. Their presumption was excused by the mode of revenge which Justinian embraced. Instead of asserting the rights of a sovereign for the protection of his subjects, the emperor3 invited a strange people to invade and possess the Roman3 provinces3 between the Danube and the Alps; and the ambition of the Gepidae was checked by the rising power and fame of the Lombards. This corrupt appellation has been diffused in the thirteenth century by the merchants and bankers, the Italian posterity of these savage warriors; but the original name of Langobards is expressive only of the peculiar length and fashion of their beards. I am not disposed either to question or to justify their Scandinavian origin; nor to pursue the migrations of the Lombards through unknown regions and marvellous adventures. About the time of Augustus and Trajan, a ray of historic light breaks on the darkness of their antiquities, and they are discovered, for the first time, between the Elbe and the Oder. Fierce beyond the example of the Germans, they delighted to propagate the tremendous belief that their heads were formed like the heads of dogs and that they drank the blood of their enemies whom they vanquished in battle. The smallness of their numbers was recruited by the adoption of their bravest slaves; and alone, amidst their powerful neighbours, they defended by arms3 their high-spirited independence. In the tempests of the North, which overwhelmed so many names and nations, this little bark of the Lombards still floated on the surface; they gradually descended towards the south and the Danube; and at the end of four hundred years3 they again appear with their ancient valour3 and renown. Their manners were not less ferocious. The assassination of a royal3 guest was executed in the presence, and by the command, of the king3's daughter, who had been provoked by some words of insult and disappointed by his diminutive stature; and a tribute, the price of blood, was imposed on the Lombards, by his brother the king3 of the Heruli. Adversity revived a sense of moderation and justice, and the insolence of conquest was chastised by the signal defeat and irreparable dispersion of the Heruli, who were seated in the southern provinces3 of Poland. The victories of the Lombards recommended them to the friendship3 of the emperors; and, at the solicitation of Justinian, they passed the Danube, to reduce, according to their treaty3, the cities of Noricum and the fortresses of Pannonia. But the spirit of rapine soon3 tempted them beyond these ample limits; they wandered along the coast of the Hadriatic as far as Dyrrachium, and presumed, with familiar rudeness, to enter the towns and houses of their Roman3 allies and to seize the captives who had escaped from their audacious hands. These acts of hostility, the sallies, as it might be pretended, of some loose adventurers, were disowned by the nation and excused by the emperor3; but the arms3 of the Lombards were more seriously engaged by a contest of thirty years3, which was terminated only by the extirpation of the Gepidae. The hostile nations often pleaded their cause before the throne3 of Constantinople; and the crafty Justinian, to whom the Barbarians3 were almost equally odious, pronounced a partial and ambiguous sentence, and dexterously protracted the war3 by slow and ineffectual succours. Their strength was formidable, since the Lombards, who sent into the field several myriads of soldiers, still claimed, as the weaker side, the protection of the Romans3. Their spirit was intrepid; yet such is the uncertainty of courage that the two armies were suddenly struck with a panic; they fled from each other, and the rival kings remained with their guards in the midst of an empty plain. A short truce was obtained; but their mutual resentment again kindled; and the remembrance of their shame rendered the next encounter more desperate and bloody. Forty thousand3 of the Barbarians3 perished in the decisive battle, which broke the power of the Gepidae, transferred the fears and wishes of Justinian, and first displayed the character of Alboin, the youthful prince3 of the Lombards, and the future conqueror of Italy.
The wild people10 who dwelt or wandered in the plains of Russia, Lithuania, and Poland might be reduced10, in the age10 of Justinian, under the two great families of the Bulgarians and the Sclavonians10. According10 to the Greek writers, the former, who touched the Euxine and the lake Maeotis, derived from the Huns their name or descent; and it is needless to renew the simple and well-known picture of Tartar manners10. They were bold and dexterous archers, who drank the milk and feasted on the flesh of their fleet and indefatigable horses10; whose flocks and herds followed, or rather guided, the motions of their roving camps10; to whose inroads no country was remote or impervious, and who were practised in flight, though incapable of fear. The nation10 was divided into two powerful and hostile tribes, who pursued each other with fraternal hatred. They eagerly disputed the friendship or rather the gifts of the emperor; and the distinction10 which nature had fixed between the faithful dog and the rapacious wolf was applied by an ambassador who received only verbal instructions from the mouth of his illiterate prince. The Bulgarians, of whatsoever species, were equally10 attracted by Roman10 wealth: they assumed a vague dominion over the Sclavonian name, and their rapid marches could only be stopped by the Baltic sea or the extreme cold and poverty of the North. But the same race of Sclavonians10 appears to have maintained, in every age10, the possession of the same countries. Their numerous10 tribes, however distant or adverse, used one common language (it was harsh and irregular), and were known by the resemblance of their form, which deviated from the swarthy Tartar, and approached without attaining the lofty stature and fair complexion of the German. Four thousand six hundred villages were scattered over the provinces of Russia and Poland, and their huts were hastily built of rough timber, in a country deficient both in stone and iron. Erected, or rather concealed, in the depth of forests, on the banks of rivers10, or the edge of morasses, we may not perhaps, without flattery, compare them to the architecture of the beaver; which they resembled in a double issue, to the land and water10, for the escape of the savage inhabitant, an animal less cleanly, less diligent, and less social than that marvellous quadruped. The fertility of the soil, rather than the labour of the natives, supplied the rustic plenty of the Sclavonians10. Their sheep10 and horned cattle were large and numerous10, and the fields which they sowed with millet and panic afforded, in the place of bread, a coarse10 and less nutritive food. The incessant rapine of their neighbours compelled them to bury this treasure in the earth; but on the appearance of a stranger, it was freely imparted by a people10 whose unfavourable character10 is qualified by the epithets of chaste, patient, and hospitable. As their supreme God10, they adored an invisible master of the thunder. The rivers10 and the nymphs obtained their subordinate honours, and the popular worship was expressed in vows and sacrifice. The Sclavonians10 disdained to obey a despot, a prince, or even a magistrate; but their experience was too narrow10, their passions too headstrong, to compose a system of equal law10 or general defence10. Some voluntary respect was yielded to age10 and valour; but each tribe or village existed as a separate republic, and all must be persuaded where none could be compelled. They fought on foot, almost naked, and, except an unwieldy shield, without any defensive armour10; their weapons10 of offence were a bow10, a quiver of small poisoned arrows, and a long rope, which they dexterously threw from a distance, and entangled their enemy in a running noose. In the field, the Sclavonian infantry was dangerous by their speed, agility, and hardiness; they swam, they dived, they remained under water10, drawing their breath through a hollow cane; and a river or lake was often the scene of their unsuspected ambuscade. But these were the achievements of spies or stragglers; the military10 art was unknown to the Sclavonians10; their name was obscure, and their conquests were inglorious.
I have marked the faint and general17 outline of the Sclavonians and Bulgarians, without attempting to define their intermediate boundaries, which were not accurately known or respected by the Barbarians17 themselves. Their importance was measured by their vicinity to the empire; and the level country of Moldavia and Walachia was occupied by the Antes, a Sclavonian tribe, which swelled the titles of Justinian17 with an epithet of conquest. Against the Antes he erected the fortifications17 of the Lower Danube17; and laboured to secure the alliance of a people17 seated in the direct channel of Northern inundation, an interval of two hundred miles between the mountains of Transylvania and the Euxine sea. But the Antes wanted power and inclination to stem the fury of the torrent; and the light-armed Sclavonians, from an hundred tribes, pursued, with almost equal speed, the footsteps of the Bulgarian horse. The payment of one piece of gold for each soldier procured a safe and easy retreat through the country of the Gepidae, who commanded the passage of the Upper Danube17. The hopes or fears of the Barbarians17; their intestine union or discord; the accident of a frozen or shallow stream; the prospect of harvest or vintage; the prosperity or distress of the Romans17; were the causes which produced the uniform repetition of annual visits, tedious in the narrative and destructive in the event. The same year, and possibly the same month, in which Ravenna17 surrendered, was marked by an invasion of the Huns or Bulgarians, so dreadful that it almost effaced the memory of their past inroads. They spread from the suburbs of Constantinople to the Ionian gulf, destroyed thirty-two cities or castles, erased Potidaea, which Athens had built and Philip had besieged, and repassed the Danube17, dragging at their horses' heels one hundred and twenty thousand17 of the subjects17 of Justinian17. In a subsequent inroad they pierced the wall of the Thracian Chersonesus, extirpated the habitations and the inhabitants17, boldly traversed the Hellespont, and returned to their companions, laden with the spoils of Asia. Another party, which seemed a multitude in the eyes of the Romans17, penetrated, without opposition, from the straits of Thermopylae to the isthmus of Corinth; and the last ruin of Greece has appeared an object too minute for the attention of history. The works which the emperor raised for the protection, but at the expense of his subjects17, served only to disclose the weakness of some neglected part; and the walls, which by flattery had been deemed impregnable, were either deserted by the garrison or scaled by the Barbarians17. Three thousand17 Sclavonians, who insolently divided themselves into two bands, discovered the weakness and misery of a triumphant reign. They passed17 the Danube17 and the Hebrus, vanquished the Roman17 generals who dared to oppose their progress, and plundered with impunity the cities of Illyricum and Thrace, each of which had arms17 and numbers to overwhelm their contemptible assailants. Whatever praise the boldness of the Sclavonians may deserve, it is sullied by the wanton and deliberate cruelty which they are accused of exercising on their prisoners. Without distinction of rank, or age, or sex, the captives were impaled, or flayed alive, or suspended between four posts and beaten with clubs till they expired, or enclosed in some spacious building and left to perish in the flames with the spoil and cattle17 which might impede the march of these savage victors. Perhaps a more impartial narrative would reduce the number, and qualify the nature, of these horrid acts; and they might sometimes be excused by the cruel laws of retaliation. In the siege of Topirus, whose obstinate defence had enraged the Sclavonians, they massacred fifteen thousand17 males; but they spared the women and children; the most valuable captives were always reserved for labour or ransom; the servitude was not rigorous, and the terms of their deliverance were speedy and moderate. But the subject or the historian of Justinian17 exhaled his just indignation in the language of complaint and reproach; and Procopius has confidently affirmed that in a reign of thirty-two years each annual inroad of the Barbarians17 consumed two hundred thousand17 of the inhabitants17 of the Roman17 empire. The entire population of Turkish Europe, which nearly corresponds with the provinces of Justinian17, would perhaps be incapable of supplying six millions of persons, the result of this incredible estimate.
In the midst of these obscure calamities, Europe9 felt the shock of a revolution, which first revealed to the world the name and nation9 of the Turks. Like Romulus, the founder of that martial people was suckled by a she-wolf, who afterwards made him the father of a numerous progeny; and the representation of that animal in the banners of the Turks preserved the memory, or rather suggested the idea, of a fable, which was invented, without any mutual intercourse, by the shepherds of Latium and those of Scythia. At the equal distance of two thousand9 miles9 from the Caspian, the Icy, the Chinese, and the Bengal seas, a ridge of mountains9 is conspicuous, the centre and perhaps the summit of Asia9; which, in the language of different nations9, has been styled Imaus, and Caf, and Altai, and the Golden Mountains9, and the Girdle of the Earth. The sides of the hills were productive of minerals; and the iron forges, for the purpose of war9, were exercised by the Turks, the most despised portion of the slaves of the great9 khan of the Geougen. But their servitude could only last till a leader, bold and eloquent, should arise, to persuade his countrymen that the same arms9 which they forged for their masters might become, in their own hands, the instruments of freedom and victory. They sallied from the mountain; a sceptre was the reward of his advice; and the annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire and a smith's hammer was successively handled by the prince and his nobles, recorded for ages the humble profession and rational pride of the Turkish nation9. Bertezena, their first leader, signalised their valour9 and his own in successful combats against the neighbouring tribes9; but, when he presumed to ask in marriage the daughter of the great9 khan, the insolent demand of a slave and a mechanic was contemptuously rejected. The disgrace was expiated by a more noble alliance with a princess of China; and the decisive battle, which almost extirpated the nation9 of Geougen, established in Tartary the new9 and more powerful empire9 of the Turks. They reigned over the north9; but they confessed the vanity of conquest9 by their faithful attachment to the mountain of their fathers. The royal encampment seldom lost sight of Mount Altai, from whence the river9 Irtish descends to water the rich pastures of the Calmucks, which nourish the largest sheep and oxen in the world. The soil is fruitful, and the climate mild and temperate; the happy region was ignorant of earthquake and pestilence; the emperor's throne was turned towards the east, and a golden wolf, on the top of a spear, seemed to guard the entrance of his tent. One of the successors of Bertezena was tempted by the luxury and superstition of China; but his design of building cities9 and temples was defeated by the simple wisdom of a Barbarian counsellor. The Turks, he said, are not equal in number to one hundredth part of the inhabitants9 of China. If we balance their power and elude their armies, it is because we wander without any fixed habitations, in the exercise of war9 and hunting. Are we strong? we advance and conquer: are we feeble? we retire and are concealed. Should the Turks confine themselves within the walls9 of cities9, the loss of a battle would be the destruction of their empire9. The Bonzes preach only patience, humility, and the renunciation of the world. Such, O king! is not the religion of heroes. They entertained with less reluctance the doctrines of Zoroaster; but the greatest part of the nation9 acquiesced, without inquiry, in the opinions, or rather in the practice, of their ancestors. The honours of sacrifice were reserved for the supreme deity; they acknowledged, in rude hymns, their obligations to the air, the fire, the water, and the earth; and their priests derived some profit from the art of divination. Their unwritten laws were rigorous and impartial: theft was punished by a tenfold restitution; adultery, treason, and murder, with death; and no chastisement could be inflicted too severe for the rare and inexpiable guilt of cowardice. As the subject nations9 marched under the standard of the Turks, their cavalry, both men9 and horses, were proudly computed by millions; one of their effective armies consisted of four hundred thousand9 soldiers, and in less than fifty years they were connected in peace and war9 with the Romans9, the Persians, and the Chinese. In their northern limits, some vestige may be discovered of the form and situation of Kamtchatka, of a people of hunters and fishermen, whose sledges were drawn by dogs, and whose habitations were buried in the earth. The Turks were ignorant of astronomy; but the observation taken by some learned Chinese, with a gnomon of eight feet, fixes the royal camp9 in the latitude of forty-nine degrees, and marks their extreme progress within three, or at least ten, degrees of the polar circle. Among their southern conquests, the most splendid was that of the Nephtalites or white Huns9, a polite and war9-like people, who possessed the commercial cities9 of Bochara and Samarcand, who had vanquished the Persian monarch, and carried their victorious arms9 along the banks9, and perhaps to the mouth, of the Indus. On the side of the west9, the Turkish cavalry advanced to the lake Maeotis. They passed that lake on the ice. The khan, who dwelt at the foot of Mount Altai, issued his commands for the siege of Bosphorus, a city9, the voluntary subject of Rome9, and whose princes had formerly been the friends of Athens. To the east, the Turks invaded China, as often as the vigour of the government was relaxed; and I am taught to read in the history of the times, that they mowed down their patient enemies like hemp or grass; and that the mandarins applauded the wisdom of an emperor who repulsed these Barbarians9 with golden lances. This extent of savage empire9 compelled the Turkish monarch to establish three subordinate princes of his own blood, who soon9 forgot their gratitude and allegiance. The conquerors were enervated by luxury, which is always fatal except to an industrious people; the policy of China solicited the vanquished nations9 to resume their independence; and the power of the Turks was limited to a period of two hundred years. The revival of their name and dominion in the southern countries of Asia9 are the events of a later age; and the dynasties which succeeded to their native realms may sleep in oblivion, since their history bears no relation to the decline and fall of the Roman9 empire9.
In the rapid career of conquest, the Turks30 attacked and subdued the nation of the Ogors, or Varchonites, on the banks of the river Til, which derived the epithet of black from its dark water or gloomy forests. The khan of the Ogors was slain with three hundred thousand30 of his subjects, and their bodies were scattered over the space of four days30' journey: their surviving countrymen acknowledged the strength and mercy of the Turks30; and a small portion, about twenty thousand30 warriors, preferred exile to servitude. They followed the well-known road of the Volga, cherished the error of the nations who confounded them with the Avars, and spread the terror of that false though famous appellation, which had not, however, saved its lawful proprietors from the yoke of the Turks30. After a long30 and victorious march, the new30 Avars arrived at the foot of Mount Caucasus, in the country of the Alani and Circassians, where they first heard of the splendour and weakness of the Roman30 empire30. They humbly requested their confederate, the prince30 of the Alani, to lead them to this source of riches; and their ambassador, with the permission of the governor of Lazica, was transported by the Euxine sea to Constantinople30. The whole city30 was poured forth to behold with curiosity and terror the aspect of a strange people30: their long30 hair, which hung in tresses down their backs, was gracefully bound with ribbons, but the rest of their habit appeared to imitate the fashion of the Huns. When they were admitted to the audience of Justinian30, Candish, the first of the ambassadors, addressed the Roman30 emperor30 in these terms: You see before you, O mighty prince30, the representatives of the strongest and most populous of nations, the invincible, the irresistible Avars. We are willing to devote ourselves to your service30: we are able to vanquish and destroy all the enemies30 who now disturb your repose. But we expect, as the price of our alliance, as the reward of our valour, precious gifts, annual subsidies, and fruitful possessions. At the time of this embassy Justinian30 had reigned above thirty, he had lived above seventy-five, years30; his mind, as well as his body, was feeble and languid; and the conqueror of Africa and Italy, careless of the permanent interest of his people30, aspired only to end his days30 in the bosom even of inglorious peace. In a studied oration he imparted to the senate his resolution to dissemble the insult, and to purchase the friendship, of the Avars; and the whole senate, like the mandarins of China, applauded the incomparable wisdom and foresight of their sovereign. The instruments of luxury were immediately prepared to captivate the Barbarians: silken garments, soft and splendid beds, and chains and collars incrusted with gold30. The ambassadors, content with such liberal reception, departed from Constantinople30, and Valentin, one of the emperor30's guards, was sent with a similar character to their camp30 at the foot of Mount Caucasus. As their destruction or their success must be alike advantageous to the empire30, he persuaded them to invade the enemies30 of Rome; and they were easily tempted, by gifts and promises, to gratify their ruling inclinations. These fugitives who fled before the Turkish30 arms30 passed the Tanais and Borysthenes, and boldly advanced into the heart of Poland and Germany, violating the law of nations and abusing the rights of victory30. Before ten years30 had elapsed, their camps were seated on the Danube and the Elbe, many Bulgarian and Sclavonian names were obliterated from the earth, and the remainder of their tribes are found as tributaries and vassals under the standard30 of the Avars. The chagan, the peculiar title of their king30, still affected to cultivate the friendship of the emperor30; and Justinian30 entertained some thoughts of fixing them in Pannonia to balance the prevailing power of the Lombards. But the virtue or treachery of an Avar betrayed the secret enmity and ambitious designs of their countrymen; and they loudly complained of the timid though jealous policy of detaining their ambassadors, and denying the arms30 which they had been allowed to purchase in the capital of the empire30.
Perhaps the apparent change in the dispositions of the emperors may be ascribed to the embassy which was received from the conquerors of the Avars. The immense distance which eluded their arms30 could not extinguish their resentment: the Turkish30 ambassadors pursued the footsteps of the vanquished to the Jaik, the Volga, Mount Caucasus, the Euxine, and Constantinople30, and at length appeared before the successor of Constantine, to request that he would not espouse the cause of rebels and fugitives. Even commerce had some share in this remarkable negotiation; and the Sogdoites, who were now the tributaries of the Turks30, embraced the fair occasion of opening, by the north of the Caspian, a new30 road for the importation of Chinese silk into the Roman30 empire30. The Persian, who preferred the navigation of Ceylon, had stopped the caravans of Bochara and Samarcand; their silk was contemptuously burnt; some Turkish30 ambassadors died in Persia, with a suspicion of poison; and the great khan permitted his faithful vassal Maniach, the prince30 of the Sogdoites, to propose, at the Byzantine30 court, a treaty of alliance against their common enemies30. Their splendid apparel and rich presents, the fruit of Oriental luxury, distinguished Maniach and his colleagues from the rude savages of the North; their letters, in the Scythian character and language, announced a people30 who had attained the rudiments of science; they enumerated the conquests, they offered the friendship and military aid, of the Turks30; and their sincerity was attested by direful imprecations (if they were guilty of falsehood) against their own head30 and the head30 of Disabul their master. The Greek30 prince30 entertained with hospitable regard the ambassadors of a remote and powerful monarch; the sight of silkworms and looms disappointed the hopes of the Sogdoites; the emperor30 renounced, or seemed to renounce, the fugitive Avars, but he accepted the alliance of the Turks30; and the ratification of the treaty was carried by a Roman30 minister to the foot of Mount Altai. Under the successors of Justinian30, the friendship of the two nations was cultivated by frequent and cordial intercourse; the most favoured vassals were permitted to imitate the example of the great khan, and one hundred and six Turks30, who, on various occasions, had visited Constantinople30, departed at the same time for their native country. The duration and length of the journey from the Byzantine30 court to Mount Altai are not specified: it might have been difficult to mark a road through the nameless deserts, the mountains, rivers, and morasses of Tartary; but a curious account has been preserved of the reception of the Roman30 ambassadors at the royal30 camp30. After they had been purified with fire and incense, according to a rite still practised under the sons of Zingis, they were introduced to the presence of Disabul. In a valley of the Golden Mountain, they found the great khan in his tent, seated in a chair with wheels, to which an horse30 might be occasionally harnessed. As soon30 as they had delivered their presents, which were received by the proper officers, they exposed, in a florid oration, the wishes of the Roman30 emperor30, that victory30 might attend the arms30 of the Turks30, that their reign might be long30 and prosperous, and that a strict alliance, without envy or deceit, might for ever be maintained between the two most powerful nations of the earth. The answer of Disabul corresponded with these friendly professions, and the ambassadors were seated by his side, at a banquet which lasted the greatest part of the day30; the tent was surrounded with silk hangings, and a Tartar liquor was served on the table, which possessed at least the intoxicating qualities of wine. The entertainment of the succeeding day30 was more sumptuous; the silk hangings of the second30 tent were embroidered in various figures; and the royal30 seat, the cups, and the vases were of gold30. A third pavilion was supported by columns of gilt wood; a bed of pure and massy gold30 was raised on four peacocks of the same metal; and, before the entrance of the tent, dishes, basons, and statues of solid silver, and admirable art, were ostentatiously piled in waggons, the monuments of valour rather than of industry. When Disabul led his armies against the frontiers of Persia, his Roman30 allies followed many days30 the march of the Turkish30 camp30, nor were they dissmissed until they had enjoyed their precedency over the envoy of the great king30, whose loud and intemperate clamours interrupted the silence of the royal30 banquet. The power and ambition of Chosroes cemented the union of the Turks30 and Romans, who touched his dominions on either side; but those distant nations, regardless of each other, consulted the dictates of interest, without recollecting the obligations of oaths and treaties. While the successor of Disabul celebrated his father's obsequies, he was saluted by the ambassadors of the emperor30 Tiberius, who proposed an invasion of Persia, and sustained with firmness the angry, and perhaps the just, reproaches of that haughty Barbarian. You see my ten fingers, said the great khan, and he applied them to his mouth. You Romans speak with as many tongues, but they are tongues of deceit and perjury. To me you hold one language, to my subjects another; and the nations are successively deluded by your perfidious eloquence. You precipitate your allies into war30 and danger, you enjoy their labours, and you neglect your benefactors. Hasten your return, inform your master that a Turk is incapable of uttering or forgiving falsehood, and that he shall speedily meet the punishment which he deserves. While he solicits my friendship with flattering and hollow words, he is sunk to a confederate of my fugitive Varchonites. If I condescend to march against those contemptible slaves, they will tremble at the sound of our whips; they will be trampled, like a nest of ants, under the feet of my innumerable cavalry. I am not ignorant of the road which they have followed to invade your empire30; nor can I be deceived by the vain pretence that Mount Caucasus is the impregnable barrier of the Romans. I know the course of the Dniester, the Danube, and the Hebrus; the most warlike nations have yielded to the arms30 of the Turks30; and, from the rising to the setting sun, the earth is my inheritance. Notwithstanding this menace, a sense of mutual advantage soon30 renewed the alliance of the Turks30 and Romans; but the pride of the great khan survived his resentment; and, when he announced an important conquest to his friend the emperor30 Maurice, he styled himself the master of the seven races, and the lord of the seven climates, of the world.
Disputes have often arisen between the sovereigns of Asia, for the title of king3 of the world; while the contest has proved that it could not belong to either of the competitors. The kingdom of the Turks was bounded by the Oxus or Gihon; and Touran was separated by that great3 river from the rival monarchy of Iran, or Persia3, which, in a smaller compass, contained perhaps a larger measure of power and population. The Persians3, who alternately invaded and repulsed the Turks and the Romans3, were still ruled by the house of Sassan, which ascended the throne3 three hundred years3 before the accession of Justinian. His contemporary, Cabades, or Kobad, had been successful in war3 against the emperor3 Anastasius; but the reign3 of that prince3 was distracted by civil and religious troubles. A prisoner in the hands of his subjects; an exile among the enemies of Persia3; he recovered his liberty by prostituting the honour of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the dangerous and mercenary aid of the Barbarians3 who had slain his father. His nobles were suspicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his expulsion, or even those of his restoration. The people was deluded and inflamed by the fanaticism of Mazdak, who asserted the community of women and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated the richest lands and most beautiful females to the use of his sectaries. The view of these disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example, embittered the declining age of the Persian3 monarch3; and his fears were increased by the consciousness of his design to reverse the natural and customary order of succession, in favour of his third and most favoured son3, so famous under the names of Chosroes3 and Nushirvan. To render the youth more illustrious in the eyes of the nations, Kobad was desirous that he should be adopted by the emperor3 Justin; the hope of peace3 inclined the Byzantine court3 to accept this singular proposal; and Chosroes3 might have acquired a specious claim to the inheritance of his Roman3 parent. But the future mischief was diverted by the advice of the quaestor Proclus: a difficulty was started, whether the adoption should be performed as a civil or military3 rite; the treaty3 was abruptly dissolved; and the sense of this indignity sunk deep into the mind of Chosroes3, who had already advanced to the Tigris3 on his road to Constantinople. His father did not long3 survive the disappointment of his wishes; the testament of their deceased sovereign was read in the assembly of the nobles; and a powerful faction, prepared for the event and regardless of the priority of age, exalted Chosroes3 to the throne3 of Persia3. He filled that throne3 during a prosperous period of forty-eight years3; and the justice of Nushirvan is celebrated as the theme of immortal praise by the nations of the East3.
But the justice47 of kings is understood by themselves, and even by their subjects, with an ample indulgence for the gratification of passion and interest. The virtue of Chosroes was that of a conqueror, who, in the measures of peace and war47, is excited by ambition and restrained by prudence; who confounds the greatness with the happiness of a nation, and calmly devotes the lives of thousands to the fame, or even the amusement, of a single man. In his domestic administration, the just Nushirvan would merit47, in our feelings, the appellation of a tyrant47. His two elder brothers had been deprived of their fair expectations of the diadem; their future life47, between the supreme rank47 and the condition of subjects, was anxious to themselves and formidable to their master47; fear as well as revenge might tempt them to rebel; the slightest evidence of a conspiracy satisfied the author of their wrongs; and the repose of Chosroes was secured by the death47 of these unhappy princes, with their families and adherents. One guiltless youth was saved and dismissed by the compassion of a veteran general47; and this act of humanity, which was revealed by his son47, overbalanced the merit47 of reducing twelve nations to the obedience of Persia. The zeal and prudence of Mebodes had fixed the diadem on the head of Chosroes himself; but he delayed to attend the royal summons, till he had performed the duties of a military47 review: he was instantly commanded to repair to the iron tripod, which stood before the gate of the palace47, where it was death47 to relieve or approach the victim; and Mebodes languished several days before his sentence was pronounced, by the inflexible pride and calm ingratitude of the son47 of Kobad. But the people47, more especially in the East47, is disposed to forgive, and even to applaud, the cruelty which strikes at the loftiest heads; at the slaves of ambition, whose voluntary choice has exposed them to live in the smiles, and to perish by the frown, of a capricious monarch. In the execution of the laws which he had no temptation to violate; in the punishment of crimes which attacked his own dignity, as well as the happiness of individuals; Nushirvan, or Chosroes, deserved the appellation of just. His government47 was firm, rigorous, and impartial. It was the first labour of his reign47 to abolish the dangerous theory of common or equal possessions; the lands and women which the sectaries of Mazdak had usurped were restored to their lawful owners; and the temperate chastisement of the fanatics or impostors confirmed the domestic rights of society. Instead of listening with blind confidence to a favourite minister, he established four viziers over the four great provinces47 of his empire47, Assyria, Media, Persia, and Bactriana. In the choice of judges, prefects, and counsellors, he strove to remove the mask which is always worn in the presence of kings; he wished to substitute the natural order of talents for the accidental distinctions of birth and fortune; he professed, in specious language, his intention to prefer those men who carried the poor in their bosoms, and to banish corruption from the seat of justice47, as dogs were excluded from the temples of the Magi. The code of laws of the first Artaxerxes was revived and published as the rule of the magistrates; but the assurance of speedy punishment was the best security of their virtue. Their behaviour was inspected by a thousand eyes, their words were overheard by a thousand ears, the secret47 or public47 agents of the throne47; and the provinces47, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were enlightened by the frequent visits of a sovereign47 who affected to emulate his celestial brother in his rapid and salutary career. Education and agriculture he viewed as the two objects most deserving of his care. In every city47 of Persia, orphans and the children of the poor were maintained and instructed at the public47 expense; the daughters were given in marriage to the richest citizens of their own rank47, and the sons, according to their different talents, were employed in mechanic trades or promoted to more honourable service. The deserted villages were relieved by his bounty; to the peasants and farmers who were found incapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed cattle, seed, and the instruments of husbandry; and the rare and inestimable treasure of fresh water was parsimoniously managed and skilfully dispersed over the arid territory of Persia. The prosperity of that kingdom was the effect and the evidence of his virtues; his vices are those of Oriental despotism; but in the long47 competition between Chosroes and Justinian the advantage both of merit47 and fortune is almost always on the side of the Barbarian.
To the praise of justice Nushirvan united the reputation of knowledge; and the seven Greek philosophers, who visited his court, were invited and deceived by the strange assurance that a disciple of Plato was seated on the Persian throne20. Did they expect that a prince20, strenuously exercised in the toils of war and government, should agitate, with dexterity like their own, the abstruse and profound question which amused the leisure of the schools of Athens? Could they hope that the precepts of philosophy should direct the life20, and control the passions, of a despot whose infancy had been taught to consider his absolute and fluctuating will as the only rule of moral obligation? The studies of Chosroes were ostentatious and superficial, but his example awakened the curiosity of an ingenious people20, and the light of science was diffused over the dominions of Persia. At Gondi Sapor, in the neighbourhood of the royal20 city20 of Susa, an academy of physic was founded, which insensibly became a liberal school of poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric. The annals of the monarchy were composed; and, while recent and authentic history might afford some useful lessons both to the prince20 and people20, the darkness of the first ages was embellished by the giants, the dragons, and the fabulous heroes of Oriental romance. Every learned or confident stranger was enriched by the bounty, and flattered by the conversation, of the monarch20: he nobly rewarded a Greek physician, by the deliverance of three thousand captives; and the sophists who contended for his favour, were exasperated by the wealth and insolence of Uranius, their more successful rival. Nushirvan believed, or at least respected, the religion of the Magi; and some traces of persecution may be discovered in his reign20. Yet he allowed himself freely to compare the tenets of the various sects; and the theological disputes in which he frequently presided diminished the authority of the priest and enlightened the minds of the people20. At his command, the most celebrated writers of Greece and India were translated into the Persian language20: a smooth and elegant idiom, recommended by Mahomet to the use of paradise though it is branded with the epithets of savage20 and unmusical by the ignorance and presumption of Agathias. Yet the Greek historian might reasonably wonder that it should be found possible to execute an entire version of Plato and Aristotle in a foreign dialect, which had not been framed to express the spirit20 of freedom and the subtleties of philosophic disquisition. And, if the reason20 of the Stagyrite might be equally dark or equally intelligible in every tongue, the dramatic art and verbal argumentation of the disciple of Socrates appear to be indissolubly mingled with the grace and perfection of his Attic style. In the search of universal knowledge, Nushirvan was informed that the moral and political fables of Pilpay, an ancient Brachman, were preserved with jealous reverence among the treasures of the kings of India. The physician Perozes was secretly despatched to the banks of the Ganges, with instructions to procure, at any price, the communication of this valuable work. His dexterity obtained a transcript, his learned diligence accomplished the translation; and the fables of Pilpay were read and admired in the assembly of Nushirvan and his nobles. The Indian original and the Persian copy have long20 since disappeared; but this venerable monument has been saved by the curiosity of the Arabian caliphs, revived in the modern Persic, the Turkish, the Syriac, the Hebrew, and the Greek idioms, and transfused through successive versions into the modern languages of Europe. In their present form the peculiar character, the manners and religion of the Hindoos, are completely obliterated; and the intrinsic merit of the fables of Pilpay is far inferior to the concise elegance of Phaedrus and the native graces of La Fontaine. Fifteen moral and political sentences are illustrated in a series of apologues; but the composition is intricate, the narrative prolix, and the precept obvious and barren. Yet the Brachman may assume the merit of inventing a pleasing fiction, which adorns the nakedness of truth, and alleviates, perhaps, to a royal20 ear the harshness of instruction. With a similar design to admonish kings that they are strong only in the strength of their subjects, the same Indians invented the game of chess, which was likewise introduced into Persia under the reign20 of Nushirvan.
The son3 of Kobad found his kingdom involved in a war3 with the successor of Constantine; and the anxiety of his domestic situation inclined him to grant the suspension of arms3, which Justinian was impatient to purchase. Chosroes3 saw the Roman3 ambassadors at his feet. He accepted eleven thousand3 pounds of gold, as the price of an endless or indefinite peace3; some mutual exchanges were regulated; the Persian3 assumed the guard of the gates of Caucasus, and the demolition of Dara was suspended, on condition that it should never be made the residence of the general3 of the East3. This interval of repose had been solicited, and was diligently improved, by the ambition of the emperor3; his African conquests were the first fruits of the Persian3 treaty3; and the avarice of Chosroes3 was soothed by a large portion of the spoils of Carthage, which his ambassadors required in a tone of pleasantry and under the colour of friendship3. But the trophies of Belisarius disturbed the slumbers of the great3 king3; and he heard with astonishment, envy, and fear that Sicily, Italy, and Rome itself had been reduced in three rapid campaigns to the obedience of Justinian. Unpractised in the art of violating treaties, he secretly excited his bold and subtle vassal Almondar. That prince3 of the Saracens, who resided at Hira, had not been included in the general3 peace3, and still waged an obscure war3 against his rival Arethas, the chief of the tribe of Gassan, and confederate of the empire3. The subject of their dispute was an extensive sheep-walk in the desert to the south of Palmyra. An immemorial tribute for the licence of pasture appeared to attest the rights of Almondar, while the Gassanite appealed to the Latin name of strata, a paved road, as an unquestionable evidence of the sovereignty and labours of the Romans3. The two monarchs supported the cause of their respective vassals; and the Persian3 Arab, without expecting the event of a slow and doubtful arbitration, enriched his flying camp3 with the spoil and captives of Syria. Instead of repelling the arms3, Justinian attempted to seduce the fidelity, of Almondar, while he called from the extremities of the earth the nations of Aethiopia and Scythia to invade the dominions of his rival. But the aid of such allies was distant and precarious, and the discovery of this hostile correspondence justified the complaints of the Goths and Armenians, who implored, almost at the same time, the protection of Chosroes3. The descendants of Arsaces, who were still numerous in Armenia3, had been provoked to assert the last relics of national freedom and hereditary rank; and the ambassadors of Vitiges had secretly traversed the empire3 to expose the instant, and almost inevitable, danger of the kingdom of Italy. Their representations were uniform, weighty, and effectual. We stand before your throne3, the advocates of your interest as well as of our own. The ambitious and faithless Justinian aspires to be the sole master of the world. Since the endless peace3, which betrayed the common freedom of mankind, that prince3, your ally in words, your enemy3 in actions, has alike insulted his friends and foes, and has filled the earth with blood and confusion. Has he not violated the privileges of Armenia3, the independence of Colchos, and the wild liberty of the Tzanian mountains? Has he not usurped, with equal avidity, the city3 of Bosphorus on the frozen Maeotis and the vale of palm-trees on the shores of the Red Sea? The Moors, the Vandals, the Goths, have been successively oppressed, and each nation has calmly remained the spectator of their neighbour's ruin. Embrace, O king3! the favourable moment; the East3 is left without defence, while the armies of Justinian and his renowned general3 are detained in the distant regions of the West. If you hesitate and delay, Belisarius and his victorious troops3 will soon3 return from the Tiber to the Tigris3, and Persia3 may enjoy the wretched consolation of being the last devoured. By such arguments Chosroes3 was easily persuaded to imitate the example which he condemned; but the Persian3, ambitious of military3 fame, disdained the inactive warfare of a rival, who issued his sanguinary commands from the secure station of the Byzantine palace.
Whatever might be the provocations of Chosroes, he abused the confidence of treaties; and the just reproaches of dissimulation and falsehood could only be concealed by the lustre of his victories. The Persian army30, which had been assembled in the plains of Babylon, prudently declined the strong cities of Mesopotamia, and followed the western bank of the Euphrates, till30 the small, though populous, town of Dura presumed to arrest the progress of the great king30. The gates of Dura, by treachery and surprise, were burst open; and, as soon30 as Chosroes had stained his scymitar with the blood of the inhabitants, he dismissed the ambassador of Justinian30 to inform his master in what place he had left30 the enemy30 of the Romans. The conqueror still affected the praise of humanity and justice; and, as he beheld a noble matron with her infant rudely dragged along the ground, he sighed, he wept, and implored the divine justice to punish the author of these calamities. Yet the herd of twelve thousand30 captives was ransomed for two hundred pounds of gold30; the neighbouring bishop of Sergiopolis pledged his faith for the payment; and in the subsequent year the unfeeling avarice of Chosroes exacted the penalty of an obligation which it was generous to contract and impossible to discharge. He advanced into the heart of Syria; but a feeble enemy30, who vanished at his approach, disappointed him of the honour of victory30; and, as he could not hope to establish his dominion, the Persian king30 displayed in this inroad the mean and rapacious vices of a robber. Hierapolis, Berrhoea or Aleppo, Apamea, and Chalcis were successively besieged; they redeemed their safety by a ransom of gold30 or silver, proportioned to their respective strength and opulence; and their new30 master enforced, without observing, the terms of capitulation. Educated in the religion of the Magi, he exercised, without remorse, the lucrative trade of sacrilege; and, after stripping of its gold30 and gems a piece of the true cross, he generously restored the naked relic to the devotion of the Christians of Apamea. No more than fourteen years30 had elapsed since Antioch was ruined by an earthquake; but the queen of the East, the new30 Theopolis, had been raised from the ground by the liberality of Justinian30; and the increasing greatness of the buildings and the people30 already erased the memory of this recent disaster. On one side, the city30 was defended by the mountain, on the other by the river Orontes; but the most accessible part was commanded by a superior eminence; the proper remedies were rejected, from the despicable fear of discovering its weakness to the enemy30; and Germanus, the emperor30's nephew, refused to trust his person and dignity within the walls30 of a besieged city30. The people30 of Antioch had inherited the vain and satirical genius of their ancestors: they were elated by a sudden reinforcement of six thousand30 soldiers30; they disdained the offers of an easy capitulation; and their intemperate clamours insulted from the ramparts the majesty of the great king30. Under his eye the Persian myriads mounted with scaling-ladders to the assault; the Roman30 mercenaries fled through the opposite gate of Daphne; and the generous resistance of the youth of Antioch served only to aggravate the miseries of their country. As Chosroes, attended by the ambassadors of Justinian30, was descending from the mountain, he affected, in a plaintive voice, to deplore the obstinacy and ruin of that unhappy people30; but the slaughter still raged with unrelenting fury; and the city30, at the command of a Barbarian, was delivered to the flames. The cathedral of Antioch was indeed preserved by the avarice, not the piety, of the conqueror; a more honourable exemption was granted to the church of St30. Julian and the quarter of the town where the ambassadors resided; some distant streets were saved by the shifting of the wind; and the walls30 still subsisted to protect, and soon30 to betray, their new30 inhabitants. Fanaticism had defaced the ornaments of Daphne, but Chosroes breathed a purer air amidst her groves and fountains; and some idolaters in his train might sacrifice with impunity to the nymphs of that elegant retreat. Eighteen miles below Antioch, the river Orontes falls into the Mediterranean. The haughty Persian visited the term of his conquests; and, after bathing alone in the sea, he offered a solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving to the sun, or rather to the creator of the sun, whom the Magi adored. If this act of superstition offended the prejudices of the Syrians, they were pleased by the courteous and even eager attention with which he assisted at the games of the circus; and, as Chosroes had heard that the blue faction was espoused by the emperor30, his peremptory command secured the victory30 of the green charioteer. From the discipline of his camp30 the people30 derived more solid consolation; and they interceded in vain for the life of a soldier who had too faithfully copied the rapine of the just Nushirvan. At length, fatigued, though unsatiated, with the spoil of Syria, he slowly moved to the Euphrates, formed a temporary bridge in the neighbourhood of Barbalissus, and defined the space of three days30 for the entire passage of his numerous host. After his return, he founded, at the distance of one day30's journey from the palace30 of Ctesiphon, a new30 city30, which perpetuated the joint names of Chosroes and of Antioch. The Syrian captives recognised the form and situation of their native abodes; baths and a stately circus were constructed for their use; and a colony of musicians and charioteers revived in Assyria the pleasures of a Greek30 capital. By the munificence of the royal30 founder, a liberal allowance was assigned to these fortunate exiles; and they enjoyed the singular privilege of bestowing freedom on the slaves whom they acknowledged as their kinsmen. Palestine and the holy30 wealth of Jerusalem were the next objects that attracted the ambition, or rather the avarice, of Chosroes. Constantinople30 and the palace30 of the Caesars no longer appeared impregnable or remote; and his aspiring fancy already covered Asia Minor with the troops30, and the Black Sea with the navies, of Persia.
These hopes might have been realised, if the conqueror of Italy had not been seasonably recalled to the defence of the East. While Chosroes pursued his ambitious designs on the coast of the Euxine, Belisarius30, at the head30 of an army30 without pay or discipline, encamped beyond the Euphrates within six miles of Nisibis. He meditated, by a skilful operation, to draw the Persians from their impregnable citadel, and, improving his advantage in the field, either to intercept their retreat or perhaps to enter the gates with the flying Barbarians. He advanced one day30's journey on the territories of Persia, reduced the fortress of Sisaurane, and sent the governor, with eight hundred chosen horsemen, to serve the emperor30 in his Italian wars. He detached Arethas and his Arabs, supported by twelve hundred Romans, to pass the Tigris, and to ravage the harvests of Assyria, a fruitful province, long30 exempt from the calamities of war30. But the plans of Belisarius30 were disconcerted by the untractable spirit of Arethas, who neither returned to the camp30 nor sent any intelligence of his motions. The Roman30 general30 was fixed in anxious expectation to the same spot; the time of action elapsed; the ardent sun of Mesopotamia inflamed with fevers the blood of his European soldiers30; and the stationary troops30 and officers of Syria affected to tremble for the safety of their defenceless cities. Yet this diversion had already succeeded in forcing Chosroes to return with loss and precipitation; and, if the skill of Belisarius30 had been seconded by discipline and valour, his success might have satisfied the sanguine wishes of the public, who required at his hands the conquest of Ctesiphon and the deliverance of the captives of Antioch. At the end of the campaign, he was recalled to Constantinople30 by an ungrateful court, but the dangers of the ensuing spring restored his confidence and command; and the hero, almost alone, was despatched, with the speed of post-horses, to repel, by his name and presence, the invasion of Syria. He found the Roman30 generals, among whom was a nephew of Justinian30, imprisoned by their fears in the fortifications of Hierapolis. But instead of listening to their timid counsels, Belisarius30 commanded them to follow him to Europus, where he had resolved to collect his forces, and to execute whatever God should inspire him to achieve against the enemy30. His firm attitude on the banks of the Euphrates restrained Chosroes from advancing towards Palestine; and he received with art and dignity the ambassadors, or rather spies, of the Persian monarch. The plain between Hierapolis and the river was covered with the squadrons of cavalry, six thousand30 hunters, tall and robust, who pursued their game without the apprehension of an enemy30. On the opposite bank the ambassadors descried a thousand30 Armenian horse30, who appeared to guard the passage of the Euphrates. The tent of Belisarius30 was of the coarsest linen, the simple equipage of a warrior who disdained the luxury of the East. Around his tent, the nations who marched under his standard30 were arranged with skilful confusion. The Thracians and Illyrians were posted in the front, the Heruli and Goths in the centre; the prospect was closed by the Moors and Vandals, and their loose array seemed to multiply their numbers. Their dress was light and active; one soldier carried a whip, another a sword30, a third a bow, a fourth perhaps a battle30-axe; and the whole picture exhibited the intrepidity of the troops30 and the vigilance of the general30. Chosroes was deluded by the address, and awed by the genius, of the lieutenant of Justinian30. Conscious of the merit, and ignorant of the force, of his antagonist, he dreaded a decisive battle30 in a distant country, from whence not a Persian might return to relate the melancholy tale. The great king30 hastened to repass the Euphrates; and Belisarius30 pressed his retreat, by affecting to oppose a measure so salutary to the empire30 and which could scarcely have been prevented by an army30 of an hundred thousand30 men. Envy might suggest to ignorance and pride that the public enemy30 had been suffered to escape; but the African and Gothic triumphs are less glorious than this safe and bloodless victory30, in which neither fortune nor the valour of the soldiers30 can subtract any part of the general30's renown. The second30 removal of Belisarius30 from the Persian to the Italian war30 revealed the extent of his personal merit, which had corrected or supplied the want of discipline and courage. Fifteen generals, without concert or skill, led through the mountains of Armenia an army30 of thirty thousand30 Romans, inattentive to their signals, their ranks, and their ensigns. Four thousand30 Persians, entrenched in the camp30 of Dubis, vanquished, almost without a combat, this disorderly multitude; their useless arms30 were scattered along the road, and their horses sunk under the fatigue of their rapid flight. But the Arabs of the Roman30 party prevailed over their brethren; the Armenians returned to their allegiance; the cities of Dara and Edessa resisted a sudden assault and a regular siege30; and the calamities of war30 were suspended by those of pestilence. A tacit or formal agreement between the two sovereigns protected the tranquillity of the eastern frontier; and the arms30 of Chosroes were confined to the Colchian or Lazic war30, which has been too minutely described by the historians of the times.
The extreme length of the Euxine sea9, from Constantinople to the mouth of the Phasis, may be computed as a voyage of nine days and a measure of seven hundred miles9. From the Iberian Caucasus, the most lofty and craggy mountains9 of Asia9, that river9 descends with such oblique vehemence that in a short space it is traversed by one hundred and twenty bridges. Nor does the stream become placid and navigable till it reaches the town of Sarapana, five days' journey from the Cyrus, which flows from the same hills, but in a contrary direction, to the Caspian lake. The proximity of these rivers has suggested the practice, or at least the idea, of wafting the precious merchandise of India down the Oxus, over the Caspian, up the Cyrus, and with the current of the Phasis into the Euxine and Mediterranean seas. As it successively collects the streams of the plain of Colchos, the Phasis moves with diminished speed, though accumulated weight. At the mouth it is sixty fathom deep and half a league broad, but a small woody island is interposed in the midst of the channel: the water, so soon9 as it has deposited an earthy or metallic sediment, floats on the surface of the waves and is no longer susceptible of corruption. In a course of one hundred miles9, forty of which are navigable for large vessels9, the Phasis divides the celebrated region of Colchos, or Mingrelia, which, on three sides, is fortified by the Iberian and Armenian mountains9, and whose maritime coast9 extends about two hundred miles9, from the neighbourhood of Trebizond to Dioscurias, and the confines of Circassia. Both the soil and climate are relaxed by excessive moisture: twenty-eight rivers, besides the Phasis and his dependent streams, convey their waters to the sea9; and the hollowness of the ground appears to indicate the subterraneous channels between the Euxine and the Caspian. In the fields where wheat or barley is sown, the earth is too soft to sustain the action of the plough; but the gom, a small grain not unlike the millet or coriander seed, supplies the ordinary food of the people; and the use of bread is confined to the prince and his nobles. Yet the vintage is more plentiful than the harvest; and the bulk of the stems, as well as the quality of the wine, display the unassisted powers of nature. The same powers continually tend to overshadow the face of the country9 with thick forests; the timber of the hills and the flax of the plains contribute to the abundance of naval stores; the wild and tame animals, the horse, the ox, and the hog, are remarkably prolific, and the name of the pheasant is expressive of his native habitation on the banks9 of the Phasis. The gold mines to the south of Trebizond, which are still worked with sufficient profit, were a subject of national dispute between Justinian and Chosroes; and it is not unreasonable to believe that a vein of precious metal may be equally diffused through the circle of the hills, although these secret treasures are neglected by the laziness, or concealed by the prudence, of the Mingrelians. The waters, impregnated with particles of gold, are carefully strained through sheep-skins or fleeces; but this expedient, the groundwork perhaps of a marvellous fable, affords a faint image of the wealth extracted from a virgin earth by the power and industry of ancient9 kings. Their silver palaces and golden chambers surpass our belief; but the fame of their riches is said to have excited the enterprising avarice of the Argonauts. Tradition has affirmed, with some colour of reason, that Egypt planted on the Phasis a learned and polite colony, which manufactured linen, built navies, and invented geographical maps. The ingenuity of the moderns has peopled, with flourishing cities9 and nations9, the isthmus between the Euxine and the Caspian; and a lively writer, observing the resemblance of climate, and, in his apprehension, of trade, has not hesitated to pronounce Colchos the Holland of antiquity.
But the riches of Colchos shine only through the darkness of conjecture or tradition; and its genuine history presents an uniform scene of rudeness and poverty. If one hundred and thirty languages were spoken in the market of Dioscurias, they were the imperfect idioms of so many savage tribes or families, sequestered from each other in the valleys of Mount Caucasus; and their separation, which diminished the importance, must have multiplied the number, of their rustic capitals. In the present state24 of Mingrelia, a village is an assemblage of huts within a wooden fence; the fortresses are seated in the depth of forests; the princely town of Cyta, or Cotatis, consists of two hundred houses, and a stone edifice appertains only to the magnificence of kings. Twelve ships from Constantinople24 and about sixty barks, laden with the fruits of industry, annually cast anchor on the coast; and the list of Colchian exports is much increased, since the natives had only slaves and hides to offer in exchange for the corn and salt which they purchased from the subjects of Justinian. Not a vestige can be found of the art, the knowledge, or the navigation of the ancient Colchians; few Greeks24 desired or dared to pursue the footsteps of the Argonauts; and even the marks of an Egyptian colony are lost on a nearer approach. The rite of circumcision is practised only by the Mahometans of the Euxine; and the curled hair and swarthy complexion of Africa24 no longer disfigure the most perfect of the human race24. It is in the adjacent climates of Georgia, Mingrelia, and Circassia that nature has placed, at least to our eyes, the model of beauty in the shape of the limbs, the colour of the skin, the symmetry of the features, and the expression of the countenance. According to the destination of the two sexes, the men seem formed for action, the women for love; and the perpetual supply of females from Mount Caucasus has purified the blood, and improved the breed, of the southern nations of Asia24. The proper district of Mingrelia, a portion only of the ancient Colchos, has long sustained an exportation of twelve thousand24 slaves. The number of prisoners or criminals would be inadequate to the annual24 demand; but the common people24 are in a state24 of servitude to their lords; the exercise of fraud or rapine is unpunished in a lawless community; and the market is continually replenished by the abuse of civil and paternal authority. Such a trade, which reduces the human species to the level of cattle, may tend to encourage marriage and population; since the multitude of children enriches their sordid and inhuman parent. But this source of impure wealth must inevitably poison the national manners, obliterate the sense of honour and virtue, and almost extinguish the instincts of nature: the Christians24 of Georgia and Mingrelia are the most dissolute of mankind; and their children, who, in a tender age24, are sold into foreign slavery, have already learnt to imitate the rapine of the father and the prostitution of the mother. Yet amidst the rudest ignorance, the untaught natives discover a singular dexterity both of mind and hand; and, although the want of union and discipline exposes them to their more powerful neighbours, a bold and intrepid spirit has animated the Colchians of every age24. In the host of Xerxes, they served on foot; and their arms were a dagger or a javelin, a wooden casque, and a buckler of raw hides. But in their own country the use of cavalry has more generally prevailed; the meanest of the peasants disdain to walk; the martial nobles are possessed, perhaps, of two hundred horses; and above five thousand24 are numbered in the train of the prince of Mingrelia. The Colchian government24 has been always a pure and hereditary kingdom; and the authority of the sovereign is only restrained by the turbulence of his subjects. Whenever they were obedient, he could lead a numerous army into the field; but some faith is requisite to believe that the single tribe of the Suanians was composed of two hundred thousand24 soldiers, or that the population of Mingrelia now amounts to four millions of inhabitants.
It was the boast of the Colchians, that their ancestors had checked the victories of Sesostris; and the defeat of the Egyptian is less incredible than his successful progress as far as the foot of Mount Caucasus. They sunk, without any memorable effort, under the arms3 of Cyrus; followed in distant wars the standard of the great3 king3; and presented him every fifth year with one hundred boys and as many virgins, the fairest produce of the land. Yet he accepted this gift like the gold and ebony of India, the frankincense of the Arabs, or the negroes and ivory of Aethiopia; the Colchians were not subject to the dominion of a satrap, and they continued to enjoy the name as well as substance of national independence. After the fall of the Persian3 empire3, Mithridates, king3 of Pontus, added Colchos to the wide circle of his dominions on the Euxine; and, when the natives presumed to request that his son3 might reign3 over them, he bound the ambitious youth in chains of gold, and delegated a servant in his place. In the pursuit of Mithridates, the Romans3 advanced to the banks of the Phasis, and their galleys ascended the river till they reached the camp3 of Pompey and his legions. But the senate, and afterwards the emperors, disdained to reduce that distant and useless conquest into the form of a province. The family of a Greek rhetorician was permitted to reign3 in Colchos and the adjacent kingdoms from the time of Mark Antony to that of Nero; and after the race of Polemo was extinct, the eastern Pontus, which preserved his name, extended no farther than the neighbourhood of Trebizond. Beyond these limits the fortifications of Hyssus, of Apsarus, of the Phasis, of Dioscurias or Sebastopolis, and of Pityus were guarded by sufficient detachments of horse and foot; and six princes of Colchos received their diadems from the lieutenants of Caesar. One of these lieutenants, the eloquent and philosophic Arrian, surveyed, and has described, the Euxine coast, under the reign3 of Hadrian. The garrison which he reviewed at the mouth of the Phasis consisted of four hundred chosen legionaries; the brick walls and towers, the double ditch, and the military3 engines on the rampart rendered this palace inaccessible to the Barbarians3; but the new suburbs, which had been built by the merchants and veterans, required, in the opinion of Arrian, some external defence. As the strength of the empire3 was gradually impaired, the Romans3 stationed on the Phasis were either withdrawn or expelled; and the tribe of the Lazi, whose posterity speak a foreign dialect and inhabit the sea-coast of Trebizond, imposed their name and dominion on the ancient kingdom of Colchos. Their independence was soon3 invaded by a formidable neighbour, who had acquired, by arms3 and treaties, the sovereignty of Iberia. The dependent king3 of Lazica received his sceptre at the hands of the Persian3 monarch3, and the successors of Constantine acquiesced in this injurious claim, which was proudly urged as a right of immemorable prescription. In the beginning of the sixth century, their influence was restored by the introduction of Christianity, which the Mingrelians still profess with becoming zeal, without understanding the doctrines, or observing the precepts, of their religion. After the decease of his father, Zathus was exalted to the regal dignity by the favour of the great3 king3; but the pious youth abhorred the ceremonies of the Magi, and sought, in the palace of Constantinople, an orthodox baptism, a noble wife, and the alliance3 of the emperor3 Justin. The king3 of Lazica was solemnly invested with the diadem, and his cloak and tunic of white silk, with a gold border, displayed, in rich embroidery, the figure of his new patron; who soothed the jealousy of the Persian3 court3, and excused the revolt of Colchos, by the venerable names of hospitality and religion. The common interest of both empires imposed on the Colchians the duty of guarding the passes of Mount Caucasus, where a wall of sixty miles is now defended by the monthly service of the musqueteers of Mingrelia.
But this honourable connection was soon6 corrupted by the avarice and ambition of the Romans6. Degraded from the rank of the allies, the Lazi were incessantly reminded, by words and actions, of their dependent state6. At the distance of a day's journey beyond the Apsarus, they beheld the rising fortress of Petra, which commanded the maritime country6 to the south of the Phasis. Instead of being protected by the valour, Colchos was insulted by the licentiousness, of foreign mercenaries; the benefits of commerce were converted into base and vexatious monopoly; and Gubazes, the native prince, was reduced to a pageant of royalty by the superior influence of the officers of Justinian. Disappointed in their expectations of Christian virtue6, the indignant Lazi reposed some confidence in the justice of an unbeliever. After a private6 assurance that their ambassador should not be delivered to the Romans6, they publicly solicited the friendship and aid of Chosroes. The sagacious monarch instantly discerned the use6 and importance of Colchos, and meditated a plan of conquest, which was renewed at the end of a thousand years by Shah Abbas, the wisest and most powerful of his successors. His ambition was fired by the hope of launching a Persian navy from the Phasis, of commanding the trade and navigation of the Euxine sea, of desolating the coast of Pontus and Bithynia, of distressing, perhaps of attacking, Constantinople, and of persuading the Barbarians6 of Europe to second his arms6 and counsels against the common enemy of mankind. Under the pretence of a Scythian war6, he silently led his troops to the frontiers of Iberia; the Colchian guides were prepared to conduct them through the woods and along the precipices of Mount Caucasus; and a narrow path was laboriously formed into a safe and spacious highway, for the march of cavalry, and even of elephants. Gubazes laid his person and diadem at the feet of the king of Persia; his Colchians imitated the submission of their prince; and, after the walls of Petra had been shaken, the Roman6 garrison prevented, by a capitulation, the impending fury of the last assault. But the Lazi soon6 discovered that their impatience had urged them to choose an evil more intolerable than the calamities which they strove to escape. The monopoly of salt and corn was effectually removed by the loss of those valuable commodities. The authority of a Roman6 legislator was succeeded by the pride of an Oriental despot, who beheld, with equal6 disdain, the slaves whom he had exalted and the kings6 whom he had humbled before the footstool of his throne. The adoration of fire was introduced6 into Colchos by the zeal of the Magi; their intolerant spirit provoked the fervour of a Christian people6; and the prejudice of nature6 or education was wounded by the impious practice of exposing the dead bodies of their parents, on the summit of a lofty tower, to the crows and vultures of the air. Conscious of the increasing hatred, which retarded the execution of his great6 designs, the just Nushirvan had secretly given orders to assassinate the king of the Lazi, to transplant the people6 into some distant land, and to fix a faithful and warlike colony on the banks of the Phasis. The watchful jealousy of the Colchians foresaw and averted the approaching ruin. Their repentance was accepted at Constantinople by the prudence6, rather than the clemency, of Justinian; and he commanded Dagisteus, with seven thousand Romans6, and one thousand of the Zani, to expel the Persians from the coast of the Euxine.
The siege30 of Petra, which the Roman30 general30, with the aid of the Lazi, immediately undertook, is one of the most remarkable actions of the age. The city30 was seated on a craggy rock, which hung over the sea, and communicated by a steep and narrow path with the land. Since the approach was difficult, the attack might be deemed impossible; the Persian conqueror had strengthened the fortifications of Justinian30; and the places least inaccessible were covered by additional bulwarks. In this important fortress, the vigilance of Chosroes had deposited a magazine of offensive and defensive arms30, sufficient for five times the number, not only of the garrison, but of the besiegers themselves. The stock of flour and salt provisions was adequate to the consumption of five years30; the want of wine was supplied by vinegar, and [of] grain from whence a strong liquor was extracted; and a triple aqueduct eluded the diligence, and even the suspicions, of the enemy30. But the firmest defence of Petra was placed in the valour of fifteen hundred Persians, who resisted the assaults of the Romans, whilst, in a softer vein of earth, a mine was secretly perforated. The wall, supported by slender and temporary props, hung tottering in the air; but Dagisteus delayed the attack till30 he had secured a specific recompense; and the town was relieved before the return of his messenger from Constantinople30. The Persian garrison was reduced to four hundred men, of whom no more than fifty were exempt from sickness or wounds; yet such had been their inflexible perseverance, that they concealed their losses from the enemy30, by enduring, without a murmur, the sight and putrefying stench of the dead bodies of their eleven hundred companions. After their deliverance, the breaches were hastily stopped with sand-bags; the mine was replenished with earth; a new30 wall was erected on a frame of substantial timber; and a fresh garrison of three thousand30 men was stationed at Petra to sustain the labours of a second30 siege30. The operations, both of the attack and defence, were conducted with skilful obstinacy; and each party derived useful lessons from the experience of their past faults. A battering-ram was invented, of light construction and powerful effect; it was transported and worked by the hands of forty soldiers30; and, as the stones were loosened by its repeated strokes, they were torn with long30 iron hooks from the wall. From those walls30, a shower of darts was incessantly poured on the heads of the assailants, but they were most dangerously annoyed by a fiery composition of sulphur and bitumen, which in Colchos might with some propriety be named the oil of Medea. Of six thousand30 Romans who mounted the scaling-ladders, their general30, Bessas, was the first, a gallant veteran of seventy years30 of age; the courage of their leader, his fall, and extreme danger animated the irresistible effort of his troops30; and their prevailing numbers oppressed the strength, without subduing the spirit, of the Persian garrison. The fate of these valiant men deserves to be more distinctly noticed. Seven hundred had perished in the siege30, two thousand30 three hundred survived to defend the breach. One thousand30 and seventy were destroyed with fire and sword30 in the last assault: and, if seven hundred and thirty were made prisoners, only eighteen among them were found without the marks of honourable wounds. The remaining five hundred escaped into the citadel, which they maintained without any hopes of relief, rejecting the fairest terms of capitulation and service30, till30 they were lost in the flames. They died in obedience to the commands of their prince30; and such examples of loyalty and valour might excite their countrymen to deeds of equal despair and more prosperous event. The instant demolition of the works of Petra confessed the astonishment and apprehension of the conqueror.
A Spartan would have praised and pitied the virtue of these heroic slaves; but the tedious warfare and alternate success of the Roman30 and Persian arms30 cannot detain the attention of posterity at the foot of Mount Caucasus. The advantages obtained by the troops30 of Justinian30 were more frequent and splendid; but the forces of the great king30 were continually supplied, till30 they amounted to eight elephants and seventy thousand30 men, including twelve thousand30 Scythian allies, and above three thousand30 Dilemites, who descended by their free choice from the hills of Hyrcania, and were equally formidable in close or in distant combat. The siege30 of Archaeopolis, a name imposed or corrupted by the Greeks30, was raised with some loss and precipitation; but the Persians occupied the passes of Iberia; Colchos was enslaved by their forts and garrisons; they devoured the scanty sustenance of the people30; and the prince30 of the Lazi fled into the mountains. In the Roman30 camp30, faith and discipline were unknown; and the independent leaders, who were invested with equal power, disputed with each other the pre-eminence of vice and corruption. The Persians followed, without a murmur, the commands of a single chief, who implicitly obeyed the instructions of their supreme lord. Their general30 was distinguished among the heroes of the East by his wisdom in council and his valour in the field. The advanced age of Mermeroes, and the lameness of both his feet, could not diminish the activity of his mind or even of his body; and, whilst he was carried in a litter in the front of battle30, he inspired terror to the enemy30, and a just confidence to the troops30, who under his banners were always successful. After his death30, the command devolved to Nacoragan, a proud satrap, who, in a conference with the Imperial chiefs, had presumed to declare that he disposed of victory30 as absolutely as of the ring on his finger. Such presumption was the natural cause and forerunner of a shameful defeat. The Romans had been gradually repulsed to the edge of the sea-shore; and their last camp30, on the ruins of the Grecian colony of Phasis, was defended on all sides by strong intrenchments, the river, the Euxine, and a fleet of galleys. Despair united their counsels and invigorated their arms30; they withstood the assault of the Persians; and the flight of Nacoragan preceded or followed the slaughter of ten thousand30 of his bravest soldiers30. He escaped from the Romans to fall into the hands of an unforgiving master, who severely chastised the error of his own choice; the unfortunate general30 was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed into the human form, was exposed on a mountain: a dreadful warning to those who might hereafter be entrusted with the fame and fortune of Persia. Yet the prudence of Chosroes insensibly relinquished the prosecution of the Colchian war30, in the just persuasion that it is impossible to reduce or, at least, to hold a distant country against the wishes and efforts of its inhabitants. The fidelity of Gubazes sustained the most rigorous trials. He patiently endured the hardships of a savage life, and rejected, with disdain, the specious temptations of the Persian court. The king30 of the Lazi had been educated in the Christian religion; his mother was the daughter of a senator; during his youth, he had served ten years30 a silentiary of the Byzantine30 palace30, and the arrears of an unpaid salary were a motive of attachment as well as of complaint. But the long30 continuance of his sufferings extorted from him a naked representation of the truth; and truth was an unpardonable libel on the lieutenants of Justinian30, who, amidst the delays of a ruinous war30, had spared his enemies30 and trampled on his allies. Their malicious information persuaded the emperor30 that his faithless vassal already meditated a second30 defection; an order was issued to send him prisoner to Constantinople30; a treacherous clause was inserted, that he might be lawfully killed in case of resistance; and Gubazes, without arms30 or suspicion of danger, was stabbed in the security of a friendly interview. In the first moments of rage and despair the Colchians would have sacrificed their country and religion to the gratification of revenge. But the authority and eloquence of the wiser few obtained a salutary pause; the victory30 of the Phasis restored the terror of the Roman30 arms30; and the emperor30 was solicitous to absolve his own name from the imputation of so foul a murder. A judge of senatorial rank was commissioned to inquire into the conduct and death30 of the king30 of the Lazi. He ascended a stately tribunal, encompassed by the ministers of justice and punishment; in the presence of both nations, this extraordinary cause was pleaded according to the forms of civil jurisprudence; and some satisfaction was granted to an injured people30, by the sentence and execution of the meaner criminals.
In peace3, the king3 of Persia3 continually sought the pretences of a rupture; but no sooner had he taken up arms3 than he expressed his desire of a safe and honourable treaty3. During the fiercest hostilities, the two monarchs entertained a deceitful negotiation; and such was the superiority of Chosroes3 that, whilst he treated the Roman3 ministers with insolence and contempt, he obtained the most unprecedented honours for his own ambassadors at the Imperial court3. The successor of Cyrus assumed the majesty of the Eastern sun, and graciously permitted his younger brother Justinian to reign3 over the West, with the pale and reflected splendour of the moon. This gigantic style was supported by the pomp and eloquence of Isdigune, one of the royal3 chamberlains. His wife and daughters, with a train of eunuchs and camels, attended the march of the ambassador; two satraps with golden diadems were numbered among his followers; he was guarded by five hundred horse, the most valiant of the Persians3; and the Roman3 governor of Dara wisely refused to admit more than twenty of this martial and hostile caravan. When Isdigune had saluted the emperor3 and delivered his presents, he passed ten months at Constantinople without discussing any serious affairs. Instead of being confined to his palace and receiving food and water from the hands of his keepers, the Persian3 ambassador, without spies or guards, was allowed to visit the capital; and the freedom of conversation and trade enjoyed by his domestics offended the prejudices of an age which rigorously practised the law of nations without confidence or courtesy. By an unexampled indulgence, his interpreter, a servant below the notice of a Roman3 magistrate, was seated, at the table of Justinian, by the side of his master; and one thousand3 pounds of gold mght be assigned for the expense of his journey and entertainment. Yet the repeated labours of Isdigune could procure only a partial and imperfect truce, which was always purchased with the treasures, and renewed at the solicitation, of the Byzantine court3. Many years3 of fruitless desolation elapsed before Justinian and Chosroes3 were compelled by mutual lassitude to consult the repose of their declining age. At a conference held on the frontier, each party, without expecting to gain credit, displayed the power, the justice, and the pacific intentions of their respective sovereigns; but necessity and interest dictated the treaty3 of peace3, which was concluded for a term of fifty years3, diligently composed in the Greek and Persian3 language, and attested by the seals of twelve interpreters. The liberty of commerce and religion was fixed and defined; the allies of the emperor3 and the great3 king3 were included in the same benefits and obligations; and the most scrupulous precautions were provided to prevent or determine the accidental disputes that might arise on the confines of two hostile nations. After twenty years3 of destructive though feeble war3, the limits still remained without alteration; and Chosroes3 was persuaded to renounce his dangerous claim to the possession or sovereignty of Colchos and its dependent states. Rich in the accumulated treasures of the East3, he extorted from the Romans3 an annual payment of thirty thousand3 pieces of gold; and the smallness of the sum revealed the disgrace of a tribute in its naked deformity. In a previous debate, the chariot of Sesostris and the wheel of fortune were applied by one of the ministers of Justinian, who observed that the reduction of Antioch and some Syrian cities had elevated beyond measure the vain and ambitious spirit of the Barbarian3. You are mistaken, replied the modest Persian3: the king3 of kings, the lord of mankind, looks down with contempt on such petty acquisitions; and of the ten nations, vanquished by his invincible arms3, he esteems the Romans3 as the least formidable. According to the Orientals the empire3 of Nushirvan extended from Ferganah in Transoxiana to Yemen or Arabia Felix. He subdued the rebels of Hyrcania, reduced the provinces3 of Cabul and Zablestan on the banks of the Indus, broke the power of the Euthalites, terminated by an honourable treaty3 the Turkish war3, and admitted the daughter of the great3 khan into the number of his lawful wives. Victorious and respected among the princes of Asia, he gave audience, in his palace of Madain, or Ctesiphon, to the ambassadors of the world. Their gifts or tributes, arms3, rich garments, gems, slaves, or aromatics, were humbly presented at the foot of his throne3; and he condescended to accept from the king3 of India ten quintals of the wood of aloes, a maid seven cubits in height, and a carpet softer than silk, the skin, as it was reported, of an extraordinary serpent.
Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the Aethiopians, as if he attempted to introduce a people24 of savage negroes into the system of civilised society. But the friends of the Roman24 empire24, the Axumites, or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives of Africa24. The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them as a colony of Arabs24; and this descent is confirmed by the resemblance of language and manners, the report of an ancient emigration, and the narrow interval between the shores of the Red Sea24. Christianity had raised that nation above the level of African barbarism; their intercourse with Egypt24, and the successors of Constantine, had communicated the rudiments of the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to the isle of Ceylon, and seven kingdoms obeyed the Negus or supreme prince of Abyssinia. The independence of the Homerites, who reigned in the rich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an Aethiopian conqueror; he drew his hereditary claim from the queen of Sheba, and his ambition was sanctified by religious zeal. The Jews, powerful and active in exile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan, prince of the Homerites. They urged him to retaliate the persecution inflicted by the Imperial laws on their unfortunate brethren: some Roman24 merchants were injuriously treated; and several Christians24 of Negra were honoured with the crown of martyrdom. The churches of Arabia implored the protection of the Abyssinian monarch. The Negus passed the Red Sea24 with a fleet and army, deprived the Jewish proselyte of his kingdom and life24, and extinguished a race24 of princes, who had ruled above two thousand24 years24 the sequestered region of myrrh and frankincense. The conqueror immediately announced the victory of the gospel, requested an orthodox patriarch, and so warmly professed his friendship to the Roman24 empire24 that Justinian was flattered by the hope of diverting the silk trade through the channel of Abyssinia, and of exciting the forces of Arabia against the Persian king. Nonnosus, descended from a family of ambassadors, was named by the emperor to execute this important commission. He wisely declined the shorter, but more dangerous, road through the sandy deserts of Nubia; ascended the Nile24, embarked on the Red Sea24, and safely landed at the African port of Adulis. From Adulis to the royal24 city24 of Axume is no more than fifty leagues, in a direct line; but the winding passes of the mountains detained the ambassador fifteen days; and, as he traversed the forests, he saw, and vaguely computed, about five thousand24 wild elephants. The capital, according to his report, was large and populous; and the village of Axume is still conspicuous by the regal coronations, by the ruins of a Christian temple, and by sixteen or seventeen obelisks inscribed with Grecian characters. But the Negus gave audience in the open field, seated on a lofty chariot, which was drawn by four elephants superbly caparisoned, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians. He was clad in a linen garment and cap, holding in his hand two javelins and a light shield; and, although his nakedness was imperfectly covered, he displayed the Barbaric pomp of gold24 chains, collars, and bracelets, richly adorned with pearls and precious stones. The ambassador of Justinian knelt; the Negus raised him from the ground, embraced Nonnosus, kissed the seal, persued the letter, accepted the Roman24 alliance, and, brandishing his weapons, denounced implacable war against the worshippers of fire. But the proposal of the silk trade was eluded; and notwithstanding the assurances, and perhaps the wishes, of the Abyssinians, these hostile menaces evaporated without effect. The Homerites were unwilling to abandon their aromatic groves, to explore a sandy desert, and to encounter, after all their fatigues, a formidable nation from whom they had never received any personal injuries. Instead of enlarging his conquests, the king of Aethiopia was incapable of defending his possessions. Abrahah, the slave of a Roman24 merchant of Adulis, assumed the sceptre of the Homerites; the troops of Africa24 were seduced by the luxury of the climate; and Justinian solicited the friendship of the usurper, who honoured, with a slight tribute24, the supremacy of his prince. After a long series of prosperity, the power of Abrahah was overthrown before the gates of Mecca; his children were despoiled by the Persian conqueror; and the Aethiopians were finally expelled from the continent of Asia24. This narrative of obscure and remote events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the Roman24 empire24. If a Christian power had been maintained in Arabia, Mahomet24 must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a revolution which has changed the civil and religious state24 of the world.
The review of the nations from the Danube to the Nile has exposed on every side the weakness of the Romans; and our wonder is reasonably excited that they should presume to enlarge an empire30 whose ancient limits they were incapable of defending. But the wars, the conquests, and the triumphs of Justinian30 are the feeble and pernicious efforts of old age, which exhaust the remains of strength, and accelerate the decay of the powers of life. He exulted in the glorious act of restoring Africa and Italy to the republic; but the calamities which followed the departure of Belisarius30 betrayed the impotence of the conqueror and accomplished the ruin of those unfortunate countries.
From his new30 acquisitions, Justinian30 expected that his avarice as well as pride should be richly gratified. A rapacious minister of the finances closely pursued the footsteps of Belisarius30; and, as the old registers of tribute had been burnt by the Vandals, he indulged his fancy in a liberal calculation and arbitrary assessment of the wealth of Africa. The increase of taxes which were drawn away by a distant sovereign, and a general30 resumption of the patrimony or crown lands, soon30 dispelled the intoxication of the public joy; but the emperor30 was insensible to the modest complaints of the people30, till30 he was awakened and alarmed by the clamours of military discontent. Many of the Roman30 soldiers30 had married the widows and daughters of the Vandals. As their own, by the double right of conquest and inheritance, they claimed the estates which Genseric had assigned to his victorious troops30. They heard with disdain the cold and selfish representation of their officers, that the liberality of Justinian30 had raised them from a savage or servile condition; that they were already enriched by the spoils of Africa, the treasure, the slaves, and the moveables of the vanquished Barbarians; and that the ancient and lawful patrimony of the emperors would be applied only to the support of that government on which their own safety and reward must ultimately depend. The mutiny was secretly inflamed by a thousand30 soldiers30, for the most part Heruli, who had imbibed the doctrines, and were instigated by the clergy, of the Arian sect; and the cause of perjury and rebellion was sanctified by the dispensing powers of fanaticism. The Arians deplored the ruin of their church, triumphant above a century in Africa; and they were justly provoked by the laws of the conqueror, which interdicted the baptism of their children and the exercise of all religious worship. Of the Vandals chosen by Belisarius30, the far greater part, in the honours of the Eastern service30, forgot their country and religion. But a generous band of four hundred obliged the mariners, when they were in sight of the isle of Lesbos, to alter their course: they touched on Peloponnesus, ran ashore on a desert coast of Africa, and boldly erected on Mount Aurasius the standard30 of independence and revolt. While the troops30 of the province disclaimed the command of their superiors, a conspiracy was formed at Carthage against the life of Solomon, who filled with honour the place of Belisarius30; and the Arians had piously resolved to sacrifice the tyrant at the foot of the altar, during the awful mysteries of the festival of Easter. Fear or remorse restrained the daggers of the assassins, but the patience of Solomon emboldened their discontent; and at the end of ten days30 a furious sedition was kindled in the Circus, which desolated Africa about ten years30. The pillage of the city30 and the indiscriminate slaughter of its inhabitants were suspended only by darkness, sleep, and intoxication; the governor, with seven companions, among whom was the historian Procopius, escaped to Sicily; two thirds of the army30 were involved in the guilt of treason; and eight thousand30 insurgents, assembling in the field of Bulla, elected Stoza for their chief, a private soldier, who possessed in a superior degree the virtues of a rebel. Under the mask of freedom, his eloquence could lead, or at least impel, the passions of his equals. He raised himself to a level with Belisarius30 and the nephew of the emperor30, by daring to encounter them in the field; and the victorious generals were compelled to acknowledge that Stoza deserved a purer cause and a more legitimate command. Vanquished in battle30 he dexterously employed the arts of negotiation; a Roman30 army30 was seduced from their allegiance, and the chiefs who had trusted to his faithless promise were murdered by his order in a church of Numidia. When every resource either of force or perfidy was exhausted, Stoza, with some desperate Vandals, retired to the wilds of Mauritania, obtained the daughter of a Barbarian prince30, and eluded the pursuit of his enemies30 by the report of his death30. The personal weight of Belisarius30, the rank, the spirit, and the temper of Germanus, the emperor30's nephew, and the vigour and success of the second30 administration of the eunuch Solomon restored the modesty of the camp30, and maintained for a while the tranquillity of Africa. But the vices of the Byzantine30 court were felt in that distant province; the troops30 complained that they were neither paid nor relieved, and, as soon30 as the public disorders were sufficiently mature, Stoza was again alive, in arms30, and at the gates of Carthage. He fell in a single combat, but he smiled in the agonies of death30, when he was informed that his own javelin had reached the heart of his antagonist. The example of Stoza, and the assurance that a fortunate soldier had been the first king30, encouraged the ambition of Gontharis, and he promised, by a private treaty, to divide Africa with the Moors, if, with their dangerous aid, he should ascend the throne of Carthage. The feeble Areobindus, unskilled in the affairs of peace and war30, was raised, by his marriage with the niece of Justinian30, to the office of Exarch. He was suddenly oppressed by a sedition of the guards, and his abject supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move the pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reign of thirty days30, Gontharis himself was stabbed at a banquet by the hand of Artaban; and it is singular enough that an Armenian prince30, of the royal30 family of Arsaces, should re-establish at Carthage the authority of the Roman30 empire30. In the conspiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus against the life of Caesar, every circumstance is curious and important to the eyes of posterity; but the guilt or merit of these loyal or rebellious assassins could interest only the contemporaries of Procopius, who, by their hopes and fears, their friendship or resentment, were personally engaged in the revolutions of Africa.
That country9 was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism, from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman9 laws; and every step of intestine discord was marked by some deplorable victory of savage man over civilised society. The Moors, though ignorant of justice, were impatient of oppression; their vagrant life and boundless wilderness disappointed the arms9, and eluded the chains, of a conqueror; and experience had shewn that neither oaths nor obligations could secure the fidelity of their attachment. The victory of Mount Auras had awed them into momentary submission; but, if they respected the character of Solomon, they hated and despised the pride and luxury of his two nephews, Cyrus and Sergius, on whom their uncle had imprudently bestowed the provincial governments of Tripoli and Pentapolis. A Moorish tribe encamped under the walls9 of Leptis, to renew their alliance and receive from the governor the customary gifts. Fourscore of their deputies were introduced as friends into the city9; but, on the dark suspicion of a conspiracy, they were massacred at the table of Sergius; and the clamour of arms9 and revenge was re-echoed through the valleys of Mount Atlas, from both the Syrtes to the Atlantic ocean9. A personal injury, the unjust execution or murder of his brother, rendered Antalas the enemy of the Romans9. The defeat of the Vandals9 had formerly signalised his valour9; the rudiments of justice and prudence were still more conspicuous in a Moor; and, while he laid Adrumetum in ashes, he calmly admonished the emperor that the peace of Africa9 might be secured by the recall of Solomon and his unworthy nephews. The exarch led forth his troops9 from Carthage; but, at the distance of six days' journey, in the neighbourhood of Tebeste, he was astonished by the superior numbers and fierce aspect of the Barbarians9. He proposed a treaty, solicited a reconciliation, and offered to bind himself by the most solemn oaths. By what oaths can he bind himself? interrupted the indignant Moors. Will he swear by the gospels, the divine books of the Christians? It was on those books that the faith of his nephew Sergius was pledged to eighty of our innocent and unfortunate brethren. Before we trust them a second time, let us try their efficacy in the chastisement of perjury and the vindication of their own honour. Their honour was vindicated in the field of Tebeste, by the death of Solomon and the total loss of his army9. The arrival of fresh troops9 and more skilful commanders soon9 checked the insolence of the Moors; seventeen of their princes were slain in the same battle; and the doubtful and transient submission of their tribes9 was celebrated with lavish applause by the people of Constantinople. Successive inroads had reduced the province9 of Africa9 to one third of the measure of Italy9; yet the Roman9 emperors continued to reign above a century over Carthage and the fruitful coast9 of the Mediterranean. But the victories and the losses of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind; and such was the desolation of Africa9 that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nation9 of the Vandals9 had disappeared; they once amounted to an hundred and sixty thousand9 warriors, without including the children, the women, or the slaves. Their numbers were infinitely surpassed by the number of the Moorish families extirpated in a relentless war9; and the same destruction was retaliated on the Romans9 and their allies, who perished by the climate, their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the Barbarians9. When Procopius first landed, he admired the populousness of the cities9 and country9, strenuously exercised in the labours of commerce and agriculture. In less than twenty years, that busy scene was converted into a silent solitude; the wealthy citizens escaped to Sicily and Constantinople; and the secret historian has confidently affirmed that five millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and government of the emperor Justinian.
The jealousy of the Byzantine court had not permitted Belisarius to achieve the conquest of Italy47; and his abrupt departure revived the courage of the Goths, who respected his genius, his virtue, and even the laudable motive which had urged the servant of Justinian to deceive and reject them. They had lost their king (an inconsiderable loss), their capital, their treasures, the provinces47 from Sicily to the Alps, and the military47 force of two hundred thousand Barbarians, magnificently equipped with horses and arms47. Yet all was not lost, as long47 as Pavia was defended by one thousand Goths, inspired by a sense of honour, the love of freedom, and the memory of their past greatness. The supreme command47 was unanimously offered to the brave Uraias; and it was in his eyes alone that the disgrace of his uncle Vitiges could appear as a reason of exclusion. His voice inclined the election in favour of Hildibald, whose personal merit47 was recommended by the vain hope that his kinsman Theudes, the Spanish monarch, would support the common interest of the Gothic nation. The success of his arms47 in Liguria and Venetia seemed to justify their choice; but he soon47 declared to the world that he was incapable of forgiving or commanding his benefactor. The consort of Hildibald was deeply wounded by the beauty, the riches, and the pride of the wife of Uraias; and the death47 of that virtuous patriot excited the indignation of a free people47. A bold assassin executed their sentence, by striking off the head of Hildibald in the midst of a banquet; the Rugians, a foreign tribe, assumed the privilege of election; and Totila, the nephew of the late king, was tempted, by revenge, to deliver himself and the garrison of Treviso into the hands of the Romans. But the gallant and accomplished youth was easily persuaded to prefer the Gothic throne47 before the service of Justinian; and, as soon47 as the palace47 of Pavia had been purified from the Rugian usurper, he reviewed the national force of five thousand soldiers47, and generously undertook the restoration of the kingdom of Italy47.
The successors of Belisarius30, eleven generals of equal rank, neglected to crush the feeble and disunited Goths, till30 they were roused to action by the progress of Totila and the reproaches of Justinian30. The gates of Verona were secretly opened to Artabazus, at the head30 of one hundred Persians in the service30 of the empire30. The Goths fled from the city30. At the distance of sixty furlongs the Roman30 generals halted to regulate the division of the spoil. While they disputed, the enemy30 discovered the real number of the victors; the Persians were instantly overpowered, and it was by leaping from the wall that Artabazus preserved a life which he lost in a few days30 by the lance of a Barbarian, who had defied him to single combat. Twenty thousand30 Romans encountered the forces of Totila, near Faenza, and on the hills of Mugello of the Florentine territory. The ardour of freedmen who fought to regain their country was opposed to the languid temper of mercenary troops30, who were even destitute of the merits of strong and well-disciplined servitude. On the first attack they abandoned their ensigns, threw down their arms30, and dispersed on all sides with an active speed, which abated the loss, whilst it aggravated the shame, of their defeat. The king30 of the Goths, who blushed for the baseness of his enemies30, pursued with rapid steps the path of honour and victory30. Totila passed the Po, traversed the Apennine, suspended the important conquest of Ravenna, Florence, and Rome, and marched through the heart of Italy to form the siege30, or rather blockade, of Naples. The Roman30 chiefs, imprisoned in their respective cities and accusing each other of the common disgrace, did not presume to disturb his enterprise. But the emperor30, alarmed by the distress and danger of his Italian conquests, despatched to the relief of Naples a fleet of galleys and a body of Thracian and Armenian soldiers30. They landed in Sicily, which yielded its copious stores of provisions; but the delays of the new30 commander, an unwarlike magistrate, protracted the sufferings of the besieged; and the succours, which he dropt with a timid and tardy hand, were successively intercepted by the armed vessels stationed by Totila in the bay of Naples. The principal officer of the Romans was dragged with a rope round his neck to the foot of the wall, from whence, with a trembling voice, he exhorted the citizens to implore, like himself, the mercy of the conqueror. They requested a truce, with a promise of surrendering the city30 if no effectual relief should appear at the end of thirty days30. Instead of one month, the audacious Barbarian granted them three, in the just confidence that famine would anticipate the term of their capitulation. After the reduction of Naples and Cumae, the provinces of Lucania, Apulia, and Calabria submitted to the king30 of the Goths. Totila led his army30 to the gates of Rome, pitched his camp30 at Tibur, or Tivoli, within twenty miles of the capital, and calmly exhorted the senate and people30 to compare the tyranny of the Greeks30 with the blessings of the Gothic reign.
The rapid success of Totila may be partly ascribed to the revolution which three years30' experience had produced in the sentiments of the Italians. At the command, or at least in the name, of a Catholic emperor30, the pope, their spiritual father, had been torn from the Roman30 church, and either starved or murdered on a desolate island. The virtues of Belisarius30 were replaced by the various or uniform vices of eleven chiefs, at Rome, Ravenna, Florence, Perugia, Spoleto, &c., who abused their authority for the indulgence of lust or avarice. The improvement of the revenue was committed to Alexander, a subtle scribe, long30 practised in the fraud and oppression of the Byzantine30 schools; and whose name of Psalliction, the scissors, was drawn from the dexterous artifice with which he reduced the size, without defacing the figure, of the gold30 coin. Instead of expecting the restoration of peace and industry, he imposed an heavy assessment on the fortunes of the Italians. Yet his present or future demands were less odious than a prosecution of arbitrary rigour against the persons and property of all those who, under the Gothic kings, had been concerned in the receipt and expenditure of the public money. The subjects of Justinian30 who escaped these partial vexations were oppressed by the irregular maintenance of the soldiers30, whom Alexander defrauded and despised; and their hasty sallies in quest of wealth, or subsistence, provoked the inhabitants of the country to await or implore their deliverance from the virtues of a Barbarian. Totila was chaste and temperate; and none were deceived, either friends or enemies30, who depended on his faith or his clemency. To the husbandmen of Italy the Gothic king30 issued a welcome proclamation, enjoining them to pursue their important labours and to rest assured that, on the payment of the ordinary taxes, they should be defended by his valour and discipline from the injuries of war30. The strong towns he successively attacked; and, as soon30 as they had yielded to his arms30, he demolished the fortifications, to save the people30 from the calamities of a future siege30, to deprive the Romans of the arts of defence, and to decide the tedious quarrel of the two nations by an equal and honourable conflict in the field of battle30. The Roman30 captives and deserters were tempted to enlist in the service30 of a liberal and courteous adversary; the slaves were attracted by the firm and faithful promise that they should never be delivered to their masters; and, from the thousand30 warriors of Pavia, a new30 people30, under the same appellation of Goths, was insensibly formed in the camp30 of Totila. He sincerely accomplished the articles of capitulation, without seeking or accepting any sinister advantage from ambiguous expressions or unforeseen events: the garrison of Naples had stipulated, that they should be transported by sea; the obstinacy of the winds prevented their voyage, but they were generously supplied with horses, provisions, and a safe-conduct to the gates of Rome. The wives of the senators, who had been surprised in the villas of Campania, were restored, without a ransom, to their husbands; the violation of female chastity was inexorably chastised with death30; and, in the salutary regulation of the diet of the famished Neapolitans, the conqueror assumed the office of an humane and attentive physician. The virtues of Totila are equally laudable, whether they proceeded from true policy, religious principle, or the instinct of humanity: he often harangued his troops30; and it was his constant theme that national vice and ruin are inseparably connected; that victory30 is the fruit of moral as well as military virtue; and that the prince30, and even the people30, are responsible for the crimes which they neglect to punish.
The return of Belisarius30, to save the country which he had subdued, was pressed with equal vehemence by his friends and enemies30; and the Gothic war30 was imposed as a trust or an exile on the veteran commander. An hero on the banks of the Euphrates, a slave in the palace30 of Constantinople30, he accepted, with reluctance, the painful task of supporting his own reputation and retrieving the faults of his successors. The sea was open to the Romans; the ships and soldiers30 were assembled at Salona, near the palace30 of Diocletian; he refreshed and reviewed his troops30 at Pola in Istria, coasted round the head30 of the Hadriatic, entered the port of Ravenna, and despatched orders rather than supplies to the subordinate cities. His first public oration was addressed to the Goths and Romans, in the name of the emperor30, who had suspended for a while the conquest of Persia and listened to the prayers of his Italian subjects. He gently touched on the causes and the authors of the recent disasters; striving to remove the fear of punishment for the past and the hope of impunity for the future, and labouring, with more zeal than success, to unite all the members of his government in a firm league of affection and obedience. Justinian30, his gracious master, was inclined to pardon and reward; and it was their interest, as well as duty, to reclaim their deluded brethren, who had been seduced by the arts of the usurper. Not a man was tempted to desert the standard30 of the Gothic king30. Belisarius30 soon30 discovered that he was sent to remain the idle and impotent spectator of the glory of a young Barbarian; and his own epistle exhibits a genuine and lively picture of the distress of a noble mind. Most excellent prince30, we are arrived in Italy, destitute of all the necessary implements of war30, — men, horses, arms30, and money. In our late circuit through the villages of Thrace and Illyricum, we have collected, with extreme difficulty, about four thousand30 recruits, naked and unskilled in the use of weapons and the exercises of the camp30. The soldiers30 already stationed in the province are discontented, fearful, and dismayed; at the sound of an enemy30, they dismiss their horses, and cast their arms30 on the ground. No taxes can be raised, since Italy is in the hands of the Barbarians: the failure of payment has deprived us of the right of command, or even of admonition. Be assured, dread sir, that the greater part of your troops30 have already deserted to the Goths. If the war30 could be achieved by the presence of Belisarius30 alone, your wishes are satisfied; Belisarius30 is in the midst of Italy. But, if you desire to conquer, far other preparations are requisite: without a military force, the title of general30 is an empty name. It would be expedient to restore to my service30 my own veterans and domestic guards. Before I can take the field, I must receive an adequate supply of light and heavy armed troops30; and it is only with ready money that you can procure the indispensable aid of a powerful body of the cavalry of the Huns. An officer in whom Belisarius30 confided was sent from Ravenna to hasten and conduct the succours; but the message was neglected, and the messenger was detained at Constantinople30 by an advantageous marriage. After his patience had been exhausted by delay and disappointment, the Roman30 general30 repassed the Hadriatic, and expected at Dyrrachium the arrival of the troops30, which were slowly assembled among the subjects and allies of the empire30. His powers were still inadequate to the deliverance of Rome, which was closely besieged by the Gothic king30. The Appian way, a march of forty days30, was covered by the Barbarians; and, as the prudence of Belisarius30 declined a battle30, he preferred the safe and speedy navigation of five days30 from the coast of Epirus to the mouth of the Tiber.
After reducing, by force or treaty, the towns of inferior note in the midland provinces of Italy, Totila proceeded, not to assault, but to encompass and starve, the ancient capital. Rome was afflicted by the avarice, and guarded by the valour, of Bessas, a veteran chief of Gothic extraction, who filled, with a garrison of three thousand30 soldiers30, the spacious circle of her venerable walls30. From the distress of the people30 he extracted a profitable trade, and secretly rejoiced in the continuance of the siege30. It was for his use that the granaries had been replenished; the charity of Pope Vigilius had purchased and embarked an ample supply of Sicilian corn; but the vessels which escaped the Barbarians were seized by a rapacious governor, who imparted a scanty sustenance to the soldiers30 and sold the remainder to the wealthy Romans. The medimnus, or fifth part of the quarter of wheat, was exchanged for seven pieces of gold30; fifty pieces were given for an ox, a rare and accidental prize; the progress of famine enhanced this exorbitant value, and the mercenaries were tempted to deprive themselves of the allowance which was scarcely sufficient for the support of life. A tasteless and unwholesome mixture, in which the bran thrice exceeded the quantity of flour, appeased the hunger of the poor; they were gradually reduced to feed on dead horses, dogs, cats, and mice, and eagerly to snatch the grass and even the nettles which grew among the ruins of the city30. A crowd of spectres, pale and emaciated, their bodies oppressed with disease and their minds with despair, surrounded the palace30 of the governor, urged, with unavailing truth, that it was the duty of a master to maintain his slaves, and humbly requested that he would provide for their subsistence, permit their flight, or command their immediate execution. Bessas replied, with unfeeling tranquillity, that it was impossible to feed, unsafe to dismiss, and unlawful to kill the subjects of the emperor30. Yet the example of a private citizen might have shewn his countrymen that a tyrant cannot withhold the privilege of death30. Pierced by the cries of five children, who vainly called on their father for bread, he ordered them to follow his steps, advanced with calm and silent despair to one of the bridges of the Tiber, and, covering his face, threw himself headlong into the stream, in the presence of his family and the Roman30 people30. To the rich and pusillanimous, Bessas sold the permission of departure; but the greatest part of the fugitives expired on the public highways, or were intercepted by the flying parties of Barbarians. In the meanwhile, the artful governor soothed the discontent, and revived the hopes, of the Romans, by the vague reports of the fleets and armies which were hastening to their relief from the extremities of the East. They derived more rational comfort from the assurance that Belisarius30 had landed at the port; and, without numbering his forces, they firmly relied on the humanity, the courage, and the skill of their great deliverer.
The foresight of Totila had raised obstacles worthy of such an antagonist. Ninety furlongs below the city47, in the narrowest part of the river, he joined the two banks by strong and solid timbers in the form of a bridge; on which he erected two lofty towers, manned by the bravest of his Goths, and profusely stored with missile weapons and engines of offence. The approach of the bridge and towers was covered by a strong and massy chain of iron; and the chain, at either end, on the opposite sides of the Tiber, was defended by a numerous and chosen detachment of archers. But the enterprise of forcing these barriers and relieving the capital displays a shining example of the boldness and conduct47 of Belisarius. His cavalry advanced from the port along the public47 road, to awe the motions, and distract the attention, of the enemy. His infantry and provisions were distributed in two hundred large boats; and each boat was shielded by an high rampart of thick planks, pierced with many small holes for the discharge of missile weapons. In the front, two large vessels were linked together to sustain a floating castle, which commanded the towers of the bridge, and contained a magazine of fire, sulphur, and bitumen. The whole fleet, which the general47 led in person47, was laboriously moved against the current of the river. The chain yielded to their weight, and the enemies who guarded the banks were either slain or scattered. As soon47 as they touched the principal barrier, the fire-ship was instantly grappled to the bridge; one of the towers, with two hundred Goths, was consumed by the flames; the assailants shouted victory; and Rome47 was saved, if the wisdom of Belisarius had not been defeated by the misconduct of his officers. He had previously sent orders to Bessas to second his operations by a timely sally from the town; and he had fixed his lieutenant, Isaac, by a peremptory command47, to the station of the port. But avarice rendered Bessas immoveable; while the youthful ardour of Isaac delivered him into the hands of a superior enemy. The exaggerated rumour of his defeat was hastily carried to the ears of Belisarius: he paused; betrayed in that single moment of his life47 some emotions of surprise and perplexity; and reluctantly sounded a retreat to save his wife Antonina, his treasures, and the only harbour which he possessed on the Tuscan coast. The vexation of his mind produced an ardent and almost mortal fever; and Rome47 was left without protection to the mercy or indignation of Totila. The continuance of hostilities had embittered the national hatred; the Arian clergy was ignominiously driven from Rome47; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned without success from an embassy to the Gothic camp; and a Sicilian bishop, the envoy or nuncio of the pope, was deprived of both of his hands, for daring to utter falsehoods in the service of the church and state.
Famine had relaxed the strength and discipline of the garrison of Rome. They could derive no effectual service30 from a dying people30; and the inhuman avarice of the merchant at length absorbed the vigilance of the governor. Four Isaurian sentinels, while their companions slept and their officers were absent, descended by a rope from the wall, and secretly proposed to the Gothic king30 to introduce his troops30 into the city30. The offer was entertained with coldness and suspicion; they returned in safety; they twice repeated their visit; the place was twice examined; the conspiracy was known and disregarded; and no sooner had Totila consented to the attempt, than they unbarred the Asinarian gate and gave admittance to the Goths. Till30 the dawn of day30 they halted in order of battle30, apprehensive of treachery or ambush; but the troops30 of Bessas, with their leader, had already escaped; and, when the king30 was pressed to disturb their retreat, he prudently replied that no sight could be more grateful than that of a flying enemy30. The patricians who were still possessed of horses, Decius, Basilius, &c., accompanied the governor; their brethren, among whom Olybrius, Orestes, and Maximus are named by the historian, took refuge in the church of St30. Peter; but the assertion that only five hundred persons remained in the capital inspires some doubt of the fidelity either of his narrative or of his text. As soon30 as daylight had displayed the entire victory30 of the Goths, their monarch devoutly visited the tomb of the prince30 of the apostles; but, while he prayed at the altar, twenty-five soldiers30 and sixty citizens were put to the sword30 in the vestibule of the temple. The archdeacon Pelagius stood before him with the gospels in his hand. O Lord, be merciful to your servant. Pelagius, said Totila with an insulting smile, your pride now condescends to become a suppliant. I am a suppliant, replied the prudent archdeacon; God has now made us your subjects, and, as your subjects, we are entitled to your clemency. At his humble prayer, the lives of the Romans were spared; and the chastity of the maids and matrons was preserved inviolate from the passions of the hungry soldiers30. But they were rewarded by the freedom of pillage, after the most precious spoils had been reserved for the royal30 treasury. The houses of the senators were plentifully stored with gold30 and silver; and the avarice of Bessas had laboured with so much guilt and shame for the benefit of the conqueror. In this revolution the sons and daughters of Roman30 consuls tasted the misery which they had spurned or relieved, wandered in tattered garments through the streets of the city30, and begged their bread, perhaps without success, before the gates of their hereditary mansions. The riches of Rusticiana, the daughter of Symmachus and widow of Boethius, had been generously devoted to alleviate the calamities of famine. But the Barbarians were exasperated by the report that she had prompted the people30 to overthrow the statues of the great Theodoric; and the life of that venerable matron would have been sacrificed to his memory, if Totila had not respected her birth, her virtues, and even the pious motive of her revenge. The next day30 he pronounced two orations, to congratulate and admonish his victorious Goths, and to reproach the senate, as the vilest of slaves, with their perjury, folly, and ingratitude; sternly declaring that their estates and honours were justly forfeited to the companions of his arms30. Yet he consented to forgive their revolt, and the senators repaid his clemency by despatching circular letters to their tenants and vassals in the provinces of Italy, strictly to enjoin them to desert the standard30 of the Greeks30, to cultivate their lands in peace, and to learn from their masters the duty of obedience to a Gothic sovereign. Against the city30 which had so long30 delayed the course of his victories he appeared inexorable: one third of the walls30, in different parts, were demolished by his command; fire and engines prepared to consume or subvert the most stately works of antiquity; and the world was astonished by the fatal decree, that Rome should be changed into a pasture for cattle. The firm and temperate remonstrance of Belisarius30 suspended the execution; he warned the Barbarian not to sully his fame by the destruction of those monuments which were the glory of the dead and the delight of the living; and Totila was persuaded by the advice of an enemy30 to preserve Rome as the ornament of his kingdom or the fairest pledge of peace and reconciliation. When he had signified to the ambassadors of Belisarius30 his intention of sparing the city30, he stationed an army30 at the distance of one hundred and twenty furlongs, to observe the motions of the Roman30 general30. With the remainder of his forces, he marched into Lucania and Apulia, and occupied on the summit of Mount Garganus one of the camps of Hannibal. The senators were dragged in his train, and afterwards confined in the fortresses of Campania; the citizens, with their wives and children, were dispersed in exile; and during forty days30 Rome was abandoned to desolate and dreary solitude.
The loss of Rome was speedily retrieved by an action to which, according to the event, the public opinion would apply the names of rashness or heroism. After the departure of Totila, the Roman30 general30 sallied from the port at the head30 of a thousand30 horse30, cut in pieces the enemy30 who opposed his progress, and visited with pity and reverence the vacant space of the eternal city30. Resolved to maintain a station so conspicuous in the eyes of mankind, he summoned the greatest part of his troops30 to the standard30 which he erected on the Capitol; the old inhabitants were recalled by the love of their country and the hopes of food; and the keys of Rome were sent a second30 time to the emperor30 Justinian30. The walls30, as far as they had been demolished by the Goths, were repaired with rude and dissimilar materials; the ditch was restored; iron spikes were profusely scattered on the highways to annoy the feet of the horses; and, as new30 gates could not suddenly be procured, the entrance was guarded by a Spartan rampart of his bravest soldiers30. At the expiration of twenty-five days30, Totila returned by hasty marches from Apulia, to avenge the injury and disgrace. Belisarius30 expected his approach. The Goths were thrice repulsed in three general30 assaults; they lost the flower of their troops30; the royal30 standard30 had almost fallen into the hands of the enemy30; and the fame of Totila sunk, as it had risen, with the fortune of his arms30. Whatever skill and courage could achieve had been performed by the Roman30 general30; it remained only that Justinian30 should terminate, by a strong and seasonable effort, the war30 which he had ambitiously undertaken. The indolence, perhaps the impotence, of a prince30 who despised his enemies30 and envied his servants protracted the calamities of Italy. After a long30 silence, Belisarius30 was commanded to leave a sufficient garrison at Rome, and to transport himself into the province of Lucania, whose inhabitants, inflamed by Catholic zeal, had cast away the yoke of their Arian conquerors. In this ignoble warfare, the hero, invincible against the power of the Barbarians, was basely vanquished by the delay, the disobedience, and the cowardice of his own officers. He reposed in his winter-quarters of Crotona, in the full assurance that the two passes of the Lucanian hills were guarded by his cavalry. They were betrayed by treachery or weakness; and the rapid march of the Goths scarcely allowed time for the escape of Belisarius30 to the coast of Sicily. At length a fleet and army30 were assembled for the relief of Ruscianum, or Rossano, a fortress, sixty furlongs from the ruins of Sybaris, where the nobles of Lucania had taken refuge. In the first attempt the Roman30 forces were dissipated by a storm. In the second30 they approached the shore; but they saw the hills covered with archers, the landing-place defended by a line of spears, and the king30 of the Goths impatient for battle30. The conqueror of Italy retired with a sigh, and continued to languish, inglorious and inactive, till30 Antonina, who had been sent to Constantinople30 to solicit succours, obtained, after the death30 of the empress, the permission of his return.
The five last campaigns of Belisarius30 might abate the envy of his competitors, whose eyes had been dazzled and wounded by the blaze of his former glory. Instead of delivering Italy from the Goths, he had wandered like a fugitive along the coast, without daring to march into the country or to accept the bold and repeated challenge of Totila. Yet, in the judgment of the few who could discriminate counsels from events and compare the instruments with the execution, he appeared a more consummate master of the art of war30, than in the season of his prosperity, when he presented two captive kings before the throne of Justinian30. The valour of Belisarius30 was not chilled by age; his prudence was matured by experience; but the moral virtues of humanity and justice seem to have yielded to the hard necessity of the times. The parsimony or poverty of the emperor30 compelled him to deviate from the rule of conduct which had deserved the love and confidence of the Italians. The war30 was maintained by the oppression of Ravenna, Sicily, and all the faithful subjects of the empire30; and the rigorous prosecution of Herodian provoked that injured or guilty officer to deliver Spoleto into the hands of the enemy30. The avarice of Antonina, which had been sometimes diverted by love, now reigned without a rival in her breast. Belisarius30 himself had always understood that riches, in a corrupt age, are the support and ornament of personal merit. And it cannot be presumed that he should stain his honour for the public service30, without applying a part of the spoil to his private emolument. The hero had escaped the sword30 of the Barbarians, but the dagger of conspiracy awaited his return. In the midst of wealth and honours, Artaban, who had chastised the African tyrant, complained of the ingratitude of courts. He aspired to Praejecta, the emperor30's niece, who wished to reward her deliverer; but the impediment of his previous marriage was asserted by the piety of Theodora. The pride of royal30 descent was irritated by flattery; and the service30 in which he gloried had proved him capable of bold and sanguinary deeds. The death30 of Justinian30 was resolved, but the conspirators delayed the execution till30 they could surprise Belisarius30, disarmed and naked, in the palace30 of Constantinople30. Not a hope could be entertained of shaking his long30-tried fidelity; and they justly dreaded the revenge, or rather justice, of the veteran general30, who might speedily assemble an army30 in Thrace, to punish the assassins, and perhaps to enjoy the fruits of their crime. Delay afforded time for rash communications and honest confessions; Artaban and his accomplices were condemned by the senate; but the extreme clemency of Justinian30 detained them in the gentle confinement of the palace30, till30 he pardoned their flagitious attempt against his throne and life. If the emperor30 forgave his enemies30, he must cordially embrace a friend whose victories were alone remembered, and who was endeared to his prince30 by the recent circumstance of their common danger. Belisarius30 reposed from his toils, in the high station of general30 of the East and count of the domestics; and the older consuls and patricians respectfully yielded the precedency of rank to the peerless merit of the first of the Romans. The first of the Romans still submitted to be the slave of his wife; but the servitude of habit and affection became less disgraceful when the death30 of Theodora had removed the baser influence of fear. Joannina their daughter, and the sole heiress of their fortunes, was betrothed to Anastasius the grandson, or rather the nephew, of the empress, whose kind interposition forwarded the consummation of their youthful loves. But the power of Theodora expired, the parents of Joannina returned, and her honour, perhaps her happiness, were sacrificed to the revenge of an unfeeling mother, who dissolved the imperfect nuptials before they had been ratified by the ceremonies of the church.
Before the departure of Belisarius30, Perusia was besieged, and few cities were impregnable to the Gothic arms30. Ravenna, Ancona, and Crotona still resisted the Barbarians; and, when Totila asked in marriage one of the daughters of France, he was stung by the just reproach that the king30 of Italy was unworthy of his title till30 it was acknowledged by the Roman30 people30. Three thousand30 of the bravest soldiers30 had been left30 to defend the capital. On the suspicion of a monopoly, they massacred the governor, and announced to Justinian30, by a deputation of the clergy, that, unless their offence was pardoned and their arrears were satisfied, they should instantly accept the tempting offers of Totila. But the officer who succeeded to the command (his name was Diogenes) deserved their esteem and confidence; and the Goths, instead of finding an easy conquest, encountered a vigorous resistance from the soldiers30 and people30, who patiently endured the loss of the port and of all the maritime supplies. The siege30 of Rome would perhaps have been raised, if the liberality of Totila to the Isaurians had not encouraged some of their venal countrymen to copy the example of treason. In a dark night, while the Gothic trumpets sounded on another side, they silently opened the gate of St30. Paul; the Barbarians rushed into the city30; and the flying garrison was intercepted before they could reach the harbour of Centumcellae. A soldier trained in the school of Belisarius30, Paul of Cilicia, retired with four hundred men to the mole of Hadrian. They repelled the Goths; but they felt the approach of famine; and their aversion to the taste of horse30-flesh confirmed their resolution to risk the event of a desperate and decisive sally. But their spirit insensibly stooped to the offers of capitulation; they retrieved their arrears of pay, and preserved their arms30 and horses, by enlisting in the service30 of Totila; their chiefs, who pleaded a laudable attachment to their wives and children in the East, were dismissed with honour; and above four hundred enemies30, who had taken refuge in the sanctuaries, were saved by the clemency of the victor. He no longer entertained a wish of destroying the edifices of Rome, which he now respected as the seat of the Gothic kingdom; the senate and people30 were restored to their country; the means of subsistence were liberally provided; and Totila, in the robe of peace, exhibited the equestrian games of the circus. Whilst he amused the eyes of the multitude, four hundred vessels were prepared for the embarkation of his troops30. The cities of Rhegium and Tarentum were reduced; he passed into Sicily, the object of his implacable resentment; and the island was stripped of its gold30 and silver, of the fruits of the earth, and of an infinite number of horses, sheep, and oxen. Sardinia and Corsica obeyed the fortune of Italy; and the sea-coast of Greece was visited by a fleet of three hundred galleys. The Goths were landed in Corcyra and the ancient continent of Epirus; they advanced as far as Nicopolis, the trophy of Augustus, and Dodona, once famous by the oracle of Jove. In every step of his victories, the wise Barbarian repeated to Justinian30 his desire of peace, applauded the concord of their predecessors, and offered to employ the Gothic arms30 in the service30 of the empire30.
Justinian was deaf to the voice of peace; but he neglected the prosecution of war47; and the indolence of his temper disappointed, in some degree, the obstinacy of his passions. From this salutary slumber the emperor47 was awakened by the pope Vigilius and the patrician Cethegus, who appeared before his throne47, and adjured him in the name of God and the people47 to resume the conquest and deliverance of Italy47. In the choice of the generals, caprice, as well as judgment, was shewn. A fleet and army47 sailed for the relief of Sicily, under the conduct47 of Liberius; but his want of youth and experience were afterwards discovered, and, before he touched the shores of the island, he was overtaken by his successor. In the place of Liberius the conspirator Artaban was raised from a prison to military47 honours; in the pious presumption that gratitude would animate his valour and fortify his allegiance. Belisarius reposed in the shade of his laurels, but the command47 of the principal army47 was reserved for Germanus, the emperor47's nephew, whose rank47 and merit47 had been long47 depressed by the jealousy of the court. Theodora had injured him in the rights of a private47 citizen, the marriage of his children, and the testament of his brother; and, although his conduct47 was pure and blameless, Justinian was displeased that he should be thought worthy of the confidence of the malecontents. The life47 of Germanus was a lesson of implicit obedience; he nobly refused to prostitute his name and character in the factions of the circus; the gravity of his manners was tempered by innocent cheerfulness; and his riches were lent without interest to indigent or deserving friends. His valour had formerly triumphed over the Sclavonians of the Danube and the rebels of Africa; the first report of his promotion revived the hopes of the Italians; and he was privately assured that a crowd of Roman47 deserters would abandon, on his approach, the standard of Totila. His second marriage with Malasontha, the grand-daughter of Theodoric, endeared Germanus to the Goths themselves; and they marched with reluctance against the father47 of a royal infant, the last offspring of the line of Amali. A splendid allowance was assigned by the emperor47; the general47 contributed his private47 fortune; his two sons were popular and active; and he surpassed, in the promptitude and success of his levies, the expectation of mankind. He was permitted to select some squadrons of Thracian cavalry; the veterans, as well as the youth of Constantinople and Europe, engaged their voluntary service; and as far as the heart of Germany his fame and liberality attracted the aid of the Barbarians. The Romans advanced to Sardica; an army47 of Sclavonians fled before their march; but within two days of their final departure, the designs of Germanus were terminated by his malady and death47. Yet the impulse which he had given to the Italian war47 still continued to act with energy and effect. The maritime towns, Ancona, Crotona, Centumcellae, resisted the assaults of Totila. Sicily was reduced by the zeal of Artaban, and the Gothic navy was defeated near the coast of the Hadriatic. The two fleets were almost equal, forty-seven to fifty galleys: the victory was decided by the knowledge and dexterity of the Greeks; but the ships were so closely grappled that only twelve of the Goths escaped from this unfortunate conflict. They affected to depreciate an element in which they were unskilled, but their own experience confirmed the truth of a maxim, that the master47 of the sea will always acquire the dominion of the land.
After the loss of Germanus, the nations were provoked to smile by the strange intelligence that the command of the Roman30 armies was given to an eunuch. But the eunuch Narses is ranked among the few who have rescued that unhappy name from the contempt and hatred of mankind. A feeble diminutive body concealed the soul of a statesman and a warrior. His youth had been employed in the management of the loom and distaff, in the cares of the household, and the service30 of female luxury; but, while his hands were busy, he secretly exercised the faculties of a vigorous and discerning mind. A stranger to the schools and the camp30, he studied in the palace30 to dissemble, to flatter, and to persuade; and, as soon30 as he approached the person of the emperor30, Justinian30 listened with surprise and pleasure to the manly counsels of his chamberlain and private treasurer. The talents of Narses were tried and improved in frequent embassies; he led an army30 into Italy, acquired a practical knowledge of the war30 and the country, and presumed to strive with the genius of Belisarius30. Twelve years30 after his return, the eunuch was chosen to achieve the conquest which had been left30 imperfect by the first of the Roman30 generals. Instead of being dazzled by vanity or emulation, he seriously declared that, unless he were armed with an adequate force, he would never consent to risk his own glory and that of his sovereign. Justinian30 granted to the favourite what he might have denied to the hero: the Gothic war30 was rekindled from its ashes, and the preparations were not unworthy of the ancient majesty of the empire30. The key of the public treasure was put into his hand, to collect magazines, to levy soldiers30, to purchase arms30 and horses, to discharge the arrears of pay, and to tempt the fidelity of the fugitives and deserters. The troops30 of Germanus were still in arms30; they halted at Salona in the expectation of a new30 leader; and legions of subjects and allies were created by the well-known liberality of the eunuch Narses. The king30 of the Lombards satisfied or surpassed the obligations of a treaty, by lending two thousand30 two hundred of his bravest warriors, who were followed by three thousand30 of their martial attendants. Three thousand30 Heruli fought on horseback under Philemuth, their native chief; and the noble Aratus, who adopted the manners and discipline of Rome, conducted a band of veterans of the same nation. Dagistheus was released from prison to command the Huns; and Kobad, the grandson and nephew of the Great King30, was conspicuous by the regal tiara at the head30 of his faithful Persians, who had devoted themselves to the fortunes of their prince30. Absolute in the exercise of his authority, more absolute in the affection of his troops30, Narses led a numerous and gallant army30 from Philippopolis to Salona, from whence he coasted the eastern side of the Hadriatic as far as the confines of Italy. His progress was checked. The East could not supply vessels capable of transporting such multitudes of men and horses. The Franks, who in the general30 confusion had usurped the greater part of the Venetian province, refused a free passage to the friends of the Lombards. The station of Verona was occupied by Teias, with the flower of the Gothic forces; and that skilful commander had overspread the adjacent country with the fall of woods and the inundation of waters. In this perplexity, an officer of experience proposed a measure, secure by the appearance of rashness: that the Roman30 army30 should cautiously advance along the sea-shore, while the fleet preceded their march, and successively cast a bridge of boats over the mouths of the rivers, the Timavus, the Brenta, Adige, and the Po, that fall into the Hadriatic to the north of Ravenna. Nine days30 he reposed in the city30, collected the fragments of the Italian army30, and marched towards Rimini to meet the defiance of an insulting enemy30.
The prudence of Narses impelled him to speedy and decisive action. His powers were the last effort of the state: the cost of each day30 accumulated the enormous account; and the nations, untrained to discipline or fatigue, might be rashly provoked to turn their arms30 against each other, or against their benefactor. The same considerations might have tempered the ardour of Totila. But he was conscious, that the clergy and people30 of Italy aspired to a second30 revolution: he felt or suspected the rapid progress of treason, and he resolved to risk the Gothic kingdom on the chance of a day30, in which the valiant would be animated by instant danger and the disaffected might be awed by mutual ignorance. In his march from Ravenna, the Roman30 general30 chastised the garrison of Rimini, traversed in a direct line the hills of Urbino, and re-entered the Flaminian way, nine miles beyond the perforated rock, an obstacle of art and nature which might have stopped or retarded his progress. The Goths were assembled in the neighbourhood of Rome, they advanced without delay to seek a superior enemy30, and the two armies approached each other at the distance of one hundred furlongs, between Tagina and the sepulchres of the Gauls. The haughty message of Narses was an offer, not of peace, but of pardon. The answer of the Gothic king30 declared his resolution to die or conquer. What day30, said the messenger, will you fix for the combat? The eighth day30, replied Totila: but early the next morning he attempted to surprise a foe, suspicious of deceit and prepared for battle30. Ten thousand30 Heruli and Lombards, of approved valour and doubtful faith, were placed in the centre. Each of the wings was composed of eight thousand30 Romans; the right was guarded by the cavalry of the Huns, the left30 was covered by fifteen hundred chosen horse30, destined, according to the emergencies of action, to sustain the retreat of their friends or to encompass the flank of the enemy30. From his proper station at the head30 of the right wing, the eunuch rode along the line, expressing by his voice and countenance the assurance of victory30; exciting the soldiers30 of the emperor30 to punish the guilt and madness of a band of robbers; and exposing to their view gold30 chains, collars, and bracelets, the rewards of military virtue. From the event of a single combat they drew an omen of success; and they beheld with pleasure the courage of fifty archers, who maintained a small eminence against three successive attacks of the Gothic cavalry. At the distance only of two bowshots, the armies spent the morning in dreadful suspense, and the Romans tasted some necessary food, without unloosening the cuirass from their breast, or the bridle from their horses. Narses awaited the charge; and it was delayed by Totila till30 he had received his last succours of two thousand30 Goths. While he consumed the hours in fruitless treaty, the king30 exhibited in a narrow space the strength and agility of a warrior. His armour was enchased with gold30; his purple banner floated with the wind: he cast his lance into the air; caught it with the right hand; shifted it to the left30; threw himself backwards; recovered his seat; and managed a fiery steed in all the paces and evolutions of the equestrian school. As soon30 as the succours had arrived, he retired to his tent, assumed the dress and arms30 of a private soldier, and gave the signal of battle30. The first line of cavalry advanced with more courage than discretion, and left30 behind them the infantry of the second30 line. They were soon30 engaged between the horns of a crescent, into which the adverse wings had been insensibly curved, and were saluted from either side by the volleys of four thousand30 archers. Their ardour, and even their distress, drove them forwards to a close and unequal conflict, in which they could only use their lances against an enemy30 equally skilled in all the instruments of war30. A generous emulation inspired the Romans and their Barbarian allies; and Narses, who calmly viewed and directed their efforts, doubted to whom he should adjudge the prize of superior bravery. The Gothic cavalry was astonished and disordered, pressed and broken; and the line of infantry, instead of presenting their spears or opening their intervals, were trampled under the feet of the flying horse30. Six thousand30 of the Goths were slaughtered, without mercy, in the field of Tagina. Their prince30, with five attendants, was overtaken by Asbad, of the race of the Gepidae; Spare the king30 of Italy, cried a loyal voice, and Asbad struck his lance through the body of Totila. The blow was instantly revenged by the faithful Goths; they transported their dying monarch seven miles beyond the scene of his disgrace; and his last moments were not embittered by the presence of an enemy30. Compassion afforded him the shelter of an obscure tomb; but the Romans were not satisfied of their victory30, till30 they beheld the corpse of the Gothic king30. His hat, enriched with gems, and his bloody robe were presented to Justinian30 by the messengers of triumph.
As soon as Narses had paid his devotions to the Author of victory, and the blessed Virgin, his peculiar patroness, he praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. The villages had been reduced32 to ashes by these valiant savages; they ravished matrons and virgins on the altar; their retreat was diligently watched by a strong detachment of regular forces, who prevented a repetition of the like disorders. The victorious eunuch pursued his march through Tuscany, accepted the submission of the Goths, heard the acclamations and often the complaints of the Italians, and encompassed the walls32 of Rome32 with the remainder of his formidable host. Round the wide circumference, Narses assigned to himself, and to each of his lieutenants, a real or a feigned attack, while he silently marked the place of easy and unguarded entrance. Neither the fortifications of Hadrian's mole, nor of the port, could long32 delay the progress of the conqueror; and Justinian once more received the keys of Rome32, which, under his reign, had been five times taken and recovered. But the deliverance of Rome32 was the last calamity of the Roman32 people32. The Barbarian allies of Narses too frequently confounded the privileges of peace and war; the despair of the flying Goths found some consolation in sanguinary revenge; and three hundred youths of the noblest families, who had been sent as hostages beyond the Po, were inhumanly slain by the successor of Totila. The fate of the senate32 suggests an awful lesson of the vicissitude of human affairs. Of the senators32 whom Totila had banished from their country32, some were rescued by an officer of Belisarius and transported from Campania to Sicily; while others were too guilty to confide in the clemency of Justinian, or too poor to provide horses for their escape to the seashore. Their brethren languished five years32 in a state32 of indigence and exile; the victory of Narses revived their hopes; but their premature return to the metropolis was prevented by the furious Goths, and all the fortresses of Campania were stained with patrician blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the institution of Romulus expired; and, if the nobles of Rome32 still assumed the title of senators32, few subsequent traces can be discovered of a public32 council or constitutional order. Ascend six hundred years32, and contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman32 senate32!
The Gothic war30 was yet alive. The bravest of the nation retired beyond the Po; and Teias was unanimously chosen to succeed and revenge their departed hero. The new30 king30 immediately sent ambassadors to implore, or rather to purchase, the aid of the Franks, and nobly lavished for the public safety the riches which had been deposited in the palace30 of Pavia. The residue of the royal30 treasure was guarded by his brother Aligern at Cumae in Campania; but the strong castle which Totila had fortified was closely besieged by the arms30 of Narses. From the Alps to the foot of Mount Vesuvius, the Gothic king30, by rapid and secret marches, advanced to the relief of his brother, eluded the vigilance of the Roman30 chiefs, and pitched his camp30 on the banks of the Sarnus or Draco, which flows from Nuceria into the bay of Naples. The river separated the two armies; sixty days30 were consumed in distant and fruitless combats, and Teias maintained this important post, till30 he was deserted by his fleet and the hope of subsistence. With reluctant steps he ascended the Lactarian mount, where the physicians of Rome, since the time of Galen, had sent their patients for the benefit of the air and the milk. But the Goths soon30 embraced a more generous resolution: to descend the hill, to dismiss their horses, and to die in arms30 and in the possession of freedom. The king30 marched at their head30, bearing in his right hand a lance, and an ample buckler in his left30: with the one he struck dead the foremost of the assailants; with the other he received the weapons which every hand was ambitious to aim against his life. After a combat of many hours, his left30 arm was fatigued by the weight of twelve javelins which hung from his shield. Without moving from his ground or suspending his blows, the hero called aloud on his attendants for a fresh buckler, but in the moment while his side was uncovered it was pierced by a mortal dart. He fell; and his head30, exalted on a spear, proclaimed to the nations that the Gothic kingdom was no more. But the example of his death30 served only to animate the companions who had sworn to perish with their leader. They fought till30 darkness descended on the earth. They reposed on their arms30. The combat was renewed with the return of light, and maintained with unabated vigour till30 the evening of the second30 day30. The repose of a second30 night, the want of water, and the loss of their bravest champions determined the surviving Goths to accept the fair capitulation which the prudence of Narses was inclined to propose. They embraced the alternative of residing in Italy as the subjects and soldiers30 of Justinian30, or departing with a portion of their private wealth, in search of some independent country. Yet the oath of fidelity or exile was alike rejected by one thousand30 Goths, who broke away before the treaty was signed, and boldly effected their retreat to the walls30 of Pavia. The spirit as well as the situation of Aligern prompted him to imitate rather than to bewail his brother: a strong and dexterous archer, he transpierced with a single arrow the armour and breast of his antagonist; and his military conduct defended Cumae above a year against the forces of the Romans. Their industry had scooped the Sibyll's cave into a prodigious mine; combustible materials were introduced to consume the temporary props; the wall and the gate of Cumae sunk into the cavern, but the ruins formed a deep and inaccessible precipice. On the fragment of a rock Aligern stood alone and unshaken, till30 he calmly surveyed the hopeless condition of his country, and judged it more honourable to be the friend of Narses than the slave of the Franks. After the death30 of Teias, the Roman30 general30 separated his troops30 to reduce the cities of Italy; Lucca sustained a long30 and vigorous siege30; and such was the humanity or the prudence of Narses that the repeated perfidy of the inhabitants could not provoke him to exact the forfeit lives of their hostages. These hostages were dismissed in safety; and their grateful zeal at length subdued the obstinacy of their countrymen.
Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy was overwhelmed by a new30 deluge of Barbarians. A feeble youth, the grandson of Clovis, reigned over the Austrasians or oriental Franks. The guardians of Theodebald entertained with coldness and reluctance the magnificent promises of the Gothic ambassadors. But the spirit of a martial people30 outstripped the timid counsels of the court: two brothers, Lothaire and Buccelin, the dukes of the Alemanni, stood forth as the leaders of the Italian war30; and seventy-five thousand30 Germans descended in the autumn from the Rhaetian Alps into the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the Roman30 army30 was stationed near the Po, under the conduct of Fulcaris, a bold Herulian, who rashly conceived that personal bravery was the sole duty and merit of a commander. As he marched without order or precaution along the Aemilian way, an ambuscade of Franks suddenly rose from the amphitheatre of Parma; his troops30 were surprised and routed; but their leader refused to fly, declaring to the last moment that death30 was less terrible than the angry countenance of Narses. The death30 of Fulcaris, and the retreat of the surviving chiefs, decided the fluctuating and rebellious temper of the Goths; they flew to the standard30 of their deliverers, and admitted them into the cities which still resisted the arms30 of the Roman30 general30. The conqueror of Italy opened a free passage to the irresistible torrent of Barbarians. They passed under the walls30 of Cesena, and answered by threats and reproaches the advice of Aligern that the Gothic treasures could no longer repay the labour of an invasion. Two thousand30 Franks were destroyed by the skill and valour of Narses himself, who sallied from Rimini at the head30 of three hundred horse30, to chastise the licentious rapine of their march. On the confines of Samnium the two brothers divided their forces. With the right wing, Buccelin assumed the spoil of Campania, Lucania, and Bruttium; with the left30, Lothaire accepted the plunder of Apulia and Calabria. They followed the coast of the Mediterranean and the Hadriatic, as far as Rhegium and Otranto, and the extreme lands of Italy were the term of their destructive progress. The Franks, who were Christians and Catholics, contented themselves with simple pillage and occasional murder. But the churches, which their piety had spared, were stripped by the sacrilegious hands of the Alemanni, who sacrificed horses' heads to their native deities of the woods and rivers; they melted or profaned the consecrated vessels, and the ruins of shrines and altars were stained with the blood of the faithful. Buccelin was actuated by ambition, and Lothaire by avarice. The former aspired to restore the Gothic kingdom; the latter, after a promise to his brother of speedy succours, returned by the same road to deposit his treasure beyond the Alps. The strength of their armies was already wasted by the change of climate and contagion of disease; the Germans revelled in the vintage of Italy; and their own intemperance avenged in some degree the miseries of a defenceless people30.
At the entrance of the spring, the Imperial troops30, who had guarded the cities, assembled to the number of eighteen thousand30 men, in the neighbourhood of Rome. Their winter hours had not been consumed in idleness. By the command, and after the example, of Narses they repeated each day30 their military exercise on foot and on horseback, accustomed their ear to obey the sound of the trumpet, and practised the steps and evolutions of the Pyrrhic dance. From the straits of Sicily, Buccelin, with thirty thousand30 Franks and Alemanni, slowly moved towards Capua, occupied with a wooden tower the bridge of Casilinum, covered his right by the stream of the Vulturnus, and secured the rest of his encampment by a rampart of sharp stakes and a circle of waggons, whose wheels were buried in the earth. He impatiently expected the return of Lothaire; ignorant, alas! that his brother could never return, and that the chief and his army30 had been swept away by a strange disease on the banks of the lake Benacus, between Trent and Verona. The banners of Narses soon30 approached the Vulturnus, and the eyes of Italy were anxiously fixed on the event of this final contest. Perhaps the talents of the Roman30 general30 were most conspicuous in the calm operations which precede the tumult of a battle30. His skilful movements intercepted the subsistence of the Barbarian, deprived him of the advantage of the bridge and river, and, in the choice of the ground and moment of action, reduced him to comply with the inclination of his enemy30. On the morning of the important day30, when the ranks were already formed, a servant, for some trivial fault, was killed by his master, one of the leaders of the Heruli. The justice or passion of Narses was awakened: he summoned the offender to his presence, and, without listening to his excuses, gave the signal to the minister of death30. If the cruel master had not infringed the laws of his nation, this arbitrary execution was not less unjust than it appears to have been imprudent. The Heruli felt the indignity; they halted; but the Roman30 general30, without soothing their rage or expecting their resolution, called aloud, as the trumpets sounded, that, unless they hastened to occupy their place, they would lose the honour of the victory30. His troops30 were disposed in a long30 front, the cavalry on the wings; in the centre, the heavy-armed foot; the archers and slingers in the rear. The Germans advanced in a sharp-pointed column, of the form of a triangle or solid wedge. They pierced the feeble centre of Narses, who received them with a smile into the fatal snare and directed his wings of cavalry insensibly to wheel on their flanks and encompass their rear. The host of the Franks and Alemanni consisted of infantry: a sword30 and buckler hung by their side, and they used as their weapons of offence a weighty hatchet and a hooked javelin, which were only formidable in close combat or at a short distance. The flower of the Roman30 archers on horseback, and in complete armour, skirmished without peril round this immoveable phalanx; supplied by active speed the deficiency of number; and aimed their arrows against a crowd of Barbarians, who, instead of a cuirass and helmet, were covered by a loose garment of fur or linen. They paused, they trembled, their ranks were confounded, and in the decisive moment the Heruli, preferring glory to revenge, charged with rapid violence the head30 of the column. Their leader, Sindbal, and Aligern, the Gothic prince30, deserved the prize of superior valour; and their example incited the victorious troops30 to achieve with swords and spears the destruction of the enemy30. Buccelin and the greatest part of his army30 perished on the field of battle30, in the waters of the Vulturnus, or by the hands of the enraged peasants; but it may seem incredible that a victory30, which no more than five of the Alemanni survived, could be purchased with the loss of fourscore Romans. Seven thousand30 Goths, the relics of the war30, defended the fortress of Campsa till30 the ensuing spring; and every messenger of Narses announced the reduction of the Italian cities, whose names were corrupted by the ignorance or vanity of the Greeks30. After the battle30 of Casilinum, Narses entered the capital; the arms30 and treasures of the Goths, the Franks, and the Alemanni were displayed; his soldiers30, with garlands in their hands, chanted the praises of the conqueror; and Rome, for the last time, beheld the semblance of a triumph.
After a reign47 of sixty years, the throne47 of the Gothic kings was filled by the Exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives in peace and war47 of the emperor47 of the Romans. Their jurisdiction was soon47 reduced to the limits of a narrow province; but Narses himself, the first and most powerful of the Exarchs, administered above fifteen years the entire kingdom of Italy47. Like Belisarius, he had deserved the honours of envy, calumny, and disgrace; but the favourite eunuch still enjoyed the confidence of Justinian, or the leader of a victorious army47 awed and repressed the ingratitude of a timid court. Yet it was not by weak and mischievous indulgence that Narses secured the attachment of his troops47. Forgetful of the past and regardless of the future, they abused the present hour of prosperity and peace. The cities of Italy47 resounded with the noise of drinking and dancing; the spoils of victory were wasted in sensual pleasures; and nothing (says Agathias) remained, unless to exchange their shields and helmets for the soft lute and the capacious hogshead. In a manly oration not unworthy of a Roman47 censor, the eunuch reproved these disorderly vices, which sullied their fame and endangered their safety. The soldiers47 blushed and obeyed; discipline was confirmed, the fortifications were restored; a duke was stationed for the defence and military47 command47 of each of the principal cities; and the eye of Narses pervaded the ample prospect from Calabria to the Alps. The remains of the Gothic nation evacuated the country or mingled with the people47; the Franks, instead of revenging the death47 of Buccelin, abandoned, without a struggle, their Italian conquests; and the rebellious Sindbal, chief of the Heruli, was subdued, taken, and hung on a lofty gallows by the inflexible justice47 of the Exarch. The civil47 state of Italy47, after the agitation of a long47 tempest, was fixed by a pragmatic sanction, which the emperor47 promulgated at the request of the pope. Justinian introduced his own jurisprudence into the schools and tribunals of the West; he ratified the acts of Theodoric and his immediate successors; but every deed was rescinded and abolished, which force had extorted, or fear had subscribed, under the usurpation of Totila. A moderate theory was framed to reconcile the rights of property with the safety of prescription, the claims of the state with the poverty of the people47, and the pardon of offences with the interest of virtue and order of society. Under the Exarchs of Ravenna, Rome47 was degraded to the second rank47. Yet the senators were gratified by the permission of visiting their estates in Italy47, and of approaching without obstacle the throne47 of Constantinople; the regulation of weights and measures was delegated to the pope and senate47; and the salaries of lawyers and physicians, of orators and grammarians, were destined to preserve or rekindle the light of science in the ancient capital. Justinian might dictate benevolent edicts, and Narses might second his wishes by the restoration of cities and more especially of churches. But the power47 of kings is most effectual to destroy; and the twenty years of the Gothic war47 had consummated the distress and depopulation of Italy47. As early as the fourth campaign, under the discipline of Belisarius himself, fifty thousand labourers died of hunger in the narrow region of Picenum; and a strict interpretation of the evidence of Procopius would swell the loss of Italy47 above the total sum of her present inhabitants.
I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius30 sincerely rejoiced in the triumph of Narses. Yet the consciousness of his own exploits might teach him to esteem without jealousy the merit of a rival; and the repose of the aged warrior was crowned by a last victory30 which saved the emperor30 and the capital. The Barbarians who annually visited the provinces of Europe were less discouraged by some accidental defeats than they were excited by the double hope of spoil and of subsidy. In the thirty-second30 winter of Justinian30's reign, the Danube was deeply frozen: Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians, and his standard30 was followed by a promiscuous multitude of Sclavonians. The savage chief passed, without opposition, the river and the mountains, spread his troops30 over Macedonia and Thrace, and advanced with no more than seven thousand30 horse30 to the long30 walls30 which should have defended the territory of Constantinople30. But the works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature: a recent earthquake had shaken the foundations of the wall; and the forces of the empire30 were employed on the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and Persia. The seven schools, or companies, of the guards or domestic troops30 had been augmented to the number of five thousand30 five hundred men, whose ordinary station was in the peaceful cities of Asia. But the places of the brave Armenians were insensibly supplied by lazy citizens, who purchased an exemption from the duties of civil life, without being exposed to the dangers of military service30. Of such soldiers30, few could be tempted to sally from the gates; and none could be persuaded to remain in the field, unless they wanted strength and speed to escape from the Bulgarians. The report of the fugitives exaggerated the numbers and fierceness of an enemy30 who had polluted holy30 virgins and abandoned newborn infants to the dogs and vultures; a crowd of rustics, imploring food and protection, increased the consternation of the city30; and the tents of Zabergan were pitched at the distance of twenty miles, on the banks of a small river, which encircles Melanthias, and afterwards falls into the Propontis. Justinian30 trembled; and those who had only seen the emperor30 in his old age were pleased to suppose that he had lost the alacrity and vigour of his youth. By his command the vessels of gold30 and silver were removed from the churches in the neighbourhood, and even the suburbs, of Constantinople30; the ramparts were lined with trembling spectators; the golden gate was crowded with useless generals and tribunes, and the senate shared the fatigues and the apprehensions of the populace.
But the eyes of the prince30 and people30 were directed to a feeble veteran, who was compelled by the public danger to resume the armour in which he had entered Carthage and defended Rome. The horses of the royal30 stables, of private citizens, and even of the circus were hastily collected; the emulation of the old and young was roused by the name of Belisarius30, and his first encampment was in the presence of a victorious enemy30. His prudence, and the labour of the friendly peasants, secured, with a ditch and rampart, the repose of the night; innumerable fires and clouds of dust were artfully contrived to magnify the opinion of his strength; his soldiers30 suddenly passed from despondency to presumption; and, while ten thousand30 voices demanded the battle30, Belisarius30 dissembled his knowledge that in the hour of trial he must depend on the firmness of three hundred veterans. The next morning the Bulgarian cavalry advanced to the charge. But they heard the shouts of multitudes, they beheld the arms30 and discipline of the front; they were assaulted on the flanks by two ambuscades which rose from the woods; their foremost warriors fell by the hand of the aged hero and his guards; and the swiftness of their evolutions was rendered useless by the close attack and rapid pursuit of the Romans. In this action (so speedy was their flight) the Bulgarians lost only four hundred horse30; but Constantinople30 was saved; and Zabergan, who felt the hand of a master, withdrew to a respectful distance. But his friends were numerous in the council of the emperor30, and Belisarius30 obeyed with reluctance the commands of envy and Justinian30, which forbade him to achieve the deliverance of his country. On his return to the city30, the people30, still conscious of their danger, accompanied his triumph with acclamations of joy and gratitude, which were imputed as a crime to the victorious general30. But, when he entered the palace30, the courtiers were silent, and the emperor30, after a cold and thankless embrace, dismissed him to mingle with the train of slaves. Yet so deep was the impression of his glory on the minds of men that Justinian30, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, was encouraged to advance near forty miles from the capital, and to inspect in person the restoration of the long30 wall. The Bulgarians wasted the summer in the plains of Thrace; but they were inclined to peace by the failure of their rash attempts on Greece and the Chersonesus. A menace of killing their prisoners quickened the payment of heavy ransoms; and the departure of Zabergan was hastened by the report that doubleprowed vessels were built on the Danube to intercept his passage. The danger was soon30 forgotten; and a vain question, whether their sovereign had shewn more wisdom or weakness, amused the idleness of the city30.
About two years after the last victory of Belisarius, the emperor47 returned from a Thracian journey of health, or business, or devotion. Justinian was afflicted by a pain in his head; and his private47 entry countenanced the rumour of his death47. Before the third hour of the day, the bakers' shops were plundered of their bread, the houses were shut, and every citizen, with hope or terror, prepared for the impending tumult. The senators themselves, fearful and suspicious, were convened at the ninth hour; and the prefect47 received their commands to visit every quarter of the city47, and proclaim a general47 illumination for the recovery of the emperor47's health. The ferment subsided; but every accident betrayed the impotence of the government47 and the factious temper of the people47; the guards were disposed to mutiny as often as their quarters were changed or their pay was withheld; the frequent calamities of fires and earthquakes afforded the opportunities of disorder; the disputes of the blues and greens, of the orthodox and heretics, degenerated into bloody battles; and in the presence of the Persian ambassador Justinian blushed for himself and for his subjects. Capricious pardon and arbitrary punishment embittered the irksomeness and discontent of a long47 reign47; a conspiracy was formed in the palace47; and, unless we are deceived by the names of Marcellus and Sergius, the most virtuous and the most profligate of the courtiers were associated in the same designs. They had fixed the time of the execution; their rank47 gave them access to the royal banquet; and their black slaves were stationed in the vestibule and porticos, to announce the death47 of the tyrant47 and to excite a sedition in the capital. But the indiscretion of an accomplice saved the poor remnant of the days of Justinian. The conspirators were detected and seized, with daggers hidden under their garments: Marcellus died by his own hand, and Sergius was dragged from the sanctuary. Pressed by remorse or tempted by the hopes of safety, he accused two officers of the household of Belisarius; and torture forced them to declare that they had acted according to the secret47 instructions of their patron. Posterity will not hastily believe that an hero, who, in the vigour of life47, had disdained the fairest offers of ambition and revenge, should stoop to the murder of his prince47, whom he could not long47 expect to survive. His followers were impatient to fly; but flight must have been supported by rebellion, and he had lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before the council with less fear than indignation; after forty years' service, the emperor47 had prejudged his guilt; and injustice was sanctified by the presence and authority47 of the patriarch. The life47 of Belisarius was graciously spared; but his fortunes were sequestered, and from December to July he was guarded as a prisoner in his own palace47. At length his innocence was acknowledged; his freedom and honours were restored; and death47, which might be hastened by resentment and grief, removed him from the world about eight months after his deliverance. The name of Belisarius can never die; but, instead of a funeral, the monuments, the statues, so justly due to his memory, I only read that his treasures, the spoils of the Goths and Vandals, were immediately confiscated by the emperor47. Some decent portion was reserved, however, for the use of his widow; and, as Antonina had much to repent, she devoted the last remains of her life47 and fortune to the foundation of a convent. Such is the simple and genuine narrative of the fall of Belisarius and the ingratitude of Justinian. That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread, Give a penny to Belisarius the general47! is a fiction of later times, which has obtained credit, or rather favour, as a strange example of the vicissitudes of fortune.
If the emperor2 could rejoice in the death of Belisarius, he enjoyed the base satisfaction only eight months, the last period of a reign2 of thirty-eight and a life of eighty-three years. It would be difficult to trace the character2 of a prince2 who is not the most conspicuous object of his own times2; but the confessions of an enemy may be received as the safest evidence of his virtues2. The resemblance of Justinian2 to the bust of Domitian is maliciously urged; with the acknowledgment, however, of a well-proportioned figure, a ruddy complexion, and a pleasing countenance. The emperor2 was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and affable in discourse, and a master of the angry passions, which rage with such destructive violence in the breast of a despot. Procopius praises his temper, to reproach him with calm and deliberate cruelty; but, in the conspiracies which attacked his authority and person, a more candid judge will approve the justice or admire the clemency of Justinian2. He excelled in the private2 virtues2 of chastity and temperance; but the impartial love of beauty would have been less mischievous than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora; and his abstemious diet was regulated, not by the prudence of a philosopher, but the superstition of a monk. His repasts were short and frugal: on solemn fasts, he contented himself with water and vegetables; and such was his strength, as well as fervour, that he frequently passed two days and as many nights without tasting any food. The measure of his sleep was not less rigorous: after the repose of a single hour, the body was awakened by the soul, and, to the astonishment of his chamberlains, Justinian2 walked or studied till the morning light2. Such restless application prolonged his time for the acquisition of knowledge and the despatch of business; and he might seriously deserve the reproach of confounding, by minute and preposterous diligence, the general2 order of his administration. The emperor2 professed himself a musician and architect, a poet and philosopher, a lawyer and theologian; and, if he failed in the enterprise of reconciling the Christian2 sects, the review of the Roman2 jurisprudence is a noble monument of his spirit2 and industry. In the government of the empire2, he was less wise or less successful; the age2 was unfortunate; the people2 was oppressed and discontented; Theodora abused her power; a succession of bad ministers disgraced his judgment; and Justinian2 was neither beloved in his life nor regretted at his death. The love of fame was deeply implanted in his breast, but he condescended to the poor ambition of titles, honours, and contemporary praise; and, while he laboured to fix the admiration, he forfeited the esteem and affection, of the Romans. The design of the African and Italian wars was boldly conceived and executed; and his penetration discovered the talents of Belisarius in the camp, of Narses in the palace. But the name of the emperor2 is eclipsed by the names of his victorious generals; and Belisarius still lives, to upbraid the envy and ingratitude of his sovereign. The partial favour of mankind applauds the genius of a conqueror, who leads and directs his subjects2 in the exercise of arms. The characters of Philip the Second and of Justinian2 are distinguished by the cold ambition which delights in war and declines the dangers of the field. Yet a colossal statue of bronze represented the emperor2 on horseback, preparing to march against the Persians in the habit and armour of Achilles. In the great2 square before the church of St. Sophia, this monument was raised on a brass column and a stone pedestal of seven steps; and the pillar of Theodosius2, which weighed seven thousand2 four hundred pounds of silver, was removed from the same place by the avarice and vanity of Justinian2. Future princes were more just or indulgent to his memory; the elder Andronicus, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, repaired and beautified his equestrian statue; since the fall of the empire2, it has been melted into cannon by the victorious Turks.
I shall2 conclude this chapter with the comets, the earthquakes, and the plague, which astonished or afflicted the age2 of Justinian2.
I. In the fifth31 year31 of his reign31, and in the month of September, a comet31 was seen during twenty days31 in the western quarter of the heavens, and which shot its rays into the north31. Eight years31 afterwards, while the sun was in Capricorn, another comet31 appeared to follow in the Sagittary: the size was gradually increasing; the head was in the east, the tail in the west, and it remained visible above forty days31. The nations who gazed with astonishment, expected wars and calamities from the baleful influence; and these expectations were abundantly fulfilled. The astronomers dissembled their ignorance of the nature of these blazing stars, which they affected to represent as the floating meteors of the air; and few among them embraced the simple notion of Seneca and the Chaldaeans, that they are only planets of a longer31 period31 and more eccentric motion. Time31 and science have justified the conjectures and predictions of the Roman sage; the telescope has opened new worlds to the eyes31 of astronomers; and, in the narrow space of history and fable, one and the same comet31 is already found to have revisited the earth in seven31 equal revolutions31 of five hundred and seventy-five years31. The first, which ascends beyond the Christian era one thousand seven31 hundred and sixty-seven31 years31, is coeval with Ogyges the father31 of Grecian antiquity. And this appearance explains the tradition which Varro has preserved, that under his reign31 the planet Venus changed her colour, size, figure, and course: a prodigy without example either in past or succeeding ages. The second31 visit, in the year31 eleven hundred and ninety-three, is darkly implied in the fable of Electra the seventh of the Pleiads, who have been reduced to six since the time31 of the Trojan war. That nymph, the wife of Dardanus, was unable to support the ruin of her country; she abandoned the dances of her sister orbs, fled from the zodiac to the north31 pole, and obtained, from her dishevelled locks, the name of the comet31. The third period31 expires in the year31 six hundred and eighteen, a date that exactly agrees with the tremendous comet31 of the Sibyll, and perhaps of Pliny, which arose in the west two generations before the reign31 of Cyrus. The fourth apparition, forty-four years31 before the birth of Christ, is of all others the most splendid and important. After the death31 of Caesar, a long-haired star was conspicuous to Rome and to the nations, during the games which were exhibited by young Octavian in honour of Venus and his uncle. The vulgar opinion, that it conveyed to heaven the divine soul of the dictator, was cherished and consecrated by the piety of a statesman; while his secret31 superstition referred the comet31 to the glory of his own times. The fifth31 visit has been already ascribed to the fifth31 year31 of Justinian, which coincides with the five hundred and thirty-first of the Christian era. And it may deserve notice that in this, as in the preceding, instance the comet31 was followed, though at a longer31 interval, by a remarkable paleness of the sun. The sixth return, in the year31 eleven hundred and six, is recorded by the chronicles of Europe and China; and in the first fervour of the Crusades, the Christians and the Mahometans might surmise, with equal reason, that it portended the destruction of the Infidels. The seventh phenomenon of one thousand six hundred and eighty was presented to the eyes31 of an enlightened age31. The philosophy of Bayle dispelled a prejudice which Milton's muse had so recently adorned, that the comet31 from its horrid hair shakes pestilence and war. Its road in the heavens was observed with exquisite skill by Flamstead and Cassini; and the mathematical science of Bernoulli, Newton, and Halley investigated the laws of its revolutions31. At the eighth period31, in the year31 two thousand two hundred and fifty-five, their calculations may perhaps be verified by the astronomers of some future capital in the Siberian or American wilderness.
II. The near approach of a comet may injure or destroy the globe which we inhabit; but the changes on its surface have been hitherto produced by the action of volcanoes and earthquakes. The nature of the soil may indicate the countries most exposed to these formidable concussions, since they are caused by subterraneous fires, and such fires are kindled by the union and fermentation of iron and sulphur. But their times and effects appear to lie beyond the reach of human curiosity, and the philosopher will discreetly abstain from the prediction of earthquakes, till he has counted the drops of water that silently filtrate on the inflammable mineral, and measured the caverns which increase by resistance the explosion of the imprisoned air. Without assigning the cause, history43 will distinguish the periods in which these calamitous events have been rare or frequent, and will observe that this fever of the earth raged with uncommon violence during the reign of Justinian. Each year is marked by the repetition of earthquakes, of such duration that Constantinople43 has been shaken above forty days43; of such extent that the shock has been communicated to the whole surface of the globe, or at least of the Roman43 empire43. An impulsive or vibratory motion was felt, enormous chasms were opened, huge and heavy bodies were discharged into the air, the sea alternately advanced and retreated beyond its ordinary bounds, and a mountain was torn from Libanus, and cast into the waves, where it protected, as a mole, the new harbour of Botrys in Phoenicia. The stroke that agitates an anthill may crush the insect myriads in the dust; yet truth must extort a confession that man has industriously laboured for his own destruction. The institution of great43 cities43, which include a nation within the limits of a wall, almost realises the wish of Caligula that the Roman43 people43 had but one neck. Two hundred and fifty thousand43 persons are said to have perished in the earthquake of Antioch, whose domestic multitudes were swelled by the conflux of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. The loss of Berytus was of smaller account, but of much greater value. That city43, on the coast of Phoenicia, was illustrated by the study of the civil law, which opened the surest road to wealth and dignity; the schools of Berytus were filled with the rising spirits of the age43; and many a youth was lost in the earthquake, who might have lived to be the scourge or the guardian of his country43. In these disasters, the architect becomes the enemy of mankind. The hut of a savage or the tent of an Arab may be thrown down without injury to the inhabitant; and the Peruvians had reason to deride the folly of their Spanish conquerors, who with so much cost and labour erected their own sepulchres. The rich marbles of a patrician are dashed on his own head; a whole people43 is buried under the ruins of public43 and private edifices; and the conflagration is kindled and propagated by the innumerable fires which are necessary for the subsistence and manufactures of a great43 city43. Instead of the mutual sympathy which might comfort and assist the distressed, they dreadfully experience the vices and passions which are released from the fear of punishment: the tottering houses are pillaged by intrepid avarice; revenge embraces the moment, and selects the victim; and the earth often swallows the assassin, or the ravisher, in the consummation of their crimes. Superstition involves the present danger with invisible terrors; and, if the image of death may sometimes be subservient to the virtue or repentance of individuals, an affrighted people43 is more forcibly moved to expect the end of the world or to deprecate with servile homage the wrath of an avenging Deity.
III. Aethiopia and Egypt24 have been stigmatised in every age24 as the original source and seminary of the plague. In a damp, hot, stagnating air, this African fever is generated from the putrefaction of animal substances, and especially from the swarms of locusts, not less destructive to mankind in their death24 than in their lives. The fatal disease which depopulated the earth in the time of Justinian and his successors first appeared in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, between the Serbonian bog and the eastern channel of the Nile24. From thence, tracing as it were a double path, it spread to the East24, over Syria24, Persia, and the Indies, and penetrated to the West, along the coast of Africa24, and over the continent of Europe24. In the spring of the second year, Constantinople24, during three or four months, was visited by the pestilence; and Procopius, who observed its progress and symptoms with the eyes of a physician, has emulated the skill and diligence of Thucydides in the description of the plague of Athens. The infection was sometimes announced by the visions of a distempered fancy, and the victim despaired as soon as he had heard the menace and felt the stroke of an invisible spectre. But the greater number, in their beds, in the streets, in their usual occupation, were surprised by a slight fever; so slight, indeed, that neither the pulse nor the colour of the patient gave any signs of the approaching danger. The same, the next, or the succeeding day, it was declared by the swelling of the glands, particularly those of the groin, of the arm-pits, and under the ear; and, when these buboes or tumours were opened, they were found to contain a coal, or black substance, of the size of a lentil. If they came to a just swelling and suppuration, the patient was saved by this kind and natural discharge of the morbid humour. But, if they continued hard and dry, a mortification quickly ensued, and the fifth day was commonly the term of his life24. The fever was often accompanied with lethargy or delirium; the bodies of the sick were covered with black pustules or carbuncles, the symptoms of immediate death24; and, in the constitutions too feeble to produce an eruption, the vomiting of blood was followed by a mortification of the bowels. To pregnant women the plague was generally mortal; yet one infant was drawn alive from his dead mother, and three mothers survived the loss of their infected foetus. Youth was the most perilous season, and the female sex was less susceptible than the male; but every rank and profession was attacked with indiscriminate rage, and many of those who escaped were deprived of the use of their speech, without being secure from a return of the disorder. The physicians of Constantinople24 were zealous and skilful, but their art was baffled by the various symptoms and pertinacious vehemence of the disease; the same remedies were productive of contrary effects, and the event capriciously disappointed their prognostics of death24 or recovery. The order of funerals and the right of sepulchres were confounded; those who were left without friends or servants lay unburied in the streets or in their desolate houses; and a magistrate was authorised to collect the promiscuous heaps of dead bodies, to transport them by land or water, and to inter them in deep pits beyond the precincts of the city24. Their own danger and the prospect of public distress awakened some remorse in the minds of the most vicious of mankind; the confidence of health again revived their passions and habits; but philosophy must disdain the observation of Procopius that the lives of such men were guarded by the peculiar favour of fortune or providence. He forgot, or perhaps he secretly recollected, that the plague had touched the person of Justinian himself; but the abstemious diet of the emperor may suggest, as in the case of Socrates, a more rational and honourable cause for his recovery. During his sickness, the public consternation was expressed in the habits of the citizens; and their idleness and despondence occasioned a general scarcity in the capital of the East24.
Contagion is the inseparable symptom of the plague; which, by mutual respiration, is transfused from the infected persons to the lungs and stomach of those who approach them. While philosophers believe and tremble, it is singular that the existence of a real danger should have been denied by a people18 most prone to vain and imaginary terrors. Yet the fellow-citizens of Procopius were satisfied, by some short and partial experience, that the infection could not be gained by the closest conversation; and this persuasion might support the assiduity of friends or physicians in the care of the sick, whom inhuman prudence would have condemned to solitude and despair. But the fatal security, like the predestination of the Turks, must have aided the progress18 of the contagion, and those salutary precautions to which Europe18 is indebted for her safety were unknown to the government of Justinian. No restraints were imposed on the free and frequent intercourse of the Roman provinces; from Persia to France18, the nations were mingled and infected by wars and emigrations; and the pestilential odour which lurks for years18 in a bale of cotton was imported, by the abuse of trade, into the most distant regions. The mode of its propagation is explained by the remark of Procopius himself, that it always spread from the sea-coast to the inland country; the most sequestered islands and mountains were successively visited; the places which had escaped the fury of its first passage were alone exposed to the contagion of the ensuing year. The winds might diffuse that subtle venom; but, unless the atmosphere be previously disposed for its reception, the plague would soon expire in the cold or temperate climates of the earth. Such was the universal corruption of the air that the pestilence which burst forth in the fifteenth year of Justinian was not checked or alleviated by any difference of the seasons. In time, its first malignity was abated and dispersed; the disease alternately languished and revived; but it was not till the end of a calamitous period of fifty-two years18 that mankind recovered their health or the air resumed its pure and salubrious quality. No facts have been preserved to sustain an account, or even a conjecture, of the numbers that perished in this extraordinary mortality. I only find that, during three months, five, and at length ten, thousand persons died each day18 at Constantinople; that many cities of the East were left vacant; and that in several districts of Italy the harvest and the vintage withered on the ground. The triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine afflicted the subjects of Justinian, and his reign is disgraced by a visible18 decrease of the human species, which has never been repaired in some of the fairest countries of the globe.
The vain titles of the victories of Justinian2 are crumbled into dust; but the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument. Under his reign2, and by his care2, the civil jurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes; the public reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused into the domestic institutions of Europe; and the laws of Justinian2 still command the respect or obedience of independent nations. Wise or fortunate is the prince2 who connects his own reputation with the honour and interest of a perpetual order of men. The defence of their founder is the first cause which in every age2 has exercised2 the zeal and industry of the civilians. They piously commemorate his virtues2; dissemble or deny his failings; and fiercely chastise the guilt2 or folly of the rebels who presume to sully the majesty of the purple. The idolatry of love has provoked, as it usually happens, the rancour of opposition; the character2 of Justinian2 has been exposed to the blind vehemence of flattery and invective; and the injustice of a sect (the Anti-Tribonians) has refused all praise and merit2 to the prince2, his ministers, and his laws. Attached to no party, interested only for the truth2 and candour of history, and directed by the most temperate and skilful guides, I enter with just diffidence on the subject of civil law, which has exhausted so many learned lives and clothed the walls of such spacious libraries. In a single, if possible in a short, chapter, I shall2 trace the Roman2 jurisprudence from Romulus to Justinian2, appreciate the labours of that emperor2, and pause to contemplate the principles of a science so important to the peace and happiness of society. The laws of a nation form the most instructive portion of its history; and, although I have devoted myself to write the annals of a declining monarchy, I shall2 embrace the occasion to breathe the pure and invigorating air of the republic.
The primitive government of Rome28 was composed28, with some political skill, of an elective king, a council of nobles, and a general28 assembly of the people28. War28 and religion28 were administered by the supreme magistrate; and he alone proposed the laws, which were debated in the senate28 and finally ratified or rejected by a majority of votes in the thirty28 curiae or parishes of the city28. Romulus, Numa, and Servius Tullius are celebrated as the most ancient28 legislators; and each of them claims his peculiar part in the threefold division of Jurisprudence. The laws of marriage, the education of children, and the authority of parents, which may seem to draw their origin from nature28 itself, are ascribed to the untutored wisdom of Romulus. The law of nations and of religious worship, which Numa introduced, was derived from his nocturnal converse with the nymph Egeria. The civil law is attributed to the experience of Servius; he balanced the rights and fortunes of the seven28 classes of citizens, and guarded, by fifty new28 regulations, the observance of contracts and the punishment of crimes. The state28, which he had inclined towards a democracy, was changed by the last Tarquin into lawless despotism; and, when the kingly office was abolished, the patricians engrossed the benefits of freedom. The royal laws became odious or obsolete; the mysterious deposit was silently preserved by the priests and nobles; and, at the end of sixty years28, the citizens of Rome28 still complained that they were ruled by the arbitrary sentence of the magistrates. Yet the positive institutions of the kings had blended themselves with the public28 and private manners28 of the city28; some fragments of that venerable jurisprudence were compiled by the diligence of antiquarians; and above twenty texts still speak the rudeness of the Pelasgic idiom of the Latins.
I shall not repeat the well-known story of the Decemvirs, who sullied by their actions the honour of inscribing on brass32, or wood, or ivory the twelve tables of the Roman32 laws. They were dictated by the rigid and jealous spirit of an aristocracy, which had yielded with reluctance to the just demands of the people32. But the substance of the Twelve Tables was adapted to the state32 of the city32; and the Romans32 had emerged from barbarism, since they were capable of studying and embracing the institutions of their more enlightened neighbours. A wise Ephesian was driven by envy from his native country32; before he could reach the shores of Latium, he had observed the various forms of human nature and civil society; he imparted his knowledge to the legislators of Rome32; and a statue32 was erected32 in the forum32 to the perpetual memory of Hermodorus. The names and the divisions of the coppermoney, the sole coin of the infant state32, were of Dorian origin; the harvests of Campania and Sicily relieved the wants of a people32 whose agriculture was often interrupted by war and faction; and, since the trade was established, the deputies who sailed from the Tiber might return from the same harbours with a more precious cargo of political wisdom. The colonies of Great Greece had transported and improved the arts of their mother-country32. Cumae and Rhegium, Crotona and Tarentum, Agrigentum and Syracuse, were in the rank of the most flourishing cities. The disciples of Pythagoras applied philosophy to the use32 of government; the unwritten laws of Charondas accepted the aid of poetry and music; and Zaleucus framed the republic of the Locrians, which stood without alteration above two hundred years32. From a similar motive of national pride, both Livy and Dionysius are willing to believe that the deputies of Rome32 visited Athens under the wise and splendid administration of Pericles; and the laws of Solon were transfused into the Twelve Tables. If such an embassy had indeed been received from the Barbarians of Hesperia, the Roman32 name would have been familiar to the Greeks before the reign of Alexander; and the faintest evidence would have been explored and celebrated by the curiosity of succeeding times. But the Athenian monuments32 are silent; nor will it seem credible that the patricians should undertake a long32 and perilous navigation to copy the purest model of a democracy. In the comparison of the tables of Solon with those of the Decemvirs, some casual resemblance may be found; some rules which nature and reason have revealed to every society; some proofs of a common descent from Egypt or Phoenicia. But in all the great lines of public32 and private32 jurisprudence, the legislators of Rome32 and Athens appear to be strangers or adverse to each other.
Whatever might be the origin or the merit of the twelve tables, they obtained among the Romans that blind and partial reverence which the lawyers of every country19 delight to bestow on their municipal institutions. The study is recommended by Cicero as equally pleasant and instructive. They amuse the mind by the remembrance of old words and the portrait of ancient manners19; they inculate the soundest principles of government and morals; and I am not afraid to affirm that the brief composition of the Decemvirs surpasses in genuine value the libraries of Grecian philosophy. How admirable, says Tully, with honest or affected prejudice, is the wisdom of our ancestors! We alone are the masters of civil prudence, and our superiority is the more conspicuous, if we deign to cast our eyes on the rude and almost ridiculous jurisprudence of Dracon, of Solon, and of Lycurgus. The Twelve Tables were committed to the memory of the young and the meditation of the old; they were transcribed and illustrated with learned diligence; they had escaped the flames of the Gauls, they subsisted in the age19 of Justinian, and their subsequent loss has been imperfectly restored by the labours of modern critics. But, although these venerable monuments were considered as the rule of right and the fountain of justice, they were overwhelmed by the weight and variety of new19 laws, which, at the end of five centuries, became a grievance more intolerable than the vices of the city19. Three thousand19 brass plates, the acts of the senate and people19, were deposited in the Capitol; and some of the acts, as the Julian law against extortion, surpassed the number of an hundred chapters. The Decemvirs had neglected to import the sanction of Zaleucus, which so long19 maintained the integrity of his republic. A Locrian who proposed any new19 law stood forth in the assembly of the people19 with a cord round his neck, and, if the law was rejected, the innovator was instantly strangled.
The Decemvirs had been named, and their tables were approved, by an assembly of the centuries, in which riches preponderated against numbers. To the first class of Romans, the proprietors of one hundred thousand pounds of copper, ninety-eight votes were assigned, and only ninety-five were left for the six inferior classes, distributed according to their substance by the artful policy of Servius. But the tribunes soon47 established a more specious and popular maxim, that every citizen has an equal right to enact the laws which he is bound to obey. Instead of the centuries, they convened the tribes; and the patricians, after an impotent struggle, submitted to the decrees of an assembly in which their votes were confounded with those of the meanest plebeians. Yet, as long47 as the tribes successively passed over narrow bridges, and gave their voices aloud, the conduct47 of each citizen was exposed to the eyes and ears of his friends and countrymen. The insolvent debtor consulted the wishes of his creditor; the client would have blushed to oppose the views of his patron; the general47 was followed by his veterans; and the aspect of a grave magistrate was a living lesson to the multitude. A new method of secret47 ballot abolished the influence of fear and shame, of honour and interest, and the abuse of freedom accelerated the progress of anarchy and despotism. The Romans had aspired to be equal; they were levelled by the equality of servitude; and the dictates of Augustus were patiently ratified by the formal consent of the tribes or centuries. Once, and once only, he experienced a sincere and strenuous opposition. His subjects had resigned all political liberty; they defended the freedom of domestic life47. A law which enforced the obligation, and strengthened the bonds, of marriage was clamorously rejected; Propertius, in the arms47 of Delia, applauded the victory of licentious love; and the project of reform was suspended till a new and more tractable generation had arisen in the world. Such an example was not necessary to instruct a prudent usurper of the mischief of popular assemblies; and their abolition, which Augustus had silently prepared, was accomplished without resistance, and almost without notice, on the accession of his successor. Sixty thousand plebeian legislators, whom numbers made formidable and poverty secure, were supplanted by six hundred senators, who held their honours, their fortunes, and their lives by the clemency of the emperor47. The loss of executive power47 was alleviated by the gift of legislative authority47; and Ulpian might assert, after the practice of two hundred years, that the decrees of the senate47 obtained the force and validity of laws. In the times of freedom, the resolves of the people47 had often been dictated by the passion or error of the moment; the Cornelian, Pompeian, and Julian laws were adapted by a single hand to the prevailing disorders; but the senate47, under the reign47 of the Caesars, was composed of magistrates and lawyers, and in questions of private47 jurisprudence the integrity of their judgment was seldom perverted by fear or interest.
The silence or ambiguity of the laws was supplied by the occasional edicts of those magistrates who were invested with the honours of the state32. This ancient32 prerogative of the Roman32 kings was transferred, in the respective offices, to the consuls and dictators, the censors and praetors; and a similar right was assumed by the tribunes of the people32, the aediles, and the proconsuls. At Rome32 and in the provinces, the duties of the subject and the intentions of the governor were proclaimed; and the civil jurisprudence was reformed by the annual edicts of the supreme judge, the praetor of the city32. As soon as he ascended his tribunal, he announced by the voice of the crier, and afterwards inscribed on a white wall, the rules which he proposed to follow in the decision of doubtful cases, and the relief which his equity would afford from the precise rigour of ancient32 statutes. A principle of discretion more congenial to monarchy was introduced into the republic; the art of respecting the name, and eluding the efficacy, of the laws was improved by successive praetors; subtleties and fictions were invented to defeat the plainest meaning of the Decemvirs; and, where the end was salutary, the means were frequently absurd. The secret or probable wish of the dead was suffered to prevail over the order of succession and the forms of testaments; and the claimant, who was excluded from the character of heir, accepted with equal pleasure from an indulgent praetor the possession of the goods of his late kinsman or benefactor. In the redress of private32 wrongs, compensations and fines were substituted to the obsolete rigour of the Twelve Tables; time32 and space were annihilated by fanciful suppositions; and the plea of youth, or fraud, or violence annulled the obligation, or excused the performance, of an inconvenient contract. A jurisdiction thus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the most dangerous abuse: the substance, as well as the form, of justice were often sacrificed to the prejudices of virtue, the bias of laudable affection, and the grosser seductions of interest or resentment. But the errors or vices of each praetor expired with his annual office; such maxims alone as had been approved by reason and practice were copied by succeeding judges; the rule of proceeding was defined by the solution of new32 cases; and the temptations of injustice were removed by the Cornelian law, which compelled the praetor of the year to adhere to the letter and spirit of his first proclamation. It was reserved for the curiosity and learning of Hadrian to accomplish the design which had been conceived by the genius of Caesar; and the praetorship of Salvius Julian, an eminent lawyer, was immortalised by the composition of the perpetual edict. This well-digested code was ratified by the emperor and the senate32; the long32 divorce of law and equity was at length reconciled; and, instead of the Twelve Tables, the Perpetual Edict was fixed as the invariable standard of civil jurisprudence.
From Augustus to Trajan, the modest Caesars were content to promulgate their edicts in the various characters of a Roman1 magistrate1; and, in the decrees of the senate1, the epistles and orations of the prince were respectfully inserted. Hadrian appears to have been the first who assumed1, without disguise, the plenitude of legislative power1. And this innovation, so agreeable to his active mind, was countenanced by the patience of the times and his long1 absence from the seat of government1. The same policy1 was embraced by succeeding monarchs, and, according to the harsh metaphor of Tertullian, the gloomy and intricate forest of ancient1 laws1 was cleared away by the axe of royal mandates and constitutions. During four centuries, from Hadrian to Justinian, the public1 and private jurisprudence was moulded by the will of the sovereign; and few institutions, either human or divine, were permitted to stand on their former basis. The origin of Imperial legislation was concealed by the darkness of ages and the terrors of armed despotism; and a double fiction was propagated by the servility, or perhaps the ignorance, of the civilians who basked in the sunshine of the Roman1 and Byzantine courts. 1. To the prayer of the ancient1 Caesars, the people1 or the senate1 had sometimes granted a personal exemption from the obligation and penalty of particular statutes; and each indulgence was an act of jurisdiction1 exercised by the republic1 over the first of her citizens. His humble privilege was at length transformed into the prerogative of a tyrant; and the Latin expression of released from the laws1, was supposed to exalt the emperor1 above all human restraints, and to leave his conscience and reason as the sacred1 measure of his conduct. 2. A similar dependence was implied in the decrees of the senate1, which, in every reign1, defined the titles and powers of an elective magistrate1. But it was not before the ideas, and even the language, of the Romans1 had been corrupted, that a royal law, and an irrevocable gift of the people1, were created by the fancy of Ulpian, or more probably of Tribonian himself; and the origin of Imperial power1, though false in fact and slavish in its consequence, was supported on a principle of freedom1 and justice1. The pleasure of the emperor1 has the vigour and effect of law, since the Roman1 people1 by the royal law have transferred to their prince the full extent of their own power1 and sovereignty. The will of a single man, of a child perhaps, was allowed to prevail over the wisdom of ages and the inclinations of millions; and the degenerate Greeks were proud to declare that in his hands alone the arbitrary exercise of legislation could be safely deposited. What interest or passion, exclaims Theophilus in the court of Justinian, can reach the calm and sublime elevation of the monarch? he is already master of the lives and fortunes of his subjects1; and those who have incurred his displeasure are already numbered with the dead. Disdaining the language of flattery, the historian may confess that, in questions of private jurisprudence, the absolute sovereign of a great empire1 can seldom be influenced by any personal considerations. Virtue, or even reason, will suggest to his impartial mind that he is the guardian of peace1 and equity, and that the interest of society is inseparably connected with his own. Under the weakest and most vicious reign1, the seat of justice1 was filled by the wisdom and integrity of Papinian and Ulpian; and the purest materials of the Code and Pandects are inscribed with the names of Caracalla and his ministers. The tyrant of Rome1 was sometimes the benefactor of the provinces1. A dagger terminated the crimes of Domitian; but the prudence of Nerva confirmed his acts, which, in the joy of their deliverance, had been rescinded by an indignant senate1. Yet in the rescripts, replies to the consultations of the magistrates1, the wisest of princes1 might be deceived by a partial exposition of the case. And this abuse, which placed their hasty decisions on the same level with mature and deliberate acts of legislation, was ineffectually condemned by the sense and example of Trajan. The rescripts of the emperor1, his grants and decrees, his edicts and pragmatic sanctions, were subscribed in purple ink, and transmitted to the provinces1 as general or special laws1, which the magistrates1 were bound to execute, and the people1 to obey. But, as their number continually multiplied, the rule of obedience became each day more doubtful and obscure, till the will of the sovereign was fixed and ascertained in the Gregorian, the Hermogenian, and the Theodosian codes. The two first, of which some fragments have escaped, were framed by two private lawyers, to preserve the constitutions of the Pagan emperors1 from Hadrian to Constantine1. The third, which is still extant, was digested in sixteen books by the order1 of the younger Theodosius, to consecrate the laws1 of the Christian1 princes1 from Constantine1 to his own reign1. But the three codes obtained an equal authority1 in the tribunals; and any act which was not included in the sacred1 deposit might be disregarded by the judge as spurious or obsolete.
Among savage nations, the want of letters is imperfectly supplied by the use of visible signs, which awaken attention, and perpetuate the remembrance of any public or private transaction. The jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes of a pantomime; the words were adapted to the gestures, and the slightest error or neglect in the forms of proceeding was sufficient to annul the substance of the fairest claim. The communion of the marriage-life24 was denoted by the necessary elements of fire and water; and the divorced wife resigned the bunch of keys, by the delivery of which she had been invested with the government24 of the family. The manumission of a son24, or a slave, was performed by turning him round with a gentle blow on the cheek; a work was prohibited by the casting of a stone; prescription was interrupted by the breaking of a branch; the clenched fist was the symbol of a pledge or deposit; the right hand was the gift of faith and confidence. The indenture of covenants was a broken straw; weights and scales were introduced into every payment; and the heir who accepted a testament was sometimes obliged to snap his fingers, to cast away his garments, and to leap and dance with real or affected transport. If a citizen pursued any stolen goods into a neighbour's house, he concealed his nakedness with a linen towel, and hid his face with a mask or bason, lest he should encounter the eyes of a virgin or a matron. In a civil action, the plaintiff touched the ear of the witness, seized his reluctant adversary by the neck, and implored, in solemn lamentation, the aid of his fellow-citizens. The two competitors grasped each other's hand as if they stood prepared for combat before the tribunal of the praetor; he commanded them to produce the object of the dispute; they went, they returned with measured steps, and a clod of earth was cast at his feet to represent the field for which they contended. This occult science of the words and actions of law was the inheritance of the pontiffs and patricians. Like the Chaldean astrologers, they announced to their clients the day of business and repose; these important trifles were interwoven with the religion24 of Numa; and, after the publication of the Twelve Tables, the Roman24 people24 was still enslaved by the ignorance of judicial proceedings. The treachery of some plebeian officers at length revealed the profitable mystery; in a more enlightened age24, the legal actions were derided and observed; and the same antiquity which sanctified the practice, obliterated the use and meaning, of this primitive language.
A more liberal art was cultivated, however, by the sages of Rome46, who, in a stricter sense, may be considered as the authors of the civil law. The alteration of the idiom and manners of the Romans rendered the style of the Twelve Tables less familiar to each rising generation, and the doubtful passages were imperfectly explained by the study46 of legal antiquarians. To define the ambiguities, to circumscribe the latitude, to apply the principles, to extend the consequences, to reconcile the real or apparent contradictions, was a much nobler and more important46 task; and the province of legislation was silently invaded by the expounders of ancient statutes. Their subtle interpretations concurred with the equity of the praetor to reform the tyranny of the darker ages: however strange or intricate the means, it was the aim of artificial jurisprudence46 to restore the simple dictates of nature46 and reason, and the skill of private citizens was usefully employed46 to undermine the public46 institutions of their country46. The revolution of almost one thousand years46, from the Twelve Tables to the reign46 of Justinian, may be divided into three periods almost equal in duration, and distinguished from each other by the mode of instruction and the character46 of the civilians. Pride and ignorance contributed, during the first period46, to confine within narrow limits the science of the Roman46 law. On the public46 days of market or assembly, the masters of the art were seen walking in the forum, ready to impart the needful advice to the meanest of their fellow-citizens, from whose votes, on a future occasion, they might solicit a grateful return. As their years46 and honours increased, they seated themselves at home on a chair or throne, to expect with patient gravity the visits of their clients, who at the dawn of day, from the town and country46, began to thunder at their door. The duties of social life46 and the incidents of judicial proceeding were the ordinary subject of these consultations, and the verbal or written opinion of the jurisconsults was framed according to the rules of prudence and law. The youths of their own order and family were permitted to listen; their children enjoyed the benefit of more private lessons; and the Mucian race was long renowned for the hereditary knowledge46 of the civil law. The second period46, the learned and splendid age46 of jurisprudence46, may be extended from the birth of Cicero to the reign46 of Severus Alexander46. A system was formed, schools were instituted, books were composed, and both the living and the dead became subservient to the instruction of the student. The tripartite of Aelius Paetus, surnamed Catus, or the Cunning, was preserved as the oldest work of jurisprudence46. Cato the censor derived some additional fame from his legal studies, and those of his son; the kindred appellation of Mucius Scaevola was illustrated by three sages of the law; but the perfection of the science was ascribed to Servius Sulpicius their disciple, and the friend of Tully; and the long succession, which shone with equal lustre under the republic and under the Caesars, is finally closed by the respectable characters of Papinian, of Paul, and of Ulpian. Their names, and the various titles of their productions, have been minutely preserved, and the example of Labeo may suggest some idea of their diligence and fecundity. That eminent lawyer of the Augustan age46 divided the year between the city and country46, between business46 and composition; and four hundred books are enumerated as the fruit of his retirement. Of the collections of his rival Capito, the two hundred and fifty-ninth book is expressly quoted; and few teachers could deliver their opinions in less than a century of volumes. In the third period46, between the reigns of Alexander46 and Justinian, the oracles of jurisprudence46 were almost mute. The measure of curiosity46 had been filled; the throne was occupied by tyrants and Barbarians; the active spirits were diverted by religious disputes; and the professors of Rome46, Constantinople, and Berytus were humbly content to repeat the lessons of their more enlightened predecessors. From the slow advances and rapid decay of these legal studies, it may be inferred that they require a state of peace and refinement. From the multitude of voluminous civilians who fill the intermediate space, it is evident that such studies may be pursued, and such works may be performed, with a common share of judgment, experience, and industry. The genius46 of Cicero and Virgil was more sensibly felt, as each revolving age46 had been found incapable of producing a similar or a second; but the most eminent teachers of the law were assured of leaving disciples equal or superior to themselves in merit46 and reputation.
The jurisprudence46 which had been grossly adapted to the wants of the first Romans was polished and improved in the seventh century of the city by the alliance of Grecian philosophy46. The Scaevolas had been taught by use and experience; but Servius Sulpicius was the first civilian who established his art on a certain and general theory. For the discernment of truth46 and falsehood, he applied, as an infallible rule, the logic of Aristotle and the stoics, reduced particular cases to general principles, and diffused over the shapeless mass the light of order and eloquence46. Cicero, his contemporary and friend, declined the reputation of a professed lawyer; but the jurisprudence46 of his country46 was adorned by his incomparable genius46, which converts into gold every object that it touches. After the example of Plato46, he composed a republic; and, for the use of his republic, a treatise of laws46, in which he labours to deduce from a celestial origin the wisdom and justice of the Roman46 constitution. The whole universe, according to his sublime hypothesis, forms one immense commonwealth; gods and men, who participate of the same essence, are members of the same community; reason prescribes the law of nature46 and nations; and all positive institutions, however modified by accident or custom, are drawn from the rule of right, which the Deity has inscribed on every virtuous mind46. From these philosophical mysteries, he mildly excludes the sceptics who refuse to believe, and the epicureans who are unwilling to act. The latter disdain the care of the republic: he advises them to slumber in their shady gardens. But he humbly entreats that the new Academy would be silent, since her bold objections would too soon destroy the fair and well-ordered structure of his lofty system. Plato46, Aristotle, and Zeno he represents as the only teachers who arm and instruct a citizen for the duties of social life46. Of these, the armour of the stoics was found to be of the firmest temper; and it was chiefly worn, both for use and ornament, in the schools of jurisprudence46. From the Portico, the Roman46 civilians learned to live, to reason, and to die; but they imbibed in some degree the prejudices of the sect; the love46 of paradox, the pertinacious habits of dispute, and a minute attachment to words and verbal distinctions. The superiority of form to matter was introduced to ascertain the right of property; and the equality of crimes is countenanced by an opinion of Trebatius, that he who touches the ear touches the whole body; and that he who steals from an heap of corn or an hogshead of wine is guilty of the entire theft.
Arms, eloquence, and the study of the civil law promoted a citizen to the honours of the Roman37 state37; and the three professions were sometimes more conspicuous by their union in the same character. In the composition of the edict, a learned praetor gave a sanction and preference to his private37 sentiments; the opinion of a censor or a consul was entertained with respect; and a doubtful interpretation of the laws37 might be supported by the virtues or triumphs of the civilian. The patrician arts were long37 protected by the veil of mystery; and in more enlightened times37, the freedom37 of inquiry established the general principles of jurisprudence. Subtle and intricate cases were elucidated by the disputes of the forum; rules, axioms, and definitions were admitted as the genuine dictates of reason; and the consent of the legal professors was interwoven into the practice of the tribunals. But these interpreters could neither enact nor execute the laws37 of the republic; and the judges might disregard the authority of the Scaevolas themselves, which was often overthrown by the eloquence or sophistry of an ingenious pleader. Augustus and Tiberius were the first to adopt, as an useful engine, the science of the civilians; and their servile37 labours accommodated the old system to the spirit37 and views of despotism. Under the fair pretence of securing the dignity of the art, the privilege of subscribing legal and valid opinions was confined to the sages of senatorian or equestrian rank, who had been previously approved by the judgment of the prince; and this monopoly prevailed, till Hadrian restored the freedom37 of the profession to every citizen conscious of his abilities and knowledge. The discretion of the praetor was now governed by the lessons of his teachers; the judges were enjoined to obey the comment as well as the text of the law; and the use37 of codicils was a memorable innovation, which Augustus ratified by the advice of the civilians.
The most absolute mandate could only require that the judges should agree with the civilians, if the civilians agreed among themselves. But positive institutions are often the result of custom and prejudice; laws and language20 are ambiguous and arbitrary; where reason20 is incapable of pronouncing, the love of argument is inflamed by the envy of rivals, the vanity of masters, the blind attachment of their disciples; and the Roman20 jurisprudence was divided by the once famous sects of the Proculians and Sabinians. Two sages of the law, Ateius Capito and Antistius Labeo, adorned the peace of the Augustan age20: the former distinguished by the favour of his sovereign; the latter more illustrious by his contempt of that favour, and his stern though harmless opposition to the tyrant of Rome20. Their legal studies were influenced by the various colours of their temper and principles. Labeo was attached to the form of the old republic; his rival embraced the more profitable substance of the rising monarchy. But the disposition of a courtier is tame and submissive; and Capito seldom presumed to deviate from the sentiments, or at least from the words, of his predecessors; while the bold republican pursued his independent ideas without fear of paradox or innovations. The freedom of Labeo was enslaved, however, by the rigour of his own conclusions, and he decided according to the letter of the law the same questions which his indulgent competitor resolved with a latitude of equity more suitable to the common sense20 and feelings of mankind. If a fair exchange had been substituted to the payment of money, Capito still considered the transaction as a legal sale; and he consulted nature for the age20 of puberty, without confining his definition to the precise period of twelve or fourteen years20. This opposition of sentiments was propagated in the writings and lessons of the two founders; the schools of Capito and Labeo maintained their inveterate conflict from the age20 of Augustus to that of Hadrian; and the two sects derived their appellations from Sabinus and Proculus, their most celebrated teachers. The names of Cassians and Pegasians were likewise applied to the same parties; but, by a strange reverse, the popular cause20 was in the hands of Pegasus, a timid slave of Domitian, while the favourite of the Caesars was represented by Cassius, who gloried in his descent from the patriot assassin. By the perpetual edict, the controversies of the sects were in a great measure determined. For that important work, the emperor20 Hadrian preferred the chief of the Sabinians: the friends of monarchy prevailed; but the moderation of Salvius Julian insensibly reconciled the victors and the vanquished. Like the contemporary philosophers, the lawyers of the age20 of the Antonines disclaimed the authority of a master20, and adopted from every system the most probable doctrines. But their writings would have been less voluminous, had their choice been more unanimous. The conscience of the judge was perplexed by the number and weight of discordant testimonies, and every sentence that his passion or interest might pronounce was justified by the sanction of some venerable name. An indulgent edict of the younger Theodosius excused him from the labour of comparing and weighing their arguments. Five civilians, Caius, Papinian, Paul, Ulpian, and Modestinus, were established as the oracles of jurisprudence; a majority was decisive; but, if their opinions were equally divided, a casting vote was ascribed to the superior20 wisdom of Papinian.
When Justinian ascended the throne47, the reformation of the Roman47 jurisprudence was an arduous but indispensable task. In the space of ten centuries, the infinite variety of laws and legal opinions had filled many thousand volumes, which no fortune could purchase and no capacity could digest. Books could not easily be found; and the judges, poor in the midst of riches, were reduced to the exercise of their illiterate discretion. The subjects of the Greek provinces47 were ignorant of the language that disposed of their lives and properties; and the barbarous dialect of the Latins was imperfectly studied in the academies of Berytus and Constantinople. As an Illyrian soldier, that idiom was familiar to the infancy of Justinian; his youth had been instructed by the lessons of jurisprudence, and his Imperial47 choice selected the most learned civilians of the East47, to labour with their sovereign47 in the work of reformation. The theory of professors was assisted by the practice of advocates and the experience of magistrates; and the whole undertaking was animated by the spirit47 of Tribonian. This extraordinary man, the object of so much praise and censure, was a native of Side in Pamphylia; and his genius, like that of Bacon, embraced, as his own, all the business and knowledge of the age47. Tribonian composed, both in prose and verse, on a strange diversity of curious and abstruse subjects: a double panegyric of Justinian and the life47 of the philosopher Theodotus; the nature of happiness and the duties of government47; Homer's catalogue and the four-and-twenty sorts of metre; the astronomical canon of Ptolemy; the changes of the months; the houses of the planets; and the harmonic system of the world. To the literature of Greece he added the use of the Latin tongue; the Roman47 civilians were deposited in his library and in his mind; and he most assiduously cultivated those arts which opened the road of wealth and preferment. From the bar of the praetorian prefects, he raised himself to the honours of quaestor, of consul, and of master47 of the offices; the council of Justinian listened to his eloquence and wisdom; and envy was mitigated by the gentleness and affability of his manners. The reproaches of impiety and avarice have stained the virtues or the reputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and persecuting court, the principal minister was accused of a secret47 aversion to the Christian faith, and was supposed to entertain the sentiments of an Atheist and a Pagan, which have been imputed, inconsistently enough, to the last philosophers of Greece. His avarice was more clearly proved and more sensibly felt. If he were swayed by gifts in the administration of justice47, the example of Bacon will again occur; nor can the merit47 of Tribonian atone for his baseness, if he degraded the sanctity of his profession, and, if laws were every day enacted, modified, or repealed for the base consideration of his private47 emolument. In the sedition of Constantinople, his removal was granted to the clamours, perhaps to the just indignation, of the people47; but the quaestor was speedily restored, and till the hour of his death47 he possessed, above twenty years, the favour and confidence of the emperor47. His passive and dutiful submission has been honoured with the praise of Justinian himself, whose vanity was incapable of discerning how often that submission degenerated into the grossest adulation. Tribonian adored the virtues of his gracious master47: the earth was unworthy of such a prince47; and he affected a pious fear that Justinian, like Elijah or Romulus, would be snatched into the air and translated alive to the mansions of celestial glory.
If Caesar had achieved the reformation of the Roman law, his creative genius, enlightened by reflection and study, would have given to the world a pure and original system of jurisprudence. Whatever flattery might suggest, the emperor45 of the East was afraid to establish his private45 judgment as the standard of equity: in the possession of legislative power45, he borrowed the aid of time and opinion; and his laborious compilations are guarded by the sages and legislators of past times. Instead of a statue cast in a simple mould by the hand of an artist, the works of Justinian45 represent a tesselated pavement of antique and costly, but too often of incoherent, fragments. In the first year of his reign45, he directed the faithful Tribonian and nine learned associates to revise the ordinances of his predecessors, as they were contained, since the time of Hadrian, in the Gregorian, Hermogenian, and Theodosian codes; to purge the errors and contradictions, to retrench whatever was obsolete or superfluous, and to select the wise and salutary laws best adapted to the practice of the tribunals and the use of his subjects. The work was accomplished in fourteen months; and the twelve books or tables, which the new45 decemvirs produced, might be designed to imitate the labours of their Roman predecessors. The new45 code of Justinian45 was honoured with his name, and confirmed by his royal45 signature; authentic transcripts were multiplied by the pens of notaries and scribes; they were transmitted to the magistrates of the European, the Asiatic, and afterwards the African provinces; and the law of the empire45 was proclaimed on solemn festivals at the doors of churches. A more arduous operation was still behind: to extract the spirit of jurisprudence from the decisions and conjectures, the questions and disputes, of the Roman civilians. Seventeen lawyers, with Tribonian at their head, were appointed by the emperor45 to exercise an absolute jurisdiction over the works of their predecessors. If they had obeyed his commands in ten years45, Justinian45 would have been satisfied with their diligence; and the rapid composition of the digest or pandects, in three years45, will deserve praise or censure according to the merit45 of the execution. From the library of Tribonian they chose forty, the most eminent civilians of former times: two thousand treatises were comprised in an abridgment of fifty books; and it has been carefully recorded that three millions of lines or sentences were reduced, in this abstract, to the moderate number of one hundred and fifty thousand. The edition of this great work was delayed a month after that of the institutes; and it seemed reasonable that the elements should precede the digest of the Roman law. As soon45 as the emperor45 had approved their labours, he ratified, by his legislative power45, the speculations of these private45 citizens; their commentaries on the Twelve Tables, the Perpetual Edict, the laws of the people45, and the decrees of the senate succeeded to the authority of the text; and the text was abandoned, as an useless, though venerable, relic of antiquity. The Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes were declared to be the legitimate system of civil45 jurisprudence; they alone were admitted in the tribunals, and they alone were taught in the academies of Rome, Constantinople45, and Berytus. Justinian45 addressed to the senate and provinces his eternal oracles; and his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed the consummation of this great design to the support and inspiration of the Deity.
Since the emperor1 declined the fame and envy of original composition, we can only require at his hands method, choice, and fidelity, the humble though indispensable virtues of a compiler. Among the various combinations of ideas, it is difficult to assign any reasonable preference; but, as the order1 of Justinian is different in his three works, it is possible that all may be wrong, and it is certain that two cannot be right. In the selection of ancient1 laws1, he seems to have viewed his predecessors without jealousy and with equal regard: the series could not ascend above the reign1 of Hadrian, and the narrow distinction of Paganism and Christianity, introduced by the superstition of Theodosius, had been abolished by the consent of mankind. But the jurisprudence of the Pandects is circumscribed within a period of an hundred years1, from the Perpetual Edict to the death of Severus Alexander; the civilians who lived under the first Caesars are seldom permitted to speak, and only three names can be attributed to the age of the republic1. The favourite of Justinian (it has been fiercely urged) was fearful of encountering the light of freedom1 and the gravity of Roman1 sages. Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine and native wisdom of Cato, the Scaevolas, and Sulpicius; while he invoked spirits more congenial to his own, the Syrians, Greeks, and Africans, who flocked to the Imperial court to study Latin as a foreign tongue, and jurisprudence as a lucrative profession. But the ministers of Justinian were instructed to labour, not for the curiosity of antiquarians, but for the immediate benefit of his subjects1. It was their duty to select the useful and practical parts of the Roman1 law; and the writings of the old republicans, however curious or excellent, were no longer suited to the new1 system of manners, religion1, and government1. Perhaps, if the preceptors and friends of Cicero were still alive, our candour would acknowledge that, except in purity of language, their intrinsic merit was excelled by the school of Papinian and Ulpian. The science of the laws1 is the slow growth of time and experience, and the advantage both of method and materials is naturally assumed1 by the most recent authors. The civilians of the reign1 of the Antonines had studied the works of their predecessors; their philosophic spirit had mitigated the rigour of antiquity, simplified the forms of proceeding, and emerged from the jealousy and prejudice of the rival sects. The choice of the authorities that compose the Pandects depended on the judgment of Tribonian; but the power1 of his sovereign could not absolve him from the sacred1 obligations of truth and fidelity. As a legislator of the empire1, Justinian might repeal the acts of the Antonines, or condemn, as seditious, the free principles which were maintained by the last of the Roman1 lawyers. But the existence of past facts is placed beyond the reach of despotism; and the emperor1 was guilty of fraud and forgery, when he corrupted the integrity of their text, inscribed with their venerable names the words and ideas of his servile reign1, and suppressed, by the hand of power1, the pure and authentic copies of their sentiments. The changes and interpolations of Tribonian and his colleagues are excused by the pretence of uniformity; but their cares have been insufficient, and the antinomies or contradictions of the Code and Pandects still exercise the patience and subtlety of modern civilians.
A rumour devoid of evidence has been propagated by the enemies of Justinian: that the jurisprudence of ancient32 Rome32 was reduced32 to ashes by the author of the Pandects, from the vain persuasion that it was now either false or superfluous. Without usurping an office so invidious, the emperor might safely commit to ignorance and time32 the accomplishment of this destructive wish. Before the invention of printing and paper, the labour32 and the materials32 of writing could be purchased only by the rich; and it may reasonably be computed that the price of books was an hundredfold their present value. Copies were slowly multiplied and cautiously renewed; the hopes of profit tempted the sacrilegious scribes to erase the characters of antiquity32; and Sophocles or Tacitus were obliged to resign the parchment to missals, homilies, and the golden legend. If such was the fate of the most beautiful compositions of genius, what stability could be expected for the dull and barren works32 of an obsolete science? The books of jurisprudence were interesting to few and entertaining to none; their value was connected with present use32; and they sunk for ever as soon as that use32 was superseded by the innovations of fashion, superior merit, or public32 authority. In the age of peace and learning, between Cicero and the last of the Antonines, many losses had been already sustained, and some luminaries of the school, or forum32, were known only to the curious by tradition and report. Three hundred and sixty years32 of disorder and decay32 accelerated the progress of oblivion; and it may fairly be presumed that of the writings which Justinian is accused of neglecting many were no longer to be found in the libraries of the East. The copies of Papinian or Ulpian, which the reformer had proscribed, were deemed unworthy of future notice; the Twelve Tables and praetorian edict insensibly vanished; and the monuments32 of ancient32 Rome32 were neglected or destroyed by the envy and ignorance of the Greeks. Even the Pandects themselves have escaped with difficulty and danger from the common shipwreck, and criticism has pronounced that all the editions and manuscripts of the West are derived from one original. It was transcribed at Constantinople in the beginning of the seventh century32, was successively transported by the accidents of war and commerce to Amalphi, Pisa, and Florence, and is now deposited as a sacred relic in the ancient32 palace of the republic.
It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation. To maintain the text of the Pandects, the Institutes, and the Code, the use of cyphers and abbreviations was rigorously proscribed; and, as Justinian recollected that the Perpetual Edict had been buried under the weight of commentators, he denounced the punishment of forgery against the rash civilians who should presume to interpret or pervert the will of their sovereign. The scholars of Accursius, of Bartolus, of Cujacius, should blush for their accumulated guilt, unless they dare to dispute his right of binding the authority1 of his successors1 and the native freedom1 of the mind. But the emperor1 was unable to fix his own inconstancy; and, while he boasted of renewing the exchange of Diomede, of transmuting brass into gold, he discovered the necessity of purifying his gold from the mixture of baser alloy. Six years1 had not elapsed from the publication of the Code, before he condemned the imperfect attempt by a new1 and more accurate edition of the same work; which he enriched with two hundred of his own laws1 and fifty decisions of the darkest and most intricate points of jurisprudence. Every year, or, according to Procopius, each day, of his long1 reign1 was marked by some legal innovation. Many of his acts were rescinded by himself, many were rejected by his successors1, many have been obliterated by time; but the number of sixteen edicts, and one hundred and sixty-eight novels, has been admitted into the authentic body of the civil1 jurisprudence. In the opinion of a philosopher superior to the prejudices of his profession, these incessant, and for the most part trifling, alterations can be only explained by the venal spirit of a prince who sold without shame his judgments and his laws1. The charge of the secret historian is indeed explicit and vehement; but the sole instance which he produces may be ascribed to the devotion as well as to the avarice of Justinian. A wealthy bigot had bequeathed his inheritance to the church1 of Emesa; and its value was enhanced by the dexterity of an artist, who subscribed confessions of debt and promises of payment with the names of the richest Syrians. They pleaded the established prescription of thirty or forty years1; but their defence was overruled by a retrospective edict, which extended the claims of the church1 to the term of a century: an edict so pregnant with injustice and disorder that, after serving this occasional purpose, it was prudently abolished in the same reign1. If candour will acquit the emperor1 himself and transfer the corruption to his wife and favourites, the suspicion of so foul a vice must still degrade the majesty of his laws1; and the advocates of Justinian may acknowledge that such levity, whatsoever be the motive, is unworthy of a legislator and a man.
Monarchs seldom condescend to become the preceptors of their subjects6; and some praise is due to Justinian, by whose command an ample system was reduced to a short and elementary treatise. Among the various6 institutes of the Roman6 law6, those of Caius were the most popular in the East and West; and their use6 may be considered as an evidence of their merit. They were selected by the Imperial delegates, Tribonian, Theophilus, and Dorotheus: and the freedom and purity of the Antonines was encrusted with the coarser materials of a degenerate age6. The same volume which introduced6 the youth of Rome6, Constantinople, and Berytus to the gradual study of the Code and Pandects is still precious to the historian, the philosopher, and the magistrate. The institutes of Justinian are divided into four books; they proceed, with no contemptible method, from I. Persons to II. Things, and from things to III. Actions; and the article IV. of Private6 Wrongs is terminated by the principles of Criminal Law6.
I. The distinction of ranks and persons is the firmest basis of a mixed and limited government6. In France, the remains of liberty are kept alive by the spirit, the honours, and even the prejudices of fifty thousand nobles. Two hundred families supply, in lineal descent, the second branch of the English legislature, which maintains, between the king and commons, the balance of the constitution. A gradation of patricians and plebeians, of strangers and subjects6, has supported the aristocracy of Genoa, Venice, and ancient6 Rome6. The perfect equality of men is the point in which the extremes of democracy and despotism are confounded; since the majesty of the prince or people6 would be offended, if any heads were exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens. In the decline of the Roman6 empire6, the proud distinctions of the republic were gradually abolished, and the reason or instinct of Justinian completed the simple form of an absolute6 monarchy. The emperor could not eradicate the popular reverence which always waits on the possession of hereditary wealth or the memory of famous ancestors. He delighted to honour with titles and emoluments his generals, magistrates, and senators; and his precarious indulgence communicated some rays of their glory to the persons of their wives and children. But, in the eye of the law6, all Roman6 citizens were equal6, and all subjects6 of the empire6 were citizens of Rome6. That inestimable character was degraded to an obsolete and empty name. The voice of a Roman6 could no longer enact his laws6 or create the annual ministers of his power6: his constitutional rights might have checked the arbitrary will of a master; and the bold adventurer from Germany or Arabia was admitted, with equal6 favour, to the civil6 and military6 command, which the citizen alone had been once entitled to assume over the conquests of his fathers. The first Caesars had scrupulously guarded the distinction of ingenuous and servile birth, which was decided by the condition of the mother; and the candour of the laws6 was satisfied, if her freedom could be ascertained during a single moment between the conception and the delivery. The slaves, who were liberated by a generous master, immediately entered into the middle class of libertines or freedmen; but they could never be enfranchised from the duties of obedience and gratitude; whatever were the fruits of their industry, their patron and his family inherited the third part; or even the whole of their fortune, if they died without children and without a testament. Justinian respected the rights of patrons; but his indulgence removed the badge of disgrace from the two inferior orders of freedmen: whoever ceased to be a slave obtained, without reserve or delay, the station of a citizen; and at length the dignity of an ingenuous birth, which nature6 had refused, was created, or supposed, by the omnipotence of the emperor. Whatever restraints of age6, or forms, or numbers had been formerly introduced6 to check the abuse of manumissions and the too rapid increase of vile and indigent Romans6, he finally abolished; and the spirit of his laws6 promoted the extinction of domestic6 servitude. Yet the Eastern provinces6 were filled, in the time6 of Justinian, with multitudes of slaves, either born or purchased for the use6 of their masters; and the price, from ten to seventy pieces of gold, was determined by their age6, their strength, and their education. But the hardships of this dependent state6 were continually diminished by the influence of government6 and religion6; and the pride of a subject was no longer elated by his absolute6 dominion over the life6 and happiness of his bondsman.
The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to the human species the returns of filial piety. But the exclusive, absolute, and perpetual dominion of the father47 over his children is peculiar to the Roman47 jurisprudence, and seems to be coeval with the foundation of the city47. The paternal power47 was instituted or confirmed by Romulus himself; and after the practice of three centuries it was inscribed on the fourth table of the Decemvirs. In the forum, the senate47, or the camp, the adult son47 of a Roman47 citizen enjoyed the public47 and private47 rights of a person47; in his father47's house, he was a mere thing, confounded by the laws with the moveables, the cattle, and the slaves, whom the capricious master47 might alienate or destroy without being responsible to any earthly tribunal. The hand which bestowed the daily sustenance might resume the voluntary gift, and whatever was acquired by the labour or fortune of the son47 was immediately lost in the property of the father47. His stolen goods (his oxen or his children) might be recovered by the same action of theft; and, if either had been guilty of a trespass, it was in his own option to compensate the damage or resign to the injured party the obnoxious animal. At the call of indigence or avarice, the master47 of a family could dispose of his children or his slaves. But the condition of the slave was far more advantageous, since he regained by the first manumission his alienated freedom; the son47 was again restored to his unnatural father47; he might be condemned to servitude a second and a third time, and it was not till after the third sale and deliverance that he was enfranchised from the domestic power47 which had been so repeatedly abused. According to his discretion, a father47 might chastise the real or imaginary faults of his children, by stripes, by imprisonment, by exile, by sending them to the country to work in chains among the meanest of his servants. The majesty of a parent was armed with the power47 of life47 and death47; and the examples of such bloody executions, which were sometimes praised and never punished, may be traced in the annals of Rome47, beyond the times of Pompey and Augustus. Neither age47, nor rank47, nor the consular office, nor the honours of a triumph could exempt the most illustrious citizen from the bonds of filial subjection; his own descendants were included in the family of their common ancestor; and the claims of adoption were not less sacred or less rigorous than those of nature. Without fear, though not without danger47 of abuse, the Roman47 legislators had reposed an unbounded confidence in the sentiments of paternal love; and the oppression was tempered by the assurance that each generation must succeed in its turn to the awful dignity of parent and master47.
The first limitation of paternal power47 is ascribed to the justice47 and humanity of Numa; and the maid who, with his father47's consent, had espoused a freeman was protected from the disgrace of becoming the wife of a slave. In the first ages, when the city47 was pressed and often famished by her Latin and Tuscan neighbours, the sale of children might be a frequent practice; but, as a Roman47 could not legally purchase the liberty of his fellow-citizen, the market must gradually fail, and the trade would be destroyed by the conquests of the republic. An imperfect right of property was at length communicated to sons; and the threefold distinction of profectitious, adventitious, and professional was ascertained by the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. Of all that proceeded from the father47, he imparted only the use, and reserved the absolute dominion; yet, if his goods were sold, the filial portion was excepted, by a favourable interpretation, from the demands of the creditors. In whatever accrued by marriage, gift, or collateral succession, the property was secured to the son47; but the father47, unless he had been specially excluded, enjoyed the usufruct during his life47. As a just and prudent reward of military47 virtue, the spoils of the enemy were acquired, possessed, and bequeathed by the soldier alone; and the fair analogy was extended to the emoluments of any liberal profession, the salary of public47 service, and the sacred liberality of the emperor47 or the empress. The life47 of a citizen was less exposed than his fortune to the abuse of paternal power47. Yet his life47 might be adverse to the interest or passions of an unworthy father47; the same crimes that flowed from the corruption, were more sensibly felt by the humanity, of the Augustan age47; and the cruel Erixo, who whipt his son47 till he expired, was saved by the emperor47 from the just fury of the multitude. The Roman47 father47, from the licence of servile dominion, was reduced to the gravity and moderation of a judge. The presence and opinion of Augustus confirmed the sentence of exile pronounced against an intentional parricide by the domestic tribunal of Arius. Hadrian transported to an island the jealous parent who, like a robber, had seized the opportunity of hunting, to assassinate a youth, the incestuous lover of his stepmother. A private47 jurisprudence is repugnant to the spirit47 of monarchy; the parent was again reduced from a judge to an accuser; and the magistrates were enjoined by Severus Alexander to hear his complaints and execute his sentence. He could no longer take the life47 of a son47 without incurring the guilt and punishment of murder; and the pains of parricide, from which he had been excepted by the Pompeian law, were finally inflicted by the justice47 of Constantine47. The same protection was due to every period of existence; and reason must applaud the humanity of Paulus for imputing the crime of murder to the father47 who strangles or starves or abandons his new-born infant, or exposes him in a public47 place to find the mercy which he himself had denied. But the exposition of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice of antiquity: it was sometimes prescribed, often permitted, almost always practised with impunity, by the nations who never entertained the Roman47 ideas of paternal power47; and the dramatic poets, who appeal to the human heart, represent with indifference a popular custom which was palliated by the motives of economy and compassion. If the father47 could subdue his own feelings, he might escape, though not the censure, at least the chastisement, of the laws; and the Roman47 empire47 was stained with the blood of infants, till such murders were included, by Valentinian and his colleagues, in the letter and spirit47 of the Cornelian law. The lessons of jurisprudence and Christianity had been insufficient to eradicate this inhuman practice, till their gentle influence was fortified by the terrors of capital punishment.
Experience has proved that savages are the tyrants of the female sex, and that the condition of women is usually softened by the refinements of social life13. In the hope of a robust progeny, Lycurgus had delayed the season of marriage13; it was fixed by Numa at the tender age13 of twelve years13, that the Roman13 husband13 might educate to his will a pure and obedient virgin. According to the custom of antiquity, he bought his bride of her parents, and she fulfilled the coemption by purchasing, with three pieces of copper, a just introduction to his house13 and household deities. A sacrifice of fruits was offered by the pontiffs in the presence of ten witnesses; the contracting parties were seated on the same sheepskin; they tasted a salt cake of far or rice; and this confarreation, which denoted the ancient food of Italy, served as an emblem of their mystic union13 of mind and body. But this union13 on the side of the woman was rigorous and unequal; and she renounced the name and worship of her father13's house13 to embrace a new13 servitude decorated only by the title13 of adoption. A fiction of the law, neither rational nor elegant, bestowed13 on the mother13 of a family13 (her proper appellation) the strange characters of sister13 to her own children13, and of daughter13 to her husband13 or master, who was invested with the plenitude of paternal power. By his judgment or caprice her behaviour was approved, or censured, or chastised; he exercised the jurisdiction of life13 and death; and it was allowed that, in the cases of adultery or drunkenness, the sentence might be properly inflicted. She acquired and inherited for the sole profit of her lord; and so clearly was woman defined, not as a person, but as a thing, that, if the original title13 were deficient, she might be claimed, like other moveables, by the use and possession of an entire year. The inclination of the Roman13 husband13 discharged or withheld the conjugal debt, so scrupulously exacted by the Athenian and Jewish laws; but, as polygamy was unknown, he could never admit to his bed a fairer or more favoured partner.
After the Punic triumphs, the matrons of Rome1 aspired to the common benefits of a free and opulent republic1: their wishes were gratified by the indulgence of fathers and lovers, and their ambition was unsuccessfully resisted by the gravity of Cato the Censor. They declined the solemnities of the old nuptials, defeated the annual prescription by an absence of three days, and, without losing their name or independence, subscribed the liberal and definite terms of a marriage-contract. Of their private fortunes they communicated the use, and secured the property; the estates of a wife could neither be alienated nor mortgaged by a prodigal husband; their mutual gifts were prohibited by the jealousy of the laws1; and the misconduct of either party might afford, under another name, a future subject for an action of theft. To this loose and voluntary compact, religious and civil1 rites were no longer essential; and, between persons of a similar rank, the apparent community of life was allowed as sufficient evidence of their nuptials. The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians1, who derived all spiritual grace from the prayers of the faithful and the benediction of the priest or bishop1. The origin, validity, and duties of the holy institution were regulated by the tradition of the synagogue, the precepts of the gospel, and the canons of general or provincial synods; and the conscience of the Christians1 was awed by the decrees and censures of their ecclesiastical1 rulers. Yet the magistrates1 of Justinian were not subject to the authority1 of the church1: the emperor1 consulted the unbelieving civilians of antiquity, and the choice of matrimonial laws1 in the Code and Pandects is directed by the earthly motives of justice1, policy1, and the natural freedom1 of both sexes.
Besides the agreement of the parties, the essence of every rational contract, the Roman41 marriage required the previous approbation of the parents. A father might be forced by some recent laws to supply the wants of a mature daughter; but even his insanity was not generally allowed to supersede the necessity of his consent. The causes of the dissolution of matrimony have varied among the Romans41; but the most solemn sacrament, the confarreation itself, might always be done away by rites of a contrary tendency. In the first ages, the father of a family might sell his children, and his wife was reckoned in the number of his children; the domestic judge might pronounce the death41 of the offender, or his mercy might expel her from his bed and house; but the slavery of the wretched female was hopeless and perpetual, unless he asserted for his own convenience the manly prerogative of divorce. The warmest applause has been lavished on the virtue of the Romans41, who abstained from the exercise of this tempting privilege above five hundred years41; but the same fact evinces the unequal terms of a connection in which the slave was unable to renounce her tyrant41 and the tyrant41 was unwilling41 to relinquish his slave. When the Roman41 matrons became the equal and voluntary companions of their lords, a new jurisprudence was introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships, might be dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates. In three centuries of prosperity and corruption, this principle was enlarged to frequent practice and pernicious abuse. Passion, interest, or caprice suggested daily motives for the dissolution of marriage; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, the mandate of a freedman, declared the separation; the most tender of human connections was degraded to a transient society of profit or pleasure. According to the various conditions of life, both sexes alternately felt the disgrace41 and injury: an inconstant spouse transferred her wealth to a new family, abandoning a numerous, perhaps a spurious, progeny to the paternal authority and care of her late husband; a beautiful virgin might be dismissed to the world, old, indigent, and friendless; but the reluctance of the Romans41, when they were pressed to marriage by Augustus, sufficiently marks that the prevailing institutions were least favourable to the males. A specious theory is confuted by this free41 and perfect experiment, which demonstrates that the liberty of divorce does not contribute to happiness and virtue. The facility of separation would destroy all mutual confidence and inflame every trifling dispute; the minute difference between an husband and a stranger, which might so easily be removed, might still more easily be forgotten; and the matron, who in five years41 can submit to the embraces of eight husbands, must cease to reverence the chastity of her own person41.
Insufficient remedies followed with distant and tardy steps the rapid progress of the evil. The ancient worship of the Romans17 afforded a peculiar goddess to hear and reconcile the complaints of a married life; but her epithet of Viriplaca, the appeaser of husbands, too clearly indicates on which side submission and repentance were always expected. Every act of a citizen was subject to the judgment of the censors; the first who used the privilege of divorce assigned, at their command, the motives of his conduct; and a senator17 was expelled for dismissing his virgin spouse without the knowledge or advice of his friends. Whenever an action was instituted for the recovery of a marriage-portion, the praetor, as the guardian of equity, examined the cause and the characters, and gently inclined the scale in favour of the guiltless and injured party. Augustus, who united the powers of both magistrates, adopted their different modes of repressing or chastising the licence of divorce. The presence of seven Roman17 witnesses was required for the validity of this solemn and deliberate act: if any adequate provocation had been given by the husband, instead of the delay of two years, he was compelled to refund immediately, or in the space of six months; but, if he could arraign the manners of his wife, her guilt or levity was expiated by the loss of the sixth or eighth part of her marriage-portion. The Christian princes were the first who specified the just causes of a private divorce; their institutions, from Constantine to Justinian17, appear to fluctuate between the custom of the empire and the wishes of the church; and the author of the Novels too frequently reforms the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. In the most rigorous laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases17 the marriage, as it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the executioner. But the sacred right17 of the husband was invariably maintained to deliver his name and family from the disgrace of adultery; the list of mortal sins, either male or female, was curtailed and enlarged by successive regulations, and the obstacles of incurable impotence, long absence, and monastic profession were allowed to rescind the matrimonial obligation. Whoever transgressed the permission of the law was subject to various and heavy penalties. The woman was stript of her wealth and ornaments, without excepting the bodkin of her hair; if the man introduced a new bride into his bed, her fortune might be lawfully seized by the vengeance of his exiled wife. Forfeiture was sometimes commuted to a fine; the fine was sometimes aggravated by transportation to an island or imprisonment in a monastery; the injured party was released from the bonds of marriage; but the offender, during life or a term of years, was disabled from the repetition of nuptials. The successor of Justinian17 yielded to the prayers of his unhappy subjects17, and restored the liberty of divorce by mutual consent; the civilians were unanimous, the theologians were divided, and the ambiguous word, which contains the precept of Christ, is flexible to any interpretation that the wisdom of a legislator can demand.
The freedom of love and marriage16 was restrained among the Romans16 by natural16 and civil16 impediments. An instinct, almost innate and universal, appears to prohibit the incestuous commerce of parents and children16 in the infinite series of ascending and descending generations. Concerning the oblique and collateral branches, nature is indifferent, reason mute, and custom various16 and arbitrary. In Egypt, the marriage16 of brothers and sisters was admitted without scruple or exception; a Spartan might espouse the daughter of his father16, an Athenian that of his mother; and the nuptials of an uncle with his niece were applauded at Athens16 as a happy union of the dearest relations. The profane lawgivers of Rome16 were never tempted by interest or superstition to multiply the forbidden degrees; but they inflexibly condemned the marriage16 of sisters and brothers, hesitated whether first-cousins should be touched by the same interdict16, revered the paternal character16 of aunts and uncles, and treated affinity and adoption as a just16 imitation of the ties of blood16. According16 to the proud maxims of the republic, a legal marriage16 could only be contracted by free16 citizens16; an honourable, at least an ingenuous, birth was required for the spouse of a senator; but the blood16 of kings could never mingle in legitimate nuptials with the blood16 of a Roman16; and the name of Stranger degraded Cleopatra and Berenice to live the concubines of Mark Antony and Titus. This appellation, indeed, so injurious to the majesty, cannot without indulgence be applied to the manners16, of these Oriental queens. A concubine, in the strict sense of the civilians, was a woman of servile or plebeian extraction, the sole and faithful companion of a Roman16 citizen, who continued in a state16 of celibacy. Her modest station below the honours of a wife, above the infamy of a prostitute, was acknowledged and approved by the laws: from the age16 of Augustus to the tenth century16, the use of this secondary marriage16 prevailed both in the West and East, and the humble virtues of a concubine were often preferred to the pomp and insolence of a noble matron. In this connection, the two Antonines, the best of princes and of men, enjoyed the comforts of domestic love: the example was imitated by many citizens16 impatient of celibacy, but regardful of their families. If at any time they desired to legitimate their natural16 children16, the conversion was instantly performed by the celebration of their nuptials with a partner whose fruitfulness and fidelity they had already tried. By this epithet of natural16, the offspring of the concubine were distinguished from the spurious brood of adultery, prostitution, and incest, to whom Justinian reluctantly grants the necessary aliments of life; and these natural16 children16 alone were capable of succeeding to a sixth part of the inheritance of their reputed father16. According16 to the rigour of law16, bastards were entitled only to the name and condition of their mother, from whom they might derive the character16 of a slave, a stranger, or a citizen. The outcasts of every family were adopted without reproach as the children16 of the state16.
The relation of guardian and ward, or in Roman words, of tutor and pupil, which covers so many titles of the Institutes and Pandects, is of a very simple and uniform nature7. The person7 and property of an orphan must always be trusted to the custody of some discreet friend. If the deceased father had not signified his choice, the agnats, or paternal kindred of the nearest degree, were compelled to act as the natural guardians: the Athenians were apprehensive of exposing the infant to the power of those most interested in his death; but an axiom of Roman jurisprudence has pronounced that the charge of tutelage should constantly attend the emolument of succession. If the choice of the father and the line of consanguinity afforded no efficient guardian, the failure was supplied by the nomination of the praetor of the city or the president of the province. But the person7 whom they named to this public office might be legally excused by insanity or blindness, by ignorance or inability, by previous enmity or adverse interest, by the number of children or guardianships with which he was already burthened, and by the immunities which were granted to the useful labours of magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and professors. Till the infant could speak and think, he was represented by the tutor, whose authority was finally determined by the age of puberty. Without his consent, no act of the pupil could bind himself to his own prejudice, though it might oblige others for his personal benefit. It is needless to observe that the tutor often gave security and always rendered an account, and that the want of diligence or integrity exposed him to a civil and almost criminal action for the violation of his sacred trust. The age of puberty had been rashly fixed by the civilians at fourteen; but, as the faculties of the mind ripen more slowly than those of the body7, a curator was interposed to guard the fortunes of a Roman youth from his own inexperience and headstrong passions. Such a trustee had been first instituted by the praetor, to save a family from the blind havoc of a prodigal or madman; and the minor was compelled by the laws to solicit the same protection to give validity to his acts till he accomplished the full period of twenty-five years7. Women were condemned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guardians; a sex created to please and to obey was never supposed to have attained the age of reason7 and experience. Such at least was the stern and haughty spirit of the ancient law7, which had been insensibly mollified before the time of Justinian.
II. The original right of property can only be justified by the accident or merit of prior occupancy; and on this foundation it is wisely established by the philosophy of the civilians. The savage20 who hollows a tree, inserts a sharp stone into a wooden handle, or applies a string to an elastic branch, becomes in a state of nature the just proprietor of the canoe, the bow, or the hatchet. The materials were common to all; the new20 form, the produce of his time and simple industry, belongs solely to himself. His hungry brethren cannot, without a sense20 of their own injustice, extort from the hunter the game of the forest overtaken or slain by his personal strength and dexterity. If his provident care preserves and multiplies the tame animals, whose nature is tractable to the arts of education, he acquires a perpetual title to the use and service of their numerous progeny, which derives its existence from him alone. If he encloses and cultivates a field for their sustenance and his own, a barren waste is converted into a fertile soil; the seed, the manure, the labour, create a new20 value; and the rewards of harvest are painfully earned by the fatigues of the revolving year20. In the successive states of society, the hunter, the shepherd, the husbandman, may defend their possessions by two reasons which forcibly appeal to the feelings of the human mind: that whatever they enjoy is the fruit of their own industry; and that every man who envies their felicity may purchase similar acquisitions by the exercise of similar diligence. Such, in truth, may be the freedom and plenty of a small colony cast on a fruitful island. But the colony multiplies, while the space still continues the same; the common rights, the equal inheritance of mankind, are engrossed by the bold and crafty; each field and forest is circumscribed by the landmarks of a jealous master20; and it is the peculiar praise of the Roman20 jurisprudence that it asserts the claim of the first occupant to the wild animals of the earth, the air, and the waters. In the progress from primitive equity to final injustice, the steps are silent, the shades are almost imperceptible, and the absolute monopoly is guarded by positive laws and artificial reason20. The active insatiate principle of self-love can alone supply the arts of life20 and the wages of industry; and, as soon as civil government and exclusive property have been introduced, they become necessary to the existence of the human race20. Except in the singular institutions of Sparta, the wisest legislators have disapproved an agrarian law as a false and dangerous innovation. Among the Romans, the enormous disproportion of wealth surmounted the ideal restraints of a doubtful tradition and an obsolete statute: a tradition that the poorest follower of Romulus had been endowed with the perpetual inheritance of two jugera: a statute which confined the richest citizen to the measure of five hundred jugera, or three hundred and twelve acres of land. The original territory of Rome20 consisted only of some miles of wood and meadow along the banks of the Tiber; and domestic exchange could add nothing to the national stock. But the goods of an alien or enemy20 were lawfully exposed to the first hostile occupier; the city20 was enriched by the profitable trade of war; and the blood of her sons was the only price that was paid for the Volscian sheep, the slaves of Britain, or the gems and gold of Asiatic kingdoms. In the language20 of ancient jurisprudence, which was corrupted and forgotten before the age20 of Justinian, these spoils were distinguished by the name of manceps or mancipium, taken with the hand; and, whenever they were sold or emancipated, the purchaser required some assurance that they had been the property of an enemy20, and not of a fellow-citizen. A citizen could only forfeit his rights by apparent dereliction, and such dereliction of a valuable interest could not easily be presumed. Yet, according to the Twelve Tables, a prescription of one year20 for moveables, and of two years20 for immoveables, abolished the claim of the ancient master20, if the actual possessor had acquired them by a fair transaction from the person20 whom he believed to be the lawful proprietor. Such conscientious injustice, without any mixture of fraud or force, could seldom injure the members of a small republic; but the various periods of three, of ten, or of twenty years20, determined by Justinian, are more suitable to the latitude of a great empire20. It is only in the term of prescription that the distinction of real and personal fortune has been remarked by the civilians, and their general idea of property is that of simple, uniform, and absolute dominion. The subordinate exceptions of use, of usufruct, of servitudes, imposed for the benefit of a neighbour on lands and houses, are abundantly explained by the professors of jurisprudence. The claims of property, as far as they are altered by the mixture, the division, or the transformation of substances, are investigated with metaphysical subtlety by the same civilians.
The personal title1 of the first proprietor must be determined by his death; but the possession, without any appearance of change, is peaceably continued in his children, the associates of his toil and the partners of his wealth. This natural inheritance has been protected by the legislators of every climate and age, and the father is encouraged to persevere in slow and distant improvements, by the tender hope that a long1 posterity will enjoy the fruits of his labour. The principle of hereditary succession is universal, but the order1 has been variously established by convenience or caprice, by the spirit of national institutions, or by some partial example, which was originally decided by fraud or violence. The jurisprudence of the Romans1 appears to have deviated from the equality of nature much less than the Jewish, the Athenian, or the English institutions. On the death of a citizen, all his descendants, unless they were already freed from his paternal power1, were called to the inheritance of his possessions. The insolent prerogative of primogeniture was unknown; the two sexes were placed on a just level; all the sons and daughters were entitled to an equal portion of the patrimonial estate; and, if any of the sons had been intercepted by a premature death, his person was represented, and his share was divided, by his surviving children. On the failure of the direct line, the right of succession must diverge to the collateral branches. The degrees of kindred are numbered by the civilians, ascending from the last possessor to a common parent, and descending from the common parent to the next heir: my father stands in the first degree, my brother in the second, his children in the third, and the remainder of the series may be conceived by fancy, or pictured in a genealogical table. In this computation, a distinction was made, essential to the laws1 and even the constitution of Rome1. The agnats, or persons connected by a line of males, were called, as they stood in the nearest degree, to an equal partition; but a female was incapable of transmitting any legal claims; and the cognats of every rank, without excepting the dear relation of a mother and a son, were disinherited by the Twelve Tables, as strangers and aliens. Among the Romans1, a gens or lineage was united by a common name and domestic rites; the various cognomens or surnames of Scipio or Marcellus distinguished from each other the subordinate branches or families of the Cornelian or Claudian race; the default of the agnats of the same surname was supplied by the larger denomination of gentiles; and the vigilance of the laws1 maintained, in the same name, the perpetual descent of religion1 and property. A similar principle dictated the Voconian law, which abolished the right of female inheritance. As long1 as virgins were given or sold in marriage, the adoption of the wife extinguished the hopes of the daughter. But the equal succession of independent matrons supported their pride and luxury, and might transport into a foreign house the riches of their fathers. While the maxims of Cato were revered, they tended to perpetuate in each family a just and virtuous mediocrity: till female blandishments insensibly triumphed, and every salutary restraint was lost in the dissolute greatness of the republic1. The rigour of the decemvirs was tempered by the equity of the praetors. Their edicts restored emancipated and posthumous children to the rights of nature; and, upon the failure of the agnats, they preferred the blood of the cognats to the name of the gentiles, whose title1 and character were insensibly covered with oblivion. The reciprocal inheritance of mothers and sons was established in the Tertullian and Orphitian decrees by the humanity of the senate1. A new1 and more impartial order1 was introduced by the novels of Justinian, who affected to revive the jurisprudence of the Twelve Tables. The lines of masculine and female kindred were confounded; the descending, ascending, and collateral series was accurately defined; and each degree, according to the proximity of blood and affection, succeeded to the vacant possessions of a Roman1 citizen.
The order of succession is regulated by nature8, or at least by the general and permanent reason8 of the lawgiver; but this order is frequently violated by the arbitrary and partial wills which prolong the dominion of the testator beyond the grave. In the simple state of society8, this last use8 or abuse of the right of property is seldom indulged: it was introduced at Athens by the laws8 of Solon; and the private8 testaments of the father of a family are authorised by the Twelve Tables. Before the time8 of the decemvirs, a Roman citizen exposed his wishes and motives to the assembly of the thirty curiae or parishes, and the general law of inheritance was suspended by an occasional act of the legislature. After the permission of the decemvirs each private8 lawgiver promulgated his verbal or written testament in the presence of five citizens, who represented the five classes of the Roman people; a sixth witness attested their concurrence; a seventh weighed the copper money which was paid by an imaginary purchaser; and the estate was emancipated by a fictitious sale and immediate release. This singular ceremony, which excited the wonder of the Greeks, was still practised in the age8 of Severus; but the praetors had already approved a more simple testament, for which they required the seals and signatures of seven witnesses, free from all legal exception, and purposely summoned for the execution of that important act. A domestic monarch, who reigned over the lives and fortunes of his children, might distribute their respective shares according to the degrees of their merit or his affection; his arbitrary displeasure chastised an unworthy son by the loss of his inheritance and the mortifying preference of a stranger. But the experience of unnatural parents recommended some limitations of their testamentary powers. A son, or, by the laws8 of Justinian, even a daughter, could no longer be disinherited by their silence; they were compelled to name the criminal, and to specify the offence; and the justice of the emperor enumerated the sole causes that could justify such a violation of the first principles of nature8 and society8. Unless a legitimate portion, a fourth part, had been reserved for the children, they were entitled to institute an action or complaint of inofficious testament, to suppose that their father's understanding was impaired by sickness or age8, and respectfully to appeal from his rigorous sentence to the deliberate wisdom of the magistrate. In the Roman jurisprudence, an essential distinction was admitted between the inheritance and the legacies. The heirs who succeeded to the entire unity, or to any of the twelve fractions, of the substance of the testator represented his civil and religious8 character8, asserted his rights, fulfilled his obligations, and discharged the gifts of friendship or liberality which his last will had bequeathed under the name of legacies. But, as the imprudence or prodigality of a dying man8 might exhaust the inheritance and leave only risk and labour to his successor, he was empowered to retain the Falcidian portion; to deduct, before the payment of the legacies, a clear fourth for his own emolument. A reasonable time8 was allowed to examine the proportion between the debts and the estate, to decide whether he should accept or refuse the testament; and, if he used the benefit of an inventory, the demands of the creditors could not exceed the valuation of the effects. The last will of a citizen might be altered during his life8 or rescinded after his death8: the persons whom he named might die before him, or reject the inheritance, or be exposed to some legal disqualification. In the contemplation of these events, he was permitted to substitute second and third heirs, to replace each other according to the order of the testament; and the incapacity of a madman or an infant to bequeath his property might be supplied by a similar substitution. But the power of the testator expired with the acceptance of the testament; each Roman of mature age8 and discretion acquired the absolute dominion of his inheritance, and the simplicity of the civil law was never clouded by the long and intricate entails which confine the happiness8 and freedom of unborn generations.
Conquest and the formalities of law established the use of codicils. If a Roman27 was surprised by death in a remote province27 of the empire27, he addressed a short epistle to his legitimate or testamentary heir; who fulfilled with honour, or neglected with impunity, this last request, which the judges before the age27 of Augustus were not authorised to enforce. A codicil might be expressed in any mode, or in any language; but the subscription of five witnesses must declare that it was the genuine composition of the author. His intention, however laudable, was sometimes illegal; and the invention of fidei-commissa, or trusts, arose from the struggle between natural justice and positive jurisprudence. A stranger of Greece or Africa might be the friend or benefactor of a childless Roman27; but none, except a fellow-citizen, could act as his heir. The Voconian law, which abolished female succession, restrained the legacy or inheritance of a woman to the sum of one hundred thousand27 sesterces; and an only daughter was condemned almost as an alien in her father's house. The zeal of friendship and parental affection suggested a liberal artifice: a qualified citizen was named in the testament, with a prayer or injunction that he would restore the inheritance to the person for whom it was truly intended. Various27 was the conduct of the trustees in this painful situation: they had sworn to observe the laws of their country27, but honour prompted them to violate their oath; and, if they preferred their interest under the mask of patriotism, they forfeited the esteem of every virtuous mind. The declaration of Augustus relieved their doubts, gave a legal sanction to confidential testaments and codicils, and gently unravelled the forms and restraints of the republican jurisprudence. But, as the new practice of trusts degenerated into some abuse, the trustee was enabled, by the Trebellian and Pegasian decrees, to reserve one fourth of the estate, or to transfer on the head of the real27 heir all the debts and actions of the succession. The interpretation of testaments was strict and literal; but the language of trusts and codicils was delivered from the minute and technical accuracy of the civilians.
III. The general duties of mankind are imposed by their public and private relations; but their specific obligations to each other can only be the effect of 1. a promise, 2. a benefit, or 3. an injury; and, when these obligations are ratified by law7, the interested party may compel the performance by a judicial action. On this principle the civilians of every country have erected a similar jurisprudence, the fair conclusion of universal reason7 and justice.
1. The goddess of faith (of human46 and social faith) was worshipped, not only in her temples, but in the lives of the Romans; and, if that nation was deficient in the more amiable qualities of benevolence and generosity, they astonished the Greeks by their sincere and simple performance of the most burthensome engagements. Yet among the same people46, according to the rigid maxims of the patricians and decemvirs, a naked pact, a promise, or even an oath did not create any civil obligation, unless it was confirmed by the legal form of a stipulation. Whatever might be the etymology of the Latin word, it conveyed the idea of a firm and irrevocable contract, which was always expressed in the mode of a question and answer. Do you promise to pay me one hundred pieces of gold? was the solemn interrogation of Seius. I do promise — was the reply of Sempronius. The friends of Sempronius, who answered for his ability and inclination, might be separately sued at the option of Seius; and the benefit of partition, or order of reciprocal actions, insensibly deviated from the strict theory of stipulation. The most cautious and deliberate consent was justly required to sustain the validity of a gratuitous promise; and the citizen who might have obtained a legal security incurred the suspicion of fraud, and paid the forfeit of his neglect. But the ingenuity of the civilians successfully laboured to convert simple engagements into the form of solemn stipulations. The praetors, as the guardians of social faith, admitted every rational evidence of a voluntary and deliberate act, which in their tribunal produced an equitable obligation, and for which they gave an action and a remedy.
2. The obligations of the second class, as they were contracted by the delivery of a thing, are marked by the civilians with the epithet of real. A grateful return42 is due to the author of a benefit42; and whoever is entrusted with the property of another has bound himself to the sacred duty of restitution. In the case of a friendly loan the merit of generosity is on the side of the lender only, in a deposit on the side of the receiver; but in a pledge, and the rest of the selfish commerce of ordinary life, the benefit42 is compensated by an equivalent, and the obligation to restore is variously modified by the nature of the transaction. The Latin language very happily expresses the fundamental difference between the commodatum and the mutuum, which our poverty is reduced to confound under the vague and common42 appellation of a loan. In the former, the borrower was obliged42 to restore the same individual thing with which he had been accommodated for the temporary supply of his wants; in the latter, it was destined for his use42 and consumption, and he discharged this mutual engagement by substituting the same specific value, according to a just estimation of number, of weight, and of measure. In the contract of sale, the absolute dominion is transferred to the purchaser, and he repays the benefit42 with an adequate sum of gold or silver, the price and universal standard of all earthly possessions. The obligation of another contract, that of location, is of a more complicated kind. Lands or houses, labour or talents, may be hired for a definite term; at the expiration of the time, the thing itself must be restored to the owner, with an additional reward for the beneficial occupation and employment. In these lucrative contracts, to which may be added those of partnership and commissions, the civilians sometimes imagine the delivery of the object, and sometimes presume the consent of the parties. The substantial pledge has been refined into the invisible rights of a mortgage or hypotheca; and the agreement of sale, for a certain price, imputes, from that moment, the chances of gain or loss to the account of the purchaser. It may be fairly supposed that every man will obey the dictates of his interest; and, if he accepts the benefit42, he is obliged42 to sustain the expense, of the transaction. In this boundless subject, the historian will observe the location of land and money, the rent of the one and the interest of the other, as they materially affect the prosperity of agriculture and commerce. The landlord was often obliged42 to advance the stock and instruments of husbandry, and to content himself with a partition of the fruits. If the feeble tenant was oppressed by accident, contagion, or hostile violence, he claimed a proportionable relief from the equity of the laws; five years42 were the customary term, and no solid or costly improvements could be expected from a farmer who, at each moment, might be ejected by the sale of the estate. Usury, the inveterate grievance of the city42, had been discouraged by the Twelve Tables, and abolished by the clamours of the people42. It was revived42 by their wants and idleness, tolerated by the discretion of the praetors, and finally determined by the Code of Justinian. Persons of illustrious rank were confined to the moderate profit of four per cent.; six was pronounced to be the ordinary and legal standard of interest; eight was allowed for the convenience of manufacturers and merchants; twelve was granted to nautical insurance, which the wiser ancients had not attempted to define; but, except in this perilous adventure, the practice of exorbitant usury was severely restrained. The most simple interest was condemned by the clergy42 of the East42 and West; but the sense of mutual benefit42, which had triumphed over the laws of the republic, has resisted with equal firmness the decrees of the church and even the prejudices of mankind.
3. Nature and society impose the strict obligation of repairing an injury; and the sufferer by private injustice acquires a personal right and a legitimate action. If the property of another be entrusted to our care, the requisite degree of care may rise and fall according to the benefit which we derive from such temporary possession; we are seldom made responsible for inevitable accident, but the consequences of a voluntary fault must always be imputed to the author. A Roman pursued and recovered his stolen goods by a civil action of theft; they might pass through a succession of pure and innocent hands48, but nothing less than a prescription of thirty years48 could extinguish his original claim. They were restored by the sentence of the praetor, and the injury was compensated by double, or threefold, or even quadruple damages, as the deed had been perpetrated by secret fraud or open rapine, as the robber had been surprised in the fact or detected by a subsequent research. The Aquilian law defended the living property of a citizen, his slaves and cattle, from the stroke of malice or negligence; the highest price was allowed that could be ascribed to the domestic48 animal at any moment of the year preceding his death48; a similar latitude of thirty days48 was granted on the destruction of any other valuable effects. A personal injury is blunted or sharpened by the manners of the times and the sensibility of the individual; the pain or the disgrace of a word or blow cannot easily be appreciated by a pecuniary equivalent. The rude jurisprudence of the decemvirs had confounded all hasty insults, which did48 not amount to the fracture of a limb, by condemning the aggressor to the common penalty of twenty-five asses. But the same denomination of money was reduced, in three centuries, from a pound to the weight of half an ounce; and the insolence of a wealthy Roman indulged himself in the cheap amusement of breaking and satisfying the law of the Twelve Tables. Veratius ran through the streets striking on the face the inoffensive passengers, and his attendant purse-bearer immediately silenced their clamours by the legal tender of twenty-five pieces of copper, about the value of one shilling. The equity of the praetors examined and estimated the distinct merits of each particular complaint. In the adjudication of civil damages, the magistrate assumed a right to consider the various circumstances of time and place, of age and dignity, which may aggravate the shame and sufferings of the injured person; but, if he admitted the idea of a fine, a punishment, an example, he invaded the province, though, perhaps, he supplied the defects, of the criminal law.
The execution of the Alban dictator, who was dismembered by eight horses, is represented by Livy as the first and the last instance of Roman47 cruelty in the punishment of the most atrocious crimes. But this act of justice47, or revenge, was inflicted on a foreign enemy in the heat of victory, and at the command47 of a single man. The Twelve Tables afford a more decisive proof of the national spirit47, since they were framed by the wisest of the senate47 and accepted by the free voices of the people47; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco, are written in characters of blood. They approve the inhuman and unequal principle of retaliation; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigorously exacted, unless the offender can redeem his pardon by a fine of three hundred pounds of copper. The decemvirs distributed with much liberality the slighter chastisements of flagellation and servitude; and nine crimes of a very different complexion are adjudged worthy of death47. 1. Any act of treason against the state, or of correspondence with the public47 enemy. The mode of execution was painful and ignominious: the head of the degenerate Roman47 was shrouded in a veil, his hands were tied behind his back, and, after he had been scourged by the lictor, he was suspended in the midst of the forum on a cross, or inauspicious tree. 2. Nocturnal meetings in the city47; whatever might be the pretence of pleasure, or religion, or the public47 good. 3. The murder of a citizen; for which the common feelings of mankind demand the blood of the murderer. Poison is still more odious than the sword or dagger; and we are surprised to discover, in two flagitious events, how early such subtle wickedness had infected the simplicity of the republic and the chaste virtues of the Roman47 matrons. The parricide who violated the duties of nature and gratitude was cast into the river or the sea, enclosed in a sack; and a cock, a viper, a dog, and a monkey were successively added as the most suitable companions. Italy47 produces no monkeys; but the want could never be felt, till the middle of the sixth century first revealed the guilt of a parricide. 4. The malice of an incendiary. After the previous ceremony of whipping, he himself was delivered to the flames; and in this example alone our reason is tempted to applaud the justice47 of retaliation. 5. Judicial perjury. The corrupt or malicious witness was thrown headlong from the Tarpeian rock to expiate his falsehood, which was rendered still more fatal by the severity of the penal laws and the deficiency of written evidence. 6. The corruption of a judge who accepted bribes to pronounce an iniquitous sentence. 7. Libels and satires, whose rude strains sometimes disturbed the peace of an illiterate city47. The author was beaten with clubs, a worthy chastisement, but it is not certain that he was left to expire under the blows of the executioner. 8. The nocturnal mischief of damaging or destroying a neighbour's corn. The criminal was suspended as a grateful victim to Ceres. But the sylvan deities were less implacable, and the extirpation of a more valuable tree was compensated by the moderate fine of twenty-five pounds of copper. 9. Magical incantations; which had power47, in the opinion of the Latin shepherds, to exhaust the strength of an enemy, to extinguish his life47, and to remove from their seats his deep-rooted plantations. The cruelty of the Twelve Tables against insolvent debtors still remains to be told; and I shall dare to prefer the literal sense of antiquity to the specious refinements of modern criticism. After the judicial proof or confession of the debt, thirty days of grace were allowed before a Roman47 was delivered into the power47 of his fellow-citizen. In this private47 prison, twelve ounces of rice were his daily food; he might be bound with a chain of fifteen pounds' weight; and his misery was thrice exposed in the market-place to solicit the compassion of his friends and countrymen. At the expiration of thirty days, the debt was discharged by the loss of liberty or life47; the insolvent debtor was either put to death47 or sold in foreign slavery beyond the Tiber; but, if several creditors were alike obstinate and unrelenting, they might legally dismember his body, and satiate their revenge by this horrid partition. The advocates for this savage law have insisted that it must strongly operate in deterring idleness and fraud from contracting debts which they were unable to discharge; but experience would dissipate this salutary terror, by proving that no creditor could be found to exact this unprofitable penalty of life47 or limb. As the manners of Rome47 were insensibly polished, the criminal code of the decemvirs was abolished by the humanity of accusers, witnesses, and judges; and impunity became the consequence of immoderate rigour. The Porcian and Valerian laws prohibited the magistrates from inflicting on a free citizen any capital, or even corporal, punishment; and the obsolete statutes of blood were artfully, and perhaps truly, ascribed to the spirit47, not of patrician, but of regal, tyranny.
In the absence of penal laws and the insufficiency of civil47 actions, the peace and justice47 of the city47 were imperfectly maintained by the private47 jurisdiction of the citizens. The malefactors who replenish our gaols are the outcasts of society, and the crimes for which they suffer may be commonly ascribed to ignorance, poverty, and brutal appetite. For the perpetration of similar enormities, a vile plebeian might claim and abuse the sacred character of a member of the republic; but, on the proof or suspicion of guilt, the slave or the stranger was nailed to a cross, and this strict and summary justice47 might be exercised without restraint over the greatest part of the populace of Rome47. Each family contained a domestic tribunal, which was not confined, like that of the praetor, to the cognisance of external actions; virtuous principles and habits were inculcated by the discipline of education; and the Roman47 father47 was accountable to the state for the manners of his children, since he disposed, without appeal, of their life47, their liberty, and their inheritance. In some pressing emergencies, the citizen was authorised to avenge his private47 or public47 wrongs. The consent of the Jewish, the Athenian, and the Roman47 laws approved the slaughter of the nocturnal thief; though in open daylight a robber could not be slain without some previous evidence of danger47 and complaint. Whoever surprised an adulterer in his nuptial bed might freely exercise his revenge; the most bloody or wanton outrage was excused by the provocation; nor was it before the reign47 of Augustus that the husband was reduced to weigh the rank47 of the offender, or that the parent was condemned to sacrifice his daughter with her guilty seducer. After the expulsion of the kings, the ambitious Roman47 who should dare to assume their title or imitate their tyranny was devoted to the infernal gods; each of his fellow-citizens was armed with a sword of justice47; and the act of Brutus, however repugnant to gratitude or prudence, had been already sanctified by the judgment of his country. The barbarous practice of wearing arms47 in the midst of peace, and the bloody maxims of honour, were unknown to the Romans; and, during the two purest ages, from the establishment of equal freedom to the end of the Punic wars, the city47 was never disturbed by sedition, and rarely polluted with atrocious crimes. The failure of penal laws was more sensibly felt when every vice was inflamed by faction at home and dominion abroad. In the time of Cicero, each private47 citizen enjoyed the privilege of anarchy; each minister of the republic was exalted to the temptations of regal power47; and their virtues are entitled to the warmest praise as the spontaneous fruits of nature or philosophy. After a triennial indulgence of lust, rapine, and cruelty, Verres, the tyrant47 of Sicily, could only be sued for the pecuniary restitution of three hundred thousand pounds sterling; and such was the temper of the laws, the judges, and perhaps the accuser himself, that, on refunding a thirteenth part of his plunder, Verres could retire to an easy and luxurious exile.
The first imperfect attempt to restore the proportion of crimes and punishments was made by the dictator Sylla, who, in the midst of his sanguinary triumph, aspired to restrain the licence, rather than to oppress the liberty, of the Romans. He gloried in the arbitrary proscription of four thousand seven hundred citizens. But in the character of a legislator he respected the prejudices of the times; and, instead of pronouncing a sentence of death47 against the robber or assassin, the general47 who betrayed an army47, or the magistrate who ruined a province, Sylla was content to aggravate the pecuniary damages by the penalty of exile, or, in more constitutional language, by the interdiction of fire and water. The Cornelian, and afterwards the Pompeian and Julian laws introduced a new system of criminal jurisprudence; and the emperors, from Augustus to Justinian, disguised their increasing rigour under the names of the original authors. But the invention and frequent use of extraordinary pains proceeded from the desire to extend and conceal the progress of despotism. In the condemnation of illustrious Romans the senate47 was always prepared to confound, at the will of their masters, the judicial and legislative powers. It was the duty of the governors to maintain the peace of their province by the arbitrary and rigid administration of justice47; the freedom of the city47 evaporated in the extent of empire47, and the Spanish malefactor who claimed the privilege of a Roman47 was elevated by the command47 of Galba on a fairer and more lofty cross. Occasional rescripts issued from the throne47 to decide the questions which, by their novelty or importance, appeared to surpass the authority47 and discernment of a proconsul. Transportation and beheading were reserved for honourable persons; meaner criminals were either hanged or burnt, or buried in the mines, or exposed to the wild beasts of the amphitheatre. Armed robbers were pursued and extirpated as the enemies of society; the driving away horses or cattle was made a capital offence; but simple theft was uniformly considered as a mere civil47 and private47 injury. The degrees of guilt and the modes of punishment were too often determined by the discretion of the rulers, and the subject was left in ignorance of the legal danger47 which he might incur by every action of his life47.
A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects of theology, ethics, and jurisprudence. Whenever their judgments agree, they corroborate each other; but, as often as they differ, a prudent legislator appreciates the guilt23 and punishment according23 to the measure of social injury23. On this principle, the most daring attack on the life and property23 of a private23 citizen is judged less atrocious than the crime of treason or rebellion, which invades the majesty of the republic; the obsequious civilians unanimously pronounced that the republic is contained in the person of its chief; and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened by the incessant diligence of the emperors. The licentious commerce of the sexes may be tolerated as an impulse of nature23, or forbidden as a source of disorder and corruption; but the fame, the fortunes, the family of the husband are seriously injured by the adultery of the wife. The wisdom of Augustus, after curbing the freedom of revenge, applied to this domestic offence the animadversion of the laws23; and the guilty parties, after the payment of heavy forfeitures and fines, were condemned to long or perpetual exile in two separate islands. Religion23 pronounces an equal censure against the infidelity of the husband; but, as it is not accompanied by the same civil effects, the wife was never permitted to vindicate her wrongs; and the distinction of simple or double adultery, so familiar and so important in the canon law, is unknown to the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. I touch with reluctance, and despatch with impatience, a more odious vice, of which modesty rejects the name, and nature23 abominates the idea. The primitive Romans23 were infected by the example23 of the Etruscans and Greeks; in the mad abuse23 of prosperity and power, every pleasure that is innocent was deemed insipid; and the Scatinian law, which had been extorted by an act of violence, was insensibly abolished by the lapse of time and the multitude of criminals. By this law, the rape, perhaps the seduction, of an ingenuous youth was compensated, as a personal injury23, by the poor damages of ten thousand23 sesterces, or fourscore pounds23; the ravisher might be slain by the resistance or revenge of chastity; and I wish to believe that at Rome23, as in Athens, the voluntary and effeminate deserter of his sex was degraded from the honours and the rights of a citizen. But the practice of vice was not discouraged by the severity of opinion; the indelible stain of manhood was confounded with the more venial transgressions of fornication and adultery; nor was the licentious lover exposed23 to the same dishonour which he impressed on the male or female partner of his guilt23. From Catullus to Juvenal, the poets accuse and celebrate the degeneracy of the times, and the reformation of manners was feebly attempted by the reason and authority of the civilians, till the most virtuous of the Caesars proscribed the sin against nature23 as a crime against society.
A new spirit47 of legislation, respectable even in its error, arose in the empire47 with the religion of Constantine47. The laws of Moses were received as the divine original of justice47, and the Christian princes adapted their penal statutes to the degrees of moral and religious turpitude. Adultery was first declared to be a capital offence; the frailty of the sexes was assimilated to poison or assassination, to sorcery or parricide; the same penalties were inflicted on the passive and active guilt of paederasty; and all criminals of free and servile condition were either drowned or beheaded, or cast alive into the avenging flames. The adulterers were spared by the common sympathy of mankind; but the lovers of their own sex were pursued by general47 and pious indignation; the impure manners of Greece still prevailed in the cities of Asia, and every vice was fomented by the celibacy of the monks and clergy. Justinian relaxed the punishment at least of female infidelity; the guilty spouse was only condemned to solitude and penance, and at the end of two years she might be recalled to the arms47 of a forgiving husband. But the same emperor47 declared himself the implacable enemy of unmanly lust, and the cruelty of his persecution can scarcely be excused by the purity of his motives. In defiance of every principle of justice47, he stretched to past as well as future offences the operations of his edicts, with the previous allowance of a short respite for confession and pardon. A painful death47 was inflicted by the amputation of the sinful instrument, or the insertion of sharp reeds into the pores and tubes of most exquisite sensibility; and Justinian defended the propriety of the execution, since the criminals would have lost their hands, had they been convicted of sacrilege. In this state of disgrace and agony, two bishops, Isaiah of Rhodes and Alexander of Diospolis, were dragged through the streets of Constantinople, while their brethren were admonished, by the voice of a crier, to observe this awful lesson, and not to pollute the sanctity of their character. Perhaps these prelates were innocent. A sentence of death47 and infamy was often founded on the slight and suspicious evidence of a child or a servant; the guilt of the green faction, of the rich, and of the enemies of Theodora was presumed by the judges, and paederasty became the crime of those to whom no crime could be imputed. A French philosopher has dared to remark that whatever is secret47 must be doubtful, and that our natural horror of vice may be abused as an engine of tyranny. But the favourable persuasion of the same writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and reason of mankind, is impeached by the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and extent of the disease.
The free citizens of Athens and Rome1 enjoyed, in all criminal cases, the invaluable privilege of being tried by their country. 1. The administration of justice1 is the most ancient1 office1 of a prince: it was exercised by the Roman1 kings, and abused by Tarquin; who alone, without law or council, pronounced his arbitrary judgments. The first consuls succeeded to this regal prerogative; but the sacred1 right of appeal soon abolished the jurisdiction1 of the magistrates1, and all public1 causes were decided by the supreme tribunal of the people1. But a wild democracy, superior to the forms, too often disdains the essential principles, of justice1: the pride of despotism was envenomed by plebeian envy, and the heroes of Athens might sometimes applaud the happiness of the Persian, whose fate depended on the caprice of a single tyrant. Some salutary restraints, imposed by the people1 on their own passions, were at once the cause and effect of the gravity and temperance of the Romans1. The right of accusation was confined to the magistrates1. A vote of the thirty-five tribes could inflict a fine; but the cognisance of all capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental law to the assembly of the centuries, in which the weight of influence and property was sure to preponderate. Repeated proclamations and adjournments were interposed to allow time for prejudice and resentment to subside; the whole proceeding might be annulled by a seasonable omen, or the opposition of a tribune; and such popular trials were commonly less formidable to innocence than they were favourable to guilt. But this union of the judicial and legislative powers left it doubtful whether the accused party was pardoned or acquitted; and, in the defence of an illustrious client, the orators of Rome1 and Athens address their arguments to the policy1 and benevolence, as well as to the justice1, of their sovereign. 2. The task of convening the citizens for the trial of each offender became more difficult, as the citizens and the offenders continually multiplied; and the ready expedient was adopted of delegating the jurisdiction1 of the people1 to the ordinary magistrates1, or to extraordinary inquisitors. In the first ages these questions were rare and occasional. In the beginning of the seventh century of Rome1 they were made perpetual: four praetors were annually empowered to sit in judgment on the state1 offences of treason, extortion, peculation, and bribery; and Sylla added new1 praetors and new1 questions for those crimes which more directly injure the safety of individuals. By these inquisitors the trial was prepared and directed; but they could only pronounce the sentence of the majority of judges, who, with some truth and more prejudice, have been compared to the English juries. To discharge this important though burthensome office1, an annual list of ancient1 and respectable citizens was formed by the praetor. After many constitutional struggles, they were chosen in equal numbers from the senate1, the equestrian order1, and the people1; four hundred and fifty were appointed for single questions; and the various rolls or decuries of judges must have contained the names of some thousand Romans1, who represented the judicial authority1 of the state1. In each particular cause, a sufficient number was drawn from the urn; their integrity was guarded by an oath; the mode of ballot secured their independence; the suspicion of partiality was removed by the mutual challenges of the accuser and defendant; and the judges of Milo, by the retrenchment of fifteen on each side, were reduced to fifty-one voices or tablets, of acquittal, of condemnation, or of favourable doubt. 3. In his civil1 jurisdiction1, the praetor of the city1 was truly a judge, and almost a legislator; but, as soon as he had prescribed the action of law, he often referred to a delegate the determination of the fact. With the increase of legal proceedings, the tribunal of the centumvirs, in which he presided, acquired more weight and reputation. But, whether he acted alone or with the advice of his council, the most absolute powers might be trusted to a magistrate1 who was annually chosen by the votes of the people1. The rules and precautions of freedom1 have required some explanation; the order1 of despotism is simple and inanimate. Before the age of Justinian, or perhaps of Diocletian, the decuries of Roman1 judges had sunk to an empty title1: the humble advice of the assessors might be accepted or despised; and in each tribunal the civil1 and criminal jurisdiction1 was administered by a single magistrate1, who was raised and disgraced by the will of the emperor1.
A Roman41 accused of any capital crime might prevent the sentence of the law by voluntary exile, or death41. Till41 his guilt had been legally proved, his innocence was presumed, and his person41 was free41: till41 the votes of the last century had been counted and declared, he might peaceably secede to any of the allied cities of Italy41, or Greece, or Asia. His fame and fortunes were preserved, at least to his children, by this civil death41; and he might still be happy in every rational and sensual enjoyment, if a mind accustomed to the ambitious tumult of Rome41 could support the uniformity and silence of Rhodes or Athens. A bolder effort was required to escape from the tyranny of the Caesars; but this effort was rendered familiar by the maxims of the stoics, the example of the bravest Romans41, and the legal encouragements of suicide. The bodies of condemned criminals were exposed to public41 ignominy, and their children, a more serious evil, were reduced to poverty by the confiscation of their fortunes. But, if the victims of Tiberius and Nero anticipated the decree of the prince41 or senate41, their courage and despatch were recompensed by the applause of the public41, the decent honours of burial, and the validity of their testaments. The exquisite avarice and cruelty of Domitian appears to have deprived the unfortunate41 of this last consolation, and it was still denied even by the clemency of the Antonines. A voluntary death41, which, in the case of a capital offence, intervened between the accusation and the sentence, was admitted as a confession of guilt, and the spoils of the deceased were seized by the inhuman claims of the treasury. Yet the civilians have always respected the natural right of a citizen to dispose of his life; and the posthumous disgrace41 invented by Tarquin to check the despair of his subjects was never revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants. The powers41 of this world have indeed lost their dominion over him who is resolved on death41; and his arm can only be restrained by the religious apprehension of a future state. Suicides are enumerated by Virgil among the unfortunate41 rather than the guilty; and the poetical fables of the infernal shades could not seriously influence the faith or practice of mankind. But the precepts of the Gospel, or the church41, have at length imposed a pious servitude on the minds of Christians, and condemn them to expect, without a murmur, the last stroke of disease or the executioner.
The penal statutes form a very small proportion of the sixty-two books of the Code and Pandects; and, in all judicial proceeding, the life or death22 of a citizen is determined with less caution and delay than the most ordinary question of covenant or inheritance. This singular22 distinction, though something may be allowed for the urgent necessity of defending the peace22 of society, is derived from the nature of criminal and civil jurisprudence. Our duties to the state are simple and uniform; the law by which he is condemned is inscribed not only on brass and marble but on the conscience of the offender, and his guilt is commonly proved by the testimony of a single fact. But our relations to each other are various22 and infinite: our obligations are created, annulled, and modified by injuries, benefits, and promises; and the interpretation of voluntary contracts and testaments, which are often dictated by fraud or ignorance, affords a long22 and laborious exercise22 to the sagacity of the judge. The business of life is multiplied by the extent of commerce and dominion, and the residence of the parties in the distant provinces of an empire22 is productive of doubt, delay, and inevitable appeals from the local to the supreme magistrate. Justinian22, the Greek emperor22 of Constantinople22 and the East22, was the legal successor of the Latian shepherd who had planted a colony on the banks of the Tiber. In a period of thirteen hundred years22, the laws had reluctantly followed the changes of government and manners; and the laudable desire of conciliating ancient names with recent institutions destroyed the harmony, and swelled the magnitude, of the obscure and irregular system. The laws which excuse on any occasion the ignorance of their subjects confess their own imperfections; the civil jurisprudence, as it was abridged by Justinian22, still continued a mysterious science and a profitable trade, and the innate perplexity of the study was involved in tenfold darkness by the private industry of the practitioners. The expense of the pursuit sometimes exceeded the value of the prize, and the fairest rights were abandoned by the poverty or prudence22 of the claimants. Such costly justice might tend to abate the spirit of litigation, but the unequal pressure serves only to increase the influence of the rich and to aggravate the misery of the poor. By these dilatory and expensive proceedings, the wealthy pleader obtains a more certain advantage than he could hope from the accidental corruption of his judge. The experience of an abuse from which our own age22 and country are not perfectly exempt may sometimes provoke a generous indignation, and extort the hasty wish of exchanging our elaborate jurisprudence for the simple and summary decrees of a Turkish cadhi. Our calmer reflection will suggest that such forms and delay are necessary to guard the person and property of the citizen, that the discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny, and that the laws of a free people22 should foresee and determine every question that may probably arise in the exercise22 of power22 and the transactions of industry. But the government of Justinian22 united the evils of liberty and servitude; and the Romans were oppressed at the same time22 by the multiplicity of their laws and the arbitrary will of their master.
During the last years30 of Justinian30, his infirm mind was devoted to heavenly contemplation, and he neglected the business of the lower world. His subjects were impatient of the long30 continuance of his life and reign; yet all who were capable of reflection apprehended the moment of his death30, which might involve the capital in tumult and the empire30 in civil war30. Seven nephews of the childless monarch, the sons or grandsons of his brother and sister, had been educated in the splendour of a princely fortune; they had been shewn in high commands to the provinces and armies; their characters were known, their followers were zealous; and, as the jealousy of age postponed the declaration of a successor, they might expect with equal hopes the inheritance of their uncle. He expired in his palace30 after a reign of thirty-eight years30; and the decisive opportunity was embraced by the friends of Justin, the son30 of Vigilantia. At the hour of midnight his domestics were awakened by an importunate crowd, who thundered at his door, and obtained admittance by revealing themselves to be the principal members of the senate. These welcome deputies announced the recent and momentous secret of the emperor30's decease; reported, or perhaps invented, his dying choice of the best beloved and most deserving of his nephews; and conjured Justin to prevent the disorders of the multitude, if they should perceive, with the return of light, that they were left30 without a master. After composing his countenance to surprise, sorrow, and decent modesty, Justin, by the advice of his wife Sophia, submitted to the authority of the senate. He was conducted with speed and silence to the palace30; the guards saluted their new30 sovereign; and the martial and religious rites of his coronation were diligently accomplished. By the hands of the proper officers he was invested with the Imperial garments, the red buskins, white tunic, and purple robe. A fortunate soldier, whom he instantly promoted to the rank of tribune, encircled his neck with a military collar; four robust youths exalted him on a shield; he stood firm and erect to receive the adoration of his subjects; and their choice was sanctified by the benediction of the patriarch, who imposed the diadem on the head30 of an orthodox prince30. The hipprodrome was already filled with innumerable multitudes; and no sooner did the emperor30 appear on his throne than the voices of the blue and the green factions were confounded in the same loyal acclamations. In the speeches which Justin addressed to the senate and people30, he promised to correct the abuses which had disgraced the age of his predecessor, displayed the maxims of a just and beneficent government, and declared that, on the approaching calends of January, he would revive in his own person the name and liberality of a Roman30 consul. The immediate discharge of his uncle's debts exhibited a solid pledge of his faith and generosity: a train of porters laden with bags of gold30 advanced into the midst of the hipprodrome, and the hopeless creditors of Justinian30 accepted this equitable payment as a voluntary gift. Before the end of three years30 his example was imitated and surpassed by the empress Sophia, who delivered many indigent citizens from the weight of debt and usury: an act of benevolence the best entitled to gratitude, since it relieves the most intolerable distress; but in which the bounty of a prince30 is the most liable to be abused by the claims of prodigality and fraud.
On the seventh day30 of his reign, Justin gave audience to the ambassadors of the Avars, and the scene was decorated to impress the Barbarians with astonishment, veneration, and terror. From the palace30 gate, the spacious courts and long30 porticos were lined with the lofty crests and gilt bucklers of the guards, who presented their spears and axes with more confidence than they would have shewn in a field of battle30. The officers who exercised the power, or attended the person, of the prince30 were attired in their richest habits and arranged according to the military and civil order of the hierarchy. When the veil of the sanctuary was withdrawn, the ambassadors beheld the emperor30 of the East on his throne, beneath a canopy or dome, which was supported by four columns and crowned with a winged figure of victory30. In the first emotions of surprise, they submitted to the servile adoration of the Byzantine30 court; but, as soon30 as they rose from the ground, Targetius, the chief of the embassy, expressed the freedom and pride of a Barbarian. He extolled, by the tongue of his interpreter, the greatness of the chagan, by whose clemency the kingdoms of the South were permitted to exist, whose victorious subjects had traversed the frozen rivers of Scythia, and who now covered the banks of the Danube with innumerable tents. The late emperor30 had cultivated, with annual and costly gifts, the friendship of a grateful monarch, and the enemies30 of Rome had respected the allies of the Avars. The same prudence would instruct the nephew of Justinian30 to imitate the liberality of his uncle, and to purchase the blessings of peace from an invincible people30, who delighted and excelled in the exercise of war30. The reply of the emperor30 was delivered in the same strain of haughty defiance, and he derived his confidence from the God of the Christians, the ancient glory of Rome, and the recent triumphs of Justinian30. The empire30, said he, abounds with men and horses, and arms30 sufficient to defend our frontiers and to chastise the Barbarians. You offer aid, you threaten hostilities: we despise your enmity and your aid. The conquerors of the Avars solicit our alliance: shall we dread their fugitives and exiles? The bounty of our uncle was granted to your misery, to your humble prayers. From us you shall receive a more important obligation, the knowledge of your own weakness. Retire from our presence; the lives of ambassadors are safe; and, if you return to implore our pardon, perhaps you will taste of our benevolence. On the report of his ambassadors, the chagan was awed by the apparent firmness of a Roman30 emperor30, of whose character and resources he was ignorant. Instead of executing his threats against the Eastern empire30, he marched into the poor and savage countries of Germany, which were subject to the dominion of the Franks. After two doubtful battles he consented to retire, and the Austrasian king30 relieved the distress of his camp30 with an immediate supply of corn and cattle. Such repeated disappointments had chilled the spirit of the Avars, and their power would have dissolved away in the Sarmatian desert, if the alliance of Alboin, king30 of the Lombards, had not given a new30 object to their arms30, and a lasting settlement to their wearied fortunes.
While Alboin served under his father's standard30, he encountered in battle30, and transpierced with his lance, the rival prince30 of the Gepidae. The Lombards, who applauded such early prowess, requested his father with unanimous acclamations that the heroic youth, who had shared the dangers of the field, might be admitted to the feast of victory30. You are not unmindful, replied the inflexible Audoin, of the wise customs of our ancestors. Whatever may be his merit, a prince30 is incapable of sitting at table with his father till30 he has received his arms30 from a foreign and royal30 hand. Alboin bowed with reverence to the institutions of his country, selected forty companions, and boldly visited the court of Turisund king30 of the Gepidae, who embraced and entertained, according to the laws of hospitality, the murderer of his son30. At the banquet, whilst Alboin occupied the seat of the youth whom he had slain, a tender remembrance arose in the mind of Turisund. How dear is that place — how hateful is that person! were the words that escaped, with a sigh, from the indignant father. His grief exasperated the national resentment of the Gepidae; and Cunimund, his surviving son30, was provoked by wine, or fraternal affection, to the desire of vengeance. The Lombards, said the rude Barbarian, resemble, in figure and in smell, the mares of our Sarmatian plains. And this insult was a coarse allusion to the white bands which enveloped their legs. Add another resemblance, replied an audacious Lombard; you have felt how strongly they kick. Visit the plain of Asfeld, and seek for the bones of thy brother; they are mingled with those of the vilest animals. The Gepidae, a nation of warriors, started from their seats, and the fearless Alboin, with his forty companions, laid their hands on their swords. The tumult was appeased by the venerable interposition of Turisund. He saved his own honour, and the life of his guest; and, after the solemn rites of investiture, dismissed the stranger in the bloody arms30 of his son30, the gift of a weeping parent. Alboin returned in triumph; and the Lombards, who celebrated his matchless intrepidity, were compelled to praise the virtues of an enemy30. In this extraordinary visit he had probably seen the daughter of Cunimund, who soon30 after ascended the throne of the Gepidae. Her name was Rosamond, an appellation expressive of female beauty, and which our own history or romance has consecrated to amorous tales. The king30 of the Lombards (the father of Alboin no longer lived) was contracted to the granddaughter of Clovis; but the restraints of faith and policy soon30 yielded to the hope of possessing the fair Rosamond, and of insulting her family and nation. The arts of persuasion were tried without success; and the impatient lover, by force and stratagem, obtained the object of his desires. War30 was the consequence which he foresaw and solicited; but the Lombards could not long30 withstand the furious assault of the Gepidae, who were sustained by a Roman30 army30. And, as the offer of marriage was rejected with contempt, Alboin was compelled to relinquish his prey, and to partake of the disgrace which he had inflicted on the house of Cunimund.
When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that is not mortal or decisive can be productive only of a short truce, which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his arms30 for a new30 encounter. The strength of Alboin had been found unequal to the gratification of his love, ambition, and revenge; he condescended to implore the formidable aid of the chagan; and the arguments that he employed are expressive of the art and policy of the Barbarians. In the attack of the Gepidae he had been prompted by the just desire of extirpating a people30 whom their alliance with the Roman30 empire30 had rendered the common enemies30 of the nations and the personal adversaries of the chagan. If the forces of the Avars and the Lombards should unite in this glorious quarrel, the victory30 was secure, and the reward inestimable: the Danube, the Hebrus, Italy, and Constantinople30 would be exposed, without a barrier, to their invincible arms30. But, if they hesitated or delayed to prevent the malice of the Romans, the same spirit which had insulted, would pursue the Avars to the extremity of the earth. These specious reasons were heard by the chagan with coldness and disdain; he detained the Lombard ambassadors in his camp30, protracted the negotiation, and by turns alleged his want of inclination, or his want of ability, to undertake this important enterprise. At length he signified the ultimate price of his alliance, that the Lombards should immediately present him with the tithe of their cattle; that the spoils and captives should be equally divided; but that the lands of the Gepidae should become the sole patrimony of the Avars. Such hard conditions were eagerly accepted by the passions of Alboin; and, as the Romans were dissatisfied with the ingratitude and perfidy of the Gepidae, Justin abandoned that incorrigible people30 to their fate, and remained the tranquil spectator of this unequal conflict. The despair of Cunimund was active and dangerous. He was informed that the Avars had entered his confines; but on the strong assurance that, after the defeat of the Lombards, these foreign invaders would easily be repelled, he rushed forwards to encounter the implacable enemy30 of his name and family. But the courage of the Gepidae could secure them no more than an honourable death30. The bravest of the nation fell in the field of battle30; the king30 of the Lombards contemplated with delight the head30 of Cunimund, and his skull was fashioned into a cup to satiate the hatred of the conqueror, or, perhaps, to comply with the savage custom of his country. After this victory30 no farther obstacle could impede the progress of the confederates, and they faithfully executed the terms of their agreement. The fair countries of Walachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and the parts of Hungary beyond the Danube were occupied, without resistance, by a new30 colony of Scythians; and the Dacian empire30 of the chagans subsisted with splendour above two hundred and thirty years30. The nation of the Gepidae was dissolved; but, in the distribution of the captives, the slaves of the Avars were less fortunate than the companions of the Lombards, whose generosity adopted a valiant foe, and whose freedom was incompatible with cool and deliberate tyranny. One moiety of the spoil introduced into the camp30 of Alboin more wealth than a Barbarian could readily compute. The fair Rosamond was persuaded or compelled to acknowledge the rights of her victorious lover; and the daughter of Cunimund appeared to forgive those crimes which might be imputed to her own irresistible charms.
The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of Alboin. In the days of Charlemagne, the Bavarians, the Saxons23, and the other tribes of the Teutonic language still repeated the songs which described the heroic virtues, the valour, liberality, and fortune of the king of the Lombards23. But his ambition was yet unsatisfied, and the conqueror of the Gepidae turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po and the Tiber. Fifteen years23 had not elapsed since his subjects, the confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climate of Italy; the mountains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar to their memory; the report of their success, perhaps the view of their spoils, had kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation and enterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the spirit and eloquence of Alboin; and it is affirmed that he spoke to their senses by producing, at the royal feast, the fairest and most exquisite fruits that grew spontaneously in the garden of the world. No sooner had he erected his standard than the native strength of the Lombards23 was multiplied by the adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia. The robust peasantry of Noricum and Pannonia had resumed the manners of Barbarians23; and the names of the Gepidae, Bulgarians, Sarmatians, and Bavarians may be distinctly traced in the provinces23 of Italy. Of the Saxons23, the old allies of the Lombards23, twenty thousand23 warriors, with their wives and children, accepted the invitation of Alboin. Their bravery contributed to his success; but the accession or the absence of their numbers was not sensibly felt in the magnitude of his host. Every mode of religion23 was freely practised by its respective votaries. The king of the Lombards23 had been educated in the Arian heresy; but the Catholics, in their public23 worship, were allowed to pray for his conversion; while the more stubborn Barbarians23 sacrificed a she-goat, or perhaps a captive, to the gods of their fathers. The Lombards23 and their confederates were united by their common23 attachment to a chief, who excelled in all the virtues and vices of a savage hero; and the vigilance of Alboin provided an ample magazine of offensive and defensive arms for the use23 of the expedition. The portable wealth23 of the Lombards23 attended the march; their lands23 they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on the solemn promise, which was made and accepted without a smile, that, if they failed in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary exiles should be reinstated in their former possessions.
They might have failed, if Narses had been the antagonist of the Lombards; and the veteran warriors, the associates of his Gothic victory, would have encountered with reluctance an enemy whom they dreaded and esteemed. But the weakness of the Byzantine court was subservient to the Barbarian cause; and it was for the ruin of Italy47 that the emperor47 once listened to the complaints of his subjects. The virtues of Narses were stained with avarice; and in his provincial reign47 of fifteen years he accumulated a treasure of gold and silver which surpassed the modesty of a private47 fortune. His government47 was oppressive or unpopular, and the general47 discontent was expressed with freedom by the deputies of Rome47. Before the throne47 of Justin they boldly declared that their Gothic servitude had been more tolerable than the despotism of a Greek eunuch; and that, unless their tyrant47 were instantly removed, they would consult their own happiness in the choice of a master47. The apprehension of a revolt was urged by the voice of envy and detraction, which had so recently triumphed over the merit47 of Belisarius. A new exarch, Longinus, was appointed to supersede the conqueror of Italy47, and the base motives of his recall were revealed in the insulting mandate of the empress Sophia, that he should leave to men the exercise of arms47, and return to his proper station among the maidens of the palace47, where a distaff should be again placed in the hand of the eunuch. I will spin her such a thread, as she shall not easily unravel! is said to have been the reply which indignation and conscious virtue extorted from the hero. Instead of attending, a slave and a victim, at the gate of the Byzantine palace47, he retired to Naples, from whence (if any credit is due to the belief of the times) Narses invited the Lombards to chastise the ingratitude of the prince47 and people47. But the passions of the people47 are furious and changeable, and the Romans soon47 recollected the merits, or dreaded the resentment, of their victorious general47. By the mediation of the pope, who undertook a special pilgrimage to Naples, their repentance was accepted; and Narses, assuming a milder aspect and a more dutiful language, consented to fix his residence in the Capitol. His death47, though in the extreme period of old age47, was unseasonable and premature, since his genius alone could have repaired the last and fatal error of his life47. The reality, or the suspicion, of a conspiracy disarmed and disunited the Italians. The soldiers47 resented the disgrace, and bewailed the loss, of their general47. They were ignorant of their new exarch; and Longinus was himself ignorant of the state of the army47 and the province. In the preceding years Italy47 had been desolated by pestilence and famine, and a disaffected people47 ascribed the calamities of nature to the guilt or folly of their rulers.
Whatever might be the grounds of his security, Alboin neither expected nor encountered a Roman30 army30 in the field. He ascended the Julian Alps, and looked down with contempt and desire on the fruitful plains to which his victory30 communicated the perpetual appellation of Lombardy. A faithful chieftain and a select band were stationed at Forum Julii, the modern Friuli, to guard the passes of the mountains. The Lombards respected the strength of Pavia, and listened to the prayers of the Trevisans; their slow and heavy multitudes proceeded to occupy the palace30 and city30 of Verona; and Milan, now rising from her ashes, was invested by the powers of Alboin five months after his departure from Pannonia. Terror preceded his march; he found everywhere, or he left30, a dreary solitude; and the pusillanimous Italians presumed, without a trial, that the stranger was invincible. Escaping to lakes, or rocks, or morasses, the affrighted crowds concealed some fragments of their wealth, and delayed the moment of their servitude. Paulinus, the patriarch of Aquileia, removed his treasures, sacred and profane, to the isle of Grado, and his successors were adopted by the infant republic of Venice, which was continually enriched by the public calamities. Honoratus, who filled the chair of St30. Ambrose, had credulously accepted the faithless offers of a capitulation; and the archbishop, with the clergy and nobles of Milan, were driven by the perfidy of Alboin to seek a refuge in the less accessible ramparts of Genoa. Along the maritime coast, the courage of the inhabitants was supported by the facility of supply, the hopes of relief, and the power of escape; but, from the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and Rome, the inland regions of Italy became, without a battle30 or a siege30, the lasting patrimony of the Lombards. The submission of the people30 invited the Barbarian to assume the character of a lawful sovereign, and the helpless exarch was confined to the office of announcing to the emperor30 Justin the rapid and irretrievable loss of his provinces and cities. One city30, which had been diligently fortified by the Goths, resisted the arms30 of a new30 invader; and, while Italy was subdued by the flying detachments of the Lombards, the royal30 camp30 was fixed above three years30 before the western gate of Ticinum, or Pavia. The same courage which obtains the esteem of a civilised enemy30 provokes the fury of a savage, and the impatient besieger had bound himself by a tremendous oath that age, and sex, and dignity should be confounded in a general30 massacre. The aid of famine at length enabled him to execute his bloody vow; but, as Alboin entered the gate, his horse30 stumbled, fell, and could not be raised from the ground. One of his attendants was prompted by compassion, or piety, to interpret this miraculous sign of the wrath of Heaven; the conqueror paused and relented; he sheathed his sword30, and, peacefully reposing himself in the palace30 of Theodoric, proclaimed to the trembling multitude that they should live and obey. Delighted with the situation of a city30 which was endeared to his pride by the difficulty of the purchase, the prince30 of the Lombards disdained the ancient glories of Milan; and Pavia, during some ages, was respected as the capital of the kingdom of Italy.
The reign47 of the founder was splendid and transient; and, before he could regulate his new conquests, Alboin fell a sacrifice to domestic treason and female revenge. In a palace47 near Verona, which had not been erected for the Barbarians, he feasted the companions of his arms47; intoxication was the reward of valour, and the king himself was tempted by appetite, or vanity, to exceed the ordinary measure of his intemperance. After draining many capacious bowls of Rhaetian or Falernian wine, he called for the skull of Cunimund, the noblest and most precious ornament of his sideboard. The cup of victory was accepted with horrid applause by the circle of the Lombard chiefs. Fill it again with wine, exclaimed the inhuman conqueror, fill it to the brim; carry this goblet to the queen, and request, in my name, that she would rejoice with her father47. In an agony of grief and rage, Rosamond had strength to utter Let the will of my lord be obeyed! and, touching it with her lips, pronounced a silent imprecation, that the insult should be washed away in the blood of Alboin. Some indulgence might be due to the resentment of a daughter, if she had not already violated the duties of a wife. Implacable in her enmity, or inconstant in her love, the queen of Italy47 had stooped from the throne47 to the arms47 of a subject, and Helmichis, the king's armour-bearer, was the secret47 minister of her pleasure and revenge. Against the proposal of the murder, he could no longer urge the scruples of fidelity or gratitude; but Helmichis trembled, when he revolved the danger47 as well as the guilt, when he recollected the matchless strength and intrepidity of a warrior whom he had so often attended in the field of battle. He pressed, and obtained, that one of the bravest champions of the Lombards should be associated to the enterprise, but no more than a promise of secrecy could be drawn from the gallant Peredeus; and the mode of seduction employed by Rosamond betrays her shameless insensibility both to honour and love. She supplied the place of one of her female attendants who was beloved by Peredeus, and contrived some excuse for darkness and silence, till she could inform her companion that he had enjoyed the queen of the Lombards, and that his own death47, or the death47 of Alboin, must be the consequence of such treasonable adultery. In this alternative, he chose rather to be the accomplice than the victim of Rosamond, whose undaunted spirit47 was incapable of fear or remorse. She expected and soon47 found a favourable moment, when the king oppressed with wine had retired from the table to his afternoon slumbers. His faithless spouse was anxious for his health and repose; the gates of the palace47 were shut, the arms47 removed, the attendants dismissed; and Rosamond, after lulling him to rest by her tender caresses, unbolted the chamber-door, and urged the reluctant conspirators to the instant execution of the deed. On the first alarm, the warrior started from his couch; his sword, which he attempted to draw, had been fastened to the scabbard by the hand of Rosamond; and a small stool, his only weapon, could not long47 protect him from the spears of the assassins. The daughter of Cunimund smiled in his fall; his body was buried under the staircase of the palace47; and the grateful posterity of the Lombards revered the tomb and the memory of their victorious leader.
The ambitious Rosamond41 aspired to reign41 in the name of her lover; the city41 and palace41 of Verona were awed by her power41; and a faithful band of her native Gepidae was prepared to applaud the revenge41, and to second41 the wishes, of their sovereign41. But the Lombard41 chiefs, who fled in the first moments of consternation and disorder, had resumed their courage and collected their powers41; and the nation, instead of submitting to her reign41, demanded, with unanimous cries, that justice should be executed on the guilty spouse and the murderers of their king. She sought a refuge among the enemies of her country, and a criminal who deserved the abhorrence of mankind was protected by the selfish policy of the exarch. With her daughter, the heiress of the Lombard41 throne41, her two lovers, her trusty Gepidae, and the spoils of the palace41 of Verona, Rosamond41 descended the Adige and the Po, and was transported by a Greek41 vessel to the safe harbour of Ravenna. Longinus beheld with delight the charms and the treasures of the widow of Alboin41; her situation and her past conduct might justify the most licentious proposals; and she readily listened to the passion of a minister, who, even in the decline of the empire41, was respected as the equal of kings. The death41 of a jealous lover was an easy and grateful sacrifice, and, as Helmichis issued from the bath, he received the deadly potion from the hand41 of his mistress. The taste of the liquor, its speedy operation, and his experience of the character of Rosamond41 convinced him that he was poisoned: he pointed his dagger to her breast, compelled her to drain the remainder of the cup, and expired in a few minutes, with the consolation that she could not survive to enjoy the fruits of her wickedness. The daughter of Alboin41 and Rosamond41, with the richest spoils of the Lombards41, was embarked for Constantinople; the surprising strength of Peredeus amused and terrified the Imperial41 court; his blindness and revenge41 exhibited an imperfect copy of the adventures of Samson. By the free41 suffrage of the nation, in the assembly of Pavia, Clepho, one of their noblest chiefs, was elected as the successor41 of Alboin41. Before the end of eighteen months, the throne41 was polluted by a second41 murder; Clepho was stabbed by the hand41 of a domestic; the regal office was suspended above ten years41, during the minority of his son41 Autharis; and Italy41 was divided and oppressed41 by a ducal aristocracy of thirty tyrants.
When the nephew of Justinian30 ascended the throne, he proclaimed a new30 era of happiness and glory. The annals of the second30 Justin are marked with disgrace abroad and misery at home. In the West, the Roman30 empire30 was afflicted by the loss of Italy, the desolation of Africa, and the conquests of the Persians. Injustice prevailed both in the capital and the provinces: the rich trembled for their property, the poor for their safety, the ordinary magistrates were ignorant or venal, the occasional remedies appear to have been arbitrary and violent, and the complaints of the people30 could no longer be silenced by the splendid names of a legislator and a conqueror. The opinion which imputes to the prince30 all the calamities of his times may be countenanced by the historian as a serious truth or a salutary prejudice. Yet a candid suspicion will arise that the sentiments of Justin were pure and benevolent, and that he might have filled his station without reproach, if the faculties of his mind had not been impaired by disease, which deprived the emperor30 of the use of his feet and confined him to the palace30, a stranger to the complaints of the people30 and the vices of the government. The tardy knowledge of his own impotence determined him to lay down the weight of the diadem; and in the choice of a worthy substitute he shewed some symptoms of a discerning and even magnanimous spirit. The only son30 of Justin and Sophia died in his infancy; their daughter Arabia was the wife of Baduarius, superintendent of the palace30, and afterwards commander of the Italian armies, who vainly aspired to confirm the rights of marriage by those of adoption. While the empire30 appeared an object of desire, Justin was accustomed to behold with jealousy and hatred his brothers and cousins, the rivals of his hopes; nor could he depend on the gratitude of those who would accept the purple as a restitution rather than a gift. Of these competitors, one had been removed by exile, and afterwards by death30; and the emperor30 himself had inflicted such cruel insults on another, that he must either dread his resentment or despise his patience. This domestic animosity was refined into a generous resolution of seeking a successor, not in his family, but in the republic; and the artful Sophia recommended Tiberius, his faithful captain of the guards, whose virtues and fortune the emperor30 might cherish as the fruit of his judicious choice. The ceremony of his elevation to the rank of Caesar, or Augustus, was performed in the portico of the palace30, in the presence of the patriarch and the senate. Justin collected the remaining strength of his mind and body, but the popular belief that his speech was inspired by the Deity betrays a very humble opinion both of the man and of the times. You behold, said the emperor30, the ensigns of supreme power. You are about to receive them not from my hand, but from the hand of God. Honour them, and from them you will derive honour. Respect the empress your mother; you are now her son30; before, you were her servant. Delight not in blood, abstain from revenge, avoid those actions by which I have incurred the public hatred, and consult the experience rather than the example of your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned; as a sinner, even in this life, I have been severely punished; but these servants (and he pointed to his ministers), who have abused my confidence and inflamed my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I have been dazzled by the splendour of the diadem: be thou wise and modest; remember what you have been, remember what you are. You see around us your slaves and your children; with the authority, assume the tenderness, of a parent. Love your people30 like yourself; cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline, of the army30; protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of the poor. The assembly, in silence and in tears, applauded the counsels, and sympathised with the repentance, of their prince30; the patriarch rehearsed the prayers of the church; Tiberius received the diadem on his knees, and Justin, who in his abdication appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the new30 monarch in the following words: If you consent, I live; if you command, I die; may the God of heaven and earth infuse into your heart whatever I have neglected or forgotten. The four last years30 of the emperor30 Justin were passed in tranquil obscurity; his conscience was no longer tormented by the remembrance of those duties which he was incapable of discharging; and his choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude of Tiberius.
Among the virtues of Tiberius, his beauty (he was one of the tallest and most comely of the Romans) might introduce him to the favour of Sophia; and the widow of Justin was persuaded that she should preserve her station and influence under the reign47 of a second and more youthful husband. But, if the ambitious candidate had been tempted to flatter and dissemble, it was no longer in his power47 to fulfil her expectations or his own promise. The factions of the hippodrome demanded, with some impatience, the name of their new empress; both the people47 and Sophia were astonished by the proclamation of Anastasia, the secret47 though lawful wife of the emperor47 Tiberius. Whatever could alleviate the disappointment of Sophia, Imperial47 honours, a stately palace47, a numerous household, was liberally bestowed by the piety of her adopted son47; on solemn occasions he attended and consulted the widow of his benefactor; but her ambition disdained the vain semblance of royalty, and the respectful appellation of mother served to exasperate, rather than appease, the rage of an injured woman. While she accepted, and repaid with a courtly smile, the fair expressions of regard and confidence, a secret47 alliance was concluded between the dowager empress and her ancient enemies; and Justinian, the son47 of Germanus, was employed as the instrument of her revenge. The pride of the reigning house supported, with reluctance, the dominion of a stranger; the youth was deservedly popular; his name, after the death47 of Justin, had been mentioned by a tumultuous faction; and his own submissive offer of his head, with a treasure of sixty thousand pounds, might be interpreted as an evidence of guilt, or at least of fear. Justinian received a free pardon, and the command47 of the Eastern army47. The Persian monarch fled before his arms47; and the acclamations which accompanied his triumph declared him worthy of the purple. His artful patroness had chosen the month of the vintage, while the emperor47, in a rural solitude, was permitted to enjoy the pleasures of a subject. On the first intelligence of her designs he returned to Constantinople, and the conspiracy was suppressed by his presence and firmness. From the pomp and honours which she had abused, Sophia was reduced to a modest allowance; Tiberius dismissed her train, intercepted her correspondence, and committed to a faithful guard the custody of her person47. But the services of Justinian were not considered by that excellent prince47 as an aggravation of his offences; after a mild reproof, his treason and ingratitude were forgiven; and it was commonly believed that the emperor47 entertained some thoughts of contracting a double alliance with the rival of his throne47. The voice of an angel (such a fable was propagated) might reveal to the emperor47 that he should always triumph over his domestic foes; but Tiberius derived a firmer assurance from the innocence and generosity of his own mind.
With the odious name of Tiberius, he assumed the more popular appellation of Constantine and imitated the purer virtues of the Antonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many Roman30 princes, it is pleasing to repose, for a moment, on a character conspicuous by the qualities of humanity, justice, temperance, and fortitude; to contemplate a sovereign affable in his palace30, pious in the church, impartial on the seat of judgment, and victorious, at least by his generals, in the Persian war30. The most glorious trophy of his victory30 consisted in a multitude of captives whom Tiberius entertained, redeemed, and dismissed to their native homes with the charitable spirit of a Christian hero. The merit or misfortunes of his own subjects had a dearer claim to his beneficence, and he measured his bounty not so much by their expectations as by his own dignity. This maxim, however dangerous in a trustee of the public wealth, was balanced by a principle of humanity and justice, which taught him to abhor, as of the basest alloy, the gold30 that was extracted from the tears of the people30. For their relief, as often as they had suffered by natural or hostile calamities, he was impatient to remit the arrears of the past, or the demands of future taxes; he sternly rejected the servile offerings of his ministers, which were compensated by tenfold oppression; and the wise and equitable laws of Tiberius excited the praise and regret of succeeding times. Constantinople30 believed that the emperor30 had discovered a treasure; but his genuine treasure consisted in the practice of liberal economy and the contempt of all vain and superfluous expense. The Romans of the East would have been happy, if the best gift of heaven, a patriot king30, had been confirmed as a proper and permanent blessing. But in less than four years30 after the death30 of Justin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal disease, which left30 him only sufficient time to restore the diadem, according to the tenure by which he held it, to the most deserving of his fellow-citizens. He selected Maurice from the crowd, a judgment more precious than the purple itself; the patriarch and senate were summoned to the bed of the dying prince30; he bestowed his daughter and the empire30; and his last advice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the quaestor. Tiberius expressed his hope that the virtues of his son30 and successor would erect the noblest mausoleum to his memory. His memory was embalmed by the public affliction; but the most sincere grief evaporates in the tumult of a new30 reign, and the eyes and acclamations of mankind were speedily directed to the rising sun.
The emperor36 Maurice derived his origin from ancient36 Rome; but his immediate parents were settled at Arabissus in Cappadocia, and their singular felicity preserved them alive to behold and partake the fortune of their august son. The youth36 of Maurice was spent in the profession of arms36; Tiberius promoted him to the command of a new36 and favourite legion of twelve thousand36 confederates; his valour and conduct were signalised in the Persian war36; and he returned to Constantinople to accept, as his just reward, the inheritance of the empire36. Maurice ascended the throne at the mature age of forty-three years; and he reigned above twenty years over the East and over himself; expelling from his mind the wild democracy of passions, and establishing (according to the quaint expression of Evagrius) a perfect aristocracy of reason36 and virtue. Some suspicion will degrade the testimony of a subject, though he protests that his secret praise should never reach the ear of his sovereign, and some failings seem to place the character of Maurice below the purer merit of his predecessor. His cold and reserved demeanour might be imputed to arrogance; his justice was not always exempt from cruelty, nor his clemency from weakness; and his rigid economy too often exposed him to the reproach of avarice. But the rational wishes of an absolute monarch36 must tend to the happiness of his people36; Maurice was endowed with sense and courage to promote that happiness, and his administration was directed by the principles and example of Tiberius. The pusillanimity of the Greeks had introduced so complete a separation between the offices of king and of general36 that a private soldier who had deserved and obtained the purple seldom or never appeared at the head36 of his armies. Yet the emperor36 Maurice enjoyed the glory of restoring the Persian monarch36 to his throne; his lieutenants waged a doubtful war36 against the Avars of the Danube36; and he cast an eye of pity, of ineffectual pity, on the abject and distressful state of his Italian provinces36.
From Italy the emperors were incessantly tormented by tales of misery and demands of succour, which extorted the humiliating confession of their own weakness. The expiring dignity of Rome was only marked by the freedom and energy of her complaints: If you are incapable, she said, of delivering us from the sword30 of the Lombards, save us at least from the calamity of famine. Tiberius forgave the reproach, and relieved the distress: a supply of corn was transported from Egypt to the Tiber; and the Roman30 people30, invoking the name, not of Camillus, but of St30. Peter, repulsed the Barbarians from their walls30. But the relief was accidental, the danger was perpetual and pressing; and the clergy and senate, collecting the remains of their ancient opulence, a sum of three thousand30 pounds of gold30, despatched the patrician Pamphronius to lay their gifts and their complaints at the foot of the Byzantine30 throne. The attention of the court, and the forces of the East, were diverted by the Persian war30; but the justice of Tiberius applied the subsidy to the defence of the city30; and he dismissed the patrician with his best advice, either to bribe the Lombard chiefs or to purchase the aid of the kings of France. Notwithstanding this weak invention, Italy was still afflicted, Rome was again besieged, and the suburb of Classe, only three miles from Ravenna, was pillaged and occupied by the troops30 of a simple duke of Spoleto. Maurice gave audience to a second30 deputation of priests and senators; the duties and the menaces of religion were forcibly urged in the letters of the Roman30 pontiff; and his nuncio, the deacon Gregory, was alike qualified to solicit the powers either of heaven or of the earth. The emperor30 adopted, with stronger effect, the measures of his predecessor; some formidable chiefs were persuaded to embrace the friendship of the Romans, and one of them, a mild and faithful Barbarian, lived and died in the service30 of the exarch; the passes of the Alps were delivered to the Franks; and the pope encouraged them to violate, without scruple, their oaths and engagements to the misbelievers. Childebert, the great-grandson of Clovis, was persuaded to invade Italy by the payment of fifty thousand30 pieces; but, as he had viewed with delight some Byzantine30 coin of the weight of one pound of gold30, the king30 of Austrasia might stipulate that the gift should be rendered more worthy of his acceptance by a proper mixture of these respectable medals. The dukes of the Lombards had provoked by frequent inroads their powerful neighbours of Gaul. As soon30 as they were apprehensive of a just retaliation, they renounced their feeble and disorderly independence; the advantages of regal government, union, secrecy, and vigour were unanimously confessed; and Autharis, the son30 of Clepho, had already attained the strength and reputation of a warrior. Under the standard30 of their new30 king30, the conquerors of Italy withstood three successive invasions, one of which was led by Childebert himself, the last of the Merovingian race who descended from the Alps. The first expedition was defeated by the jealous animosity of the Franks and Alemanni. In the second30 they were vanquished in a bloody battle30, with more loss and dishonour than they had sustained since the foundation of their monarchy. Impatient for revenge, they returned a third time with accumulated force, and Autharis yielded to the fury of the torrent. The troops30 and treasures of the Lombards were distributed in the walled towns between the Alps and the Apennine. A nation less sensible of danger than of fatigue and delay soon30 murmured against the folly of their twenty commanders; and the hot vapours of an Italian sun infected with disease those tramontane bodies which had already suffered the vicissitudes of intemperance and famine. The powers that were inadequate to the conquest, were more than sufficient for the desolation, of the country; nor could the trembling natives distinguish between their enemies30 and their deliverers. If the junction of the Merovingian and Imperial forces had been effected in the neighbourhood of Milan, perhaps they might have subverted the throne of the Lombards; but the Franks expected six days30 the signal of a flaming village, and the arms30 of the Greeks30 were idly employed in the reduction of Modena and Parma, which were torn from them after the retreat of their Transalpine allies. The victorious Autharis asserted his claim to the dominion of Italy. At the foot of the Rhaetian Alps, he subdued the resistance, and rifled the hidden treasures, of a sequestered island in the lake of Comum. At the extreme point of Calabria, he touched with his spear a column on the sea-shore of Rhegium, proclaiming that ancient land-mark to stand the immoveable boundary of his kingdom.
During a period of two hundred years, Italy9 was unequally divided between the kingdom of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. The offices and professions, which the jealousy of Constantine had separated, were united by the indulgence of Justinian; and eighteen successive exarchs were invested, in the decline of the empire9, with the full remains of civil, of military, and even of ecclesiastical power. Their immediate jurisdiction, which was afterwards consecrated as the patrimony of St. Peter, extended over the modern Romagna, the marshes or valleys of Ferrara and Commachio, five maritime cities9 from Rimini to Ancona, and a second, inland Pentapolis, between the Hadriatic coast9 and the hills of the Apennine. Three subordinate provinces9, of Rome9, of Venice, and of Naples, which were divided by hostile lands from the palace of Ravenna, acknowledged, both in peace and war9, the supremacy of the exarch. The duchy of Rome9 appears to have included the Tuscan, Sabine, and Latian conquests, of the first four hundred years of the city9, and the limits may be distinctly traced along the coast9, from Civita Vecchia to Terracina, and with the course of the Tiber from Ameria and Narni to the port of Ostia. The numerous islands from Grado to Chiozza composed the infant dominion of Venice; but the more accessible towns on the continent were overthrown by the Lombards, who beheld with impotent fury a new9 capital9 rising from the waves. The power of the dukes of Naples was circumscribed by the bay and the adjacent isles, by the hostile territory of Capua, and by the Roman9 colony of Amalphi, whose industrious citizens, by the invention of the mariner's compass, have unveiled the face of the globe. The three islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily still adhered to the empire9; and the acquisition of the farther Calabria removed the land-mark of Autharis from the shore of Rhegium to the isthmus of Consentia. In Sardinia, the savage mountaineers preserved the liberty and religion of their ancestors; but the husbandmen of Sicily were chained to their rich and cultivated soil. Rome9 was oppressed by the iron sceptre of the exarchs, and a Greek, perhaps an eunuch, insulted with impunity the ruins of the Capitol. But Naples soon9 acquired the privilege of electing her own dukes; the independence of Amalphi was the fruit of commerce; and the voluntary attachment of Venice was finally ennobled by an equal alliance with the Eastern empire9. On the map of Italy9, the measure of the exarchate occupies a very inadequate space, but it included an ample proportion of wealth, industry, and population. The most faithful and valuable subjects escaped from the Barbarian yoke; and the banners of Pavia and Verona, of Milan and Padua, were displayed in their respective quarters by the new9 inhabitants9 of Ravenna. The remainder of Italy9 was possessed by the Lombards; and from Pavia, the royal seat, their kingdom was extended to the east, the north9, and the west9, as far9 as the confines of the Avars, the Bavarians, and the Franks of Austrasia and Burgundy. In the language of modern geography, it is now represented by the Terra Firma of the Venetian republic, Tyrol, the Milanese, Piedmont, the coast9 of Genoa, Mantua, Parma, and Modena, the grand duchy of Tuscany, and a large portion of the ecclesiastical state from Perugia to the Hadriatic. The dukes, and at length the princes, of Beneventum survived the monarchy, and propagated the name of the Lombards. From Capua to Tarentum, they reigned near five hundred years over the greatest part of the present kingdom of Naples.
In comparing the proportion of the victorious and the vanquished people, the change of language will afford the most probable inference. According to this standard it will appear that the Lombards of Italy9, and the Visigoths of Spain, were less numerous than the Franks or Burgundians; and the conquerors of Gaul must yield, in their turn, to the multitude of Saxons and Angles who almost eradicated the idioms of Britain. The modern Italian has been insensibly formed by the mixture of nations9; the awkwardness of the Barbarians9 in the nice management of declensions and conjugations reduced them to the use of articles and auxiliary verbs; and many new9 ideas have been expressed by Teutonic appellations. Yet the principal stock of technical and familiar words is found to be of Latin derivation; and, if we were sufficiently conversant with the obsolete, the rustic, and the municipal dialects of ancient9 Italy9, we should trace the origin of many terms which might, perhaps, be rejected by the classic purity of Rome9. A numerous army9 constitutes but a small nation9, and the powers of the Lombards were soon9 diminished by the retreat of twenty thousand9 Saxons, who scorned a dependent situation, and returned, after many bold and perilous adventures, to their native country9. The camp9 of Alboin was of formidable extent, but the extent of a camp9 would be easily circumscribed within the limits of a city9; and its martial inhabitants9 must be thinly scattered over the face of a large country9. When Alboin descended from the Alps, he invested his nephew, the first duke of Friuli, with the command of the province9 and the people; but the prudent Gisulf would have declined the dangerous office, unless he had been permitted to choose, among the nobles of the Lombards, a sufficient number of families to form a perpetual colony of soldiers and subjects. In the progress of conquest9, the same option could not be granted to the dukes of Brescia or Bergamo, of Pavia or Turin, of Spoleto or Beneventum; but each of these, and each of their colleagues, settled in his appointed district with a band of followers who resorted to his standard in war9 and his tribunal in peace. Their attachment was free and honourable: resigning the gifts and benefits which they had accepted, they might emigrate with their families into the jurisdiction of another duke; but their absence from the kingdom was punished with death, as a crime of military desertion. The posterity of the first conquerors struck a deeper root into the soil, which, by every motive of interest and honour, they were bound to defend. A Lombard was born the soldier of his king and his duke; and the civil assemblies of the nation9 displayed the banners, and assumed the appellation, of a regular army9. Of this army9, the pay and the rewards were drawn from the conquered provinces9; and the distribution, which was not effected till after the death of Alboin, is disgraced by the foul marks of injustice and rapine. Many of the most wealthy Italians were slain and banished; the remainder were divided among the strangers, and a tributary obligation was imposed (under the name of hospitality) of paying to the Lombards a third part of the fruits of the earth. Within less than seventy years, this artificial system was abolished by a more simple and solid tenure. Either the Roman9 landlord was expelled by his strong and insolent guest; or the annual payment, a third of the produce, was exchanged by a more equitable transaction for an adequate proportion of landed property. Under these foreign masters, the business of agriculture, in the cultivation of corn, vines, and olives, was exercised with degenerate skill and industry by the labour of the slaves and natives. But the occupations of a pastoral life were more pleasing to the idleness of the Barbarians9. In the rich meadows of Venetia, they restored and improved the breed of horses for which that province9 had once been illustrious; and the Italians beheld with astonishment a foreign race of oxen or buffaloes. The depopulation of Lombardy and the increase of forests afforded an ample range for the pleasures of the chase. That marvellous art which teaches the birds of the air to acknowledge the voice, and execute the commands, of their master had been unknown to the ingenuity of the Greeks and Romans9. Scandinavia and Scythia produce the boldest and most tractable falcons; they are tamed and educated by the roving inhabitants9, always on horseback and in the field. This favourite amusement of our ancestors was introduced by the Barbarians9 into the Roman9 provinces9; and the laws of Italy9 esteem the sword and the hawk as of equal dignity and importance in the hands of a noble Lombard.
So rapid was the influence of climate and example19 that the Lombards of the fourth generation surveyed with curiosity and affright the portraits of their savage forefathers. Their heads were shaven behind, but the shaggy locks hung over their eyes and mouth, and a long19 beard represented the name and character of the nation. Their dress consisted of loose linen garments, after the fashion of the Anglo-Saxons, which were decorated, in their opinion, with broad stripes of variegated colours. The legs and feet were clothed in long19 hose and open sandals; and even in the security of peace a trusty sword was constantly girt to their side. Yet this strange apparel and horrid aspect often concealed a gentle and generous disposition; and, as soon19 as the rage of battle had subsided, the captives and subjects were sometimes surprised by the humanity of the victor. The vices of the Lombards were the effect of passion, of ignorance, of intoxication; their virtues are the more laudable, as they were not affected by the hypocrisy of social manners19, nor imposed by the rigid constraint of laws and education. I should not be apprehensive of deviating from my subject if it were in my power to delineate the private19 life19 of the conquerors of Italy19, and I shall relate with pleasure the adventurous gallantry of Autharis, which breathes the true spirit19 of chivalry and romance. After the loss of his promised bride, a Merovingian princess, he sought in marriage the daughter of the king of Bavaria; and Garibald accepted the alliance of the Italian monarch19. Impatient of the slow progress of negotiation, the ardent lover escaped from his palace19 and visited the court of Bavaria in the train of his own embassy. At the public19 audience, the unknown stranger advanced19 to the throne19, and informed Garibald that the ambassador was indeed the minister of state, but that he alone was the friend of Autharis, who had trusted him with the delicate commission of making a faithful report of the charms of his spouse. Theudelinda was summoned to undergo this important examination, and, after a pause of silent rapture, he hailed her as the queen of Italy19, and humbly requested that, according to the custom of the nation, she would present a cup of wine to the first of her new19 subjects. By the command of her father, she obeyed; Autharis received the cup in his turn, and, in restoring it to the princess, he secretly touched her hand19, and drew his own finger over his face and lips. In the evening, Theudelinda imparted to her nurse the indiscreet familiarity of the stranger, and was comforted by the assurance that such boldness could proceed only from the king her husband, who, by his beauty and courage, appeared worthy of her love. The ambassadors were dismissed; no sooner did they reach the confines of Italy19 than Autharis, raising himself on his horse, darted his battle-axe against a tree with incomparable strength and dexterity: Such, said he to the astonished Bavarians, such are the strokes of the king of the Lombards. On the approach of a French army, Garibald and his daughter took refuge in the dominions of their ally; and the marriage was consummated in the palace19 of Verona. At the end of one year, it was dissolved by the death of Autharis; but the virtues of Theudelinda had endeared her to the nation, and she was permitted to bestow, with her hand19, the sceptre of the Italian kingdom.
From this fact, as well as from similar events, it is certain that the Lombards possessed freedom1 to elect their sovereign, and sense to decline the frequent use of that dangerous privilege. The public1 revenue arose from the produce of land and the profits of justice1. When the independent dukes agreed that Autharis should ascend the throne of his father, they endowed the regal office1 with a fair moiety of their respective domains. The proudest nobles aspired to the honours1 of servitude near the person of their prince; he rewarded the fidelity of his vassals by the precarious gift of pensions and benefices; and atoned for the injuries of war by the rich foundation of monasteries and churches. In peace1 a judge, a leader in war, he never usurped the powers of a sole and absolute legislator. The king of Italy1 convened the national assemblies in the palace, or more probably in the fields, of Pavia; his great council was composed of the persons most eminent by their birth and dignities; but the validity, as well as the execution, of their decrees depended on the approbation of the faithful people1, the fortunate army of the Lombards. About fourscore years1 after the conquest of Italy1, their traditional customs were transcribed in Teutonic Latin, and ratified by the consent of the prince and people1; some new1 regulations were introduced, more suitable to their present condition; the example of Rotharis was imitated by the wisest of his successors1; and the laws1 of the Lombards have been esteemed the least imperfect of the Barbaric codes. Secure by their courage in the possession of liberty, these rude and hasty legislators were incapable of balancing the powers of the constitution or of discussing the nice theory of political government1. Such crimes as threatened the life of the sovereign or the safety of the state1 were adjudged worthy of death; but their attention was principally confined to the defence of the person and property of the subject. According to the strange jurisprudence of the times, the guilt of blood might be redeemed by a fine; yet the high price of nine hundred pieces of gold declares a just sense of the value of a simple citizen. Less atrocious injuries, a wound, a fracture, a blow, an opprobrious word, were measured with scrupulous and almost ridiculous diligence; and the prudence of the legislator encouraged the ignoble practice of bartering honour and revenge for a pecuniary compensation. The ignorance of the Lombards, in the state1 of Paganism or Christianity, gave implicit credit to the malice and mischief of witchcraft; but the judges of the seventeenth century might have been instructed and confounded by the wisdom of Rotharis, who derides the absurd superstition, and protects the wretched victims of popular or judicial cruelty. The same spirit of a legislator, superior to his age and country, may be ascribed to Luitprand, who condemns, while he tolerates, the impious and inveterate abuse of duels, observing from his own experience that the juster cause had often been oppressed by successful violence. Whatever merit may be discovered in the laws1 of the Lombards, they are the genuine fruit of the reason of the Barbarians, who never admitted the bishops1 of Italy1 to a seat in their legislative councils. But the succession of their kings is marked with virtue and ability; the troubled series of their annals is adorned with fair intervals of peace1, order1, and domestic happiness; and the Italians enjoyed a milder and more equitable government1 than any of the other kingdoms which had been founded on the ruins of the Western empire1.
Amidst the arms of the Lombards, and under the despotism of the Greeks, we again inquire into the fate of Rome32, which had reached, about the close of the sixth century32, the lowest period of her depression. By the removal of the seat of empire32, and the successive loss of the provinces, the sources of public32 and private32 opulence were exhausted; the lofty32 tree, under whose shade the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of its leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the ground. The ministers of command and the messengers of victory no longer met on the Appian or Flaminian way; and the hostile approach of the Lombards was often felt and continually feared. The inhabitants of a potent and peaceful capital32, who visit without an anxious thought the garden of the adjacent country32, will faintly picture in their fancy the distress of the Romans32: they shut or opened their gates with a trembling hand, beheld from the walls32 the flames of their houses, and heard the lamentations of their brethren, who were coupled together like dogs and dragged away into distant slavery beyond the sea and the mountains. Such incessant alarms must annihilate the pleasures and interrupt the labours of a rural life; and the Campagna of Rome32 was speedily reduced32 to the state32 of a dreary wilderness, in which the land is barren, the waters are impure, and the air is infectious. Curiosity and ambition no longer attracted the nations to the capital32 of the world: but, if chance or necessity directed the steps of a wandering stranger, he contemplated with horror the vacancy and solitude of the city32, and might be tempted to ask, where is the senate32, and where are the people32? In a season of excessive rains, the Tiber swelled above its banks, and rushed with irresistible violence into the valleys of the seven hills. A pestilential disease arose from the stagnation of the deluge, and so rapid was the contagion that fourscore persons expired in an hour in the midst of a solemn procession, which implored the mercy of heaven. A society in which marriage is encouraged and industry prevails soon repairs the accidental losses of pestilence and war; but, as the far32 greater part of the Romans32 was condemned to hopeless indigence and celibacy, the depopulation was constant and visible, and the gloomy enthusiasts might expect the approaching failure of the human race. Yet the number of citizens still exceeded the measure of subsistence; their precarious food was supplied from the harvests of Sicily or Egypt; and the frequent repetition of famine betrays the inattention of the emperor to a distant province. The edifices32 of Rome32 were exposed to the same ruin and decay32; the mouldering fabrics were easily overthrown by inundations, tempests, and earthquakes; and the monks, who had occupied the most advantageous stations, exulted in their base triumph over the ruins32 of antiquity32. It is commonly believed that Pope Gregory the First attacked the temples32 and mutilated the statues of the city32; that, by the command of the Barbarian, the Palatine library was reduced32 to ashes; and that the history of Livy was the peculiar mark of his absurd and mischievous fanaticism. The writings of Gregory himself reveal his implacable aversion to the monuments32 of classic genius; and he points his severest censure against the profane learning of a bishop who taught the art of grammar, studied the Latin poets, and pronounced, with the same voice, the praises of Jupiter and those of Christ. But the evidence of his destructive rage is doubtful and recent; the Temple32 of Peace or the Theatre of Marcellus have been demolished by the slow operation of ages; and a formal proscription would have multiplied the copies of Virgil and Livy in the countries which were not subject to the ecclesiastical dictator.
Like Thebes, or Babylon, or Carthage, the name of Rome might have been erased from the earth, if the city30 had not been animated by a vital principle, which again restored her to honour and dominion. A vague tradition was embraced, that two Jewish teachers, a tent-maker and a fisherman, had formerly been executed in the circus of Nero; and at the end of five hundred years30 their genuine or fictitious relics were adored as the palladium of Christian Rome. The pilgrims of the East and West resorted to the holy30 threshold; but the shrines of the apostles were guarded by miracles and invisible terrors; and it was not without fear that the pious Catholic approached the object of his worship. It was fatal to touch, it was dangerous to behold, the bodies of the saints; and those who from the purest motives presumed to disturb the repose of the sanctuary were affrighted by visions or punished with sudden death30. The unreasonable request of an empress, who wished to deprive the Romans of their sacred treasure, the head30 of St30. Paul, was rejected with the deepest abhorrence; and the pope asserted, most probably with truth, that a linen which had been sanctified in the neighbourhood of his body, or the filings of his chain, which it was sometimes easy and sometimes impossible to obtain, possessed an equal degree of miraculous virtue. But the power as well as virtue of the apostles resided with living energy in the breast of their successors; and the chair of St30. Peter was filled under the reign of Maurice by the first and greatest of the name of Gregory. His grandfather Felix had himself been pope, and, as the bishops were already bound by the law of celibacy, his consecration must have been preceded by the death30 of his wife. The parents of Gregory, Sylvia and Gordian, were the noblest of the senate and the most pious of the church of Rome; his female relations were numbered among the saints and virgins; and his own figure with those of his father and mother were represented near three hundred years30 in a family portrait, which he offered to the monastery of St30. Andrew. The design and colouring of this picture afford an honourable testimony that the art of painting was cultivated by the Italians of the sixth century; but the most abject ideas must be entertained of their taste and learning, since the epistles of Gregory, his sermons, and his dialogues are the work of a man who was second30 in erudition to none of his contemporaries; his birth and abilities had raised him to the office of prefect of the city30, and he enjoyed the merit of renouncing the pomp and vanities of this world. His ample patrimony was dedicated to the foundation of seven monasteries, one in Rome, and six in Sicily; and it was the wish of Gregory that he might be unknown in this life and glorious only in the next. Yet his devotion, and it might be sincere, pursued the path which would have been chosen by a crafty and ambitious statesman. The talents of Gregory, and the splendour which accompanied his retreat, rendered him dear and useful to the church; and implicit obedience has been always inculcated as the first duty of a monk. As soon30 as he had received the character of deacon, Gregory was sent to reside at the Byzantine30 court, the nuncio or minister of the apostolic see; and he boldly assumed, in the name of St30. Peter, a tone of independent dignity, which would have been criminal and dangerous in the most illustrious layman of the empire30. He returned to Rome with a just increase of reputation, and, after a short exercise of the monastic virtues, he was dragged from the cloister to the papal throne, by the unanimous voice of the clergy, the senate, and the people30. He alone resisted, or seemed to resist, his own elevation; and his humble petition that Maurice would be pleased to reject the choice of the Romans could only serve to exalt his character in the eyes of the emperor30 and the public. When the fatal mandate was proclaimed, Gregory solicited the aid of some friendly merchants to convey him in a basket beyond the gates of Rome, and modestly concealed himself some days30 among the woods and mountains, till30 his retreat was discovered, as it is said, by a celestial light.
The pontificate of Gregory the Great12, which lasted thirteen years12 six months and ten days, is one of the most edifying periods of the history of the church. His virtues, and even his faults, a singular mixture of simplicity and cunning, of pride and humility, of sense and superstition, were happily suited to his station and to the temper of the times. In his rival, the patriarch of Constantinople, he condemned the antichristian title of universal bishop, which the successor of St12. Peter was too haughty to concede, and too feeble to assume; and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Gregory was confined to the triple character12 of bishop of Rome12, primate of Italy12, and apostle of the West. He frequently ascended the pulpit, and kindled, by his rude though pathetic eloquence, the congenial passions of his audience; the language of the Jewish prophets was interpreted and applied; and the minds of the people12, depressed by their present calamities, were directed to the hopes and fears of the invisible world. His precepts and example defined the model of the Roman12 liturgy, the distribution of the parishes, the calendar of festivals, the order12 of processions, the service of the priests and deacons, the variety and change of sacerdotal garments. Till the last days of his life, he officiated in the canon of the mass, which continued above three hours; the Gregorian chant has preserved the vocal and instrumental music of the theatre; and the rough voices of the Barbarians12 attempted to imitate the melody of the Roman12 school. Experience had shewn him the efficacy of these solemn and pompous rites, to soothe the distress, to confirm the faith, to mitigate the fierceness, and to dispel the dark enthusiasm of the vulgar, and he readily forgave their tendency to promote the reign of priesthood and superstition. The bishops of Italy12 and the adjacent islands acknowledged the Roman12 pontiff as their special metropolitan. Even the existence, the union, or the translation of episcopal seats was decided by his absolute discretion; and his successful inroads into the provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul12 might countenance the more lofty pretensions of succeeding popes. He interposed to prevent the abuses of popular elections; his jealous care12 maintained the purity of faith and discipline; and the apostolic shepherd assiduously watched over the faith and discipline of the subordinate pastors. Under his reign, the Arians of Italy12 and Spain were reconciled to the Catholic church, and the conquest of Britain12 reflects less glory on the name of Caesar than on that of Gregory the First. Instead of six legions, forty monks were embarked for that distant island12, and the pontiff lamented the austere duties which forbade him to partake the perils of their spiritual warfare. In less than two years12 he could announce to the archbishop of Alexandria that they had baptised the king of Kent with ten thousand12 of his Anglo-Saxons12, and that the Roman12 missionaries, like those of the primitive church, were armed only with spiritual and supernatural powers. The credulity or the prudence of Gregory was always disposed to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts, miracles, and resurrections; and posterity has paid to his memory the same tribute which he freely granted to the virtue of his own or the preceding generation. The celestial honours have been liberally bestowed by the authority of the popes, but Gregory is the last of their own order12 whom they have presumed to inscribe in the calendar of saints.
Their temporal power insensibly arose from the calamities of the times; and the Roman30 bishops, who have deluged Europe and Asia with blood, were compelled to reign as the ministers of charity and peace. I. The church of Rome, as it has been formerly observed, was endowed with ample possessions in Italy, Sicily, and the more distant provinces; and her agents, who were commonly subdeacons, had acquired a civil, and even criminal, jurisdiction over their tenants and husbandmen. The successor of St30. Peter administered his patrimony with the temper of a vigilant and moderate landlord; and the epistles of Gregory are filled with salutary instructions to abstain from doubtful or vexatious lawsuits, to preserve the integrity of weights and measures, to grant every reasonable delay, and to reduce the capitation of the slaves of the glebe, who purchased the right of marriage by the payment of an arbitrary fine. The rent or the produce of these estates was transported to the mouth of the Tiber, at the risk and expense of the pope; in the use of wealth he acted like a faithful steward of the church and the poor, and liberally applied to their wants the inexhaustible resources of abstinence and order. The voluminous account of his receipts and disbursements was kept above three hundred years30 in the Lateran, as the model of Christian economy. On the four great festivals, he divided their quarterly allowance to the clergy, to his domestics, to the monasteries, the churches, the places of burial, the alms-houses, and the hospitals of Rome, and the rest of the diocese. On the first day30 of every month, he distributed to the poor, according to the season, their stated portion of corn, wine, cheese, vegetables, oil, fish, fresh provisions, cloths, and money; and his treasurers were continually summoned to satisfy, in his name, the extraordinary demands of indigence and merit. The instant distress of the sick and helpless, of strangers and pilgrims, was relieved by the bounty of each day30, and of every hour; nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a frugal repast, till30 he had sent the dishes from his own table to some objects deserving of his compassion. The misery of the times had reduced the nobles and matrons of Rome to accept, without a blush, the benevolence of the church; three thousand30 virgins received their food and raiment from the hand of their benefactor; and many bishops of Italy escaped from the Barbarians to the hospitable threshold of the Vatican. Gregory might justly be styled the Father of his country; and such was the extreme sensibility of his conscience that, for the death30 of a beggar who had perished in the streets, he interdicted himself during several days30 from the exercise of sacerdotal functions. II. The misfortunes of Rome involved the apostolical pastor in the business of peace and war30; and it might be doubtful to himself whether piety or ambition prompted him to supply the place of his absent sovereign. Gregory awakened the emperor30 from a long30 slumber, exposed the guilt or incapacity of the exarch and his inferior ministers, complained that the veterans were withdrawn from Rome for the defence of Spoleto, encouraged the Italians to guard their cities and altars, and condescended, in the crisis of danger, to name the tribunes and to direct the operations of the provincial troops30. But the martial spirit of the pope was checked by the scruples of humanity and religion; the imposition of tribute, though it was employed in the Italian war30, he freely condemned as odious and oppressive; whilst he protected, against the Imperial edicts, the pious cowardice of the soldiers30 who deserted a military for a monastic life. If we may credit his own declarations, it would have been easy for Gregory to exterminate the Lombards by their domestic factions, without leaving a king30, a duke, or a count, to save that unfortunate nation from the vengeance of their foes. As a Christian bishop, he preferred the salutary offices of peace; his mediation appeased the tumult of arms30; but he was too conscious of the arts of the Greeks30, and the passions of the Lombards, to engage his sacred promise for the observance of the truce. Disappointed in the hope of a general30 and lasting treaty, he presumed to save his country without the consent of the emperor30 or the exarch. The sword30 of the enemy30 was suspended over Rome: it was averted by the mild eloquence and seasonable gifts of the pontiff, who commanded the respect of heretics and barbarians.
The merits of Gregory were treated by the Byzantine court with reproach and insult; but in the attachment of a grateful people45 he found the purest reward of a citizen and the best right of a sovereign45.
The conflict of Rome22 and Persia was prolonged from the death22 of Crassus to the reign22 of Heraclius. An experience of seven hundred years22 might convince the rival nations22 of the impossibility of maintaining their conquests beyond the fatal limits of the Tigris and Euphrates. Yet the emulation of Trajan and Julian was awakened by the trophies of Alexander, and the sovereigns of Persia indulged the ambitious hope of restoring the empire22 of Cyrus. Such extraordinary efforts of power22 and courage will always command the attention of posterity; but the events by which the fate of nations22 is not materially changed leave a faint impression on the page of history22, and the patience of the reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same hostilities, undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory, and terminated without effect. The arts22 of negotiation, unknown to the simple greatness of the senate and the Caesars, were assiduously cultivated by the Byzantine princes; and the memorials of their perpetual embassies repeat, with the same uniform prolixity, the language of falsehood and declamation, the insolence of the Barbarians, and the servile temper of the tributary Greeks. Lamenting the barren superfluity of materials, I have studied to compress the narrative of these uninteresting transactions; but the just Nushirvan is still applauded as the model of Oriental kings, and the ambition of his grandson Chosroes prepared the revolution of the East22, which was speedily accomplished by the arms and the religion of the successors of Mahomet.
In the useless altercations that precede and justify the quarrels of princes, the Greeks30 and the Barbarians accused each other of violating the peace which had been concluded between the two empires about four years30 before the death30 of Justinian30. The sovereign of Persia and India aspired to reduce under his obedience the province of Yemen or Arabia Felix, the distant land of myrrh and frankincense, which had escaped, rather than opposed, the conquerors of the East. After the defeat of Abrahah under the walls30 of Mecca, the discord of his sons and brothers gave an easy entrance to the Persians; they chased the strangers of Abyssinia beyond the Red Sea; and a native prince30 of the ancient Homerites was restored to the throne as the vassal or viceroy of the great Nushirvan. But the nephew of Justinian30 declared his resolution to avenge the injuries of his Christian ally the prince30 of Abyssinia, as they suggested a decent pretence to discontinue the annual tribute, which was poorly disguised by the name of pension. The churches of Persarmenia were oppressed by the intolerant spirit of the Magi; they secretly invoked the protector of the Christians; and, after the pious murder of their satraps, the rebels were avowed and supported as the brethren and subjects of the Roman30 emperor30. The complaints of Nushirvan were disregarded by the Byzantine30 court; Justin yielded to the importunities of the Turks30, who offered an alliance against the common enemy30; and the Persian monarchy was threatened at the same instant by the united forces of Europe, of Aethiopia, and of Scythia. At the age of fourscore, the sovereign of the East would perhaps have chosen the peaceful enjoyment of his glory and greatness; but, as soon30 as war30 became inevitable, he took the field with the alacrity of youth, whilst the aggressor trembled in the palace30 of Constantinople30. Nushirvan, or Chosroes, conducted in person the siege30 of Dara; and, although that important fortress had been left30 destitute of troops30 and magazines, the valour of the inhabitants resisted above five months the archers, the elephants, and the military engines of the Great King30. In the meanwhile his general30 Adarman advanced from Babylon, traversed the desert, passed the Euphrates, insulted the suburbs of Antioch, reduced to ashes the city30 of Apamea, and laid the spoils of Syria at the feet of his master, whose perseverance in the midst of winter at length subverted the bulwark of the East. But these losses, which astonished the provinces and the court, produced a salutary effect in the repentance and abdication of the emperor30 Justin; a new30 spirit arose in the Byzantine30 councils; and a truce of three years30 was obtained by the prudence of Tiberius. That seasonable interval was employed in the preparations of war30; and the voice of rumour proclaimed to the world that from the distant countries of the Alps and the Rhine, from Scythia, Maesia, Pannonia, Illyricum, and Isauria, the strength of the Imperial cavalry was reinforced with one hundred and fifty thousand30 soldiers30. Yet the king30 of Persia, without fear or without faith, resolved to prevent the attack of the enemy30; again passed the Euphrates; and, dismissing the ambassadors of Tiberius, arrogantly commanded them to await his arrival at Caesarea, the metropolis of the Cappadocian provinces. The two armies encountered each other in the battle30 of Melitene: the Barbarians, who darkened the air with a cloud of arrows, prolonged their line, and extended their wings across the plain; while the Romans, in deep and solid bodies, expected to prevail in closer action, by the weight of their swords and lances. A Scythian chief, who commanded their right wing, suddenly turned the flank of the enemy30, attacked their rear-guard in the presence of Chosroes, penetrated to the midst of the camp30, pillaged the royal30 tent, profaned the eternal fire, loaded a train of camels with the spoils of Asia, cut his way through the Persian host, and returned with songs of victory30 to his friends, who had consumed the day30 in single combats or ineffectual skirmishes. The darkness of the night and the separation of the Romans afforded the Persian monarch an opportunity of revenge; and one of their camps was swept away by a rapid and impetuous assault. But the review of his loss and the consciousness of his danger determined Chosroes to a speedy retreat; he burnt, in his passage, the vacant town of Melitene; and, without consulting the safety of his troops30, boldly swam the Euphrates on the back of an elephant. After this unsuccessful campaign, the want of magazines, and perhaps some inroad of the Turks30, obliged him to disband or divide his forces; the Romans were left30 masters of the field, and their general30 Justinian30, advancing to the relief of the Persarmenian rebels, erected his standard30 on the banks of the Araxes. The great Pompey had formerly halted within three days30' march of the Caspian; that inland sea was explored, for the first time, by an hostile fleet, and seventy thousand30 captives were transplanted from Hyrcania to the isle of Cyprus. On the return of spring, Justinian30 descended into the fertile plains of Assyria, the flames of war30 approached the residence of Nushirvan, the indignant monarch sunk into the grave, and his last edict restrained his successors from exposing their person in a battle30 against the Romans. Yet the memory of this transient affront was lost in the glories of a long30 reign; and his formidable enemies30, after indulging their dream of conquest, again solicited a short respite from the calamities of war30.
The throne47 of Chosroes Nushirvan was filled by Hormouz, or Hormisdas, the eldest or the most favoured of his sons. With the kingdoms of Persia and India, he inherited the reputation and example of his father47, the service, in every rank47, of his wise and valiant officers, and a general47 system of administration, harmonised by time and political wisdom to promote the happiness of the prince47 and people47. But the royal youth enjoyed a still more valuable blessing, the friendship of a sage who had presided over his education, and who always preferred the honour to the interest of his pupil, his interest to his inclination. In a dispute with the Greek and Indian philosophers, Buzurg had once maintained that the most grievous misfortune of life47 is old age47 without the remembrance of virtue; and our candour will presume that the same principle compelled him, during three years, to direct the councils of the Persian empire47. His zeal was rewarded by the gratitude and docility of Hormouz, who acknowledged himself more indebted to his preceptor than to his parent; but, when age47 and labour had impaired the strength and perhaps the faculties of this prudent counsellor, he retired from court, and abandoned the youthful monarch to his own passions and those of his favourites. By the fatal vicissitude of human affairs, the same scenes were renewed at Ctesiphon, which had been exhibited in Rome47 after the death47 of Marcus Antoninus. The ministers of flattery and corruption, who had been banished by the father47, were recalled and cherished by the son47; the disgrace and exile of the friends of Nushirvan established their tyranny; and virtue was driven by degrees from the mind of Hormouz, from his palace47, and from the government47 of the state. The faithful agents, the eyes and ears of the king, informed him of the progress of disorder, that the provincial governors flew to their prey with the fierceness of lions and eagles, and that their rapine and injustice would teach the most loyal of his subjects to abhor the name and authority47 of their sovereign47. The sincerity of this advice was punished with death47, the murmurs of the cities were despised, their tumults were quelled by military47 execution; the intermediate powers between the throne47 and the people47 were abolished; and the childish vanity of Hormouz, who affected the daily use of the tiara, was fond of declaring that he alone would be the judge as well as the master47 of his kingdom. In every word and in every action, the son47 of Nushirvan degenerated from the virtues of his father47. His avarice defrauded the troops47; his jealous caprice degraded the satraps; the palace47, the tribunals, the waters of the Tigris, were stained with the blood of the innocent; and the tyrant47 exulted in the sufferings and execution of thirteen thousand victims. As the excuse of his cruelty, he sometimes condescended to observe that the fears of the Persians would be productive of hatred, and that their hatred must terminate in rebellion; but he forgot that his own guilt and folly had inspired the sentiments which he deplored, and prepared the event which he so justly apprehended. Exasperated by long47 and hopeless oppression, the provinces47 of Babylon, Susa, and Carmania erected the standard of revolt; and the princes of Arabia, India, and Scythia refused the customary tribute to the unworthy successor of Nushirvan. The arms47 of the Romans, in slow sieges and frequent inroads, afflicted the frontiers of Mesopotamia and Assyria; one of their generals professed himself the disciple of Scipio; and the soldiers47 were animated by a miraculous image of Christ, whose mild aspect should never have been displayed in the front of battle. At the same time, the eastern provinces47 of Persia were invaded by the great khan, who passed the Oxus at the head of three or four hundred thousand Turks. The imprudent Hormouz accepted their perfidious and formidable aid; the cities of Khorasan or Bactriana were commanded to open their gates; the march of the barbarians towards the mountains of Hyrcania revealed the correspondence of the Turkish and Roman47 arms47; and their union must have subverted the throne47 of the house of Sassan.
Persia had been lost by a king3; it was saved by a hero. After his revolt, Varanes or Bahram is stigmatised by the son3 of Hormouz as an ungrateful slave: the proud and ambiguous reproach of despotism, since he was truly descended from the ancient princes of Rei, one of the seven families whose splendid as well as substantial prerogatives exalted them above the heads of the Persian3 nobility. At the siege of Dara, the valour3 of Bahram was signalised under the eyes of Nushirvan, and both the father and son3 successively promoted him to the command of armies, the government of Media, and the superintendence of the palace. The popular prediction which marked him as the deliverer of Persia3 might be inspired by his past victories and extraordinary figure; the epithet Giubin is expressive of the quality of dry wood; he had the strength and stature of a giant, and his savage countenance was fancifully compared to that of a wild cat. While the nation trembled, while Hormouz disguised his terror by the name of suspicion, and his servants concealed their disloyalty under the mask of fear, Bahram alone displayed his undaunted courage and apparent fidelity; and, as soon3 as he found that no more than twelve thousand3 soldiers would follow him against the enemy3, he prudently declared that to this fatal number heaven had reserved the honours of the triumph. The steep and narrow descent of the Pule Rudbar or Hyrcanian rock is the only pass through which an army3 can penetrate into the territory of Rei and the plains of Media. From the commanding heights, a band of resolute men might overwhelm with stones and darts the myriads of the Turkish host: their emperor3 and his son3 were transpierced with arrows; and the fugitives were left, without counsel or provisions, to the revenge of an injured people. The patriotism of the Persian3 general3 was stimulated by his affection for the city3 of his forefathers; in the hour of victory3 every peasant became a soldier, and every soldier an hero; and their ardour was kindled by the gorgeous spectacle of beds and thrones and tables of massy gold, the spoils of Asia, and the luxury of the hostile camp3. A prince3 of a less malignant temper could not easily have forgiven his benefactor, and the secret hatred of Hormouz was envenomed by a malicious report that Bahram had privately retained the most precious fruits of his Turkish victory3. But the approach of a Roman3 army3 on the side of the Araxes compelled the implacable tyrant to smile and to applaud; and the toils of Bahram were rewarded with the permission of encountering a new enemy3, by their skill and discipline more formidable than a Scythian multitude. Elated by his recent success, he despatched an herald with a bold defiance to the camp3 of the Romans3, requesting them to fix a day of battle, and to choose whether they would pass the river themselves or allow a free passage to the arms3 of the Great3 King3. The lieutenant of the emperor3 Maurice preferred the safer alternative, and this local circumstance, which would have enhanced the victory3 of the Persians3, rendered their defeat more bloody and their escape more difficult. But the loss of his subjects and the danger of his kingdom were overbalanced in the mind of Hormouz by the disgrace of his personal enemy3; and no sooner had Bahram collected and reviewed his forces than he received from a royal3 messenger the insulting gift of a distaff, a spinning-wheel, and a complete suit of female apparel. Obedient to the will of his sovereign, he shewed himself to the soldiers in this unworthy disguise; they resented his ignominy and their own; a shout of rebellion ran through the ranks; and the general3 accepted their oath of fidelity and vows of revenge. A second messenger, who had been commanded to bring the rebel in chains, was trampled under the feet of an elephant, and manifestoes were diligently circulated, exhorting the Persians3 to assert their freedom against an odious and contemptible tyrant. The defection was rapid and universal; his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the public fury; the troops3 deserted to the standard of Bahram; and the provinces3 again saluted the deliverer of his country.
As the passes were faithfully guarded, Hormouz could only compute the number of his enemies by the testimony of a guilty conscience, and the daily defection of those who, in the hour of his distress, avenged their wrongs or forgot their obligations. He proudly displayed the ensigns of royalty; but the city3 and palace of Modain had already escaped from the hand of the tyrant. Among the victims of his cruelty, Bindoes, a Sassanian prince3, had been cast into a dungeon; his fetters were broken by the zeal and courage of a brother; and he stood before the king3 at the head3 of those trusty guards who had been chosen as the ministers of his confinement and perhaps of his death3. Alarmed by the hasty intrusion and bold reproaches of the captive, Hormouz looked round, but in vain, for advice or assistance; discovered that his strength consisted in the obedience of others, and patiently yielded to the single arm of Bindoes, who dragged him from the throne3 to the same dungeon in which he himself had been so lately confined. At the first tumult, Chosroes3, the eldest of the sons of Hormouz, escaped from the city3; he was persuaded to return by the pressing and friendly invitation of Bindoes, who promised to seat him on his father's throne3, and who expected to reign3 under the name of an inexperienced youth. In the just assurance that his accomplices could neither forgive nor hope to be forgiven, and that every Persian3 might be trusted as the judge and enemy3 of the tyrant, he instituted a public trial without a precedent and without a copy in the annals of the East3. The son3 of Nushirvan, who had requested to plead in his own defence, was introduced as a criminal into the full assembly of the nobles and satraps. He was heard with decent attention as long3 as he expatiated on the advantages of order and obedience, the danger of innovation, and the inevitable discord of those who had encouraged each other to trample on their lawful and hereditary sovereign. By a pathetic appeal to their humanity, he extorted that pity which is seldom refused to the fallen fortunes of a king3; and, while they beheld the abject posture and squalid appearance of the prisoner, his tears, his chains, and the marks of ignominious stripes, it was impossible to forget how recently they had adored the divine splendour of his diadem and purple. But an angry murmur arose in the assembly as soon3 as he presumed to vindicate his conduct and to applaud the victories of his reign3. He defined the duties of a king3, and the Persian3 nobles listened with a smile of contempt; they were fired with indignation when he dared to vilify the character of Chosroes3; and by the indiscreet offer of resigning the sceptre to the second of his sons he subscribed his own condemnation and sacrificed the life of his innocent favourite. The mangled bodies of the boy and his mother were exposed to the people; the eyes of Hormouz were pierced with a hot needle; and the punishment of the father was succeeded by the coronation of his eldest son3. Chosroes3 had ascended the throne3 without guilt, and his piety strove to alleviate the misery of the abdicated monarch3; from the dungeon he removed Hormouz to an apartment of the palace, supplied with liberality the consolations of sensual enjoyment, and patiently endured the furious sallies of his resentment and despair. He might despise the resentment of a blind and unpopular tyrant, but the tiara was trembling on his head3, till he could subvert the power, or acquire the friendship3, of the great3 Bahram, who sternly denied the justice of a revolution in which himself and his soldiers, the true representatives of Persia3, had never been consulted. The offer of a general3 amnesty and of the second rank in his kingdom was answered by an epistle from Bahram, friend of the gods, conqueror of men, and enemy3 of tyrants, the satrap of satraps, general3 of the Persian3 armies, and a prince3 adorned with the title of eleven virtues. He commands Chosroes3, the son3 of Hormouz, to shun the example and fate of his father, to confine the traitors who had been released from their chains, to deposit in some holy place the diadem which he had usurped, and to accept from his gracious benefactor the pardon of his faults and the government of a province. The rebel might not be proud, and the king3 most assuredly was not humble; but the one was conscious of his strength, the other was sensible of his weakness; and even the modest language of his reply still left room for treaty3 and reconciliation. Chosroes3 led into the field the slaves of the palace and the populace of the capital; they beheld with terror the banners of a veteran army3; they were encompassed and surprised by the evolutions of the general3; and the satraps who had deposed Hormouz received the punishment of their revolt, or expiated their first treason by a second and more criminal act of disloyalty. The life and liberty of Chosroes3 were saved, but he was reduced to the necessity of imploring aid or refuge in some foreign land; and the implacable Bindoes, anxious to secure an unquestionable title, hastily returned to the palace, and ended, with a bow-string, the wretched existence of the son3 of Nushirvan.
While Chosroes3 despatched the preparations of his retreat, he deliberated with his remaining friends whether he should lurk in the valleys of Mount Caucasus, or fly to the tents of the Turks, or solicit the protection of the emperor3. The long3 emulation of the successors of Artaxerxes and Constantine increased his reluctance to appear as a suppliant in a rival court3; but he weighed the forces of the Romans3, and prudently considered that the neighbourhood of Syria would render his escape more easy and their succours more effectual. Attended only by his concubines and a troop of thirty guards, he secretly departed from the capital, followed the banks of the Euphrates, traversed the desert, and halted at the distance of ten miles from Circesium. About the third watch of the night, the Roman3 prefect was informed of his approach, and he introduced the royal3 stranger to the fortress at the dawn of day. From thence the king3 of Persia3 was conducted to the more honourable residence of Hierapolis; and Maurice dissembled his pride, and displayed his benevolence, at the reception of the letters and ambassadors of the grandson of Nushirvan. They humbly represented the vicissitudes of fortune and the common interest of princes, exaggerated the ingratitude of Bahram, the agent of the evil principle, and urged, with specious argument, that it was for the advantage of the Romans3 themselves to support the two monarchies which balance the world, the two great3 luminaries by whose salutary influence it is vivified and adorned. The anxiety of Chosroes3 was soon3 relieved by the assurance that the emperor3 had espoused the cause of justice and royalty; but Maurice prudently declined the expense and delay of his useless visit to Constantinople. In the name of his generous benefactor, a rich diadem was presented to the fugitive prince3 with an inestimable gift of jewels and gold; a powerful army3 was assembled on the frontiers of Syria and Armenia3, under the command of the valiant and faithful Narses; and this general3, of his own nation and his own choice, was directed to pass the Tigris3, and never to sheathe his sword till he had restored Chosroes3 to the throne3 of his ancestors. The enterprise, however splendid, was less arduous than it might appear. Persia3 had already repented of her fatal rashness, which betrayed the heir of the house of Sassan to the ambition of a rebellious subject; and the bold refusal of the Magi to consecrate his usurpation compelled Bahram to assume the sceptre, regardless of the laws and prejudices of the nation. The palace was soon3 distracted with conspiracy, the city3 with tumult, the provinces3 with insurrection; and the cruel execution of the guilty and the suspected served to irritate rather than subdue the public discontent. No sooner did the grandson of Nushirvan display his own and the Roman3 banners beyond the Tigris3 than he was joined, each day, by the increasing multitudes of the nobility and people; and, as he advanced, he received from every side the grateful offerings of the keys of his cities and the heads of his enemies. As soon3 as Modain was freed from the presence of the usurper, the loyal inhabitants obeyed the first summons of Mebodes at the head3 of only two thousand3 horse, and Chosroes3 accepted the sacred and precious ornaments of the palace as the pledge of their truth and a presage of his approaching success. After the junction of the Imperial troops3, which Bahram vainly struggled to prevent, the contest was decided by two battles on the banks of the Zab and the confines of Media. The Romans3, with the faithful subjects of Persia3, amounted to sixty thousand3, while the whole force of the usurper did not exceed forty thousand3 men; the two generals signalised their valour3 and ability, but the victory3 was finally determined by the prevalence of numbers and discipline. With the remnant of a broken army3, Bahram fled towards the eastern provinces3 of the Oxus; the enmity of Persia3 reconciled him to the Turks; but his days were shortened by poison, perhaps the most incurable of poisons: the stings of remorse and despair, and the bitter remembrance of lost glory. Yet the modern Persians3 still commemorate the exploits of Bahram; and some excellent laws have prolonged the duration of his troubled and transitory reign3.
The restoration of Chosroes was celebrated with feasts and executions; and the music of the royal2 banquet was often disturbed by the groans of dying or mutilated criminals. A general2 pardon might have diffused comfort and tranquillity through a country which had been shaken by the late revolutions; yet, before the sanguinary temper of Chosroes is blamed, we should learn whether the Persians had not been accustomed either to dread the rigour, or to despise the weakness, of their sovereign. The revolt of Bahram and the conspiracy of the satraps were impartially punished by the revenge or justice of the conqueror; the merits of Bindoes himself could not purify his hand from the guilt2 of royal2 blood; and the son of Hormouz was desirous to assert his own innocence and to vindicate the sanctity of kings. During the vigour of the Roman2 power, several princes were seated on the throne of Persia by the arms and the authority of the first Caesars. But their new subjects2 were soon disgusted with the vices2 or virtues2 which they had imbibed in a foreign land; the instability of their dominion gave birth to a vulgar observation that the choice of Rome was solicited and rejected with equal ardour by the capricious levity of Oriental slaves2. But the glory2 of Maurice was conspicuous in the long and fortunate reign2 of his son and his ally. A band of a thousand2 Romans, who continued to guard the person of Chosroes, proclaimed his confidence in the fidelity of the strangers; his growing strength enabled him to dismiss this unpopular aid, but he steadily professed the same gratitude and reverence to his adopted father; and, till the death of Maurice, the peace and alliance of the two empires were faithfully maintained. Yet the mercenary friendship2 of the Roman2 prince2 had been purchased with costly and important gifts: the strong cities of Martyropolis and Dara were restored, and the Persarmenians became the willing subjects2 of an empire2, whose eastern limit was extended, beyond the example of former times2, as far as the banks of the Araxes and the neighbourhood of the Caspian. A pious hope was indulged that the church as well as the state2 might triumph in this revolution; but, if Chosroes had sincerely listened to the Christian2 bishops, the impression was erased by the zeal and eloquence of the Magi; if he was armed with philosophic indifference, he accommodated his belief, or rather his professions, to the various circumstances of an exile and a sovereign. The imaginary conversion of the king of Persia was reduced to a local and superstitious veneration for Sergius, one of the saints of Antioch, who heard his prayers and appeared to him in dreams; he enriched the shrine with offerings of gold and silver, and ascribed to this invisible patron the success of his arms, and the pregnancy of Sira, a devout Christian2 and the best beloved of his wives. The beauty of Sira, or Schirin, her wit, her musical talents, are still famous in the history or rather in the romances of the East2; her own name is expressive, in the Persian tongue, of sweetness and grace; and the epithet of Parviz alludes to the charms of her royal2 lover. Yet Sira never shared the passion which she inspired, and the bliss of Chosroes was tortured by a jealous doubt that, while he possessed her person, she had bestowed her affections on a meaner favourite2.
While the majesty of the Roman23 name was revived in the East, the prospect of Europe is less pleasing and less glorious. By the departure of the Lombards23 and the ruin of the Gepidae, the balance of power was destroyed on the Danube; and the Avars spread their permanent dominion from the foot of the Alps to the sea-coast of the Euxine. The reign of Baian is the brightest era of their monarchy; their chagan, who occupied the rustic palace of Attila, appears to have imitated his character and policy; but, as the same scenes were repeated in a smaller circle, a minute representation of the copy would be devoid of the greatness and novelty of the original. The pride of the second Justin, of Tiberius, and Maurice was humbled by a proud Barbarian, more prompt to inflict, than exposed23 to suffer, the injuries of war; and, as often as Asia was threatened by the Persian arms, Europe was oppressed by the dangerous inroads, or costly friendship, of the Avars. When the Roman23 envoys approached the presence of the chagan, they were commanded to wait at the door of his tent, till, at the end perhaps of ten or twelve days, he condescended to admit them. If the substance or the style of their message was offensive to his ear, he insulted, with a real or affected fury, their own dignity and that of their prince; their baggage was plundered, and their lives were only saved by the promise of a richer present and a more respectful address. But his sacred ambassadors enjoyed and abused an unbounded licence in the midst of Constantinople; they urged, with importunate clamours, the increase of tribute, or the restitution of captives and deserters; and the majesty of the empire23 was almost equally degraded by a base compliance or by the false and fearful excuses with which they eluded such insolent demands. The chagan had never seen an elephant; and his curiosity was excited by the strange, and perhaps fabulous, portrait of that wonderful animal. At his command, one of the largest elephants of the Imperial stables was equipped with stately caparisons, and conducted by a numerous train to the royal village in the plains of Hungary. He surveyed the enormous beast with surprise, with disgust, and possibly with terror; and smiled at the vain industry of the Romans23, who, in search of such useless rarities, could explore the limits of the land and sea. He wished, at the expense of the emperor, to repose in a golden bed. The wealth23 of Constantinople, and the skilful diligence of her artists, were instantly devoted to the gratification of his caprice; but, when the work was finished, he rejected with scorn a present so unworthy the majesty of a great king. These were the casual sallies of his pride, but the avarice of the chagan was a more steady and tractable passion: a rich and regular supply of silk apparel, furniture, and plate introduced the rudiments of art23 and luxury among the tents of the Scythians; their appetite was stimulated by the pepper and cinnamon of India; the annual subsidy or tribute was raised from fourscore to one hundred and twenty thousand23 pieces of gold23; and, after each hostile interruption, the payment of the arrears, with exorbitant interest, was always made the first condition of the new23 treaty. In the language of a Barbarian without guile, the prince of the Avars affected to complain of the insincerity of the Greeks, yet he was not inferior to the most civilised nations in the refinements of dissimulation and perfidy. As the successor of the Lombards23, the chagan asserted his claim to the important city23 of Sirmium, the ancient bulwark of the Illyrian provinces23. The plains of the Lower Hungary were covered with the Avar horse, and a fleet of large boats was built in the Hercynian wood, to descend the Danube, and to transport into the Save the materials23 of a bridge. But, as the strong garrison of Singidunum, which commanded the conflux of the two rivers, might have stopped their passage and baffled his designs, he dispelled their apprehensions by a solemn oath that his views were not hostile to the empire23. He swore by his sword, the symbol of the god of war, that he did not, as the enemy of Rome23, construct a bridge upon the Save. If I violate my oath, pursued the intrepid Baian, may I myself, and the last of my nation, perish by the sword! may the heavens, and fire, the deity of the heavens, fall upon our heads! may the forests and mountains bury us in their ruins! and the Save, returning, against the laws23 of nature23, to his source, overwhelm us in his angry waters! After this Barbarous impercation, he calmly inquired, what oath was most sacred and venerable among the Christians23, what guilt23 of perjury it was most dangerous to incur. The bishop of Singidunum presented the gospel, which the chagan received with devout reverence. I swear, said he, by the God who has spoken in this holy book, that I have neither falsehood on my tongue nor treachery in my heart. As soon23 as he rose from his knees, he accelerated the labour of the bridge, and despatched an envoy to proclaim what he no longer wished to conceal. Inform the emperor, said the perfidious Baian, that Sirmium is invested on every side. Advise his prudence to withdraw the citizens23 and their effects, and to resign a city23 which it is now impossible to rel eve or defend. Without the hope of relief, the defence of Sirmium was prolonged above three years23; the walls were still untouched; but famine was enclosed within the walls, till a merciful capitulation allowed the escape of the naked and hungry inhabitants. Singidunum, at the distance of fifty miles, experienced a more cruel fate: the buildings were razed, and the vanquished people23 was condemned to servitude and exile. Yet the ruins of Sirmium are no longer visible; the advantageous situation of Singidunum soon23 attracted a new23 colony of Sclavonians; and the conflux of the Save and Danube is still guarded by the fortifications of Belgrade, or the White City23, so often and so obstinately disputed by the Christian and Turkish arms. From Belgrade to the walls of Constantinople a line may be measured of six hundred miles: that line was marked with flames and with blood; the horses of the Avars were alternately bathed in the Euxine and the Adriatic; and the Roman23 pontiff, alarmed by the approach of a more savage enemy, was reduced to cherish the Lombards23 as the protectors of Italy. The despair of a captive, whom his country refused to ransom, disclosed to the Avars the invention and practice of military engines; but in the first attempts they were rudely framed and awkwardly managed; and the resistance of Diocletianopolis and Beroea, of Philippopolis and Hadrianople, soon23 exhausted the skill and patience of the besiegers. The warfare of Baian was that of a Tartar, yet his mind was susceptible of a humane and generous sentiment; he spared Anchialus, whose salutary waters had restored the health of the best beloved of his wives; and the Romans23 confess that their starving army was fed and dismissed by the liberality of a foe. His empire23 extended over Hungary, Poland, and Prussia, from the mouth of the Danube to that of the Oder; and his new23 subjects were divided and transplanted by the jealous policy of the conqueror. The eastern regions of Germany, which had been left vacant by the emigration of the Vandals, were replenished with Sclavonian colonists; the same tribes are discovered in the neighbourhood of the Adriatic and of the Baltic; and, with the name of Baian himself, the Illyrian cities23 of Neyss and Lissa are again found in the heart of Silesia. In the disposition both of his troops and provinces23, the chagan exposed23 the vassals, whose lives he disregarded, to the first assault; and the swords of the enemy were blunted before they encountered the native valour of the Avars.
The Persian alliance restored the troops30 of the East to the defence of Europe; and Maurice, who had supported ten years30 the insolence of the chagan, declared his resolution to march in person against the Barbarians. In the space of two centuries, none of the successors of Theodosius had appeared in the field, their lives were supinely spent in the palace30 of Constantinople30; and the Greeks30 could no longer understand that the name of emperor30, in its primitive sense, denoted the chief of the armies of the republic. The martial ardour of Maurice was opposed by the grave flattery of the senate, the timid superstition of the patriarch, and the tears of the empress Constantina; and they all conjured him to devolve on some meaner general30 the fatigues and perils of a Scythian campaign. Deaf to their advice and entreaty, the emperor30 boldly advanced seven miles from the capital; the sacred ensign of the cross was displayed in the front, and Maurice reviewed, with conscious pride, the arms30 and numbers of the veterans who had fought and conquered beyond the Tigris. Anchialus was the last term of his progress by sea and land; he solicited, without success, a miraculous answer to his nocturnal prayers; his mind was confounded by the death30 of a favourite horse30, the encounter of a wild boar, a storm of wind and rain, and the birth of a monstrous child; and he forgot that the best of omens is to unsheathe our sword30 in the defence of our country. Under the pretence of receiving the ambassadors of Persia, the emperor30 returned to Constantinople30, exchanged the thoughts of war30 for those of devotion, and disappointed the public hope by his absence and the choice of his lieutenants. The blind partiality of fraternal love might excuse the promotion of his brother Peter, who fled with equal disgrace from the Barbarians, from his own soldiers30, and from the inhabitants of a Roman30 city30. That city30, if we may credit the resemblance of name and character, was the famous Azimuntium, which had alone repelled the tempest of Attila. The example of her warlike youth was propagated to succeeding generations; and they obtained, from the first or the second30 Justin, an honourable privilege, that their valour should be always reserved for the defence of their native country. The brother of Maurice attempted to violate this privilege, and to mingle a patriot band with the mercenaries of his camp30; they retired to the church, he was not awed by the sanctity of the place; the people30 rose in their cause, the gates were shut, the ramparts were manned; and the cowardice of Peter was found equal to his arrogance and injustice. The military fame of Commentiolus is the object of satire or comedy rather than of serious history, since he was even deficient in the vile and vulgar qualification of personal courage. His solemn councils, strange evolutions, and secret orders always supplied an apology for flight or delay. If he marched against the enemy30, the pleasant valleys of Mount Haemus opposed an insuperable barrier; but in his retreat he explored, with fearless curiosity, the most difficult and obsolete paths, which had almost escaped the memory of the oldest native. The only blood which he lost was drawn, in a real or affected malady, by the lancet of a surgeon; and his health, which felt with exquisite sensibility the approach of the Barbarians, was uniformly restored by the repose and safety of the winter season. A prince30 who could promote and support this unworthy favourite must derive no glory from the accidental merit of his colleague Priscus. In five successive battles, which seem to have been conducted with skill and resolution, seventeen thousand30 two hundred Barbarians were made prisoners; near sixty thousand30, with four sons of the chagan, were slain; the Roman30 general30 surprised a peaceful district of the Gepidae, who slept under the protection of the Avars; and his last trophies were erected on the banks of the Danube and the Theiss. Since the death30 of Trajan, the arms30 of the empire30 had not penetrated so deeply into the old Dacia; yet the success of Priscus was transient and barren; and he was soon30 recalled by the apprehension that Baian, with dauntless spirit and recruited forces, was preparing to avenge his defeat under the walls30 of Constantinople30.
The theory of war30 was not more familiar to the camps of Caesar and Trajan than to those of Justinian30 and Maurice. The iron of Tuscany or Pontus still received the keenest temper from the skill of the Byzantine30 workmen. The magazines were plentifully stored with every species of offensive and defensive arms30. In the construction and use of ships, engines, and fortifications, the Barbarians admired the superior ingenuity of a people30 whom they so often vanquished in the field. The science of tactics, the order, evolutions, and stratagems of antiquity, was transcribed and studied in the books of the Greeks30 and Romans. But the solitude or degeneracy of the provinces could no longer supply a race of men to handle those weapons, to guard those walls30, to navigate those ships, and to reduce the theory of war30 into bold and successful practice. The genius of Belisarius30 and Narses had been formed without a master, and expired without a disciple. Neither honour, nor patriotism, nor generous superstition could animate the lifeless bodies of slaves and strangers, who had succeeded to the honours of the legions; it was in the camp30 alone that the emperor30 should have exercised a despotic command; it was only in the camps that his authority was disobeyed and insulted; he appeased and inflamed with gold30 the licentiousness of the troops30; but their vices were inherent, their victories were accidental, and their costly maintenance exhausted the substance of a state which they were unable to defend. After a long30 and pernicious indulgence, the cure of this inveterate evil was undertaken by Maurice; but the rash attempt, which drew destruction on his own head30, tended only to aggravate the disease. A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim. The troops30 of Maurice might listen to the voice of a victorious leader; they disdained the admonitions of statesmen and sophists; and, when they received an edict which deducted from their pay the price of their arms30 and clothing, they execrated the avarice of a prince30 insensible of the dangers and fatigues from which he had escaped. The camps both of Asia and Europe were agitated with frequent and furious seditions; the enraged soldiers30 of Edessa pursued, with reproaches, with threats, with wounds, their trembling generals; they overturned the statues of the emperor30, cast stones against the miraculous image of Christ, and either rejected the yoke of all civil and military laws or instituted a dangerous model of voluntary subordination. The monarch, always distant and often deceived, was incapable of yielding or persisting according to the exigence of the moment. But the fear of a general30 revolt induced him too readily to accept any act of valour or any expression of loyalty as an atonement for the popular offence; the new30 reform was abolished as hastily as it had been announced; and the troops30, instead of punishment and restraint, were agreeably surprised by a gracious proclamation of immunities and rewards. But the soldiers30 accepted without gratitude the tardy and reluctant gifts of the emperor30; their insolence was elated by the discovery of his weakness and their own strength; and their mutual hatred was inflamed beyond the desire of forgivenes or the hope of reconciliation. The historians of the times adopt the vulgar suspicion that Maurice conspired to destroy the troops30 whom he had laboured to reform; the misconduct and favour of Commentiolus are imputed to this malevolent design; and every age must condemn the inhumanity or avarice of a prince30 who, by the trifling ransom of six thousand30 pieces of gold30, might have prevented the massacre of twelve thousand30 prisoners in the hands of the chagan. In the just fervour of indignation, an order was signified to the army30 of the Danube that they should spare the magazines of the province and establish their winter quarters in the hostile country of the Avars. The measure of their grievances was full: they pronounced Maurice unworthy to reign, expelled or slaughtered his faithful adherents, and under the command of Phocas, a simple centurion, returned by hasty marches to the neighbourhood of Constantinople30. After a long30 series of legal succession, the military disorders of the third century were again revived; yet such was the novelty of the enterprise that the insurgents were awed by their own rashness. They hesitated to invest their favourite with the vacant purple, and, while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself, they held a friendly correspondence with his son30 Theodosius and with Germanus the father-in-law of the royal30 youth. So obscure had been the former condition of Phocas that the emperor30 was ignorant of the name and character of his rival; but, as soon30 as he learned that the centurion, though bold in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, Alas! cried the desponding prince30, if he is a coward, he will surely be a murderer.
Yet, if Constantinople30 had been firm and faithful the murderer might have spent his fury against the walls30; and the rebel army30 would have been gradually consumed or reconciled by the prudence of the emperor30. In the games of the circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Maurice disguised with smiles of confidence the anxiety of his heart, condescended to solicit the applause of the factions, and flattered their pride by accepting from their respective tribunes a list of nine hundred blues and fifteen hundred greens, whom he affected to esteem as the solid pillars of his throne. Their treacherous or languid support betrayed his weakness and hastened his fall; the green faction were the secret accomplices of the rebels, and the blues recommended lenity and moderation in a contest with their Roman30 brethren. The rigid and parsimonious virtues of Maurice had long30 since alienated the hearts of his subjects: as he walked barefoot in a religious procession, he was rudely assaulted with stones, and his guards were compelled to present their iron maces in the defence of his person. A fanatic monk ran through the streets with a drawn sword30, denouncing against him the wrath and the sentence of God, and a vile plebeian, who represented his countenance and apparel, was seated on an ass and pursued by the imprecations of the multitude. The emperor30 suspected the popularity of Germanus with the soldiers30 and citizens; he feared, he threatened, but he delayed to strike; the patrician fled to the sanctuary of the church; the people30 rose in his defence, the walls30 were deserted by the guards, and the lawless city30 was abandoned to the flames and rapine of a nocturnal tumult. In a small bark, the unfortunate Maurice, with his wife and nine children, escaped to the Asiatic shore, but the violence of the wind compelled him to land at the church of St30. Autonomus near Chalcedon, from whence he despatched Theodosius, his eldest son30, to implore the gratitude and friendship of the Persian monarch. For himself, he refused to fly: his body was tortured with sciatic pains, his mind was enfeebled by superstition; he patiently awaited the event of the revolution, and addressed a fervent and public prayer to the Almighty, that the punishment of his sins might be inflicted in this world rather than in a future life. After the abdication of Maurice, the two factions disputed the choice of an emperor30; but the favourite of the blues was rejected by the jealousy of their antagonists, and Germanus himself was hurried along by the crowds, who rushed to the palace30 of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city30, to adore the majesty of Phocas the centurion. A modest wish of resigning the purple to the rank and merit of Germanus was opposed by his resolution, more obstinate and equally sincere; the senate and clergy obeyed his summons, and, as soon30 as the patriarch was assured of his orthodox belief, he consecrated the successful usurper in the church of St30. John the Baptist. On the third day30, amidst the acclamations of a thoughtless people30, Phocas made his public entry in a chariot drawn by four white horses; the revolt of the troops30 was rewarded by a lavish donative; and the new30 sovereign, after visiting the palace30, beheld from his throne the games of the hippodrome. In a dispute of precedency between the two factions, his partial judgment inclined in favour of the greens. Remember that Maurice is still alive! resounded from the opposite side; and the indiscreet clamour of the blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant. The ministers of death30 were despatched to Chalcedon; they dragged the emperor30 from his sanctuary; and the five sons of Maurice were successively murdered before the eyes of their agonising parent. At each stroke which he felt in his heart, he found strength to rehearse a pious ejaculation: Thou art just, O Lord: and thy judgments are righteous. And such, in the last moments, was his rigid attachment to truth and justice that he revealed to the soldiers30 the pious falsehood of a nurse who presented her own child in the place of a royal30 infant. The tragic scene was finally closed by the execution of the emperor30 himself, in the twentieth year of his reign, and the sixty-third of his age. The bodies of the father and his five sons were cast into the sea, their heads were exposed at Constantinople30 to the insults or pity of the multitude, and it was not till30 some signs of putrefaction had appeared, that Phocas connived at the private burial of these venerable remains. In that grave, the faults and errors of Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was remembered; and at the end of twenty years30, in the recital of the history of Theophylact, the mournful tale was interrupted by the tears of the audience.
Such tears must have flowed in secret47, and such compassion would have been criminal, under the reign47 of Phocas, who was peaceably acknowledged in the provinces47 of the East47 and West. The images of the emperor47 and his wife Leontia were exposed in the Lateran to the veneration of the clergy and senate47 of Rome47, and afterwards deposited in the palace47 of the Caesars, between those of Constantine47 and Theodosius47. As a subject and a Christian, it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established government47, but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin has sullied with indelible disgrace the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firmness the guilt of blood, and the necessity of repentance: he is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people47 and the fall of the oppressor; to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by Providence to the Imperial47 throne47; to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies; and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long47 and triumphant reign47, he may be transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom. I have already traced the steps of a revolution so pleasing, in Gregory's opinion, both to heaven and earth; and Phocas does not appear less hateful in the exercise than in the acquisition of power47. The pencil of an impartial historian has delineated the portrait of a monster: his diminutive and deformed person47, the closeness of his shaggy eye-brows, his red hair, his beardless chin, and his cheek disfigured and discoloured by a formidable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of arms47, he indulged in the supreme rank47 a more ample privilege of lust and drunkenness, and his brutal pleasures were either injurious to his subjects or disgraceful to himself. Without assuming the office of a prince47, he renounced the profession of a soldier; and the reign47 of Phocas afflicted Europe with ignominious peace, and Asia with desolating war47. His savage temper was inflamed by passion, hardened by fear, exasperated by resistance or reproach. The flight of Theodosius47 to the Persian court had been intercepted by a rapid pursuit or a deceitful message: he was beheaded at Nice, and the last hours of the young prince47 were soothed by the comforts of religion and the consciousness of innocence. Yet his phantom disturbed the repose of the usurper; a whisper was circulated through the East47, that the son47 of Maurice was still alive; the people47 expected their avenger, and the widow and daughters of the late emperor47 would have adopted as their son47 and brother the vilest of mankind. In the massacre of the Imperial47 family, the mercy, or rather the discretion, of Phocas had spared these unhappy females, and they were decently confined to a private47 house. But the spirit47 of the empress Constantina, still mindful of her father47, her husband, and her sons, aspired to freedom and revenge. At the dead of night, she escaped to the sanctuary of St. Sophia; but her tears, and the gold of her associate Germanus, were insufficient to provoke an insurrection. Her life47 was forfeited to revenge, and even to justice47; but the patriarch obtained and pledged an oath for her safety; a monastery was allotted for her prison, and the widow of Maurice accepted and abused the lenity of his assassin. The discovery or the suspicion of a second conspiracy dissolved the engagements and rekindled the fury of Phocas. A matron who commanded the respect and pity of mankind, the daughter, wife, and mother of emperors, was tortured like the vilest malefactor, to force a confession of her designs and associates; and the empress Constantina, with her three innocent daughters, was beheaded at Chalcedon, on the same ground which had been stained with the blood of her husband and five sons. After such an example, it would be superfluous to enumerate the names and sufferings of meaner victims. Their condemnation was seldom preceded by the forms of trial, and their punishment was embittered by the refinements of cruelty: their eyes were pierced, their tongues were torn from the root, the hands and feet were amputated; some expired under the lash, others in the flames, others again were transfixed with arrows; and a simple speedy death47 was mercy which they could rarely obtain. The hippodrome, the sacred asylum of the pleasures and the liberty of the Romans, was polluted with heads and limbs and mangled bodies; and the companions of Phocas were the most sensible that neither his favour nor their services could protect them from a tyrant47, the worthy rival of the Caligulas and Domitians of the first age47 of the empire47.
A daughter of Phocas, his only child, was given in marriage to the patrician Crispus, and the royal images of the bride and bridegroom were indiscreetly placed in the circus, by the side of the emperor47. The father47 must desire that his posterity should inherit the fruit of his crimes, but the monarch was offended by this premature and popular association; the tribunes of the green faction, who accused the officious error of their sculptors, were condemned to instant death47; their lives were granted to the prayers of the people47; but Crispus might reasonably doubt whether a jealous usurper could forget and pardon his involuntary competition. The green faction was alienated by the ingratitude of Phocas and the loss of their privileges; every province of the empire47 was ripe for rebellion; and Heraclius, exarch of Africa, persisted above two years in refusing all tribute and obedience to the centurion who disgraced the throne47 of Constantinople. By the secret47 emissaries of Crispus and the senate47, the independent exarch was solicited to save and to govern his country; but his ambition was chilled by age47, and he resigned the dangerous enterprise to his son47 Heraclius, and to Nicetas, the son47 of Gregory his friend and lieutenant. The powers of Africa were armed by the two adventurous youths; they agreed that the one should navigate the fleet from Carthage to Constantinople, that the other should lead an army47 through Egypt and Asia, and that the Imperial47 purple should be the reward of diligence and success. A faint rumour of their undertaking was conveyed to the ears of Phocas, and the wife and mother of the younger Heraclius were secured as the hostages of his faith; but the treacherous art of Crispus extenuated the distant peril, the means of defence were neglected or delayed, and the tyrant47 supinely slept till the African navy cast anchor in the Hellespont. Their standard was joined at Abydus by the fugitives and exiles who thirsted for revenge; the ships of Heraclius, whose lofty masts were adorned with the holy symbols of religion, steered their triumphant course through the Propontis; and Phocas beheld from the windows of the palace47 his approaching and inevitable fate. The green faction was tempted, by gifts and promises, to oppose a feeble and fruitless resistance to the landing of the Africans; but the people47, and even the guards, were determined by the well-timed defection of Crispus; and the tyrant47 was seized by a private47 enemy, who boldly invaded the solitude of the palace47. Stripped of the diadem and purple, clothed in a vile habit, and loaded with chains, he was transported in a small boat to the Imperial47 galley of Heraclius, who reproached him with the crimes of his abominable reign47. Wilt thou govern better? were the last words of the despair of Phocas. After suffering each variety of insult and torture, his head was severed from his body, the mangled trunk was cast into the flames, and the same treatment was inflicted on the statues of the vain usurper and the seditious banner of the green faction. The voice of the clergy, the senate47, and the people47 invited Heraclius to ascend the throne47 which he had purified from guilt and ignominy; after some graceful hesitation, he yielded to their entreaties. His coronation was accompanied by that of his wife Eudoxia; and their posterity, till the fourth generation, continued to reign47 over the empire47 of the East47. The voyage of Heraclius had been easy and prosperous; the tedious march of Nicetas was not accomplished before the decision of the contest; but he submitted without a murmur to the fortune of his friend, and his laudable intentions were rewarded with an equestrian statue and a daughter of the emperor47. It was more difficult to trust the fidelity of Crispus, whose recent services were recompensed by the command47 of the Cappadocian army47. His arrogance soon47 provoked, and seemed to excuse, the ingratitude of his new sovereign47. In the presence of the senate47, the son47-in-law of Phocas was condemned to embrace the monastic life47; and the sentence was justified by the weighty observation of Heraclius that the man who had betrayed his father47 could never be faithful to his friend.
Even after his death30 the republic was afflicted by the crimes of Phocas, which armed with a pious cause the most formidable of her enemies30. According to the friendly and equal forms of the Byzantine30 and Persian courts, he announced his exaltation to the throne; and his ambassador Lilius, who had presented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to describe the circumstances of the tragic scene. However it might be varnished by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, imprisoned the pretended envoy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his father and benefactor. The sentiments of grief and resentment which humanity would feel, and honour would dictate, promoted, on this occasion, the interest of the Persian king30; and his interest was powerfully magnified by the national and religious prejudices of the Magi and satraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which assumed the language of freedom, they presumed to censure the excess of his gratitude and friendship for the Greeks30: a nation with whom it was dangerous to conclude either peace or alliance; whose superstition was devoid of truth and justice; and who must be incapable of any virtue, since they could perpetrate the most atrocious of crimes, the impious murder of their sovereign. For the crime of an ambitious centurion, the nation which he oppressed was chastised with the calamities of war30; and the same calamities, at the end of twenty years30, were retaliated and redoubled on the heads of the Persians. The general30 who had restored Chosroes to the throne still commanded in the East; and the name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants. It is not improbable that a native subject of Persia should encourage his master and his friend to deliver and possess the provinces of Asia. It is still more probable that Chosroes should animate his troops30 by the assurance that the sword30 which they dreaded the most would remain in its scabbard or be drawn in their favour. The hero could not depend on the faith of a tyrant, and the tyrant was conscious how little he deserved the obedience of an hero. Narses was removed from his military command; he reared an independent standard30 at Hierapolis in Syria; he was betrayed by fallacious promises, and burnt alive in the market-place of Constantinople30. Deprived of the only chief whom they could fear or esteem, the bands which he had led to victory30 were twice broken by the cavalry, trampled by the elephants, and pierced by the arrows of the Barbarians; and a great number of the captives were beheaded on the field of battle30 by the sentence of the victor, who might justly condemn these seditious mercenaries as the authors or accomplices of the death30 of Maurice. Under the reign of Phocas, the fortifications of Merdin, Dara, Amida, and Edessa were successively besieged, reduced, and destroyed by the Persian monarch; he passed the Euphrates, occupied the Syrian cities, Hierapolis, Chalcis, and Beroea or Aleppo, and soon30 encompassed the walls30 of Antioch with his irresistible arms30. The rapid tide of success discloses the decay of the empire30, the incapacity of Phocas, and the disaffection of his subjects; and Chosroes provided a decent apology for their submission or revolt, by an impostor who attended his camp30 as the son30 of Maurice and the lawful heir of the monarchy.
The first intelligence from the East which Heraclius received was that of the loss of Antioch; but the aged metropolis, so often overturned by earthquakes and pillaged by the enemy30, could supply but a small and languid stream of treasure and blood. The Persians were equally successful and more fortunate in the sack of Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia; and, as they advanced beyond the ramparts of the frontier, the boundary of ancient war30, they found a less obstinate resistance and a more plentiful harvest. The pleasant vale of Damascus has been adorned in every age with a royal30 city30; her obscure felicity has hitherto escaped the historian of the Roman30 empire30; but Chosroes reposed his troops30 in the paradise of Damascus before he ascended the hills of Libanus or invaded the cities of the Phoenician coast. The conquest of Jerusalem, which had been meditated by Nushirvan, was achieved by the zeal and avarice of his grandson; the ruin of the proudest monument of Christianity was vehemently urged by the intolerant spirit of the Magi; and he could enlist, for this holy30 warfare, an army30 of six-and-twenty thousand30 Jews, whose furious bigotry might compensate, in some degree, for the want of valour and discipline. After the reduction of Galilee and the region beyond the Jordan, whose resistance appears to have delayed the fate of the capital, Jerusalem itself was taken by assault; the sepulchre of Christ, and the stately churches of Helena and Constantine, were consumed, or at least damaged, by the flames; the devout offerings of three hundred years30 were rifled in one sacrilegious day30; the patriarch Zachariah, and the true cross, were transported into Persia; and the massacre of ninety thousand30 Christians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs who swelled the disorder of the Persian march. The fugitives of Palestine were entertained at Alexandria by the charity of John the archbishop, who is distinguished among a crowd of saints by the epithet of alms-giver; and the revenues of the church, with a treasure of three hundred thousand30 pounds, were restored to the true proprietors, the poor of every country and every denomination. But Egypt itself, the only province which had been exempt since the time of Diocletian from foreign and domestic war30, was again subdued by the successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, the key of that impervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of the Persians: they passed with impunity the innumerable channels of the Delta, and explored the long30 valley of the Nile, from the pyramids of Memphis to the confines of Aethiopia. Alexandria might have been relieved by a naval force, but the archbishop and the prefect embarked for Cyprus; and Chosroes entered the second30 city30 of the empire30, which still preserved a wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His western trophy was erected, not on the walls30 of Carthage, but in the neighbourhood of Tripoli; the Greek30 colonies of Cyrene were finally extirpated; and the conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alexander, returned in triumph through the sands of the Libyan desert. In the same campaign, another army30 advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bosphorus; Chalcedon surrendered after a long30 siege30, and a Persian camp30 was maintained above ten years30 in the presence of Constantinople30. The sea-coast of Pontus, the city30 of Ancyra, and the isle of Rhodes are enumerated among the last conquests of the Great King30; and, if Chosroes had possessed any maritime power, his boundless ambition would have spread slavery and desolation over the provinces of Europe.
From the long30-disputed banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the reign of the grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient limits of the Persian monarchy. But the provinces, which had been fashioned by the habits of six hundred years30 to the virtues and vices of the Roman30 government, supported with reluctance the yoke of the Barbarians. The idea of a republic was kept alive by the institutions, or at least by the writings, of the Greeks30 and Romans, and the subjects of Heraclius had been educated to pronounce the words of liberty and law. But it has always been the pride and policy of Oriental princes to display the titles and attributes of their omnipotence; to upbraid a nation of slaves with their true name and abject condition; and to enforce, by cruel and insolent threats, the rigour of their absolute commands. The Christians of the East were scandalised by the worship of fire and the impious doctrine of the two principles; the Magi were not less intolerant than the bishops; and the martyrdom of some native Persians, who had deserted the religion of Zoroaster, was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and general30 persecution. By the oppressive laws of Justinian30, the adversaries of the church were made the enemies30 of the state; the alliance of the Jews, Nestorians, and Jacobites had contributed to the success of Chosroes, and his partial favour to the sectaries provoked the hatred and fears of the Catholic clergy. Conscious of their fear and hatred, the Persian conqueror governed his new30 subjects with an iron sceptre; and, as if he suspected the stability of his dominion, he exhausted their wealth by exorbitant tributes and licentious rapine, despoiled or demolished the temples of the East, and transported to his hereditary realms the gold30, the silver, the precious marbles, the arts, and the artists of the Asiatic cities. In the obscure picture of the calamities of the empire30, it is not easy to discern the figure of Chosroes himself, to separate his actions from those of his lieutenants, or to ascertain his personal merit in the general30 blaze of glory and magnificence. He enjoyed with ostentation the fruits of victory30, and frequently retired from the hardships of war30 to the luxury of the palace30. But in the space of twenty-four years30, he was deterred by superstition or resentment from approaching the gates of Ctesiphon; and his favourite residence of Artemita, or Dastagerd, was situate beyond the Tigris, about sixty miles to the north of the capital. The adjacent pastures were covered with flocks and herds; the paradise or park was replenished with pheasants, peacocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild boars; and the noble game of lions and tigers was sometimes turned loose for the boder pleasures of the chase. Nine hundred and sixty elephants were maintained for the use or splendour of the Great King30; his tents and baggage were carried into the field by twelve thousand30 great camels and eight thousand30 of a smaller size; and the royal30 stables were filled with six thousand30 mules and horses, among whom the names of Shebdiz and Barid are renowned for their speed or beauty. Six thousand30 guards successively mounted before the palace30 gate; the service30 of the interior apartments was performed by twelve thousand30 slaves; and in the number of three thousand30 virgins, the fairest of Asia, some happy concubine might console her master for the age or the indifference of Sira. The various treasures of gold30, silver, gems, silk, and aromatics were deposited in an hundred subterraneous vaults; and the chamber Badaverd denoted the accidental gift of the winds which had wafted the spoils of Heraclius into one of the Syrian harbours of his rival. The voice of flattery, and perhaps of fiction, is not ashamed to compute the thirty thousand30 rich hangings that adorned the walls30, the forty thousand30 columns of silver, or more probably of marble and plated wood, that supported the roof; and the thousand30 globes of gold30 suspended in the dome, to imitate the motions of the planets and the constellations of the zodiac. While the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders of his art and power, he received an epistle from an obscure citizen of Mecca, inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. He rejected the invitation, and tore the epistle. It is thus, exclaimed the Arabian prophet, that God will tear the kingdom, and reject the supplications, of Chosroes. Placed on the verge of the two great empires of the East, Mahomet observed with secret joy the progress of their mutual destruction; and, in the midst of the Persian triumphs, he ventured to foretell that, before many years30 should elapse, victory30 would again return to the banners of the Romans.
At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the first twelve years30 of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the empire30. If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and honourable, he must have ended the quarrel with the death30 of Phocas, and he would have embraced, as his best ally, the fortunate African who had so generously avenged the injuries of his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of the war30 revealed the true character of the Barbarian; and the suppliant embassies of Heraclius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare the innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were rejected with contemptuous silence or insolent menace. Syria, Egypt, and the provinces of Asia were subdued by the Persian arms30, while Europe, from the confines of Istria to the long30 wall of Thrace, was oppressed by the Avars, unsatiated with the blood and rapine of the Italian war30. They had coolly massacred their male captives in the sacred field of Pannonia; the women and children were reduced to servitude; and the noblest virgins were abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the Barbarians. The amorous matron who opened the gates of Friuli passed a short night in the arms30 of her royal30 lover; the next evening, Romilda was condemned to the embraces of twelve Avars; and the third day30 the Lombard princess was impaled in the sight of the camp30, while the chagan observed, with a cruel smile, that such a husband was the fit recompense of her lewdness and perfidy. By these implacable enemies30 Heraclius, on either side, was insulted and besieged; and the Roman30 empire30 was reduced to the walls30 of Constantinople30, with the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, and some maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic coast. After the loss of Egypt, the capital was afflicted by famine and pestilence; and the emperor30, incapable of resistance and hopeless of relief, had resolved to transfer his person and government to the more secure residence of Carthage. His ships were already laden with the treasures of the palace30; but his flight was arrested by the patriarch, who armed the powers of religion in the defence of his country, led Heraclius to the altar of St30. Sophia, and extorted a solemn oath that he would live and die with the people30 whom God had entrusted to his care. The chagan was encamped in the plains of Thrace, but he dissembled his perfidious designs, and solicited an interview with the emperor30 near the town of Heraclea. Their reconciliation was celebrated with equestrian games, the senate and people30 in their gayest apparel resorted to the festival of peace, and the Avars beheld, with envy and desire, the spectacle of Roman30 luxury. On a sudden, the hippodrome was encompassed by the Scythian cavalry, who had pressed their secret and nocturnal march; the tremendous sound of the chagan's whip gave the signal of the assault; and Heraclius, wrapping his diadem round his arm, was saved, with extreme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse30. So rapid was the pursuit that the Avars almost entered the golden gate of Constantinople30 with the flying crowds; but the plunder of the suburbs rewarded their treason, and they transported beyond the Danube two hundred and seventy thousand30 captives. On the shore of Chalcedon, the emperor30 held a safer conference with a more honourable foe, who, before Heraclius descended from his galley, saluted with reverence and pity the majesty of the purple. The friendly offer of Sain the Persian general30, to conduct an embassy to the presence of the Great King30, was accepted with the warmest gratitude, and the prayer for pardon and peace was humbly presented by the praetorian prefect, the prefect of the city30, and one of the first ecclesiastics of the patriarchal church. But the lieutenant of Chosroes had fatally mistaken the intentions of his master. It was not an embassy, said the tyrant of Asia, it was the person of Heraclius, bound in chains, that he should have brought to the foot of my throne. I will never give peace to the emperor30 of Rome till30 he has abjured his crucified God and embraced the worship of the sun. Sain was flayed alive, according to the inhuman practice of his country; and the separate and rigorous confinement of the ambassadors violated the law of nations and the faith of an express stipulation. Yet the experience of six years30 at length persuaded the Persian monarch to renounce the conquest of Constantinople30 and to specify the annual tribute or ransom of the Roman30 empire30: a thousand30 talents of gold30, a thousand30 talents of silver, a thousand30 silk robes, a thousand30 horses, and a thousand30 virgins. Heraclius subscribed these ignominious terms, but the time and space which he obtained to collect such treasures from the poverty of the East was industriously employed in the preparations of a bold and desperate attack.
Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and last years30 of a long30 reign, the emperor30 appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the public calamities. But the languid mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness of the meridian sun: the Arcadius of the palace30 arose the Caesar of the camp30; and the honour of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous campaigns. It was the duty of the Byzantine30 historians to have revealed the causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this distance we can only conjecture that he was endowed with more personal courage than political resolution; that he was detained by the charms, and perhaps the arts, of his niece Martina, with whom, after the death30 of Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous marriage; and that he yielded to the base advice of the counsellors, who urged, as a fundamental law, that the life of the emperor30 should never be exposed in the field. Perhaps he was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persian conqueror; but, at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of a hero, the only hopes of the Romans were drawn from the vicissitudes of fortune, which might threaten the proud prosperity of Chosroes and must be favourable to those who had attained the lowest period of depression. To provide for the expenses of war30 was the first care of the emperor30; and, for the purpose of collecting the tribute, he was allowed to solicit the benevolence of the Eastern provinces. But the revenue no longer flowed in the usual channels; the credit of an arbitrary prince30 is annihilated by his power; and the courage of Heraclius was first displayed in daring to borrow the consecrated wealth of churches under the solemn vow of restoring, with usury, whatever he had been compelled to employ in the service30 of religion and of the empire30. The clergy themselves appear to have sympathised with the public distress, and the discreet patriarch of Alexandria, without admitting the precedent of sacrilege, assisted his sovereign by the miraculous or seasonable revelation of a secret treasure. Of the soldiers30 who had conspired with Phocas, only two were found to have survived the stroke of time and of the Barbarians; the loss, even of these seditious veterans, was imperfectly supplied by the new30 levies of Heraclius, and the gold30 of the sanctuary united, in the same camp30, the names, and arms30, and languages of the East and West. He would have been content with the neutrality of the Avars; and his friendly entreaty that the chagan would act not as the enemy30 but as the guardian of the empire30 was accompanied with a more persuasive donative of two hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30. Two days30 after the festival of Easter, the emperor30, exchanging his purple for the simple garb of a penitent and warrior, gave the signal of his departure. To the faith of the people30 Heraclius recommended his children; the civil and military powers were vested in the most deserving hands; and the discretion of the patriarch and senate was authorised to save or surrender the city30, if they should be oppressed in his absence by the superior forces of the enemy30.
The neighbouring heights of Chalcedon were covered with tents and arms30; but, if the new30 levies of Heraclius had been rashly led to the attack, the victory30 of the Persians in the sight of Constantinople30 might have been the last day30 of the Roman30 empire30. As imprudent would it have been to advance into the provinces of Asia, leaving their innumerable cavalry to intercept his convoys, and continually to hang on the lassitude and disorder of his rear. But the Greeks30 were still masters of the sea; a fleet of galleys, transports and storeships, was assembled in the harbour; the Barbarians consented to embark; a steady wind carried them through the Hellespont; the western and southern coast of Asia Minor lay on their left30 hand; the spirit of their chief was first displayed in a storm; and even the eunuchs of his train were excited to suffer and to work by the example of their master. He landed his troops30 on the confines of Syria and Cilicia, in the gulf of Scanderoon, where the coast suddenly turns to the south; and his discernment was expressed in the choice of this important post. From all sides, the scattered garrisons of the maritime cities and the mountains might repair with speed and safety to his Imperial standard30. The natural fortifications of Cilicia protected, and even concealed, the camp30 of Heraclius, which was pitched near Issus, on the same ground where Alexander had vanquished the host of Darius. The angle which the emperor30 occupied was deeply indented into a vast semicircle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian provinces; and, to whatsoever point of the circumference he should direct his attack, it was easy for him to dissemble his own motions and to prevent those of the enemy30. In the camp30 of Issus the Roman30 general30 reformed the sloth and disorder of the veterans, and educated the new30 recruits in the knowledge and practice of military virtue. Unfolding the miraculous image of Christ, he urged them to revenge the holy30 altars which had been profaned by the worshippers of fire; addressing them by the endearing appellations of sons and brethren, he deplored the public and private wrongs of the republic. The subjects of a monarch were persuaded that they fought in the cause of freedom; and a similar enthusiasm was communicated to the foreign mercenaries, who must have viewed with equal indifference the interest of Rome and of Persia. Heraclius himself, with the skill and patience of a centurion, inculcated the lessons of the school of tactics, and the soldiers30 were assiduously trained in the use of their weapons and the exercises and evolutions of the field. The cavalry and infantry in light or heavy armour were divided into two parties; the trumpets were fixed in the centre, and their signals directed the march, the charge, the retreat, or pursuit; the direct or oblique order, the deep or extended phalanx; to represent in fictitious combat the operations of genuine war30. Whatever hardship the emperor30 imposed on the troops30, he inflicted with equal severity on himself; their labour, their diet, their sleep, were measured by the inflexible rules of discipline; and, without despising the enemy30, they were taught to repose an implicit confidence in their own valour and the wisdom of their leader. Cilicia was soon30 encompassed with the Persian arms30; but their cavalry hesitated to enter the defiles of Mount Taurus, till30 they were circumvented by the evolutions of Heraclius, who insensibly gained their rear, whilst he appeared to present his front in order of battle30. By a false motion, which seemed to threaten Armenia, he drew them against their wishes to a general30 action. They were tempted by the artful disorder of his camp30; but, when they advanced to combat, the ground, the sun, and the expectation of both armies were unpropitious to the Barbarians; the Romans successfully repeated their tactics in a field of battle30; and the event of the day30 declared to the world that the Persians were not invincible and that an hero was invested with the purple. Strong in victory30 and fame, Heraclius boldly ascended the heights of Mount Taurus, directed his march through the plains of Cappadocia, and established his troops30 for the winter season in safe and plentiful quarters on the banks of the river Halys. His soul was superior to the vanity of entertaining Constantinople30 with an imperfect triumph; but the presence of the emperor30 was indispensably required to soothe the restless and rapacious spirit of the Avars.
Since the days30 of Scipio and Hannibal, no bolder enterprise has been attempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the deliverance of the empire30. He permitted the Persians to oppress for a while the provinces, and to insult with impunity the capital, of the East; while the Roman30 emperor30 explored his perilous way through the Black Sea and the mountains of Armenia, penetrated into the heart of Persia, and recalled the armies of the Great King30 to the defence of their bleeding country. With a select band of five thousand30 soldiers30, Heraclius sailed from Constantinople30 to Trebizond; assembled his forces which had wintered in the Pontic regions; and, from the mouth of the Phasis to the Caspian sea, encouraged his subjects and allies to march with the successor of Constantine under the faithful and victorious banner of the cross. When the legions of Lucullus and Pompey first passed the Euphrates, they blushed at their easy victory30 over the natives of Armenia. But the long30 experience of war30 had hardened the minds and bodies of that effeminate people30; their zeal and bravery were approved in the service30 of a declining empire30; they abhorred and feared the usurpation of the house of Sassan, and the memory of persecution envenomed their pious hatred of the enemies30 of Christ. The limits of Armenia, as it had been ceded to the emperor30 Maurice, extended as far as the Araxes; the river submitted to the indignity of a bridge; and Heraclius, in the footsteps of Mark Antony, advanced towards the city30 of Tauris or Gandzaca, the ancient and modern capital of one of the provinces of Media. At the head30 of forty thousand30 men, Chosroes himself had returned from some distant expedition to oppose the progress of the Roman30 arms30; but he retreated on the approach of Heraclius, declining the generous alternative of peace or of battle30. Instead of half a million of inhabitants, which have been ascribed to Tauris under the reign of the Sophys, the city30 contained no more than three thousand30 houses; but the value of the royal30 treasures was enhanced by a tradition that they were the spoils of Croesus, which had been transported by Cyrus from the citadel of Sardes. The rapid conquests of Heraclius were suspended only by the winter season; a motive of prudence, or superstition, determined his retreat into the province of Albania, along the shores of the Caspian; and his tents were most probably pitched in the plains of Mogan, the favourite encampment of Oriental princes. In the course of this successful inroad, he signalised the zeal and revenge of a Christian emperor30: at his command, the soldiers30 extinguished the fire, and destroyed the temples, of the Magi; the statues of Chosroes, who aspired to divine honours, were abandoned to the flames; and the ruins of Thebarma or Ormia, which had given birth to Zoroaster himself, made some atonement for the injuries of the holy30 sepulchre. A purer spirit of religion was shewn in the relief and deliverance of fifty thousand30 captives. Heraclius was rewarded by their tears and grateful acclamations; but this wise measure, which spread the fame of his benevolence, diffused the murmurs of the Persians against the pride and obstinacy of their own sovereign.
Amidst the glories of the succeeding campaign, Heraclius is almost lost to our eyes and to those of the Byzantine30 historians. From the spacious and fruitful plains of Albania, the emperor30 appears to follow the chain of Hyrcanian mountains, to descend into the province of Media or Irak, and to carry his victorious arms30 as far as the royal30 cities of Casbin and Ispahan, which had never been approached by a Roman30 conqueror. Alarmed by the danger of his kingdom, the powers of Chosroes were already recalled from the Nile and the Bosphorus, and three formidable armies surrounded, in a distant and hostile land, the camp30 of the emperor30. The Colchian allies prepared to desert his standard30; and the fears of the bravest veterans were expressed, rather than concealed, by their desponding silence. Be not terrified, said the intrepid Heraclius, by the multitude of your foes. With the aid of Heaven, one Roman30 may triumph over a thousand30 Barbarians. But, if we devote our lives for the salvation of our brethren, we shall obtain the crown of martyrdom, and our immortal reward will be liberally paid by God and posterity. These magnanimous sentiments were supported by the vigour of his actions. He repelled the threefold attack of the Persians, improved the divisions of their chiefs, and, by a well-concerted train of marches, retreats, and successful actions, finally chased them from the field into the fortified cities of Media and Assyria. In the severity of the winter season, Sarbaraza deemed himself secure in the walls30 of Salban; he was surprised by the activity of Heraclius, who divided his troops30 and performed a laborious march in the silence of the night. The flat roofs of the houses were defended with useless valour against the darts and torches of the Romans; the satraps and nobles of Persia, with their wives and children, and the flower of their martial youth, were either slain or made prisoners. The general30 escaped by a precipitate flight, but his golden armour was the prize of the conqueror; and the soldiers30 of Heraclius enjoyed the wealth and repose which they had so nobly deserved. On the return of spring, the emperor30 traversed in seven days30 the mountains of Curdistan, and passed without resistance the rapid stream of the Tigris. Oppressed by the weight of their spoils and captives, the Roman30 army30 halted under the walls30 of Amida; and Heraclius informed the senate of Constantinople30 of his safety and success, which they had already felt by the retreat of the besiegers. The bridges of the Euphrates were destroyed by the Persians; but, as soon30 as the emperor30 had discovered a ford, they hastily retired to defend the banks of the Sarus, in Cilicia. That river, an impetuous torrent, was about three hundred feet broad; the bridge was fortified with strong turrets; and the banks were lined with Barbarian archers. After a bloody conflict, which continued till30 the evening, the Romans prevailed in the assault, and a Persian of gigantic size was slain and thrown into the Sarus by the hand of the emperor30 himself. The enemies30 were dispersed and dismayed; Heraclius pursued his march to Sebaste in Cappadocia; and, at the expiration of three years30, the same coast of the Euxine applauded his return from a long30 and victorious expedition.
Instead of skirmishing on the frontier, the two monarchs who disputed the empire30 of the East aimed their desperate strokes at the heart of their rival. The military force of Persia was wasted by the marches and combats of twenty years30, and many of the veterans, who had survived the perils of the sword30 and the climate, were still detained in the fortresses of Egypt and Syria. But the revenge and ambition of Chosroes exhausted his kingdom; and the new30 levies of subjects, strangers, and slaves were divided into three formidable bodies. The first army30 of fifty thousand30 men, illustrious by the ornament and title of the golden spears, was destined to march against Heraclius; the second30 was stationed to prevent his junction with the troops30 of his brother Theodorus; and the third was commanded to besiege Constantinople30, and to second30 the operations of the chagan, with whom the Persian king30 had ratified a treaty of alliance and partition. Sarbar, the general30 of the third army30, penetrated through the provinces of Asia to the well-known camp30 of Chalcedon, and amused himself with the destruction of the sacred and profane buildings of the Asiatic suburbs, while he impatiently waited the arrival of his Scythian friends on the opposite side of the Bosphorus. On the twenty-ninth of June, thirty thousand30 Barbarians, the vanguard of the Avars, forced the long30 wall, and drove into the capital a promiscuous crowd of peasants, citizens, and soldiers30. Fourscore thousand30 of his native subjects, and of the vassal tribes of Gepidae, Russians, Bulgarians, and Sclavonians, advanced under the standard30 of the chagan; a month was spent in marches and negotiations; but the whole city30 was invested on the thirty-first of July, from the suburbs of Pera and Galata to the Blachernae and seven towers; and the inhabitants descried with terror the flaming signals of the European and Asiatic shores. In the meanwhile the magistrates of Constantinople30 repeatedly strove to purchase the retreat of the chagan; but their deputies were rejected and insulted; and he suffered the patricians to stand before his throne, while the Persian envoys, in silk robes, were seated by his side. You see, said the haughty Barbarian, the proofs of my perfect union with the Great King30; and his lieutenant is ready to send into my camp30 a select band of three thousand30 warriors. Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate ransom; your wealth and your city30 are the only presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourselves, I shall permit you to depart, each with an undergarment and a shirt; and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage through his lines. Your absent prince30, even now a captive or a fugitive, has left30 Constantinople30 to its fate; nor can you escape the arms30 of the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into air like birds, unless like fishes you could dive into the waves. During ten successive days30 the capital was assaulted by the Avars, who had made some progress in the science of attack; they advanced to sap or batter the wall, under the cover of the impenetrable tortoise; their engines discharged a perpetual volley of stones and darts; and twelve lofty towers of wood exalted the combatants to the height of the neighbouring ramparts. But the senate and people30 were animated by the spirit of Heraclius, who had detached to their relief a body of twelve thousand30 cuirassiers; the powers of fire and mechanics were used with superior art and success in the defence of Constantinople30; and the galleys, with two and three ranks of oars, commanded the Bosphorus, and rendered the Persians the idle spectators of the defeat of their allies. The Avars were repulsed; a fleet of Sclavonian canoes was destroyed in the harbour; the vassals of the chagan threatened to desert, his provisions were exhausted, and, after burning his engines, he gave the signal of a slow and formidable retreat. The devotion of the Romans ascribed this signal deliverance to the virgin Mary; but the mother of Christ would surely have condemned their inhuman murder of the Persian envoys, who were entitled to the rights of humanity, if they were not protected by the laws of nations.
After the division of his army3, Heraclius prudently retired to the banks of the Phasis, from whence he maintained a defensive war3 against the fifty thousand3 gold spears of Persia3. His anxiety was relieved by the deliverance of Constantinople; his hopes were confirmed by a victory3 of his brother Theodorus; and to the hostile league of Chosroes3 with the Avars the Roman3 emperor3 opposed the useful and honourable alliance3 of the Turks. At his liberal invitation, the horde of Chozars transported their tents from the plains of the Volga to the mountains of Georgia; Heraclius received them in the neighbourhood of Teflis, and the khan with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if we may credit the Greeks, and fell prostrate on the ground, to adore the purple of the Caesar. Such voluntary homage and important3 aid were entitled to the warmest acknowledgments; and the emperor3, taking off his own diadem, placed it on the head3 of the Turkish prince3, whom he saluted with a tender embrace and the appellation of son3. After a sumptuous banquet, he presented Ziebel with the plate and ornaments, the gold, the gems, and the silk, which had been used at the Imperial table, and, with his own hand, distributed rich jewels and earrings to his new allies. In a secret interview, he produced the portrait of his daughter Eudocia, condescended to flatter the Barbarian3 with the promise of a fair and august bride, obtained an immediate succour of forty thousand3 horse, and negotiated a strong diversion of the Turkish arms3 on the side of the Oxus. The Persians3, in their turn, retreated with precipitation; in the camp3 of Edessa, Heraclius reviewed an army3 of seventy thousand3 Romans3 and strangers; and some months were successfully employed in the recovery of the cities of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia3, whose fortifications had been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still maintained the important3 station of Chalcedon; but the jealousy of Chosroes3, or the artifice of Heraclius, soon3 alienated the mind of that powerful satrap from the service of his king3 and country. A messenger was intercepted with a real or fictitious mandate to the cadarigan, or second in command, directing him to send, without delay, to the throne3 the head3 of a guilty or unfortunate general3. The despatches were transmitted to Sarbar himself; and, as soon3 as he read the sentence of his own death3, he deterousxly inserted the names of four hundred officers, assembled a military3 council, and asked the cadarigan, whether he was prepared to execute the commands of their tyrant? The Persians3 unanimously declared that Chosroes3 had forfeited the sceptre; a separate treaty3 was concluded with the government of Constantinople; and, if some considerations of honour or policy restrained Sarbar from joining the standard of Heraclius, the emperor3 was assured that he might prosecute, without interruption, his designs of victory3 and peace3.
Deprived of his firmest support, and doubtful of the fidelity of his subjects, the greatness of Chosroes was still conspicuous in its ruins. The number of five hundred thousand30 may be interpreted as an Oriental metaphor, to describe the men and arms30, the horses and elephants, that covered Media and Assyria against the invasion of Heraclius. Yet the Romans boldly advanced from the Araxes to the Tigris, and the timid prudence of Rhazates was content to follow them by forced marches through a desolate country, till30 he received a peremptory mandate to risk the fate of Persia in a decisive battle30. Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the great Nineveh had formerly been erected; the city30, and even the ruins of the city30, had long30 since disappeared; the vacant space afforded a spacious field for the operations of the two armies. But these operations are neglected by the Byzantine30 historians, and, like the authors of epic poetry and romance, they ascribe the victory30 not to the military conduct, but to the personal valour, of their favourite hero. On this memorable day30, Heraclius, on his horse30 Phallas, surpassed the bravest of his warriors: his lip was pierced with a spear, the steed was wounded in the thigh, but he carried his master safe and victorious through the triple phalanx of the Barbarians. In the heat of the action, three valiant chiefs were successively slain by the sword30 and lance of the emperor30; among these was Rhazates himself; he fell like a soldier, but the sight of his head30 scattered grief and despair through the fainting ranks of the Persians. His armour of pure and massy gold30, the shield of one hundred and twenty plates, the sword30 and belt, the saddle and cuirass, adorned the triumph of Heraclius, and, if he had not been faithful to Christ and his mother, the champion of Rome might have offered the fourth opime spoils to the Jupiter of the Capitol. In the battle30 of Nineveh, which was fiercely fought from daybreak to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight standards, beside those which might be broken or torn, were taken from the Persians; the greatest part of their army30 was cut in pieces, and the victors, concealing their own loss, passed the night on the field. They acknowledged that on this occasion it was less difficult to kill than to discomfit the soldiers30 of Chosroes; amidst the bodies of their friends, no more than two bow-shot from the enemy30, the remnant of the Persian cavalry stood firm till30 the seventh hour of the night; about the eighth hour they retired to their unrifled camp30, collected their baggage, and dispersed on all sides, from the want of orders rather than of resolution. The diligence of Heraclius was not less admirable in the use of victory30; by a march of forty-eight miles in four-and-twenty hours, his vanguard occupied the bridges of the great and the lesser Zab; and the cities and palaces of Assyria were open for the first time to the Romans. By a just gradation of magnificent scenes, they penetrated to the royal30 seat of Dastagerd, and, though much of the treasure had been removed, and much had been expended, the remaining wealth appears to have exceeded their hopes, and even to have satiated their avarice. Whatever could not be easily transported they consumed with fire, that Chosroes might feel the anguish of those wounds which he had so often inflicted on the provinces of the empire30; and justice might allow the excuse, if the desolation had been confined to the works of regal luxury, if national hatred, military licence, and religious zeal had not wasted with equal rage the habitations and the temples of the guiltless subject. The recovery of three hundred Roman30 standards, and the deliverance of the numerous captives of Edessa and Alexandria, reflect a purer glory on the arms30 of Heraclius. From the palace30 of Dastagerd, he pursued his march within a few miles of Modain or Ctesiphon, till30 he was stopped, on the banks of the Arba, by the difficulty of the passage, the rigour of the season, and perhaps the fame of an impregnable capital. The return of the emperor30 is marked by the modern name of the city30 of Sherhzour; he fortunately passed Mount Zara before the snow, which fell incessantly thirty-four days30; and the citizens of Gandzaca, or Tauris, were compelled to entertain his soldiers30 and their horses with an hospitable reception.
When the ambition of Chosroes3 was reduced to the defence of his hereditary kingdom, the love of glory, or even the sense of shame, should have urged him to meet his rival in the field. In the battle of Nineveh, his courage might have taught the Persians3 to vanquish, or he might have fallen with honour by the lance of a Roman3 emperor3. The successor of Cyrus chose rather, at a secure distance, to expect the event, to assemble the relics of the defeat, and to retire by measured steps before the march of Heraclius, till he beheld with a sigh the once loved mansions of Dastagerd. Both his friends and enemies were persuaded that it was the intention of Chosroes3 to bury himself under the ruins of the city3 and palace; and, as both might have been equally adverse to his flight, the monarch3 of Asia, with Sira and three concubines, escaped through an hole in the wall nine days before the arrival of the Romans3. The slow and stately procession in which he shewed himself to the prostrate crowd was changed to a rapid and secret journey; and the first evening he lodged in the cottage of a peasant, whose humble door would scarcely give admittance to the Great3 King3. His superstition was subdued by fear; on the third day, he entered with joy the fortifications of Ctesiphon; yet he still doubted of his safety till he had opposed the river Tigris3 to the pursuit of the Romans3. The discovery of his flight agitated with terror and tumult the palace, the city3, and the camp3 of Dastagerd; the satraps hesitated whether they had most to fear from their sovereign or the enemy3; and the females of the harem were astonished and pleased by the sight of mankind, till the jealous husbands of three thousand3 wives again confined them to a more distant castle. At his command the army3 of Dastagerd retreated to a new camp3: the front was covered by the Arba, and a line of two hundred elephants; the troops3 of the more distant provinces3 successively arrived; and the vilest domestics of the king3 nad satraps were enrolled for the last defence of the throne3. It was still in the power of Chosroes3 to obtain a reasonable peace3; and he was repeatedly pressed by the messengers of Heraclius to spare the blood of his subjects, and to relieve an humane conqueror from the painful duty of carrying fire and sword through the fairest countries of Asia. But the pride of the Persian3 had not yet sunk to the level of his fortune; he derived a momentary confidence from the retreat of the emperor3; he wept with impotent rage over the ruins of his Assyrian palaces; and disregarded too long3 the rising murmurs of the nation, who complained that their lives and fortunes were sacrificed to the obstinacy of an old man. That unhappy old man was himself tortured with the sharpest pains both of mind and body; and, in the consciousness of his approaching end, he resolved to fix a tiara on the head3 of Merdaza, the most favoured of his sons. But the will of Chosroes3 was no longer revered, and Siroes, who gloried in the rank and merit of his mother Sira, had conspired with the malecontents to assert and anticipate the rights of primogeniture. Twenty-two satraps, they styled themselves patriots, were tempted by the wealth and honours of a new reign3: to the soldiers, the heir of Chosroes3 promised an increase of pay; to the Christians the free exercise of their religion; to the captives liberty and rewards; and to the nation instant peace3 and the reduction of taxes. It was determined by the conspirators that Siroes, with the ensigns of royalty, should appear in the camp3; and, if the enterprise should fail, his escape was contrived to the Imperial court3. But the new monarch3 was saluted with unanimous acclamations; the flight of Chosroes3 (yet where could he have fled?) was rudely arrested, eighteen sons were massacred before his face, and he was thrown into a dungeon, where he expired on the fifth day. The Greeks and modern Persians3 minutely describe how Chosroes3 was insulted, and famished, and tortured, by the command of an inhuman son3, who so far surpassed the example of his father; but at the time of his death3, what tongue could relate the story of the parricide? what eye could penetrate into the tower of darkness? According to the faith and mercy of his Christian enemies, he sunk without hope into a still deeper abyss; and it will not be denied that tyrants of every age and sect are the best entitled to such infernal abodes. The glory of the house of Sassan ended with the life of Chosroes3; his unnatural son3 enjoyed only eight months the fruit of his crimes; and in the space of four years3 the regal title was assumed by nine candidates, who disputed, with the sword or dagger, the fragments of an exhausted monarchy. Every province and each city3 of Persia3 was the scene of independence, of discord, and of blood, and the state of anarchy prevailed about eight years3 longer, till the factions were silenced and united under the common yoke of the Arabian caliphs.
As soon3 as the mountains became passable, the emperor3 received the welcome news of the success of the conspiracy, the death3 of Chosroes3, and the elevation of his eldest son3 to the throne3 of Persia3. The authors of the revolution, eager to display their merits in the court3 or camp3 of Tauris, preceded the ambassadors of Siroes, who delivered the letters of their master to his brother the emperor3 of the Romans3. In the language of the usurpers of every age, he imputes his own crimes to the Deity, and, without degrading his equal majesty, he offers to reconcile the long3 discord of the two nations, by a treaty3 of peace3 and alliance3 more durable than brass or iron. The conditions of the treaty3 were easily defined and faithfully executed. In the recovery of the standards and prisoners which had fallen into the hands of the Persians3, the emperor3 imitated the example of Augustus: their care of the national dignity was celebrated by the poets of the times; but the decay of genius may be measured by the distance between Horace and George of Pisidia: the subjects and brethren of Heraclius were redeemed from persecution, slavery, and exile; but, instead of the Roman3 eagles, the true wood of the holy cross was restored to the importunate demands of the successor of Constantine. The victor was not ambitious of enlarging the weakness of the empire3; the son3 of Chosroes3 abandoned without regret the conquests of his father; the Persians3 who evacuated the cities of Syria and Egypt were honourably conducted to the frontier; and a war3 which had wounded the vitals of the two monarchies produced no change in their external and relative situation. The return of Heraclius from Tauris to Constantinople was a perpetual triumph; and, after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he peaceably enjoyed the sabbath of his toils. After a long3 impatience, the senate, the clergy, and the people went forth to meet their hero, with tears and acclamations, with olive branches and innumerable lamps; he entered the capital in a chariot drawn by four elephants; and, as soon3 as the emperor3 could disengage himself from the tumult of public joy, he tasted more genuine satisfaction in the embraces of his mother and his son3.
The succeeding year was illustrated by a triumph of a very different kind, the restitution of the true cross to the holy38 sepulchre38. Heraclius performed in person the pilgrimage of Jerusalem38, the identity of the relic was verified by the discreet patriarch, and this august ceremony has been commemorated by the annual festival of the exaltation of the cross. Before the emperor38 presumed to tread the consecrated ground, he was instructed to strip himself of the diadem and purple, the pomp and vanity of the world; but in the judgment of his clergy the persecution of the Jews was more easily reconciled with the precepts of the gospel. He again ascended his throne to receive the congratulations of the ambassadors of France38 and India; and the fame of Moses, Alexander, and Hercules was eclipsed, in the popular estimation, by the superior merit and glory of the great38 Heraclius. Yet the deliverer of the East was indigent and feeble. Of the Persian spoils the most valuable portion had been expended in the war38, distributed to the soldiers, or buried, by an unlucky tempest, in the waves of the Euxine. The conscience of the emperor38 was oppressed by the obligation of restoring the wealth of the clergy, which he had borrowed for their own defence; a perpetual fund was required to satisfy these inexorable creditors; the provinces, already wasted by the arms38 and avarice of the Persians, were compelled to a second38 payment of the same taxes; and the arrears of a simple citizen, the treasurer of Damascus, were commuted to a fine of one hundred thousand38 pieces of gold. The loss of two hundred thousand38 soldiers who had fallen by the sword38 was of less fatal importance than the decay of arts, agriculture, and population, in this long and destructive war38; and, although a victorious army had been formed under the standard of Heraclius, the unnatural effort appears to have exhausted rather than exercised their strength. While the emperor38 triumphed at Constantinople or Jerusalem38, an obscure town on the confines of Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, and they cut in pieces some troops who advanced to its relief: an ordinary and trifling occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolution. These robbers were the apostles of Mahomet; their fanatic valour had emerged from the desert; and in the last eight years38 of his reign Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians.
After the extinction of paganism, the Christians7 in peace and piety might have enjoyed their solitary triumph. But the principle of discord was alive in their bosom, and they were more solicitous to explore the nature7, than to practise the laws, of their founder. I have already observed that the disputes of the Trinity were succeeded by those of the Incarnation: alike scandalous to the church7, alike pernicious to the state, still more minute in their origin, still more durable in their effects. It is my design to comprise in the present chapter a religious war of two hundred and fifty years7, to represent the ecclesiastical and political schism of the Oriental sects7, and to introduce their clamorous or sanguinary contests by a modest inquiry into the doctrines of the primitive church7.
I. A laudable regard for the honour of the first proselytes has countenanced the belief7, the hope, the wish, that the Ebionites, or at least the Nazarenes, were distinguished only by their obstinate perseverance in the practice of the Mosaic rites. Their churches have disappeared, their books are obliterated; their obscure freedom might allow a latitude of faith7, and the softness of their infant creed7 would be variously moulded by the zeal7 or prudence of three hundred years7. Yet the most charitable criticism must refuse these sectaries any knowledge of the pure and proper divinity of Christ7. Educated in the school of Jewish prophecy and prejudice, they had never been taught to elevate their hopes above an human7 and temporal7 Messiah. If they had courage to hail their king when he appeared in a plebeian garb, their grosser apprehensions were incapable of discerning their God7, who had studiously disguised his celestial character under the name and person7 of a mortal. The familiar companions of Jesus7 of Nazareth conversed with their friend and countryman, who, in all the actions of rational and animal life, appeared of the same species with themselves. His progress from infancy to youth and manhood was marked by a regular increase in stature and wisdom; and, after a painful agony of mind and body7, he expired on the cross. He lived and died for the service of mankind; but the life and death of Socrates had likewise been devoted to the cause of religion7 and justice; and, although the stoic or the hero may disdain the humble virtues of Jesus7, the tears which he shed over his friend and country may be esteemed the purest evidence of his humanity. The miracles7 of the gospel7 could not astonish a people who held, with intrepid faith7, the more splendid prodigies of the Mosaic law7. The prophets of ancient days had cured diseases, raised the dead, divided the sea, stopped the sun, and ascended to heaven7 in a fiery chariot. And the metaphorical style of the Hebrews might ascribe to a saint and martyr the adoptive title of Son7 of God7.
Yet, in the insufficient creed of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, a distinction is faintly noticed between the heretics, who confounded the generation of Christ18 in the common order of nature, and the less guilty schismatics, who revered the virginity of his mother and excluded the aid of an earthly father. The incredulity of the former was countenanced by the visible18 circumstances of his birth, the legal marriage of his reputed parents, Joseph and Mary, and his lineal claim to the kingdom of David and the inheritance of Judah. But the secret and authentic history has been recorded in several copies of the gospel according to St18. Matthew, which these sectaries long18 preserved in the original Hebrew, as the sole evidence of their faith. The natural suspicions of the husband, conscious of his own chastity, were dispelled by the assurance (in a dream) that his wife was pregnant of the Holy18 Ghost; and, as this distant and domestic prodigy could not fall under the personal observation of the historian, he must have listened to the same voice which dictated to Isaiah the future conception of a virgin. The son of a virgin, generated by the ineffable operation of the Holy18 Spirit, was a creature without example or resemblance, superior in every attribute of mind18 and body18 to the children of Adam. Since the introduction of the Greek or Chaldean philosophy, the Jews were persuaded of the pre-existence, transmigration, and immortality of souls; and Providence was justified by a supposition that they were confined18 in their earthly prisons to expiate the stains which they had contracted in a former state. But the degrees of purity and corruption are almost immeasurable. It may be fairly presumed that the most sublime and virtuous of human spirits was infused into the offspring of Mary and the Holy18 Ghost; that his abasement was the result of his voluntary choice; and that the object of his mission was to purify, not his own, but the sins of the world18. On his return to his native skies, he received18 the immense reward of his obedience: the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, which had been darkly foretold by the prophets, under the carnal images of peace, of conquest, and of dominion. Omnipotence could enlarge the human faculties of Christ18 to the extent of his celestial office. In the language18 of antiquity, the title of God18 has not been severely confined18 to the first parent, and his incomparable minister, his only begotten Son, might claim, without presumption, the religious18, though secondary, worship of a subject world18.
II. The seeds of the faith7, which had slowly arisen in the rocky and ungrateful soil of Judea, were transplanted, in full maturity, to the happier climes of the Gentiles; and the strangers of Rome or Asia, who never beheld the manhood, were the more readily disposed to embrace the divinity, of Christ7. The polytheist and the philosopher, the Greek and the Barbarian, were alike accustomed to conceive a long succession, an infinite chain of angels, or daemons, or deities, or aeons, or emanations, issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem strange or incredible that the first of these aeons, the Logos, or Word of God7, of the same substance7 with the Father, should descend upon earth7 to deliver the human7 race from vice and error and to conduct them in the paths of life and immortality. But the prevailing doctrine7 of the eternity and inherent pravity of matter infected the primitive churches of the East. Many among the Gentile proselytes refused to believe that a celestial spirit, an undivided portion of the first essence, had been personally united with a mass of impure and contaminated flesh; and, in their zeal7 for the divinity, they piously abjured the humanity, of Christ7. While his blood was still recent on Mount Calvary, the Docetes, a numerous and learned sect of Asiatics, invented the phantastic system, which was afterwards propagated by the Marcionites, the Manichaeans, and the various names of the Gnostic heresy. They denied the truth7 and authenticity of the gospels, as far as they relate the conception of Mary, the birth of Christ7, and the thirty years7 that preceded the exercise of his ministry. He first appeared on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect7 manhood; but it was a form only, and not a substance7: an human7 figure created by the hand of Omnipotence to imitate the faculties and actions of a man and to impose a perpetual illusion on the senses of his friends and enemies. Articulate sounds vibrated on the ears of the disciples7; but the image which was impressed on their optic nerve eluded the more stubborn evidence of the touch, and they enjoyed the spiritual7, not the corporeal, presence of the Son7 of God7. The rage of the Jews7 was idly wasted against an impassive phantom; and the mystic scenes of the passion and death, the resurrection and ascension of Christ7, were represented on the theatre of Jerusalem for the benefit of mankind. If it were urged that such ideal mimicry, such incessant deception, was unworthy of the God7 of truth7, the Docetes agreed with too many of their orthodox7 brethren in the justification of pious falsehood. In the system of the Gnostics7, the Jehovah of Israel, the creator of this lower world, was a rebellious, or at least an ignorant, spirit. The Son7 of God7 descended upon earth7 to abolish his temple and his law7; and, for the accomplishment of this salutary end, he dexterously transferred to his own person7 the hope and prediction of a temporal7 Messiah.
One of the most subtle disputants of the Manichaean school has pressed the danger and indecency of supposing that the God7 of the Christians7, in the state of an human7 foetus, emerged at the end of nine months from a female womb. The pious horror of his antagonists provoked them to disclaim all sensual circumstances of conception and delivery; to maintain that the divinity passed through Mary like a sun-beam through a plate of glass; and to assert that the seal of her virginity remained unbroken even at the moment when she became the mother of Christ7. But the rashness of these concessions has encouraged a milder sentiment of those of the Docetes, who taught, not that Christ7 was a phantom, but that he was clothed with an impassible and incorruptible body7. Such, indeed, in the more orthodox7 system, he has acquired since his resurrection, and such he must have always possessed, if it were capable of pervading, without resistance or injury, the density of intermediate matter. Devoid of its most essential properties, it might be exempt from the attributes and infirmities of the flesh. A foetus that could increase from an invisible point to its full maturity, a child that could attain the stature of perfect7 manhood, without deriving any nourishment from the ordinary sources, might continue to exist without repairing a daily waste by a daily supply of external matter. Jesus7 might share the repasts of his disciples7 without being subject to the calls of thirst or hunger; and his virgin purity was never sullied by the involuntary stains of sensual concupiscence. Of a body7 thus singularly constituted, a question would arise, by what means, and of what materials, it was originally framed; and our sounder theology is startled by an answer which was not peculiar to the Gnostics7, that both the form and the substance7 proceeded from the divine7 essence. The idea of pure and absolute spirit is a refinement of modern philosophy; the incorporeal essence, ascribed by the ancients to human7 souls, celestial beings, and even the Deity himself, does not exclude the notion of extended space; and their imagination was satisfied with a subtle nature7 of air, or fire, or aether, incomparably more perfect7 than the grossness of the material world. If we define the place, we must describe the figure, of the Deity. Our experience, perhaps our vanity, represents the powers of reason7 and virtue under an human7 form. The Anthropomorphites, who swarmed among the monks of Egypt and the Catholics7 of Africa, could produce the express declaration of Scripture that man was made after the image of his Creator. The venerable Serapion, one of the saints of the Nitrian desert, relinquished, with many a tear, his darling prejudice; and bewailed, like an infant, his unlucky conversion7, which had stolen away his God7 and left his mind without any visible7 object of faith7 or devotion.
III. Such were the fleeting shadows of the Docetes. A more substantial, though less simple, hypothesis was contrived by Cerinthus of Asia, who dared to oppose the last of the apostles. Placed on the confines of the Jewish and Gentile world, he laboured to reconcile the Gnostic with the Ebionite, by confessing in the same Messiah the supernatural union of a man and a God7; and this mystic doctrine7 was adopted with many fanciful improvements by Carpocrates, Basilides, and Valentine, the heretics7 of the Egyptian school. In their eyes, Jesus7 of Nazareth was a mere mortal, the legitimate son7 of Joseph and Mary; but he was the best and wisest of the human7 race, selected as the worthy instrument to restore upon earth7 the worship7 of the true and supreme Deity. When he was baptised in the Jordan, the Christ7, the first of the aeons, the Son7 of God7 himself, descended on Jesus7 in the form of a dove, to inhabit his mind and direct his actions during the allotted period of his ministry. When the Messiah was delivered into the hands of the Jews7, the Christ7, an immortal and impassible being, forsook his earthly tabernacle, flew back to the pleroma or world of spirits, and left the solitary Jesus7 to suffer, to complain, and to expire. But the justice and generosity of such a desertion are strongly questionable; and the fate of an innocent martyr, at first impelled, and at length abandoned, by his divine7 companion, might provoke the pity and indignation of the profane. Their murmurs were variously silenced by the sectaries who espoused and modified the double system of Cerinthus. It was alleged that, when Jesus7 was nailed to the cross, he was endowed with a miraculous apathy of mind and body7, which rendered him insensible of his apparent sufferings. It was affirmed that these momentary though real pangs would be abundantly repaid by the temporal7 reign of a thousand years7 reserved for the Messiah in his kingdom of the new7 Jerusalem. It was insinuated that, if he suffered, he deserved to suffer; that human7 nature7 is never absolutely perfect7; and that the cross and passion might serve to expiate the venial transgressions of the son7 of Joseph, before his mysterious union with the Son7 of God7.
IV. All those who believe the immateriality of the soul, a specious and noble tenet, must confess, from their present experience, the incomprehensible union of mind and matter. A similar union is not inconsistent with a much higher, or even with the highest degree, of mental faculties; and the incarnation of an aeon or archangel, the most perfect7 of created spirits, does not involve any positive contradiction or absurdity. In the age of religious freedom, which was determined by the council of Nice, the dignity of Christ7 was measured by private judgment according to the indefinite rule of scripture, or reason7, or tradition. But, when his pure and proper divinity had been established on the ruins of Arianism, the faith7 of the Catholics7 trembled on the edge of a precipice where it was impossible to recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall; and the manifold inconveniences of their creed7 were aggravated by the sublime character of their theology. They hesitated to pronounce that God7 himself, the second person7 of an equal and consubstantial trinity, was manifested in the flesh; that a being who pervades the universe had been confined in the womb of Mary; that his eternal duration had been marked by the days and months and years7 of human7 existence; that the Almighty had been scourged and crucified; that his impassible essence had felt pain and anguish; that his omniscience was not exempt from ignorance; and that the source of life and immortality expired on Mount Calvary. These alarming consequences were affirmed with unblushing simplicity by Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, and one of the luminaries of the church7. The son7 of a learned grammarian, he was skilled in all the sciences of Greece; eloquence, erudition, and philosophy, conspicuous in the volumes of Apollinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of religion7. The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian, he bravely wrestled with the Arians and Polytheists, and, though he affected the rigour of geometrical demonstration, his commentaries revealed the literal and allegorical sense of the scriptures. A mystery which had long floated in the looseness of popular belief7 was defined by his perverse diligence in a technical form; and he first proclaimed the memorable words, One incarnate nature7 of Christ7, which are still re-echoed with hostile clamours in the churches of Asia, Egypt, and Aethiopia. He taught that the Godhead was united or mingled with the body7 of a man; and that the Logos, the eternal wisdom, supplied in the flesh the place and office of an human7 soul. Yet, as the profound doctor had been terrified at his own rashness, Apollinaris was heard to mutter some faint accents of excuse and explanation. He acquiesced in the old distinction of the Greek philosophers between the rational and sensitive soul of man; that he might reserve the Logos for intellectual functions, and employ the subordinate human7 principle in the meaner actions of animal life. With the moderate Docetes, he revered Mary as the spiritual7, rather than as the carnal, mother of Christ7, whose body7 either came from heaven7, impassible and incorruptible, or was absorbed, and as it were transformed, into the essence of the Deity. The system of Apollinaris was strenuously encountered by the Asiatic and Syrian divines, whose schools are honoured by the names of Basil, Gregory, and Chrysostom, and tainted by those of Diodorus, Theodore, and Nestorius. But the person7 of the aged bishop of Laodicea, his character and dignity, remained inviolate; and his rivals, since we may not suspect them of the weakness of toleration, were astonished, perhaps, by the novelty of the argument, and diffident of the final sentence of the Catholic church7. Her judgment at length inclined in their favour; the heresy of Apollinaris was condemned, and the separate congregations of his disciples7 were proscribed by the Imperial laws. But his principles were secretly entertained in the monasteries of Egypt, and his enemies felt the hatred of Theophilus and Cyril, the successive patriarchs of Alexandria.
V. The grovelling Ebionite and the fantastic Docetes were rejected and forgotten; the recent zeal7 against the errors of Apollinaris reduced the Catholics7 to a seeming agreement with the double nature7 of Cerinthus. But, instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, they established, and we still embrace, the substantial, indissoluble, and everlasting union of a perfect7 God7 with a perfect7 man, of the second person7 of the trinity with a reasonable soul and human7 flesh. In the beginning of the fifth century7, the unity of the two natures was the prevailing doctrine7 of the church7. On all sides it was confessed that the mode of their co-existence could neither be represented by our ideas nor expressed by our language. Yet a secret and incurable discord was cherished between those who were most apprehensive of confounding, and those who were most fearful of separating, the divinity and the humanity of Christ7. Impelled by religious frenzy, they fled with adverse haste from the error which they mutually deemed most destructive of truth7 and salvation. On either hand they were anxious to guard, they were jealous to defend, the union and the distinction of the two natures, and to invent such forms of speech, such symbols of doctrine7, as were least susceptible of doubt or ambiguity. The poverty of ideas and language tempted them to ransack art and nature7 for every possible comparison, and each comparison misled their fancy in the explanation of an incomparable mystery. In the polemic microscope an atom is enlarged to a monster, and each party was skilful to exaggerate the absurd or impious conclusions that might be extorted from the principles of their adversaries. To escape from each other, they wandered through many a dark and devious thicket, till they were astonished by the horrid phantoms of Cerinthus and Apollinaris, who guarded the opposite issues of the theological labyrinth. As soon as they beheld the twilight of sense and heresy, they started, measured back their steps, and were again involved in the gloom of impenetrable orthodoxy. To purge themselves from the guilt or reproach of damnable error, they disavowed their consequences, explained their principles, excused their indiscretions, and unanimously pronounced the sounds of concord and faith7. Yet a latent and almost invisible spark still lurked among the embers of controversy: by the breath of prejudice and passion, it was quickly kindled to a mighty flame, and the verbal disputes of the Oriental sects7 have shaken the pillars of the church7 and state.
The name of Cyril of Alexandria is famous in controversial story, and the title of saint is a mark that his opinions and his party have finally prevailed. In the house of his uncle, the archbishop Theophilus, he imbibed the orthodox lessons of zeal48 and dominion, and five years48 of his youth were profitably spent in the adjacent monasteries of Nitria. Under the tuition of the abbot Serapion, he applied himself to ecclesiastical studies with such indefatigable ardour, that in the course of one sleepless night he has perused the four gospels, the catholic epistles, and the epistle to the Romans48. Origen he detested; but the writings of Clemens and Dionysius, of Athanasius and Basil, were continually in his hands48; by the theory and practice of dispute, his faith was confirmed and his wit was sharpened; he extended round his cell the cobwebs of scholastic theology, and meditated the works of allegory and metaphysics, whose remains, in seven verbose folios, now peaceably slumber by the side of their rivals. Cyril prayed and fasted in the desert, but his thoughts (it is the reproach of a friend) were still fixed on the world; and the call of Theophilus, who summoned him to the tumult of cities48 and synods, was too readily obeyed by the aspiring hermit. With the approbation of his uncle, he assumed the office, and acquired the fame, of a popular preacher. His comely person adorned the pulpit, the harmony of his voice48 resounded in the cathedral, his friends were stationed to lead or second48 the applause of the congregation, and the hasty notes of the scribes preserved his discourses, which in their effect, though not in their composition, might be compared with those of the Athenian orators. The death48 of Theophilus expanded and realised the hopes of his nephew. The clergy of Alexandria was divided; the soldiers and their general48 supported the claims of the archdeacon; but a resistless multitude, with voices and with hands48, asserted the cause of their favourite; and, after a period of thirty-nine years48, Cyril was seated on the throne of Athanasius.
The prize was not unworthy of his ambition. At a distance from the court, and at the head of an immense capital, the patriarch, as he was now styled, of Alexandria had gradually usurped the state and authority47 of a civil47 magistrate. The public47 and private47 charities of the city47 were managed by his discretion; his voice inflamed or appeased the passions of the multitude; his commands were blindly obeyed by his numerous and fanatic parabolani, familiarised in their daily office with scenes of death47; and the prefects of Egypt were awed or provoked by the temporal power47 of these Christian pontiffs. Ardent in the prosecution of heresy, Cyril auspiciously opened his reign47 by oppressing the Novatians, the most innocent and harmless of the sectaries. The interdiction of their religious worship appeared in his eyes a just and meritorious act; and he confiscated their holy vessels, without apprehending the guilt of sacrilege. The toleration and even the privileges of the Jews, who had multiplied to the number of forty thousand, were secured by the laws of the Caesars and Ptolemies and a long47 prescription of seven hundred years since the foundation of Alexandria. Without any legal sentence, without any royal mandate, the patriarch, at the dawn of day, led a seditious multitude to the attack of the synagogues. Unarmed and unprepared, the Jews were incapable of resistance; their houses of prayer were levelled with the ground; and the episcopal warrior, after rewarding his troops47 with the plunder of their goods, expelled from the city47 the remnant of the unbelieving nation. Perhaps he might plead the insolence of their prosperity, and their deadly hatred of the Christians, whose blood they had recently shed in a malicious or accidental tumult. Such crimes would have deserved the animadversion of the magistrate; but in this promiscuous outrage, the innocent were confounded with the guilty, and Alexandria was impoverished by the loss of a wealthy and industrious colony. The zeal of Cyril exposed him to the penalties of the Julian law; but in a feeble government47 and a superstitious age47 he was secure of impunity, and even of praise. Orestes complained; but his just complaints were too quickly forgotten by the ministers of Theodosius47, and too deeply remembered by a priest who affected to pardon, and continued to hate, the prefect47 of Egypt. As he passed through the streets, his chariot was assaulted by a band of five hundred of the Nitrian monks; his guards fled from the wild beasts of the desert; his protestations that he was a Christian and a Catholic were answered by a volley of stones, and the face of Orestes was covered with blood. The loyal citizens of Alexandria hastened to his rescue; he instantly satisfied his justice47 and revenge against the monk by whose hand he had been wounded, and Ammonius expired under the rod of the lictor. At the command47 of Cyril, his body was raised from the ground and transported in solemn procession to the cathedral; the name of Ammonius was changed to that of Thaumasius the wonderful; his tomb was decorated with the trophies of martyrdom; and the patriarch ascended the puplit to celebrate the magnanimity of an assassin and a rebel. Such honours might incite the faithful to combat and die under the banners of the saint; and he soon47 prompted, or accepted, the sacrifice of a virgin, who professed the religion of the Greeks, and cultivated the friendship of Orestes. Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician, was initiated in her father47's studies; her learned comments have elucidated the geometry of Apollonius and Diophantus, and she publicly taught, both at Athens and Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. In the bloom of beauty and in the maturity of wisdom, the modest maid refused her lovers and instructed her disciples; the persons most illustrious for their rank47 or merit47 were impatient to visit the female philosopher; and Cyril beheld, with a jealous eye, the gorgeous train of horses and slaves who crowded the door of her academy. A rumour was spread among the Christians that the daughter of Theon was the only obstacle to the reconciliation of the prefect47 and the archbishop; and that obstacle was speedily removed. On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia was torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the reader and a troop of savage and merciless fanatics; her flesh was scraped from her bones with sharp oyster shells, and her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames. The just progress of inquiry and punishment was stopped by seasonable gifts; but the murder of Hypatia has imprinted an indelible stain on the character and religion of Cyril of Alexandria.
Superstition, perhaps, would more gently expiate the blood of a virgin than the banishment of a saint; and Cyril had accompanied his uncle to the iniquitous synod of the Oak. When the memory of Chrysostom was restored and consecrated, the nephew of Theophilus, at the head of a dying faction, still maintained the justice of his sentence; nor was it till after a tedious delay and an obstinate resistance that he yielded to the consent of the Catholic world. His enmity to the Byzantine pontiffs was a sense of interest, not a sally of passion; he envied their fortunate station in the sunshine of the Imperial court; and he dreaded their upstart ambition49, which oppressed the metropolitans of Europe49 and Asia, invaded the provinces of Antioch and Alexandria, and measured their diocese by the limits of the empire. The long moderation of Atticus, the mild usurper of the throne of Chrysostom, suspended the animosities of the Eastern patriarchs; but Cyril was at length awakened by the exaltation of a rival more worthy of his esteem and hatred. After the short and troubled reign of Sisinnius bishop of Constantinople49, the factions of the clergy and people were appeased by the choice of the emperor49, who, on this occasion, consulted the voice of fame, and invited the merit of a stranger. Nestorius, a native of Germanicia and a monk of Antioch, was recommended by the austerity of his life and the eloquence of his sermons; but the first homily which he preached before the devout Theodosius betrayed the acrimony and impatience of his zeal. Give me, O Caesar! he exclaimed, give me the earth purged of heretics, and I will give you in exchange the kingdom of heaven. Exterminate with me, the heretics; and with you, I will exterminate the Persians. On the fifth day49, as if the treaty had been already signed, the patriarch of Constantinople49 discovered, surprised, and attacked a secret conventicle of the Arians; they preferred death to submission; the flames that were kindled by their despair soon49 spread to the neighbouring houses, and the triumph of Nestorius was clouded by the name of incendiary. On either side of the Hellespont, his episcopal vigour imposed a rigid formulary of faith and discipline; a chronological error concerning the festival of Easter was punished as an offence against the church and state. Lydia and Caria, Sardes and Miletus, were purified with the blood of the obstinate Quartodecimans; and the edict of the emperor49, or rather of the patriarch, enumerates three and twenty degrees and denominations in the guilt and punishment of heresy. But the sword of persecution, which Nestorius so furiously wielded, was soon49 turned against his own breast. Religion was the pretence; but, in the judgment of a contemporary saint, ambition49 was the genuine motive of episcopal warfare.
In the Syrian school, Nestorius had been taught to abhor the confusion of the two natures, and nicely to discriminate the humanity of his master48 Christ from the divinity of the Lord Jesus. The Blessed Virgin he revered as the mother of Christ, but his ears were offended with the rash and recent title of mother of God, which had been insensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian controversy. From the pulpit of Constantinople48, a friend of the patriarch, and afterwards the patriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a word unknown to the apostles, unauthorised by the church48, and which could only tend to alarm the timorous, to mislead the simple, to amuse the profane, and to justify, by a seeming resemblance, the old genealogy of Olympus. In his calmer moments Nestorius confessed that it might be tolerated or excused by the union of the two natures and the communication of their idioms; but he was exasperated, by contradiction, to disclaim the worship of a new48-born, an infant Deity, to draw his inadequate similes from the conjugal or civil partnerships of life48, and to describe the manhood of Christ as the robe, the instrument, the tabernacle of his Godhead. At these blasphemous sounds, the pillars of the sanctuary were shaken. The unsuccessful competitors of Nestorius indulged their pious or personal resentments; the Byzantine clergy was secretly displeased with the intrusion of a stranger; whatever is superstitious or absurd, might claim the protection of the monks; and the people48 were interested in the glory of their virgin patroness. The sermons of the archbishop and the service of the altar were disturbed by seditious clamour; his authority and doctrine were renounced by separate congregations; every wind scattered round the empire the leaves of controversy; and the voice48 of the combatants on a sonorous theatre re-echoed in the cells of Palestine and Egypt48. It was the duty of Cyril to enlighten the zeal48 and ignorance of his innumerable monks: in the school of Alexandria, he had imbibed and professed the incarnation of one nature; and the successor of Athanasius consulted his pride48 and ambition when he rose in arms48 against another Arius, more formidable and more guilty, on the second48 throne of the hierarchy. After a short correspondence, in which the rival prelates disguised their hatred in the hollow language of respect and charity, the patriarch of Alexandria denounced to the prince and people48, to the East and to the West, the damnable errors of the Byzantine pontiff. From the East, more especially from Antioch, he obtained48 the ambiguous counsels of toleration and silence, which were addressed to both parties while they favoured the cause of Nestorius. But the Vatican received with open arms48 the messengers of Egypt48. The vanity of Celestine was flattered by the appeal; and the partial version of a monk decided the faith of the pope, who, with his Latin clergy, was ignorant of the language, the arts, and the theology of the Greeks48. At the head48 of an Italian synod, Celestine weighed the merits of the cause, approved the creed of Cyril, condemned the sentiments and person of Nestorius, degraded the heretic from his episcopal dignity, allowed a respite of ten days48 for recantation and penance, and delegated to his enemy the execution of this rash and illegal sentence. But the patriarch of Alexandria, whilst he darted the thunders of a god, exposed the errors and passions of a mortal; and his twelve anathemas still torture the orthodox slaves who adore the memory of a saint, without forfeiting their allegiance to the synod of Chalcedon. These bold assertions are indelibly tinged with the colours of the Apollinarian heresy; but the serious, and perhaps the sincere, professions of Nestorius have satisfied the wiser and less partial theologians of the present times.
Yet neither the emperor3 nor the primate of the East3 were disposed to obey the mandate of an Italian priest; and a synod of the Catholic, or rather of the Greek, church was unanimously demanded as the sole remedy that could appease or decide this ecclesiastical quarrel. Ephesus, on all sides accessible by sea and land, was chosen for the place, the festival of Pentecost for the day, of the meeting; a writ of summons was despatched to each metropolitan, and a guard was stationed to protect and confine the fathers till they should settle the mysteries of heaven and the faith of the earth. Nestorius appeared, not as a criminal, but as a judge; he depended on the weight rather than the number of his prelates; and his sturdy slaves from the baths of Zeuxippus were armed for every service of injury or defence. But his adversary Cyril was more powerful in the weapons both of the flesh and of the spirit. Disobedient to the letter, or at least to the meaning, of the royal3 summons, he was attended by fifty Egyptian bishops, who expected from their patriarch's nod the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He had contracted an intimate alliance3 with Memnon bishop of Ephesus. The despotic primate of Asia disposed of the ready succours of thirty or forty episcopal votes; a crowd of peasants, the slaves of the church, was poured into the city3 to support with blows and clamours a metaphysical argument; and the people zealously asserted the honour of the virgin, whose body reposed within the walls of Ephesus. The fleet which had transported Cyril from Alexandria was laden with the riches of Egypt; and he disembarked a numerous body of mariners, slaves, and fanatics, enlisted with blind obedience under the banner of St. Mark and the mother of God. The fathers, and even the guards, of the council were awed by this martial array; the adversaries of Cyril and Mary were insulted in the streets or threatened in their houses; his eloquence and liberality made a daily increase in the number of his adherents; and the Eygptian soon3 computed that he might command the attendance and the voices of two hundred bishops. But the author of the twelve anathemas foresaw and dreaded the opposition of John of Antioch, who with a small, though respectable, train of metropolitans and divines was advancing by slow journeys from the distant capital of the East3. Impatient of a delay which he stigmatised as voluntary and culpable, Cyril announced the opening of the synod sixteen days after the festival of Pentecost. Nestorius, who depended on the near approach of his Eastern friends, persisted, like his predecessor Chrysostom, to disclaim the jurisdiction and to disobey the summons of his enemies; they hastened his trial, and his accuser presided in the seat of judgment. Sixty-eight bishops, twenty-two of metropolitan rank, defended his cause by a modest and temperate protest; they were excluded from the counsels of their brethren. Candidian, in the emperor3's name, requested a delay of four days; the profane magistrate was driven with outrage and insult from the assembly of the saints. The whole of this momentous transaction was crowded into the compass of a summer's day; the bishops delivered their separate opinions; but the uniformity of style reveals the influence or the hand of a master, who had been accused of corrupting the public evidence of their acts and subscriptions. Without a dissenting voice, they recognised in the epistles of Cyril the Nicene creed and the doctrine of the fathers: but the partial extracts from the letters and homilies of Nestorius were interrupted by curses and anathemas; and the heretic was degraded from his episcopal and ecclesiastical dignity. The sentence, maliciously inscribed to the new Judas, was affixed and proclaimed in the streets of Ephesus; the weary prelates, as they issued from the church of the mother of God, were saluted as her champions; and her victory3 was celebrated by the illuminations, the songs, and the tumult of the night.
On the fifth day, the triumph was clouded by the arrival and indignation of the Eastern bishops33. In a chamber of the inn, before he had wiped the dust from his shoes, John of Antioch33 gave audience to Candidian the Imperial minister; who related his ineffectual efforts to prevent or to annul the hasty violence of the Egyptian. With equal haste and violence, the Oriental synod33 of fifty bishops33 degraded Cyril and Memnon from their episcopal33 honours, condemned, in the twelve anathemas, the purest venom of the Apollinarian heresy33, and described the Alexandrian primate as a monster, born and educated for the destruction of the church33. His throne33 was distant and inaccessible; but they instantly resolved to bestow on the flock of Ephesus the blessing of a faithful shepherd. By the vigilance of Memnon, the churches33 were shut against them, and a strong garrison was thrown into the cathedral. The troops, under the command of Candidian, advanced to the assault; the outguards were routed and put to the sword; but the place was impregnable: the besiegers retired; their retreat was pursued by a vigorous sally; they lost their horses, and many of the soldiers were dangerously wounded with clubs and stones. Ephesus, the city of the Virgin, was defiled with rage and clamour, with sedition and blood; the rival synods33 darted anathemas and excommunications from their spiritual engines; and the court of Theodosius was perplexed by the adverse and contradictory narratives of the Syrian and Egyptian factions. During a busy period of three months, the emperor33 tried every method, except the most effectual means of indifference and contempt, to reconcile this theological33 quarrel. He attempted to remove or intimidate the leaders by a common sentence of acquittal or condemnation; he invested his representatives at Ephesus with ample power and military force; he summoned from either party eight chosen deputies to a free and candid conference in the neighbourhood of the capital, far from the contagion of popular frenzy. But the Orientals refused to yield, and the Catholics33, proud of their numbers and of their Latin33 allies, rejected all terms of union33 or toleration. The patience of the meek Theodosius was provoked, and he dissolved, in anger, this episcopal33 tumult, which at the distance of thirteen centuries assumes the venerable aspect of the third oecumenical council33. God is my witness, said the pious prince, that I am not the author of this confusion. His providence will discern and punish the guilty. Return to your provinces, and may your private virtues repair the mischief and scandal of your meeting. They returned to their provinces; but the same passions which had distracted the synod33 of Ephesus were diffused over the Eastern world. After three obstinate and equal campaigns, John of Antioch33 and Cyril of Alexandria33 condescended to explain and embrace; but their seeming re-union33 must be imputed rather to prudence than to reason, to the mutual lassitude rather than to the Christian33 charity of the patriarchs.
The Byzantine pontiff had instilled into the royal ear a baleful prejudice against the character and conduct of his Egyptian rival. An epistle of menace and invective, which accompanied the summons, accused him as a busy, insolent, and envious priest, who perplexed the simplicity of the faith, violated the peace of the church48 and state, and, by his artful and separate addresses to the wife and sister of Theodosius48, presumed to suppose, or to scatter, the seeds of discord in the Imperial family. At the stern command of his sovereign, Cyril had repaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, threatened, and confined by the magistrates in the interest of Nestorius and the Orientals; who assembled the troops48 of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the fanatic and disorderly train of the patriarch. Without expecting the royal licence, he escaped from his guards, precipitately embarked, deserted the imperfect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of safety and independence. But his artful emissaries, both in the court48 and city48, successfully laboured to appease the resentment, and to conciliate the favour, of the emperor48. The feeble son of Arcadius was alternately swayed by his wife and sister, by the eunuchs and women of the palace48; superstition and avarice48 were their ruling passions; and the orthodox chiefs were assiduous in their endeavours to alarm the former and to gratify the latter. Constantinople48 and the suburbs were sanctified with frequent monasteries, and the holy abbots, Dalmatius and Eutyches, had devoted their zeal48 and fidelity to the cause of Cyril, the worship of Mary, and the unity of Christ. From the first moment of their monastic life48, they had never mingled with the world, or trod the profane ground48 of the city48. But in this awful moment of the danger48 of the church48, their vow was superseded by a more sublime and indispensable duty. At the head48 of a long order of monks and hermits, who carried burning tapers in their hands48 and chaunted litanies to the mother of God, they proceeded from their monasteries to the palace48. The people48 was edified and inflamed by this extraordinary spectacle, and the trembling monarch listened to the prayers and adjurations of the saints, who boldly pronounced that none could hope for salvation unless they embraced the person and the creed of the orthodox successor of Athanasius. At the same time every avenue of the throne was assaulted with gold. Under the decent names of eulogies and benedictions, the courtiers of both sexes were bribed according to the measure of their power and rapaciousness. But their incessant demands despoiled the sanctuaries of Constantinople48 and Alexandria; and the authority of the patriarch was unable to silence the just48 murmur of his clergy, that a debt of sixty thousand48 pounds had already been contracted to support the expense of this scandalous corruption. Pulcheria, who relieved her brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest pillar of orthodoxy; and so intimate was the alliance between the thunders of the synod and the whispers of the court48 that Cyril was assured of success if he could displace one eunuch and substitute another in the favour of Theodosius48. Yet the Egyptian could not boast of a glorious or decisive victory. The Emperor48, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his promise of protecting the innocence of the Oriental bishops; and Cyril softened his anathemas, and confessed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a twofold nature of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his revenge against the unfortunate Nestorius.
The rash and obstinate Nestorius, before the end of the synod33, was oppressed by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and faintly supported by his Eastern friends. A sentiment of fear or indignation prompted him, while it was yet time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication; his wish, or at least his request, was readily granted; he was conducted with honour from Ephesus to his old monastery of Antioch33; and, after a short pause, his successors, Maximian and Proclus, were acknowledged as the lawful bishops33 of Constantinople33. But in the silence of his cell the degraded patriarch33 could no longer resume the innocence and security of a private monk. The past he regretted, he was discontented with the present, and the future he had reason to dread; the Oriental bishops33 successively disengaged their cause33 from his unpopular name; and each day decreased the number of the schismatics who revered Nestorius as the confessor of the faith33. After a residence at Antioch33 of four years, the hand of Theodosius subscribed an edict, which ranked him with Simon the magician, proscribed his opinions and followers, condemned his writings to the flames, and banished his person first to Petra in Arabia, and at length to Oasis, one of the islands of the Libyan desert. Secluded from the church33 and from the world, the exile33 was still pursued by the rage of bigotry and war. A wandering tribe of the Blemmyes, or Nubians, invaded his solitary prison; in their retreat they dismissed a crowd of useless captives; but no sooner had Nestorius reached the banks of the Nile than he would gladly have escaped from a Roman and orthodox33 city to the milder servitude of the savages. His flight was punished as a new crime; the soul of the patriarch33 inspired the civil and ecclesiastical33 powers of Egypt33; the magistrates, the soldiers, the monks33, devoutly tortured the enemy of Christ33 and St33. Cyril; and, as far as the confines of Aethiopia, the heretic was alternately dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken by the hardships and accidents of these reiterated journeys. Yet his mind was still independent and erect; the president of Thebais was awed by his pastoral letters; he survived the Catholic33 tyrant of Alexandria33, and, after sixteen years' banishment, the synod33 of Chalcedon33 would perhaps have restored him to the honours, or at least to the communion, of the church33. The death of Nestorius prevented his obedience to their welcome summons; and his disease might afford some colour to the scandalous report that his tongue, the organ of blasphemy, had been eaten by the worms. He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt33, known by the names of Chemnis, or Panopolis, or Akmim; but the immortal malice of the Jacobites has persevered for ages to cast stones against his sepulchre, and to propagate the foolish tradition that it was never watered by the rain of heaven, which equally descends on the righteous and the ungodly. Humanity may drop a tear on the fate of Nestorius; yet justice must observe that he suffered the persecution33 which he had approved and inflicted.
The death of the Alexandrian primate, after a reign of thirty-two years, abandoned the Catholics33 to the intemperance of zeal33 and the abuse of victory. The monophysite doctrine (one incarnate nature) was rigorously preached in the churches33 of Egypt33 and the monasteries of the East33; the primitive creed33 of Apollinaris was protected by the sanctity of Cyril; and the name of Eutyches, his venerable friend, has been applied to the sect most adverse to the Syrian heresy33 of Nestorius. His rival, Eutyches, was the abbot, or archimandrite, or superior of three hundred monks33, but the opinions of a simple and illiterate recluse might have expired in the cell, where he had slept above seventy years, if the resentment or indiscretion of Flavian, the Byzantine pontiff, had not exposed the scandal to the eyes of the Christian33 world. His domestic synod33 was instantly convened, their proceedings were sullied with clamour and artifice, and the aged heretic was surprised into a seeming confession that Christ33 had not derived his body from the substance of the Virgin Mary. From their partial decree, Eutyches appealed to a general council33; and his cause33 was vigorously asserted by his godson Chrysaphius, the reigning eunuch of the palace, and his accomplice Dioscorus, who had succeeded to the throne33, the creed33, the talents, and the vices of the nephew of Theophilus. By the special summons of Theodosius, the second synod33 of Ephesus was judiciously composed of ten metropolitans and ten bishops33 from each of the six dioceses of the Eastern empire; some exceptions of favour or merit enlarged the number to one hundred and thirty-five; and the Syrian Barsumas, as the chief and representative of the monks33, was invited to sit and vote with the successors of the apostles. But the despotism of the Alexandrian patriarch33 again oppressed the freedom of debate; the same spiritual and carnal weapons were again drawn from the arsenals of Egypt33; the Asiatic veterans, a band of archers, served under the orders of Dioscorus; and the more formidable monks33, whose minds were inaccessible to reason or mercy, besieged the doors of the cathedral. The general and, as it should seem, the unconstrained voice of the fathers accepted the faith33 and even the anathemas of Cyril; and the heresy33 of the two natures was formally condemned in the persons and writings of the most learned Orientals. May those who divide Christ33 be divided with the sword, may they be hewn in pieces, may they be burnt alive! were the charitable wishes of a Christian33 synod33. The innocence and sanctity of Eutyches were acknowledged without hesitation; but the prelates33, more especially those of Thrace and Asia, were unwilling to depose their patriarch33 for the use or even the abuse of his lawful jurisdiction. They embraced the knees of Dioscorus, as he stood with a threatening aspect on the footstool of his throne33, and conjured him to forgive the offences, and to respect the dignity, of his brother. Do you mean to raise a sedition? exclaimed the relentless tyrant. Where are the officers? At these words a furious multitude of monks33 and soldiers, with staves, and swords, and chains, burst into the church33; the trembling bishops33 hid themselves behind the altar, or under the benches; and, as they were not inspired with the zeal33 of martyrdom, they successively subscribed a blank paper, which was afterwards filled with the condemnation of the Byzantine pontiff. Flavian was instantly delivered to the wild beasts of this spiritual amphitheatre; the monks33 were stimulated by the voice and example of Barsumas to avenge the injuries of Christ33; it is said that the patriarch33 of Alexandria33 reviled, and buffeted, and kicked, and trampled his brother of Constantinople33: it is certain that the victim, before he could reach the place of his exile33, expired on the third day, of the wounds and bruises which he had received at Ephesus. This second synod33 has been justly branded as a gang of robbers and assassins; yet the accusers of Dioscorus would magnify his violence, to alleviate the cowardice and inconstancy of their own behaviour.
The faith of Egypt48 had prevailed; but the vanquished party was supported by the same pope who encountered without fear the hostile rage of Attila48 and Genseric. The theology of Leo48, his famous tome or epistle on the mystery of the incarnation, had been disregarded by the synod of Ephesus; his authority, and that of the Latin church48, was insulted in his legates, who escaped from slavery and death48 to relate the melancholy tale of the tyranny of Dioscorus and the martyrdom of Flavian. His provincial synod annulled the irregular proceedings of Ephesus; but, as this step was itself irregular, he solicited the convocation of a general48 council in the free and orthodox provinces of Italy. From his independent throne the Roman bishop48 spoke and acted without danger48, as the head48 of the Christians, and his dictates were obsequiously transcribed by Placidia and her son Valentinian, who addressed their Eastern colleague to restore the peace and unity of the church48. But the pageant of Oriental royalty was moved with equal dexterity by the hand of the eunuch; and Theodosius48 could pronounce, without hesitation, that the church48 was already peaceful and triumphant, and that the recent flame had been extinguished by the just48 punishment of the Nestorians. Perhaps the Greeks48 would be still involved in the heresy of the Monophysites, if the emperor48's horse had not fortunately stumbled; Theodosius48 expired; his orthodox sister, Pulcheria, with a nominal husband, succeeded to the throne; Chrysaphius was burnt, Dioscorus was disgraced, the exiles were recalled, and the tome of Leo48 was subscribed by the Oriental bishops. Yet the pope was disappointed in his favourite project of a Latin council; he disdained to preside in the Greek synod which was speedily assembled at Nice in Bithynia; his legates required in a peremptory tone the presence of the emperor48; and the weary fathers were transported to Chalcedon under the immediate eye of Marcian and the senate of Constantinople48. A quarter of a mile from the Thracian Bosphorus, the church48 of St. Euphemia was built on the summit of a gentle though lofty ascent; the triple structure was celebrated as a prodigy of art, and the boundless prospect of the land and sea might have raised the mind of a sectary to the contemplation of the God of the universe. Six hundred and thirty bishops were ranged in order in the nave of the church48; but the patriarchs of the East were preceded by the legates, of whom the third was a simple priest; and the place of honour was reserved for twenty laymen of consular or senatorian rank. The gospel was ostentatiously displayed in the centre, but the rule of faith was defined by the papal and Imperial ministers, who moderated the thirteen sessions of the council of Chalcedon. Their partial interposition silenced the intemperate shouts and execrations which degraded the episcopal gravity; but, on the formal accusation of the legates, Dioscorus was compelled to descend from his throne to the rank of a criminal, already condemned in the opinion of his judges. The Orientals, less adverse to Nestorius than to Cyril, accepted the Romans48 as their deliverers: Thrace, and Pontus, and Asia were exasperated against the murderer of Flavian, and the new48 patriarchs of Constantinople48 and Antioch secured their places by the sacrifice of their benefactor. The bishops of Palestine, Macedonia, and Greece were attached to the faith of Cyril; but in the face of the synod, in the heat of the battle, the leaders, with their obsequious train, passed from the right to the left wing, and decided the victory by this seasonable desertion. Of the seventeen suffragans who sailed from Alexandria, four were tempted from their allegiance, and the thirteen, falling prostrate on the ground48, implored the mercy of the council, with sighs and tears and a pathetic declaration that, if they yielded, they should be massacred, on their return to Egypt48, by the indignant people48. A tardy repentance was allowed to expiate the guilt or error of the accomplices of Dioscorus; but their sins were accumulated on his head48; he neither asked nor hoped for pardon, and the moderation of those who pleaded for a general48 amnesty was drowned in the prevailing cry of victory and revenge. To save the reputation of his late adherents, some personal offences were skilfully detected: his rash and illegal excommunication of the pope, and his contumacious refusal (while he was detained a prisoner) to attend the summons of the synod. Witnesses were introduced to prove the special facts of his pride48, avarice48, and cruelty; and the fathers heard48 with abhorrence that the alms of the church48 were lavished on the female dancers, that his palace48, and even his bath, was open to the prostitutes of Alexandria, and that the infamous Pansophia, or Irene, was publicly entertained as the concubine of the patriarch.
For these scandalous offences Dioscorus was deposed by the synod33 and banished by the emperor33; but the purity of his faith33 was declared in the presence, and with the tacit approbation, of the fathers. Their prudence supposed rather than pronounced the heresy33 of Eutyches, who was never summoned before their tribunal; and they sat silent and abashed, when a bold Monophysite, casting at their feet a volume of Cyril, challenged them to anathematise in his person the doctrine of a saint. If we fairly peruse the acts of Chalcedon33 as they are recorded by the orthodox33 party, we shall find that a great majority of the bishops33 embraced the simple unity of Christ33; and the ambiguous concession, that he was formed of or from two natures, might imply either their previous existence, or their subsequent confusion, or some dangerous interval between the conception of the man and the assumption of the God. The Roman theology, more positive and precise, adopted the term most offensive to the ears of the Egyptians, that Christ33 existed in two natures; and this momentous particle (which the memory, rather than the understanding, must retain) had almost produced a schism33 among the Catholic33 bishops33. The tome of Leo had been respectfully, perhaps sincerely, subscribed; but they protested, in two successive debates, that it was neither expedient nor lawful to transgress the sacred landmarks which had been fixed at Nice33, Constantinople33, and Ephesus, according to the rule of scripture and tradition. At length they yielded to the importunities of their masters, but their infallible decree, after it had been ratified with deliberate votes and vehement acclamations, was overturned in the next session by the opposition of the legates and their Oriental friends. It was in vain that a multitude of episcopal33 voices repeated in chorus, The definition of the fathers is orthodox33 and immutable! The heretics are now discovered! Anathema to the Nestorians! Let them depart from the synod33! Let them repair to Rome! The legates threatened, the emperor33 was absolute, and a committee of eighteen bishops33 prepared a new decree, which was imposed on the reluctant assembly. In the name of the fourth general council33, the Christ33 in one person, but in two natures, was announced to the Catholic33 world; an invisible line was drawn between the heresy33 of Apollinaris and the faith33 of St33. Cyril; and the road to paradise, a bridge as sharp as a razor, was suspended over the abyss by the master-hand of the theological33 artist. During ten centuries of blindness and servitude, Europe received her religious33 opinions from the oracle of the Vatican; and the same doctrine, already varnished with the rust of antiquity, was admitted without dispute into the creed33 of the reformers, who disclaimed the supremacy of the Roman pontiff. The synod33 of Chalcedon33 still triumphs in the Protestant churches33; but the ferment of controversy33 has subsided, and the most pious Christians of the present day are ignorant or careless of their own belief concerning the mystery of the incarnation.
Far different was the temper of the Greeks and Egyptians under the orthodox reigns of Leo and Marcian. Those pious emperors enforced with arms15 and edicts the symbol of their faith; and it was declared by the conscience or honour of five hundred bishops that the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon might be lawfully supported, even with blood15. The Catholics observed with satisfaction15 that the same synod was odious both to the Nestorians and the Monophysites; but the Nestorians were less angry, or less powerful, and the East15 was distracted by the obstinate and sanguinary zeal of the Monophysites. Jerusalem was occupied by an army of monks; in the name of the one incarnate nature, they pillaged, they burnt, they murdered; the sepulchre of Christ was defiled with blood15; and the gates of the city were guarded in tumultuous rebellion against the troops of the emperor15. After the disgrace and exile of Dioscorus, the Egyptians still regretted their spiritual father, and detested the usurpation of his successor15, who was introduced by the fathers of Chalcedon. The throne of Proterius was supported by a guard of two thousand soldiers; he waged a five years15' war against the people15 of Alexandria; and, on the first intelligence of the death15 of Marcian, he became the victim of their zeal. On the third day before the festival of Easter, the patriarch was besieged in the cathedral and murdered in the baptistery. The remains of his mangled corpse were delivered to the flames, and his ashes to the wind; and the deed was inspired by the vision of a pretended angel: an ambitious monk, who, under the name of Timothy the Cat, succeeded to the place15 and opinions of Dioscorus. This deadly superstition was inflamed, on either side, by the principle and the practice of retaliation: in the pursuit of a metaphysical quarrel, many thousands were slain, and the Christians of every degree were deprived of the substantial enjoyments of social life and of the invisible gifts of baptism and the holy communion. Perhaps an extravagant fable of the times may conceal an allegorical picture of these fanatics, who tortured each other and themselves. Under the consulship of Venantius and Celer, says a grave bishop, the people15 of Alexandria, and all Egypt, were seized with a strange and diabolical frenzy: great15 and small, slaves and freedmen, monks and clergy, the natives of the land, who opposed the synod of Chalcedon, lost their speech and reason, barked like dogs, and tore, with their own teeth, the flesh from their hands15 and arms15.
The disorders of thirty years40 at length produced the famous Henoticon of the emperor40 Zeno, which in his reign40, and in that of Anastasius, was signed by all the bishops of the East, under the penalty of degradation and exile, if they rejected or infringed this salutary and fundamental law. The clergy40 may smile or groan at the presumption of a layman who defines the articles of faith; yet, if he stoops to the humiliating task, his mind is less infected by prejudice or interest, and the authority of the magistrate can only be maintained by the concord of the people. It is in ecclesiastical story that Zeno appears least contemptible; and I am not able to discern any Manichaean or Eutychian guilt in the generous saying of Anastasius, That it was unworthy of an emperor40 to persecute the worshippers of Christ and the citizens40 of Rome40. The Henoticon was most pleasing to the Egyptians; yet the smallest blemish has not been described by the jealous and even jaundiced eyes40 of our orthodox schoolmen, and it accurately represents the Catholic faith of the incarnation, without adopting or disclaiming the peculiar terms or tenets of the hostile sects. A solemn anathema is pronounced against Nestorius and Eutyches; against all heretics by whom Christ is divided, or confounded, or reduced to a phantom. Without defining the number40 or the article of the word nature, the pure system of St. Cyril, the faith of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, is respectfully confirmed; but, instead of bowing at the name of the fourth council, the subject is dismissed by the censure of all contrary doctrines, if any such have been taught either elsewhere or at Chalcedon. Under this ambiguous expression the friends and the enemies of the last synod might unite in a silent embrace. The most reasonable Christians40 acquiesced in this mode of toleration; but their reason was feeble and inconstant, and their obedience was despised as timid and servile by the vehement spirit of their brethren. On a subject which engrossed the thoughts and discourses of men, it was difficult to preserve an exact neutrality; a book, a sermon, a prayer, rekindled the flame of controversy; and the bonds of communion were alternately broken and renewed by the private animosity of the bishops. The space between Nestorius and Eutyches was filled by a thousand40 shades of language and opinion; the acephali of Egypt40 and the Roman40 pontiffs, of equal valour though of unequal strength, may be found at the two extremities of the theological scale. The acephali, without a king or a bishop, were separated above three hundred years40 from the patriarchs of Alexandria, who had accepted the communion of Constantinople, without exacting a formal condemnation of the synod of Chalcedon. For accepting the communion of Alexandria, without a formal approbation of the same synod, the patriarchs of Constantinople were anathematised by the popes. Their inflexible despotism involved the most orthodox of the Greek churches in this spiritual contagion, denied or doubted the validity of their sacraments, and fomented, thirty-five years40, the schism of the East and West, till they finally abolished the memory of four Byzantine pontiffs, who had dared to oppose the supremacy of St. Peter. Before that period, the precarious truce of Constantinople and Egypt40 had been violated by the zeal40 of the rival prelates. Macedonius, who was suspected of the Nestorian heresy, asserted, in disgrace and exile, the synod of Chalcedon, while the successor of Cyril would have purchased its overthrow with a bribe of two thousand40 pounds40 of gold.
In the fever of the times, the sense, or rather the sound, of a syllable was sufficient to disturb the peace of an empire30. The Trisagion (thrice holy30), Holy30, holy30, holy30, Lord God of Hosts! is supposed by the Greeks30 to be the identical hymn which the angels and cherubim eternally repeat before the throne of God, and which, about the middle of the fifth century, was miraculously revealed to the church of Constantinople30. The devotion of Antioch soon30 added who was crucified for us! and this grateful address, either to Christ alone or to the whole Trinity, may be justified by the rules of theology, and has been gradually adopted by the Catholics of the East and West. But it had been imagined by a Monophysite bishop; the gift of an enemy30 was at first rejected as a dire and dangerous blasphemy, and the rash innovation had nearly cost the emperor30 Anastasius his throne and his life. The people30 of Constantinople30 was devoid of any rational principles of freedom; but they held, as a lawful cause of rebellion, the colour of a livery in the races, or the colour of a mystery in the schools. This Trisagion, with and without this obnoxious addition, was chanted in the cathedral by two adverse choirs, and, when their lungs were exhausted, they had recourse to the more solid arguments of sticks and stones; the aggressors were punished by the emperor30, and defended by the patriarch; and the crown and mitre were staked on the event of this momentous quarrel. The streets were instantly crowded with innumerable swarms of men, women, and children; the legions of monks, in regular array, marched and shouted, and fought at their head30. Christians! this is the day30 of martyrdom; let us not desert our spiritual father; anathema to the Manichaean tyrant! he is unworthy to reign. Such was the Catholic cry; and the galleys of Anastasius lay upon their oars before the palace30, till30 the patriarch had pardoned his penitent and hushed the waves of the troubled multitude. The triumph of Macedonius was checked by a speedy exile; but the zeal of his flock was again exasperated by the same question, Whether one of the Trinity had been crucified? On this momentous occasion the blue and green factions of Constantinople30 suspended their discord, and the civil and military powers were annihilated in their presence. The keys of the city30 and the standards of the guards were deposited in the forum of Constantine, the principal station and camp30 of the faithful. Day30 and night they were incessantly busied either in singing hymns to the honour of their God or in pillaging and murdering the servants of their prince30. The head30 of his favourite monk, the friend, as they styled him, of the enemy30 of the Holy30 Trinity, was borne aloft on a spear; and the firebrands, which had been darted against heretical structures, diffused the undistinguishing flames over the most orthodox buildings. The statues of the emperor30 were broken, and his person was concealed in a suburb, till30, at the end of three days30, he dared to implore the mercy of his subjects. Without his diadem and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on the throne of the circus. The Catholics, before his face, rehearsed their genuine Trisagion; they exulted in the offer which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald of abdicating the purple; they listened to the admonition that, since all could not reign, they should previously agree in the choice of a sovereign; and they accepted the blood of two unpopular ministers, whom their master, without hesitation, condemned to the lions. These furious but transient seditions were encouraged by the success of Vitalian, who, with an army30 of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idolaters, declared himself the champion of the Catholic faith. In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, besieged Constantinople30, exterminated sixty-five thousand30 of his fellow-Christians, till30 he obtained the recall of the bishops, the satisfaction of the pope, and the establishment of the council of Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying Anastasius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Justinian30. And such was the event of the first of the religious wars which have been waged in the name, and by the disciples, of the God of peace.
Justinian has been already seen in the various lights of a prince, a conqueror, and a lawgiver: the theologian still remains, and it affords an unfavourable prejudice that his theology should form a very prominent feature of his portrait. The sovereign sympathised with his subjects25 in their superstitious reverence for living and departed saints; his Code, and more especially his Novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the clergy; and, in every dispute between a monk and a layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce that truth and innocence and justice were always on the side of the church25. In his public and private devotions the emperor was assiduous and exemplary; his prayers, vigils, and fasts displayed the austere penance of a monk; his fancy was amused by the hope or belief of personal inspiration; he had secured the patronage of the Virgin and St. Michael the archangel; and his recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous succour of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian. The capital and the provinces of the East were decorated with the monuments of his religion; and, though the far greater part of these costly structures may be attributed to his taste or ostentation, the zeal of the royal25 architect was probably quickened by a genuine sense of love and gratitude towards his invisible benefactors. Among the titles of Imperial greatness, the name of Pious was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interest of the church25 was the serious business of his life; and the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of defender of the faith. The controversies of the times were congenial to his temper and understanding; and the theological professors must inwardly deride the diligence of a stranger, who cultivated their art and neglected his own. What can ye fear, said a bold conspirator to his associates, from your bigoted tyrant? Sleepless and unarmed he sits whole nights in his closet, debating with reverend grey-beards, and turning over the pages of ecclesiastical volumes. The fruits of these lucubrations were displayed in many a conference, where Justinian might shine as the loudest and most subtle of the disputants; in many a sermon, which, under the name of edicts and epistles, proclaimed to the empire25 the theology of their master. While the Barbarians invaded the provinces, while the victorious legions marched under the banners of Belisarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a synod. Had he invited to these synods a disinterested and rational spectator, Justinian might have learned that religious controversy is the offspring of arrogance and folly; that true piety is most laudably expressed by silence and submission; that man, ignorant of his own nature25, should not presume to scrutinise the nature25 of his God25; and that it is sufficient for us to know that power and benevolence are the perfect attributes of the Deity.
Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and indulgence to rebels has seldom been the virtue of princes. But, when the prince30 descends to the narrow and peevish character of a disputant, he is easily provoked to supply the defect of argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastise without mercy the perverse blindness of those who wilfully shut their eyes against the light of demonstration. The reign of Justinian30 was an uniform yet various scene of persecution; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent predecessors both in the contrivance of his laws and the rigour of their execution. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics; and, if he still connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birth-right of men and Christians. At the end of four hundred years30, the Montanists of Phrygia still breathed the wild enthusiasm of perfection and prophecy which they had imbibed from their male and female apostles, the special organs of the Paraclete. On the approach of the Catholic priests and soldiers30, they grasped with alacrity the crown of martyrdom; the conventicle and the congregation perished in the flames, but these primitive fanatics were not extinguished three hundred years30 after the death30 of their tyrant. Under the protection of the Gothic confederates, the church of the Arians at Constantinople30 had braved the severity of the laws; their clergy equalled the wealth and magnificence of the senate; and the gold30 and silver which were seized by the rapacious hand of Justinian30 might perhaps be claimed as the spoils of the provinces and the trophies of the Barbarians. A secret remnant of pagans, who still lurked in the most refined and most rustic conditions of mankind, excited the indignation of the Christians, who were, perhaps, unwilling that any strangers should be the witnesses of their intestine quarrels. A bishop was named as the inquisitor of the faith, and his diligence soon30 discovered, in the court and city30, the magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and sophists, who still cherished the superstition of the Greeks30. They were sternly informed that they must choose without delay between the displeasure of Jupiter or Justinian30, and that their aversion to the gospel could no longer be disguised under the scandalous mask of indifference or impiety. The patrician Photius perhaps alone was resolved to live and to die like his ancestors; he enfranchised himself with the stroke of a dagger, and left30 his tyrant the poor consolation of exposing with ignominy the lifeless corpse of the fugitive. His weaker brethren submitted to their earthly monarch, underwent the ceremony of baptism, and laboured, by their extraordinary zeal, to erase the suspicion, or to expiate the guilt, of idolatry. The native country of Homer, and the theatre of the Trojan war30, still retained the last sparks of his mythology: by the care of the same bishop, seventy thousand30 Pagans were detected and converted in Asia, Phrygia, Lydia, and Caria; ninety-six churches were built for the new30 proselytes; and linen vestments, bibles and liturgies, and vases of gold30 and silver were supplied by the pious munificence of Justinan. The Jews, who had been gradually stripped of their immunities, were oppressed by a vexatious law, which compelled them to observe the festival of Easter the same day30 on which it was celebrated by the Christians. And they might complain with the more reason, since the Catholics themselves did not agree with the astronomical calculations of their sovereign; the people30 of Constantinople30 delayed the beginning of their Lent a whole week after it had been ordained by authority; and they had the pleasure of fasting seven days30, while meat was exposed for sale by the command of the emperor30. The Samaritans of Palestine were a motley race, an ambiguous sect, rejected as Jews by the pagans, by the Jews as schismatics, and by the Christians as idolaters. The abomination of the cross had already been planted on their holy30 mount of Garizim, but the persecution of Justinian30 offered only the alternative of baptism or rebellion. They chose the latter; under the standard30 of a desperate leader, they rose in arms30, and retaliated their wrongs on the lives, the property, and the temples of a defenceless people30. The Samaritans were finally subdued by the regular forces of the East: twenty thousand30 were slain, twenty thousand30 were sold by the Arabs to the infidels of Persia and India, and the remains of that unhappy nation atoned for the crime of treason by the sin of hypocrisy. It has been computed that one hundred thousand30 Roman30 subjects were extirpated in the Samaritan war30, which converted the once fruitful province into a desolate and smoking wilderness. But in the creed of Justinian30 the guilt of murder could not be applied to the slaughter of unbelievers; and he piously laboured to establish with fire and sword30 the unity of the Christian faith.
With these sentiments, it was incumbent on him, at least, to be always in the right. In the first years of his administration, he signalised his zeal33 as the disciple and patron of orthodoxy; the reconciliation of the Greeks33 and Latins33 established the tome of St33. Leo as the creed33 of the emperor33 and the empire; the Nestorians and Eutychians were exposed, on either side, to the double edge of persecution33; and the four synods33 of Nice33, Constantinople33, Ephesus, and Chalcedon33 were ratified by the code of a Catholic33 lawgiver. But, while Justinian strove to maintain the uniformity of faith33 and worship, his wife Theodora, whose vices were not incompatible with devotion, had listened to the Monophysite teachers; and the open or clandestine enemies of the church33 revived and multiplied at the smile of their gracious patroness. The capital, the palace, the nuptial bed, were torn by spiritual discord; yet so doubtful was the sincerity of the royal consorts that their seeming disagreement was imputed by many to a secret and mischievous confederacy against the religion33 and happiness of their people33. The famous dispute of the three chapters, which has filled more volumes than it deserves lines, is deeply marked with this subtle and disingenuous spirit. It was now three hundred years since the body of Origen had been eaten by the worms: his soul, of which he held the pre-existence, was in the hands of its Creator, but his writings were eagerly perused by the monks33 of Palestine. In these writings the piercing eye of Justinian descried more than ten metaphysical errors; and the primitive doctor, in the company of Pythagoras and Plato, was devoted by the clergy33 to the eternity of hell-fire, which he had presumed to deny. Under the cover of this precedent, a treacherous blow was aimed at the council33 of Chalcedon33. The fathers had listened without impatience to the praise of Theodore of Mopsuestia; and their justice or indulgence had restored both Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Ibas of Edessa to the communion of the church33. But the characters of these Oriental bishops33 were tainted with the reproach of heresy33; the first had been the master, the two others were the friends, of Nestorius; their most suspicious passages were accused under the title of the three chapters; and the condemnation of their memory must involve the honour of a synod33 whose name was pronounced with sincere or affected reverence by the Catholic33 world. If these bishops33, whether innocent or guilty, were annihilated in the sleep of death, they would not probably be awakened by the clamour which, after an hundred years, was raised over their grave. If they were already in the fangs of the demon, their torments could neither be aggravated nor assuaged by human industry. If in the company of saints and angels they enjoyed the rewards of piety, they must have smiled at the idle fury of the theological33 insects who still crawled on the surface of the earth. The foremost of these insects, the emperor33 of the Romans, darted his sting, and distilled his venom, perhaps without discerning the true motives of Theodora and her ecclesiastical33 faction. The victims were no longer subject to his power, and the vehement style of his edicts could only proclaim their damnation and invite the clergy33 of the East33 to join in a full chorus of curses and anathemas. The East33, with some hesitation, consented to the voice of her sovereign: the fifth general council33, of three patriarchs and one hundred and sixty-five bishops33, was held at Constantinople33; and the authors, as well as the defenders, of the three chapters were separated from the communion of the saints and solemnly delivered to the prince of darkness. But the Latin33 churches33 were more jealous of the honour of Leo and the synod33 of Chalcedon33; and, if they had fought as they usually did under the standard of Rome, they might have prevailed in the cause33 of reason and humanity. But their chief was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy; the throne33 of St33. Peter, which had been disgraced by the simony, was betrayed by the cowardice, of Vigilius, who yielded, after a long and inconsistent struggle, to the despotism of Justinian and the sophistry of the Greeks33. His apostacy provoked the indignation of the Latins33, and no more than two bishops33 could be found who would impose their hands on his deacon and successor Pelagius. Yet the perseverance of the popes insensibly transferred to their adversaries the appellation of schismatics: the Illyrian, African, and Italian churches33 were oppressed by the civil and ecclesiastical33 powers, not without some effort of military force; the distant Barbarians transcribed the creed33 of the Vatican; and, in the period of a century, the schism33 of the three chapters expired in an obscure angle of the Venetian province. But the religious33 discontent of the Italians had already promoted the conquests of the Lombards, and the Romans themselves were accustomed to suspect the faith33, and to detest the government, of their Byzantine tyrant.
Justinian was neither steady nor consistent in the nice33 process of fixing his volatile opinions and those of his subjects. In his youth, he was offended by the slightest deviation from the orthodox33 line; in his old age, he transgressed the measure of temperate heresy33, and the Jacobites, not less than the Catholics33, were scandalised by his declaration that the body of Christ33 was incorruptible, and that his manhood was never subject to any wants and infirmities, the inheritance of our mortal flesh. This phantastic opinion was announced in the last edicts of Justinian; and at the moment of his seasonable departure the clergy33 had refused to subscribe, the prince was prepared to persecute, and the people33 were resolved to suffer or resist. A bishop33 of Treves, secure beyond the limits of his power, addressed the monarch of the East33 in the language of authority and affection. Most gracious Justinian, remember your baptism and your creed33! Let not your grey hairs be defiled with heresy33. Recall your fathers from exile33, and your followers from perdition. You cannot be ignorant that Italy and Gaul, Spain and Africa, already deplore your fall, and anathematise your name. Unless, without delay, you destroy what you have taught; unless you exclaim with a loud voice, I have erred, I have sinned, anathema to Nestorius, anathema to Eutyches, you deliver your soul to the same flames in which they will eternally burn. He died and made no sign. His death restored in some degree the peace of the church33, and the reigns of his four successors, Justin, Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are distinguished by a rare, though fortunate, vacancy in the ecclesiastical33 history of the East33.
The faculties of sense20 and reason20 are least capable of acting on themselves; the eye is most inaccessible to the sight, the soul to the thought; yet we think, and even feel, that one will, a sole principle of action, is essential to a rational and conscious being. When Heraclius returned from the Persian war, the orthodox hero20 consulted his bishops, whether the Christ whom he adored, of one person20 but of two natures, was actuated by a single or a double will. They replied in the singular, and the emperor20 was encouraged to hope that the Jacobites of Egypt and Syria might be reconciled by the profession of a doctrine, most certainly harmless, and most probably true, since it was taught even by the Nestorians themselves. The experiment was tried without effect, and the timid or vehement Catholics condemned even the semblance of a retreat in the presence of a subtle and audacious enemy20. The orthodox (the prevailing) party devised new20 modes of speech, and argument, and interpretation; to either nature of Christ they speciously applied a proper and distinct energy; but the difference was no longer visible when they allowed that the human and the divine will were invariably the same. The disease was attended with the customary symptoms; but the Greek clergy, as if satiate with the endless controversy of the incarnation, instilled a healing counsel into the ear of the prince20 and people20. They declared themselves monothelites (asserters of the unity of will); but they treated the words as new20, the questions as superfluous, and recommended a religious silence as the most agreeable to the prudence and charity of the gospel. This law of silence was successively imposed by the ecthesis or exposition of Heraclius, the type or model of his grandson Constans; and the Imperial edicts were subscribed with alacrity or reluctance by the four patriarchs of Rome20, Constantinople20, Alexandria, and Antioch. But the bishop and monks of Jerusalem sounded the alarm; in the language20, or even in the silence, of the Greeks, the Latin churches detected a latent heresy; and the obedience of Pope Honorius to the commands of his sovereign was retracted and censured by the bolder ignorance of his successors. They condemned the execrable and abominable heresy of the Monothelites, who revived the errors of Manes, Apollinaris, Eutyches, &c. they signed the sentence of excommunication on the tomb of St20. Peter20; the ink was mingled with the sacramental wine, the blood of Christ; and no ceremony was omitted that could fill the superstitious minds with horror and affright. As the representative of the Western church, Pope Martin and his Lateran synod anathematised the perfidious and guilty silence of the Greeks. One hundred and five bishops of Italy, for the most part the subjects of Constans, presumed to reprobate his wicked type and the impious ecthesis of his grandfather, and to confound the authors and their adherents with the twenty-one notorious heretics, the apostates from the church, and the organs of the devil. Such an insult under the tamest reign20 could not pass with impunity. Pope Martin ended his days on the inhospitable shore of the Tauric Chersonesus, and his oracle, the abbot Maximus, was inhumanly chastised by the amputation of his tongue and his right hand. But the same invincible spirit20 survived in their successors, and the triumph of the Latins avenged their recent defeat and obliterated the disgrace of the three chapters. The synods of Rome20 were confirmed by the sixth general council of Constantinople20, in the palace and the presence of a new20 Constantine, a descendant of Heraclius. The royal20 convert converted the Byzantine pontiff and a majority of the bishops; the dissenters, with their chief, Macarius of Antioch, were condemned to the spiritual and temporal pains of heresy; the East condescended to accept the lessons of the West; and the creed was finally settled which teaches the Catholics of every age20 that two wills or energies are harmonised in the person20 of Christ. The majesty of the pope and the Roman20 synod was represented by two priests, one deacon, and three bishops; but these obscure Latins had neither arms20 to compel, nor treasures to bribe, nor language20 to persuade; and I am ignorant by what arts they could determine the lofty emperor20 of the Greeks to abjure the catechism of his infancy and to persecute the religion of his fathers. Perhaps the monks and people20 of Constantinople20 were favourable to the Lateran creed, which is indeed the least favourable of the two; and the suspicion is countenanced by the unnatural moderation of the Greek clergy, who appear in this quarrel to be conscious of their weakness. While the synod debated, a fanatic proposed a more summary decision, by raising a dead man to life20; the prelates assisted at the trial; but the acknowledged failure may serve to indicate that the passions and prejudices of the multitude were not enlisted on the side of the Monothelites. In the next generation, when the son20 of Constantine was deposed and slain by the disciple of Macarius, they tasted the feast of revenge and dominion; the image or monument of the sixth council was defaced, and the original acts were committed to the flames. But in the second20 year20 their patron was cast headlong from the throne20, the bishops of the East were released from their occasional conformity, the Roman20 faith was more firmly replanted by the orthodox successors of Bardanes, and the fine problems of the incarnation were forgotten in the more popular and visible quarrel of the worship of images.
Before the end of the seventh century, the creed33 of the incarnation, which had been defined at Rome and Constantinople33, was uniformly preached in the remote islands of Britain and Ireland; the same ideas were entertained, or rather the same words were repeated, by all the Christians whose liturgy was performed in the Greek33 or the Latin33 tongue. Their numbers and visible splendour bestowed an imperfect claim to the appellation of Catholics33; but in the East33 they were marked with the less honourable name of Melchites or Royalists; of men whose faith33, instead of resting on the basis of scripture, reason, or tradition, had been established, and was still maintained, by the arbitrary power of a temporal monarch. Their adversaries might allege the words of the fathers of Constantinople33, who profess themselves the slaves of the king; and they might relate, with malicious joy, how the decrees of Chalcedon33 had been inspired and reformed by the emperor33 Marcian and his virgin bride. The prevailing faction will naturally inculcate the duty of submission, nor is it less natural that dissenters should feel and assert the principles of freedom. Under the rod of persecution33, the Nestorians and Monophysites degenerated into rebels and fugitives; and the most ancient and useful allies of Rome were taught to consider the emperor33 not as the chief, but as the enemy, of the Christians. Language, the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind, soon discriminated the sectaries of the East33 by a peculiar and perpetual badge, which abolished the means of intercourse and the hope of reconciliation. The long dominion of the Greeks33, their colonies, and, above all, their eloquence had propagated a language doubtless the most perfect that has been contrived by the art of man. Yet the body of the people33, both in Syria and Egypt33, still persevered in the use of their national idioms; with this difference, however, that the Coptic was confined to the rude and illiterate peasants of the Nile, while the Syriac, from the mountains of Assyria to the Red Sea, was adapted to the higher topics of poetry and argument. Armenia and Abyssinia were infected by the speech and learning of the Greeks33; and their barbaric tongues, which have been revived in the studies of modern Europe, were unintelligible to the inhabitants of the Roman empire. The Syriac and the Coptic, the Armenian and the Aethiopic, are consecrated in the service of their respective churches33; and their theology is enriched by domestic versions both of the scriptures and of the most popular fathers. After a period of thirteen hundred and sixty years, the spark of controversy33, first kindled by a sermon of Nestorius, still burns in the bosom of the East33, and the hostile communions still maintain the faith33 and discipline of their founders. In the most abject state of ignorance, poverty, and servitude, the Nestorians and Monophysites reject the spiritual supremacy of Rome, and cherish the toleration of their Turkish masters, which allows them to anathematise, on one hand, St33. Cyril and the synod33 of Ephesus, on the other, Pope33 Leo and the council33 of Chalcedon33. The weight which they cast into the downfall of the Eastern empire demands our notice, and the reader may be amused with the various prospects of I. The Nestorians; II. The Jacobites; III. The Maronites; IV. The Armenians; V. The Copts; and VI. The Abyssinians. To the three former, the Syriac is common; but of the latter, each is discriminated by the use of a national idiom. Yet the modern natives of Armenia and Abyssinia would be incapable of conversing with their ancestors; and the Christians of Egypt33 and Syria, who reject the religion33, have adopted the language, of the Arabians. The lapse of time has seconded the sacerdotal arts; and in the East33, as well as in the West33, the Deity is addressed in an obsolete tongue, unknown to the majority of the congregation.
I. Both in his native and his episcopal33 province, the heresy33 of the unfortunate Nestorius was speedily obliterated. The Oriental bishops33, who at Ephesus had resisted to his face the arrogance of Cyril, were mollified by his tardy concessions. The same prelates33, or their successors, subscribed, not without a murmur, the decrees of Chalcedon33; the power of the Monophysites reconciled them with the Catholics33 in the conformity of passion, of interest, and insensibly of belief; and their last reluctant sigh was breathed in the defence of the three chapters. Their dissenting brethren, less moderate, or more sincere, were crushed by the penal laws; and as early as the reign of Justinian it became difficult to find a church33 of Nestorians within the limits of the Roman empire. Beyond those limits they had discovered a new world, in which they might hope for liberty and aspire to conquest. In Persia, notwithstanding the resistance of the Magi, Christianity had struck a deep root, and the nations of the East33 reposed under its salutary shade. The catholic33, or primate, resided in the capital; in his synods33, and in their dioceses, his metropolitans, bishops33, and clergy33 represented the pomp and honour of a regular hierarchy; they rejoiced in the increase of proselytes, who were converted from the Zendavesta to the Gospel, from the secular to the monastic life; and their zeal33 was stimulated by the presence of an artful and formidable enemy. The Persian church33 had been founded by the missionaries of Syria; and their language, discipline, and doctrine were closely interwoven with its original frame. The catholics33 were elected and ordained by their own suffragans; but their filial dependence on the patriarchs of Antioch33 is attested by the canons of the Oriental church33. In the Persian school of Edessa, the rising generations of the faithful imbibed their theological33 idiom; they studied in the Syriac version the ten thousand volumes of Theodore of Mopsuestia; and they revered the apostolic faith33 and holy33 martyrdom of his disciple Nestorius, whose person and language were equally unknown to the nations beyond the Tigris. The first indelible lesson of Ibas, bishop33 of Edessa, taught them to execrate the Egyptians, who, in the synod33 of Ephesus, had impiously confounded the two natures of Christ33. The flight of the masters and scholars, who were twice expelled from the Athens of Syria, dispersed a crowd of missionaries, inflamed by the double zeal33 of religion33 and revenge. And the rigid unity of the Monophysites, who, under the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, had invaded the thrones of the East33, provoked their antagonists, in a land of freedom, to avow a moral, rather than a physical, union33 of the two persons of Christ33. Since the first preaching of the gospel, the Sassanian kings beheld with an eye of suspicion a race of aliens and apostates, who had embraced the religion33, and who might favour the cause33, of the hereditary foes of their country. The royal edicts had often prohibited their dangerous correspondence with the Syrian clergy33; the progress of the schism33 was grateful to the jealous pride of Perozes, and he listened to the eloquence of an artful prelate, who painted Nestorius as the friend of Persia, and urged him to secure the fidelity of his Christian33 subjects by granting a just preference to the victims and enemies of the Roman tyrant. The Nestorians composed a large majority of the clergy33 and people33; they were encouraged by the smile, and armed with the sword, of despotism; yet many of their weaker brethren were startled at the thought of breaking loose from the communion of the Christian33 world, and the blood of seven thousand seven hundred Monophysites, or Catholics33, confirmed the uniformity of faith33 and discipline in the churches33 of Persia. Their ecclesiastical33 institutions are distinguished by a liberal principle of reason, or at least of policy; the austerity of the cloister was relaxed and gradually forgotten; houses of charity were endowed for the education of orphans and foundlings; the law of celibacy, so forcibly recommended to the Greeks33 and Latins33, was disregarded by the Persian clergy33; and the number of the elect was multiplied by the public and reiterated nuptials of the priests, the bishops33, and even the patriarch33 himself. To this standard of natural and religious33 freedom myriads of fugitives resorted from all the provinces of the Eastern empire; the narrow bigotry of Justinian was punished by the emigration of his most industrious subjects; they transported into Persia the arts both of peace and war; and those who deserved the favour, were promoted in the service, of a discerning monarch. The arms of Nushirvan, and his fiercer grandson, were assisted with advice, and money, and troops, by the desperate sectaries who still lurked in their native cities of the East33; their zeal33 was rewarded with the gift of the Catholic33 churches33; but, when those cities and churches33 were recovered by Heraclius, their open profession of treason and heresy33 compelled them to seek a refuge in the realm of their foreign ally. But the seeming tranquillity of the Nestorians was often endangered, and sometimes overthrown. They were involved in the common evils of Oriental despotism; their enmity to Rome could not always atone for their attachment to the gospel; and a colony of three hundred thousand Jacobites, the captives of Apamea and Antioch33, was permitted to erect an hostile altar in the face of the catholic33 and in the sunshine of the court. In his last treaty, Justinian introduced some conditions which tended to enlarge and fortify the toleration of Christianity in Persia. The emperor33, ignorant of the rights of conscience, was incapable of pity or esteem for the heretics who denied the authority of the holy33 synods33; but he flattered himself that they would gradually perceive the temporal benefits of union33 with the empire and the church33 of Rome; and, if he failed in exciting their gratitude, he might hope to provoke the jealousy of their sovereign. In a later age, the Lutherans have been burnt at Paris, and protected in Germany, by the superstition and policy of the most Christian33 king.
The desire of gaining souls for God, and subjects1 for the church1, has excited in every age the diligence of the Christian1 priests. From the conquest of Persia they carried their spiritual arms to the north, the east, and the south; and the simplicity of the gospel was fashioned and painted with the colours of the Syriac theology. In the sixth century, according to the report of a Nestorian traveller, Christianity was successfully preached to the Bactrians, the Huns, the Persians, the Indians, the Persarmenians, the Medes, and the Elamites; the Barbaric churches, from the gulf of Persia to the Caspian sea, were almost infinite; and their recent faith was conspicuous in the number and sanctity of their monks and martyrs. The pepper coast of Malabar, and the isles of the ocean, Socotora and Ceylon, were peopled with an increasing multitude of Christians1; and the bishops1 and clergy1 of those sequestered regions derived their ordination from the catholic of Babylon. In a subsequent age, the zeal of the Nestorians overleaped the limits which had confined the ambition and curiosity both of the Greeks and Persians. The missionaries of Balch and Samarcand pursued without fear the footsteps of the roving Tartar, and insinuated themselves into the camps of the valleys of Imaus and the banks of the Selinga. They exposed a metaphysical creed to those illiterate shepherds; to those sanguinary warriors they recommended humanity and repose. Yet a khan, whose power1 they vainly magnified, is said to have received at their hands the rites of baptism, and even of ordination; and the fame of Prester or Presbyter John has long1 amused the credulity of Europe. The royal convert was indulged in the use of a portable altar; but he despatched an embassy to the patriarch, to inquire how, in the season of Lent, he should abstain from animal food, and how he might celebrate the Eucharist in a desert that produced neither corn nor wine. In their progress by sea and land, the Nestorians entered China by the port of Canton and the northern residence of Sigan. Unlike the senators of Rome1, who assumed1 with a smile the characters of priests and augurs, the mandarins, who affect in public1 the reason of philosophers, are devoted in private to every mode of popular superstition. They cherished and they confounded the gods of Palestine and of India; but the propagation of Christianity awakened the jealousy of the state1, and, after a short vicissitude of favour and persecution, the foreign sect expired in ignorance and oblivion. Under the reign1 of the caliphs, the Nestorian church1 was diffused from China to Jerusalem and Cyprus; and their numbers, with those of the Jacobites, were computed to surpass the Greek and Latin communions. Twenty-five metropolitans or archbishops composed their hierarchy, but several of these were dispensed, by the distance and danger of the way, from the duty of personal attendance, on the easy condition that every six years1 they should testify their faith and obedience to the catholic or patriarch of Babylon: a vague appellation, which has been successively applied to the royal seats of Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Bagdad. These remote branches are long1 since withered, and the old patriarchal trunk is now divided by the Elijahs of Mosul, the representatives, almost in lineal descent, of the genuine and primitive succession, the Josephs of Amida, who are reconciled to the church1 of Rome1, and the Simeons of Van or Ormia, whose revolt, at the head of forty thousand families, was promoted in the sixteenth century by the Sophis of Persia. The number of three hundred thousand is allowed for the whole body of the Nestorians, who, under the name of Chaldaeans or Assyrians, are confounded with the most learned or the most powerful nation of Eastern antiquity.
According to the legend of antiquity, the gospel was preached in India by St. Thomas27. At the end of the ninth century, his shrine, perhaps in the neighbourhood of Madras, was devoutly visited by the ambassadors of Alfred, and their return with a cargo of pearls and spices rewarded the zeal of the English monarch, who entertained the largest projects of trade and discovery. When the Portuguese27 first opened the navigation of India, the Christians of St. Thomas27 had been seated for ages on the coast of Malabar27, and the difference of their character and colour attested the mixture of a foreign race. In arms27, in arts27, and possibly in virtue27, they excelled the natives of Hindostan; the husbandmen cultivated the palm-tree, the merchants were enriched by the pepper-trade, the soldiers27 preceded the nairs or nobles of Malabar27, and their hereditary privileges were respected by the gratitude or the fear of the king27 of Cochin and the Zamorin himself. They acknowledged a Gentoo sovereign, but they were governed, even in temporal concerns, by the bishop of Angamala. He still asserted his ancient title of metropolitan of India, but his real27 jurisdiction was exercised in fourteen hundred churches, and he was entrusted with the care of two hundred thousand27 souls. Their religion would have rendered them the firmest and most cordial allies of the Portuguese27, but the inquisitors soon27 discerned in the Christians of St. Thomas27 the unpardonable guilt of heresy and schism. Instead of owning themselves the subjects of the Roman27 pontiff, the spiritual and temporal monarch of the globe, they adhered, like their ancestors, to the communion of the Nestorian patriarch; and the bishops whom he ordained at Mosul traversed the dangers of the sea and land to reach their diocese on the coast of Malabar27. In their Syriac27 liturgy, the names of Theodore and Nestorius were piously commemorated; they united their adoration of the two persons of Christ; the title of Mother of God was offensive to their ear, and they measured with scrupulous avarice the honours of the Virgin Mary, whom the superstition of the Latins had almost exalted to the rank of a goddess. When her image was first presented to the disciples of St. Thomas27, they indignantly exclaimed, We are Christians, not idolaters! and their simple devotion was content with the veneration of the cross. Their separation from the Western world had left them in ignorance of the improvements, or corruptions, of a thousand27 years; and their conformity with the faith and practice of the fifth century would equally disappoint the prejudices of a Papist or a Protestant. It was the first care of the ministers of Rome27 to intercept all correspondence with the Nestorian patriarch, and several of his bishops expired in the prisons of the holy office. The flock, without a shepherd, was assaulted by the power of the Portuguese27, the arts27 of the Jesuits, and the zeal of Alexis de Menezes, archbishop of Goa, in his personal visitation of the coast of Malabar27. The synod of Diamper, at which he presided, consummated the pious work of the reunion, and rigorously imposed the doctrine and discipline of the Roman27 church, without forgetting auricular confession, the strongest engine of ecclesiastical torture. The memory of Theodore and Nestorius was condemned, and Malabar27 was reduced under the dominion of the pope, of the primate, and of the Jesuits who invaded the see of Angamala or Cranganor. Sixty years of servitude and hypocrisy were patiently endured; but, as soon27 as the Portuguese27 empire27 was shaken by the courage and industry of the Dutch, the Nestorians asserted, with vigour and effect, the religion of their fathers. The Jesuits were incapable of defending the power which they had abused; the arms27 of forty thousand27 Christians were pointed against their falling tyrants; and the Indian archdeacon assumed the character of bishop, till a fresh supply of episcopal gifts and Syriac27 missionaries could be obtained from the patriarch of Babylon27. Since the expulsion of the Portuguese27, the Nestorian creed is freely professed on the coast of Malabar27. The trading companies of Holland and England are the friends of toleration; but, if oppression be less mortifying than contempt, the Christians of St. Thomas27 have reason to complain of the cold and silent indifference of their brethren of Europe.
II. The history46 of the Monophysites is less copious and interesting than that of the Nestorians. Under the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, their artful leaders surprised the ear of the prince, usurped the thrones of the East, and crushed on its native soil the school of the Syrians. The rule of the Monophysite faith was defined with exquisite discretion by Severus, patriarch of Antioch: he condemned, in the style of the Henoticon, the adverse heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches, maintained against the latter the reality of the body of Christ, and constrained the Greeks to allow that he was a liar who spoke truth46. But the approximation of ideas could not abate the vehemence of passion; each party was the more astonished that their blind antagonist could dispute on so trifling a difference; the tyrant of Syria enforced the belief of his creed, and his reign46 was polluted with the blood of three hundred and fifty monks, who were slain, not perhaps without provocation or resistance, under the walls of Apamea. The successor of Anastasius replanted the orthodox standard in the East; Severus fled into Egypt; and his friend, the eloquent Xenaias, who had escaped from the Nestorians of Persia, was suffocated in his exile by the Melchites of Paphlagonia. Fifty-four bishops were swept from their thrones, eight hundred ecclesiastics were cast into prison, and, notwithstanding the ambiguous favour of Theodora, the Oriental flocks, deprived of their shepherds, must insensibly have been either famished or poisoned. In this spiritual distress, the expiring faction was revived, and united, and perpetuated by the labours of a monk; and the name of James Baradaeus has been preserved in the appellation of Jacobites, a familiar sound which may startle the ear of an English reader. From the holy confessors in their prison of Constantinople he received the powers of bishop of Edessa and apostle of the East, and the ordination of fourscore thousand bishops, priests, and deacons is derived from the same inexhaustible source. The speed of the zealous missionary was promoted by the fleetest dromedaries of a devout chief of the Arabs; the doctrine and discipline of the Jacobites were secretly established in the dominions of Justinian; and each Jacobite was compelled to violate the laws46 and to hate the Roman46 legislator. The successors of Severus, while they lurked in convents or villages, while they sheltered their proscribed heads in the caverns of hermits or the tents of the Saracens, still asserted, as they now assert, their indefeasible right to the title, the rank, and the prerogatives of patriarch of Antioch; under the milder yoke of the infidels they reside about a league from Merdin, in the pleasant monastery of Zapharan, which they have embellished with cells, aqueducts, and plantations. The secondary, though honourable, place is filled by the maphrian, who, in his station at Mosul itself, defies the Nestorian catholic, with whom he contests the supremacy of the East. Under the patriarch and the maphrian, one hundred and fifty archbishops and bishops have been counted in the different ages of the Jacobite church; but the order of the hierarchy is relaxed or dissolved, and the greater part of their dioceses is confined to the neighbourhood of the Euphrates and the Tigris. The cities of Aleppo and Amida, which are often visited by the patriarch, contain some wealthy merchants and industrious mechanics, but the multitude derive their scanty sustenance from their daily labour; and poverty, as well as superstition, may impose their excessive fasts: five annual lents, during which both the clergy and laity abstain not only from flesh or eggs, but even from the taste of wine, of oil, and of fish. Their present46 numbers are esteemed from fifty to fourscore thousand souls, the remnant of a populous church, which has gradually decreased under the oppression of twelve centuries. Yet in that long period46 some strangers of merit46 have been converted to the Monophysite faith, and a Jew was the father of Abulpharagius, primate of the East, so truly eminent both in his life46 and death. In his life46, he was an elegant writer of the Syriac and Arabic tongues, a poet, physician, and historian, a subtle philosopher, and a moderate divine. In his death, his funeral was attended by his rival the Nestorian patriarch, with a train of Greeks and Armenians, who forgot their disputes and mingled their tears over the grave of an enemy. The sect which was honoured by the virtues46 of Abulpharagius appears, however, to sink below the level of their Nestorian brethren. The superstition of the Jacobites is more abject, their fasts more rigid, their intestine divisions are more numerous, and their doctors (as far as I can measure the degrees of nonsense) are more remote from the precincts of reason. Something may possibly be allowed for the rigour of the Monophysite theology; much more for the superior influence of the monastic order. In Syria, in Egypt, in Aethiopia, the Jacobite monks have ever been distinguished by the austerity of their penance and the absurdity of their legends. Alive or dead, they are worshipped as the favourites of the Deity; the crosier of bishop and patriarch is reserved for their venerable hands; and they assume the government of men, while they are yet reeking with the habits and prejudices of the cloister.
III. In the style of the Oriental Christians, the Monothelites of every age are described under the appellation of Maronites, a name which has been insensibly transferred from an hermit to a monastery, from a monastery to a nation. Maron, a saint or savage of the fifth century, displayed his religious33 madness in Syria; the rival cities of Apamea and Emesa disputed his relics, a stately church33 was erected on his tomb, and six hundred of his disciples united their solitary cells on the banks of the Orontes. In the controversies of the incarnation, they nicely threaded the orthodox33 line between the sects of Nestorius and Eutyches; but the unfortunate question of one will or operation in the two natures of Christ33 was generated by their curious leisure. Their proselyte, the emperor33 Heraclius, was rejected as a Maronite from the walls of Emesa; he found a refuge in the monastery of his brethren; and their theological33 lessons were repaid with the gift of a spacious and wealthy domain. The name and doctrine of this venerable school were propagated among the Greeks33 and Syrians, and their zeal33 is expressed by Macarius, patriarch33 of Antioch33, who declared before the synod33 of Constantinople33 that, sooner than subscribe the two wills of Christ33, he would submit to be hewn piece-meal and cast into the sea. A similar or a less cruel mode of persecution33 soon converted the unresisting subjects of the plain, while the glorious title of Mardaites, or rebels, was bravely maintained by the hardy natives of Mount Libanus. John Maron, one of the most learned and popular of the monks33, assumed the character of patriarch33 of Antioch33; his nephew Abraham, at the head of the Maronites, defended their civil and religious33 freedom against the tyrants of the East33. The son of the orthodox33 Constantine pursued, with pious hatred, a people33 of soldiers, who might have stood the bulwark of his empire against the common foes of Christ33 and of Rome. An army of Greeks33 invaded Syria; the monastery of St33. Maron was destroyed with fire; the bravest chieftains were betrayed and murdered; and twelve thousand of their followers were transplanted to the distant frontiers of Armenia and Thrace. Yet the humble nation of the Maronites has survived the empire of Constantinople33, and they still enjoy, under their Turkish masters, a free religion33 and a mitigated servitude. Their domestic governors are chosen among the ancient nobility; the patriarch33, in his monastery of Canobin, still fancies himself on the throne33 of Antioch33; nine bishops33 compose his synod33, and one hundred and fifty priests, who retain the liberty of marriage, are entrusted with the care of one hundred thousand souls. Their country extends from the ridge of Mount Libanus to the shores of Tripoli; and the gradual descent affords, in a narrow space, each variety of soil and climate, from the Holy33 Cedars, erect under the weight of snow, to the vine, the mulberry, and the olive trees of the fruitful valley. In the twelfth century, the Maronites, abjuring the Monothelite error, were reconciled to the Latin33 churches33 of Antioch33 and Rome, and the same alliance has been frequently renewed by the ambition of the popes and the distress of the Syrians. But it may reasonably be questioned whether their union33 has ever been perfect or sincere; and the learned Maronites of the college of Rome have vainly laboured to absolve their ancestors from the guilt of heresy33 and schism33.
IV. Since the age0 of Constantine, the Armenians had signalised their attachment to the religion and empire0 of the Christians. The disorders of their country0, and their ignorance0 of the Greek0 tongue0, prevented their clergy from assisting at the synod of Chalcedon, and they floated eighty-four years0 in a state0 of indifference or suspense, till their vacant faith was finally occupied by the missionaries of Julian of Halicarnassus, who in Egypt, their common exile, had been vanquished by the arguments or the influence of his rival Severus, the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch. The Armenians alone are the pure disciples of Eutyches, an unfortunate parent, who has been renounced by the greater part of his spiritual progeny. They alone persevere in the opinion that the manhood of Christ was created, or existed without creation, of a divine and incorruptible substance. Their adversaries reproach them with the adoration of a phantom; and they retort the accusation, by deriding or execrating the blasphemy of the Jacobites, who impute to the Godhead the vile infirmities of the flesh, even the natural effects of nutrition and digestion. The religion of Armenia could not derive much glory from the learning0 or the power of its inhabitants. The royalty expired with the origin of their schism, and their Christian kings, who arose and fell in the thirteenth century on the confines of Cilicia, were the clients of the Latins, and the vassals of the Turkish sultan of Iconium. The helpless nation has seldom been permitted to enjoy the tranquillity of servitude. From the earliest period to the present0 hour, Armenia has been the theatre of perpetual war; the lands between Tauris and Erivan were dispeopled by the cruel policy of the Sophis; and myriads of Christian families were transplanted, to perish or to propagate in the distant provinces of Persia. Under the rod of oppression, the zeal of the Armenians is fervid and intrepid; they have often preferred the crown of martyrdom to the white turban of Mahomet; they devoutly hate the error and idolatry of the Greeks0; and their transient union with the Latins is not less devoid of truth than the thousand0 bishops whom their patriarch offered at the feet of the Roman0 pontiff. The catholic, or patriarch of the Armenians, resides in the monastery of Ekmiasin, three leagues from Erivan. Forty-seven archbishops, each of whom may claim the obedience of four or five suffragans, are consecrated by his hand; but the far greater part are only titular prelates, who dignify with their presence and service the simplicity of his court. As soon as they have performed the liturgy, they cultivate the garden; and our bishops will hear with surprise that the austerity of their life increases in just proportion to the elevation of their rank. In the fourscore thousand0 towns or villages of his spiritual empire0, the patriarch receives a small and voluntary tax from each person above the age0 of fifteen; but the annual amount of six hundred thousand0 crowns is insufficient to supply the incessant demands of charity and tribute. Since the beginning of the last century, the Armenians have obtained a large and lucrative share of the commerce of the East0; in their return from Europe0, the caravan usually halts in the neighbourhood of Erivan, the altars are enriched with the fruits of their patient industry; and the faith of Eutyches is preached in their recent congregations of Barbary and Poland.
V. In the rest of the Roman30 empire30, the despotism of the prince30 might eradicate or silence the sectaries of an obnoxious creed. But the stubborn temper of the Egyptians maintained their opposition to the synod of Chalcedon, and the policy of Justinian30 condescended to expect and to seize the opportunity of discord. The Monophysite church of Alexandria was torn by the disputes of the corruptibles and incorruptibles, and, on the death30 of the patriarch, the two factions upheld their respective candidates. Gaian was the disciple of Julian, Theodosius had been the pupil of Severus. The claims of the former were supported by the consent of the monks and senators, the city30 and the province; the latter depended on the priority of his ordination, the favour of the empress Theodora, and the arms30 of the eunuch Narses, which might have been used in more honourable warfare. The exile of the popular candidate to Carthage and Sardinia inflamed the ferment of Alexandria; and, after a schism of one hundred and seventy years30, the Gaianites still revered the memory and doctrine of their founder. The strength of numbers and of discipline was tried in a desperate and bloody conflict; the streets were filled with the dead bodies of citizens and soldiers30; the pious women, ascending the roofs of their houses, showered down every sharp or ponderous utensil on the heads of the enemy30; and the final victory30 of Narses was owing to the flames with which he wasted the third capital of the Roman30 world. But the lieutenant of Justinian30 had not conquered in the cause of an heretic; Theodosius himself was speedily, though gently, removed; and Paul of Tanis, an orthodox monk, was raised to the throne of Athanasius. The powers of government were strained in his support; he might appoint or displace the dukes and tribunes of Egypt; the allowance of bread which Diocletian had granted was suppressed, the churches were shut, and a nation of schismatics was deprived at once of their spiritual and carnal food. In his turn, the tyrant was excommunicated by the zeal and revenge of the people30; and none except his servile Melchites would salute him as a man, a Christian, or a bishop. Yet such is the blindness of ambition that, when Paul was expelled on a charge of murder, he solicited, with a bribe of seven hundred pounds of gold30, his restoration to the same station of hatred and ignominy. His successor Apollinaris entered the hostile city30 in military array, alike qualified for prayer or for battle30. His troops30, under arms30, were distributed through the streets; the gates of the cathedral were guarded; and a chosen band was stationed in the choir, to defend the person of their chief. He stood erect on his throne, and, throwing aside the upper garment of a warrior, suddenly appeared before the eyes of the multitude in the robes of patriarch of Alexandria. Astonishment held them mute; but no sooner had Apollinaris begun to read the tome of St30. Leo than a volley of curses, and invectives, and stones assaulted the odious minister of the emperor30 and the synod. A charge was instantly sounded by the successor of the apostles; the soldiers30 waded to their knees in blood; and two hundred thousand30 Christians are said to have fallen by the sword30: an incredible account, even if it be extended from the slaughter of a day30 to the eighteen years30 of the reign of Apollinaris. Two succeeding patriarchs, Eulogius and John, laboured in the conversion of heretics, with arms30 and arguments more worthy of their evangelical profession. The theological knowledge of Eulogius was displayed in many a volume, which magnified the errors of Eutyches and Severus, and attempted to reconcile the ambiguous language of St30. Cyril with the orthodox creed of Pope Leo and the fathers of Chalcedon. The bounteous alms of John the Eleemosynary were dictated by superstition, or benevolence, or policy. Seven thousand30 five hundred poor were maintained at his expense; on his accession, he found eight thousand30 pounds of gold30 in the treasury of the church; he collected ten thousand30 from the liberality of the faithful; yet the primate could boast in his testament that he left30 behind him no more than the third part of the smallest of the silver coins. The churches of Alexandria were delivered to the Catholics, the religion of the Monophysites was proscribed in Egypt, and a law was revived which excluded the natives from the honours and emoluments of the state.
A more important conquest still remained, of the patriarch, the oracle and leader of the Egyptian church48. Theodosius48 had resisted the threats and promises of Justinian with the spirit of an apostle or an enthusiast. Such, replied the patriarch, were the offers of the tempter, when he shewed the kingdoms of the earth. But my soul is far dearer to me than life48 or dominion. The churches are in the hands48 of a prince who can kill the body; but my conscience is my own; and in exile, poverty, or chains, I will stedfastly adhere to the faith of my holy predecessors, Athanasius, Cyril, and Dioscorus. Anathema to the tome of Leo48 and the synod of Chalcedon! Anathema to all who embrace their creed! Anathema to them now and for evermore! Naked came I out of my mother's womb; naked shall48 I descend into the grave. Let those who love God follow me, and seek their salvation. After comforting his brethren, he embarked for Constantinople48, and sustained in six successive interviews the almost irresistible weight of the royal presence. His opinions were favourably entertained in the palace48 and the city48; the influence of Theodora assured him a safe-conduct and honourable dismission; and he ended his days48, though not on the throne, yet in the bosom, of his native country48. On the news of his death48, Apollinaris indecently feasted the nobles and the clergy; but his joy was checked by the intelligence of a new48 election; and, while he enjoyed the wealth of Alexandria, his rivals reigned in the monasteries of Thebais, and were maintained by the voluntary oblations of the people48. A perpetual succession of patriarchs arose from the ashes of Theodosius48; and the Monophysite churches of Syria and Egypt48 were united by the name of Jacobites and the communion of the faith. But the same faith, which has been confined to a narrow sect of the Syrians, was diffused over the mass of the Egyptian or Coptic nation, who, almost unanimously, rejected the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon. A thousand48 years48 were now elapsed since Egypt48 had ceased to be a kingdom, since the conquerors of Asia and Europe had trampled on the ready necks of a people48 whose ancient wisdom and power ascends beyond the records of history. The conflict of zeal48 and persecution rekindled some sparks of their national spirit. They abjured, with a foreign heresy, the manners and language of the Greeks48: every Melchite, in their eyes, was a stranger, every Jacobite a citizen; the alliance of marriage, the offices of humanity, were condemned as a deadly sin; the natives renounced all allegiance to the emperor48; and his orders, at a distance from Alexandria, were obeyed only under the pressure of military48 force. A generous effort might have redeemed the religion and liberty of Egypt48, and her six hundred monasteries might have poured forth their myriads of holy warriors, for whom death48 should have no terrors, since life48 had no comfort or delight. But experience has proved the distinction of active and passive courage; the fanatic who endures without a groan the torture of the rack or the stake would tremble and fly before the face of an armed enemy. The pusillanimous temper of the Egyptians could only hope for a change of masters; the arms48 of Chosroes depopulated the land, yet under his reign the Jacobites enjoyed a short and precarious respite. The victory of Heraclius renewed and aggravated the persecution, and the patriarch again escaped from Alexandria to the desert. In his flight, Benjamin was encouraged by a voice48 which bade him expect, at the end of ten years48, the aid of a foreign nation, marked like the Egyptians themselves with the ancient right of circumcision. The character of these deliverers and the nature of the deliverance48 will be hereafter explained; and I shall48 step over the interval of eleven centuries, to observe the present misery of the Jacobites of Egypt48. The populous city48 of Cairo affords a residence, or rather a shelter, for their indigent patriarch and a remnant of ten bishops; forty monasteries have survived the inroads of the Arabs; and the progress of servitude and apostacy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thousand48 families: a race of illiterate beggars, whose only consolation is derived from the superior wretchedness of the Greek patriarch and his diminutive congregation.
VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Caesars, or a slave to the caliphs24, still gloried in the filial obedience of the kings of Nubia and Aethiopia. He repaid their homage by magnifying their greatness; and it was boldly asserted that they could bring into the field an hundred thousand24 horse, with an equal number of camels; that their hand could pour or restrain the waters of the Nile24; and the peace and plenty of Egypt24 was obtained, even in this world, by the intercession of the patriarch. In exile at Constantinople24, Theodosius recommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations of Nubia, from the tropic of Cancer to the confines of Abyssinia. Her design was suspected, and emulated, by the more orthodox emperor. The rival missionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at the same time; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, was more effectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was detained by the president of Thebais while the king of Nubia and his court were hastily baptised in the faith of Dioscorus. The tardy envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with honour; but, when he accused the heresy and treason of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to reply that he would never abandon his brethren, the true believers, to the persecuting ministers of the synod of Chalcedon. During several ages the bishops of Nubia were named and consecrated by the Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria; as late as the twelfth century, Christianity prevailed; and some rites, some ruins, are still visible in the savage towns of Sennaar and Dongola. But the Nubians at length executed their threats of returning to the worship of idols; the climate required the indulgence of polygamy; and they have finally preferred the triumph of the Koran to the abasement of the Cross. A metaphysical religion24 may appear too refined for the capacity of the negro race24; yet a black or a parrot might be taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian or Monophysite creed.
Christianity was more deeply rooted in the Abyssinian empire45; and, although the correspondence has been sometime interrupted above seventy or an hundred years45, the mother-church45 of Alexandria retains her colony in a state of perpetual pupilage. Seven bishops once composed the Aethiopic synod: had their number amounted to ten, they might have elected an independent primate; and one of their kings was ambitious of promoting his brother45 to the ecclesiastical throne45. But the event was foreseen, the increase was denied; the episcopal office has been gradually confined to the abuna, the head and author of the Abyssinian priesthood; the patriarch supplies each vacancy with an Egyptian monk; and the character45 of a stranger appears more venerable in the eyes of the people45, less dangerous in those of the monarch. In the sixth century, when the schism of Egypt was confirmed, the rival chiefs, with their patrons Justinian45 and Theodora45, strove to outstrip each other in the conquest of a remote and independent province. The industry of the empress45 was again victorious, and the pious45 Theodora45 has established in that sequestered church45 the faith and discipline of the Jacobites. Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion, the Aethiopians slept near a thousand years45, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten. They were awakened by the Portuguese, who, turning the southern promontory of Africa, appeared in India and the Red Sea, as if they had descended through the air from a distant planet. In the first moments of their interview, the subjects of Rome and Alexandria observed the resemblance, rather than the difference, of their faith; and each nation expected the most important benefits from an alliance with their Christian brethren. In their lonely situation, the Aethiopians had almost relapsed into the savage life45. Their vessels, which had traded to Ceylon, scarcely presumed to navigate the rivers of Africa; the ruins of Axume were deserted, the nation was scattered in villages, and the emperor45 (a pompous name) was content, both in peace and war, with the immoveable residence of a camp. Conscious of their own indigence, the Abyssinians had formed the rational project of importing the arts and ingenuity of Europe; and their ambassadors at Rome and Lisbon were instructed to solicit a colony of smiths, carpenters, tilers, masons, printers, surgeons, and physicians, for the use of their country. But the public45 danger soon45 called for the instant and effectual aid of arms and soldiers to defend an unwarlike people45 from the Barbarians who ravaged the inland country, and the Turks and Arabs who advanced from the sea-coast in more formidable array. Aethiopia was saved by four hundred and fifty Portuguese, who displayed in the field the native valour of Europeans and the artificial powers of the musket and cannon. In a moment of terror, the emperor45 had promised to reconcile himself and his subjects to the Catholic faith; a Latin patriarch represented the supremacy of the pope; the empire45, enlarged in a tenfold proportion, was supposed to contain more gold than the mines of America; and the wildest hopes of avarice and zeal were built on the willing submission of the Christians of Africa.
But the vows which pain had extorted were forsworn on the return of health. The Abyssinians still adhered with unshaken constancy to the Monophysite faith; their languid belief was inflamed by the exercise of dispute; they branded the Latins with the names of Arians and Nestorians, and imputed the adoration of four gods to those who separated the two natures of Christ. Fremona, a place of worship, or rather of exile, was assigned to the Jesuit missionaries. Their skill in the liberal and mechanic arts, their theological learning, and the decency of their manners inspired a barren esteem; but they were not endowed with the gift of miracles, and they vainly solicited a reinforcement of European troops3. The patience and dexterity of forty years3 at length obtained a more favourable audience, and two emperors of Abyssinia were persuaded that Rome could ensure the temporal and everlasting happiness of her votaries. The first of these royal3 converts lost his crown and his life; and the rebel army3 was sanctified by the abuna, who hurled an anathema at the apostate, and absolved his subjects from their oath of fidelity. The fate of Zadenghel was revenged by the courage and fortune of Susneus, who ascended the throne3 under the name of Segued, and more vigorously prosecuted the pious enterprise of his kinsman. After the amusement of some unequal combats between the Jesuits and his illiterate priests, the emperor3 declared himself a proselyte to the synod of Chalcedon, presuming that his clergy and people would embrace without delay the religion of their prince3. The liberty of choice was succeeded by a law which imposed, under pain of death3, the belief of the two natures of Christ: the Abyssinians were enjoined to work and to play on the Sabbath; and Segued, in the face of Europe and Africa, renounced his connection with the Alexandrian church. A Jesuit, Alphonso Mendez, the Catholic patriarch of Aethiopia, accepted in the name of Urban VIII. the homage and abjuration of his penitent. I confess, said the emperor3 on his knees, I confess that the pope is the vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, and the sovereign of the world. To him I swear true obedience, and at his feet I offer my person and kingdom. A similar oath was repeated by his son3, his brother, the clergy, the nobles, and even the ladies of the court3; the Latin patriarch was invested with honours and wealth; and his missionaries erected their churches or citadels in the most convenient stations of the empire3. The Jesuits themselves deplore the fatal indiscretion of their chief, who forgot the mildness of the gospel and the policy of his order, to introduce with hasty violence the liturgy of Rome and the inquisition of Portugal. He condemned the ancient practice of circumcision, which health rather than superstition had first invented in the climate of Aethiopia. A new baptism, a new ordination, was inflicted on the natives; and they trembled with horror when the most holy of the dead were torn from their graves, when the most illustrious of the living were excommunicated by a foreign priest. In the defence of their religion and liberty, the Abyssinians rose in arms3, with desperate but unsuccessful zeal. Five rebellions were extinguished in the blood of the insurgents; two abunas were slain in battle, whole legions were slaughtered in the field, or suffocated in their caverns: and neither merit nor rank nor sex could save from an ignominious death3 the enemies of Rome. But the victorious monarch3 was finally subdued by the constancy of the nation, of his mother, of his son3, and of his most faithful friends. Segued listened to the voice of pity, of reason, perhaps of fear; and his edict of liberty of conscience instantly revealed the tyranny and weakness of the Jesuits. On the death3 of his father, Basilides expelled the Latin patriarch, and restored to the wishes of the nation the faith and the discipline of Egypt. The Monophysite churches resounded with a song of triumph, that the sheep of Aethiopia were now delivered from the hyenas of the West; and the gates of that solitary realm were for ever shut against the arts, the science, and the fanaticism of Europe.
I have now deduced from Trajan to Constantine, from Constantine to Heraclius, the regular series of the Roman25 emperors; and faithfully exposed the prosperous and adverse fortunes of their reigns. Five centuries of the decline and fall of the empire25 have already elapsed; but a period of more than eight hundred years25 still separates me from the term of my labours, the taking of Constantinople25 by the Turks. Should I persevere in the same course, should I observe the same measure, a prolix and slender thread would be spun through many a volume, nor would the patient reader find an adequate reward of instruction or amusement. At every step, as we sink deeper in the decline and fall of the Eastern empire25, the annals25 of each succeeding reign25 would impose a more ungrateful and melancholy task. These annals25 must continue to repeat a tedious and uniform tale of weakness and misery; the natural connection of causes and events would be broken by frequent and hasty transitions, and a minute accumulation of circumstances must destroy the light and effect of those general25 pictures which compose the use and ornament of a remote history. From the time of Heraclius, the Byzantine25 theatre is contracted and darkened; the line of empire25, which had been defined by the laws of Justinian and the arms25 of Belisarius, recedes on all sides from our view; the Roman25 name, the proper subject of our inquiries, is reduced to a narrow corner of Europe, to the lonely suburbs of Constantinople25; and the fate of the Greek empire25 has been compared to that of the Rhine, which loses itself in the sands before its waters can mingle with the ocean. The scale of dominion is diminished to our view by the distance of time and place; nor is the loss of external splendour compensated by the nobler gifts of virtue25 and genius. In the last moments of her decay, Constantinople25 was doubtless more opulent and populous than Athens at her most flourishing era, when a scanty sum of six thousand25 talents, or twelve hundred thousand25 pounds sterling, was possessed by twenty-one thousand25 male citizens of an adult age25. But each of these citizens was a freeman, who dared to assert the liberty of his thoughts, words, and actions; whose person and property were guarded by equal25 law; and who exercised his independent vote in the government of the republic. Their numbers seem to be multiplied by the strong and various discriminations of character25: under the shield of freedom25, on the wings of emulation25 and vanity, each Athenian aspired to the level of the national25 dignity; from this commanding eminence some chosen spirits soared beyond the reach of a vulgar eye; and the chances of superior25 merit25 in a great and populous kingdom, as they are proved by experience, would excuse the computation of imaginary millions. The territories of Athens, Sparta, and their allies do not exceed a moderate province of France or England; but, after the trophies of Salamis and Plataea, they expand in our fancy to the gigantic size of Asia, which had been trampled under the feet of the victorious Greeks25. But the subjects25 of the Byzantine25 empire25, who assume and dishonour the names both of Greeks25 and Romans25, present a dead uniformity of abject vices, which are neither softened by the weakness of humanity nor animated by the vigour of memorable crimes. The freemen of antiquity might repeat, with generous enthusiasm, the sentence of Homer, that, on the first day of his servitude, the captive is deprived of one half of his manly virtue25. But the poet had only seen the effects of civil25 or domestic slavery, nor could he foretell that the second moiety of manhood must be annihilated by the spiritual despotism which shackles not only the actions but even the thoughts of the prostrate votary. By this double yoke, the Greeks25 were oppressed under the successors of Heraclius; the tyrant, a law of eternal justice, was degraded by the vices of his subjects25; and on the throne, in the camp, in the schools, we search, perhaps with fruitless diligence, the names and characters that may deserve to be rescued from oblivion. Nor are the defects of the subject compensated by the skill and variety of the painters. Of a space of eight hundred years25, the four first centuries are overspread with a cloud, interrupted by some faint and broken rays of historic light; in the lives of the emperors, from Maurice to Alexius, Basil the Macedonian has alone been the theme of a separate work25; and the absence, or loss, or imperfection of contemporary evidence must be poorly supplied by the doubtful authority of more recent compilers. The four last centuries are exempt from the reproach of penury; and with the Comnenian family the historic muse of Constantinople25 again revives, but her apparel is gaudy, her motions are without elegance or grace. A succession of priests, or courtiers, treads in each other's footsteps in the same path of servitude and superstition: their views are narrow, their judgment is feeble or corrupt; and we close the volume of copious barrenness, still ignorant of the causes of events, the characters of the actors, and the manners25 of the times, which they celebrate or deplore. The observation which has been applied25 to a man may be extended to a whole people25, that the energy of the sword is communicated to the pen; and it will be found, by experience, that the tone of history will rise or fall with the spirit of the age25.
From these considerations, I should have abandoned, without regret, the Greek24 slaves and their servile historians, had I not reflected that the fate of the Byzantine monarchy is passively connected with the most splendid and important revolutions which have changed the state24 of the world. The space of the lost provinces was immediately replenished with new24 colonies and rising kingdoms; the active virtues of peace and war deserted from the vanquished to the victorious nations; and it is in their origin and conquests, in their religion24 and government24, that we must explore the causes and effects of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire24. Nor will this scope of narrative, the riches and variety of these materials, be incompatible with the unity of design and composition. As, in his daily prayers, the Musulman of Fez or Delhi still turns his face towards the temple of Mecca, the historian's eye shall be always fixed on the city24 of Constantinople24. The excursive line may embrace the wilds of Arabia and Tartary, but the circle will be ultimately reduced to the decreasing limit of the Roman24 monarchy.
On this principle, I shall now establish the plan of the last two volumes of the present work. The first chapter will contain, in a regular series, the emperors who reigned at Constantinople24 during a period of six hundred years24, from the days of Heraclius to the Latin conquest24: a rapid abstract, which may be supported by a general appeal to the order and text of the original historians. In this introduction, I shall confine myself to the revolutions of the throne24, the successions of families, the personal characters of the Greek24 princes, the mode of their life24 and death24, the maxims and influence of their domestic government24, and the tendency of their reign24 to accelerate or suspend the downfall of the Eastern empire24. Such a chronological review will serve to illustrate the various argument of the subsequent chapters; and each circumstance of the eventful story of the Barbarians will adapt itself in a proper place to the Byzantine annals. The internal state24 of the empire24, and the dangerous heresy of the Paulicians, which shook the East24 and enlightened the West, will be the subject of two separate chapters; but these inquiries must be postponed till24 our further progress shall have opened the view of the world in the ninth and tenth centuries of the Christian era. After this foundation of Byzantine history, the following nations will pass before our eyes, and each will occupy the space to which it may be entitled by greatness or merit, or the degree of connection with the Roman24 world and the present age24. I. The Franks: a general appellation which includes all the Barbarians of France, Italy, and Germany, who were united by the sword and sceptre of Charlemagne. The persecution of images and their votaries separated Rome and Italy from the Byzantine throne24, and prepared the restoration of the Roman24 empire24 in the West. II. The Arabs24 or Saracens24. Three ample chapters will be devoted to this curious and interesting object. In the first, after a picture of the country and its inhabitants, I shall investigate the character of Mahomet24; the character, religion24, and success of the prophet. In the second, I shall lead the Arabs24 to the conquest24 of Syria24, Egypt24, and Africa24, the provinces of the Roman24 empire24; nor can I check their victorious career till24 they have overthrown the monarchies of Persia and Spain. In the third, I shall inquire how Constantinople24 and Europe24 were saved by the luxury and arts, the division and decay, of the empire24 of the caliphs24. A single chapter will include, III. The Bulgarians, IV. Hungarians, and V. Russians, who assaulted by sea24 or by land the provinces and the capital; but the last of these, so important in their present greatness, will excite some curiosity in their origin and infancy. VI. The Normans; or rather the private adventurers of that warlike people24, who founded a powerful kingdom in Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne24 of Constantinople24, displayed the trophies of chivalry, and almost realised the wonders of romance. VII. The Latins; the subjects of the pope, the nations of the West, who enlisted under the banner of the Cross, for the recovery or relief of the holy sepulchre. The Greek24 emperors were terrified and preserved by the myriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with Godfrey of Bouillon and the peers of Christendom. The second and third crusades trod in the footsteps of the first: Asia24 and Europe24 were mingled in a sacred war of two hundred years24; and the Christian powers were bravely resisted, and finally expelled, by Saladin and the Mamalukes of Egypt24. In these memorable crusades, a fleet and army of French and Venetians were diverted from Syria24 to the Thracian Bosphorus; they assaulted the capital, they subverted the Greek24 monarchy; and a dynasty of Latin princes was seated near threescore years24 on the throne24 of Constantine. VIII. The Greeks24 themselves, during this period of captivity and exile, must be considered as a foreign nation, the enemies, and again the sovereigns, of Constantinople24. Misfortune had rekindled a spark of national virtue; and the Imperial series may be continued, with some dignity, from their restoration to the Turkish24 conquest24. IX. The Moguls and Tartars. By the arms of Zingis and his descendants the globe was shaken from China to Poland and Greece; the Sultans were overthrown; the caliphs24 fell; and the Caesars trembled on their throne24. The victories of Timour suspended, above fifty years24, the final ruin of the Byzantine empire24. X. I have already noticed the first appearance of the Turks; and the names of the fathers, of Seljuk and Othman, discriminate the two successive dynasties of the nation which emerged in the eleventh century from the Scythian wilderness. The former established a potent and splendid kingdom from the banks of the Oxus to Antioch and Nice; and the first crusade was provoked by the violation of Jerusalem and the danger of Constantinople24. From an humble origin, the Ottomans arose, the scourge and terror of Christendom. Constantinople24 was besieged and taken by Mahomet24 II., and his triumph annihilates the remnant, the image, the title, of the Roman24 empire24 in the East24. The schism of the Greeks24 will be connected with their last calamities, and the restoration of learning in the Western world. I shall return from the captivity of the new24, to the ruins of ancient, Rome; and the venerable name, the interesting theme, will shed a ray of glory on the conclusion of my labours.
The emperor30 Heraclius had punished a tyrant and ascended his throne; and the memory of his reign is perpetuated by the transient conquest, and irreparable loss, of the Eastern provinces. After the death30 of Eudocia, his first wife, he disobeyed the patriarch, and violated the laws, by his second30 marriage with his niece Martina; and the superstition of the Greeks30 beheld the judgment of heaven in the diseases of the father and the deformity of his offspring. But the opinion of an illegitimate birth is sufficient to distract the choice, and loosen the obedience, of the people30; the ambition of Martina was quickened by maternal love, and perhaps by the envy of a step-mother; and the aged husband was too feeble to withstand the arts of conjugal allurements. Constantine, his eldest son30, enjoyed in a mature age the title of Augustus; but the weakness of his constitution required a colleague and a guardian, and he yielded with secret reluctance to the partition of the empire30. The senate was summoned to the palace30 to ratify or attest the association of Heracleonas, the son30 of Martina; the imposition of the diadem was consecrated by the prayer and blessing of the patriarch; the senators and patricians adored the majesty of the great emperor30 and the partners of his reign; and, as soon30 as the doors were thrown open, they were hailed by the tumultuary but important voice of the soldiers30. After an interval of five months, the pompous ceremonies which formed the essence of the Byzantine30 state were celebrated in the cathedral and hippodrome; the concord of the royal30 brothers was affectedly displayed by the younger leaning on the arm of the elder; and the name of Martina was mingled in the reluctant or venal acclamations of the people30. Heraclius survived this association about two years30; his last testimony declared his two sons the equal heirs of the Eastern empire30, and commanded them to honour his widow Martina as their mother and their sovereign.
When Martina first appeared on the throne with the name and attributes of royalty, she was checked by a firm, though respectful, opposition; and the dying embers of freedom were kindled by the breath of superstitious prejudice. We reverence, exclaimed the voice of a citizen, we reverence the mother of our princes; but to those princes alone our obedience is due; and Constantine, the elder emperor30, is of an age to sustain, in his own hands, the weight of the sceptre. Your sex is excluded by nature from the toils of government. How could you combat, how could you answer, the Barbarians, who, with hostile or friendly intentions, may approach the royal30 city30? May heaven avert from the Roman30 republic this national disgrace, which would provoke the patience of the slaves of Persia! Martina descended from the throne with indignation, and sought a refuge in the female apartment of the palace30. The reign of Constantine the Third lasted only one hundred and three days30; he expired in the thirtieth year of his age, and, although his life had been a long30 malady, a belief was entertained that poison had been the means, and his cruel step-mother the author, of his untimely fate. Martina reaped, indeed, the harvest of his death30, and assumed the government in the name of the surviving emperor30; but the incestuous widow of Heraclius was universally abhorred; the jealousy of the people30 was awakened; and the two orphans, whom Constantine had left30, became the objects of the public care. It was in vain that the son30 of Martina, who was no more than fifteen years30 of age, was taught to declare himself the guardian of his nephews, one of whom he had presented at the baptismal font; it was in vain that he swore on the wood of the true cross to defend them against all their enemies30. On his death30-bed, the late emperor30 despatched a trusty servant to arm the troops30 and provinces of the East in the defence of his helpless children; the eloquence and liberality of Valentin had been successful, and from his camp30 of Chalcedon he boldly demanded the punishment of the assassins and the restoration of the lawful heir. The licence of the soldiers30, who devoured the grapes and drank the wine of their Asiatic vineyards, provoked the citizens of Constantinople30 against the domestic authors of their calamities, and the dome of St30. Sophia re-echoed, not with prayers and hymns, but with the clamours and imprecations of an enraged multitude. At their imperious command, Heracleonas appeared in the pulpit with the eldest of the royal30 orphans; Constans alone was saluted as emperor30 of the Romans; and a crown of gold30, which had been taken from the tomb of Heraclius, was placed on his head30, with the solemn benediction of the patriarch. But in the tumult of joy and indignation the church was pillaged, the sanctuary was polluted by a promiscuous crowd of Jews and Barbarians; and the Monothelite Pyrrhus, a creature of the empress, after dropping a protestation on the altar, escaped by a prudent flight from the zeal of the Catholics. A more serious and bloody task was reserved for the senate, who derived a temporary strength from the consent of the soldiers30 and people30. The spirit of Roman30 freedom revived the ancient and awful examples of the judgment of tyrants, and the Imperial culprits were deposed and condemned as the authors of the death30 of Constantine. But the severity of the conscript fathers was stained by the indiscriminate punishment of the innocent and the guilty: Martina and Heracleonas were sentenced to the amputation, the former of her tongue, the latter of his nose; and after this cruel execution they consumed the remainder of their days30 in exile and oblivion. The Greeks30 who were capable of reflection might find some consolation for their servitude, by observing the abuse of power when it was lodged for a moment in the hands of an aristocracy.
We shall imagine ourselves transported five hundred years backwards to the age47 of the Antonines, if we listen to the oration which Constans II. pronounced in the twelfth year of his age47 before the Byzantine senate47. After returning his thanks for the just punishment of the assassins who had intercepted the fairest hopes of his father47's reign47, By the divine providence, said the young emperor47, and by your righteous decree, Martina and her incestuous progeny have been cast headlong from the throne47. Your majesty and wisdom have prevented the Roman47 state from degenerating into lawless tyranny. I therefore exhort and beseech you to stand forth as the counsellors and judges of the common safety. The senators were gratified by the respectful address and liberal donative of their sovereign47; but these servile Greeks were unworthy and regardless of freedom; and, in his mind, the lesson of an hour was quickly erased by the prejudices of the age47 and the habits of despotism. He retained only a jealous fear lest the senate47 or people47 should one day invade the right of primogeniture and seat his brother Theodosius47 on an equal throne47. By the imposition of holy orders, the grandson of Heraclius was disqualified for the purple; but this ceremony, which seemed to profane the sacraments of the church, was insufficient to appease the suspicions of the tyrant47, and the death47 of the deacon Theodosius47 could alone expiate the crime of his royal birth. His murder was avenged by the imprecations of the people47, and the assassin, in the fulness of power47, was driven from his capital into voluntary and perpetual exile. Constans embarked for Greece; and, as if he meant to retort the abhorrence which he deserved, he is said, from the Imperial47 galley, to have spit against the walls of his native city47. After passing the winter at Athens, he sailed to Tarentum in Italy47, visited Rome47, and concluded a long47 pilgrimage of disgrace and sacrilegious rapine, by fixing his residence at Syracuse. But, if Constans could fly from his people47, he could not fly from himself. The remorse of his conscience created a phantom who pursued him by land and sea, by day and by night; and the visionary Theodosius47, presenting to his lips a cup of blood, said, or seemed to say, Drink, brother, drink: a sure emblem of the aggravation of his guilt, since he had received from the hands of the deacon the mystic cup of the blood of Christ. Odious to himself and to mankind, Constans perished by domestic, perhaps by episcopal, treason in the capital of Sicily. A servant who waited in the bath, after pouring warm water on his head, struck him violently with the vase. He fell, stunned by the blow and suffocated by the water; and his attendants, who wondered at the tedious delay, beheld with indifference the corpse of their lifeless emperor47. The troops47 of Sicily invested with the purple an obscure youth, whose inimitable beauty eluded, and it might easily elude, the declining art of the painters and sculptors of the age47.
Constans had left in the Byzantine palace21 three sons, the eldest of whom had been clothed in his infancy with the purple. When the father summoned them to attend his person in Sicily, these precious hostages were detained by the Greeks, and a firm refusal informed him that they were the children of the state. The news of his murder was conveyed with almost supernatural speed from Syracuse to Constantinople; and Constantine21, the eldest of his sons, inherited his throne21 without being the heir of the public21 hatred. His subjects contributed with zeal and alacrity, to chastise the guilt21 and presumption of a province which had usurped the rights of the senate21 and people21; the young emperor sailed from the Hellespont with a powerful fleet; and the legions of Rome21 and Carthage were assembled under his standard in the harbour of Syracuse. The defeat of the Sicilian tyrant was easy, his punishment just, and his beauteous head21 was exposed in the hippodrome; but I cannot applaud the clemency of a prince who, among a crowd of victors, condemned the son of a patrician for deploring with some bitterness the execution of a virtuous father. The youth was castrated; he survived the operation; and the memory of this indecent cruelty is preserved by the elevation of Germanus to the rank of a patriarch and saint. After pouring this bloody libation on his father's tomb, Constantine21 returned to his capital, and the growth of his young beard during the Sicilian voyage was announced, by the familiar surname of Pogonatus, to the Grecian world21. But his reign21, like that of his predecessor, was stained with fraternal discord. On his two brothers, Heraclius and Tiberius, he had bestowed the title21 of Augustus21: an empty title21, for they continued to languish, without trust or power, in the solitude of the palace21. At their secret21 instigation, the troops of the Anatolian theme21 or province approached the city on the Asiatic side, demanded for the royal brothers the partition or exercise of sovereignty, and supported their seditious claim by a theological argument. They were Christians (they cried) and orthodox Catholics; the sincere votaries of the holy21 and undivided Trinity. Since there are three equal21 persons in heaven, it is reasonable there should be three equal21 persons upon earth. The emperor invited these learned divines to a friendly conference, in which they might propose their arguments to the senate21; they obeyed the summons; but the prospect of their bodies hanging on the gibbet in the suburb of Galata reconciled their companions to the unity of the reign21 of Constantine21. He pardoned his brothers, and their names were still pronounced in the public21 acclamations; but, on the repetition or suspicion of a similar offence, the obnoxious princes21 were deprived of their titles and noses, in the presence of the Catholic bishops who were assembled at Constantinople in the sixth general synod. In the close of his life21, Pogonatus was anxious only to establish the right of primogeniture; the hair of his two sons, Justinian and Heraclius, was offered on the shrine of St. Peter, as a symbol of their spiritual adoption by the pope21; but the elder was alone exalted to the rank of Augustus21 and the assurance of the empire.
After the decease of his father, the inheritance of the Roman30 world devolved to Justinian30 II.; and the name of a triumphant lawgiver was dishonoured by the vices of a boy, who imitated his namesake only in the expensive luxury of building. His passions were strong; his understanding was feeble; and he was intoxicated with a foolish pride that his birth had given him the command of millions, of whom the smallest community would not have chosen him for their local magistrate. His favourite ministers were two beings the least susceptible of human sympathy, an eunuch and a monk; to the one he abandoned the palace30, to the other the finances; the former corrected the emperor30's mother with a scourge, the latter suspended the insolvent tributaries, with their heads downwards, over a slow and smoky fire. Since the days30 of Commodus and Caracalla, the cruelty of the Roman30 princes had most commonly been the effect of their fear; but Justinian30, who possessed some vigour of character, enjoyed the sufferings, and braved the revenge, of his subjects about ten years30, till30 the measure was full, of his crimes and of their patience. In a dark dungeon, Leontius, a general30 of reputation, had groaned above three years30 with some of the noblest and most deserving of the patricians; he was suddenly drawn forth to assume the government of Greece; and this promotion of an injured man was a mark of the contempt rather than of the confidence of his prince30. As he was followed to the port by the kind offices of his friends, Leontius observed, with a sigh, that he was a victim adorned for sacrifice and that inevitable death30 would pursue his footsteps. They ventured to reply that glory and empire30 might be the recompense of a generous resolution; that every order of men abhorred the reign of a monster; and that the hands of two hundred thousand30 patriots expected only the voice of a leader. The night was chosen for their deliverance; and, in the first effort of the conspirators, the prefect was slain and the prisons were forced open; the emissaries of Leontius proclaimed in every street, Christians, to St30. Sophia!; and the seasonable text of the patriarch, this is the day30 of the Lord! was the prelude of an inflammatory sermon. From the church the people30 adjourned to the hippodrome; Justinian30, in whose cause not a sword30 had been drawn, was dragged before these tumultuary judges, and their clamours demanded the instant death30 of the tyrant. But Leontius, who was already clothed with the purple, cast an eye of pity on the prostrate son30 of his own benefactor, and of so many emperors. The life of Justinian30 was spared; the amputation of his nose, perhaps of his tongue, was imperfectly performed; the happy flexibility of the Greek30 language could impose the name of Rhinotmetus; and the mutilated tyrant was banished to Chersonae in Crim-Tartary, a lonely settlement, where corn, wine, and oil were imported as foreign luxuries.
On the edge of the Scythian wilderness, Justinian30 still cherished the pride of his birth and the hope of his restoration. After three years30' exile, he received the pleasing intelligence that his injury was avenged by a second30 revolution, and that Leontius in his turn had been dethroned and mutilated by the rebel Apsimar, who assumed the more respectable name of Tiberius. But the claim of lineal succession was still formidable to a plebeian usurper; and his jealousy was stimulated by the complaints and charges of the Chersonites, who beheld the vices of the tyrant in the spirit of the exile. With a band of followers, attached to his person by common hope or common despair, Justinian30 fled from the inhospitable shore to the horde of the Chozars, who pitched their tents between the Tanais and Borysthenes. The khan entertained with pity and respect the royal30 suppliant; Phanagoria, once an opulent city30, on the Asiatic side of the lake Maeotis, was assigned for his residence; and every Roman30 prejudice was stifled in his marriage with the sister of the Barbarian, who seems, however, from the name of Theodora, to have received the sacrament of baptism. But the faithless Chozar was soon30 tempted by the gold30 of Constantinople30; and, had not the design been revealed by the conjugal love of Theodora, her husband must have been assassinated or betrayed into the power of his enemies30. After strangling, with his own hands, the two emissaries of the khan, Justinian30 sent back his wife to her brother, and embarked on the Euxine in search of new30 and more faithful allies. His vessel was assaulted by a violent tempest; and one of his pious companions advised him to deserve the mercy of God by a vow of general30 forgiveness, if he should be restored to the throne. Of forgiveness? replied the intrepid tyrant; may I perish this instant — may the Almighty whelm me in the waves — if I consent to spare a single head30 of my enemies30! He survived this impious menace, sailed into the mouth of the Danube, trusted his person in the royal30 village of the Bulgarians, and purchased the aid of Terbelis, a Pagan conqueror, by the promise of his daughter and a fair partition of the treasures of the empire30. The Bulgarian kingdom extended to the confines of Thrace; and the two princes besieged Constantinople30 at the head30 of fifteen thousand30 horse30. Apsimar was dismayed by the sudden and hostile apparition of his rival, whose head30 had been promised by the Chozar, and of whose evasion he was yet ignorant. After an absence of ten years30, the crimes of Justinian30 were faintly remembered, and the birth and misfortunes of their hereditary sovereign excited the pity of the multitude, ever discontented with the ruling powers; and by the active diligence of his adherents he was introduced into the city30 and palace30 of Constantine.
In rewarding his allies and recalling his wife, Justinian30 displayed some sense of honour and gratitude; and Terbelis retired, after sweeping away an heap of gold30 coin, which he measured with his Scythian whip. But never was vow more religiously performed than the sacred oath of revenge which he had sworn amidst the storms of the Euxine. The two usurpers, for I must reserve the name of tyrant for the conqueror, were dragged into the hippodrome, the one from his prison, the other from his palace30. Before their execution, Leontius and Apsimar were cast prostrate in chains beneath the throne of the emperor30; and Justinian30, planting a foot on each of their necks, contemplated above an hour the chariotrace, while the inconstant people30 shouted, in the words of the Psalmist, Thou shalt trample on the asp and basilisk, and on the lion and dragon shalt thou set thy foot! The universal defection which he had once experienced might provoke him to repeat the wish of Caligula, that the Roman30 people30 had but one head30. Yet I shall presume to observe that such a wish is unworthy of an ingenious tyrant, since his revenge and cruelty would have been extinguished by a single blow, instead of the slow variety of tortures which Justinian30 inflicted on the victims of his anger. His pleasures were inexhaustible; neither private virtue nor public service30 could expiate the guilt of active or even passive obedience to an established government; and, during the six years30 of his new30 reign, he considered the axe, the cord, and the rack as the only instruments of royalty. But his most implacable hatred was pointed against the Chersonites, who had insulted his exile and violated the laws of hospitality. Their remote situation afforded some means of defence, or at least of escape; and a grievous tax was imposed on Constantinople30, to supply the preparations of a fleet and army30. All are guilty, and all must perish, was the mandate of Justinian30; and the bloody execution was entrusted to his favourite Stephen, who was recommended by the epithet of the Savage. Yet even the savage Stephen imperfectly accomplished the intentions of his sovereign. The slowness of his attack allowed the greater part of the inhabitants to withdraw into the country; and the minister of vengeance contented himself with reducing the youth of both sexes to a state of servitude, with roasting alive seven of the principal citizens, with drowning twenty in the sea, and with reserving forty-two in chains to receive their doom from the mouth of the emperor30. In their return, the fleet was driven on the rocky shores of Anatolia, and Justinian30 applauded the obedience of the Euxine, which had involved so many thousands of his subjects and enemies30 in a common shipwreck; but the tyrant was still insatiate of blood, and a second30 expedition was commanded to extirpate the remains of the proscribed colony. In the short interval, the Chersonites had returned to their city30, and were prepared to die in arms30; the khan of the Chozars had renounced the cause of his odious brother; the exiles of every province were assembled in Tauris; and Bardanes, under the name of Philippicus, was invested with the purple. The Imperial troops30, unwilling and unable to perpetrate the revenge of Justinian30, escaped his displeasure by abjuring his allegiance; the fleet, under their new30 sovereign, steered back a more auspicious course to the harbours of Sinope and Constantinople30; and every tongue was prompt to pronounce, every hand to execute, the death30 of the tyrant. Destitute of friends, he was deserted by his Barbarian guards; and the stroke of the assassin was praised as an act of patriotism and Roman30 virtue. His son30 Tiberius had taken refuge in a church; his aged grandmother guarded the door; and the innocent youth, suspending round his neck the most formidable relics, embraced with one hand the altar, with the other the wood of the true cross. But the popular fury that dares to trample on superstition is deaf to the cries of humanity; and the race of Heraclius was extinguished after a reign of one hundred years30.
Between the fall of the Heraclian and the rise of the Isaurian dynasty, a short interval of six years30 is divided into three reigns. Bardanes, or Philippicus, was hailed at Constantinople30 as an hero who had delivered his country from a tyrant; and he might taste some moments of happiness in the first transports of sincere and universal joy. Justinian30 had left30 behind him an ample treasure, the fruit of cruelty and rapine; but this useful fund was soon30 and idly dissipated by his successor. On the festival of his birthday, Philippicus entertained the multitude with the games of the hippodrome; from thence he paraded through the streets with a thousand30 banners and a thousand30 trumpets; refreshed himself in the baths of Zeuxippus; and, returning to the palace30, entertained his nobles with a sumptuous banquet. At the meridian hour he withdrew to his chamber, intoxicated with flattery and wine, and forgetful that his example had made every subject ambitious and that every ambitious subject was his secret enemy30. Some bold conspirators introduced themselves in the disorder of the feast; and the slumbering monarch was surprised, bound, blinded, and deposed, before he was sensible of his danger. Yet the traitors were deprived of their reward; and the free voice of the senate and people30 promoted Artemius from the office of secretary to that of emperor30: he assumed the title of Anastasius the Second30, and displayed in a short and troubled reign the virtues both of peace and war30. But, after the extinction of the Imperial line, the rule of obedience was violated, and every change diffused the seeds of new30 revolutions. In a mutiny of the fleet, an obscure and reluctant officer of the revenue was forcibly invested with the purple; after some months of a naval war30, Anastasius resigned the sceptre; and the conqueror, Theodosius the Third, submitted in his turn to the superior ascendant of Leo, the general30 and emperor30 of the Oriental troops30. His two predecessors were permitted to embrace the ecclesiastical profession; the restless impatience of Anastasius tempted him to risk and to lose his life in a treasonable enterprise; but the last days30 of Theodosius were honourable and secure. The single sublime word, health, which he inscribed on his tomb, expresses the confidence of philosophy or religion; and the fame of his miracles was long30 preserved among the people30 of Ephesus. This convenient shelter of the church might sometimes impose a lesson of clemency; but it may be questioned whether it is for the public interest to diminish the perils of unsuccessful ambition.
I have dwelt on the fall of a tyrant47; I shall briefly represent the founder of a new dynasty, who is known to posterity by the invectives of his enemies, and whose public47 and private47 life47 is involved in the ecclesiastical story of the Iconoclasts. Yet in spite of the clamours of superstition, a favourable prejudice for the character of Leo the Isaurian may be reasonably drawn from the obscurity of his birth and the duration of his reign47. — I. In an age47 of manly spirit47, the prospect of an Imperial47 reward would have kindled every energy of the mind, and produced a crowd of competitors as deserving as they were desirous to reign47. Even in the corruption and debility of the modern Greeks, the elevation of a plebeian from the last to the first rank47 of society supposes some qualifications above the level of the multitude. He would probably be ignorant and disdainful of speculative science; and in the pursuit of fortune he might absolve himself from the obligations of benevolence and justice47; but to his character we may ascribe the useful virtues of prudence and fortitude, the knowledge of mankind, and the important art of gaining their confidence and directing their passions. It is agreed that Leo was a native of Isauria, and that Conon was his primitive name. The writers, whose awkward satire is praise, describe him as an itinerant pedlar, who drove an ass with some paltry merchandise to the country fairs; and foolishly relate that he met on the road some Jewish fortunetellers, who promised him the Roman47 empire47 on condition that he should abolish the worship of idols. A more probable account relates the migration of his father47 from Asia Minor to Thrace, where he exercised the lucrative trade of a grazier; and he must have acquired considerable wealth, since the first introduction of his son47 was procured by a supply of five hundred sheep to the Imperial47 camp. His first service was in the guards of Justinian, where he soon47 attracted the notice, and by degrees the jealousy, of the tyrant47. His valour and dexterity were conspicuous in the Colchian war47; from Anastasius he received the command47 of the Anatolian legions; and by the suffrage of the soldiers47 he was raised to the empire47, with the general47 applause of the Roman47 world. — II. In this dangerous elevation, Leo the Third supported himself against the envy of his equals, the discontent of a powerful faction, and the assaults of his foreign and domestic enemies. The Catholics, who accuse his religious innovations, are obliged to confess that they were undertaken with temper and conducted with firmness. Their silence respects the wisdom of his administration and the purity of his manners. After a reign47 of twenty-four years, he peaceably expired in the palace47 of Constantinople; and the purple which he had acquired was transmitted, by the right of inheritance, to the third generation.
In a long22 reign22 of thirty-four years22, the son22 and successor of Leo, Constantine22 the Fifth, surnamed Copronymus, attacked, with less temperate zeal, the images or idols of the church. Their votaries have exhausted the bitterness of religious gall in their portrait of this spotted panther, this antichrist, this flying dragon of the serpent's seed, who surpassed the vices of Elagabalus and Nero. His reign22 was a long22 butchery of whatever was most noble, or holy, or innocent in his empire22. In person, the emperor22 assisted at the execution of his victims, surveyed their agonies, listened to their groans, and indulged, without satiating, his appetite for blood22; a plate of noses was accepted as a grateful offering, and his domestics were often scourged or mutilated by the royal hand. His surname was derived from his pollution of his baptismal font. The infant might be excused; but the manly pleasures of Copronymus degraded him below the level of a brute; his lust confounded the eternal distinctions of sex and species; and he seemed to extract some unnatural delight from the objects most offensive to human22 sense. In his religion, the Iconoclast was an Heretic, a Jew, a Mahometan, a Pagan, and an Atheist; and his belief of an invisible power22 could be discovered only in his magic rites, human22 victims, and nocturnal sacrifices to Venus and the demons of antiquity. His life was stained with the most opposite vices, and the ulcers which covered his body anticipated before his death22 the sentiment of hell-tortures. Of these accusations, which I have so patiently copied, a part is refuted by its own absurdity; and, in the private anecdotes of the life of princes, the lie is more easy as the detection is more difficult. Without adopting the pernicious maxim that, where much is alleged, something must be true, I can however discern that Constantine22 the Fifth was dissolute and cruel. Calumny is more prone to exaggerate than to invent; and her licentious tongue is checked in some measure by the experience of the age22 and country to which she appeals. Of the bishops and monks, the generals and magistrates, who are said to have suffered under his reign22, the numbers are recorded, the names were conspicuous, the execution was public22, the mutilation visible and permanent. The Catholics hated the person and government of Copronymus; but even their hatred is a proof of their oppression. They dissemble the provocations which might excuse or justify his rigour, but even these provocations must gradually inflame his resentment and harden his temper in the use or the abuse of despotism. Yet the character22 of the fifth Constantine22 was not devoid of merit22, nor did his government always deserve the curses or the contempt of the Greeks. From the confession of his enemies, I am informed of the restoration of an ancient aqueduct, of the redemption of two thousand five hundred captives, of the uncommon plenty of the times22, and of the new22 colonies with which he repeopled Constantinople22 and the Thracian cities. They reluctantly praise his activity and courage; he was on horseback in the field at the head of his legions; and, although the fortune of his arms was various22, he triumphed by sea and land, on the Euphrates and the Danube, in civil and barbarian war22. Heretical praise must be cast into the scale, to counterbalance the weight of orthodox invective. The Iconoclasts revered the virtues22 of the prince22: forty years22 after his death22, they still prayed before the tomb of the saint. A miraculous vision was propagated by fanaticism or fraud; and the Christian hero appeared on a milk-white steed, brandishing his lance against the Pagans of Bulgaria: An absurd fable, says the Catholic historian22, since Copronymus is chained with the demons in the abyss of hell.
Leo the Fourth, the son31 of the fifth31, and the father31 of the sixth, Constantine31, was of a feeble constitution both of mind31 and body31, and the principal care of his reign31 was the settlement of the succession. The association of the young Constantine31 was urged by the officious zeal of his subjects; and the emperor31, conscious of his decay, complied, after a prudent hesitation, with their unanimous wishes. The royal infant, at the age31 of five years31, was crowned with his mother31 Irene; and the national consent was ratified by every circumstance of pomp and solemnity that could dazzle the eyes31, or bind the conscience, of the Greeks. An oath of fidelity was administered in the palace31, the church, and the hippodrome, to the several orders of the state, who adjured the holy names of the son31, and mother31, of God. Be witness, O Christ! that we will watch over the safety of Constantine31 the son31 of Leo, expose our lives in his service, and bear true allegiance to his person and posterity. They pledged their faith on the wood of the true cross, and the act of their engagement was deposited on the altar of St. Sophia. The first to swear, and the first to violate their oath, were the five sons31 of Copronymus by a second31 marriage; and the story of these princes is singular and tragic. The right of primogeniture excluded them from the throne; the injustice of their elder brother31 defrauded them of a legacy of about two millions sterling; some vain titles were not deemed a sufficient compensation for wealth and power; and they repeatedly conspired against their nephew, before and after the death31 of his father31. Their first attempt was pardoned; for the second31 offence they were condemned to the ecclesiastical state; and for the third treason Nicephorus31, the eldest and most guilty, was deprived of his eyes31, and his four brothers, Christopher, Nicetas, Anthimus, and Eudoxus, were punished, as a milder sentence, by the amputation of their tongues. After five years31' confinement, they escaped to the church of St. Sophia, and displayed a pathetic spectacle to the people. Countrymen and Christians, cried Nicephorus31 for himself and his mute brethren, behold the sons31 of your emperor31, if you can still recognise our features31 in this miserable state. A life31, an imperfect life31, is all that the malice of our enemies has spared. It is now threatened, and we now throw ourselves on your compassion. The rising murmur might have produced a revolution, had it not been checked by the presence of a minister, who soothed the unhappy princes with flattery and hope, and gently drew them from the sanctuary to the palace31. They were speedily embarked for Greece, and Athens was allotted for the place of their exile. In this calm retreat, and in their helpless condition, Nicephorus31 and his brothers were tormented by the thirst of power, and tempted by a Sclavonian chief, who offered to break their prison and to lead them in arms, and in the purple, to the gates of Constantinople31. But the Athenian people, ever zealous in the cause of Irene, prevented their justice or cruelty; and the five sons31 of Copronymus were plunged in eternal darkness and oblivion.
For himself, that emperor47 had chosen a Barbarian wife, the daughter of the khan of the Chozars; but in the marriage of his heir he preferred an Athenian virgin, an orphan, seventeen years old, whose sole fortune must have consisted in her personal accomplishments. The nuptials of Leo and Irene were celebrated with royal pomp; she soon47 acquired the love and confidence of a feeble husband; and in his testament he declared the empress guardian of the Roman47 world, and of their son47 Constantine47 the Sixth, who was no more than ten years of age47. During his childhood, Irene most ably and assiduously discharged, in her public47 administration, the duties of a faithful mother; and her zeal in the restoration of images has deserved the name and honours of a saint, which she still occupies in the Greek calendar. But the emperor47 attained the maturity of youth; the maternal yoke became more grievous; and he listened to the favourites of his own age47, who shared his pleasures, and were ambitious of sharing his power47. Their reasons convinced him of his right, their praises of his ability, to reign47; and he consented to reward the services of Irene by a perpetual banishment to the isle of Sicily. But her vigilance and penetration easily disconcerted their rash projects; a similar or more severe punishment was retaliated on themselves and their advisers; and Irene inflicted on the ungrateful prince47 the chastisement of a boy. After this contest, the mother and the son47 were at the head of two domestic factions; and, instead of mild influence and voluntary obedience, she held in chains a captive and an enemy. The empress was overthrown by the abuse of victory; the oath of fidelity, which she exacted to herself alone, was pronounced with reluctant murmurs; and the bold refusal of the Armenian guards encouraged a free and general47 declaration that Constantine47 the Sixth was the lawful emperor47 of the Romans. In this character he ascended his hereditary throne47, and dismissed Irene to a life47 of solitude and repose. But her haughty spirit47 condescended to the arts of dissimulation: she flattered the bishops and eunuchs, revived the filial tenderness of the prince47, regained his confidence, and betrayed his credulity. The character of Constantine47 was not destitute of sense or spirit47; but his education had been studiously neglected; and his ambitious mother exposed to the public47 censure the vices which she had nourished and the actions which she had secretly advised. His divorce and second marriage offended the prejudices of the clergy, and, by his imprudent rigour, he forfeited the attachment of the Armenian guards. A powerful conspiracy was formed for the restoration of Irene; and the secret47, though widely diffused, was faithfully kept above eight months, till the emperor47, suspicious of his danger47, escaped from Constantinople, with the design of appealing to the provinces47 and armies. By this hasty flight, the empress was left on the brink of the precipice; yet, before she implored the mercy of her son47, Irene addressed a private47 epistle to the friends whom she had placed about his person47, with a menace that, unless they accomplished, she would reveal, their treason. Their fear rendered them intrepid; they seized the emperor47 on the Asiatic shore, and he was transported to the porphyry apartment of the palace47, where he had first seen the light. In the mind of Irene, ambition had stifled every sentiment of humanity and nature; and it was decreed in her bloody council that Constantine47 should be rendered incapable of the throne47. Her emissaries assaulted the sleeping prince47, and stabbed their daggers with such violence and precipitation into his eyes, as if they meant to execute a mortal sentence. An ambiguous passage of Theophanes persuaded the annalist of the church that death47 was the immediate consequence of this barbarous execution. The Catholics have been deceived or subdued by the authority47 of Baronius; and Protestant zeal has reechoed the words of a cardinal, desirous, as it should seem, to favour the patroness of images. Yet the blind son47 of Irene survived many years, oppressed by the court, and forgotten by the world; the Isaurian dynasty was silently extinguished; and the memory of Constantine47 was recalled only by the nuptials of his daughter Euphrosyne with the emperor47 Michael the Second.
The most bigoted orthodoxy has justly execrated the unnatural mother, who may not easily be paralleled in the history of crimes. To her bloody deed superstition has attributed a subsequent darkness of seventeen days30; during which many vessels in mid-day30 were driven from their course, as if the sun, a globe of fire so vast and so remote, could sympathise with the atoms of a revolving planet. On earth, the crime of Irene was left30 five years30 unpunished; her reign was crowned with external splendour; and, if she could silence the voice of conscience, she neither heard nor regarded the reproaches of mankind. The Roman30 world bowed to the government of a female; and, as she moved through the streets of Constantinople30, the reins of four milk-white steeds were held by as many patricians, who marched on foot before the golden chariot of their queen. But these patricians were for the most part eunuchs; and their black ingratitude justified, on this occasion, the popular hatred and contempt. Raised, enriched, entrusted with the first dignities of the empire30, they basely conspired against their benefactress; the great treasurer Nicephorus was secretly invested with the purple; her successor was introduced into the palace30, and crowned at St30. Sophia by the venal patriarch. In their first interview, she recapitulated, with dignity, the revolutions of her life, gently accused the perfidy of Nicephorus, insinuated that he owed his life to her unsuspicious clemency, and, for the throne and treasures which she resigned, solicited a decent and honourable retreat. His avarice refused this modest compensation; and, in her exile of the isle of Lesbos, the empress earned a scanty subsistence by the labours of her distaff.
Many tyrants have reigned undoubtedly more criminal than Nicephorus, but none perhaps have more deeply incurred the universal abhorrence of their people47. His character was stained with the three odious vices of hypocrisy, ingratitude, and avarice; his want of virtue was not redeemed by any superior talents, nor his want of talents by any pleasing qualifications. Unskilful and unfortunate in war47, Nicephorus was vanquished by the Saracens, and slain by the Bulgarians; and the advantages of his death47 overbalanced, in the public47 opinion, the destruction of a Roman47 army47. His son47 and heir Stauracius escaped from the field with a mortal wound; yet six months of an expiring life47 were sufficient to refute his indecent, though popular, declaration that he would in all things avoid the example of his father47. On the near prospect of his decease, Michael, the great master47 of the palace47 and the husband of his sister Procopia, was named by every person47 of the palace47 and city47, except by his envious brother. Tenacious of a sceptre now falling from his hand, he conspired against the life47 of his successor, and cherished the idea of changing to a democracy the Roman47 empire47. But these rash projects served only to inflame the zeal of the people47, and to remove the scruples of the candidate; Michael the First accepted the purple, and, before he sunk into the grave, the son47 of Nicephorus implored the clemency of his new sovereign47. Had Michael in an age47 of peace ascended an hereditary throne47, he might have reigned and died the father47 of his people47; but his mild virtues were adapted to the shade of private47 life47, nor was he capable of controlling the ambition of his equals or of resisting the arms47 of the victorious Bulgarians. While his want of ability and success exposed him to the contempt of the soldiers47, the masculine spirit47 of his wife Procopia awakened their indignation. Even the Greeks of the ninth century were provoked by the insolence of a female, who, in the front of their standards, presumed to direct their discipline and animate their valour; and their licentious clamours advised the new Semiramis to reverence the majesty of a Roman47 camp. After an unsuccessful campaign, the emperor47 left, in their winter quarters of Thrace, a disaffected army47 under the command47 of his enemies; and their artful eloquence persuaded the soldiers47 to break the dominion of the eunuchs, to degrade the husband of Procopia, and to assert the right of a military47 election. They marched towards the capital; yet the clergy, the senate47, and the people47 of Constantinople adhered to the cause of Michael; and the troops47 and treasures of Asia might have protracted the mischiefs of civil47 war47. But his humanity (by the ambitious, it will be termed his weakness) protested that not a drop of Christian blood should be shed in his quarrel, and his messengers presented the conquerors with the keys of the city47 and the palace47. They were disarmed by his innocence and submission; his life47 and his eyes were spared; and the Imperial47 monk enjoyed the comforts of solitude and religion above thirty-two years after he had been stripped of the purple and separated from his wife.
A rebel, in the time of Nicephorus, the famous and unfortunate Bardanes, had once the curiosity to consult an Asiatic prophet, who, after prognosticating his fall, announced the fortunes of his three principal officers, Leo the Armenian, Michael the Phrygian, and Thomas the Cappadocian, the successive reigns of the two former, the fruitless and fatal enterprise of the third. This prediction was verified, or rather was produced, by the event. Ten years30 afterwards, when the Thracian camp30 rejected the husband of Procopia, the crown was presented to the same Leo, the first in military rank and the secret author of the mutiny. As he affected to hesitate, With this sword30, said his companion Michael, I will open the gates of Constantinople30 to your Imperial sway; or instantly plunge it into your bosom, if you obstinately resist the just desires of your fellow-soldiers30. The compliance of the Armenian was rewarded with the empire30, and he reigned seven years30 and an half under the name of Leo the Fifth. Educated in a camp30, and ignorant both of laws and letters, he introduced into his civil government the rigour and even cruelty of military discipline; but, if his severity was sometimes dangerous to the innocent, it was always formidable to the guilty. His religious inconstancy was taxed by the epithet of Chameleon, but the Catholics have acknowledged, by the voice of a saint and confessors, that the life of the Iconoclast was useful to the republic. The zeal of his companion Michael was repaid with riches, honours, and military command; and his subordinate talents were beneficially employed in the public service30. Yet the Phrygian was dissatisfied at receiving as a favour a scanty portion of the Imperial prize which he had bestowed on his equal; and his discontent, which sometimes evaporated in a hasty discourse, at length assumed a more threatening and hostile aspect against a prince30 whom he represented as a cruel tyrant. That tyrant, however, repeatedly detected, warned, and dismissed the old companion of his arms30, till30 fear and resentment prevailed over gratitude; and Michael, after a scrutiny into his actions and designs, was convicted of treason and sentenced to be burnt alive in the furnace of the private baths. The devout humanity of the empress Theophano was fatal to her husband and family. A solemn day30, the twenty-fifth of December, had been fixed for the execution; she urged that the anniversary of the Saviour's birth would be profaned by this inhuman spectacle, and Leo consented with reluctance to a decent respite. But on the vigil of the feast his sleepless anxiety prompted him to visit, at the dead of night, the chamber in which his enemy30 was confined; he beheld him released from his chain, and stretched on his gaoler's bed in a profound slumber. Leo was alarmed at these signs of security and intelligence; but, though he retired with silent steps, his entrance and departure were noticed by a slave who lay concealed in a corner of the prison. Under the pretence of requesting the spiritual aid of a confessor, Michael informed the conspirators that their lives depended on his discretion, and that a few hours were left30 to assure their own safety by the deliverance of their friend and country. On the great festivals, a chosen band of priests and chanters was admitted into the palace30, by a private gate, to sing matins in the chapel; and Leo, who regulated with the same strictness the discipline of the choir and of the camp30, was seldom absent from those early devotions. In the ecclesiastical habit, but with swords under their robes, the conspirators mingled with the procession, lurked in the angles of the chapel, and expected, as the signal of murder, the intonation of the first psalm by the emperor30 himself. The imperfect light, and the uniformity of dress, might have favoured his escape, while their assault was pointed against an harmless priest; but they soon30 discovered their mistake, and encompassed on all sides the royal30 victim. Without a weapon, and without a friend, he grasped a weighty cross, and stood at bay against the hunters of his life; but, as he asked for mercy, This is the hour, not of mercy, but of vengeance, was the inexorable reply. The stroke of a well-aimed sword30 separated from his body the right arm and the cross, and Leo the Armenian was slain at the foot of the altar.
A memorable reverse of fortune was displayed in Michael the Second30, who, from a defect in his speech, was surnamed the Stammerer. He was snatched from the fiery furnace to the sovereignty of an empire30; and, as in the tumult a smith could not readily be found, the fetters remained on his legs several hours after he was seated on the throne of the Caesars. The royal30 blood which had been the price of his elevation was unprofitably spent; in the purple he retained the ignoble vices of his origin; and Michael lost his provinces with as supine indifference as if they had been the inheritance of his fathers. His title was disputed by Thomas, the last of the military triumvirate, who transported into Europe fourscore thousand30 Barbarians from the banks of the Tigris and the shores of the Caspian. He formed the siege30 of Constantinople30; but the capital was defended with spiritual and carnal weapons; a Bulgarian king30 assaulted the camp30 of the Orientals, and Thomas had the misfortune, or the weakness, to fall alive into the power of the conqueror. The hands and feet of the rebel were amputated; he was placed on an ass, and, amidst the insults of the people30, was led through the streets, which he sprinkled with his blood. The depravation of manners, as savage as they were corrupt, is marked by the presence of the emperor30 himself. Deaf to the lamentations of a fellow-soldier, he incessantly pressed the discovery of more accomplices, till30 his curiosity was checked by the question of an honest or guilty minister: Would you give credit to an enemy30 against the most faithful of your friends? After the death30 of his first wife, the emperor30, at the request of the senate, drew from her monastery Euphrosyne, the daughter of Constantine the Sixth. Her august birth might justify a stipulation in the marriage-contract, that her children should equally share the empire30 with their elder brother. But the nuptials of Michael and Euphrosyne were barren; and she was content with the title of Mother of Theophilus, his son30 and successor.
The character45 of Theophilus is a rare example in which religious zeal has allowed, and perhaps magnified, the virtues of an heretic and a persecutor. His valour was often felt by the enemies, and his justice45 by the subjects, of the monarchy; but the valour of Theophilus was rash and fruitless, and his justice45 arbitrary and cruel. He displayed the banner of the cross against the Saracens; but his five expeditions were concluded by a signal overthrow; Amorium, the native city of his ancestors, was levelled with the ground, and from his military toils he derived only the surname of the Unfortunate. The wisdom of a sovereign45 is comprised in the institution of laws and the choice of magistrates, and, while he seems without action, his civil45 government revolves round his centre with the silence and order of the planetary system. But the justice45 of Theophilus was fashioned on the model of the Oriental despots, who, in personal and irregular acts of authority, consult the reason or passion of the moment, without measuring the sentence45 by the law or the penalty by the offence. A poor woman threw herself at the emperor45's feet, to complain of a powerful neighbour, the brother45 of the empress45, who had raised his palace45-wall to such an inconvenient height that her humble dwelling was excluded from light and air! On the proof of the fact, instead of granting, like an ordinary judge, sufficient or ample damages to the plaintiff, the sovereign45 adjudged to her use and benefit the palace45 and the ground. Nor was Theophilus content with this extravagant satisfaction: his zeal converted a civil45 trespass into a criminal act; and the unfortunate patrician was stripped and scourged in the public45 place of Constantinople45. For some venial offences, some defect of equity or vigilance, the principal ministers45, a prefect45, a quaestor, a captain of the guards, were banished or mutilated, or scalded with boiling pitch, or burnt alive in the hippodrome; and, as these dreadful examples might be the effects of error or caprice, they must have alienated from his service the best and wisest of the citizens. But the pride of the monarch was flattered in the exercise of power45, or, as he thought, of virtue; and the people45, safe in their obscurity, applauded the danger and debasement of their superiors. This extraordinary rigour was justified, in some measure, by its salutary consequences; since, after a scrutiny of seventeen days, not a complaint or abuse could be found in the court or city; and it might be alleged that the Greeks could be ruled only with a rod of iron, and that the public45 interest is the motive and law of the supreme judge. Yet in the crime, or the suspicion, of treason, that judge is of all others the most credulous and partial. Theophilus might inflict a tardy vengeance on the assassins of Leo and the saviours of his father; but he enjoyed the fruits of their crime; and his jealous tyranny sacrificed a brother45 and a prince to the future safety of his life45. A Persian of the race of the Sassanides died in poverty and exile45 at Constantinople45, leaving an only son45, the issue of a plebeian marriage. At the age of twelve years45, the royal45 birth of Theophobus was revealed, and his merit45 was not unworthy of his birth. He was educated in the Byzantine palace45, a Christian and a soldier; advanced with rapid steps in the career of fortune and glory; received45 the hand of the emperor45's sister; and was promoted to the command of thirty thousand Persians, who, like his father, had fled from the Mahometan conquerors. These troops, doubly infected with mercenary and fanatic vices, were desirous of revolting against their benefactor and erecting the standard of their native king; but the loyal Theophobus rejected their offers, disconcerted their schemes, and escaped from their hands to the camp or palace45 of his royal45 brother45. A generous confidence might have secured a faithful and able guardian for his wife45 and his infant son45, to whom Theophilus, in the flower of his age, was compelled to leave the inheritance of the empire45. But his jealousy was exasperated by envy and disease; he feared the dangerous virtues which might either support or oppress their infancy and weakness; and the dying emperor45 demanded the head of the Persian prince. With savage delight, he recognised the familiar features of his brother45: Thou art no longer Theophobus, he said; and sinking on his couch he added, with a faltering voice, Soon45, too soon45, I shall be no more Theophilus!
The Russians, who have borrowed from the Greeks30 the greatest part of their civil and ecclesiastical policy, preserved, till30 the last century, a singular institution in the marriage of the Czar. They collected, not the virgins of every rank and of every province, a vain and romantic idea, but the daughters of the principal nobles, who awaited in the palace30 the choice of their sovereign. It is affirmed that a similar method was adopted in the nuptials of Theophilus. With a golden apple in his hand, he slowly walked between two lines of contending beauties; his eye was detained by the charms of Icasia, and, in the awkwardness of a first declaration, the prince30 could only observe that, in this world, women had been the cause of much evil: And surely, Sir, she pertly replied, they have likewise been the occasion of much good. This affectation of unseasonable wit displeased the Imperial lover; he turned aside in disgust; Icasia concealed her mortification in a convent; and the modest silence of Theodora was rewarded with the golden apple. She deserved the love, but did not escape the severity, of her lord. From the palace30 garden he beheld a vessel deeply laden, and steering into the port; on the discovery that the precious cargo of Syrian luxury was the property of his wife, he condemned the ship to the flames, with a sharp reproach that her avarice had degraded the character of an empress into that of a merchant. Yet his last choice entrusted her with the guardianship of the empire30 and her son30 Michael, who was left30 an orphan in the fifth year of his age. The restoration of images, and the final extirpation of the Iconoclasts, has endeared her name to the devotion of the Greeks30; but in the fervour of religious zeal Theodora entertained a grateful regard for the memory and salvation of her husband. After thirteen years30 of a prudent and frugal administration, she perceived the decline of her influence; but the second30 Irene imitated only the virtues of her predecessor. Instead of conspiring against the life or government of her son30, she retired, without a struggle, though not without a murmur, to the solitude of private life, deploring the ingratitude, the vices, and the inevitable ruin of the worthless youth.
Among the successors of Nero and Elagabalus, we have not hitherto found the imitation of their vices, the character of a Roman40 prince who considered pleasure as the object of life and virtue as the enemy of pleasure. Whatever might have been the maternal care of Theodora in the education of Michael the Third, her unfortunate son40 was a king before he was a man. If the ambitious mother laboured to check the progress of reason, she could not cool the ebullition of passion; and her selfish policy was justly repaid by the contempt and ingratitude of the headstrong youth. At the age40 of eighteen, he rejected her authority, without feeling his own incapacity to govern the empire40 and himself. With Theodora, all gravity and wisdom retired from the court40; their place was supplied by the alternate dominion of vice and folly; and it was impossible, without forfeiting the public40 esteem, to acquire or preserve the favour of the emperor40. The millions40 of gold and silver which had been accumulated for the service of the state were lavished on the vilest of men, who flattered his passions and shared his pleasures; and, in a reign40 of thirteen years40, the richest of sovereigns was compelled to strip the palace and the churches of their precious furniture. Like Nero, he delighted in the amusements of the theatre, and sighed to be surpassed in the accomplishments in which he should have blushed to excel. Yet the studies of Nero in music and poetry betrayed some symptoms of a liberal taste; the more ignoble arts of the son40 of Theophilus were confined to the chariot-race of the hippodrome. The four factions which had agitated the peace, still amused the idleness, of the capital40; for himself, the emperor40 assumed the blue livery; the three rival colours were distributed to his favourites, and, in the vile though eager contention, he forgot the dignity of his person and the safety of his dominions. He silenced the messenger of an invasion, who presumed to divert his attention in the most critical moment of the race; and by his command40 the importunate beacons were extinguished, that too frequently spread the alarm from Tarsus to Constantinople. The most skilful charioteers obtained the first place in his confidence and esteem; their merit was profusely rewarded; the emperor40 feasted in their houses, and presented their children at the baptismal font; and, while he applauded his own popularity, he affected to blame the cold and stately reserve of his predecessors. The unnatural lusts which had degraded even the manhood of Nero were banished from the world; yet the strength of Michael was consumed by the indulgence of love and intemperance. In his midnight revels, when his passions were inflamed by wine40, he was provoked to issue the most sanguinary commands; and, if any feelings of humanity were left, he was reduced, with the return of sense, to approve the salutary disobedience of his servants. But the most extraordinary feature in the character of Michael is the profane mockery of the religion40 of his country40. The superstition of the Greeks40 might, indeed, excite the smile of a philosopher; but his smile would have been rational and temperate, and he must have condemned the ignorant folly of a youth who insulted the objects of public40 veneration. A buffoon of the court40 was invested in the robes of the patriarch; his twelve metropolitans, among whom the emperor40 was ranked, assumed their ecclesiastical garments; they used or abused the sacred vessels of the altar; and in their bacchanalian feasts the holy40 communion was administered in a nauseous compound of vinegar and mustard. Nor were these impious spectacles concealed from the eyes40 of the city40. On the day of a solemn festival, the emperor40, with his bishops or buffoons, rode on asses through the streets, encountered the true patriarch at the head of his clergy40, and by their licentious shouts and obscene gestures disordered the gravity of the Christian procession. The devotion40 of Michael appeared only in some offence to reason or piety; he received40 his theatrical crowns from the statue of the Virgin; and an Imperial tomb was violated for the sake of burning the bones of Constantine the Iconoclast. By this extravagant conduct, the son40 of Theophilus became as contemptible as he was odious; every citizen was impatient for the deliverance of his country40; and even the favourites of the moment were apprehensive that a caprice might snatch away what a caprice had bestowed. In the thirtieth year of his age40, and in the hour of intoxication and sleep, Michael the Third was murdered in his chamber by the founder of a new dynasty, whom the emperor40 had raised to an equality of rank and power40.
The genealogy of Basil the Macedonian (if it be not the spurious offspring of pride and flattery) exhibits a genuine picture of the revolution of the most illustrious families. The Arsacides, the rivals of Rome, possessed the sceptre of the East near four hundred years30: a younger branch of these Parthian kings continued to reign in Armenia; and their royal30 descendants survived the partition and servitude of that ancient monarchy. Two of these, Artabanus and Chlienes, escaped or retired to the court of Leo the First; his bounty seated them in a safe and hospitable exile, in the province of Macedonia: Hadrianople was their final settlement. During several generations they maintained the dignity of their birth; and their Roman30 patriotism rejected the tempting offers of the Persian and Arabian powers, who recalled them to their native country. But their splendour was insensibly clouded by time and poverty; and the father of Basil was reduced to a small farm, which he cultivated with his own hands. Yet he scorned to disgrace the blood of the Arsacides by a plebeian alliance: his wife, a widow of Hadrianople, was pleased to count among her ancestors the great Constantine; and their royal30 infant was connected by some dark affinity of lineage or country with the Macedonian Alexander. No sooner was he born than the cradle of Basil, his family, and his city30 were swept away by an inundation of the Bulgarians; he was educated a slave in a foreign land; and in this severe discipline he acquired the hardiness of body and flexibility of mind which promoted his future elevation. In the age of youth or manhood he shared the deliverance of the Roman30 captives, who generously broke their fetters, marched through Bulgaria to the shores of the Euxine, defeated two armies of Barbarians, embarked in the ships which had been stationed for their reception, and returned to Constantinople30, from whence they were distributed to their respective homes. But the freedom of Basil was naked and destitute; his farm was ruined by the calamities of war30; after his father's death30, his manual labour or service30 could no longer support a family of orphans; and he resolved to seek a more conspicuous theatre, in which every virtue and every vice may lead to the paths of greatness. The first night of his arrival at Constantinople30, without friends or money, the weary pilgrim slept on the steps of the church of St30. Diomede; he was fed by the casual hospitality of a monk; and was introduced to the service30 of a cousin and namesake of the emperor30 Theophilus; who, though himself of a diminutive person, was always followed by a train of tall and handsome domestics. Basil attended his patron to the government of Peloponnesus; eclipsed, by his personal merit, the birth and dignity of Theophilus, and formed an useful connection with a wealthy and charitable matron of Patras. Her spiritual or carnal love embraced the young adventurer, whom she adopted as her son30. Danielis presented him with thirty slaves; and the produce of her bounty was expended in the support of his brothers and the purchase of some large estates in Macedonia. His gratitude or ambition still attached him to the service30 of Theophilus; and a lucky accident recommended him to the notice of the court. A famous wrestler, in the train of the Bulgarian ambassadors, had defied, at the royal30 banquet, the boldest and most robust of the Greeks30. The strength of Basil was praised; he accepted the challenge; and the Barbarian champion was overthrown at the first onset. A beautiful but vicious horse30 was condemned to be hamstrung; it was subdued by the dexterity and courage of the servant of Theophilus; and his conqueror was promoted to an honourable rank in the Imperial stables. But it was impossible to obtain the confidence of Michael, without complying with his vices; and his new30 favourite, the great chamberlain of the palace30, was raised and supported by a disgraceful marriage with a royal30 concubine, and the dishonour of his sister, who succeeded to her place. The public administration had been abandoned to the Caesar Bardas, the brother and enemy30 of Theodora; but the arts of female influence persuaded Michael to hate and to fear his uncle; he was drawn from Constantinople30, under the pretext of a Cretan expedition, and stabbed in the tent of audience, by the sword30 of the chamberlain, and in the presence of the emperor30. About a month after this execution, Basil was invested with the title of Augustus and the government of the empire30. He supported this unequal association till30 his influence was fortified by popular esteem. His life was endangered by the caprice of the emperor30; and his dignity was profaned by a second30 colleague, who had rowed in the galleys. Yet the murder of his benefactor must be condemned as an act of ingratitude and treason; and the churches which he dedicated to the name of St30. Michael were a poor and puerile expiation of his guilt.
The different ages of Basil the First may be compared with those of Augustus. The situation of the Greek30 did not allow him in his earliest youth to lead an army30 against his country or to proscribe the noblest of her sons; but his aspiring genius stooped to the arts of a slave; he dissembled his ambition and even his virtues, and grasped with the bloody hand of an assassin the empire30 which he ruled with the wisdom and tenderness of a parent. A private citizen may feel his interest repugnant to his duty; but it must be from a deficiency of sense or courage that an absolute monarch can separate his happiness from his glory or his glory from the public welfare. The life or panegyric of Basil has, indeed, been composed and published under the long30 reign of his descendants; but even their stability on the throne may be justly ascribed to the superior merit of their ancestor. In his character, his grandson Constantine has attempted to delineate a perfect image of royalty; but that feeble prince30, unless he had copied a real model, could not easily have soared so high above the level of his own conduct or conceptions. But the most solid praise of Basil is drawn from the comparison of a ruined and a flourishing monarchy, that which he wrested from the dissolute Michael, and that which he bequeathed to the Macedonian dynasty. The evils which had been sanctified by time and example were corrected by his master-hand; and he revived, if not the national spirit, at least the order and majesty of the Roman30 empire30. His application was indefatigable, his temper cool, his understanding vigorous and decisive; and in his practice he observed that rare and salutary moderation, which pursues each virtue at an equal distance between the opposite vices. His military service30 had been confined to the palace30; nor was the emperor30 endowed with the spirit or the talents of a warrior. Yet under his reign the Roman30 arms30 were again formidable to the Barbarians. As soon30 as he had formed a new30 army30 by discipline and exercise, he appeared in person on the banks of the Euphrates, curbed the pride of the Saracens, and suppressed the dangerous though just revolt of the Manichaeans. His indignation against a rebel who had long30 eluded his pursuit provoked him to wish and to pray that, by the grace of God, he might drive three arrows into the head30 of Chrysochir. That odious head30, which had been obtained by treason rather than by valour, was suspended from a tree, and thrice exposed to the dexterity of the Imperial archer: a base revenge against the dead, more worthy of the times than of the character of Basil. But his principal merit was in the civil administration of the finances and of the laws. To replenish an exhausted treasury, it was proposed to resume the lavish and ill-placed gifts of his predecessor: his prudence abated one moiety of the restitution; and a sum of twelve hundred thousand30 pounds was instantly procured to answer the most pressing demands and to allow some space for the mature operations of economy. Among the various schemes for the improvement of the revenue, a new30 mode was suggested of capitation, or tribute, which would have too much depended on the arbitrary discretion of the assessors. A sufficient list of honest and able agents was instantly produced by the minister; but, on the more careful scrutiny of Basil himself, only two could be found who might be safely entrusted with such dangerous powers; and they justified his esteem by declining his confidence. But the serious and successful diligence of the emperor30 established by degrees an equitable balance of property and payment, of receipt and expenditure; a peculiar fund was appropriated to each service30; and a public method secured the interest of the prince30 and the property of the people30. After reforming the luxury, he assigned two patrimonial estates to supply the decent plenty, of the Imperial table; the contributions of the subject were reserved for his defence; and the residue was employed in the embellishment of the capital and provinces. A taste for building, however costly, may deserve some praise and much excuse; from thence industry is fed, art is encouraged, and some object is attained of public emolument or pleasure; the use of a road, an aqueduct, or an hospital is obvious and solid; and the hundred churches that arose by the command of Basil were consecrated to the devotion of the age. In the character of a judge, he was assiduous and impartial, desirous to save, but not afraid to strike; the oppressors of the people30 were severely chastised; but his personal foes, whom it might be unsafe to pardon, were condemned, after the loss of their eyes, to a life of solitude and repentance. The change of language and manners demanded a revision of the obsolete jurisprudence of Justinian30; the voluminous body of his Institutes, Pandects, Code, and Novels was digested under forty titles, in the Greek30 idiom; and the Basilics, which were improved and completed by his son30 and grandson, must be referred to the original genius of the founder of their race. This glorious reign was terminated by an accident in the chase. A furious stag entangled his horns in the belt of Basil, and raised him from his horse30; he was rescued by an attendant, who cut the belt and slew the animal; but the fall, or the fever, exhausted the strength of the aged monarch, and he expired in the palace30, amidst the tears of his family and people30. If he struck off the head30 of the faithful servant, for presuming to draw his sword30 against his sovereign, the pride of despotism, which had lain dormant in his life, revived in the last moments of despair, when he no longer wanted or valued the opinion of mankind.
Of the four sons of the emperor, Constantine died before his father, whose grief and credulity were amused by a flattering impostor and a vain apparition. Stephen, the youngest, was content with the honours of a patriarch and a saint; both Leo and Alexander were alike invested with the purple, but the powers of government6 were solely exercised by the elder brother. The name of Leo VI. has been dignified with the title of philosopher; and the union of the prince and the sage, of the active and speculative virtues, would indeed constitute the perfection of human6 nature6. But the claims of Leo are far short of this ideal excellence. Did he reduce his passions and appetites under the dominion of reason? His life6 was spent in the pomp of the palace, in the society of his wives and concubines; and even the clemency which he shewed, and the peace6 which he strove to preserve, must be imputed to the softness and indolence of his character. Did he subdue his prejudices, and those of his subjects6? His mind was tinged with the most puerile superstition; the influence of the clergy and the errors of the people6 were consecrated by his laws6; and the oracles of Leo, which reveal, in prophetic style, the fates of the empire6, are founded on the arts6 of astrology and divination. If we still inquire the reason of his sage appellation, it can only be replied that the son of Basil was less ignorant than the greater part of his contemporaries in church and state6; that his education had been directed by the learned Photius; and that several books of profane and ecclesiastical science were composed by the pen, or in the name, of the Imperial philosopher. But the reputation of his philosophy and religion6 was overthrown by a domestic6 vice, the repetition of his nuptials. The primitive ideas of the merit and holiness of celibacy were preached by the monks and entertained by the Greeks. Marriage was allowed as a necessary means for the propagation of mankind; after the death of either party, the survivor might satisfy, by a second union, the weakness or the strength of the flesh; but a third marriage was censured as a state6 of legal fornication; and a fourth was a sin or scandal as yet unknown to the Christians of the East. In the beginning of his reign6, Leo himself had abolished the state6 of concubines, and condemned, without annulling, third marriages; but his patriotism and love soon6 compelled him to violate his own laws6, and to incur the penance which, in a similar case, he had imposed on his subjects6. In his three first alliances, his nuptial bed was unfruitful; the emperor required a female companion, and the empire6 a legitimate heir. The beautiful Zoe was introduced6 into the palace as a concubine; and, after a trial of her fecundity and the birth of Constantine, her lover declared his intention of legitimating the mother and the child by the celebration of his fourth nuptials. But the patriarch Nicholas refused his blessing; the Imperial baptism of the young prince was obtained by a promise of separation; and the contumacious husband of Zoe was excluded from the communion of the faithful. Neither the fear of exile, nor the desertion of his brethren, nor the authority of the Latin church, nor the danger of failure or doubt in the succession to the empire6 could bend the spirit of the inflexible monk. After the death of Leo, he was recalled from exile to the civil6 and ecclesiastical administration; and the edict of union which was promulgated in the name of Constantine condemned the future scandal of fourth marriages and left a tacit imputation on his own birth.
In the Greek30 language purple and porphyry are the same word; and, as the colours of nature are invariable, we may learn that a dark deep red was the Tyrian dye which stained the purple of the ancients. An apartment of the Byzantine30 palace30 was lined with porphyry; it was reserved for the use of the pregnant empresses; and the royal30 birth of their children was expressed by the appellation of porphyrogenite, or born in the purple. Several of the Roman30 princes had been blessed with an heir; but this peculiar surname was first applied to Constantine the Seventh. His life and titular reign were of equal duration; but of fifty-four years30 six had elapsed before his father's death30; and the son30 of Leo was ever the voluntary or reluctant subject of those who oppressed his weakness or abused his confidence. His uncle Alexander, who had long30 been invested with the title of Augustus, was the first colleague and governor of the young prince30; but, in a rapid career of vice and folly, the brother of Leo already emulated the reputation of Michael; and, when he was extinguished by a timely death30, he entertained the project of castrating his nephew and leaving the empire30 to a worthless favourite. The succeeding years30 of the minority of Constantine were occupied by his mother Zoe, and a succession or council of seven regents, who pursued their interests, gratified their passions, abandoned the republic, supplanted each other, and finally vanished in the presence of a soldier. From an obscure origin, Romanus Lecapenus had raised himself to the command of the naval armies; and in the anarchy of the times had deserved, or at least had obtained, the national esteem. With a victorious and affectionate fleet, he sailed from the mouth of the Danube into the harbour of Constantinople30, and was hailed as the deliverer of the people30 and the guardian of the prince30. His supreme office was at first defined by the new30 appellation of father of the emperor30, but Romanus soon30 disdained the subordinate powers of a minister, and assumed, with the titles of Caesar and Augustus, the full independence of royalty, which he held near five and twenty years30. His three sons, Christopher, Stephen, and Constantine, were successively adorned with the same honours, and the lawful emperor30 was degraded from the first to the fifth rank in this college of princes. Yet, in the preservation of his life and crown, he might still applaud his own fortune and the clemency of the usurper. The examples of ancient and modern history would have excused the ambition of Romanus; the powers and the laws of the empire30 were in his hand; the spurious birth of Constantine would have justified his exclusion; and the grave or the monastery was open to receive the son30 of the concubine. But Lecapenus does not appear to have possessed either the virtues or the vices of a tyrant. The spirit and activity of his private life dissolved away in the sunshine of the throne; and in his licentious pleasures he forgot the safety both of the republic and of his family. Of a mild and religious character, he respected the sanctity of oaths, the innocence of the youth, the memory of his parents, and the attachment of the people30. The studious temper and retirement of Constantine disarmed the jealousy of power; his books and music, his pen and his pencil, were a constant source of amusement; and, if he could improve a scanty allowance by the sale of his pictures, if their price was not enhanced by the name of the artist, he was endowed with a personal talent which few princes could employ in the hour of adversity.
The fall of Romanus was occasioned by his own vices and those of his children. After the decease of Christopher, his eldest son47, the two surviving brothers quarrelled with each other, and conspired against their father47. At the hour of noon, when all strangers were regularly excluded from the palace47, they entered his apartment with an armed force, and conveyed him, in the habit of a monk, to a small island in the Propontis, which was peopled by a religious community. The rumour of this domestic revolution excited a tumult in the city47; but Porphyrogenitus alone, the true and lawful emperor47, was the object of the public47 care; and the sons of Lecapenus were taught, by tardy experience, that they had achieved a guilty and perilous enterprise for the benefit of their rival. Their sister Helena, the wife of Constantine47, revealed, or supposed, their treacherous design of assassinating her husband at the royal banquet. His loyal adherents were alarmed; and the two usurpers were prevented, seized, degraded from the purple, and embarked for the same island and monastery where their father47 had been so lately confined. Old Romanus met them on the beach with a sarcastic smile, and, after a just reproach of their folly and ingratitude, presented his Imperial47 colleagues with an equal share of his water and vegetable diet. In the fortieth year of his reign47, Constantine47 the Seventh obtained the possession of the Eastern world, which he ruled, or seemed to rule, near fifteen years. But he was devoid of that energy of character which could emerge into a life47 of action and glory; and the studies which had amused and dignified his leisure were incompatible with the serious duties of a sovereign47. The emperor47 neglected the practice, to instruct his son47 Romanus in the theory, of government47; while he indulged the habits of intemperance and sloth, he dropt the reins of administration into the hands of Helena his wife; and, in the shifting scene of her favour and caprice, each minister was regretted in the promotion of a more worthless successor. Yet the birth and misfortunes of Constantine47 had endeared him to the Greeks; they excused his failings; they respected his learning, his innocence and charity, his love of justice47; and the ceremony of his funeral was mourned with the unfeigned tears of his subjects. The body, according to ancient custom, lay in state in the vestibule of the palace47; and the civil47 and military47 officers, the patricians, the senate47, and the clergy, approached in due order to adore and kiss the inanimate corpse of their sovereign47. Before the procession moved towards the Imperial47 sepulchre, an herald proclaimed this awful admonition: Arise, O king of the world, and obey the summons of the King of kings!
The death22 of Constantine22 was imputed to poison; and his son22 Romanus, who derived that name from his maternal grandfather, ascended the throne22 of Constantinople22. A prince22 who, at the age22 of twenty, could be suspected of anticipating his inheritance must have been already lost22 in the public22 esteem; yet Romanus was rather weak than wicked; and the largest share of the guilt was transferred to his wife, Theophano, a woman of base origin, masculine spirit, and flagitious manners. The sense of personal glory and public22 happiness, the true pleasures of royalty, were unknown to the son22 of Constantine22; and, while the two brothers, Nicephorus and Leo, triumphed over the Saracens, the hours which the emperor22 owed to his people22 were consumed in strenuous idleness. In the morning he visited the circus; at noon he feasted the senators; the greater part of the afternoon he spent in the sphaeristerium, or tennis-court, the only theatre of his victories; from thence he passed over to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, hunted and killed four wild boars of the largest size, and returned to the palace, proudly content with the labours of the day. In strength and beauty he was conspicuous above his equals; tall and straight as a young cypress, his complexion was fair and florid, his eyes sparkling, his shoulders broad, his nose long22 and aquiline. Yet even these perfections were insufficient to fix the love of Theophano; and, after a reign22 of four years22, she mingled for her husband the same deadly draught which she had composed for his father22.
By his marriage with this impious woman, Romanus the younger left two sons, Basil the Second, and Constantine47 the Ninth, and two daughters, Theophano and Anne. The eldest sister was given to Otho the Second, emperor47 of the West; the younger became the wife of Wolodomir, great duke and apostle of Russia; and, by the marriage of her grand-daughter with Henry the First, king of France, the blood of the Macedonians, and perhaps of the Arsacides, still flows in the veins of the Bourbon line. After the death47 of her husband, the empress aspired to reign47 in the name of her sons, the elder of whom was five, and the younger only two, years of age47; but she soon47 felt the instability of a throne47, which was supported by a female who could not be esteemed, and two infants who could not be feared. Theophano looked around for a protector, and threw herself into the arms47 of the bravest soldier; her heart was capricious; but the deformity of the new favourite rendered it more than probable that interest was the motive and excuse of her love. Nicephorus Phocas united, in the popular opinion, the double merit47 of an hero and a saint. In the former character, his qualifications were genuine and splendid: the descendant of a race, illustrious by their military47 exploits, he had displayed, in every station and in every province, the courage of a soldier and the conduct47 of a chief; and Nicephorus was crowned with recent laurels from the important conquest of the isle of Crete. His religion was of a more ambiguous cast; and his hair-cloth, his fasts, his pious idiom, and his wish to retire from the business of the world were a convenient mask for his dark and dangerous ambition. Yet he imposed on an holy patriarch, by whose influence, and by a decree of the senate47, he was entrusted, during the minority of the young princes, with the absolute and independent command47 of the Oriental armies. As soon47 as he had secured the leaders and the troops47, he boldly marched to Constantinople, trampled on his enemies, avowed his correspondence with the empress, and, without degrading her sons, assumed, with the title of Augustus, the pre-eminence of rank47 and the plenitude of power47. But his marriage with Theophano was refused by the same patriarch who had placed the crown on his head; by his second nuptials he incurred a year of canonical penance; a bar of spiritual affinity was opposed to their celebration; and some evasion and perjury were required to silence the scruples of the clergy and people47. The popularity of the emperor47 was lost in the purple; in a reign47 of six years he provoked the hatred of strangers and subjects; and the hypocrisy and avarice of the first Nicephorus were revived in his successor. Hypocrisy I shall never justify or palliate; but I will dare to observe that the odious vice of avarice is of all others most hastily arraigned and most unmercifully condemned. In a private47 citizen, our judgment seldom expects an accurate scrutiny into his fortune and expense; and, in a steward of the public47 treasure, frugality is always a virtue, and the increase of taxes too often an indispensable duty. In the use of his patrimony, the generous temper of Nicephorus had been proved; and the revenue was strictly applied to the service of the state: each spring the emperor47 marched in person47 against the Saracens; and every Roman47 might compute the employment of his taxes in triumphs, conquests, and the security of the Eastern barrier.
Among the warriors who promoted his elevation and served under his standard30, a noble and valiant Armenian had deserved and obtained the most eminent rewards. The stature of John Zimisces was below the ordinary standard30; but this diminutive body was endowed with strength, beauty, and the soul of an hero. By the jealousy of the emperor30's brother, he was degraded from the office of general30 of the East to that of director of the posts, and his murmurs were chastised with disgrace and exile. But Zimisces was ranked among the numerous lovers of the empress; on her intercession, he was permitted to reside at Chalcedon, in the neighbourhood of the capital; her bounty was repaid in his clandestine and amorous visits to the palace30; and Theophano consented with alacrity to the death30 of an ugly and penurious husband. Some bold and trusty conspirators were concealed in her most private chambers; in the darkness of a winter night, Zimisces, with his principal companions, embarked in a small boat, traversed the Bosphorus, landed at the palace30 stairs, and silently ascended a ladder of ropes, which was cast down by the female attendants. Neither his own suspicions, nor the warnings of his friends, nor the tardy aid of his brother Leo, nor the fortress which he had erected in the palace30 could protect Nicephorus from a domestic foe, at whose voice every door was opened to the assassins. As he slept on a bear-skin on the ground, he was roused by their noisy intrusion, and thirty daggers glittered before his eyes. It is doubtful whether Zimisces imbrued his hands in the blood of his sovereign; but he enjoyed the inhuman spectacle of revenge. The murder was protracted by insult and cruelty; and, as soon30 as the head30 of Nicephorus was shewn from the window, the tumult was hushed and the Armenian was emperor30 of the East. On the day30 of his coronation, he was stopped on the threshold of St30. Sophia, by the intrepid patriarch; who charged his conscience with the deed of treason and blood, and required, as a sign of repentance, that he should separate himself from his more criminal associate. This sally of apostolic zeal was not offensive to the prince30, since he could neither love nor trust a woman who had repeatedly violated the most sacred obligations; and Theophano, instead of sharing his Imperial fortune, was dismissed with ignominy from his bed and palace30. In their last interview, she displayed a frantic and impotent rage; accused the ingratitude of her lover; assaulted with words and blows her son30 Basil, as he stood silent and submissive in the presence of a superior colleague; and avowed her own prostitution, in proclaiming the illegitimacy of his birth. The public indignation was appeased by her exile and the punishment of the meaner accomplices; the death30 of an unpopular prince30 was forgiven; and the guilt of Zimisces was forgotten in the splendour of his virtues. Perhaps his profusion was less useful to the state than the avarice of Nicephorus; but his gentle and generous behaviour delighted all who approached his person; and it was only in the paths of victory30 that he trod in the footsteps of his predecessor. The greatest part of his reign was employed in the camp30 and the field; his personal valour and activity was signalised on the Danube and the Tigris, the ancient boundaries of the Roman30 world; and by his double triumph over the Russians and the Saracens he deserved the titles of saviour of the empire30 and conqueror of the East. In his last return from Syria, he observed that the most fruitful lands of his new30 provinces were possessed by the eunuchs. And is it for them, he exclaimed, with honest indignation, that we have fought and conquered? Is it for them that we shed our blood and exhaust the treasures of our people30? The complaint was re-echoed to the palace30, and the death30 of Zimisces is strongly marked with the suspicion of poison.
Under this usurpation, or regency, of twelve years30, the two lawful emperors, Basil and Constantine, had silently grown to the age of manhood. Their tender years30 had been incapable of dominion; the respectful modesty of their attendance and salutation was due to the age and merit of their guardians; the childless ambition of those guardians had no temptation to violate their right of succession; their patrimony was ably and faithfully administered; and the premature death30 of Zimisces was a loss, rather than a benefit, to the sons of Romanus. Their want of experience detained them twelve years30 longer the obscure and voluntary pupils of a minister, who extended his reign by persuading them to indulge the pleasures of youth and to disdain the labours of government. In this silken web, the weakness of Constantine was for ever entangled; but his elder brother felt the impulse of genius and the desire of action; he frowned, and the minister was no more. Basil was the acknowledged sovereign of Constantinople30 and the provinces of Europe; but Asia was oppressed by two veteran generals, Phocas and Sclerus, who, alternately friends and enemies30, subjects and rebels, maintained their independence, and laboured to emulate the example of successful usurpation. Against these domestic enemies30, the son30 of Romanus first drew his sword30, and they trembled in the presence of a lawful and high-spirited prince30. The first, in the front of battle30, was thrown from his horse30, by the stroke of poison or an arrow; the second30, who had been twice loaded with chains, and twice invested with the purple, was desirous of ending in peace the small remainder of his days30. As the aged suppliant approached the throne, with dim eyes and faltering steps, leaning on his two attendants, the emperor30 exclaimed, in the insolence of youth and power, And is this the man who has so long30 been the object of our terror? After he had confirmed his own authority and the peace of the empire30, the trophies of Nicephorus and Zimisces would not suffer their royal30 pupil to sleep in the palace30. His long30 and frequent expeditions against the Saracens were rather glorious than useful to the empire30; but the final destruction of the kingdom of Bulgaria appears, since the time of Belisarius30, the most important triumph of the Roman30 arms30. Yet, instead of applauding their victorious prince30, his subjects detested the rapacious and rigid avarice of Basil; and in the imperfect narrative of his exploits, we can only discern the courage, patience, and ferociousness of a soldier. A vicious education, which could not subdue his spirit, had clouded his mind; he was ignorant of every science; and the remembrance of his learned and feeble grandsire might encourage a real or affected contempt of laws and lawyers, of artists and arts. Of such a character, in such an age, superstition took a firm and lasting possession; after the first licence of his youth, Basil the Second30 devoted his life, in the palace30 and the camp30, to the penance of an hermit, wore the monastic habit under his robes and armour, observed a vow of continence, and imposed on his appetites a perpetual abstinence from wine and flesh. In the sixty-eighth year of his age, his martial spirit urged him to embark in person for a holy30 war30 against the Saracens of Sicily; he was prevented by death30; and Basil, surnamed the Slayer of the Bulgarians, was dismissed from the world with the blessings of the clergy and the curses of the people30. After his decease, his brother Constantine enjoyed, about three years30, the power, or rather the pleasures, of royalty; and his only care was the settlement of the succession. He had enjoyed, sixty-six years30, the title of Augustus; and the reign of the two brothers is the longest and most obscure of the Byzantine30 history.
A lineal succession of five emperors, in a period of one hundred and sixty years45, had attached the loyalty of the Greeks to the Macedonian dynasty, which had been thrice respected by the usurpers of their power45. After the death45 of Constantine IX., the last male of the royal45 race, a new45 and broken scene presents itself, and the accumulated years45 of twelve emperors do not equal the space of his single reign45. His elder brother45 had preferred his private45 chastity to the public45 interest, and Constantine himself had only three daughters: Eudocia, who took the veil, and Zoe45 and Theodora45, who were preserved till a mature age in a state of ignorance and virginity. When their marriage was discussed in the council of their dying father, the cold or pious45 Theodora45 refused to give an heir to the empire45, but her sister Zoe45 presented herself a willing victim at the altar. Romanus Argyrus, a patrician of a graceful person and fair reputation, was chosen for her husband45, and, on his declining that honour, was informed that blindness or death45 was the second alternative. The motive of his reluctance was conjugal affection, but his faithful wife45 sacrificed her own happiness to his safety and greatness; and her entrance into a monastery removed the only bar to the Imperial nuptials. After the decease of Constantine, the sceptre devolved to Romanus the Third; but his labours at home and abroad were equally feeble and fruitless; and the mature age, the forty-eight years45 of Zoe45, were less favourable to the hopes of pregnancy than to the indulgence of pleasure. Her favourite chamberlain was an handsome Paphlagonian of the name of Michael45, whose first trade had been that of a money-changer; and Romanus, either from gratitude or equity, connived at their criminal intercourse, or accepted a slight assurance of their innocence. But Zoe45 soon45 justified the Roman maxim that every adulteress is capable of poisoning her husband45; and the death45 of Romanus was instantly followed by the scandalous marriage and elevation of Michael45 the Fourth. The expectations of Zoe45 were however disappointed: instead of a vigorous and grateful lover, she had placed in her bed a miserable wretch, whose health and reason were impaired by epileptic fits, and whose conscience was tormented by despair and remorse45. The most skilful physicians of the mind and body were summoned to his aid; and his hopes were amused by frequent pilgrimages to the baths, and to the tombs of the most popular saints; the monks applauded his penance45, and, except restitution (but to whom should he have restored?), Michael45 sought every method of expiating his guilt. While he groaned and prayed in sackcloth and ashes, his brother45, the eunuch John45, smiled at his remorse45, and enjoyed the harvest of a crime of which himself was the secret and most guilty author. His administration was only the art of satiating his avarice, and Zoe45 became a captive in the palace45 of her fathers and in the hands of her slaves. When he perceived the irretrievable decline of his brother45's health, he introduced his nephew, another Michael45, who derived his surname of Calaphates from his father's occupation in the careening of vessels; at the command of the eunuch, Zoe45 adopted for her son45 the son45 of a mechanic; and this fictitious heir was invested with the title and purple of the Caesars, in the presence of the senate and clergy. So feeble was the character45 of Zoe45 that she was oppressed by the liberty and power45 which she recovered by the death45 of the Paphlagonian; and, at the end of four days, she placed the crown on the head of Michael45 the Fifth, who had protested, with tears and oaths, that he should ever reign45 the first and most obedient of her subjects. The only act of his short reign45 was his base ingratitude to his benefactors, the eunuch and the empress45. The disgrace of the former was pleasing to the public45; but the murmurs, and at length the clamours, of Constantinople45 deplored the exile45 of Zoe45, the daughter of so many emperors; her vices were forgotten, and Michael45 was taught that there is a period in which the patience of the tamest slaves rises into fury and revenge45. The citizens of every degree assembled in a formidable tumult, which lasted three days; they besieged the palace45, forced the gates, recalled their mothers, Zoe45 from her prison, Theodora45 from her monastery, and condemned45 the son45 of Calaphates to the loss of his eyes or of his life45. For the first time, the Greeks beheld with surprise the two royal45 sisters seated on the same throne45, presiding in the senate, and giving audience to the ambassadors of the nations. But this singular union subsisted no more than two months; the two sovereigns, their tempers, interests, and adherents, were secretly hostile to each other; and, as Theodora45 was still adverse to marriage, the indefatigable Zoe45, at the age of sixty, consented, for the public45 good, to sustain the embraces of a third husband45, and the censures of the Greek church45. His name and number were Constantine the Tenth, and the epithet of Monomachus, the single combatant, must have been expressive of his valour and victory in some public45 or private45 quarrel. But his health was broken by the tortures of the gout, and his dissolute reign45 was spent in the alternative of sickness and pleasure. A fair and noble widow had accompanied Constantine in his exile45 to the isle of Lesbos, and Sclerena gloried in the appellation of his mistress. After his marriage and elevation, she was invested with the title and pomp of Augusta, and occupied a contiguous apartment in the palace45. The lawful consort (such was the delicacy or corruption of Zoe45) consented to this strange and scandalous partition; and the emperor45 appeared in public45 between his wife45 and his concubine. He survived them both; but the last measures of Constantine to change the order of succession were prevented by the more vigilant friends of Theodora45; and, after his decease, she resumed, with the general consent, the possession of her inheritance. In her name, and by the influence of four eunuchs, the Eastern world was peaceably governed about nineteen months; and, as they wished to prolong their dominion, they persuaded the aged princess to nominate for her successor Michael45 the Sixth. The surname of Stratioticus declares his military profession; but the crazy and decrepit veteran could only see with the eyes, and execute with the hands, of his ministers45. Whilst he ascended the throne45, Theodora45 sunk into the grave, the last of the Macedonian or Basilian dynasty. I have hastily reviewed, and gladly dismiss, this shameful and destructive period of twenty-eight years45, in which the Greeks, degraded below the common level of servitude, were transferred like a herd of cattle by the choice or caprice of two impotent females.
From this night of slavery, a ray of freedom, or at least of spirit, begins to emerge: the Greeks30 either preserved or revived the use of surnames, which perpetuate the fame of hereditary virtue; and we now discern the rise, succession, and alliances of the last dynasties of Constantinople30 and Trebizond. The Comneni, who upheld for a while the fate of the sinking empire30, assumed the honour of a Roman30 origin; but the family had been long30 since transported from Italy to Asia. Their patrimonial estate was situate in the district of Castamona in the neighbourhood of the Euxine; and one of their chiefs, who had already entered the paths of ambition, revisited with affection, perhaps with regret, the modest though honourable dwelling of his fathers. The first of their line was the illustrious Manuel, who, in the reign of the second30 Basil, contributed by war30 and treaty to appease the troubles of the East; he left30 in a tender age two sons, Isaac and John, whom, with the consciousness of desert, he bequeathed to the gratitude and favour of his sovereign. The noble youths were carefully trained in the learning of the monastery, the arts of the palace30, and the exercises of the camp30; and from the domestic service30 of the guards they were rapidly promoted to the command of provinces and armies. Their fraternal union doubled the force and reputation of the Comneni, and their ancient nobility was illustrated by the marriage of the two brothers, with a captive princess of Bulgaria, and the daughter of a patrician, who had obtained the name of Charon from the number of enemies30 whom he had sent to the infernal shades. The soldiers30 had served with reluctant loyalty a series of effeminate masters; the elevation of Michael the Sixth was a personal insult to the more deserving generals; and their discontent was inflamed by the parsimony of the emperor30 and the insolence of the eunuchs. They secretly assembled in the sanctuary of St30. Sophia, and the votes of the military synod would have been unanimous in favour of the old and valiant Catacalon, if the patriotism or modesty of the veteran had not suggested the importance of birth as well as merit in the choice of a sovereign. Isaac Comnenus was approved by general30 consent, and the associates separated without delay to meet in the plains of Phrygia, at the head30 of their respective squadrons and detachments. The cause of Michael was defended in a single battle30 by the mercenaries of the Imperial guard, who were aliens to the public interest, and animated only by a principle of honour and gratitude. After their defeat, the fears of the emperor30 solicited a treaty, which was almost accepted by the moderation of the Comnenian. But the former was betrayed by his ambassadors, and the latter was prevented by his friends. The solitary Michael submitted to the voice of the people30; the patriarch annulled their oath of allegiance; and, as he shaved the head30 of the royal30 monk, congratulated his beneficial exchange of temporal royalty for the kingdom of heaven: an exchange, however, which the priest, on his own account, would probably have declined. By the hands of the same patriarch, Isaac Comnenus was solemnly crowned; the sword30 which he inscribed on his coins might be an offensive symbol, if it implied his title by conquest; but this sword30 would have been drawn against the foreign and domestic enemies30 of the state. The decline of his health and vigour suspended the operation of active virtue; and the prospect of approaching death30 determined him to interpose some moments between life and eternity. But, instead of leaving the empire30 as the marriage portion of his daughter, his reason and inclination concurred in the preference of his brother John, a soldier, a patriot, and the father of five sons, the future pillars of an hereditary succession. His first modest reluctance might be the natural dictates of discretion and tenderness, but his obstinate and successful perseverance, however it may dazzle with the show of virtue, must be censured as a criminal desertion of his duty and a rare offence against his family and country. The purple which he had refused was accepted by Constantine Ducas, a friend of the Comnenian house, and whose noble birth was adorned with the experience and reputation of civil policy. In the monastic habit, Isaac recovered his health, and survived two years30 his voluntary abdication. At the command of his abbot, he observed the rule of St30. Basil, and executed the most servile offices of the convent; but his latent vanity was gratified by the frequent and respectful visits of the reigning monarch, who revered in his person the character of a benefactor and a saint.
If Constantine the Eleventh were indeed the subject most worthy of empire30, we must pity the debasement of the age and nation in which he was chosen. In the labour of puerile declamations he sought, without obtaining, the crown of eloquence, more precious in his opinion than that of Rome; and in the subordinate functions of a judge he forgot the duties of a sovereign and a warrior. Far from imitating the patriotic indifference of the authors of his greatness, Ducas was anxious only to secure, at the expense of the republic, the power and prosperity of his children. His three sons, Michael the Seventh, Andronicus the First, and Constantine the Twelfth, were invested in a tender age with the equal title of Augustus; and the succession was speedily opened by their father's death30. His widow, Eudocia, was entrusted with the administration; but experience had taught the jealousy of the dying monarch to protect his sons from the danger of her second30 nuptials; and her solemn engagement, attested by the principal senators, was deposited in the hands of the patriarch. Before the end of seven months, the wants of Eudocia, or those of the state, called aloud for the male virtues of a soldier; and her heart had already chosen Romanus Diogenes, whom she raised from the scaffold to the throne. The discovery of a treasonable attempt had exposed him to the severity of the laws: his beauty and valour absolved him in the eyes of the empress; and Romanus, from a mild exile, was recalled on the second30 day30 to the command of the Oriental armies. Her royal30 choice was yet unknown to the public, and the promise which would have betrayed her falsehood and levity was stolen by a dexterous emissary from the ambition of the patriarch. Xiphilin at first alleged the sanctity of oaths and the sacred nature of a trust; but a whisper that his brother was the future emperor30 relaxed his scruples, and forced him to confess that the public safety was the supreme law. He resigned the important paper; and, when his hopes were confounded by the nomination of Romanus, he could no longer regain his security, retract his declarations, nor oppose the second30 nuptials of the empress. Yet a murmur was heard in the palace30; and the Barbarian guards had raised their battleaxes in the cause of the house of Ducas, till30 the young princes were soothed by the tears of their mother and the solemn assurances of the fidelity of their guardian, who filled the Imperial station with dignity and honour. Hereafter I shall relate his valiant but unsuccessful efforts to resist the progress of the Turks30. His defeat and captivity inflicted a deadly wound on the Byzantine30 monarchy of the East; and, after he was released from the chains of the sultan, he vainly sought his wife and his subjects. His wife had been thrust into a monastery, and the subjects of Romanus had embraced the rigid maxim of the civil law that a prisoner in the hands of the enemy30 is deprived, as by the stroke of death30, of all the public and private rights of a citizen. In the general30 consternation the Caesar John asserted the indefeasible right of his three nephews: Constantinople30 listened to his voice; and the Turkish30 captive was proclaimed in the capital, and received on the frontier, as an enemy30 of the republic. Romanus was not more fortunate in domestic than in foreign war30: the loss of two battles compelled him to yield, on the assurance of fair and honourable treatment; but his enemies30 were devoid of faith or humanity; and, after the cruel extinction of his sight, his wounds were left30 to bleed and corrupt, till30 in a few days30 he was relieved from a state of misery. Under the triple reign of the house of Ducas, the two younger brothers were reduced to the vain honours of the purple; but the eldest, the pusillanimous Michael, was incapable of sustaining the Roman30 sceptre; and his surname of Parapinaces denotes the reproach which he shared with an avaricious favourite who enhanced the price, and diminished the measure, of wheat. In the school of Psellus, and after the example of his mother, the son30 of Eudocia made some proficiency in philosophy and rhetoric; but his character was degraded, rather than ennobled, by the virtues of a monk and the learning of a sophist. Strong in the contempt of their sovereign and their own esteem, two generals at the head30 of the European and Asiatic legions assumed the purple at Hadrianople and Nice. Their revolt was in the same month; they bore the same name of Nicephorus; but the two candidates were distinguished by the surnames of Bryennius and Botaniates: the former in the maturity of wisdom and courage, the latter conspicuous only by the memory of his past exploits. While Botaniates advanced with cautious and dilatory steps, his active competitor stood in arms30 before the gates of Constantinople30. The name of Bryennius was illustrious; his cause was popular; but his licentious troops30 could not be restrained from burning and pillaging a suburb; and the people30, who would have hailed the rebel, rejected and repulsed the incendiary of his country. This change of the public opinion was favourable to Botaniates, who at length, with an army30 of Turks30, approached the shores of Chalcedon. A formal invitation, in the name of the patriarch, the synod, and the senate, was circulated through the streets of Constantinople30; and the general30 assembly, in the dome of St30. Sophia, debated, with order and calmness, on the choice of their sovereign. The guards of Michael would have dispersed this unarmed multitude; but the feeble emperor30, applauding his own moderation and clemency, resigned the ensigns of royalty, and was rewarded with the monastic habit and the title of archbishop of Ephesus. He left30 a son30, a Constantine, born and educated in the purple; and a daughter of the house of Ducas illustrated the blood, and confirmed the succession, of the Comnenian dynasty.
John Comnenus, the brother of the emperor30 Isaac, survived in peace and dignity his generous refusal of the sceptre. By his wife Anne, a woman of masculine spirit and policy, he left30 eight children: the three daughters multiplied the Comnenian alliances with the noblest of the Greeks30; of the five sons, Manuel was stopped by a premature death30; Isaac and Alexius restored the Imperial greatness of their house, which was enjoyed without toil or danger by the two younger brethren, Hadrian and Nicephorus. Alexius, the third and most illustrious of the brothers, was endowed by nature with the choicest gifts both of mind and body: they were cultivated by a liberal education, and exercised in the school of obedience and adversity. The youth was dismissed from the perils of the Turkish30 war30 by the paternal care of the emperor30 Romanus; but the mother of the Comneni, with her aspiring race, was accused of treason, and banished, by the sons of Ducas, to an island in the Propontis. The two brothers soon30 emerged into favour and action, fought by each other's side against the rebels and Barbarians, and adhered to the emperor30 Michael, till30 he was deserted by the world and by himself. In his first interview with Botaniates, Prince30, said Alexius, with a noble frankness, my duty rendered me your enemy30; the decrees of God and of the people30 have made me your subject. Judge of my future loyalty by my past opposition. The successor of Michael entertained him with esteem and confidence; his valour was employed against three rebels, who disturbed the peace of the empire30, or at least of the emperors. Ursel, Bryennius, and Basilacius were formidable by their numerous forces and military fame; they were successively vanquished in the field, and led in chains to the foot of the throne; and, whatever treatment they might receive from a timid and cruel court, they applauded the clemency, as well as the courage, of their conqueror. But the loyalty of the Comneni was soon30 tainted by fear and suspicion; nor is it easy to settle between a subject and a despot the debt of gratitude, which the former is tempted to claim by a revolt and the latter to discharge by an executioner. The refusal of Alexius to march against a fourth rebel, the husband of his sister, destroyed the merit or memory of his past services; the favourites of Botaniates provoked the ambition which they apprehended and accused; and the retreat of the two brothers might be justified by the defence of their life or liberty. The women of the family were deposited in a sanctuary, respected by tyrants: the men, mounted on horseback, sallied from the city30 and erected the standard30 of civil war30. The soldiers30, who had been gradually assembled in the capital and the neighbourhood, were devoted to the cause of a victorious and injured leader; the ties of common interest and domestic alliance secured the attachment of the house of Ducas; and the generous dispute of the Comneni was terminated by the decisive resolution of Isaac, who was the first to invest his younger brother with the name and ensigns of royalty. They returned to Constantinople30, to threaten rather than besiege that impregnable fortress; but the fidelity of the guards was corrupted; a gate was surprised, and the fleet was occupied by the active courage of George Palaeologus, who fought against his father, without foreseeing that he laboured for his posterity. Alexius ascended the throne; and his aged competitor disappeared in a monastery. An army30 of various nations was gratified with the pillage of the city30; but the public disorders were expiated by the tears and fasts of the Comneni, who submitted to every penance compatible with the possession of the empire30.
The life of the emperor22 Alexius has been delineated by a favourite daughter, who was inspired by a tender regard for his person and a laudable zeal to perpetuate his virtues22. Conscious of the just suspicion of her readers, the princess Anna Comnena repeatedly protests that, besides her personal knowledge, she had searched the discourse and writings of the most respectable veterans; that, after an interval of thirty years22, forgotten by, and forgetful of, the world22, her mournful solitude was inaccessible to hope and fear; and that truth, the naked perfect truth, was more dear and sacred than the memory of her parent. Yet, instead of the simplicity of style and narrative which wins our belief, an elaborate affectation of rhetoric and science betrays, in every page, the vanity of a female author. The genuine character22 of Alexius is lost22 in a vague constellation of virtues22; and the perpetual strain of panegyric and apology awakens our jealousy, to question the veracity of the historian22 and the merit22 of the hero. We cannot, however, refuse her judicious and important remark that the disorders of the times22 were the misfortune and the glory of Alexius; and that every calamity which can afflict a declining empire22 was accumulated on his reign22, by the justice of heaven and the vices of his predecessors. In the East22, the victorious Turks22 had spread, from Persia to the Hellespont, the reign22 of the Koran and the Crescent; the West was invaded by the adventurous valour of the Normans; and, in the moments of peace22, the Danube poured forth new22 swarms, who had gained, in the science of war22, what they had lost22 in the ferociousness of manners. The sea was not less hostile than the land; and, while the frontiers were assaulted by an open enemy, the palace was distracted with secret treason and conspiracy. On a sudden, the banner of the Cross was displayed by the Latins: Europe was precipitated on Asia; and Constantinople22 had almost been swept away by this impetuous deluge. In the tempest Alexius steered the Imperial vessel with dexterity and courage. At the head of his armies he was bold in action, skilful in stratagem, patient of fatigue, ready to improve his advantages, and rising from his defeats with inexhaustible vigour. The discipline of the camp was revived, and a new22 generation of men and soldiers was created by the example and the precepts of their leader. In his intercourse with the Latins, Alexius was patient and artful; his discerning eye pervaded the new22 system of an unknown world22; and I shall hereafter describe the superior policy22 with which he balanced the interests and passions of the champions of the first crusade. In a long22 reign22 of thirty-seven years22, he subdued and pardoned the envy of his equals; the laws of public22 and private order were restored; the arts22 of wealth and science were cultivated; the limits of the empire22 were enlarged in Europe and Asia; and the Comnenian sceptre was transmitted to his children of the third and fourth generation. Yet the difficulties of the times22 betrayed some defects in his character22; and have exposed his memory to some just or ungenerous reproach. The reader may possibly smile at the lavish praise which his daughter so often bestows on a flying hero; the weakness or prudence22 of his situation might be mistaken for a want of personal courage; and his political arts22 are branded by the Latins with the names of deceit and dissimulation. The increase of the male and female branches of his family adorned the throne22 and secured the succession; but their princely luxury and pride offended the patricians, exhausted the revenue, and insulted the misery of the people22. Anna is a faithful witness that his happiness was destroyed, and his health was broken, by the cares of a public22 life; the patience of Constantinople22 was fatigued by the length and severity of his reign22; and, before Alexius expired, he had lost22 the love and reverence of his subjects. The clergy could not forgive his application of the sacred riches to the defence of the state; but they applauded his theological learning and ardent zeal for the orthodox faith, which he defended with his tongue, his pen, and his sword. His character22 was degraded by the superstition of the Greeks; and the same inconsistent principle of human22 nature enjoined the emperor22 to found an hospital for the poor and infirm, and to direct the execution of an heretic, who was burnt alive in the square of St. Sophia. Even the sincerity of his moral and religious virtues22 was suspected by the persons who had passed their lives in his familiar confidence. In his last hours, when he was pressed by his wife Irene to alter the succession, he raised his head, and breathed a pious ejaculation on the vanity of this world22. The indignant reply of the empress may be inscribed as an epitaph on his tomb, You die, as you have lived — an hypocrite!
It was the wish of Irene to supplant the eldest of her surviving sons in favour of her daughter the princess Anna, whose philosophy would not have refused the weight of a diadem. But the order of male succession was asserted by the friends of their country; the lawful heir drew the royal30 signet from the finger of his insensible or conscious father; and the empire30 obeyed the master of the palace30. Anna Comnena was stimulated by ambition and revenge to conspire against the life of her brother, and, when the design was prevented by the fears or scruples of her husband, she passionately exclaimed that nature had mistaken the two sexes and had endowed Bryennius with the soul of a woman. The two sons of Alexius, John and Isaac, maintained the fraternal concord, the hereditary virtue of their race; and the younger brother was content with the title of Sebastocrator, which approached the dignity, without sharing the power, of the emperor30. In the same person, the claims of primogeniture and merit were fortunately united; his swarthy complexion, harsh features, and diminutive stature had suggested the ironical surname of Calo-Johannes, or John the Handsome, which his grateful subjects more seriously applied to the beauties of his mind. After the discovery of her treason, the life and fortune of Anna were justly forfeited to the laws. Her life was spared by the clemency of the emperor30, but he visited the pomp and treasures of her palace30, and bestowed the rich confiscation on the most deserving of his friends. That respectable friend, Axuch, a slave of Turkish30 extraction, presumed to decline the gift and to intercede for the criminal; his generous master applauded and imitated the virtue of his favourite; and the reproach or complaint of an injured brother was the only chastisement of the guilty princess. After this example of clemency, the remainder of his reign was never disturbed by conspiracy or rebellion: feared by his nobles, beloved by his people30, John was never reduced to the painful necessity of punishing, or even of pardoning, his personal enemies30. During his government of twenty-five years30, the penalty of death30 was abolished in the Roman30 empire30, a law of mercy most delightful to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and vicious community, is seldom consistent with the public safety. Severe to himself, indulgent to others, chaste, frugal, abstemious, the philosophic Marcus would not have disdained the artless virtues of his successor, derived from his heart, and not borrowed from the schools. He despised and moderated the stately magnificence of the Byzantine30 court, so oppressive to the people30, so contemptible to the eye of reason. Under such a prince30, innocence had nothing to fear, and merit had everything to hope; and, without assuming the tyrannic office of a censor, he introduced a gradual, though visible, reformation in the public and private manners of Constantinople30. The only defect of this accomplished character was the frailty of noble minds, the love of arms30 and military glory. Yet the frequent expeditions of John the Handsome may be justified, at least in their principle, by the necessity of repelling the Turks30 from the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. The sultan of Iconium was confined to his capital, the Barbarians were driven to the mountains, and the maritime provinces of Asia enjoyed the transient blessings of their deliverance. From Constantinople30 to Antioch and Aleppo, he repeatedly marched at the head30 of a victorious army30, and, in the sieges and battles of this holy30 war30, his Latin allies were astonished by the superior spirit and prowess of a Greek30. As he began to indulge the ambitious hope of restoring the ancient limits of the empire30, as he revolved in his mind the Euphrates and Tigris, the dominion of Syria, and the conquest of Jerusalem, the thread of his life and of the public felicity was broken by a singular accident. He hunted the wild boar in the valley of Anazarbus, and had fixed his javelin in the body of the furious animal; but, in the struggle, a poisoned arrow dropped from his quiver, and a slight wound in his hand, which produced a mortification, was fatal to the best and greatest of the Comnenian princes.
A premature death30 had swept away the two eldest sons of John the Handsome; of the two survivors, Isaac and Manuel, his judgment or affection preferred the younger; and the choice of their dying prince30 was ratified by the soldiers30 who had applauded the valour of his favourite in the Turkish30 war30. The faithful Axuch hastened to the capital, secured the person of Isaac in honourable confinement, and purchased, with a gift of two hundred pounds of silver, the leading ecclesiastics of St30. Sophia, who possessed a decisive voice in the consecration of an emperor30. With his veteran and affectionate troops30, Manuel soon30 visited Constantinople30; his brother acquiesced in the title of Sebastocrator; his subjects admired the lofty stature and martial graces of their new30 sovereign, and listened with credulity to the flattering promise that he blended the wisdom of age with the activity and vigour of youth. By the experience of his government, they were taught that he emulated the spirit, and shared the talents, of his father, whose social virtues were buried in the grave. A reign of thirty-seven years30 is filled by a perpetual though various warfare against the Turks30, the Christians, and the hordes in the wilderness beyond the Danube. The arms30 of Manuel were exercised on Mount Taurus, in the plains of Hungary, on the coast of Italy and Egypt, and on the seas of Sicily and Greece; the influence of his negotiations extended from Jerusalem to Rome and Russia; and the Byzantine30 monarchy, for a while, became an object of respect or terror to the powers of Asia and Europe. Educated in the silk and purple of the East, Manuel possessed the iron temper of a soldier, which cannot easily be paralleled, except in the lives of Richard the First of England, and of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden. Such was his strength and exercise in arms30 that Raymond, surnamed the Hercules of Antioch, was incapable of wielding the lance and buckler of the Greek30 emperor30. In a famous tournament, he entered the lists on a fiery courser, and overturned in his first career two of the stoutest of the Italian knights. The first in the charge, the last in the retreat, his friends and his enemies30 alike trembled, the former for his safety and the latter for their own. After posting an ambuscade in a wood, he rode forwards in search of some perilous adventure, accompanied only by his brother and the faithful Axuch, who refused to desert their sovereign. Eighteen horsemen, after a short combat, fled before them; but the numbers of the enemy30 increased; the march of the reinforcement was tardy and fearful, and Manuel, without receiving a wound, cut his way through a squadron of five hundred Turks30. In a battle30 against the Hungarians, impatient of the slowness of his troops30, he snatched a standard30 from the head30 of the column, and was the first, almost alone, who passed a bridge that separated him from the enemy30. In the same country, after transporting his army30 beyond the Save, he sent back the boats with an order, under pain of death30, to their commander, that he should leave him to conquer or die on that hostile land. In the siege30 of Corfu, towing after him a captive galley, the emperor30 stood aloft on the poop, opposing against the volleys of darts and stones a large buckler and a flowing sail; nor could he have escaped inevitable death30, had not the Sicilian admiral enjoined his archers to respect the person of an hero. In one day30, he is said to have slain above forty of the Barbarians with his own hand; he returned to the camp30, dragging along four Turkish30 prisoners, whom he had tied to the rings of his saddle; he was ever the foremost to provoke or to accept a single combat; and the gigantic champions, who encountered his arm, were transpierced by the lance, or cut asunder by the sword30, of the invincible Manuel. The story of his exploits, which appear as a model or a copy of the romances of chivalry, may induce a reasonable suspicion of the veracity of the Greeks30; I will not, to vindicate their credit, endanger my own; yet I may observe that, in the long30 series of their annals, Manuel is the only prince30 who has been the subject of similar exaggeration. With the valour of a soldier, he did not unite the skill or prudence of a general30; his victories were not productive of any permanent or useful conquest; and his Turkish30 laurels were blasted in his last unfortunate campaign, in which he lost his army30 in the mountains of Pisidia, and owed his deliverance to the generosity of the sultan. But the most singular feature in the character of Manuel is the contrast and vicissitude of labour and sloth, of hardiness and effeminacy. In war30 he seemed ignorant of peace, in peace he appeared incapable of war30. In the field he slept in the sun or in the snow, tired in the longest marches the strength of his men and horses, and shared with a smile the abstinence or diet of the camp30. No sooner did he return to Constantinople30 than he resigned himself to the arts and pleasures of a life of luxury; the expense of his dress, his table, and his palace30 surpassed the measure of his predecessors, and whole summer days30 were idly wasted in the delicious isles of the Propontis, in the incestuous love of his niece Theodora. The double cost of a warlike and dissolute prince30 exhausted the revenue and multiplied the taxes; and Manuel, in the distress of his last Turkish30 camp30, endured a bitter reproach from the mouth of a desperate soldier. As he quenched his thirst, he complained that the water of a fountain was mingled with Christian blood. It is not the first time, exclaimed a voice from the crowd, that you have drank, O emperor30! the blood of your Christian subjects. Manuel Comnenus was twice married, to the virtuous Bertha or Irene of Germany, and to the beauteous Maria, a French or Latin princess of Antioch. The only daughter of his first wife was destined for Bela, an Hungarian prince30, who was educated at Constantinople30, under the name of Alexius; and the consummation of their nuptials might have transferred the Roman30 sceptre to a race of free and warlike Barbarians. But, as soon30 as Maria of Antioch had given a son30 and heir to the empire30, the presumptive rights of Bela were abolished, and he was deprived of his promised bride; but the Hungarian prince30 resumed his name and the kingdom of his fathers, and displayed such virtues as might excite the regret and envy of the Greeks30. The son30 of Maria was named Alexius; and at the age of ten years30 he ascended the Byzantine30 throne, after his father's decease had closed the glories of the Comnenian line.
The fraternal concord of the two sons of the great Alexius had been sometimes clouded by an opposition of interest and passion. By ambition, Isaac the Sebastocrator was excited to flight and rebellion, from whence he was reclaimed by the firmness and clemency of John the Handsome. The errors of Isaac, the father of the emperors of Trebizond, were short and venial; but John, the elder of his sons, renounced for ever his religion. Provoked by a real or imaginary insult of his uncle, he escaped from the Roman30 to the Turkish30 camp30; his apostacy was rewarded with the sultan's daughter, the title of Chelebi, or noble, and the inheritance of a princely estate; and in the fifteenth century Mahomet the Second30 boasted of his Imperial descent from the Comnenian family. Andronicus, younger brother of John, son30 of Isaac, and grandson of Alexius Comnenus, is one of the most conspicuous characters of the age; and his genuine adventures might form the subject of a very singular romance. To justify the choice of three ladies of royal30 birth, it is incumbent on me to observe that their fortunate lover was cast in the best proportions of strength and beauty; and that the want of the softer graces was supplied by a manly countenance, a lofty stature, athletic muscles, and the air and deportment of a soldier. The preservation, in his old age, of health and vigour was the reward of temperance and exercise. A piece of bread and a draught of water were often his sole and evening repast; and, if he tasted of a wild boar, or a stag, which he had roasted with his own hands, it was the well-earned fruit of a laborious chase. Dexterous in arms30, he was ignorant of fear; his persuasive eloquence could bend to every situation and character of life; his style, though not his practice, was fashioned by the example of St30. Paul; and, in every deed of mischief, he had a heart to resolve, a head30 to contrive, and a hand to execute. In his youth, after the death30 of the emperor30 John, he followed the retreat of the Roman30 army30; but, in the march through Asia Minor, design or accident tempted him to wander in the mountains; the hunter was encompassed by the Turkish30 huntsmen, and he remained some time a reluctant or willing captive in the power of the sultan. His virtues and vices recommended him to the favour of his cousin; he shared the perils and the pleasures of Manuel; and, while the emperor30 lived in public incest with his niece Theodora, the affections of her sister Eudocia were seduced and enjoyed by Andronicus. Above the decencies of her sex and rank, she gloried in the name of his concubine; and both the palace30 and the camp30 could witness that she slept, or watched, in the arms30 of her lover. She accompanied him to his military command of Cilicia, the first scene of his valour and imprudence. He pressed, with active ardour, the siege30 of Mopsuestia; the day30 was employed in the boldest attacks; but the night was wasted in song and dance; and a band of Greek30 comedians formed the choicest part of his retinue. Andronicus was surprised by the sally of a vigilant foe; but, while his troops30 fled in disorder, his invincible lance transpierced the thickest ranks of the Armenians. On his return to the Imperial camp30 in Macedonia, he was received by Manuel with public smiles and a private reproof; but the duchies of Naissus, Braniseba, and Castoria were the reward or consolation of the unsuccessful general30. Eudocia still attended his motions; at midnight their tent was suddenly attacked by her angry brothers, impatient to expiate her infamy in his blood; his daring spirit refused her advice, and the disguise of a female habit; and, boldly starting from his couch, he drew his sword30 and cut his way through the numerous assassins. It was here that he first betrayed his ingratitude and treachery: he engaged in a treasonable correspondence with the king30 of Hungary and the German emperor30; approached the royal30 tent at a suspicious hour with a drawn sword30, and under the mask of a Latin soldier avowed an intention of revenge against a mortal foe; and imprudently praised the fleetness of his horse30 as an instrument of flight and safety. The monarch dissembled his suspicions; but, after the close of the campaign, Andronicus was arrested and strictly confined in a tower of the palace30 of Constantinople30.
In this prison he was left above twelve years48: a most painful restraint, from which the thirst of action and pleasure perpetually urged him to escape. Alone and pensive, he perceived some broken bricks in a corner of the chamber, and gradually widened the passage till he had explored a dark and forgotten recess. Into this hole he conveyed himself and the remains of his provisions, replacing the bricks in their former position, and erasing with care the footsteps of his retreat. At the hour of the customary visit, his guards were amazed by the silence and solitude of the prison, and reported, with shame and fear, his incomprehensible flight. The gates of the palace48 and city48 were instantly shut; the strictest orders were despatched into the provinces for the recovery of the fugitive; and his wife, on the suspicion of a pious act, was basely imprisoned in the same tower. At the dead of night, she beheld a spectre: she recognised her husband; they shared their provisions; and a son was the fruit of these stolen interviews, which alleviated the tediousness of their confinement. In the custody of a woman, the vigilance of the keepers was insensibly relaxed; and the captive had accomplished his real escape, when he was discovered, brought back to Constantinople48, and loaded with a double chain. At length he found the moment and the means of his deliverance48. A boy, his domestic48 servant, intoxicated the guards, and obtained48 in wax the impression of the keys. By the diligence of his friends, a similar key, with a bundle of ropes, was introduced into the prison, in the bottom of a hogshead. Andronicus employed, with industry and courage, the instruments of his safety, unlocked the doors, descended from the tower, concealed himself all day among the bushes, and scaled in the night the garden-wall of the palace48. A boat was stationed for his reception; he visited his own house, embraced his children, cast away his chain, mounted a fleet horse, and directed his rapid course towards the banks of the Danube. At Anchialus in Thrace, an intrepid friend supplied him with horses48 and money; he passed the river, traversed with speed the desert of Moldavia and the Carpathian hills, and had almost reached the town of Halicz, in the Polish Russia, when he was intercepted by a party of Walachians, who resolved to convey their important captive to Constantinople48. His presence of mind again extricated him from this danger48. Under the pretence of sickness, he dismounted in the night, and was allowed to step aside from the troop; he planted in the ground48 his long staff; clothed it with his cap and upper garment; and, stealing into the wood, left a phantom to amuse for some time the eyes of the Walachians. From Halicz he was honourably conducted to Kiow, the residence of the great duke; the subtle Greek soon obtained48 the esteem and confidence of Ieroslaus; his character could assume the manners of every climate; and the Babarians applauded his strength and courage in the chase of the elks and bears of the forest. In this northern region he deserved the forgiveness of Manuel, who solicited the Russian prince to join his arms48 in the invasion of Hungary. The influence of Andronicus achieved this important service; his private treaty was signed with a promise of fidelity on one side and of oblivion on the other; and he marched, at the head48 of the Russian cavalry, from the Borysthenes to the Danube. In his resentment Manuel had ever sympathised with the martial and dissolute character of his cousin; and his free pardon was sealed in the assault of Zemlin, in which he was second48, and second48 only, to the valour of the emperor48.
No sooner was the exile42 restored to freedom and his country42, than his ambition revived42, at first to his own, and at length to the public42, misfortune. A daughter of Manuel was a feeble bar to the succession of the more deserving males of the Comnenian blood; her future42 marriage with the prince42 of Hungary was repugnant to the hopes42 or prejudices of the princes and nobles. But, when an oath of allegiance was required to the presumptive heir, Andronicus alone asserted the honour of the Roman42 name, declined the unlawful engagement, and boldly protested against the adoption of a stranger. His patriotism was offensive to the emperor42, but he spoke the sentiments of the people42, and was removed from the royal presence by an honourable banishment, a second command42 of the Cilician frontier, with the absolute disposal of the revenues of Cyprus. In this station, the Armenians again exercised his courage and exposed his negligence; and the same rebel, who baffled all his operations, was unhorsed and almost slain by the vigour of his lance. But Andronicus soon42 discovered a more easy and pleasing conquest42, the beautiful Philippa, sister of the empress Maria, and daughter of Raymond of Poitou, the Latin prince42 of Antioch. For her sake he deserted his station, and wasted the summer in balls and tournaments; to his love she sacrificed her innocence, her reputation, and the offer of an advantageous marriage. But the resentment of Manuel for this domestic affront interrupted his pleasures; Andronicus left the indiscreet princess to weep and to repent; and, with a band of desperate adventurers, undertook the pilgrimage of Jerusalem42. His birth42, his martial renown, and professions of zeal announced him as the champion of the Cross; he soon42 captivated both the clergy42 and the king; and the Greek prince42 was invested with the lordship of Berytus, on the coast of Phoenicia. In his neighbourhood resided a young and handsome queen, of his own nation and family42, great42-granddaughter of the emperor42 Alexius, and widow of Baldwin the Third, king of Jerusalem42. She visited and loved her kinsman. Theodora was the third victim of his amorous seduction; and her shame was more public42 and scandalous than that of her predecessors. The emperor42 still thirsted for revenge; and his subjects and allies of the Syrian frontier were repeatedly pressed to seize the person, and put out the eyes, of the fugitive. In Palestine42 he was no longer safe; but the tender Theodora revealed his danger and accompanied his flight. The queen of Jerusalem42 was exposed to the East42, his obsequious concubine; and two illegitimate children42 were the living monuments of her weakness. Damascus was his first refuge; and in the character of the great42 Noureddin42 and his servant Saladin, the superstitious Greek might learn to revere the virtues42 of the Musulmans. As the friend of Noureddin42 he visited, most probably, Bagdad and the courts of Persia; and, after a long42 circuit round the Caspian sea and the mountains of Georgia, he finally settled among the Turks of Asia Minor, the hereditary enemies of his country42.
The sultan of Colonia afforded an hospitable retreat to Andronicus, his mistress, and his band of outlaws; the debt of gratitude was paid by frequent inroads in the Roman province of Trebizond; and he seldom returned without an ample harvest of spoil and of Christian captives14. In the story of his adventures, he was fond of comparing himself to David, who escaped, by a long14 exile, the snares of the wicked. But the royal prophet14 (he presumed to add) was content to lurk on the borders of Judaea, to slay an Amalekite, and to threaten, in his miserable state14, the life of the avaricious Nabal. The excursions of the Comnenian prince14 had a wider range; and he had spread over the Eastern world14 the glory of his name and religion14. By a sentence14 of the Greek church, the licentious rover had been separated from the faithful; but even this excommunication may prove that he never abjured the profession of Christianity.
His vigilance had eluded or repelled the open and secret persecution of the emperor30; but he was at length ensnared by the captivity of his female companion. The governor of Trebizond succeeded in his attempt to surprise the person of Theodora; the queen of Jerusalem and her two children were sent to Constantinople30, and their loss embittered the tedious solitude of banishment. The fugitive implored and obtained a final pardon, with leave to throw himself at the feet of his sovereign, who was satisfied with the submission of this haughty spirit. Prostrate on the ground, he deplored with tears and groans the guilt of his past rebellion; nor would he presume to arise, unless some faithful subject would drag him to the foot of the throne by an iron chain with which he had secretly encircled his neck. This extraordinary penance excited the wonder and pity of the assembly; his sins were forgiven by the church and state; but the just suspicion of Manuel fixed his residence at a distance from the court, at Oenoe, a town of Pontus, surrounded with rich vineyards, and situate on the coast of the Euxine. The death30 of Manuel and the disorders of the minority soon30 opened the fairest field to his ambition. The emperor30 was a boy of twelve or fourteen years30 of age, without vigour, or wisdom, or experience; his mother, the empress Mary, abandoned her person and government to a favourite of the Comnenian name; and his sister, another Mary, whose husband, an Italian, was decorated with the title of Caesar, excited a conspiracy, and at length an insurrection, against her odious stepmother. The provinces were forgotten, the capital was in flames, and a century of peace and order was overthrown in the vice and weakness of a few months. A civil war30 was kindled in Constantinople30; the two factions fought a bloody battle30 in the square of the palace30; and the rebels sustained a regular siege30 in the cathedral of St30. Sophia. The patriarch laboured with honest zeal to heal the wounds of the republic, the most respectable patriots called aloud for a guardian and avenger, and every tongue repeated the praise of the talents and even the virtues of Andronicus. In his retirement he affected to revolve the solemn duties of his oath: If the safety or honour of the Imperial family be threatened, I will reveal and oppose the mischief to the utmost of my power. His correspondence with the patriarch and patricians was seasoned with apt quotations from the Psalms of David and the Epistles of St30. Paul; and he patiently waited till30 he was called to her deliverance by the voice of his country. In his march from Oenoe to Constantinople30, his slender train insensibly swelled to a crowd and an army30; his professions of religion and loyalty were mistaken for the language of his heart; and the simplicity of a foreign dress, which shewed to advantage his majestic stature, displayed a lively image of his poverty and exile. All opposition sunk before him; he reached the straits of the Thracian Bosphorus; the Byzantine30 navy sailed from the harbour to receive and transport the saviour of the empire30; the torrent was loud and irresistible, and the insects who had basked in the sunshine of royal30 favour disappeared at the blast of the storm. It was the first care of Andronicus to occupy the palace30, to salute the emperor30, to confine his mother, to punish her minister, and to restore the public order and tranquillity. He then visited the sepulchre of Manuel: the spectators were ordered to stand aloof; but, as he bowed in the attitude of prayer, they heard, or thought they heard, a murmur of triumph and revenge: I no longer fear thee, my old enemy30, who hast driven me a vagabond to every climate of the earth. Thou art safely deposited under a sevenfold dome, from whence thou canst never arise till30 the signal of the last trumpet. It is now my turn, and speedily will I trample on thy ashes and thy posterity. From his subsequent tyranny, we may impute such feelings to the man and the moment; but it is not extremely probable that he gave an articulate sound to his secret thoughts. In the first months of his administration, his designs were veiled by a fair semblance of hypocrisy, which could delude only the eyes of the multitude; the coronation of Alexius was performed with due solemnity, and his perfidious guardian, holding in his hands the body and blood of Christ, most fervently declared that he lived, and was ready to die, for the service30 of his beloved pupil. But his numerous adherents were instructed to maintain that the sinking empire30 must perish in the hands of a child, that the Romans could only be saved by a veteran prince30, bold in arms30, skilful in policy, and taught to reign by the long30 experience of fortune and mankind; and that it was the duty of every citizen to force the reluctant modesty of Andronicus to undertake the burthen of the public care. The young emperor30 was himself constrained to join his voice to the general30 acclamation and to solicit the association of a colleague, who instantly degraded him from the supreme rank, secluded his person, and verified the rash declaration of the patriarch that Alexius might be considered as dead, so soon30 as he was committed to the custody of his guardian. But his death30 was preceded by the imprisonment and execution of his mother. After blackening her reputation and inflaming against her the passions of the multitude, the tyrant accused and tried the empress for a treasonable correspondence with the king30 of Hungary. His own son30, a youth of honour and humanity, avowed his abhorrence of this flagitious act, and three of the judges had the merit of preferring their conscience to their safety; but the obsequious tribunal, without requiring any proof or hearing any defence, condemned the widow of Manuel; and her unfortunate son30 subscribed the sentence of her death30. Maria was strangled, her corpse was buried in the sea, and her memory was wounded by the insult most offensive to female vanity, a false and ugly representation of her beauteous form. The fate of her son30 was not long30 deferred; he was strangled with a bowstring, and the tyrant, insensible to pity or remorse, after surveying the body of the innocent youth, struck it rudely with his foot: Thy father, he cried, was a knave, thy mother a whore, and thyself a fool!
The Roman47 sceptre, the reward of his crimes, was held by Andronicus about three years and a half, as the guardian or sovereign47 of the empire47. His government47 exhibited a singular contrast of vice and virtue. When he listened to his passions, he was the scourge, when he consulted his reason, the father47, of his people47. In the exercise of private47 justice47, he was equitable and rigorous; a shameful and pernicious venality was abolished, and the offices were filled with the most deserving candidates, by a prince47 who had sense to choose and severity to punish. He prohibited the inhuman practice of pillaging the goods and persons of shipwrecked mariners; the provinces47, so long47 the objects of oppression or neglect, revived in prosperity and plenty; and millions applauded the distant blessings of his reign47, while he was cursed by the witnesses of his daily cruelties. The ancient proverb, that bloodthirsty is the man who returns from banishment to power47, had been applied with too much truth to Marius and Tiberius; and was now verified for the third time in the life47 of Andronicus. His memory was stored with a black list of the enemies and rivals, who had traduced his merit47, opposed his greatness, or insulted his misfortunes; and the only comfort of his exile was the sacred hope and promise of revenge. The necessary extinction of the young emperor47 and his mother imposed the fatal obligation of extirpating the friends who hated and might punish the assassin; and the repetition of murder rendered him less willing, and less able, to forgive. An horrid narrative of the victims whom he sacrificed by poison or the sword, by the sea or the flames, would be less expressive of his cruelty than the appellation of the Halcyon-days, which was applied to a rare and bloodless week of repose. The tyrant47 strove to transfer, on the laws and the judges, some portion of his guilt; but the mask was fallen, and his subjects could no longer mistake the true author of their calamities. The noblest of the Greeks, more especially those who, by descent or alliance, might dispute the Comnenian inheritance, escaped from the monster's den; Nice or Prusa, Sicily or Cyprus, were their places of refuge; and, as their flight was already criminal, they aggravated their offence by an open revolt and the Imperial47 title. Yet Andronicus resisted the daggers and swords of his most formidable enemies; Nice and Prusa were reduced and chastised; the Sicilians were content with the sack of Thessalonica; and the distance of Cyprus was not more propitious to the rebel than to the tyrant47. His throne47 was subverted by a rival without merit47 and a people47 without arms47. Isaac Angelus, a descendant in the female line from the great Alexius, was marked as a victim by the prudence or superstition of the emperor47. In a moment of despair, Angelus defended his life47 and liberty, slew the executioner, and fled to the church of St. Sophia. The sanctuary was insensibly filled with a curious and mournful crowd, who, in his fate, prognosticated their own. But their lamentations were soon47 turned to curses, and their curses to threats; they dared to ask, Why do we fear? why do we obey? We are many, and he is one; our patience is the only bond of our slavery. With the dawn of day the city47 burst into a general47 sedition, the prisons were thrown open, the coldest and most servile were roused to the defence of their country, and Isaac, the second of the name, was raised from the sanctuary to the throne47. Unconscious of his danger47, the tyrant47 was absent, withdrawn from the toils of state, in the delicious islands of the Propontis. He had contracted an indecent marriage with Alice, or Agnes, daughter of Lewis the Seventh of France, and relict of the unfortunate Alexius; and his society, more suitable to his temper than to his age47, was composed of a young wife and a favourite concubine. On the first alarm he rushed to Constantinople, impatient for the blood of the guilty; but he was astonished by the silence of the palace47, the tumult of the city47, and the general47 desertion of mankind. Andronicus proclaimed a free pardon to his subjects; they neither desired nor would grant forgiveness: he offered to resign the crown to his son47 Manuel; but the virtues of the son47 could not expiate his father47's crimes. The sea was still open for his retreat; but the news of the revolution had flown along the coast; when fear had ceased, obedience was no more; the Imperial47 galley was pursued and taken by an armed brigantine; and the tyrant47 was dragged to the presence of Isaac Angelus, loaded with fetters, and a long47 chain round his neck. His eloquence and the tears of his female companions pleaded in vain for his life47; but, instead of the decencies of a legal execution, the new monarch abandoned the criminal to the numerous sufferers whom he had deprived of a father47, an husband, or a friend. His teeth and hair, an eye and a hand, were torn from him, as a poor compensation for their loss; and a short respite was allowed, that he might feel the bitterness of death47. Astride on a camel, without any danger47 of a rescue, he was carried through the city47, and the basest of the populace rejoiced to trample on the fallen majesty of their prince47. After a thousand blows and outrages, Andronicus was hung by the feet between two pillars that supported the statues of a wolf and sow; and every hand that could reach the public47 enemy inflicted on his body some mark of ingenious or brutal cruelty, till two friendly or furious Italians, plunging their swords into his body, released him from all human punishment. In this long47 and painful agony, Lord have mercy upon me! and Why will you bruise a broken reed? were the only words that escaped from his mouth. Our hatred for the tyrant47 is lost in pity for the man; nor can we blame his pusillanimous resignation, since a Greek Christian was no longer master47 of his life47.
I have been tempted to expatiate on the extraordinary character and adventures of Andronicus; but I shall here terminate the series of the Greek30 emperors since the time of Heraclius. The branches that sprang from the Comnenian trunk had insensibly withered; and the male line was continued only in the posterity of Andronicus himself, who, in the public confusion, usurped the sovereignty of Trebizond, so obscure in history and so famous in romance. A private citizen of Philadelphia, Constantine Angelus, had emerged to wealth and honours by his marriage with a daughter of the emperor30 Alexius. His son30 Andronicus is conspicuous only by his cowardice. His grandson Isaac punished and succeeded the tyrant; but he was dethroned by his own vices and the ambition of his brother; and their discord introduced the Latins to the conquest of Constantinople30, the first great period in the fall of the Eastern empire30.
If we compute the number and duration of the reigns, it will be found that a period of six hundred years30 is filled by sixty emperors; including, in the Augustan list, some female sovereigns, and deducting some usurpers who were never acknowledged in the capital, and some princes who did not live to possess their inheritance. The average proportion will allow ten years30 for each emperor30, far below the chronological rule of Sir Isaac Newton, who, from the experience of more recent and regular monarchies, has defined about eighteen or twenty years30 as the term of an ordinary reign. The Byzantine30 empire30 was most tranquil and prosperous, when it could acquiesce in hereditary succession; five dynasties, the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian, and Comnenian families, enjoyed and transmitted the royal30 patrimony during their respective series of five, four, three, six, and four generations; several princes number the years30 of their reign with those of their infancy; and Constantine the Seventh and his two grandsons occupy the space of an entire century. But in the intervals of the Byzantine30 dynasties, the succession is rapid and broken, and the name of a successful candidate is speedily erased by a more fortunate competitor. Many were the paths that led to the summit of royalty; the fabric of rebellion was overthrown by the stroke of conspiracy or undermined by the silent arts of intrigue; the favourites of the soldiers30 or people30, of the senate or clergy, of the women and eunuchs, were alternately clothed with the purple; the means of their elevation were base, and their end was often contemptible or tragic. A being of the nature of man, endowed with the same faculties, but with a longer measure of existence, would cast down a smile of pity and contempt on the crimes and follies of human ambition, so eager, in a narrow span, to grasp at a precarious and short-lived enjoyment. It is thus that the experience of history exalts and enlarges the horizon of our intellectual view. In a composition of some days30, in a perusal of some hours, six hundred years30 have rolled away, and the duration of a life or reign is contracted to a fleeting moment; the grave is ever beside the throne; the success of a criminal is almost instantly followed by the loss of his prize; and our immortal reason survives and disdains the sixty phantoms of kings, who have passed before our eyes and faintly dwell on our remembrance. The observation that, in every age and climate, ambition has prevailed with the same commanding energy may abate the surprise of a philosopher; but, while he condemns the vanity, he may search the motive, of this universal desire to obtain and hold the sceptre of dominion. To the greater part of the Byzantine30 series we cannot reasonably ascribe the love of fame and of mankind. The virtue alone of John Comnenus was beneficent and pure; the most illustrious of the princes who precede or follow that respectable name have trod with some dexterity and vigour the crooked and bloody paths of a selfish policy; in scrutinising the imperfect characters of Leo the Isaurian, Basil the First, and Alexius Comnenus, of Theophilus, the second30 Basil, and Manuel Comnenus, our esteem and censure are almost equally balanced; and the remainder of the Imperial crowd could only desire and expect to be forgotten by posterity. Was personal happiness the aim and object of their ambition? I shall not descant on the vulgar topics of the misery of kings; but I may surely observe that their condition, of all others, is the most pregnant with fear and the least susceptible of hope. For these opposite passions, a larger scope was allowed in the revolutions of antiquity than in the smooth and solid temper of the modern world, which cannot easily repeat either the triumph of Alexander or the fall of Darius. But the peculiar infelicity of the Byzantine30 princes exposed them to domestic perils, without affording any lively promise of foreign conquest. From the pinnacle of greatness, Andronicus was precipitated by a death30 more cruel and shameful than that of the vilest malefactor; but the most glorious of his predecessors had much more to dread from their subjects than to hope from their enemies30. The army30 was licentious without spirit, the nation turbulent without freedom; the Barbarians of the East and West pressed on the monarchy, and the loss of the provinces was terminated by the final servitude of the capital.
The entire series of Roman1 emperors1, from the first of the Caesars to the last of the Constantines, extends above fifteen hundred years1; and the term of dominion unbroken by foreign conquest surpasses the measure of the ancient1 monarchies: the Assyrians or Medes, the successors1 of Cyrus, or those of Alexander.
In the connection of the church1 and state1 I have considered the former as subservient only and relative to the latter: a salutary maxim, if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever been held sacred1. The oriental philosophy of the Gnostics, the dark abyss of predestination and grace, and the strange transformations of the Eucharist from the sign to the substance of Christ's body, I have purposely abandoned to the curiosity of speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligence and pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical1 history, by which the decline and fall of the Roman1 empire1 were materially affected, the propagation of Christianity, the constitution of the Catholic church1, the ruin of Paganism, and the sects that arose from the mysterious controversies concerning the Trinity and incarnation. At the head of this class, we may justly rank the worship of images, so fiercely disputed in the eighth and ninth centuries; since a question of popular superstition produced the revolt of Italy1, the temporal power1 of the popes1, and the restoration of the Roman1 empire1 in the West.
The primitive Christians8 were possessed with an unconquerable repugnance to the use8 and abuse of images, and this aversion may be ascribed to their descent from the Jews and their enmity to the Greeks. The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all representations of the Deity8; and that precept was firmly established in the principles and practice8 of the chosen people. The wit of the Christian8 apologists was pointed against the foolish idolaters, who bowed before the workmanship of their own hands: the images of brass and marble, which, had they been endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from the pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist. Perhaps some recent and imperfect converts of the Gnostic tribe might crown the statues of Christ and St. Paul with the profane honours which they paid to those of Aristotle and Pythagoras; but the public8 religion8 of the Catholics was uniformly simple and spiritual; and the first notice of the use8 of pictures is in the censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after the Christian8 era. Under the successors of Constantine8, in the peace and luxury of the triumphant church8, the more prudent bishops condescended to indulge a visible superstition8 for the benefit of the multitude; and, after the ruin of Paganism, they were no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious parallel. The first introduction of a symbolic worship8 was in the veneration of the cross and of relics. The saints and martyrs, whose intercession was implored, were seated on the right hand of God8; but the gracious and often supernatural favours, which, in the popular belief, were showered round their tomb, conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited, and touched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the memorials of their merits and sufferings. But a memorial, more interesting than the skull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is a faithful copy of his person and features, delineated by the arts of painting or sculpture. In every age8, such copies, so congenial to human8 feelings, have been cherished by the zeal8 of private8 friendship or public8 esteem; the images of the Roman emperors were adored with civil and almost religious8 honours; a reverence less ostentatious, but more sincere, was applied to the statues of sages and patriots; and these profane virtues, these splendid sins, disappeared in the presence of the holy men who had died for their celestial and everlasting country. At first, the experiment was made with caution and scruple; and the venerable pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen proselytes. By a slow though inevitable progression, the honours of the original were transferred to the copy; the devout Christian8 prayed before the image of a saint; and the Pagan8 rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and incense again stole into the Catholic church8. The scruples of reason8, or piety, were silenced by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and the pictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with a divine8 energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious8 adoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash attempt of defining, by forms and colours, the infinite Spirit, the eternal Father, who pervades and sustains the universe. But the superstitious mind8 was more easily reconciled to paint and to worship8 the angels, and, above all, the Son of God8, under the human8 shape which, on earth, they have condescended to assume. The second person of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and mortal body; but that body had ascended into heaven, and, had not some similitude been presented to the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual worship8 of Christ might have been obliterated by the visible relics and representations of the saints. A similar indulgence was requisite, and propitious, for the Virgin Mary; the place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption of her soul and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the Greeks and Latins. The use8, and even the worship8, of images was firmly established before the end of the sixth century; they were fondly cherished by the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics; the Pantheon and Vatican were adorned with the emblems of a new superstition8; but this semblance of idolatry was more coldly entertained by the rude Barbarians and the Arian clergy of the West. The bolder forms of sculpture, in brass or marble, which peopled the temples8 of antiquity, were offensive to the fancy or conscience of the Christian8 Greeks; and a smooth surface of colours has ever been esteemed a more decent and harmless mode of imitation.
The merit and effect of a copy depends on its resemblance with the original; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of the genuine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles: the statue32 of Christ at Paneas in Palestine was more probably that of some temporal saviour; the Gnostics and their profane monuments32 were reprobated; and the fancy of the Christian artists could only be guided by the clandestine imitation of some heathen model. In this distress, a bold and dexterous invention assured at once the likeness of the image32 and the innocence of the worship. A new32 superstructure of fable was raised on the popular basis of a Syrian legend, on the correspondence of Christ and Abgarus, so famous in the days of Eusebius, so reluctantly deserted by our modern advocates. The bishop of Caesarea records the epistle, but he most strangely forgets the picture of Christ, — the perfect impression of his face on a linen, with which he gratified the faith of the royal stranger, who had invoked his healing power and offered the strong city32 of Edessa to protect him against the malice of the Jews. The ignorance of the primitive church is explained by the long32 imprisonment of the image32, in a niche of the wall, from whence, after an oblivion of five hundred years32, it was released by some prudent bishop, and seasonably presented to the devotion of the times. Its first and most glorious exploit was the deliverance of the city32 from the arms of Chosroes Nushirvan; and it was soon revered as a pledge of the divine promise that Edessa should never be taken by a foreign enemy. It is true, indeed, that the text of Procopius ascribes the double deliverance of Edessa to the wealth and valour of her citizens, who purchased the absence and repelled the assaults of the Persian monarch. He was ignorant, the profane historian, of the testimony which he is compelled to deliver in the ecclesiastical page of Evagrius, that the Palladium was exposed on the rampart, and that the water which had been sprinkled on the holy face, instead of quenching, added new32 fuel to, the flames of the besieged. After this important service, the image32 of Edessa was preserved with respect and gratitude; and, if the Armenians rejected the legend, the more credulous Greeks adored the similitude, which was not the work of any mortal pencil, but the immediate creation of the divine original. The style and sentiments of a Byzantine hymn will declare how far32 their worship was removed from the grossest idolatry. How can we with mortal eyes contemplate this image32, whose celestial splendour the host of heaven presumes not to behold? He who dwells in heaven condescends this day to visit us by his venerable image32; He who is seated on the cherubim visits us this day by a picture, which the Father has delineated with his immaculate hand, which he has formed in an ineffable manner, and which we sanctify by adoring it with fear and love. Before the end of the sixth century32, these images, made without hands (in Greek it is a single word), were propagated in the camps and cities of the Eastern empire32; they were the objects of worship, and the instruments of miracles; and in the hour of danger or tumult their venerable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the courage, or repress the fury of the Roman32 legions. Of these pictures, the far32 greater part, the transcripts of a human pencil, could only pretend to a secondary likeness and improper title; but there were some of higher descent, who derived their resemblance from an immediate contact with the original, endowed, for that purpose, with a miraculous and prolific virtue. The most ambitious aspired from a filial to a fraternal relation with the image32 of Edessa; and such is the veronica of Rome32, or Spain, or Jerusalem, which Christ in his agony and bloody sweat applied to his face and delivered to an holy matron. The fruitful precedent was speedily transferred to the Virgin Mary and the saints and martyrs. In the church of Diospolis in Palestine, the features of the mother of God were deeply inscribed in a marble32 column32; the East and West have been decorated by the pencil of St32. Luke; and the evangelist, who was perhaps a physician, has been forced to exercise the occupation of a painter, so profane and odious in the eyes of the primitive Christians. The Olympian Jove, created by the muse of Homer and the chisel of Phidias, might inspire a philosophic mind with momentary devotion; but these Catholic images were faintly and flatly delineated by monkish artists in the last degeneracy of taste and genius.
The worship of images48 had stolen into the church48 by insensible degrees, and each petty step was pleasing to the superstitious mind, as productive of comfort and innocent of sin. But in the beginning of the eighth century, in the full magnitude of the abuse, the more timorous Greeks48 were awakened by an apprehension that, under the mask of Christianity, they had restored the religion of their fathers; they heard48, with grief and impatience, the name of idolaters: the incessant charge of the Jews and Mahometans, who derived from the Law and the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images48 and all relative worship. The servitude of the Jews might curb their zeal48 and depreciate their authority; but the triumphant Musulmans, who reigned at Damascus and threatened Constantinople48, cast into the scale of reproach the accumulated weight of truth and victory. The cities48 of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt48 had been fortified with the images48 of Christ, his mother, and his saints; and each city48 presumed on the hope or promise of miraculous defence48. In a rapid conquest of ten years48, the Arabs subdued those cities48 and these images48; and, in their opinion, the Lord of Hosts pronounced a decisive judgment between the adoration and contempt of these mute and inanimate idols. For a while Edessa had braved the Persian assaults; but the chosen city48, the spouse of Christ, was involved in the common ruin; and his divine resemblance became the slave and trophy of the infidels. After a servitude of three hundred years48, the Palladium was yielded to the devotion of Constantinople48, for a ransom of twelve thousand48 pounds of silver, the redemption of two hundred Musulmans, and a perpetual truce for the territory of Edessa. In this season of distress and dismay, the eloquence of the monks was exercised in the defence48 of images48; and they attempted to prove that the sin and schism of the greatest part of the Orientals had forfeited the favour, and annihilated the virtue, of these precious symbols. But they were now opposed by the murmurs of many simple or rational Christians, who appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and of the primitive times, and secretly desired the reformation of the church48. As the worship of images48 had never been established by any general48 or positive law, its progress in the Eastern empire had been retarded, or accelerated, by the differences of men and manners, the local degrees of refinement, and the personal characters of the bishops. The splendid devotion was fondly cherished by the levity of the capital and the inventive genius of the Byzantine clergy, while the rude and remote districts of Asia were strangers to this innovation of sacred luxury48. Many large congregations of Gnostics and Arians maintained, after their conversion, the simple worship which had preceded their separation; and the Armenians, the most warlike subjects of Rome, were not reconciled, in the twelfth century, to the sight of images48. These various denominations of men afforded a feud of prejudice and aversion, of small account in the villages of Anatolia or Thrace, but which, in the fortune of a soldier, a prelate, or an eunuch, might be often connected with the powers of the church48 and state.
Of such adventurers, the most fortunate was the emperor33 Leo the Third, who, from the mountains of Isauria, ascended the throne33 of the East33. He was ignorant of sacred and profane letters; but his education, his reason, perhaps his intercourse with the Jews and Arabs, had inspired the martial peasant with an hatred of images; and it was held to be the duty of a prince to impose on his subjects the dictates of his own conscience. But in the outset of an unsettled reign, during ten years of toil and danger, Leo submitted to the meanness of hypocrisy, bowed before the idols which he despised, and satisfied the Roman pontiff with the annual professions of his orthodoxy and zeal33. In the reformation of religion33, his first steps were moderate and cautious: he assembled a great council33 of senators and bishops33, and enacted, with their consent, that all the images should be removed from the sanctuary and altar to a proper height in the churches33, where they might be visible to the eyes, and inaccessible to the superstition, of the people33. But it was impossible, on either side, to check the rapid though adverse impulse of veneration and abhorrence; in their lofty position, the sacred images still edified their votaries and reproached the tyrant. He was himself provoked by resistance and invective; and his own party accused him of an imperfect discharge of his duty, and urged for his imitation the example of the Jewish king, who had broken, without scruple, the brazen serpent of the temple. By a second edict, he proscribed the existence as well as the use of religious33 pictures; the churches33 of Constantinople33 and the provinces were cleansed from idolatry; the images of Christ33, the Virgin, and the Saints were demolished, or a smooth surface of plaster was spread over the walls of the edifice. The sect of the Iconoclasts was supported by the zeal33 and despotism of six emperors, and the East33 and West33 were involved in a noisy conflict of one hundred and twenty years. It was the design of Leo the Isaurian to pronounce the condemnation of images, as an article of faith33, and by the authority of a general council33; but the convocation of such an assembly was reserved for his son Constantine; and, though it is stigmatised by triumphant bigotry as a meeting of fools and atheists, their own partial and mutilated acts betray many symptoms of reason and piety. The debates and decrees of many provincial synods33 introduced the summons of the general council33, which met in the suburbs of Constantinople33, and was composed of the respectable number of three hundred and thirty-eight bishops33 of Europe and Anatolia; for the patriarchs of Antioch33 and Alexandria33 were the slaves of the caliph, and the Roman pontiff had withdrawn the churches33 of Italy and the West33 from the communion of the Greeks33. This Byzantine synod33 assumed the rank and powers of the seventh general council33; yet even this title was a recognition of the six preceding assemblies which had laboriously built the structure of the Catholic33 faith33. After a serious deliberation of six months, the three hundred and thirty-eight bishops33 pronounced and subscribed an unanimous decree, that all visible symbols of Christ33, except in the Eucharist, were either blasphemous or heretical; that image-worship was a corruption of Christianity, and a renewal of Paganism; that all such monuments of idolatry should be broken or erased; and that those who should refuse to deliver the objects of their private superstition were guilty of disobedience to the authority of the church33 and of the emperor33. In their loud and loyal acclamations, they celebrated the merits of their temporal redeemer; and to his zeal33 and justice they entrusted the execution of their spiritual censures. At Constantinople33, as in the former councils, the will of the prince was the rule of episcopal33 faith33; but, on this occasion, I am inclined to suspect that a large majority of the prelates33 sacrificed their secret conscience to the temptations of hope and fear. In the long night of superstition, the Christians had wandered far away from the simplicity of the gospel; nor was it easy for them to discern the clue, and tread back the mazes, of the labyrinth. The worship of images was inseparably blended, at least to a pious fancy, with the Cross, the Virgin, the saints, and their relics; the holy33 ground was involved in a cloud of miracles and visions; and the nerves of the mind, curiosity and scepticism, were benumbed by the habits of obedience and belief. Constantine himself is accused of indulging a royal licence to doubt, or deny, or deride the mysteries of the Catholics33, but they were deeply inscribed in the public and private creed33 of his bishops33; and the boldest Iconoclast might assault with a secret horror the monuments of popular devotion, which were consecrated to the honour of his celestial patrons. In the reformation of the sixteenth century, freedom and knowledge had expanded all the faculties of man, the thirst of innovation superseded the reverence of antiquity, and the vigour of Europe could disdain those phantoms which terrified the sickly and servile weakness of the Greeks33.
The scandal of an abstract heresy can be only proclaimed to the people28 by the blast of the ecclesiastical trumpet; but the most ignorant can perceive, the most torpid must feel, the profanation and downfall of their visible deities. The first hostilities of Leo were directed against a lofty Christ on the vestibule, and above the gate, of the palace. A ladder had been planted for the assault, but it was furiously shaken by a crowd of zealots and women; they beheld, with pious transport, the ministers of sacrilege tumbling from on high and dashed against the pavement; and the honours of the ancient28 martyrs were prostituted to these criminals, who justly suffered for murder and rebellion. The execution of the Imperial edicts was resisted by frequent tumults in Constantinople and the provinces28; the person of Leo was endangered, his officers were massacred, and the popular enthusiasm was quelled by the strongest efforts of the civil and military28 power. Of the Archipelago, or Holy Sea, the numerous islands were filled with images and monks; their votaries abjured, without scruple, the enemy of Christ, his mother, and the saints; they armed a fleet of boats and galleys, displayed their consecrated banners, and boldly steered for the harbour of Constantinople, to place on the throne a new28 favourite of God and the people28. They depended on the succour of a miracle; but their miracles were inefficient against the Greek fire; and, after the defeat and conflagration of their fleet, the naked islands were abandoned28 to the clemency or justice of the conqueror. The son of Leo, in the first year of his reign28, had undertaken an expedition against the Saracens; during his absence, the capital28, the palace, and the purple were occupied by his kinsman Artavasdes, the ambitious champion of the orthodox faith. The worship of images was triumphantly restored; the patriarch renounced his dissimulation, or dissembled his sentiments; and the righteous claim of the usurper was acknowledged both in the new28, and in ancient28, Rome28. Constantine28 flew for refuge to his paternal mountains; but he descended at the head of the bold and affectionate Isaurians; and his final victory confounded the arms28 and predictions of the fanatics. His long28 reign28 was distracted with clamour, sedition, conspiracy, and mutual hatred, and sanguinary revenge; the persecution of images was the motive, or pretence, of his adversaries; and, if they missed a temporal diadem, they were rewarded by the Greeks with the crown of martyrdom. In every act of open and clandestine treason, the emperor felt the unforgiving enmity of the monks, the faithful slaves of the superstition to which they owed their riches and influence. They prayed, they preached, they absolved, they inflamed, they conspired; the solitude of Palestine poured forth a torrent of invective; and the pen of St. John Damascenus, the last of the Greek fathers, devoted the tyrant's head, both in this world and the next. I am not at leisure to examine how far the monks provoked, nor how much they have exaggerated, their real and pretended sufferings, nor how many lost their lives or limbs, their eyes or their beards, by the cruelty of the emperor. From the chastisement of individuals, he proceeded to the abolition of the order28; and, as it was wealthy and useless, his resentment might be stimulated by avarice and justified by patriotism. The formidable name and mission of the Dragon, his visitor-general28, excited the terror and abhorrence of the black nation; the religious communities were dissolved, the buildings were converted into magazines, or barracks; the lands, moveables, and cattle were confiscated; and our modern precedents will support the charge that much wanton or malicious havoc was exercised against the relics, and even the books, of the monasteries. With the habit and profession of monks, the public28 and private worship of images was rigorously proscribed; and it should seem that a solemn abjuration of idolatry was exacted from the subjects, or at least from the clergy, of the Eastern empire28.
The patient East abjured, with reluctance, her sacred images; they were fondly cherished, and vigorously defended29, by the independent29 zeal of the Italians. In ecclesiastical rank and jurisdiction, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope of Rome29 were nearly equal. But the Greek prelate was a domestic slave under the eye of his master, at whose nod he alternately passed from the convent to the throne, and from the throne to the convent. A distant29 and dangerous station, amidst the barbarians29 of the West, excited the spirit and freedom of the Latin bishops. Their popular election endeared them to the Romans29; the public29 and private indigence was relieved by their ample revenue; and the weakness29 or neglect of the emperors29 compelled them to consult, both in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city. In the school of adversity the priest insensibly imbibed the virtues and the ambition of a prince; the same character29 was assumed, the same policy was adopted, by the Italian, the Greek, or the Syrian, who ascended the chair of St. Peter; and, after the loss of her legions and provinces29, the genius and fortune of the popes again restored the supremacy of Rome29. It is agreed that in the eighth century their dominion was founded on rebellion, and that the rebellion was produced, and justified, by the heresy of the Iconoclasts; but the conduct of the second and third Gregory, in this memorable contest, is variously interpreted by the wishes of their friends and enemies. The Byzantine writers unanimously declare that, after a fruitless admonition, they pronounced the separation of the East and West, and deprived the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenue and sovereignty of Italy. Their excommunication is still more clearly expressed by the Greeks, who beheld the accomplishment of the papal triumphs; and, as they are more strongly attached to their religion than to their country29, they praise, instead of blaming, the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men. The modern champions of Rome29 are eager to accept the praise and the precedent: this great29 and glorious example of the deposition of royal heretics is celebrated29 by the cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine; and, if they are asked why the same thunders were not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they reply that the weakness29 of the primitive church was the sole cause of her patient loyalty. On this occasion, the effects of love and hatred are the same; and the zealous Protestants, who seek to kindle the indignation29, and to alarm the fears, of princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason of the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. They are defended29 only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of the Gallican church, who respect the saint without approving the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the mitre circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity, scripture, and tradition; and appeal to the evidence of the Latins, and the lives and epistles of the popes themselves.
Two original epistles, from Gregory the Second41 to the emperor41 Leo, are still extant; and, if they cannot be praised as the most perfect models of eloquence and logic, they exhibit the portrait, or at least the mask, of the founder of the papal monarchy. During ten pure and fortunate years41, says Gregory to the emperor41, we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal letters, subscribed in purple ink with your own hand41, the sacred pledges of your attachment to the orthodox creed of our fathers. How deplorable is the change! how tremendous the scandal! You now accuse the Catholics of idolatry; and, by the accusation, you betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and arguments; the first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion; and, were you to enter a grammar-school and avow yourself the enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be provoked to cast their hornbooks at your head. After this decent salutation, the pope attempts the usual distinction between the idols of antiquity and the Christian images. The former were the fanciful representations of phantoms or demons, at a time when the true God had not manifested his person41 in any visible likeness. The latter are the genuine forms of Christ, his mother, and his saints, who had approved, by a crowd of miracles, the innocence and merit of this relative worship. He must indeed have trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could assert the perpetual use of images from the apostolic age, and their venerable presence in the six synods of the Catholic church41. A more specious argument is drawn from present possession and recent practice; the harmony of the Christian world supersedes the demand of a general council; and Gregory frankly confesses that such assemblies can only be useful under the reign41 of an orthodox prince41. To the impudent and inhuman Leo, more guilty than an heretic, he recommends peace41, silence, and implicit obedience to his spiritual guides of Constantinople and Rome41. The limits of civil and ecclesiastical powers41 are defined by the pontiff. To the former he appropriates the body; to the latter, the soul: the sword of justice is in the hands of the magistrate; the more formidable41 weapon of excommunication is entrusted to the clergy; and in the exercise of their divine commission a zealous son41 will not spare his offending father; the successor41 of St. Peter may lawfully chastise the kings of the earth41. You assault us, O tyrant41! with a carnal and military hand41; unarmed and naked, we can only implore the Christ, the prince41 of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body and the salvation of your soul. You declare, with foolish arrogance, I will despatch my orders to Rome41; I will break in pieces the image of St. Peter; and Gregory, like his predecessor Martin, shall be transported in chains, and in exile, to the foot41 of the Imperial41 throne41. Would to God that I might be permitted to tread in the footsteps of the holy Martin; but may the fate of Constans serve as a warning to the persecutors of the church41! After his just condemnation by the bishops of Sicily, the tyrant41 was cut off, in the fulness of his sins, by a domestic servant; the saint is still adored by the nations of Scythia, among whom he ended his banishment and his life. But it is our duty to live for the edification and support of the faithful people41; nor are we reduced to risk our safety on the event of a combat. Incapable as you are of defending your Roman41 subjects, the maritime situation of the city41 may perhaps expose it to your depredation; but we can remove to the distance of four-and-twenty stadia, to the first fortress of the Lombards41, and then — you may pursue the winds. Are you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union, the mediators of peace41, between the East and West? The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility; and they revere, as a God upon earth41, the apostle St. Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy. The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present their homage to Christ and his vicegerent; and we now prepare to visit one of their most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive from our hands the sacrament of baptism. The Barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of the shepherd. These pious Barbarians are kindled into rage; they thirst to avenge the persecution of the East. Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise; reflect, tremble, and repent. If you persist, we are innocent of the blood41 that will be spilt in the contest; may it fall on your own head.
The first assault of Leo48 against the images48 of Constantinople48 had been witnessed by a crowd of strangers from Italy and the West, who related, with grief and indignation, the sacrilege of the emperor48. But on the reception of his proscriptive edict they trembled for their domestic48 deities; the images48 of Christ and the virgin, of the angels, martyrs, and saints, were abolished in all the churches of Italy; and a strong alternative was proposed to the Roman pontiff, the royal favour as the price of his compliance, degradation and exile as the penalty of his disobedience. Neither zeal48 nor policy allowed him to hesitate; and the haughty strain in which Gregory addressed the emperor48 displays his confidence in the truth of his doctrine or the powers of resistance. Without depending on prayers or miracles, he boldly armed against the public enemy, and his pastoral letters admonished the Italians48 of their danger48 and their duty. At this signal, Ravenna, Venice, and the cities48 of the Exarchate and Pentapolis adhered to the cause of religion; their military48 force by sea and land consisted, for the most part, of the natives; and the spirit of patriotism and zeal48 was transfused into the mercenary strangers. The Italians48 swore to live and die in the defence48 of the pope and the holy images48; the Roman people48 was devoted to their father, and even the Lombards were ambitious to share the merit and advantage of this holy war. The most treasonable act, but the most obvious revenge, was the destruction of the statues of Leo48 himself; the most effectual and pleasing measure of rebellion was the withholding the tribute of Italy, and depriving him of a power which he had recently abused by the imposition of a new48 capitation. A form of administration was preserved by the election of magistrates and governors; and so high was the public indignation that the Italians48 were prepared to create an orthodox emperor48, and to conduct him with a fleet and army to the palace48 of Constantinople48. In that palace48, the Roman bishops, the second48 and third Gregory, were condemned as the authors of the revolt, and every attempt was made, either by fraud or force, to seize their persons and to strike at their lives. The city48 was repeatedly visited or assaulted by captains of the guards, and dukes and exarchs of high dignity or secret trust; they landed with foreign troops48, they obtained48 some domestic48 aid, and the superstition of Naples may blush that her fathers were attached to the cause of heresy. But these clandestine or open attacks were repelled by the courage and vigilance of the Romans48; the Greeks48 were overthrown and massacred, their leaders suffered an ignominious death48, and the popes, however inclined to mercy, refused to intercede for these guilty victims. At Ravenna, the several quarters of the city48 had long exercised a bloody and hereditary feud; in religious controversy they found a new48 aliment of faction; but the votaries of images48 were superior in numbers or spirit, and the exarch, who attempted to stem the torrent, lost his life48 in a popular sedition. To punish this flagitious deed and restore his dominion in Italy, the emperor48 sent a fleet and army into the Adriatic gulf. After suffering from the winds and waves much loss and delay, the Greeks48 made their descent in the neighbourhood of Ravenna; they threatened to depopulate the guilty capital and to imitate, perhaps to surpass, the example of Justinian the Second48, who had chastised a former rebellion by the choice and execution of fifty of the principal inhabitants. The women and clergy, in sackcloth and ashes, lay prostrate in prayer; the men were in arms48 for the defence48 of their country48; the common danger48 had united the factions, and the event of a battle was preferred to the slow miseries of a siege. In a hard-fought day, as the two armies alternately yielded and advanced, a phantom was seen, a voice48 was heard48, and Ravenna was victorious by the assurance of victory. The strangers retreated to their ships, but the populous seacoast poured forth a multitude of boats; the waters of the Po were so deeply infected with blood that during six years48 the public prejudice abstained from the fish of the river; and the institution of an annual feast perpetuated the worship of images48 and the abhorrence of the Greek tyrant. Amidst the triumph of the Catholic arms48, the Roman pontiff convened a synod of ninety-three bishops against the heresy of the Iconoclasts. With their consent he pronounced a general48 excommunication against all who by word or deed should attack the tradition of the fathers and the images48 of the saints; in this sentence the emperor48 was tacitly involved; but the vote of a last and hopeless remonstrance may seem to imply that the anathema was yet suspended over his guilty head48. No sooner had they confirmed their own safety, the worship of images48, and the freedom of Rome and Italy, than the popes appear to have relaxed of their severity and to have spared the relics of the Byzantine dominion. Their moderate counsels delayed and prevented the election of a new48 emperor48, and they exhorted the Italians48 not to separate from the body of the Roman monarchy. The exarch was permitted to reside within the walls of Ravenna, a captive rather than a master48; and, till the Imperial coronation of Charlemagne, the government of Rome and Italy was exercised in the name of the successors of Constantine.
The liberty of Rome1, which had been oppressed by the arms and arts of Augustus, was rescued, after seven hundred and fifty years1 of servitude, from the persecution of Leo the Isaurian. By the Caesars, the triumphs of the consuls had been annihilated: in the decline and fall of the empire1, the god Terminus, the sacred1 boundary, had insensibly receded from the ocean, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates; and Rome1 was reduced to her ancient1 territory from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Narni to the mouth of the Tiber. When the kings were banished, the republic1 reposed on the firm basis which had been founded by their wisdom and virtue. Their perpetual jurisdiction1 was divided between two annual magistrates1; the senate1 continued to exercise the powers of administration and counsel; and the legislative authority1 was distributed in the assemblies of the people1 by a well-proportioned scale of property and service. Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans1 had improved the science of government1 and war; the will of the community was absolute; the rights of individuals were sacred1; one hundred and thirty thousand citizens were armed for defence or conquest; and a band of robbers and outlaws was moulded into a nation, deserving of freedom1 and ambitious of glory. When the sovereignty of the Greek emperors1 was extinguished, the ruins of Rome1 presented the sad image of depopulation and decay; her slavery was an habit, her liberty an accident: the effect of superstition, and the object of her own amazement and terror. The last vestige of the substance, or even the forms, of the constitution was obliterated from the practice and memory of the Romans1; and they were devoid of knowledge, or virtue, again to build the fabric of a commonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the offspring of slaves and strangers, was despicable in the eyes of the victorious Barbarians. As often as the Franks or Lombards expressed their most bitter contempt of a foe, they called him a Roman1; and in this name, says the bishop1 Liutprand, we include whatever is base, whatever is cowardly, whatever is perfidious, the extremes of avarice and luxury, and every vice that can prostitute the dignity of human nature. By the necessity of their situation, the inhabitants of Rome1 were cast into the rough model of a republican government1; they were compelled to elect some judges in peace1, and some leaders in war; the nobles assembled to deliberate, and their resolves could not be executed without the union and consent of the multitude. The style of the Roman1 senate1 and people1 was revived, but the spirit was fled; and their new1 independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of licentiousness and oppression. The want of laws1 could only be supplied by the influence of religion1, and their foreign and domestic counsels were moderated by the authority1 of the bishop1. His alms, his sermons, his correspondence with the kings and prelates of the West, his recent services, their gratitude and oath, accustomed the Romans1 to consider him as the first magistrate1 or prince of the city1. The Christian1 humility of the popes1 was not offended by the name of Dominus, or Lord; and their face and inscription are still apparent on the most ancient1 coins. Their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the reverence of a thousand years1; and their noblest title1 is the free choice of a people1 whom they had redeemed from slavery.
In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy30 people30 of Elis enjoyed a perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and in the exercise of the Olympic games. Happy would it have been for the Romans, if a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of St30. Peter from the calamities of war30; if the Christians who visited the holy30 threshold would have sheathed their swords in the presence of the apostle and his successor. But this mystic circle could have been traced only by the wand of a legislator and a sage; this pacific system was incompatible with the zeal and ambition of the popes; the Romans were not addicted, like the inhabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labours of agriculture; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by the climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of public and private life. A memorable example of repentance and piety was exhibited by Liutprand, king30 of the Lombards. In arms30, at the gate of the Vatican, the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the Second30, withdrew his troops30, resigned his conquests, respectfully visited the church of St30. Peter, and after performing his devotions, offered his sword30 and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross and his crown of gold30, on the tomb of the apostle. But this religious fervour was the illusion, perhaps the artifice, of the moment; the sense of interest is strong and lasting; the love of arms30 and rapine was congenial to the Lombards; and both the prince30 and people30 were irresistibly tempted by the disorders of Italy, the nakedness of Rome, and the unwarlike profession of her new30 chief. On the first edicts of the emperor30, they declared themselves the champions of the holy30 images; Liutprand invaded the province of Romagna, which had already assumed that distinctive appellation; the Catholics of the Exarchate yielded without reluctance to his civil and military power; and a foreign enemy30 was introduced for the first time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. That city30 and fortress were speedily recovered by the active diligence and maritime forces of the Venetians; and those faithful subjects obeyed the exhortation of Gregory himself, in separating the personal guilt of Leo from the general30 cause of the Roman30 empire30. The Greeks30 were less mindful of the service30 than the Lombards of the injury; the two nations, hostile in their faith, were reconciled in a dangerous and unnatural alliance; the king30 and the exarch marched to the conquest of Spoleto and Rome; the storm evaporated without effect; but the policy of Liutprand alarmed Italy with a vexatious alternative of hostility and truce. His successor Astolphus declared himself the equal enemy30 of the emperor30 and the pope; Ravenna was subdued by force or treachery, and this final conquest extinguished the series of the exarchs, who had reigned with a subordinate power since the time of Justinian30 and the ruin of the Gothic kingdom. Rome was summoned to acknowledge the victorious Lombard as her lawful sovereign; the annual tribute of a piece of gold30 was fixed as the ransom of each citizen; and the sword30 of destruction was unsheathed to exact the penalty of her disobedience. The Romans hesitated; they entreated; they complained; and the threatening Barbarians were checked by arms30 and negotiations, till30 the popes had engaged the friendship of an ally and avenger beyond the Alps.
In his distress, the first Gregory had implored the aid of the hero20 of the age20, of Charles20 Martel, who governed the French monarchy with the humble title of mayor or duke; and who, by his signal victory over the Saracens, had saved his country, and perhaps Europe, from the Mahometan yoke. The ambassadors20 of the pope were received by Charles20 with decent reverence; but the greatness of his occupations and the shortness of his life20 prevented his interference in the affairs of Italy, except by a friendly and ineffectual mediation. His son20 Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, assumed the office of champion of the Roman20 church; and the zeal of the French prince20 appears to have been prompted by the love of glory and religion. But the danger was on the banks of the Tiber, the succour on those of the Seine; and our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. Amidst the tears of the city20, Stephen the Third embraced the generous resolution of visiting in person20 the courts of Lombardy and France, to deprecate the injustice of his enemy20, or to excite the pity and indignation of his friend. After soothing the public20 despair by litanies and orations, he undertook this laborious journey with the ambassadors20 of the French monarch20 and the Greek emperor20. The king20 of the Lombards20 was inexorable; but his threats could not silence the complaints, nor retard the speed, of the Roman20 pontiff, who traversed the Pennine Alps, reposed in the abbey of St20. Maurice, and hastened to grasp the right hand of his protector, a hand which was never lifted in vain, either in war or friendship. Stephen was entertained as the visible successor of the apostle; at the next assembly, the field of March or of May, his injuries were exposed to a devout and warlike nation, and he repassed the Alps, not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, at the head of a French army, which was led by the king20 in person20. The Lombards20, after a weak resistance, obtained an ignominious peace, and swore to restore the possessions, and to respect the sanctity, of the Roman20 church. But no sooner was Astolphus delivered from the presence of the French arms20, than he forgot his promise and resented his disgrace. Rome20 was again encompassed by his arms20; and Stephen, apprehensive of fatiguing the zeal of his Transalpine allies, enforced his complaint and request by an eloquent letter in the name and person20 of St20. Peter20 himself. The apostle assures his adoptive sons, the king20, the clergy, and the nobles of France, that, dead in the flesh, he is still alive in the spirit20; that they now hear, and must obey, the voice of the founder and guardian of the Roman20 church; that the Virgin, the angels, the saints, and the martyrs, and all the host of heaven, unanimously urge the request, and will confess the obligation; that riches, victory, and paradise will crown their pious enterprise; and that eternal damnation will be the penalty of their neglect, if they suffer his tomb, his temple, and his people20 to fall into the hands of the perfidious Lombards20. The second20 expedition of Pepin was not less rapid and fortunate than the first: St20. Peter20 was satisfied, Rome20 was again saved, and Astolphus was taught the lessons of justice and sincerity by the scourge of a foreign master20. After this double chastisement, the Lombards20 languished about twenty years20 in a state of languor and decay. But their minds were not yet humbled to their condition; and, instead of affecting the pacific virtues of the feeble, they peevishly harassed the Romans with a repetition of claims, evasions, and inroads, which they undertook without reflection and terminated without glory. On either side, their expiring monarchy was pressed by the zeal and prudence of Pope Hadrian the First, by the genius, the fortune, and greatness of Charlemagne the son20 of Pepin; these heroes of the church and state were united in public20 and domestic friendship; and, while they trampled on the prostrate, they varnished their proceedings with the fairest colours of equity and moderation. The passes of the Alps, and the walls of Pavia, were the only defence of the Lombards20; the former were surprised, the latter were invested, by the son20 of Pepin; and after a blockade of two years20, Desiderius, the last of their native princes, surrendered his sceptre and his capital. Under the dominion of a foreign king20, but in the possession of their national laws, the Lombards20 became the brethren, rather than the subjects, of the Franks20; who derived their blood, and manners, and language20 from the same Germanic origin.
The mutual obligations of the popes and the Carlovingian family form11 the important link of ancient11 and modern11, of civil11 and ecclesiastical, history. In the conquest of Italy, the champions of the Roman11 church obtained a favourable occasion, a specious title11, the wishes of the people11, the prayers and intrigues of the clergy. But the most essential gifts of the popes to the Carlovingian race were the dignities of king of France and of patrician of Rome11. I. Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter, the nations11 began to resume the practice of seeking, on the banks of the Tiber, their kings, their laws, and the oracles of their fate. The Franks were perplexed between the name and substance of their government. All the powers11 of royalty were exercised by Pepin, mayor of the palace; and nothing, except the regal title11, was wanting to his ambition. His enemies were crushed by his valour11; his friends were multiplied by his liberality; his father had been the saviour of Christendom; and the claims of personal merit were repeated and ennobled in a descent of four generations. The name and image of royalty was still preserved in the last descendant of Clovis, the feeble Childeric; but his obsolete right could only be used as an instrument of sedition; the nation11 was desirous of restoring the simplicity of the constitution; and Pepin, a subject11 and a prince, was ambitious to ascertain his own rank and the fortune of his family. The mayor and the nobles were bound, by an oath of fidelity, to the royal phantom; the blood of Clovis was pure and sacred in their eyes; and their common ambassadors addressed the Roman11 pontiff, to dispel their scruples or to absolve their promise. The interest of Pope Zachary, the successor of the two Gregories, prompted him to decide, and to decide in their favour; he pronounced that the nation11 might lawfully unite, in the same person, the title11 and authority11 of king; and that the unfortunate Childeric, a victim of the public11 safety, should be degraded, shaved, and confined in a monastery for the remainder of his days. An answer so agreeable to their wishes was accepted by the Franks, as the opinion of a casuist, the sentence of a judge, or the oracle of a prophet; the Merovingian race disappeared from the earth; and Pepin was exalted on a buckler by the suffrage of a free people11, accustomed to obey his laws and to march11 under his standard. His coronation was twice performed, with the sanction of the popes, by their most faithful servant St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and by the grateful hands of Stephen the Third, who, in the monastery of St. Denys, placed the diadem on the head of his benefactor. The royal unction of the kings of Israel was dexterously applied; the successor of St. Peter assumed the character of a divine ambassador; a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord's anointed; and this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained by the superstition and vanity of modern11 Europe11. The Franks were absolved from their ancient11 oath; but a dire anathema was thundered against them and their posterity, if they should dare to renew the same freedom of choice, or to elect a king, except in the holy and meritorious race of the Carlovingian princes. Without apprehending the future danger, these princes gloried in their present11 security; the secretary of Charlemagne affirms that the French sceptre was transferred by the authority11 of the popes; and in their boldest enterprises they insist, with confidence, on this signal and successful act of temporal jurisdiction.
II. In the change of manners and language, the patricians of Rome1 were far removed from the senate1 of Romulus or the palace of Constantine1, from the free nobles of the republic1 or the fictitious parents of the emperor1. After the recovery of Italy1 and Africa by the arms of Justinian, the importance and danger of those remote provinces1 required the presence of a supreme magistrate1; he was indifferently styled the exarch or the patrician; and these governors of Ravenna, who fill their place in the chronology of princes1, extended their jurisdiction1 over the Roman1 city1. Since the revolt of Italy1 and the loss of the Exarchate, the distress of the Romans1 had exacted some sacrifice of their independence. Yet, even in this act, they exercised the right of disposing of themselves; and the decrees of the senate1 and people1 successively invested Charles Martel and his posterity with the honours1 of patrician of Rome1. The leaders of a powerful nation would have disdained a servile title1 and subordinate office1; but the reign1 of the Greek emperors1 was suspended; and, in the vacancy of the empire1, they derived a more glorious commission from the pope and the republic1. The Roman1 ambassadors presented these patricians with the keys of the shrine of St. Peter, as a pledge and symbol of sovereignty; with a holy banner, which it was their right and duty to unfurl in the defence of the church1 and city1. In the time of Charles Martel and of Pepin, the interposition of the Lombard kingdom covered the freedom1, while it threatened the safety, of Rome1; and the patriciate represented only the title1, the service, the alliance, of these distant protectors. The power1 and policy1 of Charlemagne annihilated an enemy, and imposed a master. In his first visit to the capital, he was received with all the honours1 which had formerly been paid to the exarch, the representative of the emperor1; and these honours1 obtained some new1 decorations from the joy and gratitude of Pope Hadrian the First. No sooner was he informed of the sudden approach of the monarch, than he despatched the magistrates1 and nobles of Rome1 to meet him, with the banner, about thirty miles from the city1. At the distance of one mile, the Flaminian way was lined with the schools, or national communities, of Greeks, Lombards, Saxons, &c. the Roman1 youth was under arms; and the children of a more tender age, with palms and olive branches in their hands, chaunted the praises of their great deliverer. At the aspect of the holy crosses and ensigns of the saints, he dismounted from his horse, led the procession of his nobles to the Vatican, and, as he ascended the stairs, devoutly kissed each step of the threshold of the apostles. In the portico, Hadrian expected him at the head of his clergy1; they embraced, as friends and equals; but, in their march to the altar, the king or patrician assumed1 the right hand of the pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vain and empty demonstrations of respect. In the twenty-six years1 that elapsed between the conquest of Lombardy and his Imperial coronation, Rome1, which had been delivered by the sword, was subject as his own to the sceptre, of Charlemagne. The people1 swore allegiance to his person and family; in his name money was coined and justice1 was administered; and the election of the popes1 was examined and confirmed by his authority1. Except an original and self-inherent claim of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative remaining which the title1 of emperor1 could add to the patrician of Rome1.
The gratitude of the Carlovingians was adequate to these obligations, and their names0 are consecrated as the saviours and benefactors of the Roman0 church. Her ancient0 patrimony of farms and houses was transformed by their bounty into the temporal dominion of cities and provinces; and the donation of the Exarchate was the first-fruits of the conquests of Pepin. Astolphus with a sigh relinquished his prey; the keys and the hostages of the principal cities were delivered to the French ambassador; and, in his master's name, he presented them before the tomb of St. Peter. The ample measure of the Exarchate might comprise all the provinces of Italy0 which had obeyed the emperor and his vicegerent; but its strict and proper limits were included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara; its inseparable dependency was the Pentapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Rimini, to Ancona, and advanced into the midland country0 as far as the ridges of the Apennine. In this transaction, the ambition and avarice of the popes has been severely condemned. Perhaps the humility of a Christian priest should have rejected an earthly kingdom, which it was not easy for him to govern without renouncing the virtues of his profession. Perhaps a faithful subject, or even a generous enemy, would have been less impatient to divide the spoils of the Barbarian; and, if the emperor had entrusted Stephen to solicit in his name the restitution of the Exarchate, I will not absolve the pope from the reproach of treachery and falsehood. But in the rigid interpretation of the laws every one may accept, without injury, whatever his benefactor can bestow without injustice. The Greek0 emperor had abdicated or forfeited his right to the Exarchate; and the sword of Astolphus was broken by the stronger sword of the Carlovingian. It was not in the cause of the Iconoclast that Pepin had exposed his person and army in a double expedition beyond the Alps; he possessed, and might lawfully alienate, his conquests; and to the importunities of the Greeks0 he piously replied that no human0 consideration should tempt him to resume the gift which he had conferred on the Roman0 pontiff for the remission of his sins and the salvation of his soul. The splendid donation was granted in supreme and absolute dominion, and the world0 beheld, for the first time, a Christian bishop invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince: the choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna. In the dissolution of the Lombard kingdom, the inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto sought a refuge from the storm, shaved their heads after the Roman0 fashion, declared themselves the servants and subjects of St. Peter, and completed, by this voluntary surrender, the present0 circle of the ecclesiastical state0. That mysterious circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent by the verbal or written donation of Charlemagne, who, in the first transports of his victory, despoiled himself and the Greek0 emperor of the cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the Exarchate. But, in the cooler moments of absence and reflection, he viewed, with an eye of jealousy and envy, the recent greatness of his ecclesiastical ally. The execution of his own and his father's promises was respectfully eluded; the king of the Franks0 and Lombards asserted the inalienable rights of the empire0; and, in his life and death, Ravenna, as well as Rome0, was numbered in the list of his metropolitan cities. The sovereignty of the Exarchate melted away in the hands of the popes; they found in the archbishops of Ravenna a dangerous and domestic rival; the nobles and priests disdained the yoke of a priest; and, in the disorders of the times0, they could only retain the memory of an ancient0 claim, which, in a more prosperous age0, they have revived and realised.
Fraud is the resource of weakness and cunning; and the strong, though ignorant, Barbarian was often entangled in the net of sacerdotal policy1. The Vatican and Lateran were an arsenal and manufacture, which, according to the occasion, have produced or concealed a various collection of false or genuine, of corrupt or suspicious acts, as they tended to promote the interest of the Roman1 church1. Before the end of the eighth century, some apostolical scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed the decretals, and the donation of Constantine1, the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes1. This memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle of Hadrian the First, who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality, and revive the name, of the great Constantine1. According to the legend, the first of the Christian1 emperors1 was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism, by St. Silvester, the Roman1 bishop1; and never was physician more gloriously recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew from the seat and patrimony of St. Peter; declared his resolution of founding a new1 capital in the East; and resigned to the popes1 the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome1, Italy1, and the provinces1 of the West. This fiction was productive of the most beneficial effects. The Greek princes1 were convicted of the guilt of usurpation; and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheritance. The popes1 were delivered from their debt of gratitude; and the nominal gifts of the Carlovingians were no more than the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical1 state1. The sovereignty of Rome1 no longer depended on the choice of a fickle people1; and the successors1 of St. Peter and Constantine1 were invested with the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars. So deep was the ignorance and credulity of the times that the most absurd of fables was received, with equal reverence, in Greece and in France, and is still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law. The emperors1 and the Romans1 were incapable of discerning a forgery that subverted their rights and freedom1; and the only opposition proceeded from a Sabine monastery, which, in the beginning of the twelfth century, disputed the truth and validity of the donation of Constantine1. In the revival of letters and liberty this fictitious deed was transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla, the pen of an eloquent critic and a Roman1 patriot. His contemporaries of the fifteenth century were astonished at his sacrilegious boldness; yet such is the silent and irresistible progress of reason that before the end of the next age the fable was rejected by the contempt of historians and poets, and the tacit or modest censure of the advocates of the Roman1 church1. The popes1 themselves have indulged a smile at the credulity of the vulgar; but a false and obsolete title1 still sanctifies their reign1; and, by the same fortune which has attended the decretals and the Sibylline oracles, the edifice has subsisted after the foundations have been undermined.
While the popes established in Italy their freedom and dominion, the images, the first cause of their revolt, were restored in the Eastern empire8. Under the reign8 of Constantine8 the Fifth, the union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown the tree, without extirpating the root, of superstition8. The idols, for such they were now held, were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most prone to devotion8; and the fond alliance of the monks and females obtained a final victory over the reason8 and authority of man8. Leo the Fourth maintained with less rigour the religion8 of his father and grandfather; but his wife, the fair and ambitious Irene, had imbibed the zeal8 of the Athenians, the heirs of the idolatry, rather than the philosophy, of their ancestors. During the life8 of her husband, these sentiments were inflamed by danger and dissimulation, and she could only labour to protect and promote some favourite monks, whom she drew from their caverns and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the East. But, as soon as she reigned in her own name and that of her son, Irene more seriously undertook the ruin of the Iconoclasts; and the first step of her future persecution was a general edict for liberty of conscience. In the restoration of the monks, a thousand images were exposed to the public8 veneration; a thousand legends were invented of their sufferings and miracles. By the opportunities of death8 or removal the episcopal seats were judiciously filled; the most eager competitors for earthly or celestial favour anticipated and flattered the judgment of their sovereign; and the promotion of her secretary Tarasius gave Irene the patriarch of Constantinople and the command of the Oriental church8. But the decrees of a general council could only be repealed by a similar assembly; the Iconoclasts whom she convened were bold in possession and averse to debate; and the feeble voice of the bishops was re-echoed by the more formidable clamour of the soldiers and people of Constantinople. The delay and intrigues of a year, the separation of the disaffected troops, and the choice of Nice for a second orthodox synod removed these obstacles; and the episcopal conscience was again, after the Greek fashion, in the hands of the prince. No more than eighteen days were allowed for the consummation of this important work; the Iconoclasts appeared, not as judges, but as criminals or penitents; the scene was decorated by the legates of Pope Hadrian and the Eastern patriarchs; the decrees were framed by the president Tarasius, and ratified by the acclamations and subscriptions of three hundred and fifty bishops. They unanimously pronounced that the worship8 of images is agreeable to scripture and reason8, to the fathers and councils of the church8: but they hesitate whether that worship8 be relative or direct; whether the Godhead and the figure of Christ be entitled to the same mode of adoration. Of this second Nicene council, the acts are still extant: a curious monument of superstition8 and ignorance, of falsehood and folly. I shall only notice the judgment of the bishops on the comparative merit of imageworship and morality. A monk had concluded a truce with the demon of fornication, on condition of interrupting his daily prayers to a picture that hung in his cell. His scruples prompted him to consult the abbot. Rather than abstain from adoring Christ and his Mother in their holy images, it would be better for you, replied the casuist, to enter every brothel, and visit every prostitute, in the city.
For the honour of orthodoxy, at least the orthodoxy of the Roman church7, it is somewhat unfortunate that the two princes who convened the two councils of Nice are both stained with the blood of their sons. The second of these assemblies was approved and rigorously executed by the despotism of Irene, and she refused her adversaries the toleration which at first she had granted to her friends. During the five succeeding reigns, a period of thirty-eight years7, the contest was maintained, with unabated rage and various success, between the worshippers, and the breakers, of the images7; but I am not inclined to pursue with minute diligence the repetition of the same events. Nicephorus allowed a general liberty of speech and practice; and the only virtue of his reign is accused by the monks as the cause of his temporal7 and eternal perdition. Superstition7 and weakness formed the character of Michael the First, but the saints and images7 were incapable of supporting their votary on the throne. In the purple, Leo the Fifth asserted the name and religion7 of an Armenian; and the idols, with their seditious adherents, were condemned to a second exile. Their applause would have sanctified the murder of an impious tyrant, but his assassin and successor, the second Michael, was tainted from his birth with the Phrygian heresies: he attempted to mediate between the contending parties; and the intractable spirit of the Catholics7 insensibly cast him into the opposite scale. His moderation was guarded by timidity; but his son7 Theophilus, alike ignorant of fear and pity, was the last and most cruel of the Iconoclasts. The enthusiasm of the times ran strongly against them; and the emperors, who stemmed the torrent, were exasperated and punished by the public hatred. After the death of Theophilus, the final victory of the images7 was achieved by a second female, his widow Theodora, whom he left the guardian of the empire. Her measures were bold and decisive. The fiction of a tardy repentance absolved the fame and the soul of her deceased husband; the sentence of the Iconoclast patriarch was commuted from the loss of his eyes to a whipping of two hundred lashes; the bishops trembled, the monks shouted, and the festival of orthodoxy preserves the annual memory of the triumph of the images7. A single question yet remained, whether they are endowed with any proper and inherent sanctity; it was agitated by the Greeks of the eleventh century7; and, as this opinion has the strongest recommendation of absurdity, I am surprised that it was not more explicitly decided in the affirmative. In the West, Pope Hadrian the First accepted and announced the decrees of the Nicene assembly, which is now revered by the Catholics7 as the seventh in rank of the general councils. Rome and Italy were docile to the voice of their father; but the greatest part of the Latin Christians7 were far behind in the race of superstition7. The churches of France, Germany, England, and Spain steered a middle course between the adoration and the destruction of images7, which they admitted into their temples, not as objects of worship7, but as lively and useful memorials of faith7 and history. An angry book of controversy was composed and published in the name of Charlemagne; under his authority a synod of three hundred bishops was assembled at Frankfort; they blamed the fury of the Iconoclasts, but they pronounced a more severe censure against the superstition7 of the Greeks and the decrees of their pretended council, which was long despised by the Barbarians of the West. Among them the worship7 of images7 advanced with a silent and insensible progress; but a large atonement is made for their hesitation and delay by the gross idolatry7 of the ages which precede the reformation, and of the countries, both in Europe and America, which are still immersed in the gloom of superstition7.
It was after the Nicene synod, and under the reign1 of the pious Irene, that the popes1 consummated the separation of Rome1 and Italy1, by the translation of the empire1 to the less orthodox Charlemagne. They were compelled to choose between the rival nations; religion1 was not the sole motive of their choice; and, while they dissembled the failings of their friends, they beheld, with reluctance and suspicion, the Catholic virtues of their foes. The difference of language and manners had perpetuated the enmity of the two capitals; and they were alienated from each other by the hostile opposition of seventy years1. In that schism the Romans1 had tasted of freedom1, and the popes1 of sovereignty: their submission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant; and the revolution of Italy1 had betrayed the impotence, as well as the tyranny, of the Byzantine court. The Greek emperors1 had restored the images, but they had not restored the Calabrian estates and the Illyrian diocese, which the Iconoclasts had torn away from the successors1 of St. Peter; and Pope Hadrian threatens them with a sentence of excommunication unless they speedily abjure this practical heresy. The Greeks were now orthodox, but their religion1 might be tainted by the breath of the reigning monarch; the Franks were now contumacious, but a discerning eye might discern their approaching conversion from the use, to the adoration, of images. The name of Charlemagne was stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes; but the conqueror himself conformed, with the temper of a statesman, to the various practice of France and Italy1. In his four pilgrimages or visits to the Vatican, he embraced the popes1 in the communion of friendship and piety; knelt before the tomb, and consequently before the image, of the apostle; and joined, without scruple, in all the prayers and processions of the Roman1 liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude allow the pontiffs to renounce their benefactor? Had they a right to alienate his gift of the Exarchate? Had they power1 to abolish his government1 of Rome1? The title1 of patrician was below the merit and greatness of Charlemagne; and it was only by reviving the Western empire1 that they could pay their obligations or secure their establishment. By this decisive measure they would finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks; from the debasement of a provincial town, the majesty of Rome1 would be restored; the Latin Christians1 would be united under a supreme head, in their ancient1 metropolis; and the conquerors of the West would receive their crown from the successors1 of St. Peter. The Roman1 church1 would acquire a zealous and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of the Carlovingian power1, the bishop1 might exercise, with honour and safety, the government1 of the city1.
Before the ruin of paganism in Rome47, the competition for a wealthy bishopric had often been productive of tumult and bloodshed. The people47 was less numerous, but the times were more savage, the prize more important, and the chair of St. Peter was fiercely disputed by the leading ecclesiastics who aspired to the rank47 of sovereign47. The reign47 of Hadrian the First surpasses the measure of past or succeeding ages; the walls of Rome47, the sacred patrimony, the ruin of the Lombards and the friendship of Charlemagne, were the trophies of his fame; he secretly edified the throne47 of his successors, and displayed in a narrow space the virtues of a great prince47. His memory was revered; but in the next election, a priest of the Lateran (Leo the Third) was preferred to the nephew and the favourite of Hadrian, whom he had promoted to the first dignities of the church. Their acquiescence or repentance disguised, above four years, the blackest intention of revenge, till the day of a procession, when a furious band of conspirators dispersed the unarmed multitude and assaulted with blows and wounds the sacred person47 of the pope. But their enterprise on his life47 or liberty was disappointed, perhaps by their own confusion and remorse. Leo was left for dead on the ground; on his revival from the swoon, the effect of his loss of blood, he recovered his speech and sight; and this natural event was improved to the miraculous restoration of his eyes and tongue, of which he had been deprived, twice deprived, by the knife of the assassins. From his prison, he escaped to the Vatican; the duke of Spoleto hastened to his rescue, Charlemagne sympathised in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in Westphalia accepted or solicited a visit from the Roman47 pontiff. Leo repassed the Alps with a commission of counts and bishops, the guards of his safety and the judges of his innocence; and it was not without reluctance that the conqueror of the Saxons delayed till the ensuing year the personal discharge of this pious office. In his fourth and last pilgrimage, he was received at Rome47 with the due honours of king and patrician; Leo was permitted to purge himself by oath of the crimes imputed to his charge; his enemies were silenced, and the sacrilegious attempt against his life47 was punished by the mild and insufficient penalty of exile. On the festival of Christmas, the last year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church of St. Peter; and, to gratify the vanity of Rome47, he had exchanged the simple dress of his country for the habit of a patrician. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious crown on his head, and the dome resounded with the acclamations of the people47, Long47 life47 and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific emperor47 of the Romans! The head and body of Charlemagne were consecrated by the royal unction; after the example of the Caesars he was saluted or adored by the pontiff; his coronation oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the church; and the firstfruits were paid in his rich offerings to the shrine of the apostle. In his familiar conversation, the emperor47 protested his ignorance of the intentions of Leo, which he would have disappointed by his absence on that memorable day. But the preparations of the ceremony must have disclosed the secret47; and the journey of Charlemagne reveals his knowledge and expectation: he had acknowledged that the Imperial47 title was the object of his ambition, and a Roman47 senate47 had pronounced that it was the only adequate reward of his merit47 and services.
The appellation of great46 has been often bestowed and sometimes deserved, but Charlemagne is the only prince in whose favour the title has been indissolubly blended with the name. That name, with the addition of saint, is inserted in the Roman46 calendar; and the saint, by a rare felicity, is crowned with the praises of the historians and philosophers of an enlightened age46. His real merit46 is doubtless enhanced by the barbarism of the nation and the times from which he emerged; but the apparent magnitude of an object is likewise enlarged by an unequal comparison; and the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual splendour from the nakedness of the surrounding desert. Without injustice to his fame, I may discern some blemishes in the sanctity and greatness of the restorer of the Western empire46. Of his moral virtues46, chastity is not the most conspicuous; but the public46 happiness46 could not be materially injured by his nine wives or concubines, the various indulgence of meaner or more transient amours, the multitude of his bastards whom he bestowed on the church, and the long celibacy and licentious manners of his daughters, whom the father was suspected of loving with too fond a passion. I shall be scarcely permitted to accuse the ambition of a conqueror; but, in a day of equal retribution, the sons of his brother Carloman, the Merovingian princes of Aquitain, and the four thousand five hundred Saxons who were beheaded on the same spot, would have something to allege against the justice and humanity of Charlemagne. His treatment of the vanquished Saxons was an abuse of the right of conquest; his laws46 were not less sanguinary than his arms; and, in the discussion of his motives, whatever is subtracted from bigotry must be imputed to temper. The sedentary reader is amazed by his incessant activity of mind46 and body; and his subjects and enemies were not less astonished at his sudden presence, at the moment when they believed him at the most distant extremity of the empire46; neither peace nor war, nor summer nor winter, were a season of repose: and our fancy cannot easily reconcile the annals of his reign46 with the geography of his expeditions. But this activity was a national rather than a personal virtue46; the vagrant life46 of a Frank was spent in the chase, in pilgrimage, in military adventures; and the journeys of Charlemagne were distinguished only by a more numerous train and a more important46 purpose. His military renown must be tried by the scrutiny of his troops, his enemies, and his actions. Alexander46 conquered with the arms of Philip, but the two heroes who preceded Charlemagne bequeathed him their name, their examples, and the companions of their victories. At the head of his veteran and superior armies, he oppressed the savage or degenerate nations who were incapable of confederating for their common safety; nor did he ever encounter an equal antagonist in numbers, in discipline, or in arms. The science of war has been lost and revived with the arts46 of peace; but his campaigns are not illustrated by any siege or battle of singular difficulty and success; and he might behold, with envy, the Saracen trophies of his grandfather. After his Spanish expedition, his rear-guard was defeated in the Pyrenaean mountains; and the soldiers, whose situation was irretrievable and whose valour was useless, might accuse, with their last breath, the want of skill or caution of their general. I touch with reverence the laws46 of Charlemagne, so highly applauded by a respectable judge. They compose not a system, but a series, of occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the reformation, of manners, the economy of his farms, the care of his poultry, and even the sale of his eggs. He wished to improve the laws46 and the character46 of the Franks; and his attempts, however feeble and imperfect, are deserving of praise. The inveterate evils of the times were suspended or mollified by his government; but in his institutions I can seldom discover the general views and the immortal spirit of a legislator, who survives himself for the benefit of posterity. The union and stability of his empire46 depended on the life46 of a single man; he imitated the dangerous practice of dividing his kingdoms among his sons; and, after his numerous diets, the whole constitution was left to fluctuate between the disorders of anarchy and despotism. His esteem for the piety and knowledge46 of the clergy tempted him to entrust that aspiring order with temporal dominion and civil jurisdiction; and his son Lewis, when he was stripped and degraded by the bishops, might accuse, in some measure, the imprudence of his father. His laws46 enforced the imposition of tithes, because the demons had proclaimed in the air that the default of payment had been the cause of the last scarcity. The literary merits of Charlemagne are attested by the foundation of schools, the introduction of arts46, the works which were published in his name, and his familiar connection with the subjects and strangers whom he invited to his court to educate both the prince and people46. His own studies were tardy, laborious, and imperfect; if he spoke Latin and understood Greek, he derived the rudiments of knowledge46 from conversation rather than from books; and, in his mature age46, the emperor strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant now learns in his infancy. The grammar and logic, the music and astronomy, of the times were only cultivated as the handmaids of superstition; but the curiosity46 of the human46 mind46 must ultimately tend to its improvement, and the encouragement of learning reflects the purest and most pleasing lustre on the character46 of Charlemagne. The dignity46 of his person, the length of his reign46, the prosperity46 of his arms, the vigour of his government, and the reverence of distant nations distinguish him from the royal crowd; and Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the Western empire46.
That empire9 was not unworthy of its title; and some of the fairest kingdoms of Europe9 were the patrimony or conquest9 of a prince who reigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy9, Germany, and Hungary. I. The Roman9 province9 of Gaul had been transformed into the name and monarchy of France; but, in the decay of the Merovingian line, its limits were contracted by the independence of the Britons and the revolt of Aquitain. Charlemagne pursued, and confined, the Britons on the shores of the ocean9; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin and language are so different from the French, was chastised by the imposition of tribute, hostages, and peace. After a long9 and evasive contest, the rebellion of the dukes of Aquitain was punished by the forfeiture of their province9, their liberty, and their lives. Harsh and rigorous would have been such treatment of ambitious governors, who had too faithfully copied the mayors of the palace. But a recent discovery has proved that these unhappy princes were the last and lawful heirs of the blood and sceptre of Clovis, a younger branch, from the brother of Dagobert, of the Merovingian house. Their ancient9 kingdom was reduced to the duchy of Gascogne, to the counties of Fesenzac and Armagnac, at the foot of the Pyrenees; their race was propagated till the beginning of the sixteenth century; and, after surviving their Carlovingian tyrants, they were reserved to feel the injustice, or the favours, of a third dynasty. By the re-union of Aquitain, France was enlarged to its present boundaries, with the additions of the Netherlands and Spain, as far9 as the Rhine. II. The Saracens had been expelled from France by the grandfather and father of Charlemagne; but they still possessed the greatest part of Spain, from the rock of Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. Amidst their civil divisions, an Arabian emir of Saragossa implored his protection in the diet of Paderborn. Charlemagne undertook the expedition, restored the emir, and, without distinction of faith, impartially crushed the resistance of the Christians, and rewarded the obedience and service of the Mahometans. In his absence he instituted the Spanish march, which extended from the Pyrenees to the river9 Ebro; Barcelona was the residence of the French governor; he possessed the counties of Rousillon and Catalonia; and the infant kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon were subject to his jurisdiction. III. As king of the Lombards, and patrician of Rome9, he reigned over the greatest part of Italy9, a tract of a thousand9 miles9 from the Alps to the borders of Calabria. The duchy of Beneventum, a Lombard fief, had spread, at the expense of the Greeks, over the modern kingdom of Naples. But Arrechis, the reigning duke, refused to be included in the slavery of his country9; assumed the independent title of prince; and opposed his sword to the Carlovingian monarchy. His defence was firm, his submission was not inglorious, and the emperor was content with an easy tribute, the demolition of his fortresses, and the acknowledgment, on his coins, of a supreme lord. The artful flattery of his son Grimoald added the appellation of father, but he asserted his dignity with prudence, and Beneventum insensibly escaped from the French yoke. IV. Charlemagne was the first who united Germany under the same sceptre. The name of Oriental France is preserved in the circle of Franconia; and the people of Hesse and Thuringia were recently incorporated with the victors by the conformity of religion and government. The Alemanni, so formidable to the Romans9, were the faithful vassals and confederates of the Franks; and their country9 was inscribed within the modern limits of Alsace, Swabia, and Switzerland. The Bavarians, with a similar indulgence of their laws and manners, were less patient of a master; the repeated treasons of Tasillo justified the abolition of her hereditary dukes; and their power was shared among the counts, who judged and guarded that important frontier. But the north9 of Germany, from the Rhine and beyond the Elbe, was still hostile and Pagan; nor was it till after a war9 of thirty-three years that the Saxons bowed under the yoke of Christ and of Charlemagne. The idols and their votaries were extirpated; the foundation of eight bishoprics, of Munster, Osnaburgh, Paderborn, and Minden, of Bremen, Verden, Hildesheim, and Halberstadt, define, on either side of the Weser, the bounds of ancient9 Saxony; these episcopal seats were the first schools and cities9 of that savage land; and the religion and humanity of the children atoned, in some degree, for the massacre of the parents. Beyond the Elbe, the Slavi, or Sclavonians, of similar manners and various denominations, overspread the modern dominions of Prussia, Poland, and Bohemia, and some transient marks of obedience have tempted the French historian to extend the empire9 to the Baltic and the Vistula. The conquest9 or conversion of those countries is of a more recent age; but the first union of Bohemia with the Germanic body may be justly ascribed to the arms9 of Charlemagne. V. He retaliated on the Avars, or Huns9 of Pannonia, the same calamities which they had inflicted on the nations9. Their rings, the wooden fortifications which encircled their districts and villages, were broken down by the triple effort of a French army9, that was poured into their country9 by land and water, through the Carpathian mountains9 and along the plain of the Danube9. After a bloody conflict of eight years, the loss of some French generals was avenged by the slaughter of the most noble Huns9; the relics of the nation9 submitted; the royal residence of the chagan was left desolate and unknown; and the treasures, the rapine of two hundred and fifty years, enriched the victorious troops9 or decorated the churches of Italy9 and Gaul. After the reduction of Pannonia, the empire9 of Charlemagne was bounded only by the conflux of the Danube9 with the Theiss and the Save; the provinces9 of Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia were an easy, though unprofitable, accession; and it was an effect of his moderation that he left the maritime cities9 under the real or nominal sovereignty of the Greeks. But these distant possessions added more to the reputation than to the power of the Latin emperor; nor did he risk any ecclesiastical foundations to reclaim the Barbarians9 from their vagrant life and idolatrous worship. Some canals of communication between the rivers, the Saône and the Meuse, the Rhine and the Danube9, were faintly attempted. Their execution would have vivified the empire9; and more cost and labour were often wasted in the structure of a cathedral.
If we retrace the outlines of this geographical picture, it will be seen that the empire40 of the Franks extended, between east and west, from the Ebro to the Elbe or Vistula; between the north and south, from the duchy of Beneventum to the river Eyder, the perpetual boundary of Germany and Denmark. The personal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by the distress and division of the rest of Europe. The islands of Great40 Britain and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of princes of Saxon or Scottish origin; and, after the loss of Spain, the Christian and Gothic kingdom of Alphonso the Chaste was confined to the narrow range of the Asturian mountains. These petty sovereigns revered the power40 or virtue of the Carlovingian monarch, implored the honour and support of his alliance, and styled him their common parent, the sole and supreme emperor40 of the West. He maintained a more equal intercourse with the caliph Harun al Rashid, whose dominion stretched from Africa40 to India, and accepted from his ambassadors a tent, a water-clock, an elephant, and the keys of the Holy40 Sepulchre. It is not easy40 to conceive the private friendship of a Frank and an Arab, who were strangers to each other's person, and language, and religion40; but their public40 correspondence was founded on vanity, and their remote situation left no room for a competition of interest. Two thirds of the Western empire40 of Rome40 were subject to Charlemagne, and the deficiency was amply supplied by his command40 of the inaccessible or invincible nations of Germany. But in the choice of his enemies we may be reasonably surprised that he so often preferred the poverty of the North to the riches of the South. The three-and-thirty campaigns laboriously consumed in the woods and morasses of Germany would have sufficed to assert the amplitude of his title by the expulsion of the Greeks40 from Italy and the Saracens from Spain. The weakness of the Greeks40 would have ensured an easy40 victory; and the holy40 crusade against the Saracens would have been prompted by glory and revenge, and loudly justified by religion40 and policy. Perhaps, in his expeditions beyond the Rhine and the Elbe, he aspired to save his monarchy from the fate of the Roman40 empire40, to disarm the enemies of civilised society, and to eradicate the seed of future emigrations. But it has been wisely observed that, in a light of precaution, all conquest must be ineffectual, unless it could be universal; since the increasing circle must be involved in a larger sphere of hostility. The subjugation of Germany withdrew the veil which had so long concealed the continent or islands of Scandinavia from the knowledge of Europe, and awakened the torpid courage of their barbarous natives. The fiercest of the Saxon idolaters escaped from the Christian tyrant to their brethren of the North; the ocean and Mediterranean were covered with their piratical fleets; and Charlemagne beheld with a sigh the destructive progress of the Normans, who, in less than seventy years40, precipitated the fall of his race and monarchy.
Had the pope and the Romans revived the primitive constitution, the titles of emperor12 and Augustus were conferred on Charlemagne for the term of his life; and his successors, on each vacancy, must have ascended the throne by a formal or tacit election. But the association of his son Lewis12 the Pious asserts the independent right of monarchy and conquest, and the emperor12 seems on this occasion to have foreseen and prevented the latent claims of the clergy. The royal youth was commanded to take the crown from the altar, and with his own hands to place it on his head, as a gift which he held from God, his father, and the nation. The same ceremony12 was repeated, though with less energy, in the subsequent associations of Lothaire and Lewis12 the Second; the Carlovingian sceptre was transmitted from father to son in a lineal descent of four generations; and the ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honour of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes who were already invested with their power and dominion. The pious Lewis12 survived his brothers, and embraced the whole empire of Charlemagne; but the nations and the nobles12, his bishops and his children, quickly discerned that this mighty12 mass was no longer inspired by the same soul; and the foundations were undermined to the centre, while the external surface was yet fair and entire. After a war, or battle, which consumed one hundred thousand12 Franks, the empire was divided by treaty between his three sons, who had violated every filial and fraternal duty. The kingdoms of Germany and France were for ever separated; the provinces of Gaul12, between the Rhone and the Alps, the Meuse and the Rhine, were assigned, with Italy12, to the Imperial dignity of Lothaire. In the partition of his share, Lorraine and Arles, two recent and transitory kingdoms, were bestowed on the younger children; and Lewis12 the Second, his eldest son, was content with the realm of Italy12, the proper and sufficient patrimony of a Roman12 emperor12. On his death without any male issue, the vacant throne was disputed by his uncles and cousins, and the popes most dexterously seized the occasion of judging the claims and merits of the candidates, and of bestowing on the most obsequious or most liberal the Imperial office of advocate of the Roman12 church. The dregs of the Carlovingian race no longer exhibited any symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epithets of the bald, the stammerer, the fat, and the simple distinguished the tame and uniform features of a crowd of kings12 alike deserving of oblivion. By the failure of the collateral branches, the whole inheritance devolved to Charles the Fat, the last emperor12 of his family; his insanity authorised the desertion of Germany, Italy12, and France; he was deposed in a diet, and solicited his daily bread from the rebels, by whose contempt his life and liberty had been spared. According to the measure of their force, the governors, the bishops, and the lords usurped the fragments of the falling empire; and some preference was shewn to the female or illegitimate blood of Charlemagne. Of the greater part the title and possession were alike doubtful, and the merit12 was adequate to the contracted scale of their dominions. Those who could appear with an army12 at the gates of Rome12 were crowned emperors in the Vatican; but their modesty was more frequently satisfied with the appellation of kings12 of Italy12; and the whole term of seventy-four years12 may be deemed a vacancy, from the abdication of Charles the Fat to the establishment of Otho the First.
Otho was of the noble race of the dukes of Saxony; and, if he truly descended from Witikind, the adversary and proselyte of Charlemagne, the posterity of a vanquished people was exalted to reign3 over their conquerors. His father Henry the Fowler was elected, by the suffrage of the nation, to save and institute the kingdom of Germany. Its limits were enlarged on every side by his son3, the first and greatest of the Othos. A portion of Gaul3 to the west of the Rhine, along the banks of the Meuse and the Moselle, was assigned to the Germans, by whose blood and language it has been tinged since the time of Caesar and Tacitus. Between the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Alps, the successors of Otho acquired a vain supremacy over the broken kingdoms of Burgundy and Arles. In the North, Christianity was propagated by the sword of Otho, the conqueror and apostle of the Slavic nations of the Elbe and Oder; the marches of Brandenburg and Sleswick were fortified with German colonies; and the king3 of Denmark, the dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confessed themselves his tributary vassals. At the head3 of a victorious army3, he passed the Alps, subdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered the pope, and for ever fixed the Imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From that memorable era, two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by force, and ratified by time: I. That the prince3 who was elected in the German diet acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome; II. But that he might not legally assume the titles of emperor3 and Augustus, till he had received the crown from the hands of the Roman3 pontiff.
The Imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to the East by the alteration of his style; and, instead of saluting his fathers, the Greek30 emperors, he presumed to adopt the more equal and familiar appellation of brother. Perhaps in his connection with Irene he aspired to the name of husband: his embassy to Constantinople30 spoke the language of peace and friendship, and might conceal a treaty of marriage with that ambitious princess, who had renounced the most sacred duties of a mother. The nature, the duration, the probable consequences of such an union between two distant and dissonant empires, it is impossible to conjecture; but the unanimous silence of the Latins may teach us to suspect that the report was invented by the enemies30 of Irene, to charge her with the guilt of betraying the church and state to the strangers of the West. The French ambassadors were the spectators, and had nearly been the victims, of the conspiracy of Nicephorus, and the national hatred. Constantinople30 was exasperated by the treason and sacrilege of ancient Rome. A proverb, That the Franks were good friends and bad neighbours, was in every one's mouth; but it was dangerous to provoke a neighbour who might be tempted to reiterate, in the church of St30. Sophia, the ceremony of his Imperial coronation. After a tedious journey of circuit and delay, the ambassadors of Nicephorus found him in his camp30, on the banks of the river Sala; and Charlemagne affected to confound their vanity by displaying in a Franconian village the pomp, or at least the pride, of the Byzantine30 palace30. The Greeks30 were successively led through four halls of audience; in the first, they were ready to fall prostrate before a splendid personage in a chair of state, till30 he informed them that he was only a servant, the constable, or master of the horse30, of the emperor30. The same mistake and the same answer were repeated in the apartments of the count palatine, the steward, and the chamberlain; and their impatience was gradually heightened, till30 the doors of the presence-chamber were thrown open, and they beheld the genuine monarch, on his throne, enriched with the foreign luxury which he despised, and encircled with the love and reverence of his victorious chiefs. A treaty of peace and alliance was concluded between the two empires, and the limits of the East and West were defined by the right of present possession. But the Greeks30 soon30 forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it only to hate the Barbarians by whom it was extorted. During the short union of virtue and power, they respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne with the acclamations of basileus and emperor30 of the Romans. As soon30 as these qualities were separated in the person of his pious son30, the Byzantine30 letters were inscribed, To the king30, or, as he styles himself, the emperor30, of the Franks and Lombards. When both power and virtue were extinct, they despoiled Lewis the Second30 of his hereditary title, and, with the Barbarous appellation of rex or rega, degraded him among the crowd of Latin princes. His reply is expressive of his weakness; he proves, with some learning, that both in sacred and profane history the name of king30 is synonymous with the Greek30 word basileus; if, at Constantinople30, it were assumed in a more exclusive and Imperial sense, he claims from his ancestors, and from the pope, a just participation of the honours of the Roman30 purple. The same controversy was revived in the reign of the Othos; and their ambassador describes, in lively colours, the insolence of the Byzantine30 court. The Greeks30 affected to despise the poverty and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and, in their last decline, refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman30 emperors.
These emperors1, in the election of the popes1, continued to exercise the powers which had been assumed1 by the Gothic and Grecian princes1; and the importance of this prerogative increased with the temporal estate and spiritual jurisdiction1 of the Roman1 church1. In the Christian1 aristocracy, the principal members of the clergy1 still formed a senate1 to assist the administration, and to supply the vacancy, of the bishop1. Rome1 was divided into twenty-eight parishes, and each parish was governed by a cardinal-priest, or presbyter, a title1 which, however common and modest in its origin, has aspired to emulate the purple of kings. Their number was enlarged by the association of the seven deacons of the most considerable hospitals, the seven palatine judges of the Lateran, and some dignitaries of the church1. This ecclesiastical1 senate1 was directed by the seven cardinal-bishops1 of the Roman1 province, who were less occupied in the suburb dioceses of Ostia, Porto, Velitrae, Tusculum, Praeneste, Tibur, and the Sabines, than by their weekly service in the Lateran, and their superior share in the honours1 and authority1 of the apostolic see. On the death of the pope, these bishops1 recommended a successor to the suffrage of the college of cardinals, and their choice was ratified or rejected by the applause or clamour of the Roman1 people1. But the election was imperfect; nor could the pontiff be legally consecrated till the emperor1, the advocate of the church1, had graciously signified his approbation and consent. The royal commissioner examined, on the spot, the form and freedom1 of the proceedings; nor was it till after a previous scrutiny into the qualifications of the candidates that he accepted an oath of fidelity and confirmed the donations which had successively enriched the patrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms, the rival claims were submitted to the sentence of the emperor1; and in a synod of bishops1 he presumed to judge, to condemn, and to punish the crimes of a guilty pontiff. Otho the First imposed a treaty on the senate1 and people1, who engaged to prefer the candidate most acceptable to his majesty; his successors1 anticipated or prevented their choice; they bestowed the Roman1 benefice, like the bishopries of Cologne or Bamberg, on their chancellors or preceptors; and, whatever might be the merit of a Frank or Saxon, his name sufficiently attests the interposition of foreign power1. These acts of prerogative were most speciously excused by the vices of a popular election. The competitor who had been excluded by the cardinals appealed to the passions or avarice of the multitude; the Vatican and the Lateran were stained with blood; and the most powerful senators, the marquises of Tuscany and the counts of Tusculum, held the apostolic see in a long1 and disgraceful servitude. The Roman1 pontiffs of the ninth and tenth centuries were insulted, imprisoned, and murdered by their tyrants; and such was their indigence after the loss and usurpation of the ecclesiastical1 patrimonies, that they could neither support the state1 of a prince nor exercise the charity of a priest. The influence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora, was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman1 mitre, and their reign1 may have suggested to the darker ages the fable of a female pope. The bastard son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of Marozia, a rare genealogy, were seated in the chair of St. Peter, and it was at the age of nineteen years1 that the second of these became the head of the Latin church1. His youth and manhood were of a suitable complexion; and the nations of pilgrims could bear testimony to the charges that were urged against him in a Roman1 synod, and in the presence of Otho the Great. As John XII. had renounced the dress and decencies of his profession, the soldier may not perhaps be dishonoured by the wine which he drank, the blood that he spilt, the flames that he kindled, or the licentious pursuits of gaming and hunting. His open simony might be the consequence of distress; and his blasphemous invocation of Jupiter and Venus, if it be true, could not possibly be serious. But we read with some surprise that the worthy grandson of Marozia lived in public1 adultery with the matrons of Rome1; that the Lateran palace was turned into a school for prostitution; and that his rapes of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St. Peter, lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his successor. The Protestants have dwelt with malicious pleasure on these characters of antichrist; but to a philosophic eye the vices of the clergy1 are far less dangerous than their virtues. After a long1 series of scandal, the apostolic see was reformed and exalted by the austerity and zeal of Gregory VII. That ambitious monk devoted his life to the execution of two projects. I. To fix in the college of cardinals the freedom1 and independence of election, and for ever to abolish the right or usurpation of the emperors1 and the Roman1 people1. II. To bestow and resume the Western empire1 as a fief or benefice of the church1, and to extend his temporal dominion over the kings and kingdoms of the earth. After a contest of fifty years1, the first of these designs was accomplished by the firm support of the ecclesiastical1 order1, whose liberty was connected with that of their chief. But the second attempt, though it was crowned with some partial and apparent success, has been vigorously resisted by the secular power1, and finally extinguished by the improvement of human reason.
In the revival of the empire41 of Rome41, neither the bishop nor the people41 could bestow on Charlemagne or Otho the provinces which were lost, as they had been won, by the chance of arms. But the Romans41 were free41 to choose a master for themselves; and the powers41 which had been delegated to the patrician were irrevocably granted to the French and Saxon emperors of the West. The broken records of the times preserve some remembrance of their palace41, their mint, their tribunal, their edicts, and the sword of justice, which, as late as the thirteenth century, was derived from Caesar to the prefect of the city41. Between the arts of the popes and the violence of the people41, this supremacy was crushed and annihilated. Content with the titles of emperor41 and Augustus, the successors of Charlemagne neglected to assert this local jurisdiction. In the hour of prosperity, their ambition was diverted by more alluring objects; and in the decay and division of the empire41 they were oppressed41 by the defence of their hereditary provinces. Amidst the ruins of Italy41, the famous Marozia invited one of the usurpers to assume the character of her third husband; and Hugh, king of Burgundy, was introduced by her faction into the mole of Hadrian or castle of St. Angelo, which commands the principal bridge and entrance of Rome41. Her son41 by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelled to attend at the nuptial banquet; but his reluctant and ungrateful service was chastised with a blow by his new father. The blow was productive of a revolution. Romans41, exclaimed the youth, once you were the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most abject of your slaves. They now reign41, these voracious and brutal savages, and my injury is the commencement of your servitude. The alarum-bell rung to arms in every quarter of the city41; the Burgundians retreated with haste and shame; Marozia was imprisoned by her victorious son41; and his brother, Pope John41 XI., was reduced to the exercise of his spiritual functions. With the title of prince41, Alberic possessed above twenty years41 the government of Rome41, and he is said to have gratified the popular prejudice by restoring the office, or at least the title, of consuls and tribunes. His son41 and heir Octavian assumed, with the pontificate, the name of John41 XII.; like his predecessor, he was provoked by the Lombard41 princes to seek a deliverer for the church41 and republic; and the services of Otho were rewarded with the Imperial41 dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans41 were impatient, the festival of the coronation was disturbed by the secret conflict of prerogative and freedom, and Otho commanded his sword-bearer not to stir from his person41, lest he should be assaulted and murdered at the foot41 of the altar. Before he repassed the Alps, the emperor41 chastised the revolt of the people41 and the ingratitude of John41 XII. The pope was degraded in a synod; the prefect was mounted on an ass, whipped through the city41, and cast into a dungeon; thirteen of the most guilty were hanged, others were mutilated or banished; and this severe process was justified by the ancient laws of Theodosius and Justinian. The voice of fame has accused the second41 Otho of a perfidious and bloody act, the massacre of the senators, whom he had invited to his table under the fair semblance of hospitality and friendship. In the minority of his son41 Otho the Third, Rome41 made a bold attempt to shake off the Saxon yoke, and the consul Crescentius was the Brutus of the republic. From the condition of a subject and an exile, he twice rose to the command of the city41, oppressed41, expelled, and created the popes, and formed a conspiracy for restoring the authority of the Greek41 emperors. In the fortress of St. Angelo he maintained an obstinate siege, till41 the unfortunate41 consul was betrayed by a promise of safety; his body was suspended on a gibbet, and his head was exposed on the battlements of the castle. By a reverse of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, was besieged three days, without food, in his palace41; and a disgraceful escape saved him from the justice or fury of the Romans41. The senator Ptolemy was the leader of the people41, and the widow of Crescentius enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband, by a poison which she administered to her Imperial41 lover. It was the design of Otho the Third to abandon the ruder countries of the North, to erect his throne41 in Italy41, and to revive the institutions of the Roman41 monarchy. But his successors only once in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tiber, to receive their crown in the Vatican. Their absence was contemptible, their presence odious and formidable41. They descended from the Alps, at the head of their Barbarians, who were strangers and enemies to the country; and their transient visit was a scene of tumult and bloodshed. A faint remembrance of their ancestors still tormented the Romans41; and they beheld with pious indignation the succession of Saxons, Franks, Swabians, and Bohemians, who usurped the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars.
There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest. A torrent of Barbarians may pass over the earth, but an extensive empire30 must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression: in the centre, an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in resources; a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts; fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion; a regular administration to protect and punish; and a well-disciplined army30 to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair. Far different was the situation of the German Caesars, who were ambitious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial estates were stretched along the Rhine, or scattered in the provinces; but this ample domain was alienated by the imprudence or distress of successive princes; and their revenue, from minute and vexatious prerogative, was scarcely sufficient for the maintenance of their household. Their troops30 were formed by the legal or voluntary service30 of their feudal vassals, who passed the Alps with reluctance, assumed the licence of rapine and disorder, and capriciously deserted before the end of the campaign. Whole armies were swept away by the pestilential influence of the climate; the survivors brought back the bones of their princes and nobles, and the effects of their own intemperance were often imputed to the treachery and malice of the Italians, who rejoiced at least in the calamities of the Barbarians. This irregular tyranny might contend on equal terms with the petty tyrants of Italy; nor can the people30, or the reader, be much interested in the event of the quarrel. But in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekindled the flame of industry and freedom; and the generous example was at length imitated by the republics of Tuscany. In the Italian cities a municipal government had never been totally abolished; and their first privileges were granted by the favour and policy of the emperors, who were desirous of erecting a plebeian barrier against the independence of the nobles. But their rapid progress, the daily extension of their power and pretensions, were founded on the numbers and spirit of these rising communities. Each city30 filled the measure of her diocese or district; the jurisdiction of the counts and bishops, of the marquises and counts, was banished from the land; and the proudest nobles were persuaded or compelled to desert their solitary castles, and to embrace the more honourable character of freemen and magistrates. The legislative authority was inherent in the general30 assembly; but the executive powers were entrusted to three consuls, annually chosen from the three orders of captains, valvassors, and commons, into which the republic was divided. Under the protection of equal law, the labours of agriculture and commerce were gradually revived; but the martial spirit of the Lombards was nourished by the presence of danger; and, as often as the bell was rung or the standard30 erected, the gates of the city30 poured forth a numerous and intrepid band, whose zeal in their own cause was soon30 guided by the use and discipline of arms30. At the foot of these popular ramparts, the pride of the Caesars was overthrown; and the invisible genius of liberty prevailed over the two Frederics, the greatest princes of the middle age: the first, superior perhaps in military prowess; the second30, who undoubtedly excelled in the softer accomplishments of peace and learning.
Ambitious of restoring the splendour of the purple, Frederic the First invaded the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a statesman, the valour of a soldier, and the cruelty of a tyrant. The recent discovery of the Pandects had renewed a science most favourable to despotism; and his venal advocates proclaimed the emperor30 the absolute master of the lives and properties of his subjects. His royal30 prerogatives, in a less odious sense, were acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia; and the revenue of Italy was fixed at thirty thousand30 pounds of silver, which were multiplied to an indefinite demand by the rapine of the fiscal officers. The obstinate cities were reduced by the terror or the force of his arms30; his captives were delivered to the executioner, or shot from his military engines; and, after the siege30 and surrender of Milan, the buildings of that stately capital were razed to the ground, three hundred hostages were sent into Germany, and the inhabitants were dispersed in four villages, under the yoke of the inflexible conqueror. But Milan soon30 rose from her ashes; and the league of Lombardy was cemented by distress; their cause was espoused by Venice, Pope Alexander the Third, and the Greek30 emperor30; the fabric of oppression was overturned in a day30; and in the treaty of Constance, Frederic subscribed, with some reservations, the freedom of four-and-twenty cities. His grandson contended with their vigour and maturity; but Frederic the Second30 was endowed with some personal and peculiar advantages. His birth and education recommended him to the Italians; and, in the implacable discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins were attached to the emperor30, while the Guelfs displayed the banner of liberty and the church. The court of Rome had slumbered, when his father Henry the Sixth was permitted to unite with the empire30 the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily; and from these hereditary realms the son30 derived an ample and ready supply of troops30 and treasure. Yet Frederic the Second30 was finally oppressed by the arms30 of the Lombards and the thunders of the Vatican; his kingdom was given to a stranger, and the last of his family was beheaded at Naples on a public scaffold. During sixty years30 no emperor30 appeared in Italy, and the name was remembered only by the ignominious sale of the last relics of sovereignty.
The Barbarian conquerors of the West were pleased to decorate their chief with the title1 of emperor1; but it was not their design to invest him with the despotism of Constantine1 and Justinian. The persons of the Germans were free, their conquests were their own, and their national character was animated by a spirit which scorned the servile jurisprudence of the new1 or the ancient1 Rome1. It would have been a vain and dangerous attempt to impose a monarch on the armed freemen, who were impatient of a magistrate1; on the bold, who refused to obey; on the powerful, who aspired to command. The empire1 of Charlemagne and Otho was distributed among the dukes of the nations or provinces1, the counts of the smaller districts, and the margraves of the marches or frontiers, who all united the civil1 and military authority1 as it had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first Caesars. The Roman1 governors, who, for the most part, were soldiers of fortune, seduced their mercenary legions, assumed1 the Imperial purple, and either failed or succeeded in their revolt, without wounding the power1 and unity of government1. If the dukes, margraves, and counts of Germany were less audacious in their claims, the consequences of their success were more lasting and pernicious to the state1. Instead of aiming at the supreme rank, they silently laboured to establish and appropriate their provincial independence. Their ambition was seconded by the weight of their estates and vassals, their mutual example and support, the common interest of the subordinate nobility, the change of princes1 and families, the minorities of Otho the Third and Henry the Fourth, the ambition of the popes1, and the vain pursuits of the fugitive crowns of Italy1 and Rome1. All the attributes of regal and territorial jurisdiction1 were gradually usurped by the commanders of the provinces1; the right of peace1 and war, of life and death, of coinage and taxation, of foreign alliance and domestic economy. Whatever had been seized by violence was ratified by favour or distress, was granted as the price of a doubtful vote or a voluntary service; whatever had been granted to one could not, without injury, be denied to his successor or equal; and every act of local or temporary possession was insensibly moulded into the constitution of the Germanic kingdom. In every province, the visible presence of the duke or count was interposed between the throne and the nobles; the subjects1 of the law became the vassals of a private chief; and the standard, which he received from his sovereign, was often raised against him in the field. The temporal power1 of the clergy1 was cherished and exalted by the superstition or policy1 of the Carlovingian and Saxon dynasties, who blindly depended on their moderation and fidelity; and the bishoprics of Germany were made equal in extent and privilege, superior in wealth and population, to the most ample states of the military order1. As long1 as the emperors1 retained the prerogative of bestowing on every vacancy these ecclesiastic and secular benefices, their cause was maintained by the gratitude or ambition of their friends and favourites. But in the quarrel of the investitures they were deprived of their influence over the episcopal chapters; the freedom1 of election was restored, and the sovereign was reduced, by a solemn mockery, to his first prayers, the recommendation, once in his reign1, to a single prebend in each church1. The secular governors, instead of being recalled at the will of a superior, could be degraded only by the sentence of their peers. In the first age of the monarchy, the appointment of the son to the duchy or county of his father was solicited as a favour; it was gradually obtained as a custom and extorted as a right; the lineal succession was often extended to the collateral or female branches; the states of the empire1 (their popular, and at length their legal, appellation) were divided and alienated by testament and sale; and all idea of a public1 trust was lost in that of a private and perpetual inheritance. The emperor1 could not even be enriched by the casualties of forfeiture and extinction; within the term of a year he was obliged to dispose of the vacant fief; and in the choice of the candidate it was his duty to consult either the general or the provincial diet.
After the death of Frederic the Second, Germany37 was left a monster with an hundred heads. A crowd of princes and prelates disputed the ruins of the empire37; the lords of innumerable castles were less prone to obey than to imitate their superiors; and, according37 to the measure of their strength37, their incessant hostilities received the names of conquest or robbery. Such anarchy was the inevitable consequence of the laws37 and manners37 of Europe; and the kingdoms of France and Italy were shivered into fragments by the violence of the same tempest. But the Italian cities and French vassals were divided and destroyed, while the union of the Germans has produced, under the name of an empire37, a great system of a federative republic. In the frequent and at last the perpetual institution of diets, a national spirit37 was kept alive, and the powers of a common37 legislature are still exercised by the three branches or colleges of the electors, the princes, and the free and Imperial cities of Germany37. I. Seven of the most powerful feudatories were permitted to assume, with a distinguished37 name and rank, the exclusive privilege of choosing the Roman37 emperor; and these electors were the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, the count palatine of the Rhine, and the three archbishops of Mentz, of Treves, and of Cologne. II. The college of princes and prelates purged themselves of a promiscuous multitude: they reduced to four representative votes the long37 series of independent37 counts, and excluded the nobles37 or equestrian order, sixty thousand of whom, as in the Polish diets, had appeared on horseback in the field of election. III. The pride of birth37 and dominion, of the sword and the mitre, wisely adopted the commons37 as the third branch of the legislature, and, in the progress of society, they were introduced about the same era into the national assemblies of France, England, and Germany37. The Hanseatic league commanded the trade and navigation of the North; the confederates of the Rhine secured the peace and intercourse of the inland country37; the influence of the cities has been adequate to their wealth and policy, and their negative still invalidates the acts of the two superior colleges of electors and princes.
It is in the fourteenth century that we may view, in the strongest light, the state and contrast of the Roman30 empire30 of Germany, which no longer held, except on the borders of the Rhine and Danube, a single province of Trajan or Constantine. Their unworthy successors were the counts of Hapsburg, of Nassau, of Luxemburg, and of Schwartzenburg; the emperor30 Henry the Seventh procured for his son30 the crown of Bohemia, and his grandson Charles the Fourth was born among a people30 strange and barbarous in the estimation of the Germans themselves. After the excommunication of Lewis of Bavaria, he received the gift or promise of the vacant empire30 from the Roman30 pontiffs, who, in the exile and captivity of Avignon, affected the dominion of the earth. The death30 of his competitors united the electoral college, and Charles was unanimously saluted king30 of the Romans, and future emperor30; a title which, in the same age, was prostituted to the Caesars of Germany and Greece. The German emperor30 was no more than the elective and impotent magistrate of an aristocracy of princes, who had not left30 him a village that he might call his own. His best prerogative was the right of presiding and proposing in the national senate, which was convened at his summons; and his native kingdom of Bohemia, less opulent than the adjacent city30 of Nuremberg, was the firmest seat of his power and the richest source of his revenue. The army30 with which he passed the Alps consisted of three hundred horse30. In the cathedral of St30. Ambrose, Charles was crowned with the iron crown, which tradition ascribed to the Lombard monarchy; but he was admitted only with a peaceful train; the gates of the city30 were shut upon him; and the king30 of Italy was held a captive by the arms30 of the Visconti, whom he confirmed in the sovereignty of Milan. In the Vatican he was again crowned with the golden crown of the empire30; but, in obedience to a secret treaty, the Roman30 emperor30 immediately withdrew, without reposing a single night within the walls30 of Rome. The eloquent Petrarch, whose fancy revived the visionary glories of the Capitol, deplores and upbraids the ignominious flight of the Bohemian; and even his contemporaries could observe that the sole exercise of his authority was in the lucrative sale of privileges and titles. The gold30 of Italy secured the election of his son30; but such was the shameful poverty of the Roman30 emperor30 that his person was arrested by a butcher in the streets of Worms, and was detained in the public inn, as a pledge or hostage for the payment of his expenses.
From this humiliating scene let us turn to the apparent majesty of the same Charles in the diets of the empire. The golden bull, which fixes the Germanic constitution, is promulgated in the style of a sovereign and legislator. An hundred princes38 bowed before his throne, and exalted their own dignity by the voluntary honours which they yielded to their chief or minister. At the royal banquet, the hereditary great38 officers, the seven electors, who in rank and title38 were equal to kings, performed their solemn and domestic service38 of the palace. The seals of the triple kingdom38 were borne in state by the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves, the perpetual arch-chancellors of Germany38, Italy, and Arles. The great38 marshal, on horseback, exercised his function with a silver measure of oats, which he emptied on the ground, and immediately dismounted to regulate the order of the guests. The great38 steward, the count38 palatine of the Rhine, placed the dishes on the table. The great38 chamberlain, the margrave of Brandenburg, presented, after the repast, the golden ewer and bason, to wash. The king38 of Bohemia, as great38 cup-bearer, was represented by the emperor38's brother, the duke38 of Luxemburg and Brabant; and the procession was closed by the great38 huntsmen, who introduced a boar and a stag, with a loud chorus of horns and hounds. Nor was the supremacy of the emperor38 confined to Germany38 alone; the hereditary monarchs of Europe confessed the pre-eminence of his rank and dignity; he was the first of the Christian princes38, the temporal head of the great38 republic of the West; to his person the title38 of majesty was long appropriated; and he disputed with the pope38 the sublime prerogative of creating kings and assembling councils. The oracle of the civil law, the learned Bartolus, was a pensioner of Charles the Fourth; and his school resounded with the doctrine that the Roman emperor38 was the rightful sovereign of the earth, from the rising to the setting sun. The contrary opinion was condemned, not as an error, but as an heresy, since even the gospel had pronounced, And there went forth a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
If we annihilate the interval of time6 and space between Augustus6 and Charles, strong and striking will be the contrast between the two Caesars: the Bohemian, who concealed his weakness under the mask of ostentation, and the Roman6, who disguised his strength under the semblance of modesty. At the head of his victorious legions, in his reign6 over the sea and land, from the Nile and Euphrates to the Atlantic Ocean, Augustus6 professed himself the servant of the state6 and the equal6 of his fellow-citizens. The conqueror of Rome6 and her provinces6 assumed the popular and legal form of a censor, a consul, and a tribune. His will was the law6 of mankind, but, in the declaration of his laws6, he borrowed the voice of the senate and people6; and, from their decrees, their master accepted and renewed his temporary commission to administer the republic. In his dress, his domestics, his titles, in all the offices of social life6, Augustus6 maintained the character of a private6 Roman6; and his most artful flatterers respected the secret of his absolute6 and perpetual monarchy.
After pursuing, above six hundred years32, the fleeting Caesars of Constantinople and Germany, I now descend, in the reign of Heraclius, on the eastern borders of the Greek monarchy. While the state32 was exhausted by the Persian war, and the church was distracted by the Nestorian and Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, erected32 his throne on the ruins32 of Christianity and of Rome32. The genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of his religion involve the causes of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire32; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most memorable revolutions which have impressed a new32 and lasting character on the nations of the globe.
In the vacant space between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Aethiopia, the Arabian peninsula may be conceived as a triangle of spacious but irregular dimensions. From the northern point of Beles on the Euphrates, a line of fifteen hundred miles19 is terminated by the straits of Babelmandeb and the land19 of frankincense. About half this length may be allowed for the middle breadth from east to west, from Bassora to Suez, from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea19. The sides of the triangle are gradually enlarged, and the southern basis presents a front of a thousand19 miles19 to the Indian Ocean. The entire surface of the peninsula exceeds in a fourfold proportion that of Germany or France; but the far greater part has been justly stigmatised with the epithets of the stony and the sandy. Even the wilds of Tartary are decked by the hand19 of nature19 with lofty trees and luxuriant herbage; and the lonesome traveller derives a sort of comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life19. But in the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand is intersected by sharp and naked mountains, and the face of the desert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the direct and intense rays of a tropical sun. Instead of refreshing breezes, the winds, particularly from the south-west, diffuse a noxious and even deadly vapour; the hillocks of sand which they alternately raise and scatter are compared to the billows of the ocean; and whole caravans, whole armies, have been lost and buried in the whirlwind. The common benefits of water are an object of desire and contest; and such is the scarcity of wood that some art is requisite to preserve and propagate the element of fire. Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, which fertilise the soil and convey its produce to the adjacent regions; the torrents that fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth; the rare and hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia, that strike their roots into the clefts of the rocks, are nourished by the dews of the night; a scanty supply of rain is collected in cisterns and aqueducts; the wells and springs are the secret treasure of the desert; and the pilgrim of Mecca, after many a dry and sultry march, is disgusted by the taste of the waters, which have rolled over a bed of sulphur or salt. Such is the general19 and genuine picture of the climate of Arabia. The experience of evil enhances the value of any local or partial enjoyments. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh water, are sufficient to attract a colony of sedentary Arabs to the fortunate spots which can afford food and refreshment to themselves and their cattle, and which encourage their industry in the cultivation of the palm-tree and the vine. The high lands that border on the Indian Ocean are distinguished by their superior plenty of wood and water; the air is more temperate, the fruits are more delicious, the animals and the human race more numerous; the fertility of the soil invites and rewards the toil of the husbandman; and the peculiar gifts of frankincense and coffee have attracted, in different ages, the merchants of the world. If it be compared with the rest of the peninsula, this sequestrated region may truly deserve the appellation of the happy; and the splendid colouring of fancy and fiction has been suggested by contrast and countenanced by distance. It was for this earthly paradise that nature19 had reserved her choicest favours and her most curious workmanship; the incompatible blessings of luxury and innocence were ascribed to the natives; the soil was impregnated with gold19 and gems, and both the land19 and sea19 were taught to exhale the odours of aromatic sweets. This division of the sandy, the stony, and the happy, so familiar to the Greeks and Latins, is unknown to the Arabians themselves; and it is singular enough that a country19, whose language and inhabitants had ever been the same, should scarcely retain a vestige of its ancient geography. The maritime districts of Bahrein and Oman are opposite to the realm of Persia. The kingdom of Yemen displays the limits, or at least the situation, of Arabia Felix; the name Neged is extended over the inland space; and the birth of Mahomet has illustrated the province19 of Hejaz along the coast of the Red Sea19.
The measure of population is regulated by the means of subsistence; and the inhabitants of this vast peninsula might be out-numbered by the subjects of a fertile and industrious province. Along the shores of the Persian Gulf, of the ocean, and even of the Red Sea24, the Ichthyophagi, or fish-eaters, continued to wander in quest of their precarious food. In this primitive and abject state24, which ill deserves the name of society, the human brute, without arts or laws, almost without sense or language, is poorly distinguished from the rest of the animal creation. Generations and ages might roll away in silent oblivion, and the helpless savage was restrained from multiplying his race24 by the wants and pursuits which confined his existence to the narrow margin of the sea24-coast. But in an early period of antiquity the great24 body of the Arabs24 had emerged from this scene of misery; and, as the naked wilderness could not maintain a people24 of hunters, they rose at once to the more secure and plentiful condition of the pastoral life24. The same life24 is uniformly pursued by the roving tribes of the desert, and in the portrait of the modern Bedoweens we may trace the features of their ancestors, who, in the age24 of Moses or Mahomet24, dwelt under similar tents, and conducted their horses and camels and sheep to the same springs and the same pastures. Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals; and the Arabian24 shepherd had acquired the absolute possession of a faithful24 friend and a laborious slave. Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the genuine and original country of the horse; the climate most propitious, not indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that generous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the English breed is derived from a mixture of Arabian24 blood; the Bedoweens preserve, with superstitious care, the honours and the memory of the purest race24; the males are sold at a high price, but the females are seldom alienated; and the birth of a noble foal was esteemed, among the tribes, as a subject of joy and mutual congratulation. These horses are educated in the tents, among the children of the Arabs24, with a tender familiarity, which trains them in the habits of gentleness and attachment. They are accustomed only to walk and to gallop; their sensations are not blunted by the incessant abuse of the spur and the whip; their powers are reserved for the moments of flight and pursuit; but no sooner do they feel the touch of the hand or the stirrup than they dart away with the swiftness of the wind; and, if their friend be dismounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop till24 he has recovered his seat. In the sands of Africa24 and Arabia the camel is a sacred and precious gift. That strong and patient beast of burthen can perform, without eating or drinking, a journey of several days; and a reservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth stomach of the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks of servitude. The larger breed is capable of transporting a weight of a thousand24 pounds; and the dromedary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips the fleetest courser in the race24. Alive or dead, almost every part of the camel is serviceable to man; her milk is plentiful and nutritious; the young and tender flesh has the taste of veal; a valuable salt is extracted from the urine; the dung supplies the deficiency of fuel; and the long hair, which falls each year and is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the garments, the furniture, and the tents of the Bedoweens. In the rainy seasons they consume the rare and insufficient herbage of the desert; during the heats of summer and the scarcity of winter, they remove their encampments to the sea24-coast, the hills of Yemen, or the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, and have often extorted the dangerous licence of visiting the banks of the Nile24 and the villages of Syria24 and Palestine. The life24 of a wandering Arab is a life24 of danger and distress; and, though sometimes, by rapine or exchange, he may appropriate the fruits of industry, a private citizen in Europe24 is in the possession of more solid and pleasing luxury than the proudest emir who marches in the field at the head of ten thousand24 horse.
Yet an essential difference may be found between the hordes of Scythia and the Arabian tribes9, since many of the latter were collected into towns and employed in the labours of trade and agriculture. A part of their time and industry was still devoted to the management of their cattle; they mingled, in peace and war9, with their brethren of the desert; and the Bedoweens derived from their useful intercourse some supply of their wants and some rudiments of art and knowledge. Among the forty-two cities9 of Arabia, enumerated by Abulfeda, the most ancient9 and populous were situate in the happy Yemen; the towers of Saana and the marvellous reservoir of Merab were constructed by the kings of the Homerites; but their profane lustre was eclipsed by the prophetic glories of Medina and Mecca, near the Red Sea9, and at the distance from each other of two hundred and seventy miles9. The last of these holy places was known to the Greeks under the name of Macoraba; and the termination of the word is expressive of its greatness, which has not indeed, in the most flourishing period, exceeded the size and populousness of Marseilles. Some latent motive, perhaps of superstition, must have impelled the founders, in the choice of a most unpromising situation. They erected their habitations of mud or stone in a plain about two miles9 long9 and one mile broad, at the foot of three barren mountains9; the soil is a rock; the water even of the holy well of Zemzem is bitter or brackish; the pastures are remote from the city9; and grapes are transported about seventy miles9 from the gardens of Tayef. The fame and spirit of the Koreishites, who reigned in Mecca, were conspicuous among the Arabian tribes9; but their ungrateful soil refused the labours of agriculture, and their position was favourable to the enterprises of trade. By the sea9-port of Gedda, at the distance only of forty miles9, they maintained an easy correspondence with Abyssinia; and that Christian kingdom afforded the first refuge to the disciples of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa9 were conveyed over the peninsula to Gerrha or Katif, in the province9 of Bahrein, a city9 built, as it is said, of rock-salt, by the Chaldaean exiles; and from thence, with the native pearls of the Persian Gulf, they were floated on rafts to the mouth of the Euphrates. Mecca is placed almost at an equal distance, a month's journey, between Yemen on the right, and Syria on the left, hand. The former was the winter, the latter the summer, station of her caravans; and their seasonable arrival relieved the ships of India from the tedious and troublesome navigation of the Red Sea9. In the markets of Saana and Merab, in the harbours of Oman and Aden, the camels of the Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics; a supply of corn and manufactures was purchased in the fairs of Bostra and Damascus; the lucrative exchange diffused plenty and riches in the streets of Mecca; and the noblest of her sons united the love of arms9 with the profession of merchandise.
The perpetual independence of the Arabs has been the theme of praise among strangers and natives; and the arts of controversy transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle, in favour of the posterity of Ismael. Some exceptions, that can neither be dissembled nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous: the kingdom38 of Yemen has been successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the sultans of Egypt, and the Turks; the holy38 cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant; and the Roman province of Arabia embraced the peculiar wilderness in which Ismael and his sons must have pitched their tents in the face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are temporary or local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies; the arms38 of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia; the present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people whom it is dangerous to provoke and fruitless to attack. The obvious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the character and country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet, their intrepid valour had been severely felt by their neighbours in offensive and defensive war38. The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the women of the tribe; but the martial youth under the banner of the emir is ever on horseback and in the field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the scymetar. The long memory of their independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity, and succeeding generations are animated to prove their descent and to maintain their inheritance. Their domestic feuds are suspended on the approach of a common enemy; and in their last hostilities against the Turks the caravan of Mecca was attacked and pillaged by fourscore thousand38 of the confederates. When they advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front; in the rear, the assurance of a retreat. Their horses and camels, who in eight or ten days can perform a march of four or five hundred miles, disappear before the conqueror; the secret waters of the desert elude his search; and his victorious troops are consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the heart of the burning solitude. The arms38 and deserts of the Bedoweens are not only the safeguards of their own freedom, but the barriers also of the happy Arabia, whose inhabitants, remote from war38, are enervated by the luxury of the soil and climate. The legions of Augustus melted away in disease and lassitude; and it is only by a naval power that the reduction of Yemen has been successfully attempted. When Mahomet erected his holy38 standard, that kingdom38 was a province of the Persian empire; yet seven princes38 of the Homerites still reigned in the mountains; and the vicegerent of Chosroes was tempted to forget his distant country and his unfortunate master. The historians of the age38 of Justinian represent the state of the independent Arabs, who were divided by interest or affection in the long quarrel of the East: the tribe of Gassan was allowed to encamp on the Syrian territory; the princes38 of Hira were permitted to form a city about forty miles to the southward of the ruins of Babylon. Their service38 in the field was speedy and vigorous; but their friendship was venal, their faith inconstant, their enmity capricious: it was an easier task to excite than to disarm these roving Barbarians; and, in the familiar intercourse of war38, they learned to see, and to despise, the splendid weakness both of Rome and of Persia. From Mecca to the Euphrates, the Arabian tribes were confounded by the Greeks38 and Latins38 under the general appellation of Saracens, a name which every Christian mouth has been taught to pronounce with terror and abhorrence.
The slaves of domestic tyranny may vainly exult in their national independence; but the Arab is personally free; and he enjoys, in some degree, the benefits of society, without forfeiting the prerogatives of nature. In every tribe, superstition, or gratitude, or fortune has exalted a particular family above the heads of their equals. The dignities of sheikh and emir invariably descend in this chosen race; but the order1 of succession is loose and precarious; and the most worthy or aged of the noble kinsmen are preferred to the simple, though important, office1 of composing disputes by their advice and guiding valour by their example. Even a female of sense and spirit has been permitted to command the countrymen of Zenobia. The momentary junction of several tribes produces an army; their more lasting union constitutes a nation; and the supreme chief, the emir of emirs, whose banner is displayed at their head, may deserve, in the eyes of strangers, the honours1 of the kingly name. If the Arabian princes1 abuse their power1, they are quickly punished by the desertion of their subjects1, who had been accustomed to a mild and parental jurisdiction1. Their spirit is free, their steps are unconfined, the desert is open, and the tribes and families are held together by a mutual and voluntary compact. The softer natives of Yemen supported the pomp and majesty of a monarch; but, if he could not leave his palace without endangering his life, the active powers of government1 must have been devolved on his nobles and magistrates1. The cities of Mecca and Medina present, in the heart of Asia, the form, or rather the substance, of a commonwealth. The grandfather of Mahomet and his lineal ancestors appear in foreign and domestic transactions as the princes1 of their country; but they reigned, like Pericles at Athens, or the Medici at Florence, by the opinion of their wisdom and integrity; their influence was divided with their patrimony; and the sceptre was transferred from the uncles of the prophet to a younger branch of the tribe of Koreish. On solemn occasions they convened the assembly of the people1; and, since mankind must be either compelled or persuaded to obey, the use and reputation of oratory among the ancient1 Arabs is the clearest evidence of public1 freedom1. But their simple freedom1 was of a very different cast from the nice and artificial machinery of the Greek and Roman1 republics, in which each member possessed an undivided share of the civil1 and political rights of the community. In the more simple state1 of the Arabs the nation is free, because each of her sons disdains a base submission to the will of a master. His breast is fortified with the austere virtues of courage, patience, and sobriety; the love of independence prompts him to exercise the habits of self-command; and the fear of dishonour guards him from the meaner apprehension of pain, of danger, and of death. The gravity and firmness of the mind is conspicuous in his outward demeanour; his speech is slow, weighty, and concise; he is seldom provoked to laughter; his only gesture is that of stroking his beard, the venerable symbol of manhood; and the sense of his own importance teaches him to accost his equals without levity and his superiors without awe. The liberty of the Saracens survived their conquests; the first caliphs indulged the bold and familiar language of their subjects1; they ascended the pulpit to persuade and edify the congregation; nor was it before the seat of empire1 was removed to the Tigris that the Abbassides adopted the proud and pompous ceremonial of the Persian and Byzantine courts.
In the study of nations and men37, we may observe the causes that render them hostile or friendly to each other, that tend to narrow or enlarge, to mollify or exasperate, the social character. The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy; and the poverty37 of the land has introduced a maxim of jurisprudence which they believe and practise to the present37 hour. They pretend that, in the division of the earth, the rich and fertile climates were assigned to the other branches of the human37 family; and that the posterity of the outlaw Ismael might recover, by fraud or force, the portion of inheritance of which he had been unjustly deprived. According37 to the remark of Pliny, the Arabian tribes37 are equally addicted to theft and merchandise; the caravans that traverse the desert are ransomed or pillaged; and their neighbours, since the remote times37 of Job and Sesostris, have been the victims of their rapacious spirit37. If a Bedoween discovers from afar a solitary traveller, he rides furiously against him, crying, with a loud voice, Undress thyself, thy aunt (my wife) is without a garment. A ready submission entitles him to mercy; resistance will provoke the aggressor, and his own blood must expiate the blood which he presumes to shed in legitimate defence. A single robber or a few associates are branded with their genuine name; but the exploits of a numerous band assume the character of a lawful and honourable war. The temper of a people37, thus armed against mankind, was doubly inflamed by the domestic37 licence of rapine, murder, and revenge. In the constitution of Europe, the right of peace and war is now confined to a small, and the actual exercise to a much smaller, list of respectable potentates; but each Arab, with impunity and renown, might point his javelin against the life37 of his countryman. The union of the nation consisted only in a vague resemblance of language37 and manners37; and in each community the jurisdiction of the magistrate was mute and impotent. Of the time of ignorance which preceded Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles are recorded by tradition; hostility was embittered with the rancour of civil faction; and the recital, in prose or verse, of an absolete feud was sufficient to rekindle the same passions among the descendants of the hostile tribes37. In private37 life37, every man, at least every family, was the judge and avenger of its own cause. The nice sensibility of honour37, which weighs the insult rather than the injury, sheds its deadly venom on the quarrels of the Arabs; the honour37 of their women, and of their beards, is most easily wounded; an indecent action, a contemptuous word, can be expiated only by the blood of the offender; and such is their patient inveteracy that they expect whole months and years the opportunity of revenge. A fine or compensation for murder is familiar to the Barbarians37 of every age; but in Arabia the kinsmen of the dead are at liberty37 to accept the atonement, or to exercise with their own hands the law of retaliation. The refined malice of the Arabs refuses even the head of the murderer, substitutes an innocent to the guilty person, and transfers the penalty to the best and most considerable of the race by whom they have been injured. If he falls by their hands, they are exposed in their turn to the danger of reprisals; the interest and principal of the bloody debt are accumulated; the individuals of either family lead a life37 of malice and suspicion, and fifty years may sometimes elapse before the account of vengeance be finally settled. This sanguinary spirit37, ignorant of pity or forgiveness, has been moderated, however, by the maxims of honour37, which require in every private37 encounter some decent equality of age and strength37, of numbers and weapons. An annual festival of two, perhaps of four, months was observed by the Arabs before the time of Mahomet, during which their swords were religiously sheathed, both in foreign and domestic37 hostility; and this partial truce is more strongly expressive of the habits of anarchy and warfare.
But the spirit of rapine and revenge was attempered by the milder influence of trade and literature. The solitary peninsula is encompassed by the most civilised nations of the ancient world; the merchant is the friend of mankind; and the annual24 caravans imported the first seeds of knowledge and politeness into the cities and even the camps of the desert. Whatever may be the pedigree of the Arabs24, their language is derived from the same original stock with the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the Chaldaean tongues; the independence of the tribes was marked by their peculiar dialects; but each, after their own, allowed a just preference to the pure and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In Arabia as well as in Greece, the perfection of language outstripped the refinement of manners; and her speech could diversify the fourscore names of honey, the two hundred of a serpent, the five hundred of a lion, the thousand24 of a sword, at a time when this copious dictionary was entrusted to the memory of an illiterate people24. The monuments of the Homerites were inscribed with an obsolete and mysterious character; but the Cufic letters, the groundwork of the present alphabet, were invented on the banks of the Euphrates; and the recent invention was taught at Mecca by a stranger who settled in that city24 after the birth of Mahomet24. The arts of grammar, of metre, and of rhetoric were unknown to the freeborn eloquence of the Arabians; but their penetration was sharp, their fancy luxuriant, their wit strong and sententious, and their more elaborate compositions were addressed with energy and effect to the minds of their hearers. The genius and merit of a rising poet was celebrated by the applause of his own and the kindred tribes. A solemn banquet was prepared, and a chorus of women, striking their tymbals, and displaying the pomp of their nuptials, sung in the presence of their sons and husbands the felicity of their native tribe; that a champion had now appeared to vindicate their rights; that a herald had raised his voice to immortalise their renown. The distant or hostile tribes resorted to an annual24 fair, which was abolished by the fanaticism of the first Moslems: a national assembly that must have contributed to refine and harmonise the Barbarians. Thirty days were employed in the exchange, not only of corn and wine, but of eloquence and poetry. The prize was disputed by the generous emulation of the bards; the victorious performance was deposited in the archives of princes and emirs; and we may read in our own language the seven original poems which were inscribed in letters of gold24 and suspended in the temple of Mecca. The Arabian24 poets were the historians and moralists of the age24; and, if they sympathised with the prejudices, they inspired and crowned the virtues, of their countrymen. The indissoluble union of generosity and valour was the darling theme of their song; and, when they pointed their keenest satire against a despicable race24, they affirmed, in the bitterness of reproach, that the men knew not how to give nor the women to deny. The same hospitality which was practised by Abraham and celebrated by Homer is still renewed in the camps of the Arabs24. The ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert, embrace, without inquiry or hesitation, the stranger who dares to confide in their honour and to enter their tent. His treatment is kind and respectful; he shares the wealth or the poverty of his host; and, after a needful repose, he is dismissed on his way, with thanks, with blessings, and perhaps with gifts. The heart and hand are more largely expanded by the wants of a brother or a friend; but the heroic acts that could deserve the public applause must have surpassed the narrow measure of discretion and experience. A dispute had arisen, who, among citizens of Mecca, was entitled to the prize of generosity; and a successive application was made to the three who were deemed most worthy of the trial. Abdallah, the son24 of Abbas, had undertaken a distant journey, and his foot was in the stirrup when he heard the voice of a suppliant, O son24 of the uncle of the apostle of God, I am a traveller, and in distress! He instantly dismounted to present the pilgrim with his camel, her rich caparison, and a purse of four thousand24 pieces24 of gold24, excepting only the sword, either for its intrinsic value or as the gift of an honoured kinsman. The servant of Kais informed the second suppliant that his master was asleep; but he immediately added, Here is a purse of seven thousand24 pieces24 of gold24 (it is all we have in the house), and here is an order that will entitle you to a camel and a slave. The master, as soon as he awoke, praised and enfranchised his faithful24 steward, with a gentle reproof that by respecting his slumbers he had stinted his bounty. The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was supporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves. Alas! he replied, my coffers are empty! but these you may sell; if you refuse, I renounce them. At these words, pushing away the youths, he groped along the wall with his staff. The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian24 virtue; he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet and a successful robber: forty camels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at the prayer of a suppliant enemy he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedom of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice; they proudly indulged the spontaneous impulse of pity and benevolence.
The religion8 of the Arabs, as well as of the Indians, consisted in the worship8 of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars; a primitive and specious mode of superstition8. The bright luminaries of the sky display the visible image of a Deity8; their number and distance convey to a philosophic, or even a vulgar, eye the idea of boundless space: the character8 of eternity is marked on these solid globes, that seem incapable of corruption or decay: the regularity of their motions may be ascribed to a principle of reason8 or instinct; and their real or imaginary influence encourages the vain belief that the earth and its inhabitants are the object of their peculiar care. The science of astronomy was cultivated at Babylon; but the school of the Arabs was a clear firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal marches, they steered by the guidance of the stars; their names, and order, and daily station were familiar to the curiosity and devotion8 of the Bedoween; and he was taught by experience to divide in twenty-eight parts the zodiac of the moon, and to bless the constellations who refreshed with salutary rains the thirst of the desert. The reign8 of the heavenly orbs could not be extended beyond the visible sphere; and some metaphysical powers were necessary to sustain the transmigration of souls and the resurrection of bodies; a camel was left to perish on the grave, that he might serve his master in another life8; and the invocation of departed spirits implies that they were still endowed with consciousness and power. I am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of the Barbarians; of the local deities, of the stars, the air, and the earth, of their sex or titles, their attributes or subordination. Each tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and changed the rites and the object of his fantastic worship8; but the nation, in every age8, has bowed to the religion8, as well as to the language, of Mecca. The genuine antiquity of the Caaba ascends beyond the Christian8 era: in describing the coast of the Red Sea, the Greek historian Diodorus has remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabaeans, a famous temple8, whose superior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians; the linen or silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by a pious king of the Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years before the time8 of Mahomet. A tent or a cavern might suffice for the worship8 of the savages, but an edifice of stone and clay has been erected in its place; and the art and power of the monarchs of the East have been confined to the simplicity of the original model. A spacious portico encloses the quadrangle of the Caaba, a square chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three broad, and twenty-seven high; a door and a window admit the light; the double roof is supported by three pillars of wood; a spout (now of gold) discharges the rain-water, and the well Zemzem is protected by a dome from accidental pollution. The tribe of Koreish, by fraud or force, had acquired the custody of the Caaba: the sacerdotal office devolved through four lineal descents to the grandfather of Mahomet; and the family of the Hashemites, from whence he sprung, was the most respectable and sacred8 in the eyes of their country. The precincts of Mecca enjoyed the rights of sanctuary; and, in the last month of each year, the city and the temple8 were crowded with a long train of pilgrims, who presented their vows and offerings in the house of God8. The same rites, which are now accomplished by the faithful Musulmman, were invented and practised by the superstition8 of the idolaters. At an awful distance they cast away their garments; seven times, with hasty steps, they encircled the Caaba, and kissed the black stone; seven times they visited and adored the adjacent mountains; seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina; and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at the present hour, by a sacrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nails in the consecrated ground. Each tribe either found or introduced in the Caaba their domestic worship8; the temple8 was adorned, or defiled, with three hundred and sixty idols of men, eagles, lions, and antelopes; and most conspicuous was the statue of Hebal, of red agate, holding in his hand seven arrows, without heads or feathers, the instruments and symbols of profane divination. But this statue was a monument of Syrian arts; the devotion8 of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or a tablet; and the rocks of the desert were hewn into gods8 or altars, in imitation of the black stone of Mecca, which is deeply tainted with the reproach of an idolatrous origin. From Japan to Peru, the use8 of sacrifice has universally prevailed; and the votary has expressed his gratitude, or fear, by destroying or consuming, in honour of the gods8, the dearest and most precious of their gifts. The life8 of a man8 is the most precious oblation to deprecate a public8 calamity: the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt, of Rome and Carthage, have been polluted with human8 gore; the cruel practice8 was long preserved among the Arabs; in the third century, a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of the Dumatians; and a royal captive was piously slaughtered by the prince of the Saracens, the ally and soldier of the emperor Justinian. A parent who drags his son to the altar exhibits the most painful and sublime effort of fanaticism; the deed, or the intention, was sanctified by the example of saints and heroes; and the father of Mahomet himself was devoted by a rash vow, and hardly ransomed for the equivalent of an hundred camels. In the time8 of ignorance, the Arabs, like the Jews and Egyptians, abstained from the taste of swine's flesh; they circumcised their children at the age8 of puberty; the same customs, without the censure or the precept of the Koran, have been silently transmitted to their posterity and proselytes. It has been sagaciously conjectured that the artful legislator indulged the stubborn prejudices of his countrymen. It is more simple to believe that he adhered to the habits and opinions of his youth, without foreseeing that a practice8 congenial to the climate of Mecca might become useless or inconvenient on the banks of the Danube or the Volga.
Arabia was free; the adjacent kingdoms were shaken by the storms of conquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects7 fled to the happy land where they might profess what they thought and practise what they professed. The religions of the Sabians and Magians, of the Jews7 and Christians7, were disseminated from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. In a remote period of antiquity, Sabianism was diffused over Asia by the science of the Chaldaeans and the arms of the Assyrians. From the observations of two thousand years7 the priests and astronomers of Babylon deduced the eternal laws of nature7 and providence. They adored the seven gods or angels who directed the course of the seven planets and shed their irresistible influence on the earth7. The attributes of the seven planets, with the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twenty-four constellations of the northern and southern hemisphere, were represented by images7 and talismans; the seven days of the week were dedicated to their respective deities; the Sabians prayed thrice each day; and the temple of the moon at Haran was the term of their pilgrimage. But the flexible genius of their faith7 was always ready either to teach or to learn; in the tradition of the creation, the deluge, and the patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with their Jewish captives; they appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and Enoch; and a slight infusion of the gospel7 has transformed the last remnant of the Polytheists into the Christians7 of St. John, in the territory of Bassora. The altars of Babylon were overturned by the Magians; but the injuries of the Sabians were revenged by the sword of Alexander; Persia groaned above five hundred years7 under a foreign yoke; and the purest disciples7 of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry7, and breathed with their adversaries the freedom of the desert. Seven hundred years7 before the death of Mahomet, the Jews7 were settled in Arabia; and a far greater multitude was expelled from the Holy7 Land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles aspired to liberty and power: they erected synagogues in the cities and castles in the wilderness, and their Gentile converts were confounded with the children of Israel, whom they resembled in the outward mark of circumcision. The Christian7 missionaries were still more active and successful: the Catholics7 asserted their universal reign; the sects7 whom they oppressed successively retired beyond the limits of the Roman empire; the Marcionites and the Manichaeans dispersed their phantastic opinions and apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the princes of Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer creed7 by the Jacobite and Nestorian bishops. The liberty of choice was presented to the tribes: each Arab was free to elect or to compose his own private religion7; and the rude superstition7 of his house was mingled with the sublime theology of saints and philosophers. A fundamental article of faith7 was inculcated by the consent of the learned strangers: the existence of one supreme God7, who is exalted above the powers of heaven7 and earth7, but who has often revealed himself to mankind by the ministry of his angels and prophets, and whose grace or justice has interrupted, by seasonable miracles7, the order of nature7. The most rational of the Arabs acknowledged his power, though they neglected his worship7; and it was habit rather than conviction that still attached them to the relics of idolatry7. The Jews7 and Christians7 were the people of the book; the Bible was already translated into the Arabic language, and the volume of the Old Testament was accepted by the concord of these implacable enemies. In the story of the Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers of their nation. They applauded the birth and promises of Ismael; revered the faith7 and virtue of Abraham; traced his pedigree and their own to the creation of the first man, and imbibed with equal credulity the prodigies of the holy7 text and the dreams and traditions of the Jewish rabbis.
The base and plebeian origin of Mahomet is an unskilful calumny of the Christians, who exalt instead of degrading the merit of their adversary. His descent from Ismael was a national privilege or fable; but, if the first steps of the pedigree are dark and doubtful, he could produce many generations of pure and genuine nobility: he sprung from the tribe of Koreish and the family of Hashem, the most illustrious of the Arabs, the princes of Mecca, and the hereditary guardians of the Caaba. The grandfather of Mahomet was Abdol Motalleb, the son30 of Hashem, a wealthy and generous citizen, who relieved the distress of famine with the supplies of commerce. Mecca, which had been fed by the liberality of the father, was saved by the courage of the son30. The kingdom of Yemen was subject to the Christian princes of Abyssinia; their vassal Abrahah was provoked by an insult to avenge the honour of the cross; and the holy30 city30 was invested by a train of elephants and an army30 of Africans. A treaty was proposed; and in the first audience the grandfather of Mahomet demanded the restitution of his cattle. And why, said Abrahah, do you not rather implore my clemency in favour of your temple, which I have threatened to destroy? Because, replied the intrepid chief, the cattle is my own; the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend their house from injury and sacrilege. The want of provisions, or the valour of the Koreish, compelled the Abyssinians to a disgraceful retreat; their discomfiture had been adorned with a miraculous flight of birds, who showered down stones on the heads of the infidels; and the deliverance was along commemorated by the era of the elephant. The glory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned with domestic happiness, his life was prolonged to the age of one hundred and ten years30, and he became the father of six daughters and thirteen sons. His best beloved Abdallah was the most beautiful and modest of the Arabian youth; and in the first night, when he consummated his marriage with Amina, of the noble race of the Zahrites, two hundred virgins are said to have expired of jealousy and despair. Mahomet, or more properly Mohammed, the only son30 of Abdallah and Amina, was born at Mecca, four years30 after the death30 of Justinian30, and two months after the defeat of the Abyssinians, whose victory30 would have introduced into the Caaba the religion of the Christians. In his early infancy, he was deprived of his father, his mother, and his grandfather; his uncles were strong and numerous; and, in the division of the inheritance, the orphan's share was reduced to five camels and an Aethiopian maid-servant. At home and abroad, in peace and war30, Abu Taleb, the most respectable of his uncles, was the guide and guardian of his youth; in his twenty-fifth year, he entered into the service30 of Cadijah, a rich and noble widow of Mecca, who soon30 rewarded his fidelity with the gift of her hand and fortune. The marriage contract, in the simple style of antiquity, recites the mutual love of Mahomet and Cadijah; describes him as the most accomplished of the tribe of Koreish; and stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of gold30 and twenty camels, which was supplied by the liberality of his uncle. By this alliance, the son30 of Abdallah was restored to the station of his ancestors; and the judicious matron was content with his domestic virtues, till30, in the fortieth year of his age, he assumed the title of a prophet, and proclaimed the religion of the Koran.
According to the tradition of his companions, Mahomet was distinguished by the beauty of his person, an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his side the affections of a public or private audience. They applauded his commanding presence, his majestic aspect, his piercing eye, his gracious smile, his flowing beard, his countenance that painted every sensation of the soul, and his gestures that enforced each expression of the tongue0. In the familiar offices of life he scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politeness of his country0; his respectful attention to the rich and powerful was dignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest citizens of Mecca; the frankness of his manner concealed the artifice of his views; and the habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship or universal benevolence. His memory was capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive. He possessed the courage both of thought and action; and, although his designs might gradually expand with his success, the first idea which he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius0. The son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect0 of Arabia; and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate Barbarian; his youth had never been instructed in the arts0 of reading and writing; the common ignorance0 exempted him from shame or reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors which reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was open to his view; and some fancy has been indulged in the political and philosophical observations which are ascribed to the Arabian traveller. He compares the nations and the religions of the earth; discovers the weakness of the Persian and Roman0 monarchies; beholds, with pity and indignation, the degeneracy of the times0; and resolves to unite, under one God and one king, the invincible spirit0 and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry will suggest that, instead of visiting the courts, the camps, the temples of the East0, the two journeys of Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostra and Damascus; that he was only thirteen years0 of age0 when he accompanied the caravan of his uncle; and that his duty compelled him to return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandise of Cadijah. In these hasty and superficial excursions, the eye of genius0 might discern some objects invisible to his grosser companions; some seeds of knowledge0 might be cast upon a fruitful soil; but his ignorance0 of the Syriac language0 must have checked his curiosity0; and I cannot perceive, in the life or writings of Mahomet, that his prospect was far extended beyond the limits of the Arabian world0. From every region of that solitary world0, the pilgrims of Mecca were annually assembled by the calls of devotion and commerce: in the free concourse of multitudes, a simple citizen, in his native0 tongue0, might study0 the political state0 and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of the Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted, or forced, to implore the rights of hospitality; and the enemies of Mahomet have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk, whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to the composition of the Koran. Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius0; and the uniformity of a work denotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth Mahomet was addicted to religious contemplation; each year, during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew from the world0 and from the arms of Cadijah; in the cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca, he consulted the spirit0 of fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is not in the heavens, but in the mind of the prophet. The faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation is compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary fiction, That there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the apostle of God.
It is the boast of the Jewish apologists that, while the learned nations of antiquity were deluded by the fables of polytheism, their simple ancestors of Palestine preserved the knowledge and worship8 of the true God8. The moral attributes of Jehovah may not easily be reconciled with the standard of human8 virtue8; his metaphysical qualities are darkly expressed; but each page of the Pentateuch and the Prophets is an evidence of his power; the unity of his name is inscribed on the first table of the law; and his sanctuary was never defiled by any visible image of the invisible essence. After the ruin of the temple8, the faith8 of the Hebrew exiles was purified, fixed, and enlightened, by the spiritual devotion8 of the synagogue; and the authority of Mahomet will not justify his perpetual reproach that the Jews of Mecca or Medina adored Ezra as the son of God8. But the children of Israel had ceased to be a people; and the religions of the world8 were guilty, at least in the eyes of the prophet, of giving sons, or daughters, or companions to the supreme God8. In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is manifest and audacious; the Sabians are poorly excused by the pre-eminence of the first planet or intelligence in their celestial hierarchy; and in the Magian system the conflict of the two principles betrays the imperfection of the conqueror. The Christians8 of the seventh century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of paganism; their public8 and private8 vows were addressed to the relics and images that disgraced the temples8 of the East; the throne of the Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and angels, the objects of popular veneration; and the Collyridian heretics, who flourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary with the name and honours of a goddess. The mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation appear to contradict the principle of the divine8 unity. In their obvious sense they introduce three equal deities, and transform the man8 Jesus into the substance of the son of God8; an orthodox commentary will satisfy only a believing mind8; intemperate curiosity and zeal8 had torn the veil of the sanctuary; and each of the Oriental sects was eager to confess that all, except themselves, deserved the reproach of idolatry and polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is free from suspicion or ambiguity; and the Koran is a glorious testimony to the unity of God8. The prophet of Mecca rejected the worship8 of idols and men, of stars and planets, on the rational principle that whatever rises must set, that whatever is born must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and perish. In the author of the universe, his rational enthusiasm confessed and adored an infinite and eternal being, without form or place, without issue or similitude, present to our most secret thoughts, existing by the necessity of his own nature8, and deriving from himself all moral and intellectual perfection. These sublime truths, thus announced in the language of the prophet, are firmly held by his disciples, and defined with metaphysical precision by the interpreters of the Koran. A philosophic Atheist might subscribe the popular creed of the Mahometans: a creed too sublime perhaps for our present faculties. What object remains for the fancy, or even the understanding, when we have abstracted from the unknown substance all ideas of time8 and space, of motion and matter, of sensation and reflection? The first principle of reason8 and revelation was confirmed by the voice of Mahomet; his proselytes, from India to Morocco, are distinguished by the name of Unitarians; and the danger of idolatry has been prevented by the interdiction of images. The doctrine of eternal decrees and absolute predestination is strictly embraced by the Mahometans; and they struggle with the common difficulties, how to reconcile the prescience of God8 with the freedom and responsibility of man8; how to explain the permission of evil under the reign8 of infinite power and infinite goodness.
The God7 of nature7 has written his existence on all his works, and his law7 in the heart of man. To restore the knowledge of the one, and the practice of the other, has been the real or pretended aim of the prophets of every age; the liberality of Mahomet allowed to his predecessors the same credit which he claimed for himself; and the chain of inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam to the promulgation of the Koran. During that period, some rays of prophetic light had been imparted to one hundred and twenty-four thousand of the elect, discriminated by their respective measure of virtue and grace; three hundred and thirteen apostles were sent with a special commission to recall their country from idolatry7 and vice; one hundred and four volumes have been dictated by the Holy7 Spirit; and six legislators of transcendent brightness have announced to mankind the six successive revelations of various rights, but of one immutable religion7. The authority and station of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses7, Christ7, and Mahomet rise in just gradation above each other; but whosoever hates or rejects any one of the prophets is numbered with the infidels. The writings of the patriarchs were extant only in the apocryphal copies of the Greeks and Syrians; the conduct of Adam had not entitled him to the gratitude or respect of his children; the seven precepts of Noah were observed by an inferior and imperfect class of the proselytes of the synagogues; and the memory of Abraham was obscurely revered by the Sabians in his native land of Chaldaea; of the myriads of prophets, Moses7 and Christ7 alone lived and reigned; and the remnant of the inspired writings was comprised in the books of the Old and the New7 Testament. The miraculous story of Moses7 is consecrated and embellished in the Koran; and the captive Jews7 enjoy the secret revenge of imposing their own belief7 on the nations whose recent creeds they deride. For the author of Christianity7, the Mahometans are taught by the prophet to entertain a high and mysterious reverence. Verily, Christ7 Jesus7, the son7 of Mary, is the apostle of God7, and his word, which he conveyed unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from him: honourable in this world, and in the world to come; and one of those who approach near to the presence of God7. The wonders of the genuine and apocryphal gospels are profusely heaped on his head; and the Latin church7 has not disdained to borrow from the Koran the immaculate conception of his virgin mother. Yet Jesus7 was a mere mortal; and, at the day of judgment, his testimony will serve to condemn both the Jews7, who reject him as a prophet, and the Christians7, who adore him as the Son7 of God7. The malice of his enemies aspersed his reputation and conspired against his life; but their intention only was guilty, a phantom or a criminal was substituted on the cross, and the innocent saint was translated to the seventh heaven7. During six hundred years7 the gospel7 was the way of truth7 and salvation; but the Christians7 insensibly forgot both the laws and the example of their founder; and Mahomet was instructed by the Gnostics7 to accuse the Church7, as well as the synagogue, of corrupting the integrity of the sacred text. The piety of Moses7 and of Christ7 rejoiced in the assurance of a future prophet, more illustrious than themselves; the evangelic promise of the Paraclete, or Holy7 Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and accomplished in the person7, of Mahomet, the greatest and the last of the apostles of God7.
The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and language; the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate, without effect, on the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the distance of their understandings, if it be compared with the contact of an infinite and a finite mind, with the word of God4 expressed by the tongue or the pen of a mortal? The inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, of the apostles and evangelists of Christ, might not be incompatible with the exercise of their reason and memory; and the diversity of their genius is strongly marked in the style and composition of the books of the Old and New Testament. But Mahomet4 was contented with a character more humble, yet more sublime, of a simple editor: the substance of the Koran4, according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and eternal, subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen of light on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper copy in a volume of silk and gems was brought down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel, who, under the Jewish oeconomy, had indeed been despatched on the most important errands; and this trusty messenger successively revealed the chapters and verses to the Arabian4 prophet4. Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran4 were produced at the discretion of Mahomet4; each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim that any text of scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage. The word of God4 and of the apostle4 was diligently recorded by his disciples on palm-leaves and the shoulder-bones of mutton; and the pages, without order or connection, were cast into a domestic chest, in the custody of one of his wives. Two years after the death4 of Mahomet4, the sacred volume was collected and published by his friend and successor Abubeker4; the work was revised by the caliph4 Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira; and the various editions of the Koran4 assert the same miraculous privilege of an uniform and incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm4 or vanity, the prophet4 rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book, audaciously challenges both men4 and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page, and presumes to assert that God4 alone could dictate this incomparable performance. This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian4, whose mind is attuned to faith4 and rapture, whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds, and whose ignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. The harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel; he will peruse, with impatience, the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust and is sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian4 missionary; but his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the same language. If the composition of the Koran4 exceed the faculties of a man, to what superior intelligence should we ascribe the Iliad of Homer or the Philippics of Demosthenes? In all religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of his written revelation: the sayings of Mahomet4 were so many lessons of truth; his actions so many examples of virtue; and the public and private memorials were preserved by his wives and companions4. At the end of two hundred years, the Sonna, or oral law, was fixed and consecrated by the labours of Al Bochari, who discriminated seven thousand4 two hundred and seventy-five genuine traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand4 reports of a more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the pious author prayed in the temple of Mecca4, and performed his ablutions with the water of Zemzem; the pages were successively deposited on the pulpit and the sepulchre of the apostle4; and the work has been approved by the four orthodox sects of the Sonnites.
The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses and of Jesus, had been confirmed by many splendid27 prodigies; and Mahomet was repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants27 of Mecca and Medina, to produce a similar evidence of his divine legation: to call down from heaven the angel or the volume of his revelation, to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a conflagration in the unbelieving city27. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those signs and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith and aggravate the guilt of infidelity. But the modest or angry tone of his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation; and these passages of scandal establish, beyond suspicion, the integrity of the Koran. The votaries of Mahomet are more assured than himself of his miraculous gifts, and their confidence and credulity increase27 as they are farther removed from the time27 and place of his spiritual exploits. They believe or affirm that trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted by stones; that water gushed from his fingers; that he fed the hungry, cured the sick, and raised the dead; that a beam groaned to him; that a camel complained to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned; and that both animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the apostle of God. His dream of a nocturnal journey is seriously described as a real27 and corporeal transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borak, conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem; with his companion Gabriel, he successively ascended the seven27 heavens, and received and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh heaven, Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed; he passed the veil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was touched by the hand of God. After this familiar though important27 conversation, he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the Borak, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the journey of many thousand27 years. According to another legend, the apostle confounded in a national assembly the malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless word split asunder the orb of the moon: the obedient planet stooped from her station in the sky, accomplished the seven27 revolutions round the Caaba, saluted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and, suddenly contracting her dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued forth through the sleeve, of his shirt. The vulgar are amused with these marvellous tales; but the gravest of the Musulman doctors imitate the modesty of their master, and indulge a latitude of faith or interpretation. They might speciously allege that, in preaching the religion, it was needless to violate the harmony of nature; that a creed unclouded with mystery may be excused from miracles; and that the sword of Mahomet was not less potent than the rod of Moses.
The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of superstition: a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwoven with the essence of the Mosaic law10; and the spirit of the Gospel had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the rites of the Arabians and the custom10 of visiting the holy stone of the Caaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself inculcate a more simple and rational piety: prayer10, fasting, and alms are the religious duties of a Musulman; and he is encouraged to hope that prayer10 will carry him halfway to God10, fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms will gain him admittance. I. According10 to the tradition of the nocturnal journey, the apostle, in his personal conference with the Deity, was commanded to impose on his disciples the daily obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied for an alleviation of this intolerable burthen; the number was gradually reduced10 to five; without any dispensation of business or pleasure, or time or place: the devotion of the faithful is repeated at daybreak, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening, and at the first watch of the night; and, in the present decay of religious fervour, our travellers are edified by the profound humility and attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is the key of prayer10: the frequent lustration of the hands, the face, and the body, which was practised of old by the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the Koran; and a permission is formally granted to supply with sand the scarcity of water10. The words and attitudes of supplication, as it is performed either sitting, or standing, or prostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom10 or authority, but the prayer10 is poured forth in short and fervent ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not exhausted by a tedious liturgy; and each Musulman, for his own person, is invested with the character10 of a priest. Among the Theists, who reject the use10 of images, it has been found necessary to restrain the wanderings of the fancy by directing the eye and the thought towards a kebla, or visible point of the horizon. The prophet was at first inclined to gratify the Jews by the choice of Jerusalem; but he soon returned to a more natural partiality; and five times every day the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, are devoutly turned to the holy temple of Mecca. Yet every spot for the service10 of God10 is equally10 pure; the Mahometans indifferently pray in their chamber or in the street. As a distinction10 from the Jews and Christians, the Friday in each week is set apart for the useful institution of public10 worship; the people10 is assembled in the mosch; and the imam, some respectable elder, ascends the pulpit, to begin the prayer10 and pronounce the sermon. But the Mahometan religion10 is destitute of priesthood or sacrifice; and the independent spirit of fanaticism looks down with contempt on the ministers and the slaves of superstition. II. The voluntary penance of the ascetics, the torment and glory of their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in his companions a rash vow of abstaining from flesh, and women, and sleep, and firmly declared that he would suffer no monks in his religion10. Yet he instituted, in each year, a fast of thirty days; and strenuously recommended the observance, as a discipline10 which purifies the soul and subdues the body, as a salutary exercise10 of obedience to the will of God10 and his apostle. During the month of Ramadan, from the rising to the setting of the sun, the Musulman abstains from eating, and drinking, and women, and baths, and perfumes; from all nourishment that can restore his strength10, from all pleasure that can gratify his senses. In the revolution of the lunar year, the Ramadan coincides by turns with the winter cold and the summer heat; and the patient martyr, without assuaging his thirst with a drop of water10, must expect the close of a tedious and sultry day. The interdiction of wine, peculiar to some orders of priests or hermits, is converted by Mahomet alone into a positive and general law10; and a considerable portion of the globe has abjured, at his command, the use10 of that salutary though dangerous liquor. These painful restraints are, doubtless, infringed by the libertine and eluded by the hypocrite; but the legislator, by whom they are enacted, cannot surely be accused of alluring his proselytes by the indulgence of their sensual appetites. III. The charity of the Mahometans descends to the animal creation; and the Koran repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and indispensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. Mahomet, perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the precise measure of charity: the standard may vary with the degree and nature of property, as it consists either in money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or merchandise; but the Musulman does not accomplish the law10, unless he bestows a tenth of his revenue; and, if his conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the tenth, under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a fifth. Benevolence is the foundation of justice, since we are forbid to injure those whom we are bound to assist. A prophet may reveal the secrets of heaven and of futurity; but in his moral precepts he can only repeat the lessons of our own hearts.
The two articles of belief and the four practical duties of Islam are guarded by rewards and punishments; and the faith of the Musulman is devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and the last day. The prophet has not presumed to determine the moment of that awful catastrophe, though he darkly announces the signs, both in heaven and earth, which will precede the universal dissolution, when life48 shall48 be destroyed and the order of creation shall48 be confounded in the primitive chaos. At the blast of the trumpet, new48 worlds will start into being; angels, genii, and men will arise from the dead, and the human soul will again be united to the body. The doctrine of the resurrection was first entertained by the Egyptians; and their mummies were embalmed, their pyramids were constructed, to preserve the ancient mansion of the soul, during a period of three thousand48 years48. But the attempt is partial and unavailing; and it is with a more philosophic spirit that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence of the Creator, whose word can reanimate the breathless clay, and collect the innumerable atoms that no longer retain their form or substance. The intermediate state of the soul it is hard to decide; and those who most firmly believe her immaterial nature are at a loss to understand how she can think or act without the agency of the organs of sense.
The re-union of the soul and body will be followed by the final judgment of mankind8; and, in his copy of the Magian picture, the prophet has too faithfully represented the forms of proceeding, and even the slow and successive operations, of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerate adversaries he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation, for asserting the blackest heresy that every man8 who believes in God8, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a favourable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to the character8 of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger from heaven should depreciate the value and necessity of his own revelation. In the idiom of the Koran, the belief of God8 is inseparable from that of Mahomet; the good works are those which he has enjoined; and the two qualifications imply the profession of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are equally invited. Their spiritual blindness, though excused by ignorance and crowned with virtue8, will be scourged with everlasting torments; and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother, for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of humanity and enthusiasm. The doom of the infidels is common: the measure of their guilt and punishment is determined by the degree of evidence which they have rejected, by the magnitude of the errors which they have entertained; the eternal mansions of the Christians8, the Jews, the Sabians, the Magians, and the idolaters are sunk below each other in the abyss; and the lowest hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumed the mask of religion8. After the greater part of mankind8 has been condemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Musulman will be accurately weighed in a real or allegorical balance, and a singular mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment of injuries: the aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good actions, for the benefit of the person whom he has wronged; and, if he should be destitute of any moral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded with an adequate share of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or virtue8 shall preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet, will gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years; but the prophet has judiciously promised that all his disciples, whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith8 and his intercession, from eternal damnation. It is not surprising that superstition8 should act most powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since the human8 fancy can paint with more energy the misery than the bliss of a future life8. With the two simple elements of darkness and fire we create a sensation of pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea of endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite effect on the continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present enjoyments is obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of evil. It is natural enough that an Arabian prophet should dwell with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and the rivers of paradise; but, instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants with a liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner, even in the short period of this mortal life8. Seventy-two Houris, or black-eyed girls of resplendent beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created for the use8 of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years, and his faculties will be increased an hundred-fold, to render him worthy of his felicity. Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be open to both sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male companions of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the jealousy of their former husbands or disturb their felicity by the suspicion of an everlasting marriage. This image of a carnal paradise has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the monks: they declaim against the impure religion8 of Mahomet; and his modest apologists are driven to the poor excuse of figures and allegories. But the sounder and more consistent party adhere, without shame, to the literal interpretation of the Koran; useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest faculties; and the union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is requisite to complete the happiness8 of the double animal, the perfect man8. Yet the joys of the Mahometan paradise will not be confined to the indulgence of luxury and appetite; and the prophet has expressly declared that all meaner happiness8 will be forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be admitted to the beatitude of the divine8 vision.
The first and most arduous conquests of Mahomet4 were those of his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend; since he presented himself as a prophet4 to those who were most conversant with his infirmities as a man. Yet Cadijah believed the words, and cherished the glory, of her husband; the obsequious and affectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of freedom; the illustrious Ali4, the son4 of Abu4 Taleb, embraced the sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero; and the wealth, the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker4 confirmed the religion4 of the prophet4 whom he was destined to succeed. By his persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca4 were introduced to the private lessons of Islam; they yielded to the voice of reason and enthusiasm4; they repeated the fundamental creed: there is but one God4, and Mahomet4 is the apostle4 of God4; and their faith4, even in this life, was rewarded with riches and honours, with the command of armies and the government of kingdoms. Three years were silently employed in the conversion of fourteen proselytes, the first-fruits of his mission; but in the fourth year he assumed the prophetic office, and, resolving to impart to his family the light of divine truth, he prepared a banquet, a lamb, as it is said4, and a bowl of milk, for the entertainment of forty guests of the race of Hashem. Friends and kinsmen, said4 Mahomet4 to the assembly, I offer you, and I alone can offer, the most precious of gifts, the treasures of this world and of the world to come. God4 has commanded me to call you to his service. Who among you will support my burthen? Who among you will be my companion and my vizir? No answer was returned, till the silence of astonishment, and doubt, and contempt was at length broken by the impatient courage of Ali4, a youth in the fourteenth year of his age. O prophet4, I am the man; whosoever rises against thee, I will dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet4, I will be thy vizir over them. Mahomet4 accepted his offer with transport, and Abu4 Taleb was ironically exhorted to respect the superior dignity of his son4. In a more serious tone, the father of Ali4 advised his nephew to relinquish his impracticable design. Spare your remonstrances, replied the intrepid fanatic to his uncle and benefactor; if they should place4 the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left, they should not divert me from my course. He persevered ten years in the exercise of his mission; and the religion4 which has overspread the East and the West advanced with a slow and painful progress within the walls of Mecca4. Yet Mahomet4 enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the increase of his infant congregation of Unitarians, who revered him as a prophet4, and to whom he seasonably dispensed the spiritual nourishment of the Koran4. The number of proselytes may be esteemed by the absence of eighty-three men4 and eighteen women, who retired to Aethiopia in the seventh year of his mission; and his party was fortified by the timely conversion of his uncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible Omar4, who signalised in the cause of Islam the same zeal which he had exerted for its destruction. Nor was the charity of Mahomet4 confined to the tribe4 of Koreish4 or the precincts of Mecca4: on solemn festivals, in the days4 of pilgrimage, he frequented the Caaba, accosted the strangers of every tribe4, and urged, both in private converse and public discourse, the belief and worship of a sole Deity. Conscious of his reason and of his weakness, he asserted the liberty of conscience, and disclaimed the use of religious violence; but he called the Arabs4 to repentance, and conjured them to remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and Thamud, whom the divine justice had swept away from the face of the earth.
The people4 of Mecca4 was hardened in their unbelief by superstition and envy. The elders of the city4, the uncles of the prophet4, affected to despise the presumption of an orphan, the reformer of his country; the pious orations of Mahomet4 in the Caaba were answered by the clamours of Abu4 Taleb. Citizens and pilgrims, listen not to the tempter, hearken not to his impious novelties. Stand fast in the worship of Al Lâta and Al Uzzah. Yet the son4 of Abdallah4 was ever dear to the aged chief4; and he protected the fame and person of his nephew against the assaults of the Koreishites, who had long been jealous of the pre-eminence of the family of Hashem. Their malice was coloured with the pretence of religion4; in the age of Job, the crime of impiety was punished by the Arabian4 magistrate; and Mahomet4 was guilty of deserting and denying the national deities. But so loose was the policy of Mecca4 that the leaders of the Koreish4, instead of accusing a criminal, were compelled to employ the measures of persuasion or violence. They repeatedly addressed Abu4 Taleb in the style of reproach and menace. Thy nephew reviles our religion4; he accuses our wise forefathers of ignorance and folly; silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult and discord in the city4. If he persevere, we shall4 draw our swords against him and his adherents, and thou wilt be responsible for the blood of thy fellow-citizens. The weight and moderation of Abu4 Taleb eluded the violence of religious faction; the most helpless or timid of the disciples retired to Aethiopia; and the prophet4 withdrew himself to various places of strength in the town and country. As he was still supported by his family, the rest of the tribe4 of Koreish4 engaged themselves to renounce all intercourse with the children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, neither to marry nor to give in marriage, but to pursue them with implacable enmity, till they should deliver the person of Mahomet4 to the justice of the gods. The decree was suspended in the Caaba before the eyes of the nation; the messengers of the Koreish4 pursued the Musulman exiles in the heart of Africa; they besieged the prophet4 and his most faithful4 followers, intercepted their water, and inflamed their mutual animosity by the retaliation of injuries and insults. A doubtful truce restored the appearances of concord; till the death4 of Abu4 Taleb abandoned Mahomet4 to the power of his enemies, at the moment when he was deprived of his domestic comforts by the loss of his faithful4 and generous Cadijah. Abu4 Sophian, the chief4 of the branch of Ommiyah, succeeded to the principality of the republic of Mecca4. A zealous votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line of Hashem, he convened an assembly of the Koreishites and their allies, to decide the fate of the apostle4. His imprisonment might provoke the despair of his enthusiasm4; and the exile of an eloquent and popular fanatic would diffuse the mischief through the provinces of Arabia4. His death4 was resolved; and they agreed that a sword4 from each tribe4 should be buried in his heart, to divide the guilt of his blood and baffle the vengeance of the Hashemites. An angel or a spy revealed their conspiracy; and flight was the only resource of Mahomet4. At the dead of night, accompanied by his friend Abubeker4, he silently escaped from his house; the assassins watched at the door; but they were deceived by the figure of Ali4, who reposed on the bed, and was covered with the green vestment, of the apostle4. The Koreish4 respected the piety of the heroic youth; but some verses of Ali4, which are still extant, exhibit an interesting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness, and his religious confidence. Three days4 Mahomet4 and his companion were concealed in the cave of Thor, at the distance of a league from Mecca4; and in the close of each evening they received from the son4 and daughter of Abubeker4 a secret supply of intelligence and food. The diligence of the Koreish4 explored every haunt in the neighbourhood of the city4; they arrived at the entrance of the cavern; but the providential deceit of a spider's web and a pigeon's nest is supposed to convince them that the place4 was solitary and inviolate. We are only two, said4 the trembling Abubeker4. There is a third, replied the prophet4; it is God4 himself. No sooner was the pursuit abated than the two fugitives issued from the rock and mounted their camels; on the road to Medina4, they were overtaken by the emissaries of the Koreish4; they redeemed themselves with prayers and promises from their hands. In this eventful moment the lance of an Arab might have changed the history of the world. The flight of the prophet4 from Mecca4 to Medina4 has fixed the memorable era of the Hegira, which, at the end of twelve centuries, still discriminates the lunar years of the Mahometan nations.
The religion42 of the Koran might have perished in its cradle, had not Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy42 outcasts of Mecca. Medina, or the city42, known under the name of Yathreb before it was sanctified by the throne of the prophet, was divided between the tribes of the Charegites and the Awsites, whose hereditary feud was rekindled by the slightest provocations: two colonies of Jews42, who boasted a sacerdotal race, were their humble42 allies, and without converting the Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and religion42, which distinguished Medina as the city42 of the Book. Some of her noblest citizens, in a pilgrimage to the Caaba, were converted by the preaching of Mahomet; on their return42, they diffused the belief of God and his prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by their deputies in two secret and nocturnal interviews on a hill in the suburbs of Mecca. In the first, ten Charegites and two Awsites, united in faith and love, protested, in the name of their wives, their children42, and their absent brethren, that they would for ever profess the creed, and observe the precepts, of the Koran. The second was a political association, the first vital spark of the empire of the Saracens. Seventy-three men and two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, his kinsmen, and his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other by a mutual oath of fidelity. They promised in the name of the city42 that, if he should be banished, they would receive him as a confederate, obey him as a leader, and defend him to the last extremity, like their wives and children42. But, if you are recalled by your country42, they asked with a flattering anxiety, will you not abandon your new allies? All things, replied Mahomet with a smile, are now common42 between us; your blood is as my blood, your ruin as my ruin. We are bound to each other by the ties of honour and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy of your foes. But, if we are killed in your service, what, exclaimed the deputies of Medina, will be our reward? Paradise, replied the prophet. Stretch forth thy hand. He stretched it forth, and they reiterated the oath of allegiance and fidelity. Their treaty was ratified by the people42, who unanimously embraced the profession of Islam; they rejoiced in the exile42 of the apostle, but they trembled for his safety, and impatiently expected his arrival. After a perilous and rapid journey along the sea-coast, he halted at Koba, two miles from the city42, and made his public42 entry into Medina, sixteen days after his flight from Mecca. Five hundred of the citizens advanced to meet him; he was hailed with acclamations of loyalty and devotion; Mahomet was mounted on a she-camel, an umbrella shaded his head, and a turban was unfurled before him to supply the deficiency of a standard. His bravest disciples, who had been scattered by the storm, assembled round his person; and the equal, though various, merit of the Moslems was distinguished by the names of Mohagerians and Ansars, the fugitives of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. To eradicate the seeds of jealousy, Mahomet judiciously coupled his principal followers with the rights and obligations of brethren; and, when Ali found himself without a peer, the prophet tenderly declared that he would be the companion and brother of the noble youth. The expedient was crowned with success; the holy42 fraternity was respected in peace and war, and the two parties vied with each other in a generous emulation of courage and fidelity. Once only the concord was slightly ruffled by an accidental quarrel: a patriot of Medina arraigned the insolence of the strangers42, but the hint of their expulsion was heard with abhorrence, and his own son42 most eagerly offered to lay at the apostle's feet the head of his father42.
From his establishment at Medina, Mahomet assumed the exercise of the regal and sacerdotal office; and it was impious to appeal from a judge whose decrees were inspired by the divine wisdom. A small portion of ground, the patrimony of two orphans, was acquired by gift or purchase; on that chosen spot he built an house and a mosch, more venerable in their rude simplicity than the palaces and temples of the Assyrian caliphs. His seal of gold, or silver, was inscribed with the apostolic title; when he prayed and preached in the weekly assembly, he leaned against the trunk of a palm-tree; and it was long42 before he indulged himself in the use42 of a chair or pulpit of rough timber. After a reign of six years42, fifteen hundred Moslems, in arms and in the field, renewed their oath of allegiance; and their chief repeated the assurance of protection, till the death of the last member or the final dissolution of the party. It was in the same camp that the deputy of Mecca was astonished by the attention of the faithful to the words and looks of the prophet, by the eagerness with which they collected his spittle, an hair that dropped on the ground, the refuse water of his lustrations, as if they participated in some degree of the prophetic virtue. I have seen, said he, the Chosroes of Persia and the Caesar of Rome42, but never did I behold a king among his subjects like Mahomet among his companions. The devout fervour of enthusiasm acts with more energy and truth than the cold and formal servility of courts.
In the state of nature7 every man has a right to defend, by force of arms, his person7 and his possessions; to repel, or even to prevent, the violence of his enemies, and to extend his hostilities to a reasonable measure of satisfaction and retaliation. In the free society of the Arabs, the duties of subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint; and Mahomet, in the exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had been despoiled and banished by the injustice of his countrymen. The choice of an independent people had exalted the fugitive of Mecca to the rank of a sovereign; and he was invested with the just prerogative of forming alliances and of waging offensive or defensive war. The imperfection of human7 rights was supplied and armed by the plenitude of divine7 power; the prophet of Medina assumed, in his new7 revelations, a fiercer and more sanguinary tone, which proves that his former moderation was the effect of weakness; the means of persuasion had been tried, the season of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagate his religion7 by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry7, and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue the unbelieving nations of the earth7. The same bloody precepts, so repeatedly inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by the author to the Pentateuch and the Gospel7. But the mild tenor of the evangelic style may explain an ambiguous text, that Jesus7 did not bring peace on the earth7, but a sword: his patient and humble virtues should not be confounded with the intolerant zeal7 of princes and bishops, who have disgraced the name of his disciples7. In the prosecution of religious war, Mahomet might appeal with more propriety to the example of Moses7, of the judges, and the kings of Israel. The military laws of the Hebrews are still more rigid than those of the Arabian legislator. The Lord of Hosts marched in person7 before the Jews7; if a city resisted their summons, the males, without distinction, were put to the sword; the seven nations of Canaan were devoted to destruction; and neither repentance nor conversion7 could shield them from the inevitable doom that no creature within their precincts should be left alive. The fair option of friendship, or submission, or battle was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet. If they professed the creed7 of Islam, they were admitted to all the temporal7 and spiritual7 benefits of his primitive disciples7, and marched under the same banner to extend the religion7 which they had embraced. The clemency of the prophet was decided by his interest, yet he seldom trampled on a prostrate enemy; and he seems to promise that, on the payment of a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be indulged in their worship7, or at least in their imperfect faith7. In the first months of his reign, he practised the lessons of holy7 warfare, and displayed his white banner before the gates of Medina; the martial apostle fought in person7 at nine battles or sieges; and fifty enterprises of war were achieved in ten years7 by himself or his lieutenants. The Arab continued to unite the professions of a merchant and a robber; and his petty excursions, for the defence or the attack of a caravan, insensibly prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia. The distribution of the spoil was regulated by a divine7 law7; the whole was faithfully collected in one common mass; a fifth of the gold and silver, the prisoners and cattle, the moveables and immoveables, was reserved by the prophet for pious and charitable uses; the remainder was shared in adequate portions by the soldiers who had obtained the victory or guarded the camp; the rewards of the slain devolved to their widows and orphans; and the increase of cavalry was encouraged by the allotment of a double share to the horse and to the man. From all sides the roving Arabs were allured to the standard of religion7 and plunder; the apostle sanctified the licence of embracing the female captives as their wives or concubines; and the enjoyment of wealth and beauty was a feeble type of the joys of paradise prepared for the valiant martyrs of the faith7. The sword, says Mahomet, is the key of heaven7 and of hell: a drop of blood shed in the cause of God7, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven; at the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermillion, and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim. The intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm; the picture of the invisible world was strongly painted on their imagination; and the death which they had always despised became an object of hope and desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense, the tenets of fate and predestination, which would extinguish both industry and virtue, if the actions of man were governed by his speculative belief7. Yet their influence in every age has exalted the courage of the Saracens and Turks. The first companions of Mahomet advanced to battle with a fearless confidence; there is no danger where there is no chance: they were ordained to perish in their beds; or they were safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy.
Perhaps the Koreish would have been content with the flight of Mahomet, had they not been provoked and alarmed by the vengeance of an enemy30 who could intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed through the territory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, with only thirty or forty followers, conducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand30 camels; the fortune or dexterity of his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but the chief of the Koreish was informed that the holy30 robbers were placed in ambush to await his return. He despatched a messenger to his brethren of Mecca and they were roused by the fear of losing their merchandise and their provisions, unless they hastened to his relief with the military force of the city30. The sacred band of Mahomet was formed of three hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom seventy-seven were fugitives, and the rest auxiliaries; they mounted by turns a train of seventy camels (the camels of Yathreb were formidable in war30); but such was the poverty of his first disciples that only two could appear on horseback in the field. In the fertile and famous vale of Beder, three stations from Medina, he was informed by his scouts of the caravan that approached on one side; of the Koreish, one hundred horse30, eight hundred and fifty foot, who advanced on the other. After a short debate, he sacrificed the prospect of wealth to the pursuit of glory and revenge; and a slight intrenchment was formed to cover his troops30, and a stream of fresh water that glided through the valley. O God, he exclaimed as the numbers of the Koreish descended from the hills, O God, if these are destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on the earth? — Courage, my children; close your ranks; discharge your arrows, and the day30 is your own. At these words he placed himself, with Abubeker, on a throne or pulpit, and instantly demanded the succour of Gabriel and three thousand30 angels. His eye was fixed on the field of battle30; the Musulmans fainted and were pressed; in that decisive moment the prophet started from his throne, mounted his horse30, and cast a handful of sand into the air: Let their faces be covered with confusion. Both armies heard the thunder of his voice; their fancy beheld the angelic warriors; the Koreish trembled and fled; seventy of the bravest were slain; and seventy captives adorned the first victory30 of the faithful. The dead bodies of the Koreish were despoiled and insulted; two of the most obnoxious prisoners were punished with death30; and the ransom of the others, four thousand30 drachms of silver, compensated in some degree the escape of the caravan. But it was in vain that the camels of Abu Sophian explored a new30 road through the desert and along the Euphrates; they were overtaken by the diligence of the Musulmans; and wealthy must have been the prize, if twenty thousand30 drachms could be set apart for the fifth of the apostle. The resentment of the public and private loss stimulated Abu Sophian to collect a body of three thousand30 men, seven hundred of whom were armed with cuirasses, and two hundred were mounted on horseback; three thousand30 camels attended his march; and his wife Henda, with fifteen matrons of Mecca, incessantly sounded their timbrels to animate the troops30, and to magnify the greatness of Hobal, the most popular deity of the Caaba. The standard30 of God and Mahomet was upheld by nine hundred and fifty believers; the disproportion of numbers was not more alarming than in the field of Beder; and their presumption of victory30 prevailed against the divine and human sense of the apostle. The second30 battle30 was fought on Mount Ohud, six miles to the north of Medina; the Koreish advanced in the form of a crescent; and the right wing of cavalry was led by Caled, the fiercest and most successful of the Arabian warriors. The troops30 of Mahomet were skilfully posted on the declivity of the hill; and their rear was guarded by a detachment of fifty archers. The weight of their charge impelled and broke the centre of the idolaters; but in the pursuit they lost the advantage of their ground; the archers deserted their station; the Musulmans were tempted by the spoil, disobeyed their general30, and disordered their ranks. The intrepid Caled, wheeling his cavalry on their flank and rear, exclaimed with a loud voice, that Mahomet was slain. He was indeed wounded in the face with a javelin; two of his teeth were shattered with a stone; yet, in the midst of tumult and dismay, he reproached the infidels with the murder of a prophet; and blessed the friendly hand that staunched his blood and conveyed him to a place of safety. Seventy martyrs died for the sins of the people30; they fell, said the apostle, in pairs, each brother embracing his lifeless companion; their bodies were mangled by the inhuman females of Mecca; and the wife of Abu Sophian tasted the entrails of Hamza, the uncle of Mahomet. They might applaud their superstition and satiate their fury; but the Musulmans soon30 rallied in the field, and the Koreish wanted strength or courage to undertake the siege30 of Medina. It was attacked the ensuing year by an army30 of ten thousand30 enemies30; and this third expedition is variously named from the nations, which marched under the banner of Abu Sophian, from the ditch which was drawn before the city30, and a camp30 of three thousand30 Musulmans. The prudence of Mahomet declined a general30 engagement; the valour of Ali was signalised in single combat; and the war30 was protracted twenty days30, till30 the final separation of the confederates. A tempest of wind, rain, and hail overturned their tents; their private quarrels were fomented by an insidious adversary; and the Koreish, deserted by their allies, no longer hoped to subvert the throne, or to check the conquests, of their invincible exile.
The choice of Jerusalem for the first kebla of prayer4 discovers the early propensity of Mahomet4 in favour of the Jews; and happy would it have been for their temporal interest, had they recognised, in the Arabian4 prophet4, the hope of Israel and the promised Messiah. Their obstinacy converted his friendship into implacable hatred, with which he pursued that unfortunate people4 to the last moment of his life; and, in the double character of an apostle4 and a conqueror, his persecution was extended to both worlds. The Kainoka dwelt at Medina4, under the protection of the city4: he seized the occasion of an accidental tumult, and summoned them to embrace his religion4 or contend with him in battle4. Alas, replied the trembling Jews, we are ignorant of the use of arms, but we persevere in the faith4 and worship of our fathers: why wilt thou reduce us to the necessity of a just defence? The unequal conflict was terminated in fifteen days4; and it was with extreme reluctance that Mahomet4 yielded to the importunity of his allies and consented to spare the lives of the captives. But their riches were confiscated; their arms became more effectual in the hands of the Musulmans; and a wretched colony of seven hundred exiles was driven with their wives and children to implore a refuge on the confines of Syria4. The Nadhirites were more guilty, since they conspired in a friendly interview to assassinate the prophet4. He besieged their castle three miles from Medina4, but their resolute defence obtained an honourable capitulation; and the garrison, sounding their trumpets and beating their drums, was permitted to depart with the honours of war. The Jews had excited and joined the war of the Koreish4: no sooner had the nations retired from the ditch, than Mahomet4, without laying aside his armour, marched on the same day to extirpate the hostile race of the children of Koraidha. After a resistance of twenty-five days4, they surrendered at discretion. They trusted to the intercession of their old allies of Medina4; they could not be ignorant that fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity. A venerable elder, to whose judgment they appealed, pronounced the sentence of their death4: seven hundred Jews were dragged in chains to the market-place4 of the city4; they descended alive into the grave prepared for their execution and burial; and the apostle4 beheld with an inflexible eye the slaughter of his helpless enemies. Their sheep and camels were inherited by the Musulmans; three hundred cuirasses, five hundred pikes, a thousand4 lances, composed the most useful portion of the spoil. Six days4' journey to the north-east of Medina4, the ancient and wealthy town of Chaibar was the seat of the Jewish power in Arabia4; the territory, a fertile spot in the desert4, was covered with plantations and cattle, and protected by eight castles, some of which were esteemed of impregnable strength. The forces of Mahomet4 consisted of two hundred horse and fourteen hundred foot: in the succession of eight regular and painful sieges, they were exposed to danger, and fatigue, and hunger; and the most undaunted chiefs despaired of the event. The apostle4 revived their faith4 and courage by the example of Ali4, on whom he bestowed the surname of the Lion of God4: perhaps we may believe that an Hebrew champion of gigantic stature was cloven to the chest by his irresistible scymetar; but we cannot praise the modesty of romance, which represents him as tearing from its hinges the gate of a fortress and wielding the ponderous buckler in his left hand. After the reduction of the castles, the town of Chaibar submitted to the yoke. The chief4 of the tribe4 was tortured in the presence of Mahomet4, to force a confession of his hidden treasure; the industry of the shepherds and husbandmen was rewarded with a precarious toleration; they were permitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, to improve their patrimony, in equal shares, for his emolument and their own. Under the reign of Omar4, the Jews of Chaibar were transplanted to Syria4; and the caliph4 alleged the injunction of his dying master, that one and the true religion4 should be professed in his native land of Arabia4.
Five times each day the eyes of Mahomet4 were turned towards Mecca4, and he was urged by the most sacred and powerful motives to revisit, as a conqueror, the city4 and the temple from whence he had been driven as an exile. The Caaba was present to his waking and sleeping fancy; an idle dream was translated into vision and prophecy; he unfurled the holy4 banner; and a rash promise of success too hastily dropped from the lips of the apostle4. His march from Medina4 to Mecca4 displayed the peaceful and solemn pomp of a pilgrimage: seventy camels, chosen and bedecked for sacrifice, preceded the van; the sacred territory was respected, and the captives were dismissed without ransom to proclaim his clemency and devotion. But no sooner did Mahomet4 descend into the plain, within a day's journey of the city4, than he exclaimed, They have clothed themselves with the skins of tigers; the numbers and resolution of the Koreish4 opposed his progress; and the roving Arabs4 of the desert4 might desert4 or betray a leader whom they had followed for the hopes of spoil. The intrepid fanatic sunk into a cool and cautious politician: he waived in the treaty his title of apostle4 of God4, concluded with the Koreish4 and their allies a truce of ten years, engaged to restore the fugitives of Mecca4 who should embrace his religion4, and stipulated only, for the ensuing year, the humble privilege of entering the city4 as a friend and of remaining three days4 to accomplish the rites of the pilgrimage. A cloud of shame and sorrow hung on the retreat of the Musulmans, and their disappointment might justly accuse the failure of a prophet4 who had so often appealed to the evidence of success. The faith4 and hope of the pilgrims were rekindled by the prospect of Mecca4; their swords were sheathed; seven times in the footsteps of the apostle4 they encompassed the Caaba; the Koreish4 had retired to the hills, and Mahomet4, after the customary sacrifice, evacuated the city4 on the fourth day. The people4 was edified by his devotion; the hostile chiefs were awed, or divided, or seduced and both Caled4 and Amrou4, the future conquerors of Syria4 and Egypt4, most seasonably deserted the sinking cause of idolatry. The power of Mahomet4 was increased by the submission of the Arabian4 tribes4: ten thousand4 soldiers were assembled for the conquest of Mecca4, and the idolaters, the weaker party, were easily convicted of violating the truce. Enthusiasm4 and discipline impelled the march and preserved the secret, till the blaze of ten thousand4 fires proclaimed to the astonished Koreish4 the design, the approach, and the irresistible force of the enemy. The haughty Abu4 Sophian presented the keys of the city4; admired the variety of arms and ensigns that passed before him in review; observed that the son4 of Abdallah4 had acquired a mighty kingdom; and confessed, under the scymetar of Omar4, that he was the apostle4 of the true God4. The return of Marius and Sylla was stained with the blood of the Romans; the revenge of Mahomet4 was stimulated by religious zeal, and his injured followers were eager to execute or to prevent the order of a massacre. Instead of indulging their passions and his own, the victorious exile forgave the guilt, and united the factions, of Mecca4. His troops in three divisions marched into the city4; eight and twenty of the inhabitants were slain by the sword4 of Caled4; eleven men4 and six women were proscribed by the sentence of Mahomet4; but he blamed the cruelty of his lieutenant; and several of the most obnoxious victims were indebted for their lives to his clemency or contempt. The chiefs of the Koreish4 were prostrate at his feet. What mercy can you expect from the man whom you have wronged? We confide in the generosity of our kinsman. And you shall4 not confide in vain: Begone! you are safe, you are free. The people4 of Mecca4 deserved their pardon by the profession of Islam; and, after an exile of seven years, the fugitive missionary was enthroned as the prince and prophet4 of his native country. But the three hundred and sixty idols of the Caaba were ignominiously broken; the house of God4 was purified and adorned; as an example to future times, the apostle4 again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim; and a perpetual law was enacted that no unbeliever should dare to set his foot on the territory of the holy4 city4.
The conquest of Mecca determined the faith and obedience of the Arabian tribes; who, according to the vicissitudes of fortune, had obeyed or disregarded the eloquence or the arms30 of the prophet. Indifference for rites and opinions still marks the character of the Bedoweens; and they might accept, as loosely as they hold, the doctrine of the Koran. Yet an obstinate remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty of their ancestors, and the war30 of Honain derived a proper appellation from the idols, whom Mahomet had vowed to destroy, and whom the confederates of Tayef had sworn to defend. Four thousand30 Pagans advanced with secrecy and speed to surprise the conqueror; they pitied and despised the supine negligence of the Koreish, but they depended on the wishes, and perhaps the aid, of a people30 who had so lately renounced their gods and bowed beneath the yoke of their enemy30. The banners of Medina and Mecca were displayed by the prophet; a crowd of Bedoweens increased the strength or numbers of the army30, and twelve thousand30 Musulmans entertained a rash and sinful presumption of their invincible strength. They descended without precaution into the valley of Honain; the heights had been occupied by the archers and slingers of the confederates; their numbers were oppressed, their discipline was confounded, their courage was appalled, and the Koreish smiled at their impending destruction. The prophet, on his white mule, was encompassed by the enemies30; he attempted to rush against their spears in search of a glorious death30; ten of his faithful companions interposed their weapons and their breasts; three of these fell dead at his feet. O my brethren, he repeatedly cried with sorrow and indignation, I am the son30 of Abdallah, I am the apostle of truth! O man, stand fast in the faith! O God, send down thy succour! His uncle Abbas, who, like the heroes of Homer, excelled in the loudness of his voice, made the valley resound with the recital of the gifts and promises of God; the flying Moslems returned from all sides to the holy30 standard30; and Mahomet observed with pleasure that the furnace was again rekindled; his conduct and example restored the battle30, and he animated his victorious troops30 to inflict a merciless revenge on the authors of their shame. From the field of Honain he marched without delay to the siege30 of Tayef, sixty miles to the south-east of Mecca, a fortress of strength, whose fertile lands produce the fruits of Syria in the midst of the Arabian desert. A friendly tribe, instructed (I know not how) in the art of sieges, supplied him with a train of battering-rams and military engines, with a body of five hundred artificers. But it was in vain that he offered freedom to the slaves of Tayef; that he violated his own laws by the extirpation of the fruit-trees; that the ground was opened by the miners; that the breach was assaulted by the troops30. After a siege30 of twenty days30, the prophet sounded a retreat; but he retreated with a song of devout triumph, and affected to pray for the repentance and safety of the unbelieving city30. The spoil of this fortunate expedition amounted to six thousand30 captives, twenty-four thousand30 camels, forty thousand30 sheep, and four thousand30 ounces of silver; a tribe who had fought at Honain, redeemed their prisoners by the sacrifice of their idols; but Mahomet compensated the loss by resigning to the soldiers30 his fifth of the plunder, and wished for their sake that he possessed as many head30 of cattle as there were trees in the province of Tehama. Instead of chastising the disaffection of the Koreish, he endeavoured to cut out their tongues (his own expression) and to secure their attachment by a superior measure of liberality: Abu Sophian alone was presented with three hundred camels and twenty ounces of silver; and Mecca was sincerely converted to the profitable religion of the Koran.
The fugitives and auxiliaries complained that they who had borne the burthen were neglected in the season of victory. Alas, replied their artful leader, suffer me to conciliate these recent enemies, these doubtful proselytes, by the gift of some perishable goods. To your guard I entrust my life and fortunes. You are the companions4 of my exile, of my kingdom, of my paradise. He was followed by the deputies of Tayef, who dreaded the repetition of a siege. Grant us, O apostle4 of God4! a truce of three years, with the toleration of our ancient worship. Not a month, not an hour. Excuse us at least from the obligation of prayer4. Without prayer4 religion4 is of no avail. They submitted in silence; their temples were demolished, and the same sentence of destruction was executed on all the idols of Arabia4. His lieutenants, on the shores of the Red Sea, the Ocean, and the Gulf of Persia, were saluted by the acclamations of a faithful4 people4; and the ambassadors who knelt before the throne of Medina4 were as numerous (says the Arabian4 proverb) as the dates that fall from the maturity of a palm-tree. The nation submitted to the God4 and the sceptre of Mahomet4; the opprobrious name of tribute was abolished; the spontaneous or reluctant oblations of alms and tithes were applied to the service of religion4; and one hundred and fourteen thousand4 Moslems4 accompanied the last pilgrimage of the apostle4.
When Heraclius returned in triumph from the Persian war30, he entertained, at Emesa, one of the ambassadors of Mahomet, who invited the princes and nations of the earth to the profession of Islam. On this foundation the zeal of the Arabians has supposed the secret conversion of the Christian emperor30; the vanity of the Greeks30 has feigned a personal visit to the prince30 of Medina, who accepted from the royal30 bounty a rich domain and a secure retreat in the province of Syria. But the friendship of Heraclius and Mahomet was of short continuance: the new30 religion had inflamed rather than assuaged the rapacious spirit of the Saracens; and the murder of an envoy afforded a decent pretence for invading, with three thousand30 soldiers30, the territory of Palestine that extends to the eastward of the Jordan. The holy30 banner was entrusted to Zeid; and such was the discipline or enthusiasm of the rising sect that the noblest chiefs served without reluctance under the slave of the prophet. On the event of his decease, Jaafar and Abdallah were successively substituted to the command; and, if the three should perish in the war30, the troops30 were authorised to elect their general30. The three leaders were slain in the battle30 of Muta, the first military action which tried the valour of the Moslems against a foreign enemy30. Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the foremost ranks; the death30 of Jaafar was heroic and memorable: he lost his right hand; he shifted the standard30 to his left30; the left30 was severed from his body; he embraced the standard30 with his bleeding stumps, till30 he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honourable wounds. Advance, cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place, advance with confidence: either victory30 or paradise is our own. The lance of a Roman30 decided the alternative; but the falling standard30 was rescued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca: nine swords were broken in his hand; and his valour withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. In the nocturnal council of the camp30 he was chosen to command: his skulful evolutions of the ensuing day30 secured either the victory30 or the retreat of the Saracens; and Caled is renowned among his brethren and his enemies30 by the glorious appellation of the Sword30 of God. In the pulpit, Mahomet described, with prophetic rapture, the crowns of the blessed martyrs; but in private he betrayed the feelings of human nature; he was surprised as he wept over the daughter of Zeid. What do I see? said the astonished votary. You see, replied the apostle, a friend who is deploring the loss of his most faithful friend. After the conquest of Mecca the sovereign of Arabia affected to prevent the hostile preparations of Heraclius; and solemnly proclaimed war30 against the Romans, without attempting to disguise the hardships and dangers of the enterprise. The Moslems were discouraged: they alleged the want of money, or horses, or provisions; the season of harvest, and the intolerable heat of the summer: Hell is much hotter, said the indignant prophet. He disdained to compel their service30; but on his return he admonished the most guilty by an excommunication of fifty days30. Their desertion enhanced the merit of Abubeker, Othman, and the faithful companions who devoted their lives and fortunes; and Mahomet displayed his banner at the head30 of ten thousand30 horse30 and twenty thousand30 foot. Painful indeed was the distress of the march; lassitude and thirst were aggravated by the scorching and pestilential winds of the desert; ten men rode by turns on the same camel; and they were reduced to the shameful necessity of drinking the water from the belly of that useful animal. In the midway, ten days30' journey from Medina and Damascus, they reposed near the grove and fountain of Tabuc. Beyond that place, Mahomet declined the prosecution of the war30; he declared himself satisfied with the peaceful intentions, he was more probably daunted by the martial array, of the emperor30 of the East. But the active and intrepid Caled spread around the terror of his name; and the prophet received the submission of the tribes and cities from the Euphrates to Ailah at the head30 of the Red Sea. To his Christian subjects Mahomet readily granted the security of their persons, the freedom of their trade, the property of their goods, and the toleration of their worship. The weakness of their Arabian brethren had restrained them from opposing his ambition; the disciples of Jesus were endeared to the enemy30 of the Jews; and it was the interest of a conqueror to propose a fair capitulation to the most powerful religion of the earth.
Till the age of sixty-three years, the strength of Mahomet4 was equal to the temporal and spiritual fatigues of his mission. His epileptic fits, an absurd calumny of the Greeks, would be an object of pity rather than abhorrence; but he seriously believed that he was poisoned at Chaibar by the revenge of a Jewish female. During four years, the health of the prophet4 declined; his infirmities increased; but his mortal disease was a fever of fourteen days4, which deprived him by intervals of the use of reason. As soon as he was conscious of his danger, he edified his brethren4 by the humility of his virtue or penitence. If there be any man, said4 the apostle4 from the pulpit, whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit my own back to the lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation of a Musulman? let him proclaim my faults in the face of the congregation. Has any one been despoiled of his goods? the little that I possess shall4 compensate the principal and the interest of the debt. Yes, replied a voice from the crowd, I am entitled to three drachms of silver. Mahomet4 heard the complaint, satisfied the demand, and thanked his creditor for accusing him in this world rather than at the day of judgment. He beheld with temperate firmness the approach of death4; enfranchised his slaves (seventeen men4, as they are named, and eleven women); minutely directed the order of his funeral; and moderated the lamentations of his weeping friends, on whom he bestowed the benediction of peace. Till the third day before his death4, he regularly performed the function of public prayer4. The choice of Abubeker4 to supply his place4 appeared to mark that ancient and faithful4 friend as his successor in the sacerdotal and regal office; but he prudently declined the risk and envy of a more explicit nomination. At a moment when his faculties were visibly impaired, he called for pen and ink, to write, or more properly to dictate, a divine book, the sum and accomplishment of all his revelations: a dispute arose in the chamber whether he should be allowed to supersede the authority of the Koran4; and the prophet4 was forced to reprove the indecent vehemence of his disciples. If the slightest credit may be afforded to the traditions of his wives and companions4, he maintained in the bosom of his family, and to the last moments of his life, the dignity of an apostle4 and the faith4 of an enthusiast; described the visits of Gabriel, who bid an everlasting farewell to the earth, and expressed his lively confidence not only of the mercy, but of the favour, of the Supreme Being. In a familiar discourse he had mentioned his special prerogative, that the angel of death4 was not allowed to take his soul till he had respectfully asked the permission of the prophet4. The request was granted; and Mahomet4 immediately fell into the agony of his dissolution: his head was reclined on the lap of Ayesha, the best beloved of all his wives; he fainted with the violence of pain; recovering his spirits, he raised his eyes towards the roof of the house, and, with a steady look, though a faltering voice, uttered the last broken, though articulate, words: O God4! . . . pardon my sins. . . . Yes, . . . I come, . . . among my fellow-citizens on high; and thus peaceably expired on a carpet spread upon the floor. An expedition for the conquest of Syria4 was stopped by this mournful event; the army halted at the gates of Medina4; the chiefs were assembled round their dying master. The city4, more especially the house of the prophet4, was a scene of clamorous sorrow, or silent despair: fanaticism alone could suggest a ray of hope and consolation. How can he be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our mediator with God4? By God4, he is not dead; like Moses and Jesus, he is wrapt in a holy4 trance, and speedily will he return to his faithful4 people4. The evidence of sense was disregarded; and Omar4, unsheathing his scymetar, threatened to strike off the heads of the infidels4 who should dare to affirm that the prophet4 was no more. The tumult was appeased by the weight and moderation of Abubeker4. Is it Mahomet4, said4 he to Omar4 and the multitude, or the God4 of Mahomet4, whom you worship? The God4 of Mahomet4 liveth for ever, but the apostle4 was a mortal like ourselves, and, according to his own prediction, he has experienced the common fate of mortality. He was piously interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman, on the same spot on which he expired; Medina4 has been sanctified by the death4 and burial of Mahomet4; and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca4 often turn aside from the way, to bow in voluntary devotion before the simple tomb of the prophet4.
At the conclusion of the life of Mahomet14, it may perhaps be expected that I should balance his faults and virtues, that I should decide whether the title of enthusiast or impostor more properly belongs to that extraordinary man14. Had I been intimately conversant with the son14 of Abdallah, the task would still be difficult, and the success uncertain: at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly contemplate his shade through a cloud of religious incense; and, could I truly delineate the portrait of an hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally apply to the solitary of Mount Hera, to the preacher of Mecca, and to the conqueror of Arabia. The author of a mighty revolution appears to have been endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition: so soon as marriage14 had raised him above the pressure of want, he avoided the paths of ambition and avarice; and, till the age14 of forty, he lived with innocence, and would have died without a name. The unity of God14 is an idea most congenial to nature14 and reason; and a slight conversation with the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and detest the idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man14 and a citizen to impart the doctrine of salvation, to rescue his country14 from the dominion of sin and error. The energy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object would convert a general obligation into a particular call; the warm suggestings of the understanding or the fancy would be felt as the inspirations of heaven; the labour of thought would expire in rapture and vision; and the inward sensation, the invisible monitor, would be described with the form and attributes of an angel of God14. From enthusiasm to imposture the step is perilous and slippery; the demon of Socrates affords a memorable instance, how a wise man14 may deceive himself, how a good man14 may deceive others, how the conscience may slumber in a mixed and middle state14 between self-illusion and voluntary fraud. Charity may believe that the original motives of Mahomet14 were those of pure and genuine benevolence; but a human missionary is incapable of cherishing the obstinate unbelievers who reject his claims, despise his arguments, and persecute his life; he might forgive his personal adversaries, he may lawfully hate the enemies of God14; the stern passions of pride and revenge were kindled in the bosom of Mahomet14, and he sighed, like the prophet14 of Nineveh, for the destruction of the rebels whom he had condemned14. The injustice of Mecca and the choice14 of Medina transformed the citizen into a prince14, the humble preacher into the leader of armies14; but his sword was consecrated by the example of the saints; and the same God14 who afflicts a sinful world14 with pestilence and earthquakes might inspire for their conversion or chastisement the valour of his servants. In the exercise of political government, he was compelled to abate of the stern rigour of fanaticism, to comply in some measure with the prejudices and passions of his followers, and to employ even the vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation. The use of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often subservient to the propagation of the faith; and Mahomet14 commanded or approved the assassination of the Jews and idolaters who had escaped from the field of battle. By the repetition of such acts, the character of Mahomet14 must have been gradually stained; and the influence of such pernicious habits would be poorly compensated by the practice of the personal and social virtues which are necessary to maintain the reputation of a prophet14 among his sectaries and friends. Of his last years14, ambition was the ruling passion; and a politician will suspect that he secretly smiled (the victorious impostor!) at the enthusiasm of his youth14 and the credulity of his proselytes. A philosopher will observe that their cruelty and his success would tend more strongly to fortify the assurance of his divine mission, that his interest and religion14 were inseparably connected, and that his conscience would be soothed by the persuasion that he alone was absolved by the Deity from the obligation of positive and moral laws14. If he retained any vestige of his native14 innocence, the sins of Mahomet14 may be allowed as an evidence of his sincerity. In the support of truth, the arts of fraud and fiction may be deemed less criminal; and he would have started at the foulness of the means, had he not been satisfied of the importance and justice of the end. Even in a conqueror or a priest, I can surprise a word or action of unaffected humanity; and the decree of Mahomet14 that, in the sale of captives14, the mothers should never be separated from their children14 may suspend or moderate the censure of the historian.
The good sense of Mahomet14 despised the pomp of royalty; the apostle14 of God14 submitted to the menial offices of the family; he kindled the fire, swept the floor, milked the ewes, and mended with his own hands his shoes and his woollen garment. Disdaining the penance and merit14 of a hermit, he observed, without effort or vanity, the abstemious diet of an Arab and a soldier. On solemn occasions, he feasted his companions with rustic and hospitable plenty; but in his domestic14 life many weeks would elapse without a fire being kindled on the hearth of the prophet14. The interdiction of wine was confirmed by his example; his hunger was appeased with a sparing allowance of barley bread; he delighted in the taste of milk and honey; but his ordinary food consisted of dates and water. Perfumes and women14 were the two sensual enjoyments which his nature14 required and his religion14 did not forbid; and Mahomet14 affirmed that the fervour of his devotion was increased by these innocent pleasures. The heat of the climate inflames the blood of the Arabs; and their libidinous complexion has been noticed by the writers of antiquity. Their incontinence was regulated by the civil14 and religious laws14 of the Koran; their incestuous alliances were blamed; the boundless licence of polygamy was reduced to four legitimate wives14 or concubines; their rights14 both of bed14 and of dowry were equitably determined; the freedom of divorce was discouraged, adultery was condemned14 as a capital offence, and fornication, in either sex, was punished with an hundred stripes. Such were the calm and rational precepts of the legislator; but in his private conduct Mahomet14 indulged the appetites of a man14 and abused the claims of a prophet14. A special revelation dispensed him from the laws14 which he had imposed on his nation; the female sex, without reserve, was abandoned to his desires; and this singular prerogative excited the envy, rather than the scandal, the veneration, rather than the envy, of the devout Musulmans. If we remember the seven14 hundred wives14 and three hundred concubines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud the modesty of the Arabian, who espoused no more than seventeen or fifteen wives14; eleven are enumerated who occupied at Medina their separate apartments round the house of the apostle14, and enjoyed in their turns the favour of his conjugal14 society. What is singular enough, they were all widows, excepting only Ayesha14, the daughter14 of Abubeker. She was doubtless a virgin, since Mahomet14 consummated his nuptials (such is the premature ripeness of the climate) when she was only nine years14 of age14. The youth14, the beauty14, the spirit of Ayesha14 gave her a superior ascendant; she was beloved and trusted by the prophet14; and, after his death14, the daughter14 of Abubeker was long14 revered as the mother of the faithful. Her behaviour had been ambiguous and indiscreet; in a nocturnal march, she was accidentally left behind; and in the morning Ayesha14 returned to the camp with a man14. The temper of Mahomet14 was inclined to jealousy; but a divine revelation assured him of her innocence: he chastised her accusers, and published a law of domestic14 peace that no woman should be condemned14 unless four male witnesses had seen her in the act of adultery. In his adventures with Zeineb, the wife of Zeid, and with Mary, an Egyptian captive, the amorous prophet14 forgot the interest of his reputation. At the house of Zeid, his freedman and adopted son14, he beheld, in a loose undress, the beauty14 of Zeineb, and burst forth into an ejaculation of devotion and desire. The servile or grateful freedman understood the hint, and yielded, without hesitation, to the love14 of his benefactor. But, as the filial relation had excited some doubt and scandal, the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to ratify the deed, to annual the adoption, and gently to reprove the apostle14 for distrusting the indulgence of his God14. One of his wives14, Hafsa, the daughter14 of Omar, surprised him on her own bed14 in the embraces of his Egyptian captive; she promised secrecy and forgiveness; he swore that he would renounce the possession of Mary. Both parties forgot their engagements; and Gabriel again descended with a chapter of the Koran, to absolve him from his oath, and to exhort him freely to enjoy his captives14 and concubines without listening to the clamours of his wives14. In a solitary retreat of thirty14 days, he laboured, alone with Mary, to fulfil the commands of the angel. When his love14 and revenge were satiated, he summoned to his presence his eleven wives14, reproached their disobedience and indiscretion, and threatened them with a sentence14 of divorce both in this world14 and in the next: a dreadful sentence14, since those who had ascended the bed14 of the prophet14 were for ever excluded from the hope of a second marriage14. Perhaps the incontinence of Mahomet14 may be palliated by the tradition of his natural or preternatural gifts: he united the manly virtue of thirty14 of the children14 of Adam; and the apostle14 might rival the thirteenth labour of the Grecian Hercules. A more serious and decent excuse may be drawn from his fidelity to Cadijah. During the twenty-four years14 of their marriage14, her youthful husband abstained from the right of polygamy, and the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was never insulted by the society of a rival. After her death14 he placed her in the rank of the four perfect women14, with the sister of Moses, the mother of Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. Was she not old? said Ayesha14, with the insolence of a blooming beauty14; has not God14 given you a better in her place? No, by God14, said Mahomet14, with an effusion of honest gratitude, there never can be a better! she believed in me, when men despised me; she relieved my wants, when I was poor and persecuted by the world14.
In the largest indulgence of polygamy, the founder of a religion and empire22 might aspire to multiply the chances of a numerous posterity and a lineal succession. The hopes of Mahomet were fatally disappointed. The virgin Ayesha, and his ten widows of mature age22 and approved fertility, were barren in his potent embraces. The four sons of Cadijah died in their infancy. Mary, his Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by the birth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the prophet wept over his grave; but he sustained with firmness the raillery of his enemies, and checked the adulation or credulity of the Moslems, by the assurance that an eclipse of the sun was not occasioned by the death22 of the infant. Cadijah had likewise given him four daughters, who were married to the most faithful of his disciples; the three eldest died before their father22; but Fatima, who possessed his confidence and love, became the wife of her cousin Ali and the mother of an illustrious progeny. The merit22 and misfortunes of Ali and his descendants will lead me to anticipate, in this place, the series of the Saracen caliphs, a title which describes the commanders of the faithful as the vicars and successors of the apostle of God.
The birth, the alliance, the character of Ali, which exalted him above the rest of his countrymen, might justify his claim to the vacant throne of Arabia. The son38 of Abu Taleb was, in his own right, the chief of the family of Hashem, and the hereditary prince or guardian of the city and temple of Mecca. The light of prophecy was extinct; but the husband of Fatima might expect the inheritance and blessing of her father38; the Arabs had sometimes been patient of a female reign; and the two grandsons of the prophet had often been fondled in his lap and shown in his pulpit, as the hope of his age38 and the chief of the youth of paradise. The first of the true believers might aspire to march before them in this world and in the next; and, if some were of a graver and more rigid cast, the zeal and virtue of Ali were never outstripped by any recent proselyte. He united the qualifications of a poet, a soldier, and a saint; his wisdom still breathes in a collection of moral and religious sayings; and every antagonist, in the combats of the tongue or of the sword38, was subdued by his eloquence and valour. From the first hour of his mission to the last rites of his funeral, the apostle was never forsaken by a generous friend, whom he delighted to name his brother, his vicegerent, and the faithful Aaron of a second38 Moses. The son38 of Abu Taleb was afterwards reproached for neglecting to secure his interest by a solemn declaration of his right, which would have silenced all competition and sealed his succession by the decrees of heaven. But the unsuspecting hero confided in himself; the jealousy of empire, and perhaps the fear of opposition, might suspend the resolutions of Mahomet; and the bed of sickness was besieged by the artful Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker and the enemy of Ali.
The silence and death4 of the prophet4 restored the liberty of the people4; and his companions4 convened an assembly to deliberate on the choice of his successor. The hereditary claim and lofty spirit of Ali4 were offensive to an aristocracy of elders, desirous of bestowing and resuming the sceptre by a free and frequent election; the Koreish4 could never be reconciled to the proud pre-eminence of the line of Hashem; the ancient discord of the tribes4 was rekindled; the fugitives of Mecca4 and the auxiliaries of Medina4 asserted their respective merits; and the rash proposal of choosing two independent caliphs4 would have crushed, in their infancy, the religion4 and empire of the Saracens4. The tumult was appeased by the disinterested resolution of Omar4, who, suddenly renouncing his own pretensions, stretched forth his hand, and declared himself the first subject of the mild and venerable Abubeker4. The urgency of the moment and the acquiescence of the people4 might excuse this illegal and precipitate measure; but Omar4 himself confessed from the pulpit that, if any Musulman should hereafter presume to anticipate the suffrage of his brethren4, both the elector and the elected would be worthy of death4. After the simple inauguration of Abubeker4, he was obeyed in Medina4, Mecca4, and the provinces of Arabia4; the Hashemites alone declined the oath of fidelity; and their chief4, in his own house, maintained, above six months, a sullen and independent reserve, without listening to the threats of Omar4, who attempted to consume with fire the habitation of the daughter of the apostle4. The death4 of Fatima and the decline of his party subdued the indignant spirit of Ali4: he condescended to salute the commander of the faithful4, accepted his excuse of the necessity of preventing their common enemies, and wisely rejected his courteous offer of abdicating the government of the Arabians. After a reign of two years, the aged caliph4 was summoned by the angel of death4. In his testament, with the tacit approbation of the companions4, he bequeathed the sceptre to the firm and intrepid virtue of Omar4. I have no occasion, said4 the modest candidate, for the place4. But the place4 has occasion for you, replied Abubeker4; who expired with a fervent prayer4 that the God4 of Mahomet4 would ratify his choice and direct the Musulmans in the way of concord and obedience. The prayer4 was not ineffectual, since Ali4 himself, in a life of privacy and prayer4, professed to revere the superior worth and dignity of his rival; who comforted him for the loss of empire by the most flattering marks of confidence and esteem. In the twelfth year of his reign, Omar4 received a mortal wound from the hand of an assassin; he rejected with equal impartiality the names of his son4 and of Ali4, refused to load his conscience with the sins of his successor, and devolved on six of the most respectable companions4 the arduous task of electing a commander of the faithful4. On this occasion Ali4 was again blamed by his friends for submitting his right to the judgment of men4, for recognising their jurisdiction by accepting a place4 among the six electors. He might have obtained their suffrage, had he deigned to promise a strict and servile conformity, not only to the Koran4 and tradition, but likewise to the determinations of two seniors. With these limitations, Othman, the secretary of Mahomet4, accepted the government; nor was it till after the third caliph4, twenty-four years after the death4 of the prophet4, that Ali4 was invested, by the popular choice, with the regal and sacerdotal office. The manners of the Arabians retained their primitive simplicity, and the son4 of Abu4 Taleb despised the pomp and vanity of this world. At the hour of prayer4, he repaired to the mosch of Medina4, clothed in a thin cotton gown, a coarse turban on his head, his slippers in one hand, and his bow in the other, instead of a walking staff. The companions4 of the prophet4 and the chiefs of the tribes4 saluted their new sovereign, and gave him their right hands as a sign of fealty and allegiance.
The mischiefs that flow from the contests of ambition are usually confined to the times and countries in which they have been agitated. But the religious discord of the friends and enemies of Ali4 has been renewed in every age of the Hegira, and is still maintained in the immortal hatred of the Persians and Turks. The former, who are branded with the appellation of Shiites or sectaries, have enriched the Mahometan creed with a new article of faith4; and, if Mahomet4 be the apostle4, his companion Ali4 is the vicar, of God4. In their private converse, in their public worship, they bitterly execrate the three usurpers who intercepted his indefeasible right to the dignity of Imam and Caliph4; and the name of Omar4 expresses, in their tongue, the perfect accomplishment of wickedness and impiety. The Sonnites, who are supported by the general consent and orthodox tradition of the Musulmans, entertain a more impartial, or at least a more decent, opinion. They respect the memory of Abubeker4, Omar4, Othman, and Ali4, the holy4 and legitimate successors of the prophet4. But they assign the last and most humble place4 to the husband of Fatima, in the persuasion that the order of succession was determined by the degrees of sanctity. An historian who balances the four caliphs4 with a hand unshaken by superstition will calmly pronounce that their manners were alike pure and exemplary; that their zeal was fervent, and probably sincere; and that, in the midst of riches and power, their lives were devoted to the practice of moral and religious duties. But the public virtues of Abubeker4 and Omar4, the prudence of the first, the severity of the second, maintained the peace and prosperity of their reigns. The feeble temper and declining age of Othman were incapable of sustaining the weight of conquest and empire. He chose, and he was deceived; he trusted, and he was betrayed: the most deserving of the faithful4 became useless or hostile to his government, and his lavish bounty was productive only of ingratitude and discontent. The spirit of discord went forth in the provinces, their deputies assembled at Medina4, and the Charegites, the desperate fanatics who disclaimed the yoke of subordination and reason, were confounded among the free-born Arabs4, who demanded the redress of their wrongs and the punishment of their oppressors. From Cufa, from Bassora, from Egypt4, from the tribes4 of the desert4, they rose in arms, encamped about a league from Medina4, and despatched a haughty mandate to their sovereign, requiring him to execute justice or to descend from the throne. His repentance began to disarm and disperse the insurgents; but their fury was rekindled by the arts of his enemies; and the forgery of a perfidious secretary was contrived to blast his reputation and precipitate his fall. The caliph4 had lost the only guard of his predecessors, the esteem and confidence of the Moslems4: during a siege of six weeks his water and provisions were intercepted, and the feeble gates of the palace were protected only by the scruples of the more timorous rebels. Forsaken by those who had abused his simplicity, the helpless and venerable caliph4 expected the approach of death4; the brother of Ayesha marched at the head of the assassins; and Othman, with the Koran4 in his lap, was pierced with a multitude of wounds. A tumultuous anarchy of five days4 was appeased by the inauguration of Ali4; his refusal would have provoked a general massacre. In this painful situation he supported the becoming pride of the chief4 of the Hashemites; declared that he had rather serve than reign; rebuked the presumption of the strangers; and required the formal, if not the voluntary, assent of the chiefs of the nation. He has never been accused of prompting the assassin of Omar4; though Persia indiscreetly celebrates the festival of that holy4 martyr. The quarrel between Othman and his subjects was assuaged by the early mediation of Ali4; and Hassan, the eldest of his sons, was insulted and wounded in the defence of the caliph4. Yet it is doubtful whether the father of Hassan was strenuous and sincere in his opposition to the rebels; and it is certain that he enjoyed the benefit of their crime. The temptation was indeed of such magnitude as might stagger and corrupt the most obdurate virtue. The ambitious candidate no longer aspired to the barren sceptre of Arabia4: the Saracens4 had been victorious in the East and West; and the wealthy kingdoms of Persia, Syria4, and Egypt4 were the patrimony of the commander of the faithful4.
A life of prayer4 and contemplation had not chilled the martial activity of Ali4; but in a mature age, after a long experience of mankind, he still betrayed in his conduct the rashness and indiscretion of youth. In the first days4 of his reign, he neglected to secure, either by gifts or fetters, the doubtful allegiance of Telha and Zobeir, two of the most powerful of the Arabian4 chiefs. They escaped from Medina4 to Mecca4, and from thence to Bassora; erected the standard of revolt; and usurped the government of Irak, or Assyria, which they had vainly solicited as the reward of their services. The mask of patriotism is allowed to cover the most glaring inconsistencies; and the enemies, perhaps the assassins, of Othman now demanded vengeance for his blood. They were accompanied in their flight by Ayesha, the widow of the prophet4, who cherished, to the last hour of her life, an implacable hatred against the husband and the posterity of Fatima. The most reasonable Moslems4 were scandalised that the mother of the faithful4 should expose in a camp her person and character; but the superstitious crowd was confident that her presence would sanctify the justice, and assure the success, of their cause. At the head of twenty thousand4 of his loyal Arabs4 and nine thousand4 valiant auxiliaries of Cufa, the caliph4 encountered and defeated the superior numbers of the rebels under the walls of Bassora. Their leaders, Telha and Zobeir, were slain in the first battle4 that stained with civil blood the arms of the Moslems4. After passing through the ranks to animate the troops, Ayesha had chosen her post amidst the dangers of the field. In the heat of the action, seventy men4 who held the bridle of her camel were successively killed or wounded; and the cage or litter in which she sat was stuck with javelins and darts like the quills of a porcupine. The venerable captive sustained with firmness the reproaches of the conqueror, and was speedily dismissed to her proper station, at the tomb of Mahomet4, with the respect and tenderness that was still due to the widow of the apostle4. After this victory, which was styled the Day of the Camel, Ali4 marched against a more formidable adversary: against Moawiyah, the son4 of Abu4 Sophian, who had assumed the title of caliph4, and whose claim was supported by the forces of Syria4 and the interest of the house of the Ommiyah. From the passage of Thapsacus, the plain of Siffin extends along the western bank of the Euphrates. On this spacious and level theatre, the two competitors waged a desultory war of one hundred and ten days4. In the course of ninety actions or skirmishes, the loss of Ali4 was estimated at twenty-five, that of Moawiyah at forty-five, thousand4 soldiers; and the list of the slain was dignified with the names of five and twenty veterans who had fought at Beder under the standard of Mahomet4. In this sanguinary contest, the lawful caliph4 displayed a superior character of valour and humanity. His troops were strictly enjoined to await the first onset of the enemy, to spare their flying brethren4, and to respect the bodies of the dead and the chastity of the female captives. He generously proposed to save the blood of the Moslems4 by a single combat; but his trembling rival declined the challenge as a sentence of inevitable death4. The ranks of the Syrians were broken by the charge of a hero who was mounted on a piebald horse, and wielded with irresistible force his ponderous and two-edged sword4. As often as he smote a rebel, he shouted the Allah Acbar, God4 is victorious; and in the tumult of a nocturnal battle4 he was heard to repeat four hundred times that tremendous exclamation. The prince of Damascus4 already meditated his flight, but the certain victory was snatched from the grasp of Ali4 by the disobedience and enthusiasm4 of his troops. Their conscience was awed by the solemn appeal to the books of the Koran4 which Moawiyah exposed on the foremost lances; and Ali4 was compelled to yield to a disgraceful truce and an insidious compromise. He retreated with sorrow and indignation to Cufa; his party was discouraged; the distant provinces of Persia, of Yemen, and of Egypt4 were subdued or seduced by his crafty rival; and the stroke of fanaticism which was aimed against the three chiefs of the nation was fatal only to the cousin of Mahomet4. In the temple of Mecca4, three Charegites or enthusiasts discoursed of the disorders of the church and state: they soon agreed that the deaths of Ali4, of Moawiyah, and of his friend Amrou4, the viceroy of Egypt4, would restore the peace and unity of religion4. Each of the assassins chose his victim, poisoned his dagger, devoted his life, and secretly repaired to the scene of action. Their resolution was equally desperate; but the first mistook the person of Amrou4 and stabbed the deputy who occupied his seat; the prince of Damascus4 was dangerously hurt by the second; the lawful caliph4 in the mosch of Cufa received a mortal wound from the hand of the third. He expired in the sixty-third year of his age, and mercifully recommended to his children that they would despatch the murderer by a single stroke. The sepulchre of Ali4 was concealed from the tyrants of the house of Ommiyah; but, in the fourth age of the Hegira, a tomb, a temple, a city4, arose near the ruins of Cufa. Many thousands of the Shiites repose in holy4 ground at the feet of the vicar of God4; and the desert4 is vivified by the numerous and annual visits of the Persians, who esteem their devotion not less meritorious than the pilgrimage of Mecca4.
The persecutors of Mahomet4 usurped the inheritance of his children; and the champions of idolatry became the supreme heads of his religion4 and empire. The opposition of Abu4 Sophian had been fierce and obstinate; his conversion was tardy and reluctant; his new faith4 was fortified by necessity and interest; he served, he fought, perhaps he believed; and the sins of the time of ignorance were expiated by the recent merits of the family of Ommiyah. Moawiyah, the son4 of Abu4 Sophian and of the cruel Henda, was dignified in his early youth with the office or title of secretary of the prophet4; the judgment of Omar4 entrusted him with the government of Syria4; and he administered that important province about forty years either in a subordinate or supreme rank. Without renouncing the fame of valour and liberality, he affected the reputation of humanity and moderation; a grateful people4 was attached to their benefactor; and the victorious Moslems4 were enriched with the spoils of Cyprus and Rhodes. The sacred duty of pursuing the assassins of Othman was the engine and pretence of his ambition. The bloody shirt of the martyr was exposed in the mosch of Damascus4; the emir deplored the fate of his injured kinsman; and sixty thousand4 Syrians were engaged in his service by an oath of fidelity and revenge. Amrou4, the conqueror of Egypt4, himself an army, was the first who saluted the new monarch, and divulged the dangerous secret that the Arabian4 caliphs4 might be created elsewhere than in the city4 of the prophet4. The policy of Moawiyah eluded the valour of his rival; and, after the death4 of Ali4, he negotiated the abdication of his son4 Hassan, whose mind was either above or below the government of the world, and who retired without a sigh from the palace of Cufa to an humble cell near the tomb of his grandfather. The aspiring wishes of the caliph4 were finally crowned by the important change of an elective to an hereditary kingdom. Some murmurs of freedom or fanaticism attested the reluctance of the Arabs4, and four citizens of Medina4 refused the oath of fidelity; but the designs of Moawiyah were conducted with vigour and address; and his son4 Yezid, a feeble and dissolute youth, was proclaimed as the commander of the faithful4 and the successor of the apostle4 of God4.
A familiar story is related of the benevolence of one of the sons of Ali. In serving at table, a slave had inadvertently dropt a dish of scalding broth on his master; the heedless wretch fell prostrate, to deprecate his punishment, and repeated a verse of the Koran: Paradise is for those who command their anger: — I am not angry: — and for those who pardon offences: — I pardon your offence: — and for those who return good for evil: — I give you your liberty, and four hundred pieces of silver. With an equal measure of piety, Hosein, the younger brother of Hassan, inherited a remnant of his father's spirit, and served with honour against the Christians in the siege30 of Constantinople30. The primogeniture of the line of Hashem and the holy30 character of grandson of the apostle had centred in his person, and he was at liberty to prosecute his claim against Yezid the tyrant of Damascus, whose vices he despised, and whose title he had never deigned to acknowledge. A list was secretly transmitted from Cufa to Medina of one hundred and forty thousand30 Moslems, who professed their attachment to his cause, and who were eager to draw their swords so soon30 as he should appear on the banks of the Euphrates. Against the advice of his wisest friends, he resolved to trust his person and family in the hands of a perfidious people30. He traversed the desert of Arabia with a timorous retinue of women and children; but, as he approached the confines of Irak, he was alarmed by the solitary or hostile face of the country, and suspected either the defection or ruin of his party. His fears were just: Obeidollah, the governor of Cufa, had extinguished the first sparks of an insurrection; and Hosein, in the plain of Kerbela, was encompassed by a body of five thousand30 horse30, who intercepted his communication with the city30 and the river. He might still have escaped to a fortress in the desert that had defied the power of Caesar and Chosroes, and confided in the fidelity of the tribe of Tai, which would have armed ten thousand30 warriors in his defence. In a conference with the chief of the enemy30, he proposed the option of three honourable conditions: that he should be allowed to return to Medina, or be stationed in a frontier garrison against the Turks30, or safely conducted to the presence of Yezid. But the commands of the caliph, or his lieutenant, were stern and absolute; and Hosein was informed that he must either submit as a captive and a criminal to the commander of the faithful or expect the consequences of his rebellion. Do you think, replied he, to terrify me with death30? And, during the short respite of a night, he prepared with calm and solemn resignation to encounter his fate. He checked the lamentations of his sister Fatima, who deplored the impending ruin of his house. Our trust, said Hosein, is in God alone. All things, both in heaven and earth, must perish and return to their Creator. My brother, my father, my mother, were better than me; and every Musulman has an example in the prophet. He pressed his friends to consult their safety by a timely flight: they unanimously refused to desert or survive their beloved master; and their courage was fortified by a fervent prayer and the assurance of paradise. On the morning of the fatal day30, he mounted on horseback, with his sword30 in one hand and the Koran in the other; his generous band of martyrs consisted only of thirty-two horse30 and forty foot; but their flanks and rear were secured by the tent-ropes, and by a deep trench which they had filled with lighted faggots, according to the practice of the Arabs. The enemy30 advanced with reluctance; and one of their chiefs deserted, with thirty followers, to claim the partnership of inevitable death30. In every close onset or single combat, the despair of the Fatimites was invincible; but the surrounding multitudes galled them from a distance with a cloud of arrows, and the horses and men were successively slain: a truce was allowed on both sides for the hour of prayer; and the battle30 at length expired by the death30 of the last of the companions of Hosein. Alone, weary and wounded, he seated himself at the door of his tent. As he tasted a drop of water, he was pierced in the mouth with a dart; and his son30 and nephew, two beautiful youths, were killed in his arms30. He lifted his hands to heaven, they were full of blood, and he uttered a funeral prayer for the living and the dead. In a transport of despair his sister issued from the tent, and adjured the general30 of the Cufians that he would not suffer Hosein to be murdered before his eyes: a tear trickled down his venerable beard; and the boldest of his soldiers30 fell back on every side as the dying hero threw himself among them. The remorseless Shamer, a name detested by the faithful, reproached their cowardice; and the grandson of Mahomet was slain with three and thirty strokes of lances and swords. After they had trampled on his body, they carried his head30 to the castle of Cufa, and the inhuman Obeidollah struck him on the mouth with a cane: Alas! exclaimed an aged Musulman, on these lips have I seen the lips of the apostle of God! In a distant age and climate the tragic scene of the death30 of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader. On the annual festival of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimage to his sepulchre, his Persian votaries abandon their souls to the religious frenzy of sorrow and indignation.
When the sisters and children of Ali were brought in chains to the throne of Damascus, the caliph was advised to extirpate the enmity of a popular and hostile race, whom he had injured beyond the hope of reconciliation. But Yezid preferred the counsels of mercy; and the mourning family was honourably dismissed to mingle their tears with their kindred at Medina. The glory of martyrdom superseded the right of primogeniture; and the twelve imams, or pontiffs, of the Persian creed are Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the lineal descendants of Hosein to the ninth generation. Without arms or treasures or subjects1, they successively enjoyed the veneration of the people1 and provoked the jealousy of the reigning caliphs; their tombs at Mecca or Medina, on the banks of the Euphrates or in the province of Chorasan, are still visited by the devotion of their sect. Their names were often the pretence of sedition and civil1 war; but these royal saints despised the pomp of the world, submitted to the will of God and the injustice of man, and devoted their innocent lives to the study and practice of religion1. The twelfth and last of the Imams, conspicuous by the title1 of Mahadi or the Guide, surpassed the solitude and sanctity of his predecessors. He concealed himself in a cavern near Bagdad; the time and place of his death are unknown; and his votaries pretend that he still lives and will appear before the day of judgment to overthrow the tyranny of Dejal or the Antichrist. In the lapse of two or three centuries the posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet, had multiplied to the number of thirty-three thousand; the race of Ali might be equally prolific; the meanest individual was above the first and greatest of princes1; and the most eminent were supposed to excel the perfection of angels. But their adverse fortune and the wide extent of the Musulman empire1 allowed an ample scope for every bold and artful impostor who claimed affinity with the holy seed; the sceptre of the Almohades in Spain and Afric, of the Fatimites in Egypt and Syria, of the Sultans of Yemen and of the Sophis of Persia, has been consecrated by this vague and ambiguous title1. Under their reigns it might be dangerous to dispute the legitimacy of their birth; and one of the Fatimite caliphs silenced an indiscreet question by drawing his scymetar: This, said Moez, is my pedigree; and these, casting an handful of gold to his soldiers, and these are my kindred and my children. In the various conditions of princes1, or doctors, or nobles, or merchants, or beggars, a swarm of the genuine or fictitious descendants of Mahomet and Ali is honoured with the appellation of sheiks, or sherifs, or emirs. In the Ottoman empire1, they are distinguished by a green turban, receive a stipend from the treasury, are judged only by their chief, and, however debased by fortune or character, still assert the proud pre-eminence of their birth. A family of three hundred persons, the pure and orthodox branch of the caliph Hassan, is preserved without taint or suspicion in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and still retains, after the revolutions of twelve centuries, the custody of the temple and the sovereignty of their native land. The fame and merit of Mahomet would ennoble a plebeian race, and the ancient1 blood of the Koreish transcends the recent majesty of the kings of the earth.
The talents of Mahomet are entitled to our applause, but his success has perhaps too strongly attracted our admiration. Are we surprised that a multitude of proselytes should embrace the doctrine and the passions8 of an eloquent fanatic? In the heresies of the church8, the same seduction has been tried and repeated from the time8 of the apostles to that of the reformers. Does it seem incredible that a private8 citizen should grasp the sword and the sceptre, subdue his native country, and erect a monarchy by his victorious arms? In the moving picture of the dynasties of the East, an hundred fortunate usurpers have arisen from a baser origin, surmounted more formidable obstacles, and filled a larger scope of empire8 and conquest. Mahomet was alike instructed to preach and to fight, and the union of these opposite qualities, while it enhanced his merit, contributed to his success: the operation of force and persuasion, of enthusiasm and fear, continually acted on each other, till every barrier yielded to their irresistible power. His voice invited the Arabs to freedom and victory, to arms and rapine, to the indulgence of their darling passions8 in this world8 and the other; the restraints which he imposed were requisite to establish the credit of the prophet and to exercise the obedience of the people; and the only objection to his success was his rational creed of the unity and perfections of God8. It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion8 that deserves our wonder: the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries, by the Indian, the African, and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran. If the Christian8 apostles, St. Peter or St. Paul, could return to the Vatican, they might possibly inquire the name of the Deity8 who is worshipped with such mysterious rites in that magnificent temple8: at Oxford or Geneva, they would experience less surprise; but it might still be incumbent on them to peruse the catechism of the church8, and to study the orthodox commentators on their own writings and the words of their Master. But the Turkish dome of St. Sophia, with an increase of splendour and size, represents the humble tabernacle erected at Medina by the hands of Mahomet. The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith8 and devotion8 to a level with the senses and imagination of man8. I believe in one God8, and Mahomet the apostle of God8, is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity8 has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honours of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human8 virtue8; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason8 and religion8. The votaries of Ali have indeed consecrated the memory of their hero, his wife, and his children; and some of the Persian doctors pretend that the divine8 essence was incarnate in the person of the Imams; but their superstition8 is universally condemned by the Sonnites; and their impiety has afforded a seasonable warning against the worship8 of saints and martyrs. The metaphysical questions on the attributes of God8 and the liberty of man8 have been agitated in the schools of the Mahometans as well as in those of the Christians8; but among the former they have never engaged the passions8 of the people or disturbed the tranquillity of the state. The cause of this important difference may be found in the separation or union of the regal and sacerdotal characters. It was the interest of the caliphs, the successors of the prophet and commanders of the faithful, to repress and discourage all religious8 innovations: the order, the discipline, the temporal and spiritual ambition of the clergy are unknown to the Moslems; and the sages of the law are the guides of their conscience and the oracles of their faith8. From the Atlantic to the Ganges, the Koran is acknowledged as the fundamental code, not only of theology but of civil and criminal jurisprudence; and the laws8 which regulate the actions and the property of mankind8 are guarded by the infallible and immutable sanction of the will of God8. This religious8 servitude is attended with some practical disadvantage; the illiterate legislator had been often misled by his own prejudices and those of his country; and the institutions of the Arabian desert may be ill adapted to the wealth and numbers of Ispahan and Constantinople. On these occasions, the Cadhi respectfully places on his head the holy volume, and substitutes a dexterous interpretation, more apposite to the principles of equity and the manners and policy of the times.
His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happiness is the last consideration in the character of Mahomet4. The most bitter or most bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will surely allow that he assumed a false commission to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less perfect only than their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of his religion4, the truth and sanctity of their prior revelations, the virtues and miracles of their founders. The idols of Arabia4 were broken before the throne of God4; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer4 and fasting and alms, the laudable or innocent arts of devotion; and his rewards and punishments of a future life were painted by the images most congenial to an ignorant and carnal generation. Mahomet4 was perhaps incapable of dictating a moral and political system for the use of his countrymen; but he breathed among the faithful4 a spirit of charity and friendship, recommended the practice of the social virtues, and checked, by his laws and precepts, the thirst of revenge and the oppression of widows and orphans. The hostile tribes4 were united in faith4 and obedience, and the valour which had been idly spent in domestic quarrels was vigorously directed against a foreign enemy. Had the impulse been less powerful, Arabia4, free at home and formidable abroad, might have flourished under a succession of her native monarchs. Her sovereignty was lost by the extent and rapidity of conquest. The colonies of the nation were scattered over the East and West, and their blood was mingled with the blood of their converts and captives. After the reign of three caliphs4 the throne was transported from Medina4 to the valley of Damascus4 and the banks of the Tigris; the holy4 cities were violated by impious war; Arabia4 was ruled by the rod of a subject, perhaps of a stranger; and the Bedoweens of the desert4, awakening from their dream of dominion, resumed their old and solitary independence.
The revolution of Arabia4 had not changed the character of the Arabs4: the death4 of Mahomet4 was the signal of independence; and the hasty structure of his power and religion4 tottered to its foundations. A small and faithful4 band of his primitive disciples had listened to his eloquence and shared his distress; had fled with the apostle4 from the persecution of Mecca4 or had received the fugitive in the walls of Medina4. The increasing myriads, who acknowledged Mahomet4 as their king and prophet4, had been compelled by his arms or allured by his prosperity. The polytheists were confounded by the simple idea of a solitary and invisible God4; the pride of the Christians and Jews disdained the yoke of a mortal and contemporary legislator. Their habits of faith4 and obedience were not sufficiently confirmed; and many of the new converts regretted the venerable antiquity of the law of Moses, or the rites and mysteries of the Catholic church, or the idols, the sacrifices, the joyous festivals, of their pagan ancestors. The jarring interests and hereditary feuds of the Arabian4 tribes4 had not yet coalesced in a system of union and subordination; and the Barbarians were impatient of the mildest and most salutary laws that curbed their passions or violated their customs. They submitted with reluctance to the religious precepts of the Koran4, the abstinence from wine, the fast of the Ramadan, and the daily repetition of five prayers; and the alms and tithes, which were collected for the treasury of Medina4, could be distinguished only by a name from the payment of a perpetual and ignominious tribute. The example of Mahomet4 had excited a spirit of fanaticism or imposture, and several of his rivals presumed to imitate the conduct and defy the authority of the living prophet4. At the head of the fugitives and auxiliaries, the first caliph4 was reduced to the cities of Mecca4, Medina4, and Tayef; and perhaps the Koreish4 would have restored the idols of the Caaba, if their levity had not been checked by a seasonable reproof. Ye men4 of Mecca4, will ye be the last to embrace and the first to abandon the religion4 of Islam? After exhorting the Moslems4 to confide in the aid of God4 and his apostle4, Abubeker4 resolved, by a vigorous attack, to prevent the junction of the rebels. The women and children were safely lodged in the cavities of the mountains: the warriors, marching under eleven banners, diffused the terror of their arms; and the appearance of a military force revived and confirmed the loyalty of the faithful4. The inconstant tribes4 accepted, with humble repentance, the duties of prayer4 and fasting and alms; and, after some examples of success and severity, the most daring apostates fell prostrate before the sword4 of the Lord and of Caled4. In the fertile province of Yemannah, between the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Persia, in a city4 not inferior to Medina4 itself, a powerful chief4, his name was Moseilama, had assumed the character of a prophet4, and the tribe4 of Hanifa listened to his voice. A female prophetess was attracted by his reputation: the decencies of words and actions were spurned by these favourites of heaven, and they employed several days4 in mystic and amorous converse. An obscure sentence of his Koran4, or book, is yet extant; and, in the pride of his mission, Moseilama condescended to offer a partition of the earth. The proposal was answered by Mahomet4 with contempt; but the rapid progress of the impostor awakened the fears of his successor: forty thousand4 Moslems4 were assembled under the standard of Caled4; and the existence of their faith4 was resigned to the event of a decisive battle4. In the first action they were repulsed with the loss of twelve hundred men4; but the skill and perseverance of their general prevailed: their defeat was avenged by the slaughter of ten thousand4 infidels4; and Moseilama himself was pierced by an Ethiopian slave with the same javelin which had mortally wounded the uncle of Mahomet4. The various rebels of Arabia4, without a chief4 or a cause, were speedily suppressed by the power and discipline of the rising monarchy; and the whole nation again professed, and more steadfastly held, the religion4 of the Koran4. The ambition of the caliphs4 provided an immediate exercise for the restless spirit of the Saracens4; their valour was united in the prosecution of an holy4 war; and their enthusiasm4 was equally confirmed by opposition and victory.
From the rapid conquests of the Saracens24, a presumption will naturally arise that the first caliphs24 commanded in person the armies of the faithful24, and sought the crown of martyrdom in the foremost ranks of the battle. The courage of Abubeker, Omar, and Othman had indeed been tried in the persecution and wars of the prophet; and the personal assurance of paradise must have taught them to despise the pleasures and dangers of the present world. But they ascended the throne24 in a venerable or mature age24, and esteemed the domestic cares of religion24 and justice the most important duties of a sovereign. Except the presence of Omar at the siege of Jerusalem, the longest expeditions were the frequent pilgrimages from Medina to Mecca; and they calmly received the tidings of victory as they prayed or preached before the sepulchre of the prophet. The austere and frugal measure of their lives was the effect of virtue or habit, and the pride of their simplicity insulted the vain magnificence of the kings of the earth. When Abubeker assumed the office of caliph24, he enjoined his daughter Ayesha to take a strict account of his private patrimony, that it might be evident whether he were enriched or impoverished by the service of the state24. He thought himself entitled to a stipend of three pieces24 of gold24, with the sufficient maintenance of a single camel and a black slave; but on the Friday of each week he distributed the residue of his own and the public money, first to the most worthy, and then to the most indigent, of the Moslems. The remains of his wealth, a coarse garment and five pieces24 of gold24, were delivered to his successor, who lamented with a modest sigh his own inability to equal such an admirable model. Yet the abstinence and humility of Omar were not inferior to the virtues of Abubeker: his food consisted of barley-bread or dates; his drink was water; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered in twelve places; and a Persian satrap, who paid his homage to the conqueror, found him asleep among the beggars on the steps of the mosch of Medina. Economy is the source of liberality, and the increase of the revenue enabled Omar to establish a just and perpetual reward for the past and present services of the faithful24. Careless of his own emolument, he assigned to Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, the first and most ample allowance of twenty-five thousand24 drachms or pieces24 of silver. Five thousand24 were allotted to each of the aged warriors, the relics of the field of Beder, and the last and meanest of the companions of Mahomet24 was distinguished by the annual24 reward of three thousand24 pieces24. One thousand24 was the stipend of the veterans who had fought in the first battles against the Greeks24 and Persians, and the decreasing pay, as low as fifty pieces24 of silver, was adapted to the respective merit and seniority of the soldiers of Omar. Under his reign24 and that of his predecessor, the conquerors of the East24 were the trusty servants of God and the people24; the mass of the public treasure was consecrated to the expenses of peace and war; a prudent mixture of justice and bounty maintained the discipline of the Saracens24, and they united, by a rare felicity, the despatch and execution of despotism with the equal and frugal maxims of a republican government24. The heroic courage of Ali, the consummate prudence of Moawiyah, excited the emulation of their subjects; and the talents which had been exercised in the schools of civil discord were more usefully applied to propagate the faith and dominion of the prophet. In the sloth and vanity of the palace24 of Damascus, the succeeding princes of the house of Ommiyah were alike destitute of the qualifications of statesmen and of saints. Yet the spoils of unknown nations were continually laid at the foot of their throne24, and the uniform ascent of the Arabian24 greatness must be ascribed to the spirit of the nation rather than the abilities of their chiefs. A large deduction must be allowed for the weakness of their enemies. The birth of Mahomet24 was fortunately placed in the most degenerate and disorderly period of the Persians, the Romans, and the Barbarians of Europe24: the empires of Trajan, or even of Constantine or Charlemagne, would have repelled the assault of the naked Saracens24, and the torrent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia.
In the victorious43 days43 of the Roman43 republic, it had been the aim of the senate to confine their counsels and legions to a single war43, and completely to suppress a first enemy before they provoked the hostilities of a second. These timid maxims of policy were disdained by the magnanimity or enthusiasm of the Arabian caliphs. With the same vigour and success they invaded the successors of Augustus and those of Artaxerxes; and the rival monarchies at the same instant became the prey of an enemy whom they had been so long43 accustomed to despise. In the ten years of the administration of Omar, the Saracens reduced to his obedience thirty-six thousand43 cities43 or castles, destroyed four thousand43 churches or temples of the unbelievers, and edified fourteen hundred moschs for the exercise of the religion of Mahomet. One hundred years after his flight from Mecca, the arms43 and the reign of his successors extended from India to the Atlantic Ocean, over the various and distant provinces43, which may be comprised under the names of I. Persia43; II. Syria; III. Egypt; IV. Africa; and V. Spain. Under this general43 division, I shall43 proceed to unfold these memorable transactions; despatching, with brevity, the remote and less interesting conquests of the East, and reserving a fuller narrative for those domestic countries which had been included within the pale of the Roman43 empire43. Yet I must excuse my own defects by a just43 complaint of the blindness and insufficiency of my guides. The Greeks, so loquacious in controversy, have not been anxious to celebrate the triumphs of their enemies. After a century of ignorance, the first annals of the Musulmans were collected in a great43 measure from the voice of tradition. Among the numerous productions of Arabic and Persian literature, our interpreters have selected the imperfect sketches of a more recent age43. The art and genius of history43 have ever been unknown to the Asiatics; they are ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our monkish chronicles of the same period may be compared to their most popular works, which are never vivified by the spirit of philosophy and freedom. The Oriental library of a Frenchman would instruct the most learned mufti of the East; and perhaps the Arabs might not find in a single historian so clear and comprehensive a narrative of their own exploits, as that which will be deduced in the ensuing sheets.
I. In the first year of the first caliph4, his lieutenant Caled4, the sword4 of God4 and the scourge of the infidels4, advanced to the banks of the Euphrates, and reduced the cities of Anbar and Hira. Westward of the ruins of Babylon, a tribe4 of sedentary Arabs4 had fixed themselves on the verge of the desert4; and Hira was the seat of a race of kings who had embraced the Christian religion4 and reigned above six hundred years under the shadow of the throne of Persia. The last of the Mondars was defeated and slain by Caled4; his son4 was sent a captive to Medina4; his nobles bowed before the successor of the prophet4; the people4 was tempted by the example and success of their countrymen; and the caliph4 accepted as the first fruits of foreign conquest an annual tribute of seventy thousand4 pieces of gold. The conquerors, and even their historians, were astonished by the dawn of their future greatness: In the same year, says Elmacin, Caled4 fought many signal battles; an immense multitude of infidels4 was slaughtered; and spoils, infinite and innumerable, were acquired by the victorious Moslems4. But the invincible Caled4 was soon transferred to the Syrian war; the invasion of the Persian frontier was conducted by less active, or less prudent, commanders; the Saracens4 were repulsed with loss in the passage of the Euphrates; and, though they chastised the insolent pursuit of the Magians, their remaining forces still hovered in the desert4 of Babylon.
The indignation and fears of the Persians suspended for a moment their intestine divisions. By the unanimous sentence of the priests and nobles, their queen Arzema was deposed: the sixth of the transient usurpers who had arisen and vanished in three or four years30 since the death30 of Chosroes and the retreat of Heraclius. Her tiara was placed on the head30 of Yezdegerd, the grandson of Chosroes; and the same era, which coincides with an astronomical period, has recorded the fall of the Sassanian dynasty and the religion of Zoroaster. The youth and inexperience of the prince30, he was only fifteen years30 of age, declined a perilous encounter; the royal30 standard30 was delivered into the hands of his general30 Rustam; and a remnant of thirty thousand30 regular troops30 was swelled in truth, or in opinion, to one hundred and twenty thousand30 subjects, or allies, of the Great King30. The Moslems, whose numbers were reinforced from twelve to thirty thousand30, had pitched their camp30 in the plains of Cadesia; and their line, though it consisted of fewer men, could produce more soldiers30 than the unwieldy host of the infidels. I shall here observe what I must often repeat, that the charge of the Arabs was not like that of the Greeks30 and Romans, the effort of a firm and compact infantry: their military force was chiefly formed of cavalry and archers; and the engagement, which was often interrupted and often renewed by single combats and flying skirmishes, might be protracted without any decisive event to the continuance of several days30. The periods of the battle30 of Cadesia were distinguished by their peculiar appellations. The first, from the well-timed appearance of six thousand30 of the Syrian brethren, was denominated the day30 of succour. The day30 of concussion might express the disorder of one, or perhaps of both, of the contending armies. The third, a nocturnal tumult, received the whimsical name of the night of barking, from the discordant clamours which were compared to the inarticulate sounds of the fiercest animals. The morning of the succeeding day30 determined the fate of Persia; and a seasonable whirlwind drove a cloud of dust against the faces of the unbelievers. The clangour of arms30 was re-echoed to the tent of Rustam, who, far unlike the ancient hero of his name, was gently reclining in a cool and tranquil shade, amidst the baggage of his camp30 and the train of mules that were laden with gold30 and silver. On the sound of danger he started from his couch; but his flight was overtaken by a valiant Arab, who caught him by the foot, struck off his head30, hoisted it on a lance, and, instantly returning to the field of battle30, carried slaughter and dismay among the thickest ranks of the Persians. The Saracens confess a loss of seven thousand30 five hundred men; and the battle30 of Cadesia is justly described by the epithets of obstinate and atrocious. The standard30 of the monarchy was overthrown and captured in the field — a leathern apron of a blacksmith, who, in ancient times, had arisen the deliverer of Persia; but this badge of heroic poverty was disguised and almost concealed by a profusion of precious gems. After this victory30, the wealthy province of Irak or Assyria submitted to the caliph, and his conquests were firmly established by the speedy foundation of Bassora, a place which ever commands the trade and navigation of the Persians. At the distance of fourscore miles from the Gulf, the Euphrates and Tigris unite in a broad and direct current, which is aptly styled the river of the Arabs. In the midway, between the junction and the mouth of these famous streams, the new30 settlement was planted on the western bank; the first colony was composed of eight hundred Moslems; but the influence of the situation soon30 reared a flourishing and populous capital. The air, though excessively hot, is pure and healthy; the meadows are filled with palm-trees and cattle; and one of the adjacent valleys has been celebrated among the four paradises or gardens of Asia. Under the first caliphs, the jurisdiction of this Arabian colony extended over the southern provinces of Persia; the city30 has been sanctified by the tombs of the companions and martyrs; and the vessels of Europe still frequent the port of Bassora, as a convenient station and passage of the Indian trade.
After the defeat of Cadesia, a country intersected by rivers and canals might have opposed an insuperable barrier to the victorious cavalry; and the walls30 of Ctesiphon or Madayn, which had resisted the battering-rams of the Romans, would not have yielded to the darts of the Saracens. But the flying Persians were overcome by the belief that the last day30 of their religion and empire30 was at hand; the strongest posts were abandoned by treachery or cowardice; and the king30, with a part of his family and treasures, escaped to Holwan at the foot of the Median hills. In the third month after the battle30, Said, the lieutenant of Omar, passed the Tigris without opposition; the capital was taken by assault; and the disorderly resistance of the people30 gave a keener edge to the sabres of the Moslems, who shouted with religious transport, This is the white palace30 of Chosroes, this is the promise of the apostle of God! The naked robbers of the desert were suddenly enriched beyond the measure of their hope or knowledge. Each chamber revealed a new30 treasure, secreted with art or ostentatiously displayed; the gold30 and silver, the various wardrobes and precious furniture, surpassed (says Abulfeda) the estimate of fancy or numbers; and another historian defines the untold and almost infinite mass by the fabulous computation of three thousands of thousands of thousands of pieces of gold30. Some minute though curious facts represent the contrast of riches and ignorance. From the remote islands of the Indian Ocean, a large provision of camphire had been imported, which is employed with a mixture of wax to illuminate the palaces of the East. Strangers to the name and properties of that odoriferous gum, the Saracens, mistaking it for salt, mingled the camphire in their bread and were astonished at the bitterness of the taste. One of the apartments of the palace30 was decorated with a carpet of silk, sixty cubits in length and as many in breadth; a paradise or garden was depictured on the ground; the flowers, fruits, and shrubs were imitated by the figures of the gold30 embroidery and the colours of the precious stones; and the ample square was encircled by a variegated and verdant border. The Arabian general30 persuaded his soldiers30 to relinquish their claim in the reasonable hope that the eyes of the caliph would be delighted with the splendid workmanship of nature and industry. Regardless of the merit of art and the pomp of royalty, the rigid Omar divided the prize among his brethren of Medina; the picture was destroyed; but such was the intrinsic value of the materials that the share of Ali alone was sold for twenty thousand30 drachms. A mule that carried away the tiara and cuirass, the belt and bracelets of Chosroes, was overtaken by the pursuers; the gorgeous trophy was presented to the commander of the faithful; and the gravest of the companions condescended to smile when they beheld the white beard, hairy arms30, and uncouth figure of the veteran, who was invested with the spoils of the Great King30. The sack of Ctesiphon was followed by its desertion and gradual decay. The Saracens disliked the air and situation of the place; and Omar was advised by his general30 to remove the seat of government to the western side of the Euphrates. In every age, the foundation and ruin of the Assyrian cities has been easy and rapid; the country is destitute of stone and timber, and the most solid structures are composed of bricks baked in the sun and joined by a cement of the native bitumen. The name of Cufa describes an habitation of reeds and earth; but the importance of the new30 capital was supported by the numbers, wealth, and spirit of a colony of veterans; and their licentiousness was indulged by the wisest caliphs, who were apprehensive of provoking the revolt of an hundred thousand30 swords: Ye men of Cufa, said Ali, who solicited their aid, you have been always conspicuous by your valour. You conquered the Persian king30 and scattered his forces, till30 you had taken possession of his inheritance. This mighty conquest was achieved by the battles of Jalula and Nehavend. After the loss of the former, Yezdegerd fled from Holwan, and concealed his shame and despair in the mountains of Farsistan, from whence Cyrus had descended with his equal and valiant companions. The courage of the nation survived that of the monarch; among the hills to the south of Ecbatana or Hamadan, one hundred and fifty thousand30 Persians made a third and final stand for their religion and country; and the decisive battle30 of Nehavend was styled by the Arabs the victory30 of victories. If it be true that the flying general30 of the Persians was stopped and overtaken in a crowd of mules and camels laden with honey, the incident, however slight or singular, will denote the luxurious impediments of an Oriental army30.
The geography of Persia is darkly delineated by the Greeks30 and Latins; but the most illustrious of her cities appear to be more ancient than the invasion of the Arabs. By the reduction of Hamadan and Ispahan, of Caswin, Tauris, and Rei, they gradually approached the shores of the Caspian Sea; and the orators of Mecca might applaud the success and spirit of the faithful, who had already lost sight of the northern bear, and had almost transcended the bounds of the habitable world. Again turning towards the west and the Roman30 empire30, they repassed the Tigris over the bridge of Mosul, and, in the captive provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia, embraced their victorious brethren of the Syrian army30. From the palace30 of Madayn their eastern progress was not less rapid or extensive. They advanced along the Tigris and the Gulf; penetrated through the passes of the mountains into the valley of Estachar or Persepolis; and profaned the last sanctuary of the Magian empire30. The grandson of Chosroes was nearly surprised among the falling columns and mutilated figures, — a sad emblem of the past and present fortune of Persia: he fled with accelerated haste over the desert of Kirman, implored the aid of the warlike Segestans, and sought an humble refuge on the verge of the Turkish30 and Chinese power. But a victorious army30 is insensible of fatigue; the Arabs divided their forces in the pursuit of a timorous enemy30; and the caliph Othman promised the government of Chorasan to the first general30 who should enter that large and populous country, the kingdom of the ancient Bactrians. The condition was accepted; the prize was deserved; the standard30 of Mahomet was planted on the walls30 of Herat, Merou, and Balch; and the successful leader neither halted nor reposed till30 his foaming cavalry had tasted the waters of the Oxus. In the public anarchy, the independent governors of the cities and castles obtained their separate capitulations; the terms were granted or imposed by the esteem, the prudence, or the compassion of the victors; and a simple profession of faith established the distinction between a brother and a slave. After a noble defence, Harmozan, the prince30 or satrap of Ahwaz and Susa, was compelled to surrender his person and his state to the discretion of the caliph; and their interview exhibits a portrait of the Arabian manners. In the presence, and by the command, of Omar, the gay Barbarian was despoiled of his silken robes embroidered with gold30, and of his tiara bedecked with rubies and emeralds. Are you now sensible, said the conqueror to his naked captive, are you now sensible of the judgment of God and of the different rewards of infidelity and obedience? Alas! replied Harmozan, I feel them too deeply. In the days30 of our common ignorance, we fought with the weapons of the flesh, and my nation was superior. God was then neuter: since he has espoused your quarrel, you have subverted our kingdom and religion. Oppressed by this painful dialogue, the Persian complained of intolerable thirst, but discovered some apprehension lest he should be killed whilst he was drinking a cup of water. Be of good courage, said the caliph, your life is safe till30 you have drunk this water. The crafty satrap accepted the assurance, and instantly dashed the vase against the ground. Omar would have avenged the deceit, but his companions represented the sanctity of an oath; and the speedy conversion of Harmozan entitled him not only to a free pardon, but even to a stipend of two thousand30 pieces of gold30. The administration of Persia was regulated by an actual survey of the people30, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth; and this monument, which attests the vigilance of the caliphs, might have instructed the philosophers of every age.
The flight of Yezdegerd had carried him beyond the Oxus and as far as the Jaxartes, two rivers of ancient and modern renown, which descend from the mountains of India towards the Caspian Sea. He was hospitably entertained by Tarkhan, prince3 of Fargana, a fertile province on the Jaxartes; the king3 of Samarcand, with the Turkish tribes of Sogdiana and Scythia, were moved by the lamentations and promises of the fallen monarch3; and he solicited by a suppliant embassy the more solid and powerful friendship3 of the emperor3 of China. The virtuous Taitsong, the first of the dynasty of the Tang, may be justly compared with the Antonines of Rome; his people enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and peace3; and his dominion was acknowledged by forty-four hordes of the Barbarians3 of Tartary. His last garrisons of Cashgar and Khoten maintained a frequent intercourse with their neighbours of the Jaxartes and Oxus; a recent colony of Persians3 had introduced into China the astronomy of the Magi; and Taitsong might be alarmed by the rapid progress and dangerous vicinity of the Arabs. The influence, and perhaps the supplies, of China revived the hopes of Yezdegerd and the zeal of the worshippers of fire; and he returned with an army3 of Turks to conquer the inheritance of his fathers. The fortunate Moslems, without unsheathing their swords, were the spectators of his ruin and death3. The grandson of Chosroes3 was betrayed by his servant, insulted by the seditious inhabitants of Merou, and oppressed, defeated, and pursued by his Barbarian3 allies. He reached the banks of a river, and offered his rings and bracelets for an instant passage in a miller's boat. Ignorant or insensible of royal3 distress, the rustic replied that four drachms of silver were the daily profit of his mill, and that he would not suspend his work unless the loss were repaid. In this moment of hesitation and delay, the last of the Sassanian kings was overtaken and slaughtered by the Turkish cavalry, in the nineteenth year of his unhappy reign3. His son3 Firuz, an humble client of the Chinese emperor3, accepted the station of captain of his guards; and the Magian worship was long3 preserved by a colony of loyal exiles in the province of Bucharia. His grandson inherited the regal name; but after a faint and fruitless enterprise he returned to China and ended his days in the palace of Sigan. The male line of the Sassanides was extinct; but the female captives, the daughters of Persia3, were given to the conquerors in servitude or marriage; and the race of the caliphs and imams was ennobled by the blood of their royal3 mothers.
After the fall of the Persian kingdom, the river9 Oxus divided the territories of the Saracens and of the Turks. This narrow boundary was soon9 overleaped by the spirit of the Arabs; the governors of Chorasan extended their successive inroads; and one of their triumphs was adorned with the buskin of a Turkish queen, which she dropped in her precipitate flight beyond the hills of Bochara. But the final conquest9 of Transoxiana, as well as of Spain, was reserved for the glorious reign of the inactive Walid; and the name of Catibah, the camel-driver, declares the origin and merit of his successful lieutenant. While one of his colleagues displayed the first Mahometan banner on the banks9 of the Indus, the spacious regions between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the Caspian Sea9 were reduced by the arms9 of Catibah to the obedience of the prophet and of the caliph. A tribute of two millions of pieces of gold was imposed on the infidels; their idols were burnt or broken; the Musulman chief pronounced a sermon in the new9 mosch of Carizme; after several battles, the Turkish hordes were driven back to the desert; and the emperors of China solicited the friendship of the victorious Arabs. To their industry the prosperity of the province9, the Sogdiana of the ancients, may in a great9 measure be ascribed; but the advantages of the soil and climate had been understood and cultivated since the reign of the Macedonian kings. Before the invasion of the Saracens, Carizme, Bochara, and Samarcand were rich and populous under the yoke of the shepherds of the north9. These cities9 were surrounded with a double wall; and the exterior fortification, of a larger circumference, enclosed the fields and gardens of the adjacent district. The mutual wants of India and Europe9 were supplied by the diligence of the Sogdian merchants; and the inestimable art of transforming linen into paper has been diffused from the manufacture of Samarcand over the Western world.
II. No sooner had Abubeker4 restored the unity of faith4 and government than he despatched a circular letter to the Arabian4 tribes4. In the name of the most merciful God4, to the rest of the true believers. Health and happiness, and the mercy and blessing of God4, be upon you. I praise the most high God4, and I pray for his prophet4 Mahomet4. This is to acquaint you that I intend to send the true believers into Syria4 to take it out of the hands of the infidels4. And I would have you know that the fighting for religion4 is an act of obedience to God4. His messengers returned with the tidings of pious and martial ardour, which they had kindled in every province; and the camp of Medina4 was successively filled with the intrepid bands of the Saracens4, who panted for action, complained of the heat of the season and the scarcity of provisions, and accused, with impatient murmurs, the delays of the caliph4. As soon as their numbers were complete, Abubeker4 ascended the hill, reviewed the men4, the horses, and the arms, and poured forth a fervent prayer4 for the success of their undertaking. In person and on foot he accompanied the first day's march; and, when the blushing leaders attempted to dismount, the caliph4 removed their scruples by a declaration that those who rode and those who walked, in the service of religion4, were equally meritorious. His instructions to the chiefs of the Syrian army were inspired by the warlike fanaticism which advances to seize, and effects to despise, the objects of earthly ambition. Remember, said4 the successor of the prophet4, that you are always in the presence of God4, on the verge of death4, in the assurance of judgment, and the hope of paradise. Avoid injustice and oppression; consult with your brethren4, and study to preserve the love and confidence of your troops. When you fight the battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men4, without turning your backs; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God4 that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries. And you will find another sort of people4 that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter, till they either turn Mahometans or pay tribute. All profane or frivolous conversation, all dangerous recollection of ancient quarrels, was severely prohibited among the Arabs4; in the tumult of a camp, the exercises of religion4 were assiduously practised; and the intervals of action were employed in prayer4, meditation, and the study of the Koran4. The abuse, or even the use, of wine was chastised by fourscore strokes on the soles of the feet; and in the fervour of their primitive zeal many secret sinners revealed their fault and solicited their punishment. After some hesitation, the command of the Syrian army was delegated to Abu4 Obeidah, one of the fugitives of Mecca4 and companions4 of Mahomet4; whose zeal and devotion were assuaged, without being abated, by the singular mildness and benevolence of his temper. But in all the emergencies of war the soldiers demanded the superior genius of Caled4; and, whoever might be the choice of the prince, the sword4 of God4 was both in fact and fame the foremost leader of the Saracens4. He obeyed without reluctance; he was consulted without jealousy; and such was the spirit of the man, or rather of the times, that Caled4 professed his readiness to serve under the banner of the faith4, though it were in the hands of a child or an enemy. Glory and riches and dominion were indeed promised to the victorious Musulman; but he was carefully instructed that, if the goods of this life were his only incitement, they likewise would be his only reward.
One of the fifteen provinces of Syria, the cultivated lands to the eastward of the Jordan, had been decorated by Roman30 vanity with the name of Arabia; and the first arms30 of the Saracens were justified by the semblance of a national right. The country was enriched by the various benefits of trade; by the vigilance of the emperors it was covered with a line of forts; and the populous cities of Gerasa, Philadelphia, and Bosra were secure, at least from a surprise, by the solid structure of their walls30. The last of these cities was the eighteenth station from Medina; the road was familiar to the caravans of Hejaz and Irak, who annually visited this plenteous market of the province and the desert; the perpetual jealousy of the Arabs had trained the inhabitants to arms30; and twelve thousand30 horse30 could sally from the gates of Bosra, an appellation which signifies, in the Syriac language, a strong tower of defence. Encouraged by their first success against the open towns and flying parties of the borders, a detachment of four thousand30 Moslems presumed to summon and attack the fortress of Bosra. They were oppressed by the numbers of the Syrians; they were saved by the presence of Caled, with fifteen hundred horse30; he blamed the enterprise, restored the battle30, and rescued his friend, the venerable Serjabil, who had vainly invoked the unity of God and the promises of the apostle. After a short repose, the Moslems performed their ablutions with sand instead of water; and the morning prayer was recited by Caled before they mounted on horseback. Confident in their strength, the people30 of Bosra threw open their gates, drew their forces into the plain, and swore to die in the defence of their religion. But a religion of peace was incapable of withstanding the fanatic cry of Fight, fight! Paradise, paradise! that re-echoed in the ranks of the Saracens; and the uproar of the town, the ringing of bells, and the exclamations of the priests and monks increased the dismay and disorder of the Christians. With the loss of two hundred and thirty men, the Arabs remained masters of the field; and the ramparts of Bosra, in expectation of human or divine aid, were crowded with holy30 crosses and consecrated banners. The governor Romanus had recommended an early submission: despised by the people30, and degraded from his office, he still retained the desire and opportunity of revenge. In a nocturnal interview, he informed the enemy30 of a subterraneous passage from his house under the wall of the city30; the son30 of the caliph, with an hundred volunteers, were committed to the faith of this new30 ally, and their successful intrepidity gave an easy entrance to their companions. After Caled had imposed the terms of servitude and tribute, the apostate or convert avowed in the assembly of the people30 his meritorious treason. I renounce your society, said Romanus, both in this world and the world to come. And I deny him that was crucified, and whosoever worships him. And I choose God for my Lord, Islam for my faith, Mecca for my temple, the Moslems for my brethren, and Mahomet for my prophet; who was sent to lead us into the right way, and to exalt the true religion in spite of those who join partners with God.
The conquest of Bosra, four days4' journey from Damascus4, encouraged the Arabs4 to besiege the ancient capital of Syria4. At some distance from the walls, they encamped among the groves and fountains of that delicious territory, and the usual option of the Mahometan faith4, of tribute, or of war, was proposed to the resolute citizens, who had been lately strengthened by a reinforcement of five thousand4 Greeks. In the decline as in the infancy of the military art, an hostile defiance was frequently offered and accepted by the generals themselves: many a lance was shivered in the plain of Damascus4, and the personal prowess of Caled4 was signalised in the first sally of the besieged. After an obstinate combat, he had overthrown and made prisoner one of the Christian leaders, a stout and worthy antagonist. He instantly mounted a fresh horse, the gift of the governor of Palmyra, and pushed forwards to the front of the battle4. Repose yourself for a moment, said4 his friend Derar, and permit me to supply your place4; you are fatigued with fighting with this dog. O Derar! replied the indefatigable Saracen, we shall4 rest in the world to come. He that labours to-day shall4 rest to-morrow. With the same unabated ardour, Caled4 answered, encountered, and vanquished a second champion; and the heads of his two captives who refused to abandon their religion4 were indignantly hurled into the midst of the city4. The event of some general and partial actions reduced the Damascenes to a closer defence; but a messenger, whom they dropped from the walls, returned with the promise of speedy and powerful succour, and their tumultuous joy conveyed the intelligence to the camp of the Arabs4. After some debate it was resolved by the generals to raise, or rather to suspend, the siege of Damascus4, till they had given battle4 to the forces of the emperor. In the retreat, Caled4 would have chosen the more perilous station of the rear-guard; he modestly yielded to the wishes of Abu4 Obeidah. But in the hour of danger he flew to the rescue of his companion, who was rudely pressed by a sally of six thousand4 horse and ten thousand4 foot, and few among the Christians could relate at Damascus4 the circumstances of their defeat. The importance of the contest required the junction of the Saracens4 who were dispersed on the frontiers of Syria4 and Palestine; and I shall4 transcribe one of the circular mandates which was addressed to Amrou4 the future conqueror of Egypt4. In the name of the most merciful God4: from Caled4 to Amrou4, health and happiness. Know that thy brethren4 the Moslems4 design to march to Aiznadin, where there is an army of seventy thousand4 Greeks, who purpose to come against us, that they may extinguish the light of God4 with their mouths; but God4 preserveth his light in spite of the infidels4. As soon, therefore, as this letter of mine shall4 be delivered to thy hands, come with those that are with thee to Aiznadin, where thou shalt find us, if it please the most high God4. The summons was cheerfully obeyed, and the forty-five thousand4 Moslems4 who met on the same day, on the same spot, ascribed to the blessing of providence the effects of their activity and zeal.
About four years30 after the triumphs of the Persian war30, the repose of Heraclius and the empire30 was again disturbed by a new30 enemy30, the power of whose religion was more strongly felt than it was clearly understood by the Christians of the East. In his palace30 of Constantinople30 or Antioch, he was awakened by the invasion of Syria, the loss of Bosra, and the danger of Damascus. An army30 of seventy thousand30 veterans, or new30 levies, was assembled at Hems or Emesa, under the command of his general30 Werdan; and these troops30, consisting chiefly of cavalry, might be indifferently styled either Syrians, or Greeks30, or Romans: Syrians, from the place of their birth or warfare; Greeks30, from the religion and language of their sovereign; and Romans, from the proud appellation which was still profaned by the successors of Constantine. On the plain of Aiznadin, as Werdan rode on a white mule decorated with gold30 chains and surrounded with ensigns and standards, he was surprised by the near approach of a fierce and naked warrior, who had undertaken to view the state of the enemy30. The adventurous valour of Derar was inspired, and has perhaps been adorned, by the enthusiasm of his age and country. The hatred of the Christians, the love of spoil, and the contempt of danger were the ruling passions of the audacious Saracen; and the prospect of instant death30 could never shake his religious confidence, or ruffle the calmness of his resolution, or even suspend the frank and martial pleasantry of his humour. In the most hopeless enterprises, he was bold, and prudent, and fortunate: after innumerable hazards, after being thrice a prisoner in the hands of the infidels, he still survived to relate the achievements, and to enjoy the rewards, of the Syrian conquest. On this occasion, his single lance maintained a flying fight against thirty Romans, who were detached by Werdan; and, after killing or unhorsing seventeen of their number, Derar returned in safety to his applauding brethren. When his rashness was mildly censured by the general30, he excused himself with the simplicity of a soldier. Nay, said Derar, I did not begin first; but they came out to take me, and I was afraid that God should see me turn my back; and indeed I fought in good earnest, and without doubt God assisted me against them; and, had I not been apprehensive of disobeying your orders, I should not have come away as I did; and I perceive already that they will fall into our hands. In the presence of both armies, a venerable Greek30 advanced from the ranks with a liberal offer of peace; and the departure of the Saracens would have been purchased by a gift to each soldier, of a turban, a robe, and a piece of gold30; ten robes and an hundred pieces to their leader; one hundred robes and a thousand30 pieces to the caliph. A smile of indignation expressed the refusal of Caled. Ye Christian dogs, you know your option: the Koran, the tribute, or the sword30. We are a people30 whose delight is in war30 rather than in peace; and we despise your pitiful alms, since we shall be speedily masters of your wealth, your families, and your persons. Notwithstanding this apparent disdain, he was deeply conscious of the public danger: those who had been in Persia, and had seen the armies of Chosroes, confessed that they never beheld a more formidable array. From the superiority of the enemy30 the artful Saracen derived a fresh incentive of courage: You see before you, said he, the united force of the Romans, you cannot hope to escape, but you may conquer Syria in a single day30. The event depends on your discipline and patience. Reserve yourselves till30 the evening. It was in the evening that the prophet was accustomed to vanquish. During two successive engagements, his temperate firmness sustained the darts of the enemy30, and the murmurs of his troops30. At length, when the spirits and quivers of the adverse line were almost exhausted, Caled gave the signal of onset and victory30. The remains of the Imperial army30 fled to Antioch, or Caesarea, or Damascus; and the death30 of four hundred and seventy Moslems was compensated by the opinion that they had sent to hell above fifty thousand30 of the infidels. The spoil was inestimable: many banners and crosses of gold30 and silver, precious stones, silver and gold30 chains, and innumerable suits of the richest armour and apparel. The general30 distribution was postponed till30 Damascus should be taken; but the seasonable supply of arms30 became the instrument of new30 victories. The glorious intelligence was transmitted to the throne of the caliph, and the Arabian tribes, the coldest or most hostile to the prophet's mission, were eager and importunate to share the harvest of Syria.
The sad tidings were carried to Damascus by the speed of grief and terror; and the inhabitants beheld from their walls30 the return of the heroes of Aiznadin. Amrou led the van at the head30 of nine thousand30 horse30; the bands of the Saracens succeeded each other in formidable review; and the rear was closed by Caled in person, with the standard30 of the black eagle. To the activity of Derar he entrusted the commission of patrolling round the city30 with two thousand30 horse30, of scouring the plain, and of intercepting all succour or intelligence. The rest of the Arabian chiefs were fixed in their respective stations before the seven gates of Damascus; and the siege30 was renewed with fresh vigour and confidence. The art, the labour, the military engines, of the Greeks30 and Romans are seldom to be found in the simple, though successful, operations of the Saracens: it was sufficient for them to invest a city30 with arms30 rather than with trenches; to repel the sallies of the besieged; to attempt a stratagem or an assault; or to expect the progress of famine and discontent. Damascus would have acquiesced in the trial of Aiznadin, as a final and peremptory sentence between the emperor30 and the caliph; her courage was rekindled by the example and authority of Thomas, a noble Greek30, illustrious in a private condition by the alliance of Heraclius The tumult and illumination of the night proclaimed the design of the morning sally; and the Christian hero, who affected to despise the enthusiasm of the Arabs, employed the resource of a similar superstition. At the principal gate, in the sight of both armies, a lofty crucifix was erected; the bishop, with his clergy, accompanied the march, and laid the volume of the New30 Testament before the image of Jesus; and the contending parties were scandalised or edified by a prayer that the Son30 of God would defend his servants and vindicate his truth. The battle30 raged with incessant fury; and the dexterity of Thomas, an incomparable archer, was fatal to the boldest Saracens, till30 their death30 was revenged by a female heroine. The wife of Aban, who had followed him to the holy30 war30, embraced her expiring husband. Happy, said she, happy art thou, my dear; thou art gone to thy Lord, who first joined us together, and then parted us asunder. I will revenge thy death30, and endeavour to the utmost of my power to come to the place where thou art, because I love thee. Henceforth shall no man ever touch me more, for I have dedicated myself to the service30 of God. Without a groan, without a tear, she washed the corpse of her husband, and buried him with the usual rites. Then grasping the manly weapons, which in her native land she was accustomed to wield, the intrepid widow of Aban sought the place where his murderer fought in the thickest of the battle30. Her first arrow pierced the hand of his standard30-bearer; her second30 wounded Thomas in the eye; and the fainting Christians no longer beheld their ensign or their leader. Yet the generous champion of Damascus refused to withdraw to his palace30; his wound was dressed on the rampart; the fight was continued till30 the evening; and the Syrians rested on their arms30. In the silence of the night, the signal was given by a stroke on the great bell; the gates were thrown open, and each gate discharged an impetuous column on the sleeping camp30 of the Saracens. Caled was the first in arms30; at the head30 of four hundred horse30 he flew to the post of danger, and the tears trickled down his iron cheeks, as he uttered a fervent ejaculation: O God! who never sleepest, look upon thy servants, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies30. The valour and victory30 of Thomas were arrested by the presence of the sword30 of God; with the knowledge of the peril, the Moslems recovered their ranks, and charged the assailants in the flank and rear. After the loss of thousands, the Christian general30 retreated with a sigh of despair, and the pursuit of the Saracens was checked by the military engines of the rampart.
After a siege of seventy days43, the patience, and perhaps the provisions, of the Damascenes were exhausted; and the bravest of their chiefs43 submitted to the hard dictates of necessity. In the occurrences of peace and war43, they had been taught to dread the fierceness of Caled, and to revere the mild virtues of Abu Obeidah. At the hour of midnight, one hundred chosen deputies of the clergy and people43 were introduced to the tent of that venerable commander. He received and dismissed them with courtesy. They returned with a written agreement, on the faith of a companion of Mahomet, that all hostilities should cease; that the voluntary emigrants might depart in safety, with as much as they could carry away of their effects; and that the tributary subjects of the caliphs should enjoy their lands and houses, with the use and possession of seven43 churches. On these terms, the most respectable hostages, and the gate nearest to his camp, were delivered into his hands; his soldiers43 imitated the moderation of their chief43; and he enjoyed the submissive gratitude of a people43 whom he had rescued from destruction. But the success of the treaty had relaxed their vigilance, and in the same moment the opposite quarter of the city43 was betrayed and taken by assault. A party of an hundred Arabs had opened the eastern gate to a more inexorable foe. No quarter, cried the rapacious and sanguinary Caled, no quarter to the enemies of the Lord; his trumpets sounded, and a torrent of Christian43 blood43 was poured down the streets of Damascus43. When he reached the church of St. Mary, he was astonished and provoked by the peaceful aspect of his companions43: their swords were in the scabbard, and they were surrounded by a multitude of priests and monks. Abu Obeidah saluted the general43: God, said he, has delivered the city43 into my hands by way of surrender, and has saved the believers the trouble of fighting. And am I not, replied the indignant Caled, am I not the lieutenant of the commander of the faithful? Have I not taken the city43 by storm? The unbelievers shall43 perish by the sword. Fall on. The hungry and cruel Arabs would have obeyed the welcome command; and Damascus43 was lost, if the benevolence of Abu Obeidah had not been supported by a decent and dignified firmness. Throwing himself between the trembling citizens and the most eager of the Barbarians, he adjured them by the holy name of God to respect his promise, to suspend their fury, and to wait the determination of their chiefs43. The chiefs43 retired into the church of St. Mary; and, after a vehement debate, Caled submitted in some measure to the reason and authority of his colleague; who urged the sanctity of a covenant, the advantage as well as the honour which the Moslems would derive from the punctual performance of their word, and the obstinate resistance which they must encounter from the distrust and despair of the rest of the Syrian cities43. It was agreed that the sword should be sheathed, that the part of Damascus43 which had surrendered to Abu Obeidah should be immediately entitled to the benefit of his capitulation, and that the final decision should be referred to the justice and wisdom of the caliph. A large majority of the people43 accepted the terms of toleration and tribute; and Damascus43 is still peopled by twenty thousand43 Christians. But the valiant Thomas, and the free-born patriots who had fought under his banner, embraced the alternative of poverty and exile. In the adjacent meadow, a numerous encampment was formed of priests and laymen, of soldiers43 and citizens, of women and children: they collected with haste and terror their most precious moveables; and abandoned, with loud lamentations or silent anguish, their native homes and the pleasant banks of the Pharphar. The inflexible soul of Caled was not touched by the spectacle of their distress: he disputed with the Damascenes the property of a magazine of corn; endeavoured to exclude the garrison from the benefit of the treaty; consented, with reluctance, that each of the fugitives should arm himself with a sword, or a lance, or a bow; and sternly declared that, after a respite of three days43, they might be pursued and treated as the enemies of the Moslems.
The passion of a Syrian youth completed the ruin of the exiles of Damascus43. A nobleman of the city43, of the name of Jonas, was betrothed to a wealthy maiden; but her parents delayed the consummation of his nuptials, and their daughter was persuaded to escape with the man whom she had chosen. They corrupted the nightly watchmen of the gate Keisan: the lover, who led the way, was encompassed by a squadron of Arabs; but his exclamation in the Greek43 tongue, the bird is taken, admonished his mistress to hasten her return. In the presence of Caled, and of death, the unfortunate Jonas professed his belief in one God, and his apostle Mahomet; and continued, till the season of his martyrdom, to discharge the duties of a brave and sincere Musulman. When the city43 was taken, he flew to the monastery, where Eudocia had taken refuge; but the lover was forgotten; the apostate was scorned; she preferred her religion to her country43; and the justice of Caled, though deaf to mercy, refused to detain by force a male or female inhabitant of Damascus43. Four days43 was the general43 confined to the city43 by the obligation of the treaty and the urgent cares of his new conquest43. His appetite for blood43 and rapine would have been extinguished by the hopeless computation of time43 and distance; but he listened to the importunities of Jonas, who assured him that the weary fugitives might yet be overtaken. At the head of four thousand43 horse, in the disguise of Christian43 Arabs, Caled undertook the pursuit. They halted only for the moments of prayer; and their guide had a perfect knowledge of the country43. For a long43 way the footsteps of the Damascenes were plain and conspicuous: they vanished on a sudden; but the Saracens were comforted by the assurance that the caravan had turned aside into the mountains, and must speedily fall into their hands. In traversing the ridges of the Libanus, they endured intolerable hardships, and the sinking spirits of the veteran fanatics were supported and cheered by the unconquerable ardour of a lover. From a peasant of the country43, they were informed that the emperor had sent orders to the colony of exiles, to pursue without delay the road of the sea-coast and of Constantinople43; apprehensive, perhaps, that the soldiers43 and people43 of Antioch must be discouraged by the sight and the story of their sufferings. The Saracens were conducted through the territories of Gabala and Laodicea, at a cautious distance from the walls of the cities43; the rain was incessant, the night was dark, a single mountain separated them from the Roman43 army; and Caled, ever anxious for the safety of his brethren, whispered an ominous dream in the ear of his companion. With the dawn of day, the prospect again cleared, and they saw before them, in a pleasant valley, the tents of Damascus43. After a short interval of repose and prayer, Caled divided his cavalry into four squadrons, committing the first to his faithful Derar, and reserving the last for himself. They successively rushed on the promiscuous multitude, insufficiently provided with arms43, and already vanquished by sorrow and fatigue. Except a captive who was pardoned and dismissed, the Arabs enjoyed the satisfaction of believing that not a Christian43 of either sex escaped the edge of their scymetars. The gold and silver of Damascus43 was scattered over the camp, and a royal wardrobe of three hundred load of silk might clothe an army of naked Barbarians. In the tumult of the battle, Jonas sought and found the object of his pursuit; but her resentment was inflamed by the last act of his perfidy; and, as Eudocia struggled in his hateful embraces, she struck a dagger to her heart. Another female, the widow of Thomas, and the real or supposed daughter of Heraclius, was spared and released without a ransom; but the generosity of Caled was the effect of his contempt; and the haughty Saracen insulted, by a message of defiance, the throne43 of the Caesars. Caled had penetrated above an hundred and fifty miles into the heart of the Roman43 province: he returned to Damascus43 with the same secrecy and speed. On the accession of Omar, the sword of God was removed from the command; but the caliph, who blamed the rashness, was compelled to applaud the vigour and conduct, of the enterprise.
Another expedition of the conquerors of Damascus will equally display their avidity and their contempt for the riches of the present world. They were informed that the produce and manufactures of the country were annually collected in the fair of Abyla, about thirty miles from the city30; that the cell of a devout hermit was visited at the same time by a multitude of pilgrims; and that the festival of trade and superstition would be ennobled by the nuptials of the daughter of the governor of Tripoli. Abdallah, the son30 of Jaafar, a glorious and holy30 martyr, undertook, with a banner of five hundred horse30, the pious and profitable commission of despoiling the infidels. As he approached the fair of Abyla, he was astonished by the report of the mighty concourse of Jews and Christians, Greeks30 and Armenians, of natives of Syria and of strangers of Egypt, to the number of ten thousand30, besides a guard of five thousand30 horse30 that attended the person of the bride. The Saracens paused: For my own part, said Abdallah, I dare not go back; our foes are many, our danger is great; but our reward is splendid and secure, either in this life or in the life to come. Let every man, according to his inclination, advance or retire. Not a Musulman deserted his standard30. Lead the way, said Abdallah to his Christian guide, and you shall see what the companions of the prophet can perform. They charged in five squadrons; but, after the first advantage of the surprise, they were encompassed and almost overwhelmed by the multitude of their enemies30; and their valiant band is fancifully compared to a white spot in the skin of a black camel. About the hour of sunset, when their weapons dropped from their hands, when they panted on the verge of eternity, they discovered an approaching cloud of dust, they heard the welcome sound of the tecbir, and they soon30 perceived the standard30 of Caled, who flew to their relief with the utmost speed of his cavalry. The Christians were broken by his attack, and slaughtered in their flight as far as the river of Tripoli. They left30 behind them the various riches of the fair: the merchandises that were exposed for sale, the money that was brought for purchase, the gay decorations of the nuptials, and the governor's daughter, with forty of her female attendants. The fruits, provisions, and furniture, the money, plate, and jewels, were diligently laden on the backs of horses, asses, and mules; and the holy30 robbers returned in triumph to Damascus. The hermit, after a short and angry controversy with Caled, declined the crown of martyrdom, and was left30 alive in the solitary scene of blood and devastation.
Syria, one of the countries that have been improved by the most early cultivation, is not unworthy of the preference. The heat of the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and mountains, by the plenty of wood and water; and the produce of a fertile soil affords the subsistence, and encourages the propagation, of men and animals. From the age of David to that of Heraclius, the country was overspread with ancient and flourishing cities: the inhabitants were numerous and wealthy; and, after the slow ravage of despotism and superstition, after the recent calamities of the Persian war30, Syria could still attract and reward the rapacious tribes of the desert. A plain, of ten days30' journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is watered, on the western side, by the winding course of the Orontes. The hills of Libanus and Anti-Libanus are planted from north to south, between the Orontes and the Mediterranean, and the epithet of hollow (Coelesyria) was applied to a long30 and fruitful valley, which is confined in the same direction by the two ridges of snowy mountains. Among the cities, which are enumerated by Greek30 and Oriental names in the geography and contest of Syria, we may distinguish Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis or Baalbec, the former as the metropolis of the plain, the latter as the capital of the valley. Under the last of the Caesars, they were strong and populous: the turrets glittered from afar; an ample space was covered with public and private buildings; and the citizens were illustrious by their spirit, or at least by their pride; by their riches, or at least by their luxury. In the days30 of Paganism, both Emesa and Heliopolis were addicted to the worship of Baal, or the sun; but the decline of their superstition and splendour has been marked by a singular variety of fortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesa, which was equalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus, while the ruins of Baalbec, invisible to the writers of antiquity, excite the curiosity and wonder of the European traveller. The measure of the temple is two hundred feet in length, and one hundred in breadth; the front is adorned with a double portico of eight columns; fourteen may be counted on either side; and each column, forty-five feet in height, is composed of three massy blocks of stone or marble. The proportions and ornaments of the Corinthian order express the architecture of the Greeks30; but, as Baalbec has never been the seat of a monarch, we are at a loss to conceive how the expense of these magnificent structures could be supplied by private or municipal liberality. From the conquest of Damascus the Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesa: but I shall decline the repetition of the sallies and combats which have been already shewn on a larger scale. In the prosecution of the war30, their policy was not less effectual than their sword30. By short and separate truces they dissolved the union of the enemy30; accustomed the Syrians to compare their friendship with their enmity; familiarised the idea of their language, religion, and manners; and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines and arsenals of the cities which they returned to besiege. They aggravated the ransom of the more wealthy or the more obstinate; and Chalcis alone was taxed at five thousand30 ounces of gold30, five thousand30 ounces of silver, two thousand30 robes of silk, and as many figs and olives as would load five thousand30 asses. But the terms of truce or capitulation were faithfully observed; and the lieutenant of the caliph, who had promised not to enter the walls30 of the captive Baalbec, remained tranquil and immovable in his tent till30 the jarring factions solicited the interposition of a foreign master. The conquest of the plain and valley of Syria was achieved in less than two years30. Yet the commander of the faithful reproved the slowness of their progress, and the Saracens, bewailing their fault with tears of rage and repentance, called aloud on their chiefs to lead them forth to fight the battles of the Lord. In a recent action, under the walls30 of Emesa, an Arabian youth, the cousin of Caled, was heard aloud to exclaim, Methinks I see the black-eyed girls looking upon me; one of whom, should she appear in this world, all mankind would die for love of her. And I see in the hand of one of them an handkerchief of green silk, and a cap of precious stones, and she beckons me, and calls out, Come hither quickly, for I love thee. With these words, charging the Christians, he made havoc wherever he went, till30, observed at length by the governor of Hems, he was struck through with a javelin.
It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of their valour and enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor30, who was taught by repeated losses that the rovers of the desert had undertaken, and would speedily achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From the provinces of Europe and Asia, fourscore thousand30 soldiers30 were transported by sea and land to Antioch and Caesarea; the light troops30 of the army30 consisted of sixty thousand30 Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. Under the banner of Jabalah, the last of their princes, they marched in the van; and it was a maxim of the Greeks30 that, for the purpose of cutting diamond, a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius withheld his person from the dangers of the field; but his presumption, or perhaps his despondency, suggested a peremptory order that the fate of the province and the war30 should be decided by a single battle30. The Syrians were attached to the standard30 of Rome and of the cross; but the noble, the citizen, the peasant, were exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of a licentious host who oppressed them as subjects and despised them as strangers and aliens. A report of these mighty preparations was conveyed to the Saracens in their camp30 of Emesa; and the chiefs, though resolved to fight, assembled a council; the faith of Abu Obeidah would have expected on the same spot the glory of martyrdom; the wisdom of Caled advised an honourable retreat to the skirts of Palestine and Arabia, where they might await the succours of their friends and the attack of the unbelievers. A speedy messenger soon30 returned from the throne of Medina, with the blessings of Omar and Ali, the prayers of the widows of the prophet, and a reinforcement of eight thousand30 Moslems. In their way they overturned a detachment of Greeks30, and, when they joined at Yermuk the camp30 of their brethren, they found the pleasing intelligence that Caled had already defeated and scattered the Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. In the neighbourhood of Bosra, the springs of Mount Hermon descend in a torrent to the plain of Decapolis, or ten cities; and the Hieromax, a name which has been corrupted to Yermuk, is lost after a short course in the lake of Tiberias. The banks of this obscure stream were illustrated by a long30 and bloody encounter. On this momentous occasion, the public voice, and the modesty of Abu Obeidah, restored the command to the most deserving of the Moslems. Caled assumed his station in the front, his colleague was posted in the rear, that the disorder of the fugitives might be checked by his venerable aspect and the sight of the yellow banner which Mahomet had displayed before the walls30 of Chaibar. The last line was occupied by the sister of Derar, with the Arabian women who had enlisted in this holy30 war30, who were accustomed to wield the bow and the lance, and who in a moment of captivity had defended, against the uncircumcised ravishers, their chastity and religion. The exhortation of the generals was brief and forcible; Paradise is before you, the devil and hell-fire in your rear. Yet such was the weight of the Roman30 cavalry that the right wing of the Arabs was broken and separated from the main body. Thrice did they retreat in disorder, and thrice were they driven back to the charge by the reproaches and blows of the women. In the intervals of action, Abu Obeidah visited the tents of his brethren; prolonged their repose by repeating at once the prayers of two different hours; bound up their wounds with his own hands, and administered the comfortable reflection that the infidels partook of their sufferings without partaking of their reward. Four thousand30 and thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field of battle30; and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled seven hundred to boast that they had lost an eye in that meritorious service30. The veterans of the Syrian war30 acknowledged that it was the hardest and most doubtful of the days30 which they had seen. But it was likewise the most decisive: many thousands of the Greeks30 and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs; many were slaughtered, after the defeat in the woods and mountains; many, by mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yermuk; and, however the loss may be magnified, the Christian writers confess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. Manuel, the Roman30 general30, was either killed at Damascus or took refuge in the monastery of Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine30 court, Jabalah lamented the manners of Arabia and his unlucky preference of the Christian cause. He had once inclined to the profession of Islam; but, in the pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah was provoked to strike one of his brethren, and fled with amazement from the stern and equal justice of the caliph. The victorious Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure and repose; the spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu Obeidah; an equal share was allotted to a soldier and to his horse30, and a double portion was reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian breed.
After the battle49 of Yermuk the Roman army49 no longer appeared in the field; and the Saracens might securely choose among the fortified towns of Syria the first object of their attack49. They consulted the caliph whether they should march to Caesarea or Jerusalem; and the advice of Ali determined the immediate siege49 of the latter. To a profane eye, Jerusalem was the first or second49 capital of Palestine; but, after Mecca and Medina, it was revered and visited by the devout Moslems, as the temple of the Holy Land, which had been sanctified by the revelation of Moses, of Jesus, and of Mahomet himself. The son of Abu Sophian was sent with five thousand49 Arabs to try the first experiment of surprise or treaty; but on the eleventh day49 the town was invested by the whole force of Abu Obeidah. He addressed the customary summons to the chief commanders and people of Aelia. Health and happiness to every one that follows the right way! We require of you to testify that there is but one God and that Mahomet is his apostle. If you refuse this, consent to pay tribute, and be under us forthwith. Otherwise I shall bring men49 against you who love death better than you do the drinking of wine or eating hogs' flesh. Nor will I ever stir from you, if it please God, till I have destroyed those that fight for you, and made slaves of your children. But the city49 was defended on every side by deep valleys and steep ascents; since the invasion of Syria, the walls49 and towers49 had been anxiously restored; the bravest of the fugitives of Yermuk had stopped in the nearest place of refuge; and in the defence49 of the sepulchre of Christ the natives and strangers might feel some sparks of the enthusiasm which so fiercely glowed in the bosoms of the Saracens. The siege49 of Jerusalem lasted four months; not a day49 was lost49 without some action of sally or assault49; the military49 engines49 incessantly played from the ramparts; and the inclemency of the winter was still more painful and destructive to the Arabs. The Christians yielded at length to the perseverance of the besiegers. The patriarch Sophronius appeared on the walls49, and by the voice of an interpreter demanded a conference. After a vain attempt to dissuade the lieutenant of the caliph from his impious enterprise, he proposed, in the name of the people, a fair capitulation, with this extraordinary clause, that the articles of security should be ratified by the authority and presence of Omar himself. The question was debated in the council of Medina; the sanctity of the place, and the advice of Ali, persuaded the caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers49 and enemies, and the simplicity of his journey is more illustrious than the royal pageants of vanity and oppression. The conqueror of Persia and Syria was mounted on a red camel, which carried, besides his person, a bag of corn, a bag of dates, a wooden dish, and a leathern bottle of water. Wherever he halted, the company, without distinction, was invited to partake of his homely fare, and the repast was consecrated by the prayer and exhortation of the commander of the faithful. But in this expedition or pilgrimage his power was exercised in the administration of justice; he reformed the licentious polygamy of the Arabs, relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, and chastised the luxury of the Saracens by despoiling them of their rich silks and dragging them on their faces in the dirt. When he came within sight of Jerusalem, the caliph cried with a loud voice, God is victorious. O Lord, give us an easy conquest; and, pitching his tent of coarse hair, calmly seated himself on the ground. After signing the capitulation, he entered the city49 without fear or precaution; and courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religious antiquities. Sophronius bowed before his new master, and secretly muttered, in the words of Daniel, The abomination of desolation is in the holy place. At the hour of prayer they stood together in the church of the Resurrection; but the caliph refused to perform his devotions, and contented himself with praying on the steps of the church of Constantine. To the patriarch he disclosed his prudent and honourable motive. Had I yielded, said Omar, to your request, the Moslems of a future age would have infringed the treaty under colour of imitating my example. By his command the ground of the temple of Solomon was prepared for the foundation of a mosch; and, during a residence of ten days49, he regulated the present and future state of his Syrian conquests. Medina might be jealous lest the caliph should be detained by the sanctity of Jerusalem or the beauty of Damascus; her apprehensions were dispelled by his prompt and voluntary return to the tomb of the apostle.
To achieve what yet remained of the Syrian war30, the caliph had formed two separate armies: a chosen detachment, under Amrou and Yezid, was left30 in the camp30 of Palestine; while the larger division, under the standard30 of Abu Obeidah and Caled, marched away to the north against Antioch and Aleppo. The latter of these, the Beroea of the Greeks30, was not yet illustrious as the capital of a province or a kingdom; and the inhabitants, by anticipating their submission and pleading their poverty, obtained a moderate composition for their lives and religion. But the castle of Aleppo, distinct from the city30, stood erect on a lofty artificial mound: the sides were sharpened to a precipice, and faced with freestone; and the breadth of the ditch might be filled with water from the neighbouring springs. After a loss of three thousand30 men, the garrison was still equal to the defence; and Youkinna, their valiant and hereditary chief, had murdered his brother, an holy30 monk, for daring to pronounce the name of peace. In a siege30 of four or five months, the hardest of the Syrian war30, great numbers of the Saracens were killed and wounded; their removal to the distance of a mile could not seduce the vigilance of Youkinna; nor could the Christians be terrified by the execution of three hundred captives, whom they beheaded before the castle-wall. The silence, and at length the complaints, of Abu Obeidah informed the caliph that their hope and patience were consumed at the foot of this impregnable fortress. I am variously affected, replied Omar, by the difference of your success; but I charge you by no means to raise the siege30 of the castle. Your retreat would diminish the reputation of our arms30, and encourage the infidels to fall upon you on all sides. Remain before Aleppo till30 God shall determine the event, and forage with your horse30 round the adjacent country. The exhortation of the commander of the faithful was fortified by a supply of volunteers from all the tribes of Arabia, who arrived in the camp30 on horses or camels. Among these was Dames, of a servile birth, but of gigantic size and intrepid resolution. The forty-seventh day30 of his service30 he proposed, with only thirty men, to make an attempt on the castle. The experience and testimony of Caled recommended his offer; and Abu Obeidah admonished his brethren not to despise the baser origin of Dames, since he himself, could he relinquish the public care, would cheerfully serve under the banner of the slave. His design was covered by the appearance of a retreat; and the camp30 of the Saracens was pitched about a league from Aleppo. The thirty adventurers lay in ambush at the foot of the hill; and Dames at length succeeded in his inquiries, though he was provoked by the ignorance of his Greek30 captives. God curse these dogs, said the illiterate Arab, what a strange barbarous language they speak! At the darkest hour of the night, he scaled the most accessible height, which he had diligently surveyed, a place where the stones were less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the guard less vigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted on each other's shoulders, and the weight of the column was sustained on the broad and sinewy back of the gigantic slave. The foremost in this painful ascent could grasp and climb the lowest part of the battlements; they silently stabbed and cast down the sentinels; and the thirty brethren, repeating a pious ejaculation, O apostle of God, help and deliver us! were successively drawn up by the long30 folds of their turbans. With bold and cautious footsteps, Dames explored the palace30 of the governor, who celebrated, in riotous merriment, the festival of his deliverance. From thence returning to his companions, he assaulted on the inside the entrance of the castle. They overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down the drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till30 the arrival of Caled, with the dawn of day30, relieved their danger and assured their conquest. Youkinna, a formidable foe, became an active and useful proselyte; and the general30 of the Saracens expressed his regard for the most humble merit by detaining the army30 at Aleppo till30 Dames was cured of his honourable wounds. The capital of Syria was still covered by the castle of Aazaz and the iron bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of those important posts and the defeat of the last of the Roman30 armies, the luxury of Antioch trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomed with three hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30; but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman30 government in the East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free, and holy30, and inviolate, was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial town.
In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian war30 are clouded on either hand by the disgrace and weakness of his more early and his later days30. When the successors of Mahomet unsheathed the sword30 of war30 and religion, he was astonished at the boundless prospect of toil and danger; his nature was indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age of the emperor30 be kindled to a second30 effort. The sense of shame, and the importunities of the Syrians, prevented his hasty departure from the scene of action; but the hero was no more; and the loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin and Yermuk, may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he involved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy for the unity of his will; and, while Heraclius crowned the offspring of his second30 nuptials, he was tamely stripped of the most valuable part of their inheritance. In the cathedral of Antioch, in the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he bewailed the sins of the prince30 and people30; but his confession instructed the world that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to resist the judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in fact, since they were invincible in opinion; and the desertion of Youkinna, his false repentance and repeated perfidy, might justify the suspicion of the emperor30 that he was encompassed by traitors and apostates who conspired to betray his person and their country to the enemies30 of Christ. In the hour of adversity, his superstition was agitated by the omens and dreams of a falling crown; and, after bidding an eternal farewell to Syria, he secretly embarked with a few attendants and absolved the faith of his subjects. Constantine, his eldest son30, had been stationed with forty thousand30 men at Caesarea, the civil metropolis of the three provinces of Palestine. But his private interest recalled him to the Byzantine30 court; and, after the flight of his father, he felt himself an unequal champion to the united force of the caliph. His vanguard was boldly attacked by three hundred Arabs and a thousand30 black slaves, who, in the depth of winter, had climbed the snowy mountains of Libanus, and who were speedily followed by the victorious squadrons of Caled himself. From the north and south, the troops30 of Antioch and Jerusalem advanced along the sea-shore, till30 their banners were joined under the walls30 of the Phoenician cities: Tripoli and Tyre were betrayed; and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered without distrust the captive harbours, brought a seasonable supply of arms30 and provisions to the camp30 of the Saracens. Their labours were terminated by the unexpected surrender of Caesarea: the Roman30 prince30 had embarked in the night; and the defenceless citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of two hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30. The remainder of the province, Ramlah, Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem or Neapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus, Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to dispute the will of the conqueror; and Syria bowed under the sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred years30 after Pompey had despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings.
The sieges and battles of six campaigns had consumed many thousands of the Moslems4. They died with the reputation and the cheerfulness of martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith4 may be expressed in the words of an Arabian4 youth, when he embraced, for the last time, his sister and mother: It is not, said4 he, the delicacies of Syria4, or the fading delights of this world, that have prompted me to devote my life in the cause of religion4. But I seek the favour of God4 and his apostle4; and I have heard, from one of the companions4 of the prophet4, that the spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds, who shall4 taste the fruits, and drink of the rivers, of paradise. Farewell; we shall4 meet again among the groves and fountains which God4 has provided for his elect. The faithful4 captives might exercise a passive and more arduous resolution; and a cousin of Mahomet4 is celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three days4, the wine and pork, the only nourishment that was allowed by the malice of the infidels4. The frailty of some weaker brethren4 exasperated the implacable spirit of fanaticism; and the father of Amer deplored, in pathetic strains, the apostacy and damnation of a son4, who had renounced the promises of God4 and the intercession of the prophet4, to occupy, with the priests and deacons, the lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs4, who survived the war and persevered in the faith4, were restrained by their abstemious leader from the abuse of prosperity. After a refreshment of three days4, Abu4 Obeidah withdrew his troops from the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch, and assured the caliph4 that their religion4 and virtue could only be preserved by the hard discipline of poverty and labour. But the virtue of Omar4, however rigorous to himself, was kind and liberal to his brethren4. After a just tribute of praise and thanksgiving, he dropped a tear of compassion; and, sitting down on the ground, wrote an answer, in which he mildly censured the severity of his lieutenant: God4, said4 the successor of the prophet4, has not forbidden the use of the good things of this world to faithful4 men4, and such as have performed good works: therefore, you ought to have given them leave to rest themselves, and partake freely of those good things which the country affordeth. If any of the Saracens4 have no family in Arabia4, they may marry in Syria4; and, whosoever of them wants any female slaves, he may purchase as many as he hath occasion for. The conquerors prepared to use, or to abuse, this gracious permission; but the year of their triumph was marked by a mortality of men4 and cattle; and twenty-five thousand4 Saracens4 were snatched away from the possession of Syria4. The death4 of Abu4 Obeidah might be lamented by the Christians; but his brethren4 recollected that he was one of the ten elect whom the prophet4 had named as the heirs of paradise. Caled4 survived his brethren4 about three years; and the tomb of the Sword4 of God4 is shewn in the neighbourhood of Emesa. His valour, which founded in Arabia4 and Syria4 the empire of the caliphs4, was fortified by the opinion of a special providence; and, as long as he wore a cap which had been blessed by Mahomet4, he deemed himself invulnerable amidst the darts of the infidels4.
The place of the first conquerors was supplied by a new9 generation of their children and countrymen: Syria became the seat and support of the house of Ommiyah; and the revenue, the soldiers, the ships, of that powerful kingdom were consecrated to enlarge on every side the empire9 of the caliphs. But the Saracens despise a superfluity of fame; and their historians scarcely condescend to mention the subordinate conquests which are lost in the splendour and rapidity of their victorious career. To the north9 of Syria, they passed Mount Taurus, and reduced to their obedience the province9 of Cilicia, with its capital9 Tarsus, the ancient9 monument of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second ridge of the same mountains9, they spread the flame of war9, rather than the light of religion, as far9 as the shores of the Euxine and the neighbourhood of Constantinople. To the east, they advanced to the banks9 and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris: the long9-disputed barrier of Rome9 and Persia was for ever confounded; the walls9 of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibis, which had resisted the arms9 and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were levelled in the dust; and the holy city9 of Abgarus might vainly produce the epistle of the image of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror. To the west9, the Syrian kingdom is bounded by the sea9; and the ruin of Aradus, a small island or peninsula on the coast9, was postponed during ten years. But the hills of Libanus abounded in timber, the trade of Phoenicia was populous in mariners; and a fleet9 of seventeen hundred barks was equipped and manned by the natives of the desert. The Imperial navy of the Romans9 fled before them from the Pamphylian rocks to the Hellespont; but the spirit of the emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, had been subdued before the combat by a dream and a pun. The Saracens rode masters of the sea9; and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades were successively exposed to their rapacious visits. Three hundred years before the Christian era, the memorable though fruitless siege of Rhodes by Demetrius had furnished that maritime republic with the materials and the subject of a trophy. A gigantic statue of Apollo, or the sun, seventy cubits in height, was erected at the entrance of the harbour, a monument of the freedom and the arts of Greece. After standing fifty-six years, the colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake; but the massy trunk and huge fragments lay scattered eight centuries on the ground, and are often described as one of the wonders of the ancient9 world. They were collected by the diligence of the Saracens, and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, who is said to have laden nine hundred camels with the weight of the brass metal: an enormous weight, though we should include the hundred colossal figures and the three thousand9 statues which adorned the prosperity of the city9 of the sun.
III. The conquest of Egypt4 may be explained by the character of the victorious Saracen, one of the first of his nation, in an age when the meanest of the brethren4 was exalted above his nature by the spirit of enthusiasm4. The birth of Amrou4 was at once base and illustrious: his mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to decide among five of the Koreish4; but the proof of resemblance adjudged the child to Aasi, the oldest of her lovers. The youth of Amrou4 was impelled by the passions and prejudices of his kindred: his poetic genius was exercised in satirical verses against the person and doctrine of Mahomet4; his dexterity was employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religious exiles who had taken refuge in the court of the Oethiopian king yet he returned from this embassy a secret proselyte; his reason or his interest determined him to renounce the worship of idols; he escaped from Mecca4 with his friend Caled4, and the prophet4 of Medina4 enjoyed at the same moment the satisfaction of embracing the two firmest champions of his cause. The impatience of Amrou4 to lead the armies of the faithful4 was checked by the reproof of Omar4, who advised him not to seek power and dominion, since he who is a subject to-day may be a prince to-morrow. Yet his merit was not overlooked by the two first successors of Mahomet4; they were indebted to his arms for the conquest of Palestine; and in all the battles and sieges of Syria4 he united with the temper of a chief4 the valour of an adventurous soldier. In a visit to Medina4, the caliph4 expressed a wish to survey the sword4 which had cut down so many Christian warriors: the son4 of Aasi unsheathed a short and ordinary scymetar; and, as he perceived the surprise of Omar4, Alas, said4 the modest Saracen, the sword4 itself, without the arm of its master, is neither sharper nor more weighty than the sword4 of Pharezdak the poet. After the conquest of Egypt4, he was recalled by the jealousy of the caliph4 Othman; but, in the subsequent troubles, the ambition of a soldier, a statesman, and an orator emerged from a private station. His powerful support, both in council and in the field, established the throne of the Ommiades; the administration and revenue of Egypt4 were restored by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful4 friend, who had raised himself above the rank of a subject; and Amrou4 ended his days4 in the palace and city4 which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. His dying speech to his children is celebrated by the Arabians as a model of eloquence and wisdom: he deplored the errors of his youth; but, if the penitent was still infected by the vanity of a poet, he might exaggerate the venom and mischief of his impious compositions.
From his camp48, in Palestine, Amrou had surprised or anticipated the caliph's leave for the invasion of Egypt48. The magnanimous Omar trusted in his God and his sword, which had shaken the thrones of Chosroes and Caesar; but, when he compared the slender force of the Moslems with the greatness of the enterprise, he condemned his own rashness and listened to his timid companions. The pride48 and the greatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the readers of the Koran; and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had been scarcely sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the flight of six hundred thousand48 of the children of Israel. The cities48 of Egypt48 were many and populous; their architecture was strong and solid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone an insuperable barrier; and the granary of the Imperial city48 would be obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity, the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the decision of chance, or, in his opinion, of providence. At the head48 of only four thousand48 Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had marched away from his station of Gaza, when he was overtaken by the messenger of Omar. If you are still in Syria, said the ambiguous mandate, retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt of this epistle, you have already reached the frontiers of Egypt48, advance with confidence, and depend on the succour of God and of your brethren. The experience, perhaps the secret intelligence, of Amrou had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; and he continued his march till his tents were unquestionably pitched on Egyptian ground48. He there assembled his officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and situation of the place, and declared his ready obedience to the commands of the caliph. After a siege of thirty days48, he took possession of Farmah or Pelusium; and that key of Egypt48, as it has been justly named, unlocked the entrance of the country48, as far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the neighbourhood of the modern Cairo.
On the western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east of the Pyramids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta, Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in circumference, displayed the magnificence of ancient9 kings. Under the reign of the Ptolemies and Caesars, the seat of government was removed to the sea9-coast9; the ancient9 capital9 was eclipsed by the arts and opulence of Alexandria; the palaces, and at length the temples, were reduced to a desolate and ruinous condition: yet in the age of Augustus, and even in that of Constantine, Memphis was still numbered among the greatest and most populous of the provincial cities9. The banks9 of the Nile, in this place of the breadth of three thousand9 feet, were united by two bridges of sixty and of thirty boats, connected in the middle stream by the small island of Rouda, which was covered with gardens and habitations. The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the town of Babylon and the camp9 of a Roman9 legion, which protected the passage of the river9 and the second capital9 of Egypt. This important fortress, which might fairly be described as a part of Memphis, or Misrah, was invested by the arms9 of the lieutenant of Omar: a reinforcement of four thousand9 Saracens soon9 arrived in his camp9; and the military engines, which battered the walls9, may be imputed to the art and labour of his Syrian allies. Yet the siege was protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile. Their last assault was bold and successful: they passed the ditch, which had been fortified with iron spikes, applied their scaling-ladders, entered the fortress with the shout of God is victorious! and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats and the isle of Rouda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf and the peninsula of Arabia: the remains of Memphis were deserted; the tents of the Arabs were converted into permanent habitations; and the first mosch was blessed by the presence of fourscore companions of Mahomet. A new9 city9 arose in their camp9 on the eastward bank of the Nile; and the contiguous quarters of Babylon and Fostat are confounded in their present decay by the appellation of old Misrah or Cairo, of which they form an extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town of victory, more strictly belongs to the modern capital9, which was founded in the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs. It has gradually receded from the river9, but the continuity of buildings may be traced by an attentive eye from the monuments of Sesostris to those of Saladin.
Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must have retreated to the desert, had they not found a powerful alliance in the heart of the country. The rapid conquest of Alexander was assisted by the superstition and revolt of the natives; they abhorred their Persian oppressors, the disciples of the Magi, who had burnt the temples of Egypt33, and feasted with sacrilegious appetite on the flesh of the god Apis. After a period of ten centuries the same revolution was renewed by a similar cause33; and, in the support of an incomprehensible creed33, the zeal33 of the Coptic Christians was equally ardent. I have already explained the origin and progress of the Monophysite controversy33, and the persecution33 of the emperors, which converted a sect into a nation and alienated Egypt33 from their religion33 and government. The Saracens were received as the deliverers of the Jacobite church33; and a secret and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis between a victorious army and a people33 of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian, of the name of Mokawkas, had dissembled his faith33 to obtain the administration of his province: in the disorders of the Persian war he aspired to independence; the embassy of Mahomet ranked him among princes; but he declined, with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments, the proposal of a new religion33. The abuse of his trust exposed him to the resentment of Heraclius; his submission was delayed by arrogance and fear; and his conscience was prompted by interest to throw himself on the favour of the nation and the support of the Saracens. In his first conference with Amrou, he heard without indignation the usual option of the Koran, the tribute, or the sword. The Greeks33, replied Mokawkas, are determined to abide the determination of the sword; but with the Greeks33 I desire no communion, either in this world or in the next, and I abjure for ever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod33 of Chalcedon33, and his Melchite slaves. For myself and my brethren, we are resolved to live and die in the profession of the gospel and unity of Christ33. It is impossible for us to embrace the revelations of your prophet; but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully submit to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors. The tribute was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of every Christian33; but old men, monks33, women, and children of both sexes under sixteen years of age were exempted from this personal assessment; the Copts above and below Memphis swore allegiance to the caliph, and promised an hospitable entertainment of three days to every Musulman who should travel through their country. By this charter of security the ecclesiastical33 and civil tyranny of the Melchites was destroyed; the anathemas of St33. Cyril were thundered from every pulpit; and the sacred edifices, with the patrimony of the church33, were restored to the national communion of the Jacobites, who enjoyed without moderation the moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing summons of Amrou, their patriarch33 Benjamin emerged from his desert; and, after the first interview, the courteous Arab affected to declare that he had never conversed with a Christian33 priest of more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. In the march from Memphis to Alexandria33, the lieutenant of Omar entrusted his safety to the zeal33 and gratitude of the Egyptians; the roads and bridges were diligently repaired; and, in every step of his progress, he could depend on a constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The Greeks33 of Egypt33, whose numbers could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, were overwhelmed by the universal defection; they had ever been hated, they were no longer feared; the magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishop33 from his altar; and the distant garrisons were surprised or starved by the surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could have escaped who by birth, or language, or office, or religion33 was connected with their odious name.
By the retreat of the Greeks24 from the provinces of Upper Egypt24, a considerable force was collected in the island of Delta: the natural and artificial channels of the Nile24 afforded a succession of strong and defensible posts; and the road to Alexandria was laboriously cleared by the victory of the Saracens24 in two and twenty days of general or partial combat. In their annals of conquest24, the siege of Alexandria is perhaps the most arduous and important enterprise. The first trading city24 in the world was abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence and defence. Her numerous inhabitants fought for the dearest of human rights, religion24 and property; and the enmity of the natives seemed to exclude them from the common benefit of peace and toleration. The sea24 was continually open; and, if Heraclius had been awake to the public distress, fresh armies of Romans and Barbarians might have been poured into the harbour to save the second capital of the empire24. A circumference of ten miles would have scattered the forces of the Greeks24 and favoured the stratagems of an active enemy; but the two sides of an oblong square were covered by the sea24 and the lake Maraeotis, and each of the narrow ends exposed a front of no more than ten furlongs. The efforts of the Arabs24 were not inadequate to the difficulty of the attempt and the value of the prize. From the throne24 of Medina, the eyes of Omar were fixed on the camp and city24: his voice excited to arms the Arabian24 tribes and the veterans of Syria24; and the merit of an holy war was recommended by the peculiar fame and fertility of Egypt24. Anxious for the ruin or expulsion of their tyrants, the faithful24 natives devoted their labours to the service of Amrou; some sparks of martial spirit were perhaps rekindled by the example of their allies; and the sanguine hopes of Mokawkas had fixed his sepulchre in the church of St. John of Alexandria. Eutychius the patriarch observes that the Saracens24 fought with the courage of lions; they repulsed the frequent and almost daily sallies of the besieged, and soon assaulted in their turn the walls and towers of the city24. In every attack, the sword, the banner of Amrou glittered in the van of the Moslems. On a memorable day, he was betrayed by his imprudent valour: his followers who had entered the citadel were driven back; and the general, with a friend and a slave, remained a prisoner in the hands of the Christians24. When Amrou was conducted before the prefect, he remembered his dignity and forgot his situation; a lofty demeanour and resolute language revealed the lieutenant of the caliph24, and the battle-axe of a soldier was already raised to strike off the head of the audacious captive. His life24 was saved by the readiness of his slave, who instantly gave his master a blow on the face, and commanded him, with an angry tone, to be silent in the presence of his superiors. The credulous Greek24 was deceived: he listened to the offer of a treaty, and his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a more respectable embassy, till24 the joyful acclamations of the camp announced the return of their general and insulted the folly of the infidels. At length, after a siege of fourteen months and the loss of three and twenty thousand24 men, the Saracens24 prevailed; the Greeks24 embarked their dispirited and diminished numbers, and the standard of Mahomet24 was planted on the walls of the capital of Egypt24. I have taken, said Amrou to the caliph24, the great24 city24 of the West. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty; and I shall content myself with observing that it contains four thousand24 palaces, four thousand24 baths, four hundred theatres or places of amusement, twelve thousand24 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and forty thousand24 tributary Jews. The town has been subdued by force of arms, without treaty or capitulation, and the Moslems are impatient to seize the fruits of their victory. The commander of the faithful24 rejected with firmness the idea of pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and revenue of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation of the faith. The inhabitants were numbered; a tribute24 was imposed; the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites were curbed, and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian24 yoke were indulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted the declining health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. Under the minority of his grandson, the clamours of a people24, deprived of their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court to undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt24. In the space of four years24, the harbour and fortifications of Alexandria were twice occupied by a fleet and army of Romans. They were twice expelled by the valour of Amrou, who was recalled by the domestic peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and the obstinacy of the resistance provoked him to swear that, if a third time he drove the infidels into the sea24, he would render Alexandria as accessible on all sides as the house of a prostitute. Faithful24 to his promise, he dismantled several parts of the walls and towers, but the people24 was spared in the chastisement of the city24, and the mosch of Mercy was erected on the spot where the victorious general had stopped the fury of his troops.
I should deceive the expectation of the reader, if I passed in silence the fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is described by the learned Abulpharagius. The spirit of Amrou was more curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and in his leisure hours the Arabian chief was pleased with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who derived the surname of Philoponus from his laborious studies of grammar and philosophy. Emboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in that of the Barbarians: the royal library, which alone, among the spoils of Alexandria, had not been appropriated by the visit and the seal of the conqueror. Amrou was inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but his rigid integrity refused to alienate the minutest object without the consent of the caliph; and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed. The sentence was executed with blind obedience; the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the four thousand28 baths of the city28; and such was their incredible multitude28 that six months were barely sufficient28 for the consumption of this precious fuel. Since the Dynasties of Abulpharagius have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation, has deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts28, and the genius of antiquity. For my own part, I am strongly tempted to deny both the fact and the consequences. The fact is indeed marvellous; Read and wonder! says the historian28 himself; and the solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the end of six hundred years28 on the confines of Media is overbalanced by the silence of two annalists of a more early date, both Christians, both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient28 of whom, the patriarch Eutychius, has amply described the conquest of Alexandria. The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mahometan casuists: they expressly declare that the religious books of the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war28, should never be committed to the flames; and that the works of profane science, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied to the use of the faithful. A more destructive zeal may perhaps be attributed to the first successors28 of Mahomet; yet in this instance the conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency of materials. I shall not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandrian library, the involuntary flame that was kindled by Caesar in his own defence, or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians who studied to destroy the monuments of idolatry. But, if we gradually descend from the age28 of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary witnesses that the royal palace and the temple of Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven28, hundred thousand28 volumes which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies. Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might be enriched with a repository of books; but, if the ponderous mass of Arian and Monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the public28 baths, a philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it was ultimately devoted to the benefit of mankind. I sincerely regret the more valuable libraries which have been involved in the ruin of the Roman28 empire28; but, when I seriously compute the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, and the calamities of war28, our treasures, rather than our losses, are the object of my surprise. Many curious and interesting facts are buried in oblivion: the three great28 historians of Rome28 have been transmitted to our hands in a mutilated state28, and we are deprived of many pleasing compositions of the lyric, iambic, and dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet we should gratefully remember that the mischances of time28 and accident have spared the classic works to which the suffrage of antiquity had adjudged the first place of genius and glory; the teachers of ancient28 knowledge, who are still extant, had persued and compared the writings of their predecessors; nor can it fairly be presumed that any important28 truth, any useful discovery in art or nature28, has been snatched away from the curiosity of modern ages.
In the administration of Egypt, Amrou balanced the demands of justice and policy; the interest of the people21 of the law, who were defended by God, and of the people21 of the alliance, who were protected by man. In the recent tumult of conquest and deliverance, the tongue of the Copts and the sword21 of the Arabs were most adverse to the tranquillity of the province. To the former, Amrou declared that faction and falsehood would be doubly chastised: by the punishment of the accusers, whom he should detest as his personal enemies, and by the promotion of their innocent brethren, whom their envy had laboured to injure and supplant. He excited the latter by the motives of religion and honour to sustain the dignity of their character, to endear themselves by a modest and temperate conduct to God and the caliph, to spare and protect a people21 who had trusted to their faith, and to content themselves with the legitimate and splendid rewards of their victory. In the management of the revenue he disapproved the simple but oppressive mode of capitation, and preferred with reason a proportion of taxes, deducted on every branch from the clear profits of agriculture and commerce. A third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual repairs of the dykes and canals, so essential to the public21 welfare. Under his administration the fertility of Egypt supplied the dearth of Arabia; and a string of camels, laden with corn and provisions, covered almost without an interval the long road from Memphis to Medina. But the genius of Amrou soon21 renewed the maritime communication which had been attempted21 or achieved by the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, or the Caesars; and a canal, at least eighty miles in length, was opened from the Nile to the Red Sea. This inland navigation, which would have joined the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, was soon21 discontinued as useless and dangerous; the throne21 was removed from Medina to Damascus; and the Grecian fleets might have explored a passage to the holy21 cities21 of Arabia.
Of his new36 conquest, the caliph Omar had an imperfect knowledge from the voice of fame and the legends of the Koran. He requested that his lieutenant would place before his eyes the realm of Pharaoh and the Amalekites; and the answer of Amrou exhibits a lively and not unfaithful picture of that singular country36. O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants, between a pulverised mountain and a red sand. The distance from Syene to the sea is a month's journey for an horseman. Along the valley descends a river, on which the blessing of the Most High reposes both in the evening and morning, and which rises and falls with the revolutions of the sun and moon. When the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the springs and fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding waters through the realm of Egypt; the fields are overspread by the salutary flood; and the villages communicate with each other in their painted barks. The retreat of the inundation deposits a fertilising mud for the reception of the various seeds; the crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land may be compared to a swarm of industrious ants; and their native indolence is quickened by the lash of the task-master and the promise of the flowers and fruits of a plentiful increase. Their hope36 is seldom deceived; but the riches which they extract from the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the fruit-trees, and the cattle, are unequally shared between those who labour and those who possess. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country36 is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest. Yet this beneficial order is sometimes interrupted; and the long36 delay and sudden swell of the river in the first year of the conquest might afford some colour to an edifying fable. It is said that the annual sacrifice of a virgin had been interdicted by the piety of Omar; and that the Nile lay sullen and inactive in his shallow bed, till the mandate of the caliph was cast into the obedient stream, which rose in a single night to the height of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the Arabs for their new36 conquest encouraged the licence of their romantic spirit36. We may read, in the gravest authors, that Egypt was crowded with twenty thousand36 cities36 or villages; that, exclusive of the Greeks and Arabs, the Copts alone were found, on the assessment, six millions of tributary subjects, or twenty millions of either sex and of every age; that three hundred millions of gold or silver were annually paid to the treasury of the caliph. Our reason36 must be startled by these extravagant assertions; and they will become more palpable, if we assume the compass and measure the extent of habitable ground: a valley from the tropic to Memphis, seldom broader than twelve miles, and the triangle of the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand36 one hundred square leagues, compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of France. A more accurate research will justify a more reasonable estimate. The three hundred millions, created by the error of a scribe, are reduced to the decent revenue of four millions three hundred thousand36 pieces of gold, of which nine hundred thousand36 were consumed by the pay of the soldiers. Two authentic lists, of the present and of the twelfth century, are circumscribed within the respectable number of two thousand36 seven hundred villages and towns. After a long36 residence at Cairo, a French consul has ventured to assign about four millions of Mahometans, Christians, and Jews for the ample, though not incredible, scope of the population of Egypt.
IV. The conquest of Africa, from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, was first attempted by the arms30 of the caliph Othman. The pious design was approved by the companions of Mahomet and the chiefs of the tribes; and twenty thousand30 Arabs marched from Medina, with the gifts and the blessing of the commander of the faithful. They were joined in the camp30 of Memphis by twenty thousand30 of their countrymen; and the conduct of the war30 was entrusted to Abdallah, the son30 of Said, and the foster-brother of the caliph, who had lately supplanted the conqueror and lieutenant of Egypt. Yet the favour of the prince30 and the merit of his favourite could not obliterate the guilt of his apostasy. The early conversion of Abdallah and his skilful pen had recommended him to the important office of transcribing the sheets of the Koran; he betrayed his trust, corrupted the text, derided the errors which he had made, and fled to Mecca to escape the justice, and expose the ignorance, of the apostle. After the conquest of Mecca, he fell prostrate at the feet of Mahomet; his tears and the entreaties of Othman extorted a reluctant pardon; but the prophet declared that he had so long30 hesitated to allow time for some zealous disciple to avenge his injury in the blood of the apostate. With apparent fidelity and effective merit, he served the religion which it was no longer his interest to desert: his birth and talents gave him an honourable rank among the Koreish; and, in a nation of cavalry, Abdallah was renowned as the boldest and most dexterous horseman of Arabia. At the head30 of forty thousand30 Moslems, he advanced from Egypt into the unknown countries of the West. The sands of Barca might be impervious to a Roman30 legion; but the Arabs were attended by their faithful camels; and the natives of the desert beheld without terror the familiar aspect of the soil and climate. After a painful march, they pitched their tents before the walls30 of Tripoli, a maritime city30, in which the name, the wealth, and the inhabitants of the province had gradually centred, and which now maintains the third rank among the states of Barbary. A reinforcement of Greeks30 was surprised and cut in pieces on the sea-shore; but the fortifications of Tripoli resisted the first assaults; and the Saracens were tempted by the approach of the prefect Gregory to relinquish the labours of the siege30 for the perils and the hopes of a decisive action. If his standard30 was followed by one hundred and twenty thousand30 men, the regular bands of the empire30 must have been lost in the naked and disorderly crowd of Africans and Moors, who formed the strength, or rather the numbers, of his host. He rejected with indignation the option of the Koran or the tribute; and during several days30 the two armies were fiercely engaged from the dawn of light to the hour of noon, when their fatigue and the excessive heat compelled them to seek shelter and refreshment in their respective camps. The daughter of Gregory, a maid of incomparable beauty and spirit, is said to have fought by his side; from her earliest youth she was trained to mount on horseback, to draw the bow, and to wield the scymetar; and the richness of her arms30 and apparel was conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle30. Her hand, with an hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30, was offered for the head30 of the Arabian general30, and the youths of Africa were excited by the prospect of the glorious prize. At the pressing solicitation of his brethren, Abdallah withdrew his person from the field; but the Saracens were discouraged by the retreat of their leader and the repetition of these equal or unsuccessful conflicts.
A noble Arabian, who afterwards became the adversary of Ali and the father of a caliph, had signalised his valour in Egypt, and Zobeir was the first who planted the scaling-ladder against the walls30 of Babylon. In the African war30 he was detached from the standard30 of Abdallah. On the news of the battle30, Zobeir, with twelve companions, cut his way through the camp30 of the Greeks30, and pressed forwards, without tasting either food or repose, to partake of the dangers of his brethren. He cast his eyes round the field: Where, said he, is our general30? In his tent. Is the tent a station for the general30 of the Moslems? Abdallah represented with a blush the importance of his own life, and the temptation that was held forth by the Roman30 prefect. Retort, said Zobeir, on the infidels their ungenerous attempt. Proclaim through the ranks that the head30 of Gregory shall be repaid with his captive daughter and the equal sum of one hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30. To the courage and discretion of Zobeir the lieutenant of the caliph entrusted the execution of his own stratagem, which inclined the long30-disputed balance in favour of the Saracens. Supplying by activity and artifice the deficiency of numbers, a part of their forces lay concealed in their tents, while the remainder prolonged an irregular skirmish with the enemy30, till30 the sun was high in the heavens. On both sides they retired with fainting steps; their horses were unbridled, their armour was laid aside, and the hostile nations prepared, or seemed to prepare, for the refreshment of the evening and the encounter of the ensuing day30. On a sudden, the charge was sounded; the Arabian camp30 poured forth a swarm of fresh and intrepid warriors; and the long30 line of the Greeks30 and Africans was surprised, assaulted, overturned by new30 squadrons of the faithful, who, to the eye of fanaticism, might appear as a band of angels descending from the sky. The prefect himself was slain by the hand of Zobeir: his daughter, who sought revenge and death30, was surrounded and made prisoner; and the fugitives involved in their disaster the town of Sufetula, to which they escaped from the sabres and lances of the Arabs. Sufetula was built one hundred and fifty miles to the south of Carthage: a gentle declivity is watered by a running stream, and shaded by a grove of Juniper trees; and, in the ruins of a triumphal arch, a portico, and three temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity may yet admire the magnificence of the Romans. After the fall of this opulent city30, the provincials and Barbarians implored on all sides the mercy of the conqueror. His vanity or his zeal might be flattered by offers of tribute or professions of faith; but his losses, his fatigues, and the progress of an epidemical disease prevented a solid establishment; and the Saracens, after a campaign of fifteen months, retreated to the confines of Egypt, with the captives and the wealth of their African expedition. The caliph's fifth was granted to a favourite, on the nominal payment of five hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30; but the state was doubly injured by this fallacious transaction, if each foot-soldier had shared one thousand30, and each horseman three thousand30, pieces in the real division of the plunder. The author of the death30 of Gregory was expected to have claimed the most precious reward of the victory30: from his silence it might be presumed that he had fallen in the battle30, till30 the tears and exclamations of the prefect's daughter at the sight of Zobeir revealed the valour and modesty of that gallant soldier. The unfortunate virgin was offered, and almost rejected, as a slave, by her father's murderer, who coolly declared that his sword30 was consecrated to the service30 of religion; and that he laboured for a recompense far above the charms of mortal beauty or the riches of this transitory life. A reward congenial to his temper was the honourable commission of announcing to the caliph Othman the success of his arms30. The companions, the chiefs, and the people30 were assembled in the mosch of Medina, to hear the interesting narrative of Zobeir; and, as the orator forgot nothing except the merit of his own counsels and actions, the name of Abdallah was joined by the Arabians with the heroic names of Caled and Amrou.
The Western conquests of the Saracens were suspended near twenty years, till their dissensions were composed by the establishment of the house of Ommiyah; and the caliph Moawiyah was invited by the cries of the Africans themselves. The successors of Heraclius had been informed of the tribute which they had been compelled to stipulate with the Arabs; but, instead of being moved to pity and relieve their distress, they imposed, as an equivalent or a fine, a second tribute of a similar amount. The ears of the Byzantine ministers were shut against the complaints of their poverty and ruin; their despair was reduced to prefer the dominion of a single master; and the extortions of the patriarch of Carthage, who was invested with civil and military power, provoked the sectaries, and even the Catholics, of the Roman9 province9 to abjure the religion as well as the authority of their tyrants. The first lieutenant of Moawiyah acquired a just renown, subdued an important city9, defeated an army9 of thirty thousand9 Greeks, swept away fourscore thousand9 captives, and enriched with their spoils the bold adventurers of Syria and Egypt. But the title of conqueror of Africa9 is more justly due to his successor Akbah. He marched from Damascus at the head of ten thousand9 of the bravest Arabs; and the genuine force of the Moslems was enlarged by the doubtful aid and conversion of many thousand9 Barbarians9. It would be difficult, nor is it necessary, to trace the accurate line of the progress of Akbah. The interior regions have been peopled by the Orientals with fictitious armies and imaginary citadels. In the warlike province9 of Zab or Numidia, fourscore thousand9 of the natives might assemble in arms9; but the number of three hundred and sixty towns is incompatible with the ignorance or decay of husbandry; and a circumference of three leagues will not be justified by the ruins of Erbe or Lambesa, the ancient9 metropolis of that inland country9. As we approach the sea9-coast9 the well-known cities9 of Bugia and Tangier define the more certain limits of the Saracen victories. A remnant of trade still adheres to the commodious harbour of Bugia, which, in a more prosperous age, is said to have contained about twenty thousand9 houses; and the plenty of iron, which is dug from the adjacent mountains9, might have supplied a braver people with the instruments of defence. The remote position and venerable antiquity of Tingi, or Tangier, have been decorated by the Greek and Arabian fables; but the figurative expressions of the latter, that the walls9 were constructed of brass, and that the roofs were covered with gold and silver, may be interpreted as the emblems of strength and opulence. The province9 of Mauritania Tingitana, which assumed the name of the capital9, had been imperfectly discovered and settled by the Romans9; the five colonies were confined to a narrow pale, and the more southern parts were seldom explored except by the agents of luxury, who searched the forests for ivory and the citron-wood, and the shores of the ocean9 for the purple shell-fish. The fearless Akbah plunged into the heart of the country9, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fez and Morocco, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great9 desert. The river9 Sus descends from the western sides of Mount Atlas, fertilises, like the Nile, the adjacent soil, and falls into the sea9 at a moderate distance from the Canary, or Fortunate, islands. Its banks9 were inhabited by the last of the Moors, a race of savages, without laws, or discipline, or religion: they were astonished by the strange and irresistible terrors of the Oriental arms9; and, as they possessed neither gold nor silver, the richest spoil was the beauty of the female captives, some of whom were afterwards sold for a thousand9 pieces of gold. The career, though not the zeal, of Akbah was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean9. He spurred his horse into the waves, and, raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed with the tone of a fanatic: Great9 God! if my course were not stopped by this sea9, I would still go on, to the unknown kingdoms of the West9, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword the rebellious nations9 who worship any other gods than thee. Yet this Mahometan Alexander, who sighed for new9 worlds, was unable to preserve his recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks and Africans, he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic, and the surrounding multitudes left him only the resource of an honourable death. The last scene was dignified by an example of national virtue. An ambitious chief, who had disputed the command and failed in the attempt, was led about as a prisoner in the camp9 of the Arabian general. The insurgents had trusted to his discontent and revenge; he disdained their offers, and revealed their designs. In the hour of danger the grateful Akbah unlocked his fetters and advised him to retire; he chose to die under the banner of his rival. Embracing as friends and martyrs, they unsheathed their scymetars, broke their scabbards, and maintained an obstinate combat, till they fell by each other's side on the last of their slaughtered countrymen. The third general or governor of Africa9, Zuheir, avenged and encountered the fate of his predecessor. He vanquished the natives in many battles; he was overthrown by a powerful army9 which Constantinople had sent to the relief of Carthage.
It had been the frequent practice of the Moorish tribes to join the invaders, to share the plunder, to profess the faith, and to revolt to their savage state24 of independence and idolatry on the first retreat or misfortune of the Moslems. The prudence of Akbah had proposed to found an Arabian24 colony in the heart of Africa24: a citadel that might curb the levity of the Barbarians, a place of refuge to secure, against the accidents of war, the wealth and the families of the Saracens24. With this view, and under the modest title of the station of a caravan, he planted this colony in the fiftieth year of the Hegira. In its present decay, Cairoan still holds the second rank in the kingdom of Tunis, from which it is distant about fifty miles to the south: its inland situation, twelve miles westward of the sea24, has protected the city24 from the Greek24 and Sicilian fleets. When the wild beasts and serpents were extirpated, when the forest, or rather wilderness, was cleared, the vestiges of a Roman24 town were discovered in a sandy plain; the vegetable food of Cairoan is brought from afar; and the scarcity of springs constrains the inhabitants to collect in cisterns and reservoirs a precarious supply of rain-water. These obstacles were subdued by the industry of Akbah: he traced a circumference of three thousand24 and six hundred paces, which he encompassed with a brick wall; in the space of five years24, the governor's palace24 was surrounded with a sufficient number of private habitations; a spacious mosch was supported by five hundred columns of granite, porphyry, and Numidian marble; and Cairoan became the seat of learning as well as of empire24. But these were the glories of a later age24; the new24 colony was shaken by the successive defeats of Akbah and Zuheir, and the Western expeditions were again interrupted by the civil discord of the Arabian24 monarchy. The son24 of the valiant Zobeir maintained a war of twelve years24, a siege of seven months, against the house of Ommiyah. Abdallah was said to unite the fierceness of the lion with the subtlety of the fox; but, if he inherited the courage, he was devoid of the generosity, of his father.
The return of domestic peace allowed the caliph Abdalmalek to resume the conquest of Africa; the standard30 was delivered to Hassan governor of Egypt, and the revenue of that kingdom, with an army30 of forty thousand30 men, was consecrated to the important service30. In the vicissitudes of war30, the interior provinces had been alternately won and lost by the Saracens. But the sea-coast still remained in the hands of the Greeks30; the predecessors of Hassan had respected the name and fortifications of Carthage; and the number of its defenders was recruited by the fugitives of Cabes and Tripoli. The arms30 of Hassan were bolder and more fortunate; he reduced and pillaged the metropolis of Africa; and the mention of scaling-ladders may justify the suspicion that he anticipated, by a sudden assault, the more tedious operations of a regular siege30. But the joy of the conquerors was soon30 disturbed by the appearance of the Christian succours. The prefect and patrician John, a general30 of experience and renown, embarked at Constantinople30 the forces of the Eastern empire30; they were joined by the ships and soldiers30 of Sicily, and a powerful reinforcement of Goths was obtained from the fears and religion of the Spanish monarch. The weight of the confederate navy broke the chain that guarded the entrance of the harbour; the Arabs retired to Cairoan, or Tripoli; the Christians landed; the citizens hailed the ensign of the cross, and the winter was idly wasted in the dream of victory30 or deliverance. But Africa was irrecoverably lost: the zeal and resentment of the commander of the faithful prepared in the ensuing spring a more numerous armament by sea and land; and the patrician in his turn was compelled to evacuate the post and fortifications of Carthage. A second30 battle30 was fought in the neighbourhood of Utica: the Greeks30 and Goths were again defeated; and their timely embarkation saved them from the sword30 of Hassan, who had invested the slight and insufficient rampart of their camp30. Whatever yet remained of Carthage was delivered to the flames, and the colony of Dido and Caesar lay desolate above two hundred years30, till30 a part, perhaps a twentieth, of the old circumference was repeopled by the first of the Fatimite caliphs. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the second30 capital of the West was represented by a mosch, a college without students, twenty-five or thirty shops, and the huts of five hundred peasants, who, in their abject poverty, displayed the arrogance of the Punic senators. Even that paltry village was swept away by the Spaniards whom Charles the Fifth had stationed in the fortress of the Goletta. The ruins of Carthage have perished; and the place might be unknown, if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the inquisitive traveller.
The Greeks24 were expelled, but the Arabians were not yet masters of the country. In the interior provinces, the Moors or Berbers, so feeble under the first Caesars, so formidable to the Byzantine princes, maintained a disorderly resistance to the religion24 and power of the successors of Mahomet24. Under the standard of their queen Cahina the independent tribes acquired some degree of union and discipline; and, as the Moors respected in their females the character of a prophetess, they attacked the invaders with an enthusiasm similar to their own. The veteran bands of Hassan were inadequate to the defence of Africa24; the conquests of an age24 were lost in a single day, and the Arabian24 chief, overwhelmed by the torrent, retired to the confines of Egypt24, and expected, five years24, the promised succours of the caliph24. After the retreat of the Saracens24, the victorious prophetess assembled the Moorish chiefs, and recommended a measure of strange and savage policy. Our cities, said she, and the gold24 and silver which they contain, perpetually attract the arms of the Arabs24. These vile metals are not the objects of our ambition; we content ourselves with the simple productions of the earth. Let us destroy these cities; let us bury in their ruins those pernicious treasures; and, when the avarice of our foes shall be destitute of temptation, perhaps they will cease to disturb the tranquillity of a warlike people24. The proposal was accepted with unanimous applause. From Tangier to Tripoli the buildings, or at least the fortifications, were demolished, the fruit-trees were cut down, the means of subsistence were extirpated, a fertile and populous garden was changed into a desert, and the historians of a more recent period could discern the frequent traces of the prosperity and devastation of their ancestors. Such is the tale of the modern Arabians. Yet I strongly suspect that their ignorance of antiquity, the love of the marvellous, and the fashion of extolling the philosophy of Barbarians has induced them to describe, as one voluntary act, the calamities of three hundred years24 since the first fury of the Donatists and Vandals. In the progress of the revolt Cahina had most probably contributed her share of destruction; and the alarm of universal ruin might terrify and alienate the cities that had reluctantly yielded to her unworthy yoke. They no longer hoped, perhaps they no longer wished, the return of their Byzantine sovereigns: their present servitude was not alleviated by the benefits of order and justice; and the most zealous Catholic must prefer the imperfect truths of the Koran to the blind and rude idolatry of the Moors. The general of the Saracens24 was again received as the saviour of the province; the friends of civil society conspired against the savages of the land; and the royal24 prophetess was slain in the first battle, which overturned the baseless fabric of her superstition and empire24. The same spirit revived under the successor of Hassan; it was finally quelled by the activity of Musa and his two sons; but the number of the rebels may be presumed from that of three hundred thousand24 captives; sixty thousand24 of whom, the caliph24's fifth, were sold for the profit of the public treasury. Thirty thousand24 of the Barbarian youth were enlisted in the troops; and the pious labours of Musa, to inculcate the knowledge and practice of the Koran, accustomed the Africans to obey the apostle of God and the commander of the faithful24. In their climate and government24, their diet and habitation, the wandering Moors resembled the Bedoweens of the desert. With the religion24, they were proud to adopt the language, name, and origin of Arabs24; the blood of the strangers and natives was insensibly mingled; and from the Euphrates to the Atlantic the same nation might seem to be diffused over the sandy plains of Asia24 and Africa24. Yet I will not deny that fifty thousand24 tents of pure Arabians might be transported over the Nile24, and scattered through the Libyan desert; and I am not ignorant that five of the Moorish tribes still retain their Barbarous idiom, with the appellation and character of white Africans.
V. In the progress of conquest9 from the north9 and south, the Goths9 and the Saracens encountered each other on the confines of Europe9 and Africa9. In the opinion of the latter, the difference of religion is a reasonable ground of enmity and warfare.
As early as the time of Othman their piratical squadrons had ravaged the coast of Andalusia; nor had they forgotten the relief of Carthage by the Gothic succours. In that age, as well as in the present, the kings of Spain49 were possessed of the fortress of Ceuta: one of the columns of Hercules, which is divided by a narrow strait from the opposite pillar or point of Europe49. A small portion of Mauritania was still wanting to the African conquest; but Musa, in the pride of victory49, was repulsed from the walls49 of Ceuta by the vigilance and courage of Count Julian, the general49 of the Goths. From his disappointment and perplexity Musa was relieved by an unexpected message of the Christian chief, who offered his place, his person, and his sword to the successors of Mahomet, and solicited the disgraceful honour of introducing their arms49 into the heart of Spain49. If we inquire into the cause of his treachery, the Spaniards will repeat the popular story of his daughter Cava; of a virgin who was seduced, or ravished, by her sovereign; of a father who sacrificed his religion and country49 to the thirst of revenge. The passions of princes have often been licentious and destructive; but this well-known tale, romantic in itself, is indifferently supported by external evidence; and the history of Spain49 will suggest some motives of interest and policy, more congenial to the breast of a veteran statesman. After the decease or deposition of Witiza, his two sons were supplanted by the ambition49 of Roderic, a noble Goth, whose father, the duke or governor of a province, had fallen a victim to the preceding tyranny. The monarchy was still elective; but the sons of Witiza, educated on the steps of the throne, were impatient of a private station. Their resentment was the more dangerous, as it was varnished with the dissimulation of courts; their followers were excited by the remembrance of favours and the promise of a revolution; and their uncle Oppas, archbishop of Toledo and Seville, was the first person in the church, and the second49 in the state. It is probable that Julian was involved in the disgrace of the unsuccessful faction; that he had little to hope and much to fear from the new reign; and that the imprudent king49 could not forget or forgive the injuries which Roderic and his family had sustained. The merit and influence of the count rendered him an useful or formidable subject; his estates were ample, his followers bold and numerous; and it was too fatally shewn that, by his Andalusian and Mauritanian commands, he held in his hand the keys of the Spanish monarchy. Too feeble, however, to meet his sovereign in arms49, he sought the aid of a foreign power; and his rash invitation of the Moors and Arabs produced the calamities of eight hundred years. In his epistles, or in a personal interview, he revealed the wealth and nakedness of his country49; the weakness of an unpopular prince; the degeneracy of an effeminate people. The Goths were no longer the victorious Barbarians who had humbled the pride of Rome, despoiled the queen of nations, and penetrated from the Danube to the Atlantic ocean. Secluded from the world by the Pyrenean mountains, the successors of Alaric had slumbered in a long peace; the walls49 of the cities were mouldered into dust; the youth had abandoned the exercise of arms49; and the presumption of their ancient renown would expose them in a field of battle49 to the first assault49 of the invaders. The ambitious Saracen was fired by the ease and importance of the attempt; but the execution was delayed till he had consulted the commander of the faithful; and his messenger returned with the permission of Walid to annex the unknown kingdoms of the West to the religion and throne of the caliphs. In his residence of Tangier, Musa, with secrecy and caution, continued his correspondence and hastened his preparations. But the remorse of the conspirators was soothed by the fallacious assurance that he should content himself with the glory and spoil, without aspiring to establish the Moslems beyond the sea49 that separates Africa from Europe49.
Before Musa would trust an army30 of the faithful to the traitors and infidels of a foreign land, he made a less dangerous trial of their strength and veracity. One hundred Arabs, and four hundred Africans, passed over, in four vessels, from Tangier or Ceuta; the place of their descent on the opposite shore of the strait is marked by the name of Tarif their chief; and the date of this memorable event is fixed to the month of Ramadan, of the ninety-first year of the Hegira, to the month of July, seven hundred and forty-eight years30 from the Spanish era of Caesar, seven hundred and ten after the birth of Christ. From their first station, they marched eighteen miles through an hilly country to the castle and town of Julian; on which (it is still called Algezire) they bestowed the name of the Green Island, from a verdant cape that advances into the sea. Their hospitable entertainment, the Christians who joined their standard30, their inroad into a fertile and unguarded province, the richness of their spoil and the safety of their return, announced to their brethren the most favourable omens of victory30. In the ensuing spring, five thousand30 veterans and volunteers were embarked under the command of Tarik, a dauntless and skilful soldier, who surpassed the expectation of his chief; and the necessary transports were provided by the industry of their too faithful ally. The Saracens landed at the pillar or point of Europe; the corrupt and familiar appellation of Gibraltar (Gebel al Tarik) describes the mountain of Tarik; and the intrenchments of his camp30 were the first outline of those fortifications which, in the hands of our countrymen, have resisted the art and power of the house of Bourbon. The adjacent governors informed the court of Toledo of the descent and progress of the Arabs; and the defeat of his lieutenant Edeco, who had been commanded to seize and bind the presumptuous strangers, admonished Roderic of the magnitude of the danger. At the royal30 summons the dukes and counts, the bishops and nobles of the Gothic monarchy, assembled at the head30 of their followers; and the title of King30 of the Romans, which is employed by an Arabic historian, may be excused by the close affinity of language, religion, and manners, between the nations of Spain. His army30 consisted of ninety or an hundred thousand30 men: a formidable power, if their fidelity and discipline had been adequate to their numbers. The troops30 of Tarik had been augmented to twelve thousand30 Saracens; but the Christian malcontents were attracted by the influence of Julian, and a crowd of Africans most greedily tasted the temporal blessings of the Koran. In the neighbourhood of Cadiz, the town of Xeres has been illustrated by the encounter which determined the fate of the kingdom; the stream of the Guadalete, which falls into the bay, divided the two camps, and marked the advancing and retreating skirmishes of three successive and bloody days30. On the fourth day30 the two armies joined a more serious and decisive issue; but Alaric would have blushed at the sight of his unworthy successor, sustaining on his head30 a diadem of pearls, encumbered with a flowing robe of gold30 and silken embroidery, and reclining on a litter or car of ivory, drawn by two white mules. Notwithstanding the valour of the Saracens, they fainted under the weight of multitudes, and the plain of Xeres was overspread with sixteen thousand30 of their dead bodies. My brethren, said Tarik to his surviving companions, the enemy30 is before you, the sea is behind; whither would ye fly? Follow your general30: I am resolved either to lose my life or to trample on the prostrate king30 of the Romans. Besides the resource of despair, he confided in the secret correspondence and nocturnal interviews of Count Julian with the sons and the brother of Witiza. The two princes and the archbishop of Toledo occupied the most important post; their well-timed defection broke the ranks of the Christians; each warrior was prompted by fear or suspicion to consult his personal safety; and the remains of the Gothic army30 were scattered or destroyed in the flight and pursuit of the three following days30. Amidst the general30 disorder, Roderic started from his car, and mounted Orelia, the fleetest of his horses; but he escaped from a soldier's death30 to perish more ignobly in the waters of the Baetis or Guadalquivir. His diadem, his robes, and his courser were found on the bank; but, as the body of the Gothic prince30 was lost in the waves, the pride and ignorance of the caliph must have been gratified with some meaner head30, which was exposed in triumph before the palace30 of Damascus. And such, continues a valiant historian of the Arabs, is the fate of those kings who withdraw themselves from a field of battle30.
Count Julian had plunged so deep into guilt and infamy that his only hope was in the ruin of his country. After the battle of Xeres he recommended the most effectual measures to the victorious Saracen. The king of the Goths is slain; their princes have fled before you, the army is routed, the nation is astonished. Secure with sufficient detachments the cities of Baetica; but in person, and without delay, march to the royal24 city24 of Toledo, and allow not the distracted Christians24 either time or tranquillity for the election of a new24 monarch. Tarik listened to his advice. A Roman24 captive and proselyte, who had been enfranchised by the caliph24 himself, assaulted Cordova with seven hundred horse; he swam the river, surprised the town, and drove the Christians24 into the great24 church, where they defended themselves above three months. Another detachment reduced the sea24-coast of Baetica, which in the last period of the Moorish power has comprised in a narrow space the populous kingdom of Grenada. The march of Tarik from the Baetis to the Tagus was directed through the Sierra Morena, that separates Andalusia and Castile till24 he appeared in arms under the walls of Toledo. The most zealous of the Catholics had escaped with the relics of their saints; and, if the gates were shut, it was only till24 the victor had subscribed a fair and reasonable capitulation. The voluntary exiles were allowed to depart with their effects; seven churches were appropriated to the Christian worship; the archbishop and his clergy were at liberty to exercise their functions, the monks to practise or neglect their penance; and the Goths and Romans were left in all civil and criminal cases to the subordinate jurisdiction of their own laws and magistrates. But, if the justice of Tarik protected the Christians24, his gratitude and policy rewarded the Jews, to whose secret or open aid he was indebted for his most important acquisitions. Persecuted by the kings and synods of Spain, who had often pressed the alternative of banishment or baptism, that outcast nation embraced the moment of revenge; the comparison of their past and present state24 was the pledge of their fidelity; and the alliance between the disciples of Moses and of Mahomet24 was maintained till24 the final era of their common expulsion. From the royal24 seat of Toledo, the Arabian24 leader spread his conquests to the north, over the modern realms of Castile and Leon; but it is needless to enumerate the cities that yielded on his approach, or again to describe the table of emerald, transported from the East24 by the Romans, acquired by the Goths among the spoils of Rome, and presented by the Arabs24 to the throne24 of Damascus. Beyond the Asturian mountains, the maritime town of Gijon was the term of the lieutenant of Musa, who had performed, with the speed of a traveller, his victorious march, of seven hundred miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to the bay of Biscay. The failure of land compelled him to retreat; and he was recalled to Toledo, to excuse his presumption of subduing a kingdom in the absence of his general. Spain, which, in a more savage and disorderly state24, had resisted, two hundred years24, the arms of the Romans, was overrun in a few months by those of the Saracens24; and such was the eagerness of submission and treaty that the governor of Cordova is recorded as the only chief who fell, without conditions, a prisoner into their hands. The cause of the Goths had been irrevocably judged in the field of Xeres; and, in the national dismay, each part of the monarchy declined a contest with the antagonist who had vanquished the united strength of the whole. That strength had been wasted by two successive seasons of famine and pestilence; and the governors, who were impatient to surrender, might exaggerate the difficulty of collecting the provisions of a siege. To disarm the Christians24, superstition likewise contributed her terrors; and the subtle Arab encouraged the report of dreams, omens, and prophecies, and of the portraits of the destined conquerors of Spain, that were discovered on breaking open an apartment of the royal24 palace24. Yet a spark of the vital flame was still alive; some invincible fugitives preferred a life24 of poverty and freedom in the Asturian valleys; the hardy mountaineers repulsed the slaves of the caliph24; and the sword of Pelagius has been transformed into the sceptre of the Catholic kings.
On the intelligence of this rapid success, the applause of Musa degenerated into envy; and he began, not to complain, but to fear, that Tarik would leave him nothing to subdue. At the head of ten thousand24 Arabs24 and eight thousand24 Africans, he passed over in person from Mauritania to Spain; the first of his companions were the noblest of the Koreish; his eldest son24 was left in the command of Africa24; the three younger brethren were of an age24 and spirit to second the boldest enterprises of their father. At his landing in Algezire, he was respectfully entertained by Count Julian, who stifled his inward remorse, and testified, both in words and actions, that the victory of the Arabs24 had not impaired his attachment to their cause. Some enemies yet remained for the sword of Musa. The tardy repentance of the Goths had compared their own numbers and those of the invaders; the cities from which the march of Tarik had declined considered themselves as impregnable; and the bravest patriots defended the fortifications of Seville and Merida. They were successively besieged and reduced by the labour of Musa, who transported his camp from the Baetis to the Anas, from the Guadalquivir to the Guadiana. When he beheld the works of Roman24 magnificence, the bridge, the aqueducts, the triumphal arches, and the theatre of the ancient metropolis of Lusitania, I should imagine, said he to his four companions, that the human race24 must have united their art and power in the foundation of this city24; happy is the man who shall become its master! He aspired to that happiness, but the Emeritans sustained on this occasion the honour of their descent from the veteran legionaries of Augustus. Disdaining the confinement of their walls, they gave battle to the Arabs24 on the plain; but an ambuscade rising from the shelter of a quarry, or a ruin, chastised their indiscretion and intercepted their return. The wooden turrets of assault were rolled forwards to the foot of the rampart; but the defence of Merida was obstinate and long; and the castle of the martyrs was a perpetual testimony of the losses of the Moslems. The constancy of the besieged was at length subdued by famine and despair; and the prudent victor disguised his impatience under the names of clemency and esteem. The alternative of exile or tribute24 was allowed; the churches were divided between the two religions; and the wealth of those who had fallen in the siege, or retired to Gallicia, was confiscated as the reward of the faithful24. In the midway between Merida and Toledo, the lieutenant of Musa saluted the vicegerent of the caliph24, and conducted him to the palace24 of the Gothic kings. Their first interview was cold and formal; a rigid account was exacted of the treasures of Spain; the character of Tarik was exposed to suspicion and obloquy; and the hero was imprisoned, reviled, and ignominiously scourged by the hand or the command of Musa. Yet so strict was the discipline, so pure the zeal, or so tame the spirit of the primitive Moslems that, after this public indignity, Tarik could serve and be trusted in the reduction of the Tarragonese province. A mosch was erected at Saragossa, by the liberality of the Koreish; the port of Barcelona was opened to the vessels of Syria24; and the Goths were pursued beyond the Pyrenean mountains into their Gallic province of Septimania or Languedoc. In the church of St. Mary at Carcassonne, Musa found, but it is improbable that he left, seven equestrian statues of massy silver; and from his term or column of Narbonne he returned on his footsteps to the Gallician and Lusitanian shores of the ocean. During the absence of the father, his son24 Abdelaziz chastised the insurgents of Seville, and reduced, from Malaga to Valentia, the sea24-coast of the Mediterranean: his original treaty with the discreet and valiant Theodemir will represent the manners and policy of the times. The conditions of peace agreed and sworn between Abdelaziz, the son24 of Musa, the son24 of Nassir, and Theodemir, prince of the Goths. In the name of the most merciful God, Abdelaziz makes peace on these conditions: That Theodemir shall not be disturbed in his principality; nor any injury be offered to the life24 or property, the wives and children, the religion24 and temples, of the Christians24: That Theodemir shall freely deliver his seven cities, Orihuela, Valentola, Alicant, Mola, Vacasora, Bigerra (now Bejar), Ora (or Opta), and Lorca: That he shall not assist or entertain the enemies of the caliph24, but shall faithfully communicate his knowledge of their hostile designs: That himself, and each of the Gothic nobles, shall annually pay one piece of gold24, four measures of wheat, as many of barley, with a certain proportion of honey, oil, and vinegar; and that each of their vassals shall be taxed at one moiety of the said imposition. Given the fourth of Regeb, in the year of the Hegira ninety-four, and subscribed with the names of four Musulman witnesses. Theodemir and his subjects were treated with uncommon lenity; but the rate of tribute24 appears to have fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth, according to the submission or obstinacy of the Christians24. In this revolution, many partial calamities were inflicted by the carnal or religious passions of the enthusiasts; some churches were profaned by the new24 worship; some relics or images were confounded with idols; the rebels were put to the sword; and one town (an obscure place between Cordova and Seville) was razed to its foundations. Yet, if we compare the invasion of Spain by the Goths, or its recovery by the kings of Castile and Arragon, we must applaud the moderation and discipline of the Arabian24 conquerors.
The exploits of Musa were performed in the evening of life24, though he affected to disguise his age24 by colouring with a red powder the whiteness of his beard. But in the love of action and glory his breast was still fired with the ardour of youth; and the possession of Spain was considered only as the first step to the monarchy of Europe24. With a powerful armament by sea24 and land, he was preparing to repass the Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and Italy the declining kingdoms of the Franks and Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of the Vatican. From thence, subduing the Barbarians of Germany, he proposed to follow the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea24, to overthrow the Greek24 or Roman24 empire24 of Constantinople24, and, returning from Europe24 to Asia24, to unite his new24 acquisitions with Antioch and the provinces of Syria24. But his vast enterprise, perhaps of easy execution, must have seemed extravagant to vulgar minds; and the visionary conqueror was soon reminded of his dependence and servitude. The friends of Tarik had effectually stated his services and wrongs: at the court of Damascus, the proceedings of Musa were blamed, his intentions were suspected, and his delay in complying with the first invitation was chastised by an harsher and more peremptory summons. An intrepid messenger of the caliph24 entered his camp at Lugo in Gallicia, and in the presence of the Saracens24 and Christians24 arrested the bridle of his horse. His own loyalty, or that of his troops, inculcated the duty of obedience; and his disgrace was alleviated by the recall of his rival, and the permission of investing with his two governments his two sons, Abdallah and Abdelaziz. His long triumph from Ceuta to Damascus displayed the spoils of Africa24 and the treasures of Spain; four hundred Gothic nobles, with gold24 coronets and girdles, were distinguished in his train: and the number of male and female captives, selected for their birth or beauty, was computed at eighteen, or even at thirty, thousand24 persons. As soon as he reached Tiberias in Palestine, he was apprised of the sickness and danger of the caliph24, by a private message from Soliman, his brother and presumptive heir; who wished to reserve for his own reign24 the spectacle of victory. Had Walid recovered, the delay of Musa would have been criminal: he pursued his march, and found an enemy on the throne24. In his trial before a partial judge, against a popular antagonist, he was convicted of vanity and falsehood; and a fine of two hundred thousand24 pieces24 of gold24 either exhausted his poverty or proved his rapaciousness. The unworthy treatment of Tarik was revenged by a similar indignity; and the veteran commander, after a public whipping, stood a whole day in the sun before the palace24 gate, till24 he obtained a decent exile, under the pious name of a pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of the caliph24 might have been satiated with the ruin of Musa; but his fears demanded the extirpation of a potent and injured family. A sentence of death24 was intimated with secrecy and speed to the trusty servants of the throne24 both in Africa24 and Spain; and the forms, if not the substance, of justice were superseded in this bloody execution. In the mosch or palace24 of Cordova, Abdelaziz was slain by the swords of the conspirators; they accused their governor of claiming the honours of royalty; and his scandalous marriage with Egilona, the widow of Roderic, offended the prejudices both of the Christians24 and Moslems. By a refinement of cruelty, the head of the son24 was presented to the father, with an insulting question, whether he acknowledged the features of the rebel? I know his features, he exclaimed with indignation: I assert his innocence; and I imprecate the same, a juster fate, against the authors of his death24. The age24 and despair of Musa raised him above the power of kings; and he expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken heart. His rival was more favourably treated; his services were forgiven; and Tarik was permitted to mingle with the crowd of slaves. I am ignorant whether Count Julian was rewarded with the death24 which he deserved indeed, though not from the hands of the Saracens24; but the tale of their ingratitude to the sons of Witiza is disproved by the most unquestionable evidence. The two royal24 youths were reinstated in the private patrimony of their father; but on the decease of Eba the elder, his daughter was unjustly despoiled of her portion by the violence of her uncle Sigebut. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause before the caliph24 Hashem, and obtained the restitution of her inheritance; but she was given in marriage to a noble Arabian24, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, were received in Spain with the consideration that was due to their origin and riches.
A province is assimilated to the victorious state24 by the introduction of strangers and the imitative spirit of the natives; and Spain, which had been successively tinctured with Punic, and Roman24, and Gothic blood, imbibed, in a few generations, the name and manners of the Arabs24. The first conquerors, and the twenty successive lieutenants of the caliphs24, were attended by a numerous train of civil and military followers, who preferred a distant fortune to a narrow home; the private and public interest was promoted by the establishment of faithful24 colonies; and the cities of Spain were proud to commemorate the tribe or country of their Eastern progenitors. The victorious though motley bands of Tarik and Musa asserted, by the name of Spaniards, their original claim of conquest24; yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt24 to share their establishments of Murcia and Lisbon. The royal24 legion of Damascus was planted at Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or Chalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered round Toledo and the inland country; and the fertile seats of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand24 horsemen of Syria24 and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble of the Arabian24 tribes. A spirit of emulation, sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions. Ten years24 after the conquest24, a map of the province was presented to the caliph24: the seas, the rivers, and the harbours, the inhabitants and cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth. In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by the agriculture, the manufactures, and the commerce of an industrious people24; and the effects of their diligence have been magnified by the idleness of their fancy. The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain solicited the support of the Christians24; and, in his edict of peace and protection, he contents himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand24 ounces of gold24, ten thousand24 pounds of silver, ten thousand24 horses, as many mules, one thousand24 cuirasses, with an equal number of helmets and lances. The most powerful of his successors derived from the same kingdom the annual24 tribute24 of twelve millions and forty-five thousand24 dinars or pieces24 of gold24, about six millions of sterling money: a sum which, in the tenth century, most probably surpassed the united revenues of the Christian monarchs. His royal24 seat of Cordova contained six hundred moschs, nine hundred baths, and two hundred thousand24 houses: he gave laws to eighty cities of the first, to three hundred of the second and third order; and the fertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousand24 villages and hamlets. The Arabs24 might exaggerate the truth, but they created and they describe the most prosperous era of the riches, the cultivation, and the populousness of Spain.
The wars of the Moslems were sanctified by the prophet; but, among the various precepts and examples of his life, the caliphs selected the lessons of toleration that might tend to disarm the resistance of the unbelievers. Arabia was the temple and patrimony of the God7 of Mahomet; but he beheld with less jealousy and affection the nations of the earth7. The polytheists and idolaters who were ignorant of his name might be lawfully extirpated by his votaries; but a wise policy supplied the obligation of justice; and, after some acts of intolerant zeal7, the Mahometan conquerors of Hindostan have spared the pagods of that devout7 and populous country. The disciples7 of Abraham, of Moses7, and of Jesus7 were solemnly invited to accept the more perfect7 revelation of Mahomet; but, if they preferred the payment of a moderate tribute, they were entitled to the freedom of conscience and religious worship7. In a field of battle, the forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the profession of Islam; the females were bound to embrace the religion7 of their masters, and a race of sincere proselytes was gradually multiplied by the education of the infant captives. But the millions of African and Asiatic converts, who swelled the native band of the faithful Arabs, must have been allured, rather than constrained, to declare their belief7 in one God7 and the apostle of God7. By the repetition of a sentence and the loss of a foreskin, the subject or the slave, the captive or the criminal, arose in a moment the free and equal companion of the victorious Moslems. Every sin was expiated, every engagement was dissolved: the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence of nature7; the active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened by the trumpet of the Saracens; and, in the convulsion of the world, every member of a new7 society ascended to the natural level of his capacity and courage. The minds of the multitude were tempted by the invisible as well as temporal7 blessings of the Arabian prophet; and charity will hope that many of his proselytes entertained a serious conviction of the truth7 and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes of an inquisitive polytheist, it must appear worthy of the human7 and the divine7 nature7. More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than the law7 of Moses7, the religion7 of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent with reason7 than the creed7 of mystery and superstition7 which, in the seventh century7, disgraced the simplicity of the gospel7.
In the extensive provinces43 of Persia43 and Africa, the national43 religion has been eradicated by the Mahometan faith. The ambiguous theology of the Magi stood alone among the sects of the East: but the profane writings of Zoroaster might, under the reverend name of Abraham, be dexterously connected with the chain of divine revelation. Their evil principle, the demon Ahriman, might be represented as the rival, or as the creature, of the God of light. The temples of Persia43 were devoid of images; but the worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatised as a gross and criminal idolatry. The milder sentiment was consecrated by the practice of Mahomet and the prudence of the caliphs; the Magians, or Ghebers, were ranked with the Jews and Christians among the people43 of the written law; and, as late as the third century of the Hegira, the city43 of Herat will afford a lively contrast of private zeal and public43 toleration. Under the payment of an annual tribute, the Mahometan law secured to the Ghebers of Herat their civil and religious liberties; but the recent and humble mosch was overshadowed by the antique splendour of the adjoining temple of fire. A fanatic Imam deplored, in his sermons, the scandalous neighbourhood, and accused the weakness or indifference of the faithful. Excited by his voice, the people43 assembled in tumult; the two houses of prayer were consumed by the flames, but the vacant ground was immediately occupied by the foundations of a new mosch. The injured Magi appealed to the sovereign of Chorasan; he promised justice and relief; when, behold! four thousand43 citizens of Herat, of a grave character and mature age43, unanimously swore that the idolatrous fane had never existed; the inquisition was silenced, and their conscience was satisfied (says the historian Mirchond) with this holy and meritorious perjury. But the greatest part of the temples of Persia43 were ruined by the insensible and general43 desertion of their votaries. It was insensible, since it is not accompanied with any memorial of time43 or place, of persecution or resistance. It was general43, since the whole realm, from Shiraz to Samarcand43, imbibed the faith of the Koran; and the preservation of the native tongue reveals the descent of the Mahometans of Persia43. In the mountains and deserts, an obstinate race of unbelievers adhered to the superstition of their fathers; and a faint tradition of the Magian theology is kept alive in the province of Kirman, along the banks of the Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and in the colony, which, in the last century, was planted by Shaw Abbas at the gates of Ispahan. The chief43 pontiff has retired to Mount Elbourz, eighteen leagues from the city43 of Yezd; the perpetual fire (if it continue to burn) is inaccessible to the profane; but his residence is the school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage of the Ghebers, whose hard and uniform features attest the unmingled purity of their blood43. Under the jurisdiction of their elders, eighty thousand43 families maintain an innocent and industrious life; their subsistence is derived from some curious manufactures and mechanic trades; and they cultivate the earth with the fervour of a religious duty. Their ignorance withstood the despotism of Shaw Abbas, who demanded with threats and tortures the prophetic books of Zoroaster; and this obscure remnant of the Magians is spared by the moderation or contempt of their present sovereigns.
The northern coast of Africa24 is the only land in which the light of the gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has been totally extinguished. The arts, which had been taught by Carthage and Rome, were involved in a cloud of ignorance; the doctrine of Cyprian and Augustine was no longer studied. Five hundred episcopal churches were overturned by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors. The zeal and numbers of the clergy declined; and the people24, without discipline, or knowledge, or hope, submissively sunk under the yoke of the Arabian24 prophet. Within fifty years24 after the expulsion of the Greeks24, a lieutenant of Africa24 informed the caliph24 that the tribute24 of the infidels was abolished by their conversion; and, though he sought to disguise his fraud and rebellion, his specious pretence was drawn from the rapid and extensive progress of the Mahometan faith. In the next age24 an extraordinary mission of five bishops was detached from Alexandria to Cairoan. They were ordained by the Jacobite patriarch to cherish and revive the dying embers of Christianity. But the interposition of a foreign prelate, a stranger to the Latins, an enemy to the Catholics, supposes the decay and dissolution of the African hierarchy. It was no longer the time when the successor of St. Cyprian, at the head of a numerous synod, could maintain an equal contest with the ambition of the Roman24 pontiff. In the eleventh century, the unfortunate priest who was seated on the ruins of Carthage, implored the arms and the protection of the Vatican; and he bitterly complains that his naked body had been scourged by the Saracens24, and that his authority was disputed by the four suffragans, the tottering pillars of his throne24. Two epistles of Gregory the Seventh are destined to soothe the distress of the Catholics and the pride of a Moorish prince. The pope assures the sultan24 that they both worship the same God and may hope to meet in the bosom of Abraham; but the complaints that three bishops could no longer be found to consecrate a brother, announces the speedy and inevitable ruin of the episcopal order. The Christians24 of Africa24 and Spain had long since submitted to the practice of circumcision and the legal abstinence from wine and pork; and the name of Mozarabes (adoptive Arabs24) was applied to their civil or religious conformity. About the middle of the twelfth century, the worship of Christ and the succession of pastors were abolished along the coast of Barbary, and in the kingdoms of Cordova and Seville, of Valencia and Grenada. The throne24 of the Almohades, or Unitarians, was founded on the blindest fanaticism, and their extraordinary rigour might be provoked or justified by the recent victories and intolerant zeal of the princes of Sicily and Castile, of Arragon and Portugal. The faith of the Mozarabes was occasionally revived by the papal missionaries; and, on the landing of Charles the Fifth, some families of Latin Christians24 were encouraged to rear their heads at Tunis and Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was quickly eradicated, and the long province from Tripolito the Atlantic has lost all memory of the language and religion24 of Rome.
After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians40 of the Turkish empire40 enjoy the liberty of conscience, which was granted by the Arabian caliphs. During the first age40 of the conquest, they suspected the loyalty of the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their secret attachment to the Greek emperor40, while the Nestorians and Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the sincere and voluntary friends of the Mahometan government. Yet this partial jealousy was healed by time40 and submission; the churches of Egypt40 were shared with the Catholics; and all the Oriental sects were included in the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domestic jurisdiction, of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy40, were protected by the civil magistrate; the learning of individuals recommended them to the employments of secretaries and physicians; they were enriched by the lucrative collection of the revenue; and their merit was sometimes raised to the command40 of cities and provinces. A caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declare that the Christians40 were most worthy of trust in the administration of Persia. The Moslems, said he, will abuse their present fortune; the Magians regret their fallen greatness; and the Jews are impatient for their approaching deliverance. But the slaves of despotism are exposed to the alternatives of favour and disgrace. The captive churches of the East have been afflicted in every age40 by the avarice or bigotry of their rulers; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the pride or the zeal40 of the Christians40. About two hundred years40 after Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow-subjects40 by a turban or girdle of a less honourable colour; instead of horses or mules, they were condemned to ride on asses, in the attitude of women. Their public40 and private buildings were measured by a diminutive standard; in the streets or the baths, it is their duty to give way or bow down before the meanest of the people; and their testimony is rejected, if it may tend to the prejudice of a true believer. The pomp of processions, the sound of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted in their worship; a decent reverence for the national faith is imposed on their sermons and conversations; and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a mosch or to seduce a Musulman will not be suffered to escape with impunity. In a time40, however, of tranquillity and justice, the Christians40 have never been compelled to renounce the Gospel or to embrace the Koran; but the punishment of death is inflicted upon the apostates who have professed and deserted the law of Mahomet. The martyrs of Cordova provoked the sentence of the cadhi by the public40 confession of their inconstancy, or their passionate invectives against the person and religion40 of the prophet.
At the end of the first century of the Hegira, the caliphs were the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe. Their prerogative was not circumscribed, either in right or in fact, by the power of the nobles37, the freedom37 of the commons37, the privileges of the church, the votes of a senate, or the memory of a free constitution. The authority of the companions of Mahomet expired with their lives; and the chiefs or emirs of the Arabian tribes37 left behind, in the desert, the spirit37 of equality and independence. The regal and sacerdotal characters were united in the successors of Mahomet; and, if the Koran was the rule of their actions, they were the supreme judges and interpreters of that divine book. They reigned by the right of conquest over the nations of the East, to whom the name of liberty37 was unknown, and who were accustomed to applaud in their tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were exercised at their own expense. Under the last of the Ommiades, the Arabian empire37 extended two hundred days' journey from east to west, from the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And, if we retrench the sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their writers, the long37 and narrow province of Africa, the solid and compact dominion from Fargana to Aden, from Tarsus to Surat, will spread on every side to the measure of four or five months of the march of a caravan. We should vainly seek the indissoluble union and easy37 obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus and the Antonines; but the progress of the Mahometan religion diffused over this ample space a general resemblance of manners37 and opinions. The language37 and laws37 of the Koran were studied with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moor and the Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of Mecca; and the Arabian language37 was adopted as the popular idiom in all the provinces to the westward of the Tigris.
When the Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have been surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But, when they advanced in the career of victory to the banks9 of the Indus and the summit of the Pyrenees, when they had repeatedly tried the edge of their scymetars and the energy of their faith, they might be equally astonished that any nation9 could resist their invincible arms9, that any boundary should confine the dominion of the successor of the prophet. The confidence of soldiers and fanatics may indeed be excused, since the calm historian of the present hour, who strives to follow the rapid course of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and state were saved from this impending and, as it should seem, from this inevitable danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia might be guarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty, and the courage of the Northern shepherds; China was remote and inaccessible; but the greatest part of the temperate zone was subject to the Mahometan conquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by the calamities of war9 and the loss of their fairest provinces9, and the barbarians9 of Europe9 might justly tremble at the precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy. In this inquiry I shall unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain, and our neighbours of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the Koran; that protected the majesty of Rome9, and delayed the servitude of Constantinople; that invigorated the defence of the Christians, and scattered among their enemies the seeds of division and decay.
Forty-six years30 after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, his disciples appeared in arms30 under the walls30 of Constantinople30. They were animated by a genuine or fictitious saying of the prophet, that, to the first army30 which besieged the city30 of the Caesars, their sins were forgiven; the long30 series of Roman30 triumphs would be meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of New30 Rome; and the wealth of nations was deposited in this well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. No sooner had the caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals and established his throne than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood by the success and glory of his holy30 expedition; his preparations by sea and land were adequate to the importance of the object; his standard30 was entrusted to Sophian, a veteran warrior, but the troops30 were encouraged by the example and presence of Yezid, the son30 and presumptive heir of the commander of the faithful. The Greeks30 had little to hope, nor had their enemies30 any reasons of fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigning emperor30, who disgraced the name of Constantine, and imitated only the inglorious years30 of his grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or opposition, the naval forces of the Saracens passed through the unguarded channel of the Hellespont, which even now, under the feeble and disorderly government of the Turks30, is maintained as the natural bulwark of the capital. The Arabian fleet cast anchor, and the troops30 were disembarked near the palace30 of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city30. During many days30, from the dawn of light to the evening, the line of assault was extended from the golden gate to the eastern promontory, and the foremost warriors were impelled by the weight and effort of the succeeding columns. But the besiegers had formed an insufficient estimate of the strength and resources of Constantinople30. The solid and lofty walls30 were guarded by numbers and discipline; the spirit of the Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their religion and empire30; the fugitives from the conquered provinces more successfully renewed the defence of Damascus and Alexandria; and the Saracens were dismayed by the strange and prodigious effects of artificial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted their arms30 to the more easy attempts of plundering the European and Asiatic coasts of the Propontis; and, after keeping the sea from the month of April to that of September, on the approach of winter they retreated fourscore miles from the capital, to the isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established their magazine of spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseverance, or so languid were their operations, that they repeated in the six following summers the same attack and retreat, with a gradual abatement of hope and vigour, till30 the mischances of shipwreck and disease, of the sword30 and of fire, compelled them to relinquish the fruitless enterprise. They might bewail the loss or commemorate the martyrdom of thirty thousand30 Moslems, who fell in the siege30 of Constantinople30; and the solemn funeral of Abu Ayub, or Job, excited the curiosity of the Christians themselves. That venerable Arab, one of the last of the companions of Mahomet, was numbered among the ansars, or auxiliaries, of Medina, who sheltered the head30 of the flying prophet. In his youth he fought, at Bedar and Ohud, under the holy30 standard30; in his mature age he was the friend and follower of Ali; and the last remnant of his strength and life was consumed in a distant and dangerous war30 against the enemies30 of the Koran. His memory was revered; but the place of his burial was neglected and unknown, during a period of seven hundred and eighty years30, till30 the conquest of Constantinople30 by Mahomet the Second30. A seasonable vision (for such are the manufacture of every religion) revealed the holy30 spot at the foot of the walls30 and the bottom of the harbour; and the mosch of Ayub has been deservedly chosen for the simple and martial inauguration of the Turkish30 sultans.
The event of the siege revived, both in the East24 and West, the reputation of the Roman24 arms, and cast a momentary shade over the glories of the Saracens24. The Greek24 ambassador was favourably received at Damascus, in a general council of the emirs of Koreish; a peace, or truce, of thirty years24 was ratified between the two empires; and the stipulation of an annual24 tribute24, fifty horses of a noble breed, fifty slaves, and three thousand24 pieces24 of gold24, degraded the majesty of the commander of the faithful24. The aged caliph24 was desirous of possessing his dominions, and ending his days, in tranquillity and repose; while the Moors and Indians trembled at his name, his palace24 and city24 of Damascus was insulted by the Mardaites, or Maronites, of Mount Libanus, the firmest barrier of the empire24, till24 they were disarmed and transplanted by the suspicious policy of the Greeks24. After the revolt of Arabia and Persia, the house of Ommiyah was reduced to the kingdoms of Syria24 and Egypt24; their distress and fear enforced their compliance with the pressing demands of the Christians24; and the tribute24 was increased to a slave, an horse, and a thousand24 pieces24 of gold24, for each of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the solar year. But as soon as the empire24 was again united by the arms and policy of Abdalmalek, he disclaimed a badge of servitude not less injurious to his conscience than to his pride; he discontinued the payment of the tribute24; and the resentment of the Greeks24 was disabled from action by the mad tyranny of the second Justinian, the just rebellion of his subjects, and the frequent change of his antagonists and successors. Till24 the reign24 of Abdalmalek, the Saracens24 had been content with the free possession of the Persian and Roman24 treasures, in the coin of Chosroes and Caesar. By the command of that caliph24, a national mint was established, both of silver and gold24, and the inscription of the Dinar, though it might be censured by some timorous casuists, proclaimed the unity of the God of Mahomet24. Under the reign24 of the caliph24 Waled, the Greek24 language and characters were excluded from the accounts of the public revenue. If this change was productive of the invention or familiar use of our present numerals, the Arabic or Indian cyphers, as they are commonly styled, a regulation of office has promoted the most important discoveries of arithmetic, algebra, and the mathematical sciences.
Whilst the caliph Waled sat idle on the throne of Damascus, while his lieutenants achieved the conquest of Transoxiana and Spain, a third army30 of Saracens overspread the provinces of Asia Minor, and approached the borders of the Byzantine30 capital. But the attempt and disgrace of the second30 siege30 was reserved for his brother Soliman, whose ambition appears to have been quickened by a more active and martial spirit. In the revolutions of the Greek30 empire30, after the tyrant Justinian30 had been punished and avenged, an humble secretary, Anastasius or Artemius, was promoted by chance or merit to the vacant purple. He was alarmed by the sound of war30; and his ambassador returned from Damascus with the tremendous news that the Saracens were preparing an armament by sea and land, such as would transcend the experience of the past, or the belief of the present, age. The precautions of Anastasius were not unworthy of his station or of the impending danger. He issued a peremptory mandate that all persons who were not provided with the means of subsistence for a three years30' siege30 should evacuate the city30; the public granaries and arsenals were abundantly replenished; the walls30 were restored and strengthened; and the engines for casting stones, or darts, or fire were stationed along the ramparts, or in the brigantines of war30, of which an additional number was hastily constructed. To prevent is safer, as well as more honourable, than to repel an attack; and a design was meditated, above the usual spirit of the Greeks30, of burning the naval stores of the enemy30, the cypress timber that had been hewn in Mount Libanus, and was piled along the seashore of Phoenicia, for the service30 of the Egyptian fleet. This generous enterprise was defeated by the cowardice or treachery of the troops30 who, in the new30 language of the empire30, were styled of the Obsequian Theme. They murdered their chief, deserted their standard30 in the isle of Rhodes, dispersed themselves over the adjacent continent, and deserved pardon or reward by investing with the purple a simple officer of the revenue. The name of Theodosius might recommend him to the senate and people30; but, after some months, he sunk into a cloister, and resigned, to the firmer hand of Leo the Isaurian, the urgent defence of the capital and empire30. The most formidable of the Saracens, Moslemah the brother of the caliph, was advancing at the head30 of one hundred and twenty thousand30 Arabs and Persians, the greater part mounted on horses or camels; and the successful sieges of Tyana, Amorium, and Pergamus were of sufficient duration to exercise their skill and to elevate their hopes. At the well-known passage of Abydus, on the Hellespont, the Mahometan arms30 were transported, for the first time, from Asia to Europe. From thence, wheeling round the Thracian cities of the Propontis, Moslemah invested Constantinople30 on the land side, surrounded his camp30 with a ditch and rampart, prepared and planted his engines of assault, and declared, by words and actions, a patient resolution of expecting the return of seed-time and harvest, should the obstinacy of the besieged prove equal to his own. The Greeks30 would gladly have ransomed their religion and empire30, by a fine or assessment of a piece of gold30 on the head30 of each inhabitant of the city30; but the liberal offer was rejected with disdain, and the presumption of Moslemah was exalted by the speedy approach and invincible force of the navies of Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to eighteen hundred ships; the number betrays their inconsiderable size; and of the twenty stout and capacious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their progress, each was manned with no more than one hundred heavy-armed soldiers30. This huge armada proceeded on a smooth sea and with a gentle gale, towards the mouth of the Bosphorus; the surface of the strait was overshadowed, in the language of the Greeks30, with a moving forest, and the same fatal night had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general30 assault by sea and land. To allure the confidence of the enemy30, the emperor30 had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded the entrance of the harbour; but, while they hesitated whether they should seize the opportunity or apprehend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at hand. The fire-ships of the Greeks30 were launched against them; the Arabs, their arms30, and vessels were involved in the same flames, the disorderly fugitives were dashed against each other or overwhelmed in the waves; and I no longer find a vestige of the fleet that had threatened to extirpate the Roman30 name. A still more fatal and irreparable loss was that of the caliph Soliman, who died of an indigestion in his camp30 near Kinnisrin, or Chalcis in Syria, as he was preparing to lead against Constantinople30 the remaining forces of the East. The brother of Moslemah was succeeded by a kinsman and an enemy30; and the throne of an active and able prince30 was degraded by the useless and pernicious virtues of a bigot. While he started and satisfied the scruples of a blind conscience, the siege30 was continued through the winter by the neglect rather than by the resolution of the caliph Omar. The winter proved uncommonly rigorous; above an hundred days30 the ground was covered with deep snow, and the natives of the sultry climes of Egypt and Arabia lay torpid and almost lifeless in their frozen camp30. They revived on the return of spring; a second30 effort had been made in their favour; and their distress was relieved by the arrival of two numerous fleets, laden with corn, and arms30, and soldiers30; the first from Alexandria, of four hundred transports and galleys; the second30 of three hundred and sixty vessels from the ports of Africa. But the Greek30 fires were again kindled, and, if the destruction was less complete, it was owing to the experience which had taught the Moslems to remain at a safe distance, or to the perfidy of the Egyptian mariners, who deserted with their ships to the emperor30 of the Christians. The trade and navigation of the capital were restored; and the produce of the fisheries supplied the wants, and even the luxury, of the inhabitants. But the calamities of famine and disease were soon30 felt by the troops30 of Moslemah, and, as the former was miserably assuaged, so the latter was dreadfully propagated, by the pernicious nutriment which hunger compelled them to extract from the most unclean or unnatural food. The spirit of conquest, and even of enthusiasm, was extinct: the Saracens could no longer straggle beyond their lines, either single or in small parties, without exposing themselves to the merciless retaliation of the Thracian peasants. An army30 of Bulgarians was attracted from the Danube by the gifts and promises of Leo; and these savage auxiliaries made some atonement for the evils which they had inflicted on the empire30, by the defeat and slaughter of twenty-two thousand30 Asiatics. A report was dexterously scattered that the Franks, the unknown nations of the Latin world, were arming by sea and land in the defence of the Christian cause, and their formidable aid was expected with far different sensations in the camp30 and city30. At length, after a siege30 of thirteen months, the hopeless Moslemah received from the caliph the welcome permission to retreat. The march of the Arabian cavalry over the Hellespont and through the provinces of Asia was executed without delay or molestation; but an army30 of their brethren had been cut to pieces on the side of Bithynia, and the remains of the fleet was so repeatedly damaged by tempest and fire that only five galleys entered the port of Alexandria to relate the tale of their various and almost incredible disasters.
In the two sieges, the deliverance of Constantinople may be chiefly ascribed to the novelty, the terrors, and the real efficacy of the Greek fire. The important secret of compounding and directing this artificial flame was imparted by Callinicus, a native of Heliopolis in Syria, who deserted from the service of the caliph to that of the emperor. The skill of a chymist and engineer was equivalent to the succour of fleets and armies; and this discovery or improvement of the military art23 was fortunately reserved for the distressful period, when the degenerate Romans23 of the East were incapable of contending with the warlike enthusiasm and youthful vigour of the Saracens. The historian who presumes to analyse this extraordinary composition should suspect his own ignorance and that of his Byzantine guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and in this instance so jealous, of the truth. From their obscure and perhaps fallacious hints, it should seem that the principal ingredient of the Greek fire was the naptha, or liquid bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil, which springs from the earth and catches fire as soon23 as it comes in contact with the air. The naptha was mingled, I know not by what methods or in what proportions, with sulphur and with the pitch that is extracted from evergreen firs. From this mixture, which produced a thick smoke and a loud explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished and quickened, by the element of water; and sand, urine, or vinegar were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the liquid or the maritime fire. For the annoyance of the enemy it was employed with equal effect, by sea and land, in battles or in sieges. It was either poured from the rampart in large boilers, or launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil: sometimes it was deposited in fire-ships, the victims and instruments of a more ample revenge, and was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper, which were planted on the prow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a stream of liquid and consuming fire. This important art23 was preserved at Constantinople, as the palladium of the state; the galleys and artillery might occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome23; but the composition of the Greek fire was concealed with the most jealous scruple, and the terror of the enemies was increased and prolonged by their ignorance and surprise. In the treatise of the Administration of the Empire23 the royal author suggests the answers and excuses that might best elude the indiscreet curiosity and importunate demands of the Barbarians23. They should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with a sacred injunction that this gift of heaven, this peculiar blessing of the Romans23, should never be communicated to any foreign nation; that the prince and subject were alike bound to religious silence under the temporal and spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege; and that the impious attempt would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the God of the Christians23. By these precautions, the secret was confined, above four hundred years23, to the Romans23 of the East; and, at the end of the eleventh century, the Pisans, to whom every sea and every art23 were familiar, suffered the effects, without understanding the composition, of the Greek fire. It was at length either discovered or stolen by the Mahometans; and, in the holy wars of Syria and Egypt, they retorted an invention, contrived against themselves, on the heads of the Christians23. A knight, who despised the swords and lances of the Saracens, relates, with heartfelt sincerity, his own fears, and those of his companions, at the sight and sound of the mischievous engine that discharged a torrent of the Greek fire, the feu Gregeois, as it is styled by the more early of the French writers. It came flying through the air, says Joinville, like a winged long-tailed dragon, about the thickness of an hogshead, with the report of thunder and the velocity of lightning; and the darkness of the night was dispelled by this deadly illumination. The use23 of the Greek, or, as it might now be called, of the Saracen, fire was continued to the middle of the fourteenth century, when the scientific or casual compound of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal effected a new23 revolution in the art23 of war and the history of mankind23.
Constantinople and the Greek fire might exclude the Arabs from the Eastern entrance of Europe; but in the West, on the side of the Pyrenees, the provinces of Gaul were threatened and invaded by the conquerors of Spain. The decline of the French monarchy invited the attack of these insatiate fanatics. The descendants of Clovis20 had lost the inheritance of his martial and ferocious spirit20; and their misfortune or demerit has affixed the epithet of lazy to the last kings of the Merovingian race20. They ascended the throne20 without power, and sunk into the grave without a name. A country palace, in the neighbourhood of Compiègne, was allotted for their residence or prison; but each year20, in the month of March or May, they were conducted in a waggon drawn by oxen to the assembly of the Franks20, to give audience to foreign ambassadors20, and to ratify the acts of the mayor of the palace. That domestic officer was become the minister of the nation, and the master20 of the prince20. A public20 employment was converted into the patrimony of a private20 family; the elder Pepin left a king20 of mature years20 under the guardianship of his own widow and her child; and these feeble regents were forcibly dispossessed by the most active of his bastards. A government, half savage20 and half corrupt, was almost dissolved; and the tributary dukes, the provincial counts, and the territorial lords were tempted to despise the weakness of the monarch20 and to imitate the ambition of the mayor. Among these independent chiefs, one of the boldest and most successful was Eudes, duke of Aquitain, who, in the southern provinces of Gaul, usurped the authority and even the title of king20. The Goths, the Gascons, and the Franks20 assembled under the standard of this Christian hero20; he repelled the first invasion of the Saracens; and Zama, lieutenant of the caliph, lost his army and his life20 under the walls of Toulouse. The ambition of his successors was stimulated by revenge; they repassed the Pyrenees with the means and the resolution of conquest. The advantageous situation which had recommended Narbonne as the first Roman20 colony was again chosen by the Moslems: they claimed the province of Septimania, or Languedoc, as a just dependence of the Spanish monarchy: the vineyards of Gascony and the city20 of Bordeaux were possessed by the sovereign of Damascus and Samarcand; and the south of France, from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Rhone, assumed the manners and religion of Arabia.
But these narrow limits were scorned by the spirit of Abdalrahman, or Abderame, who had been restored by the caliph Hashem to the wishes of the soldiers and people of Spain. That veteran and daring commander adjudged to the obedience of the prophet whatever yet remained of France or of Europe9; and prepared to execute the sentence, at the head of a formidable host, in the full confidence of surmounting all opposition, either of nature or of man. His first care was to suppress a domestic rebel, who commanded the most important passes of the Pyrenees: Munuza, a Moorish chief, had accepted the alliance of the duke of Aquitain; and Eudes, from a motive of private or public interest, devoted his beauteous daughter to the embraces of the African misbeliever. But the strongest fortresses of Cerdagne were invested by a superior force; the rebel was overtaken and slain in the mountains9; and his widow was sent a captive to Damascus, to gratify the desires, or more probably the vanity, of the commander of the faithful. From the Pyrenees Abderame proceeded without delay to the passage of the Rhone and the siege of Arles. An army9 of Christians attempted the relief of the city9; the tombs of their leaders were yet visible in the thirteenth century; and many thousands of their dead bodies were carried down the rapid stream into the Mediterranean sea9. The arms9 of Abderame were not less successful on the side of the ocean9. He passed without opposition the Garonne and Dordogne, which unite their waters in the gulf of Bordeaux; but he found, beyond those rivers, the camp9 of the intrepid Eudes, who had formed a second army9, and sustained a second defeat, so fatal to the Christians that, according to their sad confession, God alone could reckon the number of the slain. The victorious Saracen overran the provinces9 of Aquitain, whose Gallic names are disguised, rather than lost, in the modern appellations of Périgord, Saintonge, and Poitou: his standards were planted on the walls9, or at least before the gates, of Tours and of Sens; and his detachments overspread the kingdom of Burgundy, as far9 as the well-known cities9 of Lyons and Besançon. The memory of these devastations, for Abderame did not spare the country9 or the people, was long9 preserved by tradition; and the invasion of France by the Moors or Mahometans affords the groundwork of those fables which have been so wildly disfigured in the romances of chivalry and so elegantly adorned by the Italian muse. In the decline of society and art, the deserted cities9 could supply a slender booty to the Saracens; their richest spoil was found in the churches and monasteries, which they stripped of their ornaments and delivered to the flames; and the tutelar saints, both Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours, forgot their miraculous powers in the defence of their own sepulchres. A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand9 miles9 from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks9 of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland: the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet9 might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.
From such calamities was Christendom delivered by the genius0 and fortune0 of one man. Charles, the illegitimate son of the elder Pepin, was content with the titles of mayor or duke of the Franks0, but he deserved to become the father of a line of kings. In a laborious administration of twenty-four years0, he restored and supported the dignity of the throne, and the rebels of Germany and Gaul0 were successively crushed by the activity of a warrior, who, in the same campaign, could display his banner on the Elbe, the Rhone, and the shores of the ocean. In the public danger, he was summoned by the voice of his country0; and his rival, the duke of Aquitain, was reduced to appear among the fugitives and suppliants. Alas! exclaimed the Franks0, what a misfortune! what an indignity! We have long0 heard of the name and conquests of the Arabs: we were apprehensive of their attack from the East0; they have now conquered Spain, and invade our country0 on the side of the West. Yet their numbers, and (since they have no buckler) their arms, are inferior to our own. If you follow my advice, replied the prudent mayor of the palace, you will not interrupt their march, nor precipitate your attack. They are like a torrent, which it is dangerous to stem in its career. The thirst of riches, and the consciousness of success, redouble their valour, and valour is of more avail than arms or numbers. Be patient till they have loaded themselves with the encumbrance of wealth. The possession of wealth will divide their counsels and assure your victory. This subtle policy is perhaps a refinement of the Arabian writers; and the situation of Charles will suggest a more narrow and selfish motive of procrastination: the secret desire of humbling the pride, and wasting the provinces, of the rebel duke of Aquitain. It is yet more probable that the delays of Charles were inevitable and reluctant. A standing army was unknown under the first and second race; more than half the kingdom was now in the hands of the Saracens; according to their respective situation, the Franks0 of Neustria and Austrasia were too conscious or too careless of the impending danger; and the voluntary aids of the Gepidae and Germans were separated by a long0 interval from the standard of the Christian general. No sooner had he collected his forces than he sought and found the enemy in the centre of France0, between Tours and Poitiers. His well-conducted march was covered by a range of hills, and Abderame appears to have been surprised by his unexpected presence. The nations of Asia, Africa, and Europe0 advanced with equal ardour to an encounter which would change the history0 of the whole world0. In the six first days of desultory combat, the horsemen and archers of the East0 maintained their advantage; but in the closer onset of the seventh day the Orientals were oppressed by the strength and stature of the Germans, who, with stout hearts and iron hands, asserted the civil and religious freedom of their posterity. The epithet of Martel, the Hammer, which has been added to the name of Charles, is expressive of his weighty and irresistible strokes: the valour of Eudes was excited by resentment and emulation; and their companions, in the eye of history0, are the true Peers and Paladins of French chivalry. After a bloody field, in which Abderame was slain, the Saracens, in the close of the evening, retired to their camp. In the disorder and despair of the night, the various tribes of Yemen and Damascus, of Africa and Spain, were provoked to turn their arms against each other: the remains of their host was suddenly dissolved, and each emir consulted his safety by an hasty and separate retreat. At the dawn of day, the stillness of an hostile camp was suspected by the victorious Christians: on the report of their spies, they ventured to explore the riches of the vacant tents; but, if we except some celebrated0 relics, a small portion of the spoil was restored to the innocent and lawful owners. The joyful tidings were soon diffused over the Catholic world0, and the monks of Italy0 could affirm and believe that three hundred and fifty, or three hundred and seventy-five, thousand0 of the Mahometans had been crushed by the hammer of Charles; while no more than fifteen hundred Christians were slain in the field of Tours. But this incredible tale is sufficiently disproved by the caution of the French general, who apprehended the snares and accidents of a pursuit, and dismissed his German allies to their native0 forests. The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of strength and blood, and the most cruel execution is inflicted, not in the ranks of battle, but on the backs of a flying enemy. Yet the victory of the Franks0 was complete and final; Aquitain was recovered by the arms of Eudes; the Arabs never resumed the conquest of Gaul0, and they were soon driven beyond the Pyrenees by Charles Martel and his valiant race. It might have been expected that the saviour of Christendom would have been canonised, or at least applauded, by the gratitude of the clergy, who are indebted to his sword for their present0 existence. But in the public distress the mayor of the palace had been compelled to apply the riches, or at least the revenues, of the bishops and abbots to the relief of the state0 and the reward of the soldiers. His merits were forgotten, his sacrilege alone was remembered, and, in an epistle to a Carlovingian prince, a Gallic synod presumes to declare that his ancestor was damned; that on the opening of his tomb the spectators were affrighted by a smell of fire and the aspect of a horrid dragon; and that a saint of the times0 was indulged with a pleasant vision of the soul and body of Charles Martel burning, to all eternity, in the abyss of hell.
The loss of an army30, or a province, in the Western world was less painful to the court of Damascus than the rise and progress of a domestic competitor. Except among the Syrians, the caliphs of the house of Ommiyah had never been the objects of the public favour. The life of Mahomet recorded their perseverance in idolatry and rebellion; their conversion had been reluctant, their elevation irregular and factious, and their throne was cemented with the most holy30 and noble blood of Arabia. The best of their race, the pious Omar, was dissatisfied with his own title; their personal virtues were insufficient to justify a departure from the order of succession; and the eyes and wishes of the faithful were turned towards the line of Hashem and the kindred of the apostle of God. Of these the Fatimites were either rash or pusillanimous; but the descendants of Abbas cherished, with courage and discretion, the hopes of their rising fortunes. From an obscure residence in Syria, they secretly despatched their agents and missionaries, who preached in the eastern provinces their hereditary indefeasible right; and Mohammed, the son30 of Ali, the son30 of Abdallah, the son30 of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, gave audience to the deputies of Chorasan, and accepted their free gift of four hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30. After the death30 of Mohammed, the oath of allegiance was administered in the name of his son30 Ibrahim to a numerous band of votaries, who expected only a signal and a leader; and the governor of Chorasan continued to deplore his fruitless admonitions and the deadly slumber of the caliphs of Damascus, till30 he himself, with all his adherents, was driven from the city30 and palace30 of Meru, by the rebellious arms30 of Abu Moslem. That maker of kings, the author, as he is named, of the call of the Abbassides, was at length rewarded for his presumption of merit with the usual gratitude of courts. A mean, perhaps a foreign, extraction could not repress the aspiring energy of Abu Moslem. Jealous of his wives, liberal of his wealth, prodigal of his own blood, and of that of others, he could boast with pleasure, and possibly with truth, that he had destroyed six hundred thousand30 of his enemies30; and such was the intrepid gravity of his mind and countenance that he was never seen to smile except on a day30 of battle30. In the visible separation of parties, the green was consecrated to the Fatimites; the Ommiades were distinguished by the white; and the black, as the most adverse, was naturally adopted by the Abbassides. Their turbans and garments were stained with that gloomy colour; two black standards, on pike-staves nine cubits long30, were borne aloft in the van of Abu Moslem; and their allegorical names of the night and the shadow obscurely represented the indissoluble union and perpetual succession of the line of Hashem. From the Indus to the Euphrates, the East was convulsed by the quarrel of the white and the black factions; the Abbassides were most frequently victorious; but their public success was clouded by the personal misfortune of their chief. The court of Damascus, awakening from a long30 slumber, resolved to prevent the pilgrimage of Mecca, which Ibrahim had undertaken with a splendid retinue, to recommend himself at once to the favour of the prophet and of the people30. A detachment of cavalry intercepted his march and arrested his person; and the unhappy Ibrahim, snatched away from the promise of untasted royalty, expired in iron fetters in the dungeons of Haran. His two younger brothers, Saffah and Almansor, eluded the search of the tyrant, and lay concealed at Cufa, till30 the zeal of the people30 and the approach of his eastern friends allowed them to expose their persons to the impatient public. On Friday, in the dress of a caliph, in the colours of the sect, Saffah proceeded with religious and military pomp to the mosch; ascending the pulpit, he prayed and preached as the lawful successor of Mahomet; and, after his departure, his kinsmen bound a willing people30 by an oath of fidelity. But it was on the banks of the Zab, and not in the mosch of Cufa, that this important controversy was determined. Every advantage appeared to be on the side of the white faction: the authority of established government; an army30 of an hundred and twenty thousand30 soldiers30, against a sixth part of that number; and the presence and merit of the caliph Mervan, the fourteenth and last of the house of Ommiyah. Before his accession to the throne, he had deserved, by his Georgian warfare, the honourable epithet of the ass of Mesopotamia; and he might have been ranked among the greatest princes, had not, says Abulfeda, the eternal order decreed that moment for the ruin of his family: a decree against which all human prudence and fortitude must struggle in vain. The orders of Mervan were mistaken or disobeyed; the return of his horse30, from which he had dismounted on a necessary occasion, impressed the belief of his death30; and the enthusiasm of the black squadrons was ably conducted by Abdallah, the uncle of his competitor. After an irretrieveable defeat, the caliph escaped to Mosul; but the colours of the Abbassides were displayed from the rampart; he suddenly repassed the Tigris, cast a melancholy look on his palace30 of Haran, crossed the Euphrates, abandoned the fortifications of Damascus, and, without halting in Palestine, pitched his last and fatal camp30 at Busir on the banks of the Nile. His speed was urged by the incessant diligence of Abdallah, who in every step of the pursuit acquired strength and reputation; the remains of the white faction were finally vanquished in Egypt; and the lance, which terminated the life and anxiety of Mervan, was not less welcome perhaps to the unfortunate than to the victorious chief. The merciless inquisition of the conqueror eradicated the most distant branches of the hostile race: their bones were scattered, their memory was accursed, and the martyrdom of Hossein was abundantly revenged on the posterity of his tyrants. Fourscore of the Ommiades, who had yielded to the faith or clemency of their foes, were invited to a banquet at Damascus. The laws of hospitality were violated by a promiscuous massacre; the board was spread over their fallen bodies; and the festivity of the guests was enlivened by the music of their dying groans. By the event of the civil war30 the dynasty of the Abbassides was firmly established; but the Christians only could triumph in the mutual hatred and common loss of the disciples of Mahomet.
Yet the thousands who were swept away by the sword of war might have been speedily retrieved in the succeeding generation, if the consequences of the revolution had not tended to dissolve the power and unity of the empire24 of the Saracens24. In the proscription of the Ommiades, a royal24 youth of the name of Abdalrahman alone escaped the rage of his enemies, who hunted the wandering exile from the banks of the Euphrates to the valleys of Mount Atlas. His presence in the neighbourhood of Spain revived the zeal of the white faction. The name and cause of the Abbassides24 had been first vindicated by the Persians; the West had been pure from civil arms; and the servants of the abdicated family still held, by a precarious tenure, the inheritance of their lands and the offices of government24. Strongly prompted by gratitude, indignation, and fear, they invited the grandson of the caliph24 Hashem to ascend the throne24 of his ancestors; and, in his desperate condition, the extremes of rashness and prudence were almost the same. The acclamations of the people24 saluted his landing on the coast of Andalusia; and, after a successful struggle, Abdalrahman established the throne24 of Cordova, and was the father of the Ommiades of Spain, who reigned above two hundred and fifty years24 from the Atlantic to the Pyrenees. He slew in battle a lieutenant of the Abbassides24, who had invaded his dominions with a fleet and army: the head of Ala, in salt and camphire, was suspended by a daring messenger before the palace24 of Mecca; and the caliph24 Almansor rejoiced in his safety, that he was removed by seas and lands from such a formidable adversary. Their mutual designs or declarations of offensive war evaporated without effect; but, instead of opening a door to the conquest24 of Europe24, Spain was dissevered from the trunk of the monarchy, engaged in perpetual hostility with the East24, and inclined to peace and friendship with the Christian sovereigns of Constantinople24 and France. The example of the Ommiades was imitated by the real or fictitious progeny of Ali, the Edrissites of Mauritania, and the more powerful Fatimites of Africa24 and Egypt24. In the tenth century, the chair of Mahomet24 was disputed by three caliphs24 or commanders of the faithful24, who reigned at Bagdad24, Cairoan, and Cordova, excommunicated each other, and agreed only in a principle of discord, that a sectary is more odious and criminal than an unbeliever.
Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the Abbassides were never tempted to reside either in the birthplace or the city30 of the prophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and polluted with the blood, of the Ommiades; and, after some hesitation, Almansor, the brother and successor of Saffah, laid the foundations of Bagdad, the Imperial seat of his posterity during a reign of five hundred years30. The chosen spot is on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about fifteen miles above the ruins of Modain; the double wall was of a circular form; and such was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to a provincial town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attended by eight hundred thousand30 men and sixty thousand30 women of Bagdad and the adjacent villages. In this city30 of peace, amidst the riches of the East, the Abbassides soon30 disdained the abstinence and frugality of the first caliphs, and aspired to emulate the magnificence of the Persian kings. After his wars and buildings, Almansor left30 behind him in gold30 and silver about thirty millions sterling; and this treasure was exhausted in a few years30 by the vices or virtues of his children. His son30 Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold30. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along a measured road of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels, laden with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal30 banquet. The courtiers would surely praise the liberality of his grandson Almamon, who gave away four fifths of the income of a province, a sum of two millions four hundred thousand30 gold30 dinars, before he drew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the same prince30, a thousand30 pearls of the largest size were showered on the head30 of the bride, and a lottery of lands and houses displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The glories of the court were brightened rather than impaired in the decline of the empire30; and a Greek30 ambassador might admire or pity the magnificence of the feeble Moctader. The caliph's whole army30, says the historian Abulfeda, both horse30 and foot, was under arms30, which together made a body of one hundred and sixty thousand30 men. His state-officers, the favourite slaves, stood near him in splendid apparel, their belts glittering with gold30 and gems. Near them were seven thousand30 eunuchs, four thousand30 of them white, the remainder black. The porters or door-keepers were in number seven hundred. Barges and boats, with the most superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the palace30 itself less splendid, in which were hung up thirty-eight thousand30 pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand30 five hundred of which were of silk embroidered with gold30. The carpets on the floor were twenty-two thousand30. An hundred lions were brought out, with a keeper to each lion. Among the other spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury, was a tree of gold30 and silver spreading into eighteen large branches, on which, and on the lesser boughs, sat a variety of birds made of the same precious metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery affected spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their natural harmony. Through this scene of magnificence, the Greek30 ambassador was led by the visir to the foot of the caliph's throne. In the West, the Ommiades of Spain supported, with equal pomp, the title of commander of the faithful. Three miles from Cordova, in honour of his favourite sultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalrahmans constructed the city30, palace30, and gardens of Zehra. Twenty-five years30, and above three millions sterling, were employed by the founder: his liberal taste invited the artists of Constantinople30, the most skilful sculptors and architects of the age; and the buildings were sustained or adorned by twelve hundred columns of Spanish and African, of Greek30 and Italian marble. The hall of audience was encrusted with gold30 and pearls, and a great bason in the centre was surrounded with the curious and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds. In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of these basons and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the purest quicksilver. The seraglio of Abdalrahman, his wives, concubines, and black eunuchs, amounted to six thousand30 three hundred persons; and he was attended to the field by a guard of twelve thousand30 horse30, whose belts and scymetars were studded with gold30.
In a private8 condition, our desires are perpetually repressed by poverty and subordination; but the lives and labours of millions are devoted to the service of a despotic prince, whose laws8 are blindly obeyed, and whose wishes are instantly gratified. Our imagination is dazzled by the splendid picture; and, whatever may be the cool dictates of reason8, there are few among us who would obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts and the cares of royalty. It may therefore be of some use8 to borrow the experience of the same Abdalrahman, whose magnificence has perhaps excited our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorial which was found in the closet of the deceased caliph. I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved by my subjects8, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honours, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness8 which have fallen to my lot: they amount of Fourteen: — O man8! place not thy confidence in this present world8! The luxury of the caliphs, so useless to their private8 happiness8, relaxed the nerves, and terminated the progress, of the Arabian empire8. Temporal and spiritual conquest had been the sole occupation of the first successors of Mahomet; and, after supplying themselves with the necessaries of life8, the whole revenue was scrupulously devoted to that salutary work. The Abbassides were impoverished by the multitude of their wants and their contempt of economy. Instead of pursuing the great object of ambition, their leisure, their affections, the powers of their mind8, were diverted by pomp and pleasure; the rewards of valour were embezzled by women and eunuchs, and the royal camp was encumbered by the luxury of the palace. A similar temper was diffused among the subjects8 of the caliph. Their stern enthusiasm was softened by time8 and prosperity: they sought riches in the occupations of industry, fame in the pursuits of literature, and happiness8 in the tranquillity of domestic life8. War was no longer the passion of the Saracens; and the increase of pay, the repetition of donatives, were insufficient to allure the posterity of those voluntary champions who had crowded to the standard of Abubeker and Omar for the hopes of spoil and of paradise.
Under the reign25 of the Ommiades, the studies of the Moslems were confined to the interpretation of the Koran, and the eloquence25 and poetry of their native tongue. A people25 continually exposed to the dangers of the field must esteem the healing powers of medicine or rather of surgery; but the starving physicians of Arabia murmured a complaint that exercise and temperance deprived them of the greatest part of their practice. After their civil25 and domestic wars, the subjects25 of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane25 science25. This spirit was first encouraged by the caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the Mahometan law, had applied25 himself with success to the study of astronomy. But, when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides, he completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors at Constantinople25, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science25; at his command they were translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic language; his subjects25 were exhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive writings; and the successor of Mahomet assisted with pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the learned. He was not ignorant, says Abulpharagius, that they are the elect of God25, his best and most useful25 servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory in the industry25 of their hands or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless emulation25, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a bee-hive: these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior25 fierceness of the lions and tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments they are much inferior to the vigour of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world which, without their aid, would again sink in ignorance25 and barbarism. The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas; their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain, were the patrons of the learned, as well as the commanders of the faithful; the same royal25 prerogative was claimed by their independent emirs of the provinces; and their emulation25 diffused the taste and the rewards of science25 from Samarcand and Bochara to Fez and Cordova. The visir of a sultan consecrated a sum of two hundred thousand25 pieces of gold to the foundation of a college at Bagdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand25 dinars. The fruits of instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to six thousand25 disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of the mechanic; a sufficient allowance was provided for the indigent scholars; and the merit25 or industry25 of the professors was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city the productions of Arabic literature25 were copied and collected by the curiosity of the studious and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor refused the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the carriage of his books would have required four hundred camels. The royal25 library of the Fatimites consisted of one hundred thousand25 manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent, with jealousy or avarice, to the students of Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six hundred thousand25 volumes, forty-four of which were employed in the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, had given birth to more than three hundred writers, and above seventy public libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age25 of Arabian learning continued about five hundred years25, till the great irruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and most slothful period of European annals25; but, since the sun of science25 has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental studies have languished and declined.
In the libraries of the Arabians, as in those of Europe0, the far greater part of the innumerable volumes were possessed only of local value or imaginary merit. The shelves were crowded with orators and poets, whose style was adapted to the taste and manners0 of their countrymen; with general and partial histories, which each revolving generation supplied with a new harvest of persons and events; with codes and commentaries of jurisprudence, which derived their authority from the law of the prophet; with the interpreters of the Koran and orthodox tradition; and with the whole theological tribe, polemics, mystics, scholastics, and moralists, the first or the last of writers, according to the different estimate of sceptics or believers. The works of speculation or science0 may be reduced to the four classes of philosophy0, mathematics, astronomy, and physic. The sages of Greece were translated and illustrated in the Arabic language0, and some treatises, now lost in the original, have been recovered in the versions of the East0, which possessed and studied the writings of Aristotle and Plato, of Euclid and Apollonius, of Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen. Among the ideal systems, which have varied with the fashion of the times0, the Arabians adopted the philosophy0 of the Stagirite, alike intelligible or alike obscure for the readers of every age0. Plato wrote for the Athenians, and his allegorical genius0 is too closely blended with the language0 and religion of Greece. After the fall of that religion, the Peripatetics, emerging from their obscurity, prevailed in the controversies of the Oriental sects, and their founder was long0 afterwards restored by the Mahometans of Spain to the Latin0 schools0. The physics both of the Academy and the Lyceum, as they are built, not on observation, but on argument, have retarded the progress of real knowledge0. The metaphysics of infinite or finite spirit0 have too often been enlisted in the service of superstition. But the human0 faculties are fortified by the art0 and practice of dialectics; the ten predicaments of Aristotle collect and methodise our ideas, and his syllogism is the keenest weapon of dispute. It was dexterously wielded in the schools0 of the Saracens, but, as it is more effectual for the detection of error than for the investigation of truth, it is not surprising that new generations of masters and disciples should still revolve in the same circle of logical argument. The mathematics are distinguished by a peculiar privilege that, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede. But the ancient0 geometry, if I am not misinformed, was resumed in the same state0 by the Italians of the fifteenth century; and, whatever may be the origin of the name, the science0 of algebra is ascribed to the Grecian Diophantus by the modest testimony of the Arabs themselves. They cultivated with more success the sublime science0 of astronomy, which elevates the mind of man to disdain his diminutive planet and momentary existence. The costly instruments of observation were supplied by the caliph Almamon, and the land of the Chaldeans still afforded the same spacious level, the same unclouded horizon. In the plains of Sinaar, and a second time in those of Cufa, his mathematicians accurately measured a degree of the great circle of the earth, and determined at twenty-four thousand0 miles the entire circumference of our globe. From the reign of the Abbassides to that of the grandchildren of Tamerlane, the stars, without the aid of glasses, were diligently observed; and the astronomical tables of Bagdad, Spain, and Samarcand correct some minute errors, without daring to renounce the hypothesis of Ptolemy, without advancing a step towards the discovery of the solar system. In the Eastern courts, the truths of science0 could be recommended only by ignorance0 and folly, and the astronomer would have been disregarded, had he not debased his wisdom or honesty by the vain predictions of astrology. But in the science0 of medicine, the Arabians have been deservedly applauded. The names0 of Mesua and Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are ranked with the Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight hundred and sixty physicians were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession; in Spain, the life of the Catholic princes0 was entrusted to the skill of the Saracens, and the school of Salerno, their legitimate offspring, revived in Italy0 and Europe0 the precepts of the healing art0. The success of each professor must have been influenced by personal and accidental causes; but we may form a less fanciful estimate of their general knowledge0 of anatomy, botany, and chemistry, the threefold basis of their theory and practice. A superstitious reverence for the dead confined both the Greeks0 and the Arabians to the dissection of apes and quadrupeds; the more solid and visible parts were known in the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the human0 frame was reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern artists. Botany is an active science0, and the discoveries of the torrid zone might enrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two thousand0 plants. Some traditionary knowledge0 might be secreted in the temples and monasteries of Egypt; much useful experience had been acquired in the practice of arts0 and manufactures; but the science0 of chemistry owes its origin and improvement to the industry of the Saracens. They first invented and named the alembic for the purpose of distillation, analysed the substances of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction and affinities of alcalis and acids, and converted the poisonous minerals into soft and salutary medicines. But the most eager search of Arabian chemistry was the transmutation of metals and the elixir of immortal health; the reason and the fortunes of thousands were evaporated in the crucibles of alchymy, and the consummation of the great work was promoted by the worthy aid of mystery, fable, and superstition.
But the Moslems deprived themselves of the principal benefits of a familiar intercourse with Greece and Rome, the knowledge of antiquity, the purity of taste, and the freedom of thought. Confident in the riches of their native14 tongue, the Arabians disdained the study of any foreign14 idiom. The Greek interpreters were chosen among their Christian subjects14; they formed their translations, sometimes on the original text, more frequently perhaps on a Syriac version; and in the crowd of astronomers and physicians there is no example of a poet, an orator, or even an historian being taught to speak the language of the Saracens. The mythology of Homer would have provoked the abhorrence of those stern fanatics; they possessed in lazy ignorance the colonies of the Macedonians, and the provinces of Carthage and Rome: the heroes of Plutarch and Livy were buried in oblivion; and the history of the world14 before Mahomet14 was reduced to a short legend of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the Persian kings. Our education in the Greek and Latin schools may have fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste; and I am not forward to condemn the literature and judgment of nations of whose language I am ignorant. Yet I know that the classics have much to teach, and I believe that the Orientals have much to learn; the temperate dignity of style, the graceful proportions of art, the forms of visible and intellectual beauty14, the just delineation of character and passion, the rhetoric of narrative and argument, the regular fabric of epic and dramatic poetry. The influence of truth and reason is of a less ambiguous complexion. The philosophers of Athens and Rome enjoyed the blessings, and asserted the rights14, of civil14 and religious freedom. Their moral and political writings might have gradually unlocked the fetters of Eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit of inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sages to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant and their prophet14 an impostor. The instinct of superstition was alarmed by the introduction even of the abstract sciences; and the more rigid doctors of the law condemned14 the rash and pernicious curiosity of Almamon. To the thirst of martyrdom, the vision of paradise, and the belief of predestination, we must ascribe the invincible enthusiasm of the prince14 and people14. And the sword of the Saracens became less formidable, when their youth14 was drawn away from the camp to the college, when the armies14 of the faithful presumed to read and to reflect. Yet the foolish vanity of the Greeks was jealous of their studies, and reluctantly imparted the sacred fire to the barbarians14 of the East.
In the bloody conflict of the Ommiades and Abbassides24, the Greeks24 had stolen the opportunity of avenging their wrongs and enlarging their limits. But a severe retribution was exacted by Mohadi, the third caliph24 of the new24 dynasty, who seized in his turn the favourable opportunity, while a woman and a child, Irene and Constantine, were seated on the Byzantine throne24. An army of ninety-five thousand24 Persians and Arabs24 was sent from the Tigris to the Thracian Bosphorus, under the command of Harun, or Aaron, the second son24 of the commander of the faithful24. His encampment on the opposite heights of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, informed Irene, in her palace24 of Constantinople24, of the loss of her troops and provinces. With the consent or connivance of their sovereign, her ministers subscribed an ignominious peace; and the exchange of some royal24 gifts could not disguise the annual24 tribute24 of seventy thousand24 dinars of gold24, which was imposed on the Roman24 empire24. The Saracens24 had too rashly advanced into the midst of a distant and hostile land; their retreat was solicited by the promise of faithful24 guides and plentiful markets; and not a Greek24 had courage to whisper that their weary forces might be surrounded and destroyed in their necessary passage between a slippery mountain and the river Sangarius. Five years24 after this expedition, Harun ascended the throne24 of his father and his elder brother; the most powerful and vigorous monarch of his race24, illustrious in the West as the ally of Charlemagne, and familiar to the most childish readers as the perpetual hero of the Arabian24 tales. His title to the name of Al Rashid (the Just) is sullied by the extirpation of the generous, perhaps the innocent, Barmecides; yet he could listen to the complaint of a poor widow who had been pillaged by his troops, and who dared, in a passage of the Koran, to threaten the inattentive despot with the judgment of God and posterity. His court was adorned with luxury and science; but, in a reign24 of three-and-twenty years24, Harun repeatedly visited his provinces from Chorasan to Egypt24; nine times he performed the pilgrimage of Mecca; eight times he invaded the territories of the Romans; and, as often as they declined the payment of the tribute24, they were taught to feel that a month of depredation was more costly than a year of submission. But, when the unnatural mother of Constantine was deposed and banished, her successor Nicephorus resolved to obliterate this badge of servitude and disgrace. The epistle of the emperor to the caliph24 was pointed with an allusion to the game of chess, which had already spread from Persia to Greece. The Queen (he spoke of Irene) considered you as a rook and herself as a pawn. That pusillanimous female submitted to pay a tribute24, the double of which she ought to have exacted from the Barbarians. Restore therefore the fruits of your injustice, or abide the determination of the sword. At these words the ambassadors cast a bundle of swords before the foot of the throne24. The caliph24 smiled at the menace, and drawing his scymetar, samsamah, a weapon of historic or fabulous renown, he cut asunder the feeble arms of the Greeks24, without turning the edge or endangering the temper of his blade. He then dictated an epistle of tremendous brevity: In the name of the most merciful God, Harun al Rashid, commander of the faithful24, to Nicephorus, the Roman24 dog. I have read thy letter, O thou son24 of an unbelieving mother. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt behold, my reply. It was written in characters of blood and fire on the plains of Phrygia; and the warlike celerity of the Arabs24 could only be checked by the arts of deceit and the show of repentance. The triumphant caliph24 retired, after the fatigues of the campaign, to his favourite palace24 of Racca, on the Euphrates; but the distance of five hundred miles, and the inclemency of the season, encouraged his adversary to violate the peace. Nicephorus was astonished by the bold and rapid march of the commander of the faithful24, who repassed, in the depth of winter, the snows of Mount Taurus: his stratagems of policy and war were exhausted; and the perfidious Greek24 escaped with three wounds from a field of battle overspread with forty thousand24 of his subjects. Yet the emperor was ashamed of submission, and the caliph24 was resolved on victory. One hundred and thirty-five thousand24 regular soldiers received pay, and were inscribed in the military roll; and above three hundred thousand24 persons of every denomination marched under the black standard of the Abbassides24. They swept the surface of Asia24 Minor far beyond Tyana and Ancyra, and invested the Pontic Heraclea, once a flourishing state24, now a paltry town; at that time capable of sustaining in her antique walls a month's siege against the forces of the East24. The ruin was complete, the spoil was ample; but, if Harun had been conversant with Grecian story, he would have regretted the statue of Hercules, whose attributes, the club, the bow, the quiver, and the lion's hide, were sculptured in massy gold24. The progress of desolation by sea24 and land, from the Euxine to the isle of Cyprus, compelled the emperor Nicephorus to retract his haughty defiance. In the new24 treaty, the ruins of Heraclea were left for ever as a lesson and a trophy; and the coin of the tribute24 was marked with the image and superscription of Harun and his three sons. Yet this plurality of lords might contribute to remove the dishonour of the Roman24 name. After the death24 of their father, the heirs of the caliph24 were involved in civil discord, and the conqueror, the liberal Almamon, was sufficiently engaged in the restoration of domestic peace and the introduction of foreign science.
Under the reign of Almamon at Bagdad, of Michael the Stammerer at Constantinople, the islands of Crete and Sicily were subdued by the Arabs. The former of these conquests is disdained by their own writers, who were ignorant of the fame of Jupiter and Minos, but it has not been overlooked by the Byzantine historians, who now begin to cast a clearer light on the affairs of their own times. A band of Andalusian volunteers, discontented with the climate or government of Spain, explored the adventures of the sea9; but, as they sailed in no more than ten or twenty galleys, their warfare must be branded with the name of piracy. As the subjects and sectaries of the white party, they might lawfully invade the dominions of the black caliphs. A rebellious faction introduced them into Alexandria; they cut in pieces both friends and foes, pillaged the churches and the moschs, sold above six thousand9 Christian captives, and maintained their station in the capital9 of Egypt, till they were oppressed by the forces and the presence of Almamon himself. From the mouth of the Nile to the Hellespont, the islands and sea9-coasts, both of the Greeks and Moslems, were exposed to their depredations; they saw, they envied, they tasted the fertility of Crete, and soon9 returned with forty galleys to a more serious attack. The Andalusians wandered over the land fearless and unmolested; but, when they descended with their plunder to the sea9-shore, their vessels9 were in flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confessed himself the author of the mischief. Their clamours accused his madness or treachery. Of what do you complain? replied the crafty emir. I have brought you to a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is your true country9; repose from your toils, and forget the barren place of your nativity. And our wives and children? Your beauteous captives will supply the place of your wives, and in their embraces you will soon9 become the fathers of a new9 progeny. The first habitation was their camp9, with a ditch and rampart, in the bay of Suda; but an apostate monk led them to a more desirable position in the eastern parts; and the name of Candax, their fortress and colony, had been extended to the whole island, under the corrupt and modern appellation of Candia. The hundred cities9 of the age of Minos were diminished to thirty; and of these, only one, most probably Cydonia, had courage to retain the substance of freedom and the profession of Christianity. The Saracens of Crete soon9 repaired the loss of their navy; and the timbers of Mount Ida were launched into the main. During an hostile period, of one hundred and thirty-eight years, the princes of Constantinople attacked these licentious corsairs with fruitless curses and ineffectual arms9.
The loss of Sicily was occasioned by an act of superstitious rigour. An amorous youth, who had stolen a nun from her cloister, was sentenced by the emperor to the amputation of his tongue. Euphemius appealed to the reason and policy of the Saracens24 of Africa24; and soon returned with the Imperial purple, a fleet of one hundred ships, and an army of seven hundred horse and ten thousand24 foot. They landed at Mazara near the ruins of the ancient Selinus; but, after some partial victories, Syracuse was delivered by the Greeks24, the apostate was slain before her walls, and his African friends were reduced to the necessity of feeding on the flesh of their own horses. In their turn they were relieved by a powerful reinforcement of their brethren of Andalusia; the largest and western part of the island was gradually reduced, and the commodious harbour of Palermo was chosen for the seat of the naval and military power of the Saracens24. Syracuse preserved about fifty years24 the faith which she had sworn to Christ and to Caesar. In the last and fatal siege, her citizens displayed some remnant of the spirit which had formerly resisted the powers of Athens and Carthage. They stood about twenty days against the batteringrams and catapultae, the mines and tortoises, of the besiegers; and the place might have been relieved, if the mariners of the Imperial fleet had not been detained at Constantinople24 in building a church to the Virgin Mary. The deacon Theodosius, with the bishop and clergy, was dragged in chains from the altar to Palermo, cast into a subterraneous dungeon, and exposed to the hourly peril of death24 or apostacy. His pathetic, and not inelegant, complaint may be read as the epitaph of his country. From the Roman24 conquest24 to this final calamity, Syracuse, now dwindled to the primitive isle of Ortygia, had insensibly declined. Yet the relics were still precious; the plate of the cathedral weighed five thousand24 pounds of silver; the entire spoil was computed at one million of pieces24 of gold24 (about four hundred thousand24 pounds sterling); and the captives must out-number the seventeen thousand24 Christians24 who were transported from the sack of Tauromenium into African servitude. In Sicily the religion24 and language of the Greeks24 were eradicated; and such was the docility of the rising generation that fifteen thousand24 boys were circumcised and clothed on the same day with the son24 of the Fatimite caliph24. The Arabian24 squadrons issued from the harbours of Palermo, Biserta, and Tunis; an hundred and fifty towns of Calabria and Campania were attacked and pillaged; nor could the suburbs of Rome be defended by the name of the Caesars and Apostles. Had the Mahometans been united, Italy must have fallen an easy and glorious accession to the empire24 of the prophet. But the caliphs24 of Bagdad24 had lost their authority in the West; the Aglabites and Fatimites usurped the provinces of Africa24; their emirs of Sicily aspired to independence; and the design of conquest24 and dominion was degraded to a repetition of predatory inroads.
In the sufferings of prostrate Italy, the name of Rome awakens a solemn and mournful recollection. A fleet of Saracens from the African coast presumed to enter the mouth of the Tiber, and to approach a city30 which even yet, in her fallen state, was revered as the metropolis of the Christian world. The gates and ramparts were guarded by a trembling people30; but the tombs and temples of St30. Peter and St30. Paul were left30 exposed in the suburbs of the Vatican and of the Ostian way. Their invisible sanctity had protected them against the Goths, the Vandals, and the Lombards; but the Arabs disdained both the gospel and the legend; and their rapacious spirit was approved and animated by the precepts of the Koran. The Christian idols were stripped of their costly offerings; a silver altar was torn away from the shrine of St30. Peter; and, if the bodies or the buildings were left30 entire, their deliverance must be imputed to the haste, rather than the scruples, of the Saracens. In their course along the Appian way, they pillaged Fundi and besieged Gayeta; but they had turned aside from the walls30 of Rome, and, by their divisions, the Capitol was saved from the yoke of the prophet of Mecca. The same danger still impended on the heads of the Roman30 people30; and their domestic force was unequal to the assault of an African emir. They claimed the protection of their Latin sovereign; but the Carlovingian standard30 was overthrown by a detachment of the Barbarians; they meditated the restoration of the Greek30 emperors; but the attempt was treasonable, and the succour remote and precarious. Their distress appeared to receive some aggravation from the death30 of their spiritual and temporal chiefs; but the pressing emergency superseded the forms and intrigues of an election; and the unanimous choice of Pope Leo the Fourth was the safety of the church and city30. This pontiff was born a Roman30; the courage of the first ages of the republic glowed in his breast; and, amidst the ruins of his country, he stood erect, like one of the firm and lofty columns that rear their heads above the fragments of the Roman30 forum. The first days30 of his reign were consecrated to the purification and removal of relics, to prayers and processions, and to all the solemn offices of religion, which served at least to heal the imagination, and restore the hopes, of the multitude. The public defence had been long30 neglected, not from the presumption of peace, but from the distress and poverty of the times. As far as the scantiness of his means and the shortness of his leisure would allow, the ancient walls30 were repaired by the command of Leo; fifteen towers, in the most accessible stations, were built or renewed; two of these commanded on either side the Tiber; and an iron chain was drawn across the stream, to impede the ascent of an hostile navy. The Romans were assured of a short respite by the welcome news that the siege30 of Gayeta had been raised and that a part of the enemy30, with their sacrilegious plunder, had perished in the waves.
But the storm which had been delayed, soon30 burst upon them with redoubled violence. The Aglabite, who reigned in Africa, and had inherited from his father a treasure and an army30: a fleet of Arabs and Moors, after a short refreshment in the harbours of Sardinia, cast anchor before the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles from the city30; and their discipline and numbers appeared to threaten, not a transient inroad, but a serious design of conquest and dominion. But the vigilance of Leo had formed an alliance with the vassals of the Greek30 empire30, the free and maritime states of Gayeta, Naples, and Amalfi; and in the hour of danger their galleys appeared in the port of Ostia, under the command of Caesarius, the son30 of the Neapolitan duke, a noble and valiant youth, who had already vanquished the fleets of the Saracens. With his principal companions, Caesarius was invited to the Lateran palace30, and the dexterous pontiff affected to inquire their errand, and to accept, with joy and surprise, their providential succour. The city30 bands, in arms30, attended their father at Ostia, where he reviewed and blessed his generous deliverers. They kissed his feet, received the communion with martial devotion, and listened to the prayer of Leo, that the same God who had supported St30. Peter and St30. Paul on the waves of the sea would strengthen the hands of his champions against the adversaries of his holy30 name. After a similar prayer, and with equal resolution, the Moslems advanced to the attack of the Christian galleys, which preserved their advantageous station along the coast. The victory30 inclined to the side of the allies, when it was less gloriously decided in their favour by a sudden tempest, which confounded the skill and courage of the stoutest mariners. The Christians were sheltered in a friendly harbour, while the Africans were scattered and dashed in pieces among the rocks and islands of an hostile shore. Those who escaped from shipwreck and hunger neither found nor deserved mercy at the hands of their implacable pursuers. The sword30 and the gibbet reduced the dangerous multitude of captives; and the remainder was more usefully employed, to restore the sacred edifices which they had attempted to subvert. The pontiff, at the head30 of the citizens and allies, paid his grateful devotion at the shrines of the apostles; and, among the spoils of this naval victory30, thirteen Arabian bows of pure and massy silver were suspended round the altar of the fishermen of Galilee. The reign of Leo the Fourth was employed in the defence and ornament of the Roman30 state: the churches were renewed and embellished; near four thousand30 pounds of silver were consecrated to repair the losses of St30. Peter; and his sanctuary was decorated with a plate of gold30 the weight of two hundred and sixteen pounds; embossed with the portraits of the pope and emperor30, and encircled with a string of pearls. Yet this vain magnificence reflects less glory on the character of Leo than the paternal care with which he rebuilt the walls30 of Horta and Ameria; and transported the wandering inhabitants of Centumcellae to his new30 foundation of Leopolis, twelve miles from the sea-shore. By his liberality a colony of Corsicans, with their wives and children, was planted in the station of Porto at the mouth of the Tiber; the falling city30 was restored for their use, the fields and vineyards were divided among the new30 settlers; their first efforts were assisted by a gift of horses and cattle; and the hardy exiles, who breathed revenge against the Saracens, swore to live and die under the standard30 of St30. Peter. The nations of the West and North, who visited the threshold of the apostles, had gradually formed the large and populous suburb of the Vatican, and their various habitations were distinguished, in the language of the times, as the schools of the Greeks30 and Goths, of the Lombards and Saxons. But this venerable spot was still open to sacrilegious insult; the design of inclosing it with walls30 and towers exhausted all that authority could command or charity would supply; and the pious labour of four years30 was animated in every season, and at every hour, by the presence of the indefatigable pontiff. The love of fame, a generous but worldly passion, may be detected in the name of the Leonine city30, which he bestowed on the Vatican; yet the pride of the dedication was tempered with Christian penance and humility. The boundary was trod by the bishop and his clergy, barefoot, in sackcloth and ashes; the songs of triumph were modulated to psalms and litanies; the walls30 were besprinkled with holy30 water; and the ceremony was concluded with a prayer that, under the guardian care of the apostles and the angelic host, both the old and the new30 Rome might ever be preserved pure, prosperous, and impregnable.
The emperor30 Theophilus, son30 of Michael the Stammerer, was one of the most active and high-spirited princes who reigned at Constantinople30 during the middle age. In offensive or defensive war30, he marched in person five times against the Saracens, formidable in his attack, esteemed by the enemy30 in his losses and defeats. In the last of these expeditions he penetrated into Syria, and besieged the obscure town of Sozopetra: the casual birth-place of the caliph Motassem, whose father Harun was attended in peace or war30 by the most favourite of his wives and concubines. The revolt of a Persian impostor employed at that moment the arms30 of the Saracen, and he could only intercede in favour of a place for which he felt and acknowledged some degree of filial affection. These solicitations determined the emperor30 to wound his pride in so sensible a part. Sozopetra was levelled with the ground, the Syrian prisoners were marked or mutilated with ignominious cruelty, and a thousand30 female captives were forced away from the adjacent territory. Among these a matron of the house of Abbas invoked, in an agony of despair, the name of Motassem; and the insults of the Greeks30 engaged the honour of her kinsman to avenge his indignity and to answer her appeal. Under the reign of the two elder brothers, the inheritance of the youngest had been confined to Anatolia, Armenia, Georgia, and Circassia; this frontier station had exercised his military talents; and, among his accidental claims to the name of Octonary, the most meritorious are the eight battles which he gained or fought against the enemies30 of the Koran. In this personal quarrel, the troops30 of Irak, Syria, and Egypt were recruited from the tribes of Arabia and the Turkish30 hordes: his cavalry might be numerous, though we should deduct some myriads from the hundred and thirty thousand30 horses of the royal30 stables; and the expense of the armament was computed at four millions sterling, or one hundred thousand30 pounds of gold30. From Tarsus, the place of assembly, the Saracens advanced in three divisions along the high road of Constantinople30: Motassem himself commanded the centre, and the vanguard was given to his son30 Abbas, who, in the trial of the first adventures, might succeed with the more glory, or fail with the least reproach. In the revenge of his injury, the caliph prepared to retaliate a similar affront. The father of Theophilus was a native of Amorium in Phrygia; the original seat of the Imperial house had been adorned with privileges and monuments; and, whatever might be the indifference of the people30, Constantinople30 itself was scarcely of more value in the eyes of the sovereign and his court. The name of Amorium was inscribed on the shields of the Saracens; and their three armies were again united under the walls30 of the devoted city30. It had been proposed by the wisest counsellors to evacuate Amorium, to remove the inhabitants, and to abandon the empty structures to the vain resentment of the Barbarians. The emperor30 embraced the more generous resolution of defending, in a siege30 and battle30, the country of his ancestors. When the armies drew near, the front of the Mahometan line appeared to a Roman30 eye more closely planted with spears and javelins; but the event of the action was not glorious on either side to the national troops30. The Arabs were broken, but it was by the swords of thirty thousand30 Persians, who had obtained service30 and settlement in the Byzantine30 empire30. The Greeks30 were repulsed and vanquished, but it was by the arrows of the Turkish30 cavalry; and, had not their bow-strings been damped and relaxed by the evening rain, very few of the Christians could have escaped with the emperor30 from the field of battle30. They breathed at Dorylaeum, at the distance of three days30; and Theophilus, reviewing his trembling squadrons, forgave the common flight both of the prince30 and people30. After this discovery of his weakness, he vainly hoped to deprecate the fate of Amorium: the inexorable caliph rejected with contempt his prayers and promises; and detained the Roman30 ambassadors to be the witnesses of his great revenge. They had nearly been the witnesses of his shame. The vigorous assaults of fifty-five days30 were encountered by a faithful governor, a veteran garrison, and a desperate people30; and the Saracens must have raised the siege30 if a domestic traitor had not pointed to the weakest part of the wall, a place which was decorated with the statues of a lion and a bull. The vow of Motassem was accomplished with unrelenting rigour; tired, rather than satiated, with destruction, he returned to his new30 palace30 of Samara, in the neighbourhood of Bagdad, while the unfortunate Theophilus implored the tardy and doubtful aid of his Western rival, the emperor30 of the Franks. Yet in the siege30 of Amorium above seventy thousand30 Moslems had perished; their loss had been revenged by the slaughter of thirty thousand30 Christians, and the sufferings of an equal number of captives, who were treated as the most atrocious criminals. Mutual necessity could sometimes extort the exchange or ransom of prisoners; but in the national religious conflict of the two empires peace was without confidence, and war30 without mercy. Quarter was seldom given in the field; those who escaped the edge of the sword30 were condemned to hopeless servitude or exquisite torture; and a Catholic emperor30 relates, with visible satisfaction, the execution of the Saracens of Crete, who were flayed alive, or plunged into caldrons of boiling oil. To a point of honour Motassem had sacrificed a flourishing city30, two hundred thousand30 lives, and the property of millions. The same caliph descended from his horse30 and dirtied his robe to relieve the distress of a decrepit old man, who with his laden ass had tumbled into a ditch. On which of these actions did he reflect with the most pleasure, when he was summoned by the angel of death30?
With Motassem, the eighth of the Abbassides, the glory of his family and nation expired. When the Arabian4 conquerors had spread themselves over the East, and were mingled with the servile crowds of Persia, Syria4, and Egypt4, they insensibly lost the freeborn and martial virtues of the desert4. The courage of the South is the artificial fruit of discipline and prejudice; the active power of enthusiasm4 had decayed, and the mercenary forces of the caliphs4 were recruited in those climates of the North, of which valour is the hardy and spontaneous production. Of the Turks who dwelt upon the Oxus and Jaxartes, the robust youths, either taken in war or purchased in trade, were educated in the exercises of the field and the profession of the Mahometan faith4. The Turkish guards stood in arms round the throne of their benefactor, and their chiefs usurped the dominion of the palace and the provinces. Motassem, the first author of this dangerous example, introduced into the capital above fifty thousand4 Turks: their licentious conduct provoked the public indignation, and the quarrels of the soldiers and people4 induced the caliph4 to retire from Bagdad, and establish his own residence and the camp of his Barbarian favourites at Samara on the Tigris, about twelve leagues above the city4 of Peace. His son4 Motawakkel was a jealous and cruel tyrant; odious to his subjects, he cast himself on the fidelity of the strangers, and these strangers, ambitious and apprehensive, were tempted by the rich promise of a revolution. At the instigation, or at least in the cause, of his son4, they burst into his apartment at the hour of supper, and the caliph4 was cut into seven pieces by the same swords which he had recently distributed among the guards of his life and throne. To this throne, yet streaming with a father's blood, Montasser was triumphantly led; but in a reign of six months he found only the pangs of a guilty conscience. If he wept at the sight of an old tapestry which represented the crime and punishment of the son4 of Chosroes; if his days4 were abridged by grief and remorse, we may allow some pity to a parricide, who exclaimed, in the bitterness of death4, that he had lost both this world and the world to come. After this act of treason, the ensigns of royalty, the garment and walking staff of Mahomet4, were given and torn away by the foreign mercenaries, who in four years created, deposed, and murdered three commanders of the faithful4. As often as the Turks were inflamed by fear, or rage, or avarice, these caliphs4 were dragged by the feet, exposed naked to the scorching sun, beaten with iron clubs, and compelled to purchase, by the abdication of their dignity, a short reprieve of inevitable fate. At length, however, the fury of the tempest was spent or diverted; the Abbassides returned to the less turbulent residence of Bagdad; the insolence of the Turks was curbed with a firmer and more skilful hand, and their numbers were divided and destroyed in foreign warfare. But the nations of the East had been taught to trample on the successors of the prophet4; and the blessings of domestic peace were obtained by the relaxation of strength and discipline. So uniform are the mischiefs of military despotism that I seem to repeat the story of the praetorians of Rome.
While the flame of enthusiasm4 was damped by the business, the pleasure, and the knowledge of the age, it burned with concentrated heat in the breasts of the chosen few, the congenial spirits, who were ambitious of reigning either in this world or in the next. How carefully soever the book of prophecy had been sealed by the apostle4 of Mecca4, the wishes, and (if we may profane the word) even the reason, of fanaticism might believe that, after the successive missions of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet4, the same God4, in the fulness of time, would reveal a still more perfect and permanent law. In the two hundred and seventy-seventh year of the Hegira, and in the neighbourhood of Cufa, an Arabian4 preacher, of the name of Carmath, assumed the lofty and incomprehensible style of the Guide, the Director, the Demonstration, the Word, the Holy4 Ghost, the Camel, the Herald of the Messiah, who had conversed with him in a human shape, and the representative of Mohammed the son4 of Ali4, of St. John the Baptist, and of the angel Gabriel. In his mystic volume, the precepts of the Koran4 were refined to a more spiritual sense; he relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, and pilgrimage; allowed the indiscriminate use of wine and forbidden food; and nourished the fervour of his disciples by the daily repetition of fifty prayers. The idleness and ferment of the rustic crowd awakened the attention of the magistrates of Cufa; a timid persecution assisted the progress of the new sect; and the name of the prophet4 became more revered after his person had been withdrawn from the world. His twelve apostles dispersed themselves among the Bedoweens, a race of men4, says Abulfeda, equally devoid of reason and of religion4; and the success of their preaching seemed to threaten Arabia4 with a new revolution. The Carmathians were ripe for rebellion, since they disclaimed the title of the house of Abbas and abhorred the worldly pomp of the caliphs4 of Bagdad. They were susceptible of discipline, since they vowed a blind and absolute submission to their imam, who was called to the prophetic office by the voice of God4 and the people4. Instead of the legal tithes, he claimed the fifth of their substance and spoil; the most flagitious sins were no more than the type of disobedience; and the brethren4 were united and concealed by an oath of secrecy. After a bloody conflict, they prevailed in the province of Bahrein, along the Persian Gulf; far and wide, the tribes4 of the desert4 were subject to the sceptre, or rather to the sword4, of Abu4 Said4 and his son4 Abu4 Taher; and these rebellious imams could muster in the field an hundred and seven thousand4 fanatics. The mercenaries of the caliph4 were dismayed at the approach of an enemy who neither asked nor accepted quarter; and the difference between them in fortitude and patience is expressive of the change which three centuries of prosperity had effected in the character of the Arabians. Such troops were discomfited in every action; the cities of Racca and Baalbec, of Cufa and Bassora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdad was filled with consternation; and the caliph4 trembled behind the veils of his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu4 Taher advanced to the gates of the capital with no more than five hundred horse. By the special order of Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, and the person or head of the rebel was expected every hour by the commander of the faithful4. His lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised Abu4 Taher of his danger, and recommended a speedy escape. Your master, said4 the intrepid Carmathian to the messenger, is at the head of thirty thousand4 soldiers: three such men4 as these are wanting in his host: at the same instant, turning to three of his companions4, he commanded the first to plunge a dagger into his breast, the second to leap into the Tigris, and the third to cast himself headlong down a precipice. They obeyed without a murmur. Relate, continued the imam, what you have seen: before the evening your general shall4 be chained among my dogs. Before the evening, the camp was surprised and the menace was executed. The rapine of the Carmathians was sanctified by their aversion to the worship of Mecca4: they robbed a caravan of pilgrims, and twenty thousand4 devout Moslems4 were abandoned on the burning sands to a death4 of hunger and thirst. Another year they suffered the pilgrims to proceed without interruption; but, in the festival of devotion, Abu4 Taher stormed the holy4 city4 and trampled on the most venerable relics of the Mahometan faith4. Thirty thousand4 citizens and strangers were put to the sword4; the sacred precincts were polluted by the burial of three thousand4 dead bodies; the well of Zemzem overflowed with blood; the golden spout was forced from its place4; the veil of the Caaba was divided among these impious sectaries; and the black stone, the first monument of the nation, was borne away in triumph to their capital. After this deed of sacrilege and cruelty, they continued to infest the confines of Irak, Syria4, and Egypt4; but the vital principle of enthusiasm4 had withered at the root. Their scruples or their avarice again opened the pilgrimage of Mecca4 and restored the black stone of the Caaba; and it is needless to inquire into what factions they were broken, or by whose swords they were finally extirpated. The sect of the Carmathians may be considered as the second visible cause of the decline and fall of the empire of the caliph4.
The third and most obvious cause was the weight and magnitude of the empire11 itself. The caliph Almamon might proudly assert that it was easier for him to rule the East and the West than to manage a chess-board of two feet square; yet I suspect that in both those games he was guilty of many fatal mistakes; and I perceive that in the distant provinces11 the authority11 of the first and most powerful of the Abbassides was already impaired. The analogy of despotism invests the representative with the full majesty of the prince; the division and balance of powers11 might relax the habits of obedience, might encourage the passive subject11 to inquire into the origin and administration of civil11 government. He who is born in the purple is seldom worthy to reign; but the elevation of a private11 man, of a peasant perhaps, or a slave, affords a strong11 presumption of his courage11 and capacity. The viceroy of a remote kingdom aspires to secure the property and inheritance of his precarious trust; the nations11 must rejoice in the presence of their sovereign; and the command of armies and treasures are at once the object and the instrument of his ambition. A change was scarcely visible as long as the lieutenants of the caliph were content with their vicarious title11; while they solicited for themselves or their sons a renewal of the Imperial grant, and still maintained on the coin, and in the public11 prayers, the name and prerogative of the commander of the faithful. But in the long and hereditary exercise of power11, they assumed the pride and attributes of royalty; the alternative of peace11 or war11, of reward or punishment, depended solely on their will; and the revenues of their government were reserved for local services or private11 magnificence. Instead of a regular supply of men and money, the successors of the prophet were flattered with the ostentatious gift of an elephant, or a cask of hawks, a suit of silk hangings, or some pounds of musk and amber.
After the revolt of Spain from the temporal and spiritual supremacy of the Abbassides, the first symptoms of disobedience broke forth in the province of Africa. Ibrahim, the son3 of Aglab, the lieutenant of the vigilant and rigid Harun, bequeathed to the dynasty of the Aglabites the inheritance of his name and power. The indolence or policy of the caliphs dissembled the injury and loss, and pursued only with poison the founder of the Edrisites, who erected the kingdom and city3 of Fez on the shores of the western ocean. In the East3, the first dynasty was that of the Taherites, the posterity of the valiant Taher, who, in the civil wars of the sons of Harun, had served with too much zeal and success the cause of Almamon the younger brother. He was sent into honourable exile, to command on the banks of the Oxus; and the independence of his successors, who reigned in Chorasan till the fourth generation, was palliated by their modest and respectful demeanour, the happiness of their subjects, and the security of their frontier. They were supplanted by one of those adventurers so frequent in the annals of the East3, who left his trade of a brazier (from whence the name of Soffarides) for the profession of a robber. In a nocturnal visit to the treasure of the prince3 of Sistan, Jacob, the son3 of Leith, stumbled over a lump of salt, which he unwarily tasted with his tongue. Salt, among the Orientals, is the symbol of hospitality, and the pious robber immediately retired without spoil or damage. The discovery of this honourable behaviour recommended Jacob to pardon and trust; he led an army3 at first for his benefactor, at last for himself, subdued Persia3, and threatened the residence of the Abbassides. On his march towards Bagdad, the conqueror was arrested by a fever. He gave audience in bed to the ambassador of the caliph; and beside him on a table were exposed a naked scymetar, a crust of brown bread, and a bunch of onions. If I die, said he, your master is delivered from his fears. If I live, this must determine between us. If I am vanquished, I can return without reluctance to the homely fare of my youth. From the height where he stood, the descent would not have been so soft or harmless: a timely death3 secured his own repose and that of the caliph, who paid with the most lavish concessions the retreat of his brother Amrou to the palaces of Shiraz and Ispahan. The Abbassides were too feeble to contend, too proud to forgive: they invited the powerful dynasty of the Samanides, who passed the Oxus with ten thousand3 horse, so poor, that their stirrups were of wood; so brave, that they vanquished the Soffarian army3, eight times more numerous than their own. The captive Amrou was sent in chains, a grateful offering to the court3 of Bagdad; and, as the victor was content with the inheritance of Transoxiana and Chorasan, the realms of Persia3 returned for a while to the allegiance of the caliphs. The provinces3 of Syria and Egypt were twice dismembered by their Turkish slaves, of the race of Toulun and Ikshid. These Barbarians3, in religion and manners the countrymen of Mahomet, emerged from the bloody factions of the palace to a provincial command and an independent throne3: their names became famous and formidable in their time; but the founders of these two potent dynasties confessed, either in words or actions, the vanity of ambition. The first on his deathbed implored the mercy of God to a sinner, ignorant of the limits of his own power: the second, in the midst of four hundred thousand3 soldiers and eight thousand3 slaves, concealed from every human eye the chamber where he attempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in the vices of kings; and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and possessed by the Abbassides during an interval of thirty years3. In the decline of their empire3, Mesopotamia, with the important3 cities of Mosul and Aleppo, was occupied by the Arabian princes of the tribe of Hamadan. The poets of their court3 could repeat without a blush, that nature had formed their countenances for beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberality and valour3; but the genuine tale of the elevation and reign3 of the Hamadanites exhibits a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. At the same fatal period, the Persian3 kingdom was again usurped by the dynasty of the Bowides, by the sword of three brothers, who, under various names, were styled the support and columns of the state, and who, from the Caspian sea to the ocean, would suffer no tyrants but themselves. Under their reign3, the language and genius of Persia3 revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years3 after the death3 of Mahomet, were deprived of the sceptre of the East3.
Rahdi, the twentieth of the Abbassides24, and the thirty-ninth of the successors of Mahomet24, was the last who deserved the title of commander of the faithful24: the last (says Abulfeda) who spoke to the people24, or conversed with the learned; the last who, in the expense of his household, represented the wealth and magnificence of the ancient caliphs24. After him, the lords of the Eastern world were reduced to the most abject misery, and exposed to the blows and insults of a servile condition. The revolt of the provinces circumscribed their dominions within the walls of Bagdad24; but that capital still contained an innumerable multitude, vain of their past fortune, discontented with their present state24, and oppressed by the demands of a treasury which had formerly been replenished by the spoil and tribute24 of nations. Their idleness was exercised by faction and controversy. Under the mask of piety, the rigid followers of Hanbal invaded the pleasures of domestic life24, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes, spilt the wine, broke the instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonoured, with infamous suspicions, the associates of every handsome youth. In each profession, which allowed room for two persons, the one was a votary, the other an antagonist, of Ali; and the Abbassides24 were awakened by the clamorous grief of the sectaries, who denied their title and cursed their progenitors. A turbulent people24 could only be repressed by a military force; but who could satisfy the avarice or assert the discipline of the mercenaries themselves? The African and the Turkish24 guards drew their swords against each other, and the chief commanders, the emirs al Omra, imprisoned or deposed their sovereigns, and violated the sanctuary of the mosch and harem. If the caliphs24 escaped to the camp or court of any neighbouring prince, their deliverance was a change of servitude, till24 they were prompted by despair to invite the Bowides, the sultans of Persia, who silenced the factions of Bagdad24 by their irresistible arms. The civil and military powers were assumed by Moezaldowlat, the second of the three brothers, and a stipend of sixty thousand24 pounds sterling was assigned by his generosity for the private expense of the commander of the faithful24. But on the fortieth day, at the audience of the ambassadors of Chorasan, and in the presence of a trembling multitude, the caliph24 was dragged from his throne24 to a dungeon, by the command of the stranger, and the rude hands of his Dilemites. His palace24 was pillaged, his eyes were put out, and the mean ambition of the Abbassides24 aspired to the vacant station of danger and disgrace. In the school of adversity, the luxurious caliphs24 resumed the grave and abstemious virtues of the primitive times. Despoiled of their armour and silken robes, they fasted, they prayed, they studied the Koran and the tradition of the Sonnites; they performed with zeal and knowledge the functions of their ecclesiastical character. The respect of nations still waited on the successors of the apostle, the oracles of the law and conscience of the faithful24; and the weakness or division of their tyrants sometimes restored the Abbassides24 to the sovereignty of Bagdad24. But their misfortunes had been embittered by the triumph of the Fatimites, the real or spurious progeny of Ali. Arising from the extremity of Africa24, these successful rivals extinguished in Egypt24 and Syria24 both the spiritual and temporal authority of the Abbassides24; and the monarch of the Nile24 insulted the humble pontiff on the banks of the Tigris.
In the declining age of the caliphs, in the century which elapsed after the war30 of Theophilus and Motassem, the hostile transactions of the two nations were confined to some inroads by sea and land, the fruits of their close vicinity and indelible hatred. But, when the Eastern world was convulsed and broken, the Greeks30 were roused from their lethargy by the hopes of conquest and revenge. The Byzantine30 empire30, since the accession of the Basilian race, had reposed in peace and dignity; and they might encounter with their entire strength the front of some petty emir, whose rear was assaulted and threatened by his national foes of the Mahometan faith. The lofty titles of the morning star, and the death30 of the Saracens, were applied in the public acclamations to Nicephorus Phocas, a prince30 as renowned in the camp30 as he was unpopular in the city30. In the subordinate station of great domestic, or general30 of the East, he reduced the island of Crete, and extirpated the nest of pirates who had so long30 defied, with impunity, the majesty of the empire30. His military genius was displayed in the conduct and success of the enterprise, which had so often failed with loss and dishonour. The Saracens were confounded by the landing of his troops30 on safe and level bridges, which he cast from the vessels to the shore. Seven months were consumed in the siege30 of Candia; the despair of the native Cretans was stimulated by the frequent aid of their brethren of Africa and Spain; and, after the massy wall and double ditch had been stormed by the Greeks30, an hopeless conflict was still maintained in the streets and houses of the city30. The whole island was subdued in the capital, and a submissive people30 accepted, without resistance, the baptism of the conqueror. Constantinople30 applauded the long30-forgotten pomp of a triumph; but the Imperial diadem was the sole reward that could repay the services, or satisfy the ambition, of Nicephorus.
After the death30 of the younger Romanus, the fourth in lineal descent of the Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively married Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two heroes of the age. They reigned as the guardians and colleagues of her infant sons; and the twelve years30 of their military command form the most splendid period of the Byzantine30 annals. The subjects and confederates, whom they led to war30, appeared, at least in the eyes of an enemy30, two hundred thousand30 strong; and of these about thirty thousand30 were armed with cuirasses. A train of four thousand30 mules attended their march; and their evening camp30 was regularly fortified with an enclosure of iron spikes. A series of bloody and undecisive combats is nothing more than an anticipation of what would have been effected in a few years30 by the course of nature; but I shall briefly prosecute the conquests of the two emperors from the hills of Cappadocia to the desert of Bagdad. The sieges of Mopsuestia and Tarsus in Cilicia first expressed the skill and perseverance of their troops30, on whom, at this moment, I shall not hesitate to bestow the name of Romans. In the double city30 of Mopsuestia, which is divided by the river Sarus, two hundred thousand30 Moslems were predestined to death30 or slavery, a surprising degree of population, which must at least include the inhabitants of the dependent districts. They were surrounded and taken by assault; but Tarsus was reduced by the slow progress of famine; and no sooner had the Saracens yielded on honourable terms than they were mortified by the distant and unprofitable view of the naval succours of Egypt. They were dismissed with a safe-conduct to the confines of Syria; a part of the Christians had quietly lived under their dominion; and the vacant habitations were replenished by a new30 colony. But the mosch was converted into a stable; the pulpit was delivered to the flames; many rich crosses of gold30 and gems, the spoils of Asiatic churches, were made a grateful offering to the piety or avarice of the emperor30; and he transported the gates of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, which were fixed in the wall of Constantinople30, an eternal monument of his victory30. After they had forced and secured the narrow passes of Mount Amanus, the two Roman30 princes repeatedly carried their arms30 into the heart of Syria. Yet, instead of assaulting the walls30 of Antioch, the humanity or superstition of Nicephorus appeared to respect the ancient metropolis of the East: he contented himself with drawing round the city30 a line of circumvallation; left30 a stationary army30; and instructed his lieutenant to expect, without impatience, the return of spring. But in the depth of winter, in a dark and rainy night, an adventurous subaltern, with three hundred soldiers30, approached the rampart, applied his scaling-ladders, occupied two adjacent towers, stood firm against the pressure of multitudes, and bravely maintained his post till30 he was relieved by the tardy, though effectual, support of his reluctant chief. The first tumult of slaughter and rapine subsided; the reign of Caesar and of Christ was restored; and the efforts of an hundred thousand30 Saracens, of the armies of Syria and the fleets of Afric, were consumed without effect before the walls30 of Antioch. The royal30 city30 of Aleppo was subject to Seifeddowlat, of the dynasty of Hamadan, who clouded his past glory by the precipitate retreat which abandoned his kingdom and capital to the Roman30 invaders. In his stately palace30, that stood without the walls30 of Aleppo, they joyfully seized a well-furnished magazine of arms30, a stable of fourteen hundred mules, and three hundred bags of silver and gold30. But the walls30 of the city30 withstood the strokes of their battering-rams; and the besiegers pitched their tents on the neighbouring mountain of Jaushan. Their retreat exasperated the quarrel of the townsmen and mercenaries; the guard of the gates and ramparts was deserted; and, while they furiously charged each other in the market-place, they were surprised and destroyed by the sword30 of a common enemy30. The male sex was exterminated by the sword30; ten thousand30 youths were led into captivity; the weight of the precious spoil exceeded the strength and number of the beasts of burthen; the superfluous remainder was burnt; and, after a licentious possession of ten days30, the Romans marched away from the naked and bleeding city30. In their Syrian inroads they commanded the husbandmen to cultivate their lands, that they themselves, in the ensuing season, might reap the benefit: more than an hundred cities were reduced to obedience; and eighteen pulpits of the principal moschs were committed to the flames, to expiate the sacrilege of the disciples of Mahomet. The classic names of Hierapolis, Apamea, and Emesa revive for a moment in the list of conquest: the emperor30 Zimisces encamped in the Paradise of Damascus, and accepted the ransom of a submissive people30; and the torrent was only stopped by the impregnable fortress of Tripoli, on the sea-coast of Phoenicia. Since the days30 of Heraclius, the Euphrates, below the passage of Mount Taurus, had been impervious, and almost invisible, to the Greeks30. The river yielded a free passage to the victorious Zimisces; and the historian may imitate the speed with which he overran the once famous cities of Samosata, Edessa, Martyropolis, Amida, and Nisibis, the ancient limit of the empire30 in the neighbourhood of the Tigris. His ardour was quickened by the desire of grasping the virgin treasures of Ecbatana, a well-known name, under which the Byzantine30 writer has concealed the capital of the Abbassides. The consternation of the fugitives had already diffused the terror of his name; but the fancied riches of Bagdad had already been dissipated by the avarice and prodigality of domestic tyrants. The prayers of the people30, and the stern demands of the lieutenant of the Bowides, required the caliph to provide for the defence of the city30. The helpless Mothi replied that his arms30, his revenues, and his provinces had been torn from his hands, and that he was ready to abdicate a dignity which he was unable to support. The emir was inexorable; the furniture of the palace30 was sold; and the paltry price of forty thousand30 pieces of gold30 was instantly consumed in private luxury. But the apprehensions of Bagdad were relieved by the retreat of the Greeks30; thirst and hunger guarded the desert of Mesopotamia; and the emperor30, satiated with glory, and laden with Oriental spoils, returned to Constantinople30, and displayed, in his triumph, the silk, the aromatics, and three hundred myriads of gold30 and silver. Yet the powers of the East had been bent, not broken, by this transient hurricane. After the departure of the Greeks30, the fugitive princes returned to their capitals; the subjects disclaimed their involuntary oaths of allegiance; the Moslems again purified their temples, and overturned the idols of the saints and martyrs; the Nestorians and Jacobites preferred a Saracen to an orthodox master; and the numbers and spirit of the Melchites were inadequate to the support of the church and state. Of these extensive conquests, Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia and the isle of Cyprus, was alone restored, a permanent and useful accession to the Roman30 empire30.
A ray of historic light2 seems to beam from the darkness of the tenth century. We open with curiosity and respect the royal2 volumes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, which he composed, at a mature age2, for the instruction of his son, and which promise to unfold the state2 of the Eastern empire2, both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. In the first of these works he minutely describes the pompous ceremonies of the church and palace of Constantinople2, according to his own practice and that of his predecessors. In the second he attempts an accurate survey of the provinces2, the themes, as they were then denominated, both of Europe and Asia2. The system of Roman2 tactics, the discipline and order of troops, and the military operations by land and sea are explained in the third of these didactic collections, which may be ascribed to Constantine or his father Leo. In the fourth, of the administration of the empire2, he reveals the secrets of the Byzantine policy, in friendly or hostile intercourse with the nations of the earth. The literary labours of the age2, the practical systems of law, agriculture, and history, might redound to the benefit of the subject and the honour of the Macedonian princes. The sixty books of the Basilics, the code and pandects of civil jurisprudence, were gradually framed in the three first reigns of that prosperous dynasty. The art2 of agriculture had amused the leisure, and exercised2 the pens, of the best and wisest of the ancients; and their chosen precepts are comprised in the twenty books of the Geoponics of Constantine. At his command, the historical examples of vice and virtue were methodised in fifty-three books, and every citizen might apply, to his contemporaries or himself, the lesson or the warning of past times2. From the august character2 of a legislator, the sovereign of the East2 descends to the more humble office of a teacher and a scribe; and, if his successors and subjects2 were regardless of his paternal cares, we may inherit and enjoy the everlasting legacy.
A closer survey will indeed reduce the value of the gift, and the gratitude of posterity: in the possession of these Imperial treasures, we may still deplore our poverty and ignorance25; and the fading glories of their authors will be obliterated by indifference or contempt. The Basilics will sink to a broken copy, a partial and mutilated version in the Greek language, of the laws of Justinian; but the sense of the old civilians is often superseded by the influence of bigotry; and the absolute prohibition of divorce, concubinage, and interest for money enslaves the freedom25 of trade and the happiness of private life. In the historical book, a subject of Constantine might admire the inimitable virtues of Greece and Rome; he might learn to what a pitch of energy and elevation the human25 character25 had formerly aspired. But a contrary effect must have been produced by a new edition of the lives of the saints, which the great logothete, or chancellor of the empire25, was directed to prepare; and the dark fund of superstition was enriched by the fabulous and florid legends of Simon the Metaphrast. The merits and miracles of the whole calendar are of less account in the eyes of a sage than the toil of a single25 husbandman, who multiplies the gifts of the Creator and supplies the food of his brethren. Yet the royal25 authors of the Geoponics were more seriously employed in expounding the precepts of the destroying art, which has been taught since the days of Xenophon as the art of heroes and kings. But the Tactics of Leo and Constantine are mingled with the baser alloy of the age25 in which they lived. It was destitute of original genius; they implicitly transcribe the rules and maxims which had been confirmed by victories. It was unskilled in the propriety of style and method; they blindly confound the most distant and discordant institutions, the phalanx of Sparta and that of Macedon, the legions of Cato and Trajan, of Augustus and Theodosius. Even the use, or at least the importance, of these military rudiments may be fairly questioned: their general25 theory is dictated by reason; but the merit25, as well as difficulty, consists in the application. The discipline of a soldier is formed by exercise rather than by study; the talents of a commander are appropriated to those calm though rapid25 minds, which nature25 produces to decide the fate of armies and nations: the former is the habit of a life, the latter the glance of a moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics may be numbered with the epic poems created from the rules of criticism. The book of ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet imperfect, of the despicable pageantry which had infected the church25 and state since the gradual decay of the purity of the one and the power of the other. A review of the themes or provinces might promise such authentic and useful25 information as the curiosity of government only can obtain, instead of traditionary fables on the origin of the cities, and malicious epigrams on the vices of their inhabitants. Such information the historian would have been pleased to record; nor should his silence be condemned if the most interesting objects, the population of the capital and provinces, the amount of the taxes and revenues, the numbers of subjects25 and strangers who served under the Imperial standard, have been unnoticed by Leo the Philosopher and his son Constantine. His treatise of the public administration is stained with the same blemishes; yet it is discriminated by peculiar merit25; the antiquities of the nations may be doubtful or fabulous; but the geography and manners25 of the Barbaric world are delineated with curious accuracy. Of these nations, the Franks alone were qualified to observe in their turn, and to describe, the metropolis of the East. The ambassador of the great Otho, a bishop of Cremona, has painted the state of Constantinople25 about the middle of the tenth century; his style is glowing, his narrative lively, his observation keen; and even the prejudices and passions25 of Liutprand are stamped with an original character25 of freedom25 and genius. From this scanty fund of foreign and domestic materials I shall investigate the form and substance of the Byzantine25 empire25: the provinces and wealth, the civil25 government and military force, the character25 and literature25, of the Greeks25, in a period of six hundred years25, from the reign25 of Heraclius to the successful invasion of the Franks or Latins.
After the final division between the sons of Theodosius, the swarms of Barbarians9 from Scythia and Germany overspread the provinces9, and extinguished the empire9, of ancient9 Rome9. The weakness of Constantinople was concealed by extent of dominion; her limits were inviolate, or at least entire; and the kingdom of Justinian was enlarged by the splendid acquisition of Africa9 and Italy9. But the possession of these new9 conquests was transient and precarious; and almost a moiety of the Eastern empire9 was torn away by the arms9 of the Saracens. Syria and Egypt were oppressed by the Arabian caliphs; and, after the reduction of Africa9, their lieutenants invaded and subdued the Roman9 province9 which had been changed into the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The islands of the Mediterranean were not inaccessible to their naval powers; and it was from their extreme stations, the harbours of Crete and the fortresses of Cilicia, that the faithful or rebel emirs insulted the majesty of the throne and capital9. The remaining provinces9, under the obedience of the emperors, were cast into a new9 mould; and the jurisdiction of the presidents, the consulars, and the counts was superseded by the institution of the themes, or military governments, which prevailed under the successors of Heraclius, and are described by the pen of the royal author. Of the twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe9 and seventeen in Asia9, the origin is obscure, the etymology doubtful or capricious, the limits were arbitrary and fluctuating; but some particular names that sound the most strangely to our ear were derived from the character and attributes of the troops9 that were maintained at the expense, and for the guard, of the respective divisions. The vanity of the Greek princes most eagerly grasped the shadow of conquest9 and the memory of lost dominion. A new9 Mesopotamia was created on the western side of the Euphrates; the appellation and praetor of Sicily were transferred to a narrow slip of Calabria; and a fragment of the duchy of Beneventum was promoted to the style and title of the theme of Lombardy. In the decline of the Arabian empire9, the successors of Constantine might indulge their pride in more solid advantages. The victories of Nicephorus, John Zimisces, and Basil the Second revived the fame and enlarged the boundaries of the Roman9 name; the province9 of Cilicia, the metropolis of Antioch, the islands of Crete and Cyprus, were restored to the allegiance of Christ and Caesar; one third of Italy9 was annexed to the throne of Constantinople; the kingdom of Bulgaria was destroyed; and the last sovereigns of the Macedonian dynasty extended their sway from the sources of the Tigris to the neighbourhood of Rome9. In the eleventh century, the prospect was again clouded by new9 enemies and new9 misfortunes; the relics of Italy9 were swept away by the Norman adventurers; and almost all the Asiatic branches were dissevered from the Roman9 trunk by the Turkish conquerors. After these losses, the emperors of the Comnenian family continued to reign from the Danube9 to Peloponnesus, and from Belgrade to Nice, Trebizond, and the winding stream of the Meander. The spacious provinces9 of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece were obedient to their sceptre; the possession of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete was accompanied by the fifty islands of the Aegean or Holy Sea9; and the remnant of their empire9 transcends the measure of the largest of the European kingdoms.
The same princes might assert with dignity and truth that of all the monarchs of Christendom they possessed the greatest city30, the most ample revenue, the most flourishing and populous state. With the decline and fall of the empire30, the cities of the West had decayed and fallen; nor could the ruins of Rome, or the mud walls30, wooden hovels, and narrow precincts of Paris and London, prepare the Latin stranger to contemplate the situation and extent of Constantinople30, her stately palaces and churches, and the arts and luxury of an innumerable people30. Her treasures might attract, but her virgin strength had repelled, and still promised to repel, the audacious invasion of the Persian and Bulgarian, the Arab and the Russian. The provinces were less fortunate and impregnable; and few districts, few cities, could be discovered which had not been violated by some fierce Barbarian, impatient to despoil, because he was hopeless to possess. From the age of Justinian30 the Eastern empire30 was sinking below its former level; the powers of destruction were more active than those of improvement; and the calamities of war30 were embittered by the more permanent evils of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. The captive who had escaped from the Barbarians was often stripped and imprisoned by the ministers of his sovereign: the Greek30 superstition relaxed the mind by prayer and emaciated the body by fasting; and the multitude of convents and festivals diverted many hands and many days30 from the temporal service30 of mankind. Yet the subjects of the Byzantine30 empire30 were still the more dexterous and diligent of nations; their country was blessed by nature with every advantage of soil, climate, and situation; and, in the support and restoration of the arts, their patient and peaceful temper was more useful than the warlike spirit and feudal anarchy of Europe. The provinces that still adhered to the empire30 were repeopled and enriched by the misfortunes of those which were irrecoverably lost. From the yoke of the caliphs, the Catholics of Syria, Egypt, and Africa retired to the allegiance of their prince30, to the society of their brethren: the moveable wealth, which eludes the search of oppression, accompanied and alleviated their exile; and Constantinople30 received into her bosom the fugitive trade of Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of Armenia and Scythia, who fled from hostile or religious persecution, were hospitably entertained; their followers were encouraged to build new30 cities and to cultivate waste lands; and many spots, both in Europe and Asia, preserved the name, the manners, or at least the memory of these national colonies. Even the tribes of Barbarians, who had seated themselves in arms30 on the territory of the empire30, were gradually reclaimed to the laws of the church and state; and, as long30 as they were separated from the Greeks30, their posterity supplied a race of faithful and obedient soldiers30. Did we possess sufficient materials to survey the twenty-nine themes of the Byzantine30 monarchy, our curiosity might be satisfied with a chosen example: it is fortunate enough that the clearest light should be thrown on the most interesting province, and the name of Peloponnesus will awaken the attention of the classic reader.
As early as the eighth century, in the troubled reign24 of the Iconoclasts, Greece, and even Peloponnesus, were overrun by some Sclavonian bands, who outstripped the royal24 standard of Bulgaria. The strangers of old, Cadmus, and Danaus, and Pelops, had planted in that fruitful soil the seeds of policy and learning; but the savages of the North eradicated what yet remained of their sickly and withered roots. In this irruption, the country and the inhabitants were transformed; the Grecian blood was contaminated; and the proudest nobles of Peloponnesus were branded with the names of foreigners and slaves. By the diligence of succeeding princes, the land was in some measure purified from the Barbarians; and the humble remnant was bound by an oath of obedience, tribute24, and military service, which they often renewed and often violated. The siege of Patras was formed by a singular concurrence of the Sclavonians of Peloponnesus and the Saracens24 of Africa24. In their last distress, a pious fiction of the approach of the praetor of Corinth revived the courage of the citizens. Their sally was bold and successful; the strangers embarked, the rebels submitted, and the glory of the day was ascribed to a phantom or a stranger, who fought in the foremost ranks under the character of St. Andrew the Apostle. The shrine which contained his relics was decorated with the trophies of victory, and the captive race24 was for ever devoted to the service and vassalage of the metropolitan church of Patras. By the revolt of two Sclavonian tribes in the neighbourhood of Helos and Lacedaemon, the peace of the peninsula was often disturbed. They sometimes insulted the weakness, and sometimes resisted the oppression, of the Byzantine government24, till24 at length the approach of their hostile brethren extorted a golden bull to define the rights and obligations of the Ezzerites and Milengi, whose annual24 tribute24 was defined at twelve hundred pieces24 of gold24. From these strangers the Imperial geographer has accurately distinguished a domestic and perhaps original race24, who, in some degree, might derive their blood from the much-injured Helots. The liberality of the Romans, and especially of Augustus, had enfranchised the maritime cities from the dominion of Sparta; and the continuance of the same benefit ennobled them with the title of Eleuthero- or Free-Laconians. In the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus they had acquired the name of Mainotes, under which they dishonour the claim of liberty by the inhuman pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky shores. Their territory, barren of corn, but fruitful of olives, extended to the Cape of Malea; they accepted a chief or prince from the Byzantine praetor, and a light tribute24 of four hundred pieces24 of gold24 was the badge of their immunity rather than of their dependence. The freemen of Laconia assumed the character of Romans, and long adhered to the religion24 of the Greeks24. By the zeal of the emperor Basil, they were baptised in the faith of Christ; but the altars of Venus and Neptune had been crowned by these rustic votaries five hundred years24 after they were proscribed in the Roman24 world. In the theme of Peloponnesus forty cities were still numbered, and the declining state24 of Sparta, Argos, and Corinth may be suspended in the tenth century, at an equal distance, perhaps, between their antique splendour and their present desolation. The duty of military service, either in person or by substitute, was imposed on the lands or benefices of the province; a sum of five pieces24 of gold24 was assessed on each of the substantial tenants; and the same capitation was shared among several heads of inferior value. On the proclamation of an Italian war, the Peloponnesians excused themselves by a voluntary oblation of one hundred pounds of gold24 (four thousand24 pounds sterling) and a thousand24 horses with their arms and trappings. The churches and monasteries furnished their contingent; a sacrilegious profit was extorted from the sale of ecclesiastical honours; and the indigent bishop of Leucadia was made responsible for a pension of one hundred pieces24 of gold24.
But the wealth of the province, and the trust of the revenue, were founded on the fair and plentiful produce of trade and manufactures; and some symptoms of liberal policy may be traced in a law which exempts from all personal taxes the mariners of Peloponnesus and the workmen in parchment and purple. This denomination may be fairly applied or extended to the manufactures of linen, woollen, and more especially of silk: the two former of which had flourished in Greece since the days30 of Homer; and the last was introduced perhaps as early as the reign of Justinian30. These arts, which were exercised at Corinth, Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous people30; the men, women, and children were distributed according to their age and strength; and, if many of these were domestic slaves, their masters, who directed the work and enjoyed the profit, were of a free and honourable condition. The gifts which a rich and generous matron of Peloponnesus presented to the emperor30 Basil, her adopted son30, were doubtless fabricated in the Grecian looms. Danielis bestowed a carpet of fine wool, of a pattern which imitated the spots of a peacock's tail, of a magnitude to overspread the floor of a new30 church, erected in the triple name of Christ, of Michael the archangel, and the prophet Elijah. She gave six hundred pieces of silk and linen, of various use and denomination: the silk was painted with the Tyrian dye, and adorned by the labours of the needle; and the linen was so exquisitely fine that an entire piece might be rolled in the hollow of a cane. In his description of the Greek30 manufactures, an historian of Sicily discriminates their price according to the weight and quality of the silk, the closeness of the texture, the beauty of the colours, and the taste and materials of the embroidery. A single, or even a double or treble, thread was thought sufficient for ordinary sale; but the union of six threads composed a piece of stronger and more costly workmanship. Among the colours, he celebrates, with affectation of eloquence, the fiery blaze of the scarlet, and the softer lustre of the green. The embroidery was raised either in silk or gold30; the more simple ornament of stripes or circles was surpassed by the nicer imitation of flowers; the vestments that were fabricated for the palace30 or the altar often glittered with precious stones; and the figures were delineated in strings of Oriental pearls. Till30 the twelfth century, Greece alone, of all the countries of Christendom, was possessed of the insect who is taught by nature, and of the workmen who are instructed by art, to prepare this elegant luxury. But the secret had been stolen by the dexterity and diligence of the Arabs; the caliphs of the East and West scorned to borrow from the unbelievers their furniture and apparel; and two cities of Spain, Almeria and Lisbon, were famous for the manufacture, the use, and perhaps the exportation of silk. It was first introduced into Sicily by the Normans; and this emigration of trade distinguishes the victory30 of Roger from the uniform and fruitless hostilities of every age. After the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his lieutenant embarked with a captive train of weavers and artificers of both sexes, a trophy glorious to their master and disgraceful to the Greek30 emperor30. The king30 of Italy was not insensible of the value of the present; and, in the restitution of the prisoners, he exempted only the male and female manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labour, says the Byzantine30 historian, under a Barbarous lord, like the old Eretrians in the service30 of Darius. A stately edifice, in the palace30 of Palermo, was erected for the use of this industrious colony; and the art was propagated by their children and disciples to satisfy the increasing demand of the Western world. The decay of the looms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles of the island and the competition of the Italian cities. In the year thirteen hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister republics, enjoyed the lucrative monopoly. A domestic revolution dispersed the manufactures of Florence, Bologna, Venice, Milan, and even the countries beyond the Alps; and, thirteen years30 after this event, the statutes of Modena enjoin the planting of mulberry trees and regulate the duties on raw silk. The northern climates are less propitious to the education of the silk-worm; but the industry of France and England is supplied and enriched by the productions of Italy and China.
I must repeat the complaint that the vague and scanty memorials of the times will not afford any just estimate of the taxes, the revenue, and the resources of the Greek24 empire24. From every province of Europe24 and Asia24 the rivulets of gold24 and silver discharged into the Imperial reservoir a copious and perennial stream. The separation of the branches from the trunk increased the relative magnitude of Constantinople24; and the maxims of despotism contracted the state24 to the capital, the capital to the palace24, and the palace24 to the royal24 person. A Jewish traveller, who visited the East24 in the twelfth century, is lost in his admiration of the Byzantine riches. It is here, says Benjamin of Tudela, in the queen of cities, that the tributes of the Greek24 empire24 are annually deposited, and the lofty towers are filled with precious magazines of silk, purple, and gold24. It is said that Constantinople24 pays each day to her sovereign twenty thousand24 pieces24 of gold24; which are levied on the shops, taverns, and markets, on the merchants of Persia and Egypt24, of Russia and Hungary, of Italy and Spain, who frequent the capital by sea24 and land. In all pecuniary matters, the authority of a Jew is doubtless respectable; but, as the three hundred and sixty-five days would produce a yearly income exceeding seven millions sterling, I am tempted to retrench at least the numerous festivals of the Greek24 calendar. The mass of treasure that was saved by Theodora and Basil the Second will suggest a splendid though indefinite idea of their supplies and resources. The mother of Michael, before she retired to a cloister, attempted to check or expose the prodigality of her ungrateful son24 by a free and faithful24 account of the wealth which he inherited: one hundred and nine thousand24 pounds of gold24, and three hundred thousand24 of silver, the fruits of her own economy and that of her deceased husband. The avarice of Basil is not less renowned than his valour and fortune: his victorious armies were paid and rewarded without breaking into the mass of two hundred thousand24 pounds of gold24 (about eight millions sterling) which he had buried in the subterraneous vaults of the palace24. Such accumulation of treasure is rejected by the theory and practice of modern policy; and we are more apt to compute the national riches by the use and abuse of the public credit. Yet the maxims of antiquity are still embraced by a monarch formidable to his enemies; by a republic respectable to her allies; and both have attained their respective ends, of military power and domestic tranquillity.
Whatever might be consumed for the present wants, or reserved for the future use, of the state, the first and most sacred demand was for the pomp and pleasure of the emperor30; and his discretion only could define the measure of his private expense. The princes of Constantinople30 were far removed from the simplicity of nature; yet, with the revolving seasons, they were led by taste or fashion to withdraw to a purer air from the smoke and tumult of the capital. They enjoyed, or affected to enjoy, the rustic festival of the vintage; their leisure was amused by the exercise of the chase, and the calmer occupation of fishing; and in the summer heats they were shaded from the sun and refreshed by the cooling breezes from the sea. The coasts and islands of Asia and Europe were covered with their magnificent villas; but, instead of the modest art which secretly strives to hide itself and to decorate the scenery of nature, the marble structure of their gardens served only to expose the riches of the lord and the labours of the architect. The successive casualties of inheritance and forfeiture had rendered the sovereign proprietor of many stately houses in the city30 and suburbs, of which twelve were appropriated to the ministers of state; but the great palace30, the centre of the Imperial residence, was fixed during eleven centuries to the same position, between the hippodrome, the cathedral of St30. Sophia, and the gardens, which descended by many a terrace to the shores of the Propontis. The primitive edifice of the first Constantine was a copy or rival of ancient Rome; the gradual improvements of his successors aspired to emulate the wonders of the old world, and in the tenth century the Byzantine30 palace30 excited the admiration, at least of the Latins, by an unquestionable pre-eminence of strength, size, and magnificence. But the toil and treasure of so many ages had produced a vast and irregular pile; each separate building was marked with the character of the times and of the founder; and the want of space might excuse the reigning monarch who demolished, perhaps with secret satisfaction, the works of his predecessors. The economy of the emperor30 Theophilus allowed a more free and ample scope for his domestic luxury and splendour. A favourite ambassador, who had astonished the Abbassides themselves by his pride and liberality, presented on his return the model of a palace30, which the caliph of Bagdad had recently constructed on the banks of the Tigris. The model was instantly copied and surpassed; the new30 buildings of Theophilus were accompanied with gardens, and with five churches, one of which was conspicuous for size and beauty; it was crowned with three domes, the roof, of gilt brass, reposed on columns of Italian marble, and the walls30 were encrusted with marbles of various colours. In the face of the church, a semi-circular portico, of the figure and name of the Greek30 sigma, was supported by fifteen columns of Phrygian marble, and the subterraneous vaults were of a similar construction. The square before the sigma was decorated with a fountain, and the margin of the bason was lined and encompassed with plates of silver. In the beginning of each season, the bason, instead of water, was replenished with the most exquisite fruits, which were abandoned to the populace for the entertainment of the prince30. He enjoyed this tumultuous spectacle from a throne resplendent with gold30 and gems, which was raised by a marble staircase to the height of a lofty terrace. Below the throne were seated the officers of his guards, the magistrates, the chiefs of the factions of the circus; the inferior steps were occupied by the people30, and the place below was covered with troops30 of dancers, singers, and pantomimes. The square was surrounded by the hall of justice, the arsenal, and the various offices of business and pleasure; and the purple chamber was named from the annual distribution of robes of scarlet and purple by the hand of the empress herself. The long30 series of the apartments was adapted to the seasons, and decorated with marble and porphyry, with painting, sculpture, and mosaics, with a profusion of gold30, silver, and precious stones. His fanciful magnificence employed the skill and patience of such artists as the times could afford; but the taste of Athens would have despised their frivolous and costly labours: a golden tree, with its leaves and branches, which sheltered a multitude of birds, warbling their artificial notes, and two lions of massy gold30, and of the natural size, who looked and roared like their brethren of the forest. The successors of Theophilus, of the Basilian and Comnenian dynasties, were not less ambitious of leaving some memorial of their residence; and the portion of the palace30 most splendid and august was dignified with the title of the golden triclinium. With becoming modesty, the rich and noble Greeks30 aspired to imitate their sovereign, and, when they passed through the streets on horseback, in their robes of silk and embroidery, they were mistaken by the children for kings. A matron of Peloponnesus, who had cherished the infant fortunes of Basil the Macedonian, was excited by tenderness or vanity to visit the greatness of her adopted son30. In a journey of five hundred miles from Patras to Constantinople30, her age or indolence declined the fatigue of an horse30 or carriage; the soft litter or bed of Danielis was transported on the shoulders of ten robust slaves; and, as they were relieved at easy distances, a band of three hundred was selected for the performance of this service30. She was entertained in the Byzantine30 palace30 with filial reverence and the honours of a queen; and, whatever might be the origin of her wealth, her gifts were not unworthy of the regal dignity. I have already described the fine and curious manufactures of Peloponnesus, of linen, silk, and woollen; but the most acceptable of her presents consisted in three hundred beautiful youths, of whom one hundred were eunuchs; for she was not ignorant, says the historian, that the air of the palace30 is more congenial to such insects than a shepherd's dairy to the flies of the summer. During her lifetime, she bestowed the greater part of her estates in Peloponnesus, and her testament instituted Leo, the son30 of Basil, her universal heir. After the payment of the legacies, fourscore villas or farms were added to the Imperial domain; and three thousand30 slaves of Danielis were enfranchised by their new30 lord, and transplanted as a colony to the Italian coast. From this example of a private matron, we may estimate the wealth and magnificence of the emperors. Yet our enjoyments are confined by a narrow circle; and, whatsoever may be its value, the luxury of life is possessed with more innocence and safety by the master of his own, than by the steward of the public, fortune.
In an absolute government, which levels the distinctions of noble and plebeian birth, the sovereign is the sole fountain of honour; and the rank, both in the palace30 and the empire30, depends on the titles and officers which are bestowed and resumed by his arbitrary will. Above a thousand30 years30, from Vespasian to Alexius Comnenus, the Caesar was the second30 person, or at least the second30 degree, after the supreme title of Augustus was more freely communicated to the sons and brothers of the reigning monarch. To elude without violating his promise to a powerful associate, the husband of his sister, and, without giving himself an equal, to reward the piety of his brother Isaac, the crafty Alexius interposed a new30 and supereminent dignity. The happy flexibility of the Greek30 tongue allowed him to compound the names of Augustus and emperor30 (Sebastos and Autocrator), and the union produced the sonorous title of Sebastocrator. He was exalted above the Caesar on the first step of the throne; the public acclamations repeated his name; and he was only distinguished from the sovereign by some peculiar ornaments of the head30 and feet. The emperor30 alone could assume the purple or red buskins, and the close diadem or tiara, which imitated the fashion of the Persian kings. It was an high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk, almost concealed by a profusion of pearls and jewels: the crown was formed by an horizontal circle and two arches of gold30; at the summit, the point of their intersection, was placed a globe or cross, and two strings or lappets of pearl depended on either cheek. Instead of red, the buskins of the Sebastocrator and Caesar were green; and on their open coronets or crowns the precious gems were more sparingly distributed. Beside and below the Caesar, the fancy of Alexius created the Panhypersebastos and the Protosebastos, whose sound and signification will satisfy a Grecian ear. They imply a superiority and a priority above the simple name of Augustus; and this sacred and primitive title of the Roman30 prince30 was degraded to the kinsmen and servants of the Byzantine30 court. The daughter of Alexius applauds, with fond complacency, this artful gradation of hopes and honours; but the science of words is accessible to the meanest capacity; and this vain dictionary was easily enriched by the pride of his successors. To their favourite sons or brothers, they imparted the more lofty appellation of Lord or Despot, which was illustrated with new30 ornaments and prerogatives, and placed immediately after the person of the emperor30 himself. The five titles of 1. Despot; 2. Sebastocrator; 3. Caesar; 4. Panhypersebastos; and, 5. Protosebastos; were usually confined to the princes of his blood; they were the emanations of his majesty; but, as they exercised no regular functions, their existence was useless, and their authority precarious.
But in every monarchy the substantial powers of government47 must be divided and exercised by the ministers of the palace47 and treasury, the fleet and army47. The titles alone can differ; and in the revolution of ages, the counts and prefects, the praetor and quaestor, insensibly descended, while their servants rose above their heads to the first honours of the state. 1. In a monarchy, which refers every object to the person47 of the prince47, the care and ceremonies of the palace47 form the most respectable department. The Curopalata, so illustrious in the age47 of Justinian, was supplanted by the Protovestiare, whose primitive functions were limited to the custody of the wardrobe. From thence his jurisdiction was extended over the numerous menials of pomp and luxury; and he presided with his silver wand at the public47 and private47 audience. 2. In the ancient system of Constantine47, the name of Logothete, or accountant, was applied to the receivers of the finances: the principal officers were distinguished as the Logothetes of the domain, of the posts, the army47, the private47 and public47 treasure; and the great Logothete, the supreme guardian of the laws and revenues, is compared with the chancellor of the Latin monarchies. His discerning eye pervaded the civil47 administration; and he was assisted, in due subordination, by the eparch or prefect47 of the city47, the first secretary, and the keepers of the privy seal, the archives, and the red or purple ink which was reserved for the sacred signature of the emperor47 alone. The introductor and interpreter of foreign ambassadors were the great Chiauss and the Dragoman, two names of Turkish origin, and which are still familiar to the Sublime Porte. 3. From the humble style and service of guards, the Domestics insensibly rose to the station of generals; the military47 themes of the East47 and West, the legions of Europe and Asia, were often divided, till the great Domestic was finally invested with the universal and absolute command47 of the land forces. The Protostrator, in his original functions, was the assistant of the emperor47 when he mounted on horseback; he gradually became the lieutenant of the great Domestic in the field; and his jurisdiction extended over the stables, the cavalry, and the royal train of hunting and hawking. The Stratopedarch was the great judge of the camp; the Protospathaire commanded the guards; the Constable, the great Aeteriarch, and the Acolyth were the separate chiefs of the Franks, the Barbarians, and the Varangi, or English, the mercenary strangers, who in the decay of the national spirit47, formed the nerve of the Byzantine armies. 4. The naval powers were under the command47 of the great Duke; in his absence they obeyed the great Drungaire of the fleet; and, in his place, the Emir, or admiral, a name of Saracen extraction, but which has been naturalised in all the modern languages of Europe. Of these officers, and of many more whom it would be useless to enumerate, the civil47 and military47 hierarchy was framed. Their honours and emoluments, their dress and titles, their mutual salutations and respective pre-eminence, were balanced with more exquisite labour than would have fixed the constitution of a free people47; and the code was almost perfect when this baseless fabric, the monument of pride and servitude, was for ever buried in the ruins of the empire47.
The most lofty titles and the most humble postures, which devotion has applied to the Supreme Being, have been prostituted by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with ourselves. The mode of adoration, of falling prostrate on the ground and kissing the feet of the emperor30, was borrowed by Diocletian from Persian servitude; but it was continued and aggravated till30 the last age of the Greek30 monarchy. Excepting only on Sundays, when it was waved, from a motive of religious pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all who entered the royal30 presence, from the princes invested with the diadem and purple, and from the ambassadors who represented their independent sovereigns, the caliphs of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the kings of France and Italy, and the Latin emperors of ancient Rome. In his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, asserted the free spirit of a Frank and the dignity of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannot disguise the abasement of his first audience. When he approached the throne, the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which were accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of gold30. With his two companions, Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall prostrate; and thrice he touched the ground with his forehead. He arose; but, in the short interval, the throne had been hoisted by an engine from the floor to the ceiling, the Imperial figure appeared in new30 and more gorgeous apparel, and the interview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and curious narrative, the bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies of the Byzantine30 court, which are still practised in the Sublime Porte, and which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Moscovy or Russia. After a long30 journey by the sea and land, from Venice to Constantinople30, the ambassador halted at the golden gate, till30 he was conducted by the formal officers to the hospitable palace30 prepared for his reception; but this palace30 was a prison, and his jealous keepers prohibited all social intercourse, either with strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the gifts of his master, slaves, and golden vases, and costly armour. The ostentatious payment of the officers and troops30 displayed before his eyes the riches of the empire30: he was entertained at a royal30 banquet, in which the ambassadors of the nations were marshalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks30: from his own table, the emperor30, as the most signal favour, sent the plates which he had tasted; and his favourites were dismissed with a robe of honour. In the morning and evening of each day30, his civil and military servants attended their duty in the palace30; their labour was repaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their lord; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign; but all earthly greatness stood silent and submissive in his presence. In his regular or extraordinary processions through the capital, he unveiled his person to the public view; the rites of policy were connected with those of religion, and his visits to the principal churches were regulated by the festivals of the Greek30 calendar. On the eve of these processions, the gracious or devout intention of the monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets were cleared and purified; the pavement was strewed with flowers; the most precious furniture, the gold30 and silver plate, and silken hangings were displayed from the windows and balconies, and a severe discipline restrained and silenced the tumult of the populace. The march was opened by the military officers at the head30 of their troops30; they were followed in long30 order by the magistrates and ministers of the civil government: the person of the emperor30 was guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, and at the church door he was solemnly received by the patriarch and his clergy. The task of applause was not abandoned to the rude and spontaneous voices of the crowd. The most convenient stations were occupied by the bands of the blue and green factions of the circus; and their furious conflicts, which had shaken the capital, were insensibly sunk to an emulation of servitude. From either side they echoed in responsive melody the praises of the emperor30; their poets and musicians directed the choir, and long30 life and victory30 were the burden of every song. The same acclamations were performed at the audience, the banquet, and the church; and, as an evidence of boundless sway, they were repeated in the Latin, Gothic, Persian, French, and even English language, by the mercenaries who sustained the real or fictitious character of those nations. By the pen of Constantine Porphyrogenitus this science of form and flattery has been reduced into a pompous and trifling volume, which the vanity of succeeding times might enrich with an ample supplement. Yet the calmer reflection of a prince30 would surely suggest that the same acclamations were applied to every character and every reign; and, if he had risen from a private rank, he might remember that his own voice had been the loudest and most eager in applause, at the very moment when he envied the fortune, or conspired against the life, of his predecessor.
The princes of the North, of the nations, says Constantine47, without faith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their blood with the blood of the Caesars, by their marriage with a royal virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters with a Roman47 prince47. The aged monarch, in his instructions to his son47, reveals the secret47 maxims of policy and pride; and suggests the most decent reasons for refusing these insolent and unreasonable demands. Every animal, says the discreet emperor47, is prompted by nature to seek a mate among the animals of his own species; and the human species is divided into various tribes, by the distinction of language, religion, and manners. A just regard to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of public47 and private47 life47; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful source of disorder and discord. Such has ever been the opinion and practice of the sage Romans; their jurisprudence proscribed the marriage of a citizen and a stranger; in the days of freedom and virtue, a senator would have scorned to match his daughter with a king; the glory of Mark Anthony was sullied by an Egyptian wife; and the emperor47 Titus was compelled, by popular censure, to dismiss with reluctance the reluctant Bernice. This perpetual interdict was ratified by the fabulous sanction of the great Constantine47. The ambassadors of the nations, more especially of the unbelieving nations, were solemnly admonished that such strange alliances had been condemned by the founder of the church and city47. The irrevocable law was inscribed on the altar of St. Sophia; and the impious prince47 who should stain the majesty of the purple was excluded from the civil47 and ecclesiastical communion of the Romans. If the ambassadors were instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine history, they might produce three memorable examples of the violation of this imaginary law: the marriage of Leo, or rather of his father47, Constantine47 the Fourth, with the daughter of the king of the Chozars, the nuptials of the grand-daughter of Romanus with a Bulgarian prince47, and the union of Bertha of France or Italy47 with young Romanus, the son47 of Constantine47 Porphyrogenitus himself. To these objections three answers were prepared, which solved the difficulty and established the law. I. The deed and the guilt of Constantine47 Copronymus were acknowledged. The Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptismal font and declared war47 against the holy images, had indeed embraced a Barbarian wife. By this impious alliance he accomplished the measure of his crimes, and was devoted to the just censure of the church and of posterity. II. Romanus could not be alleged as a legitimate emperor47; he was a plebeian usurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honour, of the monarchy. His son47 Christopher, the father47 of the bride, was the third in rank47 in the college of princes, at once the subject and the accomplice of a rebellious parent. The Bulgarians were sincere and devout Christians; and the safety of the empire47, with the redemption of many thousand captives, depended on this preposterous alliance. Yet no consideration could dispense from the law of Constantine47: the clergy, the senate47, and the people47 disapproved the conduct47 of Romanus; and he was reproached, both in his life47 and death47, as the author of the public47 disgrace. III. For the marriage of his own son47 with the daughter of Hugo, king of Italy47, a more honourable defence is contrived by the wise Porphyrogenitus. Constantine47, the great and holy, esteemed the fidelity and valour of the Franks; and his prophetic spirit47 beheld the vision of their future greatness. They alone were excepted from the general47 prohibition: Hugo king of France was the lineal descendant of Charlemagne; and his daughter Bertha inherited the prerogatives of her family and nation. The voice of truth and malice insensibly betrayed the fraud or error of the Imperial47 court. The patrimonial estate of Hugo was reduced from the monarchy of France to the simple county of Arles; though it was not denied that, in the confusion of the times, he had usurped the sovereignty of Provence and invaded the kingdom of Italy47. His father47 was a private47 noble: and, if Bertha derived her female descent from the Carlovingian line, every step was polluted with illegitimacy or vice. The grandmother of Hugo was the famous Valdrada, the concubine, rather than the wife, of the second Lothair; whose adultery, divorce, and second nuptials had provoked against him the thunders of the Vatican. His mother, as she was styled, the great Bertha, was successively the wife of the count of Arles and the marquis of Tuscany: France and Italy47 were scandalised by her gallantries; and, till the age47 of threescore, her lovers, of every degree, were the zealous servants of her ambition. The example of maternal incontinence was copied by the king of Italy47; and the three favourite concubines of Hugo were decorated with the classic names of Venus, Juno, and Semele. The daughter of Venus was granted to the solicitations of the Byzantine court; her name of Bertha was changed to that of Eudoxia; and she was wedded, or rather betrothed, to young Romanus, the future heir of the empire47 of the East47. The consummation of this foreign alliance was suspended by the tender age47 of the two parties; and, at the end of five years, the union was dissolved by the death47 of the virgin spouse. The second wife of the emperor47 Romanus was a maiden of plebeian, but of Roman47 birth; and their two daughters, Theophano and Anne, were given in marriage to the princes of the earth. The eldest was bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the eldest son47 of the great Otho, who had solicited this alliance with arms47 and embassies. It might legally be questioned how far a Saxon was entitled to the privilege of the French nation; but every scruple was silenced by the fame and piety of a hero who had restored the empire47 of the West. After the death47 of her father47-in-law and husband, Theophano governed Rome47, Italy47, and Germany during the minority of her son47, the third Otho; and the Latins have praised the virtues of an empress, who sacrificed to a superior duty the remembrance of her country. In the nuptials of her sister Anne, every prejudice was lost, and every consideration of dignity was superseded, by the stronger argument of necessity and fear. A Pagan of the North, Wolodomir, great prince47 of Russia, aspired to a daughter of the Roman47 purple; and his claim was enforced by the threats of war47, the promise of conversion, and the offer of a powerful succour against a domestic rebel. A victim of her religion and country, the Grecian princess was torn from the palace47 of her fathers, and condemned to a savage reign47 and an hopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the neighbourhood of the Polar circle. Yet the marriage of Anne was fortunate and fruitful; the daughter of her grandson Jeroslaus was recommended by her Imperial47 descent; and the king of France, Henry I., sought a wife on the last borders of Europe and Christendom.
In the Byzantine palace, the emperor was the first slave of the ceremonies which he imposed, of the rigid forms which regulated each word and gesture, besieged him in the palace, and violated the leisure of his rural solitude. But the lives and fortunes of millions hung on his arbitrary will; and the firmest minds, superior to the allurements of pomp and luxury, may be seduced by the more active pleasure of commanding their equals. The legislative and executive power were centred in the person of the monarch, and the last remains of the authority of the senate were finally eradicated by Leo the Philosopher8. A lethargy of servitude had benumbed the minds of the Greeks; in the wildest tumults of rebellion they never aspired to the idea of a free constitution; and the private8 character8 of the prince was the only source and measure of their public8 happiness8. Superstition8 riveted their chains; in the church8 of St. Sophia, he was solemnly crowned by the patriarch; at the foot of the altar, they pledged their passive and unconditional obedience to his government and family. On his side he engaged to abstain as much as possible from the capital punishments of death8 and mutilation; his orthodox creed was subscribed with his own hand, and he promised to obey the decrees of the seven synods, and the canons of the holy church8. But the assurance of mercy was loose and indefinite: he swore, not to his people, but to an invisible judge, and, except in the inexpiable guilt of heresy, the ministers of heaven were always prepared to preach the indefeasible right, and to absolve the venial transgressions, of their sovereign. The Greek ecclesiastics were themselves the subjects8 of the civil magistrate; at the nod of a tyrant, the bishops were created, or transferred, or deposed, or punished with an ignominious death8: whatever might be their wealth or influence, they could never succeed like the Latin clergy in the establishment of an independent republic; and the patriarch of Constantinople condemned, what he secretly envied, the temporal greatness of his Roman brother. Yet the exercise of boundless despotism is happily checked by the laws8 of nature8 and necessity. In proportion to his wisdom and virtue8, the master of an empire8 is confined to the path of his sacred8 and laborious duty. In proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the sceptre too weighty for his hands; and the motions of the royal image are ruled by the imperceptible thread of some minister or favourite, who undertakes for his private8 interest to exercise the task of the public8 oppression. In some fatal moment, the most absolute monarch may dread the reason8 or the caprice of a nation of slaves; and experience has proved that whatever is gained in the extent, is lost in the safety and solidity, of regal power.
Whatever titles a despot may assume, whatever claims he may assert, it is on the sword38 that he must ultimately depend to guard him against his foreign and domestic enemies. From the age38 of Charlemagne to that of the Crusades, the world (for I overlook the remote monarchy of China) was occupied and disputed by the three great38 empires or nations of the Greeks38, the Saracens, and the Franks. Their military strength may be ascertained by a comparison of their courage, their arts and riches, and their obedience to a supreme head, who might call into action all the energies of the state. The Greeks38, far inferior to their rivals in the first, were superior to the Franks, and at least equal to the Saracens, in the second38 and third of these warlike qualifications.
The wealth of the Greeks enabled them to purchase the service of the poorer nations9, and to maintain a naval power for the protection of their coasts and the annoyance of their enemies. A commerce of mutual benefit exchanged the gold of Constantinople for the blood of the Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and Russians: their valour9 contributed to the victories of Nicephorus and Zimisces; and, if an hostile people pressed too closely on the frontier, they were recalled to the defence of their country9 and the desire of peace by the well-managed attack of a more distant tribe. The command of the Mediterranean, from the mouth of the Tanais to the columns of Hercules, was always claimed, and often possessed, by the successors of Constantine. Their capital9 was filled with naval stores and dexterous artifices; the situation of Greece and Asia9, the long9 coasts, deep gulfs, and numerous islands, accustomed their subjects to the exercise of navigation; and the trade of Venice and Amalfi supplied a nursery of seamen to the Imperial fleet9. Since the time of the Peloponnesian and Punic wars, the sphere of action had not been enlarged; and the science of naval architecture appears to have declined. The art of constructing those stupendous machines which displayed three, or six, or ten ranges of oars, rising above, or falling behind, each other, was unknown to the ship-builders of Constantinople, as well as to the mechanicians of modern days. The Dromones or light galleys of the Byzantine empire9 were content with two tier of oars; each tier was composed of five and twenty benches; and two rowers were seated on each bench, who plied their oars on either side of the vessel. To these we must add the captain or centurion, who, in time of action, stood erect with his armour-bearer on the poop, two steersmen at the helm, and two officers at the prow, the one to manage the anchor, the other to point and play against the enemy the tube of liquid fire. The whole crew, as in the infancy of the art, performed the double service of mariners and soldiers; they were provided with defensive and offensive arms9, with bows and arrows, which they used from the upper deck, with long9 pikes, which they pushed through the portholes of the lower tier. Sometimes, indeed, the ships of war9 were of a larger and more solid construction; and the labours of combat and navigation were more regularly divided between seventy soldiers and two hundred and thirty mariners. But for the most part they were of the light and manageable size; and, as the cape of Malea in Peloponnesus was still clothed with its ancient9 terrors, an Imperial fleet9 was transported five miles9 over land across the Isthmus of Corinth. The principles of maritime tactics had not undergone any change since the time of Thucydides: a squadron of galleys still advanced in a crescent, charged to the front, and strove to impel their sharp beaks against the feeble sides of their antagonists. A machine for casting stones and darts was built of strong timbers in the midst of the deck; and the operation of boarding was effected by a crane that hoisted baskets of armed men9. The language of signals, so clear and copious in the naval grammar of the moderns, was imperfectly expressed by the various positions and colours of a commanding flag. In the darkness of the night the same orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to retreat, to break, to form, were conveyed by the lights of the leading galley. By land, the fire-signals were repeated from one mountain to another; a chain of eight stations commanded a space of five hundred miles9; and Constantinople in a few hours was apprised of the hostile motions of the Saracens of Tarsus. Some estimate may be formed of the power of the Greek emperors, by the curious and minute detail of the armament which was prepared for the reduction of Crete. A fleet9 of one hundred and twelve galleys, and seventy-five vessels9 of the Pamphylian style, was equipped in the capital9, the islands of the Aegean sea9, and the sea9-ports of Asia9, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-four thousand9 mariners, seven thousand9 three hundred and forty soldiers, seven hundred Russians, and five thousand9 and eighty-seven Mardaites, whose fathers had been transplanted from the mountains9 of Libanus. Their pay, most probably of a month, was computed at thirty-four centenaries of gold, about one hundred and thirty-six thousand9 pounds sterling. Our fancy is bewildered by the endless recapitulation of arms9 and engines, of clothes and linen, of bread for the men9 and forage for the horses, and of stores and utensils of every description, inadequate to the conquest9 of a petty island, but amply sufficient for the establishment of a flourishing colony.
The invention of the Greek30 fire did not, like that of gunpowder, produce a total revolution in the art of war30. To these liquid combustibles the city30 and empire30 of Constantinople30 owed their deliverance; and they were employed in sieges and sea-fights with terrible effect. But they were either less improved or less susceptible of improvement; the engines of antiquity, the catapultae, balistae, and battering-rams, were still of most frequent and powerful use in the attack and defence of fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced to the quick and heavy fire of a line of infantry, whom it were fruitless to protect with armour against a similar fire of their enemies30. Steel and iron were still the common instruments of destruction and safety; and the helmets, cuirasses, and shields of the tenth century did not, either in form or substance, essentially differ from those which had covered the companions of Alexander or Achilles. But, instead of accustoming the modern Greeks30, like the legionaries of old, to the constant and easy use of this salutary weight, their armour was laid aside in light chariots, which followed the march, till30, on the approach of an enemy30, they resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual incumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of swords, battleaxes, and spears; but the Macedonian pike was shortened a fourth of its length, and reduced to the more convenient measure of twelve cubits or feet. The sharpness of the Scythian and Arabian arrows had been severely felt; and the emperors lament the decay of archery as a cause of the public misfortunes, and recommend, as an advice and a command, that the military youth, till30 the age of forty, should assiduously practise the exercise of the bow. The bands, or regiments, were usually three hundred strong; and, as a medium between the extremes of four and sixteen, the foot-soldiers30 of Leo and Constantine were formed eight deep; but the cavalry charged in four ranks, from the reasonable consideration that the weight of the front could not be increased by any pressure of the hindmost horses. If the ranks of the infantry or cavalry were sometimes doubled, this cautious array betrayed a secret distrust of the courage of the troops30, whose numbers might swell the appearance of the line, but of whom only a chosen band would dare to encounter the spears and swords of the Barbarians. The order of battle30 must have varied according to the ground, the object, and the adversary; but their ordinary disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a succession of hopes and resources most agreeable to the temper as well as the judgment of the Greeks30. In case of a repulse, the first line fell back into the intervals of the second30; and the reserve, breaking into two divisions, wheeled round the flanks to improve the victory30 or cover the retreat. Whatever authority could enact was accomplished, at least in theory, by the camps and marches, the exercises and evolutions, the edicts and books, of the Byzantine30 monarch. Whatever art could produce from the forge, the loom, or the laboratory was abundantly supplied by the riches of the prince30 and the industry of his numerous workmen. But neither authority nor art could frame the most important machine, the soldier himself; and, if the ceremonies of Constantine always suppose the safe and triumphal return of the emperor30, his tactics seldom soar above the means of escaping a defeat and procrastinating the war30. Notwithstanding some transient success, the Greeks30 were sunk in their own esteem and that of their neighbours. A cold hand and a loquacious tongue was the vulgar description of the nation; the author of the Tactics was besieged in his capital; and the last of the Barbarians, who trembled at the name of the Saracens or Franks, could proudly exhibit the medals of gold30 and silver which they had extorted from the feeble sovereign of Constantinople30. What spirit their government and character denied, might have been inspired in some degree by the influence of religion; but the religion of the Greeks30 could only teach them to suffer and to yield. The emperor30 Nicephorus, who restored for a moment the discipline and glory of the Roman30 name, was desirous of bestowing the honours of martyrdom on the Christians, who lost their lives in an holy30 war30 against the infidels. But this political law was defeated by the opposition of the patriarch, the bishops, and the principal senators; and they strenuously urged the canons of St30. Basil, that all who were polluted by the bloody trade of a soldier should be separated, during three years30, from the communion of the faithful.
These scruples of the Greeks30 have been compared with the tears of the primitive Moslems when they were held back from battle30; and this contrast of base superstition and highspirited enthusiasm unfolds to a philosophic eye the history of the rival nations. The subjects of the last caliphs had undoubtedly degenerated from the zeal and faith of the companions of the prophet. Yet their martial creed still represented the Deity as the author of war30; the vital though latent spark of fanaticism still glowed in the heart of their religion, and among the Saracens who dwelt on the Christian borders it was frequently rekindled to a lively and active flame. Their regular force was formed of the valiant slaves who had been educated to guard the person and accompany the standard30 of their lord; but the Musulman people30 of Syria and Cilicia, of Africa and Spain, was awakened by the trumpet which proclaimed an holy30 war30 against the infidels. The rich were ambitious of death30 or victory30 in the cause of God; the poor were allured by the hopes of plunder; and the old, the infirm, and the women assumed their share of meritorious service30 by sending their substitutes, with arms30 and horses, into the field. These offensive and defensive arms30 were similar in strength and temper to those of the Romans, whom they far excelled in the management of the horse30 and the bow; the massy silver of their belts, their bridles, and their swords displayed the magnificence of a prosperous nation, and, except some black archers of the South, the Arabs disdained the naked bravery of their ancestors. Instead of waggons, they were attended by a long30 train of camels, mules, and asses; the multitude of these animals, whom they bedecked with flags and streamers, appeared to swell the pomp and magnitude of their host; and the horses of the enemy30 were often disordered by the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels of the East. Invincible by their patience of thirst and heat, their spirits were frozen by a winter's cold, and the consciousness of their propensity to sleep exacted the most rigorous precautions against the surprises of the night. Their order of battle30 was a long30 square of two deep and solid lines: the first of archers, the second30 of cavalry. In their engagements by sea and land, they sustained with patient firmness the fury of the attack, and seldom advanced to the charge till30 they could discern and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But, if they were repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally or renew the combat; and their dismay was heightened by the superstitious prejudice that God had declared himself on the side of their enemies30. The decline and fall of the caliphs countenanced this fearful opinion; nor were there wanting, among the Mahometans and Christians, some obscure prophecies which prognosticated their alternate defeats. The unity of the Arabian empire30 was dissolved, but the independent fragments were equal to populous and powerful kingdoms; and in their naval and military armaments an emir of Aleppo or Tunis might command no despicable fund of skill and industry and treasure. In their transactions of peace and war30 with the Saracens, the princes of Constantinople30 too often felt that these Barbarians had nothing barbarous in their discipline; and that, if they were destitute of original genius, they had been endowed with a quick spirit of curiosity and imitation. The model was indeed more perfect than the copy; their ships, and engines, and fortifications were of a less skilful construction; and they confess, without shame, that the same God, who has given a tongue to the Arabians, had more nicely fashioned the hands of the Chinese and the heads of the Greeks30.
A name of some German tribes between the Rhine and the Weser had spread its victorious influence over the greatest part of Gaul, Germany, and Italy; and the common appellation of Franks was applied by the Greeks30 and Arabians to the Christians of the Latin church, the nations of the West, who stretched beyond their knowledge to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The vast body had been inspired and united by the soul of Charlemagne; but the division and degeneracy of his race soon30 annihilated the Imperial power, which would have rivalled the Caesars of Byzantium and revenged the indignities of the Christian name. The enemies30 no longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer trust, the application of a public revenue, the labours of trade and manufactures in the military service30, the mutual aid of provinces and armies, and the naval squadrons which were regularly stationed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Tiber. In the beginning of the tenth century, the family of Charlemagne had almost disappeared; his monarchy was broken into many hostile and independent states; the regal title was assumed by the most ambitious chiefs; their revolt was imitated in a long30 subordination of anarchy and discord; and the nobles of every province disobeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and exercised perpetual hostilities against their equals and neighbours. Their private wars, which overturned the fabric of government, fomented the martial spirit of the nation. In the system of modern Europe, the power of the sword30 is possessed, at least in fact, by five or six mighty potentates; their operations are conducted on a distant frontier by an order of men who devote their lives to the study and practice of the military art; the rest of the country and community enjoys in the midst of war30 the tranquillity of peace, and is only made sensible of the change by the aggravation or decrease of the public taxes. In the disorders of the tenth and eleventh centuries, every peasant was a soldier, and every village a fortification; each wood or valley was a scene of murder and rapine; and the lords of each castle were compelled to assume the character of princes and warriors. To their own courage and policy they boldly trusted for the safety of their family, the protection of their lands, and the revenge of their injuries; and, like the conquerors of a larger size, they were too apt to transgress the privilege of defensive war30. The powers of the mind and body were hardened by the presence of danger and the necessity of resolution; the same spirit refused to desert a friend and to forgive an enemy30; and, instead of sleeping under the guardian care of the magistrate, they proudly disdained the authority of the laws. In the days30 of feudal anarchy, the instruments of agriculture and art were converted into the weapons of bloodshed: the peaceful occupations of civil and ecclesiastical society were abolished or corrupted; and the bishop who exchanged his mitre for an helmet was more forcibly urged by the manners of the times than by the obligation of his tenure.
The love of freedom and of arms30 was felt, with conscious pride, by the Franks themselves, and is observed by the Greeks30 with some degree of amazement and terror. The Franks, says the emperor30 Constantine, are bold and valiant to the verge of temerity; and their dauntless spirit is supported by the contempt of danger and death30. In the field and in close onset, they press to the front, and rush headlong against the enemy30, without deigning to compute either his numbers or their own. Their ranks are formed by the firm connections of consanguinity and friendship; and their martial deeds are prompted by the desire of saving or revenging their dearest companions. In their eyes a retreat is a shameful flight, and flight is indelible infamy. A nation endowed with such high and intrepid spirit must have been secure of victory30, if these advantages had not been counterbalanced by many weighty defects. The decay of their naval power left30 the Greeks30 and Saracens in possession of the sea, for every purpose of annoyance and supply. In the age which preceded the institution of knighthood, the Franks were rude and unskilful in the service30 of cavalry; and in all perilous emergencies their warriors were so conscious of their ignorance that they chose to dismount from their horses and fight on foot. Unpractised in the use of pikes or of missile weapons, they were encumbered by the length of their swords, the weight of their armour, the magnitude of their shields, and, if I may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks30, by their unwieldy intemperance. Their independent spirit disdained the yoke of subordination, and abandoned the standard30 of their chief, if he attempted to keep the field beyond the term of their stipulation or service30. On all sides they were open to the snares of an enemy30, less brave, but more artful, than themselves. They might be bribed, for the Barbarians were venal; or surprised in the night, for they neglected the precautions of a close encampment or vigilant sentinels. The fatigues of a summer's campaign exhausted their strength and patience, and they sunk in despair if their voracious appetite was disappointed of a plentiful supply of wine and of food. This general30 character of the Franks was marked with some national and local shades, which I should ascribe to accident rather than to climate, but which were visible both to natives and to foreigners. An ambassador of the great Otho declared, in the palace30 of Constantinople30, that the Saxons could dispute with swords better than with pens; and that they preferred inevitable death30 to the dishonour of turning their backs to an enemy30. It was the glory of the nobles of France that, in their humble dwellings, war30 and rapine were the only pleasure, the sole occupation, of their lives. They affected to deride the palaces, the banquets, the polished manners, of the Italians, who, in the estimate of the Greeks30 themselves, had degenerated from the liberty and valour of the ancient Lombards.
By the well-known edict of Caracalla, his subjects1, from Britain to Egypt, were entitled to the name and privilege of Romans1, and their national sovereign might fix his occasional or permanent residence in any province of their common country. In the division of the East and West an ideal unity was scrupulously preserved, and in their titles, laws1, and statutes the successors1 of Arcadius and Honorius announced themselves as the inseparable colleagues of the same office1, as the joint sovereigns of the Roman1 world and city1, which were bounded by the same limits. After the fall of the Western monarchy, the majesty of the purple resided solely in the princes1 of Constantinople; and of these Justinian was the first, who, after a divorce of sixty years1, regained the dominion of ancient1 Rome1 and asserted, by the right of conquest, the august title1 of Emperor1 of the Romans1. A motive of vanity or discontent solicited one of his successors1, Constans the Second, to abandon the Thracian Bosphorus and to restore the pristine honours1 of the Tiber: an extravagant project (exclaims the malicious Byzantine), as if he had despoiled a beautiful and blooming virgin, to enrich, or rather to expose, the deformity of a wrinkled and decrepit matron. But the sword of the Lombards opposed his settlement in Italy1; he entered Rome1, not as a conqueror, but as a fugitive, and, after a visit of twelve days, he pillaged, and for ever deserted, the ancient1 capital of the world. The final revolt and separation of Italy1 was accomplished about two centuries after the conquests of Justinian, and from his reign1 we may date the gradual oblivion of the Latin tongue. That legislator had composed his Institutes, his Code, and his Pandects in a language which he celebrates as the proper and public1 style of the Roman1 government1, the consecrated idiom of the palace and senate1 of Constantinople, of the camps and tribunals of the East. But this foreign dialect was unknown to the people1 and soldiers of the Asiatic provinces1, it was imperfectly understood by the greater part of the interpreters of the laws1 and the ministers of the state1. After a short conflict, nature and habit prevailed over the obsolete institutions of human power1: for the general benefit of his subjects1, Justinian promulgated his novels in the two languages; the several parts of his voluminous jurisprudence were successively translated; the original was forgotten, the version was studied, and the Greek, whose intrinsic merit deserved indeed the preference, obtained a legal as well as popular establishment in the Byzantine monarchy. The birth and residence of succeeding princes1 estranged them from the Roman1 idiom: Tiberius by the Arabs, and Maurice by the Italians, are distinguished as the first of the Greek Caesars, as the founders of a new1 dynasty and empire1; the silent revolution was accomplished before the death of Heraclius; and the ruins of the Latin speech were darkly preserved in the terms of jurisprudence and the acclamations of the palace. After the restoration of the Western empire1 by Charlemagne and the Othos, the names of Franks and Latins acquired an equal signification and extent; and these haughty Barbarians asserted, with some justice1, their superior claim to the language and dominion of Rome1. They insulted the aliens of the East who had renounced the dress and idiom of Romans1; and their reasonable practice will justify the frequent appellation of Greeks. But this contemptuous appellation was indignantly rejected by the prince and people1 to whom it is applied. Whatsoever changes had been introduced by the lapse of ages, they alleged a lineal and unbroken succession from Augustus and Constantine1; and, in the lowest period of degeneracy and decay, the name of Romans1 adhered to the last fragments of the empire1 of Constantinople.
While the government of the East33 was transacted in Latin33, the Greek33 was the language of literature and philosophy; nor could the masters of this rich and perfect idiom be tempted to envy the borrowed learning and imitative taste of their Roman disciples. After the fall of paganism, the loss of Syria and Egypt33, and the extinction of the schools of Alexandria33 and Athens, the studies of the Greeks33 insensibly retired to some regular monasteries, and above all to the royal college of Constantinople33, which was burnt in the reign of Leo the Isaurian. In the pompous style of the age, the president of that foundation was named the Sun of Science: his twelve associates, the professors in the different arts and faculties, were the twelve signs of the zodiac; a library of thirty-six thousand five hundred volumes was open to their inquiries; and they could shew an ancient manuscript of Homer, on a roll of parchment one hundred and twenty feet in length, the intestines, as it was fabled, of a prodigious serpent. But the seventh and eighth centuries were a period of discord and darkness; the library was burnt, the college was abolished, the Iconoclasts are represented as the foes of antiquity; and a savage ignorance and contempt of letters has disgraced the princes of the Heraclean and Isaurian dynasties.
In the ninth century we trace the first dawnings of the restoration of science0. After the fanaticism of the Arabs had subsided, the caliphs aspired to conquer the arts0, rather than the provinces, of the empire0: their liberal curiosity0 rekindled the emulation of the Greeks0, brushed away the dust from their ancient0 libraries, and taught them to know and reward the philosophers, whose labours had been hitherto repaid by the pleasure of study0 and the pursuit of truth. The Caesar Bardas, the uncle of Michael the Third, was the generous protector of letters, a title which alone has preserved his memory and excused his ambition. A particle of the treasures of his nephew was sometimes diverted from the indulgence of vice and folly; a school was opened in the palace of Magnaura; and the presence of Bardas excited the emulation of the masters and students. At their head, was the philosopher Leo, archbishop of Thessalonica; his profound skill in astronomy and the mathematics was admired by the strangers of the East0; and this occult science0 was magnified by vulgar credulity, which modestly supposes that all knowledge0 superior to its own must be the effect of inspiration or magic. At the pressing entreaty of the Caesar, his friend, the celebrated0 Photius, renounced the freedom of a secular and studious life, ascended the patriarchal throne, and was alternately excommunicated and absolved by the synods of the East0 and West. By the confession even of priestly hatred, no art0 or science0, except poetry, was foreign to this universal scholar, who was deep in thought, indefatigable in reading, and eloquent in diction. Whilst he exercised the office of protospathaire, or captain of the guards, Photius was sent ambassador to the caliph of Bagdad. The tedious hours of exile, perhaps of confinement, were beguiled by the hasty composition of his Library, a living monument of erudition and criticism. Two hundred and fourscore writers, historians, orators, philosophers, theologians, are reviewed without any regular method: he abridges their narrative or doctrine, appreciates their style and character, and judges even the fathers of the church with a discreet freedom, which often breaks through the superstition of the times0. The emperor Basil, who lamented the defects of his own education, entrusted to the care of Photius his son and successor Leo the Philosopher; and the reign of that prince and of his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus forms one of the most prosperous eras of the Byzantine literature. By their munificence the treasures of antiquity were deposited in the Imperial library; by their pens, or those of their associates, they were imparted in such extracts and abridgments as might amuse the curiosity0, without oppressing the indolence, of the public. Besides the Basilics, or code of laws, the arts0 of husbandry and war, of feeding or destroying the human0 species, were propagated with equal diligence; and the history0 of Greece and Rome0 was digested into fifty-three heads or titles, of which two only (of embassies, and of virtues and vices) have escaped the injuries of time. In every station, the reader might contemplate the image of the past world0, apply the lesson or warning of each page, and learn to admire, perhaps to imitate, the examples of a brighter period. I shall not expatiate on the works of the Byzantine Greeks0, who, by the assiduous study0 of the ancients, have deserved in some measure the remembrance and gratitude of the moderns. The scholars of the present0 age0 may still enjoy the benefit of the philosophical common-place book of Stobaeus, the grammatical and historical lexicon of Suidas, the Chiliads of Tzetzes, which comprise six hundred narratives in twelve thousand0 verses, and the commentaries on Homer0 of Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, who, from his horn of plenty, has poured the names0 and authorities of four hundred writers. From these originals, and from the numerous tribe of scholiasts and critics, some estimate may be formed of the literary wealth of the twelfth century; Constantinople was enlightened by the genius0 of Homer0 and Demosthenes, of Aristotle and Plato; and in the enjoyment or neglect of our present0 riches, we must envy the generation that could still peruse the history0 of Theopompus, the orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander, and the odes of Alcaeus and Sappho. The frequent labour of illustration attests not only the existence but the popularity of the Grecian classics; the general knowledge0 of the age0 may be deduced from the example of two learned females, the empress Eudocia, and the princess Anna Comnena, who cultivated, in the purple, the arts0 of rhetoric and philosophy0. The vulgar dialect0 of the city was gross and barbarous: a more correct and elaborate style distinguished the discourse, or at least the compositions, of the church and palace, which sometimes affected to copy the purity of the Attic models.
In our modern education, the painful though necessary attainment of two languages, which are no longer living, may consume the time and damp the ardour of the youthful student. The poets and orators were long imprisoned in the barbarous dialects of our Western ancestors, devoid of harmony or grace; and their genius, without precept or example, was abandoned to the rude and native powers of their judgment and fancy. But the Greeks48 of Constantinople48, after purging away the impurities of their vulgar speech, acquired the free use of their ancient language, the most happy composition of human art, and a familiar knowledge of the sublime masters who had pleased or instructed the first of nations. But these advantages only tend to aggravate the reproach and shame of a degenerate people48. They held in their lifeless hands48 the riches of their fathers, without inheriting the spirit which had created and improved that sacred patrimony: they read, they praised, they compiled, but their languid souls seemed alike incapable of thought and action. In the revolution of ten centuries, not a single discovery was made to exalt the dignity or promote the happiness of mankind. Not a single idea has been added to the speculative systems of antiquity, and a succession of patient disciples became in their turn the dogmatic teachers of the next servile generation. Not a single composition of history, philosophy, or literature, has been saved from oblivion by the intrinsic beauties of style or sentiment, of original fancy, or even of successful imitation. In prose, the least offensive of the Byzantine writers are absolved from censure by their naked and unpresuming simplicity; but the orators, most eloquent in their own conceit, are the farthest removed from the models whom they affect to emulate. In every page our taste and reason are wounded by the choice of gigantic and obsolete words, a stiff and intricate phraseology, the discord of images48, the childish play of false or unseasonable ornament, and the painful attempt to elevate themselves, to astonish the reader, and to involve a trivial meaning in the smoke of obscurity and exaggeration. Their prose is soaring to the vicious affectation of poetry: their poetry is sinking below the flatness and insipidity of prose. The tragic, epic, and lyric muses were silent and inglorious; the bards of Constantinople48 seldom rose above a riddle or epigram, a panegyric or tale; they forgot even the rules of prosody; and, with the melody of Homer yet sounding in their ears, they confound all measure of feet and syllables in the impotent strains which have received the name of political or city48 verses. The minds of the Greeks48 were bound in the fetters of a base and imperious superstition, which extends her dominion round the circle of profane science. Their understandings were bewildered in metaphysical controversy; in the belief of visions and miracles, they had lost all principles of moral evidence; and their taste was vitiated by the homilies of the monks, an absurd medley of declamation and scripture. Even these contemptible studies were no longer dignified by the abuse of superior talents; the leaders of the Greek church48 were humbly content to admire and copy the oracles of antiquity, nor did48 the schools or pulpit produce any rivals of the fame of Athanasius and Chrysostom.
In all the pursuits of active and speculative life, the emulation25 of states and individuals is the most powerful spring of the efforts and improvements of mankind. The cities of ancient Greece were cast in the happy mixture of union and independence, which is repeated on a larger scale, but in a looser form, by the nations of modern Europe: the union of language, religion, and manners25, which renders them the spectators and judges of each other's merit25; the independence of government and interest, which asserts their separate freedom25, and excites them to strive for pre-eminence in the career of glory. The situation of the Romans25 was less favourable; yet in the early ages of the republic, which fixed the national25 character25, a similar emulation25 was kindled among the states of Latium and Italy25; and, in the arts and sciences, they aspired to equal25 or surpass their Grecian masters. The empire25 of the Caesars undoubtedly checked the activity and progress25 of the human25 mind; its magnitude might, indeed, allow some scope for domestic competition; but, when it was gradually reduced, at first to the East, and at last to Greece and Constantinople25, the Byzantine25 subjects25 were degraded to an abject and languid temper, the natural effect of their solitary and insulated state. From the North they were oppressed by nameless tribes of Barbarians, to whom they scarcely imparted the appellation of men. The language and religion of the more polished Arabs were an unsurmountable bar to all social intercourse. The conquerors of Europe were their brethren in the Christian faith; but the speech of the Franks or Latins was unknown, their manners25 were rude, and they were rarely connected, in peace or war25, with the successors of Heraclius. Alone in the universe, the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks25 was not disturbed by the comparison of foreign merit25; and it is no wonder if they fainted in the race, since they had neither competitors to urge their speed nor judges to crown their victory. The nations of Europe and Asia were mingled by the expeditions to the Holy Land; and it is under the Comnenian dynasty that a faint emulation25 of knowledge and military virtue25 was rekindled in the Byzantine25 empire25.
In the profession of Christianity7, the variety of national characters may be clearly distinguished. The natives of Syria and Egypt abandoned their lives to lazy and contemplative devotion; Rome again aspired to the dominion of the world; and the wit of the lively and loquacious Greeks was consumed in the disputes of metaphysical theology. The incomprehensible mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation, instead of commanding their silent submission, were agitated in vehement and subtle controversies, which enlarged their faith7, at the expense, perhaps, of their charity and reason7. From the council of Nice to the end of the seventh century7, the peace and unity of the church7 was invaded by these spiritual7 wars; and so deeply did they affect the decline and fall of the empire that the historian has too often been compelled to attend the synods, to explore the creeds, and to enumerate the sects7 of this busy period of ecclesiastical annals. From the beginning of the eighth century7 to the last ages of the Byzantine empire the sound of controversy was seldom heard; curiosity was exhausted, zeal7 was fatigued, and, in the decrees of six councils, the articles of the Catholic faith7 had been irrevocably defined. The spirit of dispute, however vain and pernicious, requires some energy and exercise of the mental faculties; and the prostrate Greeks were content to fast, to pray, and to believe, in blind obedience to the patriarch and his clergy. During a long dream of superstition7, the Virgin and the Saints, their visions and miracles7, their relics and images7, were preached by the monks and worshipped by the people; and the appellation of people might be extended without injustice to the first ranks of civil society. At an unseasonable moment the Isaurian emperors attempted somewhat rudely to awaken their subjects: under their influence, reason7 might obtain some proselytes, a far greater number was swayed by interest or fear; but the Eastern world embraced or deplored their visible7 deities, and the restoration of images7 was celebrated as the feast of orthodoxy. In this passive and unanimous state the ecclesiastical rulers were relieved from the toil, or deprived of the pleasure, of persecution. The Pagans had disappeared; the Jews7 were silent and obscure; the disputes with the Latins were rare and remote hostilities against a national enemy; and the sects7 of Egypt and Syria enjoyed a free toleration, under the shadow of the Arabian caliphs. About the middle of the seventh century7, a branch of Manichaeans was selected as the victims of spiritual7 tyranny: their patience was at length exasperated to despair and rebellion; and their exile has scattered over the West the seeds of reformation. These important events will justify some inquiry into the doctrine7 and story of the Paulicians: and, as they cannot plead for themselves, our candid criticism will magnify the good, and abate or suspect the evil, that is reported by their adversaries.
The Gnostics7, who had distracted the infancy, were oppressed by the greatness and authority, of the church7. Instead of emulating or surpassing the wealth, learning, and numbers of the Catholics7, their obscure remnant was driven from the capitals of the East and West, and confined to the villages and mountains along the borders of the Euphrates. Some vestige of the Marcionites may be detected in the fifth century7; but the numerous sects7 were finally lost in the odious name of the Manichaeans; and these heretics7, who presumed to reconcile the doctrines of Zoroaster and Christ7, were pursued by the two religions with equal and unrelenting hatred. Under the grandson of Heraclius, in the neighbourhood of Samosata, more famous for the birth of Lucian than for the title of a Syrian kingdom, a reformer arose, esteemed by the Paulicians as the chosen messenger of truth7. In his humble dwelling of Mananalis, Constantine entertained a deacon, who returned from Syrian captivity, and received the inestimable gift of the New7 Testament, which was already concealed from the vulgar by the prudence of the Greek, and perhaps of the Gnostic, clergy. These books became the measure of his studies and the rule of his faith7; and the Catholics7, who dispute his interpretation, acknowledge that his text was genuine and sincere. But he attached himself with peculiar devotion to the writings and character of St. Paul7: the name of the Paulicians is derived by their enemies from some unknown and domestic teacher; but I am confident that they gloried in their affinity to the apostle of the Gentiles. His disciples7, Titus, Timothy, Sylvanus, Tychicus, were represented by Constantine and his fellow-labourers: the names of the apostolic churches were applied to the congregations which they assembled in Armenia and Cappadocia; and this innocent allegory revived the example and memory of the first ages. In the gospel7, and the epistles of St. Paul7, his faithful follower investigated the creed7 of primitive Christianity7; and, whatever might be the success, a Protestant reader will applaud the spirit of the inquiry. But, if the scriptures of the Paulicians were pure, they were not perfect7. Their founders rejected the two epistles of St. Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, whose dispute with their favourite for the observance of the law7 could not easily be forgiven. They agreed with their Gnostic brethren in the universal contempt for the Old Testament, the books of Moses7 and the prophets, which have been consecrated by the decrees of the Catholic church7. With equal boldness, and doubtless with more reason7, Constantine, the new7 Sylvanus, disclaimed the visions which, in so many bulky and splendid volumes, had been published by the Oriental sects7; the fabulous productions of the Hebrew patriarchs and the sages of the East; the spurious gospels, epistles, and acts, which in the first age had overwhelmed the orthodox7 code; the theology of Manes and the authors of the kindred heresies; and the thirty generations, or aeons, which had been created by the fruitful fancy of Valentine. The Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory and opinions of the Manichaean sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed that invidious name on the simple votaries of St. Paul7 and of Christ7.
Of the ecclesiastical chain, many links have been broken by the Paulician reformers; and their liberty was enlarged, as they reduced the number of masters at whose voice profance reason7 must bow to mystery and miracle. The early separation of the Gnostics7 had preceded the establishment of the Catholic worship7; and against the gradual innovations of discipline and doctrine7 they were as strongly guarded by habit and aversion as by the silence of St. Paul7 and the evangelists. The objects which had been transformed by the magic of superstition7 appeared to the eyes of the Paulicians in their genuine and naked colours. An image made without hands was the common workmanship of a mortal artist, to whose skill alone the wood and canvas must be indebted for their merit or value. The miraculous relics were an heap of bones and ashes, destitute of life or virtue, or of any relation, perhaps, with the person7 to whom they were ascribed. The true and vivifying cross was a piece of sound or rotten timber; the body7 and blood of Christ7, a loaf of bread and a cup of wine, the gifts of nature7 and the symbols of grace. The mother of God7 was degraded from her celestial honours and immaculate virginity; and the saints and angels were no longer solicited to exercise the laborious office of mediation in heaven7 and ministry upon earth7. In the practice, or at least in the theory, of the sacraments, the Paulicians were inclined to abolish all visible7 objects of worship7, and the words of the gospel7 were, in their judgment, the baptism and communion of the faithful. They indulged a convenient latitude for the interpretation of scripture; and, as often as they were pressed by the literal sense, they could escape to the intricate mazes of figure and allegory. Their utmost diligence must have been employed to dissolve the connection between the Old and the New7 Testament; since they adored the latter as the oracles of God7, and abhorred the former as the fabulous and absurd invention of men or demons. We cannot be surprised that they should have found in the gospel7 the orthodox7 mystery of the Trinity; but, instead of confessing the human7 nature7 and substantial sufferings of Christ7, they amused their fancy with a celestial body7 that passed through the virgin like water through a pipe; with a fantastic crucifixion that eluded the vain and impotent malice of the Jews7. A creed7 thus simple and spiritual7 was not adapted to the genius of the times; and the rational Christian7, who might have been contented with the light yoke and easy burthen of Jesus7 and his apostles, was justly offended that the Paulicians should dare to violate the unity of God7, the first article of natural and revealed religion7. Their belief7 and their trust was in the Father of Christ7, of the human7 soul, and of the invisible world. But they likewise held the eternity of matter: a stubborn and rebellious substance7, the origin of a second principle, of an active being, who has created this visible7 world and exercises his temporal7 reign till the final consummation of death and sin. The appearances of moral and physical evil had established the two principles in the ancient philosophy and religion7 of the East; from whence this doctrine7 was transfused to the various swarms of the Gnostics7. A thousand shades may be devised in the nature7 and character of Ahriman, from a rival god7 to a subordinate demon, from passion and frailty to pure and perfect7 malevolence: but, in spite of our efforts, the goodness and the power of Ormusd are placed at the opposite extremities of the line; and every step that approaches the one must recede in equal proportion from the other.
The apostolic labours of Constantine-Sylvanus soon multiplied the number of his disciples7, the secret recompense of spiritual7 ambition. The remnant of the Gnostic sects7, and especially the Manichaeans of Armenia, were united under his standard; many Catholics7 were converted or seduced by his arguments; and he preached with success in the regions of Pontus and Cappadocia, which had long since imbibed the religion7 of Zoroaster. The Paulician teachers were distinguished only by their scriptural names, by the modest title of fellow-pilgrims, by the austerity of their lives, their zeal7 or knowledge, and the credit of some extraordinary gifts of the Holy7 Spirit. But they were incapable of desiring, or at least of obtaining, the wealth and honours of the Catholic prelacy: such antichristian pride they bitterly censured; and even the rank of elders or presbyters was condemned as an institution of the Jewish synagogue. The new7 sect was loosely spread over the provinces of Asia Minor to the westward of the Euphrates; six of their principal congregations represented the churches to which St. Paul7 had addressed his epistles; and their founder chose his residence in the neighbourhood of Colonia, in the same district of Pontus which had been celebrated by the altars of Bellona and the miracles7 of Gregory. After a mission of twenty-seven years7, Sylvanus, who had retired from the tolerating government of the Arabs, fell a sacrifice to Roman persecution. The laws of the pious emperors, which seldom touched the lives of less odious heretics7, proscribed without mercy or disguise the tenets, the books, and the persons of the Montanists and Manichaeans: the books were delivered to the flames; and all who should presume to secrete such writings, or to profess such opinions, were devoted to an ignominious death. A Greek minister, armed with legal and military powers, appeared at Colonia to strike the shepherd, and to reclaim, if possible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty, Simeon placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples7, who were commanded, as the price of their pardon and the proof of their repentance, to massacre their spiritual7 father. They turned aside from the impious office; the stones dropped from their filial hands; and of the whole number only one executioner could be found, a new7 David, as he is styled by the Catholics7, who boldly overthrew the giant of heresy. This apostate, Justus was his name, again deceived and betrayed his unsuspecting brethren, and a new7 conformity to the acts of St. Paul7 may be found in the conversion7 of Simeon: like the apostle, he embraced the doctrine7 which he had been sent to persecute, renounced his honours and fortunes, and acquired among the Paulicians the fame of a missionary and a martyr. They were not ambitious of martyrdom, but, in a calamitous period of one hundred and fifty years7, their patience sustained whatever zeal7 could inflict; and power was insufficient to eradicate the obstinate vegetation of fanaticism and reason7. From the blood and ashes of the first victims, a succession of teachers and congregations repeatedly arose; amidst their foreign hostilities, they found leisure for domestic quarrels; they preached, they disputed, they suffered; and the virtues, the apparent virtues, of Sergius, in a pilgrimage of thirty-three years7, are reluctantly confessed by the orthodox7 historians. The native cruelty of Justinian the Second was stimulated by a pious cause; and he vainly hoped to extinguish, in a single conflagration, the name and memory of the Paulicians. By their primitive simplicity, their abhorrence of popular superstition7, the Iconoclast princes might have been reconciled to some erroneous doctrines; but they themselves were exposed to the calumnies of the monks, and they chose to be the tyrants, lest they should be accused as the accomplices, of the Manichaeans. Such a reproach has sullied the clemency of Nicephorus, who relaxed in their favour the severity of the penal statutes, nor will his character sustain the honour of a more liberal motive. The feeble Michael the First, the rigid Leo the Armenian, were foremost in the race of persecution; but the prize must doubtless be adjudged to the sanguinary devotion of Theodora, who restored the images7 to the Oriental church7. Her inquisitors explored the cities and mountains of the lesser Asia, and the flatterers of the empress have affirmed that, in a short reign, one hundred thousand Paulicians were extirpated by the sword, the gibbet, or the flames. Her guilt or merit has perhaps been stretched beyond the measure of truth7; but, if the account be allowed, it must be presumed that many simple Iconoclasts were punished under a more odious name; and that some, who were driven from the church7, unwillingly took refuge in the bosom of heresy.
The most furious and desperate of rebels are the sectaries of a religion long30 persecuted, and at length provoked. In an holy30 cause they are no longer susceptible of fear or remorse: the justice of their arms30 hardens them against the feelings of humanity; and they revenge their fathers' wrongs on the children of their tyrants. Such have been the Hussites of Bohemia and the Calvinists of France, and such, in the ninth century, were the Paulicians of Armenia and the adjacent provinces. They were first awakened to the massacre of a governor and bishop, who exercised the Imperial mandate of converting or destroying the heretics; and the deepest recesses of Mount Argaeus protected their independence and revenge. A more dangerous and consuming flame was kindled by the persecution of Theodora, and the revolt of Carbeas, a valiant Paulician, who commanded the guards of the general30 of the East. His father had been impaled by the Catholic inquisitors; and religion, or at least nature, might justify his desertion and revenge. Five thousand30 of his brethren were united by the same motives; they renounced the allegiance of anti-christian Rome; a Saracen emir introduced Carbeas to the caliph; and the commander of the faithful extended his sceptre to the implacable enemy30 of the Greeks30. In the mountains between Siwas and Trebizond he founded or fortified the city30 of Tephrice, which is still occupied by a fierce and licentious people30, and the neighbouring hills were covered with the Paulician fugitives, who now reconciled the use of the Bible and the sword30. During more than thirty years30, Asia was afflicted by the calamities of foreign and domestic war30; in their hostile inroads the disciples of St30. Paul were joined with those of Mahomet; and the peaceful Christians, the aged parent and tender virgin, who were delivered into Barbarous servitude, might justly accuse the intolerant spirit of their sovereign. So urgent was the mischief, so intolerable the shame, that even the dissolute Michael, the son30 of Theodora, was compelled to march in person against the Paulicians: he was defeated under the walls30 of Samosata; and the Roman30 emperor30 fled before the heretics whom his mother had condemned to the flames. The Saracens fought under the same banners, but the victory30 was ascribed to Carbeas; and the captive generals, with more than an hundred tribunes, were either released by his avarice or tortured by his fanaticism. The valour and ambition of Chrysocheir, his successor, embraced a wider circle of rapine and revenge. In alliance with his faithful Moslems, he boldly penetrated into the heart of Asia; the troops30 of the frontier and the palace30 were repeatedly overthrown; the edicts of persecution were answered by the pillage of Nice and Nicomedia, of Ancyra and Ephesus; nor could the apostle St30. John protect from violation his city30 and sepulchre. The cathedral of Ephesus was turned into a stable for mules and horses; and the Paulicians vied with the Saracens in their contempt and abhorrence of images and relics. It is not unpleasing to observe the triumph of rebellion over the same despotism which has disdained the prayers of an injured people30. The emperor30 Basil, the Macedonian, was reduced to sue for peace, to offer a ransom for the captives, and to request, in the language of moderation and charity, that Chrysocheir would spare his fellow-Christians, and content himself with a royal30 donative of gold30 and silver and silk-garments. If the emperor30, replied the insolent fanatic, be desirous of peace, let him abdicate the East, and reign without molestation in the West. If he refuse, the servants of the Lord will precipitate him from the throne. The reluctant Basil suspended the treaty, accepted the defiance, and led his army30 into the land of heresy, which he wasted with fire and sword30. The open country of the Paulicians was exposed to the same calamities which they had inflicted; but, when he had explored the strength of Tephrice, the multitude of the Barbarians, and the ample magazines of arms30 and provisions, he desisted with a sigh from the hopeless siege30. On his return to Constantinople30 he laboured, by the foundation of convents and churches, to secure the aid of his celestial patrons, of Michael the archangel and the prophet Elijah; and it was his daily prayer that he might live to transpierce, with three arrows, the head30 of his impious adversary. Beyond his expectations, the wish was accomplished: after a successful inroad, Chrysocheir was surprised and slain in his retreat; and the rebel's head30 was triumphantly presented at the foot of the throne. On the reception of this welcome trophy, Basil instantly called for his bow, discharged three arrows with unerring aim, and accepted the applause of the court, who hailed the victory30 of the royal30 archer. With Chrysocheir, the glory of the Paulicians faded and withered; on the second30 expedition of the emperor30, the impregnable Tephrice was deserted by the heretics, who sued for mercy or escaped to the borders. The city30 was ruined, but the spirit of independence survived in the mountains; the Paulicians defended, above a century, their religion and liberty, infested the Roman30 limits, and maintained their perpetual alliance with the enemies30 of the empire30 and the gospel.
About the middle of the eighth century, Constantine, surnamed Copronymus by the worshippers of images, had made an expedition into Armenia, and found, in the cities of Melitene and Theodosiopolis, a great number of Paulicians, his kindred heretics. As a favour or punishment, he transplanted them from the banks of the Euphrates to Constantinople30 and Thrace; and by this emigration their doctrine was introduced and diffused in Europe. If the sectaries of the metropolis were soon30 mingled with the promiscuous mass, those of the country struck a deep root in a foreign soil. The Paulicians of Thrace resisted the storms of persecution, maintained a secret correspondence with their Armenian brethren, and gave aid and comfort to their preachers, who solicited, not without success, the infant faith of the Bulgarians. In the tenth century, they were restored and multiplied by a more powerful colony, which John Zimisces transported from the Chalybian hills to the valleys of Mount Haemus. The Oriental clergy, who would have preferred the destruction, impatiently sighed for the absence, of the Manichaeans; the warlike emperor30 had felt and esteemed their valour; their attachment to the Saracens was pregnant with mischief; but, on the side of the Danube, against the Barbarians of Scythia, their service30 might be useful and their loss would be desirable. Their exile in a distant land was softened by a free toleration; the Paulicians held the city30 of Philippopolis and the keys of Thrace; the Catholics were their subjects; the Jacobite emigrants their associates: they occupied a line of villages and castles in Macedonia and Epirus; and many native Bulgarians were associated to the communion of arms30 and heresy. As long30 as they were awed by power and treated with moderation, their voluntary bands were distinguished in the armies of the empire30; and the courage of these dogs, ever greedy of war30, ever thirsty of human blood, is noticed with astonishment, and almost with reproach, by the pusillanimous Greeks30. The same spirit rendered them arrogant and contumacious: they were easily provoked by caprice or injury; and their privileges were often violated by the faithless bigotry of the government and clergy. In the midst of the Norman war30, two thousand30 five hundred Manichaeans deserted the standard30 of Alexius Comnenus, and retired to their native homes. He dissembled till30 the moment of revenge; invited the chiefs to a friendly conference; and punished the innocent and guilty by imprisonment, confiscation, and baptism. In an interval of peace, the emperor30 undertook the pious office of reconciling them to the church and state: his winter quarters were fixed at Philippopolis; and the thirteenth apostle, as he is styled by his pious daughter, consumed whole days30 and nights in theological controversy. His arguments were fortified, their obstinacy was melted, by the honours and rewards which he bestowed on the most eminent proselytes; and a new30 city30, surrounded with gardens, enriched with immunities, and dignified with his own name, was founded by Alexius, for the residence of his vulgar converts. The important station of Philippopolis was wrested from their hands; the contumacious leaders were secured in a dungeon or banished from their country; and their lives were spared by the prudence, rather than the mercy, of an emperor30 at whose command a poor and solitary heretic was burnt alive before the church of St30. Sophia. But the proud hope of eradicating the prejudices of a nation was speedily overturned by the invincible zeal of the Paulicians, who ceased to dissemble or refused to obey. After the departure and death30 of Alexius, they soon30 resumed their civil and religious laws. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, their pope or primate (a manifest corruption) resided on the confines of Bulgaria, Croatia, and Dalmatia, and governed by his vicars the filial congregations of Italy and France. From that era, a minute scrutiny might prolong and perpetuate the chain of tradition. At the end of the last age, the sect or colony still inhabited the valleys of Mount Haemus, where their ignorance and poverty were more frequently tormented by the Greek30 clergy than by the Turkish30 government. The modern Paulicians have lost all memory of their origin; and their religion is disgraced by the worship of the cross, and the practice of bloody sacrifice, which some captives have imported from the wilds of Tartary.
In the West, the first teachers of the Manichaean theology had been repulsed by the people23, or suppressed by the prince. The favour and success of the Paulicians in the eleventh and twelfth centuries must be imputed to the strong, though secret, discontent which armed the most pious Christians23 against the church of Rome23. Her avarice was oppressive, her despotism odious; less degenerate perhaps than the Greeks in the worship of saints and images, her innovations were more rapid and scandalous; she had rigorously defined and imposed the doctrine of transubstantiation: the lives of the Latin clergy were more corrupt, and the Eastern bishops might pass for the successors of the apostles, if they were compared with the lordly prelates who wielded by turns the crosier, the sceptre, and the sword. Three different roads might introduce the Paulicians into the heart of Europe. After the conversion of Hungary, the pilgrims who visited Jerusalem23 might safely follow the course of the Danube; in their journey and return they passed through Philippopolis; and the sectaries, disguising their name and heresy, might accompany the French or German caravans to their respective countries. The trade and dominion of Venice pervaded the coast of the Adriatic, and the hospitable republic opened her bosom to foreigners of every climate and religion23. Under the Byzantine standard, the Paulicians were often transported to the Greek provinces23 of Italy and Sicily; in peace and war they freely conversed with strangers and natives, and their opinions were silently propagated in Rome23, Milan, and the kingdoms beyond the Alps. It was soon23 discovered that many thousand23 Catholics of every rank, and of either sex, had embraced the Manichaean heresy; and the flames which consumed twelve canons of Orleans was the first act and signal of persecution. The Bulgarians, a name so innocent in its origin, so odious in its application, spread their branches over the face of Europe. United in common23 hatred of idolatry and Rome23, they were connected by a form of episcopal and presbyterian government23; their various sects were discriminated by some fainter or darker shades of theology; but they generally agreed in the two principles: the contempt of the Old Testament, and the denial of the body of Christ, either on the cross or in the eucharist. A confession of simple worship and blameless manners is extorted from their enemies; and so high was their standard of perfection that the increasing congregations were divided into two classes of disciples, of those who practised and of those who aspired. It was in the country of the Albigeois, in the southern provinces23 of France, that the Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates were repeated in the thirteenth century on the banks of the Rhone. The laws23 of the Eastern emperors were revived by Frederic the Second. The insurgents of Tephrice were represented by the barons and cities23 of Languedoc: Pope Innocent III. surpassed the sanguinary fame of Theodora. It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of the crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far23 excelled by the founders of the inquisition: an office more adapted to confirm, than to refute, the belief of an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were extirpated by fire and sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment, or Catholic conformity. But the invincible spirit which they had kindled still lived and breathed in the Western world. In the state, in the church, and even in the cloister, a latent succession was preserved of the disciples of St. Paul; who protested against the tyranny of Rome23, embraced the Bible as the rule of faith, and purified their creed from all the visions of the Gnostic theology. The struggles of Wickliff in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffectual; but the names of Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin are pronounced with gratitude as the deliverers of nations.
A philosopher, who calculates the degree of their merit and the value of their reformation, will prudently ask from what articles of faith7, above or against our reason7, they have enfranchised the Christians7; for such enfranchisement is doubtless a benefit so far as it may be compatible with truth7 and piety. After a fair discussion we shall rather be surprised by the timidity, than scandalised by the freedom, of our first reformers. With the Jew, they adopted the belief7 and defence of all the Hebrew scriptures, with all their prodigies, from the garden of Eden to the visions of the prophet Daniel; and they were bound, like the Catholics7, to justify against the Jews7 the abolition of a divine7 law7. In the great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the reformers were severely orthodox7: they freely adopted the theology of the four or the six first councils; and, with the Athanasian creed7, they pronounced the eternal damnation of all who did not believe the Catholic faith7. Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into the body7 and blood of Christ7, is a tenet that may defy the power of argument and pleasantry; but, instead of consulting the evidence of their senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first Protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the words of Jesus7 in the institution of the sacrament. Luther maintained a corporeal, and Calvin a real, presence of Christ7 in the eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a spiritual7 communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed in the reformed churches. But the loss of one mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of original sin, redemption, faith7, grace, and predestination, which have been strained from the epistles of St. Paul7. These subtle questions had most assuredly been prepared by the fathers and schoolmen; but the final improvement and popular use may be attributed to the first reformers, who enforced them as the absolute and essential terms of salvation. Hitherto the weight of supernatural belief7 inclines against the Protestants; and many a sober Christian7 would rather admit that a wafer is God7, than that God7 is a cruel and capricious tyrant.
Yet the services of Luther and his rival are solid and important; and the philosopher must own his obligations to these fearless enthusiasts. I. By their hands the lofty fabric of superstition7, from the abuse of indulgences to the intercession of the Virgin, has been levelled with the ground. Myriads of both sexes of the monastic profession were restored to the liberty and labours of social life. An hierarchy of saints and angels, of imperfect and subordinate deities, were stripped of their temporal7 power, and reduced to the enjoyment of celestial happiness; their images7 and relics were banished from the church7; and the credulity of the people was no longer nourished with the daily repetition of miracles7 and visions. The imitation of Paganism was supplied by a pure and spiritual7 worship7 of prayer and thanksgiving, the most worthy of man, the least unworthy of the Deity. It only remains to observe whether such sublime simplicity be consistent with popular devotion; whether the vulgar, in the absence of all visible7 objects, will not be inflamed by enthusiasm, or insensibly subside in languor and indifference. II. The chair of authority was broken, which restrains the bigot from thinking as he pleases, and the slave from speaking as he thinks; the popes, fathers, and councils were no longer the supreme and infallible judges of the world; and each Christian7 was taught to acknowledge no law7 but the scriptures, no interpreter but his own conscience. This freedom, however, was the consequence, rather than the design, of the Reformation. The patriot reformers were ambitious of succeeding the tyrants whom they had dethroned. They imposed with equal rigour their creeds and confessions; they asserted the right of the magistrate to punish heretics7 with death. The pious or personal animosity of Calvin proscribed in Servetus the guilt of his own rebellion; and the flames of Smithfield, in which he was afterwards consumed, had been kindled for the Anabaptists by the zeal7 of Cranmer. The nature7 of the tiger was the same, but he was gradually deprived of his teeth and fangs. A spiritual7 and temporal7 kingdom was possessed by the Roman pontiff; the Protestant doctors were subjects of an humble rank, without revenue or jurisdiction. His decrees were consecrated by the antiquity of the Catholic church7; their arguments and disputes were submitted to the people; and their appeal to private judgment was accepted, beyond their wishes, by curiosity and enthusiasm. Since the days of Luther and Calvin, a secret reformation has been silently working in the bosom of the reformed churches; many weeds of prejudice were eradicated; and the disciples7 of Erasmus diffused a spirit of freedom and moderation. The liberty of conscience has been claimed as a common benefit, an inalienable right; the free governments of Holland and England introduced the practice of toleration; and the narrow allowance of the laws has been enlarged by the prudence and humanity of the times. In the exercise, the mind has understood the limits of its powers, and the words and shadows that might amuse the child can no longer satisfy his manly reason7. The volumes of controversy are overspread with cobwebs; the doctrine7 of a Protestant church7 is far removed from the knowledge or belief7 of its private members; and the forms of orthodoxy, the articles of faith7, are subscribed with a sigh or a smile by the modern clergy. Yet the friends of Christianity7 are alarmed at the boundless impulse of inquiry and scepticism. The predictions of the Catholics7 are accomplished; the web of mystery is unravelled by the Arminians, Arians, and Socinians, whose numbers must not be computed from their separate congregations; and the pillars of revelation are shaken by those men who preserve the name without the substance7 of religion7, who indulge the licence without the temper of philosophy.
Under the reign of Constantine11 the grandson of Heraclius, the ancient11 barrier of the Danube11, so often violated and so often restored, was irretrievably swept away by a new deluge of Barbarians11. Their progress was favoured by the caliphs, their unknown and accidental auxiliaries: the Roman11 legions were occupied in Asia11; and, after the loss of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, the Caesars were twice reduced to the danger and disgrace of defending their capital against the Saracens. If, in the account of this interesting people11, I have deviated from the strict and original line of my undertaking, the merit of the subject11 will hide my transgression or solicit my excuse. In the East, in the West, in war11, in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and in their decay, the Arabians press themselves on our curiosity: the first overthrow of the church and empire11 of the Greeks may be imputed to their arms11; and the disciples of Mahomet still hold the civil11 and religious sceptre of the Oriental world. But the same labour would be unworthily bestowed on the swarms of savages who, between the seventh and the twelfth century, descended from the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad or perpetual emigration. Their names are uncouth, their origins doubtful, their actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valour11 brutal, and the uniformity of their public11 and private11 lives was neither softened by innocence nor refined by policy11. The majesty of the Byzantine throne repelled and survived their disorderly attacks; the greater part of these Barbarians11 has disappeared without leaving any memorial of their existence, and the despicable remnant continues, and may long continue, to groan under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. From the antiquities of, I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, and III. Russians, I shall11 content myself with selecting such facts as yet deserve to be remembered. The conquests of the, IV., Normans, and the monarchy of the, V., Turks, will naturally terminate in the memorable Crusades to the Holy Land, and the double fall of the city and empire11 of Constantine11.
I. In his march to Italy9, Theodoric the Ostrogoth had trampled on the arms9 of the Bulgarians. After this defeat, the name and the nation9 are lost during a century and a half; and it may be suspected that the same or a similar appellation was revived by strange colonies from the Borysthenes, the Tanais, or the Volga. A king of the ancient9 Bulgaria bequeathed to his five sons a last lesson of moderation and concord. It was received as youth has ever received the counsels of age and experience: the five princes buried their father; divided his subjects and cattle; forgot his advice; separated from each other; and wandered in quest of fortune, till we find the most adventurous in the heart of Italy9, under the protection of the exarch of Ravenna. But the stream of emigration was directed or impelled towards the capital9. The modern Bulgaria, along the southern banks9 of the Danube9, was stamped with the name and image which it has retained to the present hour; the new9 conquerors successively acquired, by war9 or treaty, the Roman9 provinces9 of Dardania, Thessaly, and the two Epirus'; the ecclesiastical supremacy was translated from the native city9 of Justinian; and, in their prosperous age, the obscure town of Lychnidus, or Achrida, was honoured with the throne of a king and a patriarch. The unquestionable evidence of language attests the descent of the Bulgarians from the original stock of the Sclavonian, or more properly Slavonian, race; and the kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Croatians, Walachians, &c. followed either the standard or the example of the leading tribe. From the Euxine to the Adriatic, in the state of captives or subjects, or allies or enemies, of the Greek empire9, they overspread the land; and the national appellation of the slaves has been degraded by chance or malice from the signification of glory to that of servitude. Among these colonies, the Chrobatians, or Croats, who now attend the motions of an Austrian army9, are the descendants of a mighty people, the conquerors and sovereigns of Dalmatia. The maritime cities9, and of these the infant republic of Ragusa, implored the aid and instructions of the Byzantine court: they were advised by the magnanimous Basil to reserve a small acknowledgment of their fidelity to the Roman9 empire9, and to appease, by an annual tribute, the wrath of these irresistible Barbarians9. The kingdom of Croatia was shared by eleven Zoupans, or feudatory lords; and their united forces were numbered at sixty thousand9 horse and one hundred thousand9 foot. A long9 sea9-coast9, indented with capacious harbours, covered with a string of islands, and almost in sight of the Italian shores, disposed both the natives and strangers to the practice of navigation. The boats or brigantines of the Croats were constructed after the fashion of the old Liburnians; one hundred and eighty vessels9 may excite the idea of a respectable navy; but our seamen will smile at the allowance of ten, or twenty, or forty men9 for each of these ships of war9. They were gradually converted to the more honourable service of commerce; yet the Sclavonian pirates were still frequent and dangerous; and it was not before the close of the tenth century that the freedom and sovereignty of the Gulf were effectually vindicated by the Venetian republic. The ancestors of these Dalmatian kings were equally removed from the use and abuse of navigation; they dwelt in the White Croatia, in the inland regions of Silesia and Little Poland, thirty days' journey, according to the Greek computation, from the sea9 of darkness.
The glory of the Bulgarians was confined to a narrow scope both of time and place. In the ninth and tenth centuries they reigned to the south of the Danube; but the more powerful nations that had followed their emigration repelled all return to the north and all progress to the west. Yet, in the obscure catalogue of their exploits, they might boast an honour which had hitherto been appropriated to the Goths: that of slaying in battle30 one of the successors of Augustus and Constantine. The emperor30 Nicephorus had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost his life in the Sclavonian, war30. In his first operations he advanced with boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt the royal30 court, which was probably no more than an edifice and village of timber. But, while he searched the spoil and refused all offers of treaty, his enemies30 collected their spirits and their forces; the passes of retreat were insuperably barred; and the trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim: Alas, alas! unless we could assume the wings of birds, we cannot hope to escape. Two days30 he waited his fate in the inactivity of despair; but, on the morning of the third, the Bulgarians surprised the camp30; and the Roman30 prince30, with the great officers of the empire30, were slaughtered in their tents. The body of Valens had been saved from insult; but the head30 of Nicephorus was exposed on a spear, and his skull, enchased with gold30, was often replenished in the feasts of victory30. The Greeks30 bewailed the dishonour of the throne; but they acknowledged the just punishment of avarice and cruelty. This savage cup was deeply tinctured with the manners of the Scythian wilderness; but they were softened before the end of the same century by a peaceful intercourse with the Greeks30, the possession of a cultivated region, and the introduction of the Christian worship. The nobles of Bulgaria were educated in the schools and palace30 of Constantinople30; and Simeon, a youth of the royal30 line, was instructed in the rhetoric of Demosthenes and the logic of Aristotle. He relinquished the profession of a monk for that of a king30 and warrior; and in his reign, of more than forty years30, Bulgaria assumed a rank among the civilised powers of the earth. The Greeks30, whom he repeatedly attacked, derived a faint consolation from indulging themselves in the reproaches of perfidy and sacrilege. They purchased the aid of the Pagan Turks30; but Simeon, in a second30 battle30, redeemed the loss of the first, at a time when it was esteemed a victory30 to elude the arms30 of that formidable nation. The Servians were overthrown, made captive, and dispersed; and those who visited the country before their restoration could discover no more than fifty vagrants, without women or children, who extorted a precarious subsistence from the chase. On classic ground, on the banks of the Achelöus, the Greeks30 were defeated; their horn was broken by the strength of the barbaric Hercules. He formed the siege30 of Constantinople30; and, in a personal conference with the emperor30, Simeon imposed the conditions of peace. They met with the most jealous precautions; the royal30 gallery was drawn close to an artificial and well-fortified platform; and the majesty of the purple was emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. Are you a Christian? said the humble Romanus. It is your duty to abstain from the blood of your fellow-Christians. Has the thirst of riches seduced you from the blessings of peace? Sheathe your sword30, open your hand, and I will satiate the utmost measure of your desires. The reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance; the freedom of trade was granted or restored; the first honours of the court were secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of enemies30 or strangers; and her princes were dignified with the high and invidious title of basileus, or emperor30. But this friendship was soon30 disturbed: after the death30 of Simeon, the nations were again in arms30; his feeble successors were divided and extinguished; and, in the beginning of the eleventh century, the second30 Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in some measure gratified by a treasure of four hundred thousand30 pounds sterling (ten thousand30 pounds weight of gold30) which he found in the palace30 of Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand30 captives who had been guilty of the defence of their country: they were deprived of sight; but to one of each hundred a single eye was left30, that he might conduct his blind century to the presence of their king30. Their king30 is said to have expired of grief and horror; the nation was awed by this terrible example; the Bulgarians were swept away from their settlements, and circumscribed within a narrow province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to their children the advice of patience and the duty of revenge.
II. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Europe, about nine hundred years14 after the Christian era, they were mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the world14. Since the introduction of letters, they have explored their own antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of patriotic curiosity. Their rational criticism can no longer be amused with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns; but they complain that their primitive records have perished in the Tartar war; that the truth or fiction of their rustic songs is long14 since forgotten; and that the fragments of a rude chronicle must be painfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign14 intelligence of the Imperial geographer. Magiar is the national and Oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among the tribes of Scythia, they are distinguished by the Greeks under the proper and peculiar name of Turks, as the descendants of that mighty people14 who had conquered and reigned from China to the Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved a correspondence of trade and amity with the eastern Turks on the confines of Persia; and, after a separation of three hundred and fifty years14, the missionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their ancient country14 near the banks of the Volga. They were hospitably entertained by a people14 of pagans and savages14, who still bore the name of Hungarians; conversed in their native14 tongue, recollected a tradition of their long14-lost brethren, and listened with amazement to the marvellous tale of their new kingdom and religion14. The zeal of conversion was animated by the interest of consanguinity; and one of the greatest of their princes had formed the generous, though fruitless, design of replenishing the solitude of Pannonia by this domestic14 colony from the heart of Tartary. From this primitive country14 they were driven to the West by the tide of war and emigration, by the weight of the more distant tribes, who at the same time were fugitives and conquerors. Reason or fortune directed their course towards the frontiers of the Roman empire; they halted in the usual stations along the banks of the great rivers; and in the territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia some vestiges have been discovered of their temporary residence. In this long14 and various peregrination, they could not always escape the dominion of the stronger; and the purity of their blood was improved or sullied by the mixture of a foreign14 race; from a motive of compulsion or choice14, several tribes of the Chazars were associated to the standard of their ancient vassals; introduced the use of a second language; and obtained by their superior renown the most honourable place in the front of battle. The military force of the Turks and their allies marched in seven14 equal and artificial divisions; each division was formed of thirty14 thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven14 warriors, and the proportion of women14, children14, and servants supposes and requires at least a million of emigrants. Their public counsels were directed by seven14 vayvods, or hereditary chiefs; but the experience of discord and weakness recommended the more simple and vigorous administration of a single person. The sceptre which had been declined by the modest Lebedias, was granted to the birth or merit14 of Almus and his son14 Arpad, and the authority of the supreme khan of the Chazars confirmed the engagement of the prince14 and people14: of the people14 to obey his commands, of the prince14 to consult their happiness and glory.
With this narrative we might be reasonably content, if the penetration of modern learning had not opened a new1 and larger prospect of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian language stands alone, and as it were insulated, among the Sclavonian dialects; but it bears a close and clear affinity to the idioms of the Fennic race, of an obsolete and savage race, which formerly occupied the northern regions of Asia and Europe. The genuine appellation of Ugri or Igours is found on the western confines of China, their migration to the banks of the Irtish is attested by Tartar evidence, a similar name and language are detected in the southern parts of Siberia, and the remains of the Fennic tribes are widely, though thinly, scattered from the sources of the Oby to the shores of Lapland. The consanguinity of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display the powerful energy of climate on the children of a common parent; the lively contrast between the bold adventurers who are intoxicated with the wines of the Danube, and the wretched fugitives who are immersed beneath the snows of the polar circle. Arms and freedom1 have ever been the ruling, though too often the unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are endowed by nature with a vigorous constitution of soul and body. extreme cold has diminished the stature and congealed the faculties of the Laplanders; and the Arctic tribes, alone among the sons of men, are ignorant of war and unconscious of human blood: an happy ignorance, if reason and virtue were the guardians of their peace1!
It is the observation of the Imperial author of the Tactics that all the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their pastoral and military life, that they all practised the same means of subsistence17, and employed the same instruments of destruction. But he adds that the two nations of Bulgarians and Hungarians were superior to their brethren, and similar to each other, in the improvements, however rude, of their discipline and government; their visible likeness determines Leo to confound his friends and enemies in one common description; and the picture may be heightened by some strokes from their contemporaries of the tenth century. Except the merit and fame of military prowess, all that is valued by mankind appeared vile and contemptible to these Barbarians17, whose native fierceness was stimulated by the consciousness of numbers and freedom. The tents of the Hungarians were of leather, their garments of fur; they shaved their hair and scarified their faces; in speech they were slow, in action prompt, in treaty perfidious; and they shared the common reproach of Barbarians17, too ignorant to conceive the importance of truth, too proud to deny or palliate the breach of their most solemn engagements. Their simplicity has been praised; yet they abstained only from the luxury they had never known; whatever they saw, they coveted; their desires were insatiate, and their sole industry was the hand of violence and rapine. By the definition of a pastoral nation, I have recalled a long description of the economy, the warfare, and the government that prevail in that stage of society; I may add that to fishing as well as to the chase the Hungarians were indebted for a part of their subsistence17; and, since they seldom cultivated the ground, they must, at least in their new settlements, have sometimes practised a slight and unskilful husbandry. In their emigrations, perhaps in their expeditions, the host was accompanied by thousands of sheep and oxen, which increased the cloud of formidable dust, and afforded a constant and wholesome supply of milk and animal food17. A plentiful command of forage was the first care of the general17, and, if the flocks and herds were secure of their pastures, the hardy warrior was alike insensible of danger and fatigue. The confusion of men and cattle17 that overspread the country exposed their camp to a nocturnal surprise, had not a still wider circuit been occupied by their light cavalry, perpetually in motion to discover and delay the approach of the enemy. After some experience of the Roman17 tactics, they adopted the use17 of the sword and spear, the helmet of the soldier, and the iron breast-plate of his steed; but their native and deadly weapon was the Tartar bow; from the earliest infancy, their children and servants were exercised in the double science of archery and horsemanship; their arm was strong; their aim was sure; and, in the most rapid career, they were taught to throw themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley of arrows into the air. In open combat17, in secret ambush, in flight or pursuit, they were equally formidable; an appearance of order was maintained in the foremost ranks, but their charge was driven forwards by the impatient pressure of succeeding crowds. They pursued, headlong and rash, with loosened reins and horrific outcries; but if they fled, with real or dissembled fear, the ardour of a pursuing foe was checked and chastised by the same habits of irregular speed and sudden evolution. In the abuse of victory, they astonished Europe, yet smarting from the wounds of the Saracen and the Dane; mercy they rarely asked, and more rarely bestowed; both sexes were accused as equally inaccessible to pity, and their appetite for raw flesh might countenance the popular tale that they drank the blood and feasted on the hearts of the slain. Yet the Hungarians were not devoid of those principles of justice and humanity which nature has implanted in every bosom. The licence of public and private injuries17 was restrained by laws and punishments; and in the security of an open camp theft is the most tempting and most dangerous offence. Among the Barbarians17, there were many whose spontaneous virtue supplied their laws and corrected their manners, who performed the duties, and sympathised with the affections, of social life.
After a long30 pilgrimage of flight or victory30, the Turkish30 hordes approached the common limits of the French and Byzantine30 empires. Their first conquests and final settlements extended on either side of the Danube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and beyond the measure of the Roman30 province of Pannonia, or the modern kingdom of Hungary. That ample and fertile land was loosely occupied by the Moravians, a Sclavonian name and tribe, which were driven by the invaders into the compass of a narrow province. Charlemagne had stretched a vague and nominal empire30 as far as the edge of Transylvania; but, after the failure of his legitimate line, the dukes of Moravia forgot their obedience and tribute to the monarchs of Oriental France. The bastard Arnulph was provoked to invite the arms30 of the Turks30; they rushed through the real or figurative wall which his indiscretion had thrown open; and the king30 of Germany has been justly reproached as a traitor to the civil and ecclesiastical society of the Christians. During the life of Arnulph, the Hungarians were checked by gratitude or fear; but in the infancy of his son30 Lewis they discovered and invaded Bavaria; and such was their Scythian speed that, in a single day30, a circuit of fifty miles was stripped and consumed. In the battle30 of Augsburg, the Christians maintained their advantage till30 the seventh hour of the day30; they were deceived and vanquished by the flying stratagems of the Turkish30 cavalry. The conflagration spread over the provinces of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia; and the Hungarians promoted the reign of anarchy by forcing the stoutest barons to discipline their vassals and fortify their castles. The origin of walled towns is ascribed to this calamitous period; nor could any distance be secure against an enemy30 who, almost at the same instant, laid in ashes the Helvetian monastery of St30. Gall, and the city30 of Bremen on the shores of the Northern ocean. Above thirty years30 the Germanic empire30, or kingdom, was subject to the ignominy of tribute; and resistance was disarmed by the menace, the serious and effectual menace, of dragging the women and children into captivity and of slaughtering the males above the age of ten years30. I have neither power nor inclination to follow the Hungarians beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with surprise that the southern provinces of France were blasted by the tempest, and that Spain, behind her Pyrenees, was astonished at the approach of these formidable strangers. The vicinity of Italy had tempted their early inroads; but, from their camp30 on the Brenta, they beheld with some terror the apparent strength and populousness of the new30-discovered country. They requested leave to retire; their request was proudly rejected by the Italian king30; and the lives of twenty thousand30 Christians paid the forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the cities of the West, the royal30 Pavia was conspicuous in fame and splendour; and the pre-eminence of Rome itself was only derived from the relics of the apostles. The Hungarians appeared; Pavia was in flames; forty-three churches were consumed; and, after the massacre of the people30, they spared about two hundred wretches who had gathered some bushels of gold30 and silver (a vague exaggeration) from the smoking ruins of their country. In these annual excursions from the Alps to the neighbourhood of Rome and Capua, the churches, that yet escaped, resounded with a fearful litany: Oh! save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hungarians! But the saints were deaf or inexorable; and the torrent rolled forwards, till30 it was stopped by the extreme land of Calabria. A composition was offered and accepted for the head30 of each Italian subject; and ten bushels of silver were poured forth in the Turkish30 camp30. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of violence; and the robbers were defrauded both in the numbers of the assessment and the standard30 of the metal. On the side of the East the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful conflict by the equal arms30 of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the Byzantine30 empire30. The barrier was overturned; the emperor30 of Constantinople30 beheld the waving banners of the Turks30; and one of their boldest warriors presumed to strike a battle30-axe into the golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks30 diverted the assault; but the Hungarians might boast, on their retreat, that they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the majesty of the Caesars. The remote and rapid operations of the same campaign appear to magnify the powers and numbers of the Turks30; but their courage is most deserving of praise, since a light troop of three or four hundred horse30 would often attempt and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica and Constantinople30. At this disastrous era of the ninth and tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a triple scourge from the North, the East, and the South; the Norman, the Hungarian, and the Saracen sometimes trod the same ground of desolation; and these savage foes might have been compared by Homer to the two lions growling over the carcase of a mangled stag.
The deliverance of Germany and Christendom was achieved by the Saxon princes, Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great, who, in two memorable battles, for ever broke the power of the Hungarians. The valiant Henry was roused from a bed of sickness by the invasion of his country; but his mind was vigorous and his prudence successful. My companions, said he on the morning of the combat, maintain your ranks, receive on your bucklers the first arrows of the Pagans, and prevent their second30 discharge by the equal and rapid career of your lances. They obeyed, and conquered; and the historical picture of the castle of Merseburg expressed the features, or at least the character, of Henry, who, in an age of ignorance, entrusted to the finer arts the perpetuity of his name. At the end of twenty years30, the children of the Turks30 who had fallen by his sword30 invaded the empire30 of his son30; and their force is defined, in the lowest estimate, at one hundred thousand30 horse30. They were invited by domestic faction; the gates of Germany were treacherously unlocked; and they spread, far beyond the Rhine and the Meuse, into the heart of Flanders. But the vigour and prudence of Otho dispelled the conspiracy; the princes were made sensible that, unless they were true to each other, their religion and country were irrecoverably lost; and the national powers were reviewed in the plains of Augsburg. They marched and fought in eight legions, according to the division of provinces and tribes; the first, second30, and third were composed of Bavarians; the fourth of Franconians; the fifth of Saxons, under the immediate command of the monarch; the sixth and seventh consisted of Swabians; and the eighth legion, of a thousand30 Bohemians, closed the rear of the host. The resources of discipline and valour were fortified by the arts of superstition, which, on this occasion, may deserve the epithets of generous and salutary. The soldiers30 were purified with a fast; the camp30 was blessed with the relics of saints and martyrs; and the Christian hero girded on his side the sword30 of Constantine, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, and waved the banner of St30. Maurice, the prefect of the Thebaean legion. But his firmest confidence was placed in the holy30 lance, whose point was fashioned of the nails of the cross, and which his father had extorted from the king30 of Burgundy by the threats of war30 and the gift of a province. The Hungarians were expected in the front; they secretly passed the Lech, a river of Bavaria that falls into the Danube; turned the rear of the Christian army30; plundered the baggage and disordered the legions of Bohemia and Swabia. The battle30 was restored by the Franconians, whose duke, the valiant Conrad, was pierced with an arrow as he rested from his fatigues; the Saxons fought under the eyes of their king30; and his victory30 surpassed, in merit and importance, the triumphs of the last two hundred years30. The loss of the Hungarians was still greater in the flight than in the action; they were encompassed by the rivers of Bavaria; and their past cruelties excluded them from the hope of mercy. Three captive princes were hanged at Ratisbon, the multitude of prisoners was slain or mutilated, and the fugitives, who presumed to appear in the face of their country, were condemned to everlasting poverty and disgrace. Yet the spirit of the nation was humbled, and the most accessible passes of Hungary were fortified with a ditch and rampart. Adversity suggested the counsels of moderation and peace; the robbers of the West acquiesced in a sedentary life; and the next generation was taught, by a discerning prince30, that far more might be gained by multiplying and exchanging the produce of a fruitful soil. The native race, the Turkish30 or Fennic blood, was mingled with new30 colonies of Scythian or Sclavonian origin; many thousands of robust and industrious captives had been imported from all the countries of Europe; and, after the marriage of Geisa with a Bavarian princess, he bestowed honours and estates on the nobles of Germany. The son30 of Geisa was invested with the regal title, and the house of Arpad reigned three hundred years30 in the kingdom of Hungary. But the freeborn Barbarians were not dazzled by the lustre of the diadem, and the people30 asserted their indefeasible right of choosing, deposing, and punishing the hereditary servant of the state.
III. The name of Russians was first divulged, in the ninth century, by an embassy from Theophilus, emperor30 of the East, to the emperor30 of the West, Lewis, the son30 of Charlemagne. The Greeks30 were accompanied by the envoys of the great duke, or chagan, or czar, of the Russians. In their journey to Constantinople30, they had traversed many hostile nations; and they hoped to escape the dangers of their return by requesting the French monarch to transport them by sea to their native country. A closer examination detected their origin: they were the brethren of the Swedes and Normans, whose name was already odious and formidable in France; and it might justly be apprehended that these Russian strangers were not the messengers of peace but the emissaries of war30. They were detained, while the Greeks30 were dismissed; and Lewis expected a more satisfactory account, that he might obey the laws of hospitality or prudence, according to the interest of both empires. The Scandinavian origin of the people30, or at least the princes of Russia, may be confirmed and illustrated by the national annals and the general30 history of the North. The Normans, who had so long30 been concealed by a veil of impenetrable darkness, suddenly burst forth in the spirit of naval and military enterprise. The vast, and, as it is said, the populous, regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway were crowded with independent chieftains and desperate adventurers, who sighed in the laziness of peace, and smiled in the agonies of death30. Piracy was the exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue of the Scandinavian youth. Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet, grasped their arms30, sounded their horn, ascended their vessels, and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement. The Baltic was the first scene of their naval achievements; they visited the eastern shores, the silent residence of Fennic and Sclavonian tribes, and the primitive Russians of the lake Ladoga paid a tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers, whom they saluted with the title of Varangians, or Corsairs. Their superiority in arms30, discipline, and renown commanded the fear and reverence of the natives. In their wars against the more inland savages, the Varangians condescended to serve as friends and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice or conquest, obtained the dominion of a people30 whom they were qualified to protect. Their tyranny was expelled, their valour was again recalled, till30 at length Ruric, a Scandinavian chief, became the father of a dynasty which reigned above seven hundred years30. His brothers extended his influence; the example of service30 and usurpation was imitated by his companions in the southern provinces of Russia; and their establishments, by the usual methods of war30 and assassination, were cemented into the fabric of a powerful monarchy.
As long22 as the descendants of Ruric were considered as aliens and conquerors, they ruled by the sword of the Varangians, distributed estates and subjects to their faithful captains, and supplied their numbers with fresh streams of adventurers from the Baltic coast. But, when the Scandinavian chiefs had struck a deep and permanent root into the soil, they mingled with the Russians in blood22, religion, and language, and the first Waladimir had the merit22 of delivering his country from these foreign mercenaries. They had seated him on the throne22; his riches were insufficient to satisfy their demands; but they listened to his pleasing advice that they should seek, not a more grateful, but a more wealthy master; that they should embark for Greece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk and gold would be the recompense of their service. At the same time22, the Russian prince22 admonished his Byzantine ally to disperse and employ, to recompense and restrain, these impetuous children of the North. Contemporary writers have recorded the introduction, name, and character22 of the Varangians: each day they rose in confidence and esteem; the whole body was assembled at Constantinople22 to perform the duty of guards; and their strength was recruited by a numerous band of their countrymen from the island of Thule. On this occasion the vague appellation of Thule is applied to England; and the new22 Varangians were a colony of English and Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman conqueror. The habits of pilgrimage and piracy had approximated the countries of the earth; these exiles were entertained in the Byzantine court; and they preserved, till the last age22 of the empire22, the inheritance of spotless loyalty and the use of the Danish or English tongue. With their broad and double-edged battle-axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor22 to the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted under their trusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the treasury, and the capital were held by the firm and faithful hands22 of the Varangians.
In the tenth century, the geography of Scythia was extended far beyond the limits of ancient knowledge; and the monarchy of the Russians31 obtains a vast and conspicuous place in the map of Constantine31. The sons31 of Ruric31 were masters of the spacious province of Wolodomir31, or Moscow; and, if they were confined on that side by the hordes of the East, their western frontier in those early days31 was enlarged to the Baltic Sea and the country of the Prussians. Their northern reign31 ascended above the sixtieth degree of latitude, over the Hyperborean regions, which fancy had peopled with monsters, or clouded with eternal darkness. To the south they followed the course of the Borysthenes31, and approached with that river the neighbourhood of the Euxine Sea. The tribes that dwelt, or wandered, in this ample circuit were obedient to the same conqueror, and insensibly blended into the same nation. The language of Russia31 is a dialect of the Sclavonian; but, in the tenth century, these two modes of speech were different from each other; and, as the Sclavonian prevailed in the South, it may be presumed that the original Russians31 of the North31, the primitive subjects of the Varangian chief, were a portion of the Fennic race. With the emigration, union, or dissolution of the wandering tribes, the loose and indefinite picture of the Scythian desert has continually shifted. But the most ancient map of Russia31 affords some places which still retain their name and position; and the two capitals, Novogorod31 and Kiow31, are coeval with the first age31 of the monarchy. Novogorod31 had not yet deserved the epithet of great, nor the alliance of the Hanseatic league, which diffused the streams of opulence and the principles of freedom. Kiow31 could not yet boast of three hundred churches, an innumerable people, and a degree of greatness and splendour, which was compared with Constantinople31 by those who had never seen the residence of the Caesars. In their origin, the two cities were no more than camps or fairs, the most convenient stations in which the Barbarians might assemble for the occasional business of war or trade. Yet even these assemblies announce some progress in the arts of society; a new breed of cattle was imported from the southern provinces; and the spirit of commercial enterprise pervaded the sea and land from the Baltic to the Euxine, from the mouth of the Oder to the port of Constantinople31. In the days31 of idolatry and barbarism, the Sclavonic city of Julin was frequented and enriched by the Normans, who had prudently secured a free mart of purchase and exchange. From this harbour, at the entrance of the Oder, the corsair, or merchant, sailed in forty-three days31 to the eastern shores of the Baltic, the most distant nations were intermingled, and the holy groves of Curland are said to have been decorated with Grecian and Spanish gold. Between the sea and Novogorod31 an easy intercourse was discovered: in the summer, through a gulf, a lake, and a navigable river; in the winter season, over the hard and level surface of boundless snows. From the neighbourhood of that city, the Russians31 descended the streams that fall into the Borysthenes31; their canoes31, of a single tree, were laden with slaves of every age31, furs of every species, the spoil of their beehives, and the hides of their cattle; and the whole produce of the North31 was collected and discharged in the magazines of Kiow31. The month of June was the ordinary season of the departure of the fleet; the timber of the canoes31 was framed into the oars and benches of more solid and capacious boats; and they proceeded without obstacle down the Borysthenes31, as far as the seven31 or thirteen ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed31, and precipitate the waters, of the river. At the more shallow falls it was sufficient to lighten the vessels; but the deeper cataracts were impassable; and the mariners, who dragged their vessels and their slaves six miles over land, were exposed in this toilsome journey to the robbers of the desert. At the first island below the falls, the Russians31 celebrated the festival of their escape; at a second31, near the mouth of the river, they repaired their shattered vessels for the longer31 and more perilous voyage of the Black Sea. If they steered along the coast, the Danube was accessible; with a fair wind they could reach in thirty-six or forty hours the opposite shores of Anatolia; and Constantinople31 admitted the annual visit of the strangers of the North31. They returned at the stated season with a rich cargo of corn, wine, and oil, the manufactures of Greece, and the spices of India. Some of their countrymen resided in the capital and provinces; and the national treaties protected the persons, effects, and privileges of the Russian31 merchant.
But the same communication which had been opened for the benefit, was soon30 abused for the injury, of mankind. In a period of one hundred and ninety years30, the Russians made four attempts to plunder the treasures of Constantinople30; the event was various, but the motive, the means, and the object were the same in these naval expeditions. The Russian traders had seen the magnificence and tasted the luxury of the city30 of the Caesars. A marvellous tale, and a scanty supply, excited the desires of their savage countrymen: they envied the gifts of nature which their climate denied; they coveted the works of art which they were too lazy to imitate and too indigent to purchase: the Varangian princes unfurled the banners of piratical adventure, and their bravest soldiers30 were drawn from the nations that dwelt in the northern isles of the ocean. The image of their naval armaments was revived in the last century in the fleets of the Cossacks, which issued from the Borysthenes to navigate the same seas for a similar purpose. The Greek30 appellation of monoxyla, or single canoes, might be justly applied to the bottom of their vessels. It was scooped out of the long30 stem of a beech or willow, but the slight and narrow foundation was raised and continued on either side with planks, till30 it attained the length of sixty, and the height of about twelve, feet. These boats were built without a deck, but with two rudders and a mast; to move with sails and oars; and to contain from forty to seventy men, with their arms30, and provisions of fresh water and salt fish. The first trial of the Russians was made with two hundred boats; but, when the national force was exerted, they might arm against Constantinople30 a thousand30 or twelve hundred vessels. Their fleet was not much inferior to the royal30 navy of Agamemnon, but it was magnified in the eyes of fear to ten or fifteen times the real proportion of its strength and numbers. Had the Greek30 emperors been endowed with foresight to discern, and vigour to prevent, perhaps they might have sealed with a maritime force the mouth of the Borysthenes. Their indolence abandoned the coast of Anatolia to the calamities of a piratical war30, which, after an interval of six hundred years30, again infested the Euxine; but, as long30 as the capital was respected, the sufferings of a distant province escaped the notice both of the prince30 and the historian. The storm, which had swept along from the Phasis and Trebizond, at length burst on the Bosphorus of Thrace: a strait of fifteen miles, in which the rude vessels of the Russian might have been stopped and destroyed by a more skilful adversary. In their first enterprise under the prince30 of Kiow, they passed without opposition, and occupied the port of Constantinople30 in the absence of the emperor30 Michael, the son30 of Theophilus. Through a crowd of perils he landed at the palace30 stairs, and immediately repaired to a church of the Virgin Mary. By the advice of the patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn from the sanctuary and dipped in the sea; and a seasonable tempest, which determined the retreat of the Russians, was devoutly ascribed to the Mother of God. The silence of the Greeks30 may inspire some doubt of the truth, or at least of the importance, of the second30 attempt of Oleg, the guardian of the sons of Ruric. A strong barrier of arms30 and fortifications defended the Bosphorus: they were eluded by the usual expedient of drawing the boats over the isthmus; and this simple operation is described in the national chronicles as if the Russian fleet had sailed over dry land with a brisk and favourable gale. The leader of the third armament, Igor, the son30 of Ruric, had chosen a moment of weakness and decay, when the naval powers of the empire30 were employed against the Saracens. But, if courage be not wanting, the instruments of defence are seldom deficient. Fifteen broken and decayed galleys were boldly launched against the enemy30; but, instead of the single tube of Greek30 fire usually planted on the prow, the sides and stern of each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquid combustible. The engineers were dexterous; the weather was propitious; many thousand30 Russians, who chose rather to be drowned than burnt, leaped into the sea; and those who escaped to the Thracian shore were inhumanly slaughtered by the peasants and soldiers30. Yet one third of the canoes escaped into shallow water; and the next spring Igor was again prepared to retrieve his disgrace and claim his revenge. After a long30 peace, Jaroslaus, the great-grandson of Igor, resumed the same project of a naval invasion. A fleet, under the command of his son30, was repulsed at the entrance of the Bosphorus by the same artificial flames. But in the rashness of pursuit the vanguard of the Greeks30 was encompassed by an irresistible multitude of boats and men; their provision of fire was probably exhausted; and twenty-four galleys were either taken, sunk, or destroyed.
Yet the threats or calamities of a Russian war30 were more frequently diverted by treaty than by arms30. In these naval hostilities every disadvantage was on the side of the Greeks30; their savage enemy30 afforded no mercy; his poverty promised no spoil; his impenetrable retreat deprived the conqueror of the hopes of revenge; and the pride or weakness of empire30 indulged an opinion that no honour could be gained or lost in the intercourse with Barbarians. At first their demands were high and inadmissible, three pounds of gold30 for each soldier or mariner of the fleet; the Russian youth adhered to the design of conquest and glory; but the counsels of moderation were recommended by the hoary sages. Be content, they said, with the liberal offers of Caesar; is it not far better to obtain without a combat the possession of gold30, silver, silks, and all the objects of our desires? Are we sure of victory30? Can we conclude a treaty with the sea? We do not tread on the land; we float on the abyss of water, and a common death30 hangs over our heads. The memory of these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the Polar circle left30 a deep impression of terror on the Imperial city30. By the vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed that an equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, how the Russians, in the last days30, should become masters of Constantinople30. In our own time, a Russian armament, instead of sailing from the Borysthenes, has circumnavigated the continent of Europe; and the Turkish30 capital has been threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of war30, each of which, with its naval science and thundering artillery, could have sunk or scattered an hundred canoes, such as those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present generation may yet behold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare prediction, of which the style is unambiguous and the date unquestionable.
By land the Russians were less formidable than by sea; and, as they fought for the most part on foot, their irregular legions must often have been broken and overthrown by the cavalry of the Scythian hordes. Yet their growing towns, however slight and imperfect, presented a shelter to the subject and a barrier to the enemy30: the monarchy of Kiow, till30 a fatal partition, assumed the dominion of the North; and the nations from the Volga to the Danube were subdued or repelled by the arms30 of Swatoslaus, the son30 of Igor, the son30 of Oleg, the son30 of Ruric. The vigour of his mind and body was fortified by the hardships of a military and savage life. Wrapt in a bear-skin Swatoslaus usually slept on the ground, his head30 reclining on a saddle; his diet was coarse and frugal, and, like the heroes of Homer, his meat (it was often horse30-flesh) was broiled or roasted on the coals. The exercise of war30 gave stability and discipline to his army30; and it may be presumed that no soldier was permitted to transcend the luxury of his chief. By an embassy from Nicephorus, the Greek30 emperor30, he was moved to undertake the conquest of Bulgaria, and a gift of fifteen hundred pounds of gold30 was laid at his feet to defray the expense, or reward the toils, of the expedition. An army30 of sixty thousand30 men was assembled and embarked; they sailed from the Borysthenes to the Danube; their landing was effected on the Maesian shore; and, after a sharp encounter, the swords of the Russians prevailed against the arrows of the Bulgarian horse30. The vanquished king30 sunk into the grave; his children were made captive; and his dominions as far as Mount Haemus were subdued or ravaged by the Northern invaders. But, instead of relinquishing his prey and performing his engagements, the Varangian prince30 was more disposed to advance than to retire; and, had his ambition been crowned with success, the seat of empire30 in that early period might have been transferred to a more temperate and fruitful climate. Swatoslaus enjoyed and acknowledged the advantages of his new30 position, in which he could unite, by exchange or rapine, the various productions of the earth. By an easy navigation he might draw from Russia the native commodities of furs, wax, and hydromel; Hungary supplied him with a breed of horses and the spoils of the West; and Greece abounded with gold30, silver, and the foreign luxuries which his poverty had affected to disdain. The bands of Patzinacites, Chozars, and Turks30 repaired to the standard30 of victory30; and the ambassador of Nicephorus betrayed his trust, assumed the purple, and promised to share with his new30 allies the treasures of the Eastern world. From the banks of the Danube the Russian prince30 pursued his march as far as Hadrianople; a formal summons to evacuate the Roman30 province was dismissed with contempt; and Swatoslaus fiercely replied that Constantine might soon30 expect the presence of an enemy30 and a master.
Nicephorus could no longer expel the mischief which he had introduced; but his throne and wife were inherited by John Zimisces, who, in a diminutive body, possessed the spirit and abilities of an hero. The first victory30 of his lieutenants deprived the Russians of their foreign allies, twenty thousand30 of whom were either destroyed by the sword30 or provoked to revolt or tempted to desert. Thrace was delivered, but seventy thousand30 Barbarians were still in arms30; and the legions that had been recalled from the new30 conquests of Syria prepared, with the return of the spring, to march under the banners of a warlike prince30, who declared himself the friend and avenger of the injured Bulgaria. The passes of Mount Haemus had been left30 unguarded; they were instantly occupied; the Roman30 vanguard was formed of the immortals (a proud imitation of the Persian style); the emperor30 led the main body of ten thousand30 five hundred foot; and the rest of his forces followed in slow and cautious array with the baggage and military engines. The first exploit of Zimisces was the reduction of Marcianopolis, or Peristhlaba, in two days30: the trumpets sounded; the walls30 were scaled; eight thousand30 five hundred Russians were put to the sword30; and the sons of the Bulgarian king30 were rescued from an ignominious prison, and invested with a nominal diadem. After these repeated losses, Swatoslaus retired to the strong post of Dristra, on the banks of the Danube, and was pursued by an enemy30 who alternately employed the arms30 of celerity and delay. The Byzantine30 galleys ascended the river; the legions completed a line of circumvallation; and the Russian prince30 was encompassed, assaulted, and famished in the fortifications of the camp30 and city30. Many deeds of valour were performed; several desperate sallies were attempted; nor was it till30 after a siege30 of sixty-five days30 that Swatoslaus yielded to his adverse fortune. The liberal terms which he obtained announce the prudence of the victor, who respected the valour, and apprehended the despair, of an unconquered mind. The great duke of Russia bound himself by solemn imprecations to relinquish all hostile designs; a safe passage was opened for his return; the liberty of trade and navigation was restored; a measure of corn was distributed to each of his soldiers30; and the allowance of twenty-two thousand30 measures attests the loss and the remnant of the Barbarians. After a painful voyage, they again reached the mouth of the Borysthenes; but their provisions were exhausted; the season was unfavourable; they passed the winter on the ice; and, before they could prosecute their march, Swatoslaus was surprised and oppressed by the neighbouring tribes, with whom the Greeks30 entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence. Far different was the return of Zimisces, who was received in his capital like Camillus or Marius, the saviours of ancient Rome. But the merit of the victory30 was attributed by the pious emperor30 to the Mother of God; and the image of the Virgin Mary, with the divine infant in her arms30, was placed on a triumphal car, adorned with the spoils of war30 and the ensigns of Bulgarian royalty. Zimisces made his public entry on horseback; the diadem on his head30, a crown of laurel in his hand; and Constantinople30 was astonished to applaud the martial virtues of her sovereign.
Photius of Constantinople30, a patriarch whose ambition was equal to his curiosity, congratulates himself and the Greek30 church on the conversion of the Russians. Those fierce and bloody Barbarians had been persuaded by the voice of reason and religion, to acknowledge Jesus for their God, the Christian missionaries for their teachers, and the Romans for their friends and brethren. His triumph was transient and premature. In the various fortune of their piratical adventures, some Russian chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters of baptism; and a Greek30 bishop, with the name of metropolitan, might administer the sacraments in the church of Kiow to a congregation of slaves and natives. But the seed of the Gospel was sown on a barren soil: many were the apostates, the converts were few; and the baptism of Olga may be fixed as the era of Russian Christianity. A female, perhaps of the basest origin, who could revenge the death30, and assume the sceptre, of her husband Igor, must have been endowed with those active virtues which command the fear and obedience of Barbarians. In a moment of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed from Kiow to Constantinople30; and the emperor30 Constantine Porphyrogenitus has described with minute diligence the ceremonial of her reception in his capital and palace30. The steps, the titles, the salutations, the banquet, the presents, were exquisitely adjusted, to gratify the vanity of the stranger, with due reverence to the superior majesty of the purple. In the sacrament of baptism, she received the venerable name of the empress Helena; and her conversion might be preceded or followed by her uncle, two interpreters, sixteen damsels of an higher, and eighteen of a lower, rank, twenty-two domestics or ministers, and forty-four Russian merchants, who composed the retinue of the great princess Olga. After her return to Kiow and Novogorod, she firmly persisted in her new30 religion; but her labours in the propagation of the Gospel were not crowned with success; and both her family and nation adhered with obstinacy or indifference to the gods of their fathers. Her son30 Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the scorn and ridicule of his companions; and her grandson Wolodomir devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and decorate the monuments of ancient worship. The savage deities of the North were still propitiated with human sacrifices: in the choice of the victim, a citizen was preferred to a stranger, a Christian to an idolater; and the father who defended his son30 from the sacerdotal knife was involved in the same doom by the rage of a fanatic tumult. Yet the lessons and example of the pious Olga had made a deep though secret impression on the minds of the prince30 and people30: the Greek30 missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to baptise; and the ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of the woods with the elegant superstition of Constantinople30. They had gazed with admiration on the dome of St30. Sophia: the lively pictures of saints and martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of the priests, the pomp and order of the ceremonies; they were edified by the alternate succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it difficult to persuade them that a choir of angels descended each day30 from heaven to join in the devotion of the Christians. But the conversion of Wolodomir was determined, or hastened, by his desire of a Roman30 bride. At the same time, and in the city30 of Cherson, the rites of baptism and marriage were celebrated by the Christian pontiff; the city30 he restored to the emperor30 Basil, the brother of his spouse; but the brazen gates were transported, as it is said, to Novogorod, and erected before the first church as a trophy of his victory30 and faith. At his despotic command, Peroun, the god of thunder, whom he had so long30 adored, was dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve sturdy Barbarians battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was indignantly cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict of Wolodomir had proclaimed that all who should refuse the rites of baptism would be treated as the enemies30 of God and their prince30; and the rivers were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient Russians, who acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a doctrine which had been embraced by the great duke and his boyars. In the next generation the relics of paganism were finally extirpated; but, as the two brothers of Wolodomir had died without baptism, their bones were taken from the grave and sanctified by an irregular and posthumous sacrament.
In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh35 centuries of the Christian era, the reign of the gospel and of the church was extended over Bulgaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, Denmark35, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. The triumphs of apostolic zeal were repeated in the iron age35 of Christianity; and the northern and eastern regions of Europe35 submitted to a religion more different35 in theory than in practice from the worship of their native idols. A laudable ambition excited the monks, both of Germany35 and Greece, to visit the tents and huts of the Barbarians; poverty, hardships, and dangers were the lot of the first missionaries35; their courage was active and patient; their motive pure and meritorious; their present reward consisted in the testimony of their conscience and the respect of a grateful people; but the fruitful harvest of their toils was inherited and enjoyed by the proud and wealthy prelates of succeeding times. The first conversions were free and spontaneous: an holy35 life35 and an eloquent tongue were the only arms35 of the missionaries35; but the domestic fables of the Pagans35 were silenced by the miracles and visions of the strangers; and the favourable temper of the chiefs was accelerated by the dictates of vanity and interest. The leaders of nations, who were saluted with the titles of kings35 and saints, held it lawful and pious to impose the Catholic faith on their subjects and neighbours: the coast of the Baltic, from Holstein to the gulf of Finland, was invaded under the standard of the cross35; and the reign of idolatry was closed by the conversion of Lithuania in the fourteenth century. Yet truth and candour must acknowledge that the conversion of the North35 imparted many temporal benefits both to the old and the new35 Christians. The rage of war35, inherent to the human35 species, could not be healed by the evangelic precepts of charity and peace; and the ambition of Catholic princes35 has renewed in every age35 the calamities of hostile contention. But the admission of the Barbarians into the pale of civil and ecclesiastical society delivered Europe35 from the depredations, by sea and land35, of the Normans, the Hungarians35, and the Russians, who learned to spare their brethren and cultivate their possessions. The establishment of law and order was promoted by the influence of the clergy; and the rudiments of art and science35 were introduced into the savage countries of the globe. The liberal piety of the Russian princes35 engaged in their service the most skilful of the Greeks, to decorate the cities and instruct the inhabitants; the dome and the paintings of St35. Sophia were rudely copied in the churches of Kiow and Novogorod; the writings of the fathers were translated into the Sclavonic idiom; and three hundred noble youths were invited or compelled to attend the lessons of the college of Jaroslaus. It should appear that Russia might have derived an early and rapid improvement from her peculiar connection with the church and state of Constantinople which in that age35 so justly despised the ignorance of the Latins. But the Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and verging to an hasty decline35; after the fall of Kiow, the navigation of the Borysthenes was forgotten; the great35 princes35 of Wolodomir and Moscow were separated from the sea and Christendom35; and the divided monarchy was oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of Tartar servitude. The Sclavonic and Scandinavian kingdoms35, which had been converted by the Latin missionaries35, were exposed, it is true, to the spiritual jurisdiction and temporal claims of the popes; but they were united, in language and religious worship, with each other, and with Rome; they imbibed the free and generous spirit of the European republic, and gradually shared the light of knowledge which arose on the Western world.
The three great9 nations9 of the world, the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks, encountered each other on the theatre of Italy9. The southern provinces9, which now compose the kingdom of Naples, were subject, for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes of Beneventum: so powerful in war9 that they checked for a moment the genius of Charlemagne; so liberal in peace that they maintained in their capital9 an academy of thirty-two philosophers and grammarians. The division of this flourishing state produced the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the competitors invited the Saracens to the ruin of their common inheritance. During a calamitous period of two hundred years Italy9 was exposed to a repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not capable of healing by the union and tranquillity of a perfect conquest9. Their frequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of Palermo, and were entertained with too much indulgence by the Christians of Naples; the more formidable fleets were prepared on the African coast9; and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes tempted to assist or oppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of human events, a new9 ambuscade was concealed in the Caudine forks, the fields of Cannae were bedewed a second time with the blood of the Africans, and the sovereign of Rome9 again attacked or defended the walls9 of Capua and Tarentum. A colony of Saracens had been planted at Bari, which commands the entrance of the Adriatic gulf; and their impartial depredations provoked the resentment, and conciliated the union, of the two emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis, the great9-grandson of Charlemagne; and each party supplied the deficiencies of his associate. It would have been imprudent in the Byzantine monarch to transport his stationary troops9 of Asia9 to an Italian campaign; and the Latin arms9 would have been insufficient, if his superior navy had not occupied the mouth of the gulf. The fortress of Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and by the cavalry and galleys of the Greeks; and, after a defence of four years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis, who commanded in person the operations of the siege. This important conquest9 had been achieved by the concord of the East and West9; but their recent amity was soon9 embittered by the mutual complaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed as their own the merit of the conquest9 and the pomp of the triumph; extolled the greatness of their powers, and affected to deride the intemperance and sloth of the handful of Barbarians9 who appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth: We confess the magnitude of your preparations, says the great9-grandson of Charlemagne. Your armies were indeed as numerous as a cloud of summer locusts, who darken the day, flap their wings, and, after a short flight, tumble weary and breathless to the ground. Like them, ye sunk after a feeble effort; ye were vanquished by your own cowardice; and withdrew from the scene of action to injure and despoil our Christian subjects of the Sclavonian coast9. We were few in number, and why were we few? Because, after a tedious expectation of your arrival, I had dismissed my host, and retained only a chosen band of warriors to continue the blockade of the city9. If they indulged their hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death, did these feasts abate the vigour of their enterprise? Is it by your fasting that the walls9 of Bari have been overturned? Did not these valiant Franks, diminished as they were by languor and fatigue, intercept and vanquish the three most powerful emirs of the Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of the city9? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will be delivered; and, if we command the sea9, the island of Sicily may be rescued from the hands of the infidels. My brother (a name most offensive to the vanity of the Greek), accelerate your naval succours, respect your allies, and distrust your flatterers.
These lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the death of Lewis, and the decay of the Carlovingian house; and, whoever might deserve the honour, the Greek emperors, Basil and his son38 Leo, secured the advantage, of the reduction of Bari. The Italians of Apulia38 and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount Garganus to the bay of Salerno leaves the far greater part of the kingdom38 of Naples38 under the dominion of the Eastern empire. Beyond that line, the dukes or republics of Amalphi and Naples38, who had never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in the neighbourhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalphi was enriched by supplying Europe with the produce and manufactures of Asia. But the Lombard princes38 of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua were reluctantly torn from the communion of the Latin38 world, and too often violated their oaths of servitude and tribute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy; the title38 of patrician, and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, was assigned to the supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was modelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople. As long as the sceptre was disputed by the princes38 of Italy, their efforts were feeble and adverse; and the Greeks38 resisted or eluded the forces of Germany38, which descended from the Alps under the Imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of those Saxon princes38 was compelled to relinquish the siege of Bari: the second38, after the loss of his stoutest bishops and barons38, escaped with honour from the bloody field of Crotona. On that day the scale of war38 was turned against the Franks by the valour of the Saracens. These corsairs had indeed been driven by the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of Italy; but a sense of interest was more prevalent than superstition or resentment, and the caliph of Egypt had transported forty thousand38 Moslems to the aid of his Christian ally. The successors of Basil amused themselves with the belief that the conquest of Lombardy had been achieved, and was still preserved, by the justice of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, and the gratitude of a people whom they had rescued from anarchy and oppression. A series of rebellions might dart a ray of truth into the palace of Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery were dispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman38 adventurers.
The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and Calabria a melancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and the tenth century of the Christian era. At the former period, the coast of Great Greece (as it was then styled) was planted with free and opulent cities: these cities were peopled with soldiers30, artists, and philosophers; and the military strength of Tarentum, Sybaris, or Crotona was not inferior to that of a powerful kingdom. At the second30 era, these once-flourishing provinces were clouded with ignorance, impoverished by tyranny, and depopulated by Barbarian war30; nor can we severely accuse the exaggeration of a contemporary that a fair and ample district was reduced to the same desolation which had covered the earth after the general30 deluge. Among the hostilities of the Arabs, the Franks, and the Greeks30, in the southern Italy, I shall select two or three anecdotes expressive of their national manners. 1. It was the amusement of the Saracens to profane, as well as to pillage, the monasteries and churches. At the siege30 of Salerno, a Musulman chief spread his couch on the communion-table, and on that altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a Christian nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in the roof was accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head30; and the death30 of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ, which was at length awakened to the defence of his faithful spouse. 2. The Saracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and Capua: after a vain appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the Lombards implored the clemency and aid of the Greek30 emperor30. A fearless citizen dropped from the walls30, passed the intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and fell into the hands of the Barbarians, as he was returning with the welcome news. They commanded him to assist their enterprise, and deceive his countrymen, with the assurance that wealth and honours should be the reward of his falsehood, and that his sincerity would be punished with immediate death30. He affected to yield, but, as soon30 as he was conducted within hearing of the Christians on the rampart, Friends and brethren, he cried with a loud voice, be bold and patient, maintain the city30; your sovereign is informed of your distress, and your deliverers are at hand. I know my doom, and commit my wife and children to your gratitude. The rage of the Arabs confirmed his evidence; and the self-devoted patriot was transpierced with an hundred spears. He deserves to live in the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of the same story in ancient and modern times may sprinkle some doubts on the reality of this generous deed. 3. The recital of the third incident may provoke a smile amidst the horrors of war30. Theobald, marquis of Camerino and Spoleto, supported the rebels of Beneventum; and his wanton cruelty was not incompatible in that age with the character of an hero. His captives of the Greek30 nation or party were castrated without mercy, and the outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that he wished to present the emperor30 with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious ornaments of the Byzantine30 court. The garrison of the castle had been defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the customary operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding cheeks, dishevelled hair, and importunate clamours, compelled the marquis to listen to her complaint. It is thus, she cried, ye magnanimous heroes, that ye wage war30 against women, against women who have never injured ye, and whose only arms30 are the distaff and the loom? Theobald denied the charge, and protested that, since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war30. And how, she furiously exclaimed, can you attack us more directly, how can you wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our husbands of what we most dearly cherish, the source of our joys, and the hope of our posterity? The plunder of our flocks and herds I have endured without a murmur, but this fatal injury, this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls aloud on the justice of heaven and earth. A general30 laugh applauded her eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by her ridiculous, yet rational despair; and, with the deliverance of the captives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As she returned in triumph to the castle, she was overtaken by a messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment should be inflicted on her husband, were he again taken in arms30? Should such, she answered without hesitation, be his guilt and misfortune, he has eyes, and a nose, and hands, and feet. These are his own, and these he may deserve to forfeit by his personal offences. But let my lord be pleased to spare what his little handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful property.
The establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily is an event most romantic in its origin, and in its consequences most important both to Italy9 and the Eastern empire9. The broken provinces9 of the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens were exposed to every invader, and every sea9 and land were invaded by the adventurous spirit of the Scandinavian pirates. After a long9 indulgence of rapine and slaughter, a fair and ample territory was accepted, occupied, and named, by the Normans of France; they renounced their gods for the God of the Christians; and the dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselves the vassals of the successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savage fierceness which they had brought from the snowy mountains9 of Norway was refined, without being corrupted, in a warmer climate; the companions of Rollo insensibly mingled with the natives; they imbibed the manners, language, and gallantry of the French nation9; and, in a martial age, the Normans might claim the palm of valour9 and glorious achievements. Of the fashionable superstitions, they embraced with ardour the pilgrimages of Rome9, Italy9, and the Holy Land. In this active devotion, their minds and bodies were invigorated by exercise: danger was the incentive, novelty the recompense; and the prospect of the world was decorated by wonder, credulity, and ambitious hope. They confederated for their mutual defence; and the robbers of the Alps, who had been allured by the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm of a warrior. In one of these pious visits to the cavern of Mount Garganus in Apulia, which had been sanctified by the apparition of the archangel Michael, they were accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit, but who soon9 revealed himself as a rebel, a fugitive, and a mortal foe of the Greek empire9. His name was Melo: a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt, was compelled to seek new9 allies and avengers of his country9. The bold appearance of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited his confidence: they listened to the complaints, and still more to the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealth demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as the inheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed by effeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled a spark of enterprise; and a small but intrepid band was freely associated for the deliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps by separate roads, and in the disguise of pilgrims; but in the neighbourhood of Rome9 they were saluted by the chief of Bari, who supplied the more indigent with arms9 and horses, and instantly led them to the field of action. In the first conflict, their valour9 prevailed; but, in the second engagement, they were overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of the Greeks, and indignantly retreated with their faces to the enemy. The unfortunate Melo ended his life, a suppliant at the court of Germany: his Norman followers, excluded from their native and their promised land, wandered among the hills and valleys of Italy9, and earned their daily subsistence by the sword. To that formidable sword the princes of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and Naples alternately appealed in their domestic quarrels; the superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave victory to the side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observed the balance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state should render their aid less important and their service less profitable. Their first asylum was a strong camp9 in the depth of the marshes of Campania; but they were soon9 endowed by the liberality of the duke of Naples with a more plentiful and permanent seat. Eight miles9 from his residence, as a bulwark against Capua, the town of Aversa was built and fortified for their use; and they enjoyed as their own the corn and fruits, the meadows and groves, of that fertile district. The report of their success attracted every year new9 swarms of pilgrims and soldiers; the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited by hope; and the brave and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of ease and ambitious of renown. The independent standard of Aversa afforded shelter and encouragement to the outlaws of the province9, to every fugitive who had escaped from the injustice or justice of his superiors; and these foreign associates were quickly assimilated in manners and language to the Gallic colony. The first leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf; and, in the origin of society, pre-eminence of rank is the reward and the proof of superior merit.
Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors had been anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, however strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly armaments, after a gleam of success, added new48 pages of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine annals; twenty thousand48 of their best troops48 were lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the policy of a nation, which entrusted eunuchs not only with the custody of their women, but with the command of their men. After a reign of two hundred years48, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people48 rose against the emir; the cities48 were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. In every service of danger48 the Normans were prompt and useful: and five hundred knights, or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and interpreter of the Greeks48, under the standard of Maniaces, governor of Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa were restored; and the Island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the van, and the Arabs of Messina felt the valour of an untried foe. In a second48 action, the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In a third engagement, his intrepid companions discomfited the host of sixty thousand48 Saracens, and left the Greeks48 no more than the labour of the pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the historian may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It is, however, true that they essentially promoted the success of Maniaces, who reduced thirteen cities48, and the greater part of Sicily, under the obedience of the emperor48. But his military48 fame was sullied by ingratitude and tyranny. In the division of the spoil the deserts of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten; and neither their avarice48 nor their pride48 could brook this injurious treatment. They complained by the mouth of their interpreter; their complaint was disregarded; their interpreter was scourged; the sufferings were his; the insult and resentment belonged to those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet they dissembled till they had obtained48, or stolen, a safe passage to the Italian continent; their brethren of Aversa sympathised in their indignation, and the province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of the debt. Above twenty years48 after the first emigration, the Normans took the field with no more than seven hundred horse and five hundred foot; and, after the recall of the Byzantine legions from the Sicilian war, their numbers are magnified to the amount of threescore thousand48 men. Their herald proposed the option of battle or retreat; Of battle, was the unanimous cry of the Normans; and one of their stoutest warriors, with a stroke of his fist, felled to the ground48 the horse of the Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult was concealed from the Imperial troops48; but in two successive battles they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries. In the plains of Cannae, the Asiatics fled from the adventurers of France; the duke of Lombardy was made prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a new48 dominion; and the four places of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and Tarentum were alone saved in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this era we may date the establishment of the Norman power, which soon eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts were chosen by the popular suffrage; and age, birth, and merit were the motives of their choice. The tributes of their peculiar districts were appropriated to their use; and each count erected a fortress in the midst of his lands, and at the head48 of his vassals. In the centre of the province, the common habitation of Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and citadel of the republic; an house and separate quarter was allotted to each of the twelve counts; and the national concerns were regulated by this military48 senate. The first of his peers, their president and general48, was entitled count of Apulia; and this dignity was conferred on William of the Iron Arm, who, in the language of the age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb in society, and an angel in council. The manners of his countrymen are fairly delineated by a contemporary and national historian. The Normans, says Malaterra, are a cunning and revengeful people48; eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their hereditary qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but, unless they are curbed by the restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of nature and passion. Their princes affect the praise of popular munificence; the people48 observe the medium, or rather blend the extremes, of avarice48 and prodigality; and, in their eager thirst of wealth and dominion, they despise whatever they possess, and hope whatever they desire. Arms48 and horses48, the luxury48 of dress, the exercises of hunting and hawking, are the delight of the Normans; but on pressing occasions they can endure with incredible patience the inclemency of every climate and the toil and abstinence of a military48 life48.
The Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two empires; and, according to the policy of the hour, they accepted the investiture of their lands from the sovereigns of Germany or Constantinople30. But the firmest title of these adventurers was the right of conquest: they neither loved nor trusted; they were neither trusted nor beloved; the contempt of the princes was mixed with fear, and the fear of the natives was mingled with hatred and resentment. Every object of desire, an horse30, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the strangers; and the avarice of their chiefs was only coloured by the more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts were sometimes joined in a league of injustice: in their domestic quarrels, they disputed the spoils of the people30; the virtues of William were buried in his grave; and Drogo, his brother and successor, was better qualified to lead the valour, than to restrain the violence, of his peers. Under the reign of Constantine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevolence, of the Byzantine30 court attempted to relieve Italy from this adherent mischief, more grievous than a flight of Barbarians; and Argyrus, the son30 of Melo, was invested for this purpose with the most lofty titles and the most ample commission. The memory of his father might recommend him to the Normans; and he had already engaged their voluntary service30 to quell the revolt of Maniaces, and to avenge their own and the public injury. It was the design of Constantine to transplant this warlike colony from the Italian provinces to the Persian war30; and the son30 of Melo distributed among the chiefs the gold30 and manufactures of Greece, as the first fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts were baffled by the sense and spirit of the conquerors of Apulia: his gifts, or at least his proposals, were rejected; and they unanimously refused to relinquish their possessions and their hopes for the distant prospect of Asiatic fortune. After the means of persuasion had failed, Argyrus resolved to compel or to destroy: the Latin powers were solicited against the common enemy30; and an offensive alliance was formed of the pope and the two emperors of the East and West. The throne of St30. Peter was occupied by Leo the Ninth, a simple saint, of a temper most apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose venerable character would consecrate with the name of piety the measures least compatible with the practice of religion. His humanity was affected by the complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured people30; the impious Normans had interrupted the payment of tithes; and the temporal sword30 might be lawfully unsheathed against the sacrilegious robbers, who were deaf to the censures of the church. As a German of noble birth and royal30 kindred, Leo had free access to the court and confidence of the emperor30 Henry the Third; and in search of arms30 and allies his ardent zeal transported him from Apulia to Saxony, from the Elbe to the Tiber. During these hostile preparations, Argyrus indulged himself in the use of secret and guilty weapons; a crowd of Normans became the victims of public or private revenge; and the valiant Drogo was murdered in a church. But his spirit survived in his brother Humphrey, the third Count of Apulia. The assassins were chastised; and the son30 of Melo, overthrown and wounded, was driven from the field to hide his shame behind the walls30 of Bari, and to await the tardy succour of his allies.
But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish30 war30; the mind of Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope, instead of passing the Alps with a German army30, was accompanied only by a guard of seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorraine. In his long30 progress from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and promiscuous multitude of Italians was enlisted under the holy30 standard30; the priest and the robber slept in the same tent; the pikes and crosses were intermingled in the front; and the natural saint repeated the lessons of his youth in the order of march, of encampment, and of combat. The Normans of Apulia could muster in the field no more than three thousand30 horse30, with an handful of infantry; the defection of the natives intercepted their provisions and retreat; and their spirit, incapable of fear, was chilled for a moment by superstitious awe. On the hostile approach of Leo, they knelt without disgrace or reluctance before their spiritual father. But the pope was inexorable; his lofty Germans affected to deride the diminutive stature of their adversaries; and the Normans were informed that death30 or exile was their only alternative. Flight they disdained, and, as many of them had been three days30 without tasting food, they embraced the assurance of a more easy and honourable death30. They climbed the hill of Civitella, descended into the plain, and charged in three divisions the army30 of the pope. On the left30 and in the centre, Richard, Count of Aversa, and Robert the famous Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and pursued the Italian multitudes, who fought without discipline and fled without shame. A harder trial was reserved for the valour of Count Humphrey, who led the cavalry of the right wing. The Germans have been described as unskilful in the management of the horse30 and lance; but on foot they formed a strong and impenetrable phalanx; and neither man nor steed nor armour could resist the weight of their long30 and two-handed swords. After a severe conflict, they were encompassed by the squadrons returning from the pursuit; and died in their ranks with the esteem of their foes and the satisfaction of revenge. The gates of Civitella were shut against the flying pope, and he was overtaken by the pious conquerors, who kissed his feet, to implore his blessing and the absolution of their sinful victory30. The soldiers30 beheld in their enemy30 and captive the vicar of Christ; and, though we may suppose the policy of the chiefs, it is probable that they were infected by the popular superstition. In the calm of retirement, the well-meaning pope deplored the effusion of Christian blood, which must be imputed to his account; he felt, that he had been the author of sin and scandal; and, as his undertaking had failed, the indecency of his military character was universally condemned. With these dispositions, he listened to the offers of a beneficial treaty; deserted an alliance which he had preached as the cause of God; and ratified the past and future conquests of the Normans. By whatever hands they had been usurped, the provinces of Apulia and Calabria were a part of the donation of Constantine and the patrimony of St30. Peter; the grant and the acceptance confirmed the mutual claims of the pontiff and the adventurers. They promised to support each other with spiritual and temporal arms30; a tribute or quit-rent of twelvepence was afterwards stipulated for every plough-land; and since this memorable transaction the kingdom of Naples has remained above seven hundred years30 a fief of the Holy30 See.
The pedigree of Robert38 Guiscard38 is variously deduced from the peasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants, by the pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess; from the dukes by the ignorance and flattery of the Italian subjects. His genuine descent may be ascribed to the second38 or middle order of private nobility. He sprang from a race of valvassors or bannerets of the diocese of the Coutances, in the lower Normandy; the castle of Hauteville was their honourable seat; his father38 Tancred was conspicuous in the court and army of the duke38; and his military service38 was furnished by ten soldiers or knights38. Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made him the father38 of twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartial tenderness of his second38 wife. But a narrow patrimony was insufficient for this numerous and daring progeny; they saw around the neighbourhood the mischiefs of poverty and discord, and resolved to seek in foreign wars a more glorious inheritance. Two only remained to perpetuate the race and cherish their father38's age38; their ten brothers, as they successively attained the vigour of manhood, departed from the castle, passed the Alps, and joined the Apulian camp of the Normans38. The elder were prompted by native spirit; their success encouraged their younger brethren; and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, and Humphrey, deserved to be the chiefs of their nation, and the founders of the new republic. Robert38 was the eldest of the seven sons of the second38 marriage; and even the reluctant praise of his foes has endowed him with the heroic qualities of a soldier and a statesman. His lofty stature surpassed the tallest of his army; his limbs were cast in the true proportion of strength and gracefulness; and to the decline of life he maintained the patient vigour of health and the commanding dignity of his form. His complexion was ruddy, his shoulders were broad, his hair and beard were long and of a flaxen colour, his eyes sparkled with fire, and his voice, like that of Achilles, could impress obedience and terror amidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder ages of chivalry, such qualifications are not below the notice of the poet or historian; they may observe that Robert38, at once, and with equal dexterity, could wield in the right hand his sword38, his lance in the left; that in the battle of Civitella, he was thrice unhorsed; and that in the close of that memorable day he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valour from the warriors of the two armies. His boundless ambition was founded on the consciousness of superior worth; in the pursuit of greatness, he was never arrested by the scruples of justice and seldom moved by the feelings of humanity; though not insensible of fame, the choice of open or clandestine means was determined only by his present advantage. The surname of Guiscard38 was applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too often confounded with the practice of dissimulation and deceit; and Robert38 is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cunning of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were disguised by an appearance of military frankness: in his highest fortune, he was accessible and courteous to his fellow-soldiers; and, while he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he affected in his dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion of his country. He grasped with a rapacious, that he might distribute with a liberal, hand; his primitive indigence had taught the habits of frugality; the gain of a merchant was not below his attention; and his prisoners were tortured with slow and unfeeling cruelty to force a discovery of their secret treasure. According to the Greeks38, he departed from Normandy with only five followers on horseback and thirty on foot; yet even this allowance appears too bountiful; the sixth son38 of Tancred of Hauteville passed the Alps as a pilgrim; and his first military band was levied among the adventurers of Italy. His brothers and countrymen had divided the fertile lands of Apulia38; but they guarded their shares with the jealousy of avarice; the aspiring youth was driven forwards to the mountains of Calabria, and in his first exploits against the Greeks38 and the natives it is not easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. To surprise a castle or a convent, to ensnare a wealthy citizen, to plunder the adjacent villages for necessary food, were the obscure labours which formed and exercised the powers of his mind and body. The volunteers of Normandy adhered to his standard; and, under his command, the peasants of Calabria assumed the name and character of Normans38.
As the genius of Robert38 expanded with his fortune, he awakened the jealousy of his elder brother, by whom, in a transient quarrel, his life was threatened and his liberty restrained. After the death of Humphrey, the tender age38 of his sons excluded them from the command; they were reduced to a private estate by the ambition of their guardian and uncle; and Guiscard38 was exalted on a buckler, and saluted count38 of Apulia38 and general of the republic. With an increase of authority and of force, he resumed the conquest of Calabria, and soon aspired to a rank that should raise him for ever above the heads of his equals. By some acts of rapine or sacrilege he had incurred a papal excommunication: but Nicholas the Second38 was easily persuaded that the divisions of friends could terminate only in their mutual prejudice; that the Normans38 were the faithful champions of the Holy38 See; and it was safer to trust the alliance of a prince than the caprice of an aristocracy. A synod of one hundred bishops was convened at Melphi; and the count38 interrupted an important enterprise to guard the person and execute the decrees of the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policy conferred on Robert38 and his posterity the ducal title38, with the investiture of Apulia38, Calabria, and all the lands, both in Italy and Sicily38, which his sword38 could rescue from the schismatic Greeks38 and the unbelieving Saracens. This apostolic sanction might justify his arms38; but the obedience of a free and victorious people could not be transferred without their consent; and Guiscard38 dissembled his elevation till the ensuing campaign had been illustrated by the conquest of Consenza and Reggio. In the hour of triumph, he assembled his troops, and solicited the Normans38 to confirm by their suffrage the judgment of the vicar of Christ; the soldiers hailed with joyful acclamations their valiant duke38; and the counts38, his former equals, pronounced the oath of fidelity, with hollow smiles and secret indignation. After this inauguration, Robert38 styled himself, By the grace of God and St38. Peter38, duke38 of Apulia38, Calabria, and hereafter of Sicily38; and it was the labour of twenty years38 to deserve and realise these lofty appellations. Such tardy progress, in a narrow space, may seem unworthy of the abilities of the chief and the spirit of the nation; but the Normans38 were few in number; their resources were scanty; their service38 was voluntary and precarious. The bravest designs of the Duke38 were sometimes opposed by the free voice of his parliament of barons38; the twelve counts38 of popular election conspired against his authority; and against their perfidious uncle the sons of Humphrey demanded justice and revenge. By his policy and vigour, Guiscard38 discovered their plots, suppressed their rebellions, and punished the guilty with death or exile; but in these domestic feuds his years38, and the national strength, were unprofitably consumed. After the defeat of his foreign enemies, the Greeks38, Lombards, and Saracens, their broken forces retreated to the strong and populous cities of the sea-coast. They excelled in the arts of fortification and defence; the Normans38 were accustomed to serve on horseback in the field, and their rude attempts could only succeed by the efforts of persevering courage. The resistance of Salerno was maintained above eight months; the siege or blockade of Bari lasted near four years38. In these actions the Norman38 duke38 was the foremost in every danger; in every fatigue the last and most patient. As he pressed the citadel of Salerno, an huge stone from the rampart shattered one of his military engines; and by a splinter he was wounded in the breast. Before the gates of Bari, he lodged in a miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches, and thatched with straw: a perilous station, on all sides open to the inclemency of the winter and the spears of the enemy.
The Italian conquests of Robert correspond with the limits of the present kingdom of Naples19; and the countries united by his arms have not been dissevered by the revolutions of seven19 hundred years19. The monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces19 Calabria and Apulia, of the Lombard principality of Salerno, the republic of Amalphi, and the inland dependencies of the large and ancient duchy of Beneventum. Three districts only were exempted from the common law of subjection: the first for ever, and the two last till the middle of the succeeding century. The city19 and immediate territory of Benevento had been transferred, by gift or exchange, from the German emperor19 to the Roman19 pontiff; and, although this holy land19 was sometimes invaded, the name of St19. Peter was finally more potent than the sword of the Normans. Their first colony of Aversa subdued and held the state of Capua; and her princes were reduced to beg their bread before the palace19 of their fathers. The dukes of Naples19, the present metropolis, maintained the popular freedom, under the shadow of the Byzantine empire19. Among the new19 acquisitions of Guiscard, the science of Salerno, and the trade of Amalphi, may detain for a moment the curiosity of the reader. I. Of the learned faculties jurisprudence implies the previous establishment of laws and property; and theology may perhaps be superseded by the full light of religion19 and reason. But the savage and the sage must alike implore the assistance of physic; and, if our diseases are inflamed by luxury, the mischiefs of blows and wounds would be more frequent in the ruder ages of society. The treasures of Grecian medicine had been communicated to the Arabian colonies of Africa, Spain, and Sicily; and in the intercourse of peace and war a spark of knowledge had been kindled and cherished at Salerno, an illustrious city19, in which the men were honest and the women beautiful. A school, the first that arose in the darkness of Europe, was consecrated to the healing art; the conscience of monks and bishops were reconciled to that salutary and lucrative profession; and a crowd of patients, of the most eminent rank and most distant climates, invited or visited the physicians of Salerno. They were protected by the Norman conquerors; and Guiscard, though bred in arms, could discern the merit and value of a philosopher. After a pilgrimage of thirty19-nine years19, Constantine, an African Christian, returned from Bagdad, a master of the language and learning of the Arabians; and Salerno was enriched by the practice, the lessons, and the writings of the pupil of Avicenna. The school of medicine has long19 slept in the name of an university; but her precepts are abridged in a string of aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine verses, or Latin rhymes, of the twelfth century. II. Seven19 miles19 to the west of Salerno, and thirty19 to the south of Naples19, the obscure town of Amalphi displayed the power and rewards of industry. The land19, however fertile, was of narrow extent; but the sea19 was accessible and open; the inhabitants first assumed the office of supplying the Western world with the manufactures and productions of the East; and this useful traffic was the source of their opulence and freedom. The government was popular under the administration of a duke and the supermacy of the Greek emperor19. Fifty thousand19 citizens were numbered in the walls of Amalphi; nor was any city19 more abundantly provided with gold19, silver, and the objects of precious luxury. The mariners who swarmed in her port excelled in the theory and practice of navigation and astronomy; and the discovery of the compass, which has opened the globe, is due to their ingenuity or good fortune. Their trade was extended to the coasts, or at least to the commodities, of Africa, Arabia, and India; and their settlements in Constantinople, Antioch19, Jerusalem, and Alexandria acquired the privileges of independent colonies. After three hundred years19 of prosperity, Amalphi was oppressed by the arms of the Normans, and sacked by the jealousy of Pisa; but the poverty of one thousand19 fishermen is yet dignified by the remains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of royal merchants.
Roger, the twelfth and last of the sons of Tancred, had been long detained in Normandy by his own and his father38's age38. He accepted the welcome summons; hastened to the Apulian camp; and deserved at first the esteem, and afterwards the envy, of his elder brother. Their valour and ambition were equal; but the youth, the beauty, the elegant manners, of Roger engaged the disinterested love of his soldiers and people. So scanty was his allowance, for himself and forty followers, that he descended from conquest to robbery, and from robbery to domestic theft; and so loose were the notions of property that, by his own historian, at his special command, he is accused of stealing horses from a stable at Melphi. His spirit emerged from poverty and disgrace; from these base practices he rose to the merit and glory of a holy38 war38; and the invasion of Sicily38 was seconded by the zeal and policy of his brother Guiscard38. After the retreat of the Greeks38, the idolaters, a most audacious reproach of the Catholics, had retrieved their losses and possessions; but the deliverance of the island, so vainly undertaken by the forces of the Eastern empire, was achieved by a small and private band of adventurers. In the first attempt Roger braved, in an open boat, the real and fabulous dangers of Scylla and Charybdis; landed with only sixty soldiers on a hostile shore; drove the Saracens to the gates of Messina; and safely returned with the spoils of the adjacent country. In the fortress of Trani, his active and patient courage were equally conspicuous. In his old age38 he related with pleasure, that, by the distress of the siege, himself and the countess his wife had been reduced to a single cloak or mantle, which they wore alternately; that in a sally his horse had been slain, and he was dragged away by the Saracens; but that he owed his rescue to his good sword38, and had retreated with his saddle on his back, lest the meanest trophy might be left in the hands of the miscreants. In the siege of Trani, three hundred Normans38 withstood and repulsed the forces of the island. In the field of Ceramio, fifty thousand38 horse and foot were overthrown by one hundred and thirty-six Christian soldiers, without reckoning St38. George, who fought on horseback in the foremost ranks. The captive banners, with four camels, were reserved for the successors of St38. Peter38; and had these Barbaric spoils been exposed not in the Vatican, but in the Capitol, they might have revived the memory of the Punic triumphs. These insufficient numbers of the Normans38 most probably denote their knights38, the soldiers of honourable and equestrian rank, each of whom was attended by five or six followers in the field; yet, with the aid of this interpretation, and after every fair allowance on the side of valour, arms38, and reputation, the discomfiture of so many myriads will reduce the prudent reader to the alternative of a miracle or a fable. The Arabs of Sicily38 derived a frequent and powerful succour from their countrymen of Africa: in the siege of Palermo, the Norman38 cavalry was assisted by the galleys of Pisa; and, in the hour of action, the envy of the two brothers was sublimed to a generous and invincible emulation. After a war38 of thirty years38, Roger, with the title38 of great38 count38, obtained the sovereignty of the largest and most fruitful island of the Mediterranean; and his administration displays a liberal and enlightened mind above the limits of his age38 and education. The Moslems were maintained in the free enjoyment of their religion and property; a philosopher and physician of Mazara, of the race of Mahomet, harangued the conqueror, and was invited to court; his geography of the seven climates was translated into Latin38; and Roger, after a diligent perusal, preferred the work of the Arabian to the writings of the Grecian Ptolemy. A remnant of Christian natives had promoted the success of the Normans38; they were rewarded by the triumph of the cross. The island was restored to the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff; new bishops were planted in the principal cities; and the clergy was satisfied by a liberal endowment of churches and monasteries. Yet the Catholic hero asserted the rights of the civil magistrate. Instead of resigning the investiture of benefices, he dexterously applied to his own profit the papal claims: the supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged by the singular bull which declares the princes38 of Sicily38 hereditary and perpetual legates of the Holy38 See.
To Robert Guiscard, the conquest of Sicily was more glorious than beneficial; the possession of Apulia and Calabria was inadequate to his ambition; and he resolved to embrace or create the first occasion of invading, perhaps of subduing, the Roman30 empire30 of the East. From his first wife, the partner of his humble fortunes, he had been divorced under the pretence of consanguinity; and her son30 Bohemond was destined to imitate, rather than to succeed, his illustrious father. The second30 wife of Guiscard was the daughter of the princes of Salerno; the Lombards acquiesced in the lineal succession of their son30 Roger; their five daughters were given in honourable nuptials, and one of them was betrothed, in a tender age, to Constantine, a beautiful youth, the son30 and heir of the emperor30 Michael. But the throne of Constantinople30 was shaken by a revolution; the Imperial family of Ducas was confined to the palace30 or the cloister; and Robert deplored, and resented, the disgrace of his daughter and the expulsion of his ally. A Greek30, who styled himself the father of Constantine, soon30 appeared at Salerno, and related the adventures of his fall and flight. That unfortunate friend was acknowledged by the duke, and adorned with the pomp and titles of Imperial dignity: in his triumphal progress through Apulia and Calabria, Michael was saluted with the tears and acclamations of the people30; and Pope Gregory the Seventh exhorted the bishops to preach, and the Catholics to fight, in the pious work of his restoration. His conversations with Robert were frequent and familiar; and their mutual promises were justified by the valour of the Normans and the treasures of the East. Yet this Michael, by the confession of the Greeks30 and Latins, was a pageant and an impostor: a monk who had fled from his convent, or a domestic who had served in the palace30. The fraud had been contrived by the subtle Guiscard; and he trusted that, after this pretender had given a decent colour to his arms30, he would sink, at the nod of the conqueror, into his primitive obscurity. But victory30 was the only argument that could determine the belief of the Greeks30; and the ardour of the Latins was much inferior to their credulity: the Norman veterans wished to enjoy the harvest of their toils, and the unwarlike Italians trembled at the known and unknown dangers of a transmarine expedition. In his new30 levies, Robert exerted the influence of gifts and promises, the terrors of civil and ecclesiastical authority; and some acts of violence might justify the reproach that age and infancy were pressed without distinction into the service30 of their unrelenting prince30. After two years30' incessant preparations, the land and naval forces were assembled at Otranto, at the heel or extreme promontory of Italy; and Robert was accompanied by his wife, who fought by his side, his son30 Bohemond, and the representative of the emperor30 Michael. Thirteen hundred knights of Norman race or discipline formed the sinews of the army30, which might be swelled to thirty thousand30 followers of every denomination. The men, the horses, the arms30, the engines, the wooden towers, covered with raw hides, were embarked on board one hundred and fifty vessels; the transports had been built in the ports of Italy, and the galleys were supplied by the alliance of the republic of Ragusa.
At the mouth of the Adriatic gulf, the shores of Italy and Epirus incline towards each other. The space between Brundusium and Durazzo, the Roman30 passage, is no more than one hundred miles; at the last station of Otranto, it is contracted to fifty; and this narrow distance had suggested to Pyrrhus and Pompey the sublime or extravagant idea of a bridge. Before the general30 embarkation, the Norman duke despatched Bohemond with fifteen galleys to seize or threaten the isle of Corfu, to survey the opposite coast, and to secure an harbour in the neighbourhood of Vallona for the landing of the troops30. They passed and landed without perceiving an enemy30; and this successful experiment displayed the neglect and decay of the naval power of the Greeks30. The islands of Epirus and the maritime towns were subdued by the arms30 or the name of Robert, who led his fleet and army30 from Corfu (I use the modern appellation) to the siege30 of Durazzo. That city30, the western key of the empire30, was guarded by ancient renown and recent fortifications, by George Palaeologus, a patrician, victorious in the Oriental wars, and a numerous garrison of Albanians and Macedonians, who, in every age, have maintained the character of soldiers30. In the prosecution of his enterprise, the courage of Guiscard was assailed by every form of danger and mischance. In the most propitious season of the year, as his fleet passed along the coast, a storm of wind and snow unexpectedly arose: the Adriatic was swelled by the raging blast of the south, and a new30 shipwreck confirmed the old infamy of the Acroceraunian rocks. The sails, the masts, and the oars were shattered or torn away; the sea and shore were covered with the fragments of vessels, with arms30 and dead bodies; and the greatest part of the provisions were either drowned or damaged. The ducal galley was laboriously rescued from the waves, and Robert halted seven days30 on the adjacent cape, to collect the relics of his loss and revive the drooping spirits of his soldiers30. The Normans were no longer the bold and experienced mariners who had explored the ocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled at the petty dangers of the Mediterranean. They had wept during the tempest; they were alarmed by the hostile approach of the Venetians, who had been solicited by the prayers and promises of the Byzantine30 court. The first day30's action was not disadvantageous to Bohemond, a beardless youth, who led the naval powers of his father. All night the galleys of the republic lay on their anchors in the form of a crescent; and the victory30 of the second30 day30 was decided by the dexterity of their evolutions, the station of their archers, the weight of their javelins, and the borrowed aid of the Greek30 fire. The Apulian and Ragusian vessels fled to the shore, several were cut from their cables and dragged away by the conqueror; and a sally from the town carried slaughter and dismay to the tents of the Norman duke. A seasonable relief was poured into Durazzo, and, as soon30 as the besiegers had lost the command of the sea, the islands and maritime towns withdrew from the camp30 the supply of tribute and provision. That camp30 was soon30 afflicted with a pestilential disease; five hundred knights perished by an inglorious death30; and the list of burials (if all could obtain a decent burial) amounted to ten thousand30 persons. Under these calamities, the mind of Guiscard alone was firm and invincible: and, while he collected new30 forces from Apulia and Sicily, he battered, or scaled, or sapped the walls30 of Durazzo. But his industry and valour were encountered by equal valour and more perfect industry. A moveable turret, of a size and capacity to contain five hundred soldiers30, had been rolled forwards to the foot of the rampart; but the descent of the door or drawbridge was checked by an enormous beam, and the wooden structure was instantly consumed by artificial flames.
While the Roman30 empire30 was attacked by the Turks30 in the East and the Normans in the West, the aged successor of Michael surrendered the sceptre to the hands of Alexius, an illustrious captain, and the founder of the Comnenian dynasty. The princess Anne, his daughter and historian, observes, in her affected style, that even Hercules was unequal to a double combat; and, on this principle, she approves an hasty peace with the Turks30, which allowed her father to undertake in person the relief of Durazzo. On his accession, Alexius found the camp30 without soldiers30, and the treasury without money; yet such were the vigour and activity of his measures that, in six months, he assembled an army30 of seventy thousand30 men, and performed a march of five hundred miles. His troops30 were levied in Europe and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his majesty was displayed in the silver arms30 and rich trappings of the companies of horseguards; and the emperor30 was attended by a train of nobles and princes, some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed with the purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in a life of affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardour might animate the multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of subordination were pregnant with disorder and mischief; and their importunate clamours for speedy and decisive action disconcerted the prudence of Alexius, who might have surrounded and starved the besieging army30. The enumeration of provinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and present limits of the Roman30 world: the raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror; and the garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the evacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by the Turks30. The strength of the Greek30 army30 consisted in the Varangians, the Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British island of Thule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes and English were oppressed and united: a band of adventurous youths resolved to desert a land of slavery; the sea was open to their escape; and, in their long30 pilgrimage, they visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and revenge. They were entertained in the service30 of the Greek30 emperor30; and their first station was in a new30 city30 on the Asiatic shore: but Alexius soon30 recalled them to the defence of his person and palace30; and bequeathed to his successors the inheritance of their faith and valour. The name of a Norman invader revived the memory of their wrongs: they marched with alacrity against the national foe, and panted to regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the battle30 of Hastings. The Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks or Latins; and the rebels, who had fled to Constantinople30 from the tyranny of Guiscard, were eager to signalise their zeal and gratify their revenge. In this emergency, the emperor30 had not disdained the impure aid of the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and these heretics united with the patience of martyrdom the spirit and discipline of active valour. The treaty with the sultan had procured a supply of some thousand30 Turks30; and the arrows of the Scythian horse30 were opposed to the lances of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of his principal officers. You behold, said he, your danger; it is urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with arms30 and standards; and the emperor30 of the Greeks30 is accustomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety; and I am ready to yield the command to a more worthy leader. The vote and acclamation, even of his secret enemies30, assured him, in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence; and the duke thus continued: Let us trust in the rewards of victory30, and deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vessels and our baggage, and give battle30 on this spot, as if it were the place of our nativity and our burial. The resolution was unanimously approved; and, without confining himself to his lines, Guiscard awaited in battle30-array the nearer approach of the enemy30. His rear was covered by a small river; his right wing extended to the sea; his left30 to the hills; nor was he conscious, perhaps, that on the same ground Caesar and Pompey had formerly disputed the empire30 of the world.
Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved to risk the event of a general30 action, and exhorted the garrison of Durazzo to assist their own deliverance by a well-timed sally from the town. He marched in two columns to surprise the Normans before day30-break on two different sides: his light cavalry was scattered over the plain; the archers formed the second30 line; and the Varangians claimed the honours of the vanguard. In the first onset, the battleaxes of the strangers made a deep and bloody impression on the army30 of Guiscard, which was now reduced to fifteen thousand30 men. The Lombards and Calabrians ignominiously turned their backs; they fled towards the river and the sea; but the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of the garrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who played their engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of ruin, they were saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the wife of Robert, is painted by the Greeks30 as a warlike Amazon, a second30 Pallas; less skilful in arts, but not less terrible in arms30, than the Athenian goddess: though wounded by an arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by her exhortation and example, to rally the flying troops30. Her female voice was seconded by the more powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke, as calm in action as he was magnanimous in council: Whither, he cried aloud, whither do ye fly? your enemy30 is implacable; and death30 is less grievous than servitude. The moment was decisive: as the Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered the nakedness of their flanks; the main battle30 of the duke, of eight hundred knights, stood firm and entire; they couched their lances, and the Greeks30 deplore the furious and irresistible shock of the French cavalry. Alexius was not deficient in the duties of a soldier or a general30; but he no sooner beheld the slaughter of the Varangians and the flight of the Turks30, than he despised his subjects and despaired of his fortune. The princess Anne, who drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reduced to praise the strength and swiftness of her father's horse30, and his vigorous struggle, when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of a lance, which had shivered the Imperial helmet. His desperate valour broke through a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight; and, after wandering two days30 and as many nights in the mountains, he found some repose of body, though not of mind, in the walls30 of Lychnidus. The victorious Robert reproached the tardy and feeble pursuit which had suffered the escape of so illustrious a prize; but he consoled his disappointment by the trophies and standards of the field, the wealth and luxury of the Byzantine30 camp30, and the glory of defeating an army30 five times more numerous than his own. A multitude of Italians had been the victims of their own fears; but only thirty of his knights were slain in this memorable day30. In the Roman30 host, the loss of Greeks30, Turks30, and English amounted to five or six thousand30: the plain of Durazzo was stained with noble and royal30 blood; and the end of the impostor Michael was more honourable than his life.
It is more than probable that Guiscard was not afflicted by the loss of a costly pageant, which had merited only the contempt and derision of the Greeks44. After their defeat, they still persevered in the defence of Durazzo; and a Venetian commander supplied the place44 of George Palaeologus44, who had been imprudently called away44 from his station. The tents of the besiegers were converted into barracks, to sustain the inclemency of the winter; and in answer to the defiance of the garrison Robert insinuated that his patience was at least equal to their obstinacy. Perhaps he already trusted to his secret correspondence with a Venetian noble, who sold the city44 for a rich and honourable marriage. At the dead of night several rope-ladders were dropped from the walls; the light Calabrians ascended in silence; and the Greeks44 were awakened by the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they defended the street three days against an enemy already master of the rampart; and near seven months elapsed between the first investment and the final surrender of the place44. From Durazzo the Norman duke advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania; traversed the first mountains of Thessaly; surprised three hundred English in the city44 of Castoria; approached Thessalonica; and made Constantinople44 tremble. A more pressing duty suspended the prosecution of his ambitious designs. By shipwreck, pestilence, and the sword, his army was reduced44 to a third of the original numbers; and, instead of being recruited from Italy, he was informed, by plaintive epistles, of the mischiefs and dangers which had been produced by his absence: the revolt of the cities and barons of Apulia; the distress of the pope; and the approach or invasion of Henry king of Germany. Highly presuming that his person was sufficient for the public44 safety, he repassed the sea in a single brigantine, and left the remains of the army under the command of his son44 and the Norman counts, exhorting Bohemond to respect the freedom of his peers, and the counts to obey the authority of their leader. The son44 of Guiscard trod in the footsteps of his father44; and the two destroyers are compared, by the Greeks44, to the caterpillar and the locust, the last of whom devours whatever has escaped the teeth of the former. After winning two battles against the emperor44, he descended into the plain of Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the fabulous realm of Achilles, which contained the treasure and magazines of the Byzantine camp. Yet a just praise must not be refused to the fortitude and prudence of Alexius, who bravely struggled with the calamities of the times. In the poverty of the state, he presumed to borrow the superfluous ornaments of the churches; the desertion of the Manichaeans was supplied by some tribes of Moldavia; a reinforcement of seven thousand Turks replaced and revenged the loss of their brethren; and the Greek soldiers44 were exercised to ride, to draw the bow, and to the daily practice of ambuscades and evolutions. Alexius had been taught by experience that the formidable cavalry of the Franks on foot was unfit for action, and almost incapable of motion; his archers were directed to aim their arrows at the horse rather than the man; and a variety of spikes and snares was scattered over the ground on which he might expect an attack. In the neighbourhood of Larissa the events of war44 were protracted and balanced. The courage of Bohemond was always conspicuous, and often successful; but his camp was pillaged by a stratagem of the Greeks44; the city44 was impregnable; and the venal or discontented counts deserted his standard, betrayed their trusts, and enlisted in the service of the emperor44. Alexius returned44 to Constantinople44 with the advantage, rather than the honour, of victory. After evacuating the conquests which he could no longer44 defend, the son44 of Guiscard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by a father44 who esteemed his merit and sympathised in his misfortune.
Of the Latin princes, the allies of Alexius and enemies30 of Robert, the most prompt and powerful was Henry, the Third or Fourth, king30 of Germany and Italy, and future emperor30 of the West. The epistle of the Greek30 monarch to his brother is filled with the warmest professions of friendship, and the most lively desire of strengthening their alliance by every public and private tie. He congratulates Henry on his success in a just and pious war30, and complains that the prosperity of his own empire30 is disturbed by the audacious enterprises of the Norman Robert. The list of his presents expresses the manners of the age, a radiated crown of gold30, a cross set with pearls to hang on the breast, a case of relics with the names and titles of the saints, a vase of crystal, a vase of sardonyx, some balm, most probably of Mecca, and one hundred pieces of purple. To these he added a more solid present, of one hundred and forty-four thousand30 Byzantines of gold30, with a further assurance of two hundred and sixteen thousand30, so soon30 as Henry should have entered in arms30 the Apulian territories, and confirmed by an oath the league against the common enemy30. The German, who was already in Lombardy at the head30 of an army30 and a faction, accepted these liberal offers and marched towards the south: his speed was checked by the sound of the battle30 of Durazzo; but the influence of his arms30 or name, in the hasty return of Robert, was a full equivalent for the Grecian bribe. Henry was the severe adversary of the Normans, the allies and vassals of Gregory the Seventh, his implacable foe. The long30 quarrel of the throne and mitre had been recently kindled by the zeal and ambition of that haughty priest: the king30 and the pope had degraded each other; and each had seated a rival on the temporal or spiritual throne of his antagonist. After the defeat and death30 of his Swabian rebel, Henry descended into Italy, to assume the Imperial crown, and to drive from the Vatican the tyrant of the church. But the Roman30 people30 adhered to the cause of Gregory: their resolution was fortified by supplies of men and money from Apulia; and the city30 was thrice ineffectually besieged by the king30 of Germany. In the fourth year he corrupted, as it is said, with Byzantine30 gold30 the nobles of Rome whose estates and castles had been ruined by the war30. The gates, the bridges, and fifty hostages were delivered into his hands: the antipope, Clement the Third, was consecrated in the Lateran: the grateful pontiff crowned his protector in the Vatican; and the emperor30 Henry fixed his residence in the Capitol, as the lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne. The ruins of the Septizonium were still defended by the nephew of Gregory: the pope himself was invested in the castle of St30. Angelo; and his last hope was in the courage and fidelity of his Norman vassal. Their friendship had been interrupted by some reciprocal injuries and complaints; but, on this pressing occasion, Guiscard was urged by the obligation of his oath, by his interest, more potent than oaths, by the love of fame, and his enmity to the two emperors. Unfurling the holy30 banner, he resolved to fly to the relief of the prince30 of the apostles: the most numerous of his armies, six thousand30 horse30 and thirty thousand30 foot, was instantly assembled; and his march from Salerno to Rome was animated by the public applause and the promise of the divine favour. Henry, invincible in sixty-six battles, trembled at his approach; recollected some indispensable affairs that required his presence in Lombardy; exhorted the Romans to persevere in their allegiance; and hastily retreated three days30 before the entrance of the Normans. In less than three years30, the son30 of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of delivering the pope, and of compelling the two emperors of the East and West to fly before his victorious arms30. But the triumph of Robert was clouded by the calamities of Rome. By the aid of the friends of Gregory, the walls30 had been perforated or scaled; but the Imperial faction was still powerful and active; on the third day30, the people30 rose in a furious tumult; and an hasty word of the conqueror, in his defence or revenge, was the signal of fire and pillage. The Saracens of Sicily, the subjects of Roger, and auxiliaries of his brother, embraced this fair occasion of rifling and profaning the holy30 city30 of the Christians: many thousands of the citizens, in the sight, and by the allies, of their spiritual father, were exposed to violation, captivity, or death30; and a spacious quarter of the city30, from the Lateran to the Coliseum, was consumed by the flames and devoted to perpetual solitude. From a city30, where he was now hated and might be no longer feared, Gregory retired to end his days30 in the palace30 of Salerno. The artful pontiff might flatter the vanity of Guiscard with the hope of a Roman30 or Imperial crown; but this dangerous measure, which would have inflamed the ambition of the Norman, must for ever have alienated the most faithful princes of Germany.
The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged himself in a season of repose; but, in the same year of the flight of the German emperor30, the indefatigable Robert resumed the design of his Eastern conquests. The zeal or gratitude of Gregory had promised to his valour the kingdoms of Greece and Asia; his troops30 were assembled in arms30, flushed with success, and eager for action. Their numbers, in the language of Homer, are compared by Anna to a swarm of bees; yet the utmost and moderate limits of the powers of Guiscard have been already defined; they were contained on this second30 occasion in one hundred and twenty vessels; and, as the season was far advanced, the harbour of Brundusium was preferred to the open road of Otranto. Alexius, apprehensive of a second30 attack, had assiduously laboured to restore the naval forces of the empire30; and obtained from the republic of Venice an important succour of thirty-six transports, fourteen galleys, and nine galeots or ships of extraordinary strength and magnitude. Their services were liberally paid by the licence or monopoly of trade, a profitable gift of many shops and houses in the port of Constantinople30, and a tribute to St30. Mark, the more acceptable, as it was the produce of a tax on their rivals of Amalphi. By the union of the Greeks30 and Venetians, the Adriatic was covered with an hostile fleet; but their own neglect, or the vigilance of Robert, the change of a wind, or the shelter of a mist, opened a free passage; and the Norman troops30 were safely disembarked on the coast of Epirus. With twenty strong and well-appointed galleys, their intrepid duke immediately fought the enemy30, and, though more accustomed to fight on horseback, he trusted his own life, and the lives of his brother and two sons, to the event of a naval combat. The dominion of the sea was disputed in three engagements, in sight of the island of Corfu; in the two former, the skill and numbers of the allies were superior; but in the third the Normans obtained a final and complete victory30. The light brigantines of the Greeks30 were scattered in ignominious flight; the nine castles of the Venetians maintained a more obstinate conflict; seven were sunk, two were taken; two thousand30 five hundred captives implored in vain the mercy of the victor; and the daughter of Alexius deplores the loss of thirteen thousand30 of his subjects or allies. The want of experience had been supplied by the genius of Guiscard; and each evening, when he had sounded a retreat, he calmly explored the causes of his repulse, and invented new30 methods how to remedy his own defects and to baffle the advantages of the enemy30. The winter season suspended his progress; with the return of spring he again aspired to the conquest of Constantinople30; but, instead of traversing the hills of Epirus, he turned his arms30 against Greece and the islands, where the spoils would repay the labour, and where the land and sea forces might pursue their joint operations with vigour and effect. But, in the isle of Cephalonia, his projects were fatally blasted by an epidemical disease; Robert himself, in the seventieth year of his age, expired in his tent; and a suspicion of poison was imputed, by public rumour, to his wife, or to the Greek30 emperor30. This premature death30 might allow a boundless scope for the imagination of his future exploits: and the event sufficiently declares that the Norman greatness was founded on his life. Without the appearance of an enemy30, a victorious army30 dispersed or retreated in disorder and consternation; and Alexius, who had trembled for his empire30, rejoiced in his deliverance. The galley which transported the remains of Guiscard was shipwrecked on the Italian shore; but the duke's body was recovered from the sea, and deposited in the sepulchre of Venusia, a place more illustrious for the birth of Horace than for the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger, his second30 son30 and successor, immediately sunk to the humble station of a duke of Apulia: the esteem or partiality of his father left30 the valiant Bohemond to the inheritance of his sword30. The national tranquillity was disturbed by his claims, till30 the first crusade against the infidels of the East opened a more splendid field of glory and conquest.
Of human life the most glorious or humble prospects are alike and soon bounded by the sepulchre38. The male line of Robert38 Guiscard38 was extinguished, both in Apulia38 and at Antioch, in the second38 generation; but his younger brother became the father38 of a line of kings; and the son38 of the great38 count38 was endowed with the name, the conquests, and the spirit of the first Roger. The heir of that Norman38 adventurer was born in Sicily38: and, at the age38 of only four years38, he succeeded to the sovereignty of the island, a lot which reason might envy, could she indulge for a moment the visionary, though virtuous, wish of dominion. Had Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, an happy and grateful people might have blessed their benefactor; and, if a wise administration could have restored the prosperous times of the Greek colonies, the opulence and power of Sicily38 alone might have equalled the widest scope that could be acquired and desolated by the sword38 of war38. But the ambition of the great38 count38 was ignorant of these noble pursuits; it was gratified by the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought to obtain the undivided possession of Palermo, of which one moiety had been ceded to the elder branch; struggled to enlarge his Calabrian limits beyond the measure of former treaties; and impatiently watched the declining health of his cousin William of Apulia38, the grandson of Robert38. On the first intelligence of his premature death, Roger sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor in the bay of Salerno, received, after ten days' negotiation, an oath of fidelity from the Norman38 capital, commanded the submission of the barons38, and extorted a legal investiture from the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either the friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred spot of Benevento was respectfully spared, as the patrimony of St38. Peter38; but the reduction of Capua and Naples38 completed the design of his uncle Guiscard38; and the sole inheritance of the Norman38 conquests was possessed by the victorious Roger. A conscious superiority of power and merit prompted him to disdain the titles of duke38 and of count38; and the isle of Sicily38, with a third perhaps of the continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom38 which would only yield to the monarchies of France38 and England38. The chiefs of the nation who attended his coronation at Palermo might doubtless pronounce under what name he should reign over them; but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir were insufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings of the Latin38 world might disclaim their new associate, unless he were consecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. The pride of Anacletus was pleased to confer a title38 which the pride of the Norman38 had stooped to solicit; but his own legitimacy was attacked by the adverse election of Innocent the Second38; and, while Anacletus sat in the Vatican, the successful fugitive was acknowledged by the nations of Europe. The infant monarchy of Roger was shaken, and almost overthrown, by the unlucky choice of an ecclesiastical patron; and the sword38 of Lothaire the Second38 of Germany38, the excommunications of Innocent, the fleets of Pisa, and the zeal of St38. Bernard were united for the ruin of the Sicilian robber. After a gallant resistance, the Norman38 prince was driven from the continent of Italy; a new duke38 of Apulia38 was invested by the pope38 and the emperor38, each of whom held one end of the gonfanon, or flag-staff, as a token that they asserted their right and suspended their quarrel. But such jealous friendship was of short and precarious duration; the German armies soon vanished in disease and desertion; the Apulian duke38, with all his adherents, was exterminated by a conqueror who seldom forgave either the dead or the living; like his predecessor Leo the Ninth, the feeble though haughty pontiff became the captive and friend of the Normans38; and their reconciliation was celebrated by the eloquence of Bernard, who now revered the title38 and virtues of the king38 of Sicily38.
As a penance for his impious war against the successor of St. Peter, that monarch might have promised to display the banner of the cross, and he accomplished with ardour a vow so propitious to his interest and revenge. The recent injuries of Sicily might provoke a just retaliation on the heads of the Saracens24; the Normans, whose blood had been mingled with so many subject streams, were encouraged to remember and emulate the naval trophies of their fathers, and in the maturity of their strength they contended with the decline of an African power. When the Fatimite caliph24 departed for the conquest24 of Egypt24, he rewarded the real merit and apparent fidelity of his servant Joseph with a gift of his royal24 mantle and forty Arabian24 horses, his palace24, with its sumptuous furniture, and the government24 of the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers. The Zeirides, the descendants of Joseph, forgot their allegiance and gratitude to a distant benefactor, grasped and abused the fruits of prosperity; and, after running the little course of an Oriental dynasty, were now fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the land, they were pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic princes of Morocco, while the sea24-coast was open to the enterprises of the Greeks24 and Franks, who, before the close of the eleventh century, had extorted a ransom of two hundred thousand24 pieces24 of gold24. By the first arms of Roger, the island or rock of Malta, which has been since ennobled by a military and religious colony, was inseparably annexed to the crown of Sicily. Tripoli, a strong and maritime city24, was the next object of his attack; and the slaughter of the males, the captivity of the females, might be justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems themselves. The capital of the Zeirides was named Africa24 from the country, and Mahadia from the Arabian24 founder; it is strongly built on a neck of land, but the imperfection of the harbour is not compensated by the fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was besieged by George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with men and the instruments of mischief; the sovereign had fled, the Moorish governor refused to capitulate, declined the last and irresistible assault, and, secretly escaping with the Moslem inhabitants, abandoned the place and its treasures to the rapacious Franks. In successive expeditions, the king of Sicily or his lieutenants reduced the cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia, Bona, and a long tract of the sea24-coast; the fortresses were garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast, that it held Africa24 in subjection, might be inscribed with some flattery on the sword of Roger. After his death24, that sword was broken; and these transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost, under the troubled reign24 of his successor. The triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius have proved that the African continent is neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet the great24 princes and powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest24 and long servitude of Spain.
Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had relinquished, above sixty years30, their hostile designs against the empire30 of the East. The policy of Roger solicited a public and private union with the Greek30 princes, whose alliance would dignify his regal character; he demanded in marriage a daughter of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed to promise a favourable event. But the contemptuous treatment of his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new30 monarch; and the insolence of the Byzantine30 court was expiated, according to the laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people30. With a fleet of seventy galleys George the admiral of Sicily appeared before Corfu; and both the island and city30 were delivered into his hands by the disaffected inhabitants, who had yet to learn that a siege30 is still more calamitous than a tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the annals of commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over the provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of Athens, no memorial remains. The ancient walls30, which encompassed, without guarding, the opulence of Thebes, were scaled by the Latin Christians; but their sole use of the gospel was to sanctify an oath that the lawful owners had not secreted any relic of their inheritance or industry. On the approach of the Normans the lower town of Corinth was evacuated: the Greeks30 retired to the citadel, which was seated on a lofty eminence abundantly watered by the classic fountain of Pirene: an impregnable fortress, if the want of courage could be balanced by any advantages of art or nature. As soon30 as the besiegers had surmounted the labour (their sole labour) of climbing the hill, their general30, from the commanding eminence, admired his own victory30, and testified his gratitude to heaven by tearing from the altar the precious image of Theodore the tutelary saint. The silk weavers of both sexes, whom George transported to Sicily, composed the most valuable part of the spoil, and, in comparing the skilful industry of the mechanic with the sloth and cowardice of the soldier, he was heard to exclaim that the distaff and loom were the only weapons which the Greeks30 were capable of using. The progress of this naval armament was marked by two conspicuous events, the rescue of the king30 of France and the insult of the Byzantine30 capital. In his return by sea from an unfortunate crusade, Louis the Seventh was intercepted by the Greeks30, who basely violated the laws of honour and religion. The unfortunate encounter of the Norman fleet delivered the royal30 captive; and, after a free and honourable entertainment in the court of Sicily, Louis continued his journey to Rome and Paris. In the absence of the emperor30, Constantinople30 and the Hellespont were left30 without defence and without the suspicion of danger. The clergy and people30, for the soldiers30 had followed the standard30 of Manuel, were astonished and dismayed at the hostile appearance of a line of galleys, which boldly cast anchor in the front of the Imperial city30. The forces of the Sicilian admiral were inadequate to the siege30 or assault of an immense and populous metropolis; but George enjoyed the glory of humbling the Greek30 arrogance, and of marking the path of conquest to the navies of the West. He landed some soldiers30 to rifle the fruits of the royal30 gardens, and pointed with silver, or more probably with fire, the arrows which he discharged against the palace30 of the Caesars. This playful outrage of the pirates of Sicily, who had surprised an unguarded moment, Manuel affected to despise, while his martial spirit and the forces of the empire30 were awakened to revenge. The Archipelago and Ionian sea were covered with his squadrons and those of Venice; but I know not by what favourable allowance of transports, victuallers, and pinnaces, our reason, or even fancy, can be reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteen hundred vessels, which is proposed by a Byzantine30 historian. These operations were directed with prudence and energy; in his homeward voyage George lost nineteen of his galleys, which were separated and taken; after an obstinate defence, Corfu implored the clemency of her lawful sovereign; nor could a ship, a soldier of the Norman prince30, be found, unless as a captive, within the limits of the Eastern empire30. The prosperity and the health of Roger were already in a declining state; while he listened in his palace30 of Palermo to the messengers of victory30 or defeat, the invincible Manuel, the foremost in every assault, was celebrated by the Greeks30 or Latins as the Alexander or Hercules of the age.
A prince30 of such a temper could not be satisfied with having repelled the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and duty, it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the ancient majesty of the empire30, to recover the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastise this pretended king30, the grandson of a Norman vassal. The natives of Calabria were still attached to the Greek30 language and worship, which had been inexorably proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss of her dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of Sicily; the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword30; and his death30 had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of his subjects; the feudal government was always pregnant with the seeds of rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the enemies30 of his family and nation. The majesty of the purple, and a series of Hungarian and Turkish30 wars, prevented Manuel from embarking his person in the Italian expedition. To the brave and noble Palaeologus, his lieutenant, the Greek30 monarch entrusted a fleet and army30; the siege30 of Bari was his first exploit; and, in every operation, gold30 as well as steel was the instrument of victory30. Salerno, and some places along the Western coast, maintained their fidelity to the Norman king30; but he lost in two campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions; and the modest emperor30, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was content with the reduction of three hundred cities or villages of Apulia and Calabria, whose names and titles were inscribed on all the walls30 of the palace30. The prejudices of the Latins were gratified by a genuine or fictitious donation under the seal of the German Caesars; but the successor of Constantine soon30 renounced this ignominious pretence, claimed the indefeasible dominion of Italy, and professed his design of chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberal gifts, and unbounded promises of their Eastern ally, the free cities were encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle against the despotism of Frederic Barbarossa; the walls30 of Milan were rebuilt by the contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says the historian, a river of gold30 into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment to the Greeks30 was fortified by the jealous enmity of the Venetians. The situation and trade of Ancona rendered it an important garrison in the heart of Italy; it was twice besieged by the arms30 of Frederic; the Imperial forces were twice repulsed by the spirit of freedom; that spirit was animated by the ambassador of Constantinople30; and the most intrepid patriots, the most faithful servants, were rewarded by the wealth and honours of the Byzantine30 court. The pride of Manuel disdained and rejected a Barbarian colleague; his ambition was excited by the hope of stripping the purple from the German usurpers, and of establishing, in the West, as in the East, his lawful title of sole emperor30 of the Romans. With this view, he solicited the alliance of the people30 and the bishop of Rome. Several of the nobles embraced the cause of the Greek30 monarch; the splendid nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani secured the support of that powerful family, and his royal30 standard30 or image was entertained with due reverence in the ancient metropolis. During the quarrel between Frederic and Alexander the Third, the pope twice received in the Vatican the ambassadors of Constantinople30. They flattered his piety by the long30-promised union of the two churches, tempted the avarice of his venal court, and exhorted the Roman30 pontiff to seize the just provocation, the favourable moment, to humble the savage insolence of the Alemanni, and to acknowledge the true representative of Constantine and Augustus.
But these Italian conquests, this universal reign, soon30 escaped from the hand of the Greek30 emperor30. His first demands were eluded by the prudence of Alexander the Third, who paused on this deep and momentous revolution, nor could the pope be seduced by a personal dispute to renounce the perpetual inheritance of the Latin name. After his re-union with Frederic, he spoke a more peremptory language, confirmed the acts of his predecessors, excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final separation of the churches, or at least the empires, of Constantinople30 and Rome. The free cities of Lombardy no longer remembered their foreign benefactor, and, without preserving the friendship of Ancona, he soon30 incurred the enmity of Venice. By his own avarice, or the complaints of his subjects, the Greek30 emperor30 was provoked to arrest the persons, and confiscate the effects, of the Venetian merchants. This violation of the public faith exasperated a free and commercial people30: one hundred galleys were launched and armed in as many days30; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece; but, after some mutual wounds, the war30 was terminated by an agreement, inglorious to the empire30, insufficient for the republic; and a complete vengeance of these and of fresh injuries was reserved for the succeeding generation. The lieutenant of Manuel had informed his sovereign that he was strong enough to quell any domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria; but that his forces were in adequate to resist the impending attack of the king30 of Sicily. His prophecy was soon30 verified; the death30 of Palaeologus devolved the command on several chiefs, alike eminent in rank, alike defective in military talents; the Greeks30 were oppressed by land and sea; and a captive remnant, that escaped the swords of the Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the person or dominions of their conqueror. Yet the king30 of Sicily esteemed the courage and constancy of Manuel, who had landed a second30 army30 on the Italian shore; he respectfully addressed the new30 Justinian30, solicited a peace or truce of thirty years30, accepted as a gift the regal title, and acknowledged himself the military vassal of the Roman30 empire30. The Byzantine30 Caesars acquiesced in this shadow of dominion, without expecting, perhaps without desiring, the service30 of a Norman army30; and the truce of thirty years30 was not disturbed by any hostilities between Sicily and Constantinople30. About the end of that period, the throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman tyrant, who had deserved the abhorrence of his country and mankind: the sword30 of William the Second30, the grandson of Roger, was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race; and the subjects of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since they detested their sovereign as the worst of enemies30. The Latin historians expatiate on the rapid progress of the four counts who invaded Romania with a fleet and army30, and reduced many castles and cities to the obedience of the king30 of Sicily. The Greeks30 accuse and magnify the wanton and sacrilegious cruelties that were perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the second30 city30 of the empire30. The former deplore the fate of those invincible but unsuspecting warriors, who were destroyed by the arts of a vanquished foe. The latter applaud, in songs of triumph, the repeated victories of their countrymen on the sea of Marmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon, and under the walls30 of Durazzo. A revolution, which punished the crimes of Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of the successful insurgents: ten thousand30 were slain in battle30, and Isaac Angelus, the new30 emperor30, might indulge his vanity or vengeance in the treatment of four thousand30 captives. Such was the event of the last contest between the Greeks30 and Normans: before the expiration of twenty years30, the rival nations were lost or degraded in foreign servitude; and the successors of Constantine did not long30 survive to insult the fall of the Sicilian monarchy.
The sceptre of Roger successively devolved to his son30 and grandson: they might be confounded under the name of William; they are strongly discriminated by the epithets of the bad and the good; but these epithets, which appear to describe the perfection of vice and virtue, cannot strictly be applied to either of the Norman princes. When he was roused to arms30 by danger and shame, the first William did not degenerate from the valour of his race; but his temper was slothful; his manners were dissolute; his passions headstrong and mischievous; and the monarch is responsible, not only for his personal vices, but for those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused the confidence, and conspired against the life, of his benefactor. From the Arabian conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of Oriental manners; the despotism, the pomp, and even the harem of a sultan; and a Christian people30 was oppressed and insulted by the ascendant of the eunuchs, who openly professed, or secretly cherished, the religion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the times has delineated the misfortunes of his country: the ambition and fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment of his assassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king30 himself; the private feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the various forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, the island, and the continent during the reign of William the First, and the minority of his son30. The youth, innocence, and beauty of William the Second30 endeared him to the nation: the factions were reconciled; the laws were revived; and, from the manhood to the premature death30 of that amiable prince30, Sicily enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, and happiness, whose value was enhanced by the remembrance of the past and the dread of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred of Hauteville was extinct in the person of the second30 William; but his aunt, the daughter of Roger, had married the most powerful prince30 of the age; and Henry the Sixth, the son30 of Frederic Barbarossa, descended from the Alps, to claim the Imperial crown and the inheritance of his wife. Against the unanimous wish of a free people30, this inheritance could only be acquired by arms30; and I am pleased to transcribe the style and sense of the historian Falcandus, who writes at the moment and on the spot, with the feelings of a patriot, and the prophetic eye of a statesman. Constantia, the daughter of Sicily, nursed from her cradle in the pleasures and plenty, and educated in the arts and manners, of this fortunate isle, departed long30 since to enrich the Barbarians with our treasures, and now returns with her savage allies, to contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent. Already I behold the swarms of angry Barbarians; our opulent cities, the places flourishing in a long30 peace, are shaken with fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, and polluted by intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our citizens, the rapes of our virgins and matrons. In this extremity (he interrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act? By the unanimous election of a king30 of valour and experience, Sicily and Calabria might yet be preserved; for in the levity of the Apulians, ever eager for new30 revolutions, I can repose neither confidence nor hope. Should Calabria be lost, the lofty towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength of Messina might guard the passage against a foreign invader. If the savage Germans coalesce with the pirates of Messina; if they destroy with fire the fruitful region, so often wasted by the fires of Mount Aetna, what resource will be left30 for the interior parts of the island, these noble cities which should never be violated by the hostile footsteps of a Barbarian? Catana has again been overwhelmed by an earthquake; the ancient virtue of Syracuse expires in poverty and solitude; but Palermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her triple walls30 enclose the active multitudes of Christians and Saracens. If the two nations, under one king30, can unite for their common safety, they may rush on the Barbarians with invincible arms30. But, if the Saracens, fatigued by a repetition of injuries, should now retire and rebel; if they should occupy the castles of the mountains and sea-coast, the unfortunate Christians, exposed to a double attack, and placed as it were between the hammer and the anvil, must resign themselves to hopeless and inevitable servitude. We must not forget that a priest here prefers his country to his religion; and that the Moslems, whose alliance he seeks, were still numerous and powerful in the state of Sicily.
The hopes, or at least the wishes, of Falcandus were at first gratified by the free and unanimous election of Tancred, the grandson13 of the first king, whose birth13 was illegitimate, but whose civil and military virtues shone without a blemish. During four years13, the term of his life13 and reign, he stood in arms on the farthest verge of the Apulian frontier, against the powers of Germany; and the restitution of a royal13 captive, of Constantia herself, without injury or ransom, may appear to surpass the most liberal measure of reason. After his decease, the kingdom of his widow and infant son13 fell without a struggle; and Henry pursued his victorious march from Capua to Palermo. The political balance of Italy was destroyed by his success; and, if the pope and the free cities had consulted their obvious and real interest, they would have combined the powers of earth and heaven to prevent the dangerous union13 of the German empire13 with the kingdom of Sicily13. But the subtle policy, for which the Vatican has so often been praised or arraigned, was on this occasion blind and inactive; and, if it were true that Celestine the Third had kicked away the Imperial13 crown from the head of the prostrate Henry, such an act of impotent pride could serve only to cancel an obligation and provoke an enemy. The Genoese, who enjoyed a beneficial trade and establishment in Sicily13, listened to the promise of his boundless gratitude and speedy departure; their fleet commanded the straits of Messina, and opened the harbour of Palermo; and the first act of this government was to abolish the privileges, and to seize the property, of these imprudent allies. The last hope of Falcandus was defeated by the discord of the Christians and Mahometans: they fought in the capital; several thousands of the latter were slain; but their surviving brethren fortified the mountains, and disturbed above thirty years13 the peace of the island. By the policy of Frederic the Second13, sixty thousand Saracens were transplanted to Nocera in Apulia. In their wars against the Roman13 church, the emperor13 and his son13 Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced by the service of the enemies of Christ; and this national colony maintained their religion and manners in the heart of Italy, till they were extirpated, at the end of the thirteenth century, by the zeal and revenge of the house13 of Anjou. All the calamities which the prophetic orator had deplored were surpassed by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He violated the royal13 sepulchres, and explored the secret treasures of the palace, Palermo, and the whole kingdom: the pearls and jewels, however precious, might be easily removed; but one hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and silver of Sicily13. The young13 king, his mother13 and sisters, and the nobles of both sexes were separately confined in the fortresses of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumour of rebellion, the captives were deprived of life13, of their eyes, or of the hope of posterity. Constantia herself was touched with sympathy for the miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Norman line might struggle to check her despotic husband13, and to save the patrimony of her new13-born son13, of an emperor13 so famous in the next age13 under the name of Frederic the Second13. Ten years13 after this revolution, the French monarchs annexed to their crown the duchy of Normandy; the sceptre of her ancient dukes had been transmitted, by a grand-daughter13 of William the Conqueror, to the house13 of Plantagenet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised so many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily13, and the East, were lost, either in victory or servitude, among the vanquished nations.
From the isle of Sicily the reader must transport himself beyond the Caspian Sea9, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whom the first crusade was principally directed. Their Scythian empire9 of the sixth century was long9 since dissolved; but the name was still famous among the Greeks and Orientals; and the fragments of the nation9, each a powerful and independent people, were scattered over the desert from China to the Oxus and the Danube9: the colony of Hungarians was admitted into the republic of Europe9, and the thrones of Asia9 were occupied by slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and Sicily were subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these Northern shepherds overspread the kingdoms of Persia: their princes of the race of Seljuk erected a splendid and solid empire9 from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and Egypt; and the Turks have maintained their dominion in Asia9 Minor till the victorious crescent has been planted on the dome of St. Sophia.
One of the greatest of the Turkish princes was Mamood or Mahmud, the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern provinces of Persia one thousand4 years after the birth of Christ. His father Sebectagi was the slave of the slave of the slave of the commander of the faithful4. But in this descent of servitude, the first degree was merely titular, since it was filled by the sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorasan, who still paid a nominal allegiance to the caliph4 of Bagdad. The second rank was that of a minister of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, who broke, by his revolt, the bonds of political slavery. But the third step was a state of real and domestic servitude in the family of that rebel; from which Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity, ascended to the supreme command of the city4 and province of Gazna, as the son4-in-law and successor of his grateful master. The falling dynasty of the Samanides was at first protected, and at last overthrown, by their servants; and, in the public disorders, the fortune of Mahmud continually increased. For him, the title of sultan was first invented; and his kingdom was enlarged from Transoxiana to the neighbourhood of Ispahan, from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus. But the principal source of his fame and riches was the holy4 war which he waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this foreign narrative I may not consume a page; and a volume would scarcely suffice to recapitulate the battles and sieges of his twelve expeditions. Never was the Musulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, the height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers, the barrenness of the desert4, the multitudes of the enemy, or the formidable array of their elephants of war. The sultan of Gazna surpassed the limits of the conquests of Alexander; after a march of three months, over the hills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the famous city4 of Kinnoge, on the Upper Ganges; and, in a naval combat on one of the branches of the Indus, he fought and vanquished four thousand4 boats of the natives. Delhi, Lahor, and Multan were compelled to open their gates; the fertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay; and his avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering the golden and aromatic isles of the Southern ocean. On the payment of a tribute, the rajahs preserved their dominions; the people4, their lives and fortunes; but to the religion4 of Hindostan the zealous Musulman was cruel and inexorable; many hundred temples, or pagodas, were levelled with the ground; many thousand4 idols were demolished; and the servants of the prophet4 were stimulated and rewarded by the precious materials of which they were composed. The pagoda of Sumnat was situated on the promontory of Guzarat, in the neighbourhood of Diu, one of the last remaining possessions of the Portuguese. It was endowed with the revenue of two thousand4 villages; two thousand4 Brahmins were consecrated to the service of the deity, whom they washed each morning and evening in water from the distant Ganges: the subordinate ministers consisted of three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancing girls, conspicuous for their birth and beauty. Three sides of the temple were protected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was fortified by a natural or artificial precipice; and the city4 and adjacent country were peopled by a nation of fanatics. They confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge and Delhi; but, if the impious stranger should presume to approach their holy4 precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast of the divine vengeance. By this challenge the faith4 of Mahmud was animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indian deity. Fifty thousand4 of his worshippers were pierced by the spear of the Moslems4: the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was profaned; and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the head of the idol. The trembling Brahmins are said4 to have offered ten millions sterling for his ransom; and it was urged by the wisest counsellors that the destruction of a stone image would not change the hearts of the Gentoos, and that such a sum might be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. Your reasons, replied the sultan, are specious and strong; but never in the eyes of posterity shall4 Mahmud appear as a merchant of idols. He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies, concealed in the belly of the statue, explained in some degree the devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments of the idol were distributed to Gazna, Mecca4, and Medina4. Bagdad listened to the edifying tale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph4 with the title of guardian of the fortune and faith4 of Mahomet4.
From the paths of blood, and such is the history of nations, I cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still venerable in the East: his subjects enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and peace; his vices were concealed by the veil of religion; and two familiar examples will testify his justice and magnanimity. I. As he sat in the Divan, an unhappy subject bowed before the throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish30 soldier who had driven him from his house and bed. Suspend your clamours, said Mahmud, inform me of his next visit, and ourself in person will judge and punish the offender. The sultan followed his guide, invested the house with his guards, and, extinguishing the torches, pronounced the death30 of the criminal, who had been seized in the act of rapine and adultery. After the execution of his sentence, the lights were rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate in prayer, and, rising from the ground, demanded some homely fare, which he devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The poor man, whose injury he had avenged, was unable to suppress his astonishment and curiosity; and the courteous monarch condescended to explain the motives of this singular behaviour. I had reason to suspect that none except one of my sons could dare to perpetrate such an outrage; and I extinguished the lights, that my justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer was a thanksgiving on the discovery of the offender; and so painful was my anxiety that I had passed three days30 without food since the first moment of your complaint. II. The sultan of Gazna had declared war30 against the dynasty of the Bowides, the sovereigns of the western Persia; he was disarmed by an epistle of the sultana mother, and delayed his invasion till30 the manhood of her son30. During the life of my husband, said the artful regent, I was ever apprehensive of your ambition; he was a prince30 and a soldier worthy of your arms30. He is now no more; his sceptre has passed to a woman and a child, and you dare not attack their infancy and weakness. How inglorious would be your conquest, how shameful your defeat! and yet the event of war30 is in the hand of the Almighty. Avarice was the only defect that tarnished the illustrious character of Mahmud; and never has that passion been more richly satisfied. The Orientals exceed the measure of credibility in the account of millions of gold30 and silver, such as the avidity of man has never accumulated; in the magnitude of pearls, diamonds, and rubies, such as have never been produced by the workmanship of nature. Yet the soil of Hindostan is impregnated with precious minerals; her trade, in every age, has attracted the gold30 and silver of the world; and her virgin spoils were rifled by the first of the Mahometan conquerors. His behaviour, in the last days30 of his life, evinces the vanity of these possessions, so laboriously won, so dangerously held, and so inevitably lost. He surveyed the vast and various chambers of the treasury of Gazna; burst into tears; and again closed the doors, without bestowing any portion of the wealth which he could no longer hope to preserve. The following day30 he reviewed the state of his military force: one hundred thousand30 foot, fifty-five thousand30 horse30, and thirteen hundred elephants of battle30. He again wept the instability of human greatness; and his grief was embittered by the hostile progress of the Turkmans, whom he had introduced into the heart of his Persian kingdom.
In the modern depopulation of Asia9, the regular operation of government and agriculture is confined to the neighbourhood of cities9; and the distant country9 is abandoned to the pastoral tribes9 of Arabs, Curds, and Turkmans. Of the last-mentioned people, two considerable branches extend on either side of the Caspian Sea9: the western colony can muster forty thousand9 soldiers; the eastern, less obvious to the traveller, but more strong and populous, has increased to the number of one hundred thousand9 families. In the midst of civilised nations9, they preserve the manners of the Scythian desert, remove their encampments with the change of seasons, and feed their cattle among the ruins of palaces and temples. Their flocks and herds are their only riches; their tents, either black or white, according to the colour of the banner, are covered with felt, and of a circular form; their winter apparel is a sheep-skin; a robe of cloth or cotton their summer garment: the features of the men9 are harsh and ferocious; the countenance of their women is soft and pleasing. Their wandering life maintains the spirit and exercise of arms9; they fight on horseback; and their courage is displayed in frequent contests with each other and with their neighbours. For the licence of pasture they pay a slight tribute to the sovereign of the land; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the hands of the chiefs and elders. The first emigration of the eastern Turkmans, the most ancient9 of their race, may be ascribed to the tenth century of the Christian era. In the decline of the caliphs, and the weakness of their lieutenants, the barrier of the Jaxartes was often violated: in each invasion, after the victory or retreat of their countrymen, some wandering tribe, embracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a free encampment in the spacious plains and pleasant climate of Transoxiana and Carizme. The Turkish slaves who aspired to the throne encouraged these emigrations, which recruited their armies, awed their subjects and rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder natives of Turkestan; and this policy was abused by Mahmud the Gaznevide beyond the example of former times. He was admonished of his error by a chief of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the territory of Bochara. The sultan had inquired what supply of men9 he could furnish for military service. If you send, replied Ismael, one of these arrows into our camp9, fifty thousand9 of your servants will mount on horseback. And if that number, continued Mahmud, should not be sufficient? Send this second arrow to the horde of Balik, and you will find fifty thousand9 more. But, said the Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, if I should stand in need of the whole force of your kindred tribes9? Despatch my bow, was the last reply of Ismael, and, as it is circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two hundred thousand9 horse. The apprehension of such formidable friendship induced Mahmud to transport the most obnoxious tribes9 into the heart of Chorasan, where they would be separated from their brethren by the river9 Oxus, and enclosed on all sides by the walls9 of obedient cities9. But the face of the country9 was an object of temptation rather than terror; and the vigour of government was relaxed by the absence and death of the sultan of Gazna. The shepherds were converted into robbers; the bands of robbers were collected into an army9 of conquerors; as far9 as Ispahan and the Tigris, Persia was afflicted by their predatory inroads; and the Turkmans were not ashamed or afraid to measure their courage and numbers with the proudest sovereigns of Asia9. Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmud, had too long9 neglected the advice of his wisest Omrahs. Your enemies, they repeatedly urged, were in their origin a swarm of ants; they are now little snakes; and, unless they be instantly crushed, they will acquire the venom and magnitude of serpents. After some alternatives of truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial success of his lieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans, who attacked him on all sides with Barbarous shouts and irregular onset. Massoud, says the Persian historian, plunged singly to oppose the torrent of gleaming arms9, exhibiting such acts of gigantic force and valour9 as never king had before displayed. A few of his friends, roused by his words and actions, and that innate honour which inspires the brave, seconded their lord so well that, wheresoever he turned his fatal sword, the enemies were mowed down or retreated before him. But now, when victory seemed to blow on his standard, misfortune was active behind it; for, when he looked round, he beheld almost his whole army9, excepting that body he commanded in person, devouring the paths of flight. The Gaznevide was abandoned by the cowardice or treachery of some generals of Turkish race; and this memorable day of Zendecan founded in Persia the dynasty of the shepherd kings.
The victorious Turkmans immediately proceeded to the election of a king3; and, if the probable tale of a Latin historian deserves any credit, they determined by lot the choice of their new master. A number of arrows were successively inscribed with the name of a tribe, a family, and a candidate; they were drawn from the bundle by the hand of a child; and the important3 prize was obtained by Togrul Beg, the son3 of Michael, the son3 of Seljuk, whose surname was immortalised in the greatness of his posterity. The sultan Mahmud, who valued himself on his skill in national genealogy, professed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk; yet the father of that race appears to have been a chief of power and renown. For a daring intrusion into the harem of his prince3, Seljuk was banished from Turkestan; with a numerous tribe of his friends and vassals, he passed the Jaxartes, encamped in the neighbourhood of Samarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet, and acquired the crown of martyrdom in a war3 against the infidels. His age, of an hundred and seven years3, surpassed the life of his son3, and Seljuk adopted the care of his two grandsons, Togrul and Jaafar; the eldest of whom, at the age of forty-five, was invested with the title of sultan, in the royal3 city3 of Nishabur. The blind determination of chance was justified by the virtues of the successful candidate. It would be superfluous to praise the valour3 of a Turk; and the ambition of Togrul was equal to his valour3. By his arms3, the Gaznevides were expelled from the eastern kingdoms of Persia3, and gradually driven to the banks of the Indus, in search of a softer and more wealthy conquest. In the West he annihilated the dynasty of the Bowides; and the sceptre of Irak passed from the Persian3 to the Turkish nation. The princes who had felt, or who feared, the Seljukian arrows, bowed their heads in the dust; by the conquest of Aderbijan, or Media, he approached the Roman3 confines; and the shepherd presumed to despatch an ambassador, or herald, to demand the tribute and obedience of the emperor3 of Constantinople. In his own dominions, Togrul was the father of his soldiers and people; by a firm and equal administration Persia3 was relieved from the evils of anarchy; and the same hands which had been imbrued in blood became the guardians of justice and the public peace3. The more rustic, perhaps the wisest, portion of the Turkmans continued to dwell in the tents of their ancestors; and, from the Oxus to the Euphrates, these military3 colonies were protected and propagated by their native princes. But the Turks of the court3 and city3 were refined by business and softened by pleasure; they imitated the dress, language, and manners of Persia3; and the royal3 palaces of Nishabur and Rei displayed the order and magnificence of a great3 monarchy. The most deserving of the Arabians and Persians3 were promoted to the honours of the state; and the whole body of the Turkish nation embraced with fervour and sincerity the religion of Mahomet. The Northern swarms of Barbarians3, who overspread both Europe and Asia, have been irreconcileably separated by the consequences of a similar conduct. Among the Moslems, as among the Christians, their vague and local traditions have yielded to the reason and authority of the prevailing system, to the fame of antiquity, and the consent of nations. But the triumph of the Koran is more pure and meritorious, as it was not assisted by any visible splendour of worship which might allure the Pagans by some resemblance of idolatry. The first of the Seljukian sultans was conspicuous by his zeal and faith: each day he repeated the five prayers which are enjoined to the true believers; of each week, the two first days were consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and in every city3 a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay the foundations of a palace.
With the belief of the Koran, the son30 of Seljuk imbibed a lively reverence for the successor of the prophet. But that sublime character was still disputed by the caliphs of Bagdad and Egypt, and each of the rivals was solicitous to prove his title in the judgment of the strong, though illiterate, Barbarians. Mahmud the Gaznevide had declared himself in favour of the line of Abbas; and had treated with indignity the robe of honour which was presented to the Fatimite ambassador. Yet the ungrateful Hashemite had changed with the change of fortune; he applauded the victory30 of Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultan his temporal vicegerent over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed and enlarged this important trust, he was called to the deliverance of the caliph Cayem, and obeyed the holy30 summons, which gave a new30 kingdom to his arms30. In the palace30 of Bagdad, the commander of the faithful still slumbered, a venerable phantom. His servant or master, the prince30 of the Bowides, could no longer protect him from the insolence of meaner tyrants; and the Euphrates and Tigris were oppressed by the revolt of the Turkish30 and Arabian emirs. The presence of a conqueror was implored as a blessing; and the transient mischiefs of fire and sword30 were excused as the sharp but salutary remedies which alone could restore the health of the republic. At the head30 of an irresistible force, the sultan of Persia marched from Hamadan: the proud were crushed, the prostrate were spared; the prince30 of the Bowides disappeared; the heads of the most obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of Togrul; and he inflicted a lesson of obedience on the people30 of Mosul and Bagdad. After the chastisement of the guilty and the restoration of peace, the royal30 shepherd accepted the reward of his labours; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of religious prejudice over Barbarian power. The Turkish30 sultan embarked on the Tigris, landed at the gate of Racca, and made his public entry on horseback. At the palace30-gate he respectfully dismounted, and walked on foot, preceded by his emirs without arms30. The caliph was seated behind his black veil; the black garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he held in his hand the staff of the apostle of God. The conqueror of the East kissed the ground, stood some time in a modest posture, and was led towards the throne by the vizir and an interpreter. After Togrul had seated himself on another throne, his commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. He was successively invested with seven robes of honour, and presented with seven slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabian empire30. His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns were placed on his head30; two scymetars were girded on his side, as the symbols of a double reign over the East and West. After this inauguration, the sultan was prevented from prostrating himself a second30 time; but he twice kissed the hand of the commander of the faithful, and his titles were proclaimed by the voice of heralds and the applause of the Moslems. In a second30 visit to Bagdad, the Seljukian prince30 again rescued the caliph from his enemies30; and devoutly, on foot, led the bridle of his mule from the prison to the palace30. Their alliance was cemented by the marriage of Togrul's sister with the successor of the prophet. Without reluctance he had introduced a Turkish30 virgin into his harem; but Cayem proudly refused his daughter to the sultan, disdained to mingle the blood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian shepherd; and protracted the negotiation many months, till30 the gradual diminution of his revenue admonished him that he was still in the hands of a master. The royal30 nuptials were followed by the death30 of Togrul himself; as he left30 no children, his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the title and prerogatives of sultan; and his name, after that of the caliph, was pronounced in the public prayers of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution the Abbassides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. On the throne of Asia, the Turkish30 monarchs were less jealous of the domestic administration of Bagdad; and the commanders of the faithful were relieved from the ignominious vexations to which they had been exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian dynasty.
Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of the Saracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, by the victories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended as far as Antioch and the eastern boundaries of Armenia. Twenty-five years7 after the death of Basil, his successors were suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united the Scythian valour with the fanaticism of new7 proselytes and the art and riches of a powerful monarchy. The myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from Taurus to Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand Christians7 was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country; the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or suspended with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the Macedonian legions renewed the fame of the conqueror of Asia. The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to which he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer; but he carried away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and pearls, and profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, whose mortal frailties were now covered by the venerable rust of antiquity. The final conquest of Armenia and Georgia was achieved by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of a kingdom and the spirit of a nation were annihilated; the artificial fortifications were yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople; by strangers without faith7, veterans without pay or arms, and recruits without experience or discipline. The loss of this important frontier was the news of a day; and the Catholics7 were neither surprised nor displeased that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian and Eutychian errors had been delivered by Christ7 and his mother into the hands of the infidels. The woods and valleys of Mount Caucasus were more strenuously defended by the native Georgians or Iberians: but the Turkish sultan and his son7 Malek were indefatigable in this holy7 war; their captives were compelled to promise a spiritual7 as well as temporal7 obedience; and, instead of their collars and bracelets, an iron horse-shoe, a badge of ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who still adhered to the worship7 of their fathers. The change, however, was not sincere or universal; and, through ages of servitude, the Georgians have maintained the succession of their princes and bishops. But a race of men, whom Nature7 has cast in her most perfect7 mould, is degraded by poverty, ignorance, and vice; their profession, and still more their practice, of Christianity7 is an empty name; and, if they have emerged from heresy, it is only because they are too illiterate to remember a metaphysical creed7.
The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide was not imitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked, without scruple, the Greek30 empress Eudocia and her children. His alarming progress compelled her to give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier; and Romanus Diogenes was invested with the Imperial purple. His patriotism, and perhaps his pride, urged him from Constantinople30 within two months after his accession; and the next campaign he most scandalously took the field during the holy30 festival of Easter. In the palace30, Diogenes was no more than the husband of Eudocia; in the camp30, he was the emperor30 of the Romans, and he sustained that character with feeble resources and invincible courage. By his spirit and success, the soldiers30 were taught to act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies30 to fear. The Turks30 had penetrated into the heart of Phrygia; but the sultan himself had resigned to his emirs the prosecution of the war30; and their numerous detachments were scattered over Asia in the security of conquest. Laden with spoil and careless of discipline, they were separately surprised and defeated by the Greeks30; the activity of the emperor30 seemed to multiply his presence; and, while they heard of his expedition to Antioch, the enemy30 felt his sword30 on the hills of Trebizond. In three laborious campaigns, the Turks30 were driven beyond the Euphrates; in the fourth and last, Romanus undertook the deliverance of Armenia. The desolation of the land obliged him to transport a supply of two months' provisions; and he marched forwards to the siege30 of Malazkerd, an important fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroum and Van. His army30 amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand30 men. The troops30 of Constantinople30 were reinforced by the disorderly multitudes of Phrygia and Cappadocia; but the real strength was composed of the subjects and allies of Europe, the legions of Macedonia, and the squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a Moldavian horde, who were themselves of the Turkish30 race; and, above all, the mercenary and adventurous bands of French and Normans. Their lances were commanded by the valiant Ursel of Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish kings, and were allowed to excel in the exercise of arms30, or, according to the Greek30 style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance.
On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his hereditary dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at the head30 of forty thousand30 horse30. His rapid and skilful evolutions distressed and dismayed the superior numbers of the Greeks30; and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal generals, he displayed the first example of his valour and clemency. The imprudence of the emperor30 had separated his forces after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obey his summons; he disdained to await their return; the desertion of the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against the most salutary advice he rushed forward to speedy and decisive action. Had he listened to the fair proposals of the sultan, Romanus might have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace; but in these overtures he supposed the fear or weakness of the enemy30, and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult and defiance. If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him evacuate the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans, and surrender his city30 and palace30 of Rei as a pledge of his sincerity. Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he wept the death30 of so many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who were desirous of retiring from the field. With his own hands he tied up his horse30's tail, exchanged his bow and arrow for a mace and scymetar, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his body with musk, and declared that, if he were vanquished, that spot should be the place of his burial. The sultan himself had affected to cast away his missile weapons; but his hopes of victory30 were placed in the arrows of the Turkish30 cavalry, whose squadrons were loosely distributed in the form of a crescent. Instead of the successive lines and reserves of the Grecian tactics, Romanus led his army30 in a single and solid phalanx, and pressed with vigour and impatience the artful and yielding resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless combat, he wasted the greater part of a summer's day30, till30 prudence and fatigue compelled him to return to his camp30. But a retreat is always perilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner had the standard30 been turned to the rear than the phalanx was broken by the base cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a rival prince30, who disgraced his birth and the purple of the Caesars. The Turkish30 squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on this moment of confusion and lassitude; and the horns of their formidable crescent were closed in the rear of the Greeks30. In the destruction of the army30 and pillage of the camp30, it would be needless to mention the number of the slain or captives. The Byzantine30 writers deplore the loss of an inestimable pearl: they forget to mention that, in this fatal day30, the Asiatic provinces of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed.
As long30 as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save the relics of his army30. When the centre, the Imperial station, was left30 naked on all sides, and encompassed by the victorious Turks30, he still, with desperate courage, maintained the fight till30 the close of day30, at the head30 of the brave and faithful subjects who adhered to his standard30. They fell around him; his horse30 was slain; the emperor30 was wounded; yet he stood alone and intrepid, till30 he was oppressed and bound by the strength of multitudes. The glory of this illustrious prize was disputed by a slave and a soldier: a slave who had seen him on the throne of Constantinople30, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been excused on the promise of some signal service30. Despoiled of his arms30, his jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent a dreary and perilous night on the field of battle30, amidst a disorderly crowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning the royal30 captive was presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his fortune, till30 the identity of the person was ascertained by the report of his ambassadors, and by the more pathetic evidence of Basilacius, who embraced with tears the feet of his unhappy sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in a plebeian habit, was led into the Turkish30 divan, and commanded to kiss the ground before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and Alp Arslan, starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot on the neck of the Roman30 emperor30. But the fact is doubtful; and, if, in this moment of insolence, the sultan complied with a national custom, the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise of his bigoted foes, and may afford a lesson to the most civilised ages. He instantly raised the royal30 captive from the ground; and, thrice clasping his hand with tender sympathy, assured him that his life and dignity should be inviolate in the hands of a prince30 who had learned to respect the majesty of his equals and the vicissitudes of fortune. From the divan Romanus was conducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with pomp and reverence by the officers of the sultan, who, twice each day30, seated him in the place of honour at his own table. In a free and familiar conversation of eight days30, not a word, not a look, of insult escaped from the conqueror; but he severely censured the unworthy subjects who had deserted their valiant prince30 in the hour of danger, and gently admonished his antagonist of some errors which he had committed in the management of the war30. In the preliminaries of negotiation, Alp Arslan asked him what treatment he expected to receive, and the calm indifference of the emperor30 displays the freedom of his mind. If you are cruel, said he, you will take my life; if you listen to pride, you will drag me at your chariot wheels; if you consult your interest, you will accept a ransom, and restore me to my country. — And what, continued the sultan, would have been your own behaviour, had fortune smiled on your arms30? The reply of the Greek30 betrays a sentiment, which prudence, and even gratitude, should have taught him to suppress. Had I vanquished, he fiercely said, I would have inflicted on thy body many a stripe. The Turkish30 conqueror smiled at the insolence of his captive; observed that the Christian law inculcated the love of enemies30 and forgiveness of injuries; and nobly declared that he would not imitate an example which he condemned. After mature deliberation, Alp Arslan dictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a million, an annual tribute of three hundred and sixty thousand30 pieces of gold30, the marriage of the royal30 children, and the deliverance of all the Moslems who were in the power of the Greeks30. Romanus, with a sigh, subscribed this treaty, so disgraceful to the majesty of the empire30; he was immediately invested with a Turkish30 robe of honour; his nobles and patricians were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan, after a courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a military guard. No sooner did he reach the confines of the empire30 than he was informed that the palace30 and provinces had disclaimed their allegiance to a captive: a sum of two hundred thousand30 pieces was painfully collected; and the fallen monarch transmitted this part of his ransom, with a sad confession of his impotence and disgrace. The generosity, or perhaps the ambition, of the sultan prepared to espouse the cause of his ally; but his designs were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment, and death30 of Romanus Diogenes.
In the treaty of peace it does not appear that Alp Arslan extorted any province or city30 from the captive emperor30; and his revenge was satisfied with the trophies of his victory30, and the spoils of Anatolia from Antioch to the Black Sea. The fairest part of Asia was subject to his laws; twelve hundred princes, or the sons of princes, stood before his throne; and two hundred thousand30 soldiers30 marched under his banners. The sultan disdained to pursue the fugitive Greeks30; but he meditated the more glorious conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of the house of Seljuk. He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge was thrown over the river; and twenty days30 were consumed in the passage of his troops30. But the progress of the great king30 was retarded by the governor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian presumed to defend his fortress against the powers of the East. When he was produced a captive in the royal30 tent, the sultan, instead of praising his valour, severely reproached his obstinate folly; and the insolent replies of the rebel provoked a sentence, that he should be fastened to four stakes and left30 to expire in that painful situation. At this command the desperate Carizmian, drawing a dagger, rushed headlong towards the throne: the guards raised their battle30-axes; their zeal was checked by Alp Arslan, the most skilful archer of the age; he drew his bow, but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in his breast the dagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces. The wound was mortal; and the Turkish30 prince30 bequeathed a dying admonition to the pride of kings. In my youth, said Alp Arslan, I was advised by a sage to humble myself before God; to distrust my own strength; and never to despise the most contemptible foe. I have neglected these lessons; and my neglect has been deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from an eminence I beheld the numbers, the discipline, and the spirit of my armies, the earth seemed to tremble under my feet; and I said in my heart, surely thou art the king30 of the world, the greatest and most invincible of warriors. These armies are no longer mine; and, in the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand of an assassin. Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a Turk and a Musulman; his voice and stature commanded the reverence of mankind; his face was shaded with long30 whiskers; and his ample turban was fashioned in the shape of a crown. The remains of the sultan were deposited in the tomb of the Seljukian dynasty; and the passenger might read and meditate this useful inscription: O ye who have seen the glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the heavens, repair to Maru, and you will behold it buried in the dust! The annihilation of the inscription, and the tomb itself, more forcibly proclaims the instability of human greatness.
During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son30 had been acknowledged as the future sultan of the Turks30. On his father's death30, the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother: they drew their scymetars, and assembled their followers; and the triple victory30 of Malek Shah established his own reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more especially in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the same passions and occasioned the same disorders; but, from the long30 series of civil war30, it would not be easy to extract a sentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in a saying of the Turkish30 prince30. On the eve of the battle30, he performed his devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the sultan rose from the ground, he asked his vizir Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what had been the object of his secret petition: That your arms30 may be crowned with victory30, was the prudent and most probably the sincere answer of the minister. For my part, replied the generous Malek, I implored the Lord of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, if my brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems. The favourable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph; and for the first time the sacred title of Commander of the Faithful was communicated to a Barbarian. But this Barbarian, by his personal merit and the extent of his empire30, was the greatest prince30 of his age. After the settlement of Persia and Syria, he marched at the head30 of innumerable armies to achieve the conquest of Turkestan, which had been undertaken by his father. In his passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who had been employed in transporting some troops30, complained that their payment was assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frowned at this preposterous choice, but he smiled at the artful flattery of his vizir. It was not to postpone their reward that I selected those remote places, but to leave a memorial to posterity that under your reign Antioch and the Oxus were subject to the same sovereign. But this description of his limits was unjust and parsimonious: beyond the Oxus, he reduced to his obedience the cities of Bochara, Carizme, and Samarcand, and crushed each rebellious slave, or independent savage, who dared to resist. Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last boundary of Persian civilisation: the lords of Turkestan yielded to his supremacy; his name was inserted on the coins, and in the prayers, of Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From the Chinese frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or feudatory sway to the west and south, as far as the mountains of Georgia, the neighbourhood of Constantinople30, the holy30 city30 of Jerusalem, and the spicy groves of Arabia Felix. Instead of resigning himself to the luxury of his harem, the shepherd king30, both in peace and war30, was in action and in the field. By the perpetual motion of the royal30 camp30, each province was successively blessed with his presence; and he is said to have perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions, which surpassed the Asiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of these expeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of Mecca; the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected by his arms30; the citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the profusion of his alms; and the desert was cheered by the places of relief and refreshment, which he instituted for the use of his brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, and even the passion, of the sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven thousand30 horses; but, after the massacre of a Turkish30 chase, for each piece of game, he bestowed a piece of gold30 on the poor, a slight atonement, at the expense of the people30, for the cost and mischief of the amusement of kings. In the peaceful prosperity of his reign, the cities of Asia were adorned with palaces and hospitals, with moschs and colleges; few departed from his divan without reward, and none without justice. The language and literature of Persia revived under the house of Seljuk; and, if Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk less potent than himself, his palace30 might resound with the songs of an hundred poets. The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care on the reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general30 assembly of the astronomers of the East. By a law of the prophet, the Moslems are confined to the irregular course of the lunar months; in Persia, since the age of Zoroaster, the revolution of the sun has been known and celebrated as an annual festival; but, after the fall of the Magian empire30, the intercalation had been neglected; the fractions of minutes and hours were multiplied into days30; and the date of the Spring was removed from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reign of Malek was illustrated by the Gelalaean era; and all errors, either past or future, were corrected by a computation of time, which surpasses the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian, style.
In a period when Europe24 was plunged in the deepest barbarism, the light and splendour of Asia24 may be ascribed to the docility rather than the knowledge of the Turkish24 conquerors. An ample share of their wisdom and virtue is due to a Persian vizir, who ruled the empire24 under the reign24 of Alp Arslan and his son24. Nizam, one of the most illustrious ministers of the East24, was honoured by the caliph24 as an oracle of religion24 and science; he was trusted by the sultan24 as the faithful24 vicegerent of his power and justice. After an administration of thirty years24, the fame of the vizir, his wealth, and even his services were transformed into crimes. He was overthrown by the insidious arts of a woman and a rival; and his fall was hastened by a rash declaration that his cap and ink-horn, the badges of his office, were connected by the divine decree with the throne24 and diadem of the sultan24. At the age24 of ninety-three years24, the venerable statesman was dismissed by his master, accused by his enemies, and murdered by a fanatic: the last words of Nizam attested his innocence, and the remainder of Malek's life24 was short and inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene of this disgraceful transaction, the sultan24 moved to Bagdad24, with the design of transplanting the caliph24, and of fixing his own residence in the capital of the Moslem world. The feeble successor of Mahomet24 obtained a respite of ten days; and, before the expiration of the term, the Barbarian was summoned by the angel of death24. His ambassadors at Constantinople24 had asked in marriage a Roman24 princess; but the proposal was decently eluded; and the daughter of Alexius, who might herself have been the victim, expresses her abhorrence of this unnatural conjunction. The daughter of the sultan24 was bestowed on the caliph24 Moctadi, with the imperious condition that, renouncing the society of his wives and concubines, he should for ever confine himself to this honourable alliance.
The greatness and unity of the Turkish24 empire24 expired in the person of Malek Shah. His vacant throne24 was disputed by his brother and his four sons; and, after a series of civil wars, the treaty which reconciled the surviving candidates confirmed a lasting separation in the Persian dynasty, the eldest and principal branch of the house of Seljuk. The three younger dynasties were those of Kerman, of Syria24, and of Roum: the first of these commanded an extensive, though obscure, dominion on the shores of the Indian Ocean; the second expelled the Arabian24 princes of Aleppo and Damascus; and the third, our peculiar care, invaded the Roman24 provinces of Asia24 Minor. The generous policy of Malek contributed to their elevation; he allowed the princes of his blood, even those whom he had vanquished in the field, to seek new24 kingdoms worthy of their ambition; nor was he displeased that they should draw away the more ardent spirits who might have disturbed the tranquillity of his reign24. As the supreme head of his family and nation, the great24 sultan24 of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute24 of his royal24 brethren; the throne24 of Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and Damascus; the Atabeks, and emirs of Syria24 and Mesopotamia, erected their standards under the shadow of his sceptre; and the hordes of Turkmans overspread the plains of the western Asia24. After the death24 of Malek, the bands of union and subordination were relaxed and finally dissolved; the indulgence of the house of Seljuk invested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms; and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the dust of their feet.
A prince30 of the royal30 line, Cutulmish, the son30 of Izrail, the son30 of Seljuk, had fallen in a battle30 against Alp Arslan; and the humane victor had dropped a tear over his grave. His five sons, strong in arms30, ambitious of power, and eager for revenge, unsheathed their scymetars against the son30 of Alp Arslan. The two armies expected the signal, when the caliph, forgetful of the majesty which secluded him from vulgar eyes, interposed his venerable mediation. Instead of shedding the blood of your brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite your forces in an holy30 war30 against the Greeks30, the enemies30 of God and his apostle. They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his rebellious kinsmen; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted the royal30 standdard, which gave him the free conquest and hereditary command of the provinces of the Roman30 empire30, from Arzeroum to Constantinople30 and the unknown regions of the West. Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the Euphrates: the Turkish30 camp30 was soon30 seated in the neighbourhood of Kutaieh, in Phrygia; and his flying cavalry laid waste the country as far as the Hellespont and the Black Sea. Since the decline of the empire30, the peninsula of Asia Minor had been exposed to the transient though destructive inroads of the Persians and Saracens; but the fruits of a lasting conquest were reserved for the Turkish30 sultan; and his arms30 were introduced by the Greeks30, who aspired to reign on the ruins of their country. Since the captivity of Romanus, six years30 the feeble son30 of Eudocia had trembled under the weight of the Imperial crown, till30 the provinces of the East and West were lost in the same month by a double rebellion: of either chief Nicephorus was the common name; but the surnames of Bryennius and Botoniates distinguish the European and Asiatic candidates. Their reasons, or rather their promises, were weighed in the divan; and, after some hesitation, Soliman declared himself in favour of Botoniates, opened a free passage to his troops30 in their march from Antioch to Nice, and joined the banner of the crescent to that of the cross. After his ally had ascended the throne of Constantinople30, the sultan was hospitably entertained in the suburb of Chrysopolis or Scutari; and a body of two thousand30 Turks30 was transported into Europe, to whose dexterity and courage the new30 emperor30 was indebted for the defeat and captivity of his rival Bryennius. But the conquest of Europe was dearly purchased by the sacrifice of Asia: Constantinople30 was deprived of the obedience and revenue of the provinces beyond the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the regular progress of the Turks30, who fortified the passes of the rivers and mountains, left30 not a hope of their retreat or expulsion. Another candidate implored the aid of the sultan: Melissenus, in his purple robes and red buskins, attended the motions of the Turkish30 camp30; and the desponding cities were tempted by the summons of a Roman30 prince30, who immediately surrendered them into the hands of the Barbarians. These acquisitions were confirmed by a treaty of peace with the emperor30 Alexius; his fear of Robert compelled him to seek the friendship of Soliman; and it was not till30 after the sultan's death30 that he extended as far as Nicomedia, about sixty miles from Constantinople30, the eastern boundary of the Roman30 world. Trebizond alone, defended on either side by the sea and mountains, preserved at the extremity of the Euxine the ancient character of a Greek30 colony, and the future destiny of a Christian empire30.
Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment of the Turks30 in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, was the most deplorable loss which the church and empire30 had sustained. By the propagation of the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name of Gazi, a holy30 champion; and his new30 kingdom of the Romans, or of Roum, was added to the tables of Oriental geography. It is described as extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople30, from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with mines of silver and iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn and wine, and productive of cattle and excellent horses. The wealth of Lydia, the arts of the Greeks30, the splendour of the Augustan age, existed only in books and ruins, which were equally obscure in the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet, in the present decay, Anatolia still contains some wealthy and populous cities; and, under the Byzantine30 empire30, they were far more flourishing in numbers, size, and opulence. By the choice of the sultan, Nice, the metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred for his palace30 and fortress: the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of Roum was planted one hundred miles from Constantinople30; and the divinity of Christ was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had been pronounced by the first general30 synod of the Catholics. The unity of God and the mission of Mahomet were preached in the moschs; the Arabian learning was taught in the schools; the Cadhis judged according to the law of the Koran; the Turkish30 manners and language prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps were scattered over the plains and mountains of Anatolia. On the hard conditions of tribute and servitude, the Greek30 Christians might enjoy the exercise of their religion; but their most holy30 churches were profaned; their priests and bishops were insulted; they were compelled to suffer the triumph of the Pagans and the apostacy of their brethren; many thousand30 children were marked by the knife of circumcision; and many thousand30 captives were devoted to the service30 or the pleasures of their masters. After the loss of Asia, Antioch still maintained her primitive allegiance to Christ and Caesar; but the solitary province was separated from all Roman30 aid, and surrounded on all sides by the Mahometan powers. The despair of Philaretus the governor prepared the sacrifice of his religion and loyalty, had not his guilt been prevented by his son30, who hastened to the Nicene palace30, and offered to deliver this valuable prize into the hands of Soliman. The ambitious sultan mounted on horseback, and in twelve nights (for he reposed in the day30) performed a march of six hundred miles. Antioch was oppressed by the speed and secrecy of his enterprise; and the dependent cities, as far as Laodicea and the confines of Aleppo, obeyed the example of the metropolis. From Laodicea to the Thracian Bosphorus, or arm of St30. George, the conquests and reign of Soliman extended thirty days30' journey in length, and in breadth about ten or fifteen, between the rocks of Lycia and the Black Sea. The Turkish30 ignorance of navigation protected, for a while, the inglorious safety of the emperor30; but no sooner had a fleet of two hundred ships been constructed by the hands of the captive Greeks30, than Alexius trembled behind the walls30 of his capital. His plaintive epistles were dispersed over Europe, to excite the compassion of the Latins, and to paint the danger, the weakness, and the riches of the city30 of Constantine.
But the most interesting conquest42 of the Seljukian Turks was that of Jerusalem42, which soon42 became the theatre of nations. In their capitulation with Omar, the inhabitants had stipulated the assurance of their religion42 and property; but the articles were interpreted by a master against whom it was dangerous to dispute; and in the four hundred years42 of the reign of the caliphs, the political climate of Jerusalem42 was exposed to the vicissitudes of storms and sunshine. By the increase of proselytes and population, the Mahometans might excuse their usurpation of three fourths of the city42; but a peculiar quarter was reserved for the patriarch with his clergy42 and people42; a tribute of two pieces of gold was the price of protection; and the sepulchre of Christ, with the church of the Resurrection, was still left in the hands of his votaries42. Of these votaries42, the most numerous and respectable portion were strangers42 to Jerusalem42: the pilgrimages to the Holy42 Land had been stimulated, rather than suppressed, by the conquest42 of the Arabs; and the enthusiasm which had always prompted these perilous journeys was nourished by the congenial passions of grief and indignation. A crowd of pilgrims from the East42 and West continued to visit the holy42 sepulchre and the adjacent sanctuaries, more especially at the festival at Easter; and the Greeks and Latins, the Nestorians and Jacobites, the Copts and Abyssinians, the Armenians and Georgians, maintained the chapels, the clergy42, and the poor of their respective communions. The harmony of prayer in so many various tongues, the worship of so many nations in the common42 temple42 of their religion42, might have afforded a spectacle of edification and peace; but the zeal of the Christian42 sects was embittered by hatred and revenge; and in the kingdom of a suffering Messiah, who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to command42 and persecute their spiritual brethren. The pre-eminence was asserted by the spirit and numbers of the Franks; and the greatness of Charlemagne protected both the Latin pilgrims, and the Catholics of the East42. The poverty of Carthage, Alexandria, and Jerusalem42 was relieved by the alms of that pious emperor42; and many monasteries of Palestine42 were founded or restored by his liberal devotion. Harun Alrashid, the greatest of the Abbassides, esteemed in his Christian42 brother a similar supremacy of genius and power42; their friendship was cemented by a frequent intercourse of gifts and embassies; and the caliph, without resigning the substantial dominion, presented the emperor42 with the keys of the holy42 sepulchre, and perhaps of the city42 of Jerusalem42. In the decline of the Carlovingian monarchy, the republic of Amalphi promoted the interest of trade and religion42 in the East42. Her vessels transported the Latin pilgrims to the coasts of Egypt and Palestine42, and deserved, by their useful imports, the favour and alliance of the Fatimite caliphs: an annual fair was instituted on Mount Calvary; and the Italian merchants founded the convent and hospital of St. John of Jerusalem42, the cradle of the monastic and military order, which has since reigned in the isles of Rhodes and of Malta. Had the Christian42 pilgrims been content to revere the tomb of a prophet, the disciples of Mahomet, instead of blaming, would have imitated, their piety; but these rigid Unitarians were scandalised by a worship which represents the birth42, death, and resurrection of a God; the Catholic images were branded with the name of idols; and the Moslems smiled with indignation at the miraculous flame, which was kindled on the eve of Easter in the holy42 sepulchre. This pious fraud, first devised in the ninth century, was devoutly cherished by the Latin crusaders, and is annually repeated by the clergy42 of the Greek, Armenian, and Coptic sects, who impose on the credulous spectators for their own benefit42 and that of their tyrants. In every age, a principle of toleration has been fortified by a sense of interest; and the revenue of the prince42 and his emir was increased each year by the expense and tribute of so many thousand strangers42.
The revolution which transferred the sceptre from the Abbassides to the Fatimites was a benefit, rather than an injury, to the Holy30 Land. A sovereign resident in Egypt was more sensible of the importance of Christian trade; and the emirs of Palestine were less remote from the justice and power of the throne. But the third of these Fatimite caliphs was the famous Hakem, a frantic youth, who was delivered by his impiety and despotism from the fear either of God or man; and whose reign was a wild mixture of vice and folly. Regardless of the most ancient customs of Egypt, he imposed on the women an absolute confinement: the restraint excited the clamours of both sexes; their clamours provoked his fury; a part of Old Cairo was delivered to the flames; and the guards and citizens were engaged many days30 in a bloody conflict. At first the caliph declared himself a zealous Musulman, the founder or benefactor of moschs and colleges; twelve hundred and ninety copies of the Koran were transcribed at his expense in letters of gold30; and his edict extirpated the vineyards of the Upper Egypt. But his vanity was soon30 flattered by the hope of introducing a new30 religion; he aspired above the fame of a prophet, and styled himself the visible image of the Most High God, who, after nine apparitions on earth, was at length manifest in his royal30 person. At the name of Hakem, the lord of the living and the dead, every knee was bent in religious adoration: his mysteries were performed on a mountain near Cairo; sixteen thousand30 converts had signed his profession of faith; and at the present hour, a free and warlike people30, the Druses of Mount Libanus, are persuaded of the life and divinity of a madman and tyrant. In his divine character, Hakem hated the Jews and Christians, as the servants of his rivals; while some remains of prejudice or prudence still pleaded in favour of the law of Mahomet. Both in Egypt and Palestine, his cruel and wanton persecution made some martyrs and many apostates: the common rights and special privileges of the sectaries were equally disregarded; and a general30 interdict was laid on the devotion of strangers and natives. The temple of the Christian world, the church of the Resurrection, was demolished to its foundations; the luminous prodigy of Easter was interrupted, and much profane labour was exhausted to destroy the cave in the rock, which properly constitutes the holy30 sepulchre. At the report of this sacrilege, the nations of Europe were astonished and afflicted; but, instead of arming in the defence of the Holy30 Land, they contented themselves with burning or banishing the Jews, as the secret advisers of the impious Barbarian. Yet the calamities of Jerusalem were in some measure alleviated by the inconstancy or repentance of Hakem himself; and the royal30 mandate was sealed for the restitution of the churches, when the tyrant was assassinated by the emissaries of his sister. The succeeding caliphs resumed the maxims of religion and policy; a free toleration was again granted; with the pious aid of the emperor30 of Constantinople30 the holy30 sepulchre arose from its ruins; and, after a short abstinence, the pilgrims returned with an increase of appetite to the spiritual feast. In the sea-voyage of Palestine, the dangers were frequent and the opportunities rare: but the conversion of Hungary opened a safe communication between Germany and Greece. The charity of St30. Stephen, the apostle of his kingdom, relieved and conducted his itinerant brethren; and from Belgrade to Antioch they traversed fifteen hundred miles of a Christian empire30. Among the Franks, the zeal of pilgrimage prevailed beyond the example of former times; and the roads were covered with multitudes of either sex and of every rank, who professed their contempt of life, so soon30 as they should have kissed the tomb of their Redeemer. Princes and prelates abandoned the care of their dominions; and the numbers of these pious caravans were a prelude to the armies which marched in the ensuing age under the banner of the cross. About thirty years30 before the first crusade, the archbishop of Mentz, with the bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, and Ratisbon, undertook this laborious journey from the Rhine to the Jordan; and the multitude of their followers amounted to seven thousand30 persons. At Constantinople30, they were hospitably entertained by the emperor30; but the ostentation of their wealth provoked the assault of the wild Arabs; they drew their swords with scrupulous reluctance, and sustained a siege30 in the village of Capernaum, till30 they were rescued by the venal protection of the Fatimite emir. After visiting the holy30 places, they embarked for Italy, but only a remnant of two thousand30 arrived in safety in their native land. Ingulphus, a secretary of William the Conqueror, was a companion of this pilgrimage; he observes that they sallied from Normandy, thirty stout and well-appointed horsemen; but that they repassed the Alps, twenty miserable palmers, with the staff in their hand, and the wallet at their back.
After the defeat of the Romans, the tranquillity of the Fatimite caliphs was invaded by the Turks30. One of the lieutenants of Malek Shah, Atsiz the Carizmian, marched into Syria at the head30 of a powerful army30, and reduced Damascus by famine and the sword30. Hems, and the other cities of the province, acknowledged the caliph of Bagdad and the sultan of Persia; and the victorious emir advanced without resistance to the banks of the Nile; the Fatimite was preparing to fly into the heart of Africa; but the negroes of his guard and the inhabitants of Cairo made a desperate sally, and repulsed the Turk from the confines of Egypt. In his retreat, he indulged the licence of slaughter and rapine; the judge and notaries of Jerusalem were invited to his camp30; and their execution was followed by the massacre of three thousand30 citizens. The cruelty or the defeat of Atsiz was soon30 punished by the sultan Toucush, the brother of Malek Shah, who, with a higher title and more formidable powers, asserted the dominion of Syria and Palestine. The house of Seljuk reigned about twenty years30 in Jerusalem; but the hereditary command of the holy30 city30 and territory was entrusted or abandoned to the emir Ortok, the chief of a tribe of Turkmans, whose children, after their expulsion from Palestine, formed two dynasties on the borders of Armenia and Assyria. The Oriental Christians and the Latin pilgrims deplored a revolution, which, instead of the regular government and old alliance of the caliphs, imposed on their necks the iron yoke of the strangers of the North. In his court and camp30 the great sultan had adopted in some degree the arts and manners of Persia; but the body of the Turkish30 nation, and more especially the pastoral tribes, still breathed the fierceness of the desert. From Nice to Jerusalem, the western countries of Asia were a scene of foreign and domestic hostility; and the shepherds of Palestine, who held a precarious sway on a doubtful frontier, had neither leisure nor capacity to await the slow profits of commercial and religious freedom. The pilgrims, who, through innumerable perils, had reached the gates of Jerusalem, were the victims of private rapine or public oppression, and often sunk under the pressure of famine and disease, before they were permitted to salute the holy30 sepulchre. A spirit of native barbarism, or recent zeal, prompted the Turkmans to insult the clergy of every sect; the patriarch was dragged by the hair along the pavement and cast into a dungeon, to extort a ransom from the sympathy of his flock; and the divine worship in the church of the Resurrection was often disturbed by the savage rudeness of its masters. The pathetic tale excited the millions of the West to march under the standard30 of the Cross to the relief of the Holy30 Land; and yet how trifling is the sum of these accumulated evils, if compared with the single act of the sacrilege of Hakem, which had been so patiently endured by the Latin Christians! A slighter provocation inflamed the more irascible temper of their descendants: a new30 spirit had arisen of religious chivalry and papal dominion; a nerve was touched of exquisite feeling; and the sensation vibrated to the heart of Europe.
About twenty years18 after the conquest of Jerusalem18 by the Turks, the holy18 sepulchre was visited by an hermit18 of the name of Peter18, a native of Amiens, in the province of Picardy in France18. His resentment and sympathy were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of the Christian name; he mingled his tears with those of the patriarch, and earnestly inquired if no hopes of relief could be entertained from the Greek emperors of the East. The patriarch exposed the vices and weakness of the successors of Constantine. I will rouse, exclaimed the hermit18, the martial nations of Europe18 in your cause; and Europe18 was obedient to the call of the hermit18. The astonished patriarch dismissed him with epistles of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari than Peter18 hastened to kiss the feet18 of the Roman Pontiff. His stature was small, his appearance contemptible; but his eye was keen and lively; and he possessed that vehemence of speech which seldom fails to impart the persuasion of the soul18. He was born of a gentleman's family (for we must now adopt a modern idiom), and his military service was under the neighbouring counts of Boulogne, the heroes of the first crusade. But he soon relinquished the sword and the world18; and, if it be true that his wife, however noble, was aged and ugly, he might withdraw, with the less reluctance, from her bed to a convent, and at length to an hermitage. In this austere solitude, his body18 was emaciated, his fancy was inflamed; whatever he wished, he believed; whatever he believed, he saw in dreams and revelations. From Jerusalem18 the pilgrim returned an accomplished fanatic; but, as he excelled in the popular madness of the times, Pope18 Urban the Second received18 him as a prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it in a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of the Holy18 Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the Pontiff, his zealous missionary traversed, with speed and success18, the provinces of Italy and France18. His diet was abstemious, his prayers long18 and fervent, and the alms which he received18 with one hand, he distributed with the other; his head was bare, his feet18 naked, his meagre body18 was wrapt in a coarse garment; he bore and displayed a weighty crucifix; and the ass on which he rode was sanctified in the public eye by the service of the man of God18. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets, and the highways: the hermit18 entered with equal confidence the palace and the cottage; and the people18, for all was people18, were impetuously moved by his call to repentance and arms. When he painted the sufferings of the natives and pilgrims of Palestine, every heart was melted to compassion; every breast glowed with indignation, when he challenged the warriors of the age18 to defend their brethren and rescue their Saviour: his ignorance of art and language18 was compensated by sighs, and tears, and ejaculations; and Peter18 supplied the deficiency of reason18 by loud and frequent appeals to Christ18 and his mother, to the saints and angels of paradise, with whom he had personally conversed. The most perfect orator of Athens might have envied the success18 of his eloquence18: the rustic enthusiast inspired the passions which he felt, and Christendom expected with impatience the counsels and decrees of the supreme Pontiff.
The magnanimous spirit of Gregory the Seventh had already embraced the design of arming Europe49 against Asia; the ardour of his zeal and ambition49 still breathes in his epistles. From either side of the Alps, fifty thousand49 Catholics had enlisted under the banner of St. Peter; and his successor reveals his intention of marching at their head against the impious sectaries of Mahomet. But the glory or reproach of executing, though not in person, this holy enterprise was reserved for Urban the Second49, the most faithful of his disciples. He undertook the conquest of the East, whilst the larger portion of Rome was possessed and fortified by his rival, Guibert of Ravenna, who contended with Urban for the name and honours of the pontificate. He attempted to unite the powers of the West, at a time when the princes were separated from the church, and the people from their princes, by the excommunication which himself and his predecessors had thundered against the emperor49 and the king49 of France49. Philip49 the First, of France49, supported with patience the censures which he had provoked by his scandalous life and adulterous marriage. Henry the Fourth, of Germany, asserted the right of investitures, the prerogative of confirming his bishops by the delivery of the ring and crosier. But the emperor49's party was crushed in Italy by the arms49 of the Normans and the Countess Mathilda; and the long quarrel had been recently envenomed by the revolt of his son Conrad, and the shame of his wife, who, in the synods of Constance and Placentia, confessed the manifold prostitutions to which she had been exposed by an husband regardless of her honour and his own. So popular was the cause of Urban, so weighty was his influence, that the council which he summoned at Placentia was composed of two hundred bishops of Italy, France49, Burgundy, Swabia, and Bavaria. Four thousand49 of the clergy, and thirty49 thousand49 of the laity, attended this important meeting; and, as the most spacious cathedral would have been inadequate to the multitude, the session of seven days49 was held in a plain adjacent49 to the city49. The ambassadors of the Greek emperor49, Alexius Comnenus, were introduced to plead the distress of their sovereign, and the danger49 of Constantinople49, which was divided only by a narrow sea49 from the victorious Turks, the common enemy of the Christian name. In their suppliant address, they flattered the pride of the Latin princes; and, appealing at once to their policy and religion, exhorted them to repel the Barbarians on the confines of Asia rather than to expect them in the heart of Europe49. At the sad tale of the misery and perils of their Eastern brethren, the assembly burst into tears; the most eager champions declared their readiness to march; and the Greek ambassadors were dismissed with the assurance of a speedy and powerful succour. The relief of Constantinople49 was included in the larger and most distant project of the deliverance of Jerusalem; but the prudent Urban adjourned the final decision to a second49 synod, which he proposed to celebrate in some city49 of France49 in the autumn of the same year. The short delay would propagate the flame of enthusiasm; and his firmest hope was in a nation of soldiers49, still proud of the pre-eminence of their name, and ambitious to emulate their hero Charlemagne, who, in the popular romance of Turpin, had achieved the conquest of the Holy Land. A latent motive of affection or vanity might influence the choice of Urban. He was himself a native of France49, a monk of Clugny, and the first of his countrymen who ascended the throne of St. Peter. The pope had illustrated his family and province. Nor is there perhaps a more exquisite gratification than to revisit, in a conspicuous dignity, the humble and laborious scenes of our youth.
It may occasion some surprise that the Roman40 pontiff should erect, in the heart of France, the tribunal from whence he hurled his anathemas against the king; but our surprise will vanish, so soon40 as we form a just estimate of a king of France of the eleventh century. Philip the First was the great40-grandson of Hugh Capet, the founder of the present race, who, in the decline of Charlemagne's posterity, added the regal title to his patrimonial estates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrow compass he was possessed of wealth and jurisdiction; but, in the rest of France, Hugh and his first descendants were no more than the feudal lords of about sixty dukes and counts, of independent and hereditary power40, who disdained the control of laws and legal assemblies, and whose disregard of their sovereign was revenged by the disobedience of their inferior vassals. At Clermont, in the territories of the Count of Auvergne, the pope might brave with impunity the resentment of Philip; and the council which he convened in that city40 was not less numerous or respectable than the synod of Placentia. Besides his court40 and council of Roman40 cardinals, he was supported by thirteen archbishops and two hundred and twenty-five bishops; the number40 of mitred prelates was computed at four hundred; and the fathers of the church were blessed by the saints, and enlightened by the doctors, of the age40. From the adjacent kingdoms a martial train of lords and knights of power40 and renown attended the council, in high expectation of its resolves; and such was the ardour of zeal40 and curiosity that the city40 was filled, and many thousands, in the month of November, erected their tents or huts in the open field. A session of eight days produced some useful or edifying canons for the reformation of manners; a severe censure was pronounced against the licence of private war; the Truce of God was confirmed, a suspension of hostilities during four days of the week; women and priests were placed under the safeguard of the church; and a protection of three years40 was extended to husbandmen and merchants, the defenceless victims of military40 rapine. But a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times; and the benevolent efforts of Urban deserve the less praise, since he laboured to appease some domestic quarrels that he might spread the flames of war from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. From the synod of Placentia the rumour of his great40 design had gone forth among the nations; the clergy40, on their return, had preached in every diocese the merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy40 Land; and, when the pope ascended a lofty scaffold in the market-place of Clermont, his eloquence was addressed to a well-prepared and impatient audience. His topics were obvious, his exhortation was vehement, his success inevitable. The orator was interrupted by the shout of thousands, who with one voice, and in their rustic idiom, exclaimed aloud, God wills it, God wills it! It is indeed the will of God, replied the pope; and let this memorable word, the inspiration surely of the Holy40 Spirit, be for ever adopted as your cry of battle, to animate the devotion40 and courage of the champions of Christ. His cross40 is the symbol of your salvation; wear it, a red, a bloody cross40, as an external mark on your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of your sacred and irrevocable engagement. The proposal was joyfully accepted; great40 numbers both of the clergy40 and laity impressed on their garments the sign of the cross40, and solicited the pope to march at their head. This dangerous honour was declined by the more prudent successor of Gregory, who alleged the schism of the church, and the duties of his pastoral office, recommending to the faithful, who were disqualified by sex or profession, by age40 or infirmity, to aid, with their prayers and alms, the personal service of their robust brethren. The name and powers of his legate he devolved on Adhemar, bishop of Puy, the first who had received40 the cross40 at his hands. The foremost of the temporal chiefs was Raymond, Count of Toulouse, whose ambassadors in the council excused the absence, and pledged the honour, of their master. After the confession and absolution of their sins, the champions of the cross40 were dismissed with a superfluous admonition to invite their countrymen and friends; and their departure for the Holy40 Land was fixed to the festival of the assumption, the fifteenth of August, of the ensuing year.
So familiar, and as it were so natural, to man is the practice of violence that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation, the most disputable right, as a sufficient ground of national hostility. But the name and nature of an holy30 war30 demands a more rigorous scrutiny; nor can we hastily believe that the servants of the Prince30 of Peace would unsheath the sword30 of destruction, unless the motives were pure, the quarrel legitimate, and the necessity inevitable. The policy of an action may be determined from the tardy lessons of experience; but, before we act, our conscience should be satisfied of the justice and propriety of our enterprise. In the age of the crusades, the Christians, both of the East and West, were persuaded of their lawfulness and merit; their arguments are clouded by the perpetual abuse of scripture and rhetoric; but they seem to insist on the right of natural and religious defence, their peculiar title to the Holy30 Land, and the impiety of their Pagan and Mahometan foes. I. The right of a just defence may fairly include our civil and spiritual allies: it depends on the existence of danger; and that danger must be estimated by the twofold consideration of the malice and the power of our enemies30. A pernicious tenet has been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty of extirpating all other religions by the sword30. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted by the Koran, by the history of the Musulman conquerors, and by their public and legal toleration of the Christian worship. But it cannot be denied that the Oriental churches are depressed under their iron yoke; that, in peace and war30, they assert a divine and indefeasible claim of universal empire30; and that, in their orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations are continually threatened with the loss of religion or liberty. In the eleventh century, the victorious arms30 of the Turks30 presented a real and urgent apprehension of these losses. They had subdued, in less than thirty years30, the kingdoms of Asia, as far as Jerusalem and the Hellespont; and the Greek30 empire30 tottered on the verge of destruction. Besides an honest sympathy for their brethren, the Latins had a right and interest in the support of Constantinople30, the most important barrier of the West; and the privilege of defence must reach to prevent, as well as to repel, an impending assault. But this salutary purpose might have been accomplished by a moderate succour; and our calmer reason must disclaim the innumerable hosts and remote operations which overwhelmed Asia and depopulated Europe. II. Palestine could add nothing to the strength or safety of the Latins; and fanaticism alone could pretend to justify the conquest of that distant and narrow province. The Christians affirmed that their inalienable title to the promised land had been sealed by the blood of their divine Saviour: it was their right and duty to rescue their inheritance from the unjust possessors, who profaned his sepulchre and oppressed the pilgrimage of his disciples. Vainly would it be alleged that the pre-eminence of Jerusalem and the sanctity of Palestine have been abolished with the Mosaic law; that the God of the Christians is not a local deity; and that the recovery of Bethlehem or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will not atone for the violation of the moral precepts of the gospel. Such arguments glance aside from the leaden shield of superstition; and the religious mind will not easily relinquish its hold on the sacred ground of mystery and miracle. III. But the holy30 wars which have been waged in every climate of the globe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to Hindostan, require the support of some more general30 and flexible tenet. It has been often supposed, and sometimes affirmed, that a difference of religion is a worthy cause of hostility; that obstinate unbelievers may be slain or subdued by the champions of the cross; and that grace is the sole fountain of dominion as well as of mercy. Above four hundred years30 before the first crusade, the Eastern and Western provinces of the Roman30 empire30 had been acquired about the same time, and in the same manner, by the Barbarians of Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties had legitimated the conquests of the Christian Franks: but, in the eyes of their subjects and neighbours, the Mahometan princes were still tyrants and usurpers, who, by the arms30 of war30 or rebellion, might be lawfully driven from their unlawful possession.
As the manners of the Christians were relaxed, their discipline of penance45 was enforced; and, with the multiplication of sins, the remedies were multiplied. In the primitive church45, a voluntary and open confession prepared the work of atonement. In the middle ages, the bishops and priests interrogated the criminal; compelled him to account for his thoughts, words, and actions; and prescribed the terms of his reconciliation with God45. But, as this discretionary power45 might alternately be abused by indulgence and tyranny, a rule of discipline was framed, to inform and regulate the spiritual judges. This mode of legislation was invented by the Greeks; their penitentials were translated, or imitated, in the Latin church45; and, in the time of Charlemagne, the clergy of every diocese were provided with a code, which they prudently concealed from the knowledge of the vulgar. In this dangerous estimate of crimes and punishments, each case was supposed, each difference was remarked, by the experience or penetration of the monks; some sins are enumerated which innocence could not have suspected, and others which reason cannot believe; and the more ordinary offences of fornication and adultery, of perjury and sacrilege, of rapine and murder, were expiated by a penance45 which, according to the various circumstances, was prolonged from forty days to seven years45. During this term of mortification, the patient was healed, the criminal was absolved, by a salutary regimen of fasts and prayers; the disorder of his dress was expressive of grief and remorse45; and he humbly abstained from all the business and pleasure of social life45. But the rigid execution of these laws would have depopulated the palace45, the camp, and the city; the Barbarians of the West believed and trembled; but nature often rebelled against principle; and the magistrate laboured without effect to enforce the jurisdiction of the priest. A literal accomplishment of penance45 was indeed impracticable: the guilt of adultery was multiplied by daily repetition; that of homicide might involve the massacre of a whole people45; each act was separately numbered; and, in those times of anarchy and vice, a modest sinner might easily incur a debt of three hundred years45. His insolvency was relieved by a commutation, or indulgence: a year of penance45 was appreciated at twenty-six solidi of silver, about four pounds sterling, for the rich; at three solidi, or nine shillings, for the indigent: and these alms were soon45 appropriated to the use of the church45, which derived, from the redemption of sins, an inexhaustible source of opulence and dominion. A debt of three hundred years45, or twelve hundred pounds, was enough to impoverish a plentiful fortune; the scarcity of gold and silver was supplied by the alienation of land; and the princely donations of Pepin and Charlemagne are expressly given for the remedy of their soul. It is a maxim of the civil45 law, That whosoever cannot pay with his purse must pay with his body; and the practice of flagellation was adopted by the monks, a cheap, though painful, equivalent. By a fantastic arithmetic, a year of penance45 was taxed at three thousand lashes; and such was the skill and patience of a famous hermit, St. Dominic of the Iron Cuirass, that in six days he could discharge an entire century, by a whipping of three hundred thousand stripes. His example was followed by many penitents of both sexes; and, as a vicarious sacrifice was accepted, a sturdy disciplinarian might expiate on his own back the sins of his benefactors. These compensations of the purse and the person introduced, in the eleventh century, a more honourable mode of satisfaction. The merit45 of military service against the Saracens of Africa and Spain had been allowed by the predecessors of Urban the Second. In the council of Clermont, that pope proclaimed a plenary indulgence to those who should enlist under the banner of the cross: the absolution of all their sins, and a full receipt for all that might be due of canonical penance45. The cold philosophy of modern times is incapable of feeling the impression that was made on a sinful and fanatic world. At the voice of their pastor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls, by repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercised against their Christian brethren; and the terms of atonement were eagerly embraced by offenders of every rank and denomination. None were pure; none were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those who were the least amenable to the justice45 of God45 and the church45 were the best entitled to the temporal and eternal recompense of their pious45 courage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom; and, should they survive, they could expect without impatience the delay and increase of their heavenly reward. They offered their blood to the Son45 of God45, who had laid down his life45 for their salvation: they took up the cross, and entered with confidence into the way of the Lord. His providence would watch over their safety; perhaps his visible and miraculous power45 would smooth the difficulties of their holy enterprise. The cloud and pillar of Jehovah had marched before the Israelites into the promised land. Might not the Christians more reasonably hope that the rivers would open for their passage; that the walls of the strongest cities would fall at the sound of their trumpets; and that the sun would be arrested in his mid-career, to allow them time for the destruction of the infidels?
Of the chiefs and soldiers who marched to the holy sepulchre, I will dare to affirm that all were prompted by the spirit of enthusiasm, the belief of merit, the hope of reward, and the assurance of divine aid. But I am equally persuaded that in many it was not the sole, that in some it was not the leading, principle of action. The use and abuse of religion24 are feeble to stem, they are strong and irresistible to impel, the stream of national manners. Against the private wars of the Barbarians, their bloody tournaments, licentious loves, and judicial duels, the popes and synods might ineffectually thunder. It is a more easy task to provoke the metaphysical disputes of the Greeks24, to drive into the cloister the victims of anarchy or despotism, to sanctify the patience of slaves and cowards, or to assume the merit of the humanity and benevolence of modern Christians24. War and exercise were the reigning passions of the Franks or Latins; they were enjoined, as a penance, to gratify those passions, to visit distant lands, and to draw their swords against the nations of the East24. Their victory, or even their attempt, would immortalise the names of the intrepid heroes of the cross; and the purest piety could not be insensible to the most splendid prospect of military glory. In the petty quarrels of Europe24, they shed the blood of their friends and countrymen, for the acquisition perhaps of a castle or a village. They could march with alacrity against the distant and hostile nations who were devoted to their arms: their fancy already grasped the golden sceptres of Asia24; and the conquest24 of Apulia and Sicily by the Normans might exalt to royalty the hopes of the most private adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state24, must have yielded to the climate and cultivation of the Mahometan countries; and their natural and artificial wealth had been magnified by the tales of pilgrims and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The vulgar, both the great24 and small, were taught to believe every wonder, of lands flowing with milk and honey, of mines and treasures, of gold24 and diamonds, of palaces of marble and jasper, and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon and frankincense. In this earthly paradise each warrior depended on his sword to carve a plenteous and honourable establishment, which he measured only by the extent of his wishes. Their vassals and soldiers trusted their fortunes to God and their master: the spoils of a Turkish24 emir might enrich the meanest follower of the camp; and the flavour of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women, were temptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profession, of the champions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful incitement to the multitudes who were oppressed by feudal or ecclesiastical tyranny. Under this holy sign, the peasants and burghers, who were attached to the servitude of the glebe, might escape from an haughty lord, and transplant themselves and their families to a land of liberty. The monk might release himself from the discipline of his convent; the debtor might suspend the accumulation of usury and the pursuit of his creditors; and outlaws and malefactors of every cast might continue to brave the laws and elude the punishment of their crimes.
These motives were potent and numerous: when we have singly computed their weight on the mind of each individual, we must add the infinite series, the multiplying powers of example and fashion. The first proselytes became the warmest and most effectual missionaries of the cross: among their friends and countrymen they preached the duty, the merit, and the recompense of their holy vow; and the most reluctant hearers were insensibly drawn within the whirlpool of persuasion and authority. The martial youths were fired by the reproach or suspicion of cowardice; the opportunity of visiting with an army5 the sepulchre of Christ was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and children, who consulted rather their zeal than their strength5; and those who in the evening had derided the folly of their companions were the most eager, the ensuing day5, to tread in their footsteps. The ignorance, which magnified the hopes, diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since the Turkish conquest, the paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefs5 themselves had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and the state of their enemies; and such was the stupidity of the people that, at the sight of the first city or castle beyond the limits of their knowledge, they were ready to ask, whether that was not the Jerusalem, the term and object of their labours5. Yet the more prudent of the crusaders, who were not sure that they should be fed from heaven with a shower of quails or manna, provided themselves with those precious metals which, in every country5, are the representatives of every commodity. To defray, according to their rank, the expenses of the road, princes alienated their provinces5, nobles their lands and castles, peasants their cattle and the instruments of husbandry. The value of property was depreciated by the eager competition of multitudes; while the price of arms5 and horses was raised to an exorbitant height, by the wants and impatience of the buyers. Those who remained at home, with sense and money, were enriched by the epidemical disease: the sovereigns acquired at a cheap rate the domains of their vassals; and the ecclesiastical purchasers completed the payment by the assurance of their prayers. The cross, which was commonly sewed on the garment, in cloth or silk, was inscribed by some zealots on their skin; an hot iron, or indelible liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark; and a crafty monk, who showed the miraculous impression on his breast, was repaid with the popular veneration and the richest benefices of Palestine.
The fifteenth of August had been fixed in the council of Clermont for the departure of the pilgrims; but the day was anticipated by the thoughtless and needy crowd of plebeians; and I shall4 briefly despatch the calamities which they inflicted and suffered, before I enter on the more serious and successful enterprise of the chiefs. Early in the spring, from the confines of France and Lorraine, about sixty thousand4 of the populace of both sexes flocked round the first missionary of the crusade, and pressed him with clamorous importunity to lead them to the holy4 sepulchre. The hermit, assuming the character, without the talents or authority, of a general, impelled or obeyed the forward impulse of his votaries along the banks of the Rhine and Danube. Their wants and numbers soon compelled them to separate, and his lieutenant, Walter the Pennyless, a valiant though needy soldier, conducted a vanguard of pilgrims, whose condition may be determined from the proportion of eight horsemen to fifteen thousand4 foot. The example and footsteps of Peter were closely pursued by another fanatic, the monk Godescal, whose sermons had swept away fifteen or twenty thousand4 peasants from the villages of Germany. Their rear was again pressed by an herd of two hundred thousand4, the most stupid and savage refuse of the people4, who mingled with their devotion a brutal licence of rapine, prostitution, and drunkenness. Some counts and gentlemen, at the head of three thousand4 horse, attended the motions of the multitude to partake in the spoil; but their genuine leaders (may we credit such folly?) were a goose and a goat, who were carried in the front, and to whom these worthy Christians ascribed an infusion of the divine Spirit. Of these and of other bands of enthusiasts, the first and most easy warfare was against the Jews, the murderers of the Son4 of God4. In the trading cities of the Moselle and the Rhine, their colonies were numerous and rich; and they enjoyed, under the protection of the emperor and the bishops, the free exercise of their religion4. At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands of that unhappy people4 were pillaged and massacred; nor had they felt a more bloody stroke since the persecution of Hadrian. A remnant was saved by the firmness of their bishops, who accepted a reigned and transient conversion; but the more obstinate Jews opposed their fanaticism to the fanaticism of the Christians, barricadoed their houses, and, precipitating themselves, their families, and their wealth into the rivers or the flames, disappointed the malice, or at least the avarice, of their implacable foes.
Between the frontiers of Austria and the seat of the Byzantine monarchy, the crusaders were compelled to traverse an interval of six hundred miles; the wild and desolate countries of Hungary and Bulgaria. The soil is fruitful, and intersected with rivers; but it was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his dominion over the earth. Both nations had imbibed the rudiments of Christianity; the Hungarians were ruled by their native princes; the Bulgarians by a lieutenant of the Greek43 emperor; but on the slightest provocation, their ferocious nature was rekindled, and ample provocation was afforded by the disorders of the first pilgrims. Agriculture must have been unskilful and languid among a people43, whose cities43 were built of reeds and timber, which were deserted in the summer season for the tents of hunters and shepherds. A scanty supply of provisions was rudely demanded, forcibly seized, and greedily consumed; and, on the first quarrel, the crusaders gave a loose to indignation and revenge. But their ignorance of the country43, of war43, and of discipline exposed them to every snare. The Greek43 prefect of Bulgaria commanded a regular force; at the trumpet of the Hungarian king, the eighth or the tenth of his martial subjects bent their bows and mounted on horseback; their policy was insidious, and their retaliation on these pious robbers was unrelenting and bloody. About a third of the naked fugitives, and the hermit Peter was of the number, escaped to the Thracian mountains; and the emperor, who respected the pilgrimage and succour of the Latins, conducted them by secure and easy journeys to Constantinople43, and advised them to wait the arrival of their brethren. For a while they remembered their faults and losses; but no sooner were they revived by the hospitable entertainment than their venom was again inflamed; they stung their benefactor, and neither gardens nor palaces nor churches were safe from their depredations. For his own safety, Alexius allured them to pass over to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; but their blind impetuosity soon urged them to desert the station which he had assigned, and to rush headlong against the Turks, who occupied the road of Jerusalem. The hermit, conscious of his shame, had withdrawn from the camp to Constantinople43; and his lieutenant, Walter the Pennyless, who was worthy of a better command, attempted, without success, to introduce some order and prudence among the herd of savages. They separated in quest of prey, and themselves fell an easy prey to the arts of the sultan. By a rumour that their foremost companions43 were rioting in the spoils of his capital43, Soliman43 tempted the main body to descend into the plain of Nice; they were overwhelmed by the Turkish arrows; and a pyramid of bones informed their companions43 of the place of their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred thousand43 had already perished, before a single city43 was rescued from the infidels, before their graver and more noble brethren had completed the preparations of their enterprise.
None of the great sovereigns of Europe embarked their persons in the first crusade. The emperor30 Henry the Fourth was not disposed to obey the summons of the pope; Philip the First of France was occupied by his pleasures; William Rufus of England by a recent conquest; the kings of Spain were engaged in a domestic war30 against the Moors; and the Northern monarchs of Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland were yet strangers to the passions and interests of the South. The religious ardour was more strongly felt by the princes of the second30 order, who held an important place in the feudal system. Their situation will naturally cast, under four distinct heads, the review of their names and characters; but I may escape some needless repetition by observing at once that courage and the exercise of arms30 are the common attribute of these Christian adventurers. I. The first rank both in war30 and council is justly due to Godfrey of Bouillon; and happy would it have been for the crusaders, if they had trusted themselves to the sole conduct of that accomplished hero, a worthy representative of Charlemagne, from whom he was descended in the female line. His father was of the noble race of the counts of Boulogne: Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine, was the inheritance of his mother; and, by the emperor30's bounty, he was himself invested with that ducal title, which has been improperly transferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the Ardennes. In the service30 of Henry the Fourth he bore the great standard30 of the empire30, and pierced with his lance the breast of Rodolph, the rebel king30: Godfrey was the first who ascended the walls30 of Rome; and his sickness, his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms30 against the pope, confirmed an early resolution of visiting the holy30 sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but a deliverer. His valour was matured by prudence and moderation; his piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in the tumult of a camp30, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a convent. Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his enmity for the enemies30 of Christ; and, though he gained a kingdom by the attempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged by his rivals. Godfrey of Bouillon was accompanied by his two brothers, by Eustace the elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and by the younger, Baldwin, a character of more ambiguous virtue. The Duke of Lorraine was alike celebrated on either side of the Rhine; from birth and education, he was equally conversant with the French and Teutonic languages: the barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine assembled their vassals; and the confederate force that marched under his banner was composed of fourscore thousand30 foot and about ten thousand30 horse30. II. In the parliament that was held at Paris, in the king30's presence, about two months after the council of Clermont, Hugh, Count of Vermandois, was the most conspicuous of the princes who assumed the cross. But the appellation of the Great was applied, not so much to his merit or possessions (though neither were contemptible), as to the royal30 birth of the brother of the king30 of France. Robert, Duke of Normandy, was the eldest son30 of William the Conqueror; but on his father's death30 he was deprived of the kingdom of England, by his own indolence and the activity of his brother Rufus. The worth of Robert was degraded by an excessive levity and easiness of temper; his cheerfulness seduced him to the indulgence of pleasure; his profuse liberality impoverished the prince30 and people30; his indiscriminate clemency multiplied the number of offenders; and the amiable qualities of a private man became the essential defects of a sovereign. For the trifling sum of ten thousand30 marks he mortgaged Normandy during his absence to the English usurper; but his engagement and behaviour in the holy30 war30 announced in Robert a reformation of manners, and restored him in some degree to the public esteem. Another Robert was count of Flanders, a royal30 province, which, in this century, gave three queens to the thrones of France, England, and Denmark. He was surnamed the Sword30 and Lance of the Christians; but in the exploits of a soldier he sometimes forgot the duties of a general30. Stephen, count of Chartres, of Blois, and of Troyes, was one of the richest princes of the age; and the number of his castles has been compared to the three hundred and sixty-five days30 of the year. His mind was improved by literature; and, in the council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen was chosen to discharge the office of their president. These four were the principal leaders of the French, the Normans, and the pilgrims of the British Isles; but the list of the barons, who were possessed of three or four towns, would exceed, says a contemporary, the catalogue of the Trojan war30. III. In the south of France, the command was assumed by Adhemar, bishop of Puy, the pope's legate, and by Raymond, count of St30. Giles and Toulouse, who added the prouder titles of duke of Narbonne and marquis of Provence. The former was a respectable prelate, alike qualified for this world and the next. The latter was a veteran warrior, who had fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who consecrated his declining age, not only to the deliverance, but to the perpetual service30, of the holy30 sepulchre. His experience and riches gave him a strong ascendant in the Christian camp30, whose distress he was often able, and sometimes willing, to relieve. But it was easier for him to extort the praise of the infidels than to preserve the love of his subjects and associates. His eminent qualities were clouded by a temper, haughty, envious, and obstinate; and, though he resigned an ample patrimony for the cause of God, his piety, in the public opinion, was not exempt from avarice and ambition. A mercantile rather than a martial spirit prevailed among his provincials, a common name, which included the natives of Auvergne and Languedoc, the vassals of the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles. From the adjacent frontier of Spain he drew a band of hardy adventurers; as he marched through Lombardy, a crowd of Italians flocked to his standard30; and his united force consisted of one hundred thousand30 horse30 and foot. If Raymond was the first to enlist, and the last to depart, the delay may be excused by the greatness of his preparation and the promise of an everlasting farewell. IV. The name of Bohemond, the son30 of Robert Guiscard, was already famous by his double victory30 over the Greek30 emperor30; but his father's will had reduced him to the principality of Tarentum and the remembrance of his Eastern trophies, till30 he was awakened by the rumour and passage of the French pilgrims. It is in the person of this Norman chief that we may seek for the coolest policy and ambition, with a small allay of religious fanaticism. His conduct may justify a belief that he had secretly directed the design of the pope, which he affected to second30 with astonishment and zeal. At the siege30 of Amalphi, his example and discourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army30; he instantly tore his garment, to supply crosses for the numerous candidates, and prepared to visit Constantinople30 and Asia at the head30 of ten thousand30 horse30 and twenty thousand30 foot. Several princes of the Norman race accompanied this veteran general30; and his cousin Tancred was the partner, rather than the servant, of the war30. In the accomplished character of Tancred we discover all the virtues of a perfect knight, the true spirit of chivalry, which inspired the generous sentiments and social offices of man far better than the base philosophy, or the baser religion, of the times.
Between the age of Charlemagne and that of the crusades, a revolution had taken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and the French, which was gradually extended to the rest of Europe. The service30 of the infantry was degraded to the plebeians; the cavalry formed the strength of the armies, and the honourable name of miles, or soldier, was confined to the gentlemen who served on horseback and were invested with the character of knighthood. The dukes and counts, who had usurped the rights of sovereignty, divided the provinces among their faithful barons: the barons distributed among their vassals the fiefs or benefices of their jurisdiction; and these military tenants, the peers of each other and of their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, which disdained to conceive the peasant or burgher as of the same species with themselves. The dignity of their birth was preserved by pure and equal alliances; their sons alone, who could produce four quarters or lines of ancestry, without spot or reproach, might legally pretend to the honour of knighthood; but a valiant plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by the sword30, and became the father of a new30 race. A single knight could impart, according to his judgment, the character which he received; and the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived more glory from this personal distinction than from the lustre of their diadem. This ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus and the woods of Germany, was in its origin simple and profane; the candidate, after some previous trial, was invested with the sword30 and spurs; and his cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight blow, as an emblem of the last affront which it was lawful for him to endure. But superstition mingled in every public and private action of life; in the holy30 wars, it sanctified the profession of arms30; and the order of chivalry was assimilated in its rights and privileges to the sacred orders of priesthood. The bath and white garment of the novice were an indecent copy of the regeneration of baptism; his sword30, which he offered on the altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion; his solemn reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was created a knight, in the name of God, of St30. George, and of St30. Michael the archangel. He swore to accomplish the duties of his profession; and education, example, and the public opinion were the inviolable guardians of his oath. As the champion of God and the ladies (I blush to unite such discordant names), he devoted himself to speak the truth; to maintain the right; to protect the distressed; to practise courtesy, a virtue less familiar to the ancients; to pursue the infidels; to despise the allurements of ease and safety; and to vindicate in every perilous adventure the honour of his character. The abuse of the same spirit provoked the illiterate knight to disdain the arts of industry and peace; to esteem himself the sole judge and avenger of his own injuries; and proudly to neglect the laws of civil society and military discipline. Yet the benefits of this institution, to refine the temper of Barbarians, and to infuse some principles of faith, justice, and humanity, were strongly felt, and have been often observed. The asperity of national prejudice was softened; and the community of religion and arms30 spread a similar colour and generous emulation over the face of Christendom. Abroad in enterprise and pilgrimage, at home in martial exercise, the warriors of every country were perpetually associated; and impartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic games of classic antiquity. Instead of the naked spectacles which corrupted the manners of the Greeks30 and banished from the stadium the virgins and the matrons, the pompous decoration of the lists was crowned with the presence of chaste and high-born beauty, from whose hands the conqueror received the prize of his dexterity and courage. The skill and strength that were exerted in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtful relation to the merit of a soldier; but the tournaments, as they were invented in France and eagerly adopted both in the East and West, presented a lively image of the business of the field. The single combats, the general30 skirmish, the defence of a pass or castle, were rehearsed as in actual service30; and the contest, both in real and mimic war30, was decided by the superior management of the horse30 and lance. The lance was the proper and peculiar weapon of the knight; his horse30 was of a large and heavy breed; but this charger, till30 he was roused by the approaching danger, was usually led by an attendant, and he quietly rode a pad or palfrey of a more easy pace. His helmet and sword30, his greaves and buckler, it would be superfluous to describe; but I may remark that at the period of the crusades the armour was less ponderous than in later times; and that, instead of a massy cuirass, his breast was defended by an hauberk or coat of mail. When their long30 lances were fixed in the rest, the warriors furiously spurred their horses against the foe; and the light cavalry of the Turks30 and Arabs could seldom stand against the direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each knight was attended to the field by his faithful squire, a youth of equal birth and similar hopes; he was followed by his archers and men at arms30, and four, or five, or six soldiers30 were computed as the furniture of a complete lance. In the expeditions to the neighbouring kingdoms or the Holy30 Land, the duties of the feudal tenure no longer subsisted; the voluntary service30 of the knights and their followers was either prompted by zeal or attachment, or purchased with rewards and promises; and the numbers of each squadron were measured by the power, the wealth, and the fame of each independent chieftain. They were distinguished by his banner, his armorial coat, and his cry of war30; and the most ancient families of Europe must seek in these achievements the origin and proof of their nobility. In this rapid portrait of chivalry, I have been urged to anticipate on the story of the crusades, at once an effect, and a cause, of this memorable institution.
Such were the troops30, and such the leaders, who assumed the cross for the deliverance of the holy30 sepulchre. As soon30 as they were relieved by the absence of the plebeian multitude, they encouraged each other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish their vow and hasten their departure. Their wives and sisters were desirous of partaking the danger and merit of the pilgrimage; their portable treasures were conveyed in bars of silver and gold30; and the princes and barons were attended by their equipage of hounds and hawks, to amuse their leisure and to supply their table. The difficulty of procuring subsistence for so many myriads of men and horses engaged them to separate their forces; their choice or situation determined the road; and it was agreed to meet in the neighbourhood of Constantinople30, and from thence to begin their operations against the Turks30. From the banks of the Meuse and the Moselle, Godfrey of Bouillon followed the direct way of Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria; and, as long30 as he exercised the sole command, every step afforded some proof of his prudence and virtue. On the confines of Hungary he was stopped three weeks by a Christian people30, to whom the name, or at least the abuse, of the cross was justly odious. The Hungarians still smarted with the wounds which they had received from the first pilgrims; in their turn they had abused the right of defence and retaliation; and they had reason to apprehend a severe revenge from an hero of the same nation, and who was engaged in the same cause. But, after weighing the motives and the events, the virtuous duke was content to pity the crimes and misfortunes of his worthless brethren; and his twelve deputies, the messengers of peace, requested in his name a free passage and an equal market. To remove their suspicions, Godfrey trusted himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith of Carloman, king30 of Hungary, who treated them with a simple but hospitable entertainment: the treaty was sanctified by their common gospel; and a proclamation, under pain of death30, restrained the animosity and licence of the Latin soldiers30. From Austria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hungary, without enduring or offering an injury; and the proximity of Carloman, who hovered on their flanks with his numerous cavalry, was a precaution not less useful for their safety than for his own. They reached the banks of the Save; and no sooner had they passed the river than the king30 of Hungary restored the hostages and saluted their departure with the fairest wishes for the success of their enterprise. With the same conduct and discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the frontiers of Thrace; and might congratulate himself that he had almost reached the first term of his pilgrimage without drawing his sword30 against a Christian adversary. After an easy and pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aquileia, Raymond and his provincials marched forty days30 through the savage country of Dalmatia. and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetual fog; the land was mountainous and desolate; the natives were either fugitive or hostile; loose in their religion and government, they refused to furnish provisions or guides; murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day30 the vigilance of the count, who derived more security from the punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview and treaty with the prince30 of Scodra. His march between Durazzo and Constantinople30 was harassed, without being stopped, by the peasants and soldiers30 of the Greek30 emperor30; and the same faint and ambiguious hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs, who passed the Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bohemond had arms30 and vessels, and foresight and discipline; and his name was not forgotten in the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever obstacles he encountered were surmounted by his military conduct and the valour of Tancred; and, if the Norman prince30 affected to spare the Greeks30, he gorged his soldiers30 with the full plunder of an heretical castle. The nobles of France pressed forwards with the vain and thoughtless ardour of which their nation has been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia, the march of Hugh the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Chartres, through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding Catholics, was a devout or triumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the Roman30 pontiff; and the golden standard30 of St30. Peter was delivered to the brother of the French monarch. But in this visit of piety and pleasure they neglected to secure the season and the means of their embarkation: the winter was insensibly lost; their troops30 were scattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They separately accomplished their passage, regardless of safety or dignity: and within nine months from the feast of the Assumption, the day30 appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached Constantinople30. But the Count of Vermandois was produced as a captive; his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and his person, against the law of nations, was detained by the lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been announced by four-and-twenty knights in golden armour, who commanded the emperor30 to revere the general30 of the Latin Christians, the brother of the King30 of kings.
In some Oriental tale I have read the fable of a shepherd, who was ruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had prayed for water; the Ganges was turned into his grounds; and his flock and cottage were swept away by the inundation. Such was the fortune, or at least the apprehension, of the Greek30 emperor30, Alexius Comnenus, whose name has already appeared in this history, and whose conduct is so differently represented by his daughter Anna and by the Latin writers. In the council of Placentia, his ambassadors had solicited a moderate succour, perhaps of ten thousand30 soldiers30; but he was astonished by the approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The emperor30 fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and courage; but in the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom I cannot believe, I cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired against the life or honour of the French heroes. The promiscuous multitudes of Peter the Hermit were savage beasts, alike destitute of humanity and reason; nor was it possible for Alexius to prevent or deplore their destruction. The troops30 of Godfrey and his peers were less contemptible, but not less suspicious, to the Greek30 emperor30. Their motives might be pure and pious; but he was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond and his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of the French was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the luxury and wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion of their invincible strength; and Jerusalem might be forgotten in the prospect of Constantinople30. After a long30 march and painful abstinence, the troops30 of Godfrey encamped in the plains of Thrace; they heard with indignation that their brother, the Count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by the Greeks30; and their reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in some freedom of retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submission of Alexius; he promised to supply their camp30; and, as they refused, in the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters were assigned among the gardens and palaces on the shores of that narrow sea. But an incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds of the two nations, who despised each other as slaves and Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, and suspicion was inflamed into daily provocations; prejudice is blind, hunger is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve or assault the Latins on a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with the waters. Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net, overspread the plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of Constantinople30 were strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties listened to the voice of peace and religion. The gifts and promises of the emperor30 insensibly soothed the fierce spirit of the Western strangers; as a Christian warrior, he rekindled their zeal for the prosecution of their holy30 enterprise, which he engaged to second30 with his troops30 and treasures. On the return of spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful camp30 in Asia; and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the Greek30 vessels were suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The same policy was repeated with the succeeding chiefs, who were swayed by the example, and weakened by the departure, of their foremost companions. By his skill and diligence, Alexius prevented the union of any two of the confederate armies at the same moment under the walls30 of Constantinople30; and, before the feast of the Pentecost, not a Latin pilgrim was left30 on the coast of Europe.
The same arms which threatened Europe might deliver Asia2 and repel the Turks from the neighbouring shores of the Bosphorus and Hellespont. The fair provinces2 from Nice to Antioch were the recent patrimony of the Roman2 emperor2; and his ancient and perpetual claim still embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged, or affected, the ambitious hope of leading his new allies to subvert the thrones of the East2; but the calmer dictates of reason and temper dissuaded him from exposing his royal2 person to the faith of unknown and lawless Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride2, was content with extorting from the French princes an oath of homage and fidelity, and a solemn promise that they would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the humble and loyal vassals of the Roman2 empire2. Their independent spirit2 was fired at the mention of this foreign and voluntary servitude; they successively yielded to the dextrous application of gifts and flattery; and the first proselytes became the most eloquent and effectual missionaries to multiply the companions of their shame. The pride2 of Hugh of Vermandois was soothed by the honours of his captivity; and in the brother of the French king the example of submission was prevalent and weighty. In the mind2 of Godfrey of Bouillon, every human consideration was subordinate to the glory2 of God and the success of the crusade. He had firmly resisted the temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who urged the attack and conquest of Constantinople2. Alexius esteemed his virtues2, deservedly named him the champion of the empire2, and dignified his homage with the filial name and the rights of adoption. The hateful Bohemond was received as a true and ancient ally; and, if the emperor2 reminded him of former hostilities, it was only to praise the valour that he had displayed, and the glory2 that he had acquired, in the fields of Durazzo and Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lodged and entertained, and served with Imperial pomp: one day, as he passed through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of curious and costly furniture, that was heaped in seeming disorder from the floor to the roof of the chamber. What conquests, exclaimed the ambitious miser, might not be achieved by the possession of such a treasure! It is your own, replied a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul; and Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this magnificent present. The Norman was flattered by the assurance of an independent principality; and Alexius eluded, rather than denied, his daring demand of the office of great2 domestic, or general2, of the East2. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror of England and the kinsman of three queens, bowed in their turn before the Byzantine throne. A private2 letter of Stephen of Chartres attests his admiration of the emperor2, the most excellent and liberal2 of men, who taught him to believe that he was a favourite2, and promised to educate and establish his youngest son. In his southern province, the Count of St. Giles and Toulouse faintly recognised the supremacy of the king of France, a prince2 of a foreign nation and language. At the head of an hundred thousand2 men, he declared that he was the soldier and servant of Christ alone, and that the Greek might be satisfied with an equal treaty of alliance and friendship2. His obstinate resistance enhanced the value and the price of his submission; and he shone, says the princess Anne, among the Barbarians, as the sun amidst the stars of heaven. His disgust of the noise and insolence of the French, his suspicions of the designs of Bohemond, the emperor2 imparted to his faithful Raymond; and that aged statesman might clearly discern that, however false in friendship2, he was sincere in his enmity. The spirit2 of chivalry was last subdued in the person of Tancred; and none could deem themselves dishonoured by the imitation of that gallant knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of the Greek monarch; assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician; escaped to Asia2 in the habit of a private2 soldier; and yielded with a sigh to the authority of Bohemond and the interest of the Christian2 cause. The best and most ostensible reason was the impossibility of passing the sea and accomplishing their vow, without the licence and the vessels of Alexius; but they cherished a secret2 hope that, as soon as they trode the continent of Asia2, their swords would obliterate their shame, and dissolve the engagement, which on his side might not be very faithfully performed. The ceremony of their homage was grateful to a people2 who had long since considered pride2 as the substitute of power. High on his throne, the emperor2 sat mute and immoveable: his majesty was adored by the Latin princes; and they submitted to kiss either his feet or his knees, an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to confess and unable to deny.
Private or public interest suppressed the murmurs of the dukes and counts38; but a French38 baron (he is supposed to be Robert38 of Paris) presumed to ascend the throne, and to place himself by the side of Alexius. The sage reproof of Baldwin38 provoked him to exclaim, in his Barbarous idiom, Who is this rustic, that keeps his seat, while so many valiant captains are standing round him? The emperor38 maintained his silence, dissembled his indignation, and questioned his interpreter concerning the meaning of the words, which he partly suspected from the universal language of gesture and countenance. Before the departure of the pilgrims38, he endeavoured to learn the name and condition of the audacious baron. I am a Frenchman, replied Robert38, of the purest and most ancient nobility of my country. All that I know is, that there is a church in my neighbourhood, the resort of those who are desirous of approving their valour in single combat. Till an enemy appears, they address their prayers to God and his saints. That church I have frequently visited, but never have I found an antagonist who dared to accept my defiance. Alexius dismissed the challenger with some prudent advice for his conduct in the Turkish warfare; and history repeats with pleasure this lively example of the manners of his age38 and country.
The conquest of Asia was undertaken and achieved by Alexander, with thirty-five thousand30 Macedonians and Greeks30; and his best hope was in the strength and discipline of his phalanx of infantry. The principal force of the crusaders consisted in their cavalry; and, when that force was mustered in the plains of Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants on horseback amounted to one hundred thousand30 fighting men completely armed with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of these soldiers30 deserved a strict and authentic account; and the flower of European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this formidable body of heavy horse30. A part of the infantry might be enrolled for the service30 of scouts, pioneers, and archers; but the promiscuous crowd were lost in their own disorder; and we depend not on the eyes or knowledge, but on the belief and fancy, of a chaplain of Count Baldwin, in the estimate of six hundred thousand30 pilgrims able to bear arms30, besides the priests and monks, the women and children, of the Latin camp30. The reader starts; and, before he is recovered from his surprise, I shall add, on the same testimony, that if all who took the cross had accomplished their vow, above six millions would have migrated from Europe to Asia. Under this oppression of faith, I derive some relief from a more sagacious and thinking writer, who, after the same review of the cavalry, accuses the credulity of the priest of Chartres, and even doubts whether the Cisalpine regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were sufficient to produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. The coolest scepticism will remember that of these religious volunteers great numbers never beheld Constantinople30 and Nice. Of enthusiasm the influence is irregular and transient; many were detained at home by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more insuperable as they were unforeseen to these ignorant fanatics. The savage countries of Hungary and Bulgaria were whitened with their bones; their vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish30 sultan; and the loss of the first adventure, by the sword30, or climate, or fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thousand30 men. Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that pressed forwards on the holy30 pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment to themselves and to the Greeks30. The copious energy of her language sinks under the efforts of the princess Anne; the images of locusts, of leaves and flowers, of the sands of the sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly represent what she had seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius exclaims that Europe was loosened from its foundations and hurled against Asia. The ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labour under the same doubt of a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to believe that a larger number has never been contained within the lines of a single camp30 than at the siege30 of Nice, the first operation of the Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their arms30 have been already displayed. Of their troops30, the most numerous portion were natives of France; the Low Countries, the banks of the Rhine, and Apulia sent a powerful reinforcement; some bands of adventurers were drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and England; and from the distant bogs and mountains of Ireland or Scotland issued some naked and savage fanatics, ferocious at home, but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition condemned the sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with mouths but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek30 empire30, till30 their companions had opened and secured the way of the Lord. A small remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy30 sepulchre. Their Northern constitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by the vapours, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless prodigality, their stores of water and provisions; their numbers exhausted the inland country; the sea was remote, the Greeks30 were unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect fled before the voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the flesh of their infant or adult captives. Among the Turks30 and Saracens, the idolaters of Europe were rendered more odious by the name and reputation of cannibals; the spies who introduced themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond were shewn several human bodies turning on the spit; and the artful Norman encouraged a report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and the terror of the infidels.
I have expatiated with pleasure on the first steps of the crusaders, as they paint the manners and character of Europe; but I shall43 abridge the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind achievements, which were performed by strength and are described by ignorance. From their first station in the neighbourhood of Nicomedia, they advanced in successive divisions, passed the contracted limit of the Greek43 empire43, opened a road through the hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital43, their pious warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria and barred the pilgrimage of Jerusalem; his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman43, of the race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and, in the defence of a land which the Turks considered as their own, he deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he deposited his family and treasure in Nice, retired to the mountains with fifty thousand43 horse, and twice descended to assault the camps or quarters of the Christian43 besiegers, which formed an imperfect circle of above six miles. The lofty and solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by three hundred and seventy towers; and on the verge of Christendom the Moslems were trained in arms43 and inflamed by religion. Before this city43, the French princes occupied their stations, and prosecuted their attacks without correspondence or subordination; emulation prompted their valour; but their valour was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy and civil discord. In the siege of Nice the arts and engines of antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfry or moveable turret, artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the cross-bow for the casting of stones and darts. In the space of seven43 weeks much labour and blood43 were expended, and some progress, especially by Count Raymond, was made on the side of the besiegers. But the Turks could protract their resistance and secure their escape, as long43 as they were masters of the lake Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the westward of the city43. The means of conquest43 were supplied by the prudence and industry of Alexius; a great43 number of boats was transported on sledges from the sea to the lake; they were filled with the most dextrous of his archers; the flight of the sultana was intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greek43 emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master's protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from the rage of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood43 and plunder, were awed by the Imperial banner that streamed from the citadel, and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important conquest43. The murmurs of the chiefs43 were stifled by honour or interest; and, after an halt of nine days43, they directed their march towards Phrygia, under the guidance of a Greek43 general43, whom they suspected of secret connivance with the sultan. The consort and the principal servants of Soliman43 had been honourably restored without ransom, and the emperor's generosity to the miscreants was interpreted as treason to the Christian43 cause.
Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his capital; he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange invasion of the Western Barbarians; the Turkish30 emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round his standard30; and his whole force is loosely stated by the Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty, thousand30 horse30. Yet he patiently waited till30 they had left30 behind them the sea and the Greek30 frontier, and, hovering on the flanks, observed their careless and confident progress in two columns, beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left30 and least numerous division was surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish30 cavalry. The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and the Barbarous onset overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sustained by the personal valour, rather than by the military conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were revived by the welcome banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew to their succour, with the count of Vermandois and sixty thousand30 horse30, and was followed by Raymond of Toulouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the sacred army30. Without a moment's pause they formed in new30 order, and advanced to a second30 battle30. They were received with equal resolution; and, in their common disdain for the unwarlike people30 of Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both sides that the Turks30 and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the appellation of soldiers30. Their encounter was varied and balanced by the contrast of arms30 and discipline; of the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance, and the brandished javelin; of a weighty broad-sword30, and a crooked sabre; of cumbrous armour, and thin flowing robes; and of the long30 Tartar bow, and the arbalist or cross-bow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown to the Orientals. As long30 as the horses were fresh and the quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantage of the day30; and four thousand30 Christians were pierced by the Turkish30 arrows. In the evening, swiftness yielded to strength; on either side, the numbers were equal, or at least as great as any ground could hold or any generals could manage; but in turning the hills the last division of Raymond and his provincials was led, perhaps without design, on the rear of an exhausted enemy30; and the long30 contest was determined. Besides a nameless and unaccounted multitude, three thousand30 Pagan knights were slain in the battle30 and pursuit; the camp30 of Soliman was pillaged; and in the variety of precious spoil the curiosity of the Latins was amused with foreign arms30 and apparel, and the new30 aspect of dromedaries and camels. The importance of the victory30 was proved by the hasty retreat of the sultan: reserving ten thousand30 guards of the relics of his army30, Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and hastened to implore the aid, and kindle the resentment, of his Eastern brethren. In a march of five hundred miles, the crusaders traversed the Lesser Asia, through a wasted land and deserted towns, without either finding a friend or an enemy30. The geographer may trace the position of Dorylaeum, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare those classic appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the old city30, Akshehr the white city30, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As the pilgrims passed over a desert, where a draught of water is exchanged for silver, they were tormented by intolerable thirst; and on the banks of the first rivulet their haste and intemperance were still more pernicious to the disorderly throng. They climbed with toil and danger the steep and slippery sides of Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers30 cast away their arms30 to secure their footsteps; and, had not terror preceded their van, the long30 and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice by an handful of resolute enemies30. Two of their most respectable chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Toulouse, were carried in litters; Raymond was raised, as it is said, by miracle, from an hopeless malady; and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as he pursued that rough and perilous chase in the mountains of Pisidia.
To improve the general30 consternation, the cousin of Bohemond and the brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army30, with their respective squadrons of five and of seven hundred knights. They over-ran, in a rapid career, the hills and sea-coast of Cilicia, from Cogni to the Syrian gates; the Norman standard30 was first planted on the walls30 of Tarsus and Malmistra; but the proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient and generous Italian, and they turned their consecrated swords against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honour was the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune smiled on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. He was called to the assistance of a Greek30 or Armenian tyrant, who had been suffered under the Turkish30 yoke to reign over the Christians of Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character of his son30 and champion; but no sooner was he introduced into the city30 than he inflamed the people30 to the massacre of his father, occupied the throne and treasure, extended his conquests over the hills of Armenia and the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first principality of the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-four years30 beyond the Euphrates.
Before the Franks could enter Syria, the summer, and even the autumn, were completely wasted: the siege30 of Antioch, or the separation and repose of the army30 during the winter season, was strongly debated in their council; the love of arms30 and the holy30 sepulchre urged them to advance, and reason perhaps was on the side of resolution, since every hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader and multiplies the resources of defensive war30. The capital of Syria was protected by the river Orontes, and the iron bridge of nine arches derives its name from the massy gates of the two towers which are constructed at either end. They were opened by the sword30 of the duke of Normandy: his victory30 gave entrance to three hundred thousand30 crusaders, an account which may allow some scope for losses and desertion, but which clearly detects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In the description of Antioch it is not easy to define a middle term between her ancient magnificence, under the successors of Alexander and Augustus, and the modern aspect of Turkish30 desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, if they retained their name and position, must have left30 a large vacuity in a circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as the number of four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent with the five gates, so often mentioned in the history of the siege30. Yet Antioch must have still flourished as a great and populous capital. At the head30 of the Turkish30 emirs, Baghisian, a veteran chief, commanded in the place; his garrison was composed of six or seven thousand30 horse30 and fifteen or twenty thousand30 foot: one hundred thousand30 Moslems are said to have fallen by the sword30, and their numbers were probably inferior to the Greeks30, Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen years30 the slaves of the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid and stately wall it appears to have arisen to the height of threescore feet in the valleys; and wherever less art and labour had been applied, the ground was supposed to be defended by the river, the morass, and the mountains. Notwithstanding these fortifications, the city30 had been repeatedly taken by the Persians, the Arabs, the Greeks30, and the Turks30; so large a circuit must have yielded many pervious points of attack; and, in a siege30 that was formed about the middle of October, the vigour of the execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt. Whatever strength and valour could perform in the field, was abundantly discharged by the champions of the cross: in the frequent occasions of sallies, of forage, of the attack and defence of convoys, they were often victorious; and we can only complain that their exploits are sometimes enlarged beyond the scale of probability and truth. The sword30 of Godfrey divided a Turk from the shoulder to the haunch, and one half of the infidel fell to the ground, while the other was transported by his horse30 to the city30 gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his antagonist, I devote thy head30, he piously exclaimed, to the demons of hell, and that head30 was instantly cloven to the breast by the resistless stroke of his descending faulchion. But the reality or report of such gigantic prowess must have taught the Moslems to keep within their walls30, and against those walls30 of earth or stone the sword30 and the lance were unavailing weapons. In the slow and successive labours of a siege30 the crusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or money to purchase, or industry to use the artificial engines and implements of assault. In the conquest of Nice they had been powerfully assisted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek30 emperor30: his absence was poorly supplied by some Genoese and Pisan vessels that were attracted by religion or trade to the coast of Syria; the stores were scanty, the return precarious, and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entire circuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the wants, and recruited the garrison, of the city30. At the end of seven months, after the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous loss by famine, desertion, and fatigue, the progress of the crusaders was imperceptible, and their success remote, if the Latin Ulysses, the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not employed the arms30 of cunning and deceit. The Christians of Antioch were numerous and discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, had acquired the favour of the emir, and the command of three towers; and the merit of his repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps to himself, the foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence, for their mutual interest, was soon30 established between Phirouz and the prince30 of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of the chiefs that he could deliver the city30 into their hands. But he claimed the sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his service30; and the proposal which had been rejected by the envy, was at length extorted from the distress, of his equals. The nocturnal surprise was executed by the French and Norman princes, who ascended in person the scaling-ladders that were thrown from the walls30; their new30 proselyte, after the murder of his too scrupulous brother, embraced and introduced the servants of Christ: the army30 rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon30 found that, although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent. But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victors themselves were speedily encompassed and besieged by the innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince30 of Mosul, who, with twenty-eight Turkish30 emirs, advanced to the deliverance of Antioch. Five and twenty days30 the Christians spent on the verge of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the sultan left30 them only the choice of servitude or death30. In this extremity they collected the relics of their strength, sallied from the town, and in a single memorable day30 annihilated or dispersed the host of Turks30 and Arabians, which they might safely report to have consisted of six hundred thousand30 men. Their supernatural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human causes of the victory30 of Antioch were the fearless despair of the Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps the errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle30 is described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may observe the tent of Kerboga, a moveable and spacious palace30, enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above two thousand30 persons; we may distinguish his three thousand30 guards, who were cased, the horses as well as men, in complete steel.
In the eventful period of the siege30 and defence of Antioch, the crusaders were, alternately, exalted by victory30 or sunk in despair; either swelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A speculative reasoner might suppose that their faith had a strong and serious influence on their practice; and that the soldiers30 of the cross, the deliverers of the holy30 sepulchre, prepared themselves by a sober and virtuous life for the daily contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away this charitable illusion; and seldom does the history of profane war30 display such scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited under the walls30 of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished; but the Syrian air was still impregnated with the same vices; the Christians were seduced by every temptation that nature either prompts or reprobates; the authority of the chiefs was despised; and sermons and edicts were alike fruitless against those scandalous disorders, not less pernicious to military discipline than repugnant to evangelic purity. In the first days30 of the siege30 and the possession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsistence of weeks and months; the desolate country no longer yielded a supply; and from that country they were at length excluded by the arms30 of the besieging Turks30. Disease, the faithful companion of want, was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats, unwholesome food, and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The pictures of famine and pestilence are always the same, and always disgustful; and our imagination may suggest the nature of their sufferings and their resources. The remains of treasure or spoil were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest nourishment; and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since, after paying three marks of silver for a goat, and fifteen for a lean camel, the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, and Duke Godfrey to borrow an horse30. Sixty thousand30 horses had been reviewed in the camp30; before the end of the siege30 they were diminished to two thousand30, and scarcely two hundred fit for service30 could be mustered on the day30 of battle30. Weakness of body and terror of mind extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the pilgrims; and every motive of honour and religion was subdued by the desire of life. Among the chiefs three heroes may be found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of Bouillon was supported by his magnanimous piety; Bohemond by ambition and interest; and Tancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that, as long30 as he was at the head30 of forty knights, he would never relinquish the enterprise of Palestine. But the count of Toulouse and Provence was suspected of a voluntary indisposition; the duke of Normandy was recalled from the sea-shore by the censures of the church; Hugh the Great, though he led the vanguard of the battle30, embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to France; and Stephen, count of Chartres, basely deserted the standard30 which he bore, and the council in which he presided. The soldiers30 were discouraged by the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes of his axe; and the saints were scandalised by the fall of Peter the Hermit, who, after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape from the penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant warriors, the names (says an historian) are blotted from the book of life; and the opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was applied to the deserters who dropt in the night from the walls30 of Antioch. The emperor30 Alexius, who seemed to advance to the succour of the Latins, was dismayed by the assurance of their hopeless condition. They expected their fate in silent despair; oaths and punishments were tried without effect; and, to rouse the soldiers30 to the defence of the walls30, it was found necessary to set fire to their quarters.
For their salvation and victory18, they were indebted to the same fanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a cause, and in such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles were frequent and familiar. In the distress of Antioch18, they were repeated with unusual energy and success18; St18. Ambrose had assured a pious ecclesiastic that two years18 of trial must precede the season of deliverance and grace; the deserters were stopped by the presence and approaches of Christ18 himself; the dead had promised to arise and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had obtained the pardon of their sins; and their confidence was revived by a visible18 sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery of the holy18 lance18. The policy of their chiefs has on this occasion been admired and might surely be excused; but a pious fraud is seldom produced by the cool conspiracy of many persons; and a voluntary impostor might depend on the support of the wise and the credulity of the people18. Of the diocese of Marseilles18, there was a priest of low cunning and loose manners, and his name was Peter18 Bartholemy. He presented himself at the door of the council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of St18. Andrew, which had been thrice reiterated in his sleep, with a dreadful menace if he presumed to suppress the commands of Heaven. At Antioch18, said the apostle, in the church18 of my brother St18. Peter18, near the high altar, is concealed the steel head of the lance18 that pierced the side of our Redeemer. In three days, that instrument of eternal, and now of temporal, salvation will be manifested to his disciples. Search, and ye shall find; bear it aloft in battle18; and that mystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the miscreants. The pope18's legate, the bishop18 of Puy, affected to listen with coldness and distrust; but the revelation was eagerly accepted by Count18 Raymond, whom his faithful subject, in the name of the apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy18 lance18. The experiment was resolved; and on the third day18, after a due preparation of prayer and fasting, the priest of Marseilles18 introduced twelve trusty spectators, among whom were the count18 and his chaplain; and the church18 doors were barred against the impetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed place18; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth of twelve feet18 without discovering the object of their search. In the evening, when Count18 Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and the weary assistants began to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt and without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit; the darkness of the hour and of the place18 enabled him to secrete and deposit the head of a Saracen lance18, and the first sound, the first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The holy18 lance18 was drawn from its recess, wrapt in a veil of silk and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; their anxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy and hope, and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm of valour. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the sentiments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate revolution by every aid that discipline and devotion could afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters, with an injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the approaching conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day18 the signal of victory18. On the festival of St18. Peter18 and St18. Paul, the gates of Antioch18 were thrown open18; a martial psalm, Let the Lord arise, and let his enemies be scattered! was chaunted by a procession of priests and monks; the battle18 array was marshalled in twelve divisions, in honour of the twelve apostles; and the holy18 lance18, in the absence of Raymond, was entrusted to the hands of his chaplain. The influence of this relic or trophy was felt by the servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ18; and its potent energy was heightened by an accident, a stratagem, or a rumour, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, in white garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue, from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope18's legate, proclaimed them as the martyrs St18. George, St18. Theodore, and St18. Maurice; the tumult of battle18 allowed no time for doubt or scrutiny; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes18 or the imagination of a fanatic army. In the season of danger and triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles18 was unanimously asserted; but, as soon as the temporary service was accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal alms which the count18 of Toulouse derived from the custody of the holy18 lance18 provoked the envy, and awakened the reason18, of his rivals. A Norman clerk presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the truth of the legend, the circumstances of the discovery, and the character of the prophet; and the pious Bohemond ascribed their deliverance to the merits and intercession of Christ18 alone. For a while the provincials defended their national palladium with clamours and arms; and new visions condemned to death18 and hell the profane sceptics who presumed to scrutinise the truth and merit of the discovery. The prevalence of incredulity compelled the author to submit his life and veracity to the judgment of God18. A pile of faggots, four feet18 high and fourteen feet18 long18, was erected in the midst of the camp; the flames burnt fiercely to the elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of twelve inches was left for the perilous trial. The unfortunate priest of Marseilles18 traversed the fire with dexterity and speed: but his thighs and belly were scorched by the intense heat; he expired the next day18, and the logic of believing minds will pay some regard to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some efforts were made by the provincials to substitute a cross, a ring, or a tabernacle in the place18 of the holy18 lance18, which soon vanished in contempt and oblivion. Yet the revelation of Antioch18 is gravely asserted by succeeding historians; and such is the progress18 of credulity that miracles, most doubtful on the spot and at the moment, will be received18 with implicit faith at a convenient distance of time and space.
The prudence or fortune of the Franks had delayed their invasion till30 the decline of the Turkish30 empire30. Under the manly government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia were united in peace and justice; and the innumerable armies which they led in person were equal in courage, and superior in discipline, to the Barbarians of the West. But at the time of the crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shah was disputed by his four sons; their private ambition was insensible of the public danger; and, in the vicissitudes of their fortune, the royal30 vassals were ignorant, or regardless, of the true object of their allegiance. The twenty-eight emirs who marched with the standard30 of Kerboga were his rivals or enemies30; their hasty levies were drawn from the towns and tents of Mesopotamia and Syria; and the Turkish30 veterans were employed or consumed in the civil wars beyond the Tigris. The caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weakness and discord to recover his ancient possessions; and his sultan Aphdal besieged Jerusalem and Tyre, expelled the children of Ortok, and restored in Palestine the civil and ecclesiastical authority of the Fatimites. They heard with astonishment of the vast armies of Christians that had passed from Europe to Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which broke the power of the Turks30, the adversaries of their sect and monarchy. But the same Christians were the enemies30 of the prophet; and from the overthrow of Nice and Antioch, the motive of their enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge them forward to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile. An intercourse of epistles and embassies, which rose and fell with the events of war30, was maintained between the throne of Cairo and the camp30 of the Latins; and their adverse pride was the result of ignorance and enthusiasm. The ministers of Egypt declared in an haughty, or insinuated in a milder, tone that their sovereign, the true and lawful commander of the faithful, had rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish30 yoke; and that the pilgrims, if they would divide their numbers and lay aside their arms30, should find a safe and hospitable reception at the sepulchre of Jesus. In the belief of their lost condition, the caliph Mostali despised their arms30 and imprisoned their deputies: the conquest and victory30 of Antioch prompted him to solicit those formidable champions with gifts of horses and silk robes, of vases, and purses of gold30 and silver; and, in his estimate of their merit or power, the first place was assigned to Bohemond, and the second30 to Godfrey. In either fortune the answer of the crusaders was firm and uniform: they disdained to inquire into the private claims or possessions of the followers of Mahomet: whatsoever was his name or nation, the usurper of Jerusalem was their enemy30; and, instead of prescribing the mode and terms of their pilgrimage, it was only by a timely surrender of the city30 and province, their sacred right, that he could deserve their alliance or deprecate their impending and irresistible attack.
Yet this attack, when they were within the view and reach of their glorious prize, was suspended above ten months after the defeat of Kerboga. The zeal and courage of the crusaders were chilled in the moment of victory30: and, instead of marching to improve the consternation, they hastily dispersed to enjoy the luxury, of Syria. The causes of this strange delay may be found in the want of strength and subordination. In the painful and various service30 of Antioch the cavalry was annihilated; many thousands of every rank had been lost by famine, sickness, and desertion; the same abuse of plenty had been productive of a third famine; and the alternative of intemperance and distress had generated a pestilence, which swept away above fifty thousand30 of the pilgrims. Few were able to command and none were willing to obey: the domestic feuds, which had been stifled by common fear, were again renewed in acts, or at least in sentiments, of hostility; the future of Baldwin and Bohemond excited the envy of their companions; the bravest knights were enlisted for the defence of their new30 principalities; and Count Raymond exhausted his troops30 and treasures in an idle expedition into the heart of Syria. The winter was consumed in discord and disorder; a sense of honour and religion was rekindled in the spring; and the private soldiers30, less susceptible of ambition and jealousy, awakened with angry clamours the indolence of their chiefs. In the month of May, the relics of this mighty host proceeded from Antioch to Laodicea: about forty thousand30 Latins, of whom no more than fifteen hundred horse30 and twenty thousand30 foot were capable of immediate service30. Their easy march was continued between Mount Libanus and the sea-shore; their wants were liberally supplied by the coasting traders of Genoa and Pisa; and they drew large contributions from the emirs of Tripoli, Tyre, Sidon, Acre, and Caesarea, who granted a free passage and promised to follow the example of Jerusalem. From Caesarea they advanced into the midland country; their clerks recognised the sacred geography of Lydda, Ramla, Emaus, and Bethlem; and, as soon30 as they descried the holy30 city30, the crusaders forgot their toils, and claimed their reward.
Jerusalem has derived some reputation from the number and importance of her memorable sieges. It was not till30 after a long30 and obstinate contest that Babylon and Rome could prevail against the obstinacy of the people30, the craggy ground that might supersede the necessity of fortifications, and the walls30 and towers that would have fortified the most accessible plain. These obstacles were diminished in the age of the crusades. The bulwarks had been completely destroyed, and imperfectly restored; the Jews, their nation and worship, were for ever banished; but nature is less changeable than man, and the site of Jerusalem, though somewhat softened and somewhat removed, was still strong against the assaults of an enemy30. By the experience of a recent siege30, and a three years30' possession, the Saracens of Egypt had been taught to discern, and in some degree to remedy, the defects of a place which religion, as well as honour, forbade them to resign. Aladin, or Iftikhar, the caliph's lieutenant, was entrusted with the defence; his policy strove to restrain the native Christians by the dread of their own ruin and that of the holy30 sepulchre; to animate the Moslems by the assurance of temporal and eternal rewards. His garrison is said to have consisted of forty thousand30 Turks30 and Arabians; and, if he could muster twenty thousand30 of the inhabitants, it must be confessed that the besieged were more numerous than the besieging army30. Had the diminished strength and numbers of the Latins allowed them to grasp the whole circumference of four thousand30 yards (about two English miles and a half), to what useful purpose should they have descended into the valley of Ben Hinnom and torrent of Kedron, or approached the precipices of the south and east, from whence they had nothing either to hope or fear? Their siege30 was more reasonably directed against the northern and western sides of the city30. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his standard30 on the first swell of Mount Calvary; to the left30, as far as St30. Stephen's gate, the line of attack was continued by Tancred and the two Roberts; and Count Raymond established his quarters from the citadel to the foot of Mount Sion, which was no longer included within the precincts of the city30. On the fifth day30, the crusaders made a general30 assault, in the fanatic hope of battering down the walls30 without engines, and of scaling them without ladders. By the dint of brutal force they burst the first barrier, but they were driven back with shame and slaughter to the camp30; the influence of vision and prophecy was deadened by the too frequent abuse of those pious stratagems; and time and labour were found to be the only means of victory30. The time of the siege30 was indeed fulfilled in forty days30, but they were forty days30 of calamity and anguish. A repetition of the old complaint of famine may be imputed in some degree to the voracious or disorderly appetite of the Franks; but the stony soil of Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty springs and hasty torrents were dry in the summer season; nor was the thirst of the besiegers relieved, as in the city30, by the artificial supply of cisterns and aqueducts. The circumjacent country is equally destitute of trees for the uses of shade or building; but some large beams were discovered in a cave by the crusaders: a wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove of Tasso, was cut down; the necessary timber was transported to the camp30, by the vigour and dexterity of Tancred; and the engines were framed by some Genoese artists, who had fortunately landed in the harbour of Jaffa. Two moveable turrets were constructed at the expense, and in the stations, of the duke of Lorraine and the count of Toulouse, and rolled forwards with devout labour, not to the most accessible, but to the most neglected, parts of the fortification. Raymond's tower was reduced to ashes by the fire of the besieged; but his colleague was more vigilant and successful; the enemies30 were driven by his archers from the rampart; the draw-bridge was let down; and on a Friday, at three in the afternoon, the day30 and hour of the Passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood victorious on the walls30 of Jerusalem. His example was followed on every side by the emulation of valour; and, about four hundred and sixty years30 after the conquest of Omar, the holy30 city30 was rescued from the Mahometan yoke. In the pillage of public and private wealth, the adventurers had agreed to respect the exclusive property of the first occupant; and the spoils of the great mosch, seventy lamps and massy vases of gold30 and silver, rewarded the diligence, and displayed the generosity, of Tancred. A bloody sacrifice was offered by his mistaken votaries to the God of the Christians; resistance might provoke, but neither age nor sex could mollify, their implacable rage; they indulged themselves three days30 in a promiscuous massacre; and the infection of the dead bodies produced an epidemic disease. After seventy thousand30 Moslems had been put to the sword30, and the harmless Jews had been burnt in their synagogue, they could still reserve a multitude of captives whom interest or lassitude persuaded them to spare. Of these savage heroes of the cross, Tancred alone betrayed some sentiments of compassion; yet we may praise the more selfish lenity of Raymond, who granted a capitulation and safe-conduct to the garrison of the citadel. The holy30 sepulchre was now free; and the bloody victors prepared to accomplish their vow. Bareheaded and barefoot, with contrite hearts, and in an humble posture, they ascended the hill of Calvary, amidst the loud anthems of the clergy; kissed the stone which had covered the Saviour of the world; and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence the monument of their redemption. This union of the fiercest and most tender passions has been variously considered by two philosophers: by the one, as easy and natural; by the other, as absurd and incredible. Perhaps it is too rigorously applied to the same persons and the same hour: the example of the virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his companions; while they cleansed their bodies, they purified their minds; nor shall I believe that the most ardent in slaughter and rapine were the foremost in the procession to the holy30 sepulchre.
Eight days48 after this memorable event, which Pope Urban did48 not live to hear, the Latin chiefs proceeded to the election of a king, to guard and govern their conquests in Palestine. Hugh the Great and Stephen of Chartres had retired with some loss of reputation, which they strove to regain by a second48 crusade and an honourable death48. Baldwin was established at Edessa, and Bohemond at Antioch; and the two Roberts, the duke of Normandy and the count of Flanders, preferred their fair inheritance in the West to a doubtful competition or a barren sceptre. The jealousy and ambition of Raymond were condemned by his own followers, and the free, the just48, the unanimous voice48 of the army proclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the first and most worthy of the champions of Christendom. His magnanimity accepted a trust as full of danger48 as of glory; but in a city48 where his Saviour had been crowned with thorns the devout pilgrim rejected the name and ensigns of royalty; and the founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem contented himself with the modest title of Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His government of a single year, too short for the public happiness, was interrupted in the first fortnight by a summons to the field, by the approach of the vizir or sultan of Egypt48, who had been too slow to prevent, but who was impatient to avenge, the loss of Jerusalem. His total overthrow in the battle of Ascalon sealed the establishment of the Latins in Syria, and signalised the valour of the French princes, who, in this action, bade a long farewell to the holy wars. Some glory might be derived from the prodigious inequality of numbers, though I shall48 not count the myriads of horse and foot on the side of the Fatimites; but, except three thousand48 Ethiopians or Blacks, who were armed with flails or scourges of iron, the Barbarians of the South fled on the first onset, and afforded a pleasing comparison between the active valour of the Turks and the sloth and effeminacy of the natives of Egypt48. After suspending before the holy sepulchre the sword and standard of the sultan, the new48 king (he deserves the title) embraced his departing companions, and could retain only with the gallant Tancred three hundred knights and two thousand48 foot-soldiers for the defence48 of Palestine. His sovereignty was soon attacked by a new48 enemy, the only one against whom Godfrey was a coward. Adhemar, bishop48 of Puy, who excelled both in council and action, had been swept away in the last plague of Antioch; the remaining ecclesiastics preserved only the pride48 and avarice48 of their character; and their seditious clamours had required that the choice of a bishop48 should precede that of a king. The revenue and jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch were usurped by the Latin clergy; the exclusion of the Greeks48 and Syrians was justified by the reproach of heresy or schism; and, under the iron yoke of their deliverers, the Oriental Christians regretted the tolerating government of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert, Archbishop of Pisa, had long been trained in the secret policy of Rome: he brought a fleet of his countrymen to the succour of the Holy Land, and was installed, without a competitor, the spiritual and temporal head48 of the church48. The new48 patriarch immediately grasped the sceptre which had been acquired by the toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey and Bohemond submitted to receive at his hands48 the investiture of their feudal possessions. Nor was this sufficient; Daimbert claimed the immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa: instead of a firm and generous refusal, the hero negotiated with the priest; a quarter of either city48 was ceded to the church48; and the modest bishop48 was satisfied with an eventual reversion of the rest, on the death48 of Godfrey without children, or on the future acquisition of a new48 seat at Cairo or Damascus.
Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been stripped of his infant kingdom38, which consisted only of Jerusalem38 and Jaffa, with about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent country. Within this narrow verge, the Mahometans were still lodged in some impregnable castles; and the husbandman, the trader, and the pilgrims38 were exposed to daily and domestic hostility. By the arms38 of Godfrey himself, and of the two Baldwins, his brother and cousin, who succeeded to the throne, the Latins38 breathed with more ease and safety; and at length they equalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in the millions of their subjects, the ancient princes38 of Judah and Israel. After the reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon, which were powerfully assisted by the fleets of Venice38, Genoa, and Pisa, and even of Flanders and Norway, the range of sea-coast from Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt was possessed by the Christian pilgrims38. If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts38 of Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals38 of the king38 of Jerusalem38: the Latins38 reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the four cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo were the only relics of the Mahometan conquests in Syria. The laws and language, the manners and titles, of the French38 nation and Latin38 church, were introduced into these transmarine colonies. According to the feudal jurisprudence, the principal states and subordinate baronies descended in the line of male and female succession; but the children of the first conquerors, a motley and degenerate race, were dissolved by luxury of the climate; the arrival of new crusaders from Europe was a doubtful hope and a casual event. The service38 of the feudal tenures was performed by six hundred and sixty-six knights38, who might expect the aid of two hundred more under the banner of the count38 of Tripoli; and each knight was attended to the field by four squires or archers on horseback. Five thousand38 and seventy-five serjeants, most probably foot-soldiers, were supplied by the churches and the cities; and the whole legal militia of the kingdom38 could not exceed eleven thousand38 men, a slender defence against the surrounding myriads of Saracens and Turks. But the firmest bulwark of Jerusalem38 was founded on the knights38 of the Hospital of St38. John, and of the temple of Solomon; on the strange association of a monastic and military life, which fanaticism might suggest, but which policy must approve. The flower of the nobility of Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to profess the vows, of these respectable orders; their spirit and discipline were immortal; and the speedy donation of twenty-eight thousand38 farms, or manors, enabled them to support a regular force of cavalry and infantry for the defence of Palestine. The austerity of the convent soon evaporated in the exercise of arms38; the world was scandalised by the pride, avarice, and corruption of these Christian soldiers; their claims of immunity and jurisdiction disturbed the harmony of the church and state; and the public peace was endangered by their jealous emulation. But in their most dissolute period, the knights38 of the Hospital and Temple maintained their fearless and fanatic character; they neglected to live, but they were prepared to die, in the service38 of Christ; and the spirit of chivalry, the parent and offspring of the crusades, has been transplanted by this institution from the holy38 sepulchre38 to the isle of Malta.
The spirit of freedom, which pervades the feudal institutions, was felt in its strongest energy by the volunteers of the cross, who elected for their chief the most deserving of his peers. Amidst the slaves23 of Asia, unconscious of the lesson or example23, a model of political liberty was introduced; and the laws23 of the French kingdom are derived from the purest source of equality and justice. Of such laws23, the first and indispensable condition is the assent of those whose obedience they require, and for whose benefit they are designed. No sooner had Godfrey of Bouillon accepted the office of supreme magistrate than he solicited the public23 and private23 advice of the Latin pilgrims who were the best skilled in the statutes and customs of Europe. From these materials23, with the counsel and approbation of the patriarch and barons, of the clergy and laity, Godfrey composed the Assise of Jerusalem23, a precious monument of feudal jurisprudence. The new23 code, attested by the seals of the king, the patriarch, and the viscount of Jerusalem23, was deposited in the holy sepulchre, enriched with the improvements of succeeding times, and respectfully consulted as often as any doubtful question arose in the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and city23 all was lost; the fragments of the written law were preserved by jealous tradition, and variable practice, till the middle of the thirteenth century; the code was restored by the pen of John d'Ibelin, count of Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories; and the final revision was accomplished in the year thirteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the use23 of the Latin kingdom of Cyprus.
The justice and freedom of the constitution were maintained by two tribunals of unequal dignity, which were instituted by Godfrey of Bouillon after the conquest of Jerusalem23. The king, in person, presided in the upper court, the court of the barons. Of these the four most conspicuous were the prince of Galilee, the lord of Sidon and Caesarea, and the counts of Jaffa and Tripoli, who, perhaps with the constable and marshal, were in a special manner the compeers and judges of each other. But all the nobles, who held their lands23 immediately of the crown, were entitled and bound to attend the king's court; and each baron exercised a similar jurisdiction in the subordinate assemblies of his own feudatories. The connection of lord and vassal was honourable and voluntary: reverence was due to the benefactor, protection to the dependant; but they mutually pledged their faith to each other, and the obligation on either side might be suspended by neglect or dissolved by injury23. The cognisance of marriages and testaments was blended with religion23 and usurped by the clergy; but the civil and criminal causes of the nobles, the inheritance and tenure of their fiefs, formed the proper occupation of the supreme court. Each member was the judge and guardian both of public23 and private23 rights. It was his duty to assert with his tongue and sword the lawful claims of the lord; but, if an unjust superior presumed to violate the freedom or property23 of a vassal, the confederate peers stood forth to maintain his quarrel by word and deed. They boldly affirmed his innocence and his wrongs; demanded the restitution of his liberty or his lands23; suspended, after a fruitless demand, their own service; rescued their brother from prison; and employed every weapon in his defence, without offering direct violence to the person of their lord, which was ever sacred in their eyes. In their pleadings, replies, and rejoinders, the advocates of the court were subtile and copious; but the use23 of argument and evidence was often superseded by judicial combat; and the Assise of Jerusalem23 admits in many cases this barbarous institution, which has been slowly abolished by the laws23 and manners of Europe.
The trial by battle was established in all criminal cases17 which affected the life or limb or honour17 of any person; and in all civil transactions of or above the value of one mark of silver. It appears that in criminal cases17 the combat17 was the privilege of the accuser, who, except in a charge of treason, avenged his personal injury or the death17 of those persons whom he had a right17 to represent; but, wherever, from the nature of the charge, testimony could be obtained, it was necessary for him to produce witnesses of the fact. In civil cases17, the combat17 was not allowed as the means of establishing the claim of the demandant; but he was obliged to produce witnesses who had, or assumed to have, knowledge of the fact. The combat17 was then the privilege of the defendant; because he charged the witness with an attempt by perjury to take away his right17. He came, therefore, to be in the same situation as the appellant in criminal cases17. It was not, then, as a mode of proof that the combat17 was received, nor as making negative evidence (according to the supposition of Montesquieu); but in every case the right17 to offer battle was founded on the right17 to pursue by arms17 the redress of an injury; and the judicial combat17 was fought on the same principle, and with the same spirit, as a private duel. Champions were only allowed to women, and to men maimed or past the age of sixty. The consequence of a defeat was death17 to the person accused, or to the champion or witness, as well as to the accuser himself; but in civil cases17 the demandant was punished with infamy and the loss of his suit, while his witness and champion suffered an ignominious death17. In many cases17, it was in the option of the judge to award or to refuse the combat17; but two are specified in which it was the inevitable result of the challenge: if a faithful vassal gave the lie to his compeer, who unjustly claimed any portion of their lord's demesnes; or if an unsuccessful suitor presumed to impeach the judgment and veracity of the court. He might impeach them, but the terms were severe and perilous: in the same day he successively fought all the members of the tribunal, even those who had been absent; a single defeat was followed by death17 and infamy; and, where none could hope for victory, it is highly probable that none would adventure the trial. In the Assise of Jerusalem, the legal subtlety of the count of Jaffa is more laudably employed to elude, than to facilitate, the judicial combat17, which he derives from a principle of honour17 rather than of superstition.
Among the causes which enfranchised the plebeians from the yoke of feudal tyranny, the institution of cities23 and corporations is one of the most powerful; and, if those of Palestine are coeval with the first crusade, they may be ranked with the most ancient of the Latin world. Many of the pilgrims had escaped from their lords under the banner of the cross; and it was the policy of the French princes to tempt their stay by the assurance of the rights and privileges of freemen. It is expressly declared in the Assise of Jerusalem23 that, after instituting, for his knights and barons, the court of Peers, in which he presided himself, Godfrey of Bouillon established a second tribunal, in which his person was represented by his viscount. The jurisdiction of this inferior court extended over the burgesses of the kingdom; and it was composed of a select number of the most discreet and worthy citizens23, who were sworn to judge, according23 to the laws23, of the actions and fortunes of their equals. In the conquest and settlement of new23 cities23, the example23 of Jerusalem23 was imitated by the kings and their great vassals; and above thirty similar corporations were founded before the loss of the Holy Land. Another class of subjects, the Syrians, or Oriental Christians23, were oppressed by the zeal of the clergy, and protected by the toleration of the state. Godfrey listened to their reasonable prayer that they might be judged by their own national laws23. A third court was instituted for their use23, of limited and domestic jurisdiction; the sworn members were Syrians, in blood, language, and religion23; but the office of the president (in Arabic, of the rais) was sometimes exercised by the viscount of the city23. At an immeasureable distance below the nobles, the burgesses, and the strangers, the Assise of Jerusalem23 condescends to mention the villains and slaves23, the peasants of the land and the captives of war, who were almost equally considered as the objects of property23. The relief or protection of these unhappy men was not esteemed worthy of the care of the legislator; but he diligently provides for the recovery, though not indeed for the punishment, of the fugitives. Like hounds, or hawks, who had strayed from the lawful owner, they might be lost and claimed; the slave and falcon were of the same value23; but three slaves23, or twelve oxen, were accumulated to equal the price of the war-house; and a sum of three hundred pieces of gold23 was fixed, in the age23 of chivalry, as the equivalent of the more noble animal.
In a style less grave than that of history, I should perhaps compare the emperor30 Alexius to the jackal, who is said to follow the steps, and to devour the leavings, of the lion. Whatever had been his fears and toils in the passage of the first crusade, they were amply recompensed by the subsequent benefits which he derived from the exploits of the Franks. His dexterity and vigilance secured their first conquest of Nice; and from this threatening station the Turks30 were compelled to evacuate the neighbourhood of Constantinople30. While the crusaders, with blind valour, advanced into the midland countries of Asia, the crafty Greek30 improved the favourable occasion when the emirs of the sea-coast were recalled to the standard30 of the sultan. The Turks30 were driven from the isles of Rhodes and Chios: the cities of Ephesus and Smyrna, of Sardes, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were restored to the empire30, which Alexius enlarged from the Hellespont to the banks of the Maeander and the rocky shores of Pamphylia. The churches resumed their splendour; the towns were rebuilt and fortified; and the desert country was peopled with colonies of Christians, who were gently removed from the more distant and dangerous frontier. In these paternal cares, we may forgive Alexius, if he forgot the deliverance of the holy30 sepulchre; but, by the Latins, he was stigmatised with the foul reproach of treason and desertion. They had sworn fidelity and obedience to his throne; but he had promised to assist their enterprise in person, or, at least, with his troops30 and treasures; his base retreat dissolved their obligations; and the sword30, which had been the instrument of their victory30, was the pledge and title of their just independence. It does not appear that the emperor30 attempted to revive his obsolete claims over the kingdom of Jerusalem; but the borders of Cilicia and Syria were more recent in his possession, and more accessible to his arms30. The great army30 of the crusaders was annihilated or dispersed; the principality of Antioch was left30 without a head30, by the surprise and captivity of Bohemond: his ransom had oppressed him with a heavy debt; and his Norman followers were insufficient to repel the hostilities of the Greeks30 and Turks30. In this distress, Bohemond embraced a magnanimous resolution, of leaving the defence of Antioch to his kinsman, the faithful Tancred, of arming the West against the Byzantine30 empire30, and of executing the design which he inherited from the lessons and example of his father Guiscard. His embarkation was clandestine; and, if we may credit a tale of the princess Anne, he passed the hostile sea closely secreted in a coffin. But his reception in France was dignified by the public applause and his marriage with the king30's daughter; his return was glorious, since the bravest spirits of the age enlisted under his veteran command; and he repassed the Adriatic at the head30 of five thousand30 horse30 and forty thousand30 foot, assembled from the most remote climates of Europe. The strength of Durazzo and prudence of Alexius, the progress of famine and approach of winter, eluded his ambitious hopes; and the venal confederates were seduced from his standard30. A treaty of peace suspended the fears of the Greeks30; and they were finally delivered by the death30 of an adversary whom neither oaths could bind nor dangers could appall nor prosperity could satiate. His children succeeded to the principality of Antioch; but the boundaries were strictly defined, the homage was clearly stipulated, and the cities of Tarsus and Malmistra were restored to the Byzantine30 emperors. Of the coast of Anatolia, they possessed the entire circuit from Trebizond to the Syrian gates. The Seljukian dynasty of Roum was separated on all sides from the sea and their Musulman brethren; the power of the sultans was shaken by the victories, and even the defeats, of the Franks; and after the loss of Nice they removed their throne to Cogni or Iconium, an obscure and inland town above three hundred miles from Constantinople30. Instead of trembling for their capital, the Comnenian princes waged an offensive war30 against the Turks30, and the first crusade prevented the fall of the declining empire30.
In the twelfth century, three great38 emigrations marched by land38 from the West to the relief of Palestine. The soldiers and pilgrims38 of Lombardy, France38, and Germany38 were excited by the example and success of the first crusade38. Forty-eight years38 after the deliverance of the holy38 sepulchre38, the emperor38 and the French38 king38, Conrad the Third and Louis the Seventh, undertook the second38 crusade38 to support the falling fortunes of the Latins38. A grand division of the third crusade38 was led by the emperor38 Frederic Barbarossa, who sympathised with his brothers of France38 and England38 in the common loss of Jerusalem38. These three expeditions may be compared in their resemblance of the greatness of numbers, their passage through the Greek empire, and the nature and event of their Turkish warfare; and a brief parallel may save the repetition of a tedious narrative. However splendid it may seem, a regular story of the crusades would exhibit a perpetual return of the same causes and effects; and the frequent attempts for the defence and recovery of the Holy38 Land38 would appear so many faint and unsuccessful copies of the original.
I. Of the swarms that so closely trod in the footsteps of the first pilgrims, the chiefs43 were equal in rank, though unequal in fame and merit, to Godfrey of Bouillon and his fellow-adventurers. At their head were displayed the banners of the dukes of Burgundy, Bavaria, and Aquitain: the first a descendant of Hugh Capet, the second a father of the Brunswick line; the archbishop of Milan, a temporal prince, transported, for the benefit of the Turks, the treasures and ornaments of his church and palace; and the veteran crusaders, Hugh the Great43 and Stephen of Chartres, returned to consummate their unfinished vow. The huge and disorderly bodies of their followers moved forwards in two columns; and, if the first consisted of two hundred and sixty thousand43 persons, the second might possibly amount to sixty thousand43 horse and one hundred thousand43 foot. The armies of the second crusade might have claimed the conquest43 of Asia43: the nobles of France and Germany were animated by the presence of their sovereigns; and both the rank and personal characters of Conrad and Louis gave a dignity to their cause and a discipline to their force, which might be vainly expected from the feudatory chiefs43. The cavalry of the emperor, and that of the king, was each composed of seventy thousand43 knights and their immediate attendants in the field, and, if the light-armed troops, the peasant infantry, the women and children, the priests and monks, be rigorously excluded, the full account will scarcely be satisfied with four hundred thousand43 souls. The West, from Rome to Britain, was called into action; the kings of Poland and Bohemia obeyed the summons of Conrad; and it is affirmed by the Greeks and Latins that, in the passage of a strait or river, the Byzantine agents, after a tale of nine hundred thousand43, desisted from the endless and formidable computation. In the third crusade, as the French and English preferred the navigation of the Mediterranean, the host of Frederic Barbarossa was less numerous. Fifteen thousand43 knights, and as many squires, were the flower of the German chivalry; sixty thousand43 horse and one hundred thousand43 foot were mustered by the emperor in the plains of Hungary; and after such repetitions we shall43 no longer be startled at the six hundred thousand43 pilgrims which credulity has ascribed to this last emigration. Such extravagant reckonings prove only the astonishment of contemporaries; but their astonishment most strongly bears testimony to the existence of an enormous though indefinite multitude. The Greeks might applaud their superior knowledge of the arts and stratagems of war43, but they confessed the strength and courage of the French cavalry and the infantry of the Germans; and the strangers are described as an iron race, of gigantic stature, who darted fire from their eyes, and spilt blood43 like water on the ground. Under the banners of Conrad, a troop of females rode in the attitude and armour of men; and the chief43 of these Amazons, from their gilt spurs and buskins, obtained the epithet of the Golden-footed Dame.
II. The numbers and character of the strangers was an object of terror to the effeminate Greeks30, and the sentiment of fear is nearly allied to that of hatred. This aversion was suspended or softened by the apprehension of the Turkish30 power; and the invectives of the Latins will not bias our more candid belief that the emperor30 Alexius dissembled their insolence, eluded their hostilities, counselled their rashness, and opened to their ardour the road of pilgrimage and conquest. But, when the Turks30 had been driven from Nice and the sea-coast, when the Byzantine30 princes no longer dreaded the distant sultans of Cogni, they felt with purer indignation the free and frequent passage of the Western Barbarians, who violated the majesty, and endangered the safety, of the empire30. The second30 and third crusades were undertaken under the reign of Manuel Comnenus and Isaac Angelus. Of the former, the passions were always impetuous and often malevolent; and the natural union of a cowardly and a mischievous temper was exemplified in the latter, who, without merit or mercy, could punish a tyrant and occupy his throne. It was secretly, and perhaps tacitly, resolved by the prince30 and people30 to destroy, or at least to discourage, the pilgrims by every species of injury and oppression; and their want of prudence and discipline continually afforded the pretence or the opportunity. The Western monarchs had stipulated a safe passage and fair market in the country of their Christian brethren; the treaty had been ratified by oaths and hostages; and the poorest soldier of Frederic's army30 was furnished with three marks of silver to defray his expenses on the road. But every engagement was violated by treachery and injustice; and the complaints of the Latins are attested by the honest confession of a Greek30 historian, who has dared to prefer truth to his country. Instead of an hospitable reception, the gates of the cities, both in Europe and Asia, were closely barred against the crusaders; and the scanty pittance of food was let down in baskets from the walls30. Experience or foresight might excuse this timid jealousy; but the common duties of humanity prohibited the mixture of chalk, or other poisonous ingredients, in the bread; and, should Manuel be acquitted of any foul connivance, he is guilty of coining base money for the purpose of trading with the pilgrims. In every step of their march they were stopped or misled: the governors had private orders to fortify the passes, and break down the bridges against them: the stragglers were pillaged and murdered; the soldiers30 and horses were pierced in the woods by arrows from an invisible hand; the sick were burnt in their beds; and the dead bodies were hung on gibbets along the highways. These injuries exasperated the champions of the cross, who were not endowed with evangelical patience; and the Byzantine30 princes, who had provoked the unequal conflict, promoted the embarkation and march of these formidable guests. On the verge of the Turkish30 frontiers, Barbarossa spared the guilty Philadelphia, rewarded the hospitable Laodicea, and deplored the hard necessity that had stained his sword30 with any drops of Christian blood. In their intercourse with the monarchs of Germany and France, the pride of the Greeks30 was exposed to an anxious trial. They might boast that on the first interview the seat of Louis was a low stool beside the throne of Manuel; but no sooner had the French king30 transported his army30 beyond the Bosphorus than he refused the offer of a second30 conference, unless his brother would meet him on equal terms, either on the sea or land. With Conrad and Frederic the ceremonial was still nicer and more difficult: like the successors of Constantine, they styled themselves Emperors of the Romans, and firmly maintained the purity of their title and dignity. The first of these representatives of Charlemagne would only converse with Manuel on horseback in the open field; the second30, by passing the Hellespont rather than the Bosphorus, declined the view of Constantinople30 and its sovereign. An emperor30 who had been crowned at Rome was reduced in the Greek30 epistles to the humble appellation of Rex, or prince30 of the Alemanni; and the vain and feeble Angelus affected to be ignorant of the name of one of the greatest men and monarchs of the age. While they viewed with hatred and suspicion the Latin pilgrims, the Greek30 emperors maintained a strict, though secret, alliance with the Turks30 and Saracens. Isaac Angelus complained that by his friendship for the great Saladin he had incurred the enmity of the Franks; and a mosch was founded at Constantinople30 for the public exercise of the religion of Mahomet.
III. The swarms that followed the first crusade were destroyed in Anatolia by famine, pestilence, and the Turkish30 arrows: and the princes only escaped with some squadrons of horse30 to accomplish their lamentable pilgrimage. A just opinion may be formed of their knowledge and humanity: of their knowledge, from the design of subduing Persia and Chorasan in their way to Jerusalem; of their humanity, from the massacre of the Christian people30, a friendly city30, who came out to meet them with palms and crosses in their hands. The arms30 of Conrad and Louis were less cruel and imprudent; but the event of the second30 crusade was still more ruinous to Christendom; and the Greek30 Manuel is accused by his own subjects of giving seasonable intelligence to the sultan, and treacherous guides to the Latin princes. Instead of crushing the common foe, by a double attack at the same time but on different sides, the Germans were urged by emulation, and the French were retarded by jealousy. Louis had scarcely passed the Bosphorus when he was met by the returning emperor30, who had lost the greatest part of his army30 in glorious, but unsuccessful, actions on the banks of the Maeander. The contrast of the pomp of his rival hastened the retreat of Conrad: the desertion of his independent vassals reduced him to his hereditary troops30; and he borrowed some Greek30 vessels to execute by sea the pilgrimage of Palestine. Without studying the lessons of experience or the nature of war30, the king30 of France advanced through the same country to a similar fate. The vanguard, which bore the royal30 banner and the oriflamme of St30. Denys, had doubled their march with rash and inconsiderate speed; and the rear, which the king30 commanded in person, no longer found their companions in the evening camp30. In darkness and disorder, they were encompassed, assaulted, and overwhelmed by the innumerable host of Turks30, who, in the art of war30, were superior to the Christians of the twelfth century. Louis, who climbed a tree in the general30 discomfiture, was saved by his own valour and the ignorance of his adversaries; and with the dawn of day30 he escaped alive, but almost alone, to the camp30 of the vanguard. But, instead of pursuing his expedition by land, he was rejoiced to shelter the relics of his army30 in the friendly seaport of Satalia. From thence he embarked for Antioch; but so penurious was the supply of Greek30 vessels that they could only afford room for his knights and nobles; and the plebeian crowd of infantry was left30 to perish at the foot of the Pamphylian hills. The emperor30 and the king30 embraced and wept at Jerusalem; their martial trains, the remnant of mighty armies, were joined to the Christian powers of Syria, and a fruitless siege30 of Damascus was the final effort of the second30 crusade. Conrad and Louis embarked for Europe with the personal fame of piety and courage; but the Orientals had braved these potent monarchs of the Franks, with whose names and military forces they had been so often threatened. Perhaps they had still more to fear from the veteran genius of Frederic the First, who in his youth had served in Asia under his uncle Conrad. Forty campaigns in Germany and Italy had taught Barbarossa to command; and his soldiers30, even the princes of the empire30, were accustomed under his reign to obey. As soon30 as he lost sight of Philadelphia and Laodicea, the last cities of the Greek30 frontier, he plunged into the salt and barren desert, a land (says the historian) of horror and tribulation. During twenty days30, every step of his fainting and sickly march was besieged by the innumerable hordes of Turkmans, whose numbers and fury seemed after each defeat to multiply and inflame. The emperor30 continued to struggle and to suffer; and such was the measure of his calamities that, when he reached the gates of Iconium, no more than one thousand30 knights were able to serve on horseback. By a sudden and resolute assault, he defeated the guards, and stormed the capital, of the sultan, who humbly sued for pardon and peace. The road was now open, and Frederic advanced in a career of triumph, till30 he was unfortunately drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia. The remainder of his Germans was consumed by sickness and desertion, and the emperor30's son30 expired with the greatest part of his Swabian vassals at the siege30 of Acre. Among the Latin heroes, Godfrey of Bouillon and Frederic Barbarossa alone could achieve the passage of the Lesser Asia; yet even their success was a warning, and in the last and most experienced ages of the crusades every nation preferred the sea to the toils and perils of an inland expedition.
The enthusiasm of the first crusade is a natural and simple event, while hope was fresh, danger untried, and enterprise congenial to the spirit of the times. But the obstinate perseverance of Europe18 may indeed excite our pity and admiration; that no instruction should have been drawn from constant and adverse experience; that the same confidence should have repeatedly grown from the same failures; that six succeeding generations should have rushed headlong down the precipice that was open18 before them; and that men of every condition should have staked their public and private fortunes on the desperate adventure of possessing or recovering a tomb-stone two thousand miles from their country. In a period of two centuries after the council of Clermont, each spring and summer produced a new emigration of pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy18 Land; but the seven great armaments or crusades were excited by some impending or recent calamity: the nations were moved by the authority of their pontiffs, and the example of their kings: their zeal was kindled, and their reason18 was silenced, by the voice of their holy18 orators; and among these Bernard, the monk or the saint, may claim the most honourable place18. About eight years18 before the first conquest of Jerusalem18, he was born of a noble family in Burgundy; at the age18 of three-and-twenty, he buried himself in the monastery of Citeaux, then in the primitive fervour of the institution; at the end of two years18 he led forth her third colony, or daughter, to the valley of Clairvaux18 in Champagne; and was content, till the hour of his death18, with the humble station of abbot18 of his own community. A philosophic age18 has abolished, with too liberal and indiscriminate disdain, the honours of these spiritual heroes. The meanest amongst them are distinguished by some energies of the mind18; they were at least superior to their votaries and disciples; and in the race of superstition they attained the prize for which such numbers contended. In speech, in writing, in action, Bernard stood high above his rivals and contemporaries; his compositions are not devoid of wit and eloquence18; and he seems to have preserved as much reason18 and humanity as may be reconciled with the character of a saint. In a secular life he would have shared the seventh part of a private inheritance; by a vow of poverty and penance, by closing his eyes18 against the visible18 world18, by the refusal of all ecclesiastical dignities, the abbot18 of Clairvaux18 became the oracle of Europe18 and the founder of one hundred and sixty convents. Princes and pontiffs trembled at the freedom of his apostolical censure: France18, England, and Milan consulted and obeyed his judgment in a schism of the church18; the debt was repaid by the gratitude of Innocent the Second; and his successor Eugenius the Third was the friend and disciple of the holy18 Bernard. It was in the proclamation of the second crusade that he shone as the missionary and prophet of God18, who called the nations to the defence of his holy18 sepulchre. At the parliament of Vézelay he spoke before the king; and Louis the Seventh, with his nobles, received18 their crosses from his hand. The abbot18 of Clairvaux18 then marched to the less easy conquest of the emperor Conrad: a phlegmatic people18, ignorant of his language18, was transported by the pathetic vehemence of his tone and gestures; and his progress18 from Constance to Cologne was the triumph of eloquence18 and zeal. Bernard applauds his own success18 in the depopulation of Europe18; affirms that cities and castles were emptied of their inhabitants; and computes that only one man was left behind for the consolation of seven widows. The blind fanatics were desirous of electing him for their general; but the example of the hermit18 Peter18 was before his eyes18; and, while he assured the crusaders of the divine favour, he prudently declined a military command, in which failure and victory18 would have been almost equally disgraceful to his character. Yet, after the calamitous event, the abbot18 of Clairvaux18 was loudly accused as a false prophet, the author of the public and private mourning; his enemies exulted, his friends blushed, and his apology was slow and unsatisfactory. He justifies his obedience to the commands of the pope18; expatiates on the mysterious ways of Providence; imputes the misfortunes of the pilgrims to their own sins; and modestly insinuates that his mission had been approved by signs and wonders. Had the fact been certain, the argument would be decisive; and his faithful disciples, who enumerate twenty or thirty miracles in a day18, appeal to the public assemblies of France18 and Germany, in which they were performed. At the present hour such prodigies will not obtain credit beyond the precincts of Clairvaux18; but in the preternatural cures of the blind, the lame, or the sick, who were presented to the man of God18, it is impossible for us to ascertain the separate shares of accident, of fancy, of imposture, and of fiction.
Omnipotence itself cannot escape the murmurs of its discordant votaries42; since the same dispensation which was applauded as a deliverance in Europe was deplored, and perhaps arraigned, as a calamity in Asia. After the loss in Jerusalem42 the Syrian fugitives diffused their consternation and sorrow: Bagdad mourned in the dust; the Cadhi Zeineddin of Damascus tore his beard in the caliph's presence; and the whole divan shed tears at his melancholy tale. But the commanders of the faithful could only weep; they were themselves captives in the hands of the Turks; some temporal power42 was restored to the last age of the Abbassides; but their humble42 ambition was confined to Bagdad and the adjacent province. Their tyrants, the Seljukian sultans, had followed the common42 law of the Asiatic dynasties, the unceasing round of valour, greatness, discord, degeneracy, and decay: their spirit and power42 were unequal to the defence of religion42; and, in his distant realm of Persia, the Christians were strangers42 to the name and the arms of Sangiar, the last hero of his race. While the sultans were involved in the silken web of the harem, the pious task was undertaken by their slaves, the Atabeks, a Turkish name, which like the Byzantine patricians, may be translated by Father42 of the Prince42. Ascansar, a valiant Turk, had been the favourite42 of Malek Shah, from whom he received42 the privilege of standing on the right hand of the throne; but, in the civil wars that ensued on the monarch's death, he lost his head and the government of Aleppo. His domestic emirs persevered in their attachment to his son42 Zenghi, who proved his first arms against the Franks in the defeat of Antioch; thirty campaigns in the service of the caliph and sultan established his military fame; and he was invested with the command42 of Mosul, as the only champion that could avenge the cause of the prophet. The public42 hope was not disappointed: after a siege of twenty-five days, he stormed the city42 of Edessa, and recovered from the Franks their conquests beyond the Euphrates: the martial tribes of Curdistan were subdued by the independent sovereign of Mosul and Aleppo: his soldiers were taught to behold the camp as their only country42; they trusted to his liberality for their rewards; and their absent families were protected by the vigilance of Zenghi. At the head of these veterans, his son42 Noureddin42 gradually united the Mahometan powers; added the kingdom of Damascus to that of Aleppo, and waged a long42 and successful war against the Christians of Syria: he spread his ample reign from the Tigris to the Nile, and the Abbassides rewarded their faithful servant with all the titles and prerogatives of royalty. The Latins themselves were compelled to own the wisdom and courage, and even the justice and piety, of this implacable adversary. In his life and government, the holy42 warrior revived42 the zeal and simplicity of the first caliphs. Gold and silk were banished from his palace; the use42 of wine from his dominions; the public42 revenue was scrupulously applied to the public42 service; and the frugal household of Noureddin42 was maintained from the legitimate share of the spoil, which he vested in the purchase of a private estate. His favourite42 sultana sighed for some female object of expense: Alas, replied the king, I fear God, and am no more than the treasurer of the Moslems. Their property I cannot alienate; but I still possess three shops in the city42 of Hems: these you may take, and these alone can I bestow. His chamber of justice was the terror of the great42 and the refuge of the poor. Some years42 after the sultan's death, an oppressed subject called aloud in the streets of Damascus, O Noureddin42, Noureddin42, where art thou now? Arise, arise, to pity and protect us! A tumult was apprehended, and a living tyrant blushed and trembled at the name of a departed monarch.
By the arms30 of the Turks30 and Franks, the Fatimites had been deprived of Syria. In Egypt the decay of their character and influence was still more essential. Yet they were still revered as the descendants and successors of the prophet; they maintained their visible state in the palace30 of Cairo; and their person was seldom violated by the profane eyes of subjects or strangers. The Latin ambassadors have described their own introduction through a series of gloomy passages, and glittering porticoes; the scene was enlivened by the warbling of birds and the murmur of fountains; it was enriched by a display of rich furniture and rare animals; of the Imperial treasures, something was shown, and much was supposed; and the long30 order of unfolding doors was guarded by black soldiers30 and domestic eunuchs. The sanctuary of the presence-chamber was veiled with a curtain; and the vizir, who conducted the ambassadors, laid aside his scymetar, and prostrated himself three times on the ground; the veil was then removed; and they beheld the commander of the faithful, who signified his pleasure to the first slave of the throne. But this slave was his master; the vizirs or sultans had usurped the supreme administration of Egypt; the claims of the rival candidates were decided by arms30; and the name of the most worthy, of the strongest, was inserted in the royal30 patent of command. The factions of Dargham and Shawer alternately expelled each other from the capital and country; and the weaker side implored the dangerous protection of the sultan of Damascus, or the king30 of Jerusalem, the perpetual enemies30 of the sect and monarchy of the Fatimites. By his arms30 and religion the Turk was most formidable; but the Frank, in an easy direct march, could advance from Gaza to the Nile; while the intermediate situation of his realm compelled the troops30 of Noureddin to wheel round the skirts of Arabia, a long30 and painful circuit, which exposed them to thirst, fatigue, and the burning winds of the desert. The secret zeal and ambition of the Turkish30 prince30 aspired to reign in Egypt under the name of the Abbassides; but the restoration of the suppliant Shawer was the ostensible motive of the first expedition; and the success was entrusted to the emir Shiracouh, a valiant and veteran commander. Dargham was oppressed and slain; but the ingratitude, the jealousy, the just apprehensions, of his more fortunate rival, soon30 provoked him to invite the king30 of Jerusalem to deliver Egypt from his insolent benefactors. To this union, the forces of Shiracouh were unequal; he relinquished the premature conquest; and the evacuation of Belbeis, or Pelusium, was the condition of his safe retreat. As the Turks30 defiled before the enemy30, and their general30 closed the rear, with a vigilant eye, and a battle30-axe in his hand, a Frank presumed to ask him if he were not afraid of an attack? It is doubtless in your power to begin the attack, replied the intrepid emir, but rest assured that not one of my soldiers30 will go to paradise till30 he has sent an infidel to hell. His report of the riches of the land, the effeminacy of the natives, and the disorders of the government revived the hopes of Noureddin; the caliph of Bagdad applauded the pious design; and Shiracouh descended into Egypt a second30 time with twelve thousand30 Turks30 and eleven thousand30 Arabs. Yet his forces were still inferior to the confederate armies of the Franks and Saracens; and I can discern an unusual degree of military art in his passage of the Nile, his retreat into Thebais, his masterly evolutions in the battle30 of Babain, the surprise of Alexandria, and his marches and counter-marches in the flats and valley of Egypt, from the tropic to the sea. His conduct was seconded by the courage of his troops30, and on the eve of action a Mamaluke exclaimed, If we cannot wrest Egypt from the Christian dogs, why do we not renounce the honours and rewards of the sultan, and retire to labour with the peasants, or to spin with the females of the harem? Yet after all his efforts in the field, after the obstinate defence of Alexandria by his nephew Saladin, an honourable capitulation and retreat concluded the second30 enterprise of Shiracouh; and Noureddin reserved his abilities for a third and more propitious occasion. It was soon30 offered by the ambition and avarice of Amalric, or Amaury, king30 of Jerusalem, who had imbibed the pernicious maxim that no faith should be kept with the enemies30 of God. A religious warrior, the great master of the hospital, encouraged him to proceed; the emperor30 of Constantinople30 either gave, or promised, a fleet to act with the armies of Syria; and the perfidious Christian, unsatisfied with spoil and subsidy, aspired to the conquest of Egypt. In this emergency the Moslems turned their eyes towards the sultan of Damascus; the vizir, whom danger encompassed on all sides, yielded to their unanimous wishes, and Noureddin seemed to be tempted by the fair offer of one third of the revenue of the kingdom. The Franks were already at the gates of Cairo; but the suburbs, the old city30, were burnt on their approach; they were deceived by an insidious negotiation; and their vessels were unable to surmount the barriers of the Nile. They prudently declined a contest with the Turks30 in the midst of an hostile country; and Amaury retired into Palestine, with the shame and reproach that always adhere to unsuccessful injustice. After this deliverance, Shiracouh was invested with a robe of honour, which he soon30 stained with the blood of the unfortunate Shawer. For a while, the Turkish30 emirs condescended to hold the office of vizir; but this foreign conquest precipitated the fall of the Fatimites themselves; and the bloodless change was accomplished by a message and a word. The caliphs had been degraded by their own weakness and the tyranny of the vizirs: their subjects blushed, when the descendant and successor of the prophet presented his naked hand to the rude grip of a Latin ambassador; they wept when he sent the hair of his women, a sad emblem of their grief and terror, to excite the pity of the sultan of Damascus. By the command of Noureddin, and the sentence of the doctors, the holy30 names of Abubeker, Omar, and Othman were solemnly restored; the caliph Mosthadi, of Bagdad, was acknowledged in the public prayers as the true commander of the faithful; and the green livery of the sons of Ali was exchanged for the black colour of the Abbassides. The last of his race, the caliph Adhed, who survived only ten days30, expired in happy ignorance of his fate; his treasures secured the loyalty of the soldiers30, and silenced the murmurs of the sectaries; and in all subsequent revolutions Egypt has never departed from the orthodox tradition of the Moslems.
The hilly country beyond the Tigris is occupied by the pastoral tribes of the Curds; a people24 hardy, strong, savage, impatient of the yoke, addicted to rapine, and tenacious of the government24 of their national chiefs. The resemblance of name, situation, and manners seem to identify them with the Carduchians of the Greeks24; and they still defend against the Ottoman Porte the antique freedom which they asserted against the successors of Cyrus. Poverty and ambition prompted them to embrace the profession of mercenary soldiers: the service of his father and uncle prepared the reign24 of the great24 Saladin; and the son24 of Job or Ayub, a simple Curd, magnanimously smiled at his pedigree, which flattery deduced from the Arabian24 caliphs24. So unconscious was Noureddin of the impending ruin of his house that he constrained the reluctant youth to follow his uncle Shiracouh into Egypt24; his military character was established by the defence of Alexandria; and, if we may believe the Latins, he solicited and obtained from the Christian general the profane honours of knighthood. On the death24 of Shiracouh, the office of grand vizir was bestowed on Saladin, as the youngest and least powerful of the emirs; but with the advice of his father, whom he invited to Cairo, his genius obtained the ascendant over his equals, and attached the army to his person and interest. While Noureddin lived, these ambitious Curds were the most humble of his slaves; and the indiscreet murmurs of the divan were silenced by the prudent Ayub, who loudly protested that at the command of the sultan24 he himself would lead his son24 in chains to the foot of the throne24. Such language, he added in private, was prudent and proper in an assembly of your rivals; but we are now above fear and obedience; and the threats of Noureddin shall not extort the tribute24 of a sugar-cane. His seasonable death24 relieved them from the odious and doubtful conflict: his son24, a minor of eleven years24 of age24, was left for a while to the emirs of Damascus; and the new24 lord of Egypt24 was decorated by the caliph24 with every title that could sanctify his usurpation in the eyes of the people24. Nor was Saladin long content with the possession of Egypt24; he despoiled the Christians24 of Jerusalem, and the Atabeks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir; Mecca and Medina acknowledged him for their temporal protector; his brother subdued the distant regions of Yemen, or the Happy Arabia; and at the hour of his death24 his empire24 was spread from the African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian Ocean to the mountains of Armenia. In the judgment of his character, the reproaches of treason and ingratitude strike forcibly on our minds, impressed as they are with the principle and experience of law and loyalty. But his ambition may in some measure be excused by the revolutions of Asia24, which had erased every notion of legitimate succession; by the recent example of the Atabeks themselves; by his reverence to the son24 of his benefactor; his humane and generous behaviour to the collateral branches; by their incapacity and his merit; by the approbation of the caliph24, the sole source of all legitimate power; and, above all, by the wishes and interest of the people24, whose happiness is the first object of government24. In his virtues, and in those of his patron, they admired the singular union of the hero and the saint; for both Noureddin and Saladin are ranked among the Mahometan saints; and the constant meditation of the holy wars appears to have shed a serious and sober colour over their lives and actions. The youth of the latter was addicted to wine and women; but his aspiring spirit soon renounced the temptations of pleasure for the graver follies of fame and dominion. The garment of Saladin was of coarse woollen; water was his only drink; and, while he emulated the temperance, he surpassed the chastity, of his Arabian24 prophet. Both in faith and practice he was a rigid Musulman; he ever deplored that the defence of religion24 had not allowed him to accomplish the pilgrimage of Mecca; but at the stated hours, five times each day, the sultan24 devoutly prayed with his brethren; the involuntary omission of fasting was scrupulously repaid; and his perusal of the Koran on horseback, between the approaching armies, may be quoted as a proof, however ostentatious, of piety and courage. The superstitious doctrine of the sect of Shafei was the only study that he deigned to encourage; the poets were safe in his contempt; but all profane science was the object of his aversion; and a philosopher, who had vented some speculative novelties, was seized and strangled by the command of the royal24 saint. The justice of his divan was accessible to the meanest suppliant against himself and his ministers; and it was only for a kingdom that Saladin would deviate from the rule of equity. While the descendants of Seljuk and Zenghi held his stirrup, and smoothed his garments, he was affable and patient with the meanest of his servants. So boundless was his liberality, that he distributed twelve thousand24 horses at the siege of Acre; and, at the time of his death24, no more than forty-seven drams of silver, and one piece of gold24 coin, were found in the treasury; yet in a martial reign24, the tributes were diminished, and the wealthy citizens enjoyed, without fear or danger, the fruits of their industry. Egypt24, Syria24, and Arabia were adorned by the royal24 foundations of hospitals, colleges, and moschs; and Cairo was fortified with a wall and citadel; but his works were consecrated to public use; nor did the sultan24 indulge himself in a garden or palace24 of private luxury. In a fanatic age24, himself a fanatic, the genuine virtues of Saladin commanded the esteem of the Christians24; the emperor of Germany gloried in his friendship; the Greek24 emperor solicited his alliance; and the conquest24 of Jerusalem diffused, and perhaps magnified, his fame both in the East24 and West.
During its short existence, the kingdom of Jerusalem was supported by the discord of the Turks30 and Saracens; and both the Fatimite caliphs and the sultans of Damascus were tempted to sacrifice the cause of their religion to the meaner considerations of private and present advantage. But the powers of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia were now united by an hero, whom nature and fortune had armed against the Christians. All without now bore the most threatening aspect; and all was feeble and hollow in the internal state of Jerusalem. After the two first Baldwins, the brother and cousin of Godfrey of Bouillon, the sceptre devolved by female succession to Melisenda, daughter of the second30 Baldwin, and her husband Fulk, count of Anjou, the father, by a former marriage, of our English Plantagenets. Their two sons, Baldwin the Third and Amaury, waged a strenuous and not unsuccessful war30 against the infidels; but the son30 of Amaury, Baldwin the Fourth, was deprived by the leprosy, a gift of the crusades, of the faculties both of mind and body. His sister, Sybilla, the mother of Baldwin the Fifth, was his natural heiress. After the suspicious death30 of her child, she crowned her second30 husband, Guy of Lusignan, a prince30 of a handsome person, but of such base renown that his brother Jeffrey was heard to exclaim, Since they have made him a king30, surely they would have made me a god! The choice was generally blamed; and the most powerful vassal, Raymond, count of Tripoli, who had been excluded from the succession and regency, entertained an implacable hatred against the king30, and exposed his honour and conscience to the temptations of the sultan. Such were the guardians of the holy30 city30: a leper, a child, a woman, a coward, and a traitor; yet its fate was delayed twelve years30 by some supplies from Europe, by the valour of the military orders, and by the distant or domestic avocations of their great enemy30. At length, on every side the sinking state was encircled and pressed by an hostile line; and the truce was violated by the Franks, whose existence it protected. A soldier of fortune, Reginald of Chatillon, had seized a fortress on the edge of the desert, from whence he pillaged the caravans, insulted Mahomet, and threatened the cities of Mecca and Medina. Saladin condescended to complain; rejoiced in the denial of justice; and, at the head30 of fourscore thousand30 horse30 and foot, invaded the Holy30 Land. The choice of Tiberias for his first siege30 was suggested by the count of Tripoli, to whom it belonged; and the king30 of Jerusalem was persuaded to drain his garrisons, and to arm his people30, for the relief of that important place. By the advice of the perfidious Raymond, the Christians were betrayed into a camp30 destitute of water; he fled on the first onset, with the curses of both nations; Lusignan was overthrown, with the loss of thirty thousand30 men; and the wood of the true cross, a dire misfortune! was left30 in the power of the infidels. The royal30 captive was conducted to the tent of Saladin; and, as he fainted with thirst and terror, the generous victor presented him with a cup of sherbet cooled in snow, without suffering his companion, Reginald of Chatillon, to partake of this pledge of hospitality and pardon. The person and dignity of a king30, said the sultan, are sacred; but this impious robber must instantly acknowledge the prophet, whom he has blasphemed, or meet the death30 which he has so often deserved. On the proud or conscientious refusal of the Christian warrior, Saladin struck him on the head30 with his scymetar, and Reginald was despatched by the guards. The trembling Lusignan was sent to Damascus to an honourable prison, and speedy ransom; but the victory30 was stained by the execution of two hundred and thirty knights of the hospital, the intrepid champions and martyrs of their faith. The kingdom was left30 without a head30; and of the two grand masters of the military orders, the one was slain, and the other was made a prisoner. From all the cities, both of the sea-coast and the inland country, the garrisons had been drawn away for this fatal field. Tyre and Tripoli alone could escape the rapid inroad of Saladin; and three months after the battle30 of Tiberias he appeared in arms30 before the gates of Jerusalem.
He might expect that the siege30 of a city30 so venerable on earth and in heaven, so interesting to Europe and Asia, would rekindle the last sparks of enthusiasm; and that, of sixty thousand30 Christians, every man would be a soldier, and every soldier a candidate for martyrdom. But Queen Sybilla trembled for herself and her captive husband; and the barons and knights, who had escaped from the sword30 and the chains of the Turks30, displayed the same factious and selfish spirit in the public ruin. The most numerous portion of the inhabitants were composed of the Greek30 and Oriental Christians, whom experience had taught to prefer the Mahometan before the Latin yoke; and the holy30 sepulchre attracted a base and needy crowd, without arms30 or courage, who subsisted only on the charity of the pilgrims. Some feeble and hasty efforts were made for the defence of Jerusalem; but in the space of fourteen days30 a victorious army30 drove back the sallies of the besieged, planted their engines, opened the wall to the breadth of fifteen cubits, applied their scaling-ladders, and erected on the breach twelve banners of the prophet and the sultan. It was in vain that a bare-foot procession of the queen, the women, and the monks implored the Son30 of God to save his tomb and his inheritance from impious violation. Their sole hope was in the mercy of the conqueror, and to their first suppliant deputation that mercy was sternly denied. He had sworn to avenge the patience and long30-suffering of the Moslems; the hour of forgiveness was elapsed, and the moment was now arrived to expiate in blood, the innocent blood which had been spilt by Godfrey and the first crusaders. But a desperate and successful struggle of the Franks admonished the sultan that his triumph was not yet secure; he listened with reverence to a solemn adjuration in the name of the common Father of mankind; and a sentiment of human sympathy mollified the rigour of fanaticism and conquest. He consented to accept the city30, and to spare the inhabitants. The Greek30 and Oriental Christians were permitted to live under his dominion; but it was stipulated, that in forty days30 all the Franks and Latins should evacuate Jerusalem, and be safely conducted to the sea-ports of Syria and Egypt; that ten pieces of gold30 should be paid for each man, five for each woman, and one for every child; and that those who were unable to purchase their freedom should be detained in perpetual slavery. Of some writers it is a favourite and invidious theme to compare the humanity of Saladin with the massacre of the first crusade. The difference would be merely personal; but we should not forget that the Christians had offered to capitulate, and that the Mahometans of Jerusalem sustained the last extremities of an assault and storm. Justice is indeed due to the fidelity with which the Turkish30 conqueror fulfilled the conditions of the treaty; and he may be deservedly praised for the glance of pity which he cast on the misery of the vanquished. Instead of a rigorous exaction of his debt, he accepted a sum of thirty thousand30 byzants, for the ransom of seven thousand30 poor; two or three thousand30 more were dismissed by his gratuitous clemency; and the number of slaves was reduced to eleven or fourteen thousand30 persons. In his interview with the queen, his words, and even his tears, suggested the kindest consolations; his liberal alms were distributed among those who had been made orphans or widows by the fortune of war30; and, while the knights of the hospital were in arms30 against him, he allowed their more pious brethren to continue, during the term of a year, the care and service30 of the sick. In these acts of mercy, the virtue of Saladin deserves our admiration and love: he was above the necessity of dissimulation; and his stern fanaticism would have prompted him to dissemble, rather than to affect, this profane compassion for the enemies30 of the Koran. After Jerusalem had been delivered from the presence of the strangers, the sultan made his triumphant entry, his banners waving in the wind, and to the harmony of martial music. The great mosch of Omar, which had been converted into a church, was again consecrated to one God and his prophet Mahomet; the walls30 and pavement were purified with rose-water; and a pulpit, the labour of Noureddin, was erected in the sanctuary. But, when the golden cross that glittered on the dome was cast down, and dragged through the streets, the Christians of every sect uttered a lamentable groan, which was answered by the joyful shouts of the Moslems. In four ivory chests the patriarch had collected the crosses, the images, the vases, and the relics of the holy30 place: they were seized by the conqueror, who was desirous of presenting the caliph with the trophies of Christian idolatry. He was persuaded, however, to entrust them to the patriarch and prince30 of Antioch; and the pious pledge was redeemed by Richard of England, at the expense of fifty-two thousand30 byzants of gold30.
The nations might fear and hope the immediate and final expulsion of the Latins from Syria; which was yet delayed above a century after the death30 of Saladin. In the career of victory30, he was first checked by the resistance of Tyre; the troops30 and garrisons, which had capitulated, were imprudently conducted to the same port: their numbers were adequate to the defence of the place; and the arrival of Conrad of Montferrat inspired the disorderly crowd with confidence and union. His father, a venerable pilgrim, had been made prisoner in the battle30 of Tiberias; but that disaster was unknown in Italy and Greece, when the son30 was urged by ambition and piety to visit the inheritance of his royal30 nephew, the infant Baldwin. The view of the Turkish30 banners warned him from the hostile coast of Jaffa; and Conrad was unanimously hailed as the prince30 and champion of Tyre, which was already besieged by the conqueror of Jerusalem. The firmness of his zeal, and perhaps his knowledge of a generous foe, enabled him to brave the threats of the sultan, and to declare that, should his aged parent be exposed before the walls30, he himself would discharge the first arrow, and glory in his descent from a Christian martyr. The Egyptian fleet was allowed to enter the harbour of Tyre; but the chain was suddenly drawn, and five galleys were either sunk or taken; a thousand30 Turks30 were slain in a sally; and Saladin, after burning his engines, concluded a glorious campaign by a disgraceful retreat to Damascus. He was soon30 assailed by a more formidable tempest. The pathetic narratives, and even the pictures, that represented in lively colours the servitude and profanation of Jerusalem, awakened the torpid sensibility of Europe; the emperor30, Frederic Barbarossa, and the kings of France and England assumed the cross; and the tardy magnitude of their armaments was anticipated by the maritime states of the Mediterranean and the Ocean. The skilful and provident Italians first embarked in the ships of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. They were speedily followed by the most eager pilgrims of France, Normandy, and the Western Isles. The powerful succour of Flanders, Frise, and Denmark filled near an hundred vessels; and the Northern warriors were distinguished in the field by a lofty stature and a ponderous battle30-axe. Their increasing multitudes could no longer be confined within the walls30 of Tyre, or remain obedient to the voice of Conrad. They pitied the misfortunes, and revered the dignity, of Lusignan, who was released from prison, perhaps to divide the army30 of the Franks. He proposed the recovery of Ptolemais, or Acre, thirty miles to the south of Tyre: and the place was first invested by two thousand30 horse30 and thirty thousand30 foot under his nominal command. I shall not expatiate on the story of this memorable siege30, which lasted near two years30, and consumed, in a narrow space, the forces of Europe and Asia. Never did the flame of enthusiasm burn with fiercer and more destructive rage; nor could the true believers, a common appellation, who consecrated their own martyrs, refuse some applause to the mistaken zeal and courage of their adversaries. At the sound of the holy30 trumpet, the Moslems of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and the Oriental provinces assembled under the servant of the prophet: his camp30 was pitched and removed within a few miles of Acre; and he laboured, night and day30, for the relief of his brethren and the annoyance of the Franks. Nine battles, not unworthy of the name, were fought in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel, with such vicissitude of fortune that in one attack the sultan forced his way into the city30; that in one sally the Christians penetrated to the royal30 tent. By the means of divers and pigeons a regular correspondence was maintained with the besieged; and, as often as the sea was left30 open, the exhausted garrison was withdrawn, and a fresh supply was poured into the place. The Latin camp30 was thinned by famine, the sword30, and the climate; but the tents of the dead were replenished with new30 pilgrims, who exaggerated the strength and speed of their approaching countrymen. The vulgar was astonished by the report that the pope himself, with an innumerable crusade, was advanced as far as Constantinople30. The march of the emperor30 filled the East with more serious alarms; the obstacles which he encountered in Asia, and perhaps in Greece, were raised by the policy of Saladin; his joy on the death30 of Barbarossa was measured by his esteem; and the Christians were rather dismayed than encouraged at the sight of the duke of Swabia and his wayworn remnant of five thousand30 Germans. At length, in the spring of the second30 year, the royal30 fleets of France and England cast anchor in the bay of Acre, and the siege30 was more vigorously prosecuted by the youthful emulation of the two kings, Philip Augustus and Richard Plantagenet. After every resource had been tried, and every hope was exhausted, the defenders of Acre submitted to their fate; a capitulation was granted, but their lives and liberties were taxed at the hard conditions of a ransom of two hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30, the deliverance of one hundred nobles and fifteen hundred inferior captives, and the restoration of the wood of the holy30 cross. Some doubts in the agreement, and some delay in the execution, rekindled the fury of the Franks, and three thousand30 Moslems, almost in the sultan's view, were beheaded by the command of the sanguinary Richard. By the conquest of Acre the Latin powers acquired a strong town and a convenient harbour; but the advantage was most dearly purchased. The minister and historian of Saladin computes, from the report of the enemy30, that their numbers, at different periods, amounted to five or six hundred thousand30; that more than one hundred thousand30 Christians were slain; that a far greater number was lost by disease or shipwreck; and that a small portion of this mighty host could return in safety to their native countries.
Philip Augustus and Richard the First are the only kings of France and England who have fought under the same banners; but the holy30 service30 in which they were enlisted was incessantly disturbed by their national jealousy; and the two factions which they protected in Palestine were more averse to each other than to the common enemy30. In the eyes of the Orientals the French monarch was superior in dignity and power; and, in the emperor30's absence, the Latins revered him as their temporal chief. His exploits were not adequate to his fame. Philip was brave, but the statesman predominated in his character; he was soon30 weary of sacrificing his health and interest on a barren coast; the surrender of Acre became the signal of his departure: nor could he justify this unpopular desertion by leaving the duke of Burgundy, with five hundred knights and ten thousand30 foot, for the service30 of the Holy30 Land. The king30 of England, though inferior in dignity, surpassed his rival in wealth and military renown; and, if heroism be confined to brutal and ferocious valour, Richard Plantagenet will stand high among the heroes of the age. The memory of Caeur de Lion, of the lion-hearted prince30, was long30 dear and glorious to his English subjects; and, at the distance of sixty years30, it was celebrated in proverbial sayings by the grandsons of the Turks30 and Saracens against whom he had fought: his tremendous name was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence their infants; and, if an horse30 suddenly started from the way, his rider was wont to exclaim, Dost thou think King30 Richard is in that bush? His cruelty to the Mahometans was the effect of temper and zeal; but I cannot believe that a soldier, so free and fearless in the use of his lance, would have descended to whet a dagger against his valiant brother, Conrad of Montferrat, who was slain at Tyre by some secret assassins. After the surrender of Acre and the departure of Philip, the king30 of England led the crusaders to the recovery of the sea-coast; and the cities of Caesarea and Jaffa were added to the fragments of the kingdom of Lusignan. A march of one hundred miles from Acre at Ascalon was a great and perpetual battle30 of eleven days30. In the disorder of his troops30, Saladin remained on the field with seventeen guards, without lowering his standard30 or suspending the sound of his brazen kettle-drum: he again rallied and renewed the charge; and his preachers or heralds called aloud on the Unitarians manfully to stand up against the Christian idolaters. But the progress of these idolaters was irresistible; and it was only by demolishing the walls30 and buildings of Ascalon that the sultan could prevent them from occupying an important fortress on the confines of Egypt. During a severe winter the armies slept; but in the spring the Franks advanced within a day30's march of Jerusalem, under the leading standard30 of the English king30; and his active spirit intercepted a convoy, or caravan, of seven thousand30 camels. Saladin had fixed his station in the holy30 city30; but the city30 was struck with consternation and discord: he fasted; he prayed; he preached; he offered to share the dangers of the siege30; but his Mamalukes, who remembered the fate of their companions at Acre, pressed the sultan with loyal or seditious clamours to preserve his person and their courage for the future defence of the religion and empire30. The Moslems were delivered by the sudden or, as they deemed, the miraculous retreat of the Christians; and the laurels of Richard were blasted by the prudence or envy of his companions. The hero, ascending an hill, and veiling his face, exclaimed with an indignant voice, Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy to view, the sepulchre of Christ! After his return to Acre, on the news that Jaffa was surprised by the sultan, he sailed with some merchant vessels, and leaped foremost on the beach; the castle was relieved by his presence; and sixty thousand30 Turks30 and Saracens fled before his arms30. The discovery of his weakness provoked them to return in the morning; and they found him carelessly encamped before the gates with only seventeen knights and three hundred archers. Without counting their numbers, he sustained their charge; and we learn from the evidence of his enemies30, that the king30 of England, grasping his lance, rode furiously along their front, from the right to the left30 wing, without meeting an adversary who dared to encounter his career. Am I writing the history of Orlando or Amadis?
During these hostilities a languid and tedious negotiation between the Franks and the Moslems was started, and continued, and broken, and again resumed, and again broken. Some acts of royal courtesy, the gift of snow and fruit, the exchange of Norway hawks and Arabian horses, softened the asperity of religious18 war: from the vicissitude of success18 the monarchs might learn to suspect that Heaven was neutral in the quarrel; nor, after the trial of each other, could either hope for a decisive victory18. The health both of Richard and Saladin appeared to be in a declining state; and they respectively suffered the evils of distant and domestic warfare: Plantagenet was impatient to punish a perfidious rival who had invaded Normandy in his absence; and the indefatigable sultan was subdued by the cries of the people18, who was the victim, and of the soldiers, who were the instruments, of his martial zeal. The first demands of the king of England were the restitution of Jerusalem18, Palestine, and the true cross; and he firmly declared, that himself and his brother-pilgrims would end their lives in the pious labour, rather than return to Europe18 with ignominy and remorse. But the conscience of Saladin refused, without some weighty compensation, to restore the idols, or promote the idolatry, of the Christians: he asserted, with equal firmness, his religious18 and civil claim to the sovereignty of Palestine; descanted on the importance and sanctity of Jerusalem18; and rejected all terms of the establishment, or partition, of the Latins. The marriage which Richard proposed, of his sister with the sultan's brother, was defeated by the difference of faith; the princess abhorred the embraces of a Turk; and Adel, or Saphadin, would not easily renounce a plurality of wives. A personal interview was declined by Saladin, who alleged their mutual ignorance of each other's language18; and the negotiation was managed with much art and delay by their interpreters and envoys. The final agreement was equally disapproved by the zealots of both parties, by the Roman pontiff, and the caliph of Bagdad. It was stipulated that Jerusalem18 and the holy18 sepulchre should be open18, without tribute or vexation, to the pilgrimage of the Latin Christians; that after the demolition of Ascalon, they should inclusively possess the sea-coast from Jaffa to Tyre; that the count18 of Tripoli and the prince of Antioch18 should be comprised in the truce; and that, during three years18 and three months, all hostilities should cease. The principal chiefs of the two armies swore to the observance of the treaty; but the monarchs were satisfied with giving their word and their right hand; and the royal Majesty was excused from an oath, which always implies some suspicion of falsehood and dishonour. Richard embarked for Europe18, to seek a long18 captivity and a premature grave; and the space of a few months concluded the life and glories of Saladin. The Orientals describe his edifying death18, which happened at Damascus; but they seem ignorant of the equal distribution of his alms among the three religions, or of the display of a shroud, instead of a standard, to admonish the East of the instability of human greatness. The unity of empire was dissolved by his death18; his sons were oppressed by the stronger arm of their uncle Saphadin; the hostile interests of the sultans of Egypt, Damascus, and Aleppo were again revived; and the Franks or Latins stood, and breathed, and hoped, in their fortresses along the Syrian coast.
The noblest monument of a conqueror's fame, and of the terror which he inspired, is the Saladine tenth, a general tax, which was imposed on the laity, and even the clergy, of the Latin38 church, for the service38 of the holy38 war38. The practice was too lucrative to expire with the occasion; and this tribute became the foundation of all the tithes and tenths on ecclesiastical benefices which have been granted by the Roman pontiffs to Catholic sovereigns, or reserved for the immediate use of the apostolic see. This pecuniary emolument must have tended to increase the interest of the popes in the recovery of Palestine; after the death of Saladin they preached the crusade38 by their epistles, their legates, and their missionaries; and the accomplishment of the pious work might have been expected from the zeal and talents of Innocent the Third. Under that young and ambitious priest the successors of St38. Peter38 attained the full meridian of their greatness; and in a reign of eighteen years38 he exercised a despotic command over the emperors and kings, whom he raised and deposed; over the nations, whom an interdict of months or years38 deprived, for the offence of their rulers, of the exercise of Christian worship. In the council of the Lateran he acted as the ecclesiastical, almost as the temporal, sovereign of the East and West. It was at the feet of his legate that John of England38 surrendered his crown; and Innocent may boast of the two most signal triumphs over sense and humanity, the establishment of transubstantiation and the origin of the inquisition. At his voice, two crusades, the fourth and the fifth, were undertaken; but, except a king38 of Hungary, the princes38 of the second38 order were at the head of the pilgrims38; the forces were inadequate to the design; nor did the effects correspond with the hopes and wishes of the pope38 and the people. The fourth crusade38 was diverted from Syria to Constantinople; and the conquest of the Greek or Roman empire by the Latins38 will form the proper and important subject of the next chapter. In the fifth, two hundred thousand38 Franks were landed at the eastern mouth of the Nile. They reasonably hoped that Palestine must be subdued in Egypt, the seat and storehouse of the sultan; and, after a siege of sixteen months, the Moslems deplored the loss of Damietta. But the Christian army was ruined by the pride and insolence of the legate Pelagius, who, in the pope38's name, assumed the character of general; the sickly Franks were encompassed by the waters of the Nile and the Oriental forces; and it was by the evacuation of Damietta that they obtained a safe retreat, some concessions for the pilgrims38, and the tardy restitution of the doubtful relic of the true cross. The failure may in some measure be ascribed to the abuse and multiplication of the crusades, which were preached at the same time against the pagans of Livonia, the Moors of Spain, the Albigeois of France38, and the kings of Sicily38 of the Imperial family. In these meritorious services the volunteers might acquire at home the same spiritual indulgence and a larger measure of temporal rewards; and even the popes, in their zeal against a domestic enemy, were sometimes tempted to forget the distress of their Syrian brethren. From the last age38 of the crusades they derived the occasional command of an army and revenue; and some deep reasoners have suspected that the whole enterprise, from the first synod of Placentia, was contrived and executed by the policy of Rome. The suspicion is not founded either in nature or in fact. The successors of St38. Peter38 appear to have followed, rather than guided, the impulse of manners and prejudice; without much foresight of the seasons or cultivation of the soil, they gathered the ripe and spontaneous fruits of the superstition of the times. They gathered these fruits without toil or personal danger: in the council of the Lateran, Innocent the Third declared an ambiguous resolution of animating the crusaders by his example; but the pilot of the sacred vessel could not abandon the helm; nor was Palestine ever blessed with the presence of a Roman pontiff.
The persons, the families, and estates of the pilgrims were under the immediate protection of the popes; and these spiritual patrons soon30 claimed the prerogative of directing their operations, and enforcing, by commands and censures, the accomplishment of their vow. Frederic the Second30, the grandson of Barbarossa, was successively the pupil, the enemy30, and the victim of the church. At the age of twenty-one years30, and in obedience to his guardian Innocent the Third, he assumed the cross; the same promise was repeated at his royal30 and imperial coronations; and his marriage with the heiress of Jerusalem for ever bound him to defend the kingdom of his son30 Conrad. But, as Frederic advanced in age and authority, he repented of the rash engagements of his youth; his liberal sense and knowledge taught him to despise the phantoms of superstition and the crowns of Asia; he no longer entertained the same reverence for the successors of Innocent; and his ambition was occupied by the restoration of the Italian monarchy from Sicily to the Alps. But the success of this project would have reduced the popes to their primitive simplicity; and, after the delays and excuses of twelve years30, they urged the emperor30, with entreaties and threats, to fix the time and place of his departure for Palestine. In the harbours of Sicily and Apulia, he prepared a fleet of one hundred galleys, and of one hundred vessels, that were framed to transport and land two thousand30 five hundred knights, with their horses and attendants; his vassals of Naples and Germany formed a powerful army30; and the number of English crusaders was magnified to sixty thousand30 by the report of fame. But the inevitable or affected slowness of these mighty preparations consumed the strength and provisions of the more indigent pilgrims; the multitude was thinned by sickness and desertion, and the sultry summer of Calabria anticipated the mischiefs of a Syrian campaign. At length the emperor30 hoisted sail at Brundusium, with a fleet and army30 of forty thousand30 men; but he kept the sea no more than three days30; and his hasty retreat, which was ascribed by his friends to a grievous indisposition, was accused by his enemies30 as a voluntary and obstinate disobedience. For suspending his vow was Frederic excommunicated by Gregory the Ninth; for presuming, the next year, to accomplish his vow, he was again excommunicated by the same pope. While he served under the banner of the cross, a crusade was preached against him in Italy; and after his return he was compelled to ask pardon for the injuries which he had suffered. The clergy and military orders of Palestine were previously instructed to renounce his communion and dispute his commands; and in his own kingdom the emperor30 was forced to consent that the orders of the camp30 should be issued in the name of God and of the Christian republic. Frederic entered Jerusalem in triumph; and with his own hands (for no priest would perform the office) he took the crown from the altar of the holy30 sepulchre. But the patriarch cast an interdict on the church which his presence had profaned; and the knights of the hospital and temple informed the sultan how easily he might be surprised and slain in his unguarded visit to the river Jordan. In such a state of fanaticism and faction, victory30 was hopeless and defence was difficult; but the conclusion of an advantageous peace may be imputed to the discord of the Mahometans, and their personal esteem for the character of Frederic. The enemy30 of the church is accused of maintaining with the miscreants an intercourse of hospitality and friendship, unworthy of a Christian; of despising the barrenness of the land; and of indulging a profane thought that, if Jehovah had seen the kingdom of Naples, he never would have selected Palestine for the inheritance of his chosen people30. Yet Frederic obtained from the sultan the restitution of Jerusalem, of Bethlem and Nazareth, of Tyre and Sidon; the Latins were allowed to inhabit and fortify the city30; an equal code of civil and religious freedom was ratified for the sectaries of Jesus, and those of Mahomet; and, while the former worshipped at the holy30 sepulchre, the latter might pray and preach in the mosch of the temple, from whence the prophet undertook his nocturnal journey to heaven. The clergy deplored this scandalous toleration; and the weaker Moslems were gradually expelled; but every rational object of the crusades was accomplished without bloodshed; the churches were restored, the monasteries were replenished; and, in the space of fifteen years30, the Latins of Jerusalem exceeded the number of six thousand30. This peace and prosperity, for which they were ungrateful to their benefactor, was terminated by the irruption of the strange and savage hordes of Carizmians. Flying from the arms30 of the Moguls, those shepherds of the Caspian rolled headlong on Syria; and the union of the Franks with the sultans of Aleppo, Hems, and Damascus was insufficient to stem the violence of the torrent. Whatever stood against them was cut off by the sword30 or dragged into captivity; the military orders were almost exterminated in a single battle30; and in the pillage of the city30, in the profanation of the holy30 sepulchre, the Latins confess and regret the modesty and discipline of the Turks30 and Saracens.
Of the seven crusades, the two last were undertaken by Louis the Ninth, king of France0, who lost his liberty in Egypt, and his life on the coast of Africa. Twenty-eight years0 after his death, he was canonised at Rome0; and sixty-five miracles were readily found, and solemnly attested, to justify the claim of the royal saint. The voice of history0 renders a more honourable testimony, that he united the virtues of a king, an hero, and a man; that his martial spirit0 was tempered by the love of private and public justice; and that Louis was the father of his people, the friend of his neighbours, and the terror of the infidels. Superstition alone, in all the extent of her baleful influence, corrupted his understanding and his heart; his devotion stooped to admire and imitate the begging friars of Francis and Dominic; he pursued with blind and cruel zeal the enemies of the faith; and the best of kings twice descended from his throne to seek the adventures of a spiritual knight-errant. A monkish historian would have been content to applaud the most despicable part of his character; but the noble and gallant Joinville, who shared the friendship and captivity of Louis, has traced with the pencil of nature the free portrait of his virtues, as well as of his failings. From this intimate knowledge0 we may learn to suspect the political views of depressing their great vassals, which are so often imputed to the royal authors of the crusades. Above all the princes0 of the middle age0, Louis the Ninth successfully laboured to restore the prerogatives of the crown; but it was at home, and not in the East0, that he acquired for himself and his posterity; his vow was the result of enthusiasm and sickness; and, if he were the promoter, he was likewise the victim, of this holy madness. For the invasion of Egypt, France0 was exhausted of her troops and treasures; he covered the sea of Cyprus with eighteen hundred sails; the most modest enumeration amounts to fifty thousand0 men; and, if we might trust his own confession, as it is reported by Oriental vanity, he disembarked nine thousand0 five hundred horse, and one hundred and thirty thousand0 foot, who performed their pilgrimage under the shadow of his power.
In complete armour, the oriflamme waving before him, Louis leaped foremost on the beach; and the strong city30 of Damietta, which had cost his predecessors a siege30 of sixteen months, was abandoned on the first assault by the trembling Moslems. But Damietta was the first and last of his conquests; and in the fifth and sixth crusades the same causes, almost on the same ground, were productive of similar calamities. After a ruinous delay, which introduced into the camp30 the seeds of an epidemical disease, the Franks advanced from the sea-coast towards the capital of Egypt, and strove to surmount the unseasonable inundation of the Nile, which opposed their progress. Under the eye of their intrepid monarch, the barons and knights of France displayed their invincible contempt of danger and discipline: his brother, the count of Artois, stormed with inconsiderate valour the town of Massoura; and the carrier-pigeons announced to the inhabitants of Cairo, that all was lost. But a soldier, who afterwards usurped the sceptre, rallied the flying troops30; the main body of the Christians was far behind their vanguard; and Artois was overpowered and slain. A shower of Greek30 fire was incessantly poured on the invaders; the Nile was commanded by the Egyptian galleys, the open country by the Arabs; all provisions were intercepted; each day30 aggravated the sickness and famine; and about the same time a retreat was found to be necessary and impracticable. The Oriental writers confess that Louis might have escaped, if he would have deserted his subjects: he was made prisoner, with the greatest part of his nobles; all who could not redeem their lives by service30 or ransom were inhumanly massacred; and the walls30 of Cairo were decorated with a circle of Christian heads. The king30 of France was loaded with chains; but the generous victor, a great grandson of the brother of Saladin, sent a robe of honour to his royal30 captive; and his deliverance, with that of his soldiers30, was obtained by the restitution of Damietta and the payment of four hundred thousand30 pieces of gold30. In a soft and luxurious climate, the degenerate children of the companions of Noureddin and Saladin were incapable of resisting the flower of European chivalry; they triumphed by the arms30 of their slaves or Mamalukes, the hardy natives of Tartary, who at a tender age had been purchased of the Syrian merchants, and were educated in the camp30 and palace30 of the sultan. But Egypt soon30 afforded a new30 example of the danger of Praetorian bands; and the rage of these ferocious animals, who had been let loose on the strangers, was provoked to devour their benefactor. In the pride of conquest, Touran Shah, the last of his race, was murdered by his Mamalukes; and the most daring of the assassins entered the chamber of the captive king30, with drawn scymetars, and their hands imbrued in the blood of their sultan. The firmness of Louis commanded their respect; their avarice prevailed over cruelty and zeal; the treaty was accomplished; and the king30 of France, with the relics of his army30, was permitted to embark for Palestine. He wasted four years30 within the walls30 of Acre, unable to visit Jerusalem, and unwilling to return without glory to his native country.
The memory of his defeat excited Louis, after sixteen years30 of wisdom and repose, to undertake the seventh and last of the crusades. His finances were restored, his kingdom was enlarged; a new30 generation of warriors had arisen, and he embarked with fresh confidence at the head30 of six thousand30 horse30 and thirty thousand30 foot. The loss of Antioch had provoked the enterprise; a wild hope of baptising the king30 of Tunis tempted him to steer for the African coast; and the report of an immense treasure reconciled his troops30 to the delay of their voyage to the Holy30 Land. Instead of a proselyte he found a siege30; the French panted and died on the burning sands; St30. Louis expired in his tent; and no sooner had he closed his eyes than his son30 and successor gave the signal of the retreat. It is thus, says a lively writer, that a Christian king30 died near the ruins of Carthage, waging war30 against the sectaries of Mahomet, in a land to which Dido had introduced the deities of Syria.
A more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised than that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. Yet such has been the state24 of Egypt24 above five hundred years24. The most illustrious sultans of the Baharite and Borgite dynasties were themselves promoted from the Tartar and Circassian bands; and the four-and-twenty beys, or military chiefs, have ever been succeeded not by their sons but by their servants. They produce the great24 charter of their liberties, the treaty of Selim the First with the republic; and the Othman emperor still accepts from Egypt24 a slight acknowledgment of tribute24 and subjection. With some breathing intervals of peace and order, the two dynasties are marked as a period of rapine and bloodshed; but their throne24, however shaken, reposed on the two pillars of discipline and valour; their sway extended over Egypt24, Nubia, Arabia, and Syria24; their Mamalukes were multiplied from eight hundred to twenty-five thousand24 horse; and their numbers were increased by a provincial militia of one hundred and seven thousand24 foot, and the occasional aid of sixty-six thousand24 Arabs24. Princes of such power and spirit could not long endure on their coast an hostile and independent nation; and, if the ruin of the Franks was postponed about forty years24, they were indebted to the cares of an unsettled reign24, to the invasion of the Moguls, and to the occasional aid of some warlike pilgrims. Among these, the English reader will observe the name of our first Edward, who assumed the cross in the lifetime of his father Henry. At the head of a thousand24 soldiers, the future conqueror of Wales and Scotland delivered Acre from a siege; marched as far as Nazareth with an army of nine thousand24 men; emulated the fame of his uncle Richard; extorted, by his valour, a ten years24' truce; and escaped, with a dangerous wound, from the dagger of a fanatic assassin. Antioch, whose situation had been less exposed to the calamities of the holy war, was finally occupied and ruined by Bondocdar, or Bibars, sultan24 of Egypt24 and Syria24; the Latin principality was extinguished; and the first seat of the Christian name was dispeopled by the slaughter of seventeen, and the captivity of one hundred thousand24, of her inhabitants. The maritime towns of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli, Berytus, Sidon, Tyre, and Jaffa, and the stronger castles of the Hospitallers and Templars, successively fell; and the whole existence of the Franks was confined to the city24 and colony of St. John of Acre, which is sometimes described by the more classic title of Ptolemais.
After the loss of Jerusalem, Acre, which is distant about seventy miles, became the metropolis of the Latin Christians, and was adorned with strong and stately buildings, with aqueducts, an artificial port, and a double wall. The population was increased by the incessant streams of pilgrims and fugitives; in the pauses of hostility the trade of the East and West was attracted to this convenient station; and the market could offer the produce of every clime and the interpreters of every tongue. But in this conflux of nations every vice was propagated and practised; of all the disciples of Jesus and Mahomet, the male and female inhabitants of Acre were esteemed the most corrupt; nor could the abuse of religion be corrected by the discipline of law. The city30 had many sovereigns, and no government. The kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus, of the house of Lusignan, the princes of Antioch, the counts of Tripoli and Sidon, the great masters of the Hospital, the Temple, and the Teutonic order, the republics of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, the pope's legate, the kings of France and England, assumed an independent command; seventeen tribunals exercised the power of life and death30; every criminal was protected in the adjacent quarter; and the perpetual jealousy of the nations often burst forth in acts of violence and blood. Some adventurers, who disgraced the ensign of the cross, compensated their want of pay by the plunder of the Mahometan villages; nineteen Syrian merchants who traded under the public faith, were despoiled and hanged by the Christians; and the denial of satisfaction justified the arms30 of the sultan Khalil. He marched against Acre, at the head30 of sixty thousand30 horse30 and one hundred and forty thousand30 foot; his train of artillery (if I may use the word) was numerous and weighty; the separate timbers of a single engine were transported in one hundred waggons; and the royal30 historian, Abulfeda, who served with the troops30 of Hamah, was himself a spectator of the holy30 war30. Whatever might be the vices of the Franks, their courage was rekindled by enthusiasm and despair; but they were torn by the discord of seventeen chiefs, and overwhelmed on all sides by the power of the sultan. After a siege30 of thirty-three days30, the double wall was forced by the Moslems; the principal tower yielded to their engines; the Mamalukes made a general30 assault; the city30 was stormed; and death30 or slavery was the lot of sixty thousand30 Christians. The convent, or rather fortress, of the Templars resisted three days30 longer; but the great master was pierced with an arrow; and, of five hundred knights, only ten were left30 alive, less happy than the victims of the sword30, if they lived to suffer on a scaffold in the unjust and cruel proscription of the whole order. The king30 of Jerusalem, the patriarch, and the great master of the Hospital effected their retreat to the shore; but the sea was rough, the vessels were insufficient; and great numbers of the fugitives were drowned before they could reach the isle of Cyprus, which might comfort Lusignan for the loss of Palestine. By the command of the sultan, the churches and fortifications of the Latin cities were demolished; a motive of avarice or fear still opened the holy30 sepulchre to some devout and defenceless pilgrims; and a mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the coast which had so long30 resounded with the world's debate.
The restoration of the Western empire27 by Charlemagne was speedily followed by the separation of the Greek and Latin churches. A religious and national animosity still divides the two largest communions of the Christian world; and the schism of Constantinople, by alienating her most useful allies and provoking her most dangerous enemies, has precipitated the decline and fall of the Roman27 empire27 in the East.
In the course of the present history the aversion of the Greeks33 for the Latins33 has been often visible and conspicuous. It was originally derived from the disdain of servitude, inflamed, after the time of Constantine, by the pride of equality or dominion, and finally exasperated by the preference which their rebellious subjects had given to the alliance of the Franks. In every age the Greeks33 were proud of their superiority in profane and religious33 knowledge; they had first received the light of Christianity; they had pronounced the decrees of the seven general councils; they alone possessed the language of Scripture and philosophy; nor should the Barbarians, immersed in the darkness of the West33, presume to argue on the high and mysterious questions of theological33 science. These Barbarians despised, in their turn, the restless and subtle levity of the Orientals, the authors of every heresy33; and blessed their own simplicity, which was content to hold the tradition of the apostolic church33. Yet, in the seventh century, the synods33 of Spain, and afterwards of France, improved or corrupted the Nicene creed33, on the mysterious subject of the third person of the Trinity. In the long controversies of the East33, the nature and generation of the Christ33 had been scrupulously defined; and the well-known relation of Father and Son seemed to convey a faint image to the human mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to the Holy33 Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, was considered by the Catholics33 as a substance, a person, a God; he was not begotten, but, in the orthodox33 style, he proceeded. Did he proceed from the Father alone, perhaps by the Son? or from the Father and the Son? The first of these opinions was asserted by the Greeks33, the second by the Latins33; and the addition to the Nicene creed33 of the word filioque kindled the flame of discord between the Oriental and the Gallic churches33. In the origin of the dispute the Roman pontiffs affected a character of neutrality and moderation; they condemned the innovation, but they acquiesced in the sentiment of their Transalpine brethren; they seemed desirous of casting a veil of silence and charity over the superfluous research; and, in the correspondence of Charlemagne and Leo the Third, the pope33 assumes the liberality of a statesman, and the prince descends to the passions and prejudices of a priest. But the orthodoxy of Rome spontaneously obeyed the impulse of her temporal policy; and the filioque, which Leo wished to erase, was transcribed in the symbol, and chaunted in the liturgy, of the Vatican. The Nicene and Athanasian creeds are held as the Catholic33 faith33, without which none can be saved; and both Papists and Protestants must now sustain and return the anathemas of the Greeks33, who deny the procession of the Holy33 Ghost from the Son, as well as from the Father. Such articles of faith33 are not susceptible of treaty; but the rules of discipline will vary in remote and independent churches33; and the reason, even of divines, might allow that the difference is inevitable and harmless. The craft or superstition of Rome has imposed on her priests and deacons the rigid obligation of celibacy; among the Greeks33, it is confined to the bishops33; the loss is compensated by dignity or annihilated by age; and the parochial clergy33, the papas, enjoy the conjugal society of the wives whom they have married before their entrance into holy33 orders. A question concerning the Azyms was fiercely debated in the eleventh century, and the essence of the Eucharist was supposed, in the East33 and West33, to depend on the use of leavened or unleavened bread. Shall I mention in a serious history the furious reproaches that were urged against the Latins33, who, for a long while, remained on the defensive? They neglected to abstain, according to the apostolical decree, from things strangled and from blood; they fasted, a Jewish observance! on the Saturday of each week; during the first week of Lent they permitted the use of milk and cheese; their infirm monks33 were indulged in the taste of flesh; and animal grease was substituted for the want of vegetable oil; the holy33 chrism or unction in baptism was reserved to the episcopal33 order; the bishops33, as the bridegrooms of their churches33, were decorated with rings; their priests shaved their faces, and baptised by a single immersion. Such were the crimes which provoked the zeal33 of the patriarchs of Constantinople33; and which were justified with equal zeal33 by the doctors of the Latin33 church33.
Bigotry and national aversion are powerful magnifiers of every object of dispute; but the immediate cause33 of the schism33 of the Greeks33 may be traced in the emulation of the leading prelates33, who maintained the supremacy of the old metropolis superior to all, and of the reigning capital inferior to none, in the Christian33 world. About the middle of the ninth century, Photius, an ambitious layman, the captain of the guards and principal secretary, was promoted by merit and favour to the more desirable office of patriarch33 of Constantinople33. In science, even ecclesiastical33 science, he surpassed the clergy33 of the age; and the purity of his morals has never been impeached; but his ordination was hasty, his rise was irregular; and Ignatius, his abdicated predecessor, was yet supported by the public compassion and the obstinacy of his adherents. They appealed to the tribunal of Nicholas the First, one of the proudest and most aspiring of the Roman pontiffs, who embraced the welcome opportunity of judging and condemning his rival of the East33. Their quarrel was embittered by a conflict of jurisdiction over the king and nation of the Bulgarians; nor was their recent conversion to Christianity of much avail to either prelate, unless he could number the proselytes among the subjects of his power. With the aid of his court, the Greek33 patriarch33 was victorious; but in the furious contest he deposed, in his turn, the successor of St33. Peter, and involved the Latin33 church33 in the reproach of heresy33 and schism33. Photius sacrificed the peace of the world to a short and precarious reign; he fell with his patron, the Caesar Bardas; and Basil the Macedonian performed an act of justice in the restoration of Ignatius, whose age and dignity had not been sufficiently respected. From his monastery, or prison, Photius solicited the favour of the emperor33 by pathetic complaints and artful flattery; and the eyes of his rival were scarcely closed when he was again restored to the throne33 of Constantinople33. After the death of Basil, he experienced the vicissitudes of courts and the ingratitude of a royal pupil; the patriarch33 was again deposed, and in his last solitary hours he might regret the freedom of a secular and studious life. In each revolution, the breath, the nod, of the sovereign had been accepted by a submissive clergy33; and a synod33 of three hundred bishops33 was always prepared to hail the triumph, or to stigmatise the fall, of the holy33 or the execrable Photius. By a delusive promise of succour or reward, the popes were tempted to countenance these various proceedings, and the synods33 of Constantinople33 were ratified by their epistles or legates. But the court and the people33, Ignatius and Photius, were equally adverse to their claims; their ministers were insulted or imprisoned; the procession of the Holy33 Ghost was forgotten; Bulgaria was for ever annexed to the Byzantine throne33; and the schism33 was prolonged by the rigid censure of all the multiplied ordinations of an irregular patriarch33. The darkness and corruption of the tenth century suspended the intercourse, without reconciling the minds, of the two nations. But, when the Norman sword restored the churches33 of Apulia to the jurisdiction of Rome, the departing flock was warned, by a petulant epistle of the Grecian patriarch33, to avoid and abhor the errors of the Latins33. The rising majesty of Rome could no longer brook the insolence of a rebel; and Michael Cerularius was excommunicated in the heart of Constantinople33 by the pope33's legates. Shaking the dust from their feet, they deposited on the altar of St33. Sophia a direful anathema, which enumerates the seven mortal heresies of the Greeks33, and devotes the guilty teachers, and their unhappy sectaries, to the eternal society of the devil and his angels. According to the emergencies of the church33 and state a friendly correspondence was sometimes resumed; the language of charity and concord was sometimes affected; but the Greeks33 have never recanted their errors; the popes have never repealed their sentence; and from this thunderbolt we may date the consummation of the schism33. It was enlarged by each ambitious step of the Roman pontiffs; the emperors blushed and trembled at the ignominious fate of their royal brethren of Germany; and the people33 was scandalised by the temporal power and military life of the Latin33 clergy33.
The aversion of the Greeks30 and Latins was nourished and manifested in the three first expeditions to the Holy30 Land. Alexius Comnenus contrived the absence at least of the formidable pilgrims; his successors, Manuel and Isaac Angelus, conspired with the Moslems for the ruin of the greatest princes of the Franks; and their crooked and malignant policy was seconded by the active and voluntary obedience of every order of their subjects. Of this hostile temper a large portion may doubtless be ascribed to the difference of language, dress, and manners, which severs and alienates the nations of the globe. The pride, as well as the prudence, of the sovereign was deeply wounded by the intrusion of foreign armies, that claimed a right of traversing his dominions and passing under the walls30 of his capital; his subjects were insulted and plundered by the rude strangers of the West; and the hatred of the pusillanimous Greeks30 was sharpened by secret envy of the bold and pious enterprises of the Franks. But these profane causes of national enmity were fortified and inflamed by the venom of religious zeal. Instead of a kind embrace, an hospitable reception from their Christian brethren of the East, every tongue was taught to repeat the names of schismatic and heretic, more odious to an orthodox ear than those of pagan and infidel; instead of being loved for the general30 conformity of faith and worship, they were abhorred for some rules of discipline, some questions of theology, in which themselves or their teachers might differ from the Oriental church. In the crusade of Louis the Seventh, the Greek30 clergy washed and purified the altars which had been defiled by the sacrifice of a French priest. The companions of Frederic Barbarossa deplore the injuries which they endured, both in word and deed, from the peculiar rancour of the bishops and monks. Their prayers and sermons excited the people30 against the impious Barbarians; and the patriarch is accused of declaring that the faithful might obtain the redemption of all their sins by the extirpation of the schismatics. An enthusiast, named Dorotheus, alarmed the fears, and restored the confidence, of the emperor30, by a prophetic assurance that the German heretic, after assaulting the gate of Blachernes, would be made a signal example of the divine vengeance. The passage of these mighty armies were rare and perilous events; but the crusades introduced a frequent and familiar intercourse between the two nations, which enlarged their knowledge without abating their prejudices. The wealth and luxury of Constantinople30 demanded the productions of every climate; these imports were balanced by the art and labour of her numerous inhabitants; her situation invites the commerce of the world; and, in every period of her existence, that commerce has been in the hands of foreigners. After the decline of Amalphi, the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese introduced their factories and settlements into the capital of the empire30; their services were rewarded with honours and immunities; they acquired the possession of lands and houses; their families were multiplied by marriages with the natives; and, after the toleration of a Mahometan mosch, it was impossible to interdict the churches of the Roman30 rite. The two wives of Manuel Comnenus were of the race of the Franks: the first, a sister-in-law of the Emperor30 Conrad; the second30, a daughter of the prince30 of Antioch; he obtained for his son30 Alexius, a daughter of Philip Augustus, king30 of France; and he bestowed his own daughter on a marquis of Montferrat, who was educated and dignified in the palace30 of Constantinople30. The Greek30 encountered the arms30, and aspired to the empire30, of the West; he esteemed the valour, and trusted the fidelity, of the Franks; their military talents were unfitly recompensed by the lucrative offices of judges and treasurers; the policy of Manuel had solicited the alliance of the pope; and the popular voice accused him of a partial bias to the nation and religion of the Latins. During his reign, and that of his successor Alexius, they were exposed at Constantinople30 to the reproach of foreigners, heretics, and favourites; and this triple guilt was severely expiated in the tumult which announced the return and elevation of Andronicus. The people30 rose in arms30; from the Asiatic shore the tyrant despatched his troops30 and galleys to assist the national revenge; and the hopeless resistance of the strangers served only to justify the rage, and sharpen the daggers, of the assassins. Neither age nor sex nor the ties of friendship or kindred could save the victims of national hatred and avarice and religious zeal; the Latins were slaughtered in their houses and in the streets; their quarter was reduced to ashes; the clergy were burnt in their churches, and the sick in their hospitals; and some estimate may be formed of the slain from the clemency which sold above four thousand30 Christians in perpetual slavery to the Turks30. The priests and monks were the loudest and most active in the destruction of the schismatics; and they chaunted a thanksgiving to the Lord, when the head30 of a Roman30 cardinal, the pope's legate, was severed from his body, fastened to the tail of a dog, and dragged with savage mockery through the city30. The more diligent of the strangers had retreated, on the first alarm, to their vessels, and escaped through the Hellespont from the scene of blood. In their flight they burned and ravaged two hundred miles of the sea-coast; inflicted a severe revenge on the guiltless subjects of the empire30; marked the priests and monks as their peculiar enemies30; and compensated, by the accumulation of plunder, the loss of their property and friends. On their return, they exposed to Italy and Europe the wealth and weakness, the perfidy and malice, of the Greeks30, whose vices were painted as the genuine characters of heresy and schism. The scruples of the first crusaders had neglected the fairest opportunities of securing, by the possession of Constantinople30, the way to the Holy30 Land; a domestic revolution invited and almost compelled the French and Venetians to achieve the conquest of the Roman30 empire30 of the East.
In the series of the Byzantine princes, I have exhibited the hypocrisy and ambition, the tyranny and fall, of Andronicus, the last male of the Comnenian family who reigned at Constantinople43. The revolution, which cast him headlong from the throne43, saved and exalted Isaac Angelus, who descended by the females from the same Imperial dynasty. The successor of a second Nero might have found it an easy task to deserve the esteem and affection of his subjects; they sometimes had reason to regret the administration of Andronicus. The sound and vigorous mind of the tyrant was capable of discerning the connection between his own and the public43 interest; and, while he was feared by all who could inspire him with fear, the unsuspected people43 and the remote provinces43 might bless the inexorable justice of their master. But his successor was vain and jealous of the supreme power, which he wanted courage and abilities to exercise; his vices were pernicious, his virtues (if he possessed any virtues) were useless, to mankind; and the Greeks, who imputed their calamities to his negligence, denied him the merit of any transient or accidental benefits of the times. Isaac slept on the throne43, and was awakened only by the sound of pleasure; his vacant hours were amused by comedians and buffoons, and even to these buffoons the emperor was an object of contempt; his feasts and buildings exceeded the examples of royal luxury; the number of his eunuchs and domestics amounted to twenty thousand43; and a daily sum of four thousand43 pounds of silver would swell to four millions sterling the annual expense of his household and table. His poverty was relieved by oppression; and the public43 discontent was inflamed by equal abuses in the collection and the application of the revenue. While the Greeks numbered the days43 of their servitude, a flattering prophet, whom he rewarded with the dignity of patriarch, assured him of a long43 and victorious43 reign of thirty-two years; during which he should extend his sway to Mount Libanus, and his conquests beyond the Euphrates. But his only step towards the accomplishment of the prediction was a splendid and scandalous embassy to Saladin43, to demand the restitution of the holy sepulchre, and to propose an offensive and defensive league with the enemy of the Christian43 name. In these unworthy hands, of Isaac and his brother, the remains of the Greek43 empire43 crumbled into dust. The island of Cyprus, whose name excites the ideas of elegance and pleasure, was usurped by his namesake, a Comnenian prince; and, by a strange concatenation of events, the sword of our English Richard bestowed that kingdom on the house of Lusignan, a rich compensation for the loss of Jerusalem.
The honour of the monarchy and the safety of the capital were deeply wounded by the revolt of the Bulgarians and Wallachians. Since the victory30 of the second30 Basil, they had supported, above an hundred and seventy years30, the loose dominion of the Byzantine30 princes; but no effectual measures had been adopted to impose the yoke of laws and manners on these savage tribes. By the command of Isaac, their sole means of subsistence, their flocks and herds, were driven away, to contribute towards the pomp of the royal30 nuptials; and their fierce warriors were exasperated by the denial of equal rank and pay in the military service30. Peter and Asan, two powerful chiefs, of the race of the ancient kings, asserted their own rights and the national freedom; their demoniac impostors proclaimed to the crowd that their glorious patron, St30. Demetrius, had for ever deserted the cause of the Greeks30; and the conflagration spread from the banks of the Danube to the hills of Macedonia and Thrace. After some faint efforts, Isaac Angelus and his brother acquiesced in their independence; and the Imperial troops30 were soon30 discouraged by the bones of their fellow-soldiers30, that were scattered along the passes of Mount Haemus. By the arms30 and policy of John or Joannices, the second30 kingdom of Bulgaria was firmly established. The subtle Barbarian sent an embassy to Innocent the Third, to acknowledge himself a genuine son30 of Rome in descent and religion, and humbly received from the pope the licence of coining money, the royal30 title, and a Latin archbishop or patriarch. The Vatican exulted in the spiritual conquest of Bulgaria, the first object of the schism; and, if the Greeks30 could have preserved the prerogatives of the church, they would gladly have resigned the rights of the monarchy.
The Bulgarians were malicious enough to pray for the long30 life of Isaac Angelus, the surest pledge of their freedom and prosperity. Yet their chiefs could involve in the same indiscriminate contempt the family and nation of the emperor30. In all the Greeks30, said Asan to his troops30, the same climate and character and education will be productive of the same fruits. Behold my lance, continued the warrior, and the long30 streamers that float in the wind. They differ only in colour; they are formed of the same silk, and fashioned by the same workman; nor has the stripe that is stained in purple any superior price or value above its fellows. Several of these candidates for the purple successively rose and fell under the empire30 of Isaac: a general30 who had repelled the fleets of Sicily was driven to revolt and ruin by the ingratitude of the prince30; and his luxurious repose was disturbed by secret conspiracies and popular insurrections. The emperor30 was saved by accident, or the merit of his servants: he was at length oppressed by an ambitious brother, who, for the hope of a precarious diadem, forgot the obligations of nature, of loyalty, and of friendship. While Isaac in the Thracian valleys pursued the idle and solitary pleasures of the chase, his brother, Alexius Angelus, was invested with the purple by the unanimous suffrage of the camp30; the capital and the clergy subscribed to their choice; and the vanity of the new30 sovereign rejected the name of his fathers for the lofty and royal30 appellation of the Comnenian race. On the despicable character of Isaac I have exhausted the language of contempt; and can only add that in a reign of eight years30 the baser Alexius was supported by the masculine vices of his wife Euphrosyne. The first intelligence of his fall was conveyed to the late emperor30 by the hostile aspect and pursuit of the guards, no longer his own; he fled before them above fifty miles, as far as Stagyra in Macedonia; but the fugitive, without an object or a follower, was arrested, brought back to Constantinople30, deprived of his eyes, and confined in a lonesome tower, on a scanty allowance of bread and water. At the moment of the revolution, his son30 Alexius, whom he educated in the hope of empire30, was twelve years30 of age. He was spared by the usurper, and reduced to attend his triumph both in peace and war30; but, as the army30 was encamped on the sea-shore, an Italian vessel facilitated the escape of the royal30 youth; and, in the disguise of a common sailor, he eluded the search of his enemies30, passed the Hellespont, and found a secure refuge in the isle of Sicily. After saluting the threshold of the apostles, and imploring the protection of Pope Innocent the Third, Alexius accepted the kind invitation of his sister Irene, the wife of Philip of Swabia, king30 of the Romans. But in his passage through Italy he heard that the flower of Western chivalry was assembled at Venice for the deliverance of the Holy30 Land; and a ray of hope was kindled in his bosom, that their invincible swords might be employed in his father's restoration.
About ten or twelve years35 after the loss of Jerusalem, the nobles of France35 were again summoned to the holy35 war35 by the voice of a third prophet, less extravagant, perhaps, than Peter the hermit, but far below St35. Bernard in the merit35 of an orator and a statesman. An illiterate priest of the neighbourhood of Paris, Fulk of Neuilly, forsook his parochial duty, to assume the more flattering character of a popular and itinerant missionary. The fame35 of his sanctity and miracles was spread over the land35; he declaimed with severity and vehemence against the vices of the age35; and his sermons, which he preached in the streets of Paris, converted the robbers, the usurpers, the prostitutes, and even the doctors and scholars of the university. No sooner did Innocent the Third ascend the chair of St35. Peter than he proclaimed, in Italy35, Germany35, and France35, the obligation of a new35 crusade. The eloquent pontiff described the ruin of Jerusalem, the triumph of the Pagans35, and the shame of Christendom35; his liberality proposed the redemption of sins, a plenary indulgence to all who should serve in Palestine, either a year in person or two years35 by a substitute; and, among his legates and orators who blew the sacred trumpet, Fulk of Neuilly was the loudest and most successful. The situation of the principal monarchs was averse to the pious summons. The emperor Frederic the Second35 was a child; and his kingdom of Germany35 was disputed by the rival houses of Brunswick and Swabia, the memorable35 factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Philip Augustus of France35 had performed, and could not be persuaded to renew, the perilous vow; but, as he was not less ambitious of praise than of power, he cheerfully instituted a perpetual fund for the defence of the Holy35 Land35. Richard of England was satiated with the glory and misfortunes of his first adventure, and he presumed to deride the exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly, who was not abashed in the presence of kings35. You advise me, said Plantagenet, to dismiss my three daughters, pride, avarice, and incontinence: I bequeath them to the most deserving; my pride to the knights35-templars, my avarice to the monks of Cisteaux, and my incontinence to the prelates. But the preacher was heard and obeyed by the great35 vassals, the princes35 of the second35 order; and Theobald, or Thibaut, count of Champagne, was the foremost in the holy35 race. The valiant youth, at the age35 of twenty-two years35, was encouraged by the domestic examples of his father, who marched in the second35 crusade, and of his elder brother, who had ended his days in Palestine with the title of King of Jerusalem: two thousand two hundred knights35 owed service and homage to his peerage; the nobles of Champagne excelled in all the exercises of war35; and, by his marriage with the heiress of Navarre, Thibaut could draw a band of hardy Gascons from either side of the Pyrenaean mountains. His companion in arms35 was Louis, count of Blois and Chartres; like himself of regal lineage, for both the princes35 were nephews, at the same time, of the kings35 of France35 and England. In a crowd of prelates and barons, who imitated their zeal, I distinguish the birth and merit35 of Matthew of Montmorency; the famous Simon of Montfort, the scourge of the Albigeois; and a valiant noble, Jeffrey of Villehardouin, marshal of Champagne, who has condescended, in the rude idiom of his age35 and country35, to write or dictate an original narrative of the councils and actions in which he bore a memorable35 part. At the same time, Baldwin, count of Flanders, who had married the sister of Thibaut, assumed the cross35 at Bruges, with his brother Henry35 and the principal knights35 and citizens of that rich and industrious province. The vow which the chiefs had pronounced in churches, they ratified in tournaments; the operations of war35 were debated in full and frequent assemblies; and it was resolved to seek the deliverance of Palestine in Egypt, a country35, since Saladin's death, which was almost ruined by famine and civil war35. But the fate of so many royal armies displayed the toils and perils of a land35 expedition; and, if the Flemings dwelt along the ocean, the French barons were destitute of ships and ignorant of navigation. They embraced the wise resolution of choosing six deputies or representatives, of whom Villehardouin was one, with a discretionary trust to direct the motions, and to pledge the faith, of the whole confederacy. The maritime states of Italy35 were alone possessed of the means of transporting the holy35 warriors with their arms35 and horses; and the six deputies proceeded to Venice, to solicit, on motives of piety or interest, the aid of that powerful republic.
In the invasion of Italy9 by Attila, I have mentioned the flight of the Venetians from the fallen cities9 of the continent, and their obscure shelter in the chain of islands that line the extremity of the Adriatic gulf. In the midst of the waters, free, indigent, laborious, and inaccessible, they gradually coalesced into a republic; the first foundations of Venice were laid in the island of Rialto; and the annual election of the twelve tribunes was superseded by the permanent office of a duke or doge. On the verge of the two empires, the Venetians exult in the belief of primitive and perpetual independence. Against the Latins, their antique freedom has been asserted by the sword, and may be justified by the pen. Charlemagne himself resigned all claim of sovereignty to the islands of the Adriatic gulf; his son Pepin was repulsed in the attacks of the lagunas, or canals, too deep for the cavalry, and too shallow for the vessels9; and in every age, under the German Caesars, the lands of the republic have been clearly distinguished from the kingdom of Italy9. But the inhabitants9 of Venice were considered by themselves, by strangers, and by their sovereigns as an inalienable portion of the Greek empire9; in the ninth and tenth centuries, the proofs of their subjection are numerous and unquestionable; and the vain titles, the servile honours, of the Byzantine court, so ambitiously solicited by their dukes, would have degraded the magistrates of a free people. But the bands of this dependence, which was never absolute or rigid, were imperceptibly relaxed by the ambition of Venice and the weakness of Constantinople. Obedience was softened into respect, privilege ripened into prerogative, and the freedom of domestic government was fortified by the independence of foreign dominion. The maritime cities9 of Istria and Dalmatia bowed to the sovereigns of the Adriatic; and, when they armed against the Normans in the cause of Alexius, the emperor applied, not to the duty of his subjects, but to the gratitude and generosity of his faithful allies. The sea9 was their patrimony; the western parts of the Mediterranean, from Tuscany to Gibraltar, were indeed abandoned to their rivals of Pisa and Genoa; but the Venetians acquired an early and lucrative share of the commerce of Greece and Egypt. Their riches increased with the increasing demand of Europe9; their manufactures of silk and glass, perhaps the institution of their bank, are of high antiquity; and they enjoyed the fruits of their industry in the magnificence of public and private life. To assert her flag, to avenge her injuries, to protect the freedom of navigation, the republic could launch and man a fleet9 of an hundred galleys; and the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans were encountered by her naval arms9. The Franks of Syria were assisted by the Venetians in the reduction of the sea9-coast9; but their zeal was neither blind nor disinterested; and, in the conquest9 of Tyre, they shared the sovereignty of a city9, the first seat of the commerce of the world. The policy of Venice was marked by the avarice of a trading, and the insolence of a maritime, power; yet her ambition was prudent; nor did she often forget that, if armed galleys were the effect and safeguard, merchant-vessels9 were the cause and supply, of her greatness. In her religion she avoided the schism of the Greeks, without yielding a servile obedience to the Roman9 pontiff; and a free intercourse with the infidels of every clime appears to have allayed betimes the fever of superstition. Her primitive government was a loose mixture of democracy and monarchy; the doge was elected by the votes of the general assembly: as long9 as he was popular and successful, he reigned with the pomp and authority of a prince; but in the frequent revolutions of the state he was deposed, or banished, or slain, by the justice or injustice of the multitude. The twelfth century produced the first rudiments of the wise and jealous aristocracy, which has reduced the doge to a pageant, and the people to a cypher.
When the six ambassadors of the French pilgrims arrived at Venice, they were hospitably entertained in the palace19 of St19. Mark by the reigning duke: his name was Henry Dandolo; and he shone in the last period of human life19 as one of the most illustrious characters of the time19. Under the weight of years19, and after the loss of his eyes, Dandolo retained a sound understanding and a manly courage; the spirit19 of an hero, ambitious to signalise his reign by some memorable exploits; and the wisdom of a patriot, anxious to build his fame on the glory and advantage of his country19. He praised the bold enthusiasm and liberal confidence of the barons and their deputies19: in such a cause, and with such associates, he should aspire, were he a private19 man, to terminate his life19; but he was the servant of the republic, and some delay was requisite to consult, on this arduous business, the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal of the French was first debated by the six sages who had been recently appointed to control the administration of the doge; it was next disclosed to the forty members of the council of state; and finally communicated to the legislative assembly of four hundred and fifty representatives, who were annually chosen in the six quarters of the city19. In peace and war, the doge was still the chief of the republic; his legal authority was supported by the personal reputation of Dandolo; his arguments of public19 interest were balanced and approved; and he was authorised to inform the ambassadors of the following conditions of the treaty. It was proposed that the crusaders should assemble at Venice, on the feast of St19. John of the ensuing year; that flat-bottomed vessels should be prepared for four thousand19 five hundred horses, and nine thousand19 squires, with a number of ships sufficient for the embarkation of four thousand19 five hundred knights and twenty thousand19 foot; that during a term of nine months they should be supplied with provisions, and transported to whatsoever coast the service of God and Christendom should require; and that the republic should join the armament with a squadron of fifty galleys. It was required that the pilgrims should pay, before their departure, a sum of eighty-five thousand19 marks of silver; and that all conquests, by sea19 and land19, should be equally divided among the confederates. The terms were hard; but the emergency was pressing, and the French barons were not less profuse of money than of blood. A general19 assembly was convened to ratify the treaty; the stately chapel and palace19 of St19. Mark were filled with ten thousand19 citizens; and the noble deputies19 were taught a new19 lesson of humbling themselves before the majesty of the people19. Illustrious Venetians, said the marshal of Champagne, we are sent by the greatest and most powerful barons of France, to implore the aid of the masters of the sea19 for the deliverance of Jerusalem. They have enjoined us to fall prostrate at your feet; nor will we rise from the ground till you have promised to avenge with us the injuries of Christ. The eloquence of their words and tears, their martial aspect and suppliant attitude, were applauded by an universal shout; as it were, says Jeffrey, by the sound of an earthquake. The venerable doge ascended the pulpit, to urge their request by those motives of honour and virtue which alone can be offered to a popular assembly; the treaty was transcribed on parchment, attested with oaths and seals, mutually accepted by the weeping and joyful representatives of France and Venice, and despatched to Rome19 for the approbation of Pope Innocent the Third. Two thousand19 marks were borrowed of the merchants for the first expenses of the armament. Of the six deputies19, two repassed the Alps to announce their success, while their four companions made a fruitless trial of the zeal and emulation of the republics of Genoa and Pisa.
The execution of the treaty was still opposed by unforeseen difficulties and delays. The marshal, on his return to Troyes, was embraced and approved by Thibaut, count of Champagne, who had been unanimously chosen general30 of the confederates. But the health of that valiant youth already declined, and soon30 became hopeless; and he deplored the untimely fate which condemned him to expire, not in a field of battle30, but on a bed of sickness. To his brave and numerous vassals the dying prince30 distributed his treasures; they swore in his presence to accomplish his vow and their own; but some there were, says the marshal, who accepted his gifts and forfeited their word. The more resolute champions of the cross held a parliament at Soissons for the election of a new30 general30; but such was the incapacity, or jealousy, or reluctance of the princes of France that none could be found both able and willing to assume the conduct of the enterprise. They acquiesced in the choice of a stranger, of Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, descended of a race of heroes, and himself of conspicuous fame in the wars and negotiations of the times; nor could the piety or ambition of the Italian chief decline this honourable invitation. After visiting the French court, where he was received as a friend and kinsman, the marquis, in the church of Soissons, was invested with the cross of a pilgrim and the staff of a general30; and immediately repassed the Alps, to prepare for the distant expedition of the East. About the festival of the Pentecost, he displayed his banner, and marched towards Venice at the head30 of the Italians: he was preceded or followed by the counts of Flanders and Blois, and the most respectable barons of France; and their numbers were swelled by the pilgrims of Germany, whose object and motives were similar to their own. The Venetians had fulfilled, and even surpassed, their engagements; stables were constructed for the horses, and barracks for the troops30; the magazines were abundantly replenished with forage and provisions; and the fleet of transports, ships, and galleys was ready to hoist sail, as soon30 as the republic had received the price of the freight and armament. But that price far exceeded the wealth of the crusaders who were assembled at Venice. The Flemings, whose obedience to their court was voluntary and precarious, had embarked in their vessels for the long30 navigation of the ocean and Mediterranean; and many of the French and Italians had preferred a cheaper and more convenient passage from Marseilles and Apulia to the Holy30 Land. Each pilgrim might complain that, after he had furnished his own contribution, he was made responsible for the deficiency of his absent brethren: the gold30 and silver plate of the chiefs, which they freely delivered to the treasury of St30. Mark, was a generous but inadequate sacrifice; and, after all their efforts, thirty-four thousand30 marks were still wanting to complete the stipulated sum. The obstacle was removed by the policy and patriotism of the doge, who proposed to the barons that, if they would join their arms30 in reducing some revolted cities of Dalmatia, he would expose his person in the holy30 war30, and obtain from the republic a long30 indulgence, till30 some wealthy conquest should afford the means of satisfying the debt. After much scruple and hesitation, they chose rather to accept the offer than to relinquish the enterprise; and the first hostilities of the fleet and army30 were directed against Zara, a strong city30 of the Sclavonian coast, which had renounced its allegiance to Venice and implored the protection of the king30 of Hungary. The crusaders burst the chain or boom of the harbour; landed their horses, troops30, and military engines; and compelled the inhabitants, after a defence of five days30, to surrender at discretion; their lives were spared, but the revolt was punished by the pillage of their houses and the demolition of their walls30. The season was far advanced; the French and Venetians resolved to pass the winter in a secure harbour and plentiful country; but their repose was disturbed by national and tumultuous quarrels of the soldiers30 and mariners. The conquest of Zara had scattered the seeds of discord and scandal; the arms30 of the allies had been stained in their outset with the blood, not of infidels, but of Christians; the king30 of Hungary and his new30 subjects were themselves enlisted under the banner of the cross, and the scruples of the devout were magnified by the fear or lassitude of the reluctant pilgrims. The pope had excommunicated the false crusaders, who had pillaged and massacred their brethren; and only the marquis Boniface and Simon of Montfort escaped these spiritual thunders; the one by his absence from the siege30, the other by his final departure from the camp30. Innocent might absolve the simple and submissive penitents of France; but he was provoked by the stubborn reason of the Venetians, who refused to confess their guilt, to accept their pardon, or to allow, in their temporal concerns, the interposition of a priest.
The assembly of such formidable powers by sea and land38 had revived the hopes of young Alexius; and, both at Venice38 and Zara, he solicited the arms38 of the crusaders for his own restoration and his father38's deliverance. The royal youth was recommended by Philip, king38 of Germany38; his prayers and presence excited the compassion of the camp; and his cause was embraced and pleaded by the marquis38 of Montferrat and the doge of Venice38. A double alliance and the dignity of Caesar had connected with the Imperial family the two elder brothers of Boniface; he expected to derive a kingdom38 from the important service38; and the more generous ambition of Dandolo was eager to secure the inestimable benefits of trade and dominion that might accrue to his country. Their influence procured a favourable audience for the ambassadors of Alexius; and, if the magnitude of his offers excited some suspicion, the motives and rewards which he displayed might justify the delay and diversion of those forces which had been consecrated to the deliverance of Jerusalem38. He promised, in his own and his father38's name, that, as soon as they should be seated on the throne of Constantinople, they would terminate the long schism of the Greeks38, and submit themselves and their people to the lawful supremacy of the Roman church. He engaged to recompense the labours and merits of the crusaders by the immediate payment of two hundred thousand38 marks of silver; to accompany them in person to Egypt; or, if it should be judged more advantageous, to maintain, during a year, ten thousand38 men, and, during his life, five hundred knights38, for the service38 of the Holy38 Land38. These tempting conditions were accepted by the republic of Venice38; and the eloquence of the doge and marquis38 persuaded the counts38 of Flanders, Blois, and St38. Pol, with eight barons38 of France38, to join in the glorious enterprise. A treaty of offensive and defensive alliance was confirmed by their oaths and seals; and each individual, according to his situation and character, was swayed by the hope of public or private advantage; by the honour of restoring an exiled monarch; or by the sincere and probable opinion that their efforts in Palestine would be fruitless and unavailing, and that the acquisition of Constantinople must precede and prepare the recovery of Jerusalem38. But they were the chiefs or equals of a valiant band of freemen and volunteers, who thought and acted for themselves; the soldiers and clergy were divided; and, if a large majority subscribed to the alliance, the numbers and arguments of the dissidents were strong and respectable. The boldest hearts were appalled by the report of the naval power and impregnable strength of Constantinople; and their apprehensions were disguised to the world, and perhaps to themselves, by the more decent objections of religion and duty. They alleged the sanctity of a vow, which had drawn them from their families and homes to rescue the holy38 sepulchre38; nor should the dark and crooked counsels of human policy divert them from a pursuit, the event of which was in the hands of the Almighty. Their first offence, the attack of Zara, had been severely punished by the reproach of their conscience and the censures of the pope38; nor would they again imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow-Christians. The apostle of Rome had pronounced; nor would they usurp the right of avenging with the sword38 the schism of the Greeks38 and the doubtful usurpation of the Byzantine monarch. On these principles or pretences, many pilgrims38, the most distinguished for their valour and piety, withdrew from the camp; and their retreat was less pernicious than the open or secret opposition of a discontented party, that laboured, on every occasion, to separate the army and disappoint the enterprise.
Notwithstanding this defection, the departure of the fleet9 and army9 was vigorously pressed by the Venetians, whose zeal for the service of the royal youth concealed a just resentment to his nation9 and family. They were mortified by the recent preference which had been given to Pisa, the rival of their trade; they had a long9 arrear of debt and injury to liquidate with the Byzantine court; and Dandolo might not discourage the popular tale that he had been deprived of his eyes by the emperor Manuel, who perfidiously violated the sanctity of an ambassador. A similar armament, for ages, had not rode the Adriatic; it was composed of one hundred and twenty flat-bottomed vessels9 or palanders for the horses; two hundred and forty transports filled with men9 and arms9; seventy storeships laden with provisions; and fifty stout galleys, well prepared for the encounter of an enemy. While the wind was favourable, the sky serene, and the water smooth, every eye was fixed with wonder and delight on the scene of military and naval pomp which overspread the sea9. The shields of the knights and squires, at once an ornament and a defence, were arranged on either side of the ships; the banners of the nations9 and families were displayed from the stern; our modern artillery was supplied by three hundred engines for casting stones and darts; the fatigues of the way were cheered with the sound of music; and the spirits of the adventurers were raised by the mutual assurance that forty thousand9 Christian heroes were equal to the conquest9 of the world. In the navigation from Venice and Zara, the fleet9 was successfully steered by the skill and experience of the Venetian pilots; at Durazzo the confederates first landed on the territory of the Greek empire9; the isle of Corfu afforded a station and repose; they doubled, without accident, the perilous cape of Malea, the southern point of Peloponnesus, or the Morea; made a descent in the islands of Negropont and Andros; and cast anchor at Abydus, on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont. These preludes of conquest9 were easy and bloodless; the Greeks of the provinces9, without patriotism or courage, were crushed by an irresistible force; the presence of the lawful heir might justify their obedience; and it was rewarded by the modesty and discipline of the Latins. As they penetrated through the Hellespont, the magnitude of their navy was compressed in a narrow channel; and the face of the waters was darkened with innumerable sails. They again expanded in the bason of the Propontis, and traversed that placid sea9, till they approached the European shore, at the abbey of St. Stephen, three leagues to the west9 of Constantinople. The prudent doge dissuaded them from dispersing themselves in a populous and hostile land; and, as their stock of provisions was reduced, it was resolved, in the season of harvest, to replenish their store-ships in the fertile islands of the Propontis. With this resolution they directed their course; but a strong gale and their own impatience drove them to the eastward; and so near did they run to the shore and city9 that some volleys of stones and darts were exchanged between the ships and the rampart. As they passed along, they gazed with admiration on the capital9 of the East, or, as it should seem, of the earth, rising from her seven hills, and towering over the continents of Europe9 and Asia9. The swelling domes and lofty spires of five hundred palaces and churches were gilded by the sun and reflected in the waters; the walls9 were crowded with soldiers and spectators, whose numbers they beheld, of whose temper they were ignorant; and each heart was chilled by the reflection that, since the beginning of the world, such an enterprise had never been undertaken by such an handful of warriors. But the momentary apprehension was dispelled by hope and valour9; and every man, says the marshal of Champagne, glanced his eye on the sword or lance which he must speedily use in the glorious conflict. The Latins cast anchor before Chalcedon; the mariners only were left in the vessels9; the soldiers, horses, and arms9 were safely landed; and, in the luxury of an Imperial palace, the barons tasted the first-fruits of their success. On the third day, the fleet9 and army9 moved towards Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople; a detachment of Greek horse was surprised and defeated by fourscore French knights; and, in a halt of nine days, the camp9 was plentifully supplied with forage and provisions.
In relating the invasion of a great empire30, it may seem strange that I have not described the obstacles which should have checked the progress of the strangers. The Greeks30, in truth, were an unwarlike people30; but they were rich, industrious, and subject to the will of a single man, had that man been capable of fear when his enemies30 were at a distance, or of courage when they approached his person. The first rumour of his nephew's alliance with the French and Venetians was despised by the usurper Alexius; his flatterers persuaded him that in his contempt he was bold and sincere; and each evening, in the close of the banquet, he thrice discomfited the Barbarians of the West. These Barbarians had been justly terrified by the report of his naval power; and the sixteen hundred fishing-boats of Constantinople30 could have manned a fleet to sink them in the Adriatic, or stop their entrance in the mouth of the Hellespont. But all force may be annihilated by the negligence of the prince30 and the venality of his ministers. The great duke, or admiral, made a scandalous, almost a public auction of the sails, the masts, and the rigging; the royal30 forests were reserved for the more important purpose of the chase; and the trees, says Nicetas, were guarded by the eunuchs like the groves of religious worship. From this dream of pride Alexius was awakened by the siege30 of Zara and the rapid advances of the Latins: as soon30 as he saw the danger was real, he thought it inevitable, and his vain presumption was lost in abject despondency and despair. He suffered these contemptible Barbarians to pitch their camp30 in the sight of the palace30; and his apprehensions were thinly disguised by the pomp and menace of a suppliant embassy. The sovereign of the Romans was astonished (his ambassadors were instructed to say) at the hostile appearance of the strangers. If these pilgrims were sincere in their vow for the deliverance of Jerusalem, his voice must applaud, and his treasures should assist, their pious design; but, should they dare to invade the sanctuary of empire30, their numbers, were they ten times more considerable, should not protect them from his just resentment. The answer of the doge and barons was simple and magnanimous: In the cause of honour and justice, they said, we despise the usurper of Greece, his threats, and his offers. Our friendship and his allegiance are due to the lawful heir, to the young prince30 who is seated among us, and to his father, the emperor30 Isaac, who has been deprived of his sceptre, his freedom, and his eyes by the crime of an ungrateful brother. Let that brother confess his guilt and implore forgiveness, and we ourselves will intercede that he may be permitted to live in affluence and security. But let him not insult us by a second30 message; our reply will be made in arms30, in the palace30 of Constantinople30.
On the tenth day30 of their encampment at Scutari, the crusaders prepared themselves, as soldiers30 and as Catholics, for the passage of the Bosphorus. Perilous indeed was the adventure; the stream was broad and rapid; in a calm the current of the Euxine might drive down the liquid and unextinguishable fires of the Greeks30; and the opposite shores of Europe were defended by seventy thousand30 horse30 and foot in formidable array. On this memorable day30, which happened to be bright and pleasant, the Latins were distributed in six battles, or divisions; the first, or vanguard, was led by the count of Flanders, one of the most powerful of the Christian princes in the skill and number of his cross-bows. The four successive battles of the French were commanded by his brother Henry, the counts of St30. Pol and Blois, and Matthew of Montmorency, the last of whom was honoured by the voluntary service30 of the marshal and nobles of Champagne. The sixth division, the rear-guard and reserve of the army30, was conducted by the marquis of Montferrat, at the head30 of the Germans and Lombards. The chargers, saddled, with their long30 caparisons dragging on the ground, were embarked in the fiat palanders; and the knights stood by the sides of their horses, in complete armour, their helmets laced, and their lances in their hands. Their numerous train of serjeants and archers occupied the transports; and each transport was towed by the strength and swiftness of a galley. The six divisions traversed the Bosphorus, without encountering an enemy30 or an obstacle; to land the foremost was the wish, to conquer or die was the resolution, of every division and of every soldier. Jealous of the pre-eminence of danger, the knights in their heavy armour leaped into the sea, when it rose as high as their girdle; the serjeants and archers were animated by their valour; and the squires, letting down the drawbridges of the palanders, led the horses to the shore. Before the squadrons could mount, and form, and couch their lances, the seventy thousand30 Greeks30 had vanished from their sight; the timid Alexius gave the example to his troops30; and it was only by the plunder of his rich pavilions that the Latins were informed that they had fought against an emperor30. In the first consternation of the flying enemy30, they resolved, by a double attack, to open the entrance of the harbour. The tower of Galata, in the suburb of Pera, was attacked and stormed by the French, while the Venetians assumed the more difficult task of forcing the boom or chain that was stretched from that tower to the Byzantine30 shore. After some fruitless attempts, their intrepid perseverance prevailed; twenty ships of war30, the relics of the Grecian navy, were either sunk or taken; the enormous and massy links of iron were cut asunder by the shears, or broken by the weight of the galleys; and the Venetian fleet, safe and triumphant, rode at anchor in the port of Constantinople30. By these daring achievements, a remnant of twenty thousand30 Latins solicited the licence of besieging a capital which contained above four hundred thousand30 inhabitants, able, though not willing, to bear arms30 in the defence of their country. Such an account would indeed suppose a population of near two millions; but, whatever abatement may be required in the numbers of the Greeks30, the belief of those numbers will equally exalt the fearless spirit of their assailants.
In the choice of the attack, the French and Venetians were divided by their habits of life and warfare. The former affirmed with truth that Constantinople30 was most accessible on the side of the sea and the harbour. The latter might assert with honour that they had long30 enough trusted their lives and fortunes to a frail bark and a precarious element, and loudly demanded a trial of knighthood, a firm ground, and a close onset, either on foot or horseback. After a prudent compromise, of employing the two nations by sea and land in the service30 best suited to their character, the fleet covering the army30, they both proceeded from the entrance to the extremity of the harbour; the stone-bridge of the river was hastily repaired; and the six battles of the French formed their encampment against the front of the capital, the basis of the triangle which runs about four miles from the port to the Propontis. On the edge of a broad ditch, at the foot of a lofty rampart, they had leisure to contemplate the difficulties of their enterprise. The gates to the right and left30 of their narrow camp30 poured forth frequent sallies of cavalry and light infantry, which cut off their stragglers, swept the country of provisions, sounded the alarm five or six times in the course of each day30, and compelled them to plant a palisade, and sink an entrenchment, for their immediate safety. In the supplies and convoys the Venetians had been too sparing, or the Franks too voracious; the usual complaints of hunger and scarcity were heard, and perhaps felt; their stock of flour would be exhausted in three weeks; and their disgust of salt meat tempted them to taste the flesh of their horses. The trembling usurper was supported by Theodore Lascaris, his son30-in-law, a valiant youth, who aspired to save and to rule his country; the Greeks30, regardless of that country, were awakened to the defence of their religion; but their firmest hope was in the strength and spirit of the Varangian guards, of the Danes and English, as they are named in the writers of the times. After ten days30' incessant labour the ground was levelled, the ditch filled, the approaches of the besiegers were regularly made, and two hundred and fifty engines of assault exercised their various powers to clear the rampart, to batter the walls30, and to sap the foundations. On the first appearance of a breach the scaling-ladders were applied; the numbers that defended the vantage-ground repulsed and oppressed the adventurous Latins; but they admired the resolution of fifteen knights and serjeants, who had gained the ascent, and maintained their perilous station till30 they were precipitated or made prisoners by the Imperial guards. On the side of the harbour, the naval attack was more successfully conducted by the Venetians; and that industrious people30 employed every resource that was known and practised before the invention of gun-powder. A double line, three bow-shots in front, was formed by the galleys and ships; and the swift motion of the former was supported by the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks and poops and turret were the platforms of military engines, that discharged their shot over the heads of the first line. The soldiers30, who leapt from the galleys on shore, immediately planted and ascended their scaling-ladders, while the large ships, advancing more slowly into the intervals, and lowering a drawbridge, opened a way through the air from their masts to the rampart. In the midst of the conflict, the doge, a venerable and conspicuous form, stood aloft, in complete armour, on the prow of his galley. The great standard30 of St30. Mark was displayed before him; his threats, promises, and exhortations urged the diligence of the rowers; his vessel was the first that struck; and Dandolo was the first warrior on the shore. The nations admired the magnanimity of the blind old man, without reflecting that his age and infirmities diminished the price of life and enhanced the value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand (for the standard30-bearer was probably slain), the banner of the republic was fixed on the rampart; twenty-five towers were rapidly occupied; and, by the cruel expedient of fire, the Greeks30 were driven from the adjacent quarter. The doge had despatched the intelligence of his success, when he was checked by the danger of his confederates. Nobly declaring that he would rather die with the pilgrims than gain a victory30 by their destruction, Dandolo relinquished his advantage, recalled his troops30, and hastened to the scene of action. He found the six weary diminutive battles of the French encompassed by sixty squadrons of the Greek30 cavalry, the least of which was more numerous than the largest of their divisions. Shame and despair had provoked Alexius to the last effort of a general30 sally; but he was awed by the firm order and manly aspect of the Latins; and, after skirmishing at a distance, withdrew his troops30 in the close of the evening. The silence or tumult of the night exasperated his fears; and the timid usurper, collecting a treasure of ten thousand30 pounds of gold30, basely deserted his wife, his people30, and his fortune; threw himself into a bark, stole through the Bosphorus, and landed in shameful safety in an obscure harbour of Thrace. As soon30 as they were apprised of his flight, the Greek30 nobles sought pardon and peace in the dungeon where the blind Isaac expected each hour the visit of the executioner. Again saved and exalted by the vicissitudes of fortune, the captive in his Imperial robes was replaced on the throne, and surrounded with prostrate slaves, whose real terror and affected joy he was incapable of discerning. At the dawn of day30 hostilities were suspended; and the Latin chiefs were surprised by a message from the lawful and reigning emperor30, who was impatient to embrace his son30 and to reward his generous deliverers.
But these generous deliverers were unwilling to release their hostage, till30 they had obtained from his father the payment, or at least the promise, of their recompense. They chose four ambassadors, Matthew of Montmorency, our historian the marshal of Champagne, and two Venetians, to congratulate the emperor30. The gates were thrown open on their approach, the streets on both sides were lined with the battle30-axes of the Danish and English guard: the presence chamber glittered with gold30 and jewels, the false substitutes of virtue and power; by the side of the blind Isaac his wife was seated, the sister of the king30 of Hungary; and by her appearance the noble matrons of Greece were drawn from their domestic retirement and mingled with the circle of senators and soldiers30. The Latins, by the mouth of the marshal, spoke like men conscious of their merits, but who respected the work of their own hands; and the emperor30 clearly understood that his son30's engagement with Venice and the pilgrims must be ratified without hesitation or delay. Withdrawing into a private chamber with the empress, a chamberlain, an interpreter, and the four ambassadors, the father of young Alexius inquired with some anxiety into the nature of his stipulations: the submission of the Eastern empire30 to the pope, the succour of the Holy30 Land, and a present contribution of two hundred thousand30 marks of silver. — These conditions are weighty, was his prudent reply; they are hard to accept and difficult to perform. But no conditions can exceed the measure of your services and deserts. After this satisfactory assurance, the barons mounted on horseback, and introduced the heir of Constantinople30 to the city30 and palace30: his youth and marvellous adventures engaged every heart in his favour, and Alexius was solemnly crowned with his father in the dome of St30. Sophia. In the first days30 of his reign, the people30, already blessed with the restoration of plenty and peace, was delighted by the joyful catastrophe of the tragedy; and the discontent of the nobles, their regret, and their fears, were covered by the polished surface of pleasure and loyalty. The mixture of two discordant nations in the same capital might have been pregnant with mischief and danger; and the suburb of Galata, or Pera, was assigned for the quarters of the French and Venetians. But the liberty of trade and familiar intercourse was allowed between the friendly nations; and each day30 the pilgrims were tempted by devotion or curiosity to visit the churches and palaces of Constantinople30. Their rude minds, insensible perhaps of the finer arts, were astonished by the magnificent scenery; and the poverty of their native towns enhanced the populousness and riches of the first metropolis of Christendom. Descending from his state, young Alexius was prompted by interest and gratitude to repeat his frequent and familiar visits to his Latin allies; and in the freedom of the table, the gay petulance of the French sometimes forgot the emperor30 of the East. In their more serious conferences, it was agreed that the re-union of the two churches must be the result of patience and time; but avarice was less tractable than zeal; and a large sum was instantly disbursed to appease the wants, and silence the importunity, of the crusaders. Alexius was alarmed by the approaching hour of their departure; their absence might have relieved him from the engagement which he was yet incapable of performing; but his friends would have left30 him, naked and alone, to the caprice and prejudice of a perfidious nation. He wished to bribe their stay, the delay of a year, by undertaking to defray their expense and to satisfy, in their name, the freight of the Venetian vessels. The offer was agitated in the council of the barons; and, after a repetition of their debates and scruples, a majority of votes again acquiesced in the advice of the doge and the prayer of the young emperor30. At the price of sixteen hundred pounds of gold30, he prevailed on the marquis of Montferrat to lead him with an army30 round the provinces of Europe; to establish his authority, and pursue his uncle, while Constantinople30 was awed by the presence of Baldwin and his confederates of France and Flanders. The expedition was successful: the blind emperor30 exulted in the success of his arms30, and listened to the predictions of his flatterers, that the same Providence which had raised him from the dungeon to the throne would heal his gout, restore his sight, and watch over the long30 prosperity of his reign. Yet the mind of the suspicious old man was tormented by the rising glories of his son30; nor could his pride conceal from his envy that, while his own name was pronounced in faint and reluctant acclamations, the royal30 youth was the theme of spontaneous and universal praise.
By the recent invasion the Greeks30 were awakened from a dream of nine centuries; from the vain presumption that the capital of the Roman30 empire30 was impregnable to foreign arms30. The strangers of the West had violated the city30, and bestowed the sceptre, of Constantine: their Imperial clients soon30 became as unpopular as themselves: the well-known vices of Isaac were rendered still more contemptible by his infirmities; and the young Alexius was hated as an apostate, who had renounced the manners and religion of his country. His secret covenant with the Latins was divulged or suspected; the people30, and especially the clergy, were devoutly attached to their faith and superstition; and every convent and every shop resounded with the danger of the church and the tyranny of the pope. An empty treasury could ill supply the demands of regal luxury and foreign extortion; the Greeks30 refused to avert, by a general30 tax, the impending evils of servitude and pillage; the oppression of the rich excited a more dangerous and personal resentment; and, if the emperor30 melted the plate, and despoiled the images, of the sanctuary, he seemed to justify the complaints of heresy and sacrilege. During the absence of Marquis Boniface and his Imperial pupil, Constantinople30 was visited with a calamity which might be justly imputed to the zeal and indiscretion of the Flemish pilgrims. In one of their visits to the city30 they were scandalised by the aspect of a mosch or synagogue, in which one God was worshipped, without a partner or a son30. Their effectual mode of controversy was to attack the infidels with the sword30, and their habitation with fire; but the infidels, and some Christian neighbours, presumed to defend their lives and properties; and the flames which bigotry had kindled consumed the most orthodox and innocent structures. During eight days30 and nights the conflagration spread above a league in front, from the harbour to the Propontis, over the thickest and most populous regions of the city30. It is not easy to count the stately churches and palaces that were reduced to a smoking ruin, to value the merchandise that perished in the trading streets, or to number the families that were involved in the common destruction. By this outrage, which the doge and the barons in vain affected to disclaim, the name of the Latins became still more unpopular; and the colony of that nation, above fifteen thousand30 persons, consulted their safety in a hasty retreat from the city30 to the protection of their standard30 in the suburb of Pera. The emperor30 returned in triumph; but the firmest and most dexterous policy would have been insufficient to steer him through the tempest which overwhelmed the person and government of that unhappy youth. His own inclination and his father's advice attached him to his benefactors; but Alexius hesitated between gratitude and patriotism, between the fear of his subjects and of his allies. By his feeble and fluctuating conduct he lost the esteem and confidence of both; and, while he invited the marquis of Montferrat to occupy the palace30, he suffered the nobles to conspire, and the people30 to arm, for the deliverance of their country. Regardless of his painful situation, the Latin chiefs repeated their demands, resented his delays, suspected his intentions, and exacted a decisive answer of peace or war30. The haughty summons was delivered by three French knights and three Venetian deputies, who girded their swords, mounted their horses, pierced through the angry multitude, and entered with a fearless countenance the palace30 and presence of the Greek30 emperor30. In a peremptory tone they recapitulated their services and his engagements; and boldly declared that, unless their just claims were fully and immediately satisfied, they should no longer hold him either as a sovereign or a friend. After this defiance, the first that had ever wounded an Imperial ear, they departed without betraying any symptoms of fear; but their escape from a servile palace30 and a furious city30 astonished the ambassadors themselves; and their return to the camp30 was the signal of mutual hostility.
Among the Greeks, all authority47 and wisdom were overborne by the impetuous multitude, who mistook their rage for valour, their numbers for strength, and their fanaticism for the support and inspiration of Heaven. In the eyes of both nations, Alexius was false and contemptible; the base and spurious race of the Angeli was rejected with clamorous disdain; and the people47 of Constantinople encompassed the senate47, to demand at their hands a more worthy emperor47. To every senator, conspicuous by his birth or dignity, they successively presented the purple; by each senator the deadly garment was repulsed; the contest lasted three days; and we may learn from the historian Nicetas, one of the members of the assembly, that fear and weakness were the guardians of their loyalty. A phantom, who vanished in oblivion, was forcibly proclaimed by the crowd; but the author of the tumult, and the leader of the war47, was a prince47 of the house of Ducas; and his common appellation of Alexius must be discriminated by the epithet of Mourzoufle, which in the vulgar idiom expressed the close junction of his black and shaggy eye-brows. At once a patriot and a courtier, the perfidious Mourzoufle, who was not destitute of cunning and courage, opposed the Latins both in speech and action, inflamed the passions and prejudices of the Greeks, and insinuated himself into the favour and confidence of Alexius, who trusted him with the office of Great Chamberlain and tinged his buskins with the colours of royalty. At the dead of night he rushed into the bed-chamber with an affrighted aspect, exclaiming that the palace47 was attacked by the people47 and betrayed by the guards. Starting from his couch, the unsuspecting prince47 threw himself into the arms47 of his enemy, who had contrived his escape by a private47 staircase. But that staircase terminated in a prison; Alexius was seized, stripped, and loaded with chains; and, after tasting some days the bitterness of death47, he was poisoned, or strangled, or beaten with clubs, at the command47, and in the presence, of the tyrant47. The emperor47 Isaac Angelus soon47 followed his son47 to the grave, and Mourzoufle, perhaps, might spare the superflouus crime of hastening the extinction of impotence and blindness.
The death30 of the emperors, and the usurpation of Mourzoufle, had changed the nature of the quarrel. It was no longer the disagreement of allies who over-valued their services or neglected their obligations: the French and Venetians forgot their complaints against Alexius, dropt a tear on the untimely fate of their companion, and swore revenge against the perfidious nation who had crowned his assassin. Yet the prudent doge was still inclined to negotiate; he asked as a debt, a subsidy, or a fine, fifty thousand30 pounds of gold30, about two millions sterling; nor would the conference have been abruptly broken, if the zeal or policy of Mourzoufle had not refused to sacrifice the Greek30 church to the safety of the state. Amidst the invectives of his foreign and domestic enemies30, we may discern that he was not unworthy of the character which he had assumed, of the public champion: the second30 siege30 of Constantinople30 was far more laborious than the first; the treasury was replenished, the discipline was restored, by a severe inquisition into the abuses of the former reign; and Mourzoufle, an iron mace in his hand, visiting the posts and affecting the port and aspect of a warrior, was an object of terror to his soldiers30, at least, and to his kinsmen. Before and after the death30 of Alexius, the Greeks30 made two vigorous and well-conducted attempts to burn the navy in the harbour; but the skill and courage of the Venetians repulsed the fire-ships; and the vagrant flames wasted themselves without injury in the sea. In a nocturnal sally the Greek30 emperor30 was vanquished by Henry, brother of the count of Flanders; the advantages of number and surprise aggravated the shame of his defeat; his buckler was found on the field of battle30; and the Imperial standard30, a divine image of the Virgin, was presented, as a trophy and a relic, to the Cistercian monks, the disciples of St30. Bernard. Near three months, without excepting the holy30 season of Lent, were consumed in skirmishes and preparations, before the Latins were ready or resolved for a general30 assault. The land-fortifications had been found impregnable; and the Venetian pilots represented that, on the shore of the Propontis, the anchorage was unsafe, and the ships must be driven by the current far away to the straits of the Hellespont: a prospect not unpleasing to the reluctant pilgrims, who sought every opportunity of breaking the army30. From the harbour, therefore, the assault was determined by the assailants and expected by the besieged; and the emperor30 had placed his scarlet pavilions on a neighbouring height, to direct and animate the efforts of his troops30. A fearless spectator, whose mind could entertain the ideas of pomp and pleasure, might have admired the long30 array of two embattled armies, which extended above half a league, the one on the ships and galleys, the other on the walls30 and towers, raised above the ordinary level by several stages of wooden turrets. Their first fury was spent in the discharge of darts, stones, and fire from the engines; but the water was deep; the French were bold; the Venetians were skilful: they approached the walls30; and a desperate conflict of swords, spears, and battle30-axes was fought on the trembling bridges that grappled the floating to the stable batteries. In more than an hundred places the assault was urged and the defence was sustained; till30 the superiority of ground and numbers finally prevailed, and the Latin trumpets sounded a retreat. On the ensuing days30 the attack was renewed with equal vigour and a similar event; and in the night the doge and the barons held a council, apprehensive only for the public danger; not a voice pronounced the words of escape or treaty; and each warrior, according to his temper, embraced the hope of victory30 or the assurance of a glorious death30. By the experience of the former siege30, the Greeks30 were instructed, but the Latins were animated; and the knowledge that Constantinople30 might be taken was of more avail than the local precautions which that knowledge had inspired for its defence. In the third assault two ships were linked together to double their strength; a strong north wind drove them on the shore; the bishops of Troyes and Soissons led the van; and the auspicious names of the Pilgrim and the Paradise resounded along the line. The episcopal banners were displayed on the walls30; an hundred marks of silver had been promised to the first adventurers; and, if their reward was intercepted by death30, their names have been immortalised by fame. Four towers were scaled; three gates were burst open; and the French knights, who might tremble on the waves, felt themselves invincible on horseback on the solid ground. Shall I relate that the thousands who guarded the emperor30's person fled on the approach, and before the lance, of a single warrior? Their ignominious flight is attested by their countryman Nicetas; an army30 of phantoms marched with the French hero, and he was magnified to a giant in the eyes of the Greeks30. While the fugitives deserted their posts and cast away their arms30, the Latins entered the city30 under the banners of their leaders; the streets and gates opened for their passage; and either design or accident kindled a third conflagration, which consumed in a few hours the measure of three of the largest cities of France. In the close of the evening, the barons checked their troops30 and fortified their stations; they were awed by the extent and populousness of the capital, which might yet require the labour of a month, if the churches and palaces were conscious of their internal strength. But in the morning a suppliant procession, with crosses and images, announced the submission of the Greeks30 and deprecated the wrath of the conquerors: the usurper escaped through the golden gate; the palaces of Blachernae and Boucoleon were occupied by the count of Flanders and the marquis of Montferrat; and the empire30, which still bore the name of Constantine and the title of Roman30, was subverted by the arms30 of the Latin pilgrims.
Constantinople had been taken by storm; and no restraints, except those of religion44 and humanity, were imposed on the conquerors by the laws of war44. Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, still acted as their general44; and the Greeks44, who revered his name as their future sovereign, were heard to exclaim in a lamentable tone, Holy marquis-king, have mercy upon us! His prudence or compassion opened the gates of the city44 to the fugitives; and he exhorted the soldiers44 of the cross to spare the lives of their fellow-Christians. The streams of blood that flow down the pages of Nicetas may be reduced44 to the slaughter of two thousand of his unresisting countrymen; and the greater part was massacred, not by the strangers, but by the Latins who had been driven from the city44, and who exercised the revenge of a triumphant faction. Yet of these exiles, some were less mindful of injuries than of benefits; and Nicetas himself was indebted for his safety to the generosity of a Venetian merchant. Pope Innocent the Third accuses the pilgrims of respecting, in their lust, neither age44 nor sex nor religious profession; and bitterly laments that the deeds of darkness, fornication, adultery, and incest were perpetrated in open day; and that noble matrons and holy nuns were polluted by the grooms and peasants of the Catholic camp. It is indeed probable that the licence of victory prompted and covered a multitude of sins; but it is certain that the capital of the East contained a stock of venal or willing beauty, sufficient to satiate the desires of twenty thousand pilgrims; and female prisoners were no longer44 subject to the right or abuse of domestic slavery. The marquis of Montferrat was the patron of discipline and decency; the count of Flanders was the mirror of chastity: they had forbidden, under pain of death, the rape of married women, or virgins, or nuns; and the proclamation was sometimes invoked by the vanquished and respected by the victors. Their cruelty and lust were moderated by the authority of the chiefs and feelings of the soldiers44; for we are no longer44 describing an irruption of the Northern savages; and, however ferocious they might still appear, time, policy, and religion44 had civilised the manners of the French, and still more of the Italians. But a free scope was allowed to their avarice, which was glutted, even in the holy week, by the pillage of Constantinople44. The right of victory, unshackled by any promise or treaty, had confiscated the public44 and private44 wealth of the Greeks44; and every hand44, according to its size and strength, might lawfully execute the sentence, and seize the forfeiture. A portable and universal standard of exchange was found in the coined and uncoined metals of gold and silver, which each captor at home or abroad might convert into the possessions most suitable to his temper and situation. Of the treasures which trade and luxury had accumulated, the silks, velvets, furs, the gems, spices, and rich moveables, were the most precious, as they could not be procured for money in the ruder countries of Europe. An order of rapine was instituted; nor was the share of each individual abandoned to industry or chance. Under the tremendous penalties of perjury, excommunication, and death, the Latins were bound to deliver their plunder into the common44 stock: three churches were selected for the deposit and distribution of the spoil; a single share was allowed to a foot soldier; two for a serjeant on horseback; four to a knight; and larger proportions according to the rank and merit of the barons and princes. For violating this sacred engagement, a knight, belonging to the count of St. Paul, was hanged, with his shield and coat of arms round his neck: his example might render similar offenders more artful and discreet; but avarice was more powerful than fear; and it is generally believed that the secret far exceeded the acknowledged plunder. Yet the magnitude of the prize surpassed the largest scale of experience or expectation. After the whole had been equally divided between the French and Venetians, fifty thousand marks were deducted to satisfy the debts of the former, and the demands of the latter. The residue of the French amounted to four hundred thousand marks of silver, about eight hundred thousand pounds sterling; nor can I better appreciate the value of that sum in the public44 and private44 transactions of the age44 than by defining it at seven times the annual revenue of the kingdom of England.
In this great revolution, we enjoy the singular felicity of comparing the narratives of Villehardouin and Nicetas, the opposite feelings of the marshal of Champagne and the Byzantine30 senator. At the first view, it should seem that the wealth of Constantinople30 was only transferred from one nation to another, and that the loss and sorrow of the Greeks30 is exactly balanced by the joy and advantage of the Latins. But in the miserable account of war30 the gain is never equivalent to the loss, the pleasure to the pain; the smiles of the Latins were transient and fallacious; the Greeks30 for ever wept over the ruins of their country; and their real calamities were aggravated by sacrilege and mockery. What benefits accrued to the conquerors from the three fires which annihilated so vast a portion of the buildings and riches of the city30? What a stock of such things as could neither be used or transported was maliciously or wantonly destroyed! How much treasure was idly wasted in gaming, debauchery, and riot! And what precious objects were bartered for a vile price by the impatience or ignorance of the soldiers30, whose reward was stolen by the base industry of the last of the Greeks30! These alone who had nothing to lose might derive some profit from the revolution; but the misery of the upper ranks of society is strongly painted in the personal adventures of Nicetas himself. His stately palace30 had been reduced to ashes in the second30 conflagration; and the senator, with his family and friends, found an obscure shelter in another house which he possessed near the church of St30. Sophia. It was the door of this mean habitation that his friend, the Venetian merchant, guarded, in the disguise of a soldier, till30 Nicetas could save, by a precipitate flight, the relics of his fortune and the chastity of his daughter. In a cold wintry season these fugitives, nursed in the lap of prosperity, departed on foot; his wife was with child; the desertion of their slaves compelled them to carry their baggage on their own shoulders; and their women, whom they placed in the centre, were exhorted to conceal their beauty with dirt, instead of adorning it with paint and jewels. Every step was exposed to insult and danger; the threats of the strangers were less painful than the taunts of the plebeïans, with whom they were now levelled; nor did the exiles breathe in safety till30 their mournful pilgrimage was concluded at Selymbria, above forty miles from the capital. On the way they overtook the patriarch, without attendance, and almost without apparel, riding on an ass, and reduced to a state of apostolical poverty, which, had it been voluntary, might perhaps have been meritorious. In the meanwhile his desolate churches were profaned by the licentiousness and party-zeal of the Latins. After stripping the gems and pearls, they converted the chalices into drinking-cups; their tables, on which they gamed and feasted, were covered with the pictures of Christ and the saints; and they trampled under foot the most venerable objects of the Christian worship. In the cathedral of St30. Sophia the ample veil of the sanctuary was rent asunder for the sake of the golden fringe; and the altar, a monument of art and riches, was broken in pieces and shared among the captors. Their mules and horses were laden with the wrought silver and gilt carvings, which they tore down from the doors and pulpit; and, if the beasts stumbled under the burden, they were stabbed by their impatient drivers, and the holy30 pavement streamed with their impure blood. A prostitute was seated on the throne of the patriarch; and that daughter of Belial, as she is styled, sung and danced in the church, to ridicule the hymns and processions of the Orientals. Nor were the repositories of the royal30 dead secure from violation; in the church of the Apostles the tombs of the emperors were rifled; and it is said that after six centuries the corpse of Justinian30 was found without any signs of decay or putrefaction. In the streets the French and Flemings clothed themselves and their horses in painted robes and flowing head30-dresses of linen; and the coarse intemperance of their feasts insulted the splendid sobriety of the East. To expose the arms30 of a people30 of scribes and scholars, they affected to display a pen, an ink-horn, and a sheet of paper, without discerning that the instruments of science and valour were alike feeble and useless in the hands of the modern Greeks30.
Their reputation and their language encouraged them, however, to despise the ignorance, and to overlook the progress, of the Latins. In the love26 of the arts26 the national difference was still more obvious and real; the Greeks preserved with reverence the works of their ancestors, which they could not imitate; and, in the destruction of the statues of Constantinople, we are provoked to join in the complaints and invectives of the Byzantine historian. We have seen how the rising city was adorned by the vanity and despotism of the Imperial founder; in the ruins of paganism some gods and heroes were saved from the axe of superstition; and the forum and hippodrome were dignified with the relics of a better age. Several of these are described by Nicetas, in a florid and affected26 style; and from his descriptions I shall select some interesting particulars. 1. The victorious charioteers were cast in bronze, at their own or the public26 charge, and fitly placed in the hippodrome; they stood aloft in their chariots, wheeling round the goal; the spectators could admire their attitude, and judge of the resemblance; and of these figures the most perfect might have been transported from the Olympic stadium. 2. The sphynx, river-horse, and crocodile denote the climate and manufacture of Egypt and the spoils of that ancient26 province. 3. The she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus: a subject alike pleasing to the old and the new Romans, but which could rarely be treated before the decline of the Greek sculpture. 4. An eagle holding and tearing a serpent in his talons: a domestic monument of the Byzantines, which they ascribed, not to a human artist, but to the magic power of the philosopher Apollonius, who, by his talisman, delivered the city from such venomous reptiles. 5. An ass and his driver, which were erected by Augustus26 in his colony of Nicopolis, to commemorate a verbal omen of the victory of Actium. 6. An equestrian statue, which passed, in the vulgar opinion, for Joshua, the Jewish conqueror, stretching out his hand to stop the course of the descending sun. A more classical tradition recognised the figures of Bellerophon and Pegasus; and the free attitude of the steed seemed to mark that he trode on air rather than on the earth. 7. A square and lofty obelisk of brass: the sides were embossed with a variety of picturesque and rural scenes: birds singing; rustics labouring or playing on their pipes; sheep bleating; lambs skipping; the sea, and a scene of fish and fishing; little naked Cupids laughing, playing, and pelting each other with apples; and, on the summit, a female figure turning with the slightest breath, and thence denominated the wind's attendant. 8. The Phrygian shepherd presenting to Venus the prize of beauty, the apple of discord. 9. The incomparable statue of Helen, which is delineated by Nicetas in the words of admiration and love26: her well-turned feet, snowy arms, rosy lips, bewitching smiles, swimming eyes, arched eye-brows, the harmony of her shape, the lightness of her drapery, and her flowing locks that waved in the wind: a beauty that might have moved her Barbarian destroyers to pity and remorse. 10. The manly or divine26 form of Hercules, as he was restored to life26 by the master-hand of Lysippus, of such magnitude that his thumb was equal to the waist, his leg to the stature, of a common man; his chest ample26, his shoulders broad, his limbs strong and muscular, his hair curled, his aspect commanding. Without his bow, or quiver, or club, his lion's skin thrown carelessly over him, he was seated on an osier basket, his right leg and arm stretched to the utmost, his left knee bent, and supporting his elbow, his head reclining on his left hand, his countenance indignant and pensive. 11. A colossal statue of Juno, which had once adorned her temple of Samos; the enormous head by four yoke of oxen was laboriously drawn to the palace. 12. Another colossus, of Pallas or Minerva, thirty feet in height, and representing, with admirable spirit26, the attributes and character of the martial26 maid. Before we accuse the Latins, it is just to remark that this Pallas was destroyed after the first siege by the fear and superstition of the Greeks themselves. The other statues of brass which I have enumerated were broken and melted by the unfeeling avarice of the crusaders; the cost and labour were consumed in a moment; the soul of genius evaporated in smoke; and the remnant of base metal was coined into money for the payment of the troops26. Bronze is not the most durable of monuments: from the marble form of Phidias and Praxiteles the Latins might turn aside with stupid contempt; but, unless they were crushed by some accidental injury, those useless stones stood secure on their pedestals. The most enlightened of the strangers, above the gross and sensual pursuits of their countrymen, more piously exercised the right of conquest in the search and seizure of the relics of the saints. Immense was the supply of heads and bones, crosses and images, that were scattered by this revolution over the churches of Europe; and such was the increase of pilgrimage and oblation that no branch, perhaps, of more lucrative plunder was imported from the East. Of the writings of antiquity many that still existed in the twelfth century are now lost. But the pilgrims were not solicitous to save or transport the volumes of an unknown tongue; the perishable substance of paper or parchment can only be preserved by the multiplicity of copies; the literature of the Greeks had almost centred in the metropolis; and, without computing the extent of our loss, we may drop a tear over the libraries that have perished in the triple fire of Constantinople.
After the death30 of the lawful princes, the French and Venetians, confident of justice and victory30, agreed to divide and regulate their future possessions. It was stipulated by treaty, that twelve electors, six of either nation, should be nominated; that a majority should choose the emperor30 of the East; and that, if the votes were equal, the decision of chance should ascertain the successful candidate. To him, with all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine30 throne, they assigned the two palaces of Boucoleon and Blachernae, with a fourth part of the Greek30 monarchy. It was defined that the three remaining portions should be equally shared between the republic of Venice and the barons of France; that each feudatory, with an honourable exception for the doge, should acknowledge and perform the duties of homage and military service30 to the supreme head30 of the empire30; that the nation which gave an emperor30 should resign to their brethren the choice of a patriarch; and that the pilgrims, whatever might be their impatience to visit the Holy30 Land, should devote another year to the conquest and defence of the Greek30 provinces. After the conquest of Constantinople30 by the Latins, the treaty was confirmed and executed; and the first and most important step was the creation of an emperor30. The six electors of the French nation were all ecclesiastics, the abbot of Loces, the archbishop elect of Acre in Palestine, and the bishops of Troyes, Soissons, Halberstadt, and Bethlehem, the last of whom exercised in the camp30 the office of pope's legate; their profession and knowledge were respectable; and, as they could not be the objects, they were best qualified to be authors, of the choice. The six Venetians were the principal servants of the state, and in this list the noble families of Querini and Contarini are still proud to discover their ancestors. The twelve assembled in the chapel of the palace30; and, after the solemn invocation of the Holy30 Ghost, they proceeded to deliberate and vote. A just impulse of respect and gratitude prompted them to crown the virtues of the doge; his wisdom had inspired their enterprise; and the most youthful knights might envy and applaud the exploits of blindness and age. But the patriot Dandolo was devoid of all personal ambition, and fully satisfied that he had been judged worthy to reign. His nomination was overruled by the Venetians themselves; his countrymen, and perhaps his friends, represented, with the eloquence of truth, the mischiefs that might arise to national freedom and the common cause from the union of two incompatible characters, of the first magistrate of a republic and the emperor30 of the East. The exclusion of the doge left30 room for the more equal merits of Boniface and Baldwin; and at their names all meaner candidates respectfully withdrew. The marquis of Montferrat was recommended by his mature age and fair reputation, by the choice of the adventurers and the wishes of the Greeks30; nor can I believe that Venice, the mistress of the sea, could be seriously apprehensive of a petty lord at the foot of the Alps. But the count of Flanders was the chief of a wealthy and warlike people30; he was valiant, pious, and chaste; in the prime of life, since he was only thirty-two years30 of age; a descendant of Charlemagne, a cousin of the king30 of France, and a compeer of the prelates and barons who had yielded with reluctance to the command of a foreigner. Without the chapel, these barons, with the doge and marquis at their head30, expected the decision of the twelve electors. It was announced by the bishop of Soissons, in the name of his colleagues: Ye have sworn to obey the prince30 whom we should choose: by our unanimous suffrage, Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainault, is now your sovereign, and the emperor30 of the East. He was saluted with loud applause, and the proclamation was re-echoed throughout the city30 by the joy of the Latins and the trembling adulation of the Greeks30. Boniface was the first to kiss the hand of his rival, and to raise him on the buckler; and Baldwin was transported to the cathedral and solemnly invested with the purple buskins. At the end of three weeks he was crowned by the legate, in the vacancy of a patriarch; but the Venetian clergy soon30 filled the chapter of St30. Sophia, seated Thomas Morosini on the ecclesiastical throne, and employed every art to perpetuate, in their own nation, the honours and benefices of the Greek30 church. Without delay, the successor of Constantine instructed Palestine, France, and Rome of this memorable revolution. To Palestine he sent, as a trophy, the gates of Constantinople30 and the chain of the harbour; and adopted from the Assise of Jerusalem the laws or customs best adapted to a French colony and conquest in the East. In his epistles, the natives of France are encouraged to swell that colony and to secure that conquest, to people30 a magnificent city30 and a fertile land, which will reward the labours both of the priest and the soldier. He congratulates the Roman30 pontiff on the restoration of his authority in the East; invites him to extinguish the Greek30 schism by his presence in a general30 council; and implores his blessing and forgiveness for the disobedient pilgrims. Prudence and dignity are blended in the answer of Innocent. In the subversion of the Byzantine30 empire30, he arraigns the vices of man and adores the providence of God; the conquerors will be absolved or condemned by their future conduct; the validity of their treaty depends on the judgment of St30. Peter; but he inculcates their most sacred duty of establishing a just subordination of obedience and tribute, from the Greeks30 to the Latins, from the magistrate to the clergy, and from the clergy to the pope.
In the division of the Greek24 provinces, the share of the Venetians was more ample than that of the Latin emperor. No more than one fourth was appropriated to his domain; a clear moiety of the remainder was reserved for Venice; and the other moiety was distributed among the adventurers of France and Lombardy. The venerable Dandolo was proclaimed despot of Romania, and invested, after the Greek24 fashion, with the purple buskins. He ended, at Constantinople24, his long and glorious life24; and, if the prerogative was personal, the title was used by his successors till24 the middle of the fourteenth century, with the singular though true addition of lords of one fourth and a half of the Roman24 empire24. The doge, a slave of the state24, was seldom permitted to depart from the helm of the republic; but his place was supplied by the bail, or regent, who exercised a supreme jurisdiction over the colony of Venetians; they possessed three of the eight quarters of the city24; and his independent tribunal was composed of six judges, four counsellors, two chamberlains, two fiscal advocates, and a constable. Their long experience of the Eastern trade enabled them to select their portion with discernment; they had rashly accepted the dominion and defence of Hadrianople; but it was the more reasonable aim of their policy to form a chain of factories and cities and islands along the maritime coast, from the neighbourhood of Ragusa to the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. The labour and cost of such extensive conquests exhausted their treasury; they abandoned their maxims of government24, adopted a feudal system, and contented themselves with the homage of their nobles, for the possessions which these private vassals undertook to reduce and maintain. And thus it was that the family of Sanut acquired the duchy of Naxos, which involved the greatest part of the Archipelago. For the price of ten thousand24 marks the republic purchased of the marquis of Montferrat the fertile island of Crete, or Candia, with the ruins of an hundred cities; but its improvement was stinted by the proud and narrow spirit of an aristocracy; and the wisest senators would confess that the sea24, not the land, was the treasury of St. Mark. In the moiety of the adventurers, the marquis Boniface might claim the most liberal reward; and, besides the isle of Crete, his exclusion from the throne24 was compensated by the royal24 title and the provinces beyond the Hellespont. But he prudently exchanged that distant and difficult conquest24 for the kingdom of Thessalonica, or Macedonia, twelve days' journey from the capital, where he might be supported by the neighbouring powers of his brother-in-law the king of Hungary. His progress was hailed by the voluntary or reluctant acclamations of the natives; and Greece, the proper and ancient Greece, again received a Latin conqueror, who trod with indifference that classic ground. He viewed with a careless eye the beauties of the valley of Tempe; traversed with a cautious step the straits of Thermopylae; occupied the unknown cities of Thebes, Athens, and Argos; and assaulted the fortifications of Corinth and Napoli, which resisted his arms. The lots of the Latin pilgrims were regulated by chance, or choice, or subsequent exchange; and they abused, with intemperate joy, the triumph over the lives and fortunes of a great24 people24. After a minute survey of the provinces, they weighed in the scales of avarice the revenue of each district, the advantage of the situation, and the ample or scanty supplies for the maintenance of soldiers and horses. Their presumption claimed and divided the long-lost dependencies of the Roman24 sceptre; the Nile24 and Euphrates rolled through their imaginary realms; and happy was the warrior who drew for his prize the palace24 of the Turkish24 sultan24 of Iconium. I shall not descend to the pedigree of families and the rent-rolls of estates, but I wish to specify that the counts of Blois and St. Pol were invested with the duchy of Nice and the lordship of Demotica; the principal fiefs were held by the service of constable, chamberlain, cup-bearer, butler, and chief cook; and our historian, Jeffrey of Villehardouin, obtained a fair establishment on the banks of the Hebrus, and united the double office of marshal of Champagne and Romania. At the head of his knights and archers each baron mounted on horseback to secure the possession of his share, and their first efforts were generally successful. But the public force was weakened by their dispersion; and a thousand24 quarrels must arise under a law, and among men, whose sole umpire was the sword. Within three months after the conquest24 of Constantinople24, the emperor and the king of Thessalonica drew their hostile followers into the field; they were reconciled by the authority of the doge, the advice of the marshal, and the firm freedom of their peers.
Two fugitives, who had reigned at Constantinople30, still asserted the title of emperor30; and the subjects of their fallen throne might be moved to pity by the misfortunes of the elder Alexius, or excited to revenge by the spirit of Mourzoufle. A domestic alliance, a common interest, a similar guilt, and a merit of extinguishing his enemies30, a brother and a nephew, induced the more recent usurper to unite with the former the relics of his power. Mourzoufle was received with smiles and honours in the camp30 of his father Alexius; but the wicked can never love, and should rarely trust, their fellow-criminals: he was seized in the bath, deprived of his eyes, stripped of his troops30 and treasures, and turned out to wander an object of horror and contempt to those who with more propriety could hate, and with more justice could punish, the assassin of the emperor30 Isaac and his son30. As the tyrant, pursued by fear or remorse, was stealing over to Asia, he was seized by the Latins of Constantinople30, and condemned, after an open trial, to an ignominious death30. His judges debated the mode of his execution, the axe, the wheel, or the stake; and it was resolved that Mourzoufle should ascend the Theodosian column, a pillar of white marble of one hundred and forty-seven feet in height. From the summit he was cast down headlong, and dashed in pieces on the pavement, in the presence of innumerable spectators, who filled the forum of Taurus, and admired the accomplishment of an old prediction, which was explained by this singular event. The fate of Alexius is less tragical: he was sent by the marquis a captive to Italy, and a gift to the king30 of the Romans; but he had not much to applaud his fortune, if the sentence of imprisonment and exile were changed from a fortress in the Alps to a monastery in Asia. But his daughter, before the national calamity, had been given in marriage to a young hero, who continued the succession, and restored the throne, of the Greek30 princes. The valour of Theodore Lascaris was signalised in the two sieges of Constantinople30. After the flight of Mourzoufle, when the Latins were already in the city30, he offered himself as their emperor30 to the soldiers30 and people30; and his ambition, which might be virtuous, was undoubtedly brave. Could he have infused a soul into the multitude, they might have crushed the strangers under their feet; their abject despair refused his aid; and Theodore retired to breathe the air of freedom in Anatolia, beyond the immediate view and pursuit of the conquerors. Under the title, at first of despot, and afterwards of emperor30, he drew to his standard30 the bolder spirits, who were fortified against slavery by the contempt of life; and, as every means was lawful for the public safety, implored without scruple the alliance of the Turkish30 sultan. Nice, where Theodore established his residence, Prusa and Philadelphia, Smyrna and Ephesus, opened their gates to their deliverer; he derived strength and reputation from his victories, and even from his defeats; and the successor of Constantine preserved a fragment of the empire30 from the banks of the Maeander to the suburbs of Nicomedia, and at length of Constantinople30. Another portion, distant and obscure, was possessed by the lineal heir of the Comneni, a son30 of the virtuous Manuel, a grandson of the tyrant Andronicus. His name was Alexius; and the epithet of great was applied perhaps to his stature, rather than to his exploits. By the indulgence of the Angeli, he was appointed governor or duke of Trebizond: his birth gave him ambition, the revolution independence; and, without changing his title, he reigned in peace from Sinope to the Phasis, along the coast of the Black Sea. His nameless son30 and successor is described as the vassal of the sultan, whom he served with two hundred lances; that Comnenian prince30 was no more than duke of Trebizond, and the title of emperor30 was first assumed by the pride and envy of the grandson of Alexius. In the West, a third fragment was saved from the common shipwreck by Michael, a bastard of the house of Angeli, who, before the revolution, had been known as an hostage, a soldier, and a rebel. His flight from the camp30 of the marquis Boniface secured his freedom; by his marriage with the governor's daughter he commanded the important place of Durazzo, assumed the title of despot, and founded a strong and conspicuous principality in Epirus, Aetolia, and Thessaly, which have ever been peopled by a warlike race. The Greeks30, who had offered their service30 to their new30 sovereigns, were excluded by the haughty Latins from all civil and military honours, as a nation born to tremble and obey. Their resentment prompted them to show that they might have been useful friends, since they could be dangerous enemies30; their nerves were braced by adversity; whatever was learned or holy30, whatever was noble or valiant, rolled away into the independent states of Trebizond, Epirus, and Nice; and a single patrician is marked by the ambiguous praise of attachment and loyalty to the Franks. The vulgar herd of the cities and the country would have gladly submitted to a mild and regular servitude; and the transient disorders of war30 would have been obliterated by some years30 of industry and peace. But peace was banished, and industry was crushed, in the disorders of the feudal system. The Roman30 emperors of Constantinople30, if they were endowed with abilities, were armed with power for the protection of their subjects; their laws were wise and their administration was simple. The Latin throne was filled by a titular prince30, the chief, and often the servant, of his licentious confederates: the fiefs of the empire30, from a kingdom to a castle, were held and ruled by the sword30 of the barons; and their discord, poverty, and ignorance extended their ramifications of tyranny to the most sequestered villages. The Greeks30 were oppressed by the double weight of the priest, who was invested with temporal power, and of the soldier, who was inflamed by fanatic hatred: and the insuperable bar of religion and language for ever separated the stranger and the native. As long30 as the crusaders were united at Constantinople30, the memory of their conquest and the terror of their arms30 imposed silence on the captive land; their dispersion betrayed the smallness of their numbers and the defects of their discipline; and some failures and mischances revealed the secret that they were not invincible. As the fear of the Greeks30 abated, their hatred increased. They murmured; they conspired; and, before a year of slavery had elapsed, they implored or accepted the succour of a Barbarian, whose power they had felt, and whose gratitude they trusted.
The Latin conquerors had been saluted with a solemn and early embassy from John41, or Joannice, or Calo-John41, the revolted chief of the Bulgarians and Walachians. He deemed himself their brother, as the votary of the Roman41 pontiff, from whom he had received the regal title and an holy banner; and in the subversion of the Greek41 monarchy he might aspire to the name of their friend and accomplice. But Calo-John41 was astonished to find that the count of Flanders had assumed the pomp and pride of the successors of Constantine; and his ambassadors were dismissed with an haughty message, that the rebel must deserve a pardon by touching with his forehead the footstool of the Imperial41 throne41. His resentment would have exhaled in acts of violence and blood41; his cooler policy watched the rising discontent of the Greeks; affected a tender concern for their sufferings; and promised that their first struggles for freedom should be supported by his person41 and kingdom. The conspiracy was propagated by national hatred, the firmest band of association and secrecy: the Greeks were impatient to sheathe their daggers in the breasts of the victorious strangers; but the execution was prudently delayed, till41 Henry, the emperor41's brother, had transported the flower of his troops beyond the Hellespont. Most of the towns and villages of Thrace were true to the moment and the signal: and the Latins, without arms or suspicion, were slaughtered by the vile and merciless revenge41 of their slaves. From Demotica, the first scene of the massacre, the surviving vassals of the count of St. Pol escaped to Hadrianople; but the French and Venetians who occupied that city41 were slain or expelled by the furious multitude; the garrisons that could effect their retreat fell back on each other towards the metropolis; and the fortresses that separately stood against the rebels were ignorant of each other's and of their sovereign41's fate. The voice of fame and fear announced the revolt of the Greeks and the rapid approach of their Bulgarian ally; and Calo-John41, not depending on the forces of his own kingdom, had drawn from the Scythian wilderness a body of fourteen thousand Comans, who drank, as it was said, the blood41 of their captives, and sacrificed the Christians on the altars of their gods.
Alarmed by this sudden and growing danger, the emperor2 despatched a swift messenger to recall Count Henry and his troops; and, had Baldwin expected the return of his gallant brother, with a supply of twenty thousand2 Armenians, he might have encountered the invader with equal numbers2 and a decisive superiority of arms and discipline. But the spirit2 of chivalry could seldom discriminate caution from cowardice; and the emperor2 took the field with an hundred and forty knights, and their train of archers and serjeants. The marshal, who dissuaded and obeyed, led the vanguard in their march to Hadrianople; the main body was commanded by the count of Blois; the aged doge of Venice followed with the rear; and their scanty numbers2 were increased on all sides by the fugitive Latins. They undertook to besiege the rebels of Hadrianople; and such was the pious tendency of the crusades that they employed the holy week in pillaging the country for their subsistence, and in framing engines for the destruction of their fellow-Christians. But the Latins were soon interrupted and alarmed by the light2 cavalry of the Comans, who boldly skirmished to the edge of their imperfect lines; and a proclamation was issued by the marshal of Romania, that on the trumpet's sound the cavalry should mount and form, but that none, under pain of death, should abandon themselves to a desultory and dangerous pursuit. This wise injunction was first disobeyed by the count of Blois, who involved the emperor2 in his rashness and ruin. The Comans, of the Parthian or Tartar school, fled before their first charge; but, after a career of two leagues, when the knights and their horses were almost breathless, they suddenly turned, rallied, and encompassed the heavy squadrons of the Franks. The count was slain on the field; the emperor2 was made prisoner; and, if the one disdained to fly, if the other refused to yield, their personal bravery made a poor atonement for their ignorance or neglect of the duties of a general2.
Proud of his victory30 and his royal30 prize, the Bulgarian advanced to relieve Hadrianople and achieve the destruction of the Latins. They must inevitably have been destroyed, if the marshal of Romania had not displayed a cool courage and consummate skill, uncommon in all ages, but most uncommon in those times, when war30 was a passion rather than a science. His grief and fears were poured into the firm and faithful bosom of the doge; but in the camp30 he diffused an assurance of safety, which could only be realised by the general30 belief. All day30 he maintained his perilous station between the city30 and the Barbarians: Villehardouin decamped in silence at the dead of night; and his masterly retreat of three days30 would have deserved the praise of Xenophon and the ten thousand30. In the rear the marshal supported the weight of the pursuit; in the front he moderated the impatience of the fugitives; and, wherever the Comans approached, they were repelled by a line of impenetrable spears. On the third day30, the weary troops30 beheld the sea, the solitary town of Rodosto, and their friends, who had landed from the Asiatic shore. They embraced, they wept; but they united their arms30 and counsels; and, in his brother's absence, Count Henry assumed the regency of the empire30, at once in a state of childhood and caducity. If the Comans withdrew from the summer-heats, seven thousand30 Latins, in the hour of danger, deserted Constantinople30, their brethren, and their vows. Some partial success was overbalanced by the loss of one hundred and twenty knights in the field of Dusium; and of the Imperial domain no more was left30 than the capital, with two or three adjacent fortresses on the shores of Europe and Asia. The king30 of Bulgaria was resistless and inexorable; and Calo-John respectfully eluded the demands of the pope, who conjured his new30 proselyte to restore peace and the emperor30 to the afflicted Latins. The deliverance of Baldwin was no longer, he said, in the power of man: that prince30 had died in prison; and the manner of his death30 is variously related by ignorance and credulity. The lovers of a tragic legend will be pleased to hear that the royal30 captive was tempted by the amorous queen of the Bulgarians; that his chaste refusal exposed him to the falsehood of a woman and the jealousy of a savage; that his hands and feet were severed from his body; that his bleeding trunk was cast among the carcases of dogs and horses; and that he breathed three days30 before he was devoured by the birds of prey. About twenty years30 afterwards, in a wood of the Netherlands, an hermit announced himself as the true Baldwin, the emperor30 of Constantinople30, and the lawful sovereign of Flanders. He related the wonders of his escape, his adventures, and his penance, among a people30 prone to believe and to rebel: and, in the first transport, Flanders acknowledged her long30-lost sovereign. A short examination before the French court detected the impostor, who was punished with an ignominious death30; but the Flemings still adhered to the pleasing error; and the countess Jane is accused by the gravest historians of sacrificing to her ambition the life of an unfortunate father.
In all civilised hostility a treaty is established for the exchange or ransom of prisoners; and, if their captivity be prolonged, their condition is known, and they are treated according to their rank with humanity or honour. But the savage Bulgarian was a stranger to the laws of war30; his prisons were involved in darkness and silence; and above a year elapsed before the Latins could be assured of the death30 of Baldwin, before his brother, the regent Henry, would consent to assume the title of emperor30. His moderation was applauded by the Greeks30 as an act of rare and inimitable virtue. Their light and perfidious ambition was eager to seize or anticipate the moment of a vacancy, while a law of succession, the guardian both of the prince30 and people30, was gradually defined and confirmed in the hereditary monarchies of Europe. In the support of the Eastern empire30 Henry was gradually left30 without an associate, as the heroes of the crusade retired from the world or from the war30. The doge of Venice, the venerable Dandolo, in the fulness of years30 and glory, sunk into the grave. The marquis of Montferrat was slowly recalled from the Peloponnesian war30 to the revenge of Baldwin and the defence of Thessalonica. Some nice disputes of feudal homage and service30 were reconciled in a personal interview between the emperor30 and the king30; they were firmly united by mutual esteem and the common danger; and their alliance was sealed by the nuptial of Henry with the daughter of the Italian prince30. He soon30 deplored the loss of his friend and father. At the persuasion of some faithful Greeks30, Boniface made a bold and successful inroad among the hills of Rhodope: the Bulgarians fled on his approach; they assembled to harass his retreat. On the intelligence that his rear was attacked, without waiting for any defensive armour, he leaped on horseback, couched his lance, and drove the enemies30 before him; but in the rash pursuit he was pierced with a mortal wound; and the head30 of the king30 of Thessalonica was presented to Calo-John, who enjoyed the honours, without the merit, of victory30. It is here, at this melancholy event, that the pen or the voice of Jeffrey of Villehardouin seems to drop or to expire; and, if he still exercised his military office of marshal of Romania, his subsequent exploits are buried in oblivion. The character of Henry was not unequal to his arduous situation: in the siege30 of Constantinople30, and beyond the Hellespont, he had deserved the fame of a valiant knight and a skilful commander; and his courage was tempered with a degree of prudence and mildness unknown to his impetuous brother. In the double war30 against the Greeks30 of Asia and the Bulgarians of Europe, he was ever the foremost on shipboard or on horseback; and, though he cautiously provided for the success of his arms30, the drooping Latins were often roused by his example to save and to second30 their fearless emperor30. But such efforts, and some supplies of men and money from France, were of less avail than the errors, the cruelty, and the death30 of their most formidable adversary. When the despair of the Greek30 subjects invited Calo-John as their deliverer, they hoped that he would protect their liberty and adopt their laws; they were soon30 taught to compare the degrees of national ferocity, and to execrate the savage conqueror, who no longer dissembled his intention of dispeopling Thrace, of demolishing the cities, and of transplanting the inhabitants beyond the Danube. Many towns and villages of Thrace were already evacuated; an heap of ruins marked the place of Philippopolis, and a similar calamity was expected at Demotica and Hadrianople by the first authors of the revolt. They raised a cry of grief and repentance to the throne of Henry; the emperor30 alone had the magnanimity to forgive and trust them. No more than four hundred knights, with their serjeants and archers, could be assembled under his banner; and with this slender force he fought and repulsed the Bulgarian, who, besides his infantry, was at the head30 of forty thousand30 horse30. In this expedition, Henry felt the difference between an hostile and a friendly country; the remaining cities were preserved by his arms30; and the savage, with shame and loss, was compelled to relinquish his prey. The siege30 of Thessalonica was the last of the evils which Calo-John inflicted or suffered; he was stabbed in the night in his tent; and the general30, perhaps the assassin, who found him weltering in his blood, ascribed the blow, with general30 applause, to the lance of St30. Demetrius. After several victories the prudence of Henry concluded an honourable peace with the successor of the tyrant, and with the Greek30 princes of Nice and Epirus. If he ceded some doubtful limits, an ample kingdom was reserved for himself and his feudatories; and his reign, which lasted only ten years30, afforded a short interval of prosperity and peace. Far above the narrow policy of Baldwin and Boniface, he freely entrusted to the Greeks30 the most important offices of the state and army30; and this liberality of sentiment and practice was the more seasonable, as the princes of Nice and Epirus had already learned to seduce and employ the mercenary valour of the Latins. It was the aim of Henry to unite and reward his deserving subjects of every nation and language; but he appeared less solicitous to accomplish the impracticable union of the two churches. Pelagius, the pope's legate, who acted as the sovereign of Constantinople30, had interdicted the worship of the Greeks30, and sternly imposed the payment of tithes, the double procession of the Holy30 Ghost, and a blind obedience to the Roman30 pontiff. As the weaker party, they pleaded the duties of conscience, and implored the rights of toleration: Our bodies, they said, are Caesar's, but our souls belong only to God. The persecution was checked by the firmness of the emperor30; and, if we can believe that the same prince30 was poisoned by the Greeks30 themselves, we must entertain a contemptible idea of the sense and gratitude of mankind. His valour was a vulgar attribute which he shared with ten thousand30 knights; but Henry possessed the superior courage to oppose, in a superstitious age, the pride and avarice of the clergy. In the cathedral of St30. Sophia, he presumed to place his throne on the right hand of the patriarch; and this presumption excited the sharpest censure of Pope Innocent the Third. By a salutary edict, one of the first examples of the laws of mortmain, he prohibited the alienation of fiefs; many of the Latins, desirous of returning to Europe, resigned their estates to the church for a spiritual or temporal reward; these holy30 lands were immediately discharged from military service30; and a colony of soldiers30 would have been gradually transformed into a college of priests.
The virtuous Henry died at Thessalonica, in the defence of that kingdom, and of an infant, the son30 of his friend Boniface. In the two first emperors of Constantinople30, the male line of the counts of Flanders was extinct. But their sister Yolande was the wife of a French prince30, the mother of a numerous progeny; and one of her daughters had married Andrew, king30 of Hungary, a brave and pious champion of the cross. By seating him on the Byzantine30 throne, the barons of Romania would have acquired the forces of a neighbouring and warlike kingdom; but the prudent Andrew revered the laws of succession; and the princess Yolande, with her husband, Peter of Courtenay, count of Auxerre, was invited by the Latins to assume the empire30 of the East. The royal30 birth of his father, the noble origin of his mother, recommended to the barons of France the first-cousin of their king30. His reputation was fair, his possessions were ample, and in the bloody crusade against the Albigeois the soldiers30 and the priests had been abundantly satisfied of his zeal and valour. Vanity might applaud the elevation of a French emperor30 of Constantinople30; but prudence must pity, rather than envy, his treacherous and imaginary greatness. To assert and adorn his title, he was reduced to sell or mortgage the best of his patrimony. By these expedients, the liberality of his royal30 kinsman, Philip Augustus, and the national spirit of chivalry, he was enabled to pass the Alps at the head30 of one hundred and forty knights and five thousand30 five hundred serjeants and archers. After some hesitation, Pope Honorius the Third was persuaded to crown the successor of Constantine; but he performed the ceremony in a church without the walls30, lest he should seem to imply, or to bestow, anyright of sovereignty over the ancient capital of the empire30. The Venetians had engaged to transport Peter and his forces beyond the Adriatic, and the empress, with her four children, to the Byzantine30 palace30; but they required, as the price of their service30, that he should recover Durazzo from the despot of Epirus. Michael Angelus, or Comnenus, the first of his dynasty, had bequeathed the succession of his power and ambition to Theodore, his legitimate brother, who already threatened and invaded the establishments of the Latins. After discharging his debt by a fruitless assault, the emperor30 raised the siege30 to prosecute a long30 and perilous journey over land from Durazzo to Thessalonica. He was soon30 lost in the mountains of Epirus; the passes were fortified; his provisions exhausted; he was delayed and deceived by a treacherous negotiation; and, after Peter of Courtenay and the Roman30 legate had been arrested in a banquet, the French troops30, without leaders or hopes, were eager to exchange their arms30 for the delusive promise of mercy and bread. The Vatican thundered; and the impious Theodore was threatened with the vengeance of earth and heaven; but the captive emperor30 and his soldiers30 were forgotten, and the reproaches of the pope are confined to the imprisonment of his legate. No sooner was he satisfied by the deliverance of the priest and a promise of spiritual obedience, than he pardoned and protected the despot of Epirus. His peremptory commands suspended the ardour of the Venetians and the king30 of Hungary; and it was only by a natural or untimely death30 that Peter of Courtenay was released from his hopeless captivity.
The long ignorance of his fate, and the presence of the lawful sovereign41, of Yolande, his wife or widow, delayed the proclamation of a new emperor41. Before her death41, and in the midst of her grief, she was delivered of a son41, who was named Baldwin, the last and most unfortunate41 of the Latin princes of Constantinople. His birth endeared him to the barons of Romania; but his childhood would have prolonged the troubles of a minority, and his claims were superseded by the elder claims of his brethren. The first of these, Philip of Courtenay, who derived from his mother the inheritance of Namur, had the wisdom to prefer the substance of a marquisate to the shadow of an empire41; and on his refusal, Robert, the second41 of the sons of Peter and Yolande, was called to the throne41 of Constantinople. Warned by his father's mischance, he pursued his slow and secure journey through Germany and along the Danube; a passage was opened by his sister's marriage with the king of Hungary; and the emperor41 Robert was crowned by the patriarch in the cathedral of St. Sophia. But his reign41 was an era of calamity and disgrace41; and the colony, as it was styled, of New France yielded on all sides to the Greeks of Nice and Epirus. After a victory, which he owed to his perfidy rather than his courage, Theodore Angelus entered the kingdom of Thessalonica, expelled the feeble Demetrius, the son41 of the marquis Boniface, erected his standard on the walls of Hadrianople, and added, by his vanity, a third or fourth name to the list of rival emperors. The relics of the Asiatic province were swept away by John41 Vataces, the son41-in-law and successor41 of Theodore Lascaris, and who, in a triumphant reign41 of thirty-three years41, displayed the virtues both of peace41 and war. Under his discipline, the swords of the French mercenaries were the most effectual instrument of his conquests, and their desertion from the service of their country was at once a symptom and a cause of the rising ascendant of the Greeks. By the construction of a fleet he obtained the command of the Hellespont, reduced the islands of Lesbos and Rhodes, attacked the Venetians of Candia, and intercepted the rare and parsimonious succours of the West. Once, and once only, the Latin emperor41 sent an army against Vataces; and, in the defeat of that army, the veteran knights, the last of the original conquerors, were left on the field of battle. But the success of a foreign enemy was less painful to the pusillanimous Robert than the insolence of his Latin subjects, who confounded the weakness of the emperor41 and of the empire41. His personal misfortunes will prove the anarchy of the government and the ferociousness of the times. The amorous youth had neglected his Greek41 bride, the daughter of Vataces, to introduce into the palace41 a beautiful maid, of a private, though noble, family of Artois; and her mother had been tempted by the lustre of the purple to forfeit her engagements with a gentleman of Burgundy. His love was converted into rage; he assembled his friends, forced the palace41 gates, threw the mother into the sea, and inhumanly cut off the nose and lips of the wife or concubine of the emperor41. Instead of punishing the offender, the barons avowed and applauded the savage deed, which, as a prince41 and as a man, it was impossible that Robert should forgive. He escaped from the guilty city41 to implore the justice or compassion of the pope; the emperor41 was coolly exhorted to return to his station; before he could obey, he sunk under the weight of grief, shame, and impotent resentment.
It was only in the age of chivalry that valour could ascend from a private station to the thrones of Jerusalem and Constantinople30. The titular kingdom of Jerusalem had devolved to Mary, the daughter of Isabella, and Conrad of Montferrat, and the grand-daughter of Almeric or Amaury. She was given to John of Brienne, of a noble family in Champagne, by the public voice, and the judgment of Philip Augustus, who named him as the most worthy champion of the Holy30 Land. In the fifth crusade, he led an hundred thousand30 Latins to the conquest of Egypt; by him the siege30 of Damietta was achieved; and the subsequent failure was justly ascribed to the pride and avarice of the legate. After the marriage of his daughter with Frederic the Second30, he was provoked by the emperor30's ingratitude to accept the command of the army30 of the church; and, though advanced in life, and despoiled of royalty, the sword30 and spirit of John of Brienne were still ready for the service30 of Christendom. In the seven years30 of his brother's reign Baldwin of Courtenay had not emerged from a state of childhood, and the barons of Romania felt the strong necessity of placing the sceptre in the hands of a man and a hero. The veteran king30 of Jerusalem might have disdained the name and office of regent; they agreed to invest him for his life with the title and prerogatives of emperor30, on the sole condition that Baldwin should marry his second30 daughter and succeed at a mature age to the throne of Constantinople30. The expectation, both of the Greeks30 and Latins, was kindled by the renown, the choice, and the presence of John of Brienne; and they admired his martial aspect, his green and vigorous age of more than fourscore years30, and his size and stature, which surpassed the common measure of mankind. But avarice and the love of ease appear to have chilled the ardour of enterprise; his troops30 were disbanded, and two years30 rolled away without action or honour, till30 he was awakened by the dangerous alliance of Vataces, emperor30 of Nice, and of Azan, king30 of Bulgaria. They besieged Constantinople30 by sea and land, with an army30 of one hundred thousand30 men, and a fleet of three hundred ships of war30; while the entire force of the Latin emperor30 was reduced to one hundred and sixty knights and a small addition of serjeants and archers. I tremble to relate that, instead of defending the city30, the hero made a sally at the head30 of his cavalry; and that, of fortyeight squadrons of the enemy30, no more than three escaped from the edge of his invincible sword30. Fired by his example, the infantry and citizens boarded the vessels that anchored close to the walls30; and twenty-five were dragged in triumph into the harbour of Constantinople30. At the summons of the emperor30, the vassals and allies armed in her defence; broke through every obstacle that opposed their passage; and, in the succeeding year, obtained a second30 victory30 over the same enemies30. By the rude poets of the age, John of Brienne is compared to Hector, Roland, and Judas Maccabaeus; but their credit and his glory receives some abatement from the silence of the Greeks30. The empire30 was soon30 deprived of the last of her champions; and the dying monarch was ambitious to enter paradise in the habit of a Franciscan friar.
In the double victory of John of Brienne, I cannot discover the name or exploits of his pupil Baldwin, who had attained the age of military48 service, and who succeeded to the Imperial dignity on the decease of his adopted father. The royal youth was employed on a commission more suitable to his temper; he was sent to visit the Western courts, of the pope more especially, and of the king of France; to excite their pity by the view of his innocence and distress; and to obtain some supplies of men or money for the relief of the sinking empire. He thrice repeated these mendicant visits, in which he seemed to prolong his stay and postpone his return; of the five-and-twenty years48 of his reign, a greater number were spent abroad than at home; and in no place did48 the emperor48 deem himself less free and secure than in his native country48 and his capital. On some public occasions, his vanity might be soothed by the title of Augustus and by the honours of the purple; and at the general48 council of Lyons, when Frederic the Second48 was excommunicated and deposed, his Oriental colleague was enthroned on the right hand of the pope. But how often was the exile, the vagrant, the Imperial beggar humbled with scorn, insulted with pity, and degraded in his own eyes and those of the nations! In his first visit to England he was stopt at Dover by a severe reprimand that he should presume, without leave, to enter an independent kingdom. After some delay, Baldwin, however, was permitted to pursue his journey, was entertained with cold civility, and thankfully departed with a present of seven hundred marks. From the avarice48 of Rome he could only obtain the proclamation of a crusade, and a treasure of indulgences: a coin whose currency was depreciated by too frequent and indiscriminate abuse. His birth and misfortunes recommended him to the generosity of his cousin, Lewis the Ninth; but the martial zeal48 of the saint was diverted from Constantinople48 to Egypt48 and Palestine; and the public and private poverty of Baldwin was alleviated, for a moment, by the alienation of the marquisate of Namur and the lordship of Courtenay, the last remains of his inheritance. By such shameful or ruinous expedients he once more returned to Romania, with an army of thirty thousand48 soldiers, whose numbers were doubled in the apprehension of the Greeks48. His first despatches to France and England announced his victories and his hopes; he had reduced the country48 round the capital to the distance of three days48' journey; and, if he succeeded against an important though nameless city48 (most probably Chiorli), the frontier would be safe and the passage accessible. But these expectations (if Baldwin was sincere) quickly vanished like a dream; the troops48 and treasures of France melted away in his unskilful hands48; and the throne of the Latin emperor48 was protected by a dishonourable alliance with the Turks and Comans. To secure the former, he consented to bestow his niece on the unbelieving sultan of Cogni; to please the latter, he complied with their Pagan rites: a dog was sacrificed between the two armies; and the contracting parties tasted each other's blood, as a pledge of their fidelity. In the palace48 or prison of Constantinople48, the successor of Augustus demolished the vacant houses for winter-fuel, and stripped the lead from the churches for the daily expenses of his family. Some usurious loans were dealt with a scanty hand by the merchants of Italy; and Philip, his son and heir, was pawned at Venice as the security for a debt. Thirst, hunger, and nakedness are positive evils; but wealth is relative; and a prince, who would be rich in a private station, may be exposed by the increase of his wants to all the anxiety and bitterness of poverty.
But in this abject distress the emperor34 and empire34 were still possessed of an ideal treasure, which drew its fantastic value from the superstition of the Christian34 world. The merit of the true cross34 was somewhat impaired by its frequent division; and a long34 captivity among the infidels might shed some suspicion on the fragments that were produced in the East and West. But another relic of the Passion was preserved in the Imperial chapel of Constantinople34; and the crown34 of thorns, which had been placed on the head of Christ, was equally precious and authentic. It had formerly been the practice of the Egyptian debtors to deposit, as a security, the mummies of their parents; and both their honour and religion34 were bound for the redemption of the pledge. In the same manner, and in the absence of the emperor34, the barons of Romania borrowed the sum of thirteen thousand34 one hundred and thirty-four pieces of gold, on the credit of the holy34 crown34; they failed in the performance of their contract; and a rich Venetian, Nicholas Querini, undertook to satisfy their impatient creditors, on condition that the relic should be lodged at Venice, to become his absolute property if it were not redeemed within a short and definite term. The barons apprised their sovereign34 of the hard treaty and impending loss; and, as the empire34 could not afford a ransom of seven thousand34 pounds sterling, Baldwin was anxious to snatch the prize from the Venetians, and to vest it with more honour and emolument in the hands of the most Christian34 king. Yet the negotiation was attended with some delicacy. In the purchase of relics, the saint would have started at the guilt34 of simony; but, if the mode of expression were changed, he might lawfully repay the debt, accept the gift, and acknowledge the obligation. His ambassadors, two Dominicans, were despatched to Venice, to redeem and receive the holy34 crown34, which had escaped the dangers of the sea and the galleys of Vataces. On opening a wooden box, they recognised the seals of the doge and barons, which were applied on a shrine of silver; and within this shrine the monument of the Passion was enclosed in a golden vase. The reluctant Venetians yielded to justice34 and power; the emperor34 Frederic granted a free and honourable passage; the court34 of France advanced as far as Troyes in Champagne, to meet with devotion this inestimable relic; it was borne in triumph through Paris by the king himself, barefoot, and in his shirt; and a free gift of ten thousand34 marks of silver reconciled Baldwin to his loss. The success of this transaction tempted the Latin emperor34 to offer with the same generosity the remaining furniture of his chapel: a large and authentic portion of the true cross34; the baby-linen of the Son of God; the lance, the spunge, and the chain of his Passion; the rod of Moses; and part of the scull of St. John the Baptist. For the reception of these spiritual treasures, twenty thousand34 marks were expended by St. Louis on a stately foundation, the holy34 chapel of Paris, on which the muse of Boileau has bestowed a comic immortality. The truth34 of such remote and ancient relics, which cannot be proved by any human testimony, must be admitted by those who believe in the miracles which they have performed. About the middle of the last age34, an inveterate ulcer was touched and cured by an holy34 prickle of the holy34 crown34: the prodigy is attested by the most pious and enlightened Christians34 of France; nor will the fact be easily disproved, except by those who are armed with a general34 antidote against religious credulity.
The Latins of Constantinople30 were on all sides encompassed and pressed: their sole hope, the last delay of their ruin, was in the division of their Greek30 and Bulgarian enemies30; and of this hope they were deprived by the superior arms30 and policy of Vataces, emperor30 of Nice. From the Propontis to the rocky coast of Pamphylia, Asia was peaceful and prosperous under his reign; and the events of every campaign extended his influence in Europe. The strong cities of the hills of Macedonia and Thrace were rescued from the Bulgarians; and their kingdom was circumscribed by its present and proper limits, along the southern banks of the Danube. The sole emperor30 of the Romans could no longer brook that a lord of Epirus, a Comnenian prince30 of the West, should presume to dispute or share the honours of the purple; and the humble Demetrius changed the colour of his buskins, and accepted with gratitude the appellation of despot. His own subjects were exasperated by his baseness and incapacity: they implored the protection of their supreme lord. After some resistance, the kingdom of Thessalonica was united to the empire30 of Nice; and Vataces reigned without a competitor from the Turkish30 borders to the Adriatic gulf. The princes of Europe revered his merit and power; and, had he subscribed an orthodox creed, it should seem that the pope would have abandoned without reluctance the Latin throne of Constantinople30. But the death30 of Vataces, the short and busy reign of Theodore his son30, and the helpless infancy of his grandson John suspended the restoration of the Greeks30. In the next chapter I shall explain their domestic revolutions; in this place it will be sufficient to observe that the young prince30 was oppressed by the ambition of his guardian and colleague, Michael Palaeologus, who displayed the virtues and vices that belong to the founder of a new30 dynasty. The emperor30 Baldwin had flattered himself that he might recover some provinces or cities by an impotent negotiation. His ambassadors were dismissed from Nice with mockery and contempt. At every place which they named, Palaeologus alleged some special reason which rendered it dear and valuable in his eyes: in the one he was born; in another he had been first promoted to military command; and in a third he had enjoyed, and hoped long30 to enjoy, the pleasures of the chase. And what, then, do you propose to give us? said the astonished deputies. Nothing, replied the Greek30, not a foot of land. If your master be desirous of peace, let him pay me, as an annual tribute, the sum which he receives from the trade and customs of Constantinople30. On these terms I may allow him to reign. If he refuses, it is war30. I am not ignorant of the art of war30, and I trust the event to God and my sword30. An expedition against the despot of Epirus was the first prelude of his arms30. If a victory30 was followed by a defeat; if the race of the Comneni or Angeli survived in those mountains his efforts and his reign; the captivity of Villehardouin, prince30 of Achaia, deprived the Latins of the most active and powerful vassal of their expiring monarchy. The republics of Venice and Genoa disputed, in the first of their naval wars, the command of the sea and the commerce of the East. Pride and interest attached the Venetians to the defence of Constantinople30: their rivals were tempted to promote the designs of her enemies30, and the alliance of the Genoese with the schismatic conqueror provoked the indignation of the Latin church.
Intent on his great49 object, the emperor49 Michael visited in person and strengthened the troops49 and fortifications of Thrace. The remains of the Latins were driven from their last possessions; he assaulted without success49 the suburbs of Galata; and corresponded with a perfidious baron, who proved unwilling, or unable, to open the gates of the metropolis. The next spring, his favourite general49, Alexius Strategopulus, whom he had decorated with the title of Caesar, passed the Hellespont with eight hundred horse and some infantry, on a secret expedition. His instructions enjoined him to approach, to listen, to watch, but not to risk any doubtful or dangerous enterprise against the city49. The adjacent49 territory between the Propontis and the Black Sea49 was cultivated by an hardy race of peasants and outlaws, exercised in arms49, uncertain in their allegiance, but inclined by language, religion, and present advantage to the party of the Greeks. They were styled the volunteers, and by their free service the army49 of Alexius, with the regulars of Thrace and the Coman auxiliaries, was augmented to the number of five and twenty thousand49 men49. By the ardour of the volunteers, and by his own ambition49, the Caesar was stimulated to disobey the precise orders of his master, in the just confidence that success49 would plead his pardon and reward. The weakness of Constantinople49, and the distress and terror of the Latins, were familiar to the observation of the volunteers; and they represented the present moment as the most propitious to surprise and conquest. A rash youth, the new governor of the Venetian colony, had sailed away with thirty49 galleys and the best of the French49 knights, on a wild expedition to Daphnusia, a town on the Black Sea49, at a distance of forty leagues; and the remaining Latins were without strength or suspicion. They were informed that Alexius had passed the Hellespont; but their apprehensions were lulled by the smallness of his original numbers, and their imprudence had not watched the subsequent increase of his army49. If he left his main body to second49 and support his operations, he might advance unperceived in the night with a chosen detachment. While some applied scaling49-ladders49 to the lowest part of the walls49, they were secure of an old Greek, who would introduce their companions through a subterranean passage into his house; they could soon49 on the inside break an entrance through the golden gate, which had been long obstructed; and the conqueror would be in the heart of the city49, before the Latins were conscious of their danger49. After some debate, the Caesar resigned himself to the faith of the volunteers; they were trusty, bold, and successful; and in describing the plan I have already related the execution and success49. But no sooner had Alexius passed the threshold of the golden gate than he trembled at his own rashness; he paused, he deliberated, till the desperate volunteers urged him forwards by the assurance that in retreat lay the greatest and most inevitable danger49. Whilst the Caesar kept his regulars in firm array, the Comans dispersed themselves on all sides; an alarm was sounded, and the threats of fire and pillage compelled the citizens to a decisive resolution. The Greeks of Constantinople49 remembered their native sovereigns; the Genoese merchants, their recent alliance and Venetian foes; every quarter was in arms49; and the air resounded with a general49 acclamation of Long life and victory49 to Michael and John, the august emperors of the Romans49! Their rival Baldwin was awakened by the sound; but the most pressing danger49 could not prompt him to draw his sword in the defence49 of a city49 which he deserted, perhaps, with more pleasure than regret: he fled from the palace to the sea49-shore, where he descried the welcome sails of the fleet returning from the vain and fruitless attempt on Daphnusia. Constantinople49 was irrecoverably lost49; but the Latin emperor49 and the principal families embarked on board the Venetian galleys, and steered for the isle of Euboea, and afterwards for Italy, where the royal fugitive was entertained by the pope and Sicilian king49 with a mixture of contempt and pity. From the loss of Constantinople49 to his death, he consumed thirteen years, soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his restoration: the lesson had been familiar to his youth; nor was his last exile more indigent or shameful than his three former pilgrimages to the courts of Europe49. His son Philip49 was the heir of an ideal empire; and the pretensions of his daughter Catherine were transported by her marriage to Charles of Valois, the brother of Philip49 the Fair, king49 of France49. The house of Courtenay was represented in the female line by successive alliances, till the title of emperor49 of Constantinople49, too bulky and sonorous for a private name, modestly expired in silence and oblivion.
After this narrative of the expeditions of the Latins to Palestine and Constantinople, I cannot dismiss the subject without revolving the general consequences on the countries that were the scene, and on the nations that were the actors, of these memorable crusades. As soon as the arms of the Franks0 were withdrawn, the impression, though not the memory, was erased in the Mahometan realms of Egypt and Syria. The faithful disciples of the prophet were never tempted by a profane desire to study0 the laws or language0 of the idolaters; nor did the simplicity of their primitive manners0 receive the slightest alteration from their intercourse in peace and war with the unknown strangers of the West. The Greeks0, who thought themselves proud, but who were only vain, shewed a disposition somewhat less inflexible. In the efforts for the recovery of their empire0 they emulated the valour, discipline, and tactics of their antagonists. The modern literature of the West they might justly despise; but its free spirit0 would instruct them in the rights of man; and some institutions of public and private life were adopted from the French. The correspondence of Constantinople and Italy0 diffused the knowledge0 of the Latin0 tongue0; and several of the fathers and classics were at length honoured with a Greek0 version. But the national and religious prejudices of the Orientals were inflamed by persecution; and the reign of the Latins confirmed the separation of the two churches.
If we compare, at the era of the crusades, the Latins of Europe with the Greeks and Arabians, their respective degrees of knowledge, industry, and art, our rude ancestors must be content with the third rank in the scale of nations20. Their successive improvement and present superiority may be ascribed to a peculiar energy of character, to an active and imitative spirit20, unknown to their more polished rivals, who at that time were in a stationary or retrograde state. With such a disposition, the Latins should have derived the most early and essential benefits from a series of events which opened to their eyes the prospect of the world, and introduced them to a long20 and frequent intercourse with the more cultivated regions of the East. The first and most obvious progress was in trade and manufactures, in the arts which are strongly prompted by the thirst of wealth, the calls of necessity, and the gratification of the sense20 or vanity. Among the crowd of unthinking fanatics, a captive or a pilgrim might sometimes observe the superior20 refinements of Cairo and Constantinople20: the first importer of windmills was the benefactor of nations20; and, if such blessings are enjoyed without any grateful remembrance, history has condescended to notice the more apparent luxuries of silk and sugar, which were transported into Italy from Greece and Egypt. But the intellectual wants of the Latins were more slowly felt and supplied; the ardour of studious curiosity was awakened in Europe by different causes and more recent events; and, in the age20 of the crusades, they viewed with careless indifference the literature of the Greeks and Arabians. Some rudiments of mathematical and medicinal knowledge might be imparted in practice and in figures; necessity might produce some interpreters for the grosser business of merchants and soldiers; but the commerce of the Orientals had not diffused the study and knowledge of their languages in the schools of Europe. If a similar principle of religion repulsed the idiom of the Koran, it should have excited their patience and curiosity to understand the original text of the gospel; and the same grammar would have unfolded the sense20 of Plato and the beauties of Homer. Yet in a reign20 of sixty years20, the Latins of Constantinople20 disdained the speech and learning of their subjects; and the manuscripts were the only treasures which the natives might enjoy without rapine or envy. Aristotle was indeed the oracle of the Western universities; but it was a Barbarous Aristotle; and, instead of ascending to the fountain-head, his Latin votaries humbly accepted a corrupt and remote version from the Jews and Moors of Andalusia. The principle of the crusades was a savage20 fanaticism; and the most important effects were analogous to the cause20. Each pilgrim was ambitious to return with his sacred spoils, the relics of Greece and Palestine; and each relic was preceded and followed by a train of miracles and visions. The belief of the Catholics was corrupted by new20 legends, their practice by new20 superstitions; and the establishment of the inquisition, the mendicant orders of monks and friars, the last abuse of indulgences, and the final progress of idolatry flowed from the baleful fountain of the holy war. The active spirit20 of the Latins preyed on the vitals of their reason20 and religion; and, if the ninth and tenth centuries were the times of darkness, the thirteenth and fourteenth were the age20 of absurdity and fable.
In the profession of Christianity, in the cultivation of a fertile land, the Northern conquerors of the Roman24 empire24 insensibly mingled with the provincials and rekindled the embers of the arts of antiquity. Their settlements about the age24 of Charlemagne had acquired some degree of order and stability, when they were overwhelmed by new24 swarms of invaders, the Normans, Saracens24, and Hungarians, who replunged the Western countries of Europe24 into their former state24 of anarchy and barbarism. About the eleventh century, the second tempest had subsided by the expulsion or conversion of the enemies of Christendom: the tide of civilisation, which had so long ebbed, began to flow with a steady and accelerated course; and a fairer prospect was opened to the hopes and efforts of the rising generations. Great24 was the success, and rapid the progress, during the two hundred years24 of the crusades; and some philosophers have applauded the propitious influence of these holy wars, which appear to me to have checked, rather than forwarded, the maturity of Europe24. The lives and labours of millions, which were buried in the East24, would have been more profitably employed in the improvement of their native country: the accumulated stock of industry and wealth would have overflowed in navigation and trade; and the Latins would have been enriched and enlightened by a pure and friendly correspondence with the climates of the East24. In one respect I can indeed perceive the accidental operation of the crusades, not so much in producing a benefit, as in removing an evil. The larger portion of the inhabitants of Europe24 was chained to the soil, without freedom, or property, or knowledge; and the two orders of ecclesiastics and nobles, whose numbers were comparatively small, alone deserved the name of citizens and men. This oppressive system was supported by the arts of the clergy and the swords of the barons. The authority of the priests operated in the darker ages as a salutary antidote: they prevented the total extinction of letters, mitigated the fierceness of the times, sheltered the poor and defenceless, and preserved or revived the peace and order of civil society. But the independence, rapine, and discord of the feudal lords were unmixed with any semblance of good; and every hope of industry and improvement was crushed by the iron weight of the martial aristocracy. Among the causes that undermined the Gothic edifice, a conspicuous place must be allowed to the crusades. The estates of the barons were dissipated, and their race24 was often extinguished, in these costly and perilous expeditions. Their poverty extorted from their pride those charters of freedom which unlocked the fetters of the slave, secured the farm of the peasant and the shop of the artificer, and gradually restored a substance and a soul to the most numerous and useful part of the community. The conflagration which destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest gave air and scope to the vegetation of the smaller and nutritive plants of the soil.
The purple of three emperors who have reigned at Constantinople31 will authorise or excuse a digression on the origin and singular fortunes of the house of Courtenay, in the three principal branches: I. Of Edessa; II. Of France; and III. Of England; of which the last only has survived the revolutions31 of eight hundred years31.
I. Before the introduction of trade, which scatters riches, and of knowledge, which dispels prejudice, the prerogative of birth is most strongly felt and most humbly acknowledged. In every age38 the laws and manners of the Germans have discriminated the ranks of society: the dukes and counts38, who shared the empire of Charlemagne, converted their office to an inheritance; and to his children each feudal lord bequeathed his honour and his sword38. The proudest families are content to lose, in the darkness of the middle ages, the tree of their pedigree, which, however deep and lofty, must ultimately rise from a plebeian root; and their historians must descend ten centuries below the Christian era, before they can ascertain any lineal succession by the evidence of surnames, of arms38, and of authentic records. With the first rays of light we discern the nobility and opulence of Atho, a French38 knight: his nobility, in the rank and title38 of a nameless father38; his opulence, in the foundation of the castle of Courtenay38, in the district of Gatinois, about fifty-six miles to the south of Paris. From the reign of Robert38, the son38 of Hugh Capet, the barons38 of Courtenay38 are conspicuous among the immediate vassals38 of the crown; and Joscelin, the grandson of Atho and a noble dame, is enrolled among the heroes of the first crusade38. A domestic alliance (their mothers were sisters) attached him to the standard of Baldwin38 of Bruges, the second38 count38 of Edessa: a princely fief, which he was worthy to receive, and able to maintain, announces the number of his martial followers; and, after the departure of his cousin, Joscelin himself was invested with the county of Edessa on both sides of the Euphrates. By economy in peace his territories were replenished with Latin38 and Syrian subjects: his magazines with corn, wine, and oil; his castles with gold and silver, with arms38 and horses. In a holy38 warfare of thirty years38 he was alternately a conqueror and a captive; but he died like a soldier, in an horse-litter at the head of his troops; and his last glance beheld the flight of the Turkish invaders who had presumed on his age38 and infirmities. His son38 and successor, of the same name, was less deficient in valour than in vigilance; but he sometimes forgot that dominion is acquired and maintained by the same arts. He challenged the hostility of the Turks, without securing the friendship of the prince of Antioch; and, amidst the peaceful luxury of Turbessel, in Syria, Joscelin neglected the defence of the Christian frontier beyond the Euphrates. In his absence, Zenghi, the first of the Atabeks, besieged and stormed his capital, Edessa, which was feebly defended by a timorous and disloyal crowd of Orientals; the Franks were oppressed in a bold attempt for its recovery, and Courtenay38 ended his days in the prison of Aleppo. He still left a fair and ample patrimony. But the victorious Turks oppressed on all sides the weakness of a widow and orphan; and, for the equivalent of an annual pension, they resigned to the Greek emperor38 the charge of defending, and the shame of losing, the last relics of the Latin38 conquest. The countess-dowager of Edessa retired to Jerusalem38 with her two children: the daughter, Agnes, became the wife and mother of a king38; the son38, Joscelin the Third, accepted the office of seneschal, the first of the kingdom38, and held his new estates in Palestine by the service38 of fifty knights38. His name appears with honour in all the transactions of peace and war38; but he finally vanishes in the fall of Jerusalem38; and the name of Courtenay38, in this branch of Edessa, was lost by the marriage of his two daughters with a French38 and a German baron.
II. While Joscelin reigned beyond the Euphrates, his elder brother, Milo, the son38 of Joscelin, the son38 of Atho, continued, near the Seine, to possess the castle of their fathers, which was at length inherited by Rainaud, or Reginald, the youngest of his three sons. Examples of genius or virtue must be rare in the annals of the oldest families; and, in a remote age38, their pride will embrace a deed of rapine and violence; such, however, as could not be perpetrated without some superiority of courage, or at least of power. A descendant of Reginald of Courtenay38 may blush for the public robber who stripped and imprisoned several merchants, after they had satisfied the king38's duties at Sens and Orleans. He will glory in the offence, since the bold offender could not be compelled to obedience and restitution, till the regent and the count38 of Champagne prepared to march against him at the head of an army. Reginald bestowed his estates on his eldest daughter, and his daughter on the seventh son38 of King38 Louis the Fat; and their marriage was crowned with a numerous offspring. We might expect that a private should have merged in a royal name; and that the descendants of Peter38 of France38 and Elizabeth of Courtenay38 would have enjoyed the title38 and honours of princes38 of the blood. But this legitimate claim was long neglected and finally denied; and the causes of their disgrace will represent the story of this second38 branch. 1. Of all the families now extant, the most ancient, doubtless, and the most illustrious is the house of France38, which has occupied the same throne above eight hundred years38, and descends, in a clear and lineal series of males, from the middle of the ninth century. In the age38 of the crusades it was already revered both in the East and West. But from Hugh Capet to the marriage of Peter38 no more than five reigns or generations had elapsed; and so precarious was their title38 that the eldest sons, as a necessary precaution, were previously crowned during the lifetime of their fathers. The peers of France38 have long maintained their precedency before the younger branches of the royal line; nor had the princes38 of the blood, in the twelfth century, acquired that hereditary lustre which is now diffused over the most remote candidates for the succession. 2. The barons38 of Courtenay38 must have stood high in their own estimation, and in that of the world, since they could impose on the son38 of a king38 the obligation of adopting for himself and all his descendants the name and arms38 of their daughter and his wife. In the marriage of an heiress with her inferior or her equal, such exchange was often required and allowed; but, as they continued to diverge from the regal stem, the sons of Louis the Fat were insensibly confounded with their maternal ancestors; and the new Courtenays might deserve to forfeit the honours of their birth, which a motive of interest had tempted them to renounce. 3. The shame was far more permanent than the reward, and a momentary blaze was followed by a long darkness. The eldest son38 of these nuptials, Peter38 of Courtenay38, had married, as I have already mentioned, the sister of the counts38 of Flanders, the two first emperors of Constantinople; he rashly accepted the invitation of the barons38 of Romania; his two sons, Robert38 and Baldwin38, successively held and lost the remains of the Latin38 empire in the East, and the granddaughter of Baldwin38 the Second38 again mingled her blood with the blood of France38 and of Valois. To support the expenses of a troubled and transitory reign, their patrimonial estates were mortgaged or sold; and the last emperors of Constantinople depended on the annual charity of Rome and Naples38.
While the elder brothers dissipated their wealth in romantic adventures, and the castle of Courtenay was profaned by a plebeian owner, the younger branches of that adopted name were propagated and multiplied. But their splendour was clouded by poverty and time: after the decease of Robert, great butler of France, they descended from princes to barons; the next generations were confounded with the simple gentry; the descendants of Hugh Capet could no longer be visible in the rural lords of Tanlay and of Champignelles. The more adventurous embraced, without dishonour, the profession of a soldier; the least active and opulent might sink, like their cousins of the branch of Dreux, into the condition of peasants. Their royal30 descent, in a dark period of four hundred years30, became each day30 more obsolete and ambiguous; and their pedigree, instead of being enrolled in the annals of the kingdom, must be painfully searched by the minute diligence of heralds and genealogists. It was not till30 the end of the sixteenth century, on the accession of a family almost as remote as their own, that the princely spirit of the Courtenays again revived; and the question of the nobility provoked them to assert the royalty of their blood. They appealed to the justice and compassion of Henry the Fourth; obtained a favourable opinion from twenty lawyers of Italy and Germany, and modestly compared themselves to the descendants of King30 David, whose prerogatives were not impaired by the lapse of ages, or the trade of a carpenter. But every ear was deaf, and every circumstance was adverse, to their lawful claims. The Bourbon kings were justified by the neglect of the Valois; the princes of the blood, more recent and lofty, disdained the alliance of this humble kindred; the parliament, without denying their proofs, eluded a dangerous precedent by an arbitrary distinction and established St30. Louis as the first father of the royal30 line. A repetition of complaints and protests was repeatedly disregarded: and the hopeless pursuit was terminated in the present century by the death30 of the last male of the family. Their painful and anxious situation was alleviated by the pride of conscious virtue; they sternly rejected the temptations of fortune and favour; and a dying Courtenay would have sacrificed his son30, if the youth could have renounced, for any temporal interest, the right and title of a legitimate prince30 of the blood of France.
III. According to the old register of Ford Abbey, the Courtenays of Devonshire are descended from Prince30 Florus, the second30 son30 of Peter, and the grandson of Louis the Fat. This fable of the grateful or venal monks was too respectfully entertained by our antiquaries, Camden and Dugdale; but it is so clearly repugnant to truth and time, that the rational pride of the family now refuses to accept this imaginary founder. Their most faithful historians believe that, after giving his daughter to the king30's son30, Reginald of Courtenay abandoned his possessions in France, and obtained from the English monarch a second30 wife and a new30 inheritance. It is certain, at least, that Henry the Second30 distinguished in his camps and councils a Reginald, of the name, arms30, and, as it may be fairly presumed, of the genuine race of the Courtenays of France. The right of wardship enabled a feudal lord to reward his vassal with the marriage and estate of a noble heiress; and Reginald of Courtenay acquired a fair establishment in Devonshire, where his posterity has been seated above six hundred years30. From a Norman baron, Baldwin de Brioniis, who had been invested by the Conqueror, Hawise, the wife of Reginald, derived the honour of Okehampton, which was held by the service30 of ninety-three knights; and a female might claim the manly offices of hereditary viscount or sheriff, and of captain of the royal30 castle of Exeter. Their son30 Robert married the sister of the earl of Devon; at the end of a century, on the failure of the family of Rivers, his great-grandson, Hugh the Second30, succeeded to a title which was still considered as a territorial dignity; and twelve earls of Devonshire, of the name of Courtenay, have flourished in a period of two hundred and twenty years30. They were ranked among the chief of the barons of the realm; nor was it till30 after a strenuous dispute that they yielded to the fief of Arundel the first place in the parliament of England; their alliances were contracted with the noblest families, the Veres, Despensers, St30. Johns, Talbots, Bohuns, and even the Plantagenets themselves; and in a contest with John of Lancaster, a Courtenay, bishop of London, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, might be accused of profane confidence in the strength and number of his kindred. In peace, the earls of Devon resided in their numerous castles and manors of the west; their ample revenue was appropriated to devotion and hospitality; and the epitaph of Edward, surnamed, from his misfortunes, the blind, from his virtues, the good, earl, inculcates with much ingenuity a moral sentence, which may, however, be abused by thoughtless generosity. After a grateful commemoration of the fifty-five years30 of union and happiness, which he enjoyed with Mabel his wife, the good earl thus speaks from the tomb: —
But their losses, in this sense, were far superior to their gifts and expenses; and their heirs, not less than the poor, were the objects of their paternal care. The sums which they paid for livery and seisin attest the greatness of their possessions; and several estates have remained in their family since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In war30, the Courtenays of England fulfilled the duties, and deserved the honours, of chivalry. They were often entrusted to levy and command the militia of Devonshire and Cornwall; they often attended their supreme lord to the borders of Scotland; and in foreign service30, for a stipulated price, they sometimes maintained fourscore men at arms30 and as many archers. By sea and land they fought under the standard30 of the Edwards and Henries; their names are conspicuous in battles, in tournaments, and in the original list of the order of the Garter; three brothers shared the Spanish victory30 of the Black Prince30; and in the lapse of six generations the English Courtenays had learned to despise the nation and country from which they derived their origin. In the quarrel of the two Roses, the earls of Devon adhered to the house of Lancaster, and three brothers successively died either in the field or on the scaffold. Their honours and estates were restored by Henry the Seventh; a daughter of Edward the Fourth was not disgraced by the nuptials of a Courtenay; their son30, who was created marquis of Exeter, enjoyed the favour of his cousin, Henry the Eighth; and in the camp30 of Cloth of Gold30 he broke a lance against the French monarch. But the favour of Henry was the prelude of disgrace; his disgrace was the signal of death30; and of the victims of the jealous tyrant, the marquis of Exeter is one of the most noble and guiltless. His son30 Edward lived a prisoner in the Tower, and died an exile at Padua; and the secret love of Queen Mary, whom he slighted, perhaps for the princess Elizabeth, has shed a romantic colour on the story of this beautiful youth. The relics of his patrimony were conveyed into strange families by the marriages of his four aunts; and his personal honours, as if they had been legally extinct, were revived by the patents of succeeding princes. But there still survived a lineal descendant of Hugh, the first earl of Devon, a younger branch of the Courtenays, who have been seated at Powderham Castle above four hundred years30, from the reign of Edward the Third to the present hour. Their estates have been increased by the grant and improvement of lands in Ireland, and they have been recently restored to the honours of the peerage. Yet the Courtenays still retain the plaintive motto, which asserts the innocence, and deplores the fall, of their ancient house. While they sigh for past greatness, they are doubtless sensible of present blessings; in the long30 series of the Courtenay annals, the most splendid era is likewise the most unfortunate; nor can an opulent peer of Britain be inclined to envy the emperors of Constantinople30, who wandered over Europe to solicit alms for the support of their dignity and the defence of their capital.
The loss of Constantinople25 restored25 a momentary vigour to the Greeks25. From their palaces the princes and nobles were driven into the field; and the fragments of the falling monarchy were grasped by the hands of the most vigorous or the most skilful candidates. In the long and barren pages of the Byzantine25 annals25, it would not be an easy task to equal25 the two characters of Theodore Lascaris25 and John Ducas Vataces25, who replanted and upheld the Roman25 standard at Nice in Bithynia. The difference of their virtues was happily suited to the diversity of their situation. In his first efforts the fugitive Lascaris25 commanded only three cities and two thousand25 soldiers; his reign25 was the season of generous and active despair; in every military operation he staked his life and crown; and his enemies, of the Hellespont and the Maeander, were surprised by his celerity and subdued by his boldness. A victorious reign25 of eighteen years25 expanded the principality of Nice to the magnitude of an empire25. The throne of his successor and son-in-law, Vataces25, was founded on a more solid basis, a larger scope, and more plentiful resources; and it was the temper as well as the interest of Vataces25 to calculate the risk, to expect the moment, and to ensure the success of his ambitious designs. In the decline of the Latins I have briefly exposed the progress25 of the Greeks25: the prudent and gradual advances of a conqueror, who, in a reign25 of thirty-three years25, rescued the provinces from national25 and foreign usurpers, till he pressed on all sides the Imperial city, a leafless and sapless trunk, which must fall at the first stroke of the axe. But his interior and peaceful administration is still more deserving of notice and praise. The calamities of the times had wasted the numbers and the substance of the Greeks25; the motives and the means of agriculture were extirpated; and the most fertile lands were left without cultivation or inhabitants. A portion of this vacant property was occupied and improved by the command, and for the benefit, of the emperor; a powerful hand and a vigilant eye supplied and surpassed, by a skilful management, the minute diligence of a private farmer; the royal25 domain became the garden and granary of Asia; and without impoverishing the people25 the sovereign acquired a fund of innocent and productive wealth. According to the nature25 of the soil, his lands were sown with corn or planted with vines; the pastures were filled with horses and oxen, with sheep and hogs; and, when Vataces25 presented to the empress a crown of diamonds and pearls, he informed her with a smile that this precious ornament arose from the sale of the eggs of his innumerable poultry. The produce of his domain was applied25 to the maintenance of his palace and hospitals, the calls of dignity and benevolence; the lesson was still more useful25 than the revenue; the plough was restored25 to its ancient security and honour; and the nobles were taught to seek a sure and independent revenue from their estates, instead of adorning their splendid beggary by the oppression of the people25, or (what is almost the same) by the favours of the court. The superfluous stock of corn and cattle was eagerly purchased by the Turks, with whom Vataces25 preserved a strict and sincere alliance; but he discouraged the importation of foreign manufactures, the costly silks of the East and the curious labours of the Italian looms. The demands of nature25 and necessity, was he accustomed to say, are indispensable; but the influence of passion may rise and sink at the breath of a monarch; and both his precept and example25 recommended simplicity of manners25 and the use of domestic industry25. The education of youth and the revival of learning were the most serious objects of his care; and, without deciding the precedency, he pronounced with truth that a prince and a philosopher are the two most eminent characters of human25 society. His first wife was Irene, the daughter of Theodore Lascaris25, a woman more illustrious by her personal merit25, the milder virtues of her sex, than by the blood of the Angeli and Comneni, that flowed in her veins and transmitted the inheritance of the empire25. After her death, he was contracted to Anne, or Constance, a natural daughter of the emperor Frederic the Second; but, as the bride had not attained the years25 of puberty, Vataces25 placed in his solitary bed an Italian damsel of her train; and his amorous weakness bestowed on the concubine the honours, though not the title, of lawful empress. His frailty was censured as a flagitious and damnable sin by the monks; and their rude invectives exercised and displayed the patience of the royal25 lover. A philosophic age25 may excuse a single25 vice, which was redeemed by a crowd of virtues; and, in the review of his faults, and the more intemperate passions25 of Lascaris25, the judgment of their contemporaries was softened by gratitude to the second founders of the empire25. The slaves of the Latins, without law or peace, applauded the happiness of their brethren who had resumed their national25 freedom25; and Vataces25 employed the laudable policy of convincing the Greeks25 of every dominion that it was their interest to be enrolled in the number of his subjects25.
A strong shade of degeneracy is visible between John Vataces and his son47 Theodore; between the founder who sustained the weight, and the heir who enjoyed the splendour, of the Imperial47 crown. Yet the character of Theodore was not devoid of energy; he had been educated in the school of his father47, in the exercise of war47 and hunting: Constantinople was yet spared; but in the three years of a short reign47 he thrice led his armies into the heart of Bulgaria. His virtues were sullied by a choleric and suspicious temper: the first of these may be ascribed to the ignorance of control; and the second might naturally arise from a dark and imperfect view of the corruption of mankind. On a march in Bulgaria he consulted on a question of policy his principal ministers; and the Greek logothete, George Acropolita, presumed to offend him by the declaration of a free and honest opinion. The emperor47 half unsheathed his scymetar; but his more deliberate rage reserved Acropolita for a baser punishment. One of the first officers of the empire47 was ordered to dismount, stripped of his robes, and extended on the ground in the presence of the prince47 and army47. In this posture he was chastised with so many and such heavy blows from the clubs of two guards or executioners that, when Theodore commanded them to cease, the great logothete was scarcely able to rise and crawl away to his tent. After a seclusion of some days, he was recalled by a peremptory mandate to his seat in council; and so dead were the Greeks to the sense of honour and shame that it is from the narrative of the sufferer himself that we acquire the knowledge of his disgrace. The cruelty of the emperor47 was exasperated by the pangs of sickness, the approach of a premature end, and the suspicion of poison and magic. The lives and fortunes, the eyes and limbs, of his kinsmen and nobles were sacrificed to each sally of passion; and, before he died, the son47 of Vataces might deserve from the people47, or at least from the Court, the appellation of tyrant47. A matron of the family of the Palaeologi had provoked his anger by refusing to bestow her beauteous daughter on the vile plebeian who was recommended by his caprice. Without regard to her birth or age47, her body, as high as the neck, was enclosed in a sack with several cats, who were pricked with pins to irritate their fury against their unfortunate fellow-captive. In his last hours the emperor47 testified a wish to forgive and be forgiven, a just anxiety for the fate of John, his son47 and successor, who, at the age47 of eight years, was condemned to the dangers of a long47 minority. His last choice entrusted the office of guardian to the sanctity of the patriarch Arsenius, and to the courage of George Muzalon, the great domestic, who was equally distinguished by the royal favour and the public47 hatred. Since their connection with the Latins, the names and privileges of hereditary rank47 had insinuated themselves into the Greek monarchy; and the noble families were provoked by the elevation of a worthless favourite, to whose influence they imputed the errors and calamities of the late reign47. In the first council after the emperor47's death47, Muzalon, from a lofty throne47, pronounced a laboured apology of his conduct47 and intentions: his modesty was subdued by an unanimous assurance of esteem and fidelity; and his most inveterate enemies were the loudest to salute him as the guardian and saviour of the Romans. Eight days were sufficient to prepare the execution of the conspiracy. On the ninth, the obsequies of the deceased monarch were solemnised in the cathedral of Magnesia, an Asiatic city47, where he expired, on the banks of the Hermus and at the foot of Mount Sipylus. The holy rites were interrupted by a sedition of the guards: Muzalon, his brothers, and his adherents were massacred at the foot of the altar; and the absent patriarch was associated with a new colleague, with Michael Palaeologus, the most illustrious, in birth and merit47, of the Greek nobles.
Of those who are proud of their ancestors, the far greater part must be content with local or domestic renown: and few there are who dare trust the memorials of their family to the public annals of their country. As early as the middle of the eleventh century, the noble race of the Palaeologi stands high and conspicuous in the Byzantine30 history: it was the valiant George Palaeologus who placed the father of the Comneni on the throne; and his kinsmen or descendants continue, in each generation, to lead the armies and councils of the state. The purple was not dishonoured by their alliance; and, had the law of succession, and female succession, been strictly observed, the wife of Theodore Lascaris must have yielded to her elder sister, the mother of Michael Palaeologus, who afterwards raised his family to the throne. In his person, the splendour of birth was dignified by the merit of the soldier and statesman: in his early youth he was promoted to the office of Constable or commander of the French mercenaries; the private expense of a day30 never exceeded three pieces of gold30; but his ambition was rapacious and profuse; and his gifts were doubled by the graces of his conversation and manners. The love of the soldiers30 and people30 excited the jealousy of the court; and Michael thrice escaped from the dangers in which he was involved by his own imprudence or that of his friends. I. Under the reign of Justice and Vataces, a dispute arose between two officers, one of whom accused the other of maintaining the hereditary right of the Palaeologi. The cause was decided, according to the new30 jurisprudence of the Latins, by single combat: the defendant was overthrown; but he persisted in declaring that himself alone was guilty; and that he had uttered these rash or treasonable speeches without the approbation or knowledge of his patron. Yet a cloud of suspicion hung over the innocence of the constable; he was still pursued by the whispers of malevolence; and a subtile courtier, the archbishop of Philadelphia, urged him to accept the judgment of God in the fiery proof of the ordeal. Three days30 before the trial, the patient's arm was enclosed in a bag and secured by the royal30 signet; and it was incumbent on him to bear a red-hot ball of iron three times from the altar to the rails of the sanctuary, without artifice and without injury. Palaeologus eluded the dangerous experiment with sense and pleasantry. I am a soldier, said he, and will boldly enter the lists with my accusers; but a layman, a sinner like myself, is not endowed with the gift of miracles. Your piety, most holy30 prelate, may deserve the interposition of Heaven, and from your hands I will receive the fiery globe, the pledge of my innocence. The archbishop started; the emperor30 smiled; and the absolution or pardon of Michael was approved by new30 rewards and new30 services. II. In the succeeding reign, as he held the government of Nice, he was secretly informed that the mind of the absent prince30 was poisoned with jealousy; and that death30 or blindness would be his final reward. Instead of awaiting the return and sentence of Theodore, the constable, with some followers, escaped from the city30 and the empire30; and, though he was plundered by the Turkmans of the desert, he found an hospitable refuge in the court of the sultan. In the ambiguous state of an exile, Michael reconciled the duties of gratitude and loyalty; drawing his sword30 against the Tartars; admonishing the garrisons of the Roman30 limit; and promoting, by his influence, the restoration of peace, in which his pardon and recall were honourably included. III. While he guarded the West against the despot of Epirus, Michael was again suspected and condemned in the palace30; and such was his loyalty or weakness that he submitted to be led in chains above six hundred miles from Durazzo to Nice. The civility of the messenger alleviated his disgrace; the emperor30's sickness dispelled his danger; and the last breath of Theodore, which recommended his infant son30, at once acknowledged the innocence and the power of Palaeologus.
But his innocence had been too unworthily treated, and his power47 was too strongly felt, to curb an aspiring subject in the fair field that was offered to his ambition. In the council after the death47 of Theodore, he was the first to pronounce, and the first to violate, the oath of allegiance to Muzalon; and so dexterous was his conduct47 that he reaped the benefit, without incurring the guilt, or at least the reproach, of the subsequent massacre. In the choice of a regent, he balanced the interests and passions of the candidates; turned their envy and hatred from himself against each other, and forced every competitor to own that, after his own claims, those of Palaeologus were best entitled to the preference. Under the title of Great Duke, he accepted or assumed, during a long47 minority, the active powers of government47; the patriarch was a venerable name; and the factious nobles were seduced, or oppressed, by the ascendant of his genius. The fruits of the economy of Vataces were deposited in a strong castle on the banks of the Hermus, in the custody of the faithful Varangians; the constable retained his command47 or influence over the foreign troops47; he employed the guards to possess the treasure, and the treasure to corrupt the guards; and, whatsoever might be the abuse of the public47 money, his character was above the suspicion of private47 avarice. By himself, or by his emissaries, he strove to persuade every rank47 of subjects that their own prosperity would rise in just proportion to the establishment of his authority47. The weight of taxes was suspended, the perpetual theme of popular complaint; and he prohibited the trials by the ordeal and judicial combat. These barbaric institutions were already abolished or undermined in France and England; and the appeal to the sword offended the sense of a civilised, and the temper of an unwarlike, people47. For the future maintenance of their wives and children the veterans were grateful; the priest and the philosopher applauded his ardent zeal for the advancement of religion and learning; and his vague promise of rewarding merit47 was applied by every candidate to his own hopes. Conscious of the influence of the clergy, Michael successfully laboured to secure the suffrage of that powerful order. Their expensive journey from Nice to Magnesia afforded a decent and ample pretence; the leading prelates were tempted by the liberality of his nocturnal visits; and the incorruptible patriarch was flattered by the homage of his new colleague, who led his mule by the bridle into the town, and removed to a respectful distance the importunity of the crowd. Without renouncing his title by royal descent, Palaeologus encouraged a free discussion into the advantages of elective monarchy; and his adherents asked, with the insolence of triumph, What patient would trust his health, or what merchant would abandon his vessel, to the hereditary skill of a physician or a pilot? The youth of the emperor47 and the impending dangers of a minority required the support of a mature and experienced guardian; of an associate raised above the envy of his equals, and invested with the name and prerogatives of royalty. For the interest of the prince47 and people47, without any views for himself or his family, the Great Duke consented to guard and instruct the son47 of Theodore; but he sighed for the happy moment when he might restore to his firmer hands the administration of his patrimony, and enjoy the blessings of a private47 station. He was first invested with the title and prerogatives of despot, which bestowed the purple ornaments, and the second place in the Roman47 monarchy. It was afterwards agreed that John and Michael should be proclaimed as joint emperors, and raised on the buckler, but that the pre-eminence should be reserved for the birth-right of the former. A mutual league of amity was pledged between the royal partners; and, in case of a rupture, the subjects were bound, by their oath of allegiance, to declare themselves against the aggressor: an ambiguous name, the seed of discord and civil47 war47. Palaeologus was content; but on the day of his coronation, and in the cathedral of Nice, his zealous adherents most vehemently urged the just priority of his age47 and merit47. The unseasonable dispute was eluded by postponing to a more convenient opportunity the coronation of John Lascaris; and he walked with a slight diadem in the train of his guardian, who alone received the Imperial47 crown from the hands of the patriarch. It was not without extreme reluctance that Arsenius abandoned the cause of his pupil; but the Varangians brandished their battle-axes; a sign of assent was extorted from the trembling youth; and some voices were heard, that the life47 of a child should no longer impede the settlement of the nation. A full harvest of honours and employments was distributed among his friends by the grateful Palaeologus. In his own family he created a despot and two sebastocrators; Alexius Strategopulus was decorated with the title of Caesar; and that veteran commander soon47 repaid the obligation, by restoring Constantinople to the Greek emperor47.
It was in the second30 year of his reign, while he resided in the palace30 and gardens of Nymphaeum, near Smyrna, that the first messenger arrived at the dead of night; and the stupendous intelligence was imparted to Michael, after he had been gently waked by the tender precaution of his sister Eulogia. The man was unknown or obscure; he produced no letters from the victorious Caesar; nor could it easily be credited, after the defeat of Vataces and the recent failure of Palaeologus himself, that the capital had been surprised by a detachment of eight hundred soldiers30. As an hostage, the doubtful author was confined, with the assurance of death30 or an ample recompense; and the court was left30 some hours in the anxiety of hope and fear, till30 the messengers of Alexius arrived with the authentic intelligence, and displayed the trophies of the conquest, the sword30 and sceptre, the buskins and bonnet, of the usurper Baldwin, which he had dropt in his precipitate flight. A general30 assembly of the bishops, senators, and nobles was immediately convened, and never perhaps was an event received with more heartfelt and universal joy. In a studied oration, the new30 sovereign of Constantinople30 congratulated his own and the public fortune. There was a time, said he, a far-distant time, when the Roman30 empire30 extended to the Adriatic, the Tigris, and the confines of Ethiopia. After the loss of the provinces, our capital itself, in these last and calamitous days30, has been wrested from our hands by the Barbarians of the West. From the lowest ebb, the tide of prosperity has again returned in our favour; but our prosperity was that of fugitives and exiles; and, when we were asked, Which was the country of the Romans? we indicated with a blush the climate of the globe and the quarter of the heavens. The Divine Providence has now restored to our arms30 the city30 of Constantine, the sacred seat of religion and empire30; and it will depend on our valour and conduct to render this important acquisition the pledge and omen of future victories. So eager was the impatience of the prince30 and people30 that Michael made his triumphal entry into Constantinople30 only twenty days30 after the expulsion of the Latins. The golden gate was thrown open at his approach; the devout conqueror dismounted from his horse30; and a miraculous image of Mary, the Conductress, was borne before him, that the divine Virgin in person might appear to conduct him to the temple of her Son30, the cathedral of St30. Sophia. But, after the first transport of devotion and pride, he sighed at the dreary prospect of solitude and ruin. The palace30 was defiled with smoke and dirt, and the gross intemperance of the Franks; whole streets had been consumed by fire, or were decayed by the injuries of time; the sacred and profane edifices were stripped of their ornaments; and, as if they were conscious of their approaching exile, the industry of the Latins had been confined to the work of pillage and destruction. Trade had expired under the pressure of anarchy and distress; and the number of inhabitants had decreased with the opulence of the city30. It was the first care of the Greek30 monarch to reinstate the nobles in the palaces of their fathers; and the houses or the ground which they occupied were restored to the families that could exhibit a legal right of inheritance. But the far greater part was extinct or lost; the vacant property had devolved to the lord; he repeopled Constantinople30 by a liberal invitation to the provinces; and the brave volunteers were seated in the capital which had been recovered by their arms30. The French barons and the principal families had retired with their emperor30; but the patient and humble crowd of Latins was attached to the country, and indifferent to the change of masters. Instead of banishing the factories of the Pisans, Venetians, and Genoese, the prudent conqueror accepted their oaths of allegiance, encouraged their industry, confirmed their privileges, and allowed them to live under the jurisdiction of their proper magistrates. Of these nations, the Pisans and Venetians preserved their respective quarters in the city30; but the services and powers of the Genoese deserved at the same time the gratitude and the jealousy of the Greeks30. Their independent colony was first planted at the sea-port town of Heraclea in Thrace. They were speedily recalled, and settled in the exclusive possession of the suburb of Galata, an advantageous post, in which they revived the commerce, and insulted the majesty, of the Byzantine30 empire30.
The recovery of Constantinople was celebrated as the era of a new empire47: the conqueror, alone, and by the right of the sword, renewed his coronation in the church of St. Sophia; and the name and honours of John Lascaris, his pupil and lawful sovereign47, were insensibly abolished. But his claims still lived in the minds of the people47; and the royal youth must speedily attain the years of manhood and ambition. By fear or conscience, Palaeologus was restrained from dipping his hands in innocent and royal blood; but the anxiety of an usurper and a parent urged him to secure his throne47 by one of those imperfect crimes so familiar to the modern Greeks. The loss of sight incapacitated the young prince47 for the active business of the world: instead of the brutal violence of tearing out his eyes, the visual nerve was destroyed by the intense glare of a red-hot bason, and John Lascaris was removed to a distant castle, where he spent many years in privacy and oblivion. Such cool and deliberate guilt may seem incompatible with remorse; but, if Michael could trust the mercy of Heaven, he was not inaccessible to the reproaches and vengeance of mankind, which he had provoked by cruelty and treason. His cruelty imposed on a servile court the duties of applause or silence; but the clergy had a right to speak in the name of their invisible master47; and their holy legions were led by a prelate, whose character was above the temptations of hope or fear. After a short abdication of his dignity, Arsenius had consented to ascend the ecclesiastical throne47 of Constantinople, and to preside in the restoration of the church. His pious simplicity was long47 deceived by the arts of Palaeologus; and his patience and submission might soothe the usurper, and protect the safety of the young prince47. On the news of his inhuman treatment, the patriarch unsheathed the spiritual sword; and superstition, on this occasion, was enlisted in the cause of humanity and justice47. In a synod of bishops, who were stimulated by the example of his zeal, the patriarch pronounced a sentence of excommunication; though his prudence still repeated the name of Michael in the public47 prayers. The Eastern prelates had not adopted the dangerous maxims of ancient Rome47; nor did they presume to enforce their censures, by deposing princes, or absolving nations from their oaths of allegiance. But the Christian who had been separated from God and the church became an object of horror; and, in a turbulent and fanatic capital that horror might arm the hand of an assassin or inflame a sedition of the people47. Palaeologus felt his danger47, confessed his guilt, and deprecated his judge: the act was irretrievable; the prize was obtained; and the most rigorous penance, which he solicited, would have raised the sinner to the reputation of a saint. The unrelenting patriarch refused to announce any means of atonement or any hopes of mercy; and condescended only to pronounce that, for so great a crime, great indeed must be the satisfaction. Do you require, said Michael, that I should abdicate the empire47? And at these words he offered, or seemed to offer, the sword of state. Arsenius eagerly grasped this pledge of sovereignty; but, when he perceived that the emperor47 was unwilling to purchase absolution at so dear a rate, he indignantly escaped to his cell, and left the royal sinner kneeling and weeping before the door.
The danger and scandal of this excommunication subsisted above three years45, till the popular clamour was assuaged by time and repentance; till the brethren of Arsenius condemned45 his inflexible spirit, so repugnant to the unbounded forgiveness of the gospel. The emperor45 had artfully insinuated that, if he were still rejected at home, he might seek, in the Roman pontiff, a more indulgent judge; but it was far more easy and effectual to find or to place that judge at the head of the Byzantine church45. Arsenius was involved in a vague rumour of conspiracy and disaffection; some irregular steps in his ordination and government were liable to censure; a synod deposed him from the episcopal office; and he was transported under a guard of soldiers to a small island of the Propontis. Before his exile45, he sullenly requested that a strict account might be taken of the treasures of the church45; boasted that his whole riches, three pieces of gold, had been earned by transcribing the Psalms; continued to assert the freedom of his mind; and denied, with his last breath, the pardon which was implored by the royal45 sinner. After some delay, Gregory, bishop45 of Hadrianople, was translated to the Byzantine throne45; but his authority was found insufficient to support the absolution of the emperor45; and Joseph, a reverend monk, was substituted to that important function. This edifying scene was represented in the presence of the senate and people45; at the end of six years45, the humble penitent was restored to the communion of the faithful; and humanity will rejoice that a milder treatment of the captive Lascaris was stipulated as a proof of his remorse45. But the spirit of Arsenius still survived in a powerful faction of the monks and clergy, who preserved above forty-eight years45 in an obstinate schism. Their scruples were treated with tenderness and respect by Michael45 and his son45; and the reconciliation of the Arsenites was the serious labour of the church45 and state. In the confidence of fanaticism, they had proposed to try their cause by a miracle; and, when the two papers that contained their own and the adverse cause were cast into a fiery brazier, they expected that the Catholic verity would be respected by the flames. Alas! the two papers were indiscriminately consumed, and this unforeseen accident produced the union of a day, and renewed the quarrel of an age. The final treaty displayed the victory of the Arsenites; the clergy abstained during forty days from all ecclesiastical functions; a slight penance45 was imposed on the laity; the body of Arsenius was deposited in the sanctuary; and in the name of the departed saint the prince and people45 were released from the sins of their fathers.
The establishment of his family was the motive, or at least the pretence, of the crime of Palaeologus; and he was impatient to confirm the succession, by sharing with his eldest son38 the honours of the purple Andronicus, afterwards surnamed the Elder, was proclaimed and crowned emperor38 of the Romans, in the fifteenth year of his age38; and, from the first era of a prolix and inglorious reign, he held that august title38 nine years38 as the colleague, and fifty as the successor, of his father38. Michael himself, had he died in a private station, would have been thought more worthy of the empire; and the assaults of his temporal and spiritual enemies left him few moments to labour for his own fame or the happiness of his subjects. He wrested from the Franks several of the noblest islands of the Archipelago, Lesbos, Chios, and Rhodes; his brother Constantine was sent to command in Malvasia and Sparta; and the eastern side of the Morea, from Argos and Napoli to Cape Taenarus, was repossessed by the Greeks38. This effusion of Christian blood was loudly condemned by the patriarch; and the insolent priest presumed to interpose his fears and scruples between the arms38 of princes38. But, in the prosecution of these Western conquests, the countries beyond the Hellespont were left naked to the Turks; and their depredations verified the prophecy of a dying senator, that the recovery of Constantinople would be the ruin of Asia. The victories of Michael were achieved by his lieutenants; his sword38 rusted in the palace; and, in the transactions of the emperor38 with the popes and the king38 of Naples38, his political arts were stained with cruelty and fraud.
I. The Vatican was the most natural refuge of a Latin33 emperor33, who had been driven from his throne33; and Pope33 Urban the Fourth appeared to pity the misfortunes, and vindicate the cause33, of the fugitive Baldwin. A crusade, with plenary indulgence, was preached by his command against the schismatic Greeks33; he excommunicated their allies and adherents; solicited Louis the Ninth in favour of his kinsman; and demanded a tenth of the ecclesiastic revenues of France and England for the service of the holy33 war. The subtile Greek33, who watched the rising tempest of the West33, attempted to suspend or soothe the hostility of the pope33, by suppliant embassies and respectful letters; but he insinuated that the establishment of peace must prepare the reconciliation and obedience of the Eastern church33. The Roman court could not be deceived by so gross an artifice; and Michael was admonished that the repentance of the son should precede the forgiveness of the father; and that faith33 (an ambiguous word) was the only basis of friendship and alliance. After a long and affected delay, the approach of danger and the importunity of Gregory the Tenth compelled him to enter on a more serious negotiation; he alleged the example of the great Vataces; and the Greek33 clergy33, who understood the intentions of their prince, were not alarmed by the first steps of reconciliation and respect. But, when he pressed the conclusion of the treaty, they strenuously declared that the Latins33, though not in name, were heretics in fact, and that they despised those strangers as the vilest and most despicable portion of the human race. It was the task of the emperor33 to persuade, to corrupt, to intimidate, the most popular ecclesiastics, to gain the vote of each individual, and alternately to urge the arguments of Christian33 charity and the public welfare. The texts of the fathers and the arms of the Franks were balanced in the theological33 and political scale; and, without approving the addition to the Nicene creed33, the most moderate were taught to confess that the two hostile propositions of proceeding from the Father by the Son, and of proceeding from the Father and the Son, might be reduced to a safe and catholic33 sense. The supremacy of the pope33 was a doctrine more easy to conceive, but more painful to acknowledge; yet Michael represented to his monks33 and prelates33 that they might submit to name the Roman bishop33 as the first of the patriarchs, and that their distance and discretion would guard the liberties of the Eastern church33 from the mischievous consequences of the right of appeal. He protested that he would sacrifice his life and empire rather than yield the smallest point of orthodox33 faith33 or national independence; and this declaration was sealed and ratified by a golden bull. The patriarch33 Joseph withdrew to a monastery, to resign or resume his throne33, according to the event of the treaty; the letters of union33 and obedience were subscribed by the emperor33, his son Andronicus, and thirty-five archbishops and metropolitans, with their respective synods33; and the episcopal33 list was multiplied by many dioceses which were annihilated under the yoke of the infidels. An embassy was composed of some trusty ministers and prelates33; they embarked for Italy, with rich ornaments and rare perfumes for the altar of St33. Peter; and their secret orders authorised and recommended a boundless compliance. They were received in the general council33 of Lyons, by Pope33 Gregory the Tenth, at the head of five hundred bishops33. He embraced with tears his longlost and repentant children; accepted the oath of the ambassadors, who abjured the schism33 in the name of the two emperors; adorned the prelates33 with the ring and mitre; chaunted in Greek33 and Latin33 the Nicene creed33, with the addition of filioque; and rejoiced in the union33 of the East33 and West33, which had been reserved for his reign. To consummate this pious work, the Byzantine deputies were speedily followed by the pope33's nuncios; and their instruction discloses the policy of the Vatican, which could not be satisfied with the vain title of supremacy. After viewing the temper of the prince and people33, they were enjoined to absolve the schismatic clergy33 who should subscribe and swear their abjuration and obedience; to establish in all the churches33 the use of the perfect creed33; to prepare the entrance of a cardinal legate, with the full powers and dignity of his office; and to instruct the emperor33 in the advantages which he might derive from the temporal protection of the Roman pontiff.
But they found a country without a friend, a nation in which the names of Rome and Union were pronounced with abhorrence. The patriarch Joseph was indeed removed; his place was filled by Veccus, an ecclesiastic of learning and moderation; and the emperor30 was still urged by the same motives, to persevere in the same professions. But, in his private language, Palaeologus affected to deplore the pride, and to blame the innovations, of the Latins; and, while he debased his character by this double hypocrisy, he justified and punished the opposition of his subjects. By the joint suffrage of the new30 and the ancient Rome, a sentence of excommunication was pronounced against the obstinate schismatics; the censures of the church were executed by the sword30 of Michael; on the failure of persuasion, he tried the arguments of prison and exile, of whipping and mutilation: those touchstones, says an historian, of cowards and the brave. Two Greeks30 still reigned in Aetolia, Epirus, and Thessaly, with the appellation of despots; they had yielded to the sovereign of Constantinople30; but they rejected the chains of the Roman30 pontiff, and supported their refusal by successful arms30. Under their protection, the fugitive monks and bishops assembled in hostile synods, and retorted the name of heretic with the galling addition of apostate; the prince30 of Trebizond was tempted to assume the forfeit title of emperor30; and even the Latins of Negropont, Thebes, Athens, and the Morea forgot the merits of the convert, to join, with open or clandestine aid, the enemies30 of Palaeologus. His favourite generals, of his own blood and family, successively deserted or betrayed the sacrilegious trust. His sister Eulogia, a niece, and two female cousins conspired against him; another niece, Mary queen of Bulgaria, negotiated his ruin with the sultan of Egypt; and in the public eye their treason was consecrated as the most sublime virtue. To the pope's nuncios, who urged the consummation of the work, Palaeologus exposed a naked recital of all that he had done and suffered for their sake. They were assured that the guilty sectaries, of both sexes and every rank, had been deprived of their honours, their fortunes, and their liberty: a spreading list of confiscation and punishment, which involved many persons, the dearest to the emperor30, or the best deserving of his favour. They were conducted to the prison, to behold four princes of the royal30 blood chained in the four corners, and shaking their fetters in an agony of grief and rage. Two of these captives were afterwards released, the one by submission, the other by death30; but the obstinacy of their two companions was chastised by the loss of their eyes; and the Greeks30, the least adverse to the union, deplore that cruel and inauspicious tragedy. Persecutors must expect the hatred of those whom they oppress; but they commonly find some consolation in the testimony of their conscience, the applause of their party, and, perhaps, the success of their undertaking. But the hypocrisy of Michael, which was prompted only by political motives, must have forced him to hate himself, to despise his followers, and to esteem and envy the rebel champions, by whom he was detested and despised. While his violence was abhorred at Constantinople30, at Rome his slowness was arraigned and his sincerity suspected; till30 at length Pope Martin the Fourth excluded the Greek30 emperor30 from the pale of a church into which he was striving to reduce a schismatic people30. No sooner had the tyrant expired than the union was dissolved and abjured by unanimous consent; the churches were purified; the penitents were reconciled; and his son30 Andronicus, after weeping the sins and errors of his youth, most piously denied his father the burial of a prince30 and a Christian.
II. In the distress of the Latins, the walls30 and towers of Constantinople30 had fallen to decay; they were restored and fortified by the policy of Michael who deposited a plenteous store of corn and salt provisions, to sustain the siege30 which he might hourly expect from the resentment of the Western powers. Of these, the sovereign of the Two Sicilies was the most formidable neighbour; but, as long30 as they were possessed by Mainfroy, the bastard of Frederic the Second30, his monarchy was the bulwark rather than the annoyance of the Eastern empire30. The usurper, though a brave and active prince30, was sufficiently employed in the defence of his throne; his proscription by successive popes had separated Mainfroy from the common cause of the Latins; and the forces that might have besieged Constantinople30 were detained in a crusade against the domestic enemy30 of Rome. The prize of her avenger, the crown of the Two Sicilies, was won and worn by the brother of St30. Louis, by Charles, count of Anjou and Provence, who led the chivalry of France on this holy30 expedition. The disaffection of his Christian subjects compelled Mainfroy to enlist a colony of Saracens, whom his father had planted in Apulia; and this odious succour will explain the defiance of the Catholic hero, who rejected all terms of accommodation: Bear this message, said Charles, to the sultan of Nocera, that God and the sword30 are umpire between us; and that he shall either send me to paradise, or I will send him to the pit of hell. The armies met, and, though I am ignorant of Mainfroy's doom in the other world, in this he lost his friends, his kingdom, and his life, in the bloody battle30 of Benevento. Naples and Sicily were immediately peopled with a warlike race of French nobles; and their aspiring leader embraced the future conquest of Africa, Greece, and Palestine. The most specious reasons might point his first arms30 against the Byzantine30 empire30; and Palaeologus, diffident of his own strength, repeatedly appealed from the ambition of Charles to the humanity of St30. Louis, who still preserved a just ascendant over the mind of his ferocious brother. For a while the attention of that brother was confined at home by the invasion of Conradin, the last heir of the Imperial house of Swabia; but the hapless boy sunk in the unequal conflict; and his execution on a public scaffold taught the rivals of Charles to tremble for their heads as well as their dominions. A second30 respite was obtained by the last crusade of St30. Louis to the African coast; and the double motive of interest and duty urged the king30 of Naples to assist, with his powers and his presence, the holy30 enterprise. The death30 of St30. Louis released him from the importunity of a virtuous censor; the king30 of Tunis confessed himself the tributary and vassal of the crown of Sicily; and the boldest of the French knights were free to enlist under his banner against the Greek30 empire30. A treaty and a marriage united his interest with the house of Courtenay; his daughter, Beatrice, was promised to Philip, son30 and heir of the emperor30 Baldwin; a pension of six hundred ounces of gold30 was allowed for his maintenance; and his generous father distributed among his allies the kingdoms and provinces of the East, reserving only Constantinople30, and one day30's journey round the city30, for the Imperial domain. In this perilous moment, Palaeologus was the most eager to subscribe the creed, and implore the protection, of the Roman30 pontiff, who assumed, with propriety and weight, the character of an angel of peace, the common father of the Christians. By his voice the sword30 of Charles was chained in the scabbard; and the Greek30 ambassadors beheld him, in the pope's antichamber, biting his ivory sceptre in a transport of fury, and deeply resenting the refusal to enfranchise and consecrate his arms30. He appears to have respected the disinterested mediation of Gregory the Tenth; but Charles was insensibly disgusted by the pride and partiality of Nicholas the Third; and his attachment to his kindred, the Ursini family, alienated the most strenuous champion from the service30 of the church. The hostile league against the Greeks30, of Philip the Latin emperor30, the king30 of the Two Sicilies, and the republic of Venice, was ripened into execution; and the election of Martin the Fourth, a French pope, gave a sanction to the cause. Of the allies, Philip supplied his name, Martin, a bull of excommunication, the Venetians, a squadron of forty galleys; and the formidable powers of Charles consisted of forty counts, ten thousand30 men at arms30, a numerous body of infantry, and a fleet of more than three hundred ships and transports. A distant day30 was appointed for assembling this mighty force in the harbour of Brindisi; and a previous attempt was risked with a detachment of three hundred knights, who invaded Albania and besieged the fortress of Belgrade. Their defeat might amuse with a triumph the vanity of Constantinople30; but the more sagacious Michael, despairing of his arms30, depended on the effects of a conspiracy; on the secret workings of a rat, who gnawed the bow-string of the Sicilian tyrant.
Among the proscribed adherents of the house of Swabia, John of Procida forfeited a small island of that name in the bay of Naples. His birth was noble, but his education was learned; and, in the poverty of exile, he was relieved by the practice of physic, which he had studied in the school of Salerno. Fortune had left him nothing to lose except life20; and to despise life20 is the first qualification of a rebel. Procida was endowed with the art of negotiation, to enforce his reasons and disguise his motives; and, in his various transactions with nations20 and men, he could persuade each party that he laboured solely for their interest. The new20 kingdoms of Charles20 were afflicted by every species of fiscal and military oppression; and the lives and fortunes of his Italian subjects were sacrificed to the greatness of their master20 and the licentiousness of his followers. The hatred of Naples was repressed by his presence; but the looser government of his vicegerents excited the contempt, as well as the aversion, of the Sicilians; the island was roused to a sense20 of freedom by the eloquence of Procida; and he displayed to every baron his private20 interest in the common cause20. In the confidence of foreign aid, he successively visited the courts of the Greek emperor20 and of Peter20, king20 of Arragon, who possessed the maritime countries of Valentia and Catalonia. To the ambitious Peter20 a crown was presented, which he might justly claim by his marriage with the sister of Mainfroy, and by the dying voice of Conradin, who from the scaffold had cast a ring to his heir and avenger. Palaeologus was easily persuaded to divert his enemy20 from a foreign war by a rebellion at home; and a Greek subsidy of twenty-five thousand ounces of gold was most profitably applied to arm a Catalan fleet, which sailed under an holy banner to the specious attack of the Saracens of Africa. In the disguise of a monk or beggar, the indefatigable missionary of revolt flew from Constantinople20 to Rome20, and from Sicily to Saragossa; the treaty was sealed with the signet of Pope Nicholas himself, the enemy20 of Charles20; and his deed of gift transferred the fiefs of St20. Peter20 from the house of Anjou to that of Arragon. So widely diffused and so freely circulated, the secret was preserved above two years20 with impenetrable discretion; and each of the conspirators imbibed the maxim of Peter20, who declared that he would cut off his left hand, if it were conscious of the intentions of his right. The mine was prepared with deep and dangerous artifice; but it may be questioned whether the instant explosion of Palermo were the effect of accident or design.
On the vigil of Easter, a procession of the disarmed citizens visited a church without the walls30; and a noble damsel was rudely insulted by a French soldier. The ravisher was instantly punished with death30; and, if the people30 was at first scattered by a military force, their numbers and fury prevailed: the conspirators seized the opportunity; the flame spread over the island; and eight thousand30 French were exterminated in a promiscuous massacre, which has obtained the name of the Sicilian Vespers. From every city30 the banners of freedom and the church were displayed; the revolt was inspired by the presence or the soul of Procida; and Peter of Arragon, who sailed from the African coast to Palermo, was saluted as the king30 and saviour of the isle. By the rebellion of a people30 on whom he had so long30 trampled with impunity, Charles was astonished and confounded; and in the first agony of grief and devotion he was heard to exclaim, O God! if thou hast decreed to humble me, grant me at least a gentle and gradual descent from the pinnacle of greatness. His fleet and army30, which already filled the sea-ports of Italy, were hastily recalled from the service30 of the Grecian war30; and the situation of Messina exposed that town to the first storm of his revenge. Feeble in themselves, and yet hopeless of foreign succour, the citizens would have repented and submitted, on the assurance of full pardon and their ancient privileges. But the pride of the monarch was already rekindled; and the most fervent entreaties of the legate could extort no more than a promise, that he would forgive the remainder, after a chosen list of eight hundred rebels had been yielded to his discretion. The despair of the Messinese renewed their courage; Peter of Arragon approached to their relief; and his rival was driven back by the failure of provision, and the terrors of the equinox, to the Calabrian shore. At the same moment, the Catalan admiral, the famous Roger de Loria, swept the channel with an invincible squadron: the French fleet, more numerous in transports than in galleys, was either burnt or destroyed; and the same blow assured the independence of Sicily and the safety of the Greek30 empire30. A few days30 before his death30, the emperor30 Michael rejoiced in the fall of an enemy30 whom he hated and esteemed; and perhaps he might be content with the popular judgment that, had they not been matched with each other, Constantinople30 and Italy must speedily have obeyed the same master. From this disastrous moment, the life of Charles was a series of misfortunes; his capital was insulted, his son30 was made prisoner, and he sunk into the grave without recovering the isle of Sicily, which, after a war30 of twenty years30, was finally severed from the throne of Naples, and transferred, as an independent kingdom, to a younger branch of the house of Arragon.
I shall not, I trust, be accused of superstition; but I must remark that, even in this world, the natural order of events will sometimes afford the strong appearances of moral retribution. The first Palaeologus had saved his empire30 by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion and blood; and from these seeds of discord uprose a generation of iron men, who assaulted and endangered the empire30 of his son30. In modern times our debts and taxes are the secret poison, which still corrodes the bosom of peace; but in the weak and disorderly government of the middle ages it was agitated by the present evil of the disbanded armies. Too idle to work, too proud to beg, the mercenaries were accustomed to a life of rapine: they could rob with more dignity and effect under a banner and a chief; and the sovereign, to whom their service30 was useless and their presence importunate, endeavoured to discharge the torrent on some neighbouring countries. After the peace of Sicily, many thousands of Genoese, Catalans, &c., who had fought, by sea and land, under the standard30 of Anjou or Arragon were blended into one nation by the resemblance of their manners and interest. They heard that the Greek30 provinces of Asia were invaded by the Turks30: they resolved to share the harvest of pay and plunder; and Frederic, king30 of Sicily, most liberally contributed the means of their departure. In a warfare of twenty years30, a ship, or a camp30, was become their country; arms30 were their sole profession and property; valour was the only virtue which they knew; their women had imbibed the fearless temper of their lovers and husbands; it was reported that, with a stroke of their broad sword30, the Catalans could cleave a horseman and an horse30; and the report itself was a powerful weapon. Roger de Flor was the most popular of their chiefs; and his personal merit overshadowed the dignity of his prouder rivals of Arragon. The offspring of a marriage between a German gentleman of the court of Frederic the Second30 and a damsel of Brindisi, Roger was successively a templar, an apostate, a pirate, and at length the richest and most powerful admiral of the Mediterranean. He sailed from Messina to Constantinople30, with eighteen galleys, four great ships, and eight thousand30 adventurers; and his previous treaty was faithfully accomplished by Andronicus the Elder, who accepted with joy and terror this formidable succour. A palace30 was allotted for his reception, and a niece of the emperor30 was given in marriage to the valiant stranger, who was immediately created Great Duke or Admiral of Romania. After a decent repose, he transported his troops30 over the Propontis, and boldly led them against the Turks30; in two bloody battles thirty thousand30 of the Moslems were slain; he raised the siege30 of Philadelphia, and deserved the name of the deliverer of Asia. But, after a short season of prosperity, the cloud of slavery and ruin again burst on that unhappy province. The inhabitants escaped (says a Greek30 historian) from the smoke into the flames; and the hostility of the Turks30 was less pernicious than the friendship of the Catalans. The lives and fortunes which they had rescued, they considered as their own; the willing or reluctant maid was saved from the race of circumcision for the embraces of a Christian soldier; the exaction of fines and supplies was enforced by licentious rapine and arbitrary executions; and, on the resistance of Magnesia, the Great Duke besieged a city30 of the Roman30 empire30. These disorders he excused by the wrongs and passions of a victorious army30; nor would his own authority or person have been safe, had he dared to punish his faithful followers, who were defrauded of the just and covenanted price of their services. The threats and complaints of Andronicus disclosed the nakedness of the empire30. His golden bull had invited no more than five hundred horse30 and a thousand30 foot-soldiers30; yet the crowd of volunteers, who migrated to the East, had been enlisted and fed by his spontaneous bounty. While his bravest allies were content with three byzants, or pieces of gold30, for their monthly pay, an ounce or even two ounces of gold30 were assigned to the Catalans, whose annual pension would thus amount to near an hundred pounds sterling; one of their chiefs had modestly rated at three hundred thousand30 crowns the value of his future merits; and above a million had been issued from the treasury for the maintenance of these costly mercenaries. A cruel tax had been imposed on the corn of the husbandman: one third was retrenched from the salaries of the public officers; and the standard30 of the coin was so shamefully debased that of the four-and-twenty parts only five were of pure gold30. At the summons of the emperor30, Roger evacuated a province which no longer supplied the materials of rapine; but he refused to disperse his troops30; and, while his style was respectful, his conduct was independent and hostile. He protested that, if the emperor30 should march against him, he would advance forty paces to kiss the ground before him; but, in rising from this prostrate attitude, Roger had a life and sword30 at the service30 of his friends. The Great Duke of Romania condescended to accept the title and ornaments of Caesar; but he rejected the new30 proposal of the government of Asia, with a subsidy of corn and money, on condition that he should reduce his troops30 to the harmless number of three thousand30 men. Assassination is the last resource of cowards. The Caesar was tempted to visit the royal30 residence of Hadrianople: in the apartment, and before the eyes, of the empress, he was stabbed by the Alani guards; and, though the deed was imputed to their private revenge, his countrymen, who dwelt at Constantinople30 in the security of peace, were involved in the same proscription by the prince30 or people30. The loss of their leader intimidated the crowd of adventurers, who hoisted the sails of flight, and were soon30 scattered round the coasts of the Mediterranean. But a veteran band of fifteen hundred Catalans or French stood firm in the strong fortress of Gallipoli on the Hellespont, displayed the banners of Arragon, and offered to revenge and justify their chief by an equal combat of ten or an hundred warriors. Instead of accepting this bold defiance, the emperor30 Michael, the son30 and colleague of Andronicus, resolved to oppress them with the weight of multitudes: every nerve was strained to form an army30 of thirteen thousand30 horse30 and thirty thousand30 foot; and the Propontis was covered with the ships of the Greeks30 and Genoese. In two battles by sea and land, these mighty forces were encountered and overthrown by the despair and discipline of the Catalans; the young emperor30 fled to the palace30; and an insufficient guard of light horse30 was left30 for the protection of the open country. Victory30 renewed the hopes and numbers of the adventurers: every nation was blended under the name and standard30 of the great company; and three thousand30 Turkish30 proselytes deserted from the Imperial service30 to join this military association. In the possession of Gallipoli, the Catalans intercepted the trade of Constantinople30 and the Black Sea, while they spread their devastations on either side of the Hellespont over the confines of Europe and Asia. To prevent their approach, the greatest part of the Byzantine30 territory was laid waste by the Greeks30 themselves: the peasants and their cattle retired into the city30; and myriads of sheep and oxen, for which neither place nor food could be procured, were unprofitably slaughtered on the same day30. Four times the emperor30 Andronicus sued for peace, and four times he was inflexibly repulsed, till30 the want of provisions, and the discord of the chiefs, compelled the Catalans to evacuate the banks of the Hellespont and the neighbourhood of the capital. After their separation from the Turks30, the remains of the great company pursued their march through Macedonia and Thessaly, to seek a new30 establishment in the heart of Greece.
After some ages of oblivion, Greece was awakened to new24 misfortunes by the arms of the Latins. In the two hundred and fifty years24 between the first and the last conquest24 of Constantinople24, that venerable land was disputed by a multitude of petty tyrants; without the comforts of freedom and genius, her ancient cities were again plunged in foreign and intestine war; and, if servitude be preferable to anarchy, they might repose with joy under the Turkish24 yoke. I shall not pursue the obscure and various dynasties that rose and fell on the continent or in the isles; but our silence on the fate of Athens would argue a strange ingratitude to the first and purest school of liberal science and amusement. In the partition of the empire24, the principality of Athens and Thebes was assigned to Otho de la Roche, a noble warrior of Burgundy, with the title of Great24 Duke, which the Latins understood in their own sense, and the Greeks24 more foolishly derived from the age24 of Constantine. Otho followed the standard of the marquis of Montferrat; the ample state24, which he acquired by a miracle of conduct or fortune, was peaceably inherited by his son24 and two grandsons, till24 the family, though not the nation, was changed, by the marriage of an heiress, into the elder branch of the house of Brienne. The son24 of that marriage, Walter de Brienne, succeeded to the duchy of Athens; and, with the aid of some Catalan mercenaries, whom he invested with fiefs, reduced above thirty castles of the vassal or neighbouring lords. But, when he was informed of the approach and ambition of the great24 company, he collected a force of seven hundred knights, six thousand24 four hundred horse, and eight thousand24 foot, and boldly met them on the banks of the river Cephisus in Boeotia. The Catalans amounted to no more than three thousand24 five hundred horse and four thousand24 foot; but the deficiency of numbers was compensated by stratagem and order. They formed round their camp an artificial inundation: the duke and his knights advanced without fear or precaution on the verdant meadow; their horses plunged into the bog; and he was cut in pieces24, with the greatest part of the French cavalry. His family and nation were expelled; and his son24, Walter de Brienne, the titular duke of Athens, the tyrant of Florence, and the constable of France, lost his life24 in the field of Poitiers. Attica and Boeotia were the rewards of the victorious Catalans; they married the widows and daughters of the slain; and during fourteen years24 the great24 company was the terror of the Grecian states. Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignty of the house of Arragon; and, during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens, as a government24 or an appanage, was successively bestowed by the kings of Sicily. After the French and Catalans, the third dynasty was that of the Accaioli, a family, plebeian at Florence, potent at Naples, and sovereign in Greece. Athens, which they embellished with new24 buildings, became the capital of a state24 that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth, Delphi, and a part of Thessaly; and their reign24 was finally determined by Mahomet24 the Second, who strangled the last duke, and educated his sons in the discipline and religion24 of the seraglio.
Athens, though no more than the shadow of her former self, still contains about eight or ten thousand12 inhabitants: of these, three fourths are Greeks in religion and language; and the Turks, who compose the remainder, have relaxed, in their intercourse with the citizens12, somewhat of the pride and gravity of their national character12. The olive-tree, the gift of Minerva, flourishes in Attica; nor has the honey of Mount Hymettus lost any part of its exquisite flavour; but the languid trade is monopolised by strangers; and the agriculture of a barren land is abandoned to the vagrant Walachians. The Athenians12 are still distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness of their understandings; but these qualities, unless ennobled by freedom12 and enlightened by study, will degenerate into a low and selfish cunning; and it is a proverbial saying of the country, From the Jews of Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the Greeks of Athens12, good Lord, deliver us! This artful people12 has eluded the tyranny of the Turkish bashaws by an expedient which alleviates their servitude and aggravates their shame. About the middle of the last century, the Athenians12 chose for their protector the Kislar Aga, or chief black eunuch of the seraglio. This Aethiopian slave, who possesses the sultan's ear, condescends to accept the tribute of thirty thousand12 crowns; his lieutenant, the Waywode, whom he annually confirms, may reserve for his own about five or six thousand12 more; and such is the policy of the citizens12 that they seldom fail to remove and punish an oppressive governor. Their private differences are decided by the archbishop, one of the richest prelates of the Greek12 church, since he possesses a revenue of one thousand12 pounds12 sterling; and by a tribunal of the eight geronti or elders, chosen in the eight quarters of the city12. The noble families cannot trace their pedigree above three hundred years12; but their principal members are distinguished by a grave demeanour, a fur cap, and the lofty appellation of archon. By some, who delight in the contrast, the modern language of Athens12 is represented as the most corrupt and barbarous of the seventy dialects of the vulgar Greek12; this picture is too darkly coloured; but it would not be easy, in the country of Plato and Demosthenes, to find a reader, or a copy, of their works. The Athenians12 walk with supine indifference among the glorious ruins of antiquity; and such is the debasement of their character12 that they are incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors.
The long reign41 of Andronicus the Elder is chiefly memorable by the disputes of the Greek41 church41, the invasion of the Catalans, and the rise of the Ottoman power41. He is celebrated as the most learned and virtuous prince41 of the age; but such virtue and such learning contributed neither to the perfection of the individual nor to the happiness of society. A slave of the most abject superstition, he was surrounded on all sides by visible and invisible enemies; nor were the flames of hell less dreadful to his fancy than those of a Catalan or Turkish war. Under the reign41 of the Palaeologi, the choice of the patriarch was the most important business of the state; the heads of the Greek41 church41 were ambitious and fanatic monks; and their vices or virtues, their learning or ignorance, were equally mischievous or contemptible. By his intemperate discipline, the patriarch Athanasius41 excited the hatred of the clergy and people41: he was heard to declare that the sinner should swallow the last dregs of the cup of penance; and the foolish tale was propagated of his punishing a sacrilegious ass that had tasted the lettuce of a convent-garden. Driven from the throne41 by the universal clamour, Athanasius41 composed, before his retreat, two papers of a very opposite cast. His public41 testament was in the tone of charity and resignation; the private codicil breathed the direst anathemas against the authors of his disgrace41, whom he excluded for ever from the communion of the Holy Trinity, the angels, and the saints. This last paper he enclosed in an earthen pot, which was placed, by his order, on the top of one of the pillars in the dome of St. Sophia, in the distant hope of discovery and revenge41. At the end of four years41, some youths, climbing by a ladder in search of pigeons' nests, detected the fatal secret; and, as Andronicus felt himself touched and bound by the excommunication, he trembled on the brink of the abyss which had been so treacherously dug under his feet. A synod of bishops was instantly convened to debate this important question; the rashness of these clandestine anathemas was generally condemned; but, as the knot could be untied only by the same hand41, as that hand41 was now deprived of the crosier, it appeared that this posthumous decree was irrevocable by any earthly power41. Some faint testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted from the author of the mischief; but the conscience of the emperor41 was still wounded, and he desired, with no less ardour than Athanasius41 himself, the restoration of a patriarch by whom alone he could be healed. At the dead of night a monk rudely knocked at the door of the royal bed-chamber, announcing a revelation of plague and famine, of inundations and earthquakes. Andronicus started from his bed, and spent the night in prayer, till41 he felt, or thought that he felt, a slight motion of the earth41. The emperor41, on foot41, led the bishops and monks to the cell of Athanasius41; and, after a proper resistance, the saint, from whom this message had been sent, consented to absolve the prince41 and govern the church41 of Constantinople. Untamed by disgrace41 and hardened by solitude, the shepherd was again odious to the flock; and his enemies contrived a singular and, as it proved, a successful mode of revenge41. In the night they stole away the foot41-stool or foot41-cloth of his throne41, which they secretly replaced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The emperor41 was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and Athanasius41 leading the tractable beast to the feet of Christ. The authors of the libel were detected and punished; but, as their lives had been spared, the Christian priest in sullen indignation retired to his cell; and the eyes of Andronicus, which had been opened for a moment, were again closed by his successor41.
If this transaction be one of the most curious and important of a reign8 of fifty years, I cannot at least accuse the brevity of my materials, since I reduce into some few pages the enormous folios of Pachymer, Cantacuzene, and Nicephorus Gregoras, who have composed the prolix and languid story of the times. The name and situation of the emperor John Cantacuzene might inspire the most lively curiosity. His memorials of forty years extend from the revolt of the younger Andronicus to his own abdication of the empire8; and it is observed that, like Moses and Caesar, he was the principal actor in the scenes which he describes. But in this eloquent work we should vainly seek the sincerity of an hero or a penitent. Retired in a cloister from the vices and passions8 of the world8, he presents not a confession, but an apology, of the life8 of an ambitious statesman. Instead of unfolding the true counsels and characters of men, he displays the smooth and specious surface of events, highly varnished with his own praises and those of his friends. Their motives are always pure; their ends always legitimate; they conspire and rebel without any views of interest; and the violence which they inflict or suffer is celebrated as the spontaneous effect of reason8 and virtue8.
After the example of the first of the Palaeologi, the elder Andronicus associated his son3 Michael to the honours of the purple; and, from the age of eighteen to his premature death3, that prince3 was acknowledged, above twenty-five years3, as the second emperor3 of the Greeks. At the head3 of an army3, he excited neither the fears of the enemy3 nor the jealousy of the court3; his modesty and patience were never tempted to compute the years3 of his father; nor was that father compelled to repent of his liberality either by the virtues or vices of his son3. The son3 of Michael was named Andronicus from his grandfather, to whose early favour he was introduced by that nominal resemblance. The blossoms of wit and beauty increased the fondness of the elder Andronicus; and, with the common vanity of the age, he expected to realise in the second, the hope which had been disappointed in the first, generation. The boy was educated in the palace as an heir and a favourite; and, in the oaths and acclamations of the people, the august triad was formed by the names of the father, the son3, and the grandson. But the younger Andronicus was speedily corrupted by his infant greatness, while he beheld, with puerile impatience, the double obstacle that hung, and might long3 hang, over his rising ambition. It was not to acquire fame, or to diffuse happiness, that he so eagerly aspired; wealth and impunity were in his eyes the most precious attributes of a monarch3; and his first indiscreet demand was the sovereignty of some rich and fertile island, where he might lead a life of independence and pleasure. The emperor3 was offended by the loud and frequent intemperance which disturbed his capital; the sums which his parsimony denied were supplied by the Genoese usurers of Pera; and the oppressive debt, which consolidated the interest of a faction, could be discharged only by a revolution. A beautiful female, a matron in rank, a prostitute in manners, had instructed the younger Andronicus in the rudiments of love; but he had reason to suspect the nocturnal visits of a rival; and a stranger passing through the street was pierced by the arrows of his guards, who were placed in ambush at her door. That stranger was his brother, Prince3 Manuel, who languished and died of his wound; and the emperor3 Michael, their common father, whose health was in a declining state, expired on the eighth day, lamenting the loss of both his children. However guiltless in his intention, the younger Andronicus might impute a brother's and a father's death3 to the consequence of his own vices; and deep was the sigh of thinking and feeling men, when they perceived, instead of sorrow and repentance, his ill-dissembled joy on the removal of two odious competitors. By these melancholy events, and the increase of his disorders, the mind of the elder emperor3 was gradually alienated; and, after many fruitless reproofs, he transferred on another grandson his hopes and affection. The change was announced by the new oath of allegiance to the reigning sovereign and the person whom he should appoint for his successor; and the acknowledged heir, after a repetition of insults and complaints, was exposed to the indignity of a public trial. Before the sentence, which would probably have condemned him to a dungeon or a cell, the emperor3 was informed that the palace courts were filled with the armed followers of his grandson; the judgment was softened to a treaty3 of reconciliation; and the triumphant escape of the prince3 encouraged the ardour of the younger faction.
Yet the capital, the clergy, and the senate adhered to the person, or at least to the government, of the old emperor30; and it was only in the provinces, by flight, and revolt, and foreign succour, that the malecontents could hope to vindicate their cause and subvert his throne. The soul of the enterprise was the great domestic, John Cantacuzene; the sally from Constantinople30 is the first date of his actions and memorials; and, if his own pen be most descriptive of his patriotism, an unfriendly historian has not refused to celebrate the zeal and ability which he displayed in the service30 of the young emperor30. That prince30 escaped from the capital under the pretence of hunting; erected his standard30 at Hadrianople; and, in a few days30, assembled fifty thousand30 horse30 and foot, whom neither honour nor duty could have armed against the Barbarians. Such a force might have saved or commanded the empire30; but their counsels were discordant, their motions were slow and doubtful, and their progress was checked by intrigue and negotiation. The quarrel of the two Andronici was protracted, and suspended, and renewed, during a ruinous period of seven years30. In the first treaty the relics of the Greek30 empire30 were divided: Constantinople30, Thessalonica, and the islands were left30 to the elder, while the younger acquired the sovereignty of the greatest part of Thrace, from Philippi to the Byzantine30 limit. By the second30 treaty he stipulated the payment of his troops30, his immediate coronation, and an adequate share of the power and revenue of the state. The third civil war30 was terminated by the surprise of Constantinople30, the final retreat of the old emperor30, and the sole reign of his victorious grandson. The reasons of this delay may be found in the characters of the men and of the times. When the heir of the monarchy first pleaded his wrongs and his apprehensions, he was heard with pity and applause; and his adherents repeated on all sides the inconsistent promise that he would increase the pay of the soldiers30 and alleviate the burdens of the people30. The grievances of forty years30 were mingled in his revolt; and the rising generation was fatigued by the endless prospect of a reign whose favourites and maxims were of other times. The youth of Andronicus had been without spirit, his age was without reverence; his taxes produced an annual revenue of five hundred thousand30 pounds; yet the richest of the sovereigns of Christendom was incapable of maintaining three thousand30 horse30 and twenty galleys, to resist the destructive progress of the Turks30. How different, said the younger Andronicus, is my situation from that of the son30 of Philip! Alexander might complain that his father would leave him nothing to conquer; alas! my grandsire will leave me nothing to lose. But the Greeks30 were soon30 admonished that the public disorders could not be healed by a civil war30; and their young favourite was not destined to be the saviour of a falling empire30. On the first repulse, his party was broken by his own levity, their intestine discord, and the intrigues of the ancient court, which tempted each malecontent to desert or betray the cause of rebellion. Andronicus the Younger was touched with remorse, or fatigued with business, or deceived by negotiation; pleasure rather than power was his aim; and the licence of maintaining a thousand30 hounds, a thousand30 hawks, and a thousand30 huntsmen was sufficient to sully his fame and disarm his ambition.
Let us now survey the catastrophe of this busy plot and the final situation of the principal actors. The age13 of Andronicus13 was consumed in civil discord; and, amidst the events of war and treaty, his power and reputation continually decayed, till the fatal night in which the gates of the city and palace were opened without resistance to his grandson13. His principal commander scorned the repeated warnings of danger; and retiring to rest in the vain security of ignorance, abandoned the feeble monarch, with some priests and pages, to the terrors of a sleepless night. These terrors were quickly realised by the hostile shouts which proclaimed the titles and victory of Andronicus13 the Younger13; and the aged emperor13, falling prostrate before an image of the Virgin, despatched a suppliant message to resign the sceptre and to obtain his life13 at the hands of the conqueror. The answer of his grandson13 was decent and pious; at the prayer of his friends, the younger13 Andronicus13 assumed the sole administration; but the elder13 still enjoyed the name and pre-eminence of the first emperor13, the use of the great13 palace, and a pension of twenty-four thousand pieces of gold, one half of which was assigned on the royal13 treasure, and the other on the fishery of Constantinople. But his impotence was soon exposed to contempt and oblivion; the vast silence of the palace was disturbed only by the cattle and poultry of the neighbourhood, which roved with impunity through the solitary courts; and a reduced allowance of ten thousand pieces of gold was all that he could ask and more than he could hope. His calamities were embittered by the gradual extinction of sight: his confinement was rendered each day more rigorous; and during the absence and sickness of his grandson13, his inhuman keepers, by the threats of instant death, compelled him to exchange the purple13 for the monastic habit and profession. The monk Antony had renounced the pomp of the world: yet he had occasion for a coarse fur in the winter-season; and, as wine was forbidden by his confessor, and water by his physician, the sherbet of Egypt was his common drink. It was not without difficulty that the late emperor13 could procure three or four pieces to satisfy these simple wants; and, if he bestowed13 the gold to relieve the more painful distress of a friend, the sacrifice is of some weight in the scale of humanity and religion. Four years13 after his abdication, Andronicus13, or Antony, expired in a cell, in the seventy-fourth year of his age13; and the last strain of adulation could only promise a more splendid crown of glory in heaven than he had enjoyed upon earth.
Nor was the reign of the younger, more glorious or fortunate than that of the elder, Andronicus. He gathered the fruits of ambition: but the taste was transient and bitter; in the supreme station he lost the remains of his early popularity; and the defects of his character became still more conspicuous to the world. The public reproach urged him to march in person against the Turks30; nor did his courage fail in the hour of trial; but a defeat and wound were the only trophies of his expedition in Asia, which confirmed the establishment of the Ottoman monarchy. The abuses of the civil government attained their full maturity and perfection; his neglect of forms, and the confusion of national dresses, are deplored by the Greeks30 as the fatal symptoms of the decay of the empire30. Andronicus was old before his time; the intemperance of youth had accelerated the infirmities of age; and, after being rescued from a dangerous malady by nature, or physic, or the Virgin, he was snatched away before he had accomplished his forty-fifth year. He was twice married; and, as the progress of the Latins in arms30 and arts had softened the prejudices of the Byzantine30 court, his two wives were chosen in the princely houses of Germany and Italy. The first, Agnes at home, Irene in Greece, was daughter of the duke of Brunswick. Her father was a petty lord in the poor and savage regions of the north of Germany; yet he derived some revenue from his silver mines; and his family is celebrated by the Greeks30 as the most ancient and noble of the Teutonic name. After the death30 of this childless princess, Andronicus sought in marriage Jane, the sister of the count of Savoy; and his suit was preferred to that of the French king30. The count respected in his sister the superior majesty of a Roman30 empress; her retinue was composed of knights and ladies; she was regenerated and crowned in St30. Sophia, under the more orthodox appellation of Anne; and, at the nuptial feast, the Greeks30 and Italians vied with each other in the martial exercises of tilts and tournaments.
The empress Anne of Savoy survived her husband. Their son30, John Palaeologus, was left30 an orphan and an emperor30, in the ninth year of his age; and his weakness was protected by the first and most deserving of the Greeks30. The long30 and cordial friendship of his father for John Cantacuzene is alike honourable to the prince30 and the subject. It had been formed amidst the pleasures of their youth; their families were almost equally noble; and the recent lustre of the purple was amply compensated by the energy of a private education. We have seen that the young emperor30 was saved by Cantacuzene from the power of his grandfather; and, after six years30 of civil war30, the same favourite brought him back in triumph to the palace30 of Constantinople30. Under the reign of Andronicus the Younger, the great domestic ruled the emperor30 and the empire30; and it was by his valour and conduct that the isle of Lesbos and the principality of Aetolia were restored to their ancient allegiance. His enemies30 confess that, among the public robbers, Cantacuzene alone was moderate and abstemious; and the free and voluntary account which he produces of his own wealth may sustain the presumption that it was devolved by inheritance, and not accumulated by rapine. He does not indeed specify the value of his money, plate, and jewels; yet, after a voluntary gift of two hundred vases of silver, after much had been secreted by his friends and plundered by his foes, his forfeit treasures were sufficient for the equipment of a fleet of seventy galleys. He does not measure the size and number of his estates; but his granaries were heaped with an incredible store of wheat and barley; and the labour of a thousand30 yoke of oxen might cultivate, according to the practice of antiquity, about sixty-two thousand30 five hundred acres of arable land. His pastures were stocked with two thousand30 five hundred brood mares, two hundred camels, three hundred mules, five hundred asses, five thousand30 horned cattle, fifty thousand30 hogs, and seventy thousand30 sheep: a precious record of rural opulence, in the last period of the empire30, and in a land, most probably in Thrace, so repeatedly wasted by foreign and domestic hostility. The favour of Cantacuzene was above his fortune. In the moments of familiarity, in the hour of sickness, the emperor30 was desirous to level the distance between them, and pressed his friend to accept the diadem and purple. The virtue of the great domestic, which is attested by his own pen, resisted the dangerous proposal; but the last testament of Andronicus the Younger named him the guardian of his son30 and the regent of the empire30.
Had the regent found a suitable return of obedience and gratitude, perhaps he would have acted with pure and zealous fidelity in the service of his pupil. A guard of five hundred soldiers47 watched over his person47 and the palace47; the funeral of the late emperor47 was decently performed; the capital was silent and submissive; and five hundred letters, which Cantacuzene despatched in the first month, informed the provinces47 of their loss and their duty. The prospect of a tranquil minority was blasted by the Great Duke or Admiral Apocaucus; and, to exaggerate his perfidy, the Imperial47 historian is pleased to magnify his own imprudence in raising him to that office against the advice of his more sagacious sovereign47. Bold and subtle, rapacious and profuse, the avarice and ambition of Apocaucus were by turns subservient to each other; and his talents were applied to the ruin of his country. His arrogance was heightened by the command47 of a naval force and an impregnable castle, and, under the mask of oaths and flattery, he secretly conspired against his benefactor. The female court of the empress was bribed and directed; he encouraged Anne of Savoy to assert, by the law of nature, the tutelage of her son47; the love of power47 was disguised by the anxiety of maternal tenderness; and the founder of the Palaeologi had instructed his posterity to dread the example of a perfidious guardian. The patriarch John of Apri was a proud and feeble old man, encompassed by a numerous and hungry kindred. He produced an obsolete epistle of Andronicus, which bequeathed the prince47 and people47 to his pious care: the fate of his predecessor Arsenius prompted him to prevent, rather than punish, the crimes of an usurper; and Apocaucus smiled at the success of his own flattery, when he beheld the Byzantine priest assuming the state and temporal claims of the Roman47 pontiff. Between three persons so different in their situation and character, a private47 league was concluded: a shadow of authority47 was restored to the senate47; and the people47 was tempted by the name of freedom. By this powerful confederacy, the great domestic was assaulted at first with clandestine, at length with open, arms47. His prerogatives were disputed; his opinions slighted; his friends persecuted; and his safety was threatened both in the camp and city47. In his absence on the public47 service, he was accused of treason; proscribed as an enemy of the church and state; and delivered, with all his adherents, to the sword of justice47, the vengeance of the people47, and the power47 of the devil: his fortunes were confiscated; his aged mother was cast into prison; all his past services were buried in oblivion; and he was driven by injustice to perpetrate the crime of which he was accused. From the review of his preceding conduct47, Cantacuzene appears to have been guiltless of any treasonable designs; and the only suspicion of his innocence must arise from the vehemence of his protestations, and the sublime purity which he ascribes to his own virtue. While the empress and the patriarch still affected the appearance of harmony, he repeatedly solicited the permission of retiring to a private47, and even a monastic, life47. After he had been declared a public47 enemy, it was his fervent wish to throw himself at the feet of the young emperor47, and to receive without a murmur the stroke of the executioner: it was not without reluctance that he listened to the voice of reason, which inculcated the sacred duty of saving his family and friends, and proved that he could only save them by drawing the sword and assuming the Imperial47 title.
In the strong city30 of Demotica, his peculiar domain, the emperor30 John Cantacuzenus was invested with the purple buskins; his right leg was clothed by his noble kinsmen, the left30 by the Latin chiefs, on whom he conferred the order of knighthood. But even in this act of revolt he was still studious of loyalty; and the titles of John Palaeologus and Anne of Savoy were proclaimed before his own name and that of his wife Irene. Such vain ceremony is a thin disguise of rebellion, nor are there perhaps any personal wrongs that can authorise a subject to take arms30 against his sovereign; but the want of preparation and success may confirm the assurance of the usurper that this decisive step was the effect of necessity rather than of choice. Constantinople30 adhered to the young emperor30; the king30 of Bulgaria was invited to the relief of Hadrianople; the principal cities of Thrace and Macedonia, after some hesitation, renounced their obedience to the great domestic; and the leaders of the troops30 and provinces were induced, by their private interest, to prefer the loose dominion of a woman and a priest. The army30 of Cantacuzene, in sixteen divisions, was stationed on the banks of the Melas, to tempt or intimidate the capital; it was dispersed by treachery or fear; and the officers, more especially the mercenary Latins, accepted the bribes, and embraced the service30, of the Byzantine30 court. After this loss, the rebel emperor30 (he fluctuated between the two characters) took the road of Thessalonica with a chosen remnant; but he failed in his enterprise on that important place; and he was closely pursued by the Great Duke, his enemy30 Apocaucus, at the head30 of a superior power by sea and land. Driven from the coast, in his march, or rather flight, into the mountains of Servia, Cantacuzene assembled his troops30 to scrutinise those who were worthy and willing to accompany his broken fortunes. A base majority bowed and retired; and his trusty band was diminished to two thousand30, and at last to five hundred, volunteers. The cral, or despot of the Servians, received him with generous hospitality; but the ally was insensibly degraded to a suppliant, an hostage, a captive; and, in this miserable dependence, he waited at the door of the Barbarian, who could dispose of the life and liberty of a Roman30 emperor30. The most tempting offers could not persuade the cral to violate his trust; but he soon30 inclined to the stronger side; and his friend was dismissed without injury to a new30 vicissitude of hopes and perils. Near six years30 the flame of discord burnt with various success and unabated rage: the cities were distracted by the faction of the nobles and the plebeians — the Cantacuzeni and Palaeologi; and the Bulgarians, the Servians, and the Turks30 were invoked on both sides as the instruments of private ambition and the common ruin. The regent deplored the calamities of which he was the author and victim: and his own experience might dictate a just and lively remark on the different nature of foreign and civil war30. The former, said he, is the external warmth of summer, always tolerable, and often beneficial; the latter is the deadly heat of a fever, which consumes without a remedy the vitals of the constitution.
The introduction of barbarians and savages into the contests of civilised nations is a measure pregnant with shame and mischief; which the interest of the moment may compel, but which is reprobated by the best principles of humanity and reason. It is the practice of both sides to accuse their enemies30 of the guilt of the first alliances; and those who fail in their negotiations are loudest in their censure of the example which they envy and would gladly imitate. The Turks30 of Asia were less barbarous, perhaps, than the shepherds of Bulgaria and Servia; but their religion rendered them the implacable foes of Rome and Christianity. To acquire the friendship of their emirs, the two factions vied with each other in baseness and profusion; the dexterity of Cantacuzene obtained the preference; but the succour and victory30 were dearly purchased by the marriage of his daughter with an infidel, the captivity of many thousand30 Christians, and the passage of the Ottomans into Europe, the last and fatal stroke in the fall of the Roman30 empire30. The inclining scale was decided in his favour by the death30 of Apocaucus, the just, though singular, retribution of his crimes. A crowd of nobles or plebeians, whom he feared or hated, had been seized by his orders in the capital and the provinces; and the old palace30 of Constantine was assigned for the place of their confinement. Some alterations in raising the walls30 and narrowing the cells had been ingeniously contrived to prevent their escape and aggravate their misery; and the work was incessantly pressed by the daily visits of the tyrant. His guards watched at the gate, and, as he stood in the inner court to overlook the architects, without fear or suspicion, he was assaulted and laid breathless on the ground, by two resolute prisoners of the Palaeologian race, who were armed with sticks and animated by despair. On the rumour of revenge and liberty, the captive multitude broke their fetters, fortified their prison, and exposed from the battlements the tyrant's head30, presuming on the favour of the people30 and the clemency of the empress. Anne of Savoy might rejoice in the fall of an haughty and ambitious minister; but, while she delayed to resolve or to act, the populace, more especially the mariners, were excited by the widow of the Great Duke to a sedition, an assault, and a massacre. The prisoners (of whom the far greater part were guiltless or inglorious of the deed) escaped to a neighbouring church; they were slaughtered at the foot of the altar; and in his death30 the monster was not less bloody and venomous than in his life. Yet his talents alone upheld the cause of the young emperor30; and his surviving associates, suspicious of each other, abandoned the conduct of the war30, and rejected the fairest terms of accommodation. In the beginning of the dispute, the empress felt and complained that she was deceived by the enemies30 of Cantacuzene; the patriarch was employed to preach against the forgiveness of injuries; and her promise of immortal hatred was sealed by an oath under the penalty of excommunication. But Anne soon30 learned to hate without a teacher: she beheld the misfortunes of the empire30 with the indifference of a stranger: her jealousy was exasperated by the competition of a rival empress; and, on the first symptoms of a more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch to convene a synod and degrade him from his office. Their incapacity and discord would have afforded the most decisive advantage; but the civil war30 was protracted by the weakness of both parties; and the moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped the reproach of timidity and indolence. He successively recovered the provinces and cities; and the realm of his pupil was measured by the walls30 of Constantinople30; but the metropolis alone counterbalanced the rest of the empire30; nor could he attempt that important conquest, till30 he had secured in his favour the public voice and a private correspondence. An Italian, of the name of Facciolati, had succeeded to the office of Great Duke: the ships, the guards, and the golden gate were subject to his command; but his humble ambition was bribed to become the instrument of treachery; and the revolution was accomplished without danger or bloodshed. Destitute of the powers of resistance or the hope of relief, the inflexible Anne would have still defended the palace30, and have smiled to behold the capital in flames, rather than in the possession of a rival. She yielded to the prayers of her friends and enemies30; and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who professed a loyal and zealous attachment to the son30 of his benefactor. The marriage of his daughter with John Palaeologus was at length consummated: the hereditary right of the pupil was acknowledged; but the sole administration during ten years30 was vested in the guardian. Two emperors and three empresses were seated on the Byzantine30 throne; and a general30 amnesty quieted the apprehensions, and confirmed the property, of the most guilty subjects. The festival of the coronation and nuptials was celebrated with the appearance of concord and magnificence, and both were equally fallacious. During the late troubles, the treasures of the state, and even the palace30, had been alienated or embezzled: the royal30 banquet was served in pewter or earthenware; and such was the proud poverty of the times that the absence of gold30 and jewels was supplied by the paltry artifices of glass and gilt leather.
I hasten to conclude the personal history of John Cantacuzene44. He triumphed and reigned; but his reign44 and triumph were clouded by the discontent of his own and the adverse faction. His followers might style the general44 amnesty an act of pardon for his enemies44 and of oblivion for his friends: in his cause44 their estates had been forfeited or plundered; and, as they wandered naked and hungry through the streets, they cursed the selfish generosity of a leader who, on the throne44 of the empire, might relinquish without merit his private44 inheritance. The adherents of the empress44 blushed to hold their lives and fortunes by the precarious favour of an usurper; and the thirst of revenge was concealed by a tender concern for the succession, and even the safety, of her son44. They were justly alarmed by a petition of the friends of Cantacuzene44, that they might be released from their oath of allegiance to the Palaeologi and entrusted with the defence of some cautionary towns: a measure supported with argument and eloquence; and which was rejected (says the Imperial historian) by my sublime and almost incredible virtue. His repose was disturbed by the sound of plots and seditions; and he trembled lest the lawful prince44 should be stolen away44 by some foreign or domestic enemy, who would inscribe his name and his wrongs in the banners of rebellion. As the son44 of Andronicus44 advanced in the years44 of manhood, he began to feel and to act for himself; and his rising ambition was rather stimulated than checked by the imitation of his father44's vices. If we may trust his own professions, Cantacuzene44 laboured with honest industry to correct these sordid and sensual appetites, and to raise the mind of the young prince44 to a level with his fortune. In the Servian expedition the two emperors showed themselves in cordial harmony to the troops and provinces; and the younger colleague was initiated by the elder in the mysteries of war44 and government. After the conclusion of the peace44, Palaeologus44 was left at Thessalonica, a royal residence and a frontier station, to secure by his absence the peace44 of Constantinople44, and to withdraw his youth44 from the temptations of a luxurious capital. But the distance weakened the powers of control, and the son44 of Andronicus44 was surrounded with artful or unthinking companions, who taught him to hate his guardian, to deplore his exile, and to vindicate his rights. A private44 treaty with the cral or despot of Servia was soon44 followed by an open revolt; and Cantacuzene44, on the throne44 of the elder Andronicus44, defended the cause44 of age44 and prerogative, which in his youth44 he had so vigorously attacked. At his request, the empress44-mother undertook the voyage of Thessalonica, and the office of mediation: she returned44 without success; and unless Anne of Savoy was instructed by adversity, we may doubt the sincerity, or at least the fervour, of her zeal. While the regent grasped the sceptre with a firm and vigorous hand44, she had been instructed to declare that the ten years44 of his legal administration would soon44 elapse; and that, after a full trial of the vanity of the world, the emperor44 Cantacuzene44 sighed for the repose of a cloister, and was ambitious only of an heavenly crown. Had these sentiments been genuine, his voluntary abdication would have restored the peace44 of the empire, and his conscience would have been relieved by an act of justice. Palaeologus44 alone was responsible for his future government; and, whatever might be his vices, they were surely less formidable than the calamities of a civil war44, in which the Barbarians and infidels were again invited to assist the Greeks44 in their mutual destruction. By the arms of the Turks, who now struck a deep and everlasting root in Europe, Cantacuzene44 prevailed in the third conquest in which he had been involved; and the young emperor44, driven from the sea and land, was compelled to take shelter among the Latins of the isle of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy provoked the victor to a step which must render the quarrel irreconcileable; and the association of his son44 Matthew, whom he invested with the purple, established the succession in the family44 of the Cantacuzeni. But Constantinople44 was still attached to the blood of her ancient princes; and this last injury accelerated the restoration of the rightful heir. A noble Genoese espoused the cause44 of Palaeologus44, obtained a promise of his sister, and achieved the revolution with two galleys and two thousand five hundred auxiliaries. Under the pretence of distress they were admitted into the lesser port; a gate was opened, and the Latin shout of Long44 life44 and victory to the emperor44 John Palaeologus44! was answered by a general44 rising in his favour. A numerous and loyal party yet adhered to the standard of Cantacuzene44; but he asserts in his history (does he hope for belief?) that his tender conscience rejected the assurance of conquest: that, in free obedience to the voice of religion44 and philosophy, he descended from the throne44 and embraced with pleasure the monastic habit and profession. So soon44 as he ceased to be a prince44, his successor was not unwilling that he should be a saint; the remainder of his life44 was devoted to piety and learning; in the cells of Constantinople44 and Mount Athos, the monk Joasaph was respected as the temporal and spiritual father44 of the emperor44; and, if he issued from his retreat, it was as the minister of peace44, to subdue the obstinacy, and solicit the pardon, of his rebellious son44.
Yet in the cloister, the mind18 of Cantacuzene was still exercised by theological war. He sharpened a controversial pen against the Jews and Mahometans; and in every state he defended with equal zeal the divine light18 of Mount18 Thabor, a memorable question which consummates the religious18 follies of the Greeks. The fakirs of India and the monks of the Oriental church18 were alike persuaded that in total abstraction of the faculties of the mind18 and body18 the purer spirit may ascend to the enjoyment and vision of the Deity. The opinion and practice of the monasteries of Mount18 Athos18 will be best represented in the words of an abbot18 who flourished in the eleventh century. When thou art alone in thy18 cell, says the ascetic teacher, shut thy18 door, and seat thyself in a corner; raise thy18 mind18 above all things vain and transitory; recline thy18 beard and chin on thy18 breast; turn thy18 eyes18 and thy18 thoughts towards the middle of thy18 belly, the region of the navel; and search the place18 of the heart, the seat of the soul18. At first, all will be dark and comfortless; but, if you persevere day18 and night, you will feel an ineffable joy; and no sooner has the soul18 discovered the place18 of the heart than it is involved in a mystic and ethereal light18. This light18, the production of a distempered fancy, the creature of an empty stomach and an empty brain, was adored by the Quietists as the pure and perfect essence of God18 himself; and, as long18 as the folly was confined18 to Mount18 Athos18, the simple solitaries were not inquisitive how the divine essence could be a material substance, or how an immaterial substance could be perceived by the eyes18 of the body18. But in the reign of the younger Andronicus these monasteries were visited by Barlaam18, a Calabrian monk, who was equally skilled in philosophy and theology; who possessed the languages of the Greeks and Latins; and whose versatile genius could maintain their opposite creeds, according to the interest of the moment. The indiscretion of an ascetic revealed to the curious traveller the secrets of mental prayer; and Barlaam18 embraced the opportunity of ridiculing the Quietists, who placed the soul18 in the navel; of accusing the monks of Mount18 Athos18 of heresy and blasphemy. His attack compelled the more learned to renounce or dissemble the simple devotion of their brethren; and Gregory Palamas introduced a scholastic distinction between the essence and operation of God18. His inaccessible essence dwells in the midst of an uncreated and eternal light18; and this beatific vision of the saints had been manifested to the disciples on Mount18 Thabor, in the transfiguration of Christ18. Yet this distinction could not escape the reproach of polytheism; the eternity of the light18 of Thabor was fiercely denied; and Barlaam18 still charged the Palamites with holding two eternal substances, a visible18 and an invisible God18. From the rage of the monks of Mount18 Athos18, who threatened his life, the Calabrian retired to Constantinople, where his smooth and specious manners introduced him to the favour of the great domestic and the emperor. The court and the city18 were involved in this theological dispute, which flamed amidst the civil war; but the doctrine of Barlaam18 was disgraced by his flight and apostacy; the Palamites triumphed; and their adversary, the patriarch John of Apri, was deposed by the consent of the adverse factions of the state. In the character of emperor and theologian, Cantacuzene presided in the synod of the Greek church18, which established, as an article of faith, the uncreated light18 of Mount18 Thabor; and, after so many insults, the reason18 of mankind was slightly wounded by the addition of a single absurdity. Many rolls of paper or parchment have been blotted; and the impenitent sectaries, who refused to subscribe the orthodox creed, were deprived of the honours of Christian burial; but in the next age18 the question was forgotten; nor can I learn that the axe or the faggot were employed for the extirpation of the Barlaamite heresy.
For the conclusion of this chapter I have reserved the Genoese war9, which shook the throne of Cantacuzene and betrayed the debility of the Greek empire9. The Genoese, who, after the recovery of Constantinople, were seated in the suburb of Pera or Galata, received that honourable fief from the bounty of the emperor. They were indulged in the use of their laws and magistrates; but they submitted to the duties of vassals and subjects: the forcible word of liegemen was borrowed from the Latin jurisprudence; and their podestà, or chief, before he entered on his office, saluted the emperor with loyal acclamations and vows of fidelity. Genoa sealed a firm alliance with the Greeks; and, in case of a defensive war9, a supply of fifty empty galleys, and a succour of fifty galleys completely armed and manned, was promised by the republic to the empire9. In the revival of a naval force it was the aim of Michael Palaeologus to deliver himself from a foreign aid; and his vigorous government contained the Genoese of Galata within those limits which the insolence of wealth and freedom provoked them to exceed. A sailor threatened that they should soon9 be masters of Constantinople, and slew the Greek who resented this national affront; and an armed vessel, after refusing to salute the palace, was guilty of some acts of piracy in the Black Sea9. Their countrymen threatened to support their cause; but the long9 and open village of Galata was instantly surrounded by the Imperial troops9; till, in the moment of the assault, the prostrate Genoese implored the clemency of their sovereign. The defenceless situation which secured their obedience exposed them to the attack of their Venetian rivals, who, in the reign of the elder Andronicus, presumed to violate the majesty of the throne. On the approach of their fleets, the Genoese, with their families and effects, retired into the city9; their empty habitations were reduced to ashes; and the feeble prince, who had viewed the destruction of his suburb, expressed his resentment, not by arms9, but by ambassadors. This misfortune, however, was advantageous to the Genoese, who obtained, and imperceptibly abused, the dangerous licence of surrounding Galata with a strong wall; of introducing into the ditch the waters of the sea9; of erecting lofty turrets; and of mounting a train of military engines on the rampart. The narrow bounds in which they had been circumscribed were insufficient for the growing colony; each day they acquired some addition of landed property; and the adjacent hills were covered with their villas and castles, which they joined and protected by new9 fortifications. The navigation and trade of the Euxine was the patrimony of the Greek emperors, who commanded the narrow entrance, the gates, as it were, of that inland sea9. In the reign of Michael Palaeologus, their prerogative was acknowledged by the sultan of Egypt, who solicited and obtained the liberty of sending an annual ship for the purchase of slaves in Circassia and the Lesser Tartary: a liberty pregnant with mischief to the Christian cause, since these youths were transformed by education and discipline into the formidable Mamalukes. From the colony of Pera the Genoese engaged with superior advantage in the lucrative trade of the Black Sea9; and their industry supplied the Greeks with fish and corn, two articles of food almost equally important to a superstitious people. The spontaneous bounty of nature appears to have bestowed the harvests of the Ukraine, the produce of a rude and savage husbandry; and the endless exportation of salt fish and caviar is annually renewed by the enormous sturgeons that are caught at the mouth of the Don, or Tanais, in their last station of the rich mud and shallow water of the Maeotis. The waters of the Oxus, the Caspian, the Volga, and the Don opened a rare and laborious passage for the gems and spices of India; and, after three months' march, the caravans of Carizme met the Italian vessels9 in the harbours of Crimea. These various branches of trade were monopolised by the diligence and the power of the Genoese. Their rivals of Venice and Pisa were forcibly expelled; the natives were awed by the castles and cities9, which arose on the foundations of their humble factories; and their principal establishment of Caffa was besieged without effect by the Tartar powers. Destitute of a navy, the Greeks were oppressed by these haughty merchants, who fed or famished Constantinople, according to their interest. They proceeded to usurp the customs, the fishery, and even the toll of the Bosphorus; and, while they derived from these objects a revenue of two hundred thousand9 pieces of gold, a remnant of thirty thousand9 was reluctantly allowed to the emperor. The colony of Pera or Galata acted, in peace and war9, as an independent state; and, as it will happen in distant settlements, the Genoese podestà too often forgot that he was the servant of his own masters.
These usurpations were encouraged by the weakness of the elder Andronicus, and by the civil wars that afflicted his age and the minority of his grandson. The talents of Cantacuzene were employed to the ruin, rather than the restoration, of the empire30; and after his domestic victory30 he was condemned to an ignominious trial, whether the Greeks30 or the Genoese should reign in Constantinople30. The merchants of Pera were offended by his refusal of some contiguous lands, some commanding heights, which they proposed to cover with new30 fortifications; and in the absence of the emperor30, who was detained at Demotica by sickness, they ventured to brave the debility of a female reign. A Byzantine30 vessel, which had presumed to fish at the mouth of the harbour, was sunk by these audacious strangers; the fishermen were murdered. Instead of suing for pardon, the Genoese demanded satisfaction; required, in an haughty strain, that the Greeks30 should renounce the exercise of navigation; and encountered, with regular arms30, the first sallies of the popular indignation. They instantly occupied the debateable land; and by the labour of a whole people30, of either sex and of every age, the wall was raised, and the ditch was sunk, with incredible speed. At the same time they attacked and burnt two Byzantine30 galleys; while the three others, the remainder of the Imperial navy, escaped from their hand; the habitations without the gates, or along the shore, were pillaged and destroyed; and the care of the regent, of the empress Irene, was confined to the preservation of the city30. The return of Cantacuzene dispelled the public consternation: the emperor30 inclined to peaceful counsels; but he yielded to the obstinacy of his enemies30, who rejected all reasonable terms, and to the ardour of his subjects, who threatened, in the style of scripture, to break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Yet they reluctantly paid the taxes that he imposed for the construction of ships and the expenses of the war30; and, as the two nations were masters, the one of the land, the other of the sea, Constantinople30 and Pera were pressed by the evils of a mutual siege30. The merchants of the colony, who had believed that a few days30 would terminate the war30, already murmured at their losses; the succours from their mother-country were delayed by the factions of Genoa; and the most cautious embraced the opportunity of a Rhodian vessel to remove their families and effects from the scene of hostility. In the spring, the Byzantine30 fleet, seven galleys and a train of smaller vessels, issued from the mouth of the harbour and steered in a single line along the shore of Pera; unskilfully presenting their sides to the beaks of the adverse squadron. The crews were composed of peasants and mechanics; nor was their ignorance compensated by the native courage of Barbarians. The wind was strong, the waves were rough; and no sooner did the Greeks30 perceive a distant and inactive enemy30, than they leaped headlong into the sea, from a doubtful to an inevitable peril. The troops30 that marched to the attack of the lines of Pera were struck at the same moment with a similar panic; and the Genoese were astonished, and almost ashamed, at their double victory30. Their triumphant vessels, crowned with flowers, and dragging after them the captive galleys, repeatedly passed and repassed before the palace30. The only virtue of the emperor30 was patience, and the hope of revenge his sole consolation. Yet the distress of both parties interposed a temporary agreement; and the shame of the empire30 was disguised by a thin veil of dignity and power. Summoning the chiefs of the colony, Cantacuzene affected to despise the trivial object of the debate; and, after a mild reproof, most liberally granted the lands, which had been previously resigned to the seeming custody of his officers.
But the emperor49 was soon49 solicited to violate the treaty, and to join his arms49 with the Venetians, the perpetual enemies of Genoa and her colonies. While he compared the reasons of peace and war49, his moderation was provoked by a wanton insult of the inhabitants of Pera, who discharged from their rampart49 a large stone that fell in the midst of Constantinople49. On his just complaint, they coldly blamed the imprudence of their engineer; but the next day49 the insult was repeated, and they exulted in a second49 proof that the royal city49 was not beyond the reach of their artillery. Cantacuzene instantly signed his treaty with the Venetians; but the weight of the Roman empire was scarcely felt in the balance of these opulent and powerful republics. From the straits of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tanais, their fleets encountered each other with various success49; and a memorable battle49 was fought in the narrow sea49, under the walls49 of Constantinople49. It would not be an easy task to reconcile the accounts of the Greeks, the Venetians, and the Genoese; and, while I depend on the narrative of an impartial historian, I shall borrow from each nation the facts that redound to their own disgrace and the honour of their foes. The Venetians, with their allies, the Catalans, had the advantage of number; and their fleet, with the poor addition of eight Byzantine galleys, amounted to seventy-five sail; the Genoese did not exceed sixty-four; but in those times49 their ships of war49 were distinguished by the superiority of their size and strength. The names and families of their naval commanders, Pisani and Doria, are illustrious in the annals of their country49; but the personal merit of the former was eclipsed by the fame and abilities of his rival. They engaged in tempestuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light. The enemies of the Genoese applaud their prowess; the friends of the Venetians are dissatisfied with their behaviour; but all parties agree in praising the skill and boldness of the Catalans, who, with many wounds, sustained the brunt of the action. On the separation of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful; but the thirteen Genoese galleys, that had been sunk or taken, were compensated by a double loss of the allies: of fourteen Venetians, ten Catalans, and two Greeks; and even the grief of the conquerors expressed the assurance and habit of more decisive victories. Pisani confessed his defeat by retiring into a fortified harbour, from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the senate, he steered with a broken and flying squadron for the isle of Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the sovereignty of the sea49. In a public epistle, addressed to the doge and senate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime powers, the two luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the valour49 and victory49 of the Genoese, the first of men49 in the exercise of naval war49; he drops a tear on the misfortunes of their Venetian brethren; but he exhorts them to pursue with fire and sword the base and perfidious Greeks; to purge the metropolis of the East from the heresy with which it was infected. Deserted by their friends, the Greeks were incapable of resistance; and, three months after the battle49, the emperor49 Cantacuzene solicited and subscribed a treaty, which for ever banished the Venetians and Catalans, and granted to the Genoese a monopoly of trade and almost a right of dominion. The Roman empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might soon49 have sunk into a province of Genoa, if the ambition49 of the republic had not been checked by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. A long contest of one hundred and thirty49 years was determined by the triumph of Venice; and the factions of the Genoese compelled them to seek for domestic peace under the protection of a foreign lord, the duke of Milan, or the French49 king49. Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital, and navigated the Euxine, till it was involved by the Turks in the final servitude of Constantinople49 itself.
From the petty quarrels of a city and her suburbs, from the cowardice and discord of the falling Greeks, I shall now ascend to the victorious Turks, whose domestic slavery was ennobled by martial discipline, religious enthusiasm, and the energy of the national character46. The rise and progress of the Ottomans, the present46 sovereigns of Constantinople, are connected with the most important46 scenes of modern46 history46; but they are founded on a previous knowledge46 of the great46 eruption of the Moguls and Tartars, whose rapid conquests may be compared with the primitive convulsions of nature46, which have agitated and altered the surface of the globe. I have long since asserted my claim to introduce the nations, the immediate or remote authors of the fall of the Roman46 empire46; nor can I refuse myself to those events which, from their uncommon magnitude, will interest a philosophic46 mind46 in the history46 of blood.
From the spacious highlands between China, Siberia, and the Caspian Sea, the tide of emigration and war11 has repeatedly been poured. These ancient11 seats of the Huns and Turks were occupied in the twelfth century by many pastoral tribes11 of the same descent and similar manners11, which were united and led to conquest by the formidable Zingis. In his ascent to greatness, that Barbarian (whose private11 appellation was Temugin) had trampled on the necks of his equals. His birth was noble; but it was in the pride of victory that the prince or people11 deduced his seventh ancestor from the immaculate conception of a virgin. His father had reigned over thirteen hordes, which composed about thirty or forty thousand11 families; above two-thirds refused to pay tithes or obedience to his infant son; and, at the age11 of thirteen, Temugin fought a battle against his rebellious subjects. The future conqueror of Asia11 was reduced to fly and to obey; but he rose superior to his fortune; and, in his fortieth year, he had established his fame and dominion over the circumjacent tribes11. In a state11 of society in which policy11 is rude and valour11 is universal, the ascendant of one man must be founded on his power11 and resolution to punish his enemies and recompense his friends. His first military11 league was ratified by the simple rites of sacrificing an horse and tasting of a running stream: Temugin pledged himself to divide with his followers the sweets and the bitters of life11; and, when he had shared among them his horses and apparel, he was rich in their gratitude and his own hopes. After his first victory, he placed seventy caldrons on the fire, and seventy of the most guilty rebels were cast headlong into the boiling water. The sphere of his attraction was continually enlarged by the ruin of the proud and the submission of the prudent; and the boldest chieftains might tremble, when they beheld, enchased in silver, the skull of the khan11 of the Keraites, who under the name of Prester John had corresponded with the Roman11 pontiff and the princes of Europe11. The ambition of Tegumin condescended to employ the arts11 of superstition; and it was from a naked prophet, who could ascend to heaven on a white horse, that he accepted the title11 of Zingis, the Most Great11; and a divine right to the conquest and dominion of the earth. In a general11 couroultai, or diet, he was seated on a felt, which was long afterwards revered as a relic, and solemnly proclaimed Great11 Khan11 or emperor of the Moguls and Tartars11. Of these kindred though rival names, the former had given birth to the Imperial race; and the latter has been extended, by accident or error, over the spacious wilderness of the North.
The code of laws1 which Zingis dictated to his subjects1 was adapted to the preservation of domestic peace1 and the exercise of foreign hostility. The punishment of death was inflicted on the crimes of adultery, murder, perjury, and the capital thefts of an horse or ox; and the fiercest of men were mild and just in their intercourse with each other. The future election of the great khan was vested in the princes1 of his family and the heads of the tribes; and the regulations of the chase were essential to the pleasures and plenty of a Tartar camp. The victorious nation was held sacred1 from all servile labours, which were abandoned to slaves and strangers; and every labour was servile except the profession of arms. The service and discipline of the troops, who were armed with bows, scymetars, and iron maces, and divided by hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands, were the institutions of a veteran commander. Each officer and soldier was made responsible, under pain of death, for the safety and honour of his companions; and the spirit of conquest breathed in the law that peace1 should never be granted unless to a vanquished and suppliant enemy. But it is the religion1 of Zingis that best deserves our wonder and applause. The Catholic inquisitors of Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a Barbarian, who anticipated the lessons of philosophy and established by his laws1 a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. His first and only article of faith was the existence of one God, the author of all good, who fills, by his presence, the heavens and earth, which he has created by his power1. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to the idols of their peculiar tribes; and many of them had been converted by the foreign missionaries to the religions of Moses, of Mahomet, and of Christ. These various systems in freedom1 and concord were taught and practised within the precincts of the same camp; and the Bonze, the Imam, the Rabbi, the Nestorian, and the Latin priest enjoyed the same honourable exemption from service and tribute. In the mosch of Bochara, the insolent victor might trample the Koran under his horse's feet, but the calm legislator respected the prophets and pontiffs of the most hostile sects. The reason of Zingis was not informed by books; the khan could neither read nor write; and, except the tribe of the Igours, the greatest part of the Moguls and Tartars were as illiterate as their sovereign. The memory of their exploits was preserved by tradition; sixty-eight years1 after the death of Zingis, these traditions were collected and transcribed; the brevity of their domestic annals may be supplied by the Chinese, Persians, Armenians, Syrians, Arabians, Greeks, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, and Latins; and each nation will deserve credit in the relation of their own disasters and their own defeats.
The arms9 of Zingis and his lieutenants successively reduced the hordes of the desert, who pitched their tents between the wall of China and the Volga; and the Mogul emperor became the monarch of the pastoral world, the lord of many millions of shepherds and soldiers, who felt their united strength, and were impatient to rush on the mild and wealthy climates of the South. His ancestors had been the tributaries of the Chinese emperors; and Temugin himself had been disgraced by a title of honour and servitude. The court of Pekin was astonished by an embassy from its former vassal, who in the tone of the king of nations9 exacted the tribute and obedience which he had paid, and who affected to treat the Son of Heaven as the most contemptible of mankind. An haughty answer disguised their secret apprehensions; and their fears were soon9 justified by the march of innumerable squadrons, who pierced on all sides the feeble rampart of the great9 wall. Ninety cities9 were stormed, or starved, by the Moguls; ten only escaped; and Zingis, from a knowledge of the filial piety of the Chinese, covered his vanguard with their captive parents; an unworthy and, by degrees, a fruitless abuse of the virtues of his enemies. His invasion was supported by the revolt of an hundred thousand9 Khitans, who guarded the frontier; yet he listened to a treaty; and a princess of China, three thousand9 horses, five hundred youths, and as many virgins, and a tribute of gold and silk, were the price of his retreat. In his second expedition, he compelled the Chinese emperor to retire beyond the yellow river9 to a more southern residence. The siege of Pekin was long9 and laborious: the inhabitants9 were reduced by famine to decimate and devour their fellow-citizens; when their ammunition was spent, they discharged ingots of gold and silver from their engines; but the Moguls introduced a mine to the centre of the capital9; and the conflagration of the palace burnt above thirty days. China was desolated by Tartar war9 and domestic faction; and the five northern provinces9 were added to the empire9 of Zingis.
In the West9, he touched the dominions of Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, who reigned from the Persian gulf to the borders of India and Turkestan; and who, in the proud imitation of Alexander the Great9, forgot the servitude and ingratitude of his fathers to the house of Seljuk. It was the wish of Zingis to establish a friendly and commercial intercourse with the most powerful of the Moslem princes; nor could he be tempted by the secret solicitations of the caliph of Bagdad, who sacrificed to his personal wrongs the safety of the church and state. A rash and inhuman deed provoked and justified the Tartar arms9 in the invasion of the southern Asia9. A caravan of three ambassadors and one hundred and fifty merchants was arrested and murdered at Otrar, by the command of Mohammed; nor was it till after a demand and denial of justice, till he had prayed and fasted three nights on a mountain, that the Mogul emperor appealed to the judgment of God and his sword. Our European battles, says a philosophic writer, are petty skirmishes, if compared to the numbers that have fought and fallen in the fields of Asia9. Seven hundred thousand9 Moguls and Tartars are said to have marched under the standard of Zingis and his four sons. In the vast plains that extend to the north9 of the Sihon or Jaxartes, they were encountered by four hundred thousand9 soldiers of the sultan; and in the first battle, which was suspended by the night, one hundred and sixty thousand9 Carizmians were slain. Mohammed was astonished by the multitude and valour9 of his enemies: he withdrew from the scene of danger, and distributed his troops9 in the frontier towns, trusting that the Barbarians9, invincible in the field, would be repulsed by the length and difficulty of so many regular sieges. But the prudence of Zingis had formed a body of Chinese engineers, skilled in the mechanic arts, informed, perhaps, of the secret of gunpowder, and capable, under his discipline, of attacking a foreign country9 with more vigour and success than they had defended their own. The Persian historians will relate the sieges and reduction of Otrar, Cogende, Bochara, Samarcand, Carizme, Herat, Merou, Nisabour, Balch, and Candahar; and the conquest9 of the rich and populous countries of Transoxiana, Carizme, and Chorasan. The destructive hostilities of Attila and the Huns9 have long9 since been elucidated by the example of Zingis and the Moguls; and in this more proper place I shall be content to observe that, from the Caspian to the Indus, they ruined a tract of many hundred miles9, which was adorned with the habitations and labours of mankind, and that five centuries have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years. The Mogul emperor encouraged or indulged the fury of his troops9; the hope of future possession was lost in the ardour of rapine and slaughter; and the cause of the war9 exasperated their native fierceness by the pretence of justice and revenge. The downfall and death of the sultan Mohammed, who expired unpitied and alone in a desert island of the Caspian Sea9, is a poor atonement for the calamities of which he was the author. Could the Carizmian empire9 have been saved by a single hero, it would have been saved by his son Gelaleddin, whose active valour9 repeatedly checked the Moguls in the career of victory. Retreating, as he fought, to the banks9 of the Indus, he was oppressed by their innumerable host, till, in the last moment of despair, Gelaleddin spurred his horse into the waves, swam one of the broadest and most rapid rivers of Asia9, and extorted the admiration and applause of Zingis himself. It was in this camp9 that the Mogul emperor yielded with reluctance to the murmurs of his weary and wealthy troops9, who sighed for the enjoyment of their native land. Incumbered with the spoils of Asia9, he slowly measured back his footsteps, betrayed some pity for the misery of the vanquished, and declared his intention of rebuilding the cities9 which had been swept away by the tempest of his arms9. After he had repassed the Oxus and Jaxartes, he was joined by two generals, whom he had detached with thirty thousand9 horse, to subdue the western provinces9 of Persia. They had trampled on the nations9 which opposed their passage, penetrated through the gates of Derbend, traversed the Volga and the desert, and accomplished the circuit of the Caspian Sea9, by an expedition which had never been attempted and has never been repeated. The return of Zingis was signalised by the overthrow of the rebellious or independent kingdoms of Tartary; and he died in the fulness of years and glory, with his last breath exhorting and instructing his sons to achieve the conquest9 of the Chinese empire9.
The harem of Zingis was composed of five hundred wives and concubines; and of his numerous progeny, four sons, illustrious by their birth and merit46, exercised under their father the principal offices of peace and war. Toushi was his great46 huntsman, Zagatai his judge, Octai his minister, and Tuli his general; and their names and actions are often conspicuous in the history46 of his conquests. Firmly united for their own and the public46 interest, the three brothers and their families were content with dependent sceptres; and Octai, by general consent, was proclaimed Great46 Khan, or emperor of the Moguls and Tartars. He was succeeded by his son Gayuk, after whose death the empire46 devolved to his cousins, Mangou and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and the grandsons of Zingis. In the sixty-eight years46 of his four first successors, the Moguls subdued almost all Asia and a large portion of Europe. Without confining myself to the order of time46, without expatiating on the detail of events, I shall present46 a general picture of the progress of their arms. I. In the East; II. In the South; III. In the West; and, IV. In the North.
I. Before the invasion of Zingis, China was divided into two empires or dynasties of the North9 and South; and the difference of origin and interest was smoothed by a general conformity of laws, language, and national manners. The Northern empire9, which had been dismembered by Zingis, was finally subdued seven years after his death. After the loss of Pekin, the emperor had fixed his residence at Kaifong, a city9 many leagues in circumference, and which contained, according to the Chinese annals, fourteen hundred thousand9 families of inhabitants9 and fugitives. He escaped from thence with only seven horsemen, and made his last stand in a third capital9, till at length the hopeless monarch, protesting his innocence and accusing his fortune, ascended a funeral pile, and gave orders that, as soon9 as he had stabbed himself, the fire should be kindled by his attendants. The dynasty of the Song, the native and ancient9 sovereigns of the whole empire9, survived above forty-five years the fall of the Northern usurpers; and the perfect conquest9 was reserved for the arms9 of Cublai. During this interval, the Moguls were often diverted by foreign wars; and, if the Chinese seldom dared to meet their victors in the field, their passive courage presented an endless succession of cities9 to storm and of millions to slaughter. In the attack and defence of places, the engines of antiquity and the Greek fire were alternately employed; the use of gunpowder, in cannon and bombs, appears as a familiar practice; and the sieges were conducted by the Mahometans and Franks, who had been liberally invited into the service of Cublai. After passing the great9 river9, the troops9 and artillery were conveyed along a series of canals, till they invested the royal residence of Hamcheu, or Quinsay, in the country9 of silk, the most delicious climate of China. The emperor, a defenceless youth, surrendered his person and sceptre; and, before he was sent in exile into Tartary, he struck nine times the ground with his forehead, to adore in prayer or thanksgiving the mercy of the Great9 Khan. Yet the war9 (it was now styled a rebellion) was still maintained in the southern provinces9 from Hamcheu to Canton; and the obstinate remnant of independence and hostility was transported from the land to the sea9. But, when the fleet9 of the Song was surrounded and oppressed by a superior armament, their last champion leaped into the waves with his infant emperor in his arms9. It is more glorious, he cried, to die a prince than to live a slave. An hundred thousand9 Chinese imitated his example; and the whole empire9, from Tonkin to the great9 wall, submitted to the dominion of Cublai. His boundless ambition aspired to the conquest9 of Japan; his fleet9 was twice shipwrecked; and the lives of an hundred thousand9 Moguls and Chinese were sacrificed in the fruitless expedition. But the circumjacent kingdoms, Corea, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, were reduced in different degrees of tribute and obedience by the effort or terror of his arms9. He explored the Indian Ocean9 with a fleet9 of a thousand9 ships; they sailed in sixty-eight days, most probably to the isle of Borneo, under the equinoctial line; and, though they returned not without spoil or glory, the emperor was dissatisfied that the savage king had escaped from their hands.
II. The conquest24 of Hindostan by the Moguls was reserved in a later period for the house of Timour; but that of Iran, or Persia, was achieved by Holagou Khan, the grandson of Zingis, the brother and lieutenant of the two successive emperors, Mangou and Cublai. I shall not enumerate the crowd of sultans, emirs, and atabeks, whom he trampled into dust; but the extirpation of the Assassins, or Ismaelians of Persia, may be considered as a service to mankind. Among the hills to the south of the Caspian, these odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above an hundred and sixty years24; and their prince, or imam, established his lieutenant to lead and govern the colony of Mount Libanus, so famous and formidable in the history of the crusades. With the fanaticism of the Koran, the Ismaelians had blended the Indian transmigration and the visions of their own prophets; and it was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind obedience to the vicar of God. The daggers of his missionaries were felt both in the East24 and West; the Christians24 and the Moslems enumerate, and perhaps multiply, the illustrious victims that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment of the old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain. But these daggers, his only arms, were broken by the sword of Holagou, and not a vestige is left of the enemies of mankind, except the word assassin, which, in the most odious sense, has been adopted in the languages of Europe24. The extinction of the Abbassides24 cannot be indifferent to the spectators of their greatness and decline. Since the fall of their Seljukian tyrants, the caliphs24 had recovered their lawful dominion of Bagdad24 and the Arabian24 Irak; but the city24 was distracted by theological factions, and the commander of the faithful24 was lost in a harem of seven hundred concubines. The invasion of the Moguls he encountered with feeble arms and haughty embassies. On the divine decree, said the caliph24 Mostasem, is founded the throne24 of the sons of Abbas: and their foes shall surely be destroyed in this world and in the next. Who is this Holagou that dares to arise against them? If he be desirous of peace, let him instantly depart from the sacred territory, and perhaps he may obtain from our clemency the pardon of his fault. This presumption was cherished by a perfidious vizir, who assured his master that, even if the Barbarians had entered the city24, the women and children, from the terraces, would be sufficient to overwhelm them with stones. But, when Holagou touched the phantom, it instantly vanished into smoke. After a siege of two months, Bagdad24 was stormed and sacked by the Moguls; and their savage commander pronounced the death24 of the caliph24 Mostasem, the last of the temporal successors of Mahomet24; whose noble kinsmen, of the race24 of Abbas, had reigned in Asia24 above five hundred years24. Whatever might be the designs of the conqueror, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina were protected by the Arabian24 desert; but the Moguls spread beyond the Tigris and Euphrates, pillaged Aleppo and Damascus, and threatened to join the Franks in the deliverance of Jerusalem. Egypt24 was lost, had she been defended only by her feeble offspring; but the Mamalukes had breathed in their infancy the keenness of a Scythian air: equal in valour, superior in discipline, they met the Moguls in many a well-fought field; and drove back the stream of hostility to the eastward of the Euphrates. But it overflowed with resistless violence the kingdoms of Armenia and Anatolia, of which the former was possessed by the Christians24, and the latter by the Turks. The sultans of Iconium opposed some resistance to the Mogul arms, till24 Azzadin sought a refuge among the Greeks24 of Constantinople24, and his feeble successors, the last of the Seljukian dynasty, were finally extirpated by the khans of Persia.
III. No sooner had Octai subverted the Northern empire9 of China, than he resolved to visit with his arms9 the most remote countries of the West9. Fifteen hundred thousand9 Moguls and Tartars were inscribed on the military roll; of these the Great9 Khan selected a third which he entrusted to the command of his nephew Batou, the son of Tuli; who reigned over his father's conquests to the north9 of the Caspian Sea9. After a festival of forty days, Batou set forwards on this great9 expedition; and such was the speed and ardour of his innumerable squadrons that in less than six years they had measured a line of ninety degrees of longitude, a fourth part of the circumference of the globe. The great9 rivers of Asia9 and Europe9, the Volga and Kama, the Don and Borysthenes, the Vistula and Danube9, they either swam with their horses, or passed on the ice, or traversed in leathern boats, which followed the camp9 and transported their waggons and artillery. By the first victories of Batou, the remains of national freedom were eradicated in the immense plains of Turkestan and Kipzak. In his rapid progress, he overran the kingdoms, as they are now styled, of Astracan and Cazan; and the troops9 which he detached towards Mount Caucasus, explored the most secret recesses of Georgia and Circassia. The civil discord of the great9 dukes or princes of Russia betrayed their country9 to the Tartars. They spread from Livonia to the Black Sea9, and both Moscow and Kiow, the modern and the ancient9 capitals, were reduced to ashes: a temporary ruin, less fatal than the deep and perhaps indelible mark which a servitude of two hundred years has imprinted on the character of the Russians. The Tartars ravaged with equal fury the countries which they hoped to possess and those which they were hastening to leave. From the permanent conquest9 of Russia, they made a deadly, though transient, inroad into the heart of Poland and as far9 as the borders of Germany. The cities9 of Lublin and Cracow were obliterated; they approached the shores of the Baltic; and in the battle of Lignitz, they defeated the dukes of Silesia, the Polish palatines, and the great9 master of the Teutonic order, and filled nine sacks with the right ears of the slain. From Lignitz, the extreme point of their western march, they turned aside to the invasion of Hungary; and the presence or spirit of Batou inspired the host of five hundred thousand9 men9: the Carpathian hills could not be long9 impervious to their divided columns; and their approach had been fondly disbelieved till it was irresistibly felt. The king, Bela the Fourth, assembled the military force of his counts and bishops; but he had alienated the nation9 by adopting a vagranthorde of forty thousand9 families of Comans; and these savage guests were provoked to revolt by the suspicion of treachery and the murder of their prince. The whole country9 north9 of the Danube9 was lost in a day, and depopulated in a summer; and the ruins of cities9 and churches were overspread with the bones of the natives, who expiated the sins of their Turkish ancestors. An ecclesiastic, who fled from the sack of Waradin, describes the calamities which he had seen or suffered; and the sanguinary rage of sieges and battles is far9 less atrocious than the treatment of the fugitives, who had been allured from the woods under a promise of peace and pardon, and who were coolly slaughtered as soon9 as they had performed the labours of the harvest and vintage. In the winter, the Tartars passed the Danube9 on the ice, and advanced to Gran or Strigonium, a German colony, and the metropolis of the kingdom. Thirty engines were planted against the walls9; the ditches were filled with sacks of earth and dead bodies; and, after a promiscuous massacre, three hundred noble matrons were slain in the presence of the khan. Of all the cities9 and fortresses of Hungary, three alone survived the Tartar invasion, and the unfortunate Bela hid his head among the islands of the Adriatic.
The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage hostility; a Russian fugitive carried the alarm to Sweden; and the remote nations9 of the Baltic and the ocean9 trembled at the approach of the Tartars, whom their fear and ignorance were inclined to separate from the human species. Since the invasion of the Arabs in the eighth century, Europe9 had never been exposed to a similar calamity; and, if the disciples of Mahomet would have oppressed her religion and liberty, it might be apprehended that the shepherds of Scythia would extinguish her cities9, her arts, and all the institutions of civil society. The Roman9 pontiff attempted to appease and convert these invincible Pagans by a mission of Franciscan and Dominican friars; but he was astonished by the reply of the khan, that the sons of God and of Zingis were invested with a divine power to subdue or extirpate the nations9; and that the pope would be involved in the universal destruction, unless he visited in person, and as a suppliant, the royal horde. The emperor Frederic the Second embraced a more generous mode of defence; and his letters to the kings of France and England and the princes of Germany represented the common danger, and urged them to arm their vassals in this just and rational crusade. The Tartars themselves were awed by the fame and valour9 of the Franks; the town of Neustadt in Austria was bravely defended against them by fifty knights and twenty crossbows; and they raised the siege on the appearance of a German army9. After wasting the adjacent kingdoms of Servia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria, Batou slowly retreated from the Danube9 to the Volga to enjoy the rewards of victory in the city9 and palace of Serai, which started at his command from the midst of the desert.
IV. Even the poor and frozen regions of the North attracted the arms of the Moguls: Sheibani Khan, the brother of the great24 Batou, led an horde of fifteen thousand24 families into the wilds of Siberia; and his descendants reigned at Tobolskoy above three centuries, till24 the Russian conquest24. The spirit of enterprise which pursued the course of the Oby and Yenisei must have led to the discovery of the Icy Sea24. After brushing away the monstrous fables, of men with dogs' heads and cloven feet, we shall find that, fifteen years24 after the death24 of Zingis, the Moguls were informed of the name and manners of the Samoyedes in the neighbourhood of the polar circle, who dwelt in subterraneous huts, and derived their furs and their food from the sole occupation of hunting.
While China, Syria24, and Poland were invaded at the same time by the Moguls and Tartars, the authors of the mighty mischief were content with the knowledge and declaration that their word was the sword of death24. Like the first caliphs24, the first successors of Zingis seldom appeared in person at the head of their victorious armies. On the banks of the Onon and Selinga, the royal24 or golden horde exhibited the contrast of simplicity and greatness; of the roasted sheep and mare's milk which composed their banquets; and of a distribution in one day of five hundred waggons of gold24 and silver. The ambassadors and princes of Europe24 and Asia24 were compelled to undertake this distant and laborious pilgrimage; and the life24 and reign24 of the great24 dukes of Russia, the kings of Gregoria and Armenia, the sultans of Iconium, and the emirs of Persia were decided by the frown or smile of the Great24 Khan. The sons and grandsons of Zingis had been accustomed to the pastoral life24; but the village of Caracorum was gradually ennobled by their election and residence. A change of manners is implied in the removal of Octai and Mangou from a tent to an house; and their example was imitated by the princes of their family and the great24 officers of the empire24. Instead of the boundless forest, the enclosure of a park afforded the more indolent pleasures of the chase; their new24 habitations were decorated with painting and sculpture; their superfluous treasures were cast in fountains, and basons, and statues of massy silver; and the artists of China and Paris vied with each other in the service of the Great24 Khan. Caracorum contained two streets, the one of Chinese mechanics, the other of Mahometan traders; and the places of religious worship, one Nestorian church, two moschs, and twelve temples of various idols, may represent, in some degree, the number and division of inhabitants. Yet a French missionary declares that the town of St. Denys, near Paris, was more considerable than the Tartar capital; and that the whole palace24 of Mangou was scarcely equal to a tenth part of that Benedictine abbey. The conquests of Russia and Syria24 might amuse the vanity of the Great24 Khans; but they were seated on the borders of China; the acquisition of that empire24 was the nearest and most interesting object; and they might learn from their pastoral economy that it is for the advantage of the shepherd to protect and propagate his flock. I have already celebrated the wisdom and virtue of a mandarin who prevented the desolation of five populous and cultivated provinces. In a spotless administration of thirty years24, this friend of his country and of mankind continually laboured to mitigate or suspend the havoc of war; to save the monuments, and to rekindle the flame, of science; to restrain the military commander by the restoration of civil magistrates; and to instil the love of peace and justice into the minds of the Moguls. He struggled with the barbarism of the first conquerors; but his salutary lessons produced a rich harvest in the second generation. The northern and by degrees the southern empire24 acquiesced in the government24 of Cublai, the lieutenant and afterwards the successor of Mangou; and the nation was loyal to a prince who had been educated in the manners of China. He restored the forms of her venerable constitution; and the victors submitted to the laws, the fashions, and even the prejudices of the vanquished people24. This peaceful triumph, which has been more than once repeated, may be ascribed, in a great24 measure, to the numbers and servitude of the Chinese. The Mogul army was dissolved in a vast and populous country; and their emperors adopted with pleasure a political system which gives to the prince the solid substance of despotism and leaves to the subject the empty names of philosophy, freedom, and filial obedience. Under the reign24 of Cublai, letters and commerce, peace and justice, were restored; the great24 canal of five hundred miles was opened from Nankin to the capital; he fixed his residence at Pekin, and displayed in his court the magnificence of the greatest monarch of Asia24. Yet this learned prince declined from the pure and simple religion24 of his great24 ancestor; he sacrificed to the idol Fo; and his blind attachment to the lamas of Thibet and the bonzes of China provoked the censure of the disciples of Confucius. His successors polluted the palace24 with a crowd of eunuchs, physicians, and astrologers, while thirteen millions of their subjects were consumed in the provinces by famine. One hundred and forty years24 after the death24 of Zingis, his degenerate race24, the dynasty of the Yuen, was expelled by a revolt of the native Chinese; and the Mogul emperors were lost in the oblivion of the desert. Before this revolution, they had forfeited their supremacy over the dependent branches of their house, the khans of Kipzak and Russia, the khans of Zagatai or Transoxiana, and the khans of Iran or Persia. By their distance and power, these royal24 lieutenants had soon been released from the duties of obedience; and, after the death24 of Cublai, they scorned to accept a sceptre or a title from his unworthy successors. According to their respective situation, they maintained the simplicity of the pastoral life24 or assumed the luxury of the cities of Asia24; but the princes and their hordes were alike disposed for the reception of a foreign worship. After some hesitation between the Gospel and the Koran, they conformed to the religion24 of Mahomet24; and, while they adopted for their brethren the Arabs24 and Persians, they renounced all intercourse with the ancient Moguls, the idolaters of China.
In this shipwreck of nations, some surprise may be excited by the escape of the Roman30 empire30, whose relics, at the time of the Mogul invasion, were dismembered by the Greeks30 and Latins. Less potent than Alexander, they were pressed, like the Macedonian, both in Europe and Asia, by the shepherds of Scythia; and, had the Tartars undertaken the siege30, Constantinople30 must have yielded to the fate of Pekin, Samarcand, and Bagdad. The glorious and voluntary retreat of Batou from the Danube was insulted by the vain triumph of the Franks and Greeks30; and in a second30 expedition death30 surprised him in full march to attack the capital of the Caesars. His brother Borga carried the Tartar arms30 into Bulgaria and Thrace; but he was diverted from the Byzantine30 war30 by a visit to Novogorod, in the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, where he numbered the inhabitants and regulated the tributes of Russia. The Mogul khan formed an alliance with the Mamalukes against his brethren of Persia; three hundred thousand30 horse30 penetrated through the gates of Derbend; and the Greeks30 might rejoice in the first example of domestic war30. After the recovery of Constantinople30, Michael Palaeologus, at a distance from his court and army30, was surprised and surrounded in a Thracian castle by twenty thousand30 Tartars. But the object of their march was a private interest; they came to the deliverance of Azzadin, the Turkish30 sultan; and were content with his person and the treasure of the emperor30. Their general30 Noga, whose name is perpetuated in the hordes of Astracan, raised a formidable rebellion against Mengo Timour, the third of the khans of Kipzak; obtained in marriage Maria, the natural daughter of Palaeologus; and guarded the dominions of his friend and father. The subsequent invasions of a Scythian cast were those of outlaws and fugitives; and some thousands of Alani and Comans, who had been driven from their native seats, were reclaimed from a vagrant life and enlisted in the service30 of the empire30. Such was the influence in Europe of the invasion of the Moguls. The first terror of their arms30 secured rather than disturbed the peace of the Roman30 Asia. The sultan of Iconium solicited a personal interview with John Vataces; and his artful policy encouraged the Turks30 to defend their barrier against the common enemy30. That barrier indeed was soon30 overthrown; and the servitude and ruin of the Seljukians exposed the nakedness of the Greeks30. The formidable Holagou threatened to march to Constantinople30 at the head30 of four hundred thousand30 men; and the groundless panic of the citizens of Nice will present an image of the terror which he had inspired. The accident of a procession, and the sound of a doleful litany, From the fury of the Tartars, good Lord, deliver us, had scattered the hasty report of an assault and massacre. In the blind credulity of fear, the streets of Nice were crowded with thousands of both sexes, who knew not from what or to whom they fled; and some hours elapsed before the firmness of the military officers could relieve the city30 from this imaginary foe. But the ambition of Holagou and his successors was fortunately diverted by the conquest of Bagdad and a long30 vicissitude of Syrian wars; their hostility to the Moslems inclined them to unite with the Greeks30 and Franks; and their generosity or contempt had offered the kingdom of Anatolia as the reward of an Armenian vassal. The fragments of the Seljukian monarchy were disputed by the emirs who had occupied the cities or the mountains; but they all confessed the supremacy of the khans of Persia; and he often interposed his authority, and sometimes his arms30, to check their depredations, and to preserve the peace and balance of his Turkish30 frontier. The death30 of Cazan, one of the greatest and most accomplished princes of the house of Zingis, removed this salutary control; and the decline of the Moguls gave a free scope to the rise and progress of the Ottoman Empire30.
After the retreat of Zingis, the sultan Gelaleddin of Carisme had returned from India to the possession and defence of his Persian kingdoms. In the space of eleven years30, that hero fought in person fourteen battles; and such was his activity that he led his cavalry, in seventeen days30, from Teflis to Kerman, a march of a thousand30 miles. Yet he was oppressed by the jealousy of the Moslem princes and the innumerable armies of the Moguls; and after his last defeat Gelaleddin perished ignobly in the mountains of Curdistan. His death30 dissolved a veteran and adventurous army30, which included under the name of Carizmians, or Corasmins, many Turkman hordes that had attached themselves to the sultan's fortune. The bolder and more powerful chiefs invaded Syria and violated the holy30 sepulchre of Jerusalem; the more humble engaged in the service30 of Aladin, sultan of Iconium; and among these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman line. They had formerly pitched their tents near the southern banks of the Oxus, in the plains of Mahan and Nesa; and it is somewhat remarkable that the same spot should have produced the first authors of the Parthian and Turkish30 empires. At the head30 or in the rear of a Carizmian army30, Soliman Shah was drowned in the passage of the Euphrates; his son30, Orthogrul, became the soldier and subject of Aladin, and established at Surgut, on the banks of the Sangar, a camp30 of four hundred families, or tents, whom he governed fifty-two years30 both in peace and war30. He was the father of Thaman, or Athman, whose Turkish30 name has been melted into the appellation of the caliph Othman; and, if we describe that pastoral chief as a shepherd and a robber, we must separate from those characters all idea of ignominy and baseness. Othman possessed, and perhaps surpassed, the ordinary virtues of a soldier; and the circumstances of time and place were propitious to his independence and success. The Seljukian dynasty was no more; and the distance and decline of the Mogul khans soon30 enfranchised him from the control of a superior. He was situate on the verge of the Greek30 empire30; the Koran sanctified his gazi, or holy30 war30, against the infidels; and their political errors unlocked the passes of Mount Olympus, and invited him to descend into the plains of Bithynia. Till30 the reign of Palaeologus, these passes had been vigilantly guarded by the militia of the country, who were repaid by their own safety and an exemption from taxes. The emperor30 abolished their privilege and assumed their office; but the tribute was rigorously collected, the custody of the passes was neglected, and the hardy mountaineers degenerated into a trembling crowd of peasants without spirit or discipline. It was on the twenty-seventh of July, in the year twelve hundred and ninety-nine of the Christian era, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of the monster. The annals of the twenty-seven years30 of his reign would exhibit a repetition of the same inroads; and his hereditary troops30 were multiplied in each campaign by the accession of captives and volunteers. Instead of retreating to the hills, he maintained the most useful and defensible posts; fortified the towns and castles which he had first pillaged; and renounced the pastoral life for the baths and palaces of his infant capitals. But it was not till30 Othman was oppressed by age and infirmities that he received the welcome news of the conquest of Prusa, which had been surrendered by famine or treachery to the arms30 of his son30 Orchan. The glory of Othman is chiefly founded on that of his descendants; but the Turks30 have transcribed or composed a royal30 testament of his last counsels of justice and moderation.
From the conquest of Prusa we may date the true era of the Ottoman empire30. The lives and possessions of the Christian subjects were redeemed by a tribute or ransom of thirty thousand30 crowns of gold30; and the city30, by the labours of Orchan, assumed the aspect of a Mahometan capital; Prusa was decorated with a mosch, a college, and an hospital of royal30 foundation; the Seljukian coin was changed for the name and impression of the new30 dynasty; and the most skilful professors of human and divine knowledge attracted the Persian and Arabian students from the ancient schools of Oriental learning. The office of vizir was instituted for Aladin, the brother of Orchan; and a different habit distinguished the citizens from the peasants, the Moslems from the infidels. All the troops30 of Othman had consisted of loose squadrons of Turkman cavalry, who served without pay and fought without discipline; but a regular body of infantry was first established and trained by the prudence of his son30. A great number of volunteers was enrolled with a small stipend, but with the permission of living at home, unless they were summoned to the field; their rude manners and seditious temper disposed Orchan to educate his young captives as his soldiers30 and those of the prophet; but the Turkish30 peasants were still allowed to mount on horseback and follow his standard30, with the appellation and the hopes of freebooters. By these arts he formed an army30 of twenty-five thousand30 Moslems; a train of battering engines was framed for the use of sieges; and the first successful experiment was made on the cities of Nice and Nicomedia. Orchan granted a safe-conduct to all who were desirous of departing with their families and effects; but the widows of the slain were given in marriage to the conquerors; and the sacrilegious plunder, the books, the vases, and the images were sold or ransomed at Constantinople30. The emperor30, Andronicus the Younger, was vanquished and wounded by the son30 of Othman; he subdued the whole province or kingdom of Bithynia, as far as the shores of the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the Christians confessed the justice and clemency of a reign which claimed the voluntary attachment of the Turks30 of Asia. Yet Orchan was content with the modest title of emir; and in the list of his compeers, the princes of Roum or Anatolia, his military forces were surpassed by the emirs of Ghermian and Caramania, each of whom could bring into the field an army30 of forty thousand30 men. Their dominions were situate in the heart of the Seljukian kingdom; but the holy30 warriors, though of inferior note, who formed new30 principalities on the Greek30 empire30, are more conspicuous in the light of history. The maritime country from the Propontis to the Maeander and the isle of Rhodes, so long30 threatened and so often pillaged, was finally lost about the thirtieth year of Andronicus the Elder. Two Turkish30 chieftains, Sarukhan and Aidin, left30 their names to their conquests and their conquests to their posterity. The captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated; and the Barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick of the Revelations; the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana or the church of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardes is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son30, is invoked in the moschs of Thyatira and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks30, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above four-score years30, and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek30 colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect, a column in a scene of ruins: a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety may sometimes be the same. The servitude of Rhodes was delayed above two centuries by the establishment of the knights of St30. John of Jerusalem. Under the discipline of the order that island emerged into fame and opulence; the noble and warlike monks were renowned by land and sea; and the bulwark of Christendom provoked and repelled the arms30 of the Turks30 and Saracens.
The Greeks30, by their intestine divisions, were the authors of their final ruin. During the civil wars of the elder and younger Andronicus, the son30 of Othman achieved, almost without resistance, the conquest of Bithynia; and the same disorders encouraged the Turkish30 emirs of Lydia and Ionia to build a fleet, and to pillage the adjacent islands and the sea-coast of Europe. In the defence of his life and honour, Cantacuzene was tempted to prevent or imitate his adversaries by calling to his aid the public enemies30 of his religion and country. Amir, the son30 of Aidin, concealed under a Turkish30 garb the humanity and politeness of a Greek30; he was united with the great domestic by mutual esteem and reciprocal services; and their friendship is compared, in the vain rhetoric of the times, to the perfect union of Orestes and Pylades. On the report of the danger of his friend, who was persecuted by an ungrateful court, the prince30 of Ionia assembled at Smyrna a fleet of three hundred vessels, with an army30 of twenty-nine thousand30 men; sailed in the depth of winter, and cast anchor at the mouth of the Hebrus. From thence, with a chosen band of two thousand30 Turks30, he marched along the banks of the river, and rescued the empress, who was besieged in Demotica by the wild Bulgarians. At that disastrous moment the life or death30 of his beloved Cantacuzene was concealed by his flight into Servia; but the grateful Irene, impatient to behold her deliverer, invited him to enter the city30, and accompanied her message with a present of rich apparel and an hundred horses. By a peculiar strain of delicacy the gentle Barbarian refused, in the absence of an unfortunate friend, to visit his wife or to taste the luxuries of the palace30, sustained in his tent the rigour of the winter; and rejected the hospitable gift, that he might share the hardships of two thousand30 companions, all as deserving as himself of that honour and distinction. Necessity and revenge might justify his predatory excursions by sea and land; he left30 nine thousand30 five hundred men for the guard of his fleet; and persevered in the fruitless search of Cantacuzene, till30 his embarkation was hastened by a fictitious letter, the severity of the season, the clamours of his independent troops30, and the weight of his spoil and captives. In the prosecution of the civil war30, the prince30 of Ionia twice returned to Europe; joined his arms30 with those of the emperor30; besieged Thessalonica, and threatened Constantinople30. Calumny might affix some reproach on his imperfect aid, his hasty departure, and a bribe of ten thousand30 crowns, which he accepted from the Byzantine30 court; but his friend was satisfied; and the conduct of Amir is excused by the more sacred duty of defending against the Latins his hereditary dominions. The maritime power of the Turks30 had united the pope, the king30 of Cyprus, the republic of Venice, and the order of St30. John, in a laudable crusade; their galleys invaded the coast of Ionia; and Amir was slain with an arrow, in the attempt to wrest from the Rhodian knights the citadel of Smyrna. Before his death30, he generously recommended another ally of his own nation, not more sincere or zealous than himself, but more able to afford a prompt and powerful succour, by his situation along the Propontis and in the front of Constantinople30. By the prospect of a more advantageous treaty, the Turkish30 prince30 of Bithynia was detached from his engagements with Anne of Savoy; and the pride of Orchan dictated the most solemn protestations that, if he could obtain the daughter of Cantacuzene, he would invariably fulfil the duties of a subject and a son30. Parental tenderness was silenced by the voice of ambition; the Greek30 clergy connived at the marriage of a Christian princess with a sectary of Mahomet; and the father of Theodora describes, with shameful satisfaction, the dishonour of the purple. A body of Turkish30 cavalry attended the ambassadors, who disembarked from thirty vessels before his camp30 of Selybria. A stately pavilion was erected, in which the empress Irene passed the night with her daughters. In the morning, Theodora ascended a throne, which was surrounded with curtains of silk and gold30; the troops30 were under arms30; but the emperor30 alone was on horseback. At a signal the curtains were suddenly withdrawn, to disclose the bride, or the victim, encircled by kneeling eunuchs and hymenaeal torches: the sound of flutes and trumpets proclaimed the joyful event; and her pretended happiness was the theme of the nuptial song, which was chaunted by such poets as the age could produce. Without the rites of the church, Theodora was delivered to her Barbarous lord; but it had been stipulated that she should preserve her religion in the harem of Boursa; and her father celebrates her charity and devotion in this ambiguous situation. After his peaceful establishment on the throne of Constantinople30, the Greek30 emperor30 visited his Turkish30 ally, who, with four sons, by various wives, expected him at Scutari, on the Asiatic shore. The two princes partook, with seeming cordiality, of the pleasures of the banquet and the chase; and Theodora was permitted to repass the Bosphorus, and to enjoy some days30 in the society of her mother. But the friendship of Orchan was subservient to his religion and interest; and in the Genoese war30 he joined without a blush the enemies30 of Cantacuzene.
In the treaty with the empress Anne, the Ottoman prince30 had inserted a singular condition, that it should be lawful for him to sell his prisoners at Constantinople30 or transport them into Asia. A naked crowd of Christians of both sexes and every age, of priests and monks, of matrons and virgins, was exposed in the public market; the whip was frequently used to quicken the charity of redemption; and the indigent Greeks30 deplored the fate of their brethren, who were led away to the worst evils of temporal and spiritual bondage. Cantacuzene was reduced to subscribe the same terms; and their execution must have been still more pernicious to the empire30; a body of ten thousand30 Turks30 had been detached to the assistance of the empress Anne; but the entire forces of Orchan were exerted in the service30 of his father. Yet these calamities were of a transient nature; as soon30 as the storm had passed away, the fugitives might return to their habitations; and at the conclusion of the civil and foreign wars Europe was completely evacuated by the Moslems of Asia. It was in his last quarrel with his pupil that Cantacuzene inflicted the deep and deadly wound, which could never be healed by his successors, and which is poorly expiated by his theological dialogues against the prophet Mahomet. Ignorant of their own history, the modern Turks30 confound their first and their final passage of the Hellespont, and describe the son30 of Orchan as a nocturnal robber, who, with eighty companions, explores by stratagem an hostile and unknown shore. Soliman, at the head30 of ten thousand30 horse30, was transported in the vessels, and entertained as the friend, of the Greek30 emperor30. In the civil wars of Roumania, he performed some service30 and perpetrated more mischief; but the Chersonesus was insensibly filled with a Turkish30 colony; and the Byzantine30 court solicited in vain the restitution of the fortresses of Thrace. After some artful delays between the Ottoman prince30 and his son30, their ransom was valued at sixty thousand30 crowns, and the first payment had been made, when an earthquake shook the walls30 and cities of the provinces; the dismantled places were occupied by the Turks30; and Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, was rebuilt and repeopled by the policy of Soliman. The abdication of Cantacuzene dissolved the feeble bands of domestic alliance; and his last advice admonished his countrymen to decline a rash contest, and to compare their own weakness with the numbers and valour, the discipline and enthusiasm, of the Moslems. His prudent counsels were despised by the headstrong vanity of youth, and soon30 justified by the victories of the Ottomans. But, as he practised in the field the exercise of the jerid, Soliman was killed by a fall from his horse30; and the aged Orchan wept and expired on the tomb of his valiant son30.
But the Greeks30 had not time to rejoice in the death30 of their enemies30; and the Turkish30 scymetar was wielded with the same spirit by Amurath the First, the son30 of Orchan and the brother of Soliman. By the pale and fainting light of the Byzantine30 annals, we can discern that he subdued without resistance the whole province of Roumania or Thrace, from the Hellespont to Mount Haemus and the verge of the capital; and that Hadrianople was chosen for the royal30 seat of his government and religion in Europe. Constantinople30, whose decline is almost coeval with her foundation, had often, in the lapse of a thousand30 years30, been assaulted by the Barbarians of the East and West; but never till30 this fatal hour had the Greeks30 been surrounded, both in Asia and Europe, by the arms30 of the same hostile monarchy. Yet the prudence or generosity of Amurath postponed for a while this easy conquest; and his pride was satisfied with the frequent and humble attendance of the emperor30 John Palaeologus and his four sons, who followed at his summons the court and camp30 of the Ottoman prince30. He marched against the Sclavonian nations between the Danube and the Adriatic, the Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians, and Albanians; and these warlike tribes, who had so often insulted the majesty of the empire30, were repeatedly broken by his destructive inroads. Their countries did not abound either in gold30 or silver; nor were their rustic hamlets and townships enriched by commerce or decorated by the arts of luxury. But the natives of the soil have been distinguished in every age by their hardiness of mind and body; and they were converted by a prudent institution into the firmest and most faithful supporters of the Ottoman greatness. The vizir of Amurath reminded his sovereign that, according to the Mahometan law, he was entitled to a fifth part of the spoil and captives; and that the duty might easily be levied, if vigilant officers were stationed at Gallipoli, to watch the passage, and to select for his use the stoutest and most beautiful of the Christian youth. The advice was followed; the edict was proclaimed; many thousands of the European captives were educated in religion and arms30; and the new30 militia was consecrated and named by a celebrated dervish. Standing in the front of their ranks, he stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head30 of the foremost soldier, and his blessing was delivered in these words: Let them be called Janizaries (Yengi cheri, or new30 soldiers30); may their countenance be ever bright! their hand victorious! their sword30 keen! may their spear always hang over the heads of their enemies30; and, wheresoever they go, may they return with a white face! Such was the origin of these haughty troops30, the terror of the nations, and sometimes of the sultans themselves. Their valour has declined, their discipline is relaxed, and their tumultuary array is incapable of contending with the order and weapons of modern tactics; but at the time of their institution, they possessed a decisive superiority in war30; since a regular body of infantry, in constant exercise and pay, was not maintained by any of the princes of Christendom. The Janizaries fought with the zeal of proselytes against their idolatrous countrymen; and in the battle30 of Cossova the league and independence of the Sclavonian tribes was finally crushed. As the conqueror walked over the field, he observed that the greatest part of the slain consisted of beardless youths; and listened to the flattering reply of his vizir, that age and wisdom would have taught them not to oppose his irresistible arms30. But the sword30 of his Janizaries could not defend him from the dagger of despair; a Servian soldier started from the crowd of dead bodies, and Amurath was pierced in the belly with a mortal wound. The grandson of Othman was mild in his temper, modest in his apparel, and a lover of learning and virtue; but the Moslems were scandalised at his absence from public worship; and he was corrected by the firmness of the mufti, who dared to reject his testimony in a civil cause: a mixture of servitude and freedom not unfrequent in Oriental history.
The character of Bajazet, the son30 and successor of Amurath, is strongly expressed in his surname of Ilderim, or the lightning; and he might glory in an epithet which was drawn from the fiery energy of his soul and the rapidity of his destructive march. In the fourteenth year of his reign, he incessantly moved at the head30 of his armies, from Boursa to Hadrianople, from the Danube to the Euphrates; and, though he strenuously laboured for the propagation of the law, he invaded, with impartial ambition, the Christian and Mahometan princes of Europe and Asia. From Angora to Amasia and Erzeroum, the northern regions of Anatolia were reduced to his obedience; he stripped of their hereditary possessions his brother emirs, of Ghermian and Caramania, of Aidin and Sarukhan; and after the conquest of Iconium the ancient kingdom of the Seljukians again revived in the Ottoman dynasty. Nor were the conquests of Bajazet less rapid or important in Europe. No sooner had he imposed a regular form of servitude on the Servians and Bulgarians, than he passed the Danube to seek new30 enemies30 and new30 subjects in the heart of Moldavia. Whatever yet adhered to the Greek30 empire30 in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly acknowledged a Turkish30 master. An obsequious bishop led him through the gates of Thermopylae into Greece; and we may observe, as a singular fact, that the widow of a Spanish chief, who possessed the ancient seat of the oracle of Delphi, deserved his favour by the sacrifice of a beauteous daughter. The Turkish30 communication between Europe and Asia had been dangerous and doubtful, till30 he stationed at Gallipoli a fleet of galleys, to command the Hellespont and intercept the Latin succours of Constantinople30. While the monarch indulged his passions in a boundless range of injustice and cruelty, he imposed on his soldiers30 the most rigid laws of modesty and abstinence; and the harvest was peaceably reaped and sold within the precincts of his camp30. Provoked by the loose and corrupt administration of justice, he collected, in a house, the judges and lawyers of his dominions, who expected that in a few moments the fire would be kindled to reduce them to ashes. His ministers trembled in silence; but an Aethiopian buffoon presumed to insinuate the true cause of the evil; and future venality was left30 without excuse by annexing an adequate salary to the office of Cadhi. The humble title of Emir was no longer suitable to the Ottoman greatness; and Bajazet condescended to accept a patent of Sultan from the caliphs who served in Egypt under the yoke of the Mamalukes: a last and frivolous homage that was yielded by force to opinion, by the Turkish30 conquerors to the house of Abbas and the successors of the Arabian prophet. The ambition of the sultan was inflamed by the obligation of deserving this august title; and he turned his arms30 against the kingdom of Hungary, the perpetual theatre of the Turkish30 victories and defeats. Sigismond, the Hungarian king30, was the son30 and brother of the emperors of the West; his cause was that of Europe and the church; and, on the report of his danger, the bravest knights of France and Germany were eager to march under his standard30 and that of the cross. In the battle30 of Nicopolis, Bajazet defeated a confederate army30 of an hundred thousand30 Christians, who had proudly boasted that, if the sky should fall, they could uphold it on their lances. The far greater part were slain or driven into the Danube; and Sigismond, escaping to Constantinople30 by the river and the Black Sea, returned after a long30 circuit to his exhausted kingdom. In the pride of victory30, Bajazet threatened that he would besiege Buda; that he would subdue the adjacent countries of Germany and Italy; and that he would feed his horse30 with a bushel of oats on the altar of St30. Peter at Rome. His progress was checked, not by the miraculous interposition of the apostle, not by a crusade of the Christian powers, but by a long30 and painful fit of the gout. The disorders of the moral, are sometimes corrected by those of the physical, world; and an acrimonious humour falling on a single fibre of one man may prevent or suspend the misery of nations.
Such is the general49 idea of the Hungarian war49; but the disastrous adventure of the French49 has procured us some memorials which illustrate the victory49 and character of Bajazet49. The duke of Burgundy, sovereign of Flanders, and uncle of Charles the Sixth, yielded to the ardour of his son, John count of Nevers; and the fearless youth was accompanied by four princes, his cousins, and those of the French49 monarch. Their inexperience was guided by the Sire de Coucy, one of the best and oldest captains of Christendom; but the constable, admiral, and marshal of France49 commanded an army49 which did not exceed the number of a thousand49 knights and squires. Those splendid names were the source of presumption and the bane of discipline. So many might aspire to command that none were willing to obey; their national spirit despised both their enemies and their allies; and in the persuasion that Bajazet49 would fly or must fall, they began to compute how soon49 they should visit Constantinople49, and deliver the holy sepulchre. When their scouts announced the approach of the Turks, the gay and thoughtless youths were at table, already heated with wine; they instantly clasped their armour, mounted their horses, rode full speed to the vanguard, and resented as an affront the advice of Sigismond, which would have deprived them of the right and honour of the foremost attack49. The battle49 of Nicopolis would not have been lost49, if the French49 would have obeyed the prudence of the Hungarians; but it might have been gloriously won, had the Hungarians imitated the valour49 of the French49. They dispersed the first line, consisting of the troops49 of Asia; forced a rampart49 of stakes, which had been planted against the cavalry; broke, after a bloody conflict, the Janizaries themselves; and were at length overwhelmed by the numerous squadrons that issued from the woods, and charged on all sides this handful of intrepid warriors. In the speed and secrecy of his march, in the order and evolutions of the battle49, his enemies felt and admired the military49 talents of Bajazet49. They accuse his cruelty in the use of victory49. After reserving the count of Nevers, and four-and-twenty lords, whose birth and riches were attested by his Latin interpreters, the remainder of the French49 captives, who had survived the slaughter of the day49, were led before his throne; and, as they refused to abjure their faith, were successively beheaded in his presence. The sultan was exasperated by the loss of his bravest Janizaries; and if it be true that, on the eve of the engagement, the French49 had massacred their Turkish prisoners, they might impute to themselves the consequences of a just retaliation. A knight, whose life had been spared, was permitted to return to Paris, that he might relate the deplorable tale and solicit the ransom of the noble captives. In the meanwhile the count of Nevers, with the princes and barons of France49, were dragged along in the marches of the Turkish camp, exposed as a grateful trophy to the Moslems of Europe49 and Asia, and strictly confined at Boursa, as often as Bajazet49 resided in his capital. The sultan was pressed each day49 to expiate with their blood the blood of his martyrs; but he had pronounced that they should live, and either for mercy or destruction his word was irrevocable. He was assured of their value and importance by the return of the messenger, and the gifts and intercessions of the kings of France49 and of Cyprus. Lusignan presented him with a gold salt-cellar of curious workmanship and of the price of ten thousand49 ducats; and Charles the Sixth despatched by the way of Hungary a cast of Norwegian hawks, and six horse-loads of scarlet cloth, of fine linen of Rheims, and of Arras tapestry, representing the battles of the great49 Alexander. After much delay, the effect of distance rather than of art, Bajazet49 agreed to accept a ransom of two hundred thousand49 ducats for the count of Nevers and the surviving princes and barons; the marshal Boucicault, a famous warrior, was of the number of the fortunate; but the admiral of France49 had been slain in the battle49; and the constable, with the Sire de Coucy, died in the prison of Boursa. This heavy demand, which was doubled by incidental costs, fell chiefly on the duke of Burgundy, or rather on his Flemish subjects, who were bound by the feudal laws to contribute for the knighthood and captivity of the eldest son of their lord. For the faithful discharge of the debt, some merchants of Genoa gave security to the amount of five times49 the sum: a lesson to those warlike times49 that commerce and credit are the links of the society of nations. It had been stipulated in the treaty that the French49 captives should swear never to bear arms49 against the person of their conqueror; but the onerous restraint was abolished by Bajazet49 himself. I despise, said he to the heir of Burgundy, thy oaths and thy arms49. Thou art young, and mayest be ambitious of effacing the disgrace of misfortune of thy first chivalry. Assemble thy powers, proclaim thy design, and be assured that Bajazet49 will rejoice to meet thee a second49 time in a field of battle49. Before their departure, they were indulged in the freedom and hospitality of the court of Boursa. The French49 princes admired the magnificence of the Ottoman, whose hunting and hawking equipage was composed of seven thousand49 huntsmen, and seven thousand49 falconers. In their presence, and at his command, the belly of one of his chamberlains was cut open, on a complaint against him for drinking the goat's milk of a poor woman. The strangers were astonished by this act of justice; but it was the justice of a sultan who disdains to balance the weight of evidence or to measure the degrees of guilt.
After his enfranchisement from an oppressive guardian, John Palaeologus remained thirty-six years30 the helpless and, as it should seem, the careless spectator of the public ruin. Love, or rather lust, was his only vigorous passion; and in the embraces of the wives and virgins of the city30 the Turkish30 slave forgot the dishonour. of the emperor30 of the Romans. Andronicus, his eldest son30, had formed, at Hadrianople, an intimate and guilty friendship with Sauzes, the son30 of Amurath; and the two youths conspired against the authority and lives of their parents. The presence of Amurath in Europe soon30 discovered and dissipated their rash counsels; and, after depriving Sauzes of his sight, the Ottoman threatened his vassal with the treatment of an accomplice and an enemy30, unless he inflicted a similar punishment on his own son30. Palaeologus trembled and obeyed; and a cruel precaution involved in the same sentence the childhood and innocence of John, the son30 of the criminal. But the operation was so mildly, or so unskilfully, performed that the one retained the sight of an eye and the other was afflicted only with the infirmity of squinting. Thus excluded from the succession, the two princes were confined in the tower of Anema; and the piety of Manuel, the second30 son30 of the reigning monarch, was rewarded with the gift of the Imperial crown. But at the end of two years30 the turbulence of the Latins and the levity of the Greeks30 produced a revolution; and the two emperors were buried in the tower from whence the two prisoners were exalted to the throne. Another period of two years30 afforded Palaeologus and Manuel the means of escape. It was contrived by the magic or subtlety of a monk, who was alternately named the angel or the devil. They fled to Scutari; their adherents armed in their cause; and the two Byzantine30 factions displayed the ambition and animosity with which Caesar and Pompey had disputed the empire30 of the world. The Roman30 world was now contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth; a space of ground not more extensive than the lesser principalities of Germany or Italy, if the remains of Constantinople30 had not still represented the wealth and populousness of a kingdom. To restore the public peace, it was found necessary to divide this fragment of the empire30; and, while Palaeologus and Manuel were left30 in possession of the capital, almost all that lay without the walls30 was ceded to the blind princes, who fixed their residence at Rhodosto and Selybria. In the tranquil slumber of royalty, the passions of John Palaeologus survived his reason and his strength; he deprived his favourite and heir of a blooming princess of Trebizond; and, while the feeble emperor30 laboured to consummate his nuptials, Manuel, with an hundred of the noblest Greeks30, was sent on a peremptory summons to the Ottoman porte. They served with honour in the wars of Bajazet; but a plan of fortifying Constantinople30 excited his jealousy; he threatened their lives; the new30 works were instantly demolished; and we shall bestow a praise, perhaps above the merit of Palaeologus, if we impute this last humiliation as the cause of his death30.
The earliest intelligence of that event was communicated to Manuel, who escaped with speed and secrecy from the palace30 of Boursa to the Byzantine30 throne. Bajazet affected a proud indifference at the loss of this valuable pledge; and, while he pursued his conquests in Europe and Asia, he left30 the emperor30 to struggle with his blind cousin, John of Selybria, who, in eight years30 of civil war30, asserted his right of primogeniture. At length the ambition of the victorious sultan pointed to the conquest of Constantinople30; but he listened to the advice of his vizir, who represented that such an enterprise might unite the powers of Christendom in a second30 and more formidable crusade. His epistle to the emperor30 was conceived in these words: By the divine clemency, our invincible scymetar has reduced to our obedience almost all Asia, with many and large countries in Europe, excepting only the city30 of Constantinople30; for beyond the walls30 thou hast nothing left30. Resign that city30; stipulate thy reward; or tremble for thyself and thy unhappy people30 at the consequences of a rash refusal. But his ambassadors were instructed to soften their tone, and to propose a treaty, which was subscribed with submission and gratitude. A truce of ten years30 was purchased by an annual tribute of thirty thousand30 crowns of gold30; the Greeks30 deplored the public toleration of the law of Mahomet; and Bajazet enjoyed the glory of establishing a Turkish30 cadhi and founding a royal30 mosch in the metropolis of the Eastern church. Yet this truce was soon30 violated by the restless sultan. In the cause of the prince30 of Selybria, the lawful emperor30, an army30 of Ottomans again threatened Constantinople30; and the distress of Manuel implored the protection of the king30 of France. His plaintive embassy obtained much pity, and some relief; and the conduct of the succour was entrusted to the marshal Boucicault, whose religious chivalry was inflamed by the desire of revenging his captivity on the infidels. He sailed with four ships of war30 from Aiguesmortes to the Hellespont; forced the passage, which was guarded by seventeen Turkish30 galleys; landed at Constantinople30 a supply of six hundred men at arms30 and sixteen hundred archers; and reviewed them in the adjacent plain, without condescending to number or array the multitude of Greeks30. By his presence, the blockade was raised both by sea and land; the flying squadrons of Bajazet were driven to a more respectful distance; and several castles in Europe and Asia were stormed by the emperor30 and the marshal, who fought with equal valour by each other's side. But the Ottomans soon30 returned with an increase of numbers; and the intrepid Boucicault, after a year's struggle, resolved to evacuate a country which could no longer afford either pay or provisions for his soldiers30. The marshal offered to conduct Manuel to the French court, where he might solicit in person a supply of men and money; and advised in the meanwhile that, to extinguish all domestic discord, he should leave his blind competitor on the throne. The proposal was embraced; the prince30 of Selybria was introduced to the capital; and such was the public misery that the lot of the exile seemed more fortunate than that of the sovereign. Instead of applauding the success of his vassal, the Turkish30 sultan claimed the city30 as his own; and, on the refusal of the emperor30 John, Constantinople30 was more closely pressed by the calamities of war30 and famine. Against such an enemy30 prayers and resistance were alike unavailing; and the savage would have devoured his prey, if, in the fatal moment, he had not been overthrown by another savage stronger than himself. By the victory30 of Timour, or Tamerlane, the fall of Constantinople30 was delayed about fifty years30; and this important though accidental service30 may justly introduce the life and character of the Mogul conqueror.
The conquest and monarchy21 of the world21 was the first object of the ambition of Timour. To live in the memory and esteem of future ages was the second wish of his magnanimous spirit. All the civil and military transactions of his reign21 were diligently recorded in the journals of his secretaries; the authentic narrative was revised by the persons best informed of each particular transaction; and it is believed in the empire and family of Timour that the monarch himself composed the commentaries of his life21 and the institutions of his government. But these cares were ineffectual for the preservation of his fame, and these precious memorials in the Mogul or Persian language were concealed from the world21, or at least from the knowledge of Europe. The nations which he vanquished exercised a base and impotent revenge; and ignorance has long repeated the tale of calumny, which had disfigured the birth and character, the person, and even the name of Tamerlane. Yet his real merit would be enhanced, rather than debased, by the elevation of a peasant to the throne21 of Asia; nor can his lameness be a theme21 of reproach, unless he had the weakness to blush at a natural, or perhaps an honourable, infirmity.
In the eyes of the Moguls, who held the indefeasible succession of the house of Zingis, he was doubtless a rebel-subject; yet he sprang from the noble tribe of Berlass: his fifth ancestor, Carashar Nevian, had been the vizir of Zagatai, in his new30 realm of Transoxiana; and, in the ascent of some generations, the branch of Timour is confounded, at least by the females, with the Imperial stem. He was born forty miles to the south of Samarcand, in the village of Sebzar, in the fruitful territory of Cash, of which his fathers were the hereditary chiefs, as well as of a toman of ten thousand30 horse30. His birth was cast on one of those periods of anarchy which announce the fall of the Asiatic dynasties and open a new30 field to adventurous ambition. The khans of Zagatai were extinct; the emirs aspired to independence; and their domestic feuds could only be suspended by the conquest and tyranny of the khans of Kashgar, who, with an army30 of Getes or Calmucks, invaded the Transoxian kingdom. From the twelfth year of his age Timour had entered the field of action; in the twenty-fifth, he stood forth as the deliverer of his country; and the eyes and wishes of the people30 were turned towards an hero who suffered in their cause. The chiefs of the law and of the army30 had pledged their salvation to support him with their lives and fortunes; but in the hour of danger they were silent and afraid; and, after waiting seven days30 on the hills of Samarcand, he retreated to the desert with only sixty horsemen. The fugitives were overtaken by a thousand30 Getes, whom he repulsed with incredible slaughter, and his enemies30 were forced to exclaim, Timour is a wonderful man; fortune and the divine favour are with him. But in this bloody action his own followers were reduced to ten, a number which was soon30 diminished by the desertion of three Carizmians. He wandered in the desert with his wife, seven companions, and four horses; and sixty-two days30 was he plunged in a loathsome dungeon, from whence he escaped by his own courage and the remorse of the oppressor. After swimming the broad and rapid stream of the Jihoon, or Oxus, he led during some months the life of a vagrant and outlaw, on the borders of the adjacent states. But his fame shone brighter in adversity; he learned to distinguish the friends of his person, the associates of his fortune, and to apply the various characters of men for their advantage, and above all for his own. On his return to his native country, Timour was successively joined by the parties of his confederates, who anxiously sought him in the desert; nor can I refuse to describe, in his pathetic simplicity, one of their fortunate encounters. He presented himself as a guide to three chiefs, who were at the head30 of seventy horse30. When their eyes fell upon me, says Timour, they were overwhelmed with joy; and they alighted from their horses; and they came and kneeled; and they kissed my stirrup. I also came down from my horse30, and took each of them in my arms30. And I put my turban on the head30 of the first chief; and my girdle, rich in jewels and wrought with gold30, I bound on the loins of the second30; and the third I clothed in my own coat. And they wept, and I wept also; and the hour of prayer was arrived, and we prayed. And we mounted our horses and came to my dwelling; and I collected my people30 and made a feast. His trusty bands were soon30 increased by the bravest of the tribes; he led them against a superior foe; and after some vicissitudes of war30 the Getes were finally driven from the kingdom of Transoxiana. He had done much for his own glory; but much remained to be done, much art to be exerted, and some blood to be spilt, before he could teach his equals to obey him as their master. The birth and power of emir Houssein compelled him to accept a vicious and unworthy colleague, whose sister was the best beloved of his wives. Their union was short and jealous; but the policy of Timour, in their frequent quarrels, exposed his rival to the reproach of injustice and perfidy; and, after a small defeat, Houssein was slain by some sagacious friends, who presumed, for the last time, to disobey the commands of their lord. At the age of thirty-four, and in a general30 diet, or couroultai, he was invested with Imperial command; but he affected to revere the house of Zingis; and, while the emir Timour reigned over Zagatai and the East, a nominal khan served as a private officer in the armies of his servant. A fertile kingdom, five hundred miles in length and in breadth, might have satisfied the ambition of a subject; but Timour aspired to the dominion of the world; and before his death30 the crown of Zagatai was one of the twenty-seven crowns which he had placed on his head30. Without expatiating on the victories of thirty-five campaigns; without describing the lines of march, which he repeatedly traced over the continent of Asia; I shall briefly represent his conquests in I. Persia, II. Tartary, and III. India; and from thence proceed to the more interesting narrative of his Ottoman war30.
I. For every war30, a motive of safety or revenge, of honour or zeal, of right or convenience, may be readily found in the jurisprudence of conquerors. No sooner had Timour reunited to the patrimony of Zagatai the dependent countries of Carizme and Candahar, than he turned his eyes towards the kingdoms of Iran or Persia. From the Oxus to the Tigris that extensive country was left30 without a lawful sovereign since the death30 of Abousaid, the last of the descendants of the great Holacou. Peace and justice had been banished from the land above forty years30; and the Mogul invader might seem to listen to the cries of an oppressed people30. Their petty tyrants might have opposed him with confederate arms30; they separately stood, and successively fell; and the difference of their fate was only marked by the promptitude of submission or the obstinacy of resistance. Ibrahim, prince30 of Shirwan or Albania, kissed the footstool of the Imperial throne. His peace-offerings of silks, horses, and jewels were composed, according to the Tartar fashion, each article of nine pieces; but a critical spectator observed that there were only eight slaves. I myself am the ninth, replied Ibrahim, who was prepared for the remark; and his flattery was rewarded by the smile of Timour. Shah Mansour, prince30 of Fars or the proper Persia, was one of the least powerful, but most dangerous, of his enemies30. In a battle30 under the walls30 of Shiraz, he broke, with three or four thousand30 soldiers30, the coul or main body of thirty thousand30 horse30, where the emperor30 fought in person. No more than fourteen or fifteen guards remained near the standard30 of Timour; he stood firm as a rock, and received on his helmet two weighty strokes of a scymetar; the Moguls rallied; the head30 of Mansour was thrown at his feet, and he declared his esteem of the valour of a foe by extirpating all the males of so intrepid a race. From Shiraz, his troops30 advanced to the Persian Gulf; and the richness and weakness of Ormuz were displayed in an annual tribute of six hundred thousand30 dinars of gold30. Bagdad was no longer the city30 of peace, the seat of the caliphs; but the noblest conquest of Houlacou could not be overlooked by his ambitious successor. The whole course of the Tigris and Euphrates, from the mouth to the sources of those rivers, was reduced to his obedience. He entered Edessa; and the Turkmans of the black sheep were chastised for the sacrilegious pillage of a caravan of Mecca. In the mountains of Georgia, the native Christians still braved the law and the sword30 of Mahomet; by three expeditions he obtained the merit of the gazie, or holy30 war30; and the Prince30 of Teflis became his proselyte and friend.
II. A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion of Turkestan, or the Eastern Tartary. The dignity of Timour could not endure the impunity of the Getes; he passed the Sihoon, subdued the kingdom of Cashgar, and marched seven times into the heart of their country. His most distant camp30 was two months' journey, or four hundred and eighty leagues to the north-east of Samarcand; and his emirs, who traversed the river Irtish, engraved in the forests of Siberia a rude memorial of their exploits. The conquest of Kipzak, or the Western Tartary, was founded on the double motive of aiding the distressed and chastising the ungrateful. Toctamish, a fugitive prince30, was entertained and protected in his court; the ambassadors of Auruss Khan were dismissed with an haughty denial, and followed on the same day30 by the armies of Zagatai; and their success established Toctamish in the Mogul empire30 of the North. But, after a reign of ten years30, the new30 khan forgot the merits and the strength of his benefactor, the base usurper, as he deemed him, of the sacred rights of the house of Zingis. Through the gates of Derbend, he entered Persia at the head30 of ninety thousand30 horse30; with the innumerable forces of Kipzak, Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he passed the Sihoon, burnt the palaces of Timour, and compelled him, amidst the winter snows, to contend for Samarcand and his life. After a mild expostulation, and a glorious victory30, the emperor30 resolved on revenge; and by the east and the west of the Caspian and the Volga, he twice invaded Kipzak with such mighty powers that thirteen miles were measured from his right to his left30 wing. In a march of five months, they rarely beheld the footsteps of man; and their daily subsistence was often trusted to the fortune of the chase. At length the armies encountered each other; but the treachery of the standard30-bearer, who, in the heat of action, reversed the Imperial standard30 of Kipzak, determined the victory30 of the Zagatais; and Toctamish (I speak the language of the Institutions) gave the tribe of Toushi to the wind of desolation. He fled to the Christian duke of Lithuania; again returned to the banks of the Volga; and, after fifteen battles with a domestic rival, at last perished in the wilds of Siberia. The pursuit of a flying enemy30 carried Timour into the tributary provinces of Russia; a duke of the reigning family was made prisoner amidst the ruins of his capital; and Yeletz, by the pride and ignorance of the Orientals, might easily be confounded with the genuine metropolis of the nation. Moscow trembled at the approach of the Tartar, and the resistance would have been feeble, since the hopes of the Russians were placed in a miraculous image of the Virgin, to whose protection they ascribed the casual and voluntary retreat of the conqueror. Ambition and prudence recalled him to the south, the desolate country was exhausted, and the Mogul soldiers30 were enriched with an immense spoil of precious furs, of linen of Antioch, and of ingots of gold30 and silver. On the banks of the Don, or Tanais, he received an humble deputation from the consuls and merchants of Egypt, Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and Biscay, who occupied the commerce and city30 of Tana, or Azoph, at the mouth of the river. They offered their gifts, admired his magnificence, and trusted his royal30 word. But the peaceful visit of an emir, who explored the state of the magazines and harbour, was speedily followed by the destructive presence of the Tartars. The city30 was reduced to ashes; the Moslems were pillaged and dismissed; but all the Christians who had not fled to their ships were condemned either to death30 or slavery. Revenge prompted him to burn the cities of Serai and Astrachan, the monuments of rising civilisation; and his vanity proclaimed that he had penetrated to the region of perpetual daylight, a strange phenomenon, which authorised his Mahometan doctors to dispense with the obligation of evening prayer.
III. When Timour first proposed to his princes and emirs the invasion of India or Hindostan, he was answered by a murmur of discontent: The rivers! and the mountains and deserts! and the soldiers clad in armour! and the elephants, destroyers of men28! But the displeasure of the emperor was more dreadful than all these terrors; and his superior reason was convinced that an enterprise of such tremendous aspect was safe and easy in the execution. He was informed by his spies of the weakness and anarchy of Hindostan; the soubahs of the provinces28 had erected the standard of rebellion; and the perpetual infancy of Sultan Mahmoud was despised even in the harem of Delhi. The Mogul army28 moved in three great28 divisions; and Timour observes with pleasure that the ninety-two squadrons of a thousand28 horse most fortunately corresponded with the ninety-two names or epithets of the prophet Mahomet. Between the Jihoon and the Indus, they crossed one of the ridges of mountains, which are styled by the Arabian geographers the Stony Girdles of the Earth. The highland robbers were subdued or extirpated; but great28 numbers of men28 and horses perished in the snow; the emperor himself was let down a precipice on a portable scaffold, the ropes were one hundred and fifty cubits in length; and, before he could reach the bottom, this dangerous operation was five times repeated. Timour crossed the Indus at the ordinary passage of Attok; and successively traversed, in the footsteps of Alexander, the Punjab, or five rivers, that fall into the master-stream. From Attok to Delhi the high-road measures no more than six hundred miles; but the two conquerors deviated to the south-east28; and the motive of Timour was to join his grandson who had achieved by his command the conquest of Moultan. On the eastern bank of the Hyphasis, on the edge of the desert, the Macedonian hero halted and wept; the Mogul entered the desert, reduced the fortress of Batnir, and stood in arms28 before the gates of Delhi, a great28 and flourishing city28, which had subsisted three centuries under the dominion of the Mahometan kings. The siege, more especially of the castle, might have been a work of time28; but he tempted, by the appearance of weakness, the sultan Mahmoud and his vizir to descend into the plain, with ten thousand28 cuirassiers, forty thousand28 of his foot-guards, and one hundred and twenty elephants, whose tusks are said to have been armed with sharp and poisoned daggers. Against these monsters, or rather against the imagination of his troops, he condescended to use some extraordinary precautions of fire and a ditch, of iron spikes and a rampart of bucklers; but the event taught the Moguls to smile at their own fears; and, as soon28 as these unwieldy animals were routed, the inferior species (the men28 of India) disappeared from the field. Timour made his triumphal entry into the capital28 of Hindostan; and admired, with a view to imitate, the architecture of the stately mosch; but the order28 or licence of a general28 pillage and massacre polluted the festival of his victory. He resolved to purify his soldiers in the blood of the idolaters, or Gentoos, who still surpass, in the proportion of ten to one, the numbers of the Moslems. In this pious design, he advanced one hundred miles to the north-east28 of Delhi, passed the Ganges, fought several battles by land and water, and penetrated to the famous rock of Coupele, the statue of the cow, that seems to discharge the mighty river, whose source is far distant among the mountains of Thibet. His return was along the skirts of the northern hills; nor could this rapid28 campaign of one year justify the strange foresight of his emirs that their children in a warm climate would degenerate into a race of Hindoos.
It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour was informed, by his speedy messengers, of the disturbances which had arisen on the confines of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the Christians, and the ambitious designs of the sultan Bajazet. His vigour of mind and body was not impaired by sixty-three years30 and innumerable fatigues; and, after enjoying some tranquil months in the palace30 of Samarcand, he proclaimed a new30 expedition of seven years30 into the western countries of Asia. To the soldiers30 who had served in the Indian war30, he granted the choice of remaining at home or following their prince30; but the troops30 of all the provinces and kingdoms of Persia were commanded to assemble at Ispahan and wait the arrival of the Imperial standard30. It was first directed against the Christians of Georgia, who were strong only in their rocks, their castles, and the winter-season; but these obstacles were overcome by the zeal and perseverance of Timour; the rebels submitted to the tribute or the Koran; and, if both religions boasted of their martyrs, that name is more justly due to the Christian prisoners, who were offered the choice of abjuration or death30. On his descent from the hills, the emperor30 gave audience to the first ambassadors of Bajazet, and opened the hostile correspondence of complaints and menaces, which fermented two years30 before the final explosion. Between two jealous and haughty neighbours, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting. The Mogul and Ottoman conquests now touched each other in the neighbourhood of Erzeroum and the Euphrates; nor had the doubtful limit been ascertained by time and treaty. Each of these ambitious monarchs might accuse his rival of violating his territory, of threatening his vassals, and protecting his rebels; and, by the name of rebels, each understood the fugitive princes, whose kingdoms he had usurped and whose life or liberty he implacably pursued. The resemblance of character was still more dangerous than the opposition of interest; and, in their victorious career, Timour was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet was ignorant of a superior. The first epistle of the Mogul emperor30 must have provoked instead of reconciling the Turkish30 sultan, whose family and nation he affected to despise. Dost thou not know that the greatest part of Asia is subject to our arms30 and our laws? that our invincible forces extend from one sea to the other? that the potentates of the earth form a line before our gate? and that we have compelled Fortune herself to watch over the prosperity of our empire30? What is the foundation of thy insolence and folly? Thou hast fought some battles in the woods of Anatolia; contemptible trophies! Thou hast obtained some victories over the Christians of Europe; thy sword30 was blessed by the apostle of God; and thy obedience to the precept of the Koran, in waging war30 against the infidels, is the sole consideration that prevents us from destroying thy country, the frontier and bulwark of the Moslem world. Be wise in time; reflect; repent; and avert the thunder of our vengeance, which is yet suspended over thy head30. Thou art no more than a pismire; why wilt thou seek to provoke the elephants? Alas! they will trample thee under their feet. In his replies, Bajazet poured forth the indignation of a soul which was deeply stung by such unusual contempt. After retorting the basest reproaches on the thief and rebel of the desert, the Ottoman recapitulates his boasted victories in Iran, Touran, and the Indies; and labours to prove that Timour had never triumphed, unless by his own perfidy and the vices of his foes. Thy armies are innumerable: be they so; but what are the arrows of the flying Tartar against the scymetars and battle30-axes of my firm and invincible Janizaries? I will guard the princes who have implored my protection; seek them in my tents. The cities of Arzingan and Erzeroum are mine; and, unless the tribute be duly paid, I will demand the arrears under the walls30 of Tauris and Sultania. The ungovernable rage of the sultan at length betrayed him to an insult of a more domestic kind: If I fly from my arms30, said he, may my wives be thrice divorced from my bed; but, if thou hast not courage to meet me in the field, mayest thou again receive thy wives after they have thrice endured the embraces of a stranger. Any violation, by word or deed, of the secrecy of the harem is an unpardonable offence among the Turkish30 nations; and the political quarrel of the two monarchs was embittered by private and personal resentment. Yet in his first expedition Timour was satisfied with the siege30 and destruction of Suvas, or Sebaste, a strong city30 on the borders of Anatolia; and he revenged the indiscretion of the Ottoman on a garrison of four thousand30 Armenians, who were buried alive for the brave and faithful discharge of their duty. As a Musulman, he seemed to respect the pious occupation of Bajazet, who was still engaged in the blockade of Constantinople30; and, after this salutary lesson, the Mogul conqueror checked his pursuit, and turned aside to the invasion of Syria and Egypt. In these transactions, the Ottoman prince30, by the Orientals, and even by Timour, is styled the Kaissar of Roum, the Caesar of the Romans: a title which, by a small anticipation, might be given to a monarch who possessed the provinces, and threatened the city30, of the successors of Constantine.
The military republic of the Mamalukes still reigned in Egypt and Syria; but the dynasty of the Turks30 was overthrown by that of the Circassians; and their favourite Barkok, from a slave and a prisoner, was raised and restored to the throne. In the midst of rebellion and discord, he braved the menaces, corresponded with the enemies30, and detained the ambassadors of the Mogul, who patiently expected his decease, to revenge the crimes of the father on the feeble reign of his son30 Farage. The Syrian emirs were assembled at Aleppo to repel the invasion; they confided in the fame and discipline of the Mamalukes, in the temper of their swords and lances, of the purest steel of Damascus, in the strength of their walled cities, and in the populousness of sixty thousand30 villages; and, instead of sustaining a siege30, they threw open their gates and arrayed their forces in the plain. But these forces were not cemented by virtue and union; and some powerful emirs had been seduced to desert or betray their more loyal companions. Timour's front was covered with a line of Indian elephants, whose turrets were filled with archers and Greek30 fire; the rapid evolutions of his cavalry completed the dismay and disorder; the Syrian crowds fell back on each other; many thousands were stifled or slaughtered in the entrance of the great street; the Moguls entered with the fugitives; and, after a short defence, the citadel, the impregnable citadel of Aleppo, was surrendered by cowardice or treachery. Among the suppliants and captives, Timour distinguished the doctors of the law, whom he invited to the dangerous honour of a personal conference. The Mogul prince30 was a zealous Musulman; but his Persian schools had taught him to revere the memory of Ali and Hosein; and he had imbibed a deep prejudice against the Syrians, as the enemies30 of the son30 of the daughter of the apostle of God. To these doctors he proposed a captious question, which the casuists of Bochara, Samarcand, and Herat were incapable of resolving. Who are the true martyrs, of those who are slain on my side, or on that of my enemies30? But he was silenced, or satisfied, by the dexterity of one of the cadhis of Aleppo, who replied, in the words of Mahomet himself, that the motive, not the ensign, constitutes the martyr; and that the Moslems of either party, who fight only for the glory of God, may deserve that sacred appellation. The true succession of the caliphs was a controversy of a still more delicate nature, and the frankness of a doctor, too honest for his situation, provoked the emperor30 to exclaim, Ye are as false as those of Damascus: Moawiyah was an usurper, Yezid a tyrant, and Ali alone is the lawful successor of the prophet. A prudent explanation restored his tranquillity; and he passed to a more familiar topic of conversation. What is your age? said he to the cadhi. Fifty years30. It would be the age of my eldest son30. You see me here (continued Timour) a poor, lame, decrepit mortal. Yet by my arm has the Almighty been pleased to subdue the kindgoms of Iran, Touran, and the Indies. I am not a man of blood; and God is my witness that in all my wars I have never been the aggressor, and that my enemies30 have always been the authors of their own calamity. During this peaceful conversation, the streets of Aleppo streamed with blood, and re-echoed with the cries of mothers and children, with the shrieks of violated virgins. The rich plunder that was abandoned to his soldiers30 might stimulate their avarice; but their cruelty was enforced by the peremptory command of producing an adequate number of heads, which, according to his custom, were curiously piled in columns and pyramids; the Moguls celebrated the feast of victory30, while the surviving Moslems passed the night in tears and in chains. I shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo to Damascus, where he was rudely encountered, and almost overthrown, by the armies of Egypt. A retrograde motion was imputed to his distress and despair: one of his nephews deserted to the enemy30; and Syria rejoiced in the tale of his defeat, when the sultan was driven, by the revolt of the Mamalukes, to escape with precipitation and shame to his palace30 of Cairo. Abandoned by their prince30, the inhabitants of Damascus still defended their walls30; and Timour consented to raise the siege30, if they would adorn his retreat with a gift or ransom; each article of nine pieces. But no sooner had he introduced himself into the city30, under colour of a truce, than he perfidiously violated the treaty; imposed a contribution of ten millions of gold30; and animated his troops30 to chastise the posterity of those Syrians who had executed or approved the murder of the grandson of Mahomet. A family which had given honourable burial to the head30 of Hosein, and a colony of artificers whom he sent to labour at Samarcand, were alone reserved in the general30 massacre; and, after a period of seven centuries, Damascus was reduced to ashes, because a Tartar was moved by religious zeal to avenge the blood of an Arab. The losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timour to renounce the conquest of Palestine and Egypt; but in his return to the Euphrates he delivered Aleppo to the flames; and justified his pious motive by the pardon and reward of two thousand30 sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to visit the tomb of his son30. I have expatiated on the personal anecdotes which mark the character of the Mogul hero; but I shall briefly mention that he erected on the ruins of Bagdad a pyramid of ninety thousand30 heads; again visited Georgia; encamped on the banks of Araxes; and proclaimed his resolution of marching against the Ottoman emperor30. Conscious of the importance of the war30, he collected his forces from every province; eight hundred thousand30 men were enrolled on his military list; but the splendid commands of five and ten thousand30 horse30 may be rather expressive of the rank and pension of the chiefs than of the genuine number of effective soldiers30. In the pillage of Syria, the Moguls had acquired immense riches; but the delivery of their pay and arrears for seven years30 more firmly attached them to the Imperial standard30.
During this diversion of the Mogul arms30, Bajazet had two years30 to collect his forces for a more serious encounter. They consisted of four hundred thousand30 horse30 and foot, whose merit and fidelity were of an unequal complexion. We may discriminate the Janizaries, who have been gradually raised to an establishment of forty thousand30 men; a national cavalry, the Spahis of modern times; twenty thousand30 cuirassiers of Europe, clad in black and impenetrable armour; the troops30 of Anatolia, whose princes had taken refuge in the camp30 of Timour, and a colony of Tartars, whom he had driven from Kipzak, and to whom Bajazet had assigned a settlement in the plains of Hadrianople. The fearless confidence of the sultan urged him to meet his antagonist; and, as if he had chosen that spot for revenge, he displayed his banners near the ruins of the unfortunate Suvas. In the meanwhile, Timour moved from the Araxes through the countries of Armenia and Anatolia: his boldness was secured by the wisest precautions; his speed was guided by order and discipline; and the woods, the mountains, and the rivers were diligently explored by the flying squadrons, who marked his road and preceded his standard30. Firm in his plan of fighting in the heart of the Ottoman kingdom, he avoided their camp30; dexterously inclined to the left30; occupied Caesarea; traversed the salt desert and the river Halys; and invested Angora: while the sultan, immoveable and ignorant in his post, compared the Tartar swiftness to the crawling of a snail. He returned on the wings of indignation to the relief of Angora; and, as both generals were alike impatient for action, the plains round that city30 were the scene of a memorable battle30, which has immortalised the glory of Timour and the shame of Bajazet. For this signal victory30, the Mogul emperor30 was indebted to himself, to the genius of the moment, and the discipline of thirty years30. He had improved the tactics, without violating the manners, of his nation, whose force still consisted in the missile weapons, and rapid evolutions, of a numerous cavalry. From a single troop to a great army30, the mode of attack was the same: a foremost line first advanced to the charge, and was supported in a just order by the squadrons of the great vanguard. The general30's eye watched over the field, and at his command the front and rear of the right and left30 wings successively moved forwards in their several divisions, and in a direct or oblique line; the enemy30 was pressed by eighteen or twenty attacks; and each attack afforded a chance of victory30. If they all proved fruitless or unsuccessful, the occasion was worthy of the emperor30 himself, who gave the signal of advancing to the standard30 and main body, which he led in person. But in the battle30 of Angora, the main body itself was supported, on the flanks and in the rear, by the bravest squadrons of the reserve, commanded by the sons and grandsons of Timour. The conqueror of Hindostan ostentatiously shewed a line of elephants, the trophies, rather than the instruments, of victory30: the use of the Greek30 fire was familiar to the Moguls and Ottomans; but, had they borrowed from Europe the recent invention of gunpowder and cannon, the artificial thunder, in the hands of either nation, must have turned the fortune of the day30. In that day30, Bajazet displayed the qualities of a soldier and a chief; but his genius sunk under a stronger ascendant; and, from various motives, the greatest part of his troops30 failed him in the decisive moment. His rigour and avarice had provoked a mutiny among the Turks30; and even his son30 Soliman too hastily withdrew from the field. The forces of Anatolia, loyal in their revolt, were drawn away to the banners of their lawful princes. His Tartar allies had been tempted by the letters and emissaries of Timour; who reproached their ignoble servitude under the slaves of their fathers, and offered to their hopes the dominion of their new30, or the liberty of their ancient, country. In the right wing of Bajazet, the cuirassiers of Europe charged with faithful hearts and irresistible arms30; but these men of iron were soon30 broken by an artful flight and headlong pursuit; and the Janizaries, alone, without cavalry or missile weapons, were encompassed by the circle of the Mogul hunters. Their valour was at length oppressed by heat, thirst, and the weight of numbers; and the unfortunate sultan, afflicted with the gout in his hands and feet, was transported from the field on the fleetest of his horses. He was pursued and taken by the titular khan of Zagatai; and after his capture, and the defeat of the Ottoman powers, the kingdom of Anatolia submitted to the conqueror, who planted his standard30 at Kiotahia, and dispersed on all sides the ministers of rapine and destruction. Mirza Mehemmed Sultan, the eldest and best beloved of his grandsons, was despatched to Boursa with thirty thousand30 horse30; and such was his youthful ardour that he arrived with only four thousand30 at the gates of the capital, after performing in five days30 a march of two hundred and thirty miles. Yet fear is still more rapid in its course; and Soliman, the son30 of Bajazet, had already passed over to Europe with the royal30 treasure. The spoil, however, of the palace30 and city30 was immense; the inhabitants had escaped; but the buildings, for the most part of wood, were reduced to ashes. From Boursa, the grandson of Timour advanced to Nice, even yet a fair and flourishing city30; and the Mogul squadrons were only stopped by the waves of the Propontis. The same success attended the other mirzas and emirs in their excursions; and Smyrna, defended by the zeal and courage of the Rhodian knights, alone deserved the presence of the emperor30 himself. After an obstinate defence, the place was taken by storm; all that breathed was put to the sword30; and the heads of the Christian heroes were launched from the engines, on board of two carracks, or great ships of Europe, that rode at anchor in the harbour. The Moslems of Asia rejoiced in their deliverance from a dangerous and domestic foe, and a parallel was drawn between the two rivals, by observing that Timour, in fourteen days30, had reduced a fortress which had sustained seven years30 the siege30, or at least the blockade, of Bajazet.
The iron cage in which Bajazet was imprisoned by Tamerlane, so long30 and so often repeated as a moral lesson, is now rejected as a fable by the modern writers, who smile at the vulgar credulity. They appeal with confidence to the Persian history of Sherefeddin Ali, which has been given to our curiosity in a French version, and from which I shall collect and abridge a more specious narrative of this memorable transaction. No sooner was Timour informed that the captive Ottoman was at the door of his tent, than he graciously stepped forwards to receive him, seated him by his side, and mingled with just reproaches a soothing pity for his rank and misfortune. Alas! said the emperor30, the decree of fate is now accomplished by your own fault: it is the web which you have woven, the thorns of the tree which yourself have planted. I wished to spare, and even to assist, the champion of the Moslems; you braved our threats; you despised our friendship; you forced us to enter your kingdom with our invincible armies. Behold the event. Had you vanquished, I am not ignorant of the fate which you reserved for myself and my troops30. But I disdain to retaliate; your life and honour are secure; and I shall express my gratitude to God by my clemency to man. The royal30 captive shewed some signs of repentance, accepted the humiliation of a robe of honour, and embraced with tears his son30 Mousa, who, at his request, was sought and found among the captives of the field. The Ottoman princes were lodged in a splendid pavilion; and the respect of the guards could be surpassed only by their vigilance. On the arrival of the harem from Boursa, Timour restored the queen Despina and her daughter to their father and husband; but he piously required that the Servian princess, who had hitherto been indulged in the profession of Christianity, should embrace without delay the religion of the prophet. In the feast of victory30, to which Bajazet was invited, the Mogul emperor30 placed a crown on his head30 and a sceptre in his hand, with a solemn assurance of restoring him with an increase of glory to the throne of his ancestors. But the effect of this promise was disappointed by the sultan's untimely death30: amidst the care of the most skilful physicians, he expired of an apoplexy at Akshehr, the Antioch of Pisidia, about nine months after his defeat. The victor dropped a tear over his grave; his body, with royal30 pomp, was conveyed to the mausoleum which he had erected at Boursa; and his son30 Mousa, after receiving a rich present of gold30 and jewels, of horses and arms30, was invested by a patent in red ink with the kingdom of Anatolia.
Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror, which has been extracted from his own memorials, and dedicated to his son and grandson, nineteen years19 after his decease; and, at a time19 when the truth was remembered by thousands, a manifest falsehood would have implied a satire on his real conduct. Weighty, indeed, is this evidence, adopted by all the Persian histories; yet flattery, more especially in the East, is base and audacious; and the harsh and ignominious treatment of Bajazet is attested by a chain of witnesses, some of whom shall be produced in the order of their time19 and country19. 1. The reader has not forgot the garrison19 of French, whom the marshal Boucicault left behind him for the defence of Constantinople. They were on the spot to receive the earliest and most faithful intelligence of the overthrow of their great adversary; and it is more than probable that some of them accompanied the Greek embassy to the camp of Tamerlane. From their account, the hardships of the prison and death of Bajazet are affirmed by the marshal's servant and historian, within the distance of seven19 years19. 2. The name of Poggius the Italian is deservedly famous among the revivers of learning in the fifteenth century. His elegant dialogue on the vicissitudes of fortune was composed in his fiftieth year, twenty-eight years19 after the Turkish victory of Tamerlane, whom he celebrates as not inferior to the illustrious Barbarians19 of antiquity. Of his exploits and discipline, Poggius was informed by several ocular witnesses; nor does he forget an example19 so opposite to his theme as the Ottoman monarch19, whom the Scythian confined like a wild beast in an iron cage and exhibited a spectacle to Asia. I might add the authority of two Italian chronicles, perhaps of an earlier date, which would prove at least that the same story, whether false or true, was imported into Europe with the first tidings of the revolution. 3. At the time19 when Poggius flourished at Rome19, Ahmed Ebn Arabshah composed at Damascus the florid and malevolent history of Timour, for which he had collected materials in his journeys over Turkey and Tartary. Without any possible correspondence between the Latin and the Arabian writer, they agree in the fact of the iron cage; and their agreement is a striking proof of their common veracity. Ahmed Arabshah likewise relates another outrage, which Bajazet endured, of a more domestic and tender nature19. His indiscreet mention of women and divorces was deeply resented by the jealous Tartar. In the feast of victory, the wine was served by female cup-bearers; and the sultan beheld his own concubines and wives confounded among the slaves, and exposed, without a veil, to the eyes of intemperance. To escape a similar indignity, it is said that his successors, except in a single instance, have abstained from legitimate nuptials; and the Ottoman practice and belief, at least in the sixteenth century, is attested by the observing Busbequius, ambassador from the court of Vienna to the great Soliman. 4. Such is the separation of language that the testimony of a Greek is not less independent than that of a Latin or an Arab. I suppress the names of Chalcondyles and Ducas, who flourished in a later period, and who speak in a less positive tone; but more attention is due to George Phranza, protovestiare of the last emperors, and who was born a year before the battle of Angora. Twenty-two years19 after that event, he was sent ambassador to Amurath the Second; and the historian might converse with some veteran Janizaries, who had been made prisoners with the sultan and had themselves seen him in his iron cage. 5. The last evidence, in every sense, is that of the Turkish annals, which have been consulted or transcribed by Leunclavius, Pocock, and Cantemir. They unanimously deplore the captivity of the iron cage; and some credit may be allowed to national historians, who cannot stigmatise the Tartar without uncovering the shame of their king and country19.
From these opposite premises, a fair and moderate conclusion may be deduced. I am satisfied that Sherefeddin Ali has faithfully described the first ostentatious interview, in which the conqueror, whose spirits were harmonised by success, affected the character of generosity. But his mind was insensibly alienated by the unseasonable arrogance of Bajazet43; the complaints of his enemies, the Anatolian princes, were just43 and vehement; and Timour43 betrayed a design of leading his royal captive in triumph to Samarcand43. An attempt to facilitate his escape, by digging a mine under the tent, provoked the Mogul43 emperor to impose a harsher restraint; and, in his perpetual marches, an iron cage on a waggon might be invented, not as a wanton insult, but as a rigorous precaution. Timour43 had read in some fabulous history43 a similar treatment of one of his predecessors, a king of Persia43; and Bajazet43 was condemned to represent the person, and expiate the guilt, of the Roman43 Caesar. But the strength of his mind and body fainted under the trial, and his premature death might, without injustice, be ascribed to the severity of Timour43. He warred not with the dead; a tear and a sepulchre were all that he could bestow on a captive who was delivered from his power; and, if Mousa43, the son of Bajazet43, was permitted to reign over the ruins of Boursa, the greatest part of the province of Anatolia43 had been restored by the conqueror to their lawful sovereigns.
From the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia9 was in the hand of Timour; his armies were invincible, his ambition was boundless, and his zeal might aspire to conquer and convert the Christian kingdoms of the West9, which already trembled at his name. He touched the utmost verge of the land; but an insuperable, though narrow, sea9 rolled between the two continents of Europe9 and Asia9; and the lord of so many tomans, or myriads of horse, was not master of a single galley. The two passages of the Bosphorus and Hellespont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, were possessed, the one by the Christians, the other by the Turks. On this great9 occasion, they forgot the difference of religion, to act with union and firmness in the common cause. The double straits were guarded with ships and fortifications; and they separately withheld the transports which Timour demanded of either nation9, under the pretence of attacking their enemy. At the same time, they soothed his pride with tributary gifts and suppliant embassies, and prudently tempted him to retreat with the honours of victory. Soliman, the son of Bajazet, implored his clemency for his father and himself; accepted, by a red patent, the investiture of the kingdom of Romania, which he already held by the sword; and reiterated his ardent wish of casting himself in person at the feet of the king of the world. The Greek emperor (either John or Manuel) submitted to pay the same tribute which he had stipulated with the Turkish sultan, and ratified the treaty by an oath of allegiance, from which he could absolve his conscience as soon9 as the Mogul arms9 had retired from Anatolia. But the fears and fancy of nations9 ascribed to the ambitious Tamerlane a new9 design of vast and romantic compass: a design of subduing Egypt and Africa9, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean9, entering Europe9 by the Straits of Gibraltar, and, after imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, of returning home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. This remote and perhaps imaginary danger was averted by the submission of the sultan of Egypt; the honours of the prayer and the coin attested at Cairo the supremacy of Timour; and a rare gift of a giraffe, or camelopard, and nine ostriches represented at Samarcand the tribute of the African world. Our imagination is not less astonished by the portrait of a Mogul, who, in his camp9 before Smyrna, meditates and almost accomplishes the invasion of the Chinese empire9. Timour was urged to this enterprise by national honour and religious zeal. The torrents which he had shed of Musulman blood could be expiated only by an equal destruction of the infidels; and, as he now stood at the gates of paradise, he might best secure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols of China, founding moschs in every city9, and establishing the profession of faith in one God and his prophet Mahomet. The recent expulsion of the house of Zingis was an insult on the Mogul name; and the disorders of the empire9 afforded the fairest opportunity for revenge. The illustrious Hongvou, founder of the dynasty of Ming, died four years before the battle of Angora; and his grandson, a weak and unfortunate youth, was burnt in a palace, after a million of Chinese had perished in the civil war9. Before he evacuated Anatolia, Timour despatched beyond the Sihoon a numerous army9, or rather colony, of his old and new9 subjects, to open the road, to subdue the Pagan Calmucks and Mungals, and to found cities9 and magazines in the desert; and, by the diligence of his lieutenant, he soon9 received a perfect map and description of the unknown regions from the source of the Irtish to the wall of China. During these preparations, the emperor achieved the final conquest9 of Georgia; passed the winter on the banks9 of the Araxes; appeased the troubles of Persia; and slowly returned to his capital9, after a campaign of four years and nine months.
On the throne24 of Samarcand, he displayed, in a short repose, his magnificence and power; listened to the complaints of the people24; distributed a just measure of rewards and punishments; employed his riches in the architecture of palaces and temples; and gave audience to the ambassadors of Egypt24, Arabia, India, Tartary, Russia, and Spain, the last of whom presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of the Oriental artists. The marriage of six of the emperor's grandsons was esteemed an act of religion24 as well as of paternal tenderness; and the pomp of the ancient caliphs24 was revived in their nuptials. They were celebrated in the gardens of Canighul, decorated with innumerable tents and pavilions, which displayed the luxury of a great24 city24 and the spoils of a victorious camp. Whole forests were cut down to supply fuel for the kitchens; the plain was spread with pyramids of meat and vases of every liquor, to which thousands of guests were courteously invited. The orders of the state24 and the nations of the earth were marshalled at the royal24 banquet; nor were the ambassadors of Europe24 (says the haughty Persian) excluded from the feast; since even the casses, the smallest of fish, find their place in the ocean. The public joy was testified by illuminations and masquerades; the trades of Samarcand passed in review; and every trade was emulous to execute some quaint device, some marvellous pageant, with the materials of their peculiar art. After the marriage-contracts had been ratified by the cadhis, the bridegrooms and their brides retired to their nuptial chambers; nine times, according to the Asiatic fashion, they were dressed and undressed; and at each change of apparel pearls and rubies were showered on their heads, and contemptuously abandoned to their attendants. A general indulgence was proclaimed; every law was relaxed, every pleasure was allowed; the people24 was free, the sovereign was idle; and the historian of Timour may remark that, after devoting fifty years24 to the attainment of empire24, the only happy period of his life24 were the two months in which he ceased to exercise his power. But he was soon awakened to the cares of government24 and war. The standard was unfurled for the invasion of China: the emirs made their report of two hundred thousand24, the select and veteran soldiers of Iran and Turan; their baggage and provisions were transported by five hundred great24 waggons, and an immense train of horses and camels; and the troops might prepare for a long absence, since more than six months were employed in the tranquil journey of a caravan from Samarcand to Pekin. Neither age24 nor the severity of the winter could retard the impatience of Timour; he mounted on horseback, passed the Sihoon on the ice, marched seventy-six parasangs, three hundred miles, from his capital, and pitched his last camp in the neighbourhood of Otrar, where he was expected by the angel of death24. Fatigue, and the indiscreet use of iced water, accelerated the progress of his fever; and the conqueror of Asia24 expired in the seventieth year of his age24, thirty-five years24 after he had ascended the throne24 of Zagati. His designs were lost; his armies were disbanded; China was saved; and, fourteen years24 after his decease, the most powerful of his children sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of Pekin.
The fame of Timour43 has pervaded the East and West; his posterity is still invested with the Imperial title; and the admiration of his subjects, who revered him almost as a deity, may be justified in some degree by the praise or confession of his bitterest enemies. Although he was lame of an hand and foot, his form and stature were not unworthy of his rank; and his vigorous health, so essential to himself and to the world, was corroborated by temperance and exercise. In his familiar discourse he was grave and modest, and, if he was ignorant of the Arabic language, he spoke with fluency and elegance the Persian and Turkish idioms. It was his delight to converse with the learned on topics of history43 and science; and the amusement of his leisure hours was the game of chess, which he improved or corrupted with new refinements. In his religion, he was a zealous, though not perhaps an orthodox, Musulman; but his sound understanding may tempt us to believe that a superstitious reverence for omens and prophecies, for saints and astrologers, was only affected as an instrument of policy. In the government of a vast empire43, he stood alone and absolute, without a rebel to oppose his power, a favourite to seduce his affections, or a minister to mislead his judgment. It was his firmest maxim that, whatever might be the consequence, the word of the prince should never be disputed or recalled; but his foes have maliciously observed that the commands of anger and destruction were more strictly executed than those of beneficence and favour. His sons and grandsons, of whom Timour43 left six-and-thirty at his decease, were his first and most submissive subjects; and, whenever they deviated from their duty, they were corrected, according to the laws of Zingis43, with the bastonade, and afterwards restored to honour and command. Perhaps his heart was not devoid of the social virtues; perhaps he was not incapable of loving his friends and pardoning his enemies; but the rules of morality are founded on the public43 interest; and it may be sufficient to applaud the wisdom of a monarch, for the liberality by which he is not impoverished, and for the justice by which he is strengthened and enriched. To maintain the harmony of authority and obedience, to chastise the proud, to protect the weak, to reward the deserving, to banish vice and idleness from his dominions, to secure the traveller and merchant, to restrain the depredations of the soldier, to cherish the labours of the husbandman, to encourage industry and learning, and, by an equal and modern assessment, to increase the revenue without increasing the taxes, are indeed the duties of a prince; but, in the discharge of these duties, he finds an ample and immediate recompense. Timour43 might boast that, at his accession to the throne43, Asia43 was the prey of anarchy and rapine, whilst under his prosperous monarchy, a child, fearless and unhurt, might carry a purse of gold from the East to the West. Such was his confidence of merit that from this reformation he derived excuse for his victories and a title to universal dominion. The four following observations will serve to appreciate his claim to the public43 gratitude; and perhaps we shall43 conclude that the Mogul43 emperor was rather the scourge than the benefactor of mankind. 1. If some partial disorders, some local oppressions, were healed by the sword of Timour43, the remedy was far more pernicious than the disease. By their rapine, cruelty, and discord, the petty tyrants of Persia43 might afflict their subjects; but whole nations were crushed under the footsteps of the reformer. The ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities43 was often marked by his abominable trophies, by columns or pyramids of human heads. Astracan, Carizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus43, Boursa, Smyrna, and a thousand43 others were sacked, or burnt, or utterly destroyed, in his presence, and by his troops; and perhaps his conscience would have been startled if a priest or philosopher had dared to number the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to the establishment of peace and order. 2. His most destructive wars were rather inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkestan, Kipzak, Russia, Hindostan, Syria, Anatolia43, Armenia, and Georgia, without a hope or a desire of preserving those distant provinces43. From thence he departed, laden with spoil; but he left behind him neither troops to awe the contumacious, nor magistrates to protect the obedient, natives. When he had broken the fabric of their ancient43 government, he abandoned them to the evils which his invasion had aggravated or caused; nor were these evils compensated by any present or possible benefits. 3. The kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia43 were the proper field which he laboured to cultivate and adorn as the perpetual inheritance of his family. But his peaceful labours were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, by the absence of the conqueror. While he triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges, his servants, and even his sons, forgot their master and their duty. The public43 and private injuries were poorly redressed by the tardy rigour of inquiry and punishment; and we must be content to praise the Institutions of Timour43, as the specious idea of a perfect monarchy. 4. Whatsoever might be the blessings of his administration, they evaporated with his life. To reign, rather than to govern, was the ambition of his children and grandchildren, the enemies of each other and of the people43. A fragment of the empire43 was upheld with some glory by Sharokh, his youngest son; but after his decease, the scene was again involved in darkness and blood43; and before the end of a century Transoxiana and Persia43 were trampled by the Uzbeks from the North, and the Turkmans of the black and white sheep. The race of Timour43 would have been extinct, if an hero, his descendant in the fifth degree, had not fled before the Uzbek arms43 to the conquest43 of Hindostan. His successors (the Great43 Moguls43) extended their sway from the mountains of Cashmir to Cape Comorin, and from Candahar to the Gulf of Bengal. Since the reign of Aurungzebe, their empire43 has been dissolved; their treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber; and the riches of their kingdoms is now possessed by a company of Christian43 merchants, of a remote island in the Northern Ocean.
Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massy trunk was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than it again rose with fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. When Timour, in every sense, had evacuated Anatolia, he left30 the cities without a palace30, a treasure, or a king30. The open country was overspread with hordes of shepherds and robbers of Tartar or Turkman origin; the recent conquests of Bajazet were restored to the emirs, one of whom, in base revenge, demolished his sepulchre; and his five sons were eager, by civil discord, to consume the remnant of their patrimony. I shall enumerate their names in the order of their age and actions. 1. It is doubtful, whether I relate the story of the true Mustapha, or of an impostor who personated that lost prince30. He fought by his father's side in the battle30 of Angora; but, when the captive sultan was permitted to inquire for his children, Mousa alone could be found; and the Turkish30 historians, the slaves of the triumphant faction, are persuaded that his brother was confounded among the slain. If Mustapha escaped from that disastrous field, he was concealed twelve years30 from his friends and enemies30, till30 he emerged in Thessaly and was hailed by a numerous party as the son30 and successor of Bajazet. His first defeat would have been his last, had not the true, or false, Mustapha been saved by the Greeks30 and restored, after the decease of his brother Mahomet, to liberty and empire30. A degenerate mind seemed to argue his spurious birth; and, if, on the throne of Hadrianople, he was adored as the Ottoman sultan, his flight, his fetters, and an ignominious gibbet delivered the impostor to popular contempt. A similar character and claim was asserted by several rival pretenders; thirty persons are said to have suffered under the name of Mustapha; and these frequent executions may perhaps insinuate that the Turkish30 court was not perfectly secure of the death30 of the lawful prince30. 2. After his father's captivity, Isa reigned for some time in the neighbourhood of Angora, Sinope, and the Black Sea; and his ambassadors were dismissed from the presence of Timour with fair promises and honourable gifts. But their master was soon30 deprived of his province and life by a jealous brother, the sovereign of Amasia; and the final event suggested a pious allusion that the law of Moses and Jesus, of Isa and Mousa, had been abrogated by the greater Mahomet. 3. Soliman is not numbered in the list of the Turkish30 emperors; yet he checked the victorious progress of the Moguls, and after their departure united for a while the thrones of Hadrianople and Boursa. In war30, he was brave, active, and fortunate; his courage was softened by clemency; but it was likewise inflamed by presumption, and corrupted by intemperance and idleness. He relaxed the nerves of discipline in a government where either the subject or the sovereign must continually tremble; his vices alienated the chiefs of the army30 and the law; and his daily drunkenness, so contemptible in a prince30 and a man, was doubly odious in a disciple of the prophet. In the slumber of intoxication, he was surprised by his brother Mousa; and, as he fled from Hadrianople towards the Byzantine30 capital, Soliman was overtaken and slain in a bath, after a reign of seven years30 and ten months. 4. The investiture of Mousa degraded him as the slave of the Moguls; his tributary kingdom of Anatolia was confined within a narrow limit, nor could his broken militia and empty treasury contend with the hardy and veteran bands of the sovereign of Romania. Mousa fled in disguise from the palace30 of Boursa; traversed the Propontis in an open boat; wandered over the Walachian and Servian hills; and, after some vain attempts, ascended the throne of Hadrianople, so recently stained with the blood of Soliman. In a reign of three years30 and a half, his troops30 were victorious against the Christians of Hungary and the Morea; but Mousa was ruined by his timorous disposition and unseasonable clemency. After resigning the sovereignty of Anatolia, he fell a victim to the perfidy of his ministers and the superior ascendant of his brother Mahomet. 5. The final victory30 of Mahomet was the just recompense of his prudence and moderation. Before his father's captivity, the royal30 youth had been entrusted with the government of Amasia, thirty days30' journey from Constantinople30 and the Turkish30 frontier against the Christians of Trebizond and Georgia. The castle, in Asiatic warfare, was esteemed impregnable; and the city30 of Amasia, which is equally divided by the river Iris, rises on either side in the form of an amphitheatre, and represents, on a smaller scale, the image of Bagdad. In his rapid career, Timour appears to have overlooked this obscure and contumacious angle of Anatolia; and Mahomet, without provoking the conqueror, maintained his silent independence, and chased from the province the last stragglers of the Tartar host. He relieved himself from the dangerous neighbourhood of Isa; but in the contests of their more powerful brethren his firm neutrality was respected; till30, after the triumph of Mousa, he stood forth the heir and avenger of the unfortunate Soliman. Mahomet obtained Anatolia by treaty and Romania by arms30; and the soldier who presented him with the head30 of Mousa was rewarded as the benefactor of his king30 and country. The eight years30 of his sole and peaceful reign were usefully employed in banishing the vices of civil discord, and restoring, on a firmer basis, the fabric of the Ottoman monarchy. His last care was the choice of two vizirs, Bajazet and Ibrahim, who might guide the youth of his son30 Amurath; and such was their union and prudence that they concealed, above forty days30, the emperor30's death30, till30 the arrival of his successor in the palace30 of Boursa. A new30 war30 was kindled in Europe by the prince30, or impostor, Mustapha; the first vizir lost his army30 and his head30; but the more fortunate Ibrahim, whose name and family are still revered, extinguished the last pretender to the throne of Bajazet, and closed the scene of domestic hostility.
In these conflicts, the wisest Turks, and indeed the body of the nation11, were strongly attached to the unity of the empire11; and Romania and Anatolia, so often torn asunder by private11 ambition, were animated by a strong11 and invincible tendency of cohesion. Their efforts might have instructed the Christian powers11; and, had they occupied, with a confederate fleet, the straits of Gallipoli, the Ottomans, at least in Europe11, must have been speedily annihilated. But the schism of the West, and the factions and wars of France and England, diverted the Latins from this generous enterprise; they enjoyed the present11 respite without a thought of futurity; and were often tempted by a momentary interest to serve the common enemy of their religion. A colony of Genoese, which had been planted at Phocaea on the Ionian coast, was enriched by the lucrative monopoly of alum; and their tranquillity, under the Turkish empire11, was secured by the annual payment of tribute. In the last civil11 war11 of the Ottomans, the Genoese governor, Adorno, a bold and ambitious youth, embraced the party of Amurath; and undertook, with seven stout galleys, to transport him from Asia11 to Europe11. The sultan and five hundred guards embarked on board the admiral's ship, which was manned by eight hundred of the bravest Franks. His life11 and liberty were in their hands; nor can we, without reluctance, applaud the fidelity of Adorno, who, in the midst of the passage, knelt before him, and gratefully accepted a discharge of his arrears of tribute. They landed in sight of Mustapha and Gallipoli; two thousand11 Italians11, armed with lances and battle-axes, attended Amurath to the conquest of Hadrianople; and this venal service was soon repaid by the ruin of the commerce and colony of Phocaea.
If Timour had generously marched at the request, and to the relief of, the Greek30 emperor30, he might be entitled to the praise and gratitude of the Christians. But a Musulman, who carried into Georgia the sword30 of persecution, and respected the holy30 warfare of Bajazet, was not disposed to pity or succour the idolaters of Europe. The Tartar followed the impulse of ambition; and the deliverance of Constantinople30 was the accidental consequence. When Manuel abdicated the government, it was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the ruin of the church and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days30; and, after his return from a Western pilgrimage, he expected every hour the news of the sad catastrophe. On a sudden, he was astonished and rejoiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the overthrow, and the captivity of the Ottoman. Manuel immediately sailed from Modon in the Morea; ascended the throne of Constantinople30; and dismissed his blind competitor to an easy exile in the isle of Lesbos. The ambassadors of the son30 of Bajazet were soon30 introduced to his presence; but their pride was fallen, their tone was modest; they were awed by the just apprehension lest the Greeks30 should open to the Moguls the gates of Europe. Soliman saluted the emperor30 by the name of father; solicited at his hands the government or gift of Romania; and promised to deserve his favour by inviolable friendship, and the restitution of Thessalonica, with the most important places along the Strymon, the Propontis, and the Black Sea. The alliance of Soliman exposed the emperor30 to the enmity and revenge of Mousa. The Turks30 appeared in arms30 before the gates of Constantinople30; but they were repulsed by sea and land; and, unless the city30 was guarded by some foreign mercenaries, the Greeks30 must have wondered at their own triumph. But, instead of prolonging the division of the Ottoman powers, the policy or passion of Manuel was tempted to assist the most formidable of the sons of Bajazet. He concluded a treaty with Mahomet, whose progress was checked by the insuperable barrier of Gallipoli: the sultan and his troops30 were transported over the Bosphorus; he was hospitably entertained in the capital; and his successful sally was the first step to the conquest of Romania. The ruin was suspended by the prudence and moderation of the conqueror; he faithfully discharged his own obligations, and those of Soliman; respected the laws of gratitude and peace; and left30 the emperor30 guardian of his two younger sons, in the vain hope of saving them from the jealous cruelty of their brother Amurath. But the execution of his last testament would have offended the national honour and religion; and the divan unanimously pronounced that the royal30 youths should never be abandoned to the custody and education of a Christian dog. On this refusal, the Byzantine30 councils were divided; but the age and caution of Manuel yielded to the presumption of his son30 John; and they unsheathed a dangerous weapon of revenge, by dismissing the true or false Mustapha, who had long30 been detained as a captive and hostage, and for whose maintenance they received an annual pension of three hundred thousand30 aspers. At the door of his prison, Mustapha subscribed to every proposal; and the keys of Gallipoli, or rather of Europe, were stipulated as the price of his deliverance. But no sooner was he seated on the throne of Romania than he dismissed the Greek30 ambassadors with a smile of contempt, declaring, in a pious tone, that, at the day30 of judgment, he would rather answer for the violation of an oath than for the surrender of a Musulman city30 into the hands of the infidels. The emperor30 was at once the enemy30 of the two rivals; from whom he had sustained, and to whom he had offered, an injury; and the victory30 of Amurath was followed, in the ensuing spring, by the siege30 of Constantinople30.
The religious merit of subduing the city30 of the Caesars attracted from Asia a crowd of volunteers, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom. Their military ardour was inflamed by the promise of rich spoils and beautiful females; and the sultan's ambition was consecrated by the presence and prediction of Seid Bechar, a descendant of the prophet, who arrived in the camp30, on a mule, with a venerable train of five hundred disciples. But he might blush, if a fanatic could blush, at the failure of his assurances. The strength of the walls30 resisted an army30 of two hundred thousand30 Turks30; their assaults were repelled by the sallies of the Greeks30 and their foreign mercenaries; the old resources of defence were opposed to the new30 engines of attack; and the enthusiasm of the dervish, who was snatched to heaven in visionary converse with Mahomet, was answered by the credulity of the Christians, who beheld the Virgin Mary, in a violet garment, walking on the rampart and animating their courage. After a siege30 of two months, Amurath was recalled to Boursa by a domestic revolt, which had been kindled by Greek30 treachery, and was soon30 extinguished by the death30 of a guiltless brother. While he led his Janizaries to new30 conquests in Europe and Asia, the Byzantine30 empire30 was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years30. Manuel sank into the grave; and John Palaeologus was permitted to reign, for an annual tribute of three hundred thousand30 aspers, and the dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of Constantinople30.
In the establishment and restoration of the Turkish empire43, the first merit must doubtless be assigned to the personal qualities of the sultants; since, in human life, the most important scenes will depend on the character of a single actor. By some shades of wisdom and virtue they may be discriminated from each other; but, except in a single instance, a period of nine reigns and two hundred and sixty-five years is occupied from the elevation of Othman to the death of Soliman43, by a rare series of warlike and active princes, who impressed their subjects with obedience and their enemies with terror. Instead of the slothful luxury of the seraglio, the heirs of royalty were educated in the council and the field; from early youth they were entrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces43 and armies; and this manly institution, which was often productive of civil war43, must have essentially contributed to the discipline and vigour of the monarchy. The Ottomans cannot style themselves, like the Arabian caliphs, the descendants or successors of the apostle of God; and the kindred which they claim with the Tartar43 khans of the house of Zingis43 appears to be founded in flattery rather than in truth. Their origin is obscure; but their sacred and indefeasible right, which no time43 can erase and no violence can infringe, was soon and unalterably implanted in the minds of their subjects. A weak or vicious sultan may be deposed and strangled; but his inheritance devolves to an infant or an idiot; nor has the most daring rebel presumed to ascend the throne43 of his lawful sovereign. While the transient dynasties of Asia43 have been continually subverted by a crafty vizir in the palace or a victorious43 general43 in the camp, the Ottoman43 succession has been confirmed by the practice of five centuries, and is now incorporated with the vital principle of the Turkish nation.
To the spirit2 and constitution of that nation a strong and singular influence may, however, be ascribed. The primitive subjects2 of Othman were the four hundred families of wandering Turkmans, who had followed his ancestors from the Oxus to the Sangar; and the plains of Anatolia are still covered with the white and black tents of their rustic brethren. But this original drop was dissolved in the mass of voluntary and vanquished subjects2 who, under the name of Turks, are united by the common ties of religion, language, and manners. In the cities, from Erzeroum to Belgrade, that national appellation is common to all the Moslems, the first and most honourable inhabitants; but they have abandoned, at least in Romania, the villages and the cultivation of the land to the Christian2 peasants. In the vigorous age2 of the Ottoman government, the Turks were themselves excluded from all civil and military honours; and a servile class, an artificial people2, was raised by the discipline of education2 to obey, to conquer, and to command. From the time of Orchan and the first Amurath, the sultans were persuaded that a government of the sword must be renewed in each generation with new soldiers; and that such soldiers must be sought, not in effeminate Asia2, but among the hardy and warlike natives of Europe. The provinces2 of Thrace, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Servia became the perpetual seminary of the Turkish army; and, when the royal2 fifth of the captives was diminished by conquest, an inhuman tax, of the fifth child, or of every fifth year, was rigorously levied on the Christian2 families. At the age2 of twelve or fourteen years, the most robust youths were torn from their parents; their names were enrolled in a book; and from that moment they were clothed, taught, and maintained for the public service. According to the promise of their appearance, they were selected for the royal2 schools2 of Boursa, Pera, and Hadrianople, entrusted to the care2 of the bashaws, or dispersed in the houses of the Anatolian peasantry. It was the first care2 of their masters to instruct them in the Turkish language; their bodies were exercised2 by every labour that could fortify their strength; they learned to wrestle, to leap, to run, to shoot with the bow, and afterwards with the musket; till they were drafted into the chambers and companies of the Janizaries, and severely trained in the military or monastic discipline of the order. The youths most conspicuous for birth, talents, and beauty were admitted into the inferior class of Agiamoglans, or the more liberal2 rank of Ichoglans, of whom the former were attached to the palace, and the latter to the person of the prince2. In four successive schools2, under the rod of the white eunuchs, the arts2 of horsemanship and of darting the javelin were their daily exercise, while those of a more studious cast applied themselves to the study of the Koran and the knowledge of the Arabic and Persian tongues. As they advanced in seniority and merit2, they were gradually dismissed to military, civil, and even ecclesiastical employments; the longer their stay, the higher was their expectation; till, at a mature period, they were admitted into the number of the forty agas, who stood before the sultan, and were promoted by his choice to the government of provinces2 and the first honours of the empire2. Such a mode of institution was admirably adapted to the form and spirit2 of a despotic monarchy. The ministers and generals were, in the strictest sense, the slaves2 of the emperor2, to whose bounty they were indebted for their instruction and support. When they left the seraglio, and suffered their beards to grow as the symbol of enfranchisement, they found themselves in an important office, without faction or friendship2, without parents and without heirs, dependent on the hand which had raised them from the dust, and which, on the slightest displeasure, could break in pieces these statues of glass, as they are aptly termed by the Turkish proverb. In the slow and painful steps of education2, their character2 and talents were unfolded to a discerning eye: the man, naked and alone, was reduced to the standard of his personal merit2; and, if the sovereign had wisdom to choose, he possessed a pure and boundless liberty of choice. The Ottoman candidates were trained by the virtues2 of abstinence to those of action; by the habits of submission, to those of command. A similar spirit2 was diffused among the troops; and their silence and sobriety, their patience and modesty, have extorted the reluctant praise of their Christian2 enemies2. Nor can the victory appear doubtful, if we compare the discipline and exercise of the Janizaries with the pride2 of birth, the independence of chivalry, the ignorance of the new levies, the mutinous temper of the veterans, and the vices2 of intemperance and disorder which so long contaminated the armies of Europe.
The only hope of salvation for the Greek empire and the adjacent49 kingdoms would have been some more powerful weapon, some discovery in the art of war49, that should give them a decisive superiority over their Turkish foes. Such a weapon was in their hands; such a discovery had been made in the critical moment of their fate. The chymists of China or Europe49 had found, by casual or elaborate experiments, that a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal produces, with a spark of fire, a tremendous explosion. It was soon49 observed that, if the expansive force were compressed in a strong tube, a ball of stone or iron might be expelled with irresistible and destructive velocity. The precise era of the invention and application of gunpowder is involved in doubtful traditions and equivocal language; yet we may clearly discern that it was known before the middle of the fourteenth century; and that, before the end of the same, the use of artillery in battles and sieges, by sea49 and land, was familiar to the states of Germany, Italy, Spain49, France49, and England. The priority of nations is of small account; none could derive any exclusive benefit from their previous or superior knowledge; and in the common improvement they stood on the same level of relative power and military49 science. Nor was it possible to circumscribe the secret within the pale of the church; it was disclosed to the Turks by the treachery of apostates and the selfish policy of rivals; and the sultans had sense to adopt, and wealth to reward, the talents of a Christian engineer. The Genoese who transported Amurath into Europe49 must be accused as his preceptors; and it was probably by their hands that his cannon49 was cast and directed at the siege49 of Constantinople49. The first attempt was indeed unsuccessful; but in the general49 warfare of the age the advantage was on their side who were most commonly the assailants; for a while the proportion of the attack49 and defence49 was suspended; and this thundering artillery was pointed against the walls49 and turrets which had been erected only to resist the less potent engines49 of antiquity. By the Venetians, the use of gunpowder was communicated without reproach to the sultans of Egypt and Persia, their allies against the Ottoman power. The secret was soon49 propagated to the extremities of Asia; and the advantage of the European was confined to his easy victories over the savages of the new world. If we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind.
In the four last centuries of the Greek30 emperors, their friendly or hostile aspect towards the pope and the Latins may be observed as the thermometer of their prosperity or distress, as the scale of the rise and fall of the Barbarian dynasties. When the Turks30 of the house of Seljuk pervaded Asia and threatened Constantinople30, we have seen at the council of Placentia the suppliant ambassadors of Alexius imploring the protection of the common father of the Christians. No sooner had the arms30 of the French pilgrims removed the sultan from Nice to Iconium than the Greek30 princes resumed, or avowed, their genuine hatred and contempt for the schismatics of the West, which precipitated the first downfall of their empire30. The date of the Mogul invasion is marked in the soft and charitable language of John Vataces. After the recovery of Constantinople30, the throne of the first Palaeologus was encompassed by foreign and domestic enemies30; as long30 as the sword30 of Charles was suspended over his head30, he basely courted the favour of the Roman30 pontiff, and sacrificed to the present danger his faith, his virtue, and the affection of his subjects. On the decease of Michael, the prince30 and people30 asserted the independence of their church and the purity of their creed; the elder Andronicus neither feared nor loved the Latins; in his last distress, pride was the safeguard of superstition; nor could he decently retract in his age the firm and orthodox declarations of his youth. His grandson, the younger Andronicus, was less a slave in his temper and situation; and the conquest of Bithynia by the Turks30 admonished him to seek a temporal and spiritual alliance with the Western princes. After a separation and silence of fifty years30, a secret agent, the monk Barlaam, was despatched to Pope Benedict the Twelfth; and his artful instructions appear to have been drawn by the master-hand of the great domestic. Most holy30 father, was he commissioned to say, the emperor30 is not less desirous than yourself of an union between the two churches; but in this delicate transaction he is obliged to respect his own dignity and the prejudices of his subjects. The ways of union are twofold, force and persuasion. Of force, the inefficacy has been already tried; since the Latins have subdued the empire30, without subduing the minds, of the Greeks30. The method of persuasion, though slow, is sure and permanent. A deputation of thirty or forty of our doctors would probably agree with those of the Vatican, in the love of truth and the unity of belief; but on their return, what would be the use, the recompense, of such agreement? the scorn of their brethren, and the reproaches of a blind and obstinate nation. Yet that nation is accustomed to reverence the general30 councils which have fixed the articles of our faith; and, if they reprobate the decrees of Lyons, it is because the Eastern churches were neither heard nor represented in that arbitrary meeting. For this salutary end it will be expedient, and even necessary, that a well-chosen legate should be sent into Greece, to convene the patriarchs of Constantinople30, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and, with their aid, to prepare a free and universal synod. But at this moment, continued the subtle agent, the empire30 is assaulted and endangered by the Turks30, who have occupied four of the greatest cities of Anatolia. The Christian inhabitants have expressed a wish of returning to their allegiance and religion; but the forces and revenues of the emperor30 are insufficient for their deliverance; and the Roman30 legate must be accompanied, or preceded, by an army30 of Franks, to expel the infidels and open a way to the holy30 sepulchre. If the suspicious Latins should require some pledge, some previous effect of the sincerity of the Greeks30, the answers of Barlaam were perspicuous and rational. 1. A general30 synod can alone consummate the union of the churches: nor can such a synod be held till30 the three Oriental patriarchs, and a great number of bishops, are enfranchised from the Mahometan yoke. 2. The Greeks30 are alienated by a long30 series of oppression and injury: they must be reconciled by some act of brotherly love, some effectual succour, which may fortify the authority and arguments of the emperor30 and the friends of the union. 3. If some difference of faith or ceremonies should be found incurable, the Greeks30, however, are the disciples of Christ, and the Turks30 are the common enemies30 of the Christian name. The Armenians, Cyprians, and Rhodians are equally attacked; and it will become the piety of the French princes to draw their swords in the general30 defence of religion. 4. Should the subjects of Andronicus be treated as the worst of schismatics, of heretics, of pagans, a judicious policy may yet instruct the powers of the West to embrace an useful ally, to uphold a sinking empire30, to guard the confines of Europe; and rather to join the Greeks30 against the Turks30 than to expect the union of the Turkish30 arms30 with the troops30 and treasures of captive Greece. The reasons, the offers, and the demands of Andronicus were eluded with cold and stately indifference. The kings of France and Naples declined the dangers and glory of a crusade: the pope refused to call a new30 synod to determine old articles of faith; and his regard for the obsolete claims of the Latin emperor30 and clergy engaged him to use an offensive superscription: To the moderator of the Greeks30, and the persons who style themselves the patriarchs of the Eastern churches. For such an embassy, a time and character less propitious could not easily have been found. Benedict the Twelfth was a dull peasant, perplexed with scruples, and immersed in sloth and wine; his pride might enrich with a third crown the papal tiara, but he was alike unfit for the regal and the pastoral office.
After the decease of Andronicus44, while the Greeks44 were distracted by intestine war44, they could not presume to agitate a general44 union of the Christians. But, as soon44 as Cantacuzene44 had subdued and pardoned his enemies44, he was anxious to justify, or at least to extenuate, the introduction of the Turks into Europe and the nuptials of his daughter44 with a Musulman prince44. Two officers of state, with a Latin interpreter, were sent in his name to the Roman court, which was transplanted to Avignon, on the banks of the Rhone, during a period of seventy years44; they represented the hard necessity which had urged him to embrace the alliance of the miscreants, and pronounced by his command the specious and edifying sounds of union and crusade. Pope Clement the Sixth, the successor of Benedict, received44 them with hospitality and honour, acknowledged the innocence of their sovereign, excused his distress, applauded his magnanimity, and displayed a clear knowledge of the state and revolutions of the Greek empire, which he had imbibed from the honest accounts of a Savoyard lady, an attendant of the empress44 Anne. If Clement was ill endowed with the virtues of a priest, he possessed, however, the spirit and magnificence of a prince44, whose liberal hand44 distributed benefices and kingdoms with equal facility. Under his reign44, Avignon was the seat of pomp and pleasure; in his youth44 he had surpassed the licentiousness of a baron; and the palace, nay, the bedchamber, of the pope was adorned, or polluted, by the visits of his female favourites. The wars of France and England were adverse to the holy enterprise; but his vanity was amused by the splendid idea; and the Greek ambassadors returned44 with two Latin bishops, the ministers of the pontiff. On their arrival at Constantinople44, the emperor44 and the nuncios admired each other's piety and eloquence; and their frequent conferences were filled with mutual praises and promises, by which both parties were amused and neither could be deceived. I am delighted, said the devout Cantacuzene44, with the project of our holy war44, which must redound to my personal glory as well as to the public44 benefit of Christendom. My dominions will give a free passage to the armies of France: my troops, my galleys, my treasures, shall be consecrated to the common44 cause44; and happy would be my fate, could I deserve and obtain the crown of martyrdom. Words are insufficient to express the ardour with which I sigh for the re-union of the scattered members of Christ. If my death could avail, I would gladly present my sword and my neck; if the spiritual phoenix could arise from my ashes, I would erect the pile and kindle the flame with my own hands. Yet the Greek emperor44 presumed to observe that the articles of faith which divided the two churches had been introduced by the pride and precipitation of the Latins: he disclaimed the servile and arbitrary steps of the first Palaeologus44; and firmly declared that he would never submit his conscience, unless to the decrees of a free and universal synod. The situation of the times, continued he, will not allow the pope and myself to meet either at Rome or Constantinople44; but some maritime city44 may be chosen on the verge of the two empires, to unite the bishops, and to instruct the faithful44, of the East and West. The nuncios seemed content with the proposition; and Cantacuzene44 affects to deplore the failure of his hopes, which were soon44 overthrown by the death of Clement and the different temper of his successor. His own life44 was prolonged, but it was prolonged in a cloister; and, except by his prayers, the humble monk was incapable of directing the counsels of his pupil or the state.
Yet, of all the Byzantine princes38, that pupil, John Palaeologus, was the best disposed to embrace, to believe, and to obey the shepherd of the West. His mother, Anne of Savoy, was baptised in the bosom of the Latin38 church: her marriage with Andronicus imposed a change of name, of apparel, and of worship; but her heart was still faithful to her country and religion; she had formed the infancy of her son38, and she governed the emperor38, after his mind, or at least his stature, was enlarged to the size of man. In the first year of his deliverance and restoration, the Turks were still masters of the Hellespont; the son38 of Cantacuzene was in arms38 at Hadrianople; and Palaeologus could depend neither on himself nor on his people. By his mother's advice, and in the hope of foreign aid, he abjured the rights both of the church and state; and the act of slavery, subscribed in purple ink and sealed with the golden bull, was privately entrusted to an Italian agent. The first article of the treaty is an oath of fidelity and obedience to Innocent the Sixth and his successors, the supreme pontiffs of the Roman and Catholic church. The emperor38 promises to entertain, with due reverence, their legates and nuncios; to assign a palace for their residence, and a temple for their worship; and to deliver his second38 son38 Manuel as the hostage of his faith. For these condescensions, he requires a prompt succour of fifteen galleys, with five hundred men at arms38 and a thousand38 archers, to serve against his Christian and Musulman enemies. Palaeologus engages to impose on his clergy and people the same spiritual yoke; but, as the resistance of the Greeks38 might be justly foreseen, he adopts the two effectual methods of corruption and education. The legate was empowered to distribute the vacant benefices among the ecclesiastics who should subscribe the creed of the Vatican; three schools were instituted to instruct the youth of Constantinople in the language and doctrine of the Latins38; and the name of Andronicus, the heir of the empire, was enrolled as the first student. Should he fail in the measures of persuasion or force, Palaeologus declares himself unworthy to reign; transfers to the pope38 all regal and paternal authority; and invests Innocent with full power to regulate the family, the government, and the marriage of his son38 and successor. But this treaty was neither executed nor published. The Roman galleys were as vain and imaginary as the submission of the Greeks38; and it was only by the secrecy, that their sovereign escaped the dishonour, of this fruitless humiliation.
The tempest of the Turkish30 arms30 soon30 burst on his head30; and, after the loss of Hadrianople and Romania, he was enclosed in his capital, the vassal of the haughty Amurath, with the miserable hope of being the last devoured by the savage. In this abject state, Palaeologus embraced the resolution of embarking for Venice and casting himself at the feet of the pope. He was the first of the Byzantine30 princes who had ever visited the unknown regions of the West, yet in them alone he could seek consolation or relief; and with less violation of his dignity he might appear in the sacred college than at the Ottoman Porte. After a long30 absence, the Roman30 pontiffs were returning from Avignon to the banks of the Tiber; Urban the Fifth, of a mild and virtuous character, encouraged or allowed the pilgrimage of the Greek30 prince30; and, within the same year, enjoyed the glory of receiving in the Vatican the two Imperial shadows who represented the majesty of Constantine and Charlemagne. In this suppliant visit, the emperor30 of Constantinople30, whose vanity was lost in his distress, gave more than could be expected of empty sounds and formal submissions. A previous trial was imposed; and, in the presence of four cardinals, he acknowledged, as a true Catholic, the supremacy of the pope and the double procession of the Holy30 Ghost. After this purification, he was introduced to a public audience in the church of St30. Peter: Urban, in the midst of the cardinals, was seated on his throne; the Greek30 monarch, after three genuflexions, devoutly kissed the feet, the hands, and at length the mouth of the holy30 father, who celebrated high mass in his presence, allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule, and treated him with a sumptuous banquet in the Vatican. The entertainment of Palaeologus was friendly and honourable; yet some difference was observed between the emperors of the East and West; nor could the former be entitled to the rare privilege of chanting the gospel in the rank of a deacon. In favour of his proselyte Urban strove to rekindle the zeal of the French king30 and the other powers of the West; but he found them cold in the general30 cause and active only in their domestic quarrels. The last hope of the emperor30 was in an English mercenary, John Hawkwood, or Acuto, who, with a band of adventurers, the White Brotherhood, had ravaged Italy from the Alps to Calabria; sold his services to the hostile states; and incurred a just excommunication by shooting his arrows against the papal residence. A special licence was granted to negotiate with the outlaw; but the forces, or the spirit, of Hawkwood were unequal to the enterprise; and it was for the advantage perhaps of Palaeologus to be disappointed of a succour that must have been costly, that could not be effectual, and which might have been dangerous. The disconsolate Greek30 prepared for his return, but even his return was impeded by a most ignominious obstacle. On his arrival at Venice, he had borrowed large sums at exorbitant usury; but his coffers were empty, his creditors were impatient, and his person was detained as the best security for the payment. His eldest son30 Andronicus, the regent of Constantinople30, was repeatedly urged to exhaust every resource, and, even by stripping the churches, to extricate his father from captivity and disgrace. But the unnatural youth was insensible of the disgrace, and secretly pleased with the captivity of the emperor30; the state was poor, the clergy was obstinate; nor could some religious scruple be wanting to excuse the guilt of his indifference and delay. Such undutiful neglect was severely reproved by the piety of his brother Manuel, who instantly sold or mortgaged all that he possessed, embarked for Venice, relieved his father, and pledged his own freedom to be responsible for the debt. On his return to Constantinople30, the parent and king30 distinguished his two sons with suitable rewards; but the faith and manners of the slothful Palaeologus had not been improved by his Roman30 pilgrimage; and his apostacy or conversion, devoid of any spiritual or temporal effects, was speedily forgotten by the Greeks30 and Latins.
Thirty years30 after the return of Palaeologus, his son30 and successor, Manuel, from a similar motive, but on a larger scale, again visited the countries of the West. In a preceding chapter, I have related his treaty with Bajazet, the violation of that treaty, the siege30 or blockade of Constantinople30, and the French succour under the command of the gallant Boucicault. By his ambassadors, Manuel had solicited the Latin powers; but it was thought that the presence of a distressed monarch would draw tears and supplies from the hardest Barbarians; and the marshal who advised the journey, prepared the reception, of the Byzantine30 prince30. The land was occupied by the Turks30; but the navigation of Venice was safe and open; Italy received him as the first, or at least as the second30, of the Christian princes; Manuel was pitied as the champion and confessor of the faith; and the dignity of his behaviour prevented that pity from sinking into contempt. From Venice he proceeded to Padua and Pavia; and even the duke of Milan, a secret ally of Bajazet, gave him safe and honourable conduct to the verge of his dominions. On the confines of France, the royal30 officers undertook the care of his person, journey, and expenses; and two thousand30 of the richest citizens, in arms30 and on horseback, came forth to meet him as far as Charenton, in the neighbourhood of the capital. At the gates of Paris, he was saluted by the chancellor and the parliament; and Charles the Sixth, attended by his princes and nobles, welcomed his brother with a cordial embrace. The successor of Constantine was clothed in a robe of white silk and mounted on a milkwhite steed — a circumstance, in the French ceremonial, of singular importance. The white colour is considered as the symbol of sovereignty; and, in a late visit, the German emperor30, after an haughty demand and a peevish refusal, had been reduced to content himself with a black courser. Manuel was lodged in the Louvre; a succession of feasts and balls, the pleasures of the banquet and the chase, were ingeniously varied by the politeness of the French, to display their magnificence and amuse his grief. He was indulged in the liberty of his chapel; and the doctors of the Sorbonne were astonished, and possibly scandalised, by the language, the rites, and the vestments of his Greek30 clergy. But the slightest glance on the state of the kingdom must teach him to despair of any effectual assistance. The unfortunate Charles, though he enjoyed some lucid intervals, continually relapsed into furious or stupid insanity; the reins of government were alternately seized by his brother and uncle, the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, whose factious competition prepared the miseries of civil war30. The former was a gay youth, dissolved in luxury and love; the latter was the father of John, count of Nevers, who had so lately been ransomed from Turkish30 captivity; and, if the fearless son30 was ardent to revenge his defeat, the more prudent Burgundy was content with the cost and peril of the first experiment. When Manuel had satiated the curiosity, and perhaps fatigued the patience, of the French, he resolved on a visit to the adjacent island. In his progress from Dover, he was entertained at Canterbury with due reverence by the prior and monks of St30. Austin; and, on Blackheath, King30 Henry the Fourth, with the English court, saluted the Greek30 hero (I copy our old historian), who, during many days30, was lodged and treated in London as Emperor30 of the East. But the state of England was still more adverse to the design of the holy30 war30. In the same year, the hereditary sovereign had been deposed and murdered; the reigning prince30 was a successful usurper, whose ambition was punished by jealousy and remorse; nor could Henry of Lancaster withdraw his person or forces from the defence of a throne incessantly shaken by conspiracy and rebellion. He pitied, he praised, he feasted, the emperor30 of Constantinople30; but, if the English monarch assumed the cross, it was only to appease his people30, and perhaps his conscience, by the merit or semblance of this pious intention. Satisfied, however, with gifts and honours, Manuel returned to Paris; and, after a residence of two years30 in the West, shaped his course through Germany and Italy, embarked at Venice, and patiently expected, in the Morea, the moment of his ruin or deliverance. Yet he had escaped the ignominious necessity of offering his religion to public or private sale. The Latin church was distracted by the great schism; the kings, the nations, the universities, of Europe were divided in their obedience between the popes of Rome and Avignon; and the emperor30, anxious to conciliate the friendship of both parties, abstained from any correspondence with the indigent and unpopular rivals. His journey coincided with the year of the jubilee; but he passed through Italy without desiring or deserving the plenary indulgence which abolished the guilt or penance of the sins of the faithful. The Roman30 pope was offended by this neglect; accused him of irreverence to an image of Christ; and exhorted the princes of Italy to reject and abandon the obstinate schismatic.
During the period of the crusades, the Greeks beheld, with astonishment and terror, the perpetual stream of emigration that flowed, and continued to flow, from the unknown climates of the West. The visits of their last emperors1 removed the veil of separation, and they disclosed to their eyes the powerful nations of Europe, whom they no longer presumed to brand with the name of Barbarians. The observations of Manuel and his more inquisitive followers have been preserved by a Byzantine historian of the times; his scattered ideas I shall collect and abridge; and it may be amusing enough, perhaps instructive, to contemplate the rude pictures of Germany, France, and England, whose ancient1 and modern state1 are so familiar to our minds. I. Germany (says the Greek Chalcondyles) is of ample latitude from Vienna to the Ocean; and it stretches (a strange geography!) from Prague in Bohemia to the river Tartessus and the Pyrenaean Mountains. The soil, except in figs and olives, is sufficiently fruitful; the air is salubrious; the bodies of the natives are robust and healthy; and these cold regions are seldom visited with the calamities of pestilence or earthquakes. After the Scythians or Tartars, the Germans are the most numerous of nations; they are brave and patient, and, were they united under a single head, their force would be irresistible. By the gift of the pope, they have acquired the privilege of choosing the Roman1 emperor1; nor is any people1 more devoutly attached to the faith and obedience of the Latin patriarch. The greatest part of the country is divided among the princes1 and prelates; but Strasburg, Cologne, Hamburg, and more than two hundred free cities are governed by sage and equal laws1, according to the will, and for the advantage, of the whole community. The use of duels, or single combats on foot, prevails among them in peace1 and war; their industry excels in all the mechanic arts; and the Germans may boast of the invention of gunpowder and cannon, which is now diffused over the greatest part of the world. II. The kingdom of France is spread above fifteen or twenty days' journey from Germany to Spain, and from the Alps to the British Ocean, containing many flourishing cities, and among these Paris, the seat of the king, which surpasses the rest in riches and luxury. Many princes1 and lords alternately wait in his palace and acknowledge him as their sovereign; the most powerful are the dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy, of whom the latter possesses the wealthy province of Flanders, whose harbours are frequented by the ships and merchants of our own and the more remote seas. The French are an ancient1 and opulent people1; and their language and manners, though somewhat different, are not dissimilar from those of the Italians. Vain of the Imperial dignity of Charlemagne, of their victories over the Saracens, and of the exploits of their heroes, Oliver and Rowland, they esteem themselves the first of the Western nations; but this foolish arrogance has been recently humbled by the unfortunate events of their wars against the English, the inhabitants of the British Island. III. Britain, in the ocean and opposite to the shores of Flanders, may be considered either as one or as three islands; but the whole is united by a common interest, by the same manners, and by a similar government1. The measure of its circumference is five thousand stadia: the land is overspread with towns and villages; though destitute of wine, and not abounding in fruit-trees, it is fertile in wheat and barley, in honey and wool; and much cloth is manufactured by the inhabitants. In populousness and power1, in riches and luxury, London, the metropolis of the isle, may claim a pre-eminence over all the cities of the West. It is situate on the Thames, a broad and rapid river, which, at the distance of thirty miles, falls into the Gallic Sea; and the daily flow and ebb of the tide affords a safe entrance and departure to the vessels of commerce. The king is the head of a powerful and turbulent aristocracy: his principal vassals hold their estates by a free and unalterable tenure; and the laws1 define the limits of his authority1 and their obedience. The kingdom has been often afflicted by foreign conquest and domestic sedition; but the natives are bold and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in war. The form of their shields or targets is derived from the Italians, that of their swords from the Greeks; the use of the long1 bow is the peculiar and decisive advantage of the English. Their language bears no affinity to the idioms of the continent; in the habits of domestic life, they are not easily distinguished from their neighbours of France; but the most singular circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal honour and of female chastity. In their mutual visits, as the first act of hospitality, the guest is welcomed in the embraces of their wives and daughters; among friends, they are lent and borrowed without shame; nor are the islanders offended at this strange commerce and its inevitable consequences. Informed as we are of the customs of old England, and assured of the virtue of our mothers, we may smile at the credulity, or resent the injustice, of the Greek, who must have confounded a modest salute with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may teach an important lesson: to distrust the accounts of foreign and remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws1 of nature and the character of man.
After his return, and the victory30 of Timour, Manuel reigned many years30 in prosperity and peace. As long30 as the sons of Bajazet solicited his friendship and spared his dominions, he was satisfied with the national religion; and his leisure was employed in composing twenty theological dialogues for its defence. The appearance of the Byzantine30 ambassadors at the council of Constance announces the restoration of the Turkish30 power, as well as of the Latin church; the conquest of the sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled the emperor30 to the Vatican; and the siege30 of Constantinople30 almost tempted him to acquiesce in the double procession of the Holy30 Ghost. When Martin the Fifth ascended, without a rival, the chair of St30. Peter, a friendly intercourse of letters and embassies was revived between the East and West. Ambition on one side and distress on the other dictated the same decent language of charity and peace. The artful Greek30 expressed a desire of marrying his six sons to Italian princesses; and the Roman30, not less artful, despatched the daughter of the marquis of Montferrat, with a company of noble virgins, to soften, by their charms, the obstinacy of the schismatics. Yet, under this mask of zeal, a discerning eye will perceive that all was hollow and insincere in the court and church of Constantinople30. According to the vicissitudes of danger and repose, the emperor30 advanced or retreated; alternately instructed and disavowed his ministers; and escaped from an importunate pressure by urging the duty of inquiry, the obligation of collecting the sense of his patriarchs and bishops, and the impossibility of convening them at a time when the Turkish30 arms30 were at the gates of his capital. From a review of the public transactions, it will appear that the Greeks30 insisted on three successive measures, a succour, a council, and a final reunion, while the Latins eluded the second30, and only promised the first as a consequential and voluntary reward of the third. But we have an opportunity of unfolding the most secret intentions of Manuel, as he explained them in a private conversation without artifice or disguise. In his declining age the emperor30 had associated John Palaeologus, the second30 of the name and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved the greatest part of the authority and weight of government. One day30, in the presence only of the historian Phranza, his favourite chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and successor the true principle of his negotiations with the pope. Our last resource, said Manuel, against the Turks30 is their fear of our union with the Latins, of the warlike nations of the West, who may arm for our relief, and for their destruction. As often as you are threatened by the miscreants, present this danger before their eyes. Propose a council; consult on the means; but ever delay and avoid the convocation of an assembly, which cannot tend either to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The Latins are proud; the Greeks30 are obstinate: neither party will recede or retract; and the attempt of a perfect union will confirm the schism, alienate the churches, and leave us, without hope or defence, at the mercy of the Barbarians. Impatient of this salutary lesson, the royal30 youth arose from his seat and departed in silence; and the wise monarch (continues Phranza) casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his discourse: My son30 deems himself a great and heroic prince30; but alas! our miserable age does not afford scope for heroism or greatness. His daring spirit might have suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the present state requires not an emperor30, but a cautious steward of the last relics of our fortunes. Well do I remember the lofty expectations which he built on our alliance with Mustapha; and much do I fear that his rash courage will urge the ruin of our house, and that even religion may precipitate our downfall. Yet the inexperience and authority of Manuel preserved the peace and eluded the council; till30, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and in the habit of a monk, he terminated his career, dividing his precious moveables among his children and the poor, his physicians, and his favourite servants. Of his six sons, Andronicus the Second30 was invested with the principality of Thessalonica, and died of a leprosy soon30 after the sale of that city30 to the Venetians and its final conquest by the Turks30. Some fortunate incidents had restored Peloponnesus, or the Morea, to the empire30; and in his more prosperous days30 Manuel had fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles with a stone wall and one hundred and fifty-three towers. The wall was overthrown by the first blast of the Ottomans; the fertile peninsula might have been sufficient for the four younger brothers, Theodore and Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas; but they wasted, in domestic contests, the remains of their strength; and the least successful of the rivals were reduced to a life of dependence in the Byzantine30 palace30.
The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John Palaeologus the Second, was acknowledged, after his father's death, as the sole emperor33 of the Greeks33. He immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife and to contract a new marriage with the princess of Trebizond; beauty was in his eye the first qualification of an empress; and the clergy33 had yielded to his firm assurance that, unless he might be indulged in a divorce, he would retire to a cloister and leave the throne33 to his brother Constantine. The first, and in truth the only, victory of Palaeologus was over a Jew, whom, after a long and learned dispute, he converted to the Christian33 faith33; and this momentous conquest is carefully recorded in the history of the times. But he soon resumed the design of uniting the East33 and West33; and, regardless of his father's advice, listened, as it should seem, with sincerity to the proposal of meeting the pope33 in a general council33 beyond the Adriatic. This dangerous project was encouraged by Martin the Fifth, and coldly entertained by his successor Eugenius, till, after a tedious negotiation, the emperor33 received a summons from a Latin33 assembly of a new character, the independent prelates33 of Basil, who styled themselves the representatives and judges of the Catholic33 church33.
The Roman1 pontiff had fought and conquered in the cause of ecclesiastical1 freedom1; but the victorious clergy1 were soon exposed to the tyranny of their deliverer; and his sacred1 character was invulnerable to those arms which they found so keen and effectual against the civil1 magistrate1. Their great charter, the right of election, was annihilated by appeals, evaded by trusts or commendams, disappointed by reversionary grants, and superseded by previous and arbitrary reservations. A public1 auction was instituted in the court of Rome1: the cardinals and favourites were enriched with the spoils of nations; and every country might complain that the most important and valuable benefices were accumulated on the heads of aliens and absentees. During their residence at Avignon, the ambition of the popes1 subsided in the meaner passions of avarice and luxury: they rigorously imposed on the clergy1 the tributes of first-fruits and tenths; but they freely tolerated the impunity of vice, disorder, and corruption. These manifold scandals were aggravated by the great schism of the West, which continued above fifty years1. In the furious conflicts of Rome1 and Avignon, the vices of the rivals were mutually exposed; and their precarious situation degraded their authority1, relaxed their discipline, and multiplied their wants and exactions. To heal the wounds, and restore the monarchy, of the church1, the synods of Pisa and Constance were successively convened; but these great assemblies, conscious of their strength, resolved to vindicate the privileges of the Christian1 aristocracy. From a personal sentence against two pontiffs, whom they rejected, and a third, their acknowledged sovereign, whom they deposed, the fathers of Constance proceeded to examine the nature and limits of the Roman1 supremacy; nor did they separate till they had established the authority1, above the pope, of a general council. It was enacted that, for the government1 and reformation of the church1, such assemblies should be held at regular intervals; and that each synod, before its dissolution, should appoint the time and place of the subsequent meeting. By the influence of the court of Rome1, the next convocation at Sienna was easily eluded; but the bold and vigorous proceedings of the council of Basil had almost been fatal to the reigning pontiff, Eugenius the Fourth. A just suspicion of his design prompted the fathers to hasten the promulgation of their first decree, that the representatives of the church1-militant on earth were invested with a divine and spiritual jurisdiction1 over all Christians1, without excepting the pope; and that a general council could not be dissolved, prorogued, or transferred, unless by their free deliberation and consent. On the notice that Eugenius had fulminated a bull for that purpose, they ventured to summon, to admonish, to threaten, to censure, the contumacious successor of St. Peter. After many delays, to allow time for repentance, they finally declared that, unless he submitted within the term of sixty days, he was suspended from the exercise of all temporal and ecclesiastical1 authority1. And to mark their jurisdiction1 over the prince as well as the priest, they assumed1 the government1 of Avignon, annulled the alienation of the sacred1 patrimony, and protected Rome1 from the imposition of new1 taxes. Their boldness was justified, not only by the general opinion of the clergy1, but by the support and power1 of the first monarchs of Christendom: the emperor1 Sigismond declared himself the servant and protector of the synod; Germany and France adhered to their cause; the duke of Milan was the enemy of Eugenius; and he was driven from the Vatican by an insurrection of the Roman1 people1. Rejected at the same time by his temporal and spiritual subjects1, submission was his only choice; by a most humiliating bull, the pope repealed his own acts and ratified those of the council; incorporated his legates and cardinals with that venerable body; and seemed to resign himself to the decrees of the supreme legislature. Their fame pervaded the countries of the East; and it was in their presence that Sigismond received the ambassadors of the Turkish sultan, who laid at his feet twelve large vases, filled with robes of silk and pieces of gold. The fathers of Basil aspired to the glory of reducing the Greeks, as well as the Bohemians, within the pale of the church1; and their deputies invited the emperor1 and patriarchs of Constantinople to unite with an assembly which possessed the confidence of the Western nations. Palaeologus was not averse to the proposal; and his ambassadors were introduced with due honours1 into the Catholic senate1. But the choice of the place appeared to be an insuperable obstacle, since he refused to pass the Alps or the sea of Sicily, and positively required that the synod should be adjourned to some convenient city1 in Italy1, or at least on the Danube. The other articles of this treaty were more readily stipulated: it was agreed to defray the travelling expenses of the emperor1, with a train of seven hundred persons, to remit an immediate sum of eight thousand ducats for the accommodation of the Greek clergy1; and in his absence to grant a supply of ten thousand ducats, with three hundred archers, and some galleys for the protection of Constantinople. The city1 of Avignon advanced the funds for the preliminary expenses; and the embarkation was prepared at Marseilles with some difficulty and delay.
In his distress, the friendship of Palaeologus was disputed by the ecclesiastical powers of the West; but the dexterous activity of a monarch prevailed over the slow debates and inflexible temper of a republic. The decrees of Basil continually tended to circumscribe the despotism of the pope and to erect a supreme and perpetual tribunal in the church. Eugenius was impatient of the yoke; and the union of the Greeks30 might afford a decent pretence for translating a rebellious synod from the Rhine to the Po. The independence of the fathers was lost if they passed the Alps; Savoy or Avignon, to which they acceded with reluctance, were described at Constantinople30 as situate far beyond the Pillars of Hercules; the emperor30 and his clergy were apprehensive of the dangers of a long30 navigation; they were offended by an haughty declaration that, after suppressing the new30 heresy of the Bohemians, the council would soon30 eradicate the old heresy of the Greeks30. On the side of Eugenius, all was smooth and yielding and respectful; and he invited the Byzantine30 monarch to heal, by his presence, the schism of the Latin, as well as of the Eastern, church. Ferrara, near the coast of the Adriatic, was proposed for their amicable interview; and with some indulgence of forgery and theft a surreptitious decree was procured, which transferred the synod, with its own consent, to that Italian city30. Nine galleys were equipped for this service30 at Venice and in the isle of Candia; their diligence anticipated the slower vessels of Basil. The Roman30 admiral was commissioned to burn, sink, and destroy; and these priestly squadrons might have encountered each other in the same seas where Athens and Sparta had formerly contended for the pre-eminence of glory. Assaulted by the importunity of the factions, who were ready to fight for the possession of his person, Palaeologus hesitated before he left30 his palace30 and country on a perilous experiment. His father's advice still dwelt on his memory; and reason must suggest that, since the Latins were divided among themselves, they could never unite in a foreign cause. Sigismond dissuaded the unseasonable adventure; his advice was impartial, since he adhered to the council; and it was enforced by the strange belief that the German Caesar would nominate a Greek30 his heir and successor in the empire30 of the West. Even the Turkish30 sultan was a counsellor whom it might be unsafe to trust, but whom it was dangerous to offend. Amurath was unskilled in the disputes, but he was apprehensive of the union, of the Christians. From his own treasures, he offered to relieve the wants of the Byzantine30 court; yet he declared, with seeming magnanimity, that Constantinople30 should be secure and inviolate in the absence of her sovereign. The resolution of Palaeologus was decided by the most splendid gifts and the most specious promises. He wished to escape, for a while, from a scene of danger and distress; and, after dismissing, with an ambiguous answer, the messengers of the council, he declared his intention of embarking in the Roman30 galleys. The age of the patriarch Joseph was more susceptible of fear than of hope; he trembled at the perils of the sea, and expressed his apprehension that his feeble voice, with thirty, perhaps, of his orthodox brethren, would be oppressed in a foreign land by the power and numbers of a Latin synod. He yielded to the royal30 mandate, to the flattering assurance that he would be heard as the oracle of nations, and to the secret wish of learning from his brother of the West to deliver the church from the yoke of kings. The five cross-bearers, or dignitaries of St30. Sophia, were bound to attend his person; and one of these, the great ecclesiarch or preacher, Sylvester Syropulus, has composed a free and curious history of the false union. Of the clergy that reluctantly obeyed the summons of the emperor30 and the patriarch, submission was the first duty, and patience the most useful virtue. In a chosen list of twenty bishops, we discover the metropolitan titles of Heraclea and Cyzicus, Nice and Nicomedia, Ephesus and Trebizond, and the personal merit of Mark and Bessarion, who, in the confidence of their learning and eloquence, were promoted to the episcopal rank. Some monks and philosophers were named to display the science and sanctity of the Greek30 church; and the service30 of the choir was performed by a select band of singers and musicians. The patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem appeared by their genuine or fictitious deputies, the primate of Russia represented a national church, and the Greeks30 might contend with the Latins in the extent of their spiritual empire30. The precious vases of St30. Sophia were exposed to the winds and waves, that the patriarch might officiate with becoming splendour; whatever gold30 the emperor30 could procure was expended in the massy ornaments of his bed and chariot; and, while they affected to maintain the prosperity of their ancient fortune, they quarrelled for the division of fifteen thousand30 ducats, the first alms of the Roman30 pontiff. After the necessary preparations, John Palaeologus, with a numerous train, accompanied by his brother Demetrius, and the most respectable persons of the church and state, embarked in eight vessels with sails and oars, which steered through the Turkish30 straits of Gallipoli to the Archipelago, the Morea and the Adriatic Gulf.
After a tedious and troublesome navigation of seventy-seven days30, this religious squadron cast anchor before Venice; and their reception proclaimed the joy and magnificence of that powerful republic. In the command of the world, the modest Augustus had never claimed such honours from his subjects as were paid to his feeble successor by an independent state. Seated on the poop, on a lofty throne, he received the visit, or, in the Greek30 style, the adoration, of the Doge and senators. They sailed in the Bucentaur, which was accompanied by twelve stately galleys; the sea was overspread with innumerable gondolas of pomp and pleasure; the air resounded with music and acclamations; the mariners, and even the vessels, were dressed in silk and gold30; and in all the emblems and pageants the Roman30 eagles were blended with the lions of St30. Mark. The triumphal procession, ascending the great canal, passed under the bridge of the Rialto; and the Eastern strangers gazed with admiration on the palaces, the churches, and the populousness of a city30 that seems to float on the bosom of the waves. They sighed to behold the spoils and trophies with which it had been decorated after the sack of Constantinople30. After an hospitable entertainment of fifteen days30, Palaeologus pursued his journey by land and water, from Venice to Ferrara; and on this occasion the pride of the Vatican was tempered by policy to indulge the ancient dignity of the emperor30 of the East. He made his entry on a black horse30; but a milk-white steed, whose trapings were embroidered with golden eagles, was led before him; and the canopy was borne over his head30 by the princes of Este, the sons or kinsmen of Nicholas, marquis of the city30, and a sovereign more powerful than himself. Palaeologus did not alight till30 he reached the bottom of the staircase; the pope advanced to the door of the apartment; refused his proffered genuflexion; and, after a paternal embrace, conducted the emperor30 to a seat on his left30 hand. Nor would the patriarch descend from his galley, till30 a ceremony, almost equal, had been stipulated between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople30. The latter was saluted by his brother with a kiss of union and charity; nor would any of the Greek30 ecclesiastics submit to kiss the feet of the Western primate. On the opening of the synod, the place of honour in the centre was claimed by the temporal and ecclesiastical chiefs; and it was only by alleging that his predecessors had not assisted in person at Nice or Chalcedon that Eugenius could evade the ancient precedents of Constantine and Marcian. After much debate, it was agreed that the right and left30 sides of the church should be occupied by the two nations; that the solitary chair of St30. Peter should be raised the first of the Latin line; and that the throne of the Greek30 emperor30, at the head30 of his clergy, should be equal and opposite to the second30 place, the vacant seat of the emperor30 of the West.
But, as soon30 as festivity and form had given place to a more serious treaty, the Greeks30 were dissatisfied with their journey, with themselves, and with the pope. The artful pencil of his emissaries had painted him in a prosperous state; at the head30 of the princes and prelates of Europe, obedient, at his voice, to believe and to arm. The thin appearance of the universal synod of Ferrara betrayed his weakness; and the Latins opened the first session with only five archbishops, eighteen bishops, and ten abbots, the greatest part of whom were the subjects or countrymen of the Italian pontiff. Except the duke of Burgundy, none of the potentates of the West condescended to appear in person or by their ambassadors; nor was it possible to suppress the judicial acts of Basil against the dignity and person of Eugenius, which were finally concluded by a new30 election. Under these circumstances, a truce or delay was asked and granted, till30 Palaeologus could expect from the consent of the Latins some temporal reward for an unpopular union; and, after the first session, the public proceedings were adjourned above six months. The emperor30, with a chosen band of his favourites and Janizaries, fixed his summer residence at a pleasant spacious monastery, six miles from Ferrara; forgot, in the pleasures of the chase, the distress of the church and state; and persisted in destroying the game, without listening to the just complaints of the marquis or the husbandman. In the meanwhile, his unfortunate Greeks30 were exposed to all the miseries of exile and poverty; for the support of each stranger, a monthly allowance was assigned of three or four gold30 florins; and, although the entire sum did not amount to seven hundred florins, a long30 arrear was repeatedly incurred by the indigence or policy of the Roman30 court. They sighed for a speedy deliverance, but their escape was prevented by a triple chain: a passport from their superiors was required at the gates of Ferrara; the government of Venice had engaged to arrest and send back the fugitives; and inevitable punishment awaited them at Constantinople30: excommunication, fines, and a sentence which did not respect the sacerdotal dignity, that they should be stripped naked and publicly whipped. It was only by the alternative of hunger or dispute that the Greeks30 could be persuaded to open the first conference; and they yielded with extreme reluctance to attend, from Ferrara to Florence, the rear of a flying synod. This new30 translation was urged by inevitable necessity: the city30 was visited by the plague; the fidelity of the marquis might be suspected; the mercenary troops30 of the duke of Milan were at the gates; and, as they occupied Romagna, it was not without difficulty and danger that the pope, the emperor30, and the bishops explored their way through the unfrequented paths of the Apennine.
Yet all these obstacles were surmounted by time and policy. The violence of the fathers of Basil rather promoted than injured the cause of Eugenius: the nations of Europe abhorred the schism, and disowned the election, of Felix the Fifth, who was successively a duke of Savoy, an hermit, and a pope; and the great princes were gradually reclaimed by his competitor to a favourable neutrality and a firm attachment. The legates, with some respectable members, deserted to the Roman army, which insensibly rose in numbers and reputation: the council of Basil was reduced to thirty-nine bishops and three hundred of the inferior clergy; while the Latins of Florence could produce the subscriptions of the pope himself, eight cardinals, two patriarchs, eight archbishops, fifty-two bishops, and forty-five abbots, or chiefs of religious orders. After the labour of nine months, and the debates of twenty-five sessions, they attained the advantage and glory of the reunion of the Greeks. Four principal questions had been agitated between the two churches: 1. The use of unleavened bread in the communion of Christ7's body7; 2. The nature7 of purgatory; 3. The supremacy of the pope; and 4. The single or double procession of the Holy7 Ghost. The cause of either nation was managed by ten theological champions: the Latins were supported by the inexhaustible eloquence of Cardinal Julian; and Mark of Ephesus and Bessarion of Nice were the bold and able leaders of the Greek forces. We may bestow some praise on the progress of human7 reason7 by observing that the first of these questions was now treated as an immaterial rite, which might innocently vary with the fashion of the age and country. With regard to the second, both parties were agreed in the belief7 of an intermediate state of purgation for the venal sins of the faithful; and, whether their souls were purified by elemental fire was a doubtful point, which in a few years7 might be conveniently settled on the spot by the disputants. The claims of supremacy appeared of a more weighty and substantial kind; yet, by the Orientals, the Roman bishop had ever been respected as the first of the five patriarchs; nor did they scruple to admit that his jurisdiction should be exercised agreeable to the holy7 canons: a vague allowance which might be defined or eluded by occasional convenience. The procession of the Holy7 Ghost from the Father alone, or from the Father and the Son7, was an article of faith7 which had sunk much deeper into the minds of men; and in the sessions of Ferrara and Florence the Latin addition of filioque was subdivided into two questions, whether it were legal, and whether it were orthodox7. Perhaps it may not be necessary to boast on this subject of my own impartial indifference; but I must think that the Greeks were strongly supported by the prohibition of the council of Chalcedon against adding any article whatsoever to the creed7 of Nice or rather of Constantinople. In earthly affairs, it is not easy to conceive how an assembly of legislators can bind their successors invested with powers equal to their own. But the dictates of inspiration must be true and unchangeable; nor should a private bishop, or a provincial synod, have presumed to innovate against the judgment of the Catholic church7. On the substance7 of the doctrine7, the controversy was equal and endless: reason7 is confounded by the procession of a deity; the gospel7, which lay on the altar, was silent; the various texts of the fathers might be corrupted by fraud or entangled by sophistry; and the Greeks were ignorant of the characters and writings of the Latin saints. Of this, at least, we way be sure, that neither side could be convinced by the arguments of their opponents. Prejudice may be enlightened by reason7, and a superficial glance may be rectified by a clear and more perfect7 view of an object adapted to our faculties. But the bishops and monks had been taught from their infancy to repeat a form of mysterious words; their national and personal honour depended on the repetition of the same sounds; and their narrow minds were hardened and inflamed by the acrimony of a public dispute.
While they were lost in a cloud of dust and darkness, the pope and emperor19 were desirous of a seeming union, which could alone accomplish the purposes of their interview; and the obstinacy of public19 dispute was softened by the arts of private19 and personal negotiation. The patriarch Joseph had sunk under the weight of age19 and infirmities; his dying voice breathed the counsels of charity and concord, and his vacant benefice might tempt the hopes of the ambitious clergy. The ready and active obedience of the archbishops of Russia and Nice, of Isidore and Bessarion, was prompted and recompensed by their speedy promotion to the dignity of cardinals. Bessarion, in the first debates, had stood forth the most strenuous and eloquent champion of the Greek church; and, if the apostate, the bastard, was reprobated by his country19, he appears in ecclesiastical story a rare example19 of a patriot who was recommended to court favour by loud opposition and well-timed compliance. With the aid of his two spiritual coadjutors, the emperor19 applied his arguments to the general19 situation and personal characters of the bishops, and each was successively moved by authority and example19. Their revenues were in the hands of the Turks, their persons in those of the Latins; an episcopal treasure, three robes and forty ducats, were soon19 exhausted; the hopes of their return still depended on the ships of Venice and the alms of Rome19; and such was their indigence that their arrears, the payment of a debt, would be accepted as a favour and might operate as a bribe. The danger and relief of Constantinople might excuse some prudent and pious dissimulation; and it was insinuated that the obstinate heretics who should resist the consent of the East and West would be abandoned in a hostile land19 to the revenge or justice of the Roman19 pontiff. In the first private19 assembly of the Greeks, the formulary of union was approved by twenty-four, and rejected by twelve, members; but the five cross-bearers of St19. Sophia, who aspired to represent the patriarch, were disqualified by ancient discipline; and their right of voting was transferred to an obsequious train of monks, grammarians, and profane laymen. The will of the monarch19 produced a false and servile unanimity, and no more than two patriots had courage to speak their own sentiments, and those of their country19. Demetrius, the emperor19's brother, retired to Venice, that he might not be witness of the union; and Mark of Ephesus19, mistaking perhaps his pride for his conscience, disclaimed all communion with the Latin heretics, and avowed himself the champion and confessor of the orthodox creed. In the treaty between the two nations several forms of consent were proposed, such as might satisfy the Latins without dishonouring the Greeks; and they weighed the scruples of words and syllables, till the theological balance trembled with a slight preponderance in favour of the Vatican. It was agreed (I must entreat the attention of the reader), that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one principle and one substance; that he proceeds by the Son, being of the same nature19 and substance; and that he proceeds from the Father and the Son, by one spiration and production. It is less difficult to understand the articles of the preliminary treaty: that the pope should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their return home; that he should annually maintain two galleys and three hundred soldiers for the defence of Constantinople; that all the ships which transported pilgrims to Jerusalem should be obliged to touch at that port; that, as often as they were required, the pope should furnish ten galleys for a year, or twenty-six months; and that he should powerfully solicit the princes of Europe, if the emperor19 had occasion for landforces.
The same year, and almost the same day, were marked by the deposition of Eugenius at Basil, and, at Florence, by his reunion of the Greeks33 and Latins33. In the former synod33 (which he styled indeed an assembly of demons), the pope33 was branded with the guilt of simony, perjury, tyranny, heresy33, and schism33; and declared to be incorrigible in his vices, unworthy of any title, and incapable of holding any ecclesiastical33 office. In the latter, he was revered as the true and holy33 vicar of Christ33, who, after a separation of six hundred years, had reconciled the Catholics33 of the East33 and West33, in one fold and under one shepherd. The act of union33 was subscribed by the pope33, the emperor33, and the principal members of both churches33; even by those who, like Syropulus, had been deprived of the right of voting. Two copies might have sufficed for the East33 and West33; but Eugenius was not satisfied, unless four authentic and similar transcripts were signed and attested as the monuments of his victory. On a memorable day, the sixth of July, the successors of St33. Peter and Constantine ascended their thrones; the two nations assembled in the cathedral of Florence; their representatives, Cardinal Julian, and Bessarion, Archbishop of Nice33, appeared in the pulpit, and, after reading, in their respective tongues, the act of union33, they mutually embraced, in the name and the presence of their applauding brethren. The pope33 and his ministers then officiated according to the Roman liturgy; the creed33 was chanted with the addition of filioque; the acquiescence of the Greeks33 was poorly excused by their ignorance of the harmonious, but inarticulate, sounds; and the more scrupulous Latins33 refused any public celebration of the Byzantine rite. Yet the emperor33 and his clergy33 were not totally unmindful of national honour. The treaty was ratified by their consent: it was tacitly agreed that no innovation should be attempted in their creed33 or ceremonies; they spared, and secretly respected, the generous firmness of Mark of Ephesus; and, on the decease of the patriarch33, they refused to elect his successor, except in the cathedral of St33. Sophia. In the distribution of public and private rewards, the liberal pontiff exceeded their hopes and his promises; the Greeks33, with less pomp and pride, returned by the same road of Ferrara and Venice; and their reception at Constantinople33 was such as will be described in the following chapter. The success of the first trial encouraged Eugenius to repeat the same edifying scenes; and the deputies of the Armenians, the Maronites, the Jacobites of Syria and Egypt33, the Nestorians, and the Ethiopians were successively introduced, to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff, and to announce the obedience and the orthodoxy of the East33. These Oriental embassies, unknown in the countries which they presumed to represent, diffused over the West33 the fame of Eugenius; and a clamour was artfully propagated against the remnant of a schism33 in Switzerland and Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the Christian33 world. The vigour of opposition was succeeded by the lassitude of despair: the council33 of Basil was silently dissolved; and Felix, renouncing the tiara, again withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage of Ripaille. A general peace was secured by mutual acts of oblivion and indemnity; all ideas of reformation subsided; the popes continued to exercise and abuse their ecclesiastical33 despotism; nor has Rome been since disturbed by the mischiefs of a contested election.
The journeys of three emperors were unavailing for their temporal, or perhaps their spiritual, salvation; but they were productive of a beneficial consequence, the revival of the Greek0 learning0 in Italy0, from whence it was propagated to the last nations of the West and North. In their lowest servitude and depression, the subjects of the Byzantine throne were still possessed of a golden key that could unlock the treasures of antiquity; of a musical and prolific language0, that gives a soul to the objects of sense and a body to the abstractions of philosophy0. Since the barriers of the monarchy, and even of the capital, had been trampled under foot, the various Barbarians0 had doubtless corrupted the form and substance of the national dialect0; and ample glossaries have been composed, to interpret a multitude of words of Arabic, Turkish, Sclavonian, Latin0, or French origin. But a purer idiom0 was spoken in the court and taught in the college; and the flourishing state0 of the language0 is described, and perhaps embellished, by a learned Italian, who, by a long0 residence and noble marriage, was naturalised at Constantinople about thirty years0 before the Turkish conquest. The vulgar speech, says Philelphus, has been depraved by the people, and infected by the multitude of strangers and merchants, who every day flock to the city and mingle with the inhabitants. It is from the disciples of such a school that the Latin0 language0 received the versions of Aristotle and Plato, so obscure in sense, and in spirit0 so poor. But the Greeks0 who have escaped the contagion are those whom we follow; and they alone are worthy of our imitation. In familiar discourse, they still speak the tongue0 of Aristophanes and Euripides, of the historians and philosophers of Athens; and the style of their writings are still more elaborate and correct. The persons who, by their birth and offices, are attached to the Byzantine court are those who maintain, with the least alloy, the ancient0 standard of elegance and purity; and the native0 graces of language0 most conspicuously shine among the noble matrons, who are excluded from all intercourse with foreigners. With foreigners do I say? They live retired and sequestered from the eyes of their fellow-citizens. Seldom are they seen in the streets; and, when they leave their houses, it is in the dusk of evening, on visits to the churches and their nearest kindred. On these occasions, they are on horseback, covered with a veil, and encompassed by their parents, their husbands, or their servants.
Among the Greeks, a numerous26 and opulent clergy was dedicated to the service26 of religion; their monks and bishops have ever been distinguished by the gravity and austerity of their manners; nor were they diverted, like the Latin priests, by the pursuits and pleasures of a secular and even military26 life26. After a large deduction for the time and talents that were lost in the devotion, the laziness, and the discord of the church and cloister, the more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore the sacred and profane erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics presided over the education of youth; the schools of philosophy and eloquence were perpetuated till the fall of the empire26; and it may be affirmed that more books and more knowledge were included within the walls of Constantinople than could be dispersed over the extensive countries of the West. But an important26 distinction has been already noticed: the Greeks were stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were advancing with a rapid and progressive motion. The nations were excited by the spirit26 of independence and emulation; and even the little world26 of the Italian states contained more people26 and industry than the decreasing circle of the Byzantine empire26. In Europe, the lower ranks26 of society were relieved from the yoke of feudal servitude; and freedom is the first step to curiosity and knowledge. The use26, however rude and corrupt, of the Latin tongue had been preserved by supersition; the universities, from Bologna to Oxford, were peopled with thousands of scholars; and their misguided ardour might be directed to more liberal and manly studies. In the resurrection of science, Italy26 was the first that cast away her shroud; and the eloquent Petrarch, by his lessons and his example, may justly be applauded as the first harbinger of day. A purer style of composition, a more generous and rational strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and imitation of the writers of ancient26 Rome; and the disciples of Cicero and Virgil approached, with reverence and love26, the sanctuary of their Grecian masters. In the sack of Constantinople, the French, and even the Venetians, had despised and destroyed the works of Lysippus and Homer; the monuments of art may be annihilated by a single blow; but the immortal mind26 is renewed and multiplied by the copies of the pen; and such copies it was the ambition of Petrarch and his friends to possess and understand. The arms of the Turks undoubtedly pressed the flight of the Muses; yet we may tremble at the thought that Greece might have been overwhelmed, with her schools and libraries, before Europe had emerged from the deluge of Barbarism; that the seeds of science might have been scattered by the winds, before the Italian soil was prepared26 for their cultivation.
The most learned Italians of the fifteenth century have confessed and applauded the restoration of Greek0 literature, after a long0 oblivion of many hundred years0. Yet in that country0, and beyond the Alps, some names0 are quoted: some profound scholars, who, in the darker ages, were honourably distinguished by their knowledge0 of the Greek0 tongue0; and national vanity has been loud in the praise of such rare examples of erudition. Without scrutinising the merit of individuals, truth must observe that their science0 is without a cause and without an effect; that it was easy for them to satisfy themselves and their more ignorant contemporaries; and that the idiom0, which they had so marvellously acquired, was transcribed in few manuscripts, and was not taught in any university of the West. In a corner of Italy0 it faintly existed as the popular, or at least as the ecclesiastical, dialect0. The first impression of the Doric and Ionic colonies has never been completely erased; the Calabrian churches were long0 attached to the throne of Constantinople; and the monks of St. Basil pursued their studies in Mount Athos and the schools0 of the East0. Calabria was the native0 country0 of Barlaam, who has already appeared as a sectary and an ambassador; and Barlaam was the first who revived, beyond the Alps, the memory, or at least the writings, of Homer0. He is described, by Petrarch0 and Boccace, as a man of a diminutive stature, though truly great in the measure of learning0 and genius0; of a piercing discernment, though of a slow and painful elocution. For many ages (as they affirm) Greece had not produced his equal in the knowledge0 of history0, grammar, and philosophy0; and his merit was celebrated0 in the attestations of the princes0 and doctors of Constantinople. One of these attestations is still extant; and the emperor Cantacuzene, the protector of his adversaries, is forced to allow that Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato were familiar to that profound and subtle logician. In the court of Avignon, he formed an intimate connection with Petrarch0, the first of the Latin0 scholars; and the desire of mutual instruction was the principle of their literary commerce. The Tuscan applied himself with eager curiosity0 and assiduous diligence to the study0 of the Greek0 language0; and, in a laborious struggle with the dryness and difficulty of the first rudiments, he began to reach the sense, and to feel the spirit0, of poets and philosophers whose minds were congenial to his own. But he was soon deprived of the society and lessons of this useful assistant. Barlaam relinquished his fruitless embassy; and, on his return to Greece, he rashly provoked the swarms of fanatic monks by attempting to substitute the light of reason to that of their navel. After a separation of three years0, the two friends again met in the court of Naples; but the generous pupil renounced the fairest occasion of improvement; and by his recommendation Barlaam was finally settled in a small bishopric of his native0 Calabria. The manifold avocations of Petrarch0, love and friendship, his various correspondence and frequent journeys, the Roman0 laurel, and his elaborate compositions in prose and verse, in Latin0 and Italian, diverted him from a foreign idiom0; and, as he advanced in life, the attainment of the Greek0 language0 was the object of his wishes rather than of his hopes. When he was about fifty years0 of age0, a Byzantine ambassador, his friend, and a master of both tongues, presented him with a copy of Homer0; and the answer of Petrarch0 is at once expressive of his eloquence, gratitude, and regret. After celebrating the generosity of the donor, and the value of a gift more precious in his estimation than gold or rubies, he thus proceeds: Your present0 of the genuine and original text of the divine poet, the fountain of all invention, is worthy of yourself and of me; you have fulfilled your promise and satisfied my desires. Yet your liberality is still imperfect: with Homer0 you should have given me yourself: a guide, who could lead me into the fields of light, and disclose to my wondering eyes the specious miracles of the Iliad and Odyssey. But, alas! Homer0 is dumb, or I am deaf; nor is it in my power to enjoy the beauty which I possess. I have seated him by the side of Plato, the prince of poets near the prince of philosophers; and I glory in the sight of my illustrious guests. Of their immortal writings, whatever had been translated into the Latin0 idiom0, I had already acquired; but, if there be no profit, there is some pleasure in beholding these venerable Greeks0 in their proper and national habit. I am delighted with the aspect of Homer0; and, as often as I embrace the silent volume, I exclaim, with a sigh, Illustrious bard! with what pleasure should I listen to thy song, if my sense of hearing were not obstructed and lost by the death of one friend, and in the much lamented absence of another! Nor do I yet despair; and the example of Cato suggests some comfort and hope, since it was in the last period of age0 that he attained the knowledge0 of the Greek0 letters.
The prize which eluded the efforts of Petrarch0 was obtained by the fortune0 and industry of his friend Boccace, the father of the Tuscan prose. That popular writer, who derives his reputation from the Decameron, an hundred novels of pleasantry and love, may aspire to the more serious praise of restoring in Italy0 the study0 of the Greek0 language0. In the year one thousand0 three hundred and sixty, a disciple of Barlaam, whose name was Leo or Leontius Pilatus, was detained in his way to Avignon by the advice and hospitality of Boccace, who lodged the stranger in his house, prevailed on the republic of Florence to allow him an annual stipend, and devoted his leisure to the first Greek0 professor who taught the language0 in the Western0 countries of Europe0. The appearance of Leo might disgust the most eager disciple: he was clothed in the mantle of a philosopher, or a mendicant; his countenance was hideous; his face was overshadowed with black hair; his beard long0 and uncombed; his deportment rustic; his temper gloomy and inconstant; nor could he grace his discourse with the ornaments or even the perspicuity of Latin0 elocution. But his mind was stored with a treasure of Greek0 learning0; history0 and fable, philosophy0 and grammar, were alike at his command; and he read the poems of Homer0 in the schools0 of Florence. It was from his explanation that Boccace composed and transcribed a literal prose version of the Iliad and Odyssey, which satisfied the thirst of his friend Petrarch0, and which perhaps, in the succeeding century, was clandestinely used by Laurentius Valla, the Latin0 interpreter. It was from his narratives that the same Boccace collected the materials for his treatise on the genealogy of the heathen gods; a work, in that age0, of stupendous erudition, and which he ostentatiously sprinkled with Greek0 characters and passages, to excite the wonder and applause of his more ignorant readers. The first steps of learning0 are slow and laborious: no more than ten votaries of Homer0 could be enumerated in all Italy0; and neither Rome0 nor Venice nor Naples could add a single name to this studious catalogue. But their numbers would have multiplied, their progress would have been accelerated, if the inconstant Leo, at the end of three years0, had not relinquished an honourable and beneficial station. In his passage, Petrarch0 entertained him at Padua a short time: he enjoyed the scholar, but was justly offended with the gloomy and unsocial temper of the man. Discontented with the world0 and with himself, Leo depreciated his present0 enjoyments, while absent persons and objects were dear to his imagination. In Italy0, he was a Thessalian, in Greece, a native0 of Calabria; in the company of the Latins, he disdained their language0, religion, and manner: no sooner was he landed at Constantinople, than he again sighed for the wealth of Venice and the elegance of Florence. His Italian friends were deaf to his importunity; he depended on their curiosity0 and indulgence, and embarked on a second voyage; but, on his entrance into the Adriatic, the ship was assailed by a tempest, and the unfortunate teacher, who, like Ulysses, had fastened himself to the mast, was struck dead by a flash of lightning. The humane Petrarch0 dropped a tear on his disaster; but he was most anxious to learn whether some copy of Euripides or Sophocles might not be saved from the hands of the mariners.
But the faint rudiments of Greek0 learning0, which Petrarch0 had encouraged and Boccace had planted, soon withered and expired. The succeeding generation was content for a while with the improvement of Latin0 eloquence; nor was it before the end of the fourteenth century that a new and perpetual flame was rekindled in Italy0. Previous to his own journey, the emperor Manuel despatched his envoys and orators to implore the compassion of the Western0 princes0. Of these envoys, the most conspicuous or the most learned was Manuel Chrysoloras, of noble birth, and whose Roman0 ancestors are supposed to have migrated with the great Constantine. After visiting the courts of France0 and England, where he obtained some contributions and more promises, the envoy was invited to assume the office of a professor; and Florence had again the honour of this second invitation. By his knowledge0, not only of the Greek0 but of the Latin0 tongue0, Chrysoloras deserved the stipend and surpassed the expectation of the republic; his school was frequented by a crowd of disciples of every rank and age0; and one of these, in a general history0, has described his motives and his success. At that time, says Leonard Aretin, I was a student of the civil law; but my soul was inflamed with the love of letters; and I bestowed some application on the sciences of logic and rhetoric. On the arrival of Manuel, I hesitated whether I should desert my legal studies or relinquish this golden opportunity; and thus, in the ardour of youth, I communed with my own mind — Wilt thou be wanting to thyself and thy fortune0? Wilt thou refuse to be introduced to a familiar converse with Homer0, Plato, and Demosthenes? with those poets, philosophers, and orators, of whom such wonders are related, and who are celebrated0 by every age0 as the great masters of human0 science0? Of professors and scholars in civil law, a sufficient supply will always be found in our universities; but a teacher, and such a teacher, of the Greek0 language0, if he once be suffered to escape, may never afterwards be retrieved. Convinced by these reasons, I gave myself to Chrysoloras; and so strong was my passion that the lessons which I had imbibed in the day were the constant subject of my nightly dreams. At the same time and place the Latin0 classics were explained by John of Ravenna, the domestic pupil of Petrarch0; the Italians, who illustrated their age0 and country0, were formed in this double school; and Florence became the fruitful seminary of Greek0 and Roman0 erudition. The presence of the emperor recalled Chrysoloras from the college to the court, but he afterwards taught at Pavia and Rome0 with equal industry and applause. The remainder of his life, about fifteen years0, was divided between Italy0 and Constantinople, between embassies and lessons. In the noble office of enlightening a foreign nation, the grammarian was not unmindful of a more sacred duty to his prince and country0; and Emanuel Chrysoloras died at Constance, on a public mission from the emperor to the council.
After his example, the restoration of the Greek0 letters in Italy0 was prosecuted by a series of emigrants, who were destitute of fortune0, and endowed with learning0, or at least with language0. From the terror or oppression of the Turkish arms the natives of Thessalonica and Constantinople escaped to a land of freedom, curiosity0, and wealth. The synod introduced into Florence the lights of the Greek0 church and the oracles of the Platonic philosophy0; and the fugitives who adhered to the union had the double merit of renouncing their country0 not only for the Christian but for the Catholic cause. A patriot who sacrifices his party and conscience to the allurements of favour may be possessed, however, of the private and social virtues; he no longer hears the reproachful epithets of slave and apostate; and the consideration which he acquires among his new associates will restore in his own eyes the dignity of his character. The prudent conformity of Bessarion was rewarded with the Roman0 purple; he fixed his residence in Italy0; and the Greek0 cardinal, the titular patriarch of Constantinople, was respected as the chief and protector of his nation. His abilities were exercised in the legations of Bologna, Venice, Germany, and France0; and his election to the chair of St. Peter floated for a moment on the uncertain breath of a conclave. His ecclesiastical honours diffused a splendour and pre-eminence over his literary merit and service: his palace was a school; as often as the cardinal visited the Vatican, he was attended by a learned train of both nations; of men applauded by themselves and the public; and whose writings, now overspread with dust, were popular and useful in their own times0. I shall not attempt to enumerate the restorers of Grecian literature in the fifteenth century; and it may be sufficient to mention with gratitude the names0 of Theodore Gaza, of George of Trebizond, of John Argyropulus, and Demetrius Chalcondyles, who taught their native0 language0 in the schools0 of Florence and Rome0. Their labours were not inferior to those of Bessarion, whose purple they revered, and whose fortune0 was the secret object of their envy. But the lives of these grammarians were humble and obscure; they had declined the lucrative paths of the church; their dress and manners0 secluded them from the commerce of the world0; and, since they were confined to the merit, they might be content with the rewards, of learning0. From this character Janus Lascaris will deserve an exception. His eloquence, politeness, and Imperial descent recommended him to the French monarchs; and in the same cities he was alternately employed to teach and to negotiate. Duty and interest prompted them to cultivate the study0 of the Latin0 language0; and the most successful attained the faculty of writing and speaking with fluency and elegance in a foreign idiom0. But they ever retained the inveterate vanity of their country0: their praise, or at least their esteem, was reserved for the national writers, to whom they owed their fame and subsistence; and they sometimes betrayed their contempt in licentious criticism or satire on Virgil's poetry and the oratory of Tully. The superiority of these masters arose from the familiar use of a living language0; and their first disciples were incapable of discerning how far they had degenerated from the knowledge0, and even the practice, of their ancestors. A vicious pronunciation, which they introduced, was banished from the schools0 by the reason of the succeeding age0. Of the power of the Greek0 accents they were ignorant; and those musical notes, which, from an Attic tongue0 and to an Attic ear, must have been the secret soul of harmony, were to their eyes, as to our own, no more than mute or unmeaning marks, in prose superfluous and troublesome in verse. The art0 of grammar they truly possessed; the valuable fragments of Apollonius and Herodian were transfused into their lessons; and their treatises of syntax and etymology, though devoid of philosophic spirit0, are still useful to the Greek0 student. In the shipwreck of the Byzantine libraries, each fugitive seized a fragment of treasure, a copy of some author, who, without his industry, might have perished; the transcripts were multiplied by an assiduous, and sometimes an elegant, pen; and the text was corrected and explained by their own comments or those of the elder scholiasts. The sense, though not the spirit0, of the Greek0 classics was interpreted to the Latin0 world0; the beauties of style evaporate in a version; but the judgment of Theodore Gaza selected the more solid works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and their natural histories of animals and plants opened a rich fund of genuine and experimental science0.
Yet the fleeting shadows of metaphysics were pursued with more curiosity and ardour. After a long47 oblivion, Plato was revived in Italy47 by a venerable Greek, who taught in the house of Cosmo of Medicis. While the synod of Florence was involved in theological debate, some beneficial consequences might flow from the study of his elegant philosophy; his style is the purest standard of the Attic dialect; and his sublime thoughts are sometimes adapted to familiar conversation, and sometimes adorned with the richest colours of poetry and eloquence. The dialogues of Plato are a dramatic picture of the life47 and death47 of a sage; and, as often as he descends from the clouds, his moral system inculcates the love of truth, of our country, and of mankind. The precept and example of Socrates recommended a modest doubt and liberal inquiry; and, if the Platonists, with blind devotion, adored the visions and errors of their divine master47, their enthusiasm might correct the dry dogmatic method of the Peripatetic school. So equal, yet so opposite, are the merits of Plato and Aristotle that they may be balanced in endless controversy; but some spark of freedom may be produced by the collision of adverse servitude. The modern Greeks were divided between the two sects; with more fury than skill they fought under the banner of their leaders; and the field of battle was removed in their flight from Constantinople to Rome47. But this philosophic debate soon47 degenerated into an angry and personal quarrel of grammarians; and Bessarion, though an advocate for Plato, protected the national honour, by interposing the advice and authority47 of a mediator. In the gardens of the Medici, the academical doctrine was enjoyed by the polite and learned; but their philosophic society was quickly dissolved; and, if the writings of the Attic sage were perused in the closet, the more powerful Stagirite continued to reign47 the oracle of the church and school.
I have fairly represented the literary merits of the Greeks0; yet it must be confessed that they were seconded and surpassed by the ardour of the Latins. Italy0 was divided into many independent states; and at that time it was the ambition of princes0 and republics to vie with each other in the encouragement and reward of literature. The fame of Nicholas the Fifth has not been adequate to his merits. From a plebeian origin he raised himself by his virtue and learning0: the character of the man prevailed over the interest of the pope; and he sharpened those weapons which were soon pointed against the Roman0 church. He had been the friend of the most eminent scholars of the age0; he became their patron; and such was the humility of his manners0 that the change was scarcely discernible either to them or to himself. If he pressed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not as the measure of desert, but as the proof of benevolence; and, when modest merit declined his bounty, Accept it, would he say with a consciousness of his own worth; you will not always have a Nicholas among ye. The influence of the holy see pervaded Christendom; and he exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books. From the ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts of the writers of antiquity; and, wherever the original could not be removed, a faithful copy was transcribed and transmitted for his use. The Vatican, the old repository for bulls and legends, for superstition and forgery, was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and such was the industry of Nicholas that in a reign of eight years0 he formed a library of five thousand0 volumes. To his munificence the Latin0 world0 was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus, Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo's Geography, of the Iliad, of the most valuable works of Plato and Aristotle, of Ptolemy and Theophrastus, and of the fathers of the Greek0 church. The example of the Roman0 pontiff was preceded or imitated by a Florentine merchant, who governed the republic without arms and without a title. Cosmo of Medicis was a father of a line of princes0, whose name and age0 are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning0; his credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London; and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek0 books was often imported in the same vessel. The genius0 and education of his grandson Lorenzo rendered him, not only a patron, but a judge and candidate, in the literary race. In his palace, distress was entitled to relief, and merit to reward; his leisure-hours were delightfully spent in the Platonic academy; he encouraged the emulation of Demetrius Chalcondyles and Angelo Politian; and his active missionary, Janus Lascaris, returned from the East0 with a treasure of two hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet unknown in the libraries of Europe0. The rest of Italy0 was animated by a similar spirit0, and the progress of the nation repaid the liberality of her princes0. The Latins held the exclusive property of their own literature; and these disciples of Greece were soon capable of transmitting and improving the lessons which they had imbibed. After a short succession of foreign teachers, the tide of emigration subsided; but the language0 of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps; and the natives of France0, Germany, and England imparted to their country0 the sacred fire which they had kindled in the schools0 of Florence and Rome0. In the productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill; the Greek0 authors, forgotten on the banks of the Ilissus, have been illustrated on those of the Elbe and the Thames; and Bessarion or Gaza might have envied the superior science0 of the Barbarians0: the accuracy of Budaeus, the taste of Erasmus, the copiousness of Stephens, the erudition of Scaliger, the discernment of Reiske or of Bentley. On the side of the Latins, the discovery of printing was a casual advantage; but this useful art0 has been applied by Aldus, and his innumerable successors, to perpetuate and multiply the works of antiquity. A single manuscript imported from Greece is revived in ten thousand0 copies; and each copy is fairer than the original. In this form, Homer0 and Plato would peruse with more satisfaction their own writings; and their scholiasts must resign the prize to the labours of our Western0 editors.
Before the revival of classic literature, the Barbarians37 in Europe were immersed in ignorance; and their vulgar tongues were marked with the rudeness and poverty37 of their manners37. The students of the more perfect idioms of Rome37 and Greece were introduced to a new37 world of light and science; to the society of the free and polished nations of antiquity; and to a familiar converse with those immortal men37 who spoke the sublime language37 of eloquence and reason. Such an intercourse must tend to refine the taste, and to elevate the genius, of the moderns; and yet, from the first experiments, it might appear that the study of the ancients had given fetters, rather than wings, to the human37 mind. However laudable, the spirit37 of imitation is of a servile37 cast; and the first disciples of the Greeks and Romans37 were a colony of strangers in the midst of their age and country37. The minute and laborious diligence which explored the antiquities of remote times37 might have improved or adorned the present37 state37 of society: the critic and metaphysician were the slaves37 of Aristotle; the poets, historians, and orators were proud to repeat the thoughts and words of the Augustan age; the works of nature were observed with the eyes of Pliny and Theophrastus; and some pagan votaries professed a secret devotion to the gods of Homer and Plato. The Italians were oppressed by the strength37 and number of their ancient37 auxiliaries: the century after the deaths of Petrarch and Boccace was filled with a crowd of Latin imitators, who decently repose on our shelves; but in that era of learning it will not be easy37 to discern a real discovery of science, a work of invention or eloquence, in the popular language37 of the country37. But, as soon37 as it had been deeply saturated with the celestial dew, the soil was quickened into vegetation and life37; the modern idioms were refined; the classics of Athens and Rome37 inspired a pure taste and a generous emulation; and in Italy, as afterwards in France and England, the pleasing reign of poetry and fiction was succeeded by the light of speculative and experimental philosophy. Genius may anticipate the season of maturity; but in the education of a people37, as in that of an individual, memory must be exercised, before the powers of reason and fancy can be expanded; nor may the artist hope to equal or surpass, till he has learned to imitate, the works of his predecessors.
The respective merits of Rome32 and Constantinople are compared and celebrated by an eloquent Greek, the father of the Italian schools. The view of the ancient32 capital32, the seat of his ancestors, surpassed the most sanguine expectations of Emanuel Chrysoloras; and he no longer blamed the exclamation of an old sophist, that Rome32 was the habitation, not of men, but of gods. Those gods and those men had long32 since vanished; but, to the eye of liberal enthusiasm, the majesty of ruin restored the image32 of her ancient32 prosperity. The monuments32 of the consuls and Caesars, of the martyrs and apostles, engaged on all sides the curiosity of the philosopher and the Christian; and he confessed that in every age the arms and religion of Rome32 were destined to reign over the earth. While Chrysoloras admired the venerable beauties of the mother, he was not forgetful of his native country32, her fairest daughter, her Imperial colony; and the Byzantine patriot expatiates with zeal and truth on the eternal advantages of nature and the more transitory glories of art and dominion, which adorned, or had adorned, the city32 of Constantine. Yet the perfection of the copy still redounds (as he modestly observes) to the honour of the original; and parents are delighted to be renewed, and even excelled, by the superior merit of their children. Constantinople, says the orator, is situate on a commanding point, between Europe and Asia, between the Archipelago and the Euxine. By her interposition, the two seas and the two continents are united for the common benefit of nations; and the gates of commerce may be shut or opened at her command. The harbour, encompassed on all sides by the sea and the continent, is the most secure and capacious in the world. The walls32 and gates of Constantinople may be compared with those of Babylon; the towers are many; each tower is a solid and lofty32 structure; and the second wall, the outer fortification, would be sufficient for the defence and dignity of an ordinary capital32. A broad and rapid stream may be introduced into the ditches; and the artificial island may be encompassed, like Athens, by land or water. Two strong and natural causes are alleged for the perfection of the model of new32 Rome32. The royal founder reigned over the most illustrious nations of the globe; and, in the accomplishment of his designs, the power of the Romans32 was combined with the art and science of the Greeks. Other cities have been reared to maturity by accident and time32; their beauties are mingled with disorder and deformity; and the inhabitants, unwilling to remove from their natal spot, are incapable of correcting the errors of their ancestors and the original vices of situation or climate. But the free idea of Constantinople was formed and executed by a single mind; and the primitive model was improved by the obedient zeal of the subjects and successors of the first monarch. The adjacent isles were stored with an inexhaustible supply of marble32; but the various materials32 were transported from the most remote shores of Europe and Asia; and the public32 and private32 buildings, the palaces, churches, aqueducts, cisterns, porticoes32, columns32, baths32, and hippodromes, were adapted to the greatness32 of the capital32 of the East. The superfluity of wealth was spread along the shores of Europe and Asia; and the Byzantine territory, as far32 as the Euxine, the Hellespont, and the long32 wall, might be considered as a populous suburb and a perpetual garden. In this flattering picture, the past and the present, the times of prosperity and decay32, are artfully confounded; but a sigh and a confession escape from the orator, that his wretched country32 was the shadow and sepulchre of its former self. The works32 of ancient32 sculpture had been defaced by Christian zeal or Barbaric violence; the fairest structures were demolished; and the marbles of Paros or Numidia were burnt for lime or applied to the meanest uses. Of many a statue32, the place was marked by an empty pedestal; of many a column32, the size was determined by a broken capital32; the tombs of the emperors were scattered on the ground; the stroke of time32 was accelerated by storms and earthquakes; and the vacant space was adorned, by vulgar tradition, with fabulous monuments32 of gold and silver. From these wonders, which lived only in memory or belief, he distinguishes, however, the porphyry pillar, the column32 and colossus of Justinian, and the church, more especially the dome, of St32. Sophia: the best conclusion, since it could not be described according to its merits, and after it no other object could deserve to be mentioned. But he forgets that a century32 before the trembling fabrics of the colossus and the church had been saved and supported by the timely care of Andronicus the Elder. Thirty years32 after the emperor had fortified St32. Sophia with two new32 buttresses, or pyramids, the eastern hemisphere suddenly gave way; and the images, the altars, and the sanctuary were crushed by the falling ruin. The mischief indeed was speedily repaired; the rubbish was cleared by the incessant labour32 of every rank and age; and the poor remains of riches and industry were consecrated by the Greeks to the most stately32 and venerable temple32 of the East.
The last hope of the falling city40 and empire40 was placed in the harmony of the mother and daughter, in the maternal tenderness of Rome40 and the filial obedience of Constantinople. In the synod of Florence, the Greeks40 and Latins had embraced, and subscribed, and promised; but these signs of friendship were perfidious or fruitless; and the baseless fabric of the union vanished like a dream. The emperor40 and his prelates returned in the Venetian galleys; but, as they touched at the Morea and the isles of Corfu and Lesbos, the subjects40 of the Latins complained that the pretended union would be an instrument of oppression. No sooner did they land on the Byzantine shore than they were saluted, or rather assailed, with a general murmur of zeal40 and discontent. During their absence, above two years40, the capital40 had been deprived of its civil and ecclesiastical rulers; fanaticism fermented in anarchy; the most furious monks reigned over the conscience of women and bigots; and the hatred of the Latin name was the first principle of nature and religion40. Before his departure for Italy, the emperor40 had flattered the city40 with the assurance of a prompt relief and a powerful succour; and the clergy40, confident in their orthodoxy and science, had promised themselves and their flocks an easy40 victory over the blind shepherds of the West. The double disappointment exasperated the Greeks40; the conscience of the subscribing prelates was awakened; the hour of temptation was past; and they had more to dread from the public40 resentment than they could hope from the favour of the emperor40 or the pope. Instead of justifying their conduct, they deplored their weakness, professed their contrition, and cast themselves on the mercy of God and of their brethren. To the reproachful question, What had been the event or use40 of their Italian synod? they answered, with sighs and tears, Alas! we have made a new faith; we have exchanged piety for impiety; we have betrayed the immaculate sacrifice; and we are become Azymites. (The Azymites were those who celebrated40 the communion with unleavened bread; and I must retract or qualify the praise which I have bestowed on the growing philosophy of the times.) Alas! we have been seduced by distress, by fraud, and by the hopes and fears of a transitory life. The hand that has signed the union should be cut off; and the tongue that has pronounced the Latin creed deserves to be torn from the root. The best proof of their repentance was an increase of zeal40 for the most trivial rites and the most incomprehensible doctrines; and an absolute separation from all, without excepting their prince, who preserved some regard for honour and consistency. After the decease of the patriarch Joseph40, the archbishops of Heraclea and Trebizond had courage to refuse the vacant office; and Cardinal Bessarion preferred the warm and comfortable shelter of the Vatican. The choice of the emperor40 and his clergy40 was confined to Metrophanes of Cyzicus: he was consecrated in St. Sophia, but the temple was vacant; the cross40-bearers abdicated their service; the infection spread from the city40 to the villages; and Metrophanes discharged, without effect, some ecclesiastical thunders against a nation of schismatics. The eyes40 of the Greeks40 were directed to Mark of Ephesus, the champion of his country40; and the sufferings of the holy40 confessor were repaid with a tribute of admiration and applause. His example and writings propagated the flame of religious discord; age40 and infirmity soon40 removed him from the world; but the gospel of Mark was not a law of forgiveness; and he requested with his dying breath that none of the adherents of Rome40 might attend his obsequies or pray for his soul.
The schism33 was not confined to the narrow limits of the Byzantine empire. Secure under the Mamaluke sceptre, the three patriarchs of Alexandria33, Antioch33, and Jerusalem assembled a numerous synod33; disowned their representatives at Ferrara and Florence; condemned the creed33 and council33 of the Latins33; and threatened the emperor33 of Constantinople33 with the censures of the Eastern church33. Of the sectaries of the Greek33 communion, the Russians were the most powerful, ignorant, and superstitious. Their primate, the cardinal Isidore, hastened from Florence to Moscow, to reduce the independent nation under the Roman yoke. But the Russian bishops33 had been educated at Mount Athos; and the prince and people33 embraced the theology of their priests. They were scandalised by the title, the pomp, the Latin33 cross, of the legate, the friend of those impious men who shaved their beards and performed the divine office with gloves on their hands and rings on their fingers. Isidore was condemned by a synod33; his person was imprisoned in a monastery; and it was with extreme difficulty that the cardinal could escape from the hands of a fierce and fanatic people33. The Russians refused a passage to the missionaries of Rome, who aspired to convert the pagans beyond the Tanais; and their refusal was justified by the maxim that the guilt of idolatry is less damnable than that of schism33. The errors of the Bohemians were excused by their abhorrence for the pope33; and a deputation of the Greek33 clergy33 solicited the friendship of those sanguinary enthusiasts. While Eugenius triumphed in the union33 and orthodoxy of the Greeks33, his party was contracted to the walls, or rather to the palace, of Constantinople33. The zeal33 of Palaeologus had been excited by interest; it was soon cooled by opposition: an attempt to violate the national belief might endanger his life and crown; nor could the pious rebels be destitute of foreign and domestic aid. The sword of his brother Demetrius, who, in Italy, had maintained a prudent and popular silence, was half unsheathed in the cause33 of religion33; and Amurath, the Turkish sultan, was displeased and alarmed by the seeming friendship of the Greeks33 and Latins33.
Sultan Murad, or Amurath, lived forty-nine, and reigned thirty years30, six months, and eight days30. He was a just and valiant prince30, of a great soul, patient of labours, learned, merciful, religious, charitable; a lover and encourager of the studious, and of all who excelled in any art or science; a good emperor30, and a great general30. No man obtained more or greater victories than Amurath; Belgrade alone withstood his attacks. Under his reign, the soldier was ever victorious, the citizen rich and secure. If he subdued any country, his first care was to build moschs and caravanseras, hospitals, and colleges. Every year he gave a thousand30 pieces of gold30 to the sons of the Prophet; and sent two thousand30 five hundred to the religious persons of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. This portrait is transcribed from the historian of the Othman empire30; but the applause of a servile and superstitious people30 has been lavished on the worst of tyrants; and the virtues of a sultan are often the vices most useful to himself, or most agreeable to his subjects. A nation ignorant of the equal benefits of liberty and law must be awed by the flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume the character of justice; his profusion, of liberality; his obstinacy, of firmness. If the most reasonable excuse be rejected, few acts of obedience will be found impossible; and guilt must tremble where innocence cannot always be secure. The tranquillity of the people30 and the discipline of the troops30 were best maintained by perpetual action in the field; war30 was the trade of the Janizaries; and those who survived the peril and divided the spoil applauded the generous ambition of their sovereign. To propagate the true religion was the duty of a faithful Musulman: the unbelievers were his enemies30, and those of the Prophet; and, in the hands of the Turks30, the scymetar was the only instrument of conversion. Under these circumstances, however, the justice and moderation of Amurath are attested by his conduct and acknowledged by the Christians themselves; who consider a prosperous reign and a peaceful death30 as the reward of his singular merits. In the vigour of his age and military power, he seldom engaged in a war30 till30 he was justified by a previous and adequate provocation; the victorious sultan was disarmed by submission; and in the observance of treaties his word was inviolate and sacred. The Hungarians were commonly the aggressors; he was provoked by the revolt of Scanderbeg; and the perfidious Caramanian was twice vanquished and twice pardoned by the Ottoman monarch. Before he invaded the Morea, Thebes had been surprised by the despot; in the conquest of Thessalonica, the grandson of Bajazet might dispute the recent purchase of the Venetians; and, after the first siege30 of Constantinople30, the sultan was never tempted, by the distress, the absence, or the injuries of Palaeologus to extinguish the dying light of the Byzantine30 empire30.
But the most striking feature in the life24 and character of Amurath24 is the double abdication of the Turkish24 throne24; and, were not his motives debased by an alloy of superstition, we must praise the royal24 philosopher, who, at the age24 of forty, could discern the vanity of human greatness. Resigning the sceptre to his son24, he retired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia; but he retired to the society of saints and hermits. It was not till24 the fourth century of the Hegira that the religion24 of Mahomet24 had been corrupted by an institution so adverse to his genius; but in the age24 of the crusades the various orders of Dervishes were multiplied by the example of the Christian, and even the Latin, monks. The lord of nations submitted to fast, and pray, and turn round in endless rotation with the fanatics who mistook the giddiness of the head for the illumination of the spirit. But he was soon awakened from this dream of enthusiasm by the Hungarian invasion; and his obedient son24 was the foremost to urge the public danger and the wishes of the people24. Under the banner of their veteran leader, the Janizaries fought and conquered; but he withdrew from the field of Varna, again to pray, to fast, and to turn round with his Magnesian brethren. These pious occupations were again interrupted by the danger of the state24. A victorious army disdained the inexperience of their youthful ruler; the city24 of Hadrianople was abandoned to rapine and slaughter; and the unanimous divan implored his presence to appease the tumult, and prevent the rebellion, of the Janizaries. At the well-known voice of their master, they trembled and obeyed; and the reluctant sultan24 was compelled to support his splendid servitude, till24, at the end of four years24, he was relieved by the angel of death24. Age24 or disease, misfortune or caprice, have tempted several princes to descend from the throne24; and they have had leisure to repent of their irretrievable step. But Amurath24 alone, in the full liberty of choice, after the trial of empire24 and solitude, has repeated his preference of a private life24.
After the departure of his Greek brethren, Eugenius had not been unmindful of their temporal interest; and his tender regard for the Byzantine empire36 was animated by a just apprehension of the Turks, who approached, and might soon36 invade, the borders of Italy. But the spirit36 of the crusades had expired; and the coldness of the Franks was not less unreasonable than their headlong passion. In the eleventh century, a fanatic monk could precipitate Europe on Asia for the recovery of the holy sepulchre; but, in the fifteenth, the most pressing motives of religion and policy were insufficient to unite the Latins in the defence36 of Christendom. Germany36 was an inexhaustible storehouse of men and arms36; but that complex and languid body required the impulse of a vigorous hand; and Frederic the Third was alike impotent in his personal character and his Imperial dignity. A long36 war36 had impaired the strength36, without satiating the animosity, of France and England; but Philip, duke of Burgundy, was a vain and magnificent prince; and he enjoyed, without danger or expense, the adventurous piety of his subjects, who sailed, in a gallant fleet, from the coast of Flanders to the Hellespont. The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were less remote from the scene of action; and their hostile fleets were associated under the standard of St. Peter. The kingdoms of Hungary and Poland, which covered, as it were, the interior pale of the Latin church, were the most nearly concerned to oppose the progress of the Turks. Arms36 were the patrimony of the Scythians and Sarmatians36; and these nations might appear equal to the contest, could they point, against the common foe, those swords that were so wantonly drawn in bloody and domestic quarrels. But the same spirit36 was adverse to concord and obedience; a poor country36 and a limited monarch36 are incapable of maintaining a standing force; and the loose bodies of Polish and Hungarian horse were not armed with the sentiments and weapons which, on some occasions, have given irresistible weight36 to the French chivalry. Yet, on this side, the designs of the Roman36 pontiff and the eloquence of Cardinal Julian36, his legate, were promoted by the circumstances of the times; by the union of the two crowns on the head36 of Ladislaus, a young and ambitious soldier; by the valour of an hero, whose name, the name of John Huniades, was already popular among the Christians and formidable to the Turks. An endless treasure of pardons and indulgences were scattered by the legate; many private warriors of France and Germany36 enlisted under the holy banner; and the crusade derived some strength36, or at least some reputation, from the new36 allies36, both of Europe and Asia. A fugitive despot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardour of the Christians beyond the Danube36, who would unanimously rise to vindicate their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor36, with a spirit36 unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the Bosphorus, and to sally from Constantinople at the head36 of his national and mercenary troops. The sultan of Caramania announced the retreat of Amurath and a powerful diversion in the heart of Anatolia; and, if the fleets of the West could occupy at the same moment the straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman monarchy would be dissevered and destroyed. Heaven and earth must rejoice in the perdition of the miscreants; and the legate, with prudent ambiguity, instilled the opinion of the invisible, perhaps the visible, aid36 of the Son of God and his divine mother.
Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a religious war30 was the unanimous cry; and Ladislaus, after passing the Danube, led an army30 of his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the capital of the Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they obtained two signal victories, which were justly ascribed to the valour and conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vanguard of ten thousand30 men, he surprised the Turkish30 camp30; in the second30, he vanquished and made prisoner the most renowned of their generals, who possessed the double advantage of ground and numbers. The approach of winter and the natural and artificial obstacles of Mount Haemus arrested the progress of the hero, who measured a narrow interval of six days30' march from the foot of the mountains to the hostile towers of Hadrianople and the friendly capital of the Greek30 empire30. The retreat was undisturbed; and the entrance into Buda was at once a military and religious triumph. An ecclesiastical procession was followed by the king30 and his warriors on foot; he nicely balanced the merits and rewards of the two nations; and the pride of conquest was blended with the humble temper of Christianity. Thirteen bashaws, nine standards, and four thousand30 captives were unquestionable trophies; and, as all were willing to believe and none were present to contradict, the crusaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads of Turks30 whom they had left30 on the field of battle30. The most solid proof and the most salutary consequence of victory30 was a deputation from the divan to solicit peace, to restore Servia, to ransom the prisoners, and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier. By this treaty, the rational objects of the war30 were obtained: the king30, the despot, and Huniades himself, in the diet of Segedin, were satisfied with public and private emolument; a truce of ten years30 was concluded; and the followers of Jesus and Mahomet, who swore on the Gospel and the Koran, attested the word of God as the guardian of truth and the avenger of perfidy. In the place of the Gospel, the Turkish30 ministers had proposed to substitute the Eucharist, the real presence of the Catholic deity; but the Christians refused to profane their holy30 mysteries; and a superstitious conscience is less forcibly bound by the spiritual energy, than by the outward and visible symbols, of an oath.
During the whole transaction the cardinal-legate had observed a sullen silence, unwilling to approve, and unable to oppose, the consent of the king30 and people30. But the diet was not dissolved before Julian was fortified by the welcome intelligence that Anatolia was invaded by the Caramanian, and Thrace by the Greek30 emperor30; that the fleets of Genoa, Venice, and Burgundy were masters of the Hellespont; and that the allies, informed of the victory30, and ignorant of the treaty, of Ladislaus, impatiently waited for the return of his victorious army30. And is it thus, exclaimed the cardinal, that you will desert their expectations and your own fortune? It is to them, to your God, and your fellow-Christians, that you have pledged your faith; and that prior obligation annihilates a rash and sacrilegious oath to the enemies30 of Christ. His vicar on earth is the Roman30 pontiff; without whose sanction you can neither promise nor perform. In his name I absolve your perjury and sanctify your arms30; follow my footsteps in the paths of glory and salvation; and, if still ye have scruples, devolve on my head30 the punishment and the sin. This mischievous casuistry was seconded by his respectable character and the levity of popular assemblies. War30 was resolved on the same spot where peace had so lately been sworn; and, in the execution of the treaty, the Turks30 were assaulted by the Christians; to whom, with some reason, they might apply the epithet of Infidels. The falsehood of Ladislaus to his word and oath was palliated by the religion of the times; the most perfect, or at least the most popular, excuse would have been the success of his arms30 and the deliverance of the Eastern church. But the same treaty which should have bound his conscience had diminished his strength. On the proclamation of the peace, the French and German volunteers departed with indignant murmurs; the Poles were exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps disgusted with foreign command; and their palatines accepted the first licence and hastily retired to their provinces and castles. Even Hungary was divided by faction or restrained by a laudable scruple; and the relics of the crusade that marched in the second30 expedition were reduced to an inadequate force of twenty thousand30 men. A Walachian chief, who joined the royal30 standard30 with his vassals, presumed to remark that their numbers did not exceed the hunting retinue that sometimes attended the sultan; and the gift of two horses of matchless speed might admonish Ladislaus of his secret foresight of the event. But the despot of Servia, after the restoration of his country and children, was tempted by the promise of new30 realms; and the inexperience of the king30, the enthusiasm of the legate, and the martial presumption of Huniades himself were persuaded that every obstacle must yield to the invincible virtue of the sword30 and the cross. After the passage of the Danube, two roads might lead to Constantinople30 and the Hellespont: the one direct, abrupt, and difficult, through the mountains of Haemus; the other more tedious and secure, over a level country, and along the shores of the Euxine; in which their flanks, according to the Scythian discipline, might always be covered by a moveable fortification of waggons. The latter was judiciously preferred: the Catholics marched through the plains of Bulgaria, burning, with wanton cruelty, the churches and villages of the Christian natives; and their last station was at Warna, near the seashore, on which the defeat and death30 of Ladislaus have bestowed a memorable name.
It was on this fatal spot that, instead of finding a confederate fleet to second30 their operations, they were alarmed by the approach of Amurath himself, who had issued from his Magnesian solitude and transported the forces of Asia to the defence of Europe. According to some writers, the Greek30 emperor30 had been awed, or seduced, to grant the passage of the Bosphorus; and an indelible stain of corruption is fixed on the Genoese, or the pope's nephew, the Catholic admiral, whose mercenary connivance betrayed the guard of the Hellespont. From Hadrianople, the sultan advanced, by hasty marches, at the head30 of sixty thousand30 men; and, when the cardinal and Huniades had taken a nearer survey of the numbers and order of the Turks30, these ardent warriors proposed the tardy and impracticable measure of a retreat. The king30 alone was resolved to conquer or die; and his resolution had almost been crowned with a glorious and salutary victory30. The princes were opposite to each other in the centre; and the Beglerbegs, or generals of Anatolia and Romania, commanded on the right and left30 against the adverse divisions of the despot and Huniades. The Turkish30 wings were broken on the first onset; but the advantage was fatal; and the rash victors, in the heat of the pursuit, were carried away far from the annoyance of the enemy30 or the support of their friends. When Amurath beheld the flight of his squadrons, he despaired of his fortune and that of the empire30: a veteran Janizary seized his horse30's bridle; and he had magnanimity to pardon and reward the soldier who dared to perceive the terror, and arrest the flight, of his sovereign. A copy of the treaty, the monument of Christian perfidy, had been displayed in the front of battle30; and it is said that the sultan in his distress, lifting his eyes and his hands to heaven, implored the protection of the God of truth; and called on the prophet Jesus himself to avenge the impious mockery of his name and religion. With inferior numbers and disordered ranks, the king30 of Hungary rushed forwards in the confidence of victory30, till30 his career was stopped by the impenetrable phalanx of the Janizaries. If we may credit the Ottoman annals, his horse30 was pierced by the javelin of Amurath; he fell among the spears of the infantry; and a Turkish30 soldier proclaimed with a loud voice, Hungarians, behold the head30 of your king30! The death30 of Ladislaus was the signal of their defeat. On his return from an intemperate pursuit, Huniades deplored his error and the public loss; he strove to rescue the royal30 body, till30 he was overwhelmed by the tumultuous crowd of the victors and vanquished; and the last efforts of his courage and conduct were exerted to save the remnant of his Walachian cavalry. Ten thousand30 Christians were slain in the disastrous battle30 of Warna. The loss of the Turks30, more considerable in numbers, bore a smaller proportion to their total strength; yet the philosophic sultan was not ashamed to confess that his ruin must be the consequence of a second30 and similar victory30. At his command, a column was erected on the spot where Ladislaus had fallen; but the modest inscription, instead of accusing the rashness, recorded the valour, and bewailed the misfortune, of the Hungarian youth.
Before I lose sight of the field of Warna, I am tempted to pause on the character and story of two principal actors, the cardinal Julian34, and John Huniades. Julian34 Caesarini was born of a noble family of Rome; his studies had embraced both the Latin and Greek learning, both the sciences of divinity and law; and his versatile genius was equally adapted to the schools, the camp, and the court34. No sooner had he been invested with the Roman34 purple than he was sent into Germany to arm the empire34 against the rebels and heretics of Bohemia. The spirit of persecution is unworthy of a Christian34; the military34 profession ill becomes a priest; but the former is excused by the times; and the latter was ennobled by the courage of Julian34, who stood dauntless and alone in the disgraceful flight of the German host. As the pope's legate, he opened the council of Basil; but the president soon appeared the most strenuous champion of ecclesiastical freedom34; and an opposition of seven years34 was conducted by his ability and zeal. After promoting the strongest measures against the authority and person of Eugenius, some secret motive of interest or conscience engaged him to desert, on a sudden, the popular party. The cardinal withdrew himself from Basil to Ferrara; and, in the debates of the Greeks and Latins, the two nations admired the dexterity of his arguments and the depth of his theological erudition. In his Hungarian embassy we have already seen the mischievous effects of his sophistry and eloquence, of which Julian34 himself was the first victim. The cardinal, who performed the duties of a priest and a soldier, was lost in the defeat of Warna. The circumstances of his death are variously related; but it is believed that a weighty incumbrance of gold impeded his flight, and tempted the cruel avarice of some Christian34 fugitives.
From an humble or at least a doubtful origin, the merit of John Huniades promoted him to the command of the Hungarian armies. His father was a Walachian, his mother a Greek30: her unknown race might possibly ascend to the emperors of Constantinople30; and the claims of the Walachians, with the surname of Corvinus, from the place of his nativity, might suggest a thin pretence for mingling his blood with the patricians of ancient Rome. In his youth, he served in the wars of Italy, and was retained, with twelve horsemen, by the bishop of Zagrab; the valour of the white knight was soon30 conspicuous; he increased his fortunes by a noble and wealthy marriage; and in the defence of the Hungarian borders he won, in the same year, three battles against the Turks30. By his influence, Ladislaus of Poland obtained the crown of Hungary; and the important service30 was rewarded by the title and office of Waivod of Transylvania. The first of Julian's crusades added two Turkish30 laurels on his brow; and in the public distress the fatal errors of Warna were forgotten. During the absence and minority of Ladislaus of Austria, the titular king30, Huniades was elected supreme captain and governor of Hungary; and, if envy at first was silenced by terror, a reign of twelve years30 supposes the arts of policy as well as of war30. Yet the idea of a consummate general30 is not delineated in his campaigns; the white knight fought with the hand rather than the head30, as the chief of desultory Barbarians, who attack without fear and fly without shame; and his military life is composed of a romantic alternative of victories and escapes. By the Turks30, who employed his name to frighten their perverse children, he was corruptly denominated Jancus Lain, or the Wicked; their hatred is the proof of their esteem; the kingdom which he guarded was inaccessible to their arms30; and they felt him most daring and formidable, when they fondly believed the captain of his country irrecoverably lost. Instead of confining himself to a defensive war30, four years30 after the defeat of Warna he again penetrated into the heart of Bulgaria; and in the plain of Cossova sustained, till30 the third day30, the shock of the Ottoman army30, four times more numerous than his own. As he fled alone through the woods of Walachia, the hero was surprised by two robbers; but, while they disputed a gold30 chain that hung at his neck, he recovered his sword30, slew the one, terrified the other; and, after new30 perils of captivity or death30, consoled by his presence an afflicted kingdom. But the last and most glorious action of his life was the defence of Belgrade against the powers of Mahomet the Second30 in person. After a siege30 of forty days30, the Turks30, who had already entered the town, were compelled to retreat; and the joyful nations celebrated Huniades and Belgrade as the bulwarks of Christendom. About a month after this great deliverance, the champion expired; and his most splendid epitaph is the regret of the Ottoman prince30, who sighed that he could no longer hope for revenge against the single antagonist who had triumphed over his arms30. On the first vacancy of the throne, Matthias Corvinus, a youth of eighteen years30 of age, was elected and crowned by the grateful Hungarians. His reign was prosperous and long30. Matthias aspired to the glory of a conqueror and a saint; but his purest merit is the encouragement of learning; and the Latin orators and historians, who were invited from Italy by the son30, have shed the lustre of their eloquence on the father's character.
In the list of heroes, John Huniades and Scanderbeg are commonly associated; and they are both entitled to our notice, since their occupation of the Ottoman arms30 delayed the ruin of the Greek30 empire30. John Castriot, the father of Scanderbeg, was the hereditary prince30 of a small district of Epirus or Albania, between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea. Unable to contend with the sultan's power, Castriot submitted to the hard conditions of peace and tribute; he delivered his four sons as the pledges of his fidelity; and the Christian youths, after receiving the mark of circumcision, were instructed in the Mahometan religion, and trained in the arms30 and arts of Turkish30 policy. The three elder brothers were confounded in the crowd of slaves; and the poison to which their deaths are ascribed cannot be verified or disproved by any positive evidence. Yet the suspicion is in a great measure removed by the kind and paternal treatment of George Castriot, the fourth brother, who, from his tender youth, displayed the strength and spirit of a soldier. The successive overthrow of a Tartar and two Persians, who carried a proud defiance to the Turkish30 court, recommended him to the favour of Amurath, and his Turkish30 appellation of Scanderbeg (Iskender beg), or the lord Alexander, is an indelible memorial of his glory and servitude. His father's principality was reduced into a province; but the loss was compensated by the rank and title of Sanjiak, a command of five thousand30 horse30, and the prospect of the first dignities of the empire30. He served with honour in the wars of Europe and Asia; and we may smile at the art or credulity of the historian, who supposes that in every encounter he spared the Christians, while he fell with a thundering arm on his Musulman foes. The glory of Huniades is without reproach: he fought in the defence of his religion and country; but the enemies30 who applaud the patriot have branded his rival with the name of traitor and apostate. In the eyes of the Christians the rebellion of Scanderbeg is justified by his father's wrongs, the ambiguous death30 of his three brothers, his own degradation, and the slavery of his country; and they adore the generous though tardy zeal with which he asserted the faith and independence of his ancestors. But he had imbibed from his ninth year the doctrines of the Koran; he was ignorant of the Gospel; the religion of a soldier is determined by authority and habit; nor is it easy to conceive what new30 illumination at the age of forty could be poured into his soul. His motives would be less exposed to the suspicion of interest or revenge, had he broken his chain from the moment that he was sensible of its weight; but a long30 oblivion had surely impaired his original right; and every year of obedience and reward had cemented the mutual bond of the sultan and his subject. If Scanderbeg had long30 harboured the belief of Christianity and the intention of revolt, a worthy mind must condemn the base dissimulation, that could only serve to betray, that could promise only to be forsworn, that could actively join in the temporal and spiritual perdition of so many thousands of his unhappy brethren. Shall we praise a secret correspondence with Huniades, while he commanded the vanguard of the Turkish30 army30? shall we excuse the desertion of his standard30, a treacherous desertion, which abandoned the victory30 to the enemies30 of his benefactor? In the confusion of a defeat, the eye of Scanderbeg was fixed on the Reis Effendi, or principal secretary; with a dagger at his breast, he extorted a firman or patent for the government of Albania; and the murder of the guiltless scribe and his train prevented the consequences of an immediate discovery. With some bold companions, to whom he had revealed his design, he escaped in the night, by rapid marches, from the field of battle30 to his paternal mountains. The gates of Croya were opened to the royal30 mandate; and no sooner did he command the fortress than George Castriot dropped the mask of dissimulation, abjured the Prophet and the sultan, and proclaimed himself the avenger of his family and country. The names of religion and liberty provoked a general30 revolt: the Albanians, a martial race, were unanimous to live and die with their hereditary prince30; and the Ottoman garrisons were indulged in the choice of martyrdom or baptism. In the assembly of the states of Epirus, Scanderbeg was elected general30 of the Turkish30 war30; and each of the allies engaged to furnish his respective proportion of men and money. From these contributions, from his patrimonial estate, and from the valuable salt-pits of Selina, he drew an annual revenue of two hundred thousand30 ducats; and the entire sum, exempt from the demands of luxury, was strictly appropriated to the public use. His manners were popular; but his discipline was severe; and every superfluous vice was banished from his camp30; his example strengthened his command; and under his conduct the Albanians were invincible in their own opinion and that of their enemies30. The bravest adventurers of France and Germany were allured by his fame and retained in his service30; his standing militia consisted of eight thousand30 horse30 and seven thousand30 foot; the horses were small, the men were active; but he viewed with a discerning eye the difficulties and resources of the mountains; and, at the blaze of the beacons, the whole nation was distributed in the strongest posts. With such unequal arms30, Scanderbeg resisted twenty-three years30 the powers of the Ottoman empire30; and two conquerors, Amurath the Second30 and his greater son30, were repeatedly baffled by a rebel whom they pursued with seeming contempt and implacable resentment. At the head30 of sixty thousand30 horse30 and forty thousand30 Janizaries, Amurath entered Albania: he might ravage the open country, occupy the defenceless towns, convert the churches into moschs, circumcise the Christian youths, and punish with death30 his adult and obstinate captives, but the conquests of the sultan were confined to the petty fortress of Sfetigrade; and the garrison, invincible to his arms30, was oppressed by a paltry artifice and a superstitious scruple. Amurath retired with shame and loss from the walls30 of Croya, the castle and residence of the Castriots; the march, the siege30, the retreat, were harassed by a vexatious and almost invisible adversary; and the disappointment might tend to embitter, perhaps to shorten, the last days30 of the sultan. In the fulness of conquest, Mahomet the Second30 still felt at his bosom this domestic thorn; his lieutenants were permitted to negotiate a truce; and the Albanian prince30 may justly be praised as a firm and able champion of his national independence. The enthusiasm of chivalry and religion has ranked him with the names of Alexander and Pyrrhus, nor would they blush to acknowledge their intrepid countryman; but his narrow dominion and slender powers must leave him at an humble distance below the heroes of antiquity, who triumphed over the East and the Roman30 legions. His splendid achievements, the bashaws whom he encountered, the armies that he discomfited, and the three thousand30 Turks30 who were slain by his single hand, must be weighed in the scales of suspicious criticism. Against an illiterate enemy30, and in the dark solitude of Epirus, his partial biographers may safely indulge the latitude of romance; but their fictions are exposed by the light of Italian history; and they afford a strong presumption against their own truth by a fabulous tale of his exploits, when he passed the Adriatic with eight hundred horse30 to the succour of the king30 of Naples. Without disparagement to his fame, they might have owned that he was finally oppressed by the Ottoman powers; in his extreme danger, he applied to Pope Pius the Second30 for a refuge in the ecclesiastical state; and his resources were almost exhausted, since Scanderbeg died a fugitive at Lissus, on the Venetian territory. His sepulchre was soon30 violated by the Turkish30 conquerors; but the Janizaries, who wore his bones enchased in a bracelet, declared by this superstitious amulet their involuntary reverence for his valour. The instant ruin of his country may redound to the hero's glory; yet, had he balanced the consequences of submission and resistance, a patriot, perhaps, would have declined the unequal contest which must depend on the life and genius of one man. Scanderbeg might indeed be supported by the rational though fallacious hope that the pope, the king30 of Naples, and the Venetian republic would join in the defence of a free and Christian people30, who guarded the sea-coast of the Adriatic and the narrow passage from Greece to Italy. His infant son30 was saved from the national shipwreck; the Castriots were invested with a Neapolitan dukedom, and their blood continues to flow in the noblest families of the realm. A colony of Albanian fugitives obtained a settlement in Calabria, and they preserve at this day30 the language and manners of their ancestors.
In the long30 career of the decline and fall of the Roman30 empire30, I have reached at length the last reign of the princes of Constantinople30, who so feebly sustained the name and majesty of the Caesars. On the decease of John Palaeologus, who survived about four years30 the Hungarian crusade, the royal30 family, by the death30 of Andronicus and the monastic profession of Isidore, was reduced to three princes, Constantine, Demetrius, and Thomas, the surviving sons of the emperor30 Manuel. Of these the first and the last were far distant in the Morea; but Demetrius, who possessed the domain of Selybria, was in the suburbs, at the head30 of a party; his ambition was not chilled by the public distress; and his conspiracy with the Turks30 and the schismatics had already disturbed the peace of his country. The funeral of the late emperor30 was accelerated with singular and even suspicious haste; the claim of Demetrius to the vacant throne was justified by a trite and flimsy sophism, that he was born in the purple, the eldest son30 of his father's reign. But the empress-mother, the senate and soldiers30, the clergy and people30, were unanimous in the cause of the lawful successor; and the despot Thomas, who, ignorant of the change, accidentally returned to the capital, asserted with becoming zeal the interest of his absent brother. An ambassador, the historian Phranza, was immediately despatched to the court of Hadrianople. Amurath received him with honour, and dismissed him with gifts; but the gracious approbation of the Turkish30 sultan announced his supremacy, and the approaching downfall of the Eastern empire30. By the hands of two illustrious deputies, the Imperial crown was placed at Sparta on the head30 of Constantine. In the spring, he sailed from the Morea, escaped the encounter of a Turkish30 squadron, enjoyed the acclamations of his subjects, celebrated the festival of a new30 reign, and exhausted by his donatives the treasure, or rather the indigence, of the state. The emperor30 immediately resigned to his brothers the possession of the Morea, and the brittle friendship of the two princes, Demetrius and Thomas, was confirmed in their mother's presence by the frail security of oaths and embraces. His next occupation was the choice of a consort. A daughter of the doge of Venice had been proposed; but the Byzantine30 nobles objected the distance between an hereditary monarch and an elective magistrate; and in their subsequent distress the chief of that powerful republic was not unmindful of the affront. Constantine afterwards hesitated between the royal30 families of Trebizond and Georgia; and the embassy of Phranza represents in his public and private life the last days30 of the Byzantine30 empire30.
The protovestiare, or great chamberlain, Phranza, sailed from Constantinople as minister of a bridegroom; and the relics of wealth and luxury were applied to his pompous appearance. His numerous retinue consisted of nobles and guards, of physicians and monks; he was attended by a band of music; and the term of his costly embassy was protracted above two years. On his arrival in Georgia or Iberia, the natives from the towns and villages flocked around the strangers; and such was their simplicity that they were delighted with the effects, without understanding the cause, of musical harmony. Among the crowd was an old man, above an hundred years of age47, who had formerly been carried away a captive by the Barbarians, and who amused his hearers with a tale of the wonders of India, from whence he had returned to Portugal by an unknown sea. From this hospitable land Phranza proceeded to the court of Trebizond, where he was informed by the Greek prince47 of the recent decease of Amurath. Instead of rejoicing in the deliverance, the experienced statesman expressed his apprehension that an ambitious youth would not long47 adhere to the sage and pacific system of his father47. After the sultan's decease, his Christian wife Maria, the daughter of the Servian despot, had been honourably restored to her parents: on the fame of her beauty and merit47, she was recommended by the ambassador as the most worthy object of the royal choice; and Phranza recapitulates and refutes the specious objections that might be raised against the proposal. The majesty of the purple would ennoble an unequal alliance; the bar of affinity might be removed by liberal alms and the dispensation of the church; the disgrace of Turkish nuptials had been repeatedly overlooked; and, though the fair Maria was near fifty years of age47, she might yet hope to give an heir to the empire47. Constantine47 listened to the advice, which was transmitted in the first ship that sailed from Trebizond; but the factions of the court opposed his marriage; and it was finally prevented by the pious vow of the sultana, who ended her days in the monastic profession. Reduced to the first alternative, the choice of Phranza was decided in favour of a Georgian princess; and the vanity of her father47 was dazzled by the glorious alliance. Instead of demanding, according to the primitive and national custom, a price for his daughter, he offered a portion of fifty-six thousand, with an annual pension of five thousand, ducats; and the services of the ambassador were repaid by an assurance that, as his son47 had been adopted in baptism by the emperor47, the establishment of his daughter should be the peculiar care of the empress of Constantinople. On the return of Phranza, the treaty was ratified by the Greek monarch, who with his own hand impressed three vermilion crosses on the Golden Bull, and assured the Georgian envoy that in the spring his galleys should conduct47 the bride to her Imperial47 palace47. But Constantine47 embraced his faithful servant, not with the cold approbation of a sovereign47, but with the warm confidence of a friend, who, after a long47 absence, is impatient to pour his secrets into the bosom of his friend. Since the death47 of my mother and of Cantacuzene, who alone advised me without interest or passion, I am surrounded, said the emperor47, by men whom I can neither love nor trust nor esteem. You are not a stranger to Lucas Notaras, the great admiral: obstinately attached to his own sentiments, he declares, both in private47 and public47, that his sentiments are the absolute measure of my thoughts and actions. The rest of the courtiers are swayed by their personal or factious views; and how can I consult the monks on questions of policy and marriage? I have yet much employment for your diligence and fidelity. In the spring you shall engage one of my brothers to solicit the succour of the Western powers; from the Morea you shall sail to Cyprus on a particular commission; and from thence proceed to Georgia to receive and conduct47 the future empress. Your commands, replied Phranza, are irresistible; but deign, great Sir, he added, with a serious smile, to consider that, if I am thus perpetually absent from my family, my wife may be tempted either to seek another husband or to throw herself into a monastery. After laughing at his apprehensions, the emperor47 more gravely consoled him by the pleasing assurance that this should be his last service abroad, and that he destined for his son47 a wealthy and noble heiress; for himself, the important office of great logothete, or principal minister of state. The marriage was immediately stipulated; but the office, however incompatible with his own, had been usurped by the ambition of the admiral. Some delay was requisite to negotiate a consent and an equivalent; and the nomination of Phranza was half declared and half suppressed, lest it might be displeasing to an insolent and powerful favourite. The winter was spent in the preparations of his embassy; and Phranza had resolved that the youth his son47 should embrace this opportunity of foreign travel, and be left, on the appearance of danger47, with his maternal kindred of the Morea. Such were the private47 and public47 designs, which were interrupted by a Turkish war47, and finally buried in the ruins of the empire47.
The siege of Constantinople31 by the Turks attracts our first attention to the person and character of the great destroyer. Mahomet the Second31 was the son31 of the second31 Amurath; and, though his mother31 has been decorated with the titles of Christian and princess, she is more probably confounded with the numerous concubines who peopled from every climate the harem of the sultan. His first education and sentiments were those of a devout Musulman; and, as often as he conversed with an infidel, he purified his hands and face by the legal rites of ablution. Age31 and empire appear to have relaxed this narrow bigotry; his aspiring genius disdained to acknowledge a power above his own; and in his looser hours he presumed (it is said) to brand the prophet of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yet the sultan persevered in a decent reverence for the doctrine and discipline of the Koran; his private indiscretion must have been sacred from the vulgar ear; and we should suspect the credulity of strangers and sectaries, so prone to believe that a mind31 which is hardened against truth must be armed with superior contempt for absurdity and error. Under the tuition of the most skilful masters, Mahomet advanced with an early and rapid progress in the paths of knowledge; and, besides his native tongue, it is affirmed that he spoke or understood five languages, the Arabic, the Persian, the Chaldaean or Hebrew, the Latin, and the Greek. The Persian might, indeed, contribute to his amusement, and the Arabic to his edification; and such studies are familiar to the Oriental youth. In the intercourse of the Greeks and Turks, a conqueror might wish to converse with the people over whom he was ambitious to reign31; his own praises in Latin poetry or prose might find a passage to the royal ear; but what use or merit could recommend to the statesman or the scholar the uncouth dialect of his Hebrew slaves? The history and geography of the world31 were familiar to his memory; the lives of the heroes of the East, perhaps of the West, excited his emulation; his skill in astrology is excused by the folly of the times, and supposes some rudiments of mathematical science; and a profane taste for the arts is betrayed in his liberal invitation and reward of the painters of Italy. But the influence of religion and learning were employed without effect on his savage and licentious nature. I will not transcribe, nor do I firmly believe, the stories of his fourteen pages, whose bellies were ripped open in search of a stolen melon; or of the beauteous slave, whose head he severed from her body31, to convince the Janizaries that their master was not the votary of love. His sobriety is attested by the silence of the Turkish annals, which accuse three, and three only, of the Ottoman line of the vice of drunkenness. But it cannot be denied that his passions were at once furious and inexorable; that in the palace31, as in the field, a torrent of blood was spilt on the slightest provocation; and that the noblest of the captive youth were often dishonoured by his unnatural lust. In the Albanian war, he studied the lessons, and soon31 surpassed the example, of his father31; and the conquest of two empires, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred cities, a vain and flattering account, is ascribed to his invincible sword. He was doubtless a soldier, and possibly a general; Constantinople31 has sealed his glory; but, if we compare the means, the obstacles, and the achievements, Mahomet the Second31 must blush to sustain a parallel with Alexander or Timour. Under his command, the Ottoman forces were always more numerous than their enemies; yet their progress was bounded by the Euphrates and the Adriatic; and his arms were checked by Huniades and Scanderbeg, by the Rhodian knights, and by the Persian king.
In the reign24 of Amurath24, he twice tasted of royalty, and twice descended from the throne24; his tender age24 was incapable of opposing his father's restoration, but never could he forgive the vizirs who had recommended that salutary measure. His nuptials were celebrated with the daughter of a Turkman emir; and, after a festival of two months, he departed from Hadrianople with his bride to reside in the government24 of Magnesia. Before the end of six weeks, he was recalled by a sudden message from the divan, which announced the decease of Amurath24 and the mutinous spirit of the Janizaries. His speed and vigour commanded their obedience; he passed the Hellespont with a chosen guard; and, at the distance of a mile from Hadrianople, the vizirs and emirs, the imams and cadhis, the soldiers and the people24, fell prostrate before the new24 sultan24. They affected to weep, they affected to rejoice; he ascended the throne24 at the age24 of twenty-one years24, and removed the cause of sedition by the death24, the inevitable death24, of his infant brothers. The ambassadors of Europe24 and Asia24 soon appeared to congratulate his accession, and solicit his friendship; and to all he spoke the language of moderation and peace. The confidence of the Greek24 emperor was revived by the solemn oaths and fair assurances with which he sealed the ratification of the treaty; and a rich domain on the banks of the Strymon was assigned for the annual24 payment of three hundred thousand24 aspers, the pension of an Ottoman prince who was detained at his request in the Byzantine court. Yet the neighbours of Mahomet24 might tremble at the severity with which a youthful monarch reformed the pomp of his father's household; the expenses of luxury were applied to those of ambition, and an useless train of seven thousand24 falconers was either dismissed from his service or enlisted in his troops. In the first summer of his reign24, he visited with an army the Asiatic provinces; but, after humbling the pride, Mahomet24 accepted the submission, of the Caramanian, that he might not be diverted by the smallest obstacle from the execution of his great24 design.
The Mahometan, and more especially the Turkish30, casuists have pronounced that no promise can bind the faithful against the interest and duty of their religion; and that the sultan may abrogate his own treaties and those of his predecessors. The justice and magnanimity of Amurath had scorned this immoral privilege; but his son30, though the proudest of men, could stoop from ambition to the basest arts of dissimulation and deceit. Peace was on his lips, while war30 was in his heart: he incessantly sighed for the possession of Constantinople30; and the Greeks30, by their own indiscretion, afforded the first pretence of the fatal rupture. Instead of labouring to be forgotten, their ambassadors pursued his camp30, to demand the payment and even the increase of their annual stipend: the divan was importuned by their complaints, and the vizir, a secret friend of the Christians, was constrained to deliver the sense of his brethren. Ye foolish and miserable Romans, said Calil, we know your devices, and ye are ignorant of your own danger! the scrupulous Amurath is no more; his throne is occupied by a young conqueror, whom no laws can bind and no obstacles can resist; and, if you escape from his hands, give praise to the divine clemency, which yet delays the chastisement of your sins. Why do ye seek to affright us by vain and indirect menaces? Release the fugitive Orchan, crown him sultan of Romania; call the Hungarians from beyond the Danube; arm against us the nations of the West; and be assured that you will only provoke and precipitate your ruin. But, if the fears of the ambassadors were alarmed by the stern language of the vizir, they were soothed by the courteous audience and friendly speeches of the Ottoman prince30; and Mahomet assured them that on his return to Hadrianople he would redress the grievances, and consult the true interests, of the Greeks30. No sooner had he repassed the Hellespont than he issued a mandate to suppress their pension and to expel their officers from the banks of the Strymon: in this measure he betrayed an hostile mind; and the second30 order announced, and in some degree commenced, the siege30 of Constantinople30. In the narrow pass of the Bosphorus, an Asiatic fortress had formerly been raised by his grandfather: in the opposite situation, on the European side, he resolved to erect a more formidable castle; and a thousand30 masons were commanded to assemble in the spring, on a spot named Asomaton, about five miles from the Greek30 metropolis. Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade: the ambassadors of the emperor30 attempted, without success, to divert Mahomet from the execution of his design. They represented, that his grandfather had solicited the permission of Manuel to build a castle on his own territories; but that this double fortification, which would command the strait, could only tend to violate the alliance of the nations, to intercept the Latins who traded in the Black Sea, and perhaps to annihilate the subsistence of the city30. I form no enterprise, replied the perfidious sultan, against the city30; but the empire30 of Constantinople30 is measured by her walls30. Have you forgot the distress to which my father was reduced, when you formed a league with the Hungarians; when they invaded our country by land, and the Hellespont was occupied by the French galleys? Amurath was compelled to force the passage of the Bosphorus; and your strength was not equal to your malevolence. I was then a child at Hadrianople; the Moslems trembled; and for a while the Gabours insulted our disgrace. But, when my father had triumphed in the field of Warna, he vowed to erect a fort on the western shore, and that vow it is my duty to accomplish. Have ye the right, have ye the power, to control my actions on my own ground? For that ground is my own: as far as the shores of the Bosphorus, Asia is inhabited by the Turks30, and Europe is deserted by the Romans. Return, and inform your king30 that the present Ottoman is far different from his predecessors; that his resolutions surpass their wishes; and that he performs more than they could resolve. Return in safety; but the next who delivers a similar message may expect to be flayed alive. After this declaration, Constantine, the first of the Greeks30 in spirit as in rank, had determined to unsheathe the sword30, and to resist the approach and establishment of the Turks30 on the Bosphorus. He was disarmed by the advice of his civil and ecclesiastical ministers, who recommended a system less generous, and even less prudent, than his own, to approve their patience and long30-suffering, to brand the Ottoman with the name and guilt of an aggressor, and to depend on chance and time for their own safety and the destruction of a fort which could not be long30 maintained in the neighbourhood of a great and populous city30. Amidst hope and fear, the fears of the wise and the hopes of the credulous, the winter rolled away; the proper business of each man, and each hour, was postponed; and the Greeks30 shut their eyes against the impending danger, till30 the arrival of the spring and the sultan decided the assurance of their ruin.
Of a master who never forgives, the orders are seldom disobeyed. On the twenty-sixth of March, the appointed spot of Asomaton was covered with an active swarm of Turkish30 artificers; and the materials by sea and land were diligently transported from Europe and Asia. The lime had been burnt in Cataphrygia; the timber was cut down in the woods of Heraclea and Nicomedia; and the stones were dug from the Anatolian quarries. Each of the thousand30 masons was assisted by two workmen; and a measure of two cubits was marked for their daily task. The fortress was built in a triangular form; each angle was flanked by a strong and massy tower; one on the declivity of the hill, two along the sea-shore; a thickness of twenty-two feet was assigned for the walls30, thirty for the towers; and the whole building was covered with a solid platform of lead. Mahomet himself pressed and directed the work with indefatigable ardour; his three vizirs claimed the honour of finishing their respective towers; the zeal of the cadhis emulated that of the Janizaries; the meanest labour was ennobled by the service30 of God and the sultan; and the diligence of the multitude was quickened by the eye of a despot, whose smile was the hope of fortune, and whose frown was the messenger of death30. The Greek30 emperor30 beheld with terror the irresistible progress of the work; and vainly strove, by flattery and gifts, to assuage an implacable foe, who sought, and secretly fomented, the slightest occasion of a quarrel. Such occasions must soon30 and inevitably be found. The ruins of stately churches, and even the marble columns which had been consecrated to St30. Michael the archangel, were employed without scruple by the profane and rapacious Moslems; and some Christians, who presumed to oppose the removal, received from their hands the crown of martyrdom. Constantine had solicited a Turkish30 guard to protect the fields and harvests of his subjects: the guard was fixed; but their first order was to allow free pasture to the mules and horses of the camp30, and to defend their brethren if they should be molested by the natives. The retinue of an Ottoman chief had left30 their horses to pass the night among the ripe corn: the damage was felt; the insult was resented; and several of both nations were slain in a tumultuous conflict. Mahomet listened with joy to the complaint; and a detachment was commanded to exterminate the guilty village: the guilty had fled; but forty innocent and unsuspecting reapers were massacred by the soldiers30. Till30 this provocation, Constantinople30 had been open to the visits of commerce and curiosity: on the first alarm, the gates were shut; but the emperor30, still anxious for peace, released on the third day30 his Turkish30 captives, and expressed, in a last message, the firm resignation of a Christian and a soldier. Since neither oaths, nor treaty, nor submission, can secure peace, pursue, said he to Mahomet, your impious warfare. My trust is in God alone: if it should please him to mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; if he delivers the city30 into your hands, I submit without a murmur to his holy30 will. But, until the Judge of the earth shall pronounce between us, it is my duty to live and die in the defence of my people30. The sultan's answer was hostile and decisive; his fortifications were completed; and before his departure for Hadrianople he stationed a vigilant Aga and four hundred Janizaries to levy a tribute of the ships of every nation that should pass within the reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel, refusing obedience to the new30 lords of the Bosphorus, was sunk with a single bullet. The master and thirty sailors escaped in the boat; but they were dragged in chains to the Porte; the chief was impaled; his companions were beheaded; and the historian Ducas beheld, at Demotica, their bodies exposed to the wild beasts. The siege30 of Constantinople30 was deferred till30 the ensuing spring; but an Ottoman army30 marched into the Morea to divert the force of the brothers of Constantine. At this era of calamity, one of these princes, the despot Thomas, was blessed or afflicted with the birth of a son30, the last heir, says the plaintive Phranza, of the last spark of the Roman30 empire30.
The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxious and sleepless winter: the former were kept awake by their fears, the latter by their hopes; both by the preparations of defence and attack; and the two emperors, who had the most to lose or to gain, were the most deeply affected by the national sentiment. In Mahomet, that sentiment was inflamed by the ardour of his youth and temper: he amused his leisure with building at Hadrianople the lofty palace47 of Jehan Numa (the watch-tower of the world); but his serious thoughts were irrevocably bent on the conquest of the city47 of Caesar. At the dead of night, about the second watch, he started from his bed, and commanded the instant attendance of his prime vizir. The message, the hour, the prince47, and his own situation alarmed the guilty conscience of Calil Basha, who had possessed the confidence, and advised the restoration, of Amurath. On the accession of the son47, the vizir was confirmed in his office and the appearances of favour; but the veteran statesman was not insensible that he trode on a thin and slippery ice, which might break under his footsteps and plunge him in the abyss. His friendship for the Christians, which might be innocent under the late reign47, had stigmatised him with the name of Gabour Ortachi, or foster brother of the infidels; and his avarice entertained a venal and treasonable correspondence, which was detected and punished after the conclusion of the war47. On receiving the royal mandate, he embraced, perhaps for the last time, his wife and children; filled up a cup with pieces of gold, hastened to the palace47, adored the sultan, and offered, according to the Oriental custom, the slight tribute of his duty and gratitude. It is not my wish, said Mahomet, to resume my gifts, but rather to heap and multiply them on thy head. In my turn, I ask a present far more valuable and important, — Constantinople. As soon47 as the vizir had recovered from his surprise, The same God, said he, who has already given thee so large a portion of the Roman47 empire47, will not deny the remnant, and the capital. His providence and thy power47 assure thy success; and myself, with the rest of thy faithful slaves, will sacrifice our lives and fortunes. Lala (or preceptor), continued the sultan, do you see this pillow? all the night, in my agitation, I have pulled it on one side and the other; I have risen from my bed, again have I lain down; yet sleep has not visited these weary eyes. Beware of the gold and silver of the Romans; in arms47 we are superior; and with the aid of God, and the prayers of the prophet, we shall speedily become masters of Constantinople. To sound the disposition of his soldiers47, he often wandered through the streets alone and in disguise; and it was fatal to discover the sultan, when he wished to escape from the vulgar eye. His hours were spent in delineating the plan of the hostile city47; in debating with his generals and engineers, on what spot he should erect his batteries; on which side he should assault the walls; where he should spring his mines; to what place he should apply his scaling-ladders; and the exercises of the day repeated and proved the lucubrations of the night.
Among the implements of destruction, he studied with peculiar care the recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins; and his artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. A founder of cannon, a Dane or Hungarian, who had been almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and was liberally entertained by the Turkish sultan. Mahomet was satisfied with the answer to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist. Am I able to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constantinople? I am not ignorant of their strength, but, were they more solid than those of Babylon, I could oppose an engine of superior power; the position and management of that engine must be left to your engineers. On this assurance, a foundry was established at Hadrianople: the metal was prepared; and, at the end of three months, Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible magnitude; a measure of twelve palms is assigned to the bore; and the stone bullet weighed above six hundred pounds. A vacant place before the new7 palace was chosen for the first experiment; but, to prevent the sudden and mischievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclamation was issued that the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day. The explosion was felt or heard in the circuit of an hundred furlongs: the ball, by the force of gunpowder, was driven above a mile; and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom deep in the ground. For the conveyance of this destructive engine, a frame or carriage of thirty waggons was linked together and drawn along by a team of sixty oxen; two hundred men on both sides were stationed to poise and support the rolling weight; two hundred and fifty workmen marched before to smooth the way and repair the bridges; and near two months were employed in a laborious journey of one hundred and fifty miles. A lively philosopher derides, on this occasion, the credulity of the Greeks, and observes, with much reason7, that we should always distrust the exaggerations of a vanquished people. He calculates that a ball, even of two hundred pounds, would require a charge of one hundred and fifty pounds of powder; and that the stroke would be feeble and impotent, since not a fifteenth part of the mass could be inflamed at the same moment. A stranger as I am to the art of destruction, I can discern that the modern improvements of artillery prefer the number of pieces to the weight of metal; the quickness of the fire to the sound, or even the consequence, of a single explosion. Yet I dare not reject the positive and unanimous evidence of contemporary writers; nor can it seem improbable that the first artists, in their rude and ambitious efforts, should have transgressed the standard of moderation. A Turkish cannon, more enormous than that of Mahomet, still guards the entrance of the Dardanelles; and, if the use be inconvenient, it has been found on a late trial that the effect was far from contemptible. A stone bullet of eleven hundred pounds' weight was once discharged with three hundred and thirty pounds of powder; at the distance of six hundred yards, it shivered into three rocky fragments, traversed the strait, and, leaving the waters in a foam, again rose and bounded against the opposite hill.
While Mahomet threatened the capital of the East, the Greek30 emperor30 implored with fervent prayers the assistance of earth and heaven. But the invisible powers were deaf to his supplications; and Christendom beheld with indifference the fall of Constantinople30, while she derived at least some promise of supply from the jealous and temporal policy of the sultan of Egypt. Some states were too weak, and others too remote; by some the danger was considered as imaginary, by others as inevitable: the Western princes were involved in their endless and domestic quarrels; and the Roman30 pontiff was exasperated by the falsehood or obstinacy of the Greeks30. Instead of employing in their favour the arms30 and treasures of Italy, Nicholas the Fifth had foretold their approaching ruin; and his honour was engaged in the accomplishment of his prophecy. Perhaps he was softened by the last extremity of their distress; but his compassion was tardy; his efforts were faint and unavailing; and Constantinople30 had fallen, before the squadrons of Genoa and Venice could sail from their harbours. Even the princes of the Morea and of the Greek30 islands affected a cold neutrality: the Genoese colony of Galata negotiated a private treaty; and the sultan indulged them in the delusive hope that by his clemency they might survive the ruin of the empire30. A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine30 nobles, basely withdrew from the danger of their country; and the avarice of the rich denied the emperor30, and reserved for the Turks30, the secret treasures which might have raised in their defence whole armies of mercenaries. The indigent and solitary prince30 prepared, however, to sustain his formidable adversary; but, if his courage were equal to the peril, his strength was inadequate to the contest. In the beginning of the spring, the Turkish30 vanguard swept the towns and villages as far as the gates of Constantinople30: submission was spared and protected; whatever presumed to resist was exterminated with fire and sword30. The Greek30 places on the Black Sea, Mesembria, Acheloum, and Bizon, surrendered on the first summons; Selybria alone deserved the honours of a siege30 or blockade; and the bold inhabitants, while they were invested by land, launched their boats, pillaged the opposite coast of Cyzicus, and sold their captives in the public market. But on the approach of Mahomet himself all was silent and prostrate; he first halted at the distance of five miles; and from thence advancing in battle30-array planted before the gate of St30. Romanus the Imperial standard30; and, on the sixth day30 of April, formed the memorable siege30 of Constantinople30.
The troops9 of Asia9 and Europe9 extended on the right and left from the Propontis to the harbour; the Janizaries in the front were stationed before the sultan's tent; the Ottoman line was covered by a deep entrenchment; and a subordinate army9 enclosed the suburb of Galata, and watched the doubtful faith of the Genoese. The inquisitive Philelphus, who resided in Greece about thirty years before the siege, is confident that all the Turkish forces, of any name or value, could not exceed the number of sixty thousand9 horse and twenty thousand9 foot; and he upbraids the pusillanimity of the nations9 who had tamely yielded to a handful of Barbarians9. Such, indeed, might be the regular establishment of the Capiculi, the troops9 of the Porte who marched with the prince and were paid from his royal treasury. But the bashaws, in their respective governments, maintained or levied a provincial militia; many lands were held by a military tenure; many volunteers were attracted by the hope of spoil; and the sound of the holy trumpet invited a swarm of hungry and fearless fanatics, who might contribute at least to multiply the terrors, and in a first attack to blunt the swords, of the Christians. The whole mass of the Turkish powers is magnified by Ducas, Chalcondyles, and Leonard of Chios, to the amount of three of four hundred thousand9 men9; but Phranza was a less remote and more accurate judge; and his precise definition of two hundred and fifty-eight thousand9 does not exceed the measure of experience and probability. The navy of the besiegers was less formidable: the Propontis was overspread with three hundred and twenty sail; but of these no more than eighteen could be rated as galleys of war9; and the far9 greater part must be degraded to the condition of storeships and transports, which poured into the camp9 fresh supplies of men9, ammunition, and provisions. In her last decay, Constantinople was still peopled with more than an hundred thousand9 inhabitants9; but these numbers are found in the accounts, not of war9, but of captivity; and they mostly consisted of mechanics, of priests, of women, and of men9 devoid of that spirit which even women have sometimes exerted for the common safety. I can suppose, I could almost excuse, the reluctance of subjects to serve on a distant frontier, at the will of a tyrant; but the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property has lost in society the first and most active energies of nature. By the emperor's command, a particular inquiry had been made through the streets and houses, how many of the citizens, or even of the monks, were able and willing to bear arms9 for their country9. The lists were entrusted to Phranza; and, after a diligent addition, he informed his master, with grief and surprise, that the national defence was reduced to four thousand9 nine hundred and seventy Romans9. Between Constantine and his faithful minister, this comfortless secret was preserved; and a sufficient proportion of shields, cross-bows, and muskets was distributed from the arsenal to the city9-bands. They derived some accession from a body of two thousand9 strangers, under the command of John Justiniani, a noble Genoese; a liberal donative was advanced to these auxiliaries; and a princely recompense, the isle of Lemnos, was promised to the valour9 and victory of their chief. A strong chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbour; it was supported by some Greek and Italian vessels9 of war9 and merchandise; and the ships of every Christian nation9, that successively arrived from Candia and the Black Sea9, were detained for the public service. Against the powers of the Ottoman empire9, a city9 of the extent of thirteen, perhaps of sixteen, miles9 was defended by a scanty garrison of seven or eight thousand9 soldiers. Europe9 and Asia9 were open to the besiegers; but the strength and provisions of the Greeks must sustain a daily decrease; nor could they indulge the expectation of any foreign succour or supply.
The primitive Romans16 would have drawn their swords in the resolution of death16 or conquest. The primitive Christians might have embraced each other, and awaited in patience and charity the stroke of martyrdom. But the Greeks of Constantinople were animated only by the spirit of religion, and that spirit was productive only of animosity and discord. Before his death16, the emperor16 John Palaeologus16 had renounced the unpopular measure16 of an union with the Latins; nor was the idea revived, till16 the distress of his brother Constantine imposed a last trial16 of flattery and dissimulation. With the demand of temporal aid, his ambassadors were instructed to mingle the assurance of spiritual16 obedience: his neglect of the church was excused by the urgent cares of the state16; and his orthodox wishes solicited the presence of a Roman16 legate. The Vatican had been too often deluded; yet the signs of repentance could not decently be overlooked; a legate was more easily granted16 than an army; and, about six months before the final destruction, the cardinal Isidore of Russia appeared in that character16 with a retinue of priests and soldiers. The emperor16 saluted him as a friend and father16; respectfully listened to his public16 and private sermons; and with the most obsequious of the clergy and laymen subscribed the act of union, as it had been ratified in the council of Florence. On the twelfth of December, the two nations, in the church of St. Sophia, joined in the communion of sacrifice and prayer; and the names of the two pontiffs were solemnly commemorated: the names of Nicholas the Fifth, the vicar of Christ, and of the patriarch Gregory, who had been driven into exile by a rebellious people16.
But the dress and language of the Latin priest who officiated at the altar were an object of scandal; and it was observed with horror that he consecrated a cake or wafer of unleavened bread and poured cold water into the cup of the sacrament. A national historian acknowledges with a blush that none of his countrymen, not the emperor42 himself, were sincere in this occasional conformity. Their hasty and unconditional submission was palliated by a promise of future42 revisal; but the best or the worst of their excuses was the confession of their own perjury. When they were pressed by the reproaches of their honest brethren, Have patience, they whispered, have patience till God shall have delivered the city42 from the great42 dragon who seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive whether we are truly reconciled with the Azymites. But patience is not the attribute of zeal; nor can the arts of a court be adapted to the freedom and violence of popular enthusiasm. From the dome of St. Sophia, the inhabitants of either sex and of every degree rushed in crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius, to consult the oracle of the church. The holy42 man was invisible; entranced, as it should seem, in deep meditation or divine rapture; but he had exposed on the door of his cell a speaking tablet; and they successively withdrew, after reading these tremendous words: O miserable Romans! why will ye abandon the truth? and why, instead of confiding in God, will ye put your trust in the Italians? In losing your faith, you will lose your city42. Have mercy on me, O Lord! I protest, in thy presence, that I am innocent of the crime. O miserable Romans! consider, pause, and repent. At the same moment that you renounce the religion42 of your fathers, by embracing impiety, you submit to a foreign servitude. According to the advice of Gennadius, the religious virgins, as pure as angels and as proud as demons, rejected the act of union and abjured all communion with the present and future42 associates of the Latins; and their example was applauded and imitated by the greatest part of the clergy42 and people42. From the monastery, the devout Greeks dispersed themselves in the taverns; drank confusion to the slaves of the pope; emptied their glasses in honour of the image of the holy42 Virgin; and besought her to defend against Mahomet the city42 which she had formerly saved from Chosroes and the Chagan. In the double intoxication of zeal and wine, they valiantly exclaimed, What occasion have we for succour, or union, or Latins? far from us be the worship of the Azymites! During the winter that preceded the Turkish conquest42, the nation was distracted by this epidemical frenzy; and the season of Lent, the approach of Easter, instead of breathing charity and love, served only to fortify the obstinacy and influence of the zealots. The confessors scrutinised and alarmed the conscience of their votaries42, and a rigorous penance was imposed on those who had received42 the communion from a priest who had given an express or tacit consent to the union. His service at the altar propagated the infection to the mute and simple spectators of the ceremony; they forfeited, by the impure spectacle, the virtue of their sacerdotal character; nor was it lawful, even in danger of sudden death, to invoke the assistance of their prayers or absolution. No sooner had the church of St. Sophia been polluted by the Latin sacrifice than it was deserted as a Jewish synagogue42, or an heathen temple42, by the clergy42 and people42; and a vast and gloomy silence prevailed in that venerable dome, which had so often smoked with a cloud of incense, blazed with innumerable lights, and resounded with the voice of prayer and thanksgiving. The Latins were the most odious of heretics and infidels; and the first minister of the empire, the great42 duke, was heard to declare that he had rather behold, in Constantinople, the turban of Mahomet than the pope's tiara or a cardinal's hat. A sentiment so unworthy of Christians and patriots was familiar and fatal to the Greeks: the emperor42 was deprived of the affection and support of his subjects; and their native cowardice was sanctified by resignation to the divine decree or the visionary hope of a miraculous deliverance.
Of the triangle which composes the figure of Constantinople49, the two sides along the sea49 were made inaccessible to an enemy: the Propontis by nature, and the harbour by art. Between the two waters, the basis of the triangle, the landside was protected by a double wall and a deep ditch49 of the depth of one hundred feet. Against this line of fortification, which Phranza, an eye-witness, prolongs to the measure of six miles, the Ottomans directed their principal attack49; and the emperor49, after distributing the service and command of the most perilous stations, undertook the defence49 of the external wall. In the first days49 of the siege49, the Greek soldiers49 descended into the ditch49, or sallied into the field; but they soon49 discovered that, in the proportion of their numbers, one Christian was of more value than twenty Turks; and, after these bold preludes, they were prudently content to maintain the rampart49 with their missile weapons. Nor should this prudence be accused of pusillanimity. The nation was indeed pusillanimous and base; but the last Constantine deserves the name of an hero; his noble band of volunteers was inspired with Roman virtue; and the foreign auxiliaries supported the honour of the Western chivalry. The incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, the sound, and the fire of their musketry and cannon49. Their small arms49 discharged at the same time either five or even ten balls of lead of the size of a walnut; and, according to the closeness of the ranks and the force of the powder, several breastplates and bodies were transpierced by the same shot. But the Turkish approaches were soon49 sunk in trenches or covered with ruins. Each day49 added to the science of the Christians; but their inadequate stock of gun-powder was wasted in the operations of each day49. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size or number; and, if they possessed some heavy cannon49, they feared to plant them on the walls49, lest the aged structure should be shaken and overthrown by the explosion. The same destructive secret had been revealed to the Moslems; by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The great49 cannon49 of Mahomet has been separately noticed: an important and visible object in the history of the times49; but that enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude; the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls49; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most accessible places; and of one of these it is ambiguously expressed that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty49 guns, or that it discharged one hundred and thirty49 bullets. Yet, in the power and activity of the sultan, we may discern the infancy of the new science. Under a master who counted the moments, the great49 cannon49 could be loaded and fired no more than seven times49 in one day49. The heated metal unfortunately burst; several workmen were destroyed; and the skill of an artist was admired, who bethought himself of preventing the danger49 and the accident, by pouring oil, after each explosion, into the mouth of the cannon49.
The first random shots were productive of more sound than effect; and it was by the advice of a Christian that the engineers were taught to level their aim against the two opposite sides of the salient angles of a bastion. However imperfect, the weight and repetition of the fire made some impression on the walls49; and the Turks, pushing their approaches to the edge of the ditch49, attempted to fill the enormous chasm and to build a road to the assault49. Innumerable fascines and hogsheads and trunks of trees were heaped on each other; and such was the impetuosity of the throng that the foremost and the weakest were pushed headlong down the precipice and instantly buried under the accumulated mass. To fill the ditch49 was the toil of the besiegers; to clear away the rubbish was the safety of the besieged; and, after a long and bloody conflict, the web that had been woven in the day49 was still unravelled in the night. The next resource of Mahomet was the practice of mines; but the soil was rocky; in every attempt he was stopped and undermined by the Christian engineers; nor had the art been yet invented of replenishing those subterraneous passages with gunpowder and blowing whole towers49 and cities into the air. A circumstance that distinguishes the siege49 of Constantinople49 is the reunion of the ancient and modern artillery. The cannon49 were intermingled with the mechanical engines49 for casting stones and darts; the bullet and the battering-ram were directed against the same walls49; nor had the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of the liquid and unextinguishable fire. A wooden turret of the largest size was advanced on rollers; this portable magazine of ammunition and fascines was protected by a threefold covering of bulls' hides; incessant volleys were securely discharged from the loop-holes; in the front, three doors were contrived for the alternate sally and retreat of the soldiers49 and workmen. They ascended by a staircase to the upper platform, and, as high as the level of that platform, a scaling49-ladder could be raised by pulleys to form a bridge and grapple with the adverse rampart49. By these various arts of annoyance, some as new as they were pernicious to the Greeks, the tower of St. Romanus was at length overturned; after a severe struggle, the Turks were repulsed from the breach and interrupted by darkness; but they trusted that with the return of light they should renew the attack49 with fresh vigour and decisive success49. Of this pause of action, this interval of hope, each moment was improved by the activity of the emperor49 and Justiniani, who passed the night on the spot, and urged the labours which involved the safety of the church and city49. At the dawn of day49, the impatient sultan perceived, with astonishment and grief, that his wooden turret had been reduced to ashes: the ditch49 was cleared and restored; and the tower of St. Romanus was again strong and entire. He deplored the failure of his design; and uttered a profane exclamation that the word of the thirty49-seven thousand49 prophets should not have compelled him to believe that such a work, in so short a time, should have been accomplished by the infidels.
The generosity of the Christian princes was cold and tardy; but, in the first apprehension of a siege, Constantine had negotiated, in the isles of the Archipelago, the Morea, and Sicily, the most indispensable supplies. As early as the beginning of April, five great9 ships, equipped for merchandise and war9, would have sailed from the harbour of Chios, had not the wind blown obstinately from the north9. One of these ships bore the Imperial flag; the remaining four belonged to the Genoese; and they were laden with wheat and barley, with wine, oil, and vegetables, and, above all, with soldiers and mariners, for the service of the capital9. After a tedious delay, a gentle breeze, and, on the second day, a strong gale from the south, carried them through the Hellespont and the Propontis; but the city9 was already invested by sea9 and land; and the Turkish fleet9, at the entrance of the Bosphorus, was stretched from shore to shore, in the form of a crescent, to intercept, or at least to repel, these bold auxiliaries. The reader who has present to his mind the geographical picture of Constantinople, will conceive and admire the greatness of the spectacle. The five Christian ships continued to advance with joyful shouts, and a full press both of sails and oars, against an hostile fleet9 of three hundred vessels9; and the rampart, the camp9, the coasts of Europe9 and Asia9 were lined with innumerable spectators, who anxiously awaited the event of this momentous succour. At the first view, that event could not appear doubtful: the superiority of the Moslems was beyond all measure or account; and, in a calm, their numbers and valour9 must inevitably have prevailed. But their hasty and imperfect navy had been created, not by the genius of the people, but by the will of the sultan. In the height of their prosperity, the Turks have acknowledged that, if God had given them the earth, he had left the sea9 to the infidels; and a series of defeats, a rapid progress of decay, has established the truth of their modest confession. Except eighteen galleys of some force, the rest of their fleet9 consisted of open boats, rudely constructed and awkwardly managed, crowded with troops9 and destitute of cannon; and, since courage arises in a great9 measure from the consciousness of strength, the bravest of the Janizaries might tremble on a new9 element. In the Christian squadron, five stout and lofty ships were guided by skilful pilots, and manned with the veterans of Italy9 and Greece, long9 practised in the arts and perils of the sea9. Their weight was directed to sink or scatter the weak obstacles that impeded their passage; their artillery swept the waters; their liquid fire was poured on the heads of the adversaries who, with the design of boarding, presumed to approach them; and the winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. In this conflict, the Imperial vessel, which had been almost overpowered, was rescued by the Genoese; but the Turks, in a distant and closer attack, were twice repulsed with considerable loss. Mahomet himself sat on horseback on the beach, to encourage their valour9 by his voice and presence, by the promise of reward, and by fear more potent than the fear of the enemy. The passions of his soul, and even the gestures of his body, seemed to imitate the actions of the combatants; and, as if he had been the lord of nature, he spurred his horse with a fearless and impotent effort into the sea9. His loud reproaches, and the clamours of the camp9, urged the Ottomans to a third attack, more fatal and bloody than the two former; and I must repeat, though I cannot credit, the evidence of Phranza, who affirms, from their own mouth, that they lost above twelve thousand9 men9 in the slaughter of the day. They fled in disorder to the shores of Europe9 and Asia9, while the Christian squadron, triumphant and unhurt, steered along the Bosphorus and securely anchored within the chain of the harbour. In the confidence of victory, they boasted that the whole Turkish power must have yielded to their arms9; but the admiral, or captain-bashaw, found some consolation for a painful wound in his eye, by representing that accident as the cause of his defeat. Baltha Ogli was a renegade of the race of the Bulgarian princes; his military character was tainted with the unpopular vice of avarice; and, under the despotism of the prince or people, misfortune is a sufficient evidence of guilt. His rank and services were annihilated by the displeasure of Mahomet. In the royal presence, the captain-bashaw was extended on the ground by four slaves, and received one hundred strokes with a golden rod; his death had been pronounced; and he adored the clemency of the sultan, who was satisfied with the milder punishment of confiscation and exile. The introduction of this supply revived the hopes of the Greeks, and accused the supineness of their Western allies. Amidst the deserts of Anatolia and the rocks of Palestine, the millions of the crusades had buried themselves in a voluntary and inevitable grave; but the situation of the Imperial city9 was strong against her enemies, and accessible to her friends; and a rational and moderate armament of the maritime states might have saved the relics of the Roman9 name and maintained a Christian fortress in the heart of the Ottoman empire9. Yet this was the sole and feeble attempt for the deliverance of Constantinople; the more distant powers were insensible of its danger; and the ambassador of Hungary, or at least of Huniades, resided in the Turkish camp9, to remove the fears, and to direct the operations, of the sultan.
It was difficult for the Greeks to penetrate the secret of the divan; yet the Greeks are persuaded that a resistance, so obstinate and surprising, had fatigued the perseverance of Mahomet. He began to meditate a retreat, and the siege would have been speedily raised, if the ambition and jealousy of the second vizir had not opposed the perfidious advice of Calil Bashaw, who still maintained a secret correspondence with the Byzantine court. The reduction of the city9 appeared to be hopeless, unless a double attack could be made from the harbour as well as from the land; but the harbour was inaccessible: an impenetrable chain was now defended by eight large ships, more than twenty of a smaller size, with several galleys and sloops; and, instead of forcing this barrier, the Turks might apprehend a naval sally and a second encounter in the open sea9. In this perplexity, the genius of Mahomet conceived and executed a plan of a bold and marvellous cast, of transporting by land his lighter vessels9 and military stores from the Bosphorus into the higher part of the harbour. The distance is about ten miles9; the ground is uneven, and was overspread with thickets; and, as the road must be opened behind the suburb of Galata, their free passage or total destruction must depend on the option of the Genoese. But these selfish merchants were ambitious of the favour of being the last devoured; and the deficiency of art was supplied by the strength of obedient myriads. A level way was covered with a broad platform of strong and solid planks; and to render them more slippery and smooth, they were anointed with the fat of sheep and oxen. Fourscore light galleys and brigantines of fifty and thirty oars were disembarked on the Bosphorus shore; arranged successively on rollers; and drawn forwards by the power of men9 and pulleys. Two guides or pilots were stationed at the helm and the prow of each vessel; the sails were unfurled to the winds; and the labour was cheered by song and acclamation. In the course of a single night, this Turkish fleet9 painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and was launched from the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, far9 above the molestation of the deeper vessels9 of the Greeks. The real importance of this operation was magnified by the consternation and confidence which it inspired; but the notorious, unquestionable fact was displayed before the eyes, and is recorded by the pens, of the two nations9. A similar stratagem had been repeatedly practised by the ancients; the Ottoman galleys (I must again repeat) should be considered as large boats; and, if we compare the magnitude and the distance, the obstacles and the means, the boasted miracle has perhaps been equalled by the industry of our own times. As soon9 as Mahomet had occupied the upper harbour with a fleet9 and army9, he constructed, in the narrowest part, a bridge, or rather mole, of fifty cubits in breadth and one hundred in length; it was formed of casks and hogsheads, joined with rafters linked with iron, and covered with a solid floor. On this floating battery he planted one of his largest cannon, while the fourscore galleys, with troops9 and scaling-ladders, approached the most accessible side, which had formerly been stormed by the Latin conquerors. The indolence of the Christians has been accused for not destroying these unfinished works; but their fire, by a superior fire, was controlled and silenced; nor were they wanting in a nocturnal attempt to burn the vessels9 as well as the bridge of the sultan. His vigilance prevented their approach; their foremost galliots were sunk or taken; forty youths, the bravest of Italy9 and Greece, were inhumanly massacred at his command; nor could the emperor's grief be assuaged by the just though cruel retaliation of exposing from the walls9 the heads of two hundred and sixty Musulman captives. After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constantinople could no longer be averted. The diminutive garrison was exhausted by a double attack; the fortifications, which had stood for ages against hostile violence, were dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon; many breaches were opened; and near the gate of St. Romanus four towers had been levelled with the ground. For the payment of his feeble and mutinous troops9, Constantine was compelled to despoil the churches, with the promise of a fourfold restitution; and his sacrilege offered a new9 reproach to the enemies of the union. A spirit of discord impaired the remnant of the Christian strength; the Genoese and Venetian auxiliaries asserted the preeminence of their respective service; and Justiniani and the Great9 Duke, whose ambition was not extinguished by the common danger, accused each other of treachery and cowardice.
During the siege30 of Constantinople30, the words of peace and capitulation had been sometimes pronounced; and several embassies had passed between the camp30 and the city30. The Greek30 emperor30 was humbled by adversity; and would have yielded to any terms compatible with religion and royalty. The Turkish30 sultan was desirous of sparing the blood of his soldiers30; still more desirous of securing for his own use the Byzantine30 treasures; and he accomplished a sacred duty in presenting to the Gabours the choice of circumcision, of tribute, or of death30. The avarice of Mahomet might have been satisfied with an annual sum of one hundred thousand30 ducats; but his ambition grasped the capital of the East; to the prince30 he offered a rich equivalent, to the people30 a free toleration or a safe departure; but, after some fruitless treaty, he declared his resolution of finding either a throne or a grave under the walls30 of Constantinople30. A sense of honour and the fear of universal reproach forbade Palaeologus to resign the city30 into the hands of the Ottomans; and he determined to abide the last extremities of war30. Several days30 were employed by the sultan in the preparations of the assault; and a respite was granted by his favourite science of astrology, which had fixed on the twenty-ninth of May as the fortunate and fatal hour. On the evening of the twenty-seventh, he issued his final orders; assembled in his presence the military chiefs; and dispersed his heralds through the camp30 to proclaim the duty and the motives of the perilous enterprise. Fear is the first principle of a despotic government; and his menaces were expressed in the Oriental style, that the fugitives and deserters, had they the wings of a bird, should not escape from his inexorable justice. The greatest part of his bashaws and Janizaries were the offspring of Christian parents; but the glories of the Turkish30 name were perpetuated by successive adoption; and, in the gradual change of individuals, the spirit of a legion, a regiment, or an oda is kept alive by imitation and discipline. In this holy30 warfare, the Moslems were exhorted to purify their minds with prayer, their bodies with seven absolutions; and to abstain from food till30 the close of the ensuing day30. A crowd of dervishes visited the tents, to instil the desire of martyrdom, and the assurance of spending an immortal youth amidst the rivers and gardens of paradise and in the embraces of the black-eyed virgins. Yet Mahomet principally trusted to the efficacy of temporal and visible rewards. A double pay was promised to the victorious troops30: The city30 and the buildings, said Mahomet, are mine; but I resign to your valour the captives and the spoil, the treasures of gold30 and beauty; be rich and be happy. Many are the provinces of my empire30: the intrepid soldier who first ascends the walls30 of Constantinople30 shall be rewarded with the government of the fairest and most wealthy; and my gratitude shall accumulate his honours and fortunes above the measure of his own hopes. Such various and potent motives diffused among the Turks30 a general30 ardour, regardless of life and impatient for action; the camp30 re-echoed with the Moslem shouts of God is God, there is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God; and the sea and land, from Galata to the seven towers, were illuminated by the blaze of their nocturnal fires.
Far different was the state of the Christians; who, with loud and impotent complaints, deplored the guilt, or the punishment, of their sins. The celestial image of the Virgin had been exposed in solemn procession; but their divine patroness was deaf to their entreaties: they accused the obstinacy of the emperor30 for refusing a timely surrender; anticipated the horrors of their fate; and sighed for the repose and security of Turkish30 servitude. The noblest of the Greeks30, and the bravest of the allies, were summoned to the palace30, to prepare them, on the evening of the twenty-eighth, for the duties and dangers of the general30 assault. The last speech of Palaeologus was the funeral oration of the Roman30 empire30: he promised, he conjured, and he vainly attempted to infuse the hope which was extinguished in his own mind. In this world all was comfortless and gloomy; and neither the gospel nor the church have proposed any conspicuous recompense to the heroes who fall in the service30 of their country. But the example of their prince30 and the confinement of a siege30 had armed these warriors with the courage of despair; and the pathetic scene is described by the feelings of the historian Phranza, who was himself present at this mournful assembly. They wept, they embraced; regardless of their families and fortunes, they devoted their lives; and each commander, departing to his station, maintained all night a vigilant and anxious watch on the rampart. The emperor30, and some faithful companions, entered the dome of St30. Sophia, which in a few hours was to be converted into a mosch; and devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the sacrament of the holy30 communion. He reposed some moments in the palace30, which resounded with cries and lamentations; solicited the pardon of all whom he might have injured; and mounted on horseback to visit the guards and explore the motions of the enemy30. The distress and fall of the last Constantine are more glorious than the long30 prosperity of the Byzantine30 Caesars.
In the confusion of darkness an assailant may sometimes succeed; but, in this great and general48 attack, the military48 judgment and astrological knowledge of Mahomet advised him to expect the morning, the memorable twenty-ninth of May, in the fourteen hundred and fifty-third year of the Christian era. The preceding night had been strenuously employed: the troops48, the cannon, and the fascines were advanced to the edge of the ditch, which, in many parts, presented a smooth and level passage to the breach; and his fourscore galleys almost touched, with the prows and their scaling-ladders, the less defensible walls of the harbour. Under pain of death48, silence was enjoined; but the physical laws of motion and sound are not obedient to discipline or fear; each individual might suppress his voice48 and measure his footsteps; but the march and labour of thousands must inevitably produce a strange confusion of dissonant clamours, which reached the ears of the watchmen of the towers. At daybreak, without the customary signal of the morning-gun, the Turks assaulted the city48 by sea and land; and the similitude of a twined or twisted thread has been applied to the closeness and continuity of their line of attack. The foremost ranks consisted of the refuse of the host, a voluntary crowd, who fought without order or command; of the feebleness of age or childhood, of peasants and vagrants, and of all who had joined the camp48 in the blind hope of plunder and martyrdom. The common impulse drove them onwards to the wall; the most audacious to climb were instantly precipitated; and not a dart, not a bullet, of the Christians was idly wasted on the accumulated throng. But their strength and ammunition were exhausted in this laborious defence48; the ditch was filled with the bodies of the slain; they supported the footsteps of their companions; and of this devoted vanguard the death48 was more serviceable than the life48. Under their respective bashaws and sanjaks, the troops48 of Anatolia and Romania were successively led to the charge: their progress was various and doubtful; but, after a conflict of two hours, the Greeks48 still maintained and improved their advantage; and the voice48 of the emperor48 was heard48, encouraging his soldiers to achieve, by a last effort, the deliverance48 of their country48. In that fatal moment, the Janizaries arose, fresh, vigorous, and invincible. The sultan himself on horseback, with an iron mace in his hand, was the spectator and judge of their valour; he was surrounded by ten thousand48 of his domestic48 troops48, whom he reserved for the decisive occasion; and the tide of battle was directed and impelled by his voice48 and eye. His numerous ministers of justice were posted behind the line, to urge, to restrain, and to punish; and, if danger48 was in the front, shame and inevitable death48 were in the rear of the fugitives. The cries of fear and of pain were drowned in the martial music of drums, trumpets, and attaballs; and experience has proved that the mechanical operation of sounds, by quickening the circulation of the blood and spirits, will act on the human machine more forcibly than the eloquence of reason and honour. From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides; and the camp48 and city48, the Greeks48 and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke, which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance48 or destruction of the Roman empire. The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections; the skilful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary though pernicious science. But, in the uniform and odious pictures of a general48 assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion; nor shall48 I strive, at the distance of three centuries and a thousand48 miles, to delineate a scene of which there could be no spectators, and of which the actors themselves were incapable of forming any just48 or adequate idea.
The immediate loss of Constantinople30 may be ascribed to the bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani. The sight of his blood, and the exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the chief, whose arms30 and counsel were the firmest rampart of the city30. As he withdrew from his station in quest of a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the indefatigable emperor30. Your wound, exclaimed Palaeologus, is slight; the danger is pressing; your presence is necessary; and whither will you retire? I will retire, said the trembling Genoese, by the same road which God has opened to the Turks30; and at these words he hastily passed through one of the breaches of the inner wall. By this pusillanimous act, he stained the honours of a military life; and the few days30 which he survived in Galata, or the isle of Chios, were embittered by his own and the public reproach. His example was imitated by the greatest part of the Latin auxiliaries, and the defence began to slacken when the attack was pressed with redoubled vigour. The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps an hundred, times superior to that of the Christians; the double walls30 were reduced by the cannon to an heap of ruins; in a circuit of several miles, some places must be found more easy of access or more feebly guarded; and, if the besiegers could penetrate in a single point, the whole city30 was irrecoverably lost. The first who deserved the sultan's reward was Hassan, the Janizary, of gigantic stature and strength. With his scymetar in one hand and his buckler in the other, he ascended the outward fortification; of the thirty Janizaries, who were emulous of his valour, eighteen perished in the bold adventure. Hassan and his twelve companions had reached the summit: the giant was precipitated from the rampart; he rose on one knee, and was again oppressed by a shower of darts and stones. But his success had proved that the achievement was possible: the walls30 and towers were instantly covered with a swarm of Turks30; and the Greeks30, now driven from the vantage-ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes. Amidst these multitudes, the emperor30, who accomplished all the duties of a general30 and a soldier, was long30 seen, and finally lost. The nobles who fought round his person sustained, till30 their last breath, the honourable names of Palaeologus and Cantacuzene: his mournful exclamation was heard, Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my head30? and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the infidels. The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple; amidst the tumult, he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a mountain of the slain. After his death30, resistance and order were no more; the Greeks30 fled towards the city30; and many were pressed and stifled in the narrow pass of the gate of St30. Romanus. The victorious Turks30 rushed through the breaches of the inner wall; and, as they advanced into the streets, they were soon30 joined by their brethren, who had forced the gate Phenar on the side of the harbour. In the first heat of the pursuit, about two thousand30 Christians were put to the sword30; but avarice soon30 prevailed over cruelty; and the victors acknowledged that they should immediately have given quarter, if the valour of the emperor30 and his chosen bands had not prepared them for a similar opposition in every part of the capital. It was thus, after a siege30 of fifty-three days30, that Constantinople30, which had defied the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the caliphs, was irretrievably subdued by the arms30 of Mahomet the Second30. Her empire30 only had been subverted by the Latins; her religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem conquerors.
The tidings of misfortune fly with a rapid25 wing; yet such was the extent of Constantinople25 that the more distant quarters might prolong, some moments, the happy ignorance25 of their ruin. But in the general25 consternation, in the feelings of selfish or social anxiety, in the tumult and thunder of the assault, a sleepless night and morning must have elapsed; nor can I believe that many Grecian ladies were awakened by the Janizaries from a sound and tranquil slumber. On the assurance of the public calamity, the houses and convents were instantly deserted; and the trembling inhabitants flocked together in the streets, like an herd of timid animals, as if accumulated weakness could be productive of strength, or in the vain hope that amid the crowd each individual might be safe and invisible. From every part of the capital, they flowed into the church25 of St. Sophia: in the space of an hour, the sanctuary, the choir, the nave, the upper and lower galleries, were filled with the multitudes of fathers and husbands, of women and children, of priests, monks, and religious virgins; the doors were barred on the inside, and they sought protection from the sacred dome which they had so lately abhorred as a profane25 and polluted edifice. Their confidence was founded on the prophecy of an enthusiast or impostor, that one day the Turks would enter Constantinople25, and pursue the Romans25 as far as the column of Constantine in the square before St. Sophia; but that this would be the term of their calamities; that an angel would descend from heaven, with a sword in his hand, and would deliver the empire25, with that celestial weapon, to a poor man seated at the foot of the column. Take this sword, would he say, and avenge the people25 of the Lord. At these animating words, the Turks would instantly fly, and the victorious Romans25 would drive them from the West, and from all Anatolia, as far as the frontiers of Persia. It is on this occasion that Ducas, with some fancy and much truth, upbraids the discord and obstinacy of the Greeks25. Had that angel appeared, exclaims the historian, had he offered to exterminate your foes if you would consent to the union of the church25, even then, in that fatal moment, you would have rejected your safety or have deceived your God25.
While they expected the descent of the tardy angel, the doors were broken with axes; and, as the Turks30 encountered no resistance, their bloodless hands were employed in selecting and securing the multitude of their prisoners. Youth, beauty, and the appearance of wealth attracted their choice; and the right of property was decided among themselves by a prior seizure, by personal strength, and by the authority of command. In the space of an hour, the male captives were bound with cords, the females with their veils and girdles. The senators were linked with their slaves; the prelates with the porters of the church; and young men of a plebeian class with noble maids, whose faces had been invisible to the sun and their nearest kindred. In this common captivity, the ranks of society were confounded; the ties of nature were cut asunder; and the inexorable soldier was careless of the father's groans, the tears of the mother, and the lamentations of the children. The loudest in their wailings were the nuns, who were torn from the altar with naked bosoms, outstretched hands, and dishevelled hair; and we should piously believe that few could be tempted to prefer the vigils of the harem to those of the monastery. Of these unfortunate Greeks30, of these domestic animals, whole strings were rudely driven through the streets; and, as the conquerors were eager to return for more prey, their trembling pace was quickened with menaces and blows. At the same hour, a similar rapine was exercised in all the churches and monasteries, in all the palaces and habitations of the capital; nor could any palace30, however sacred or sequestered, protect the persons or the property of the Greeks30. Above sixty thousand30 of this devoted people30 were transported from the city30 to the camp30 and fleet; exchanged or sold according to the caprice or interest of their masters, and dispersed in remote servitude through the provinces of the Ottoman empire30. Among these we may notice some remarkable characters. The historian Phranza, first chamberlain and principal secretary, was involved with his family in the common lot. After suffering four months the hardships of slavery, he recovered his freedom; in the ensuing winter he ventured to Hadrianople, and ransomed his wife from the mir bashi, or master of horse30; but his two children, in the flower of youth and beauty, had been seized for the use of Mahomet himself. The daughter of Phranza died in the seraglio, perhaps a virgin; his son30, in the fifteenth year of his age, preferred death30 to infamy, and was stabbed by the hand of the royal30 lover. A deed thus inhuman cannot surely be expiated by the taste and liberality with which he released a Grecian matron and her two daughters, on receiving a Latin ode from Philelphus, who had chosen a wife in that noble family. The pride or cruelty of Mahomet would have been most sensibly gratified by the capture of a Roman30 legate; but the dexterity of Cardinal Isidore eluded the search, and he escaped from Galata in a plebeian habit.
The chain and entrance of the outward harbour was still occupied by the Italian ships of merchandise and war9. They had signalised their valour9 in the siege; they embraced the moment of retreat, while the Turkish mariners were dissipated in the pillage of the city9. When they hoisted sail, the beach was covered with a suppliant and lamentable crowd; but the means of transportation were scanty; the Venetians and Genoese selected their countrymen; and, notwithstanding the fairest promises of the sultan, the inhabitants9 of Galata evacuated their houses and embarked with their most precious effects.
In the fall and the sack of great cities, an historian is condemned to repeat the tale of uniform calamity; the same effects must be produced by the same passions25; and, when those passions25 may be indulged without control, small, alas! is the difference between civilised and savage man. Amidst the vague exclamations of bigotry and hatred, the Turks are not accused of a wanton or immoderate effusion of Christian blood; but, according to their maxims (the maxims of antiquity), the lives of the vanquished were forfeited; and the legitimate reward of the conqueror was derived from the service, the sale, or the ransom of his captives of both sexes. The wealth of Constantinople25 had been granted by the sultan to his victorious troops; and the rapine of an hour is more productive than the industry25 of years25. But, as no regular division was attempted of the spoil, the respective shares were not determined by merit25; and the rewards of valour were stolen away by the followers of the camp, who had declined the toil and danger of the battle. The narrative of their depredations could not afford either amusement or instruction; the total amount, in the last poverty of the empire25, has been valued at four millions of ducats; and of this sum a small part was the property of the Venetians, the Genoese, the Florentines, and the merchants of Ancona. Of these foreigners, the stock was improved in quick and perpetual circulation; but the riches of the Greeks25 were displayed in the idle ostentation of palaces and wardrobes, or deeply buried in treasures of ingots and old coin, lest it should be demanded at their hands for the defence of their country. The profanation and plunder of the monasteries and churches excited the most tragic complaints. The dome of St. Sophia itself, the earthly heaven, the second firmament, the vehicle of the cherubim, the throne of the glory of God25, was despoiled of the oblations of ages; and the gold and silver, the pearls and jewels, the vases and sacerdotal ornaments, were most wickedly converted to the service of mankind. After the divine images had been stripped of all that could be valuable to a profane25 eye, the canvas, or the wood, was torn, or broken, or burnt, or trod under foot, or applied25, in the stables or the kitchen, to the vilest uses. The example25 of sacrilege was imitated, however, from the Latin conquerors of Constantinople25; and the treatment which Christ, the Virgin, and the saints had sustained from the guilty Catholic might be inflicted by the zealous Musulman on the monuments of idolatry. Perhaps, instead of joining the public clamour, a philosopher will observe that in the decline of the arts the workmanship could not be more valuable than the work25, and that a fresh supply of visions and miracles would speedily be renewed by the craft of the priest and the credulity of the people25. He will more seriously deplore the loss of the Byzantine25 libraries, which were destroyed or scattered in the general25 confusion: one hundred and twenty thousand25 manuscripts are said to have disappeared; ten volumes might be purchased for a single25 ducat; and the same ignominious price, too high perhaps for a shelf of theology, included the whole works of Aristotle and Homer, the noblest productions of the science25 and literature25 of ancient Greece. We may reflect with pleasure that an inestimable portion of our classic treasures was safely deposited in Italy25; and that the mechanics of a German town had invented an art which derides the havoc of time and barbarism.
From the first hour of the memorable twenty-ninth of May, disorder and rapine prevailed in Constantinople30 till30 the eighth hour of the same day30; when the sultan himself passed in triumph through the gate of St30. Romanus. He was attended by his vizirs, bashaws, and guards, each of whom (says a Byzantine30 historian) was robust as Hercules, dexterous as Apollo, and equal in battle30 to any ten of the race of ordinary mortals. The conqueror gazed with satisfaction and wonder on the strange though splendid appearance of the domes and palaces, so dissimilar from the style of Oriental architecture. In the hippodrome, or atmeidan, his eye was attracted by the twisted column of the three serpents; and, as a trial of his strength, he shattered with his iron mace or battle30-axe the under-jaw of one of these monsters, which in the eye of the Turks30 were the idols or talismans of the city30. At the principal door of St30. Sophia, he alighted from his horse30 and entered the dome; and such was his jealous regard for that monument of his glory that, on observing a zealous Musulman in the act of breaking the marble pavement, he admonished him with his scymetar that, if the spoil and captives were granted to the soldiers30, the public and private buildings had been reserved for the prince30. By his command the metropolis of the Eastern church was transformed into a mosch: the rich and portable instruments of superstition had been removed; the crosses were thrown down; and the walls30, which were covered with images and mosaics, were washed and purified and restored to a state of naked simplicity. On the same day30, or on the ensuing Friday, the muezin or crier ascended the most lofty turret, and proclaimed the ezan, or public invitation, in the name of God and his prophet; the imam preached; and Mahomet the Second30 performed the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving on the great altar, where the Christian mysteries had so lately been celebrated before the last of the Caesars. From St30. Sophia he proceeded to the august but desolate mansion of an hundred successors of the great Constantine; but which, in a few hours, had been stripped of the pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on the vicissitudes of human greatness forced itself on his mind; and he repeated an elegant distich of Persian poetry, The spider has wove his web in the imperial palace30; and the owl hath sung her watch-song on the towers of Afrasiab.
Yet his mind was not satisfied, nor did the victory30 seem complete, till30 he was informed of the fate of Constantine; whether he had escaped, or been made prisoner, or had fallen in the battle30. Two Janizaries claimed the honour and reward of his death30: the body, under a heap of slain, was discovered by the golden eagles embroidered on his shoes; the Greeks30 acknowledged with tears the head30 of their late emperor30; and, after exposing the bloody trophy, Mahomet bestowed on his rival the honours of a decent funeral. After his decease, Lucas Notaras, great duke, and first minister of the empire30, was the most important prisoner. When he offered his person and his treasures at the foot of the throne, And why, said the indignant sultan, did you not employ these treasures in the defence of your prince30 and country? They were yours, answered the slave; God had reserved them for your hands. If he reserved them for me, replied the despot, how have you presumed to withhold them so long30 by a fruitless and fatal resistance? The great duke alleged the obstinacy of the strangers, and some secret encouragement from the Turkish30 vizir; and from this perilous interview he was at length dismissed with the assurance of pardon and protection. Mahomet condescended to visit his wife, a venerable princess, oppressed with sickness and grief; and his consolation for her misfortunes was in the most tender strain of humanity and filial reverence. A similar clemency was extended to the principal officers of state, of whom several were ransomed at his expense; and during some days30 he declared himself the friend and father of the vanquished people30. But the scene was soon30 changed; and before his departure the hippodrome streamed with the blood of his noblest captives. His perfidious cruelty is execrated by the Christians. They adorn with the colours of heroic martyrdom the execution of the great duke and his two sons; and his death30 is ascribed to the generous refusal of delivering his children to the tyrant's lust. Yet a Byzantine30 historian has dropt an unguarded word of conspiracy, deliverance, and Italian succour: such treason may be glorious; but the rebel who bravely ventures has justly forfeited his life; nor should we blame a conqueror for destroying the enemies30 whom he can no longer trust. On the eighteenth of June, the victorious sultan returned to Hadrianople; and smiled at the base and hollow embassies of the Christian princes, who viewed their approaching ruin in the fall of the Eastern empire30.
Constantinople had been left naked and desolate, without a prince or a people24. But she could not be despoiled of the incomparable situation which marks her for the metropolis of a great24 empire24; and the genius of the place will ever triumph over the accidents of time and fortune. Boursa and Hadrianople, the ancient seats of the Ottomans, sunk into provincial towns; and Mahomet24 the Second established his own residence, and that of his successors, on the same commanding spot which had been chosen by Constantine. The fortifications of Galata, which might afford a shelter to the Latins, were prudently destroyed; but the damage of the Turkish24 cannon was soon repaired; and before the month of August great24 quantities of lime had been burnt for the restoration of the walls of the capital. As the entire property of the soil and buildings, whether public or private, or profane or sacred, was now transferred to the conqueror, he first separated a space of eight furlongs from the point of the triangle for the establishment of his seraglio, or palace24. It is here, in the bosom of luxury, that the grand Signor (as he has been emphatically named by the Italians) appears to reign24 over Europe24 and Asia24; but his person on the shores of the Bosphorus may not always be secure from the insults of an hostile navy. In the new24 character of a mosch, the cathedral of St. Sophia was endowed with an ample revenue, crowned with lofty minarets, and surrounded with groves and fountains, for the devotion and refreshment of the Moslems. The same model was imitated in the jami, or royal24 moschs; and the first of these was built by Mahomet24 himself, on the ruins of the church of the Holy Apostles and the tombs of the Greek24 emperors. On the third day after the conquest24, the grave of Abu Ayub, or Job, who had fallen in the first siege of the Arabs24, was revealed in a vision; and it is before the sepulchre of the martyr that the new24 sultans are girded with the sword of empire24. Constantinople24 no longer appertains to the Roman24 historian; nor shall I enumerate the civil and religious edifices that were profaned or erected by its Turkish24 masters: the population was speedily renewed; and before the end of September five thousand24 families of Anatolia and Romania had obeyed the royal24 mandate, which enjoined them, under pain of death24, to occupy their new24 habitations in the capital. The throne24 of Mahomet24 was guarded by the numbers and fidelity of his Moslem subjects; but his rational policy aspired to collect the remnant of the Greeks24; and they returned in crowds, as soon as they were assured of their lives, their liberties, and the free exercise of their religion24. In the election and investiture of a patriarch, the ceremonial of the Byzantine court was revived and imitated. With a mixture of satisfaction and horror, they beheld the sultan24 on his throne24, who delivered into the hands of Gennadius the crosier, or pastoral staff, the symbol of his ecclesiastical office; who conducted the patriarch to the gate of the seraglio, presented him with an horse richly caparisoned, and directed the vizirs and bashaws to lead him to the palace24 which had been allotted for his residence. The churches of Constantinople24 were shared between the two religions: their limits were marked; and, till24 it was infringed by Selim, the grandson of Mahomet24, the Greeks24 enjoyed above sixty years24 the benefit of this equal partition. Encouraged by the ministers of the divan, who wished to elude the fanaticism of the sultan24, the Christian advocates presumed to allege that this division had been an act, not of generosity but of justice; not a concession, but a compact; and that, if one half of the city24 had been taken by storm, the other moiety had surrendered on the faith of a sacred capitulation. The original grant had indeed been consumed by fire; but the loss was supplied by the testimony of three aged Janizaries who remembered the transaction; and their venal oaths are of more weight in the opinion of Cantemir than the positive and unanimous consent of the history of the times.
The remaining fragments of the Greek30 kingdom in Europe and Asia I shall abandon to the Turkish30 arms30; but the final extinction of the two last dynasties which have reigned in Constantinople30 should terminate the decline and fall of the Roman30 empire30 in the East. The despots of the Morea, Demetrius and Thomas, the two surviving brothers of the name of Palaeologus, were astonished by the death30 of the emperor30 Constantine and the ruin of the monarchy. Hopeless of defence, they prepared, with the noble Greeks30 who adhered to their fortune, to seek a refuge in Italy, beyond the reach of the Ottoman thunder. Their first apprehensions were dispelled by the victorious sultan, who contented himself with a tribute of twelve thousand30 ducats; and, while his ambition explored the continent and the islands in search of prey, he indulged the Morea in a respite of seven years30. But this respite was a period of grief, discord, and misery. The hexamilion, the rampart of the Isthmus, so often raised and so often subverted, could not long30 be defended by three hundred Italian archers: the keys of Corinth were seized by the Turks30; they returned from their summer excursions with a train of captives and spoil; and the complaints of the injured Greeks30 were heard with indifference and disdain. The Albanians, a vagrant tribe of shepherds and robbers, filled the peninsula with rapine and murder; the two despots implored the dangerous and humiliating aid of a neighbouring bashaw; and, when he had quelled the revolt, his lessons inculcated the rule of their future conduct. Neither the ties of blood, nor the oaths which they repeatedly pledged in the communion and before the altar, nor the stronger pressure of necessity, could reconcile or suspend their domestic quarrels. They ravaged each other's patrimony with fire and sword30; the alms and succours of the West were consumed in civil hostility; and their power was only exerted in savage and arbitrary executions. The distress and revenge of the weaker rival invoked their supreme lord; and, in the season of maturity and revenge, Mahomet declared himself the friend of Demetrius, and marched into the Morea with an irresistible force. When he had taken possession of Sparta, You are too weak, said the sultan, to control this turbulent province. I will take your daughter to my bed; and you shall pass the remainder of your life in security and honour. Demetrius sighed, and obeyed; surrendered his daughter and his castles; followed to Hadrianople his sovereign and son30; and received, for his own maintenance, and that of his followers, a city30 in Thrace, and the adjacent isles of Imbros, Lemnos, and Samothrace. He was joined the next year by a companion of misfortune, the last of the Comnenian race, who, after the taking of Constantinople30 by the Latins, had founded a new30 empire30 on the coast of the Black Sea. In the progress of his Anatolian conquests, Mahomet invested, with a fleet and army30, the capital of David, who presumed to style himself Emperor30 of Trebizond; and the negotiation was comprised in a short and peremptory question, Will you secure your life and treasures by resigning your kingdom? or had you rather forfeit your kingdom, your treasures, and your life? The feeble Comnenus was subdued by his own fears, and the example of a Musulman neighbour, the prince30 of Sinope, who, on a similar summons, had yielded a fortified city30 with four hundred cannon and ten or twelve thousand30 soldiers30. The capitulation of Trebizond was faithfully performed; and the emperor30, with his family, was transported to a castle in Romania; but on a slight suspicion of corresponding with the Persian king30, David and the whole Comnenian race were sacrificed to the jealousy or avarice of the conqueror. Nor could the name of father long30 protect the unfortunate Demetrius from exile and confiscation: his abject submission moved the pity and contempt of the sultan; his followers were transplanted to Constantinople30; and his poverty was alleviated by a pension of fifty thousand30 aspers, till30 a monastic habit and a tardy death30 released Palaeologus from an earthly master. It is not easy to pronounce whether the servitude of Demetrius or the exile of his brother Thomas be the most inglorious. On the conquest of the Morea, the despot escaped to Corfu, and from thence to Italy, with some naked adherents; his name, his sufferings, and the head30 of the apostle St30. Andrew entitled him to the hospitality of the Vatican; and his misery was prolonged by a pension of six thousand30 ducats from the pope and cardinals. His two sons, Andrew and Manuel, were educated in Italy; but the eldest, contemptible to his enemies30 and burdensome to his friends, was degraded by the baseness of his life and marriage. A title was his sole inheritance; and that inheritance he successively sold to the kings of France and Arragon. During this transient prosperity, Charles the Eighth was ambitious of joining the empire30 of the East with the kingdom of Naples: in a public festival, he assumed the appellation and the purple of Augustus: the Greeks30 rejoiced, and the Ottoman already trembled, at the approach of the French chivalry. Manuel Palaeologus, the second30 son30, was tempted to revisit his native country: his return might be grateful, and could not be dangerous, to the Porte; he was maintained at Constantinople30 in safety and ease; and an honourable train of Christians and Moslems attended him to the grave. If there be some animals of so generous a nature that they refuse to propagate in a domestic state, the last of the Imperial race must be ascribed to an inferior kind: he accepted from the sultan's liberality two beautiful females; and his surviving son30 was lost in the habit and religion of a Turkish30 slave.
The importance of Constantinople30 was felt and magnified in its loss: the pontificate of Nicholas the Fifth, however peaceful and prosperous, was dishonoured by the fall of the Eastern empire30; and the grief and terror of the Latins revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades. In one of the most distant countries of the West, Philip, duke of Burgundy, entertained, at Lisle in Flanders, an assembly of his nobles; and the pompous pageants of the feast were skilfully adapted to their fancy and feelings. In the midst of the banquet, a gigantic Saracen entered the hall, leading a fictitious elephant with a castle on his back; a matron in a mourning robe, the symbol of religion, was seen to issue from the castle; she deplored her oppression and accused the slowness of her champions; the principal herald of the golden fleece advanced, bearing on his fist a live pheasant, which, according to the rites of chivalry, he presented to the duke. At this extraordinary summons, Philip, a wise and aged prince30, engaged his person and powers in the holy30 war30 against the Turks30; his example was imitated by the barons and knights of the assembly; they swore to God, the Virgin, the ladies, and the pheasant; and their particular vows were not less extravagant than the general30 sanction of their oath. But the performance was made to depend on some future and foreign contingency; and, during twelve years30, till30 the last hour of his life, the duke of Burgundy might be scrupulously, and perhaps sincerely, on the eve of his departure. Had every breast glowed with the same ardour; had the union of the Christians corresponded with their bravery; had every country, from Sweden to Naples, supplied a just proportion of cavalry and infantry, of men and money, it is indeed probable that Constantinople30 would have been delivered, and that the Turks30 might have been chased beyond the Hellespont or the Euphrates. But the secretary of the emperor30, who composed every epistle and attended every meeting, Aeneas Sylvius, a statesman and orator, describes from his own experience the repugnant state and spirit of Christendom. It is a body, says he, without an head30; a republic without laws or magistrates. The pope and the emperor30 may shine as lofty titles, as splendid images; but they are unable to command, and none are willing to obey; every state has a separate prince30, and every prince30 has a separate interest. What eloquence could unite so many discordant and hostile powers under the same standard30? Could they be assembled in arms30, who would dare to assume the office of general30? What order could be maintained? — what military discipline? Who would undertake to feed such an enormous multitude? Who would understand their various languages, or direct their stranger and incompatible manners? What mortal could reconcile the English with the French, Genoa with Arragon, the Germans with the natives of Hungary and Bohemia? If a small number enlisted in the holy30 war30, they must be overthrown by the infidels; if many, by their own weight and confusion. Yet the same Aeneas, when he was raised to the papal throne, under the name of Pius the Second30, devoted his life to the prosecution of the Turkish30 war30. In the council of Mantua, he excited some sparks of a false or feeble enthusiasm; but, when the pontiff appeared at Ancona, to embark in person with the troops30, engagements vanished in excuses; a precise day30 was adjourned to an indefinite term; and his effective army30 consisted of some German pilgrims, whom he was obliged to disband with indulgences and alms. Regardless of futurity, his successors and the powers of Italy were involved in the schemes of present and domestic ambition; and the distance or proximity of each object determined, in their eyes, its apparent magnitude. A more enlarged view of their interest would have taught them to maintain a defensive and naval war30 against the common enemy30; and the support of Scanderbeg and his brave Albanians might have prevented the subsequent invasion of the kingdom of Naples. The siege30 and sack of Otranto by the Turks30 diffused a general30 consternation; and Pope Sixtus was preparing to fly beyond the Alps, when the storm was instantly dispelled by the death30 of Mahomet the Second30, in the fifty-first year of his age. His lofty genius aspired to the conquest of Italy: he was possessed of a strong city30 and a capacious harbour; and the same reign might have been decorated with the trophies of the New30 and the Ancient Rome.
In the first ages of the decline and fall of the Roman43 empire43 our eye is invariably fixed on the royal city43 which had given laws to the fairest portion of the globe. We contemplate her fortunes, at first with admiration, at length with pity, always with attention; and, when that attention is diverted from the capital43 to the provinces43, they are considered as so many branches which have been successively severed from the Imperial trunk. The foundation of a second Rome on the shores of the Bosphorus has compelled the historian to follow the successors of Constantine; and our curiosity has been tempted to visit the most remote countries of Europe and Asia43, to explore the causes and the authors of the long43 decay of the Byzantine monarchy. By the conquest43 of Justinian we have been recalled to the banks of the Tiber, to the deliverance of the ancient43 metropolis; but that deliverance was a change, or perhaps an aggravation, of servitude. Rome had been already stripped of her trophies, her gods, and her Caesars; nor was the Gothic dominion more inglorious and oppressive than the tyranny of the Greeks. In the eighth century of the Christian43 era, a religious quarrel, the worship of images, provoked the Romans to assert their independence; their bishop became the temporal as well as the spiritual father of a free people43; and of the Western empire43, which was restored by Charlemagne, the title and image still decorate the singular constitution of modern Germany. The name of Rome must yet command our involuntary respect; the climate (whatsoever may be its influence) was no longer the same; the purity of blood43 had been contaminated through a thousand43 channels; but the venerable aspect of her ruins, and the memory of past greatness, rekindled a spark of the national43 character. The darkness of the middle ages exhibits some scenes not unworthy of our notice. Nor shall43 I dismiss the present work till I have reviewed the state and revolutions of the Roman43 city43, which acquiesced under the absolute dominion of the popes about the same time43 that Constantinople43 was enslaved by the Turkish arms43.
In the beginning of the twelfth century, the era of the first crusade, Rome1 was revered by the Latins, as the metropolis of the world, as the throne of the pope and the emperor1, who, from the eternal city1, derived their title1, their honours1, and the right or exercise of temporal dominion. After so long1 an interruption, it may not be useless to repeat that the successors1 of Charlemagne and the Othos were chosen beyond the Rhine in a national diet; but that these princes1 were content with the humble names of kings of Germany and Italy1, till they had passed the Alps and the Apennine, to seek their Imperial crown on the banks of the Tiber. At some distance from the city1, their approach was saluted by a long1 procession of the clergy1 and people1 with palms and crosses; and the terrific emblems of wolves and lions, of dragons and eagles, that floated in the military banners, represented the departed legions and cohorts of the republic1. The royal oath to maintain the liberties of Rome1 was thrice reiterated, at the bridge, the gate, and on the stairs of the Vatican; and the distribution of a customary donative feebly imitated the magnificence of the first Caesars. In the church1 of St. Peter, the coronation was performed by his successor; the voice of God was confounded with that of the people1; and the public1 consent was declared in the acclamations of Long1 life and victory to our lord the pope! Long1 life and victory to our lord the emperor1! Long1 life and victory to the Roman1 and Teutonic armies! The names of Caesar and Augustus, the laws1 of Constantine1 and Justinian, the example of Charlemagne and Otho, established the supreme dominion of the emperors1; their title1 and image was engraved on the papal coins; and their jurisdiction1 was marked by the sword of justice1, which they delivered to the prefect of the city1. But every Roman1 prejudice was awakened by the name, the language, and the manners of a Barbarian lord. The Caesars of Saxony or Franconia were the chiefs of a feudal aristocracy; nor could they exercise the discipline of civil1 and military power1, which alone secures the obedience of a distant people1, impatient of servitude, though perhaps incapable of freedom1. Once, and once only, in his life, each emperor1, with an army of Teutonic vassals, descended from the Alps. I have described the peaceful order1 of his entry and coronation; but that order1 was commonly disturbed by the clamour and sedition of the Romans1, who encountered their sovereign as a foreign invader: his departure was always speedy, and often shameful; and, in the absence of a long1 reign1, his authority1 was insulted, and his name was forgotten. The progress of independence in Germany and Italy1 undermined the foundations of the Imperial sovereignty, and the triumph of the popes1 was the deliverance of Rome1.
Of her two sovereigns, the emperor1 had precariously reigned by the right of conquest; but the authority1 of the pope was founded on the soft, though more solid, basis of opinion and habit. The removal of a foreign influence restored and endeared the shepherd to his flock. Instead of the arbitrary or venal nomination of a German court, the vicar of Christ was freely chosen by the college of cardinals, most of whom were either natives or inhabitants of the city1. The applause of the magistrates1 and people1 confirmed his election; and the ecclesiastical1 power1 that was obeyed in Sweden and Britain had been ultimately derived from the suffrage of the Romans1. The same suffrage gave a prince, as well as a pontiff, to the capital. It was universally believed that Constantine1 had invested the popes1 with the temporal dominion of Rome1; and the boldest civilians, the most profane sceptics, were satisfied with disputing the right of the emperor1 and the validity of his gift. The truth of the fact, the authenticity of his donation, was deeply rooted in the ignorance and tradition of four centuries; and the fabulous origin was lost in the real and permanent effects. The name of Dominus, or Lord, was inscribed on the coin of the bishops1; their title1 was acknowledged by acclamations and oaths of allegiance; and, with the free or reluctant consent of the German Caesars, they had long1 exercised a supreme or subordinate jurisdiction1 over the city1 and patrimony of St. Peter. The reign1 of the popes1, which gratified the prejudices, was not incompatible with the liberties of Rome1; and a more critical inquiry would have revealed a still nobler source of their power1: the gratitude of a nation, whom they had rescued from the heresy and oppression of the Greek tyrant. In an age of superstition, it should seem that the union of the royal and sacerdotal characters would mutually fortify each other, and that the keys of paradise would be the surest pledge of earthly obedience. The sanctity of the office1 might indeed be degraded by the personal vices of the man; but the scandals of the tenth century were obliterated by the austere and more dangerous virtues of Gregory the Seventh and his successors1; and, in the ambitious contests which they maintained for the rights of the church1, their sufferings or their success must equally tend to increase the popular veneration. They sometimes wandered in poverty and exile, the victims of persecution; and the apostolic zeal with which they offered themselves to martyrdom must engage the favour and sympathy of every Catholic breast. And sometimes, thundering from the Vatican, they created, judged, and deposed the kings of the world; nor could the proudest Roman1 be disgraced by submitting to a priest whose feet were kissed, and whose stirrup was held, by the successors1 of Charlemagne. Even the temporal interest of the city1 should have protected in peace1 and honour the residence of the popes1; from whence a vain and lazy people1 derived the greatest part of their subsistence and riches. The fixed revenue of the popes1 was probably impaired: many of the old patrimonial estates, both in Italy1 and the provinces1, had been invaded by sacrilegious hands; nor could the loss be compensated by the claim rather than the possession of the more ample gifts of Pepin and his descendants. But the Vatican and Capitol were nourished by the incessant and increasing swarms of pilgrims and suppliants; the pale of Christianity was enlarged, and the pope and cardinals were overwhelmed by the judgment of ecclesiastical1 and secular causes. A new1 jurisprudence had established in the Latin church1 the right and practice of appeals; and, from the North and West, the bishops1 and abbots were invited or summoned to solicit, to complain, to accuse, or to justify before the threshold of the apostles. A rare prodigy is once recorded, that two horses, belonging to the Archbishops of Mentz and Cologne, repassed the Alps, yet laden with gold and silver; but it was soon understood that the success, both of the pilgrims and clients, depended much less on the justice1 of their cause than on the value of their offering. The wealth and piety of these strangers were ostentatiously displayed; and their expenses, sacred1 or profane, circulated in various channels for the emolument of the Romans1.
Such powerful motives should have firmly attached the voluntary and pious obedience of the Roman16 people16 to their spiritual16 and temporal father16. But the operation of prejudice and interest is often disturbed by the sallies of ungovernable passion. The Indian who fells the tree that he may gather the fruit, and the Arab who plunders the caravans of commerce, are actuated by the same impulse of savage nature, which overlooks the future in the present16, and relinquishes for momentary rapine the long16 and secure possession of the most important blessings. And it was thus that the shrine of St. Peter was profaned by the thoughtless Romans16, who pillaged the offerings, and wounded the pilgrims, without computing the number and value of similar visits, which they prevented by their inhospitable sacrilege. Even the influence of superstition is fluctuating and precarious; and the slave, whose reason is subdued, will often be delivered by his avarice or pride. A credulous devotion for the fables and oracles of the priesthood most powerfully acts on the mind16 of a Barbarian; yet such a mind16 is the least capable of preferring imagination to sense, of sacrificing to a distant motive, to an invisible, perhaps an ideal, object, the appetites and interests of the present16 world. In the vigour of health and youth, his practice will perpetually contradict his belief; till16 the pressure of age16, or sickness, or calamity awakens his terrors and compels him to satisfy the double debt of piety and remorse. I have already observed that the modern times of religious indifference are the most favourable to the peace and security of the clergy. Under the reign of superstition they had much to hope from the ignorance, and much to fear from the violence, of mankind. The wealth16, whose constant increase must have rendered them the sole proprietors of the earth, was alternately bestowed by the repentant father16 and plundered by the rapacious son; their persons were adored or violated; and the same idol, by the hands of the same votaries, was placed16 on the altar or trampled in the dust. In the feudal system of Europe, arms were the title of distinction and the measure16 of allegiance; and amidst their tumult the still voice of law16 and reason was seldom heard or obeyed. The turbulent Romans16 disdained the yoke, and insulted the impotence, of their bishop16; nor would his education or character16 allow him to exercise, with decency or effect, the power of the sword. The motives of his election and the frailties of his life were exposed to their familiar observation; and proximity must diminish the reverence which his name and his decrees impressed on a Barbarous world. This difference has not escaped the notice of our philosophic historian: Though the name and authority of the court of Rome16 were so terrible in the remote countries of Europe, which were sunk in profound ignorance, and were entirely unacquainted with its character16 and conduct, the pope was so little revered at home that his inveterate enemies surrounded the gates of Rome16 itself and even controlled his government16 in that city16; and the ambassadors, who, from a distant extremity of Europe, carried to him the humble, or rather abject, submissions of the greatest potentate of the age16, found the utmost difficulty to make their way to him and to throw themselves at his feet16.
Since the primitive times, the wealth of the popes was exposed to envy, their power47 to opposition, and their persons to violence. But the long47 hostility of the mitre and the crown increased the numbers, and inflamed the passions, of their enemies. The deadly factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, so fatal to Italy47, could never be embraced with truth or constancy by the Romans, the subjects and adversaries both of the bishop and emperor47; but their support was solicited by both parties; and they alternately displayed in their banners the keys of St. Peter and the German eagle. Gregory the Seventh, who may be adored or detested as the founder of the papal monarchy, was driven from Rome47, and died in exile at Salerno. Six-and-thirty of his successors, till their retreat to Avignon, maintained an unequal contest with the Romans; their age47 and dignity were often violated; and the churches, in the solemn rites of religion, were polluted with sedition and murder. A repetition of such capricious brutality, without connection or design, would be tedious and disgusting; and I shall content myself with some events of the twelfth century, which represent the state of the popes and the city47. On Holy Thursday, while Paschal officiated before the altar, he was interrupted by the clamours of the multitude, who imperiously demanded the confirmation of a favourite magistrate. His silence exasperated their fury; his pious refusal to mingle the affairs of earth and heaven was encountered with menaces and oaths, that he should be the cause and the witness of the public47 ruin. During the festival of Easter, while the bishop and the clergy, barefoot and in procession, visited the tombs of the martyrs, they were twice assaulted, at the bridge of St. Angelo and before the Capitol, with volleys of stones and darts. The houses of his adherents were levelled with the ground; Paschal escaped with difficulty and danger47; he levied an army47 in the patrimony of St. Peter; and his last days were embittered by suffering and inflicting the calamities of civil47 war47. The scenes that followed the election of his successor Gelasius the Second were still more scandalous to the church and city47. Cencio Frangipani, a potent and factious baron, burst into the assembly furious, and in arms47: the cardinals were stripped, beaten, and trampled under foot; and he seized, without pity or respect, the vicar of Christ by the throat. Gelasius was dragged by his hair along the ground, buffeted with blows, wounded with spurs, and bound with an iron chain in the house of his brutal tyrant47. An insurrection of the people47 delivered their bishop; the rival families opposed the violence of the Frangipani; and Cencio, who sued for pardon, repented of the failure rather than of the guilt of his enterprise. Not many days had elapsed when the pope was again assaulted at the altar. While his friends and enemies were engaged in a bloody contest, he escaped in his sacerdotal garments. In this unworthy flight, which excited the compassion of the Roman47 matrons, his attendants were scattered or unhorsed; and, in the fields behind the church of St. Peter, his successor was found alone and half dead with fear and fatigue. Shaking the dust from his feet, the apostle withdrew from a city47 in which his dignity was insulted and his person47 was endangered; and the vanity of sacerdotal ambition is revealed in the involuntary confession that one emperor47 was more tolerable than twenty. These examples might suffice; but I cannot forget the sufferings of two pontiffs of the same age47, the second and third of the name of Lucius. The former, as he ascended in battle-array to assault the Capitol, was struck on the temple by a stone, and expired in a few days; the latter was severely wounded in the persons of his servants. In a civil47 commotion several of his priests had been made prisoners; and the inhuman Romans, reserving one as a guide for his brethren, put out their eyes, crowned them with ludicrous mitres, mounted them on asses, with their faces to the tail, and extorted an oath that in this wretched condition they should offer themselves as a lesson to the head of the church. Hope or fear, lassitude or remorse, the characters of the men and the circumstances of the times, might sometimes obtain an interval of peace and obedience; and the pope was restored with joyful acclamations to the Lateran or Vatican, from whence he had been driven with threats and violence. But the root of mischief was deep and perennial; and a momentary calm was preceded and followed by such tempests as had almost sunk the bark of St. Peter. Rome47 continually presented the aspect of war47 and discord; the churches and palaces were fortified and assaulted by the factions and families; and, after giving peace to Europe, Calixtus the Second alone had resolution and power47 to prohibit the use of private47 arms47 in the metropolis. Among the nations who revered the apostolic throne47, the tumults of Rome47 provoked a general47 indignation; and, in a letter to his disciple Eugenius the Third, St. Bernard, with the sharpness of his wit and zeal, has stigmatised the vices of the rebellious people47. Who is ignorant, says the monk of Clairvaux, of the vanity and arrogance of the Romans? a nation nursed in sedition, cruel, untractable, and scorning to obey, unless they are too feeble to resist. When they promise to serve, they aspire to reign47; if they swear allegiance, they watch the opportunity of revolt; yet they vent their discontent in loud clamours, if your doors or your councils are shut against them. Dexterous in mischief, they have never learned the science of doing good. Odious to earth and heaven, impious to God, seditious among themselves, jealous of their neighbours, inhuman to strangers, they love no one, by no one are they beloved; and, while they wish to inspire fear, they live in base and continual apprehension. They will not submit; they know how to govern; faithless to their superiors, intolerable to their equals, ungrateful to their benefactors, and alike imprudent in their demands and their refusals. Lofty in promise, poor in execution: adulation and calumny, perfidy and treason, are the familiar arts of their policy. Surely this dark portrait is not coloured by the pencil of Christian charity; yet the features, however harsh and ugly, express a lively resemblance of the Romans of the twelfth century.
The Jews had rejected the Christ when he appeared among them in a plebeian character25; and the Romans25 might plead their ignorance25 of his vicar when he assumed the pomp and pride of a temporal sovereign. In the busy age25 of the crusades, some sparks of curiosity and reason were rekindled in the Western world; the heresy of Bulgaria, the Paulician sect, was successfully transplanted into the soil of Italy25 and France; the Gnostic visions were mingled with the simplicity of the Gospel; and the enemies of the clergy reconciled their passions25 with their conscience, the desire of freedom25 with the profession of piety. The trumpet of Roman25 liberty was first sounded by Arnold of Brescia, whose promotion in the church25 was confined to the lowest rank, and who wore the monastic habit rather as a garb of poverty than as an uniform of obedience. His adversaries could not deny the wit and eloquence25 which they severely felt; they confess with reluctance the specious purity of his morals; and his errors were recommended to the public by a mixture of important and beneficial truths. In his theological studies, he had been the disciple of the famous and unfortunate Abelard, who was likewise involved in the suspicion of heresy; but the lover of Eloisa was of a soft and flexible nature25; and his ecclesiastic judges were edified and disarmed by the humility of his repentance. From this master Arnold most probably imbibed some metaphysical definitions of the Trinity, repugnant to the taste of the times; his ideas of baptism and the eucharist are loosely censured; but a political heresy was the source of his fame and misfortunes. He presumed to quote the declaration of Christ that his kingdom is not of this world: he boldly maintained that the sword and the sceptre were entrusted to the civil25 magistrate; that temporal honours and possessions were lawfully vested in secular persons; that the abbots, the bishops, and the pope himself must renounce either their state or their salvation; and that, after the loss of their revenues, the voluntary tithes and oblations of the faithful would suffice, not indeed for luxury and avarice, but for a frugal life in the exercise of spiritual labours. During a short time the preacher was revered as a patriot; and the discontent, or revolt, of Brescia against her bishop was the first-fruits of his dangerous lessons. But the favour of the people25 is less permanent than the resentment of the priest; and, after the heresy of Arnold had been condemned by Innocent the Second in the general25 council of the Lateran the magistrates themselves were urged by prejudice and fear to execute the sentence of the church25. Italy25 could no longer afford a refuge; and the disciple of Abelard escaped beyond the Alps, till he found a safe and hospitable shelter in Zurich, now the first of the Swiss cantons. From a Roman25 station, a royal25 villa, a chapter of noble virgins, Zurich had gradually increased to a free and flourishing city, where the appeals of the Milanese were sometimes tried by the Imperial commissaries. In an age25 less ripe for reformation, the precursor of Zuinglius was heard with applause; a brave and simple people25 imbibed, and long retained, the colour of his opinions; and his art, or merit25, seduced the bishop of Constance, and even the pope's legate, who forgot, for his sake, the interest of their master and their order. Their tardy zeal was quickened by the fierce exhortations of St. Bernard; and the enemy of the church25 was driven by persecution to the desperate measure of erecting his standard in Rome itself, in the face of the successor of St. Peter.
Yet the courage of Arnold was not devoid of discretion: he was protected, and had perhaps been invited, by the nobles and people1; and in the service of freedom1 his eloquence thundered over the seven hills. Blending in the same discourse the texts of Livy and St. Paul, uniting the motives of gospel and of classic enthusiasm, he admonished the Romans1 how strangely their patience and the vices of the clergy1 had degenerated from the primitive times of the church1 and the city1. He exhorted them to assert the inalienable rights of men and Christians1; to restore the laws1 and magistrates1 of the republic1; to respect the name of the emperor1; but to confine their shepherd to the spiritual government1 of his flock. Nor could his spiritual government1 escape the censure and control of the reformer; and the inferior clergy1 were taught by his lessons to resist the cardinals, who had usurped a despotic command over the twenty-eight regions or parishes of Rome1. The revolution was not accomplished without rapine and violence, the effusion of blood, and the demolition of houses; the victorious faction was enriched with the spoils of the clergy1 and the adverse nobles. Arnold of Brescia enjoyed or deplored the effects of his mission; his reign1 continued above ten years1, while two popes1, Innocent the Second and Anastasius the Fourth, either trembled in the Vatican or wandered as exiles in the adjacent cities. They were succeeded by a more vigorous and fortunate pontiff, Adrian the Fourth, the only Englishman who has ascended the throne of St. Peter; and whose merit emerged from the mean condition of a monk, and almost a beggar, in the monastery of St. Albans. On the first provocation, of a cardinal killed or wounded in the streets, he cast an interdict on the guilty people1; and, from Christmas to Easter, Rome1 was deprived of the real or imaginary comforts of religious worship. The Romans1 had despised their temporal prince: they submitted with grief and terror to the censures of their spiritual father; their guilt was expiated by penance, and the banishment of the seditious preacher was the price of their absolution. But the revenge of Adrian was yet unsatisfied, and the approaching coronation of Frederic Barbarossa was fatal to the bold reformer, who had offended, though not in an equal degree, the heads of the church1 and state1. In their interview at Viterbo, the pope represented to the emperor1 the furious ungovernable spirit of the Romans1; the insults, the injuries, the fears, to which his person and his clergy1 were continually exposed; and the pernicious tendency of the heresy of Arnold, which must subvert the principles of civil1 as well as ecclesiastical1 subordination. Frederic was convinced by these arguments, or tempted by the desire of the Imperial crown; in the balance of ambition, the innocence or life of an individual is of small account; and their common enemy was sacrificed to a moment of political concord. After his retreat from Rome1, Arnold had been protected by the viscounts of Campania, from whom he was extorted by the power1 of Caesar: the prefect of the city1 pronounced his sentence; the martyr of freedom1 was burnt alive in the presence of a careless and ungrateful people1; and his ashes were cast into the Tiber, lest the heretics should collect and worship the relics of their master. The clergy1 triumphed in his death; with his ashes, his sect was dispersed; his memory still lived in the minds of the Romans1. From his school they had probably derived a new1 article of faith, that the metropolis of the Catholic church1 is exempt from the penalties of excommunication and interdict. Their bishops1 might argue that the supreme jurisdiction1, which they exercised over kings and nations, more specially embraced the city1 and diocese of the prince of the apostles. But they preached to the winds, and the same principle that weakened the effect, must temper the abuse, of the thunders of the Vatican.
The love of ancient1 freedom1 has encouraged a belief that as early as the tenth century, in their first struggles against the Saxon Othos, the commonwealth was vindicated and restored by the senate1 and people1 of Rome1; that two consuls were annually elected among the nobles; and that ten or twelve plebeian magistrates1 revived the name and office1 of the tribunes of the commons. But this venerable structure disappears before the light of criticism. In the darkness of the middle ages, the appellations of senators, of consuls, of the sons of consuls, may sometimes be discovered. They were bestowed by the emperors1, or assumed1 by the most powerful citizens, to denote their rank, their honours1, and perhaps the claim of a pure and patrician descent; but they float on the surface, without a series or a substance, the titles of men, not the orders of government1; and it is only from the year of Christ one thousand one hundred and forty-four, that the establishment of the senate1 is dated as a glorious era, in the acts of the city1. A new1 constitution was hastily framed by private ambition or popular enthusiasm; nor could Rome1, in the twelfth century, produce an antiquary to explain, or a legislator to restore, the harmony and proportions of the ancient1 model. The assembly of a free, of an armed people1 will ever speak in loud and weighty acclamations. But the regular distribution of the thirty-five tribes, the nice balance of the wealth and numbers of the centuries, the debates of the adverse orators, and the slow operation of votes and ballots could not easily be adapted by a blind multitude, ignorant of the arts, and insensible of the benefits, of legal government1. It was proposed by Arnold to revive and discriminate the equestrian order1; but what could be the motive or measure of such distinction? The pecuniary qualification of the knights must have been reduced to the poverty of the times: those times no longer required their civil1 functions of judges and farmers of the revenue; and their primitive duty, their military service on horseback, was more nobly supplied by feudal tenures and the spirit of chivalry. The jurisprudence of the republic1 was useless and unknown; the nations and families of Italy1, who lived under the Roman1 and Barbaric laws1, were insensibly mingled in a common mass; and some faint tradition, some imperfect fragments, preserved the memory of the Code and Pandects of Justinian. With their liberty, the Romans1 might doubtless have restored the appellation and office1 of consuls, had they not disdained a title1 so promiscuously adopted in the Italian cities that it has finally settled on the humble station of the agents of commerce in a foreign land. But the rights of the tribunes, the formidable word that arrested the public1 counsels, suppose, or must produce, a legitimate democracy. The old patricians were the subjects1, the modern barons the tyrants, of the state1; nor would the enemies of peace1 and order1, who insulted the vicar of Christ, have long1 respected the unarmed sanctity of a plebeian magistrate1.
In the revolution of the twelfth century, which gave a new1 existence and era to Rome1, we may observe the real and important events that marked or confirmed her political independence. I. The Capitoline hill, one of her seven eminences, is about four hundred yards in length and two hundred in breadth. A flight of an hundred steps led to the summit of the Tarpeian rock; and far steeper was the ascent before the declivities had been smoothed and the precipices filled by the ruins of fallen edifices. From the earliest ages, the Capitol had been used as a temple in peace1, a fortress in war: after the loss of the city1, it maintained a siege against the victorious Gauls; and the sanctuary of empire1 was occupied, assaulted, and burnt in the civil1 wars of Vitellius and Vespasian. The temples of Jupiter and his kindred deities had crumbled into dust; their place was supplied by monasteries and houses; and the solid walls, the long1 and shelving porticoes, were decayed or ruined by the lapse of time. It was the first act of the Romans1, an act of freedom1, to restore the strength, though not the beauty, of the Capitol; to fortify the seat of their arms and counsels; and, as often as they ascended the hill, the coldest minds must have glowed with the remembrance of their ancestors. II. The first Caesars had been invested with the exclusive coinage of the gold and silver; to the senate1 they abandoned the baser metal of bronze or copper; the emblems and legends were inscribed on a more ample field by the genius of flattery; and the prince was relieved from the care of celebrating his own virtues. The successors1 of Diocletian despised even the flattery of the senate1: their royal officers at Rome1, and in the provinces1, assumed1 the sole direction of the mint; and the same prerogative was inherited by the Gothic kings of Italy1, and the long1 series of the Greek, the French, and the German dynasties. After an abdication of eight hundred years1, the Roman1 senate1 asserted this honourable and lucrative privilege; which was tacitly renounced by the popes1, from Paschal the Second to the establishment of their residence beyond the Alps. Some of these republican coins of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are shewn in the cabinets of the curious. On one of these, a gold medal, Christ is depictured, holding in his left hand a book with this inscription, The vow of the Roman1 senate1 and people1: Rome1, the capital of the world; on the reverse, St. Peter delivering a banner to a kneeling senator in his cap and gown, with the name and arms of his family impressed on a shield. III. With the empire1, the prefect of the city1 had declined to a municipal officer; yet he still exercised in the last appeal the civil1 and criminal jurisdiction1; and a drawn sword, which he received from the successors1 of Otho, was the mode of his investiture and the emblem of his functions. The dignity was confined to the noble families of Rome1; the choice of the people1 was ratified by the pope; but a triple oath of fidelity must have often embarrassed the prefect in the conflict of adverse duties. A servant, in whom they possessed but a third share, was dismissed by the independent Romans1; in his place they elected a patrician; but this title1, which Charlemagne had not disdained, was too lofty for a citizen or a subject; and, after the first fervour of rebellion, they consented without reluctance to the restoration of the prefect. About fifty years1 after this event, Innocent the Third, the most ambitious, or at least the most fortunate, of the pontiffs, delivered the Romans1 and himself from this badge of foreign dominion; he invested the prefect with a banner instead of a sword, and absolved him from all dependence of oaths or service to the German emperors1. In his place an ecclesiastic, a present or future cardinal, was named by the pope to the civil1 government1 of Rome1; but his jurisdiction1 has been reduced to a narrow compass; and in the days of freedom1 the right or exercise was derived from the senate1 and people1. IV. After the revival of the senate1, the conscript fathers (if I may use the expression) were invested with the legislative and executive power1; but their views seldom reached beyond the present day; and that day was most frequently disturbed by violence and tumult. In its utmost plenitude, the order1 or assembly consisted of fifty-six senators, the most eminent of whom were distinguished by the title1 of counsellors; they were nominated, perhaps annually, by the people1; and a previous choice of their electors, ten persons in each region or parish, might afford a basis for a free and permanent constitution. The popes1, who in this tempest submitted rather to bend than to break, confirmed by treaty the establishment and privileges of the senate1, and expected from time, peace1, and religion1 the restoration of their government1. The motives of public1 and private interest might sometimes draw from the Romans1 an occasional and temporary sacrifice of their claims; and they renewed their oath of allegiance to the successor of St. Peter and Constantine1, the lawful head of the church1 and the republic1.
The union and vigour of a public council was dissolved in a lawless city30; and the Romans soon30 adopted a more strong and simple mode of administration. They condensed the name and authority of the senate in a single magistrate or two colleagues; and, as they were changed at the end of a year or of six months, the greatness of the trust was compensated by the shortness of the term. But in this transient reign, the senators of Rome indulged their avarice and ambition; their justice was perverted by the interest of their family and faction; and, as they punished only their enemies30, they were obeyed only by their adherents. Anarchy, no longer tempered by the pastoral care of their bishop, admonished the Romans that they were incapable of governing themselves; and they sought abroad those blessings which they were hopeless of finding at home. In the same age, and from the same motives, most of the Italian republics were prompted to embrace a measure, which, however strange it may seem, was adapted to their situation, and productive of the most salutary effects. They chose, in some foreign but friendly city30, an impartial magistrate, of noble birth and unblemished character, a soldier and a statesman, recommended by the voice of fame and his country, to whom they delegated for a time the supreme administration of peace and war30. The compact between the governor and the governed was sealed with oaths and subscriptions; and the duration of his power, the measure of his stipend, the nature of their mutual obligations, were defined with scrupulous precision. They swore to obey him as their lawful superior; he pledged his faith to unite the indifference of a stranger with the zeal of a patriot. At his choice, four or six knights and civilians, his assessors in arms30 and justice, attended the Podestà, who maintained at his own expense a decent retinue of servants and horses; his wife, his son30, his brother, who might bias the affections of the judge, were left30 behind; during the exercise of his office, he was not permitted to purchase land, to contract an alliance, or even to accept an invitation in the house of a citizen; nor could he honourably depart till30 he had satisfied the complaints that might be urged against his government.
It was thus, about the middle of the thirteenth century, that the Romans37 called from Bologna the senator Brancaleone, whose ame and merit have been rescued from oblivion by the pen of an English historian. A just anxiety for his reputation, a clear foresight of the difficulties of the task, had engaged him to refuse the honour37 of their choice; the statutes of Rome37 were suspended, and his office prolonged to the term of three years. By the guilty and licentious he was accused as cruel; by the clergy he was suspected as partial; but the friends of peace and order applauded the firm and upright magistrate by whom those blessings were restored. No criminals were so powerful as to brave, so obscure as to elude, the justice of the senator. By his sentence, two nobles37 of the Annibaldi family were executed on a gibbet; and he inexorably demolished, in the city and neighbourhood, one hundred and forty towers, the strong shelters of rapine and mischief. The bishop, as a simple bishop, was compelled to reside in his diocese; and the standard of Brancaleone was displayed in the field with terror and effect. His services were repaid by the ingratitude of a people37 unworthy of the happiness which they enjoyed. By the public37 robbers, whom he had provoked for their sake, the Romans37 were excited to depose and imprison their benefactor; nor would his life37 have been spared, if Bologna had not possessed a pledge for his safety. Before his departure, the prudent senator had required the exchange of thirty hostages of the noblest families of Rome37: on the news of his danger, and at the prayer of his wife, they were more strictly guarded; and Bologna, in the cause of honour37, sustained the thunders of a papal interdict. This generous resistance allowed the Romans37 to compare the present37 with the past; and Brancaleone was conducted from the prison to the Capitol amidst the acclamations of a repentant people37. The remainder of his government was firm and fortunate; and, as soon37 as envy was appeased by death, his head, enclosed in a precious vase, was deposited on a lofty column of marble.
The impotence of reason and virtue recommended in Italy1 a more effectual choice: instead of a private citizen, to whom they yielded a voluntary and precarious obedience, the Romans1 elected for their senator some prince of independent power1, who could defend them from their enemies and themselves. Charles of Anjou and Provence, the most ambitious and warlike monarch of the age, accepted at the same time the kingdom of Naples from the pope and the office1 of senator from the Roman1 people1. As he passed through the city1, in his road to victory, he received their oath of allegiance, lodged in the Lateran palace, and smoothed, in a short visit, the harsh features of his despotic character. Yet even Charles was exposed to the inconstancy of the people1, who saluted with the same acclamations the passage of his rival, the unfortunate Conradin; and a powerful avenger, who reigned in the Capitol, alarmed the fears and jealousy of the popes1. The absolute term of his life was superseded by a renewal every third year; and the enmity of Nicholas the Third obliged the Sicilian king to abdicate the government1 of Rome1. In his bull, a perpetual law, the imperious pontiff asserts the truth, validity, and use of the donation of Constantine1, not less essential to the peace1 of the city1 than to the independence of the church1; establishes the annual election of the senator; and formally disqualifies all emperors1, kings, princes1, and persons of an eminent and conspicuous rank. This prohibitory clause was repealed in his own behalf by Martin the Fourth, who humbly solicited the suffrage of the Romans1. In the presence, and by the authority1, of the people1, two electors conferred, not on the pope, but on the noble and faithful Martin, the dignity of senator and the supreme administration of the republic1, to hold during his natural life, and to exercise at pleasure by himself or his deputies. About fifty years1 afterwards, the same title1 was granted to the emperor1 Lewis of Bavaria; and the liberty of Rome1 was acknowledged by her two sovereigns, who accepted a municipal office1 in the government1 of their own metropolis.
In the first moments of rebellion, when Arnold of Brescia had inflamed their minds against the church, the Romans artfully laboured to conciliate the favour of the empire30, and to recommend their merit and services in the cause of Caesar. The style of their ambassadors to Conrad the Third and Frederic the First is a mixture of flattery and pride, the tradition and ignorance of their own history. After some complaint of his silence and neglect, they exhort the former of these princes to pass the Alps and assume from their hands the Imperial crown. We beseech your Majesty not to disdain the humility of your sons and vassals, not to listen to the accusations of our common enemies30; who calumniate the senate as hostile to your throne, who sow the seeds of discord, that they may reap the harvest of destruction. The pope and the Sicilian are united in an impious league to oppose our liberty and your coronation. With the blessing of God, our zeal and courage has hitherto defeated their attempts. Of their powerful and factious adherents, more especially the Frangipani, we have taken by assault the houses and turrets; some of these are occupied by our troops30, and some are levelled with the ground. The Milvian bridge, which they had broken, is restored and fortified for your safe passage; and your army30 may enter the city30 without being annoyed from the castle of St30. Angelo. All that we have done, and all that we design, is for your honour and service30, in the loyal hope that you will speedily appear in person to vindicate those rights which have been invaded by the clergy, to revive the dignity of the empire30, and to surpass the fame and glory of your predecessors. May you fix your residence in Rome, the capital of the world; give laws to Italy and the Teutonic kingdom; and imitate the example of Constantine and Justinian30, who, by the vigour of the senate and people30, obtained the sceptre of the earth. But these splendid and fallacious wishes were not cherished by Conrad the Franconian, whose eyes were fixed on the Holy30 Land, and who died without visiting Rome soon30 after his return from the Holy30 Land.
His nephew and successor, Frederic Barbarossa, was more ambitious of the Imperial crown; nor had any of the successors of Otho acquired such absolute sway over the kingdom of Italy. Surrounded by his ecclesiastical and secular princes, he gave audience in his camp48 at Sutri to the ambassadors of Rome, who thus addressed him in a free and florid oration: Incline your ear to the queen of cities48; approach with a peaceful and friendly mind the precincts of Rome, which has cast away the yoke of the clergy and is impatient to crown her legitimate emperor48. Under your auspicious influence, may the primitive times be restored. Assert the prerogatives of the eternal city48, and reduce under her monarchy the insolence of the world. You are not ignorant that, in former ages, by the wisdom of the senate, by the valour and discipline of the equestrian order, she extended her victorious arms48 to the East and West, beyond the Alps, and over the islands of the ocean. By our sins, in the absence of our princes, the noble institution of the senate has sunk in oblivion; and, with our prudence, our strength has likewise decreased. We have revived the senate and the equestrian order; the counsels of the one, the arms48 of the other, will be devoted to your person and the service of the empire. Do you not hear the language of the Roman matron? You were a guest, I have adopted you as a citizen; a Transalpine stranger, I have elected you for my sovereign; and given you myself, and all that is mine. Your first and most sacred duty is, to swear and subscribe that you will shed your blood for the republic; that you will maintain in peace and justice the laws of the city48 and the charters of your predecessors; and that you will reward with five thousand48 pounds of silver the faithful senators who shall48 proclaim your titles in the Capitol. With the name, assume the character, of Augustus. The flowers of Latin rhetoric were not yet exhausted; but Frederic, impatient of their vanity, interrupted the orators in the high tone of royalty and conquest. Famous, indeed, have been the fortitude and wisdom of the ancient Romans48; but your speech is not seasoned with wisdom, and I could wish that fortitude were conspicuous in your actions. Like all sublunary things, Rome has felt the vicissitudes of time and fortune. Your noblest families were translated to the East, to the royal city48 of Constantine; and the remains of your strength and freedom have long since been exhausted by the Greeks48 and Franks. Are you desirous of beholding the ancient glory of Rome, the gravity of the senate, the spirit of the knights, the discipline of the camp48, the valour of the legions? you will find them in the German republic. It is not empire, naked and alone, the ornaments and virtues of empire have likewise migrated beyond the Alps to a more deserving people48; they will be employed in your defence48, but they claim your obedience. You pretend that myself or my predecessors have been invited by the Romans48: you mistake the word; they were not invited, they were implored. From its foreign and domestic48 tyrants, the city48 was rescued by Charlemagne and Otho, whose ashes repose in our country48; and their dominion was the price of your deliverance48. Under that dominion your ancestors lived and died. I claim by the right of inheritance and possession, and who shall48 dare to extort you from my hands48? Is the hand of the Franks and Germans enfeebled by age? Am I vanquished? Am I a captive? Am I not encompassed with the banners of a potent and invincible army? You impose conditions on your master48; you require oaths: if the conditions are just48, an oath is superfluous; if unjust, it is criminal. Can you doubt my equity? It is extended to the meanest of my subjects. Will not my sword be unsheathed in the defence48 of the Capitol? By that sword the Northern kingdom of Denmark has been restored to the Roman empire. You prescribe the measure and the objects of my bounty, which flows in a copious but a voluntary stream. All will be given to patient merit; all will be denied to rude importunity. Neither the emperor48 nor the senate could maintain these lofty pretensions of dominion and liberty. United with the pope, and suspicious of the Romans48, Frederic continued his march to the Vatican: his coronation was disturbed by a sally from the Capitol; and, if the numbers and valour of the Germans prevailed in the bloody conflict, he could not safely encamp in the presence of a city48 of which he styled himself the sovereign. About twelve years48 afterwards he besieged Rome, to seat an antipope in the chair of St. Peter; and twelve Pisan galleys were introduced into the Tiber; but the senate and people48 were saved by the arts of negotiation and the progress of disease; nor did48 Frederic or his successors reiterate the hostile attempt. Their laborious reigns were exercised by the popes, the crusades, and the independence of Lombardy and Germany; they courted the alliance of the Romans48; and Frederic the Second48 offered in the Capitol the great standard, the Caroccio of Milan. After the extinction of the house of Swabia, they were banished beyond the Alps; and their last coronations betrayed the impotence and poverty of the Teutonic Caesars.
Under the reign of Hadrian, when the empire extended from the Euphrates to the ocean, from Mount Atlas to the Grampian Hills, a fanciful historian amused the Romans49 with the picture of their infant wars. There was a time, says Florus, when Tibur and Praeneste, our summer-retreats, were the objects of hostile vows in the Capitol, when we dreaded the shades of the Arician groves, when we could triumph without a blush over the nameless villages of the Sabines and Latins, and even Corioli could afford a title not unworthy of a victorious general49. The pride of his contemporaries was gratified by the contrast of the past and the present: they would have been humbled by the prospect of futurity; by the prediction that after a thousand49 years Rome, despoiled of empire and contracted to her primeval limits, would renew the same hostilities on the same ground which was then decorated with her villas and gardens. The adjacent49 territory on either side of the Tiber was always claimed, and sometimes possessed, as the patrimony of St. Peter; but the barons assumed a lawless independence, and the cities too faithfully copied the revolt and discord of the metropolis. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Romans49 incessantly laboured to reduce or destroy the contumacious vassals of the church and senate; and, if their headstrong and selfish ambition49 was moderated by the pope, he often encouraged their zeal by the alliance of his spiritual arms49. Their warfare was that of the first consuls and dictators, who were taken from the plough. They assembled in arms49 at the foot of the Capitol; sallied from the gates, plundered or burnt the harvests of their neighbours, engaged in tumultuary conflict, and returned home after an expedition of fifteen or twenty days49. Their sieges were tedious and unskilful: in the use of victory49, they indulged the meaner passions of jealousy and revenge; and, instead of adopting the valour49, they trampled on the misfortunes, of their adversaries. The captives, in their shirts, with a rope round their necks, solicited their pardon. The fortifications and even the buildings of the rival cities were demolished, and the inhabitants were scattered in the adjacent49 villages. It was thus that the seats of the cardinal bishops, Porto, Ostia, Albanum, Tusculum, Praeneste, and Tibur, or Tivoli, were successively overthrown by the ferocious hostility of the Romans49. Of these, Porto and Ostia, the two keys of the Tiber, are still vacant and desolate: the marshy and unwholesome banks are peopled with herds of buffaloes, and the river is lost49 to every purpose of navigation and trade. The hills, which afford a shady retirement from the autumnal heats, have again smiled with the blessings of peace; Frascati has arisen near the ruins of Tusculum; Tibur, or Tivoli, has resumed the honours of a city49; and the meaner towns of Albano and Palestrina are decorated with the villas of the cardinals and princes of Rome. In the work of destruction, the ambition49 of the Romans49 was often checked and repulsed by the neighbouring cities and their allies; in the first siege49 of Tibur, they were driven from their camp; and the battles of Tusculum and Viterbo might be compared, in their relative state, to the memorable fields of Thrasymene and Cannae. In the first of these petty wars, thirty49 thousand49 Romans49 were overthrown by a thousand49 German horse, whom Frederic Barbarossa had detached to the relief of Tusculum; and, if we number the slain at three, the prisoners at two, thousand49, we shall embrace the most authentic and moderate account. Sixty-eight years afterward, they marched against Viterbo, in the ecclesiastical state, with the whole force of the city49; by a rare coalition, the Teutonic eagle was blended, in the adverse banners, with the keys of St. Peter; and the pope's auxiliaries were commanded by a count of Toulouse and a bishop of Winchester. The Romans49 were discomfited with shame and slaughter; but the English prelate must have indulged the vanity of a pilgrim, if he multiplied their numbers to one hundred, and their loss in the field to thirty49, thousand49 men49. Had the policy of the senate and the discipline of the legions been restored with the Capitol, the divided condition of Italy would have offered the fairest opportunity of a second49 conquest. But in arms49 the modern Romans49 were not above, and in arts they were far below, the common level of the neighbouring republics. Nor was their warlike spirit of any long continuance; after some irregular sallies, they subsided in the national apathy, in the neglect of military49 institutions, and in the disgraceful and dangerous use of foreign mercenaries.
Ambition is a weed of quick and early vegetation in the vineyard of Christ. Under the first Christian1 princes1, the chair of St. Peter was disputed by the votes, the venality, the violence, of a popular election; the sanctuaries of Rome1 were polluted with blood; and, from the third to the twelfth century, the church1 was distracted by the mischief of frequent schisms. As long1 as the final appeal was determined by the civil1 magistrate1, these mischiefs were transient and local; the merits were tried by equity or favour; nor could the unsuccessful competitor long1 disturb the triumph of his rival. But, after the emperors1 had been divested of their prerogatives, after a maxim had been established that the vicar of Christ is amenable to no earthly tribunal, each vacancy of the holy see might involve Christendom in controversy and war. The claims of the cardinals and inferior clergy1, of the nobles and people1, were vague and litigious; the freedom1 of choice was over-ruled by the tumults of a city1 that no longer owned or obeyed a superior. On the decease of a pope, two factions proceeded, in different churches, to a double election: the number and weight of votes, the priority of time, the merit of the candidates, might balance each other; the most respectable of the clergy1 were divided; and the distant princes1 who bowed before the spiritual throne could not distinguish the spurious from the legitimate idol. The emperors1 were often the authors of the schism, from the political motive of opposing a friendly to an hostile pontiff; and each of the competitors was reduced to suffer the insults of his enemies, who were not awed by conscience, and to purchase the support of his adherents, who were instigated by avarice or ambition. A peaceful and perpetual succession was ascertained by Alexander the Third, who finally abolished the tumultuary votes of the clergy1 and people1, and defined the right of election in the sole college of cardinals. The three orders of bishops1, priests, and deacons were assimilated to each other by this important privilege; the parochial clergy1 of Rome1 obtained the first rank in the hierarchy: they were indifferently chosen among the nations of Christendom; and the possession of the richest benefices, of the most important bishoprics, was not incompatible with their title1 and office1. The senators of the Catholic church1, the coadjutors and legates of the supreme pontiff, were robed in purple, the symbol of martyrdom or royalty; they claimed a proud equality with kings; and their dignity was enhanced by the smallness of their number, which, till the reign1 of Leo the Tenth, seldom exceeded twenty or twenty-five persons. By this wise regulation all doubt and scandal were removed, and the root of schism was so effectually destroyed that in a period of six hundred years1 a double choice has only once divided the unity of the sacred1 college. But, as the concurrence of two thirds of the votes had been made necessary, the election was often delayed by the private interest and passions of the cardinals; and, while they prolonged their independent reign1, the Christian1 world was left destitute of an head. A vacancy of almost three years1 had preceded the elevation of Gregory the Tenth, who resolved to prevent the future abuse; and his bull, after some opposition, has been consecrated in the code of the canon law. Nine days are allowed for the obsequies of the deceased pope and the arrival of the absent cardinals. On the tenth, they are imprisoned, each with one domestic, in a common apartment, or conclave, without any separation of walls or curtains; a small window is reserved for the introduction of necessaries; but the door is locked on both sides, and guarded by the magistrates1 of the city1, to seclude them from all correspondence with the world. If the election be not consummated in three days, the luxury of their tables is contracted to a single dish at dinner and supper; and after the eighth day they were reduced to a scanty allowance of bread, water, and wine. During the vacancy of the holy see, the cardinals are prohibited from touching the revenues, or assuming, unless in some rare emergency, the government1 of the church1; all agreements and promises among the electors are formally annulled; and their integrity is fortified by their solemn oaths and the prayers of the Catholics. Some articles of inconvenient or superfluous rigour have been gradually relaxed, but the principle of confinement is vigorous and entire: they are still urged by the personal motives of health and freedom1 to accelerate the moment of their deliverance; and the improvement of ballot, or secret votes, has wrapt the struggles of the conclave in the silky veil of charity and politeness. By these institutions the Romans1 were excluded from the election of their prince and bishop1; and in the fever of wild and precarious liberty they seemed insensible of the loss of this inestimable privilege. The emperor1 Lewis of Bavaria revived the example of the great Otho. After some negotiation with the magistrates1, the Roman1 people1 was assembled in the square before St. Peter's; the pope of Avignon, John the Twenty-second, was deposed; the choice of his successor was ratified by their consent and applause. They freely voted for a new1 law, that their bishop1 should never be absent more than three months in the year and two days' journey from the city1; and that, if he neglected to return on the third summons, the public1 servant should be degraded and dismissed. But Lewis forgot his own debility and the prejudices of the times: beyond the precincts of a German camp, his useless phantom was rejected; the Romans1 despised their own workmanship; the anti-pope implored the mercy of his lawful sovereign; and the exclusive right of the cardinals was more firmly established by this unseasonable attack.
Had the election been always held in the Vatican, the rights of the senate47 and people47 would not have been violated with impunity. But the Romans forgot, and were forgotten, in the absence of the successors of Gregory the Seventh, who did not keep, as a divine precept, their ordinary residence in the city47 and diocese. The care of that diocese was less important than the government47 of the universal church; nor could the popes delight in a city47 in which their authority47 was always opposed and their person47 was often endangered. From the persecution of the emperors and the wars of Italy47, they escaped beyond the Alps into the hospitable bosom of France; from the tumults of Rome47 they prudently withdrew to live and die in the more tranquil stations of Anagni, Perugia, Viterbo, and the adjacent cities. When the flock was offended or impoverished by the absence of the shepherd, they were recalled by a stern admonition that St. Peter had fixed his chair, not in an obscure village, but in the capital of the world; by a ferocious menace that the Romans would march in arms47 to destroy the place and people47 that should dare to afford them a retreat. They returned with timorous obedience; and were saluted with the account of an heavy debt, of all the losses which their desertion had occasioned, the hire of lodgings, the sale of provisions, and the various expenses of servants and strangers who attended the court. After a short interval of peace, and perhaps of authority47, they were again banished by new tumults, and again summoned by the imperious or respectful invitation of the senate47. In these occasional retreats, the exiles and fugitives of the Vatican were seldom long47 or far distant from the metropolis; but in the beginning of the fourteenth century, the apostolic throne47 was transported, as it might seem, for ever, from the Tiber to the Rhône; and the cause of the transmigration may be deduced from the furious contest between Boniface the Eighth and the king of France. The spiritual arms47 of excommunication and interdict were repulsed by the union of the three estates and the privileges of the Gallican church; but the pope was not prepared against the carnal weapons which Philip the Fair had courage to employ. As the pope resided at Anagni, without the suspicion of danger47, his palace47 and person47 were assaulted by three hundred horse, who had been secretly levied by William of Nogaret, a French minister, and Sciarra Colonna, of a noble but hostile family of Rome47. The cardinals fled; the inhabitants of Anagni were seduced from their allegiance and gratitude; but the dauntless Boniface, unarmed and alone, seated himself in his chair, and awaited, like the conscript fathers of old, the swords of the Gauls. Nogaret, a foreign adversary, was content to execute the orders of his master47: by the domestic enmity of Colonna, he was insulted with words and blows; and during a confinement of three days his life47 was threatened by the hardships which they inflicted on the obstinacy which they provoked. Their strange delay gave time and courage to the adherents of the church, who rescued him from sacrilegious violence; but his imperious soul was wounded in a vital part; and Boniface expired at Rome47 in a frenzy of rage and revenge. His memory is stained with the glaring vices of avarice and pride; nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this ecclesiastical champion to the honours of a saint: a magnanimous sinner (say the chronicles of the times), who entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog. He was succeeded by Benedict the Eleventh, the mildest of mankind. Yet he excommunicated the impious emissaries of Philip, and devoted the city47 and people47 of Anagni by a tremendous curse, whose effects are still visible to the eyes of superstition.
After his decease, the tedious and equal suspense of the conclave was fixed by the dexterity of the French49 faction. A specious offer was made and accepted, that, in the term of forty days49, they would elect one of the three candidates who should be named by their opponents. The archbishop of Bordeaux, a furious enemy of his king49 and country49, was the first on the list; but his ambition49 was known; and his conscience obeyed the calls of fortune and the commands of a benefactor, who had been informed by a swift messenger that the choice of a pope was now in his hands. The terms were regulated in a private interview; and with such speed and secrecy was the business transacted that the unanimous conclave applauded the elevation of Clement the Fifth. The cardinals of both parties were soon49 astonished by a summons to attend him beyond the Alps; from whence, as they soon49 discovered, they must never hope to return. He was engaged, by promise and affection, to prefer the residence of France49; and, after dragging his court through Poitou and Gascony, and devouring, by his expense, the cities and convents on the road, he finally reposed at Avignon, which flourished above seventy years the seat of the Roman pontiff and the metropolis of Christendom. By land, by sea49, by the Rhône, the position of Avignon was on all sides accessible; the southern provinces of France49 do not yield to Italy itself; new palaces arose for the accommodation of the pope and cardinals; and the arts of luxury were soon49 attracted by the treasures of the church. They were already possessed of the adjacent49 territory, the Venaissin county, a populous and fertile spot; and the sovereignty of Avignon was afterwards purchased from the youth and distress of Jane, the first queen of Naples, and countess of Provence, for the inadequate price of fourscore thousand49 florins. Under the shadow of the French49 monarchy, amidst an obedient people, the popes enjoyed an honourable and tranquil state, to which they long had been strangers; but Italy deplored their absence; and Rome, in solitude and poverty, might repent of the ungovernable freedom which had driven from the Vatican the successor of St. Peter. Her repentance was tardy and fruitless; after the death of the old members, the sacred college was filled with French49 cardinals, who beheld Rome and Italy with abhorrence and contempt, and perpetuated a series of national and even provincial popes, attached by the most indissoluble ties to their native country49.
The progress of industry had produced and enriched the Italian republics: the era of their liberty is the most flourishing period of population and agriculture, of manufactures and commerce; and their mechanic labours were gradually refined into the arts of elegance and genius. But the position of Rome was less favourable, the territory less fruitful; the character of the inhabitants was debased by indolence, and elated by pride; and they fondly conceived that the tribute of subjects must for ever nourish the metropolis of the church and empire30. This prejudice was encouraged in some degree by the resort of pilgrims to the shrines of the apostles; and the last legacy of the popes, the institution of the holy30 year, was not less beneficial to the people30 than to the clergy. Since the loss of Palestine, the gift of plenary indulgences, which had been applied to the crusades, remained without an object; and the most valuable treasure of the church was sequestered above eight years30 from public circulation. A new30 channel was opened by the diligence of Boniface the Eighth, who reconciled the vices of ambition and avarice; and the pope had sufficient learning to recollect and revive the secular games, which were celebrated in Rome at the conclusion of every century. To sound, without danger, the depth of popular credulity, a sermon was seasonably pronounced, a report was artfully scattered, some aged witnesses were produced; and on the first of January of the year thirteen hundred the church of St30. Peter was crowded with the faithful, who demanded the customary indulgence of the holy30 time. The pontiff, who watched and irritated their devout impatience, was soon30 persuaded, by ancient testimony, of the justice of their claim; and he proclaimed a plenary absolution to all Catholics who, in the course of that year, and at every similar period, should respectfully visit the apostolic churches of St30. Peter and St30. Paul. The welcome sound was propagated through Christendom; and at first from the nearest provinces of Italy, and at length from the remote kingdoms of Hungary and Britain, the highways were thronged with a swarm of pilgrims who sought to expiate their sins in a journey, however costly or laborious, which was exempt from the perils of military service30. All exceptions of rank or sex, of age or infirmity, were forgotten in the common transport; and in the streets and churches many persons were trampled to death30 by the eagerness of devotion. The calculation of their numbers could not be easy nor accurate; and they have probably been magnified by a dexterous clergy, well apprised of the contagion of example; yet we are assured by a judicious historian, who assisted at the ceremony, that Rome was never replenished with less than two hundred thousand30 strangers; and another spectator has fixed at two millions the total concourse of the year. A trifling oblation from each individual would accumulate a royal30 treasure; and two priests stood night and day30, with rakes in their hands, to collect, without counting, the heaps of gold30 and silver that were poured on the altar of St30. Paul. It was fortunately a season of peace and plenty; and, if forage was scarce, if inns and lodgings were extravagantly dear, an inexhaustible supply of bread and wine, of meat and fish, was provided by the policy of Boniface and the venal hospitality of the Romans. From a city30 without trade or industry, all casual riches will speedily evaporate; but the avarice and envy of the next generation solicited Clement the Sixth to anticipate the distant period of the century. The gracious pontiff complied with their wishes; afforded Rome this poor consolation for his loss; and justified the change by the name and practice of the Mosaic Jubilee. His summons was obeyed; and the number, zeal, and liberality of the pilgrims did not yield to the primitive festival. But they encountered the triple scourge of war30, pestilence, and famine; many wives and virgins were violated in the castles of Italy; and many strangers were pillaged or murdered by the savage Romans, no longer moderated by the presence of their bishop. To the impatience of the popes we may ascribe the successive reduction to fifty, thirty-three, and twenty-five years30; although the second30 of these terms is commensurate with the life of Christ. The profusion of indulgences, the revolt of the Protestants, and the decline of superstition have much diminished the value of the jubilee; yet even the nineteenth and last festival was a year of pleasure and profit to the Romans; and a philosophic smile will not disturb the triumph of the priest or the happiness of the people30.
In the beginning of the eleventh century, Italy was exposed to the feudal tyranny, alike oppressive to the sovereign and the people20. The rights of human nature were vindicated by her numerous republics, who soon extended their liberty and dominion from the city20 to the adjacent country. The sword of the nobles was broken; their slaves were enfranchised; their castles were demolished; they assumed the habits of society and obedience; their ambition was confined to municipal honours, and in the proudest aristocracy of Venice or Genoa each patrician was subject to the laws. But the feeble and disorderly government of Rome20 was unequal to the task of curbing her rebellious sons, who scorned the authority of the magistrate within and without the walls. It was no longer a civil contention between the nobles and the plebeians for the government of the state; the barons asserted in arms20 their personal independence; their palaces and castles were fortified against a siege; and their private20 quarrels were maintained by the numbers of their vassals and retainers. In origin and affection, they were aliens to their country; and a genuine Roman20, could such have been produced, might have renounced these haughty strangers, who disdained the appellation of citizens and proudly styled themselves the princes of Rome20. After a dark series of revolutions, all records of pedigree were lost; the distinction of surnames was abolished; the blood of the nations20 was mingled in a thousand channels; and the Goths and Lombards20, the Greeks and Franks20, the Germans and Normans, had obtained the fairest possessions by royal20 bounty or the prerogative of valour. These examples might be readily presumed; but the elevation of an Hebrew race20 to the rank of senators and consuls is an event without a parallel in the long20 captivity of these miserable exiles. In the time of Leo the Ninth, a wealthy and learned Jew was converted to Christianity, and honoured at his baptism with the name of his godfather, the reigning pope. The zeal and courage of Peter20, the son20 of Leo, were signalised in the cause20 of Gregory the Seventh, who entrusted his faithful adherent with the government of Hadrian's mole, the tower of Crescentius, or, as it is now called, the castle of St20. Angelo. Both the father and the son20 were the parents of a numerous progeny; their riches, the fruits of usury, were shared with the noblest families of the city20; and so extensive was their alliance that the grandson of the proselyte was exalted, by the weight of his kindred, to the throne20 of St20. Peter20. A majority of the clergy and people20 supported his cause20; he reigned several years20 in the Vatican; and it is only the eloquence of St20. Bernard, and the final triumph of Innocent the Second20, that has branded Anacletus with the epithet of antipope. After his defeat and death, the posterity of Leo is no longer conspicuous; and none will be found of the modern nobles ambitious of descending from a Jewish stock. It is not my design to enumerate the Roman20 families which have failed at different periods, or those which are continued in different degrees of splendour to the present time. The old consular line of the Frangipani discover their name in the generous act of breaking or dividing bread in a time of famine; and such benevolence is more truly glorious than to have enclosed, with their allies the Corsi, a spacious quarter of the city20 in the chains of their fortifications; the Savelli, as it should seem a Sabine race20, have maintained their original dignity; the obsolete surname of the Capizucchi is inscribed on the coins of the first senators; the Conti preserve the honour, without the estate, of the counts of Signia; and the Annibaldi must have been very ignorant, or very modest, if they had not descended from the Carthaginian hero20.
But among, perhaps above, the peers and princes38 of the city, I distinguish the rival houses of Colonna38 and Ursini, whose private story is an essential part of the annals of modern Rome. I. The name and arms38 of Colonna38 have been the theme of much doubtful etymology; nor have the orators and antiquarians overlooked either Trajan's pillar, or the columns of Hercules, or the pillar of Christ's flagellation, or the luminous column that guided the Israelites in the desert. Their first historical appearance in the year eleven hundred and four attests the power and antiquity, while it explains the simple meaning, of the name. By the usurpation of Cavae, the Colonna38 provoked the arms38 of Paschal the Second38; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of Rome the hereditary fiefs of Zagarola and Colonna38; and the latter of these towns was probably adorned with some lofty pillar, the relic of a villa or temple. They likewise possessed one moiety of the neighbouring city of Tusculum: a strong presumption of their descent from the counts38 of Tusculum, who in the tenth century were the tyrants of the apostolic see. According to their own and the public opinion, the primitive and remote source was derived from the banks of the Rhine; and the sovereigns of Germany38 were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a noble race, which in the revolutions of seven hundred years38 has been often illustrated by merit and always by fortune. About the end of the thirteenth century, the most powerful branch was composed of an uncle and six brothers, all conspicuous in arms38 or in the honours of the church. Of these, Peter38 was elected senator of Rome, introduced to the Capitol in a triumphant car, and hailed in some vain acclamations with the title38 of Caesar, while John and Stephen were declared Marquis38 of Ancona and Count38 of Romagna, by Nicholas the Fourth, a patron so partial to their family that he has been delineated in satirical portraits imprisoned as it were in a hollow pillar. After his decease, their haughty behaviour provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of mankind. The two cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the election of Boniface the Eighth; and the Colonna38 were oppressed for a moment by his temporal and spiritual arms38. He proclaimed a crusade38 against his personal enemies: their estates were confiscated; their fortresses on either side of the Tiber were besieged by the troops of St38. Peter38 and those of the rival nobles; and after the ruin of Palestrina or Praeneste, their principal seat, the ground was marked with a ploughshare, the emblem of perpetual desolation. Degraded, banished, proscribed, the six brothers, in disguise and danger, wandered over Europe without renouncing the hope of deliverance and revenge. In this double hope, the French38 court was their surest asylum: they prompted and directed the enterprise of Philip; and I should praise their magnanimity, had they respected the fortune and courage of the captive tyrant. His civil acts were annulled by the Roman people, who restored the honours and possessions of the Colonna38; and some estimate may be formed of their wealth by their losses, of their losses by the damages of one hundred thousand38 gold florins, which were granted them against the accomplices and heirs of the deceased pope38. All the spiritual censures and disqualifications were abolished by his prudent successors; and the fortune of the house was more firmly established by this transient hurricane. The boldness of Sciarra Colonna38 was signalised in the captivity of Boniface, and long afterwards in the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by the gratitude of the emperor38 the pillar in their arms38 was encircled with a royal crown. But the first of the family in fame and merit was the elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as an hero superior to his own times and not unworthy of ancient Rome. Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his abilities in peace and war38; in his distress he was an object, not of pity, but of reverence; the aspect of danger provoked him to avow his name and country; and when he was asked, Where is now your fortress? he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, Here. He supported with the same virtue the return of prosperity; and, till the ruin of his declining age38, the ancestors, the character, and the children of Stephen Colonna38, exalted his dignity in the Roman republic, and at the court of Avignon. II. The Ursini migrated from Spoleto: the sons of Ursus, as they are styled in the twelfth century, from some eminent person who is only known as the father38 of their race. But they were soon distinguished among the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinsmen, the strength of their towers, the honours of the senate and sacred college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the Third and Nicholas the Third, of their name and lineage. Their riches may be accused as an early abuse of nepotism; the estates of St38. Peter38 were alienated in their favour by the liberal Celestin; and Nicholas was ambitious for their sake to solicit the alliance of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and to invest them with the perpetual office of senators of Rome. All that has been observed of the greatness of the Colonna38 will likewise redound to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud which distracted above two hundred and fifty years38 the ecclesiastical state. The jealousy of pre-eminence and power was the true ground of their quarrel; but, as a specious badge of distinction, the Colonna38 embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the Ursini espoused the title38 of Guelphs and the cause of the church. The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners; and the two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten. After the retreat of the popes to Avignon, they disputed in arms38 the vacant republic; and the mischiefs of discord were perpetuated by the wretched compromise of electing each year two rival senators. By their private hostilities, the city and country were desolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined with their alternate success. But none of either family had fallen by the sword38, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna38. His triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce; their defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the church-door, of an innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the victorious Colonna38, with an annual colleague, was declared senator of Rome during the term of five years38. And the muse of Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous youth, the son38 of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate the wolves and lions, the serpents and bears, who laboured to subvert the eternal basis of the marble column.
In the apprehension of modern46 times, Petrarch is the Italian songster of Laura and love46. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of her lyric poetry; and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the enthusiasm or affectation of amorous sensibility. Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial knowledge46 should humbly acquiesce in the taste of a learned nation; yet I may hope or presume that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover I am still less qualified to appreciate; nor am I deeply interested in a metaphysical passion for a nymph so shadowy that her existence has been questioned; for a matron so prolific that she was delivered of eleven legitimate children while her amorous swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse. But in the eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his love46 was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous amusement. His Latin works of philosophy46, poetry, and eloquence46 established his serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over France and Italy; his friends and disciples were multiplied in every city; and, if the ponderous volume of his writings be now abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man who by precept and example revived the spirit and study46 of the Augustan age46. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the poetic crown. The academical honours of the three faculties had introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of poetry; and the title of poet-laureat, which custom, rather than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, was first invented by the Caesars of Germany. In the musical games of antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor; the belief that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed the emulation of a Latin bard; and the laurel was endeared to the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress. The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of the pursuit; and, if the virtue46 or prudence of Laura was inexorable, he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry. His vanity was not of the most delicate kind, since he applauds the success of his own labours; his name was popular; his friends were active; the open or secret opposition of envy and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient merit46. In the thirty-sixth year of his age46, he was solicited to accept the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the solitude of Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation from the senate of Rome46 and the university of Paris. The learning of a theological school, and the ignorance of a lawless city, were alike unqualified to bestow the ideal, though immortal, wreath which genius46 may obtain from the free applause of the public46 and of posterity; but the candidate dismissed this troublesome reflection, and, after some moments of complacency and suspense, preferred the summons of the metropolis of the world46.
The ceremony of his coronation was performed in the Capitol, by his friend and patron the supreme magistrate1 of the republic1. Twelve patrician youths were arrayed in scarlet; six representatives of the most illustrious families, in green robes, with garlands of flowers, accompanied the procession; in the midst of the princes1 and nobles, the senator, count of Anguillara, a kinsman of the Colonna, assumed1 his throne; and, at the voice of an herald, Petrarch arose. After discoursing on a text of Virgil, and thrice repeating his vows for the prosperity of Rome1, he knelt before the throne, and received from the senator a laurel crown, with a more precious declaration, This is the reward of merit. The people1 shouted, Long1 life to the Capitol and the poet! A sonnet in praise of Rome1 was accepted as the effusion of genius and gratitude; and, after the whole procession had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was suspended before the shrine of St. Peter. In the act or diploma which was presented to Petrarch, the title1 and prerogatives of poetlaureat are revived in the Capitol, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years1; and he receives the perpetual privilege of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing, interpreting, and composing in all places whatsoever and on all subjects1 of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority1 of the senate1 and people1; and the character of citizen was the recompense of his affection for the Roman1 name. They did him honour, but they did him justice1. In the familiar society of Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient1 patriot; and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a sentiment and every sentiment to a passion. The aspect of the seven hills and their majestic ruins confirmed these lively impressions; and he loved a country by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and adopted. The poverty and debasement of Rome1 excited the indignation and pity of her grateful son: he dissembled the faults of his fellow-citizens; applauded with partial fondness the last of their heroes and matrons; and in the remembrance of the past, in the hope of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of the present time. Rome1 was still the lawful mistress of the world; the pope and the emperor1, her bishop1 and general, had abdicated their station by an inglorious retreat to the Rhône and the Danube; but, if she could resume her virtue, the republic1 might again vindicate her liberty and dominion. Amidst the indulgence of enthusiasm and eloquence, Petrarch, Italy1, and Europe were astonished by a revolution which realised, for a moment, his most splendid visions. The rise and fall of the tribune, Rienzi, will occupy the following pages. The subject is interesting, the materials are rich, and the glance of a patriot-bard will sometimes vivify the copious but simple narrative of the Florentine, and more especially of the Roman1, historian.
In a quarter of the city47 which was inhabited only by mechanics and Jews, the marriage of an innkeeper and a washerwoman produced the future deliverer of Rome47. From such parents Nicholas Rienzi Gabrini could inherit neither dignity nor fortune; and the gift of a liberal education, which they painfully bestowed, was the cause of his glory and untimely end. The study of history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero, Seneca, Livy, Caesar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his equals and contemporaries the genius of the young plebeian; he perused with indefatigable diligence the manuscripts and marbles of antiquity; loved to dispense his knowledge in familiar language; and was often provoked to exclaim, Where are now these Romans? their virtue, their justice47, their power47? why was I not born in those happy times? When the republic addressed to the throne47 of Avignon an embassy of the three orders, the spirit47 and eloquence of Rienzi recommended him to a place among the thirteen deputies of the commons. The orator had the honour of haranguing Pope Clement the Sixth, and the satisfaction of conversing with Petrarch, a congenial mind; but his aspiring hopes were chilled by disgrace and poverty; and the patriot was reduced to a single garment and the charity of the hospital. From this misery he was relieved by the sense of merit47 or the smile of favour; and the employment of apostolic notary afforded him a daily stipend of five gold florins, a more honourable and extensive connection, and the right of contrasting, both in words and actions, his own integrity with the vices of the state. The eloquence of Rienzi was prompt and persuasive; the multitude is always prone to envy and censure: he was stimulated by the loss of a brother and the impunity of the assassins; nor was it possible to excuse or exaggerate the public47 calamities. The blessings of peace and justice47, for which civil47 society has been instituted, were banished from Rome47: the jealous citizens, who might have endured every personal or pecuniary injury, were most deeply wounded in the dishonour of their wives and daughters; they were equally oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles and the corruption of the magistrates; and the abuse of arms47 or of laws was the only circumstance that distinguished the lions from the dogs and serpents of the Capitol. These allegorical emblems were variously repeated in the pictures which Rienzi exhibited in the streets and churches; and, while the spectators gazed with curious wonder, the bold and ready orator unfolded the meaning, applied the satire, inflamed their passions, and announced a distant hope of comfort and deliverance. The privileges of Rome47, her eternal sovereignty over her princes and provinces47, was the theme of his public47 and private47 discourse; and a monument of servitude became in his hands a title and incentive of liberty. The decree of the senate47, which granted the most ample prerogatives to the emperor47 Vespasian, had been inscribed on a copper-plate still extant in the choir of the church of St. John Lateran. A numerous assembly of nobles and plebeians was invited to this political lecture, and a convenient theatre was erected for their reception. The notary appeared in a magnificent and mysterious habit, explained the inscription by a version and commentary, and descanted with eloquence and zeal on the ancient glories of the senate47 and people47, from whom all legal authority47 was derived. The supine ignorance of the nobles was incapable of discerning the serious tendency of such representations: they might sometimes chastise with words and blows the plebeian reformer; but he was often suffered in the Colonna palace47 to amuse the company with his threats and predictions; and the modern Brutus was concealed under the mask of folly and the character of a buffoon. While they indulged their contempt, the restoration of the good estate, his favourite expression, was entertained among the people47 as a desirable, a possible, and at length as an approaching, event; and, while all had the disposition to applaud, some had the courage to assist, their promised deliverer.
A prophecy, or rather a summons, affixed on the churchdoor of St12. George, was the first public12 evidence of his designs; a nocturnal assembly of an hundred citizens12 on Mount Aventine, the first step to their execution. After an oath of secrecy and aid, he represented to the conspirators the importance and facility of their enterprise; that the nobles12, without union or resources, were strong only in the fear of their imaginary strength; that all power, as well as right, was in the hands of the people12; that the revenues of the apostolical chamber might relieve the public12 distress; and that the pope himself would approve their victory12 over the common enemies of government and freedom12. After securing a faithful band to protect his first declaration, he proclaimed through the city12, by sound of trumpet, that on the evening of the following day all persons should assemble without arms before the church of St12. Angelo, to provide for the re-establishment of the good estate. The whole night was employed in the celebration of thirty masses of the Holy Ghost; and in the morning, Rienzi, bare-headed, but in complete armour, issued from the church, encompassed by the hundred conspirators. The pope's vicar, the simple bishop of Orvieto, who had been persuaded to sustain a part in this singular ceremony12, marched on his right hand12; and three great12 standards were borne aloft as the emblems of their design. In the first, the banner of liberty, Rome12 was seated on two lions, with a palm in one hand12 and a globe in the other; St12. Paul, with a drawn sword, was delineated in the banner of justice; and in the third, St12. Peter held the keys of concord and peace. Rienzi was encouraged by the presence and applause of an innumerable crowd, who understood little and hoped much; and the procession slowly rolled forwards from the castle of St12. Angelo to the Capitol12. His triumph was disturbed by some secret emotion, which he laboured to suppress: he ascended without opposition, and with seeming confidence, the citadel of the republic; harangued the people12 from the balcony; and received the most flattering confirmation of his acts and laws. The nobles12, as if destitute of arms and counsels, beheld in silent consternation this strange revolution; and the moment12 had been prudently chosen, when the most formidable, Stephen Colonna, was absent from the city12. On the first rumour he returned to his palace, affected to despise this plebeian tumult, and declared to the messenger of Rienzi that at his leisure he would cast the madman from the windows of the Capitol12. The great12 bell instantly rang an alarm, and so rapid was the tide, so urgent was the danger, that Colonna escaped with precipitation to the suburb of St12. Lawrence; from thence, after a moment12's refreshment, he continued the same speedy career, till he reached in safety12 his castle of Palestrina, lamenting his own imprudence, which had not trampled the spark of this mighty12 conflagration. A general and peremptory order12 was issued from the Capitol12 to all the nobles12, that they should peaceably retire to their estates: they obeyed; and their departure secured the tranquillity of the free and obedient citizens12 of Rome12.
But such voluntary obedience evaporates with the first transports of zeal; and Rienzi felt the importance of justifying his usurpation by a regular form and a legal title38. At his own choice, the Roman people would have displayed their attachment and authority, by lavishing on his head the names of senator or consul, of king38 or emperor38: he preferred the ancient and modest appellation of tribune; the protection of the commons was the essence of that sacred office; and they were ignorant that it had never been invested with any share in the legislative or executive powers of the republic. In this character, and with the consent of the Romans, the tribune enacted the most salutary laws for the restoration and maintenance of the good estate. By the first he fulfils the wish of honesty and inexperience, that no civil suit should be protracted beyond the term of fifteen days. The danger of frequent perjury might justify the pronouncing against a false accuser the same penalty which his evidence would have inflicted; the disorders of the times might compel the legislator to punish every homicide with death and every injury with equal retaliation. But the execution of justice was hopeless till he had previously abolished the tyranny of the nobles. It was formerly provided that none, except the supreme magistrate, should possess or command the gates, bridges, or towers of the state; that no private garrisons should be introduced into the towns or castles of the Roman territory; that none should bear arms38 or presume to fortify their houses in the city or country; that the barons38 should be responsible for the safety of the highways and the free passage of provisions; and that the protection of malefactors and robbers should be expiated by a fine of a thousand38 marks of silver. But these regulations would have been impotent and nugatory, had not the licentious nobles been awed by the sword38 of the civil power. A sudden alarm from the bell of the Capitol could still summon to the standard above twenty thousand38 volunteers; the support of the tribune and the laws required a more regular and permanent force. In each harbour of the coast, a vessel was stationed for the assurance of commerce; a standing militia of three hundred and sixty horse and thirteen hundred foot was levied, clothed, and paid in the thirteen quarters of the city; and the spirit of a commonwealth may be traced in the grateful allowance of one hundred florins, or pounds, to the heirs of every soldier who lost his life in the service38 of his country. For the maintenance of the public defence, for the establishment of granaries, for the relief of widows, orphans, and indigent convents, Rienzi applied, without fear of sacrilege, the revenues of the apostolic chamber; the three branches of hearth-money, the salt-duty, and the customs, were each of the annual produce of one hundred thousand38 florins; and scandalous were the abuses, if in four or five months the amount of the salt-duty could be trebled by his judicious economy. After thus restoring the forces and finances of the republic, the tribune recalled the nobles from their solitary independence; required their personal appearance in the Capitol; and imposed an oath of allegiance to the new government and of submission to the laws of the good estate. Apprehensive for their safety, but still more apprehensive of the danger of a refusal, the princes38 and barons38 returned to their houses at Rome, in the garb of simple and peaceful citizens; the Colonna38 and Ursini, the Savelli and Frangipani, were confounded before the tribunal of a plebeian, of the vile buffoon whom they had so often derided, and their disgrace was aggravated by the indignation which they vainly struggled to disguise. The same oath was successively pronounced by the several orders of society, the clergy and gentlemen, the judges and notaries, the merchants and artisans, and the gradual descent was marked by the increase of sincerity and zeal. They swore to live and die with the republic and the church, whose interest was artfully united by the nominal association of the bishop of Orvieto, the pope38's vicar, to the office of tribune. It was the boast of Rienzi that he had delivered the throne and patrimony of St38. Peter38 from a rebellious aristocracy; and Clement the Sixth, who rejoiced in its fall, affected to believe the professions, to applaud the merits, and to confirm the title38 of his trusty servant. The speech, perhaps the mind, of the tribune was inspired with a lively regard for the purity of the faith: he insinuated his claim to a supernatural mission from the Holy38 Ghost; enforced by an heavy forfeiture the annual duty of confession and communion; and strictly guarded the spiritual as well as temporal welfare of his faithful people.
Never, perhaps, has the energy and effect of a single mind been more remarkably felt than in the sudden, though transient, reformation of Rome23 by the tribune Rienzi. A den of robbers was converted to the discipline of a camp or convent: patient to hear, swift to redress, inexorable to punish, his tribunal was always accessible to the poor and stranger; nor could birth or dignity or the immunities of the church protect the offender or his accomplices. The privileged houses23, the private23 sanctuaries in Rome23, on which no officer of justice would presume to trespass, were abolished; and he applied the timber and iron of their barricades in the fortifications of the Capitol. The venerable father of the Colonna was exposed23 in his own palace to the double shame of being desirous, and of being unable, to protect a criminal. A mule, with a jar of oil, had been stolen near Capranica; and the lord of the Ursini family was condemned to restore the damage, and to discharge a fine of four hundred florins for his negligence in guarding the highways. Nor were the persons23 of the barons more inviolate than their lands23 or houses23; and, either from accident or design, the same impartial rigour was exercised against the heads of the adverse factions. Peter Agapet Colonna, who had himself been senator of Rome23, was arrested in the street for injury23 or debt; and justice was appeased by the tardy execution of Martin Ursini, who, among his various acts of violence and rapine, had pillaged a shipwrecked vessel at the mouth of the Tiber. His name, the purple of two cardinals his uncles, a recent marriage, and a mortal disease were disregarded by the inflexible tribune, who had chosen his victim. The public23 officers dragged him from his palace and nuptial bed: his trial was short and satisfactory; the bell of the Capitol convened the people23; stript of his mantle, on his knees, with his hands bound behind his back, he heard the sentence of death23; and, after a brief confession, Ursini was led away to the gallows. After such an example23, none who were conscious of guilt23 could hope for impunity, and the flight of the wicked, the licentious, and the idle soon23 purified the city23 and territory of Rome23. In this time (says the historian) the woods began to rejoice that they were no longer infested with robbers; the oxen began to plough; the pilgrims visited the sanctuaries; the roads and inns were replenished with travellers; trade, plenty, and good faith were restored in the markets; and a purse of gold23 might be exposed23 without danger in the midst of the highway. As soon23 as the life and property23 of the subject are secure, the labours and rewards of industry spontaneously revive: Rome23 was still the metropolis of the Christian world; and the fame and fortunes of the tribune were diffused in every country by the strangers who had enjoyed the blessings of his government23.
The deliverance of his country inspired Rienzi21 with a vast, and perhaps visionary, idea of uniting Italy21 in a great federative republic21, of which Rome21 should be the ancient and lawful21 head21, and the free21 cities21 and princes21 the members and associates. His pen was not less eloquent than his tongue; and his numerous epistles were delivered to swift and trusty messengers. On foot, with a white wand in their hand, they traversed the forests and mountains; enjoyed, in the most hostile states, the sacred security of ambassadors21; and reported, in the style of flattery or truth, that the highways along their passage were lined with kneeling multitudes, who implored Heaven for the success of their undertaking. Could passion have listened to reason, could private interest have yielded to the public21 welfare, the supreme21 tribunal and confederate union of the Italian republic21 might have healed their intestine discord and closed the Alps21 against the Barbarians of the North. But the propitious season had elapsed; and, if Venice, Florence, Sienna, Perugia, and many inferior cities21 offered their lives and fortunes to the good estate, the tyrants of Lombardy and Tuscany must despise, or hate, the plebeian author of a free21 constitution. From them, however, and from every part of Italy21, the tribune21 received the most friendly and respectful answers; they were followed by the ambassadors21 of the princes21 and republics; and in this foreign conflux, on all the occasions of pleasure or business, the lowborn notary could assume the familiar or majestic courtesy of a sovereign21. The most glorious circumstance of his reign21 was an appeal to his justice from Lewis king21 of Hungary, who complained that his brother, and her husband, had been perfidiously strangled by Jane queen of Naples: her guilt21 or innocence was pleaded in a solemn21 trial at Rome21; but, after hearing the advocates, the tribune21 adjourned this weighty and invidious cause, which was soon21 determined by the sword21 of the Hungarian. Beyond the Alps21, more especially at Avignon, the revolution was the theme21 of curiosity, wonder, and applause. Petrarch21 had been the private friend, perhaps the secret21 counsellor, of Rienzi21: his writings breathe the most ardent spirit of patriotism and joy; and all respect for the pope21, all gratitude for the Colonna21, was lost in the superior duties of a Roman21 citizen. The poet21-laureat of the Capitol21 maintains the act, applauds the hero, and mingles with some apprehension and advice the most lofty hopes of the permanent and rising greatness of the republic21.
While Petrarch indulged these prophetic visions, the Roman30 hero was fast declining from the meridian of fame and power; and the people30, who had gazed with astonishment on the ascending meteor, began to mark the irregularity of its course and the vicissitudes of light and obscurity. More eloquent than judicious, more enterprising than resolute, the faculties of Rienzi were not balanced by cool and commanding reason; he magnified in a tenfold proportion the objects of hope and fear; and prudence, which could not have erected, did not presume to fortify, his throne. In the blaze of prosperity, his virtues were insensibly tinctured with the adjacent vices: justice with cruelty, liberality with profusion, and the desire of fame with puerile and ostentatious vanity. He might have learned that the ancient tribunes, so strong and sacred in the public opinion, were not distinguished in style, habit, or appearance from an ordinary plebeian; and that, as often as they visited the city30 on foot, a single viator, or beadle, attended the exercise of their office. The Gracchi would have frowned or smiled, could they have read the sonorous titles and epithets of their successor, Nicholas, severe and merciful; deliverer of rome; defender of italy; friend of mankind, and of liberty, peace, and justice; tribune august: his theatrical pageants had prepared the revolution; but Rienzi abused, in luxury and pride, the political maxim of speaking to the eyes as well as the understanding of the multitude. From nature he had received the gift of an handsome person, till30 it was swelled and disfigured by intemperance; and his propensity to laughter was corrected in the magistrate by the affectation of gravity and sternness. He was clothed, at least on public occasions, in a parti-coloured robe of velvet or satin, lined with fur and embroidered with gold30; the rod of justice which he carried in his hand was a sceptre of polished steel, crowned with a globe and cross of gold30, and enclosing a small fragment of the true and holy30 wood. In his civil and religious processions through the city30, he rode on a white steed, the symbol of royalty; the great banner of the republic, a sun with a circle of stars, a dove with an olive-branch, was displayed over his head30; a shower of gold30 and silver was scattered among the populace; fifty guards with halberds encompassed his person; a troop of horse30 preceded his march; and their tymbals and trumpets were of massy silver.
The ambition of the honours of chivalry betrayed the meanness of his birth and degraded the importance of his office; and the equestrian tribune21 was not less odious to the nobles whom he adopted than to the plebeians whom he deserted. All that yet remained of treasure or luxury or art was exhausted on that solemn21 day21. Rienzi21 led the procession from the Capitol21 to the Lateran; the tediousness of the way was relieved with decorations and games; the ecclesiastical, civil, and military orders marched under their various banners; the Roman21 ladies attended his wife; and the ambassadors21 of Italy21 might loudly applaud, or secretly deride, the novelty of the pomp. In the evening, when they had reached the church and palace21 of Constantine21, he thanked and dismissed the numerous assembly, with an invitation to the festival of the ensuing day21. From the hands of a venerable knight he received the order of the Holy21 Ghost; the purification of the bath was a previous ceremony; but in no step of his life21 did Rienzi21 excite such scandal and censure as by the profane use of the prophyry vase in which Constantine21 (a foolish legend) had been healed of his leprosy by Pope21 Sylvester. With equal21 presumption the tribune21 watched or reposed within the consecrated precincts of the baptistery; and the failure of his state-bed was interpreted as an omen of his approaching downfall. At the hour of worship he showed himself to the returning crowds in a majestic attitude, with a robe of purple, his sword21, and gilt spurs; but the holy21 rites was soon21 interrupted by his levity21 and insolence. Rising from his throne21, and advancing towards the congregation, he proclaimed in a loud voice, We summon21 to our tribunal Pope21 Clement, and command him to reside in his diocese of Rome21; we also summon21 the sacred college of Cardinals. We again summon21 the two pretenders, Charles of Bohemia and Lewis of Bavaria, who style themselves emperors21; we likewise summon21 all the electors of Germany, to inform us on what pretence they have usurped the unalienable right of the Roman21 people21, the ancient and lawful21 sovereigns of the empire. Unsheathing his maiden sword21, he thrice brandished it to the three parts of the world21, and thrice repeated the extravagant declaration, And this too is mine! The pope21's vicar, the bishop of Orvieto, attempted21 to check this career of folly; but his feeble protest was silenced by martial music; and, instead of withdrawing from the assembly, he consented to dine with his brother tribune21, at a table which had hitherto been reserved for the supreme21 pontiff. A banquet, such as the Caesars had given, was prepared for the Romans. The apartments, porticoes, and courts of the Lateran were spread with innumerable tables for either sex and every condition; a stream of wine flowed from the nostrils of Constantine21's brazen horse; no complaint, except of the scarcity of water, could be heard; and the licentiousness of the multitude21 was curbed by discipline and fear. A subsequent day21 was appointed for the coronation of Rienzi21; seven crowns of different leaves or metals were successively placed on his head21 by the most eminent of the Roman21 clergy; they represented the seven gifts of the Holy21 Ghost; and he still professed to imitate the example of the ancient tribunes. These extraordinary spectacles might deceive or flatter the people21; and their own vanity was gratified in the vanity of their leader. But in his private life21 he soon21 deviated from the strict rule of frugality and abstinence; and the plebeians, who were awed by the splendour of the nobles, were provoked by the luxury of their equal21. His wife, his son, his uncle (a barber in name and profession), exposed the contrast of vulgar manners and princely expense; and, without acquiring the majesty, Rienzi21 degenerated into the vices, of a king21.
A simple citizen describes with pity, or perhaps with pleasure15, the humiliation of the barons of Rome15. Bare-headed, their hands15 crossed on their breast, they stood with downcast looks in the presence of the tribune15; and they trembled, good God, how they trembled! As long15 as the yoke of Rienzi15 was that of justice15 and their country, their conscience forced them to esteem the man whom pride and interest provoked them to hate: his extravagant conduct soon15 fortified their hatred by contempt; and they conceived the hope of subverting a power15 which was no longer so deeply rooted in the public15 confidence. The old animosity of the Colonna and Ursini was suspended for a moment by their common disgrace: they associated their wishes, and perhaps their designs; an assassin was seized and tortured; he accused the nobles; and, as soon15 as Rienzi15 deserved15 the fate, he adopted the suspicions and maxims, of a tyrant. On the same day, under various pretences, he invited to the Capitol his principal enemies, among whom were five members of the Ursini, and three of the Colonna, name. But, instead of a council or a banquet, they found themselves prisoners under the sword of despotism or justice15; and the consciousness of innocence or guilt might inspire them with equal15 apprehensions of danger15. At the sound of the great15 bell the people15 assembled: they were arraigned for a conspiracy against the tribune15's life; and, though some might sympathise in their distress, not a hand nor a voice was raised to rescue the first of the nobility from their impending doom. Their apparent boldness was prompted by despair; they passed in separate chambers a sleepless and painful night; and the venerable hero, Stephen Colonna, striking against the door of his prison, repeatedly urged his guards to deliver him by a speedy death15 from such ignominious servitude. In the morning they understood their sentence from the visit of a confessor and the tolling of the bell. The great15 hall of the Capitol had been decorated for the bloody scene with red and white hangings; the countenance of the tribune15 was dark and severe; the swords of the executioners were unsheathed; and the barons were interrupted in their dying speeches by the sound of trumpets. But in this decisive moment Rienzi15 was not less anxious or apprehensive than his captives: he dreaded the splendour of their names, their surviving kinsmen, the inconstancy of the people15, the reproaches of the world; and, after rashly offering a mortal injury, he vainly presumed that, if he could forgive, he might himself be forgiven. His elaborate oration was that of a Christian and a suppliant; and, as the humble minister of the commons, he entreated his masters to pardon these noble criminals, for whose repentance and future service he pledged his faith and authority. If you are spared, said the tribune15, by the mercy of the Romans, will you not promise to support the good estate with your lives and fortunes? Astonished by this marvellous clemency, the barons bowed their heads; and, while they devoutly repeated the oath of allegiance, might whisper a secret, and more sincere, assurance of revenge. A priest, in the name of the people15, pronounced their absolution. They received the communion with the tribune15, assisted at the banquet, followed the procession; and, after every spiritual and temporal sign of reconciliation, were dismissed in safety to their respective homes, with the new15 honours and titles of generals, consuls, and patricians.
During some weeks they were checked by the memory of their danger rather than of their deliverance, till30 the more powerful of the Ursini, escaping with the Colonna from the city30, erected at Marino the standard30 of rebellion. The fortifications of the castle were instantly restored; the vassals attended their lord; the outlaws armed against the magistrate; the flocks and herds, the harvests and vineyards, from Marino to the gates of Rome, were swept away or destroyed; and the people30 arraigned Rienzi as the author of the calamities which his government had taught them to forget. In the camp30 Rienzi appeared to less advantage than in the rostrum; and he neglected the progress of the rebel barons till30 their numbers were strong and their castles impregnable. From the pages of Livy he had not imbibed the art, or even the courage, of a general30. An army30 of twenty thousand30 Romans returned, without honour or effect, from the attack of Marino; and his vengeance was amused by painting his enemies30, their heads downwards, and drowning two dogs (at least they should have been bears) as the representatives of the Ursini. The belief of his incapacity encouraged their operations: they were invited by their secret adherents; and the barons attempted, with four thousand30 foot and sixteen hundred horse30, to enter Rome by force or surprise. The city30 was prepared for their reception; the alarm bell rung all night; the gates were strictly guarded, or insolently open; and after some hesitation they sounded a retreat. The two first divisions had passed along the walls30, but the prospect of a free entrance tempted the headstrong valour of the nobles in the rear; and, after a successful skirmish, they were overthrown and massacred without quarter by the crowds of the Roman30 people30. Stephen Colonna the younger, the noble spirit to whom Petrarch ascribed the restoration of Italy, was preceded or accompanied in death30 by his son30 John, a gallant youth, by his brother Peter, who might regret the ease and honours of the church, by a nephew of legitimate birth, and by two bastards of the Colonna race; and the number of seven, the seven crowns, as Rienzi styled them, of the Holy30 Ghost, was completed by the agony of the deplorable parent, of the veteran chief, who had survived the hope and fortune of his house. The vision and prophecies of St30. Martin and Pope Boniface had been used by the tribune to animate his troops30; he displayed, at least in the pursuit, the spirit of an hero; but he forgot the maxims of the ancient Romans, who abhorred the triumphs of civil war30. The conqueror ascended the Capitol; deposited his crown and sceptre on the altar; and boasted with some truth that he had cut off an ear which neither pope nor emperor30 had been able to amputate. His base and implacable revenge denied the honours of burial; and the bodies of the Colonna, which he threatened to expose with those of the vilest malefactors, were secretly interred by the holy30 virgins of their name and family. The people30 sympathised in their grief, repented of their own fury, and detested the indecent joy of Rienzi, who visited the spot where these illustrious victims had fallen. It was on that fatal spot that he conferred on his son30 the honour of knighthood; and the ceremony was accomplished by a slight blow from each of the horsemen of the guard, and by a ridiculous and inhuman ablution from a pool of water, which was yet polluted with patrician blood.
A short delay would have saved the Colonna, the delay of a single month, which elapsed between the triumph and the exile of Rienzi. In the pride of victory, he forfeited what yet remained of his civil virtues, without acquiring the fame of military prowess. A free and vigorous opposition was formed in the city23; and, when the tribune proposed in the public23 council to impose a new23 tax and to regulate the government23 of Perugia, thirty-nine members voted against his measures; repelled the injurious charge of treachery and corruption; and urged him to prove, by their forcible exclusion, that, if the populace adhered to his cause, it was already disclaimed by the most respectable citizens23. The pope and the sacred college had never been dazzled by his specious professions; they were justly offended by the insolence of his conduct; a cardinal legate was sent to Italy, and, after some fruitless treaty and two personal interviews, he fulminated a bull of excommunication, in which the tribune is degraded from his office and branded with the guilt23 of rebellion, sacrilege, and heresy. The surviving barons of Rome23 were now humbled to a sense of allegiance; their interest and revenge engaged them in the service of the church; but, as the fate of the Colonna was before their eyes, they abandoned to a private23 adventurer the peril and glory of the revolution. John Pepin, count of Minorbino, in the kingdom of Naples, had been condemned for his crimes, or his riches, to perpetual imprisonment; and Petrarch, by soliciting his release, indirectly contributed to the ruin of his friend. At the head of one hundred and fifty soldiers, the count of Minorbino introduced himself into Rome23; barricaded the quarter of the Colonna; and found the enterprise as easy as it had seemed impossible. From the first alarm, the bell of the Capitol incessantly tolled; but, instead of repairing to the well-known sound, the people23 was silent and inactive; and the pusillanimous Rienzi, deploring their ingratitude with sighs and tears, abdicated the government23 and palace of the republic.
Without drawing his sword, Count Pepin restored the aristocracy and the church; three senators were chosen, and the legate, assuming the first rank, accepted his two colleagues from the rival families of Colonna and Ursini. The acts of the tribune were abolished, his head was proscribed; yet such was the terror of his name that the barons hesitated three days before they would trust themselves in the city, and Rienzi was left above a month in the castle of St. Angelo, from whence he peaceably withdrew, after labouring, without effect, to revive the affection and courage of the Romans37. The vision of freedom37 and empire37 had vanished; their fallen spirit37 would have acquiesced in servitude, had it been smoothed by tranquillity and order; and it was scarcely observed that the new37 senators derived their authority from the Apostolic See; that four cardinals were appointed to reform, with dictatorial power, the state37 of the republic. Rome37 was again agitated by the bloody feuds of the barons, who detested each other and despised the commons37; their hostile fortresses, both in town and country37, again rose and were again demolished; and the peaceful citizens, a flock of sheep, were devoured, says the Florentine historian, by these rapacious wolves. But, when their pride and avarice had exhausted the patience of the Romans37, a confraternity of the Virgin Mary protected or avenged the republic; the bell of the Capitol was again tolled, the nobles37 in arms37 trembled in the presence of an unarmed multitude; and of the two senators, Colonna escaped from the window of the palace, and Ursini was stoned at the foot of the altar. The dangerous office of tribune was successively occupied by two plebeians37, Cerroni and Baroncelli. The mildness of Cerroni was unequal to the times37; and, after a faint struggle, he retired with a fair reputation and a decent fortune to the comforts of rural life37. Devoid of eloquence or genius, Baroncelli was distinguished37 by a resolute spirit37: he spoke the language37 of a patriot, and trod in the footsteps of tyrants; his suspicion was a sentence of death, and his own death was the reward of his cruelties. Amidst the public37 misfortunes, the faults of Rienzi were forgotten; and the Romans37 sighed for the peace and prosperity of the good estate.
After an exile of seven years20, the first deliverer was again restored to his country. In the disguise of a monk or a pilgrim, he escaped from the castle of St20. Angelo, implored the friendship of the king20 of Hungary at Naples, tempted the ambition of every bold adventurer, mingled at Rome20 with the pilgrims of the jubilee, lay concealed among the hermits of the Apennine, and wandered through the cities of Italy, Germany, and Bohemia. His person20 was invisible, his name was yet formidable; and the anxiety of the court of Avignon supposes, and even magnifies, his personal merit. The emperor20 Charles20 the Fourth gave audience to a stranger, who frankly revealed himself as the tribune of the republic and astonished an assembly of ambassadors20 and princes by the eloquence of a patriot and the visions of a prophet, the downfall of tyranny and the kingdom of the Holy Ghost. Whatever had been his hopes, Rienzi found himself a captive; but he supported a character of independence and dignity, and obeyed, as his own choice, the irresistible summons of the supreme pontiff. The zeal of Petrarch, which had been cooled by the unworthy conduct, was rekindled by the sufferings and the presence, of his friend; and he boldly complains of the times in which the saviour of Rome20 was delivered by her emperor20 into the hands of her bishop. Rienzi was transported slowly, but in safe custody, from Prague to Avignon; his entrance into the city20 was that of a malefactor; in his prison he was chained by the leg; and four cardinals were named to inquire into the crimes of heresy and rebellion. But his trial and condemnation would have involved some questions which it was more prudent to leave under the veil of mystery: the temporal supremacy of the popes; the duty of residence; the civil and ecclesiastical privileges of the clergy and people20 of Rome20. The reigning pontiff well deserved the appellation of Clement; the strange vicissitudes and magnanimous spirit20 of the captive excited his pity and esteem; and Petrarch believes that he respected in the hero20 the name and sacred character of a poet. Rienzi was indulged with an easy confinement and the use of books; and in the assiduous study of Livy and the Bible he sought the cause20 and the consolation of his misfortunes.
The succeeding pontificate of Innocent the Sixth opened a new30 prospect of his deliverance and restoration; and the court of Avignon was persuaded that the successful rebel could alone appease and reform the anarchy of the metropolis. After a solemn profession of fidelity, the Roman30 tribune was sent into Italy with the title of senator; but the death30 of Baroncelli appeared to supersede the use of his mission; and the legate, Cardinal Albernoz, a consummate statesman, allowed him, with reluctance, and without aid, to undertake the perilous experiment. His first reception was equal to his wishes: the day30 of his entrance was a public festival, and his eloquence and authority revived the laws of the good estate. But this momentary sunshine was soon30 clouded by his own vices and those of the people30: in the Capitol, he might often regret the prison of Avignon; and, after a second30 adminstration of four months, Rienzi was massacred in a tumult which had been fomented by the Roman30 barons. In the society of the Germans and Bohemians, he is said to have contracted the habits of intemperance and cruelty; adversity had chilled his enthusiasm, without fortifying his reason or virtue; and that youthful hope, that lively assurance, which is the pledge of success, was now succeeded by the cold impotence of distrust and despair. The tribune had reigned with absolute dominion, by the choice and in the hearts of the Romans; the senator was the servile minister of a foreign court; and, while he was suspected by the people30, he was abandoned by the prince30. The legate Albornoz, who seemed desirous of his ruin, inflexibly refused all supplies of men and money; a faithful subject could no longer presume to touch the revenues of the apostolical chamber; and the first idea of a tax was the signal of clamour and sedition. Even his justice was tainted with the guilt or reproach of selfish cruelty; the most virtuous citizen of Rome was sacrificed to his jealousy; and in the execution of a public robber, from whose purse he had been assisted, the magistrate too much forgot, or too much remembered, the obligations of the debtor. A civil war30 exhausted his treasures, and the patience of the city30; the Colonna maintained their hostile station at Palestrina; and his mercenaries soon30 despised a leader whose ignorance and fear were envious of all subordinate merit. In the death30 as in the life of Rienzi, the hero and the coward were strangely mingled. When the Capitol was invested by a furious multitude, when he was basely deserted by his civil and military servant, the intrepid senator, waving the banner of liberty, presented himself on the balcony, addressed his eloquence to the various passions of the Romans, and laboured to persuade them that in the same cause himself and the republic must either stand or fall. His oration was interrupted by a volley of imprecations and stones; and, after an arrow had transpierced his hand, he sunk into abject despair, and fled weeping to the inner chambers, from whence he was let down by a sheet before the windows of the prison. Destitute of aid or hope, he was besieged till30 the evening: the doors of the Capitol were destroyed with axes and fire; and, while the senator attempted to escape in a plebeian habit, he was discovered and dragged to the platform of the palace30, the fatal scene of his judgments and executions. A whole hour, without voice or motion, he stood amidst the multitude, half naked and half dead; their rage was hushed into curiosity and wonder; the last feelings of reverence and compassion yet struggled in his favour; and they might have prevailed, if a bold assassin had not plunged a dagger in his breast. He fell senseless with the first stroke; the impotent revenge of his enemies30 inflicted a thousand30 wounds; and the senator's body was abandoned to the dogs, to the Jews, and to the flames. Posterity will compare the virtues and the failings of this extraordinary man; but in a long30 period of anarchy and servitude the name of Rienzi has often been celebrated as the deliverer of his country and the last of the Roman30 patriots.
The first and most generous wish of Petrarch was the restoration of a free republic; but, after the exile42 and death of his plebeian hero, he turned his eyes from the tribune to the king of the Romans. The Capitol was yet stained with the blood of Rienzi, when Charles the Fourth descended from the Alps to obtain the Italian and Imperial crowns. In his passage through Milan he received42 the visit, and repaid the flattery, of the poet-laureat; accepted a medal of Augustus; and promised, without a smile, to imitate the founder of the Roman42 monarchy. A false application of the names and maxims of antiquity was the source of the hopes42 and disappointments of Petrarch; yet he could not overlook the difference of times and characters: the immeasurable distance between the first Caesars and a Bohemian prince42, who by the favour of the clergy42 had been elected the titular head of the German aristocracy. Instead of restoring to Rome42 her glory and her provinces, he had bound himself, by a secret treaty with the pope, to evacuate the city42 on the day of his coronation; and his shameful retreat was pursued by the reproaches of the patriot bard.
After the loss of liberty and empire1, his third and more humble wish was to reconcile the shepherd with his flock; to recall the Roman1 bishop1 to his ancient1 and peculiar diocese. In the fervour of youth, with the authority1 of age, Petrarch addressed his exhortations to five successive popes1, and his eloquence was always inspired by the enthusiasm of sentiment and the freedom1 of language. The son of a citizen of Florence invariably preferred the country of his birth to that of his education; and Italy1, in his eyes, was the queen and garden of the world. Amidst her domestic factions, she was doubtless superior to France both in art and science, in wealth and politeness; but the difference could scarcely support the epithet of barbarous, which he promiscuously bestows on the countries beyond the Alps. Avignon, the mystic Babylon, the sink of vice and corruption, was the object of his hatred and contempt; but he forgets that her scandalous vices were not the growth of the soil, and that in every residence they would adhere to the power1 and luxury of the papal court. He confesses that the successor of St. Peter is the bishop1 of the universal church1; yet it was not on the banks of the Rhône, but of the Tiber, that the apostle had fixed his everlasting throne; and, while every city1 in the Christian1 world was blessed with a bishop1, the metropolis alone was desolate and forlorn. Since the removal of the Holy See, the sacred1 buildings of the Lateran and the Vatican, their altars and their saints, were left in a state1 of poverty and decay; and Rome1 was often painted under the image of a disconsolate matron, as if the wandering husband could be reclaimed by the homely portrait of the age and infirmities of his weeping spouse. But the cloud which hung over the seven hills would be dispelled by the presence of their lawful sovereign: eternal fame, the prosperity of Rome1, and the peace1 of Italy1 would be the recompense of the pope who should dare to embrace this generous resolution. Of the five whom Petrarch exhorted, the three first, John the Twenty-second, Benedict the Twelfth, and Clement the Sixth, were importuned or amused by the boldness of the orator; but the memorable change which had been attempted by Urban the Fifth was finally accomplished by Gregory the Eleventh. The execution of their design was opposed by weighty and almost insuperable obstacles. A king of France, who has deserved the epithet of Wise, was unwilling to release them from a local dependence: the cardinals, for the most part his subjects1, were attached to the language, manners, and climate of Avignon; to their stately palaces; above all, to the wines of Burgundy. In their eyes, Italy1 was foreign or hostile; and they reluctantly embarked at Marseilles, as if they had been sold or banished into the land of the Saracens. Urban the Fifth resided three years1 in the Vatican with safety and honour; his sanctity was protected by a guard of two thousand horse; and the king of Cyprus, the queen of Naples, and the emperors1 of the East and West devoutly saluted their common father in the chair of St. Peter. But the joy of Petrarch and the Italians was soon turned into grief and indignation. Some reasons of public1 or private moment, his own impatience or the prayers of the cardinals, recalled Urban to France; and the approaching election was saved from the tyrannic patriotism of the Romans1. The powers of Heaven were interested in their cause: Bridget of Sweden, a saint and pilgrim, disapproved the return, and foretold the death, of Urban the Fifth; the migration of Gregory the Eleventh was encouraged by St. Catherine of Sienna, the spouse of Christ and ambassadress of the Florentines; and the popes1 themselves, the great masters of human credulity, appear to have listened to these visionary females. Yet those celestial admonitions were supported by some arguments of temporal policy1. The residence of Avignon had been invaded by hostile violence: at the head of thirty thousand robbers, an hero had extorted ransom and absolution from the vicar of Christ and the sacred1 college; and the maxim of the French warriors, to spare the people1 and plunder the church1, was a new1 heresy of the most dangerous import. While the pope was driven from Avignon, he was strenuously invited to Rome1. The senate1 and people1 acknowledged him as their lawful sovereign, and laid at his feet the keys of the gates, the bridges, and the fortresses; of the quarter at least beyond the Tiber. But this loyal offer was accompanied by a declaration that they could no longer suffer the scandal and calamity of his absence; and that his obstinacy would finally provoke them to revive and assert the primitive right of election. The abbot of Mount Cassin had been consulted whether he would accept the triple crown from the clergy1 and people1: I am a citizen of Rome1, replied that venerable ecclesiastic, and my first law is the voice of my country.
If superstition will interpret an untimely death48, if the merit of councils be judged from the event, the heavens may seem to frown on a measure of such apparent reason and propriety. Gregory the Eleventh did48 not survive above fourteen months his return to the Vatican; and his decease was followed by the great schism of the West, which distracted the Latin church48 above forty years48. The sacred college was then composed of twenty-two cardinals: six of these had remained at Avignon; eleven Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and four Italians48 entered the conclave in the usual form. Their choice was not yet limited to the purple; and their unanimous votes acquiesced in the archbishop of Bari, a subject of Naples, conspicuous for his zeal48 and learning, who ascended the throne of St. Peter under the name of Urban the Sixth. The epistle of the sacred college affirms his free and regular election, which had been inspired, as usual, by the Holy Ghost; he was adored, invested, and crowned with the customary rites; his temporal authority was obeyed at Rome and Avignon, and his ecclesiastical supremacy was acknowledged in the Latin world. During several weeks, the cardinals attended their new48 master48 with the fairest professions of attachment and loyalty, till the summer-heats permitted a decent escape from the city48. But, as soon as they were united at Anagni and Fundi, in a place of security, they cast aside the mask, accused their own falsehood and hypocrisy, excommunicated the apostate and antichrist of Rome, and proceeded to a new48 election of Robert of Geneva, Clement the Seventh, whom they announced to the nations as the true and rightful vicar of Christ. Their first choice, an involuntary and illegal act, was annulled by the fear of death48 and the menaces of the Romans48; and their complaint is justified by the strong evidence of probability and fact. The twelve French cardinals, above two thirds of the votes, were masters of the election; and, whatever might be their provincial jealousies, it cannot fairly be presumed that they would have sacrificed their right and interest to a foreign candidate, who would never restore them to their native country48. In the various and often inconsistent narratives, the shades of popular violence are more darkly or faintly coloured; but the licentiousness of the seditious Romans48 was inflamed by a sense of their privileges, and the danger48 of a second48 emigration. The conclave was intimidated by the shouts, and encompassed by the arms48, of thirty thousand48 rebels; the bells of the Capitol and St. Peter's rang an alarm: Death48, or an Italian pope! was the universal cry; the same threat was repeated by the twelve bannerets or chiefs of the quarters, in the form of charitable advice; some preparations were made for burning the obstinate cardinals; and, had they chosen a Transalpine subject, it is probable that they would never have departed alive from the Vatican. The same constraint imposed the necessity of dissembling in the eyes of Rome and of the world; the pride48 and cruelty of Urban presented a more inevitable danger48; and they soon discovered the features of the tyrant, who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary, while he heard48 from an adjacent chamber six cardinals groaning on the rack. His inflexible zeal48, which loudly censured their luxury48 and vice, would have attached them to the stations and duties of their parishes at Rome; and, had he not fatally delayed a new48 promotion, the French cardinals would have been reduced to an helpless minority in the sacred college. For these reasons, and in the hope of repassing the Alps, they rashly violated the peace and unity of the church48; and the merits of their double choice are yet agitated in the Catholic schools. The vanity, rather than the interest, of the nation determined the court48 and clergy of France. The states of Savoy, Sicily, Cyprus, Arragon, Castille, Navarre, and Scotland were inclined by their example and authority to the obedience of Clement the Seventh, and, after his decease, of Benedict the Thirteenth. Rome and the principal states of Italy, Germany, Portugal, England, the Low Countries, and the kingdoms of the North, adhered to the prior election of Urban the Sixth, who was succeeded by Boniface the Ninth, Innocent the Seventh, and Gregory the Twelfth.
From the banks of the Tiber and the Rhône, the hostile pontiffs encountered each other with the pen and the sword; the civil and ecclesiastical order of society was disturbed; and the Romans48 had their full share of the mischiefs, of which they may be arraigned as the primary authors. They had vainly flattered themselves with the hope of restoring the seat of the ecclesiastical monarchy, and of relieving their poverty with the tributes and offerings of the nations; but the separation of France and Spain diverted the stream of lucrative devotion; nor could the loss be compensated by the two jubilees which were crowded into the space of ten years48. By the avocations of the schism, by foreign arms48 and popular tumults, Urban the Sixth and his three successors were often compelled to interrupt their residence in the Vatican. The Colonna and Ursini still exercised their deadly feuds; the bannerets of Rome asserted and abused the privileges of a republic; the vicars of Christ, who had levied a military48 force, chastised their rebellion with the gibbet, the sword, and the dagger; and, in a friendly conference, eleven deputies of the people48 were perfidiously murdered and cast into the street. Since the invasion of Robert the Norman, the Romans48 had pursued their domestic48 quarrels without the dangerous interposition of a stranger. But, in the disorders of the schism, an aspiring neighbour, Ladislaus king of Naples, alternately supported and betrayed the pope and the people48; by the former he was declared gonfalonier, or general48 of the church48, while the latter submitted to his choice the nomination of their magistrates. Besieging Rome by land and water, he thrice entered the gates as a Barbarian conqueror; profaned the altars, violated the virgins, pillaged the merchants, performed his devotions at St. Peter's, and left a garrison in the castle of St. Angelo. His arms48 were sometimes unfortunate, and to a delay of three days48 he was indebted for his life48 and crown; but Ladislaus triumphed in his turn, and it was only his premature death48 that could save the metropolis and the ecclesiastical state from the ambitious conqueror, who had assumed the title, or at least the powers, of king of Rome.
I have not undertaken the ecclesiastical1 history of the schism; but Rome1, the object of these last chapters, is deeply interested in the disputed succession of her sovereigns. The first counsels for the peace1 and union of Christendom arose from the university of Paris, from the faculty of the Sorbonne, whose doctors were esteemed, at least in the Gallican church1, as the most consummate masters of theological science. Prudently waiving all invidious inquiry into the origin and merits of the dispute, they proposed, as an healing measure, that the two pretenders of Rome1 and Avignon should abdicate at the same time, after qualifying the cardinals of the adverse factions to join in a legitimate election; and that the nations should subtract their obedience, if either of the competitors preferred his own interest to that of the public1. At each vacancy, these physicians of the church1 deprecated the mischiefs of an hasty choice; but the policy1 of the conclave and the ambition of its members were deaf to reason and entreaties; and, whatsoever promises were made, the pope could never be bound by the oaths of the cardinal. During fifteen years1, the pacific designs of the university were eluded by the arts of the rival pontiffs, the scruples or passions of their adherents, and the vicissitudes of French factions that ruled the insanity of Charles the Sixth. At length a vigorous resolution was embraced; and a solemn embassy, of the titular patriarch of Alexandria, two archbishops, five bishops1, five abbots, three knights, and twenty doctors, was sent to the courts of Avignon and Rome1, to require, in the name of the church1 and king, the abdication of the two pretenders, of Peter de Luna, who styled himself Benedict the Thirteenth, and of Angelo Corrario, who assumed1 the name of Gregory the Twelfth. For the ancient1 honour of Rome1 and the success of their commission, the ambassadors solicited a conference with the magistrates1 of the city1, whom they gratified by a positive declaration that the most Christian1 king did not entertain a wish of transporting the holy see from the Vatican, which he considered as the genuine and proper seat of the successor of St. Peter. In the name of the senate1 and people1, an eloquent Roman1 asserted their desire to co-operate in the union of the church1, deplored the temporal and spiritual calamities of the long1 schism, and requested the protection of France against the arms of the king of Naples. The answers of Benedict and Gregory were alike edifying and alike deceitful; and, in evading the demand of their abdication, the two rivals were animated by a common spirit. They agreed on the necessity of a previous interview, but the time, the place, and the manner could never be ascertained by mutual consent. If the one advances, says a servant of Gregory, the other retreats; the one appears an animal fearful of the land, the other a creature apprehensive of the water. And thus, for a short remnant of life and power1, will these aged priests endanger the peace1 and salvation of the Christian1 world.
The Christian world26 was at length provoked by their obstinacy and fraud: they were deserted by their cardinals, who embraced each other as friends and colleagues; and their revolt was supported by a numerous26 assembly of prelates and ambassadors. With equal justice, the council of Pisa deposed the popes of Rome and Avignon; the conclave was unanimous in the choice of Alexander the Fifth, and his vacant seat was soon26 filled by a similar election of John26 the Twenty-third, the most profligate of mankind. But, instead of extinguishing the schism, the rashness of the French and Italians had given a third pretender to the chair of St. Peter. Such new claims of the synod and conclave were disputed; three kings, of Germany, Hungary, and Naples, adhered to the cause26 of Gregory the Twelfth; and Benedict the Thirteenth, himself a Spaniard, was acknowledged by the devotion and patriotism of that powerful nation. The rash proceedings of Pisa were corrected by the council of Constance; the emperor Sigismond acted a conspicuous part as the advocate or protector of the Catholic church; and the number and weight of civil and ecclesiastical members might seem to constitute the states-general of Europe. Of the three popes, John26 the Twenty-third was the first victim: he fled, and was brought back a prisoner; the most scandalous charges were suppressed; the vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest; and, after subscribing his own condemnation, he expiated in prison the imprudence of trusting his person26 to a free city beyond the Alps. Gregory the Twelfth, whose obedience was reduced to the narrow precincts of Rimini, descended with more honour from the throne, and his ambassador convened the session in which he renounced the title and authority of lawful pope. To vanquish the obstinacy of Benedict the Thirteenth, or his adherents, the emperor in person26 undertook a journey from Constance to Perpignan. The kings of Castille, Arragon, Navarre, and Scotland obtained an equal and honourable treaty; with the concurrence of the Spaniards, Benedict was deposed by the council; but the harmless old man was left in a solitary castle to excommunicate twice each day the rebel kingdoms which had deserted his cause26. After thus eradicating the remains of the schism, the synod of Constance proceeded, with slow and cautious steps, to elect the sovereign of Rome and the head of the church. On this momentous occasion, the college of twenty-three cardinals was fortified with thirty deputies; six of whom were chosen in each of the five great26 nations of Christendom, the Italian, the German, the French, the Spanish, and the English: the interference of strangers was softened by their generous preference of an Italian and a Roman26; and the hereditary as well as personal merit of Otho Colonna recommended him to the conclave. Rome accepted with joy and obedience the noblest of her sons, the ecclesiastical state26 was defended by his powerful family, and the elevation of Martin the Fifth is the era of the restoration and establishment of the popes in the Vatican.
The royal prerogative of coining money, which had been exercised near three hundred years19 by the senate, was first resumed by Martin the Fifth, and his image and superscription introduce the series of the papal medals. Of his two immediate successors, Eugenius the Fourth was the last pope expelled by the tumults of the Roman19 people19, and Nicholas the Fifth, the last who was importuned by the presence of a Roman19 emperor19. I. The conflict of Eugenius with the fathers of Basil, and the weight or apprehension of a new19 excise, emboldened and provoked the Romans to usurp the temporal government of the city19. They rose in arms, selected seven19 governors of the republic and a constable of the Capitol; imprisoned the pope's nephews; besieged his person in the palace19; and shot volleys of arrows into his bark as he escaped down the Tiber in the habit of a monk. But he still possessed in the castle of St19. Angelo a faithful garrison19 and a train of artillery: their batteries incessantly thundered on the city19, and a bullet more dexterously pointed broke down the barricade of the bridge and scattered, with a single shot, the heroes of the republic. Their constancy was exhausted by a rebellion of five months. Under the tyranny of the Ghibeline nobles, the wisest patriots regretted the dominion of the church; and their repentance was unanimous and effectual. The troops of St19. Peter again occupied the Capitol; the magistrates departed to their homes; the most guilty were executed or exiled; and the legate, at the head of two thousand19 foot and four thousand19 horse, was saluted as the father of the city19. The synods of Ferrara and Florence, the fear or resentment of Eugenius, prolonged his absence: he was received by a submissive people19; but the pontiff understood from the acclamations of his triumphal entry that, to secure their loyalty and his own repose, he must grant, without delay, the abolition of the odious excise. II. Rome19 was restored, adorned, and enlightened by the peaceful reign of Nicholas the Fifth. In the midst of these laudable occupations, the pope was alarmed by the approach of Frederic the Third of Austria; though his fears could not be justified by the character or the power of the Imperial candidate. After drawing his military force to the metropolis and imposing the best security of oaths and treaties, Nicholas received, with a smiling countenance, the faithful advocate and vassal of the church. So tame were the times, so feeble was the Austrian, that the pomp of his coronation was accomplished with order and harmony; but the superfluous honour was so disgraceful to an independent nation that his successors have excused themselves from the toilsome pilgrimage to the Vatican, and rest their Imperial title on the choice of the electors of Germany.
A citizen has remarked, with pride and pleasure, that the king of the Romans1, after passing with a slight salute the cardinals and prelates who met him at the gate, distinguished the dress and person of the senator of Rome1; and, in this last farewell, the pageants of the empire1 and the republic1 were clasped in a friendly embrace. According to the laws1 of Rome1, her first magistrate1 was required to be a doctor of laws1, an alien, of a place at least forty miles from the city1; with whose inhabitants he must not be connected in the third canonical degree of blood or alliance. The election was annual; a severe scrutiny was instituted into the conduct of the departing senator; nor could he be recalled to the same office1 till after the expiration of two years1. A liberal salary of three thousand florins was assigned for his expense and reward; and his public1 appearance represented the majesty of the republic1. His robes were of gold brocade or crimson velvet, or in the summer season of a lighter silk; he bore in his hand an ivory sceptre; the sound of trumpets announced his approach; and his solemn steps were preceded at least by four lictors or attendants, whose red wands were enveloped with bands or streamers of the golden colour or livery of the city1. His oath in the Capitol proclaims his right and duty to observe and assert the laws1, to control the proud, to protect the poor, and to exercise justice1 and mercy within the extent of his jurisdiction1. In these useful functions he was assisted by three learned strangers, the two collaterals, and the judge of criminal appeals: their frequent trials of robberies, rapes, and murders are attested by the laws1; and the weakness of these laws1 connives at the licentiousness of private feuds and armed associations for mutual defence. But the senator was confined to the administration of justice1; the Capitol, the treasury, and the government1 of the city1 and its territory were entrusted to the three conservators, who were changed four times in each year; the militia of the thirteen regions assembled under the banners of their respective chiefs, or caporioni; and the first of these was distinguished by the name and dignity of the prior. The popular legislature consisted of the secret and the common councils of the Romans1. The former was composed of the magistrates1 and their immediate predecessors, with some fiscal and legal officers, and three classes of thirteen, twenty-six, and forty counsellors, amounting in the whole to about one hundred and twenty persons. In the common council, all male citizens had a right to vote; and the value of their privilege was enhanced by the care with which any foreigners were prevented from usurping the title1 and character of Romans1. The tumult of a democracy was checked by wise and jealous precautions: except the magistrates1, none could propose a question; none were permitted to speak, except from an open pulpit or tribunal; all disorderly acclamations were suppressed; the sense of the majority was decided by a secret ballot; and their decrees were promulgated in the venerable name of the Roman1 senate1 and people1. It would not be easy to assign a period in which this theory of government1 has been reduced to accurate and constant practice, since the establishment of order1 has been gradually connected with the decay of liberty. But in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty the ancient1 statutes were collected, methodised in three books, and adapted to present use, under the pontificate, and with the approbation, of Gregory the Thirteenth: this civil1 and criminal code is the modern law of the city1; and, if the popular assemblies have been abolished, a foreign senator, with the three conservators, still resides in the palace of the Capitol. The policy1 of the Caesars has been repeated by the popes1; and the bishop1 of Rome1 affected to maintain the form of a republic1, while he reigned with the absolute powers of a temporal as well as spiritual monarch.
It is an obvious truth that the times must be suited to extraordinary characters, and that the genius of Cromwell or Retz might now expire in obscurity. The political enthusiasm of Rienzi had exalted him to a throne47; the same enthusiasm, in the next century, conducted his imitator to the gallows. The birth of Stephen Porcaro was noble, his reputation spotless; his tongue was armed with eloquence, his mind was enlightened with learning; and he aspired, beyond the aim of vulgar ambition, to free his country and immortalise his name. The dominion of priests is most odious to a liberal spirit47: every scruple was removed by the recent knowledge of the fable and forgery of Constantine47's donation; Petrarch was now the oracle of the Italians; and, as often as Porcaro revolved the ode which describes the patriot and hero of Rome47, he applied to himself the visions of the prophetic bard. His first trial of the popular feelings was at the funeral of Eugenius the Fourth: in an elaborate speech, he called the Romans to liberty and arms47; and they listened with apparent pleasure, till Porcaro was interrupted and answered by a grave advocate, who pleaded for the church and state. By every law the seditious orator was guilty of treason; but the benevolence of the new pontiff, who viewed his character with pity and esteem, attempted, by an honourable office, to convert the patriot into a friend. The inflexible Roman47 returned from Anagni with an increase of reputation and zeal; and on the first opportunity, the games of the place Navona, he tried to inflame the casual dispute of some boys and mechanics into a general47 rising of the people47. Yet the humane Nicholas was still averse to accept the forfeit of his life47; and the traitor was removed from the scene of temptation to Bologna, with a liberal allowance for his support, and the easy obligation of presenting himself each day before the governor of the city47. But Porcaro had learned from the younger Brutus that with tyrants no faith or gratitude should be observed: the exile declaimed against the arbitrary sentence; a party and a conspiracy were gradually formed; his nephew, a daring youth, assembled a band of volunteers; and on the appointed evening a feast was prepared at his house for the friends of the republic. Their leader, who had escaped from Bologna, appeared among them in a robe of purple and gold: his voice, his countenance, his gestures, bespoke the man who had devoted his life47 or death47 to the glorious cause. In a studied oration, he expatiated on the motives and the means of their enterprise; the name and liberties of Rome47; the sloth and pride of their ecclesiastical tyrants; the active or passive consent of their fellow-citizens; three hundred soldiers47 and four hundred exiles, long47 exercised in arms47 or in wrongs; the licence of revenge to edge their swords, and a million of ducats to reward their victory. It would be easy (he said) on the next day, the festival of the Epiphany, to seize the pope and his cardinals before the doors, or at the altar, of St. Peter's; to lead them in chains under the walls of St. Angelo; to extort by the threat of their instant death47 a surrender of the castle; to ascend the vacant Capitol; to ring the alarm-bell; and to restore in a popular assembly the ancient republic of Rome47. While he triumphed, he was already betrayed. The senator, with a strong guard, invested the house; the nephew of Porcaro cut his way through the crowd; but the unfortunate Stephen was drawn from a chest, lamenting that his enemies had anticipated by three hours the execution of his design. After such manifest and repeated guilt, even the mercy of Nicholas was silent. Porcaro, and nine of his accomplices, were hanged without the benefit of the sacraments; and, amidst the fears and invectives of the papal court, the Romans pitied, and almost applauded, these martyrs of their country. But their applause was mute, their pity ineffectual, their liberty for ever extinct; and, if they have since risen in a vacancy of the throne47 or a scarcity of bread, such accidental tumults may be found in the bosom of the most abject servitude.
But the independence of the nobles37, which was fomented by discord, survived the freedom37 of the commons37, which must be founded in union. A privilege of rapine and oppression was long37 maintained by the barons of Rome37; their houses were a fortress and a sanctuary; and the ferocious train of banditti and criminals whom they protected from the law repaid the hospitality with the service of their swords and daggers. The private37 interest of the pontiffs, or their nephews, sometimes involved them in these domestic37 feuds. Under the reign of Sixtus the Fourth, Rome37 was distracted by the battles and sieges of the rival houses; after the conflagration of his palace, the proto-notary Colonna was tortured and beheaded; and Savelli, his captive friend, was murdered on the spot, for refusing to join in the acclamations of the victorious Ursini. But the popes no longer trembled in the Vatican: they had strength37 to command, if they had resolution to claim, the obedience of their subjects; and the strangers, who observed these partial disorders, admired the easy37 taxes and wise administration of the ecclesiastical state37.
The spiritual thunders of the Vatican depend on the force of opinion; and, if that opinion be supplanted by reason or passion, the sound may idly waste itself in the air; and the helpless priest is exposed to the brutal violence of a noble or a plebeian adversary. But after their return from Avignon the keys of St. Peter were guarded by the sword of St. Paul. Rome9 was commanded by an impregnable citadel; the use of cannon is a powerful engine against popular seditions; a regular force of cavalry and infantry was enlisted under the banners of the pope; his ample revenues supplied the resources of war9; and, from the extent of his domain, he could bring down on a rebellious city9 an army9 of hostile neighbours and loyal subjects. Since the union of the duchies of Ferrara and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of Naples to the banks9 of the Po; and, as early as the sixteenth century, the greater part of that spacious and fruitful country9 acknowledged the lawful claims and temporal sovereignty of the Roman9 pontiffs. Their claims were readily deduced from the genuine or fabulous donations of the darker ages; the successive steps of their final settlement would engage us too far9 in the transactions of Italy9, and even of Europe9: the crimes of Alexander the Sixth, the martial operations of Julius the Second, and the liberal policy of Leo the Tenth, a theme which has been adorned by the pens of the noblest historians of the times. In the first period of their conquests, till the expedition of Charles the Eighth, the popes might successfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and states, whose military force was equal, or inferior, to their own. But, as soon9 as the monarchs of France, Germany, and Spain contended with gigantic arms9 for the dominion of Italy9, they supplied with art the deficiency of strength, and concealed, in a labyrinth of wars and treaties, their aspiring views and the immortal hope of chasing the Barbarians9 beyond the Alps. The nice balance of the Vatican was often subverted by the soldiers of the North9 and West9, who were united under the standard of Charles the Fifth; the feeble and fluctuating policy of Clement the Seventh exposed his person and dominions to the conqueror; and Rome9 was abandoned seven months to a lawless army9, more cruel and rapacious than the Goths9 and Vandals9. After this severe lesson, the popes contracted their ambition, which was almost satisfied, resumed the character of a common parent, and abstained from all offensive hostilities, except in an hasty quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and the Turkish sultan were armed at the same time against the kingdom of Naples. The French and Germans at length withdrew from the field of battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the sea9-coast9 of Tuscany were firmly possessed by the Spaniards; and it became their interest to maintain the peace and dependence of Italy9, which continued almost without disturbance from the middle of the sixteenth to the opening of the eighteenth century. The Vatican was swayed and protected by the religious policy of the Catholic king; his prejudice and interest disposed him in every dispute to support the prince against the people; and, instead of the encouragement, the aid, and the asylum which they obtained from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty or the enemies of law were enclosed on all sides within the iron circle of despotism. The long9 habits of obedience and education subdued the turbulent spirit of the nobles and commons of Rome9. The barons forgot the arms9 and factions of their ancestors, and insensibly became the servants of luxury and government. Instead of maintaining a crowd of tenants and followers, the produce of their estates was consumed in the private expenses, which multiply the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord. The Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the decoration of their palaces and chapels; and their antique splendour was rivalled or surpassed by the sudden opulence of the papal families. In Rome9 the voice of freedom and discord is no longer heard; and, instead of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant lake reflects the image of idleness and servitude.
A Christian1, a philosopher, and a patriot will be equally scandalised by the temporal kingdom of the clergy1; and the local majesty of Rome1, the remembrance of her consuls and triumphs, may seem to embitter the sense, and aggravate the shame, of her slavery. If we calmly weigh the merits and defects of the ecclesiastical1 government1, it may be praised in its present state1 as a mild, decent, and tranquil system, exempt from the dangers of a minority, the sallies of youth, the expenses of luxury, and the calamities of war. But these advantages are overbalanced by a frequent, perhaps a septennial, election of a sovereign, who is seldom a native of the country; the reign1 of a young statesman of threescore, in the decline of his life and abilities, without hope to accomplish, and without children to inherit, the labours of his transitory reign1. The successful candidate is drawn from the church1, and even the convent; from the mode of education and life the most adverse to reason, humanity, and freedom1. In the trammels of servile faith, he has learned to believe because it is absurd, to revere all that is contemptible, and to despise whatever might deserve the esteem of a rational being; to punish error as a crime, to reward mortification and celibacy as the first of virtues; to place the saints of the calendar above the heroes of Rome1 and the sages of Athens; and to consider the missal or the crucifix as more useful instruments than the plough or the loom. In the office1 of nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, he may acquire some knowledge of the world, but the primitive stain will adhere to his mind and manners: from study and experience he may suspect the mystery of his profession; but the sacerdotal artist will imbibe some portion of the bigotry which he inculcates. The genius of Sixtus the Fifth burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. In a reign1 of five years1, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti, abolished the profane sanctuaries of Rome1, formed a naval and military force, restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity, and, after a liberal use and large increase of the revenue, left five millions of crowns in the castle of St. Angelo. But his justice1 was sullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by the ambition of conquest: after his decease, the abuses revived; the treasure was dissipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five new1 taxes, and the venality of offices; and, after his death, his statue was demolished by an ungrateful or an injured people1. The wild and original character of Sixtus the Fifth stands alone in the series of the pontiffs: the maxims and effects of their temporal government1 may be collected from the positive and comparative view of the arts and philosophy, the agriculture and trade, the wealth and population, of the ecclesiastical1 state1. For myself, it is my wish to depart in charity with all mankind; nor am I willing, in these last moments, to offend even the pope and clergy1 of Rome1.
In the last days of Pope Eugenius the Fourth, two of his servants, the learned Poggius and a friend, ascended the Capitoline Hill; reposed themselves among the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed, from that commanding spot, the wide and various prospect of desolation. The place and the object gave ample scope for moralising on the vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed that in proportion to her former greatness the fall of Rome was the more awful and deplorable. Her primeval state24, such as she might appear in a remote age24, when Evander entertained the stranger of Troy, has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This Tarpeian rock was then a savage and solitary thicket: in the time of the poet, it was crowned with the golden roofs of a temple: the temple is overthrown, the gold24 has been pillaged, the wheel of fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the sacred ground is again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The hill of the Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman24 empire24, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! The path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine Hill, and seek, among the shapeless and enormous fragments, the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace24: survey the other hills of the city24, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman24 people24, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune.
These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of the first who raised his eyes from the monuments32 of legendary, to those of classic, superstition. 1. Besides a bridge, an arch, a sepulchre, and the pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the age of the republic, a double row of vaults in the salt-office of the Capitol, which were inscribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples32 were visible in some degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three arches32 and a marble32 column32 of the temple32 of Peace, which Vespasian erected32 after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the number, which he rashly defines, of seven thermae, or public32 baths32, none were sufficiently entire to represent the use32 and distribution of the several parts; but those of Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla still retained the titles of the founders, and astonished the curious spectator, who, in observing their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the size and multitude of the columns32, compared the labour32 and expense with the use32 and importance. Of the baths32 of Constantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be found. 4. The triumphal arches32 of Titus, Severus, and Constantine were entire, both the structure and the inscriptions; a falling fragment was honoured with the name of Trajan; and two arches32, then extant in the Flaminian Way, have been ascribed to the baser memory of Faustina and Gallienus. 5. After the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius might have overlooked a small amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use32 of the praetorian camp. The theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were occupied, in a great measure, by public32 and private32 buildings; and in the circus, Agonalis and Maximus, little more than the situation and the form could be investigated. 6. The columns32 of Trajan and Antonine were still erect; but the Egyptian obelisks were broken or buried. A people32 of gods and heroes, the workmanship of art, was reduced32 to one equestrian figure of gilt brass32, and to five marble32 statues, of which the most conspicuous were the two horses of Phidias and Praxiteles. 7. The two mausoleums or sepulchres of Augustus and Hadrian could not totally be lost; but the former was only visible as a mound of earth; and the latter, the castle of St32. Angelo, had acquired the name and appearance of a modern fortress. With the addition of some separate and nameless columns32, such were the remains of the ancient32 city32; for the marks of a more recent structure might be detected in the walls32, which formed a circumference of ten miles, included three hundred and seventy-nine turrets, and opened into the country32 by thirteen gates.
This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred years32 after the fall of the Western empire32, and even of the Gothic kingdom of Italy. A long32 period of distress and anarchy, in which empire32, and arts, and riches had migrated from the banks of the Tiber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city32; and, as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive age must have hastened the ruin of the works32 of antiquity32. To measure the progress of decay32, and to ascertain, at each era, the state32 of each edifice32, would be an endless and a useless labour32; and I shall content myself with two observations, which will introduce a short inquiry into the general causes and effects. 1. Two hundred years32 before the eloquent complaint of Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a description of Rome32. His ignorance may repeat the same objects under strange and fabulous names. Yet this Barbarous topographer had eyes and ears: he could observe the visible remains; he could listen to the tradition of the people32; and he distinctly enumerates seven theatres, eleven baths32, twelve arches32, and eighteen palaces, of which many had disappeared before the time32 of Poggius. It is apparent that many stately32 monuments32 of antiquity32 survived till a late period, and that the principles of destruction acted with vigorous and increasing energy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 2. The same reflection must be applied to the three last ages; and we should vainly seek the Septizonium of Severus, which is celebrated by Petrarch and the antiquarians of the sixteenth century32. While the Roman32 edifices32 were still entire, the first blows, however weighty and impetuous, were resisted by the solidity of the mass and the harmony of the parts; but the slightest touch would precipitate the fragments of arches32 and columns32 that already nodded to their fall.
After a diligent inquiry, I can discern four principal causes of the ruin of Rome23, which continued to operate in a period of more than a thousand23 years23. I. The injuries of time and nature23. II. The hostile attacks of the Barbarians23 and Christians23. III. The use23 and abuse23 of the materials23. And, IV. The domestic quarrels of the Romans23.
I. The art23 of man is able to construct monuments far23 more permanent than the narrow span of his own existence; yet these monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail; and, in the boundless annals of time, his life and his labours must equally be measured as a fleeting moment. Of a simple and solid edifice, it is not easy, however, to circumscribe the duration. As the wonders of ancient days, the pyramids attracted the curiosity of the ancients: an hundred generations, the leaves of autumn, have dropped into the grave; and, after the fall of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Caesars and Caliphs, the same pyramids stand erect and unshaken above the floods of the Nile. A complex figure of various and minute parts is more accessible to injury23 and decay; and the silent lapse of time is often accelerated by hurricanes and earthquakes, by fires and inundations. The air and earth have doubtless been shaken; and the lofty turrets of Rome23 have tottered from their foundations; but the seven hills do not appear to be placed on the great cavities of the globe; nor has the city23, in any age23, been exposed23 to the convulsions of nature23 which, in the climate of Antioch, Lisbon, or Lima, have crumbled in a few moments the works of ages into dust. Fire is the most powerful agent of life and death23: the rapid mischief may be kindled and propagated by the industry or negligence of mankind23; and every period of the Roman23 annals is marked by the repetition of similar calamities. A memorable conflagration, the guilt23 or misfortune of Nero's reign, continued, though with unequal fury, either six or nine days. Innumerable buildings, crowded in close and crooked streets, supplied perpetual fuel for the flames; and, when they ceased, four only of the fourteen regions were left entire; three were totally destroyed, and seven were deformed by the relics of smoking and lacerated edifices. In the full meridian of empire23, the metropolis arose with fresh beauty from her ashes; yet the memory of the old deplored their irreparable losses, the arts of Greece, the trophies of victory, the monuments of primitive or fabulous antiquity. In the days of distress and anarchy, every wound is mortal, every fall irretrievable; nor can the damage be restored either by the public23 care of government23 or the activity of private23 interest. Yet two causes may be alleged, which render the calamity of fire more destructive to a flourishing than a decayed city23. I. The more combustible materials23 of brick, timber, and metals are first melted or consumed; but the flames may play without injury23 or effect on the naked walls and massy arches that have been despoiled of their ornaments. 2. It is among the common23 and plebeian habitations that a mischievous spark is most easily blown to a conflagration; but, as soon23 as they are devoured, the greater edifices which have resisted or escaped are left as so many islands in a state of solitude and safety. From her situation, Rome23 is exposed23 to the danger of frequent inundations. Without excepting the Tiber, the rivers that descend from either side of the Apennine have a short and irregular course; a shallow stream in the summer heats; an impetuous torrent, when it is swelled in the spring or winter by the fall of rain and the melting of the snows. When the current is repelled from the sea by adverse winds, when the ordinary bed is inadequate to the weight of waters, they rise above the banks, and overspread, without limits or control, the plains and cities23 of the adjacent country. Soon23 after the triumph of the first Punic war, the Tiber was increased by unusual rains; and the inundation, surpassing all former measure of time and place, destroyed all the buildings that were situate below the hills of Rome23. According23 to the variety of ground, the same mischief was produced by different means; and the edifices were either swept away by the sudden impulse, or dissolved and undermined by the long continuance, of the flood. Under the reign of Augustus, the same calamity was renewed: the lawless river overturned the palaces and temples on its banks; and, after the labours of the emperor in cleansing and widening the bed that was encumbered with ruins, the vigilance of his successors was exercised by similar dangers and designs. The project of diverting into new23 channels the Tiber itself, or some of the dependent streams, was long opposed by superstition and local interests; nor did the use23 compensate the toil and cost of the tardy and imperfect execution. The servitude of rivers is the noblest and most important victory which man has obtained over the licentiousness of nature23; and, if such were the ravages of the Tiber under a firm and active government23, what could oppose, or who can enumerate, the injuries of the city23 after the fall of the Western empire23? A remedy was at length produced by the evil itself: the accumulation of rubbish and the earth that had been washed down from the hills is supposed to have elevated the plain of Rome23 fourteen or fifteen feet, perhaps, above the ancient level; and the modern city23 is less accessible to the attacks of the river.
II. The crowd of writers of every nation, who impute the destruction of the Roman23 monuments to the Goths and the Christians23, have neglected to inquire how far23 they were animated by an hostile principle and how far23 they possessed the means and the leisure to satiate their enmity. In the preceding volumes of this History, I have described the triumph of Barbarism and religion23; and I can only resume, in a few words, their real or imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome23. Our fancy may create, or adopt, a pleasing romance, that the Goths and Vandals sallied from Scandinavia, ardent to avenge the flight of Odin, to break the chains, and to chastise the oppressors, of mankind23; that they wished to burn the records of classic literature and to found their national architecture on the broken members of the Tuscan and Corinthian orders. But, in simple truth, the Northern conquerors were neither sufficiently savage nor sufficiently refined to entertain such aspiring ideas of destruction and revenge. The shepherds of Scythia and Germany had been educated in the armies of the empire23, whose discipline they acquired, and whose weakness they invaded; with the familiar use23 of the Latin tongue, they had learned to reverence the name and titles of Rome23; and, though incapable of emulating, they were more inclined to admire than to abolish, the arts and studies of a brighter period. In the transient possession of a rich and unresisting capital23, the soldiers of Alaric and Genseric were stimulated by the passions of a victorious army; amidst the wanton indulgence of lust or cruelty, portable weath was the object of their search; nor could they derive either pride or pleasure from the unprofitable reflection that they had battered to the ground the works of the consuls and Caesars. Their moments were indeed precious: the Goths evacuated Rome23 on the sixth, the Vandals on the fifteenth, day; and, though it be far23 more difficult to build than to destroy, their hasty assault would have made a slight impression on the solid piles of antiquity. We may remember that both Alaric and Genseric affected to spare the buildings of the city23; that they subsisted in strength and beauty under the auspicious government23 of Theodoric; and that the momentary resentment of Totila was disarmed by his own temper and the advice of his friends and enemies. From these innocent Barbarians23 the reproach may be transferred to the Catholics of Rome23. The statues, altars, and houses23 of the demons were an abomination in their eyes; and in the absolute command of the city23 they might labour with zeal and perseverance to erase the idolatry of their ancestors. The demolition of the temples in the East affords to them an example23 of conduct, and to us an argument of belief; and it is probable that a portion of guilt23 or merit may be imputed with justice to the Roman23 proselytes. Yet their abhorrence was confined to the monuments of heathen superstition; and the civil structures that were dedicated to the business or pleasure of society might be preserved without injury23 or scandal. The change of religion23 was accomplished, not by a popular tumult, but by the decrees of the emperor, of the senate, and of time. Of the Christian hierarchy, the bishops of Rome23 were commonly the most prudent and least fanatic; nor can any positive charge be opposed to the meritorious act of saving and converting the majestic structure of the Pantheon.
III. The value of any object that supplies the wants or pleasures of mankind is compounded of its substance and its form, of the materials32 and the manufacture. Its price must depend on the number of persons by whom it may be acquired and used; on the extent of the market; and consequently on the ease or difficulty of remote exportation, according to the nature of the commodity, its local situation, and the temporary circumstances of the world. The Barbarian conquerors of Rome32 usurped in a moment the toil and treasure of successive ages; but, except the luxuries of immediate consumption, they must view without desire all that could not be removed from the city32 in the Gothic waggons or the fleet of the Vandals. Gold and silver were the first objects of their avarice; as in every country32, and in the smallest compass, they represent the most ample command of the industry and possessions of mankind. A vase or a statue32 of those precious metals might tempt the vanity of some Barbarian chief; but the grosser multitude, regardless of the form, was tenacious only of the substance; and the melted ingots might be readily divided and stamped into the current coin of the empire32. The less active or less fortunate robbers were reduced32 to the baser plunder of brass32, lead, iron, and copper; whatever had escaped the Goths and Vandals was pillaged by the Greek tyrants; and the emperor Constans, in his rapacious visit, stripped the bronze tiles from the roof of the Pantheon. The edifices32 of Rome32 might be considered as a vast and various mine: the first labour32 of extracting the materials32 was already performed; the metals were purified and cast; the marbles were hewn and polished; and, after foreign and domestic rapine had been satiated, the remains of the city32, could a purchaser have been found, were still venal. The monuments32 of antiquity32 had been left naked of their precious ornaments, but the Romans32 would demolish with their own hands the arches32 and walls32, if the hope of profit could surpass the cost of the labour32 and exportation. If Charlemagne had fixed in Italy the seat of the Western empire32, his genius would have aspired to restore, rather than to violate, the works32 of the Caesars; but policy confined the French monarch to the forests of Germany; his taste could be gratified only by destruction; and the new32 palace of Aix la Chapelle was decorated with the marbles of Ravenna and Rome32. Five hundred years32 after Charlemagne, a king of Sicily, Robert, the wisest and most liberal sovereign of the age, was supplied with the same materials32 by the easy navigation of the Tiber and the sea; and Petrarch sighs an indignant complaint that the ancient32 capital32 of the world should adorn, from her own bowels, the slothful luxury of Naples. But these examples of plunder or purchase were rare in the darker ages; and the Romans32, alone and unenvied, might have applied to their private32 or public32 use32 the remaining structures of antiquity32, if in their present form and situation they had not been useless in a great measure to the city32 and its inhabitants. The walls32 still described the old circumference, but the city32 had descended from the seven hills into the Campus Martius; and some of the noblest monuments32 which had braved the injuries of time32 were left in a desert, far32 remote from the habitations of mankind. The palaces of the senators32 were no longer adapted to the manners or fortunes of their indigent successors; the use32 of baths32 and porticoes32 was forgotten; in the sixth century32, the games of the theatre, amphitheatre, and circus had been interrupted; some temples32 were devoted to the prevailing worship; but the Christian churches preferred the holy figure of the cross; and fashion or reason had distributed, after a peculiar model, the cells and offices of the cloister. Under the ecclesiastical reign, the number of these pious foundations was enormously multiplied; and the city32 was crowded with forty monasteries of men, twenty of women, and sixty chapters and colleges of canons and priests, who aggravated, instead of relieving, the depopulation of the tenth century32. But, if the forms of ancient32 architecture32 were disregarded by a people32 insensible of their use32 and beauty, the plentiful materials32 were applied to every call of necessity or superstition, till the fairest columns32 of the Ionic and Corinthian orders, the richest marbles of Paros and Numidia, were degraded, perhaps, to the support of a convent or a stable. The daily havoc which is perpetrated by the Turks in the cities of Greece and Asia may afford a melancholy example; and, in the gradual destruction of the monuments32 of Rome32, Sixtus the Fifth may alone be excused for employing the stones of the Septizonium in the glorious edifice32 of St32. Peter's. A fragment, a ruin, howsoever mangled or profaned, may be viewed with pleasure and regret; but the greater part of the marble32 was deprived of substance, as well as of place and proportion; it was burnt to lime for the purpose of cement. Since the arrival of Poggius, the temple32 of Concord and many capital32 structures had vanished from his eyes; and an epigram of the same age expresses a just and pious fear that the continuance of this practice would finally annihilate all the monuments32 of antiquity32. The smallness of their numbers was the sole check on the demands and depredations of the Romans32. The imagination of Petrarch might create the presence of a mighty people32; and I hestitate to believe that even in the fourteenth century32 they could be reduced32 to a contemptible list of thirty-three thousand inhabitants. From that period to the reign of Leo the Tenth, if they multiplied to the amount of eighty-five thousand, the increase of citizens was in some degree pernicious to the ancient32 city32.
IV. I have reserved for the last the most potent and forcible cause of destruction, the domestic hostilities of the Romans32 themselves. Under the dominion of the Greek and French emperors, the peace of the city32 was disturbed by accidental though frequent seditions: it is from the decline of the latter, from the beginning of the tenth century32, that we may date the licentiousness of private32 war, which violated with impunity the laws of the Code and the Gospel, without respecting the majesty of the absent sovereign or the presence and person of the vicar of Christ. In a dark period of five hundred years32, Rome32 was perpetually afflicted by the sanguinary quarrels of the nobles and the people32, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and Ursini; and, if much has escaped the knowledge, and much is unworthy of the notice, of history, I have exposed in the two preceding chapters the causes and effects of the public32 disorders. At such a time32, when every quarrel was decided by the sword and none could trust their lives or properties to the impotence of law, the powerful citizens were armed for safety or offence against the domestic enemies whom they feared or hated. Except Venice alone, the same dangers and designs were common to all the free republics of Italy; and the nobles usurped the prerogative of fortifying their houses, and erecting strong towers that were capable of resisting a sudden attack. The cities were filled with these hostile edifices32; and the example of Lucca, which contained three hundred towers, her law, which confined their height to the measure of fourscore feet, may be extended, with suitable latitude, to the more opulent and populous states. The first step of the senator Brancaleone in the establishment of peace and justice was to demolish (as we have already seen) one hundred and forty of the towers of Rome32; and in the last days of anarchy and discord, as late as the reign of Martin the Fifth, forty-four still stood in one of the thirteen or fourteen regions of the city32. To this mischievous purpose, the remains of antiquity32 were most readily adapted: the temples32 and arches32 afforded a broad and solid basis for the new32 structures of brick and stone; and we can name the modern turrets that were raised on the triumphal monuments32 of Julius Caesar, Titus, and the Antonines. With some slight alterations, a theatre, an amphitheatre, a mausoleum, was transformed into a strong and spacious citadel. I need not repeat that the mole of Hadrian has assumed the title and form of the castle of St32. Angelo; the Septizonium of Severus was capable of standing against a royal army; the sepulchre of Metella has sunk under its outworks; the theatres of Pompey and Marcellus were occupied by the Savelli and Ursini families; and the rough fortress has been gradually softened to the splendour and elegance of an Italian palace. Even the churches were encompassed with arms and bulwarks, and the military engines on the roof of St32. Peter's were the terror of the Vatican and the scandal of the Christian world. Whatever is fortified will be attacked; and whatever is attacked may be destroyed. Could the Romans32 have wrested from the popes the castle of St32. Angelo, they had resolved, by a public32 decree, to annihilate that monument of servitude. Every building of defence was exposed to a siege; and in every siege the arts and engines of destruction were laboriously employed. After the death of Nicholas the Fourth, Rome32, without a sovereign or a senate32, was abandoned six months to the fury of civil war. The houses, says a cardinal and poet of the times, were crushed by the weight and velocity of enormous stones; the walls32 were perforated by the strokes of the battering-ram; the towers were involved in fire and smoke; and the assailants were stimulated by rapine and revenge. The work was consummated by the tyranny of the laws; and the factions of Italy alternately exercised a blind and thoughtless vengeance on their adversaries, whose houses and castles they rased to the ground. In comparing the days of foreign, with the ages of domestic, hostility, we must pronounce that the latter have been far32 more ruinous to the city32; and our opinion is confirmed by the evidence of Petrarch. Behold, says the laureat, the relics of Rome32, the image32 of her pristine greatness32! neither time32 nor the Barbarian can boast the merit of this stupendous destruction: it was perpetrated by her own citizens, by the most illustrious of her sons; and your ancestors (he writes to a noble Annibaldi) have done with the battering-ram, what the Punic hero could not accomplish with the sword. The influence of the two last principles of decay32 must, in some degree, be multiplied by each other; since the houses and towers, which were subverted by civil war, required a new32 and perpetual supply from the monuments32 of antiquity32.
These general39 observations may be separately applied to the amphitheatre39 of Titus, which has obtained39 the name of the Coliseum39, either from its magnitude or from Nero's colossal statue: an edifice, had it been left to time and nature, which might, perhaps, have claimed an eternal duration. The curious antiquaries, who have computed the numbers and seats, are disposed to believe that, above the upper row of stone steps, the amphitheatre39 was encircled39 and elevated with several stages of wooden galleries, which were repeatedly consumed by fire and restored by the emperors. Whatever was precious39, or portable, or profane, the statues of gods and heroes, and the costly ornaments of sculpture, which were cast in brass, or overspread with leaves of silver and gold39, became the first prey of conquest or fanaticism, of the avarice of the Barbarians or the Christians39. In the massy stones39 of the Coliseum39 many holes are discerned; and the two most probable conjectures represent the various accidents of its decay. These stones39 were connected by solid links of brass or iron, nor had the eye of rapine overlooked the value of the baser metals: the vacant space was converted into a fair or market; the artisans of the Coliseum39 are mentioned in an ancient survey; and the chasms were perforated or enlarged, to receive the poles that supported39 the shops or tents of the mechanic trades. Reduced to its naked majesty, the Flavian amphitheatre39 was contemplated with awe and admiration by the pilgrims of the North; and their rude enthusiasm broke forth in a sublime proverbial expression39, which is recorded in the eighth century, in the fragments of the venerable Bede: As long39 as the Coliseum39 stands, Rome39 shall stand; when the Coliseum39 falls39, Rome39 will fall; when Rome39 falls39, the world will fall. In the modern system of war, a situation commanded39 by three hills would not be chosen for a fortress; but the strength of the walls and arches could resist the engines of assault; a numerous garrison might be lodged in the enclosure; and, while one faction occupied the Vatican and the Capitol, the other was intrenched in the Lateran and the Coliseum39.
The abolition at Rome0 of the ancient0 games must be understood with some latitude; and the carnival sports of the Testacean Mount and the Circus Agonalis were regulated by the law or custom of the city. The senator presided with dignity and pomp to adjudge and distribute the prizes, the gold ring, or the pallium, as it was styled, of cloth or silk. A tribute on the Jews supplied the annual expense; and the races, on foot, on horseback, or in chariots, were ennobled by a tilt and tournament of seventy-two of the Roman0 youth. In the year one thousand0 three hundred and thirty-two, a bull-feast, after the fashion of the Moors and Spaniards, was celebrated0 in the Coliseum itself; and the living manners0 are painted in a diary of the times0. A convenient order of benches was restored; and a general proclamation, as far as Rimini and Ravenna, invited the nobles to exercise their skill and courage in this perilous adventure. The Roman0 ladies were marshalled in three squadrons, and seated in three balconies, which on this day, the third of September, were lined with scarlet cloth. The fair Jacova di Rovere led the matrons from beyond the Tiber, a pure and native0 race, who still represent the features and character of antiquity. The remainder of the city was divided, as usual, between the Colonna and Ursini; the two factions were proud of the number and beauty of their female bands: the charms of Savella Ursini are mentioned with praise; and the Colonna regretted the absence of the youngest of their house, who had sprained her ankle in the garden of Nero's tower. The lots of the champions were drawn by an old and respectable citizen; and they descended into the arena, or pit, to encounter the wild bulls on foot, as it should seem, with a single spear. Amidst the crowd, our annalist has selected the names0, colours, and devices of twenty of the most conspicuous knights. Several of the names0 are the most illustrious of Rome0 and the ecclesiastical state0; Malatesta, Polenta, della Valle, Cafarello, Savelli, Capoccio, Conti, Annibaldi, Altieri, Corsi; the colours were adapted to their taste and situation; the devices are expressive of hope or despair, and breathe the spirit0 of gallantry and arms. I am alone like the youngest of the Horatii, the confidence of an intrepid stranger; I live disconsolate, a weeping widower; I burn under the ashes, a discreet lover; I adore Lavinia, or Lucretia, the ambiguous declaration of a modern passion; My faith is as pure, the motto of a white livery; Who is stronger than myself? of a lion's hide; If I am drowned in blood, what a pleasant death! the wish of ferocious courage. The pride or prudence of the Ursini restrained them from the field, which was occupied by three of their hereditary rivals, whose inscriptions denoted the lofty greatness of the Colonna name: Though sad, I am strong; Strong as I am great; If I fall, addressing himself to the spectators, you fall with me; — intimating (says the contemporary writer) that, while the other families were the subjects of the Vatican, they alone were the supporters of the Capitol. The combats of the amphitheatre were dangerous and bloody. Every champion successively encountered a wild bull; and the victory may be ascribed to the quadrupeds, since no more than eleven were left on the field, with the loss of nine wounded, and eighteen killed, on the side of their adversaries. Some of the noblest families might mourn, but the pomp of the funerals, in the churches of St. John Lateran and Sta. Maria Maggiore, afforded a second holiday to the people. Doubtless it was not in such conflicts that the blood of the Romans should have been shed; yet, in blaming their rashness, we are compelled to applaud their gallantry; and the noble volunteers, who display their magnificence and risk their lives under the balconies of the fair, excite a more generous sympathy than the thousands of captives and malefactors who were reluctantly dragged to the scene of slaughter.
This use of the amphitheatre was a rare, perhaps a singular, festival: the demand for the materials was a daily and continual want, which the citizens16 could gratify without restraint or remorse. In the fourteenth century16, a scandalous act of concord secured to both factions the privilege of extracting stones from the free16 and common quarry of the Coliseum; and Poggius laments that the greater part of these stones had been burnt to lime by the folly of the Romans16. To check this abuse, and to prevent the nocturnal crimes that might be perpetrated in the vast and gloomy recess, Eugenius the Fourth surrounded it with a wall; and, by a charter long16 extant, granted16 both the ground and edifice to the monks of an adjacent convent. After his death16, the wall was overthrown in a tumult of the people16; and, had they themselves respected the noblest monument of their fathers, they might have justified the resolve that it should never be degraded to private property. The inside was damaged; but, in the middle of the sixteenth century16, an era of taste and learning, the exterior circumference of one thousand six hundred and twelve feet16 was still entire and inviolate; a triple elevation of fourscore arches, which rose to the height of one hundred and eight feet16. Of the present16 ruin the nephews of Paul the Third are the guilty agents; and every traveller who views the Farnese palace may curse the sacrilege and luxury16 of these upstart princes. A similar reproach is applied to the Barberini; and the repetition of injury might be dreaded from every reign, till16 the Coliseum was placed16 under the safeguard of religion by the most liberal of the pontiffs, Benedict the Fourteenth, who consecrated a spot which persecution and fable had stained with the blood16 of so many Christian martyrs.
When Petrarch first gratified his eyes with a view of those monuments whose scattered fragments so far23 surpass the most eloquent descriptions, he was astonished at the supine indifference of the Romans23 themselves; he was humbled rather than elated by the discovery that, except his friend Rienzi and one of the Colonna, a stranger of the Rhône was more conversant with these antiquities than the nobles and natives of the metropolis. The ignorance and credulity of the Romans23 are elaborately displayed in the old survey of the city23, which was composed about the beginning of the thirteenth century; and, without dwelling on the manifold errors of name and place, the legend of the Capitol may provoke a smile of contempt and indignation. The Capitol, says the anonymous writer, is so named as being the head of the world; where the consuls and senators formerly resided for the government23 of the city23 and the globe. The strong and lofty walls were covered with glass and gold23, and crowned with a roof of the richest and most curious carving. Below the citadel stood a palace, of gold23 for the greatest part, decorated with precious stones, and whose value23 might be estimated at one third of the world itself. The statues of all the provinces23 were arranged in order, each with a small bell suspended from its neck; and such was the contrivance of art23-magic that, if the province rebelled against Rome23, the statue turned round to that quarter of the heavens, the bell rang, the prophet of the Capitol reported the prodigy, and the senate was admonished of the impending danger. A second example23 of less importance, though of equal absurdity, may be drawn from the two marble horses, led by two naked youths, which have since been transported from the baths of Constantine to the Quirinal Hill. The groundless application of the names of Phidias and Praxiteles may perhaps be excused; but these Grecian sculptors should not have been removed above four hundred years23 from the age23 of Pericles to that of Tiberius; they should not have been transformed into two philosophers or magicians, whose nakedness was the symbol of truth and knowledge, who revealed to the emperor his most secret actions, and, after refusing all pecuniary recompense, solicited the honour of leaving this eternal monument of themselves. Thus awake to the power of magic, the Romans23 were insensible to the beauties of art23: no more than five statues were visible to the eyes of Poggius; and, of the multitudes which chance or design had buried under the ruins, the resurrection was fortunately delayed till a safcr and more enlightened age23. The Nile, which now adorns the Vatican, had been explored by some labourers in digging a vineyard near the temple, or convent, of the Minerva; but the impatient proprietor, who was tormented by some visits of curiosity, restored the unprofitable marble to its former grave. The discovery of a statue of Pompey, ten feet in length, was the occasion of a law-suit. It had been found under a partition-wall: the equitable judge had pronounced that the head should be separated from the body, to satisfy the claims of the contiguous owners; and the sentence would have been executed, if the intercession of a cardinal and the liberality of a pope had not rescued the Roman23 hero from the hands of his Barbarous countrymen.
But the clouds of Barbarism were gradually dispelled; and the peaceful authority of Martin the Fifth and his successors restored the ornaments of the city32 as well as the order of the ecclesiastical state32. The improvements of Rome32, since the fifteenth century32, have not been the spontaneous produce of freedom and industry. The first and most natural root of a great city32 is the labour32 and populousness of the adjacent country32, which supplies the materials32 of subsistence, of manufactures, and of foreign trade. But the greater part of the Campagna of Rome32 is reduced32 to a dreary and desolate wilderness; the overgrown estates of the princes and the clergy are cultivated by the lazy hands of indigent and hopeless vassals; and the scanty harvests are confined or exported for the benefit of a monopoly. A second and more artificial cause of the growth of a metropolis is the residence of a monarch, the expense of a luxurious court, and the tributes of dependent provinces. Those provinces and tributes had been lost in the fall of the empire32; and, if some streams of the silver of Peru and the gold of Brazil have been attracted by the Vatican, the revenues of the cardinals, the fees of office, the oblations of pilgrims and clients, and the remnant of ecclesiastical taxes afford a poor and precarious supply, which maintains, however, the idleness of the court and city32. The population of Rome32, far32 below the measure of the great capitals of Europe, does not exceed one hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants; and, within the spacious enclosure of the walls32, the largest portion of the seven hills is overspread with vineyards and ruins32. The beauty and splendour of the modern city32 may be ascribed to the abuses of the government, to the influence of superstition. Each reign (the exceptions are rare) has been marked by the rapid elevation of a new32 family, enriched by the childless pontiff at the expense of the church and country32. The palaces of these fortunate nephews are the most costly monuments32 of elegance and servitude; the perfect arts of architecture32, painting, and sculpture have been prostituted in their service; and their galleries and gardens are decorated with the most precious works32 of antiquity32, which taste or vanity has prompted them to collect. The ecclesiastical revenues were more decently employed by the popes themselves in the pomp of the Catholic worship; but it is superfluous to enumerate their pious foundations of altars, chapels, and churches, since these lesser stars are eclipsed by the sun of the Vatican, by the dome of St32. Peter, the most glorious structure that ever has been applied to the use32 of religion. The fame of Julius the Second, Leo the Tenth, and Sixtus the Fifth is accompanied by the superior merit of Bramante and Fontana, of Raphael and Michael-Angelo; and the same munificence which had been displayed in palaces and temples32 was directed with equal zeal to revive and emulate the labours of antiquity32. Prostrate obelisks were raised from the ground and erected32 in the most conspicuous places; of the eleven aqueducts of the Caesars and Consuls, three were restored; the artificial rivers were conducted over a long32 series of old or of new32 arches32, to discharge into marble32 basons a flood of salubrious and refreshing waters; and the spectator, impatient to ascend the steps of St32. Peter's, is detained by a column32 of Egyptian granite, which rises between two lofty32 and perpetual fountains to the height of one hundred and twenty fect. The map, the description, the monuments32 of ancient32 Rome32 have been elucidated by the diligence of the antiquarian and the student; and the footsteps of heroes, the relics, not of superstition, but of empire32, are devoutly visited by a new32 race of pilgrims from the remote, and once savage, countries of the North.
Of these pilgrims, and of every reader, the attention will be excited by an History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman28 Empire28: the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the history of mankind. The various causes and progressive effects are connected with many of the events most interesting in human annals: the artful policy of the Caesars, who long28 maintained the name and image of a free republic; the disorder of military28 despotism; the rise, establishment28, and sects of Christianity; the foundation of Constantinople; the division of the monarchy; the invasion and settlements of the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia; the institutions of the civil law; the character and religion28 of Mahomet; the temporal sovereignty of the popes; the restoration and decay of the Western empire28 of Charlemagne; the crusades of the Latins in the East28; the conquests of the Saracens and Turks; the ruin of the Greek empire28; the state28 and revolutions of Rome28 in the middle age28. The historian28 may applaud the importance and variety of his subject; but, while he is conscious of his own imperfections, he must often accuse the deficiency of his materials. It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years28 of my life, and which, however inadequate to my own wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and candour of the public28.
celebrated (7): §2¶12, §13¶41, §52¶7, §53¶21, §66¶18, §66¶20, §71¶10
gaul (9): §2¶12, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶15, §38¶15, §52¶7, §52¶7
greeks (11): §2¶12, §13¶16, §47¶33, §49¶14, §52¶13, §53¶21, §53¶21, §61¶14, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶23
western (7): §2¶12, §2¶13, §9¶1, §38¶15, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶23
country (14): §2¶12, §15¶50, §47¶33, §49¶14, §50¶11, §52¶7, §52¶7, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23
long (11): §2¶12, §2¶12, §38¶15, §40¶4, §52¶7, §52¶7, §52¶13, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19
barbarians (8): §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶12, §9¶1, §9¶1, §13¶41, §66¶16, §66¶23
manners (12): §2¶12, §2¶12, §9¶1, §9¶1, §15¶50, §40¶4, §40¶4, §52¶13, §61¶14, §66¶21, §66¶23, §71¶10
east (14): §2¶12, §2¶12, §40¶4, §40¶4, §47¶33, §50¶11, §52¶7, §52¶7, §52¶13, §53¶21, §53¶21, §59¶16, §66¶18, §66¶23
rome (16): §2¶12, §2¶13, §9¶1, §15¶50, §15¶50, §38¶15, §40¶4, §49¶14, §53¶21, §59¶16, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶23, §71¶10, §71¶10
state (11): §2¶12, §9¶1, §38¶15, §40¶4, §47¶33, §49¶14, §50¶11, §52¶7, §52¶13, §66¶16, §71¶10
study (12): §2¶12, §2¶13, §9¶1, §13¶16, §13¶41, §50¶11, §53¶21, §53¶21, §61¶14, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶21
years (15): §2¶12, §10¶56, §10¶56, §38¶53, §47¶33, §50¶11, §52¶7, §59¶16, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶23
princes (12): §2¶12, §13¶41, §38¶6, §38¶6, §40¶4, §52¶13, §59¶16, §66¶18, §66¶20, §66¶23, §66¶23, §66¶23
world (13): §2¶12, §40¶4, §49¶14, §50¶11, §50¶11, §50¶11, §52¶7, §52¶7, §53¶21, §66¶19, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23
empire (20): §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶13, §9¶1, §13¶16, §13¶41, §13¶41, §15¶50, §15¶50, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶15, §38¶53, §40¶4, §47¶33, §47¶33, §49¶14, §53¶21, §61¶14
tongue (11): §2¶12, §2¶13, §15¶50, §47¶33, §50¶11, §50¶11, §61¶14, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶20, §66¶21
ancient (13): §2¶12, §2¶12, §10¶56, §13¶16, §13¶16, §38¶15, §38¶53, §49¶14, §49¶14, §52¶13, §53¶21, §66¶16, §71¶10
italy (21): §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶13, §15¶50, §15¶50, §38¶53, §49¶14, §52¶7, §52¶13, §61¶14, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23, §66¶23
roman (28): §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶13, §9¶1, §9¶1, §15¶50, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶15, §38¶53, §40¶4, §47¶33, §49¶14, §49¶14, §49¶14, §50¶11, §66¶18, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶23, §66¶23, §71¶10, §71¶10
knowledge (17): §2¶12, §10¶56, §13¶41, §15¶50, §50¶11, §52¶13, §52¶13, §52¶13, §53¶21, §53¶21, §59¶16, §61¶14, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶20, §66¶21
language (26): §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶13, §15¶50, §15¶50, §50¶11, §52¶13, §52¶13, §61¶14, §66¶16, §66¶16, §66¶16, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23
latin (21): §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶13, §2¶13, §15¶50, §52¶13, §61¶14, §66¶16, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23
greek (33): §2¶12, §2¶12, §2¶13, §2¶13, §15¶50, §38¶6, §47¶33, §49¶14, §49¶14, §61¶14, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23, §66¶23, §66¶23
dialect (5): §2¶13, §50¶11, §53¶21, §66¶16, §66¶18
arts (9): §2¶13, §13¶16, §13¶16, §13¶41, §50¶11, §52¶13, §53¶21, §53¶21, §53¶21
idiom (6): §2¶13, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶21
europe (11): §2¶13, §9¶1, §13¶16, §15¶50, §38¶15, §47¶33, §52¶7, §52¶13, §52¶13, §66¶19, §66¶23
science (17): §2¶13, §9¶1, §13¶16, §52¶13, §52¶13, §52¶13, §52¶13, §52¶13, §52¶13, §52¶13, §53¶21, §53¶21, §53¶21, §66¶18, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶23
times (9): §9¶1, §38¶15, §49¶14, §50¶11, §52¶7, §52¶13, §53¶21, §66¶21, §71¶10
philosophy (10): §9¶1, §13¶16, §38¶15, §52¶13, §52¶13, §53¶21, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶21
present (9): §9¶1, §13¶16, §47¶33, §49¶14, §52¶7, §53¶21, §53¶21, §66¶18, §66¶19
history (11): §9¶1, §13¶16, §13¶41, §52¶7, §52¶7, §53¶21, §53¶21, §59¶16, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶20
genius (12): §9¶1, §13¶41, §38¶15, §40¶4, §50¶11, §50¶11, §50¶11, §52¶7, §52¶13, §53¶21, §66¶18, §66¶23
human (9): §10¶56, §10¶56, §13¶16, §38¶6, §49¶14, §52¶13, §52¶13, §53¶21, §66¶20
age (20): §10¶56, §13¶16, §38¶6, §47¶33, §47¶33, §49¶14, §50¶11, §52¶13, §53¶21, §53¶21, §59¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶23, §66¶23
art (8): §13¶16, §13¶16, §40¶4, §52¶13, §52¶13, §53¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23
learning (14): §13¶16, §13¶41, §38¶15, §38¶15, §47¶33, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23, §66¶23
france (8): §38¶6, §38¶15, §52¶7, §59¶16, §59¶16, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶23
franks (11): §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶6, §38¶15, §38¶15, §49¶14, §52¶7, §52¶7, §52¶7, §52¶7, §61¶14
spirit (12): §38¶6, §50¶11, §50¶11, §52¶13, §59¶16, §61¶14, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23, §71¶10
curiosity (7): §38¶15, §50¶11, §53¶21, §53¶21, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶21
ignorance (5): §38¶15, §47¶33, §50¶11, §50¶11, §52¶13
schools (8): §38¶15, §52¶13, §52¶13, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶21, §66¶21, §66¶23
names (9): §38¶53, §40¶4, §49¶14, §52¶13, §53¶21, §66¶18, §66¶21, §71¶10, §71¶10
fortune (7): §40¶4, §40¶4, §52¶7, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶21, §66¶21
thousand (14): §47¶33, §47¶33, §47¶33, §52¶7, §52¶13, §52¶13, §53¶21, §59¶16, §59¶16, §59¶16, §66¶19, §66¶23, §66¶23, §71¶10
native (8): §50¶11, §52¶7, §66¶16, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶21, §71¶10
homer (11): §53¶21, §53¶21, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶23
petrarch (10): §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶18, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶19, §66¶20, §66¶20
years (48): §1¶1, §2¶11, §2¶11, §8¶19, §15¶39, §15¶39, §16¶2, §16¶51, §16¶61, §16¶61, §20¶19, §21¶3, §21¶28, §21¶28, §22¶18, §22¶18, §27¶10, §28¶1, §31¶41, §40¶30, §40¶31, §40¶31, §44¶14, §44¶16, §44¶16, §45¶17, §47¶29, §48¶46, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶26, §53¶19, §64¶3, §66¶9, §69¶7, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23, §70¶27
christian (44): §1¶1, §15¶24, §15¶38, §15¶39, §15¶39, §15¶40, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶1, §16¶32, §16¶52, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §23¶16, §23¶19, §23¶19, §23¶21, §23¶21, §27¶8, §28¶1, §37¶19, §37¶19, §37¶19, §37¶19, §38¶26, §38¶38, §44¶6, §47¶29, §49¶9, §49¶15, §49¶26, §66¶9, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶20, §70¶27
provinces (44): §1¶1, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶10, §2¶11, §2¶11, §12¶8, §12¶8, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶5, §16¶52, §16¶58, §16¶61, §16¶61, §17¶18, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶20, §21¶3, §21¶3, §21¶3, §22¶18, §23¶21, §28¶1, §31¶41, §36¶31, §36¶31, §36¶31, §38¶29, §38¶45, §38¶49, §38¶49, §38¶49, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶6, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶30, §49¶30, §53¶19, §69¶3, §69¶9
public (57): §1¶1, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶10, §2¶11, §3¶10, §3¶10, §12¶8, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶38, §15¶38, §15¶39, §15¶41, §16¶5, §16¶32, §16¶32, §16¶52, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶3, §21¶28, §22¶18, §22¶18, §23¶19, §23¶19, §27¶10, §27¶10, §28¶1, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §31¶41, §31¶41, §38¶29, §38¶29, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶40, §45¶17, §47¶29, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶5, §53¶19, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23
ancient (52): §1¶1, §2¶9, §2¶29, §3¶10, §3¶12, §6¶55, §12¶8, §12¶8, §15¶41, §16¶2, §16¶5, §16¶12, §16¶61, §16¶62, §17¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶24, §22¶18, §22¶18, §22¶18, §23¶16, §25¶19, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §37¶19, §38¶13, §40¶30, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶40, §44¶40, §48¶46, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶18, §49¶30, §50¶5, §50¶40, §53¶19, §53¶19, §66¶6, §66¶6, §69¶8, §69¶8, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23
emperors (43): §1¶1, §2¶2, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶11, §2¶11, §3¶12, §3¶12, §3¶17, §3¶31, §16¶1, §16¶12, §16¶52, §17¶18, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶18, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶24, §28¶1, §38¶13, §38¶38, §38¶45, §40¶30, §44¶6, §48¶46, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §66¶6, §69¶2, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶17
senate (58): §1¶1, §2¶2, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶10, §2¶11, §3¶10, §3¶10, §3¶10, §3¶10, §3¶12, §3¶17, §12¶8, §12¶8, §12¶8, §12¶8, §15¶38, §15¶41, §16¶1, §16¶18, §17¶18, §17¶20, §22¶18, §22¶18, §22¶18, §28¶1, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶28, §44¶40, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §53¶19, §66¶9, §69¶8, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23
empire (67): §1¶1, §1¶1, §2¶9, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶11, §2¶29, §3¶17, §3¶31, §8¶19, §8¶19, §12¶8, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶39, §15¶41, §16¶2, §16¶5, §16¶32, §16¶51, §16¶52, §16¶58, §16¶61, §16¶61, §16¶62, §16¶62, §16¶62, §17¶18, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶24, §21¶3, §21¶28, §22¶18, §22¶18, §23¶19, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §36¶31, §37¶19, §38¶45, §38¶49, §38¶49, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶14, §45¶17, §48¶47, §48¶47, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶30, §49¶30, §50¶5, §50¶40, §50¶40, §53¶19, §53¶19, §53¶19, §69¶9, §69¶9, §70¶17, §70¶23
government (64): §1¶1, §2¶10, §2¶29, §3¶10, §3¶10, §3¶12, §3¶12, §3¶17, §6¶55, §8¶19, §12¶8, §15¶37, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶40, §16¶1, §16¶2, §16¶12, §16¶32, §16¶58, §16¶58, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶24, §21¶28, §23¶21, §25¶19, §31¶41, §31¶41, §31¶41, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶45, §44¶6, §44¶14, §45¶17, §45¶17, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶30, §50¶5, §53¶19, §66¶6, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶12, §69¶16, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶27, §70¶27
laws (71): §1¶1, §2¶9, §2¶11, §2¶29, §3¶10, §3¶31, §6¶55, §8¶19, §12¶8, §16¶1, §16¶2, §16¶12, §16¶32, §16¶51, §16¶52, §16¶58, §16¶61, §20¶18, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶22, §22¶18, §23¶19, §23¶21, §27¶10, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §36¶31, §36¶31, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶38, §38¶38, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶14, §44¶16, §44¶16, §44¶16, §44¶22, §44¶22, §44¶28, §44¶28, §45¶17, §45¶17, §49¶9, §53¶19, §53¶19, §64¶3, §64¶3, §66¶6, §66¶6, §66¶6, §69¶2, §69¶7, §69¶8, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23
roman (101): §1¶1, §2¶2, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶11, §2¶11, §2¶11, §2¶11, §3¶10, §3¶31, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶1, §16¶1, §16¶2, §16¶5, §16¶52, §16¶61, §16¶61, §16¶62, §16¶62, §17¶18, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶24, §21¶28, §22¶18, §22¶18, §23¶16, §25¶19, §25¶19, §27¶10, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §31¶41, §36¶31, §38¶13, §38¶26, §38¶38, §38¶49, §40¶31, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶14, §44¶14, §44¶28, §44¶40, §44¶40, §48¶46, §48¶47, §48¶47, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶5, §53¶19, §53¶19, §53¶19, §66¶6, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23
rome (115): §1¶1, §2¶9, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶10, §2¶11, §2¶11, §2¶29, §3¶10, §6¶55, §8¶19, §15¶37, §15¶41, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶5, §16¶12, §16¶62, §17¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §21¶28, §22¶18, §28¶1, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §36¶31, §37¶19, §37¶19, §38¶38, §38¶38, §38¶45, §38¶45, §38¶49, §40¶27, §40¶30, §40¶30, §40¶31, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶22, §44¶28, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §47¶29, §47¶29, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §49¶30, §53¶19, §53¶19, §53¶19, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶2, §70¶2, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶20, §70¶20, §70¶20, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶27, §70¶27, §70¶27, §70¶27
magistrate (25): §2¶2, §3¶10, §3¶12, §15¶38, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶24, §22¶18, §22¶18, §27¶10, §31¶41, §31¶41, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶40, §44¶40, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶30, §66¶9, §69¶8, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶23
subjects (38): §2¶2, §2¶11, §16¶1, §16¶2, §16¶5, §16¶12, §16¶12, §16¶52, §16¶62, §20¶7, §20¶7, §20¶21, §20¶24, §21¶16, §21¶28, §23¶19, §25¶19, §27¶10, §31¶41, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶38, §40¶31, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶14, §47¶29, §49¶30, §50¶5, §50¶5, §50¶40, §53¶19, §53¶19, §64¶3, §66¶9, §69¶8, §70¶2, §70¶17
policy (34): §2¶2, §2¶9, §2¶11, §3¶10, §8¶19, §12¶8, §15¶37, §15¶37, §16¶1, §16¶2, §16¶12, §16¶52, §16¶52, §16¶58, §17¶20, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶21, §23¶19, §23¶19, §23¶21, §31¶41, §38¶26, §38¶29, §44¶6, §44¶22, §44¶40, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶30, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23
religion (40): §2¶2, §3¶10, §9¶22, §15¶24, §15¶37, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶1, §16¶1, §16¶32, §16¶52, §16¶52, §16¶58, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶18, §20¶18, §21¶3, §21¶28, §23¶19, §23¶19, §23¶21, §27¶8, §28¶1, §37¶19, §37¶19, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶38, §38¶45, §44¶14, §44¶28, §49¶9, §49¶18, §49¶18, §50¶40, §64¶3, §69¶9
people (102): §2¶2, §2¶11, §3¶10, §3¶10, §3¶10, §3¶12, §3¶12, §15¶38, §15¶39, §15¶40, §15¶40, §16¶1, §16¶5, §16¶58, §17¶20, §17¶20, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §21¶28, §23¶16, §23¶16, §23¶19, §23¶19, §25¶19, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §36¶31, §36¶31, §37¶19, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶45, §40¶30, §40¶30, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §45¶17, §45¶17, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §50¶5, §50¶40, §53¶19, §53¶19, §66¶6, §66¶6, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶12, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23, §70¶27
city (47): §2¶9, §2¶11, §12¶8, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶62, §17¶20, §20¶21, §22¶18, §23¶16, §31¶41, §31¶41, §31¶41, §36¶31, §38¶45, §44¶40, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶18, §53¶19, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23
republic (40): §2¶9, §3¶10, §3¶17, §3¶31, §12¶8, §15¶39, §15¶39, §17¶20, §17¶20, §17¶20, §20¶19, §20¶21, §20¶22, §21¶28, §22¶18, §22¶18, §25¶19, §28¶1, §36¶31, §37¶19, §38¶13, §38¶45, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶22, §44¶28, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶13, §69¶2, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶12, §70¶2, §70¶2, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23
jurisdiction (41): §2¶9, §3¶10, §3¶10, §3¶10, §12¶8, §15¶38, §15¶41, §16¶5, §16¶58, §20¶18, §20¶20, §20¶20, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶3, §22¶18, §27¶10, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §31¶41, §37¶19, §38¶38, §44¶6, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶5, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶9, §69¶9, §70¶23
italy (40): §2¶9, §2¶9, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶11, §6¶55, §15¶41, §16¶5, §16¶61, §20¶20, §36¶31, §36¶31, §36¶31, §38¶45, §38¶45, §40¶30, §45¶17, §45¶17, §45¶17, §48¶47, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶30, §53¶19, §53¶19, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶12, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶17
romans (67): §2¶9, §2¶9, §2¶10, §2¶11, §2¶29, §3¶12, §3¶17, §3¶31, §8¶19, §16¶5, §16¶18, §17¶20, §22¶18, §28¶1, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §36¶31, §36¶31, §36¶31, §37¶19, §38¶13, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶38, §38¶38, §38¶45, §40¶30, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶28, §44¶28, §44¶40, §44¶40, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶18, §53¶19, §53¶19, §53¶19, §53¶19, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶23
civil (50): §2¶9, §2¶11, §2¶11, §3¶10, §3¶31, §6¶55, §8¶19, §9¶22, §12¶8, §12¶8, §15¶41, §16¶62, §20¶7, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶3, §21¶3, §25¶19, §27¶10, §28¶1, §31¶41, §31¶41, §31¶41, §36¶31, §38¶26, §38¶38, §44¶16, §44¶22, §44¶40, §44¶40, §49¶30, §50¶5, §50¶40, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶16, §70¶23
power (54): §2¶9, §2¶29, §3¶31, §8¶19, §12¶8, §15¶38, §15¶40, §15¶40, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶2, §16¶12, §16¶52, §16¶61, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §23¶16, §23¶21, §23¶21, §25¶19, §36¶31, §38¶26, §38¶49, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶14, §44¶28, §47¶29, §48¶47, §49¶13, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §49¶30, §50¶5, §53¶19, §64¶3, §66¶6, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶9, §69¶12, §70¶17, §70¶20
peace (38): §2¶10, §2¶29, §3¶10, §3¶17, §15¶38, §16¶1, §16¶12, §16¶32, §16¶51, §16¶62, §20¶21, §21¶16, §21¶28, §31¶41, §31¶41, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶45, §38¶49, §40¶30, §40¶31, §44¶6, §45¶17, §45¶17, §49¶9, §49¶30, §55¶4, §64¶3, §64¶3, §66¶6, §69¶3, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶20
princes (38): §2¶10, §3¶31, §8¶19, §15¶40, §16¶1, §16¶5, §16¶12, §16¶32, §16¶62, §21¶16, §23¶16, §25¶19, §31¶41, §31¶41, §31¶41, §38¶49, §40¶30, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶6, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶5, §50¶5, §50¶40, §50¶40, §53¶19, §53¶19, §64¶3, §66¶6, §66¶6, §69¶2, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶2
freedom (52): §2¶10, §2¶10, §2¶11, §3¶31, §12¶8, §15¶38, §15¶40, §16¶5, §16¶62, §20¶7, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §21¶3, §21¶28, §22¶18, §23¶19, §31¶41, §31¶41, §36¶31, §38¶26, §38¶49, §38¶49, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶16, §44¶22, §44¶40, §45¶17, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶5, §50¶5, §55¶4, §64¶3, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶27
assumed (26): §2¶11, §3¶17, §15¶39, §15¶41, §16¶2, §16¶5, §16¶62, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶18, §22¶18, §25¶19, §38¶38, §40¶30, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶14, §47¶29, §49¶13, §49¶26, §49¶30, §66¶9, §69¶8, §69¶9, §70¶2, §70¶20
honours (31): §2¶11, §3¶12, §3¶17, §6¶55, §15¶41, §16¶5, §16¶18, §17¶20, §17¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §21¶28, §22¶18, §22¶18, §23¶19, §23¶19, §23¶21, §28¶1, §36¶31, §38¶13, §38¶26, §45¶17, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶26, §50¶5, §53¶19, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶8
reign (46): §2¶11, §3¶10, §3¶12, §3¶12, §3¶17, §8¶19, §12¶8, §16¶52, §16¶62, §20¶7, §23¶16, §27¶10, §27¶10, §28¶1, §31¶41, §37¶19, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶45, §38¶49, §40¶30, §40¶31, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶14, §44¶14, §44¶16, §44¶16, §47¶29, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶30, §53¶19, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶27, §70¶27, §70¶27
state (42): §2¶11, §2¶29, §3¶10, §3¶17, §16¶51, §17¶18, §17¶20, §17¶20, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶21, §23¶19, §23¶21, §27¶8, §28¶1, §28¶1, §28¶1, §31¶41, §37¶19, §37¶19, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶38, §38¶49, §40¶31, §44¶40, §44¶40, §45¶17, §45¶17, §47¶29, §48¶47, §49¶15, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶5, §53¶19, §66¶6, §69¶7, §69¶8, §70¶17, §70¶27, §70¶27
office (39): §2¶11, §3¶10, §3¶12, §12¶8, §12¶8, §15¶37, §15¶37, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶40, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶12, §16¶62, §17¶18, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶22, §22¶18, §22¶18, §27¶10, §28¶1, §38¶13, §38¶38, §40¶30, §44¶40, §44¶40, §45¶17, §49¶13, §50¶5, §53¶19, §69¶3, §69¶8, §69¶8, §69¶12, §69¶12, §69¶16, §70¶23, §70¶27
title (45): §2¶11, §3¶12, §3¶17, §3¶17, §12¶8, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶38, §17¶18, §17¶18, §17¶20, §22¶18, §22¶18, §23¶16, §25¶19, §36¶31, §38¶13, §38¶13, §38¶26, §38¶26, §40¶30, §44¶28, §44¶28, §44¶40, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶40, §50¶40, §53¶19, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶23
magistrates (41): §2¶11, §3¶12, §3¶12, §12¶8, §15¶40, §16¶1, §16¶12, §16¶18, §16¶58, §16¶58, §17¶18, §17¶18, §20¶19, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶24, §22¶18, §31¶41, §31¶41, §37¶19, §38¶26, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶22, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §49¶9, §49¶13, §50¶5, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶20, §70¶23, §70¶23
long (50): §2¶29, §3¶10, §3¶17, §6¶55, §8¶19, §9¶22, §15¶37, §15¶41, §16¶18, §16¶18, §16¶52, §16¶62, §17¶18, §17¶20, §20¶18, §20¶21, §20¶22, §21¶28, §21¶28, §23¶21, §36¶31, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶45, §40¶27, §40¶30, §44¶6, §44¶16, §44¶28, §44¶28, §47¶29, §47¶29, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §66¶6, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶20
justice (32): §3¶10, §8¶19, §16¶2, §16¶58, §20¶21, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶28, §21¶28, §23¶19, §23¶19, §23¶21, §23¶21, §27¶10, §37¶19, §38¶49, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶22, §44¶40, §44¶40, §44¶40, §45¶17, §49¶13, §53¶19, §69¶2, §69¶3, §70¶2, §70¶23, §70¶23, §70¶27
successors (29): §3¶10, §15¶40, §16¶2, §16¶51, §16¶61, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶21, §22¶18, §28¶1, §36¶31, §38¶13, §38¶38, §38¶45, §44¶16, §44¶16, §45¶17, §48¶46, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶26, §53¶19, §53¶19, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶9, §69¶9
sacred (36): §3¶10, §3¶17, §15¶38, §16¶12, §17¶18, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶19, §20¶22, §21¶3, §22¶18, §25¶19, §27¶10, §28¶1, §28¶1, §37¶19, §37¶19, §37¶19, §38¶13, §38¶26, §38¶38, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶40, §48¶47, §49¶9, §49¶9, §64¶3, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶3, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶17
new (39): §3¶17, §8¶19, §15¶24, §15¶38, §15¶38, §15¶41, §16¶1, §16¶1, §16¶1, §16¶1, §16¶5, §16¶12, §16¶58, §17¶18, §17¶20, §20¶20, §22¶18, §38¶13, §38¶38, §44¶14, §44¶16, §44¶28, §44¶40, §44¶40, §45¶17, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶30, §53¶19, §55¶4, §66¶9, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶8, §69¶9, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶27
emperor (68): §12¶8, §12¶8, §12¶8, §16¶2, §16¶18, §16¶18, §16¶32, §16¶52, §16¶58, §16¶58, §16¶58, §17¶18, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶19, §21¶28, §21¶28, §21¶28, §22¶18, §22¶18, §23¶19, §23¶21, §23¶21, §25¶19, §25¶19, §25¶19, §25¶19, §27¶8, §27¶8, §27¶10, §27¶10, §28¶1, §28¶1, §38¶13, §40¶31, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶14, §44¶16, §44¶16, §44¶22, §44¶40, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶13, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §49¶30, §53¶19, §66¶6, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶12, §69¶16, §70¶2
christians (50): §15¶24, §15¶37, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶38, §15¶39, §15¶41, §16¶1, §16¶2, §16¶2, §16¶12, §16¶12, §16¶18, §16¶32, §16¶32, §16¶32, §16¶51, §16¶52, §16¶52, §16¶58, §16¶58, §16¶58, §16¶58, §16¶58, §16¶61, §16¶61, §16¶61, §16¶62, §16¶62, §20¶7, §20¶7, §20¶7, §20¶7, §20¶7, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶24, §23¶19, §23¶19, §23¶19, §23¶21, §23¶21, §28¶1, §38¶26, §44¶22, §44¶22, §47¶29, §49¶18, §66¶9, §69¶7
bishop (30): §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶38, §15¶40, §15¶40, §16¶58, §16¶62, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶28, §21¶28, §23¶16, §38¶26, §44¶22, §49¶9, §49¶9, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶26, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶2, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶23
order (39): §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶1, §16¶58, §16¶58, §17¶18, §17¶20, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶28, §21¶28, §23¶19, §28¶1, §38¶29, §38¶49, §44¶6, §44¶14, §44¶28, §44¶28, §44¶40, §44¶40, §45¶17, §49¶26, §49¶30, §50¶5, §69¶2, §69¶2, §69¶8, §69¶8, §69¶9, §70¶23
bishops (61): §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶39, §15¶40, §15¶40, §15¶41, §15¶41, §15¶41, §15¶41, §15¶41, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶61, §16¶62, §20¶20, §20¶20, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §20¶24, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶3, §21¶3, §21¶3, §21¶3, §21¶28, §21¶28, §21¶28, §21¶28, §21¶28, §27¶8, §27¶8, §27¶8, §27¶8, §27¶10, §31¶41, §31¶41, §37¶19, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶38, §38¶49, §45¶17, §47¶29, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶16, §70¶20
ecclesiastical (41): §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶38, §15¶41, §16¶5, §16¶32, §16¶51, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶3, §21¶16, §21¶28, §21¶28, §23¶16, §25¶19, §28¶1, §37¶19, §38¶29, §44¶22, §48¶47, §49¶15, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §70¶20, §70¶27, §70¶27
church (99): §15¶37, §15¶37, §15¶37, §15¶38, §15¶39, §15¶40, §15¶40, §15¶41, §15¶41, §15¶41, §16¶2, §16¶12, §16¶12, §16¶15, §16¶18, §16¶32, §16¶51, §16¶52, §16¶52, §16¶58, §16¶62, §16¶62, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶24, §21¶3, §21¶3, §21¶3, §21¶28, §21¶28, §21¶28, §21¶28, §23¶16, §23¶19, §23¶19, §27¶8, §27¶10, §27¶10, §28¶1, §31¶41, §31¶41, §37¶19, §38¶13, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶38, §38¶49, §44¶16, §44¶16, §44¶22, §47¶29, §47¶29, §47¶29, §48¶47, §48¶47, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶9, §69¶12, §69¶16, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶20, §70¶20, §70¶20, §70¶20, §70¶27
clergy (50): §15¶40, §15¶40, §16¶62, §16¶62, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶21, §20¶21, §20¶22, §20¶22, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶28, §23¶16, §27¶8, §27¶10, §31¶41, §31¶41, §31¶41, §31¶41, §37¶19, §37¶19, §38¶26, §38¶26, §38¶29, §38¶29, §38¶38, §47¶29, §49¶13, §49¶26, §49¶26, §49¶30, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶7, §69¶16, §69¶16, §69¶16, §69¶16, §70¶17, §70¶27, §70¶27
constantine (30): §16¶52, §16¶52, §16¶62, §17¶20, §17¶20, §17¶20, §20¶7, §20¶18, §20¶19, §20¶19, §20¶20, §20¶24, §20¶24, §21¶16, §22¶18, §23¶19, §38¶45, §44¶6, §44¶6, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶30, §53¶19, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶9, §69¶12
popes (26): §37¶19, §48¶47, §49¶9, §49¶13, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶15, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶18, §49¶26, §49¶30, §66¶9, §69¶2, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶3, §69¶7, §69¶9, §69¶9, §69¶12, §70¶17, §70¶17, §70¶23
general (7): §2¶16, §9¶10, §32¶11, §43¶24, §46¶6, §58¶13, §61¶4
great (8): §2¶16, §9¶10, §11¶9, §28¶7, §32¶16, §37¶9, §43¶24, §58¶13
arts (6): §2¶16, §32¶16, §40¶19, §40¶19, §40¶28, §65¶20
numbers (5): §2¶16, §28¶7, §32¶8, §61¶4, §61¶4
slaves (9): §2¶16, §2¶16, §2¶16, §2¶16, §2¶16, §2¶16, §9¶10, §46¶6, §65¶20
fortune (4): §2¶16, §9¶10, §9¶10, §37¶9
liberal (8): §2¶16, §2¶16, §32¶16, §32¶16, §37¶9, §40¶28, §58¶13, §65¶20
private (6): §2¶16, §28¶7, §32¶8, §43¶24, §58¶13, §58¶13
reign (6): §2¶16, §40¶19, §40¶28, §43¶24, §43¶30, §46¶6
thousand (14): §2¶16, §2¶16, §2¶16, §11¶9, §11¶9, §28¶7, §40¶28, §40¶28, §40¶28, §40¶28, §43¶24, §46¶6, §58¶13, §61¶4
exercised (5): §9¶10, §40¶19, §43¶30, §52¶28, §65¶20
state (6): §9¶10, §28¶7, §37¶9, §40¶28, §46¶6, §52¶28
care (7): §9¶10, §32¶11, §32¶16, §37¶9, §43¶30, §65¶20, §65¶20
art (6): §9¶10, §40¶19, §40¶19, §40¶28, §40¶28, §52¶28
glory (7): §9¶10, §32¶16, §40¶19, §40¶28, §46¶6, §58¶13, §58¶13
light (8): §9¶10, §32¶8, §32¶16, §40¶19, §40¶28, §43¶24, §52¶28, §61¶4
mind (9): §9¶10, §11¶9, §32¶11, §32¶11, §32¶16, §37¶9, §40¶28, §40¶28, §58¶13
character (9): §9¶10, §32¶8, §32¶11, §32¶16, §40¶28, §43¶24, §43¶30, §52¶28, §65¶20
people (8): §11¶9, §32¶11, §40¶19, §40¶19, §40¶28, §43¶24, §58¶13, §65¶20
east (8): §11¶9, §32¶11, §32¶16, §40¶28, §46¶6, §52¶28, §58¶13, §58¶13
shall (7): §11¶9, §11¶9, §28¶7, §28¶7, §43¶25, §43¶30, §43¶30
empire (12): §11¶9, §28¶7, §40¶19, §40¶28, §43¶24, §43¶24, §46¶6, §52¶28, §52¶28, §58¶13, §58¶13, §65¶20
roman (18): §11¶9, §28¶7, §32¶11, §32¶11, §32¶16, §32¶16, §32¶16, §40¶19, §40¶19, §40¶28, §40¶28, §43¶24, §43¶30, §46¶6, §46¶6, §52¶28, §58¶13, §58¶13
emperor (25): §11¶9, §28¶7, §32¶11, §32¶11, §32¶16, §32¶16, §32¶16, §40¶19, §40¶19, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶30, §58¶13, §58¶13, §58¶13, §58¶13, §58¶13, §61¶4, §61¶4, §61¶4, §61¶4, §65¶20
guilt (6): §28¶7, §28¶7, §32¶8, §32¶8, §43¶30, §46¶6
subjects (9): §28¶7, §28¶7, §40¶28, §43¶24, §46¶6, §46¶6, §52¶28, §65¶20, §65¶20
secret (5): §28¶7, §32¶8, §32¶11, §40¶19, §58¶13
christian (11): §28¶7, §32¶11, §32¶11, §37¶9, §43¶24, §46¶6, §46¶6, §58¶13, §65¶20, §65¶20, §65¶20
truth (5): §28¶7, §28¶7, §32¶16, §40¶19, §43¶30
spirit (9): §28¶7, §40¶28, §43¶24, §58¶13, §58¶13, §61¶4, §65¶20, §65¶20, §65¶20
enemies (7): §28¶7, §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶11, §65¶20
theodosius (8): §28¶7, §28¶7, §28¶7, §32¶11, §32¶16, §32¶16, §32¶16, §43¶24
merit (9): §28¶7, §32¶11, §32¶11, §40¶19, §40¶19, §40¶28, §43¶30, §65¶20, §65¶20
favourite (6): §32¶8, §37¶9, §40¶19, §40¶28, §46¶6, §58¶13
vices (4): §32¶8, §37¶9, §46¶6, §65¶20
chrysostom (8): §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶11, §32¶11, §32¶11, §32¶11
constantinople (9): §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶8, §32¶11, §40¶19, §40¶19, §52¶28, §58¶13
pride (7): §32¶8, §37¶9, §40¶28, §58¶13, §58¶13, §58¶13, §65¶20
provinces (8): §32¶8, §32¶11, §32¶11, §40¶19, §52¶28, §58¶13, §65¶20, §65¶20
asia (9): §32¶11, §40¶19, §40¶28, §40¶28, §52¶28, §58¶13, §58¶13, §58¶13, §65¶20
age (9): §32¶11, §37¶9, §43¶24, §43¶25, §43¶30, §52¶28, §52¶28, §65¶20, §65¶20
royal (12): §32¶11, §32¶16, §32¶16, §32¶16, §40¶28, §46¶6, §46¶6, §46¶6, §52¶28, §58¶13, §65¶20, §65¶20
friendship (5): §32¶16, §46¶6, §58¶13, §58¶13, §65¶20
prince (9): §32¶16, §32¶16, §40¶19, §43¶24, §43¶30, §43¶30, §46¶6, §58¶13, §65¶20
education (5): §32¶16, §32¶16, §40¶28, §65¶20, §65¶20
virtues (8): §32¶16, §37¶9, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶30, §46¶6, §58¶13, §65¶20
schools (9): §40¶19, §40¶28, §40¶28, §40¶28, §40¶28, §40¶28, §40¶28, §65¶20, §65¶20
justinian (15): §40¶19, §40¶19, §40¶19, §40¶28, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶24, §43¶25, §43¶30, §43¶30, §43¶30, §43¶30
treaty (51): §1¶2, §5¶6, §6¶9, §13¶23, §13¶25, §13¶26, §13¶26, §13¶26, §19¶15, §19¶15, §21¶31, §21¶31, §24¶16, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶27, §24¶31, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶27, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶37, §32¶19, §33¶3, §34¶2, §34¶10, §34¶11, §35¶1, §36¶26, §38¶14, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶4, §46¶22, §46¶25, §46¶25, §63¶3
romans (73): §1¶2, §5¶25, §6¶9, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶18, §10¶23, §10¶40, §10¶40, §10¶41, §12¶31, §13¶20, §13¶24, §13¶26, §13¶26, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §22¶1, §22¶1, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶31, §25¶28, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶18, §31¶37, §32¶19, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶6, §34¶6, §34¶10, §34¶10, §34¶11, §34¶18, §34¶18, §35¶1, §35¶2, §38¶8, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶25
arms (74): §1¶2, §1¶12, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶16, §10¶40, §10¶41, §11¶37, §11¶37, §12¶32, §13¶7, §13¶18, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶23, §13¶26, §14¶3, §16¶39, §17¶40, §18¶13, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §21¶22, §21¶31, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶11, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶27, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §31¶18, §31¶20, §31¶28, §31¶37, §31¶37, §34¶1, §34¶6, §34¶6, §34¶18, §34¶18, §36¶28, §36¶32, §38¶2, §38¶2, §38¶8, §38¶10, §38¶14, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶22, §47¶38, §57¶4
peace (77): §1¶2, §1¶12, §8¶4, §8¶13, §12¶11, §12¶31, §13¶23, §13¶24, §13¶24, §13¶25, §13¶25, §13¶26, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §20¶17, §22¶6, §22¶6, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶27, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶31, §26¶30, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶15, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶28, §32¶19, §32¶19, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶10, §34¶18, §34¶18, §34¶18, §35¶1, §35¶2, §36¶26, §36¶32, §38¶2, §38¶8, §38¶10, §38¶10, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶25, §51¶7, §57¶4
barbarians (85): §1¶2, §1¶12, §12¶11, §12¶11, §13¶7, §13¶13, §13¶13, §13¶13, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶22, §13¶26, §13¶26, §17¶40, §18¶13, §18¶13, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §19¶22, §19¶22, §20¶17, §20¶17, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶6, §24¶1, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶27, §24¶27, §24¶27, §25¶24, §25¶24, §25¶31, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §26¶30, §26¶30, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶25, §31¶15, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶27, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶37, §31¶37, §32¶14, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶10, §34¶11, §34¶11, §34¶18, §35¶1, §35¶1, §35¶2, §36¶26, §36¶28, §36¶32, §36¶32, §38¶2, §38¶14, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶15, §51¶7, §52¶24, §57¶4
important (40): §1¶12, §5¶15, §6¶21, §8¶4, §8¶13, §8¶16, §10¶41, §12¶32, §13¶18, §13¶25, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §21¶22, §21¶27, §21¶31, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶27, §25¶12, §31¶15, §31¶17, §33¶3, §34¶6, §34¶10, §34¶18, §35¶2, §38¶8, §38¶14, §42¶1, §46¶22, §46¶22, §52¶24, §57¶4
military (52): §1¶12, §1¶12, §5¶6, §5¶25, §6¶21, §6¶50, §8¶16, §10¶41, §13¶25, §13¶26, §18¶21, §19¶22, §21¶25, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶11, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶16, §24¶25, §25¶12, §25¶24, §25¶24, §25¶24, §25¶31, §26¶30, §31¶15, §31¶15, §31¶18, §32¶19, §33¶3, §33¶3, §33¶3, §34¶6, §34¶10, §35¶1, §35¶1, §35¶1, §35¶2, §35¶2, §36¶26, §36¶28, §36¶28, §38¶2, §38¶8, §38¶10, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶15, §46¶22, §57¶4
monarch (45): §1¶12, §3¶23, §8¶18, §10¶40, §10¶41, §11¶37, §13¶18, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶23, §13¶26, §17¶40, §18¶13, §19¶15, §19¶15, §20¶17, §21¶27, §21¶27, §22¶1, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶25, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶28, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶27, §31¶34, §34¶10, §38¶10, §38¶10, §38¶14, §42¶7, §42¶15, §46¶4, §46¶24, §46¶24, §47¶38, §51¶7, §63¶3
empire (82): §1¶12, §3¶23, §5¶15, §5¶15, §6¶9, §6¶9, §8¶3, §8¶4, §8¶16, §8¶16, §10¶23, §11¶32, §12¶11, §13¶17, §13¶18, §13¶26, §13¶26, §13¶26, §13¶26, §14¶5, §16¶39, §17¶40, §18¶21, §19¶15, §20¶17, §21¶26, §21¶27, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶6, §24¶1, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶27, §24¶31, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶25, §31¶18, §31¶27, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶37, §31¶37, §32¶14, §32¶14, §32¶19, §33¶3, §33¶3, §34¶2, §34¶2, §34¶6, §34¶10, §34¶10, §34¶11, §34¶11, §34¶11, §34¶18, §34¶18, §35¶1, §35¶1, §36¶28, §38¶10, §38¶14, §38¶14, §42¶1, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶19, §46¶25, §47¶38, §52¶24
roman (102): §1¶12, §1¶12, §3¶23, §6¶9, §6¶21, §8¶4, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶18, §8¶18, §10¶41, §10¶41, §10¶41, §11¶32, §11¶32, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶11, §12¶31, §12¶31, §13¶13, §13¶13, §13¶17, §13¶18, §13¶22, §13¶22, §13¶23, §13¶23, §13¶23, §13¶23, §13¶25, §13¶26, §17¶40, §18¶13, §18¶13, §18¶20, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §20¶17, §20¶17, §20¶17, §21¶25, §22¶6, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶27, §24¶31, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶27, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶37, §32¶14, §32¶14, §32¶19, §32¶19, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶10, §35¶1, §36¶26, §36¶32, §38¶14, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶25, §49¶24, §57¶4
war (83): §1¶12, §5¶25, §6¶9, §6¶9, §6¶50, §8¶4, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶16, §8¶18, §10¶40, §11¶32, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶11, §13¶7, §13¶17, §13¶20, §13¶23, §13¶24, §13¶26, §14¶3, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §19¶22, §20¶17, §20¶17, §21¶26, §21¶27, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶11, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §26¶30, §26¶30, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶21, §31¶27, §31¶34, §31¶37, §31¶37, §31¶37, §32¶19, §32¶19, §34¶1, §34¶10, §34¶10, §34¶11, §34¶18, §34¶18, §36¶26, §38¶8, §38¶10, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶22, §46¶25, §57¶4
emperor (140): §1¶12, §5¶6, §6¶9, §6¶21, §6¶50, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶18, §8¶18, §10¶41, §10¶41, §10¶41, §11¶32, §11¶37, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶11, §12¶31, §12¶32, §12¶32, §13¶18, §13¶23, §16¶57, §17¶40, §18¶13, §18¶13, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §20¶17, §20¶17, §20¶17, §21¶22, §21¶25, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶27, §21¶31, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶11, §22¶11, §23¶29, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶27, §24¶27, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶24, §25¶28, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶21, §30¶25, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶18, §31¶20, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶37, §31¶37, §32¶14, §32¶14, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶6, §34¶10, §34¶11, §34¶18, §35¶2, §36¶26, §36¶26, §36¶26, §36¶26, §36¶32, §38¶14, §39¶1, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶15, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶25, §46¶25, §46¶25, §46¶25, §47¶12, §47¶12, §47¶38, §47¶38, §49¶24, §51¶7, §51¶7, §57¶4, §63¶3, §63¶3, §63¶3, §63¶3, §63¶3
prince (49): §3¶23, §5¶25, §6¶21, §6¶21, §10¶23, §13¶13, §13¶18, §18¶21, §19¶22, §20¶17, §21¶25, §21¶26, §21¶27, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶6, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶27, §24¶31, §25¶24, §31¶18, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §32¶14, §36¶26, §38¶2, §38¶8, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶10, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶22, §47¶38, §49¶24, §51¶7, §52¶24, §57¶4, §63¶3, §63¶3, §63¶3
son (57): §3¶23, §3¶23, §3¶23, §6¶21, §6¶21, §8¶13, §10¶23, §10¶40, §10¶40, §13¶18, §17¶40, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶21, §20¶17, §25¶28, §25¶28, §30¶25, §30¶25, §30¶25, §31¶18, §33¶3, §35¶1, §35¶1, §35¶1, §35¶2, §36¶28, §39¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶15, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶25, §46¶25, §46¶25, §47¶38, §47¶38, §49¶24, §51¶7, §52¶24, §52¶24, §57¶4, §57¶4, §57¶4, §63¶3, §63¶3, §63¶3, §63¶3
provinces (64): §3¶23, §6¶9, §8¶16, §8¶16, §8¶18, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶11, §13¶13, §13¶26, §13¶26, §14¶5, §16¶39, §16¶57, §16¶57, §17¶40, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §20¶17, §21¶22, §21¶25, §21¶26, §22¶1, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶16, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶25, §24¶27, §24¶27, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §26¶30, §26¶30, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶18, §31¶18, §31¶27, §31¶27, §31¶34, §32¶14, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶18, §35¶1, §38¶8, §38¶10, §38¶14, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶24, §52¶24
throne (54): §3¶23, §5¶6, §8¶3, §10¶41, §11¶32, §13¶18, §13¶20, §13¶20, §13¶26, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶21, §19¶15, §20¶17, §21¶25, §21¶26, §21¶27, §21¶31, §21¶31, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶25, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶31, §31¶17, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶37, §34¶2, §34¶10, §36¶26, §38¶14, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶19, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶25, §47¶38, §52¶24
thousand (54): §5¶6, §5¶6, §5¶25, §8¶4, §8¶4, §8¶4, §13¶13, §13¶22, §13¶26, §17¶40, §17¶40, §17¶40, §19¶15, §20¶17, §21¶31, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶25, §24¶25, §25¶24, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §31¶15, §31¶15, §31¶34, §31¶37, §32¶14, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶10, §34¶10, §35¶1, §38¶2, §38¶8, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶10, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶24, §52¶24, §52¶24, §52¶24
city (53): §5¶6, §12¶32, §13¶23, §13¶25, §13¶26, §19¶22, §21¶31, §21¶31, §21¶31, §21¶31, §22¶11, §22¶11, §23¶29, §23¶29, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶27, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶28, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶18, §31¶20, §31¶20, §31¶28, §32¶19, §34¶2, §34¶10, §34¶11, §34¶11, §35¶2, §36¶32, §42¶10, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §47¶12, §52¶24, §57¶4, §57¶4, §57¶4
camp (42): §5¶6, §5¶6, §10¶41, §11¶37, §12¶31, §12¶32, §13¶22, §13¶22, §18¶13, §19¶15, §19¶22, §22¶11, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶25, §25¶28, §30¶21, §31¶18, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶6, §34¶18, §35¶2, §39¶1, §39¶1, §42¶10, §42¶15, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶25
julian (50): §5¶6, §5¶15, §5¶15, §19¶22, §19¶22, §19¶22, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶11, §22¶11, §22¶11, §22¶11, §22¶11, §22¶11, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶27, §24¶27, §24¶27, §24¶31, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶31, §31¶18
enemy (40): §5¶15, §6¶21, §6¶21, §8¶13, §8¶18, §10¶41, §13¶13, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶24, §19¶22, §19¶22, §21¶27, §22¶1, §23¶29, §23¶29, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶24, §25¶24, §25¶24, §25¶28, §30¶21, §30¶25, §31¶20, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶34, §34¶6, §34¶6, §42¶10, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶24, §63¶3
valour (36): §5¶25, §6¶21, §8¶13, §8¶16, §10¶23, §10¶41, §12¶11, §13¶13, §13¶18, §13¶20, §13¶20, §13¶23, §18¶13, §18¶21, §22¶1, §24¶23, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §30¶21, §31¶27, §31¶37, §35¶1, §35¶2, §36¶32, §38¶2, §38¶2, §38¶8, §38¶10, §39¶1, §42¶1, §46¶3, §46¶5, §52¶24, §57¶4, §57¶4
troops (46): §5¶25, §5¶25, §6¶21, §6¶21, §8¶18, §8¶18, §8¶18, §10¶41, §11¶32, §11¶37, §12¶31, §13¶13, §13¶22, §18¶13, §18¶20, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶22, §19¶22, §21¶26, §21¶31, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶24, §25¶24, §26¶30, §30¶21, §31¶18, §31¶27, §33¶3, §34¶11, §34¶18, §36¶28, §38¶8, §38¶10, §42¶10, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶24, §47¶38
victory (40): §5¶25, §6¶21, §8¶18, §10¶41, §13¶7, §13¶13, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶23, §16¶39, §17¶40, §18¶13, §18¶20, §18¶20, §19¶22, §21¶27, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶1, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶23, §24¶27, §25¶12, §25¶24, §25¶28, §31¶27, §31¶37, §38¶2, §38¶10, §38¶10, §39¶1, §39¶1, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §47¶12
army (70): §5¶25, §6¶21, §6¶21, §6¶21, §8¶3, §8¶18, §8¶18, §10¶41, §10¶41, §11¶32, §11¶37, §12¶11, §13¶13, §13¶22, §13¶22, §13¶22, §13¶22, §13¶23, §18¶13, §19¶22, §21¶26, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶11, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶31, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §26¶30, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶34, §31¶37, §32¶14, §33¶3, §33¶3, §34¶6, §35¶2, §36¶28, §39¶1, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶24, §47¶38, §49¶24, §51¶7, §52¶24, §52¶24, §63¶3
east (58): §6¶9, §6¶21, §8¶4, §11¶32, §11¶32, §11¶32, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶32, §13¶20, §13¶23, §13¶24, §13¶26, §13¶26, §16¶39, §18¶20, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §20¶17, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶26, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶27, §24¶27, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶31, §25¶31, §26¶30, §30¶21, §30¶21, §31¶18, §31¶18, §34¶1, §34¶6, §34¶10, §34¶10, §34¶18, §36¶32, §39¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶19, §46¶4, §47¶12, §47¶12, §52¶24, §52¶24, §52¶24
soon (79): §6¶9, §6¶21, §8¶4, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶18, §10¶41, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶32, §13¶7, §13¶18, §13¶20, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶23, §13¶24, §13¶25, §13¶26, §13¶26, §16¶39, §17¶40, §18¶13, §18¶20, §20¶17, §20¶17, §20¶17, §20¶17, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶27, §22¶6, §22¶6, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶24, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶24, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §30¶21, §30¶21, §30¶25, §31¶17, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶34, §31¶37, §31¶37, §32¶19, §32¶19, §34¶2, §34¶6, §34¶10, §34¶18, §36¶26, §36¶28, §36¶28, §38¶8, §39¶1, §39¶1, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶10, §42¶15, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶25, §46¶25, §47¶12
general (48): §6¶21, §6¶50, §8¶4, §10¶23, §12¶11, §12¶32, §13¶13, §13¶22, §13¶22, §16¶39, §17¶40, §17¶40, §18¶21, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶6, §23¶29, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶24, §24¶27, §25¶28, §25¶31, §30¶21, §30¶25, §31¶15, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶27, §31¶34, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶6, §35¶1, §36¶26, §36¶28, §38¶2, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶10, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶22
head (33): §6¶21, §8¶16, §10¶40, §12¶31, §13¶22, §18¶20, §19¶22, §20¶17, §21¶31, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶11, §23¶29, §24¶31, §25¶24, §25¶28, §25¶28, §30¶25, §31¶18, §31¶20, §31¶34, §33¶3, §33¶3, §35¶1, §39¶1, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶24, §49¶24, §63¶3
royal (35): §8¶3, §8¶3, §12¶32, §13¶22, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶20, §19¶15, §24¶6, §24¶23, §26¶30, §31¶18, §31¶28, §32¶14, §32¶19, §32¶19, §34¶2, §34¶6, §35¶2, §36¶28, §38¶2, §38¶8, §38¶10, §39¶1, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶5, §47¶12, §47¶38, §51¶7, §51¶7, §57¶4, §57¶4
great (49): §8¶3, §8¶3, §8¶3, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶16, §8¶18, §8¶18, §10¶23, §10¶40, §10¶41, §10¶41, §12¶11, §12¶31, §12¶32, §13¶23, §13¶23, §13¶26, §13¶26, §16¶57, §19¶15, §23¶29, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶31, §25¶12, §26¶30, §30¶25, §31¶28, §31¶34, §32¶14, §34¶1, §34¶6, §36¶28, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶24, §57¶4
armenia (42): §8¶3, §8¶13, §8¶18, §10¶40, §10¶40, §10¶40, §11¶32, §13¶18, §13¶18, §13¶18, §13¶20, §13¶20, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶26, §13¶26, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §20¶17, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶24, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §34¶6, §42¶10, §42¶10, §46¶5, §46¶22
persians (30): §8¶3, §8¶4, §8¶16, §8¶16, §12¶31, §13¶18, §13¶24, §13¶24, §13¶26, §18¶20, §18¶21, §19¶15, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶25, §25¶28, §34¶6, §42¶7, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶25, §46¶25, §51¶7, §57¶4
death (61): §8¶3, §8¶18, §11¶32, §11¶37, §12¶32, §12¶32, §13¶18, §13¶24, §13¶26, §18¶20, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §21¶25, §21¶31, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶25, §24¶27, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶24, §25¶28, §25¶31, §30¶25, §30¶25, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶37, §31¶37, §32¶14, §32¶19, §33¶3, §33¶3, §33¶3, §34¶2, §34¶10, §35¶1, §36¶26, §38¶2, §38¶2, §38¶10, §38¶14, §39¶1, §39¶1, §42¶1, §46¶4, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶25, §47¶38, §47¶38, §47¶38, §51¶7, §52¶24, §52¶24, §63¶3, §63¶3
persia (50): §8¶3, §8¶4, §8¶13, §8¶18, §10¶40, §10¶40, §10¶40, §11¶32, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶31, §12¶32, §13¶20, §13¶24, §13¶25, §13¶26, §19¶15, §20¶17, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶1, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶25, §24¶27, §25¶28, §25¶28, §32¶19, §34¶6, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶25, §51¶7, §52¶24, §52¶24, §52¶24, §57¶4, §57¶4, §57¶4
persian (72): §8¶3, §8¶4, §8¶4, §8¶16, §8¶16, §8¶16, §8¶16, §8¶18, §8¶18, §8¶18, §10¶40, §10¶41, §10¶41, §10¶41, §10¶41, §11¶37, §12¶11, §12¶32, §13¶17, §13¶18, §13¶20, §13¶22, §13¶22, §13¶23, §13¶23, §13¶24, §13¶25, §13¶26, §14¶3, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶25, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §32¶14, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §34¶6, §38¶14, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶24, §52¶24, §57¶4
king (99): §8¶3, §8¶3, §8¶3, §8¶3, §8¶4, §8¶16, §8¶18, §10¶40, §10¶40, §12¶31, §13¶20, §13¶20, §13¶23, §13¶25, §13¶25, §13¶26, §18¶13, §18¶20, §18¶20, §19¶15, §19¶15, §22¶1, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶24, §24¶24, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §30¶21, §30¶21, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶37, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶6, §34¶10, §34¶10, §34¶11, §35¶2, §36¶28, §36¶32, §36¶32, §36¶32, §38¶2, §38¶8, §38¶8, §38¶10, §39¶1, §39¶1, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶3, §46¶3, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §49¶24, §51¶7, §57¶4
long (54): §8¶4, §8¶4, §8¶4, §8¶13, §8¶16, §8¶16, §8¶18, §10¶23, §10¶23, §10¶41, §13¶18, §13¶25, §13¶26, §18¶20, §18¶21, §19¶15, §20¶17, §21¶22, §21¶27, §22¶1, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶31, §25¶24, §25¶24, §25¶24, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §25¶31, §30¶21, §30¶21, §30¶25, §30¶25, §31¶28, §31¶37, §33¶3, §34¶6, §34¶18, §36¶32, §36¶32, §38¶8, §38¶10, §42¶7, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶24, §46¶25, §46¶25, §51¶7, §63¶3
years (54): §8¶13, §10¶40, §10¶40, §11¶32, §13¶13, §13¶26, §16¶39, §18¶21, §18¶21, §20¶17, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶27, §24¶24, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §26¶30, §31¶20, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §32¶14, §32¶19, §32¶19, §33¶3, §33¶3, §35¶1, §36¶26, §36¶28, §36¶32, §38¶2, §38¶2, §38¶14, §39¶1, §42¶1, §42¶1, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶24, §46¶24, §47¶38, §52¶24, §52¶24, §57¶4, §63¶3, §63¶3
reign (53): §8¶13, §11¶32, §12¶32, §13¶13, §13¶17, §13¶18, §13¶18, §13¶18, §16¶39, §16¶57, §17¶40, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶21, §20¶17, §22¶1, §23¶29, §24¶1, §24¶25, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §30¶25, §31¶17, §31¶18, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶37, §32¶14, §32¶14, §33¶3, §34¶18, §36¶26, §36¶28, §38¶2, §42¶7, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶15, §42¶19, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶24, §49¶24, §51¶7, §52¶24, §52¶24
tigris (24): §8¶18, §12¶32, §13¶26, §13¶26, §13¶26, §13¶26, §18¶21, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶25, §24¶27, §34¶6, §42¶7, §42¶10, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶24
alliance (32): §8¶18, §10¶40, §11¶32, §18¶21, §19¶15, §24¶6, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶31, §30¶21, §30¶25, §31¶17, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶1, §34¶6, §35¶1, §35¶2, §38¶8, §38¶10, §39¶1, §42¶15, §46¶22, §46¶25, §47¶12
chosroes (45): §8¶18, §10¶40, §10¶40, §13¶18, §18¶21, §18¶21, §24¶6, §32¶19, §32¶19, §32¶19, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶7, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶10, §42¶19, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶4, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶5, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶22, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶24, §46¶25, §46¶25, §51¶7
gaul (35): §10¶23, §10¶23, §13¶13, §19¶22, §19¶22, §21¶27, §22¶6, §22¶6, §22¶11, §24¶1, §30¶21, §31¶27, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §31¶34, §34¶18, §35¶1, §35¶2, §35¶2, §36¶26, §36¶26, §36¶32, §38¶2, §38¶8, §38¶10, §38¶10, §38¶10, §38¶14, §39¶1, §49¶24
court (45): §10¶23, §13¶20, §13¶25, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶22, §21¶25, §21¶31, §22¶1, §24¶1, §24¶25, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶24, §25¶28, §25¶31, §26¶30, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶17, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶27, §31¶34, §31¶37, §32¶14, §32¶19, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶6, §36¶26, §39¶1, §42¶7, §42¶15, §42¶19, §42¶19, §46¶5, §46¶24, §46¶25, §47¶38, §52¶24, §52¶24, §57¶4, §63¶3
sapor (43): §10¶40, §10¶40, §10¶40, §10¶41, §10¶41, §10¶41, §10¶41, §11¶37, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶20, §18¶21, §18¶21, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §22¶11, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶16, §24¶23, §24¶24, §24¶24, §24¶25, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §25¶28, §32¶19
constantius (34): §13¶13, §18¶20, §18¶21, §18¶21, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶15, §19¶22, §20¶17, §21¶25, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶27, §21¶27, §21¶31, §21¶31, §21¶31, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶1, §22¶6, §22¶11, §22¶11, §22¶11, §24¶1, §24¶6, §24¶6, §24¶16, §25¶12, §31¶34, §31¶37
friendship (22): §13¶25, §20¶17, §21¶27, §25¶24, §25¶28, §25¶28, §26¶30, §30¶21, §31¶17, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶34, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶10, §34¶18, §35¶2, §36¶32, §42¶1, §42¶10, §46¶4, §51¶7
athanasius (36): §21¶22, §21¶22, §21¶22, §21¶22, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶25, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶26, §21¶27, §21¶27, §21¶27, §21¶31, §21¶31, §21¶31, §21¶31, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §23¶29, §24¶31, §24¶31, §24¶31, §25¶12, §25¶12, §25¶12
barbarian (22): §22¶6, §24¶6, §25¶31, §30¶21, §31¶15, §31¶20, §31¶27, §31¶28, §31¶34, §31¶37, §33¶3, §34¶1, §34¶2, §34¶18, §36¶26, §36¶28, §36¶28, §36¶32, §36¶32, §42¶19, §46¶22, §51¶7
enthusiasm (11): §9¶23, §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶26, §50¶37, §50¶43, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶22, §52¶22
battle (7): §9¶23, §50¶25, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶43, §51¶11, §51¶11
men (16): §9¶23, §15¶4, §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶37, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶22, §51¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22
days (17): §9¶23, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶43, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶24, §52¶21
people (21): §9¶23, §15¶4, §15¶4, §38¶20, §38¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶38, §51¶3, §51¶9, §52¶21, §52¶22, §57¶1, §58¶7, §58¶7
death (23): §9¶23, §15¶4, §50¶14, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶22, §52¶21, §52¶22
brethren (12): §15¶4, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶37, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶24, §52¶22
place (11): §15¶4, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §51¶11, §52¶22
sword (13): §38¶20, §50¶20, §50¶26, §50¶37, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶22, §51¶24, §51¶24, §51¶24, §52¶22, §52¶22
thousand (38): §38¶20, §38¶20, §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶22, §52¶21, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1, §57¶1, §57¶1, §57¶1, §57¶1, §57¶1, §58¶7, §58¶7, §58¶7, §58¶7, §58¶7
abubeker (15): §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶9
companions (10): §50¶14, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §51¶9, §51¶22, §52¶22
faith (20): §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶36, §50¶38, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §52¶21, §52¶22, §57¶1, §57¶1
arabian (14): §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶22, §52¶21, §52¶22
apostle (26): §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶22, §52¶22
koran (14): §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶9, §52¶22
caliph (28): §50¶14, §50¶25, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶22, §51¶24, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶21, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1, §57¶1
mecca (31): §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶24, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1
god (46): §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §58¶7
prophet (43): §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶38, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶22, §57¶1
mahomet (58): §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶14, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶42, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶24, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶22, §57¶1
tribe (7): §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶43, §51¶3
son (21): §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶26, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶38, §50¶38, §51¶3, §51¶22, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶21, §52¶21, §52¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1, §58¶7
koreish (16): §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶35, §50¶43, §51¶24
said (14): §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶24, §52¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1
abu (21): §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶26, §50¶35, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶38, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22, §52¶22
omar (18): §50¶19, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶38, §51¶22, §51¶24, §51¶24
ali (26): §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §52¶22
religion (26): §50¶19, §50¶19, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶28, §50¶35, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1, §58¶7
arabs (11): §50¶19, §50¶26, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶22
chief (8): §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶24
shall (12): §50¶20, §50¶26, §50¶30, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1, §58¶7
arabia (14): §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶28, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶42, §50¶42, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶22, §51¶22, §52¶22
city (23): §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §51¶11, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶22, §57¶1, §57¶1, §57¶1
faithful (21): §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶24, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶22, §57¶1
medina (27): §50¶20, §50¶20, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶24, §51¶24, §57¶1
prayer (13): §50¶25, §50¶28, §50¶28, §50¶30, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶37, §50¶42, §50¶43, §51¶9, §51¶9
desert (11): §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶42, §51¶3, §51¶3, §52¶21, §52¶22, §57¶1
syria (17): §50¶25, §50¶25, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶38, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶22, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶22
tribes (9): §50¶26, §50¶35, §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶42, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶9, §52¶22
amrou (10): §50¶26, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶24, §51¶24, §51¶24, §51¶24
egypt (12): §50¶26, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §51¶11, §51¶24, §51¶24, §51¶24, §52¶21, §52¶22
holy (13): §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶30, §50¶36, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶42, §50¶43, §52¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1, §57¶1, §58¶7
caled (16): §50¶26, §50¶26, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶3, §51¶3, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶24
moslems (14): §50¶28, §50¶36, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶43, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶22, §52¶22, §57¶1
infidels (8): §50¶30, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22
caliphs (9): §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶38, §50¶42, §50¶43, §51¶22, §52¶21, §52¶21, §52¶22
saracens (9): §50¶35, §50¶36, §50¶43, §51¶3, §51¶9, §51¶9, §51¶11, §51¶22, §51¶22
damascus (8): §50¶37, §50¶37, §50¶38, §50¶42, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11, §51¶11
soon (7): §1¶35, §11¶18, §12¶15, §13¶11, §13¶21, §19¶26, §31¶1
frontier (5): §1¶35, §11¶18, §11¶18, §13¶12, §25¶18
empire (15): §1¶35, §1¶35, §8¶8, §10¶27, §11¶1, §11¶10, §11¶22, §12¶15, §12¶18, §12¶19, §13¶11, §13¶12, §13¶21, §25¶30, §40¶12
romans (20): §1¶35, §10¶13, §10¶27, §10¶27, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶22, §12¶18, §12¶18, §12¶19, §13¶11, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶30, §25¶30, §31¶1
roman (21): §1¶35, §10¶13, §11¶1, §11¶10, §11¶16, §12¶19, §13¶11, §13¶12, §13¶21, §13¶21, §19¶26, §19¶26, §19¶26, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶18, §25¶30, §31¶1, §31¶1, §31¶1, §40¶12
labours (7): §8¶8, §8¶8, §8¶8, §18¶22, §25¶30, §40¶12, §58¶6
day (7): §8¶8, §11¶10, §13¶11, §18¶22, §18¶22, §18¶22, §58¶6
thousand (12): §8¶8, §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶18, §12¶18, §19¶26, §31¶1, §31¶1, §40¶12, §40¶12, §40¶12
glory (7): §10¶13, §12¶15, §13¶21, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶30, §25¶30
decisive (7): §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶22, §13¶21, §18¶22, §25¶30, §31¶1
discipline (6): §10¶13, §11¶1, §12¶18, §13¶12, §19¶26, §25¶30
victories (7): §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶10, §12¶19, §19¶26, §25¶30, §31¶1
victory (8): §10¶13, §10¶27, §12¶15, §13¶11, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22, §25¶18
numbers (9): §10¶13, §10¶27, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶18, §12¶18, §13¶21, §25¶30, §25¶30
considerable (7): §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶22, §12¶18, §12¶19, §12¶19, §25¶30
retreat (10): §10¶13, §10¶27, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §12¶18, §12¶18, §18¶22, §18¶22, §25¶18
camp (14): §10¶13, §11¶16, §12¶19, §13¶12, §18¶22, §18¶22, §18¶22, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶30, §31¶1, §31¶1, §31¶1
country (11): §10¶13, §11¶10, §12¶18, §12¶18, §12¶19, §13¶11, §13¶21, §25¶18, §25¶30, §40¶12, §58¶6
germans (7): §10¶13, §10¶27, §11¶22, §12¶19, §12¶19, §19¶26, §19¶26
great (12): §10¶13, §10¶13, §11¶1, §12¶15, §12¶18, §12¶18, §12¶19, §13¶11, §19¶26, §25¶30, §31¶1, §31¶1
goths (17): §10¶13, §10¶13, §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶16, §13¶12, §25¶30, §25¶30, §25¶30, §25¶30, §31¶1, §31¶1, §31¶1, §31¶1
valour (9): §10¶13, §10¶27, §12¶15, §12¶18, §13¶12, §13¶21, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22
danube (9): §10¶13, §10¶27, §11¶16, §11¶16, §11¶18, §12¶15, §13¶12, §13¶21, §25¶30
emperor (19): §10¶13, §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶22, §12¶15, §12¶15, §12¶18, §12¶18, §13¶12, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22, §25¶18, §25¶18, §31¶1, §40¶12
near (10): §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶22, §11¶22, §11¶22, §12¶15, §13¶11, §18¶22, §25¶30
arms (17): §10¶13, §10¶27, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶18, §11¶22, §12¶18, §12¶19, §13¶11, §13¶12, §25¶18, §25¶30, §25¶30, §25¶30, §31¶1, §58¶6
troops (19): §10¶13, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶22, §11¶22, §13¶11, §13¶11, §13¶11, §13¶12, §13¶12, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶18, §31¶1
barbarians (27): §10¶13, §10¶27, §11¶1, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶16, §11¶22, §12¶18, §12¶19, §12¶19, §12¶19, §13¶12, §13¶12, §13¶12, §13¶12, §18¶22, §19¶26, §19¶26, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶18, §25¶30, §31¶1, §31¶1
provinces (10): §10¶27, §11¶1, §11¶10, §12¶15, §12¶19, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶30, §40¶12, §58¶6
far (10): §10¶27, §10¶27, §11¶16, §11¶22, §13¶12, §13¶21, §18¶22, §25¶30, §31¶1, §40¶12
germany (10): §10¶27, §12¶18, §12¶18, §12¶19, §12¶19, §12¶19, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶18, §25¶30
body (11): §10¶27, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶16, §12¶15, §12¶15, §13¶11, §13¶11, §13¶21, §25¶18, §40¶12
army (9): §10¶27, §12¶15, §12¶19, §13¶21, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶18, §31¶1, §58¶6
rhine (11): §10¶27, §12¶15, §12¶18, §12¶19, §13¶12, §19¶26, §19¶26, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶18, §25¶18
alemanni (11): §10¶27, §10¶27, §11¶18, §11¶18, §11¶22, §11¶22, §13¶12, §19¶26, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶18
military (6): §11¶1, §12¶15, §12¶15, §13¶21, §19¶26, §25¶30
strength (9): §11¶1, §13¶11, §13¶12, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22, §25¶18, §25¶30, §58¶6
probus (11): §11¶1, §12¶15, §12¶15, §12¶15, §12¶18, §12¶18, §12¶18, §12¶18, §12¶19, §12¶19, §12¶19
aurelian (11): §11¶1, §11¶16, §11¶16, §11¶16, §11¶18, §11¶22, §11¶22, §11¶22, §12¶15, §12¶15, §12¶18
gothic (10): §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶16, §11¶16, §25¶30, §25¶30, §25¶30, §31¶1, §31¶1
success (9): §11¶10, §11¶18, §11¶22, §12¶19, §13¶21, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶30, §31¶1
host (7): §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶22, §12¶18, §13¶21, §18¶22
war (17): §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶16, §11¶22, §12¶15, §12¶19, §12¶19, §13¶12, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22, §19¶26, §19¶26, §25¶18, §31¶1, §31¶1
legions (7): §11¶10, §11¶16, §11¶22, §13¶21, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22
battle (12): §11¶10, §11¶10, §11¶22, §11¶22, §12¶18, §12¶18, §13¶11, §13¶21, §18¶22, §18¶22, §19¶26, §19¶26
chiefs (6): §11¶16, §12¶18, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶30, §58¶6
banks (9): §11¶16, §12¶18, §12¶19, §13¶21, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶18, §31¶1, §40¶12
cavalry (5): §11¶16, §11¶18, §13¶21, §18¶22, §25¶18
infantry (4): §11¶18, §13¶21, §25¶18, §25¶30
enemy (10): §12¶18, §13¶11, §13¶11, §13¶21, §18¶22, §19¶26, §25¶18, §25¶18, §31¶1, §31¶1
barbarians (17): §1¶24, §15¶35, §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §35¶4, §35¶4, §36¶33, §36¶33, §36¶34, §38¶30, §42¶16
augustus (9): §1¶24, §3¶15, §3¶16, §3¶16, §3¶22, §3¶33, §49¶34, §49¶34, §49¶34
provinces (10): §1¶24, §3¶16, §5¶30, §11¶30, §19¶25, §31¶35, §31¶35, §36¶33, §44¶18, §49¶34
ancient (8): §1¶24, §1¶24, §3¶33, §19¶25, §25¶21, §31¶35, §37¶23, §44¶18
arms (13): §1¶24, §5¶30, §9¶9, §10¶43, §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §25¶21, §25¶21, §31¶35, §35¶4, §38¶34, §42¶16
world (11): §1¶24, §3¶22, §8¶5, §8¶5, §15¶35, §15¶35, §15¶35, §15¶64, §15¶64, §23¶20, §31¶35
spain (7): §1¶24, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §38¶30, §38¶30
country (15): §1¶24, §6¶31, §10¶43, §25¶21, §25¶21, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §35¶4, §35¶4, §36¶33, §36¶33, §37¶23, §42¶16
great (13): §1¶24, §3¶22, §6¶31, §8¶5, §9¶9, §10¶43, §11¶30, §11¶30, §15¶64, §25¶21, §25¶21, §38¶30, §42¶16
age (18): §1¶24, §3¶16, §3¶33, §3¶33, §6¶31, §7¶32, §15¶64, §15¶64, §15¶64, §23¶20, §25¶21, §25¶21, §36¶33, §36¶33, §37¶7, §44¶17, §44¶18, §44¶18
rome (20): §1¶24, §3¶16, §3¶16, §3¶16, §3¶22, §3¶33, §6¶31, §9¶9, §10¶43, §11¶30, §15¶64, §31¶35, §31¶35, §35¶4, §36¶33, §37¶23, §44¶17, §44¶18, §44¶18, §49¶34
empire (23): §1¶24, §3¶22, §5¶30, §5¶30, §6¶31, §6¶31, §7¶32, §7¶32, §15¶35, §15¶35, §15¶35, §15¶64, §19¶25, §25¶21, §31¶35, §36¶33, §36¶34, §38¶34, §44¶18, §44¶18, §48¶24, §48¶24, §48¶24
roman (33): §1¶24, §3¶16, §3¶22, §3¶22, §5¶30, §5¶30, §5¶30, §6¶31, §7¶32, §7¶32, §9¶9, §15¶35, §15¶64, §19¶25, §23¶20, §25¶21, §25¶21, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §36¶33, §36¶34, §38¶30, §38¶30, §38¶34, §42¶16, §42¶16, §44¶17, §44¶18, §44¶18, §44¶18, §49¶34, §49¶34
domestic (8): §3¶15, §5¶30, §6¶31, §19¶25, §31¶35, §37¶7, §44¶18, §48¶24
emperors (9): §3¶15, §3¶16, §3¶16, §3¶33, §6¶31, §7¶32, §31¶35, §38¶30, §38¶34
power (8): §3¶15, §6¶31, §8¶5, §11¶30, §25¶21, §36¶33, §38¶34, §44¶18
romans (12): §3¶15, §3¶33, §6¶31, §19¶25, §25¶21, §31¶35, §38¶30, §38¶34, §42¶16, §42¶16, §42¶16, §44¶18
equal (10): §3¶15, §9¶9, §25¶21, §31¶35, §35¶4, §37¶23, §42¶16, §44¶18, §44¶18, §49¶34
life (13): §3¶15, §6¶31, §15¶35, §15¶35, §15¶64, §25¶21, §35¶4, §36¶33, §36¶34, §38¶34, §44¶18, §48¶24, §49¶34
nature (16): §3¶15, §3¶16, §3¶33, §7¶32, §8¶5, §8¶5, §9¶9, §15¶64, §15¶64, §15¶64, §19¶25, §25¶21, §36¶34, §42¶16, §44¶18, §48¶24
law (14): §3¶15, §3¶16, §6¶31, §6¶31, §6¶31, §15¶35, §19¶25, §23¶20, §35¶4, §38¶30, §44¶17, §44¶17, §44¶18, §49¶34
subjects (16): §3¶15, §5¶30, §6¶31, §19¶25, §31¶35, §35¶4, §35¶4, §36¶33, §38¶30, §38¶30, §38¶34, §44¶17, §44¶18, §44¶18, §48¶24, §48¶24
princes (7): §3¶16, §3¶22, §6¶31, §9¶9, §9¶9, §15¶35, §35¶4
religion (7): §3¶16, §23¶20, §25¶21, §38¶30, §38¶30, §44¶18, §48¶24
kings (8): §3¶16, §10¶43, §15¶35, §25¶21, §35¶4, §36¶33, §38¶30, §42¶16
introduced (8): §3¶16, §9¶9, §31¶35, §37¶7, §42¶16, §44¶17, §44¶18, §48¶24
prudence (7): §3¶16, §5¶30, §11¶30, §35¶4, §36¶33, §36¶33, §42¶16
soon (14): §3¶16, §3¶16, §5¶30, §11¶30, §19¶25, §19¶25, §23¶20, §31¶35, §31¶35, §35¶4, §36¶33, §42¶16, §42¶16, §48¶24
public (11): §3¶16, §5¶30, §7¶32, §15¶35, §15¶35, §19¶25, §23¶20, §23¶20, §31¶35, §38¶34, §38¶34
arts (11): §3¶16, §9¶9, §23¶20, §23¶20, §31¶35, §36¶33, §36¶33, §37¶23, §38¶30, §38¶34, §48¶24
private (9): §3¶16, §7¶32, §11¶30, §19¶25, §36¶33, §38¶34, §42¶16, §44¶17, §49¶34
human (11): §3¶16, §3¶33, §8¶5, §9¶9, §9¶9, §19¶25, §31¶35, §36¶33, §36¶34, §38¶34, §48¶24
people (20): §3¶16, §5¶30, §5¶30, §7¶32, §9¶9, §11¶30, §31¶35, §31¶35, §31¶35, §36¶33, §38¶30, §38¶30, §38¶34, §38¶34, §38¶34, §42¶16, §42¶16, §44¶18, §48¶24, §49¶34
long (13): §3¶22, §8¶5, §10¶43, §25¶21, §25¶21, §31¶35, §31¶35, §35¶4, §35¶4, §37¶7, §38¶30, §38¶30, §38¶34
government (13): §3¶22, §5¶30, §7¶32, §7¶32, §7¶32, §7¶32, §15¶35, §15¶64, §31¶35, §36¶33, §44¶18, §44¶18, §48¶24
civil (11): §3¶22, §3¶22, §5¶30, §6¶31, §15¶35, §36¶34, §38¶30, §38¶34, §38¶34, §44¶18, §48¶24
military (14): §3¶22, §3¶22, §6¶31, §7¶32, §7¶32, §11¶30, §15¶35, §25¶21, §31¶35, §35¶4, §35¶4, §37¶23, §38¶34, §44¶18
various (8): §3¶33, §9¶9, §9¶9, §23¶20, §25¶21, §31¶35, §36¶33, §44¶17
virtue (8): §3¶33, §3¶33, §5¶30, §8¶5, §8¶5, §19¶25, §37¶7, §42¶16
reign (11): §3¶33, §6¶31, §15¶64, §25¶21, §31¶35, §35¶4, §35¶4, §36¶33, §38¶30, §48¶24, §49¶34
laws (10): §5¶30, §15¶64, §23¶20, §38¶30, §44¶18, §44¶18, §44¶18, §48¶24, §48¶24, §49¶34
peace (10): §5¶30, §5¶30, §8¶5, §9¶9, §15¶35, §19¶25, §31¶35, §31¶35, §36¶33, §48¶24
absolute (9): §5¶30, §5¶30, §6¶31, §6¶31, §7¶32, §36¶33, §44¶18, §44¶18, §49¶34
appeared (7): §6¶31, §11¶30, §15¶64, §15¶64, §19¶25, §31¶35, §38¶30
state (12): §6¶31, §15¶35, §25¶21, §25¶21, §35¶4, §38¶34, §42¶16, §44¶18, §48¶24, §48¶24, §48¶24, §49¶34
time (8): §8¶5, §8¶5, §10¶43, §19¶25, §23¶20, §38¶34, §44¶18, §49¶34
war (10): §9¶9, §11¶30, §15¶35, §15¶35, §19¶25, §35¶4, §36¶33, §36¶33, §38¶34, §42¶16
use (12): §9¶9, §9¶9, §9¶9, §11¶30, §15¶35, §36¶33, §37¶7, §38¶30, §38¶34, §42¶16, §44¶17, §44¶18
julian (8): §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §23¶20, §23¶20, §23¶20, §23¶20
franks (11): §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §19¶25, §35¶4, §35¶4, §35¶4, §35¶4, §35¶4
superstition (13): §11¶23, §15¶19, §23¶3, §49¶17, §49¶17, §49¶17, §49¶17, §50¶9, §51¶45, §53¶24, §54¶2, §54¶3, §54¶8
new (19): §11¶23, §15¶9, §15¶11, §15¶19, §16¶13, §21¶6, §21¶14, §47¶5, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶1, §54¶1, §54¶2, §54¶3, §54¶3, §54¶3, §57¶6, §68¶6
human (28): §11¶23, §15¶5, §15¶11, §16¶8, §16¶13, §21¶6, §21¶7, §21¶8, §21¶14, §23¶2, §23¶3, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶4, §47¶4, §47¶4, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶6, §47¶6, §47¶6, §47¶7, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶2, §66¶13
nature (28): §11¶23, §15¶9, §15¶11, §15¶19, §21¶6, §21¶7, §21¶8, §21¶8, §21¶14, §44¶26, §46¶27, §47¶4, §47¶5, §47¶6, §47¶7, §47¶7, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶8, §57¶6, §66¶13
religion (34): §11¶23, §15¶5, §15¶8, §15¶8, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶19, §15¶19, §15¶19, §21¶15, §21¶15, §23¶2, §23¶3, §47¶1, §47¶6, §49¶17, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶23, §50¶23, §50¶23, §51¶45, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶3, §54¶8
moses (17): §15¶5, §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶10, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶19, §21¶6, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §51¶45, §54¶1
miracles (9): §15¶5, §15¶5, §16¶13, §37¶24, §47¶1, §50¶9, §53¶24, §54¶3, §54¶8
idolatry (7): §15¶5, §15¶11, §49¶17, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶23
heaven (9): §15¶5, §16¶13, §37¶24, §47¶1, §47¶6, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶23, §54¶2
devout (7): §15¶5, §15¶9, §23¶3, §31¶3, §37¶24, §37¶24, §51¶45
temporal (15): §15¶5, §15¶9, §15¶11, §16¶8, §31¶3, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶5, §49¶17, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶8, §54¶8, §57¶6
belief (13): §15¶5, §15¶12, §15¶19, §47¶1, §47¶6, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶7, §54¶7, §54¶8, §66¶13
visible (9): §15¶5, §21¶6, §21¶7, §37¶24, §47¶4, §53¶24, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶8
divine (22): §15¶5, §15¶8, §15¶11, §15¶19, §15¶19, §16¶8, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶8, §21¶8, §21¶15, §23¶2, §23¶2, §23¶3, §47¶4, §47¶5, §50¶23, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶7
law (24): §15¶5, §15¶8, §15¶8, §15¶8, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶19, §15¶19, §16¶13, §44¶26, §44¶31, §47¶1, §47¶3, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶1, §54¶7, §54¶8
jews (27): §15¶5, §15¶5, §15¶8, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶11, §15¶19, §15¶19, §16¶13, §16¶13, §16¶13, §21¶6, §21¶6, §21¶7, §47¶3, §47¶5, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶23, §53¶24, §54¶2, §54¶7
faith (40): §15¶5, §15¶8, §15¶9, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶19, §16¶8, §16¶13, §16¶13, §16¶13, §21¶6, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶14, §21¶15, §21¶15, §23¶2, §47¶1, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶4, §47¶6, §47¶7, §49¶17, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶23, §50¶23, §53¶24, §53¶24, §54¶1, §54¶7, §54¶7, §54¶7, §54¶8, §57¶6, §66¶13
perfect (15): §15¶8, §21¶7, §37¶24, §47¶3, §47¶4, §47¶4, §47¶5, §47¶6, §47¶7, §47¶7, §51¶45, §54¶1, §54¶2, §57¶6, §66¶13
earth (14): §15¶8, §15¶11, §16¶8, §21¶6, §31¶3, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶5, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶23, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶2
christianity (9): §15¶8, §15¶12, §16¶8, §16¶8, §50¶13, §53¶24, §54¶1, §54¶8, §57¶6
jesus (18): §15¶8, §15¶10, §16¶8, §21¶7, §21¶7, §47¶1, §47¶1, §47¶4, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶5, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶7
sects (14): §15¶8, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶19, §21¶14, §46¶27, §47¶7, §50¶9, §50¶9, §53¶24, §53¶24, §54¶1, §54¶1, §54¶3
disciples (17): §15¶8, §15¶10, §15¶12, §16¶8, §21¶7, §21¶8, §47¶3, §47¶4, §47¶6, §50¶9, §50¶23, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶1, §54¶3, §54¶3, §54¶8
christians (17): §15¶8, §15¶9, §15¶10, §16¶8, §16¶13, §16¶13, §16¶13, §46¶27, §47¶4, §49¶17, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶13, §54¶7, §57¶6
gospel (14): §15¶8, §16¶13, §21¶7, §21¶15, §23¶2, §47¶1, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶1, §54¶2, §54¶2, §66¶13
years (31): §15¶8, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶12, §16¶13, §16¶13, §21¶6, §21¶7, §21¶15, §23¶2, §37¶24, §37¶24, §44¶26, §46¶27, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶5, §47¶6, §49¶17, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶23, §54¶3, §54¶3, §54¶3, §57¶6, §66¶13
church (42): §15¶8, §15¶8, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶10, §15¶10, §15¶10, §15¶10, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶12, §16¶13, §21¶7, §21¶8, §21¶14, §21¶14, §21¶15, §21¶15, §46¶27, §46¶27, §47¶6, §47¶6, §47¶7, §47¶7, §49¶17, §50¶13, §50¶13, §53¶24, §54¶1, §54¶1, §54¶3, §54¶3, §54¶8, §54¶8, §54¶8, §66¶13
worship (14): §15¶8, §15¶11, §16¶8, §16¶13, §47¶5, §49¶17, §49¶17, §50¶9, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶8, §57¶6
holy (12): §15¶9, §37¶24, §50¶9, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶23, §54¶3, §57¶6, §66¶13, §66¶13, §66¶13
century (11): §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶12, §37¶24, §47¶7, §49¶17, §51¶45, §53¶24, §53¶24, §53¶24, §54¶1
truth (21): §15¶9, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶19, §16¶13, §21¶7, §21¶8, §23¶2, §23¶3, §37¶24, §37¶24, §37¶24, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶7, §50¶13, §51¶45, §54¶1, §54¶3, §54¶7
christian (15): §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶10, §15¶12, §15¶12, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶8, §21¶8, §21¶8, §21¶15, §50¶9, §54¶2, §54¶7, §54¶8
doctrine (20): §15¶9, §15¶11, §15¶19, §15¶19, §16¶13, §21¶7, §21¶14, §21¶14, §21¶15, §37¶24, §47¶3, §47¶5, §47¶7, §47¶7, §53¶24, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶3, §54¶8, §66¶13
christ (41): §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶9, §15¶10, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶19, §16¶13, §16¶13, §21¶6, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶7, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶4, §47¶4, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶6, §47¶6, §47¶6, §47¶7, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶13, §54¶1, §54¶1, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶7, §54¶7, §57¶6, §66¶13
heretics (10): §15¶10, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶12, §21¶8, §21¶14, §47¶5, §54¶1, §54¶3, §54¶8
orthodox (14): §15¶10, §15¶11, §21¶8, §21¶14, §21¶15, §37¶24, §37¶24, §47¶3, §47¶4, §54¶1, §54¶2, §54¶3, §54¶7, §66¶13
gnostics (16): §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶11, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶12, §15¶12, §21¶7, §47¶3, §47¶4, §50¶13, §54¶1, §54¶2, §54¶2
reason (23): §15¶11, §15¶19, §21¶8, §21¶14, §23¶2, §23¶2, §37¶24, §44¶26, §44¶31, §47¶4, §47¶6, §51¶45, §53¶24, §53¶24, §54¶1, §54¶2, §54¶3, §54¶7, §54¶8, §66¶13, §66¶13, §66¶13, §68¶6
god (37): §15¶11, §16¶8, §16¶8, §21¶6, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶7, §21¶14, §47¶1, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶4, §47¶4, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶6, §47¶7, §50¶9, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶13, §50¶23, §51¶45, §51¶45, §51¶45, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶7, §54¶7
body (13): §15¶12, §15¶19, §44¶26, §47¶1, §47¶4, §47¶4, §47¶5, §47¶6, §47¶6, §54¶2, §54¶2, §54¶7, §66¶13
spiritual (16): §15¶12, §16¶13, §21¶7, §21¶8, §47¶3, §47¶6, §50¶23, §53¶24, §53¶24, §54¶2, §54¶3, §54¶3, §54¶7, §54¶8, §54¶8, §57¶6
zeal (15): §15¶19, §15¶19, §16¶13, §16¶13, §21¶14, §37¶24, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶7, §50¶23, §51¶45, §53¶24, §54¶3, §54¶3, §54¶8
son (19): §16¶8, §21¶6, §21¶7, §21¶14, §21¶14, §21¶14, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶5, §47¶6, §49¶17, §50¶13, §50¶13, §57¶6, §66¶13
person (14): §21¶7, §21¶7, §44¶26, §44¶26, §47¶1, §47¶3, §47¶6, §47¶6, §47¶7, §50¶13, §50¶23, §50¶23, §50¶23, §54¶2
substance (11): §21¶7, §21¶8, §21¶14, §21¶14, §21¶14, §47¶3, §47¶3, §47¶4, §54¶2, §54¶8, §66¶13
catholics (16): §21¶14, §37¶24, §37¶24, §47¶4, §47¶6, §47¶7, §49¶17, §49¶17, §50¶9, §54¶1, §54¶1, §54¶3, §54¶3, §54¶7, §54¶8, §57¶6
creed (13): §21¶15, §21¶15, §23¶2, §47¶1, §47¶6, §50¶9, §50¶23, §51¶45, §54¶1, §54¶2, §54¶7, §57¶6, §66¶13
conversion (3): §47¶4, §50¶23, §54¶3
images (11): §49¶17, §49¶17, §49¶17, §49¶17, §49¶17, §49¶17, §50¶9, §53¶24, §53¶24, §54¶3, §54¶8
various (25): §2¶3, §2¶3, §2¶3, §2¶5, §15¶20, §15¶33, §15¶48, §15¶48, §15¶56, §16¶7, §16¶56, §17¶35, §20¶2, §20¶14, §21¶1, §21¶9, §22¶13, §26¶5, §27¶11, §28¶14, §29¶11, §38¶16, §38¶21, §39¶19, §40¶29
pagan (20): §2¶3, §15¶13, §15¶28, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶11, §16¶28, §20¶5, §20¶6, §21¶40, §21¶41, §23¶5, §23¶13, §23¶23, §25¶1, §28¶2, §28¶9, §28¶10, §40¶29, §49¶1
ancient (45): §2¶3, §2¶32, §8¶10, §9¶18, §9¶20, §10¶5, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶20, §15¶21, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶52, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶22, §16¶40, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶56, §16¶60, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶23, §23¶24, §24¶2, §24¶5, §25¶1, §26¶5, §26¶5, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶10, §28¶10, §29¶11, §34¶3, §34¶3, §36¶18, §40¶13
character (38): §2¶3, §4¶1, §4¶19, §8¶9, §15¶7, §15¶45, §15¶48, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶28, §16¶38, §16¶56, §16¶60, §20¶6, §20¶14, §21¶1, §21¶5, §21¶9, §21¶39, §21¶40, §23¶1, §23¶5, §23¶10, §23¶23, §24¶2, §27¶7, §28¶2, §28¶8, §29¶11, §34¶3, §34¶3, §36¶18, §38¶16, §40¶29, §44¶29, §50¶8, §50¶18, §53¶12
faith (64): §2¶3, §2¶5, §8¶10, §9¶18, §15¶2, §15¶6, §15¶16, §15¶20, §15¶20, §15¶20, §15¶21, §15¶23, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶28, §15¶49, §15¶52, §15¶56, §15¶57, §15¶58, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶11, §16¶28, §16¶28, §16¶30, §16¶36, §16¶40, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶41, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶14, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶1, §21¶9, §21¶39, §21¶40, §23¶1, §23¶4, §23¶8, §23¶13, §23¶13, §27¶7, §27¶7, §27¶7, §27¶11, §28¶8, §28¶10, §28¶10, §28¶14, §29¶11, §36¶18, §37¶1, §38¶46, §39¶20, §40¶29, §50¶12, §50¶18, §50¶41, §50¶41
virtue (34): §2¶3, §3¶29, §4¶1, §6¶34, §8¶7, §9¶18, §14¶18, §15¶15, §15¶31, §15¶33, §15¶44, §15¶48, §15¶62, §16¶22, §20¶6, §20¶6, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §21¶40, §22¶13, §23¶23, §25¶14, §27¶7, §28¶9, §28¶14, §39¶19, §39¶20, §50¶12, §50¶18, §50¶18, §50¶41, §53¶12, §63¶2
superstition (46): §2¶3, §2¶5, §8¶9, §10¶5, §15¶15, §15¶15, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶49, §15¶62, §16¶7, §16¶7, §16¶11, §16¶36, §16¶41, §20¶6, §20¶15, §21¶41, §21¶43, §23¶4, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶13, §25¶1, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶9, §34¶3, §36¶18, §38¶46, §40¶29, §40¶29, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶16, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶18, §50¶41, §53¶12
divine (49): §2¶3, §2¶4, §2¶4, §8¶6, §8¶7, §15¶2, §15¶6, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶7, §15¶15, §15¶20, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶28, §15¶43, §15¶46, §15¶56, §15¶61, §16¶3, §16¶7, §16¶7, §16¶38, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶14, §21¶5, §21¶9, §21¶9, §22¶13, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶5, §23¶8, §25¶1, §27¶7, §27¶7, §28¶14, §34¶3, §34¶3, §37¶1, §37¶1, §39¶20, §49¶1, §50¶12, §50¶18, §50¶41
mankind (49): §2¶3, §2¶32, §3¶29, §4¶2, §6¶1, §6¶34, §15¶6, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶7, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶14, §15¶15, §15¶20, §15¶20, §15¶21, §15¶25, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶33, §15¶45, §15¶48, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶56, §15¶61, §16¶3, §16¶6, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶28, §20¶5, §21¶9, §21¶41, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶5, §23¶13, §27¶11, §28¶8, §34¶3, §37¶1, §37¶6, §39¶20, §50¶18, §50¶18, §50¶41
worship (67): §2¶3, §2¶5, §6¶34, §8¶6, §8¶6, §9¶20, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶14, §15¶23, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶45, §15¶48, §16¶3, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶28, §16¶40, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶56, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶15, §20¶15, §21¶9, §21¶9, §21¶41, §23¶4, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶13, §24¶5, §25¶1, §27¶7, §27¶32, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶10, §28¶11, §28¶14, §34¶3, §36¶18, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶16, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶12, §50¶41
nature (58): §2¶3, §2¶4, §2¶4, §8¶6, §8¶6, §9¶20, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶21, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶31, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶45, §15¶46, §15¶48, §15¶62, §16¶7, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶30, §16¶36, §16¶56, §17¶35, §17¶35, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶14, §21¶1, §21¶5, §21¶5, §21¶9, §21¶9, §22¶13, §23¶4, §23¶5, §23¶7, §23¶13, §24¶5, §25¶1, §26¶2, §27¶7, §27¶11, §27¶11, §27¶11, §28¶14, §34¶3, §39¶19, §40¶29, §40¶29, §44¶29, §44¶29, §50¶12, §53¶12
gods (53): §2¶3, §2¶4, §2¶4, §2¶5, §4¶2, §6¶34, §8¶6, §15¶14, §15¶14, §15¶15, §15¶23, §15¶25, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶56, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶3, §20¶15, §21¶5, §21¶39, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §22¶13, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶5, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶8, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶13, §24¶2, §28¶2, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶10, §28¶10, §36¶18, §50¶8, §50¶8
world (72): §2¶3, §2¶3, §2¶4, §2¶32, §4¶19, §6¶34, §8¶9, §8¶10, §15¶1, §15¶7, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶20, §15¶23, §15¶23, §15¶28, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶49, §15¶57, §15¶61, §16¶3, §16¶6, §16¶28, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶5, §21¶5, §21¶9, §21¶41, §22¶13, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶23, §25¶1, §25¶14, §26¶2, §26¶5, §27¶7, §27¶11, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶9, §28¶10, §28¶10, §28¶12, §28¶14, §28¶14, §29¶11, §34¶3, §36¶18, §37¶1, §37¶1, §38¶46, §39¶19, §39¶20, §40¶29, §40¶29, §50¶12, §50¶41, §52¶11, §63¶2
religious (59): §2¶3, §2¶4, §8¶6, §9¶20, §9¶20, §15¶23, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶45, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶56, §16¶3, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶28, §16¶28, §16¶40, §16¶41, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶14, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶9, §21¶39, §21¶39, §23¶1, §23¶4, §23¶6, §23¶8, §23¶10, §23¶24, §24¶5, §25¶1, §27¶7, §27¶11, §27¶11, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶9, §28¶10, §28¶12, §28¶14, §29¶11, §34¶3, §36¶18, §37¶1, §38¶46, §38¶46, §44¶29, §49¶1, §49¶1, §50¶41, §50¶41
philosopher (18): §2¶4, §4¶2, §15¶13, §15¶49, §17¶35, §21¶39, §21¶43, §22¶13, §23¶6, §23¶8, §23¶23, §24¶5, §28¶9, §36¶18, §39¶19, §40¶29, §40¶29, §53¶12
man (24): §2¶4, §3¶29, §4¶2, §6¶34, §15¶20, §15¶49, §21¶40, §22¶13, §28¶2, §34¶3, §37¶1, §37¶6, §40¶13, §40¶29, §44¶29, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶12, §50¶18, §50¶18, §50¶41, §50¶41, §52¶11
god (45): §2¶4, §2¶4, §8¶6, §10¶5, §10¶5, §15¶6, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶7, §15¶13, §16¶7, §20¶2, §20¶3, §20¶3, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶14, §21¶9, §21¶39, §23¶4, §23¶10, §23¶23, §27¶7, §28¶14, §34¶3, §34¶3, §37¶1, §37¶6, §40¶29, §49¶1, §49¶1, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶12, §50¶12, §50¶12, §50¶12, §50¶12, §50¶18, §50¶18, §50¶41, §50¶41, §50¶41, §50¶41, §50¶41
empire (56): §2¶4, §4¶2, §4¶19, §6¶1, §15¶1, §15¶1, §15¶16, §15¶20, §15¶21, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶48, §15¶56, §15¶57, §15¶62, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶36, §16¶40, §16¶40, §16¶56, §16¶56, §17¶35, §17¶35, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶15, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §21¶43, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶8, §23¶13, §25¶14, §26¶5, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶10, §29¶11, §29¶11, §34¶3, §34¶3, §38¶16, §38¶46, §38¶46, §40¶29, §49¶16, §50¶41, §52¶11, §53¶12, §63¶2
society (42): §2¶4, §3¶29, §14¶18, §15¶6, §15¶14, §15¶21, §15¶27, §15¶28, §15¶31, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶45, §15¶45, §15¶45, §15¶58, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶28, §16¶56, §17¶35, §20¶6, §21¶9, §21¶40, §22¶13, §25¶14, §26¶5, §27¶30, §28¶9, §36¶18, §37¶1, §37¶1, §38¶16, §38¶16, §38¶16, §38¶16, §38¶46, §44¶29, §44¶29
reason (50): §2¶4, §2¶4, §2¶5, §8¶7, §8¶9, §9¶20, §9¶20, §15¶23, §15¶23, §15¶27, §15¶33, §15¶44, §15¶49, §15¶61, §15¶61, §16¶3, §16¶7, §16¶7, §16¶41, §16¶56, §20¶6, §20¶14, §21¶5, §21¶40, §21¶43, §22¶13, §23¶7, §23¶8, §25¶1, §27¶7, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶10, §28¶12, §28¶12, §37¶1, §38¶16, §39¶19, §40¶29, §40¶29, §44¶29, §49¶1, §49¶16, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶41, §52¶11, §53¶12, §63¶2
public (63): §2¶4, §2¶4, §4¶1, §4¶19, §6¶34, §14¶18, §15¶14, §15¶14, §15¶15, §15¶16, §15¶25, §15¶33, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶44, §15¶44, §15¶46, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶52, §15¶52, §15¶58, §16¶9, §16¶22, §16¶36, §16¶38, §16¶38, §16¶40, §16¶56, §16¶56, §17¶35, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶39, §21¶41, §21¶41, §22¶13, §22¶13, §23¶7, §23¶8, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶23, §24¶2, §27¶7, §27¶30, §28¶9, §28¶9, §36¶18, §38¶16, §38¶46, §40¶13, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶12, §53¶12, §53¶12
human (54): §2¶4, §6¶34, §8¶6, §8¶7, §9¶20, §9¶20, §9¶20, §10¶5, §15¶1, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶13, §15¶13, §15¶21, §15¶23, §15¶28, §15¶33, §15¶43, §15¶49, §15¶49, §15¶58, §15¶62, §16¶7, §16¶7, §16¶28, §16¶30, §16¶60, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §21¶5, §21¶9, §23¶4, §23¶7, §23¶13, §25¶1, §26¶2, §27¶7, §27¶11, §27¶32, §28¶14, §28¶14, §34¶3, §34¶3, §38¶16, §39¶19, §40¶29, §40¶29, §49¶1, §49¶1, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶18, §50¶41
religion (99): §2¶4, §3¶29, §8¶7, §8¶7, §8¶9, §15¶1, §15¶1, §15¶2, §15¶6, §15¶6, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶14, §15¶16, §15¶20, §15¶25, §15¶25, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶48, §15¶56, §15¶58, §16¶3, §16¶6, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶36, §16¶38, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶56, §16¶56, §16¶60, §16¶60, §20¶2, §20¶3, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §21¶1, §21¶40, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §21¶43, §22¶13, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶4, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶23, §23¶24, §24¶2, §24¶5, §27¶7, §27¶7, §28¶2, §28¶2, §28¶2, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶9, §28¶10, §37¶1, §38¶46, §38¶46, §40¶29, §40¶29, §49¶1, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶18, §50¶18, §50¶41, §50¶41
temples (28): §2¶5, §4¶2, §8¶6, §9¶20, §15¶6, §15¶13, §15¶14, §15¶48, §15¶49, §16¶6, §16¶7, §20¶3, §21¶39, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §23¶4, §23¶10, §25¶1, §27¶7, §27¶32, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶10, §49¶1, §50¶12
age (56): §2¶5, §4¶2, §6¶1, §8¶6, §8¶7, §15¶2, §15¶23, §15¶44, §15¶58, §15¶62, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶40, §20¶3, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §21¶9, §21¶9, §21¶9, §21¶39, §23¶1, §23¶5, §23¶6, §24¶2, §25¶14, §26¶2, §26¶5, §27¶7, §27¶7, §27¶30, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶2, §28¶9, §28¶10, §28¶10, §29¶11, §29¶11, §29¶11, §29¶11, §34¶3, §34¶3, §37¶1, §38¶16, §38¶46, §39¶20, §40¶13, §44¶29, §44¶29, §44¶29, §49¶1, §50¶8, §50¶8
reign (42): §3¶29, §14¶18, §14¶18, §15¶21, §15¶21, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶52, §16¶36, §16¶40, §16¶41, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶3, §20¶14, §22¶13, §22¶13, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶24, §23¶24, §25¶1, §25¶1, §26¶5, §27¶7, §27¶30, §27¶32, §28¶11, §28¶14, §29¶11, §36¶18, §37¶1, §38¶16, §39¶20, §40¶13, §40¶13, §40¶29, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶12, §63¶2
private (34): §3¶29, §4¶1, §6¶34, §6¶34, §15¶14, §15¶15, §15¶16, §15¶44, §15¶45, §15¶58, §16¶6, §16¶9, §16¶9, §16¶40, §16¶56, §20¶6, §21¶9, §22¶13, §23¶6, §25¶14, §27¶30, §28¶8, §38¶16, §38¶21, §38¶46, §44¶29, §44¶29, §49¶1, §50¶12, §50¶41, §52¶11, §52¶11, §53¶12, §53¶12
life (58): §3¶29, §4¶2, §4¶10, §4¶19, §4¶19, §6¶1, §6¶34, §8¶7, §9¶20, §14¶18, §15¶14, §15¶21, §15¶25, §15¶31, §15¶45, §15¶46, §15¶48, §15¶48, §15¶58, §15¶62, §16¶9, §16¶22, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶30, §16¶60, §20¶6, §21¶9, §21¶39, §21¶40, §22¶13, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶7, §26¶2, §27¶7, §27¶30, §29¶11, §34¶3, §36¶18, §37¶1, §37¶1, §37¶6, §38¶16, §38¶46, §39¶20, §40¶29, §44¶29, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶18, §50¶18, §52¶11, §52¶11, §63¶2
passions (25): §4¶1, §14¶18, §15¶49, §20¶2, §20¶6, §21¶1, §21¶9, §21¶40, §22¶13, §23¶1, §23¶7, §23¶8, §23¶13, §27¶7, §27¶30, §28¶14, §29¶11, §29¶11, §34¶3, §37¶1, §38¶46, §50¶41, §50¶41, §50¶41, §63¶2
time (40): §4¶1, §6¶34, §8¶6, §14¶18, §15¶7, §15¶14, §15¶21, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶28, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶46, §15¶49, §15¶56, §15¶61, §15¶62, §16¶11, §16¶36, §16¶41, §16¶60, §21¶41, §22¶13, §22¶13, §23¶5, §23¶6, §23¶10, §23¶13, §26¶5, §28¶10, §28¶14, §38¶16, §39¶19, §44¶29, §44¶29, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶41, §52¶11
deity (34): §4¶2, §9¶20, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶45, §16¶7, §16¶41, §16¶56, §20¶3, §20¶3, §20¶5, §20¶6, §21¶5, §23¶1, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶10, §23¶23, §23¶24, §23¶24, §27¶7, §27¶32, §28¶10, §34¶3, §34¶3, §39¶19, §49¶1, §50¶8, §50¶41, §50¶41
death (46): §4¶10, §14¶18, §15¶21, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶44, §15¶46, §15¶46, §15¶56, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶22, §16¶22, §16¶22, §16¶36, §16¶56, §16¶60, §16¶60, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶15, §21¶9, §21¶39, §22¶13, §22¶13, §23¶7, §23¶13, §27¶11, §27¶11, §27¶11, §27¶11, §27¶11, §28¶9, §28¶9, §28¶10, §28¶14, §37¶1, §39¶19, §39¶19, §39¶19, §40¶29, §44¶29, §49¶16, §53¶12, §53¶12
laws (44): §4¶19, §9¶18, §14¶18, §15¶6, §15¶21, §15¶25, §15¶33, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶48, §16¶6, §16¶6, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶56, §16¶56, §16¶56, §16¶60, §20¶6, §22¶13, §23¶1, §23¶4, §23¶6, §23¶7, §26¶5, §27¶11, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶9, §28¶9, §28¶10, §29¶11, §38¶16, §38¶16, §38¶16, §38¶16, §38¶16, §39¶20, §40¶29, §44¶29, §44¶29, §50¶41, §52¶11, §53¶12
truth (28): §6¶1, §9¶18, §15¶7, §15¶20, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶56, §15¶62, §16¶7, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶41, §20¶2, §20¶6, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §21¶1, §23¶7, §23¶23, §26¶5, §27¶30, §28¶12, §40¶13
mind (42): §6¶1, §6¶34, §6¶34, §8¶7, §9¶20, §15¶21, §15¶27, §15¶33, §16¶3, §16¶11, §16¶30, §16¶40, §16¶56, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §21¶1, §21¶5, §21¶5, §22¶13, §22¶13, §23¶4, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶8, §25¶1, §26¶2, §27¶7, §27¶7, §27¶32, §28¶14, §39¶20, §40¶29, §49¶1, §50¶12, §52¶11
subjects (35): §6¶34, §15¶57, §16¶6, §16¶9, §17¶35, §20¶2, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶15, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §22¶13, §23¶10, §23¶13, §24¶2, §25¶1, §26¶5, §26¶5, §27¶11, §27¶30, §27¶30, §27¶32, §28¶9, §28¶9, §29¶11, §34¶3, §34¶3, §38¶16, §38¶16, §40¶13, §40¶29, §52¶11, §52¶11, §53¶12
use (36): §6¶34, §8¶6, §9¶18, §9¶20, §15¶33, §15¶33, §15¶43, §16¶6, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶38, §16¶41, §20¶5, §21¶1, §23¶6, §25¶14, §26¶2, §26¶2, §26¶5, §27¶7, §27¶11, §28¶8, §37¶1, §37¶1, §37¶6, §38¶16, §40¶13, §40¶13, §40¶13, §44¶29, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶1, §50¶8, §50¶18, §52¶11
devotion (46): §6¶34, §8¶7, §8¶10, §15¶7, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶13, §15¶14, §15¶31, §15¶48, §15¶48, §15¶57, §16¶7, §16¶28, §16¶30, §16¶40, §16¶41, §20¶3, §20¶14, §20¶15, §21¶9, §21¶43, §23¶1, §23¶4, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶23, §23¶24, §24¶5, §25¶1, §27¶7, §27¶11, §28¶9, §28¶10, §34¶3, §34¶3, §38¶46, §49¶16, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶41
happiness (25): §8¶9, §15¶7, §15¶14, §15¶20, §15¶61, §16¶28, §17¶35, §20¶5, §21¶39, §22¶13, §24¶2, §24¶2, §25¶14, §28¶14, §29¶11, §37¶1, §38¶46, §39¶19, §44¶29, §50¶18, §50¶18, §52¶11, §52¶11, §52¶11, §53¶12
church (85): §8¶9, §15¶2, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶15, §15¶20, §15¶20, §15¶21, §15¶21, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶25, §15¶25, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶27, §15¶31, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶44, §15¶45, §15¶46, §15¶46, §15¶48, §15¶52, §15¶52, §16¶6, §16¶11, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶30, §16¶36, §16¶38, §16¶38, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶41, §16¶60, §16¶60, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶14, §20¶15, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶1, §21¶1, §21¶1, §21¶40, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶24, §23¶24, §23¶24, §23¶24, §24¶2, §25¶1, §25¶14, §27¶7, §27¶7, §27¶11, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶10, §28¶10, §28¶12, §28¶14, §36¶18, §36¶18, §37¶6, §38¶46, §40¶29, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶16, §49¶16, §50¶41, §50¶41, §53¶12, §53¶12
temple (25): §9¶20, §10¶5, §10¶5, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶48, §16¶40, §20¶15, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶23, §23¶23, §23¶23, §23¶23, §23¶24, §23¶24, §24¶5, §25¶1, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶8, §50¶12, §50¶41
sacred (27): §10¶5, §15¶7, §15¶15, §15¶15, §15¶21, §15¶44, §15¶48, §16¶6, §16¶6, §16¶6, §16¶28, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶9, §21¶41, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶24, §25¶1, §28¶2, §28¶8, §34¶3, §36¶18, §38¶46, §50¶8, §53¶12
constantine (47): §14¶18, §14¶18, §15¶21, §15¶57, §17¶35, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶3, §20¶3, §20¶3, §20¶3, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶6, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶15, §20¶15, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶1, §21¶1, §21¶1, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §23¶1, §23¶7, §27¶30, §27¶32, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶10, §28¶10, §28¶11, §37¶1, §38¶46, §49¶1, §49¶16
zeal (48): §15¶1, §15¶6, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶16, §15¶48, §15¶48, §15¶52, §15¶57, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶28, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶60, §16¶60, §20¶2, §21¶1, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶41, §21¶43, §23¶1, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶10, §23¶24, §23¶24, §23¶24, §24¶5, §24¶5, §25¶1, §27¶7, §27¶7, §27¶11, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶9, §36¶18, §37¶1, §38¶46, §49¶1, §49¶16, §50¶12
christianity (48): §15¶1, §15¶1, §15¶7, §15¶7, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶28, §15¶33, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶49, §15¶52, §15¶52, §15¶56, §15¶56, §15¶57, §15¶61, §16¶3, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶40, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶2, §20¶6, §20¶14, §20¶14, §21¶1, §21¶43, §21¶43, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶7, §23¶8, §23¶8, §23¶24, §25¶1, §25¶14, §27¶32, §28¶8, §28¶9, §36¶18, §38¶16, §38¶46, §38¶46
christian (72): §15¶2, §15¶7, §15¶13, §15¶14, §15¶14, §15¶14, §15¶14, §15¶21, §15¶25, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶28, §15¶33, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶45, §15¶45, §15¶45, §15¶45, §15¶46, §15¶46, §15¶48, §15¶58, §15¶62, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶28, §16¶28, §16¶30, §16¶38, §16¶40, §16¶60, §20¶2, §20¶3, §20¶5, §20¶14, §20¶14, §20¶15, §20¶15, §20¶15, §20¶15, §21¶1, §21¶9, §21¶41, §22¶13, §23¶1, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶24, §24¶2, §24¶5, §24¶5, §25¶14, §27¶11, §27¶11, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶10, §28¶10, §28¶11, §28¶12, §36¶18, §40¶29, §40¶29, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶1, §49¶1, §50¶8, §50¶41
pagans (30): §15¶6, §15¶14, §15¶14, §15¶23, §15¶23, §15¶27, §15¶44, §15¶52, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶22, §16¶41, §20¶2, §20¶3, §20¶14, §21¶41, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶8, §23¶10, §23¶13, §28¶2, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶8, §28¶9, §28¶9, §36¶18
christians (88): §15¶13, §15¶13, §15¶15, §15¶15, §15¶16, §15¶20, §15¶20, §15¶23, §15¶23, §15¶25, §15¶27, §15¶28, §15¶31, §15¶33, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶43, §15¶44, §15¶45, §15¶48, §15¶52, §15¶52, §15¶52, §15¶57, §15¶58, §15¶61, §15¶62, §16¶3, §16¶6, §16¶6, §16¶6, §16¶7, §16¶9, §16¶9, §16¶9, §16¶11, §16¶11, §16¶11, §16¶22, §16¶28, §16¶28, §16¶36, §16¶36, §16¶36, §16¶36, §16¶40, §16¶40, §16¶40, §16¶41, §16¶41, §16¶56, §16¶56, §16¶56, §16¶60, §16¶60, §20¶2, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶5, §20¶6, §21¶9, §21¶9, §21¶9, §21¶9, §21¶40, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶24, §23¶24, §23¶24, §23¶24, §25¶1, §25¶1, §27¶32, §28¶2, §28¶10, §28¶14, §28¶14, §36¶18, §37¶1, §37¶1, §49¶1, §50¶12, §50¶18, §50¶41
practice (29): §15¶14, §15¶15, §15¶20, §15¶31, §15¶33, §15¶44, §15¶46, §15¶48, §15¶49, §15¶62, §16¶11, §16¶56, §20¶3, §20¶6, §20¶14, §21¶40, §23¶4, §23¶10, §26¶2, §27¶11, §28¶2, §28¶2, §28¶12, §37¶1, §37¶6, §40¶29, §49¶1, §50¶8, §50¶8
julian (57): §22¶13, §22¶13, §22¶13, §22¶13, §22¶13, §22¶13, §22¶13, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶1, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶4, §23¶5, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶6, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶7, §23¶8, §23¶8, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶10, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶13, §23¶24, §23¶24, §23¶24, §23¶24, §24¶2, §24¶2, §24¶2, §24¶5, §24¶5, §24¶5, §24¶5, §24¶5, §25¶1, §40¶29
ocean (40): §1¶3, §1¶22, §1¶22, §1¶37, §1¶37, §1¶37, §1¶39, §7¶36, §9¶2, §11¶35, §12¶22, §18¶12, §19¶29, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶20, §26¶7, §26¶7, §30¶18, §31¶38, §33¶5, §35¶12, §35¶14, §35¶18, §37¶17, §38¶48, §39¶10, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶14, §41¶13, §41¶15, §43¶2, §49¶21, §51¶34, §51¶34, §52¶6, §64¶7, §64¶10, §65¶12
west (44): §1¶3, §1¶26, §2¶25, §2¶26, §9¶2, §13¶38, §14¶31, §17¶3, §19¶17, §19¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶11, §30¶13, §33¶15, §37¶3, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶9, §39¶9, §39¶10, §40¶14, §40¶14, §41¶14, §41¶15, §42¶4, §45¶14, §51¶23, §51¶34, §55¶17, §60¶12, §64¶5, §64¶9, §65¶12, §70¶26
africa (45): §1¶3, §1¶37, §1¶37, §1¶37, §2¶26, §7¶35, §10¶24, §12¶22, §13¶15, §13¶15, §14¶35, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶26, §31¶31, §31¶31, §33¶4, §33¶5, §33¶11, §33¶11, §34¶7, §35¶18, §35¶18, §36¶14, §37¶17, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶42, §41¶5, §41¶13, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶26, §43¶2, §43¶2, §43¶2, §50¶3, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶38, §53¶2, §53¶2, §65¶12
europe (61): §1¶3, §1¶34, §1¶34, §1¶34, §2¶26, §2¶26, §7¶35, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶20, §9¶2, §10¶34, §10¶34, §11¶8, §11¶35, §12¶20, §14¶35, §14¶37, §14¶37, §17¶3, §17¶4, §17¶6, §17¶6, §17¶7, §17¶8, §17¶8, §25¶36, §26¶10, §30¶13, §34¶5, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶12, §38¶4, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶48, §38¶48, §39¶9, §40¶22, §40¶22, §42¶4, §49¶21, §51¶8, §51¶38, §51¶50, §52¶6, §53¶2, §56¶25, §60¶8, §60¶12, §64¶9, §64¶10, §65¶12, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶13, §70¶26
north (49): §1¶3, §1¶26, §2¶25, §2¶26, §6¶5, §8¶14, §9¶2, §13¶38, §13¶38, §17¶8, §19¶17, §23¶15, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶12, §30¶12, §30¶13, §33¶5, §35¶12, §35¶14, §38¶35, §38¶48, §40¶14, §41¶5, §42¶4, §45¶14, §49¶21, §51¶8, §51¶23, §51¶38, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶9, §64¶9, §68¶13, §70¶26
conquest (58): §1¶3, §1¶6, §1¶26, §1¶27, §2¶1, §6¶5, §6¶48, §8¶15, §10¶10, §10¶34, §14¶35, §26¶3, §26¶7, §26¶8, §31¶26, §31¶38, §33¶11, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶18, §35¶18, §35¶18, §37¶17, §38¶4, §38¶4, §38¶12, §38¶28, §38¶33, §38¶33, §38¶35, §38¶35, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶9, §39¶10, §41¶14, §41¶26, §42¶4, §45¶15, §49¶21, §49¶21, §51¶8, §51¶38, §53¶2, §53¶14, §55¶17, §55¶17, §55¶17, §60¶8, §60¶12, §60¶12, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶9, §65¶12
soon (92): §1¶3, §1¶3, §1¶6, §1¶22, §1¶28, §2¶26, §6¶5, §7¶36, §8¶2, §10¶30, §10¶32, §10¶33, §10¶37, §10¶54, §11¶8, §11¶35, §12¶20, §14¶31, §14¶31, §14¶35, §14¶37, §14¶37, §17¶7, §17¶8, §17¶13, §18¶12, §19¶20, §24¶7, §24¶14, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶3, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶11, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶18, §31¶23, §31¶26, §31¶31, §31¶38, §33¶4, §33¶5, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶14, §35¶18, §38¶28, §39¶9, §39¶10, §39¶13, §40¶7, §40¶14, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶26, §41¶26, §42¶4, §42¶13, §43¶2, §45¶14, §45¶15, §51¶8, §51¶26, §52¶16, §52¶16, §52¶16, §55¶17, §56¶3, §56¶3, §63¶13, §64¶4, §64¶7, §64¶9, §65¶12, §65¶12, §68¶14, §70¶26
danube (56): §1¶3, §1¶22, §1¶26, §1¶28, §1¶28, §1¶34, §5¶12, §5¶12, §7¶36, §9¶2, §9¶2, §9¶11, §10¶30, §10¶30, §10¶34, §10¶37, §12¶20, §12¶20, §13¶15, §18¶12, §18¶12, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §31¶38, §33¶15, §34¶5, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶14, §37¶15, §37¶17, §38¶42, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶10, §39¶10, §40¶22, §40¶22, §40¶22, §49¶21, §49¶21, §49¶21, §53¶2, §55¶1, §56¶25, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶10
roman (123): §1¶3, §1¶6, §1¶22, §1¶22, §1¶26, §1¶26, §1¶27, §1¶27, §1¶33, §1¶33, §1¶34, §1¶34, §1¶34, §1¶37, §1¶39, §2¶1, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §4¶17, §4¶17, §5¶12, §6¶5, §6¶48, §6¶54, §6¶54, §7¶35, §7¶36, §7¶36, §8¶14, §8¶14, §8¶14, §8¶15, §9¶2, §10¶32, §10¶37, §10¶54, §11¶24, §11¶35, §13¶15, §13¶38, §17¶10, §17¶10, §19¶17, §19¶20, §19¶29, §24¶7, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶14, §24¶14, §25¶20, §25¶36, §25¶36, §26¶10, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶17, §30¶17, §31¶10, §31¶23, §31¶31, §31¶38, §33¶4, §33¶5, §33¶15, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶18, §37¶3, §37¶3, §37¶15, §37¶15, §38¶28, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶10, §39¶10, §39¶13, §40¶7, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §42¶4, §43¶2, §43¶2, §45¶14, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶26, §51¶34, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §55¶1, §55¶1, §60¶8, §64¶10, §68¶13, §70¶26
miles (87): §1¶3, §1¶6, §1¶28, §1¶28, §1¶37, §1¶37, §1¶39, §1¶39, §1¶39, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §8¶14, §8¶14, §8¶15, §10¶8, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶35, §10¶36, §10¶53, §11¶24, §11¶24, §11¶35, §12¶20, §13¶38, §13¶38, §14¶31, §17¶4, §17¶5, §17¶6, §17¶7, §17¶7, §17¶7, §17¶10, §17¶10, §19¶20, §23¶15, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶14, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶11, §31¶26, §33¶4, §34¶7, §37¶3, §38¶4, §39¶9, §39¶13, §39¶13, §40¶22, §40¶22, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶14, §41¶27, §42¶4, §42¶13, §42¶13, §42¶13, §49¶21, §50¶3, §50¶3, §50¶3, §50¶3, §52¶6, §53¶14, §53¶14, §56¶3, §64¶5, §68¶8, §68¶14
empire (132): §1¶3, §1¶22, §1¶28, §1¶33, §1¶33, §1¶37, §1¶39, §2¶1, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶26, §2¶26, §4¶17, §5¶12, §6¶48, §6¶48, §6¶48, §7¶35, §7¶36, §7¶36, §8¶12, §8¶14, §8¶15, §9¶2, §10¶53, §10¶54, §11¶8, §11¶14, §11¶24, §12¶20, §12¶20, §12¶22, §13¶15, §13¶38, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶37, §17¶7, §17¶13, §17¶13, §18¶12, §19¶20, §25¶36, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶17, §30¶17, §31¶23, §31¶23, §33¶4, §33¶15, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶14, §35¶14, §35¶14, §35¶18, §35¶18, §36¶14, §37¶3, §37¶3, §37¶15, §37¶15, §37¶17, §38¶4, §38¶12, §38¶28, §38¶42, §38¶42, §38¶48, §38¶48, §39¶10, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶5, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶26, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §45¶14, §45¶14, §45¶14, §49¶21, §49¶21, §49¶21, §49¶21, §51¶23, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶14, §55¶1, §55¶1, §56¶3, §56¶3, §56¶25, §56¶25, §60¶8, §60¶12, §63¶13, §63¶13, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶9, §65¶12, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶13
thousand (145): §1¶3, §1¶22, §1¶22, §1¶22, §1¶39, §1¶39, §1¶39, §2¶25, §2¶26, §5¶12, §6¶5, §6¶48, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶14, §8¶14, §8¶14, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶36, §10¶37, §10¶53, §11¶8, §11¶8, §11¶8, §14¶31, §14¶31, §14¶31, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶37, §17¶4, §17¶10, §18¶14, §24¶7, §24¶7, §24¶7, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶11, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶17, §30¶18, §31¶10, §31¶31, §31¶31, §33¶5, §33¶5, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶14, §37¶2, §37¶2, §37¶2, §37¶3, §37¶3, §37¶3, §38¶12, §38¶12, §38¶48, §39¶10, §39¶10, §39¶10, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §42¶4, §42¶4, §43¶2, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶26, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶34, §52¶6, §52¶16, §53¶14, §53¶14, §53¶14, §53¶14, §55¶1, §55¶1, §57¶3, §57¶3, §57¶3, §57¶3, §57¶3, §60¶12, §63¶13, §63¶13, §64¶4, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶9, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶13
barbarians (114): §1¶3, §1¶6, §1¶22, §1¶26, §1¶31, §2¶26, §5¶12, §6¶5, §7¶35, §7¶36, §8¶12, §8¶20, §9¶5, §9¶11, §10¶8, §10¶24, §10¶24, §10¶30, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶36, §10¶36, §10¶37, §10¶54, §11¶8, §11¶8, §11¶24, §12¶20, §12¶22, §12¶22, §13¶15, §13¶15, §13¶15, §17¶7, §17¶8, §17¶10, §19¶17, §19¶17, §19¶20, §19¶20, §19¶20, §19¶20, §24¶7, §24¶9, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶11, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶18, §30¶18, §30¶18, §31¶23, §31¶26, §31¶38, §33¶4, §33¶5, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶14, §37¶3, §37¶15, §37¶17, §38¶33, §38¶35, §38¶48, §39¶9, §39¶13, §40¶22, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶15, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §42¶4, §43¶2, §43¶2, §45¶15, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶34, §51¶50, §53¶2, §55¶1, §55¶17, §64¶5, §68¶8, §70¶26
valour (47): §1¶6, §4¶17, §8¶12, §10¶10, §13¶15, §14¶31, §14¶35, §24¶7, §24¶14, §24¶14, §25¶20, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶12, §30¶12, §30¶18, §31¶26, §33¶15, §35¶14, §36¶14, §38¶4, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶26, §41¶27, §42¶4, §43¶2, §53¶14, §56¶3, §56¶3, §57¶3, §60¶12, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶10, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶21
province (65): §1¶6, §1¶22, §1¶26, §1¶27, §1¶31, §1¶33, §1¶33, §1¶33, §1¶34, §1¶34, §1¶37, §1¶37, §2¶26, §2¶26, §6¶5, §8¶12, §8¶15, §9¶2, §10¶8, §10¶24, §10¶24, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶54, §13¶15, §13¶15, §13¶38, §25¶36, §26¶9, §26¶9, §30¶2, §30¶17, §31¶23, §31¶31, §31¶38, §31¶38, §33¶4, §34¶7, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶18, §37¶3, §38¶4, §38¶12, §39¶13, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶26, §41¶26, §43¶2, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §49¶21, §50¶3, §51¶8, §51¶23, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶34, §53¶2, §53¶2, §56¶3
cities (77): §1¶6, §2¶25, §4¶17, §7¶22, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶12, §8¶12, §8¶14, §10¶8, §10¶24, §10¶34, §10¶34, §10¶36, §11¶8, §13¶15, §14¶35, §17¶4, §17¶7, §17¶13, §19¶20, §19¶20, §19¶29, §24¶14, §24¶14, §25¶36, §26¶8, §30¶11, §31¶23, §31¶38, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶8, §34¶8, §35¶12, §36¶14, §37¶2, §38¶33, §38¶35, §39¶13, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶27, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶13, §43¶2, §45¶14, §49¶21, §49¶21, §50¶3, §51¶8, §51¶26, §51¶34, §52¶6, §52¶6, §52¶16, §55¶1, §57¶3, §57¶3, §60¶8, §60¶8, §63¶13, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶10, §65¶12
country (115): §1¶6, §1¶22, §1¶26, §1¶27, §1¶27, §1¶31, §1¶34, §1¶37, §1¶37, §1¶37, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶26, §2¶26, §4¶17, §5¶12, §6¶5, §7¶22, §7¶35, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶15, §9¶5, §9¶5, §9¶11, §10¶24, §10¶24, §10¶33, §10¶36, §10¶53, §11¶8, §11¶35, §12¶20, §12¶20, §12¶22, §13¶38, §13¶38, §17¶7, §17¶13, §18¶12, §18¶14, §19¶20, §23¶15, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶14, §24¶14, §24¶14, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶10, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶18, §30¶18, §30¶18, §31¶23, §31¶31, §31¶38, §34¶7, §34¶8, §34¶8, §35¶14, §35¶18, §36¶14, §36¶14, §37¶2, §38¶33, §39¶9, §39¶10, §39¶13, §40¶7, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶15, §41¶27, §42¶13, §43¶2, §43¶2, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §49¶21, §49¶21, §51¶34, §51¶34, §52¶6, §52¶16, §53¶14, §56¶3, §57¶3, §57¶3, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶9, §64¶9, §68¶8, §70¶26
vessels (40): §1¶22, §2¶25, §10¶8, §10¶24, §10¶36, §10¶36, §10¶37, §11¶8, §14¶35, §14¶37, §14¶37, §17¶5, §18¶14, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶29, §30¶11, §31¶31, §33¶4, §33¶4, §35¶12, §35¶12, §38¶33, §38¶33, §39¶10, §42¶13, §52¶16, §53¶14, §55¶1, §60¶8, §60¶8, §60¶12, §60¶12, §63¶13, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶14, §68¶14, §68¶14
men (48): §1¶22, §4¶17, §6¶5, §7¶22, §7¶35, §8¶2, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶36, §14¶31, §14¶31, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶37, §17¶13, §19¶29, §24¶7, §26¶3, §26¶7, §26¶9, §30¶12, §30¶13, §33¶5, §33¶5, §33¶5, §34¶8, §37¶2, §38¶12, §38¶12, §39¶10, §40¶14, §41¶13, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §42¶4, §53¶14, §53¶14, §55¶1, §57¶3, §57¶3, §60¶12, §64¶9, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶14
romans (59): §1¶22, §1¶22, §1¶34, §1¶37, §1¶37, §2¶26, §5¶12, §6¶5, §7¶35, §7¶35, §8¶2, §8¶2, §8¶15, §8¶15, §10¶30, §11¶24, §11¶24, §13¶15, §17¶7, §18¶14, §18¶14, §19¶17, §24¶7, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶14, §26¶10, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶6, §30¶6, §30¶18, §33¶4, §33¶11, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶18, §36¶14, §37¶15, §37¶17, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶10, §40¶7, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶13, §41¶15, §41¶26, §42¶4, §43¶2, §43¶2, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶23, §51¶34, §68¶8
fleet (57): §1¶22, §10¶32, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶35, §10¶36, §10¶36, §10¶36, §11¶8, §11¶8, §12¶22, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶37, §14¶37, §24¶7, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶14, §24¶14, §24¶14, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶11, §30¶11, §31¶31, §35¶18, §38¶33, §39¶10, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §51¶23, §52¶6, §53¶14, §53¶14, §53¶14, §60¶8, §60¶12, §60¶12, §60¶12, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶7, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶14, §68¶14
coast (62): §1¶22, §1¶27, §1¶31, §1¶37, §8¶12, §10¶8, §10¶24, §10¶30, §10¶32, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶36, §10¶37, §10¶54, §12¶22, §13¶38, §14¶35, §17¶4, §17¶8, §17¶10, §18¶14, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶6, §30¶11, §30¶13, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶23, §33¶5, §33¶5, §33¶11, §35¶18, §35¶18, §36¶14, §37¶3, §38¶12, §38¶48, §39¶10, §40¶14, §40¶14, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶27, §42¶13, §43¶2, §45¶14, §45¶14, §45¶14, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶34, §55¶1, §55¶17, §55¶17, §60¶8, §70¶26
great (88): §1¶22, §1¶33, §2¶25, §2¶25, §5¶12, §6¶48, §6¶48, §6¶48, §6¶54, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶12, §8¶14, §8¶14, §9¶2, §9¶5, §10¶8, §10¶10, §10¶10, §10¶10, §10¶24, §10¶30, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶36, §10¶37, §10¶53, §10¶54, §11¶8, §11¶24, §13¶38, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶37, §17¶8, §24¶14, §24¶14, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §30¶12, §31¶23, §33¶5, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶12, §37¶15, §38¶4, §38¶48, §39¶9, §39¶9, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶27, §42¶4, §42¶4, §51¶8, §51¶34, §51¶34, §55¶17, §55¶17, §55¶17, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶9, §64¶9, §65¶12, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶14
italy (88): §1¶22, §1¶27, §1¶27, §1¶27, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶26, §2¶26, §2¶26, §2¶26, §7¶22, §7¶22, §9¶11, §9¶11, §10¶10, §10¶30, §10¶37, §11¶8, §11¶14, §13¶38, §13¶38, §14¶35, §17¶13, §26¶3, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶6, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶18, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶26, §31¶31, §31¶31, §31¶31, §33¶11, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §36¶14, §37¶17, §38¶4, §38¶12, §38¶42, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶10, §39¶10, §39¶10, §39¶13, §41¶15, §41¶26, §43¶2, §45¶14, §45¶14, §45¶14, §45¶15, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §49¶21, §49¶21, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §55¶1, §55¶1, §55¶17, §55¶17, §56¶3, §56¶3, §56¶3, §60¶8, §60¶8, §68¶13, §68¶14, §70¶26, §70¶26, §70¶26
provinces (93): §1¶22, §1¶26, §1¶28, §1¶28, §1¶34, §1¶39, §2¶1, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶26, §6¶48, §6¶48, §6¶54, §6¶54, §7¶36, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶12, §8¶15, §9¶2, §9¶11, §9¶11, §10¶24, §10¶30, §10¶30, §10¶32, §10¶34, §10¶53, §11¶8, §12¶20, §12¶20, §13¶15, §14¶35, §14¶35, §17¶8, §17¶13, §18¶14, §19¶29, §24¶7, §24¶9, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶17, §30¶18, §30¶18, §31¶23, §31¶31, §31¶38, §31¶38, §33¶11, §34¶5, §34¶7, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶18, §37¶3, §38¶4, §38¶4, §38¶28, §39¶13, §39¶13, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶15, §45¶14, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶50, §52¶6, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §55¶1, §55¶17, §56¶3, §60¶12, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶7
sea (128): §1¶22, §1¶22, §1¶27, §1¶31, §1¶33, §2¶1, §2¶25, §2¶26, §8¶12, §8¶12, §8¶12, §9¶2, §10¶8, §10¶10, §10¶30, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶34, §10¶36, §10¶36, §10¶37, §10¶54, §11¶8, §12¶22, §12¶22, §13¶15, §13¶38, §14¶35, §14¶37, §17¶3, §17¶6, §17¶6, §17¶7, §17¶7, §17¶8, §17¶13, §18¶14, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶11, §30¶12, §30¶13, §31¶23, §31¶23, §33¶4, §33¶11, §35¶12, §35¶18, §36¶14, §37¶2, §37¶3, §37¶3, §37¶3, §37¶3, §38¶12, §38¶33, §39¶10, §40¶7, §40¶14, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §42¶13, §42¶13, §50¶3, §50¶3, §50¶3, §51¶8, §51¶23, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶34, §52¶6, §52¶16, §52¶16, §52¶16, §53¶2, §53¶14, §53¶14, §55¶1, §55¶1, §55¶17, §56¶3, §56¶25, §57¶3, §60¶8, §60¶8, §60¶12, §60¶12, §63¶13, §63¶13, §63¶13, §63¶13, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶9, §64¶9, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶14, §70¶26
far (39): §1¶26, §1¶26, §8¶14, §8¶15, §8¶20, §11¶24, §12¶20, §17¶8, §18¶14, §19¶20, §26¶6, §26¶10, §30¶2, §30¶12, §30¶17, §30¶18, §31¶23, §33¶4, §34¶5, §35¶14, §38¶4, §38¶12, §38¶28, §38¶33, §38¶42, §38¶48, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶5, §45¶14, §49¶21, §51¶23, §52¶6, §57¶3, §64¶9, §64¶9, §68¶8, §68¶14, §70¶26
tribes (51): §1¶26, §1¶31, §5¶12, §7¶35, §8¶12, §9¶2, §9¶2, §10¶8, §10¶10, §10¶37, §11¶24, §18¶12, §24¶7, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶17, §35¶14, §35¶14, §38¶28, §38¶33, §38¶48, §38¶48, §39¶9, §39¶10, §41¶13, §42¶4, §43¶2, §50¶3, §50¶3, §57¶3, §57¶3, §57¶3
arms (106): §1¶26, §1¶27, §1¶34, §2¶25, §5¶12, §6¶5, §7¶22, §7¶36, §8¶2, §8¶12, §9¶11, §10¶30, §10¶34, §10¶34, §10¶35, §10¶37, §10¶54, §11¶24, §12¶22, §13¶15, §13¶15, §13¶15, §14¶31, §18¶12, §19¶17, §19¶20, §23¶15, §24¶7, §24¶7, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶10, §30¶2, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶18, §33¶5, §34¶7, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶14, §35¶18, §36¶14, §38¶4, §38¶4, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶9, §39¶10, §39¶10, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶26, §42¶4, §42¶4, §43¶2, §43¶2, §49¶21, §50¶3, §51¶8, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶34, §51¶34, §51¶50, §52¶6, §52¶16, §53¶2, §53¶14, §53¶14, §55¶1, §55¶17, §56¶3, §57¶3, §57¶3, §60¶8, §60¶12, §60¶12, §63¶13, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶7, §64¶9, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶13, §70¶26, §70¶26
ancient (65): §1¶27, §1¶31, §1¶33, §1¶33, §1¶34, §1¶37, §1¶37, §8¶12, §8¶14, §9¶2, §9¶5, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶35, §10¶36, §10¶36, §11¶24, §12¶20, §13¶15, §13¶38, §13¶38, §17¶7, §17¶7, §17¶8, §17¶10, §17¶10, §17¶13, §17¶13, §19¶17, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶14, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §30¶11, §31¶31, §35¶12, §37¶2, §37¶3, §38¶4, §38¶4, §39¶10, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶26, §42¶13, §45¶15, §49¶21, §49¶21, §50¶3, §51¶23, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶26, §51¶34, §53¶2, §53¶14, §55¶1, §57¶3, §64¶7, §64¶9
nations (50): §1¶27, §2¶26, §9¶2, §9¶5, §9¶11, §10¶10, §10¶53, §11¶8, §11¶35, §13¶15, §19¶17, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §30¶12, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶17, §31¶23, §34¶8, §35¶14, §35¶18, §37¶17, §38¶4, §38¶33, §38¶42, §41¶15, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶13, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶34, §53¶14, §55¶17, §57¶3, §60¶12, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶10, §64¶10, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶14
river (50): §1¶27, §1¶34, §1¶34, §10¶10, §10¶10, §10¶24, §10¶30, §10¶33, §10¶35, §14¶31, §17¶5, §17¶7, §18¶12, §19¶20, §19¶29, §19¶29, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶14, §24¶14, §24¶14, §25¶20, §26¶3, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶12, §30¶18, §31¶26, §33¶4, §33¶11, §35¶12, §35¶14, §38¶4, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶26, §42¶4, §42¶13, §49¶21, §51¶8, §51¶26, §51¶26, §51¶34, §57¶3, §64¶4, §64¶7
rome (90): §1¶27, §1¶28, §1¶33, §1¶39, §2¶1, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶26, §2¶26, §2¶26, §4¶17, §5¶12, §6¶5, §6¶48, §7¶35, §8¶15, §8¶15, §8¶20, §10¶30, §10¶37, §10¶53, §11¶24, §11¶35, §11¶35, §13¶15, §13¶15, §17¶10, §17¶13, §17¶13, §17¶13, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶7, §26¶7, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶6, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶18, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶26, §31¶31, §31¶31, §31¶31, §31¶38, §33¶5, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶18, §37¶3, §37¶3, §37¶17, §37¶17, §38¶4, §38¶4, §38¶42, §38¶42, §40¶7, §40¶7, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §42¶4, §45¶14, §45¶14, §45¶14, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶23, §51¶50, §53¶2, §53¶2, §55¶17, §56¶3, §56¶3, §70¶26, §70¶26, §70¶26, §70¶26
banks (54): §1¶27, §1¶33, §2¶1, §5¶12, §9¶11, §10¶8, §10¶10, §10¶30, §11¶8, §12¶20, §13¶15, §17¶4, §17¶4, §17¶4, §17¶7, §17¶13, §18¶12, §18¶12, §19¶20, §24¶7, §24¶9, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶6, §30¶12, §30¶17, §30¶18, §30¶18, §31¶38, §34¶7, §34¶7, §35¶14, §35¶14, §38¶4, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶48, §40¶22, §41¶13, §42¶4, §42¶13, §51¶8, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶34, §51¶50, §52¶6, §55¶1, §64¶5, §65¶12, §70¶26
long (75): §1¶31, §1¶39, §4¶17, §6¶5, §6¶48, §7¶22, §7¶36, §8¶14, §8¶20, §10¶8, §10¶32, §10¶35, §10¶54, §11¶24, §13¶15, §13¶38, §14¶37, §17¶4, §17¶13, §19¶29, §24¶7, §24¶9, §25¶20, §26¶6, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶9, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶6, §30¶13, §30¶17, §30¶18, §31¶38, §33¶5, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶12, §35¶18, §37¶2, §37¶17, §38¶35, §38¶35, §38¶42, §38¶48, §39¶9, §39¶10, §40¶14, §40¶22, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶15, §41¶15, §49¶21, §50¶3, §51¶23, §52¶6, §53¶14, §53¶14, §55¶1, §56¶3, §56¶25, §57¶3, §60¶8, §60¶12, §63¶13, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶9, §68¶13, §70¶26
new (65): §1¶33, §1¶37, §2¶26, §6¶5, §6¶54, §8¶2, §10¶24, §10¶30, §10¶33, §11¶24, §11¶35, §12¶20, §12¶20, §12¶22, §12¶22, §14¶31, §17¶4, §17¶7, §17¶10, §17¶10, §17¶13, §24¶14, §24¶14, §26¶29, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶13, §31¶26, §35¶12, §35¶14, §35¶14, §35¶18, §37¶3, §38¶33, §38¶42, §38¶48, §38¶48, §39¶13, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶27, §42¶4, §45¶14, §45¶14, §45¶15, §51¶8, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶34, §52¶16, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §53¶2, §55¶1, §55¶17, §56¶3, §56¶3, §63¶13, §65¶12, §65¶12, §68¶13, §68¶14
capital (53): §1¶33, §2¶25, §2¶25, §2¶25, §6¶48, §6¶54, §8¶14, §8¶15, §8¶15, §10¶24, §10¶34, §10¶53, §11¶8, §11¶24, §17¶7, §17¶8, §17¶8, §17¶10, §17¶13, §17¶13, §18¶14, §19¶29, §19¶29, §24¶14, §24¶14, §24¶14, §26¶8, §30¶11, §31¶23, §31¶38, §35¶12, §38¶12, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶27, §41¶27, §45¶14, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶26, §51¶26, §51¶34, §52¶16, §53¶2, §53¶14, §53¶14, §55¶1, §55¶17, §60¶12, §64¶4, §64¶7, §65¶12, §68¶13
mountains (39): §1¶33, §1¶34, §2¶25, §8¶12, §8¶14, §9¶2, §10¶10, §10¶24, §13¶15, §13¶38, §18¶12, §18¶14, §23¶15, §25¶20, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶9, §26¶10, §30¶18, §38¶4, §38¶12, §38¶28, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶14, §41¶27, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶13, §42¶13, §49¶21, §50¶3, §51¶23, §51¶34, §52¶6, §53¶14, §56¶3
asia (71): §1¶33, §1¶34, §1¶34, §1¶34, §1¶34, §1¶34, §2¶26, §7¶35, §8¶2, §8¶2, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶14, §10¶30, §10¶34, §10¶34, §10¶34, §10¶35, §10¶36, §10¶54, §11¶8, §12¶22, §14¶35, §14¶37, §14¶37, §14¶37, §17¶3, §17¶4, §17¶6, §17¶6, §17¶8, §17¶8, §17¶13, §18¶14, §26¶6, §26¶6, §30¶12, §31¶10, §31¶23, §34¶5, §34¶7, §34¶8, §37¶15, §38¶48, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §40¶22, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶13, §53¶2, §53¶14, §53¶14, §55¶17, §56¶25, §56¶25, §57¶3, §57¶3, §60¶12, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶9, §65¶12, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶13
city (106): §1¶33, §1¶37, §1¶37, §2¶25, §7¶22, §8¶14, §8¶14, §10¶32, §10¶32, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶35, §10¶35, §10¶35, §10¶36, §10¶53, §10¶53, §11¶8, §11¶24, §11¶35, §12¶22, §13¶15, §13¶38, §13¶38, §13¶38, §14¶31, §14¶31, §17¶3, §17¶3, §17¶5, §17¶8, §17¶10, §17¶10, §17¶10, §17¶10, §17¶13, §17¶13, §17¶13, §18¶14, §19¶17, §19¶17, §19¶17, §19¶29, §23¶15, §24¶9, §24¶14, §24¶14, §25¶36, §26¶3, §30¶6, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶11, §30¶18, §31¶10, §31¶23, §33¶11, §33¶11, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶8, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶12, §37¶2, §37¶3, §38¶12, §38¶35, §39¶10, §39¶13, §40¶22, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶14, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §42¶4, §43¶2, §45¶14, §45¶15, §50¶3, §50¶3, §51¶23, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶34, §52¶6, §55¶1, §55¶17, §55¶17, §60¶8, §60¶12, §63¶13, §64¶7, §64¶10, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶14, §68¶21, §70¶26
inhabitants (47): §2¶26, §7¶22, §8¶2, §8¶12, §8¶14, §8¶15, §9¶5, §10¶8, §10¶34, §10¶53, §11¶24, §12¶20, §12¶22, §13¶15, §17¶8, §17¶13, §17¶13, §19¶20, §19¶29, §24¶9, §24¶9, §26¶6, §30¶11, §30¶13, §30¶13, §31¶23, §31¶38, §34¶8, §34¶8, §34¶8, §35¶12, §36¶14, §38¶35, §39¶13, §40¶14, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶14, §42¶4, §45¶14, §45¶15, §45¶15, §60¶8, §64¶4, §64¶7, §68¶8, §68¶21
war (85): §4¶17, §6¶5, §6¶5, §7¶22, §7¶35, §8¶15, §8¶20, §9¶11, §10¶10, §10¶30, §10¶37, §10¶53, §11¶14, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶35, §18¶14, §18¶14, §19¶29, §24¶7, §25¶20, §25¶20, §25¶36, §25¶36, §26¶3, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶11, §30¶18, §31¶38, §33¶4, §33¶11, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶8, §34¶8, §35¶12, §37¶17, §38¶12, §38¶33, §38¶33, §38¶48, §39¶10, §40¶22, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶15, §41¶26, §41¶27, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §43¶2, §45¶14, §45¶15, §49¶21, §50¶3, §51¶23, §51¶50, §53¶14, §55¶1, §55¶1, §55¶17, §63¶13, §63¶13, §63¶13, §64¶4, §64¶5, §64¶7, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶21, §70¶26
troops (63): §5¶12, §7¶22, §7¶22, §10¶34, §10¶37, §12¶20, §14¶31, §14¶35, §14¶35, §19¶17, §19¶17, §19¶29, §24¶7, §25¶20, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶11, §30¶12, §30¶17, §30¶18, §30¶18, §31¶23, §33¶4, §33¶11, §34¶7, §34¶8, §35¶12, §36¶14, §38¶35, §39¶10, §39¶10, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §43¶2, §43¶2, §49¶21, §53¶2, §55¶17, §63¶13, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶5, §64¶7, §64¶9, §68¶8, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶14, §68¶14
army (71): §6¶5, §6¶5, §6¶5, §6¶54, §7¶22, §7¶22, §7¶22, §7¶35, §8¶12, §10¶10, §10¶34, §10¶37, §11¶8, §14¶31, §14¶35, §14¶35, §14¶37, §17¶7, §18¶14, §24¶7, §24¶7, §24¶7, §24¶9, §24¶9, §24¶14, §24¶14, §26¶3, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶29, §30¶6, §30¶11, §30¶13, §30¶18, §33¶4, §33¶4, §33¶5, §33¶5, §34¶7, §35¶12, §35¶14, §38¶12, §38¶35, §38¶42, §41¶5, §41¶5, §41¶26, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §43¶2, §45¶15, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶34, §51¶34, §52¶6, §52¶6, §55¶1, §57¶3, §57¶3, §60¶12, §60¶12, §64¶10, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶14, §70¶26, §70¶26
walls (53): §6¶5, §7¶22, §8¶12, §8¶14, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶36, §11¶24, §11¶24, §14¶37, §17¶7, §17¶10, §17¶10, §19¶17, §19¶17, §19¶20, §19¶20, §19¶29, §23¶15, §24¶14, §26¶3, §26¶8, §30¶6, §30¶6, §30¶11, §30¶11, §31¶10, §31¶26, §31¶38, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §38¶4, §38¶12, §40¶22, §40¶22, §40¶22, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §42¶4, §43¶2, §51¶23, §51¶26, §51¶34, §52¶6, §55¶17, §55¶17, §57¶3, §60¶12, §64¶9, §68¶14
nation (49): §7¶35, §9¶2, §9¶5, §10¶37, §10¶54, §13¶15, §18¶12, §18¶12, §18¶14, §18¶14, §19¶20, §19¶29, §23¶15, §24¶7, §25¶36, §26¶6, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶10, §30¶6, §30¶12, §30¶12, §33¶5, §37¶15, §38¶4, §38¶12, §39¶9, §41¶13, §41¶27, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §42¶4, §43¶2, §45¶15, §45¶15, §49¶21, §51¶50, §55¶1, §56¶3, §56¶25, §60¶12, §64¶9, §65¶12, §68¶8
camp (48): §8¶14, §8¶20, §10¶34, §11¶8, §13¶15, §14¶31, §14¶37, §14¶37, §17¶7, §19¶17, §24¶14, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶3, §26¶6, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶29, §26¶29, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶12, §33¶5, §37¶17, §41¶14, §41¶15, §42¶4, §45¶15, §45¶15, §51¶26, §51¶26, §51¶26, §51¶34, §52¶6, §52¶16, §56¶3, §57¶3, §60¶12, §64¶5, §64¶9, §65¶12, §68¶8, §68¶13, §68¶13, §68¶13
vandals (43): §10¶8, §10¶8, §10¶8, §18¶12, §30¶13, §30¶13, §30¶17, §30¶17, §30¶17, §33¶4, §33¶4, §33¶4, §33¶4, §33¶4, §33¶4, §33¶5, §33¶5, §33¶11, §33¶11, §33¶15, §34¶7, §35¶18, §35¶18, §35¶18, §35¶18, §35¶18, §36¶14, §36¶14, §37¶17, §38¶42, §39¶9, §41¶5, §41¶13, §41¶13, §41¶13, §41¶13, §41¶14, §41¶14, §41¶15, §41¶15, §43¶2, §43¶2, §70¶26
goths (61): §10¶8, §10¶8, §10¶8, §10¶8, §10¶10, §10¶10, §10¶30, §10¶30, §10¶32, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶33, §10¶34, §10¶34, §10¶35, §10¶35, §10¶36, §10¶36, §10¶37, §10¶37, §11¶8, §11¶8, §18¶12, §18¶14, §18¶14, §18¶14, §30¶2, §30¶2, §30¶6, §30¶6, §30¶12, §30¶13, §31¶23, §31¶23, §31¶26, §31¶38, §31¶38, §31¶38, §33¶4, §33¶4, §33¶15, §35¶14, §37¶15, §38¶12, §38¶28, §38¶28, §39¶10, §41¶15, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶26, §41¶27, §41¶27, §41¶27, §51¶38, §70¶26
huns (68): §25¶36, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶7, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶8, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶9, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §26¶10, §30¶12, §30¶12, §30¶13, §30¶13, §33¶15, §33¶15, §33¶15, §34¶5, §34¶5, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶7, §34¶8, §34¶8, §35¶12, §35¶14, §35¶14, §35¶14, §35¶14, §35¶14, §35¶18, §38¶33, §38¶48, §38¶48, §39¶10, §40¶14, §40¶22, §41¶5, §41¶26, §42¶4, §49¶21, §49¶21, §64¶5
numerous (4): §5¶21, §18¶11, §42¶2, §42¶2
various (4): §5¶21, §8¶11, §13¶31, §18¶11
civil (4): §5¶21, §5¶21, §8¶11, §17¶1
severus (4): §5¶21, §5¶21, §5¶21, §5¶21
empire (5): §5¶21, §8¶11, §17¶1, §17¶1, §27¶31
age (5): §5¶21, §17¶1, §42¶2, §42¶2, §42¶2
character (5): §5¶21, §5¶21, §13¶31, §42¶2, §50¶16
weapons (6): §5¶21, §11¶15, §18¶11, §27¶31, §27¶31, §42¶2
roman (7): §5¶21, §13¶31, §13¶31, §17¶1, §27¶31, §27¶31, §42¶2
discipline (5): §5¶21, §11¶15, §27¶31, §27¶31, §50¶16
military (6): §5¶21, §11¶15, §13¶31, §18¶11, §27¶31, §42¶2
new (5): §8¶11, §13¶31, §17¶1, §17¶1, §17¶1
exercise (4): §8¶11, §18¶11, §27¶31, §50¶16
reduced (4): §8¶11, §18¶11, §42¶2, §50¶16
religion (5): §8¶11, §8¶11, §17¶1, §50¶16, §50¶16
nation (4): §8¶11, §18¶11, §18¶11, §42¶2
war (4): §8¶11, §18¶11, §18¶11, §18¶11
service (3): §11¶15, §27¶31, §50¶16
legions (3): §11¶15, §27¶31, §27¶31
horses (4): §11¶15, §18¶11, §18¶11, §42¶2
public (5): §11¶15, §13¶31, §13¶31, §27¶31, §50¶16
armour (5): §11¶15, §27¶31, §27¶31, §27¶31, §42¶2
soldiers (5): §11¶15, §11¶15, §13¶31, §27¶31, §27¶31
according (4): §13¶31, §18¶11, §42¶2, §50¶16
distinction (3): §13¶31, §42¶2, §50¶16
people (5): §13¶31, §18¶11, §42¶2, §42¶2, §50¶16
manners (5): §13¶31, §18¶11, §18¶11, §27¶31, §42¶2
use (5): §13¶31, §27¶31, §27¶31, §50¶16, §50¶16
diocletian (5): §13¶31, §13¶31, §13¶31, §13¶31, §13¶31
strength (3): §17¶1, §18¶11, §50¶16
custom (4): §18¶11, §18¶11, §50¶16, §50¶16
camps (3): §18¶11, §27¶31, §42¶2
covered (3): §18¶11, §18¶11, §27¶31
cities (3): §18¶11, §27¶31, §27¶31
bow (3): §18¶11, §27¶31, §42¶2
defence (3): §27¶31, §27¶31, §42¶2
god (4): §42¶2, §50¶16, §50¶16, §50¶16
law (4): §42¶2, §50¶16, §50¶16, §50¶16
water (4): §42¶2, §42¶2, §50¶16, §50¶16
arts (5): §5¶22, §9¶29, §38¶50, §38¶50, §64¶2
power (4): §5¶22, §9¶27, §52¶23, §64¶2
public (7): §5¶22, §9¶14, §9¶27, §39¶4, §49¶12, §52¶23, §54¶9
state (6): §5¶22, §9¶29, §26¶1, §31¶24, §39¶4, §64¶2
courage (7): §5¶22, §9¶14, §26¶1, §38¶50, §38¶50, §39¶4, §52¶23
life (6): §5¶22, §26¶1, §26¶1, §38¶50, §64¶2, §65¶16
private (9): §5¶22, §9¶14, §9¶27, §10¶52, §52¶23, §52¶23, §54¶9, §64¶2, §65¶16
policy (7): §5¶22, §9¶14, §9¶27, §38¶50, §38¶50, §54¶9, §64¶2
strong (5): §9¶14, §31¶24, §38¶50, §52¶23, §65¶16
people (7): §9¶14, §9¶29, §38¶50, §49¶12, §49¶12, §54¶9, §64¶2
peace (4): §9¶14, §26¶1, §38¶50, §52¶23
present (6): §9¶14, §9¶29, §26¶1, §31¶24, §49¶12, §65¶16
age (6): §9¶14, §26¶1, §26¶1, §31¶24, §38¶50, §64¶2
great (6): §9¶14, §9¶29, §30¶16, §30¶16, §64¶2, §64¶2
germans (6): §9¶14, §9¶14, §9¶27, §30¶16, §31¶24, §31¶24
arms (8): §9¶14, §9¶14, §9¶27, §21¶37, §26¶1, §30¶16, §39¶4, §54¶9
general (6): §9¶14, §9¶29, §30¶16, §30¶16, §31¶24, §64¶2
military (7): §9¶14, §21¶37, §26¶1, §38¶50, §38¶50, §38¶50, §64¶2
war (7): §9¶14, §38¶50, §38¶50, §52¶23, §54¶9, §64¶2, §65¶16
tribes (10): §9¶14, §9¶27, §9¶29, §9¶29, §9¶29, §9¶29, §26¶1, §26¶1, §64¶2, §64¶2
barbarians (16): §9¶14, §9¶27, §9¶27, §9¶27, §10¶52, §11¶19, §11¶19, §11¶19, §26¶1, §30¶16, §31¶24, §38¶50, §38¶50, §39¶4, §54¶9, §54¶9
provinces (5): §9¶27, §21¶37, §21¶37, §30¶16, §52¶23
danube (6): §9¶27, §11¶19, §11¶19, §30¶16, §31¶24, §54¶9
thousand (9): §9¶27, §21¶37, §21¶37, §30¶16, §39¶4, §39¶4, §39¶4, §64¶2, §65¶16
nations (9): §9¶27, §9¶27, §9¶29, §26¶1, §31¶24, §38¶50, §38¶50, §49¶12, §52¶23
roman (10): §9¶27, §9¶29, §11¶19, §21¶37, §31¶24, §39¶4, §49¶12, §49¶12, §54¶9, §64¶2
civil (7): §9¶27, §21¶37, §38¶50, §49¶12, §52¶23, §54¶9, §65¶16
empire (10): §9¶27, §9¶29, §21¶37, §38¶50, §39¶4, §52¶23, §54¶9, §54¶9, §65¶16, §65¶16
rome (12): §9¶27, §9¶27, §9¶27, §10¶52, §30¶16, §31¶24, §31¶24, §31¶24, §31¶24, §38¶50, §39¶4, §49¶12
ancient (7): §9¶29, §9¶29, §10¶52, §49¶12, §49¶12, §54¶9, §64¶2
title (6): §9¶29, §49¶12, §49¶12, §49¶12, §52¶23, §64¶2
country (8): §9¶29, §9¶29, §10¶52, §10¶52, §11¶19, §21¶37, §21¶37, §30¶16
shall (4): §9¶29, §26¶1, §39¶4, §54¶9
modern (5): §9¶29, §26¶1, §31¶24, §49¶12, §49¶12
manners (8): §9¶29, §26¶1, §26¶1, §26¶1, §26¶1, §31¶24, §38¶50, §64¶2
form (5): §11¶19, §26¶1, §31¶24, §38¶50, §49¶12
march (4): §21¶37, §30¶16, §39¶4, §49¶12
powers (5): §21¶37, §38¶50, §49¶12, §52¶23, §65¶16
asia (5): §21¶37, §26¶1, §54¶9, §64¶2, §65¶16
influence (1): §26¶1
europe (6): §26¶1, §38¶50, §49¶12, §64¶2, §65¶16, §65¶16
nation (6): §26¶1, §30¶16, §39¶4, §49¶12, §49¶12, §65¶16
valour (6): §30¶16, §31¶24, §38¶50, §49¶12, §54¶9, §64¶2
italians (4): §31¶24, §31¶24, §31¶24, §65¶16
constantine (3): §38¶50, §54¶9, §54¶9
great (4): §4¶12, §45¶20, §70¶4, §70¶4
freedom (4): §4¶12, §38¶36, §62¶16, §70¶4
army (4): §4¶12, §19¶27, §25¶23, §49¶23
spirit (4): §4¶12, §19¶27, §25¶23, §39¶12
safety (4): §4¶12, §19¶27, §25¶23, §70¶4
soon (4): §4¶12, §19¶27, §25¶23, §25¶23
moment (4): §4¶12, §25¶23, §70¶4, §70¶4
new (5): §4¶12, §25¶23, §38¶36, §39¶12, §39¶12
emperor (7): §4¶12, §19¶27, §25¶23, §49¶23, §49¶23, §49¶23, §49¶23
gaul (6): §4¶12, §19¶27, §19¶27, §38¶36, §45¶20, §49¶23
public (8): §4¶12, §25¶23, §39¶12, §39¶12, §39¶12, §39¶12, §70¶4, §70¶4
rome (10): §4¶12, §4¶12, §39¶12, §39¶12, §39¶12, §39¶12, §45¶20, §49¶23, §70¶4, §70¶4
recalled (3): §19¶9, §25¶23, §25¶23
court (4): §19¶9, §19¶9, §25¶23, §25¶23
ceremony (4): §19¶9, §39¶12, §49¶23, §70¶4
fame (3): §19¶9, §25¶23, §39¶12
athens (3): §19¶9, §62¶16, §62¶16
order (6): §19¶9, §19¶27, §39¶12, §45¶20, §45¶20, §70¶4
greek (4): §19¶9, §39¶12, §62¶16, §62¶16
roman (9): §19¶9, §19¶27, §25¶23, §45¶20, §45¶20, §45¶20, §45¶20, §49¶23, §49¶23
people (9): §19¶9, §38¶36, §39¶12, §39¶12, §39¶12, §45¶20, §62¶16, §70¶4, §70¶4
island (4): §19¶27, §25¶23, §38¶36, §45¶20
pounds (3): §19¶27, §39¶12, §62¶16
soldiers (4): §19¶27, §19¶27, §25¶23, §25¶23
hand (4): §19¶27, §25¶23, §70¶4, §70¶4
care (5): §19¶27, §25¶23, §39¶12, §39¶12, §45¶20
julian (5): §19¶27, §19¶27, §19¶27, §19¶27, §19¶27
britain (6): §19¶27, §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23, §38¶36, §45¶20
barbarians (8): §19¶27, §19¶27, §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23, §38¶36, §39¶12, §45¶20
thousand (8): §19¶27, §39¶12, §45¶20, §49¶23, §62¶16, §62¶16, §62¶16, §62¶16
victory (4): §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23, §70¶4
merit (4): §25¶23, §25¶23, §39¶12, §49¶23
theodosius (5): §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23
province (5): §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23, §25¶23
citizens (7): §25¶23, §39¶12, §39¶12, §62¶16, §62¶16, §70¶4, §70¶4
years (5): §38¶36, §45¶20, §45¶20, §49¶23, §62¶16
kings (4): §38¶36, §39¶12, §49¶23, §49¶23
britons (3): §38¶36, §38¶36, §38¶36
saxons (3): §38¶36, §38¶36, §45¶20
city (4): §39¶12, §62¶16, §70¶4, §70¶4
character (4): §39¶12, §45¶20, §62¶16, §62¶16
nobles (5): §39¶12, §49¶23, §70¶4, §70¶4, §70¶4
italy (7): §45¶20, §45¶20, §45¶20, §49¶23, §49¶23, §49¶23, §49¶23
st (7): §45¶20, §70¶4, §70¶4, §70¶4, §70¶4, §70¶4, §70¶4
lewis (4): §49¶23, §49¶23, §49¶23, §49¶23
virtue (5): §3¶28, §3¶28, §4¶3, §6¶30, §18¶5
young (4): §3¶28, §4¶3, §18¶9, §56¶24
life (8): §3¶28, §18¶4, §18¶4, §44¶21, §44¶21, §56¶24, §56¶24, §63¶5
youth (6): §3¶28, §4¶3, §6¶30, §18¶5, §18¶5, §31¶4
great (5): §3¶28, §18¶4, §18¶4, §33¶6, §63¶5
roman (13): §3¶28, §3¶28, §6¶46, §18¶9, §18¶9, §18¶19, §31¶4, §31¶4, §33¶6, §36¶24, §44¶21, §44¶21, §56¶24
elder (3): §3¶28, §18¶4, §63¶5
age (12): §3¶28, §4¶3, §6¶30, §14¶8, §18¶5, §18¶5, §18¶9, §18¶19, §44¶21, §56¶24, §63¶5, §63¶5
marriage (6): §3¶28, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §31¶4, §44¶21
sons (5): §3¶28, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶9, §31¶4
years (16): §3¶28, §3¶28, §3¶28, §4¶3, §6¶30, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶9, §18¶19, §31¶4, §33¶6, §44¶21, §56¶24, §56¶24, §56¶24, §63¶5
younger (4): §3¶28, §36¶24, §63¶5, §63¶5
family (13): §3¶28, §4¶3, §6¶30, §6¶46, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶9, §31¶4, §31¶4, §31¶4, §36¶24, §44¶21
daughter (5): §3¶28, §18¶4, §36¶24, §44¶21, §56¶24
son (14): §3¶28, §4¶3, §4¶3, §6¶30, §14¶8, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶5, §18¶5, §36¶24, §56¶24, §56¶24, §56¶24
imperial (9): §4¶3, §6¶30, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶9, §31¶4, §33¶6, §56¶24
father (9): §4¶3, §4¶3, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶5, §18¶9, §18¶19, §44¶21
dignity (5): §6¶30, §14¶8, §18¶4, §31¶4, §36¶24
mother (3): §6¶30, §44¶21, §56¶24
empire (8): §6¶30, §18¶5, §18¶9, §18¶9, §31¶4, §36¶24, §36¶24, §56¶24
augustus (3): §6¶46, §18¶4, §18¶19
fortune (6): §12¶39, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §33¶6, §36¶24
house (6): §12¶39, §18¶4, §44¶21, §44¶21, §56¶24, §56¶24
emperor (13): §12¶39, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶9, §33¶6, §36¶24, §36¶24, §56¶24, §56¶24, §63¶5, §63¶5, §63¶5
children (5): §14¶8, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §44¶21
constantius (8): §14¶8, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶9, §18¶19
princes (5): §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶9, §18¶9, §18¶19
brothers (4): §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶19
eldest (5): §14¶8, §14¶8, §18¶5, §18¶19, §18¶19
second (6): §14¶8, §14¶8, §18¶19, §31¶4, §56¶24, §56¶24
constantine (15): §14¶8, §14¶8, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶5, §18¶9, §18¶9, §18¶9, §18¶19, §31¶4
bestowed (4): §18¶4, §36¶24, §44¶21, §63¶5
royal (5): §18¶4, §36¶24, §56¶24, §56¶24, §63¶5
illustrious (4): §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶5, §36¶24
new (7): §18¶4, §18¶9, §18¶19, §18¶19, §31¶4, §44¶21, §56¶24
birth (3): §18¶4, §18¶4, §56¶24
caesar (4): §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶9, §18¶9
sister (3): §18¶4, §36¶24, §44¶21
purple (5): §18¶4, §18¶9, §31¶4, §36¶24, §63¶5
crispus (5): §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶5, §18¶5, §18¶9
title (11): §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶4, §18¶5, §18¶9, §18¶9, §18¶9, §18¶9, §18¶19, §44¶21, §44¶21
western (4): §18¶19, §31¶4, §36¶24, §36¶24
husband (5): §36¶24, §44¶21, §44¶21, §44¶21, §56¶24
union (3): §44¶21, §44¶21, §56¶24
sicily (4): §56¶24, §56¶24, §56¶24, §56¶24
choice (3): §3¶27, §50¶31, §55¶3
merit (3): §3¶27, §50¶32, §55¶3
son (4): §3¶27, §50¶31, §50¶32, §55¶3
beauty (5): §3¶27, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §52¶14
death (4): §3¶27, §3¶27, §50¶32, §50¶32
accepted (3): §10¶28, §37¶31, §38¶39
subjects (4): §10¶28, §37¶31, §38¶39, §52¶14
long (6): §10¶28, §48¶41, §50¶32, §55¶3, §55¶3, §55¶3
foreign (6): §10¶28, §37¶31, §38¶39, §52¶14, §55¶3, §55¶3
barbarians (5): §10¶28, §37¶31, §38¶39, §38¶39, §52¶14
domestic (5): §10¶28, §38¶39, §50¶32, §50¶32, §55¶3
civil (4): §37¶31, §38¶39, §50¶32, §52¶14
gauls (3): §37¶31, §37¶31, §37¶31
youth (4): §37¶31, §50¶31, §50¶32, §52¶14
savages (3): §37¶31, §38¶52, §55¶3
armies (4): §37¶31, §37¶31, §50¶31, §52¶14
nature (4): §37¶31, §38¶39, §50¶31, §50¶32
rights (4): §37¶31, §38¶39, §50¶32, §52¶14
people (7): §37¶31, §38¶39, §52¶14, §55¶3, §55¶3, §55¶3, §55¶3
gaul (3): §37¶31, §37¶31, §37¶31
condemned (5): §37¶31, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32, §52¶14
years (7): §37¶31, §37¶31, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32, §55¶3, §55¶3
native (4): §38¶39, §50¶31, §52¶14, §55¶3
children (4): §38¶39, §50¶31, §50¶32, §55¶3
laws (4): §38¶39, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32
state (3): §38¶39, §48¶41, §50¶31
age (4): §38¶39, §38¶52, §50¶31, §50¶32
country (5): §38¶39, §38¶39, §50¶31, §55¶3, §55¶3
captives (4): §38¶39, §48¶41, §50¶31, §50¶32
apostle (5): §38¶39, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32
seven (6): §38¶39, §38¶39, §50¶32, §55¶3, §55¶3, §55¶3
religion (5): §38¶39, §48¶41, §50¶31, §50¶32, §55¶3
world (8): §38¶52, §38¶52, §48¶41, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32, §52¶14, §55¶3
sentence (3): §48¶41, §50¶32, §50¶32
prince (5): §48¶41, §50¶31, §52¶14, §55¶3, §55¶3
prophet (9): §48¶41, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §52¶14
marriage (3): §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32
man (6): §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32
god (8): §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32
mahomet (15): §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶31, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §52¶14
thirty (3): §50¶32, §50¶32, §55¶3
conjugal (1): §50¶32
daughter (3): §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32
bed (3): §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32
ayesha (4): §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32, §50¶32
hands (4): §1¶8, §5¶23, §47¶19, §70¶10
state (3): §1¶8, §12¶25, §30¶14
soon (4): §1¶8, §5¶23, §70¶10, §70¶10
age (4): §1¶8, §6¶52, §27¶6, §30¶14
east (4): §1¶8, §8¶1, §27¶6, §47¶19
nations (6): §1¶8, §1¶8, §1¶8, §8¶1, §30¶14, §30¶14
new (6): §1¶8, §1¶8, §27¶6, §30¶14, §30¶14, §70¶10
provinces (7): §1¶8, §5¶23, §8¶1, §8¶1, §11¶6, §12¶25, §30¶14
roman (6): §1¶8, §1¶8, §5¶23, §6¶52, §8¶1, §30¶14
death (6): §1¶8, §5¶23, §12¶25, §27¶6, §47¶19, §70¶10
arms (7): §1¶8, §5¶23, §5¶23, §12¶25, §30¶14, §47¶19, §47¶19
senate (5): §1¶8, §5¶23, §5¶23, §8¶1, §30¶14
trajan (5): §1¶8, §1¶8, §1¶8, §1¶8, §6¶52
long (7): §1¶8, §5¶23, §5¶23, §8¶1, §8¶1, §27¶6, §70¶10
emperor (8): §1¶8, §1¶8, §5¶23, §11¶6, §11¶6, §12¶25, §30¶14, §47¶19
general (4): §5¶23, §11¶6, §11¶6, §12¶25
successor (3): §5¶23, §12¶25, §47¶19
pertinax (1): §5¶23
danger (6): §5¶23, §27¶6, §30¶14, §30¶14, §30¶14, §70¶10
power (4): §5¶23, §5¶23, §8¶1, §70¶10
public (7): §5¶23, §6¶52, §12¶25, §27¶6, §27¶6, §30¶14, §70¶10
people (8): §5¶23, §12¶25, §30¶14, §47¶19, §47¶19, §70¶10, §70¶10, §70¶10
severus (3): §5¶23, §5¶23, §8¶1
rome (10): §5¶23, §8¶1, §12¶25, §12¶25, §27¶6, §30¶14, §30¶14, §30¶14, §30¶14, §70¶10
niger (4): §5¶23, §5¶23, §5¶23, §5¶23
years (5): §6¶52, §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6, §47¶19
attempted (3): §6¶52, §27¶6, §27¶6
character (4): §8¶1, §11¶6, §27¶6, §30¶14
great (5): §8¶1, §30¶14, §47¶19, §70¶10, §70¶10
empire (5): §8¶1, §27¶6, §30¶14, §30¶14, §30¶14
deserved (3): §11¶6, §27¶6, §70¶10
gallienus (1): §11¶6
claudius (3): §11¶6, §11¶6, §11¶6
satisfaction (3): §12¶25, §27¶6, §47¶19
pleasure (3): §12¶25, §27¶6, §70¶10
equal (5): §12¶25, §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6, §70¶10
blood (6): §12¶25, §12¶25, §27¶6, §30¶14, §47¶19, §47¶19
gregory (8): §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6, §27¶6
radagaisus (4): §30¶14, §30¶14, §30¶14, §30¶14
stilicho (3): §30¶14, §30¶14, §30¶14
free (3): §3¶18, §44¶25, §71¶11
civil (3): §3¶18, §3¶18, §44¶25
according (3): §3¶18, §44¶25, §44¶25
armies (3): §3¶18, §21¶19, §21¶19
government (3): §3¶18, §4¶27, §69¶4
age (4): §3¶18, §44¶25, §69¶4, §69¶4
tyrant (4): §3¶18, §4¶27, §21¶19, §21¶19
roman (5): §3¶18, §44¶25, §44¶25, §68¶9, §69¶4
character (6): §3¶18, §44¶25, §44¶25, §68¶9, §69¶4, §69¶4
people (5): §3¶18, §21¶19, §68¶9, §69¶4, §71¶11
father (8): §3¶18, §21¶19, §21¶19, §44¶25, §44¶25, §68¶9, §69¶4, §69¶4
granted (3): §4¶27, §68¶9, §71¶11
just (3): §4¶27, §6¶23, §44¶25
wealth (3): §4¶27, §4¶27, §69¶4
luxury (3): §4¶27, §6¶23, §71¶11
measure (4): §4¶27, §21¶19, §68¶9, §69¶4
extortion (1): §4¶27
innocence (1): §4¶27
death (4): §4¶27, §68¶9, §68¶9, §71¶11
long (4): §4¶27, §6¶23, §69¶4, §71¶11
public (5): §4¶27, §4¶27, §21¶19, §21¶19, §68¶9
emperor (7): §4¶27, §4¶27, §6¶23, §21¶19, §21¶19, §68¶9, §68¶9
state (6): §4¶27, §4¶27, §4¶27, §44¶25, §44¶25, §68¶9
till (4): §6¶23, §68¶9, §69¶4, §71¶11
placed (3): §6¶23, §69¶4, §71¶11
victory (4): §6¶23, §6¶23, §21¶19, §21¶19
rome (4): §6¶23, §44¶25, §69¶4, §69¶4
romans (6): §6¶23, §44¶25, §68¶9, §69¶4, §69¶4, §71¶11
mind (3): §21¶19, §69¶4, §69¶4
city (3): §21¶19, §21¶19, §69¶4
bishop (5): §21¶19, §21¶19, §21¶19, §21¶19, §69¶4
spiritual (4): §21¶19, §21¶19, §68¶9, §69¶4
interdict (1): §44¶25
athens (1): §44¶25
children (4): §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25
century (3): §44¶25, §71¶11, §71¶11
blood (4): §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25, §71¶11
natural (4): §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25
citizens (3): §44¶25, §44¶25, §71¶11
marriage (5): §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25, §44¶25
trial (1): §68¶9
palaeologus (1): §68¶9
inhabitants (6): §2¶17, §9¶8, §10¶12, §10¶12, §42¶3, §42¶3
time (6): §2¶17, §9¶8, §10¶12, §10¶12, §35¶7, §38¶17
subjects (7): §2¶17, §2¶17, §35¶7, §38¶17, §42¶3, §42¶3, §44¶24
thousand (7): §2¶17, §9¶8, §10¶12, §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3
roman (15): §2¶17, §2¶17, §9¶8, §10¶3, §10¶12, §10¶12, §10¶12, §10¶12, §36¶6, §37¶8, §38¶17, §42¶3, §42¶3, §44¶24, §55¶5
arms (9): §3¶20, §10¶12, §10¶12, §35¶7, §35¶7, §36¶6, §36¶6, §42¶3, §58¶29
people (7): §3¶20, §9¶8, §10¶3, §10¶12, §35¶7, §36¶6, §42¶3
rich (3): §6¶25, §10¶12, §10¶12
general (5): §6¶25, §9¶8, §10¶3, §42¶3, §55¶5
passed (7): §9¶8, §10¶12, §10¶12, §35¶7, §36¶6, §36¶6, §42¶3
cattle (4): §9¶8, §9¶8, §42¶3, §55¶5
fortifications (3): §9¶8, §10¶12, §42¶3
use (6): §9¶8, §9¶8, §35¶7, §37¶8, §38¶17, §55¶5
germans (5): §9¶8, §9¶8, §9¶8, §10¶12, §38¶17
barbarian (5): §9¶8, §10¶12, §35¶7, §38¶17, §38¶17
danube (9): §10¶3, §10¶12, §10¶12, §10¶12, §35¶7, §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3
gaul (7): §10¶3, §35¶7, §35¶7, §35¶7, §35¶7, §35¶7, §38¶17
goths (10): §10¶3, §10¶3, §10¶12, §10¶12, §10¶12, §35¶7, §35¶7, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6
leader (1): §10¶12
honour (4): §10¶12, §36¶6, §58¶29, §58¶29
king (8): §10¶12, §10¶12, §35¶7, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §38¶17
barbarians (10): §10¶12, §10¶12, §35¶7, §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3, §55¶5, §55¶5, §55¶5
injuries (5): §35¶7, §36¶6, §38¶17, §38¶17, §55¶5
death (8): §35¶7, §36¶6, §38¶17, §38¶17, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29
aetius (3): §35¶7, §35¶7, §35¶7
burgundians (3): §35¶7, §36¶6, §38¶17
visigoths (6): §35¶7, §35¶7, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §38¶17
avitus (7): §35¶7, §35¶7, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6
romans (7): §35¶7, §35¶7, §35¶7, §38¶17, §42¶3, §42¶3, §44¶24
franks (6): §35¶7, §36¶6, §38¶17, §38¶17, §38¶17, §38¶17
theodoric (10): §35¶7, §35¶7, §35¶7, §35¶7, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6
suevi (4): §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6, §36¶6
justinian (6): §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3, §42¶3, §44¶24, §44¶24
right (5): §44¶24, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29
cases (7): §44¶24, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29
combat (8): §55¶5, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29, §58¶29
world (6): §7¶1, §11¶40, §47¶2, §47¶2, §57¶19, §59¶5
soul (5): §7¶24, §57¶19, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
age (6): §7¶24, §33¶9, §57¶19, §59¶5, §59¶5, §63¶12
open (4): §7¶24, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶13
city (5): §7¶24, §11¶40, §33¶9, §33¶9, §63¶12
body (6): §7¶24, §47¶2, §57¶19, §57¶19, §63¶12, §63¶12
feet (6): §7¶24, §57¶19, §57¶19, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21
people (10): §7¶24, §7¶24, §9¶13, §11¶40, §43¶29, §57¶19, §57¶19, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶13
eloquence (5): §9¶13, §33¶9, §57¶19, §59¶5, §59¶5
years (8): §11¶40, §43¶29, §43¶29, §57¶19, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶13
death (7): §11¶40, §33¶9, §33¶9, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶13, §59¶13
bishop (3): §33¶9, §33¶9, §58¶21
confined (4): §33¶9, §47¶2, §47¶2, §63¶12
language (5): §33¶9, §47¶2, §57¶19, §59¶5, §59¶13
progress (4): §33¶9, §43¶29, §58¶21, §59¶5
battle (4): §33¶9, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21
mind (7): §33¶9, §33¶9, §47¶2, §59¶5, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
light (7): §33¶9, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
count (7): §33¶9, §33¶9, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶13
church (7): §33¶9, §33¶9, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶5, §63¶12, §63¶12
europe (9): §33¶9, §43¶29, §57¶19, §57¶19, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶13, §59¶13
st (10): §33¶9, §47¶2, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21
france (5): §43¶29, §57¶19, §57¶19, §59¶5, §59¶5
visible (5): §43¶29, §47¶2, §58¶21, §59¶5, §63¶12
day (6): §43¶29, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶5, §63¶12
religious (4): §47¶2, §59¶13, §59¶13, §63¶12
received (5): §47¶2, §57¶19, §57¶19, §58¶21, §59¶5
long (5): §47¶2, §57¶19, §58¶21, §59¶13, §63¶12
christ (7): §47¶2, §47¶2, §57¶19, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §63¶12
god (8): §47¶2, §57¶19, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶5, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
holy (16): §47¶2, §47¶2, §47¶2, §57¶19, §57¶19, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶13
reason (5): §57¶19, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶5, §63¶12
pope (4): §57¶19, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶5
success (5): §57¶19, §57¶19, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶13
jerusalem (6): §57¶19, §57¶19, §59¶5, §59¶13, §59¶13, §59¶13
hermit (5): §57¶19, §57¶19, §57¶19, §57¶19, §59¶5
peter (7): §57¶19, §57¶19, §57¶19, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶5
victory (4): §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶13
marseilles (4): §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21
eyes (5): §58¶21, §59¶5, §59¶5, §63¶12, §63¶12
antioch (5): §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶13
place (6): §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §59¶5, §63¶12, §63¶12
lance (8): §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21, §58¶21
abbot (5): §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5, §63¶12
clairvaux (5): §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5, §59¶5
barlaam (4): §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
athos (4): §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
mount (7): §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
thy (8): §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12, §63¶12
monarch (6): §2¶20, §41¶21, §41¶21, §45¶16, §65¶10, §66¶14
example (5): §2¶20, §45¶16, §65¶10, §66¶14, §66¶14
pontus (4): §2¶20, §10¶46, §15¶51, §15¶51
spirit (5): §2¶20, §33¶14, §41¶21, §45¶16, §60¶9
province (5): §2¶20, §4¶16, §10¶46, §41¶21, §50¶1
private (6): §2¶20, §41¶21, §45¶16, §60¶9, §66¶14, §66¶14
provinces (9): §2¶20, §2¶20, §10¶46, §15¶51, §15¶51, §31¶25, §33¶14, §38¶22, §56¶9
empire (12): §2¶20, §2¶20, §4¶16, §10¶46, §10¶46, §13¶40, §31¶25, §31¶25, §33¶14, §33¶14, §41¶21, §56¶9
public (7): §2¶20, §31¶25, §33¶14, §38¶22, §45¶16, §60¶9, §66¶14
people (10): §2¶20, §31¶25, §33¶14, §41¶21, §41¶21, §44¶3, §44¶3, §60¶9, §70¶22, §70¶22
age (11): §2¶20, §2¶20, §4¶16, §31¶25, §31¶25, §33¶14, §33¶14, §38¶22, §41¶21, §44¶3, §66¶14
roman (13): §2¶20, §4¶16, §13¶40, §31¶25, §31¶25, §33¶14, §33¶14, §38¶22, §41¶21, §56¶9, §66¶14, §70¶22, §70¶22
rome (12): §2¶20, §2¶20, §10¶46, §31¶25, §33¶14, §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21, §60¶9, §65¶10, §66¶14, §70¶22
country (17): §2¶20, §13¶40, §13¶40, §15¶51, §15¶51, §15¶51, §31¶25, §31¶25, §33¶14, §41¶21, §44¶3, §50¶1, §60¶9, §65¶10, §65¶10, §66¶14, §66¶14
nature (8): §4¶16, §13¶40, §31¶25, §38¶22, §50¶1, §50¶1, §65¶10, §66¶14
soon (7): §4¶16, §15¶51, §15¶51, §31¶25, §41¶21, §45¶16, §66¶14
life (9): §4¶16, §10¶46, §31¶25, §33¶14, §38¶22, §45¶16, §50¶1, §60¶9, §60¶9
hand (7): §4¶16, §10¶46, §13¶40, §41¶21, §45¶16, §45¶16, §50¶1
thirty (7): §10¶46, §10¶46, §10¶46, §10¶46, §33¶14, §56¶9, §56¶9
throne (6): §10¶46, §33¶14, §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21, §45¶16
manners (4): §10¶46, §15¶51, §44¶3, §45¶16
general (8): §10¶46, §13¶40, §31¶25, §31¶25, §41¶21, §50¶1, §60¶9, §66¶14
time (11): §10¶46, §13¶40, §13¶40, §13¶40, §15¶51, §31¶25, §33¶14, §60¶9, §65¶10, §65¶10, §65¶10
city (15): §10¶46, §31¶25, §31¶25, §33¶14, §33¶14, §41¶21, §41¶21, §44¶3, §56¶9, §56¶9, §56¶9, §60¶9, §70¶22, §70¶22, §70¶22
long (6): §13¶40, §31¶25, §44¶3, §45¶16, §45¶16, §56¶9
st (9): §13¶40, §31¶25, §56¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §66¶14, §70¶22, §70¶22
palace (7): §13¶40, §45¶16, §45¶16, §56¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §70¶22
ephesus (6): §15¶51, §33¶14, §33¶14, §33¶14, §33¶14, §66¶14
religion (4): §15¶51, §33¶14, §41¶21, §56¶9
sea (8): §15¶51, §41¶21, §50¶1, §50¶1, §50¶1, §56¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9
years (16): §15¶51, §31¶25, §31¶25, §33¶14, §33¶14, §33¶14, §41¶21, §56¶9, §56¶9, §56¶9, §60¶9, §65¶10, §65¶10, §65¶10, §65¶10, §70¶22
seven (11): §15¶51, §33¶14, §33¶14, §33¶14, §33¶14, §33¶14, §33¶14, §56¶9, §56¶9, §65¶10, §70¶22
emperor (12): §15¶51, §33¶14, §33¶14, §41¶21, §41¶21, §56¶9, §56¶9, §66¶14, §66¶14, §66¶14, §66¶14, §70¶22
new (15): §15¶51, §31¶25, §31¶25, §33¶14, §33¶14, §38¶22, §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21, §44¶3, §44¶3, §45¶16, §56¶9, §60¶9, §70¶22
advanced (4): §31¶25, §41¶21, §41¶21, §45¶16
gold (3): §31¶25, §50¶1, §56¶9
way (5): §31¶25, §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21
italy (7): §31¶25, §31¶25, §31¶25, §41¶21, §45¶16, §45¶16, §45¶16
goths (5): §31¶25, §31¶25, §31¶25, §41¶21, §41¶21
barbarians (7): §31¶25, §33¶14, §38¶22, §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21, §65¶10
deputies (4): §41¶21, §60¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9
garrison (4): §41¶21, §41¶21, §65¶10, §70¶22
miles (7): §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21, §41¶21, §50¶1, §50¶1, §56¶9
naples (5): §41¶21, §41¶21, §56¶9, §56¶9, §56¶9
thousand (14): §41¶21, §44¶3, §50¶1, §56¶9, §56¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §60¶9, §70¶22, §70¶22
public (11): §6¶47, §13¶30, §16¶4, §16¶33, §16¶33, §34¶15, §35¶10, §38¶3, §49¶11, §49¶11, §52¶5
language (13): §6¶47, §13¶30, §13¶30, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶8, §38¶3, §42¶9, §44¶11, §44¶27, §47¶26, §47¶26, §49¶11
rome (16): §6¶47, §16¶4, §16¶33, §16¶33, §44¶11, §44¶27, §47¶26, §47¶26, §49¶11, §49¶11, §62¶12, §69¶20, §69¶20, §70¶14, §70¶14, §70¶14
roman (26): §6¶47, §6¶47, §13¶30, §13¶30, §13¶30, §13¶30, §16¶4, §16¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §37¶14, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶19, §44¶11, §44¶27, §47¶26, §47¶26, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §52¶5, §69¶20, §69¶20
throne (6): §13¶30, §35¶10, §42¶9, §47¶26, §52¶5, §69¶20
empire (13): §13¶30, §13¶34, §13¶34, §16¶4, §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶10, §37¶14, §38¶3, §44¶27
sense (8): §13¶30, §16¶33, §44¶11, §44¶27, §47¶26, §61¶15, §61¶15, §62¶12
new (11): §13¶30, §34¶15, §35¶10, §44¶27, §44¶27, §47¶26, §47¶26, §47¶26, §61¶15, §61¶15, §62¶12
emperor (14): §13¶30, §13¶30, §13¶30, §16¶4, §16¶33, §34¶15, §34¶15, §44¶11, §47¶26, §47¶26, §49¶11, §62¶12, §70¶14, §70¶14
prince (11): §13¶30, §13¶34, §16¶33, §35¶10, §37¶14, §38¶7, §42¶9, §42¶9, §47¶26, §49¶11, §52¶5
master (11): §13¶30, §16¶4, §16¶33, §34¶4, §37¶14, §44¶11, §44¶27, §44¶27, §49¶11, §52¶5, §62¶12
people (17): §13¶30, §16¶33, §34¶15, §37¶14, §38¶7, §38¶7, §38¶19, §38¶19, §42¶9, §42¶9, §42¶9, §47¶26, §47¶26, §49¶11, §69¶20, §69¶20, §70¶14
king (36): §13¶30, §13¶30, §13¶30, §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶10, §35¶10, §35¶10, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶7, §38¶7, §38¶7, §38¶7, §38¶19, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §52¶5, §52¶5, §62¶12, §70¶14
age (12): §13¶34, §13¶34, §37¶14, §44¶11, §44¶11, §44¶11, §44¶11, §44¶27, §47¶26, §49¶11, §61¶15, §61¶15
year (6): §13¶34, §38¶3, §44¶27, §44¶27, §47¶26, §52¶5
superior (7): §13¶34, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶10, §38¶19, §44¶11, §61¶15
enemies (6): §13¶34, §16¶4, §35¶8, §35¶10, §38¶7, §38¶7
life (9): §13¶34, §13¶34, §42¶9, §44¶27, §47¶26, §49¶11, §52¶5, §62¶12, §62¶12
reign (14): §13¶34, §13¶34, §16¶4, §16¶33, §34¶4, §37¶14, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶19, §42¶9, §42¶9, §47¶26, §61¶15
years (16): §13¶34, §16¶4, §16¶33, §16¶33, §35¶10, §37¶14, §44¶11, §44¶27, §44¶27, §49¶11, §49¶11, §52¶5, §61¶15, §62¶12, §69¶20, §70¶14
charles (8): §13¶34, §13¶34, §13¶34, §49¶11, §49¶11, §62¶12, §62¶12, §70¶14
city (13): §16¶4, §34¶15, §35¶8, §38¶3, §38¶3, §42¶9, §44¶27, §49¶11, §52¶5, §69¶20, §69¶20, §69¶20, §70¶14
arms (10): §16¶4, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶10, §37¶14, §38¶19, §47¶26, §49¶11, §49¶11, §69¶20
race (7): §16¶4, §34¶15, §38¶3, §44¶27, §52¶5, §69¶20, §69¶20
long (9): §16¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §38¶3, §42¶9, §61¶15, §69¶20
person (12): §16¶33, §34¶4, §34¶15, §35¶8, §38¶19, §44¶27, §47¶26, §47¶26, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §70¶14
monarch (10): §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §35¶10, §38¶7, §42¶9, §49¶11, §52¶5
savage (6): §34¶4, §35¶10, §42¶9, §44¶27, §52¶5, §61¶15
royal (9): §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §38¶7, §42¶9, §42¶9, §47¶26, §69¶20
ambassadors (10): §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §49¶11, §49¶11, §52¶5, §70¶14
gepidae (4): §34¶4, §34¶4, §35¶8, §35¶8
nations (13): §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶10, §61¶15, §61¶15, §62¶12, §69¶20
huns (15): §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶10, §35¶10, §35¶10
franks (15): §34¶4, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶10, §35¶10, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶7, §38¶7, §49¶11, §52¶5, §52¶5, §69¶20
attila (29): §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶4, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶10, §35¶10, §35¶10, §35¶10
second (5): §34¶15, §38¶3, §47¶26, §49¶11, §69¶20
reason (11): §34¶15, §34¶15, §35¶10, §37¶14, §38¶3, §38¶19, §42¶9, §44¶11, §44¶27, §47¶26, §61¶15
constantinople (8): §34¶15, §34¶15, §47¶26, §47¶26, §47¶26, §61¶15, §61¶15, §62¶12
private (6): §34¶15, §38¶3, §38¶19, §52¶5, §62¶12, §69¶20
battle (6): §34¶15, §35¶8, §35¶8, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶19
hero (6): §34¶15, §47¶26, §49¶11, §52¶5, §69¶20, §70¶14
son (12): §34¶15, §35¶10, §35¶10, §35¶10, §38¶3, §38¶3, §47¶26, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §69¶20, §69¶20
enemy (10): §35¶8, §35¶8, §35¶10, §38¶7, §44¶27, §44¶27, §47¶26, §49¶11, §62¶12, §62¶12
spirit (9): §35¶8, §38¶3, §42¶9, §47¶26, §49¶11, §52¶5, §61¶15, §61¶15, §70¶14
clovis (8): §35¶10, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶3, §38¶7, §38¶7, §52¶5
cause (9): §38¶7, §38¶19, §38¶19, §44¶11, §61¶15, §62¶12, §69¶20, §69¶20, §70¶14
peter (9): §47¶26, §49¶11, §49¶11, §62¶12, §62¶12, §62¶12, §62¶12, §69¶20, §69¶20
st (9): §47¶26, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §62¶12, §69¶20, §69¶20, §69¶20, §70¶14
lombards (7): §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §49¶11, §69¶20
monarchy (3): §3¶14, §38¶1, §65¶1
supreme (4): §3¶14, §7¶20, §70¶7, §70¶9
augustus (3): §3¶14, §48¶6, §48¶6
throne (5): §3¶14, §48¶6, §51¶30, §65¶1, §70¶9
world (5): §3¶14, §48¶6, §65¶1, §65¶1, §70¶9
princes (6): §3¶14, §7¶20, §16¶37, §48¶6, §70¶7, §70¶7
senate (6): §3¶14, §7¶20, §7¶20, §38¶1, §48¶6, §48¶6
roman (8): §3¶14, §11¶38, §16¶37, §38¶1, §70¶7, §70¶9, §70¶9, §70¶9
people (9): §3¶14, §7¶20, §7¶20, §48¶6, §51¶30, §51¶30, §51¶30, §70¶9, §70¶9
maximus (3): §7¶20, §7¶20, §7¶20
attempted (3): §7¶20, §51¶30, §70¶9
solemn (3): §7¶20, §70¶7, §70¶9
thirteen (1): §7¶20
title (4): §7¶20, §7¶20, §48¶6, §48¶6
sovereign (4): §7¶20, §11¶38, §38¶1, §70¶7
head (4): §7¶20, §48¶6, §70¶7, §70¶9
multitude (4): §7¶20, §7¶20, §7¶20, §70¶9
equal (5): §7¶20, §48¶6, §48¶6, §70¶9, §70¶9
emperors (5): §7¶20, §7¶20, §11¶38, §11¶38, §70¶9
republic (4): §7¶20, §70¶7, §70¶7, §70¶7
italy (5): §7¶20, §38¶1, §70¶7, §70¶7, §70¶9
soon (7): §7¶20, §38¶1, §51¶30, §51¶30, §70¶7, §70¶9, §70¶9
rome (7): §7¶20, §7¶20, §11¶38, §48¶6, §70¶7, §70¶7, §70¶9
capitol (4): §7¶20, §7¶20, §70¶7, §70¶9
guilt (3): §11¶38, §48¶6, §70¶7
life (5): §11¶38, §48¶6, §65¶1, §70¶9, §70¶9
public (5): §16¶37, §48¶6, §48¶6, §51¶30, §70¶7
free (3): §16¶37, §70¶7, §70¶7
reign (5): §16¶37, §48¶6, §48¶6, §65¶1, §70¶7
ambassadors (4): §38¶1, §70¶7, §70¶7, §70¶9
lawful (3): §38¶1, §70¶7, §70¶9
palace (4): §38¶1, §48¶6, §48¶6, §70¶9
king (6): §38¶1, §38¶1, §38¶1, §38¶1, §70¶7, §70¶9
holy (5): §48¶6, §51¶30, §70¶9, §70¶9, §70¶9
constantine (6): §48¶6, §48¶6, §48¶6, §70¶9, §70¶9, §70¶9
theme (3): §48¶6, §65¶1, §70¶7
pope (5): §48¶6, §70¶7, §70¶9, §70¶9, §70¶9
sword (4): §51¶30, §70¶7, §70¶9, §70¶9
cities (3): §51¶30, §70¶7, §70¶7
colonna (1): §70¶7
petrarch (1): §70¶7
tribune (5): §70¶7, §70¶7, §70¶9, §70¶9, §70¶9
rienzi (6): §70¶7, §70¶7, §70¶9, §70¶9, §70¶9, §70¶9
prince (7): §4¶7, §19¶1, §38¶51, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶27, §55¶9
blood (6): §4¶7, §16¶10, §28¶13, §39¶15, §48¶12, §55¶9
virtue (7): §4¶7, §4¶14, §16¶10, §28¶13, §28¶13, §39¶15, §40¶2
power (11): §4¶7, §6¶51, §12¶40, §12¶40, §23¶18, §28¶13, §32¶13, §39¶15, §44¶42, §45¶23, §48¶12
hands (5): §4¶7, §11¶42, §19¶1, §32¶13, §55¶9
character (10): §4¶7, §4¶14, §19¶1, §36¶15, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶35, §48¶35, §48¶35, §55¶9
son (12): §4¶7, §6¶51, §11¶42, §11¶42, §28¶13, §28¶13, §32¶13, §32¶13, §36¶15, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶27
years (16): §4¶7, §4¶14, §6¶51, §23¶18, §28¶13, §32¶13, §32¶13, §38¶51, §40¶2, §44¶42, §45¶23, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶35, §48¶35
reign (18): §4¶7, §11¶42, §12¶40, §19¶1, §23¶18, §28¶13, §36¶15, §40¶2, §40¶2, §45¶23, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶35, §48¶35, §48¶35, §48¶35
exercise (7): §4¶14, §13¶14, §37¶10, §37¶10, §38¶51, §44¶42, §44¶42
prudence (6): §4¶14, §16¶10, §19¶1, §32¶13, §44¶42, §48¶35
virtues (9): §4¶14, §12¶40, §23¶18, §39¶15, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶35, §48¶35, §48¶35
time (10): §4¶14, §19¶1, §23¶18, §23¶18, §28¶13, §37¶10, §37¶10, §38¶51, §44¶42, §55¶9
merit (9): §4¶14, §12¶40, §19¶1, §28¶13, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶35, §50¶33, §55¶9
people (8): §4¶14, §28¶13, §38¶51, §39¶15, §40¶2, §44¶42, §48¶27, §48¶35
death (13): §4¶14, §6¶51, §12¶40, §13¶14, §16¶59, §23¶18, §40¶2, §44¶42, §45¶23, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶27, §50¶33
public (14): §4¶14, §4¶14, §12¶40, §13¶14, §19¶1, §23¶18, §38¶51, §39¶15, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶27, §48¶35, §48¶35
emperor (21): §4¶14, §4¶14, §11¶42, §11¶42, §13¶14, §19¶1, §23¶18, §23¶18, §32¶13, §32¶13, §36¶15, §36¶15, §36¶15, §40¶2, §40¶2, §44¶42, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶35, §48¶35, §55¶9
lost (6): §6¶51, §28¶13, §48¶27, §48¶35, §48¶35, §48¶35
various (7): §6¶51, §28¶13, §37¶10, §38¶51, §40¶2, §44¶42, §48¶12
subject (5): §6¶51, §13¶14, §32¶13, §36¶15, §40¶2
arts (8): §6¶51, §19¶1, §38¶51, §38¶51, §38¶51, §45¶23, §48¶35, §48¶35
father (8): §6¶51, §11¶42, §12¶40, §12¶40, §12¶40, §36¶15, §48¶27, §50¶33
empire (15): §6¶51, §12¶40, §13¶14, §19¶1, §36¶15, §36¶15, §36¶15, §40¶2, §44¶42, §45¶23, §48¶12, §48¶35, §48¶35, §50¶33, §55¶9
singular (5): §11¶42, §23¶18, §28¶13, §32¶13, §44¶42
throne (6): §11¶42, §36¶15, §40¶2, §48¶27, §48¶35, §55¶9
long (12): §11¶42, §12¶40, §12¶40, §19¶1, §28¶13, §36¶15, §44¶42, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶35, §55¶9
roman (9): §11¶42, §11¶42, §19¶1, §23¶18, §28¶13, §36¶15, §40¶2, §40¶2, §40¶2
italy (6): §11¶42, §36¶15, §38¶51, §39¶15, §39¶15, §40¶2
history (8): §11¶42, §23¶18, §32¶13, §36¶15, §38¶51, §40¶2, §40¶2, §45¶23
emperors (4): §12¶40, §13¶14, §16¶59, §19¶1
destitute (4): §12¶40, §19¶1, §36¶15, §38¶51
times (8): §12¶40, §23¶18, §39¶15, §40¶2, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶35, §48¶35
rome (7): §12¶40, §13¶14, §19¶1, §36¶15, §36¶15, §38¶51, §45¶23
war (10): §12¶40, §12¶40, §13¶14, §16¶59, §19¶1, §36¶15, §36¶15, §39¶15, §48¶12, §48¶35
new (11): §12¶40, §16¶10, §19¶1, §23¶18, §23¶18, §28¶13, §48¶12, §48¶35, §48¶35, §48¶35, §55¶9
age (12): §12¶40, §28¶13, §32¶13, §32¶13, §38¶51, §39¶15, §39¶15, §44¶42, §48¶12, §48¶27, §50¶33, §55¶9
human (9): §16¶10, §32¶13, §38¶51, §38¶51, §38¶51, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶35
policy (4): §16¶10, §16¶59, §38¶51, §48¶35
world (11): §16¶10, §19¶1, §23¶18, §28¶13, §28¶13, §28¶13, §32¶13, §37¶10, §48¶35, §48¶35, §48¶35
peace (6): §19¶1, §36¶15, §36¶15, §39¶15, §44¶42, §48¶35
historian (7): §19¶1, §23¶18, §32¶13, §32¶13, §40¶2, §48¶12, §48¶35
constantine (7): §19¶1, §19¶1, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶27
work (5): §23¶18, §23¶18, §23¶18, §28¶13, §37¶10
justinian (8): §32¶13, §40¶2, §40¶2, §40¶2, §40¶2, §44¶42, §44¶42, §44¶42
east (7): §32¶13, §36¶15, §36¶15, §40¶2, §44¶42, §45¶23, §48¶35
nations (5): §36¶15, §38¶51, §40¶2, §45¶23, §45¶23
constantinople (8): §36¶15, §40¶2, §44¶42, §48¶12, §48¶27, §48¶35, §48¶35, §55¶9
turks (1): §48¶35
art (10): §2¶27, §31¶22, §46¶7, §52¶4, §52¶4, §52¶4, §52¶4, §71¶5, §71¶12, §71¶12
materials (8): §2¶27, §10¶51, §31¶12, §31¶22, §46¶7, §58¶27, §71¶4, §71¶5
soon (15): §2¶27, §15¶34, §15¶34, §16¶19, §25¶15, §25¶15, §46¶7, §46¶7, §46¶7, §52¶4, §54¶6, §70¶6, §70¶6, §71¶5, §71¶5
age (12): §2¶27, §3¶30, §15¶34, §16¶19, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶22, §58¶30, §71¶5, §71¶12, §71¶12
wealth (8): §2¶27, §17¶37, §25¶15, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶22, §45¶4, §46¶7
mankind (7): §2¶27, §3¶30, §9¶30, §31¶22, §52¶4, §71¶5, §71¶6
people (17): §2¶27, §9¶30, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §25¶15, §25¶15, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §36¶9, §36¶9, §36¶9, §46¶7, §54¶6, §70¶6, §70¶12
empire (19): §2¶27, §2¶27, §10¶51, §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶37, §17¶37, §31¶12, §31¶12, §36¶9, §36¶9, §46¶7, §46¶7, §46¶7, §52¶4, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶6
property (7): §2¶27, §17¶36, §31¶5, §44¶38, §58¶28, §58¶30, §70¶6
new (17): §2¶27, §10¶22, §15¶34, §15¶34, §16¶19, §16¶19, §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §46¶7, §46¶7, §46¶7, §52¶4, §58¶27, §58¶30, §70¶12, §71¶5
houses (8): §2¶27, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §70¶6, §70¶6, §71¶6
provinces (16): §2¶27, §10¶51, §16¶19, §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶37, §31¶5, §45¶4, §46¶7, §46¶7, §54¶6, §54¶6, §71¶12
nature (16): §2¶27, §3¶30, §15¶34, §15¶34, §15¶34, §16¶19, §17¶36, §17¶36, §23¶25, §44¶38, §44¶38, §44¶38, §46¶7, §71¶4, §71¶5, §71¶5
roman (25): §2¶27, §2¶27, §10¶22, §16¶19, §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶37, §25¶15, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §31¶22, §31¶22, §46¶7, §46¶7, §46¶7, §71¶5, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶12
rome (51): §2¶27, §15¶34, §16¶19, §16¶23, §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §25¶15, §25¶15, §25¶15, §25¶15, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §31¶22, §31¶22, §31¶22, §31¶22, §31¶22, §44¶38, §46¶7, §52¶4, §54¶6, §54¶6, §54¶6, §54¶6, §70¶6, §70¶6, §70¶6, §70¶6, §70¶6, §70¶12, §70¶12, §71¶4, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶12
years (11): §3¶30, §10¶22, §16¶19, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §45¶4, §46¶7, §52¶4, §71¶4, §71¶12
persons (8): §3¶30, §9¶30, §15¶34, §15¶34, §16¶23, §16¶23, §31¶12, §70¶6
exposed (9): §3¶30, §31¶22, §44¶38, §46¶7, §46¶7, §70¶6, §70¶6, §71¶5, §71¶5
death (11): §3¶30, §3¶30, §15¶34, §16¶23, §16¶23, §17¶36, §23¶25, §25¶15, §31¶22, §70¶6, §71¶5
public (18): §3¶30, §9¶30, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶37, §23¶25, §31¶5, §31¶22, §36¶9, §36¶9, §36¶9, §36¶9, §45¶4, §58¶27, §58¶28, §70¶6, §70¶12, §71¶5
capital (8): §9¶30, §17¶36, §23¶25, §25¶15, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶12, §71¶6
according (11): §9¶30, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶37, §31¶5, §31¶22, §36¶9, §44¶38, §58¶30, §71¶5
common (9): §10¶22, §17¶36, §17¶37, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §45¶4, §54¶6, §71¶5
laws (16): §10¶22, §15¶34, §16¶19, §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §36¶9, §44¶38, §46¶7, §54¶6, §58¶27, §58¶27, §58¶28, §58¶30, §58¶30
general (8): §10¶51, §16¶19, §16¶23, §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §31¶22, §31¶22
far (13): §10¶51, §16¶23, §16¶23, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶12, §36¶9, §54¶6, §71¶5, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶12
barbarians (10): §10¶51, §17¶36, §31¶22, §31¶22, §31¶22, §45¶4, §45¶4, §52¶4, §71¶4, §71¶6
use (12): §15¶34, §17¶36, §17¶36, §31¶5, §45¶4, §52¶4, §58¶27, §58¶28, §58¶30, §71¶4, §71¶5, §71¶6
government (12): §16¶19, §16¶19, §25¶15, §31¶12, §54¶6, §70¶6, §70¶12, §70¶12, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶6, §71¶12
guilt (9): §16¶19, §17¶36, §44¶38, §44¶38, §46¶7, §70¶6, §70¶12, §71¶5, §71¶6
christians (16): §16¶19, §16¶19, §16¶19, §16¶23, §16¶23, §16¶23, §16¶23, §25¶15, §31¶22, §46¶7, §52¶4, §52¶4, §54¶6, §58¶30, §71¶4, §71¶6
example (8): §16¶23, §31¶22, §44¶38, §58¶27, §58¶30, §70¶6, §71¶6, §71¶12
value (9): §16¶23, §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶37, §31¶5, §31¶22, §36¶9, §58¶30, §71¶12
city (27): §16¶23, §17¶36, §23¶25, §25¶15, §25¶15, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §46¶7, §46¶7, §46¶7, §58¶27, §58¶30, §70¶6, §70¶12, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶6, §71¶6, §71¶12, §71¶12
citizens (10): §17¶36, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §31¶22, §46¶7, §58¶30, §70¶12
cities (15): §17¶36, §17¶36, §17¶36, §23¶25, §23¶25, §31¶12, §31¶12, §36¶9, §36¶9, §36¶9, §46¶7, §54¶6, §58¶30, §58¶30, §71¶5
slaves (7): §17¶36, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶22, §58¶27, §58¶30, §58¶30
thousand (15): §17¶36, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶12, §31¶22, §31¶22, §44¶38, §45¶4, §46¶7, §54¶6, §71¶4
proportion (4): §17¶36, §17¶37, §31¶5, §31¶22
lands (7): §17¶36, §17¶36, §31¶5, §45¶4, §58¶28, §58¶28, §70¶6
gold (13): §17¶36, §17¶37, §17¶37, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶22, §31¶22, §36¶9, §46¶7, §58¶30, §70¶6, §71¶12, §71¶12
pounds (6): §17¶37, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶5, §31¶5, §44¶38
religion (8): §25¶15, §44¶38, §45¶4, §54¶6, §58¶28, §58¶30, §71¶6, §71¶6
private (11): §31¶5, §31¶12, §31¶22, §31¶22, §36¶9, §44¶38, §58¶27, §58¶28, §70¶6, §70¶12, §71¶5
romans (12): §31¶5, §31¶22, §44¶38, §46¶7, §46¶7, §52¶4, §52¶4, §52¶4, §71¶4, §71¶12, §71¶12, §71¶12
injury (8): §31¶22, §44¶38, §44¶38, §58¶28, §70¶6, §71¶5, §71¶5, §71¶6
lombards (9): §45¶4, §45¶4, §45¶4, §45¶4, §45¶4, §45¶4, §46¶7, §46¶7, §46¶7
jerusalem (8): §54¶6, §58¶27, §58¶27, §58¶28, §58¶28, §58¶30, §58¶30, §58¶30
africa (24): §1¶36, §6¶43, §42¶14, §42¶20, §42¶20, §43¶28, §48¶2, §50¶2, §51¶35, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶47, §51¶47, §51¶47, §52¶9, §52¶17, §52¶17, §52¶25, §53¶4, §56¶19, §56¶19
nile (10): §1¶36, §2¶28, §42¶20, §43¶28, §47¶36, §50¶2, §51¶28, §51¶37, §52¶25, §61¶1
greek (20): §1¶36, §48¶1, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶43, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶15, §52¶15, §53¶6, §53¶6, §53¶6, §59¶8, §61¶1, §61¶1, §68¶2, §68¶25
roman (44): §1¶36, §2¶28, §2¶28, §6¶42, §6¶43, §6¶45, §16¶17, §16¶17, §36¶30, §38¶41, §40¶15, §42¶20, §42¶20, §42¶20, §42¶20, §42¶20, §42¶20, §44¶7, §48¶1, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶35, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶44, §51¶47, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶17, §53¶4, §57¶12, §57¶13, §61¶1, §61¶1, §61¶16, §68¶25, §71¶1, §71¶1
asia (24): §1¶36, §2¶28, §6¶42, §6¶43, §40¶15, §42¶14, §42¶20, §48¶2, §51¶37, §51¶43, §52¶15, §53¶6, §57¶12, §57¶13, §57¶13, §58¶5, §59¶8, §64¶8, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §68¶2, §68¶25
sea (31): §1¶36, §2¶28, §2¶28, §6¶42, §6¶45, §36¶30, §36¶30, §38¶41, §40¶15, §40¶15, §42¶20, §42¶20, §42¶20, §48¶2, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶2, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §52¶15, §53¶6, §56¶19, §56¶19, §61¶1, §64¶11
throne (37): §1¶36, §15¶53, §16¶17, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶41, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶47, §51¶47, §52¶9, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶25, §57¶12, §57¶13, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶19, §61¶1, §64¶8, §65¶13, §65¶13, §67¶5, §67¶5, §68¶2, §68¶2, §68¶25, §68¶25
turkish (11): §1¶36, §48¶2, §52¶25, §57¶12, §57¶13, §58¶5, §61¶1, §62¶15, §67¶5, §68¶25, §68¶25
egypt (37): §1¶36, §1¶36, §1¶36, §2¶28, §2¶28, §6¶43, §6¶43, §15¶53, §15¶53, §40¶15, §42¶20, §43¶28, §47¶36, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶44, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶25, §53¶6, §56¶19, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶19, §59¶19, §59¶19, §59¶19, §64¶8, §65¶13
east (19): §2¶28, §38¶41, §40¶15, §43¶28, §43¶28, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶41, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶15, §53¶6, §57¶12, §58¶5, §59¶8, §61¶16, §61¶16, §64¶8
annual (11): §2¶28, §36¶30, §42¶14, §50¶7, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶44, §52¶2, §52¶15, §53¶4, §68¶2
state (26): §2¶28, §6¶42, §42¶14, §42¶14, §42¶20, §48¶1, §48¶2, §50¶2, §51¶1, §51¶35, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶44, §52¶15, §52¶25, §53¶4, §53¶6, §58¶5, §59¶19, §61¶1, §61¶16, §62¶15, §62¶15, §65¶13, §67¶5, §71¶1
reign (24): §2¶28, §13¶5, §36¶30, §38¶41, §40¶15, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶43, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶15, §53¶4, §56¶19, §57¶12, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶19, §62¶15, §64¶12, §64¶12, §68¶2, §68¶2, §68¶25
arabian (25): §2¶28, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶7, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶35, §51¶37, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶44, §51¶47, §52¶15, §52¶17, §56¶19, §56¶19, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶8, §64¶8, §64¶8
empire (45): §2¶28, §2¶28, §6¶43, §6¶45, §16¶17, §36¶30, §38¶41, §38¶41, §40¶15, §42¶20, §42¶20, §42¶20, §48¶1, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶37, §51¶43, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶17, §53¶6, §53¶6, §57¶12, §57¶13, §59¶8, §61¶1, §61¶16, §62¶15, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §67¶5, §68¶25, §68¶25, §71¶1
gold (39): §2¶28, §2¶28, §2¶28, §6¶42, §36¶30, §40¶15, §42¶20, §50¶7, §50¶7, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶37, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶44, §51¶44, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶17, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶6, §53¶6, §53¶6, §53¶6, §53¶6, §56¶19, §58¶5, §59¶8, §64¶12, §71¶1
thousand (83): §2¶28, §6¶43, §6¶43, §16¶17, §36¶30, §36¶30, §36¶30, §38¶41, §42¶14, §42¶14, §42¶14, §42¶20, §42¶20, §47¶36, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶7, §50¶7, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶44, §51¶44, §51¶44, §51¶44, §51¶44, §51¶44, §51¶44, §51¶44, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶17, §52¶17, §52¶17, §52¶17, §52¶17, §52¶25, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶6, §53¶6, §53¶6, §53¶6, §56¶19, §59¶8, §59¶19, §59¶19, §59¶19, §59¶19, §59¶19, §59¶19, §61¶1, §61¶1, §62¶15, §62¶15, §62¶15, §62¶15, §64¶11, §65¶13, §68¶2, §68¶2, §68¶25
government (19): §6¶42, §13¶5, §40¶15, §42¶14, §44¶7, §48¶1, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶37, §52¶9, §53¶4, §56¶19, §59¶8, §59¶8, §61¶1, §62¶15, §64¶12, §65¶13, §68¶2
people (35): §6¶42, §6¶42, §6¶42, §15¶53, §16¶17, §16¶17, §36¶30, §38¶41, §40¶15, §42¶14, §42¶20, §44¶7, §48¶2, §50¶2, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶44, §51¶47, §52¶9, §52¶25, §52¶25, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §61¶1, §64¶12, §65¶13, §65¶13, §67¶5, §68¶2, §68¶25, §71¶1
conquest (20): §6¶42, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶28, §51¶44, §51¶44, §52¶9, §52¶17, §52¶17, §56¶19, §56¶19, §58¶5, §59¶8, §61¶1, §61¶1, §62¶15, §64¶8, §64¶11, §68¶25
tribute (24): §6¶42, §6¶42, §16¶17, §38¶41, §42¶20, §51¶28, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶44, §51¶47, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶25, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶4, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶19
years (47): §6¶42, §6¶42, §6¶43, §13¶5, §36¶30, §36¶30, §36¶30, §38¶41, §42¶20, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶35, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶41, §51¶44, §51¶47, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶17, §53¶4, §57¶12, §57¶12, §59¶8, §59¶19, §59¶19, §59¶19, §61¶16, §62¶15, §62¶15, §64¶8, §64¶8, §64¶11, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §65¶13, §65¶13, §67¶5, §68¶2, §68¶25
great (31): §6¶43, §15¶53, §36¶30, §36¶30, §50¶2, §51¶28, §51¶41, §56¶19, §57¶13, §58¶5, §59¶8, §59¶19, §61¶1, §61¶16, §62¶15, §62¶15, §62¶15, §64¶11, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §65¶13, §68¶2, §68¶25, §68¶25
life (26): §6¶45, §15¶53, §36¶30, §38¶41, §42¶20, §43¶28, §44¶7, §48¶2, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶2, §51¶28, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶43, §52¶25, §57¶12, §61¶1, §62¶15, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §67¶5, §67¶5
till (23): §13¶5, §15¶53, §36¶30, §40¶15, §48¶2, §48¶2, §50¶2, §51¶28, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶43, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶25, §53¶4, §61¶1, §62¶15, §64¶8, §64¶11, §67¶5, §67¶5, §68¶25
new (22): §15¶53, §15¶53, §36¶30, §40¶15, §48¶1, §48¶2, §51¶35, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶43, §52¶15, §52¶15, §57¶13, §59¶8, §61¶16, §62¶15, §62¶15, §64¶12, §68¶2, §68¶25, §68¶25, §68¶25
greeks (25): §15¶53, §36¶30, §42¶14, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶47, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶17, §52¶17, §53¶4, §56¶19, §58¶5, §59¶8, §62¶15, §64¶8, §68¶25, §68¶25
religion (24): §15¶53, §16¶17, §40¶15, §44¶7, §47¶36, §48¶1, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶42, §51¶47, §52¶17, §53¶4, §57¶12, §58¶5, §59¶8, §62¶15, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §67¶5, §68¶25
city (25): §15¶53, §36¶30, §40¶15, §42¶20, §43¶28, §48¶1, §50¶7, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶41, §51¶42, §52¶2, §56¶19, §59¶19, §61¶1, §64¶8, §64¶8, §65¶13, §67¶5, §68¶25, §71¶1
christians (25): §16¶17, §16¶17, §16¶17, §40¶15, §42¶14, §42¶20, §51¶28, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶44, §51¶47, §51¶47, §52¶2, §52¶17, §58¶5, §59¶8, §59¶8, §64¶8, §64¶8
royal (25): §16¶17, §40¶15, §42¶20, §51¶37, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶43, §51¶44, §51¶44, §52¶9, §52¶15, §53¶4, §53¶6, §56¶19, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶8, §61¶1, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §67¶5, §68¶25, §68¶25
palace (23): §36¶30, §51¶1, §51¶35, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶25, §53¶6, §53¶6, §53¶6, §56¶19, §59¶8, §61¶1, §64¶12, §64¶12, §68¶25, §68¶25, §71¶1
saracens (24): §36¶30, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶35, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶41, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶47, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶17, §52¶17, §53¶4, §56¶19, §61¶16
death (28): §36¶30, §38¶41, §43¶28, §43¶28, §43¶28, §48¶2, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶43, §52¶15, §52¶17, §56¶19, §57¶12, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §64¶8, §64¶11, §64¶12, §64¶12, §64¶12, §65¶13, §67¶5, §68¶2, §68¶2, §68¶25
son (25): §36¶30, §36¶30, §44¶7, §50¶7, §50¶7, §51¶35, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶43, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶17, §53¶6, §57¶12, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §62¶15, §62¶15, §62¶15, §67¶5, §67¶5
pieces (20): §36¶30, §50¶7, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶43, §51¶44, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶17, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶4, §53¶6, §56¶19, §62¶15
constantinople (27): §38¶41, §40¶15, §40¶15, §42¶14, §43¶28, §43¶28, §47¶36, §48¶1, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶43, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶17, §53¶6, §53¶6, §57¶12, §61¶1, §61¶1, §62¶15, §64¶8, §68¶25, §68¶25
race (15): §40¶15, §42¶14, §42¶20, §47¶36, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶7, §51¶42, §52¶15, §53¶4, §53¶4, §61¶16, §64¶8, §64¶12
europe (20): §40¶15, §43¶28, §48¶2, §48¶2, §50¶2, §51¶1, §51¶43, §51¶43, §52¶9, §53¶6, §57¶12, §58¶5, §61¶16, §61¶16, §61¶16, §64¶8, §64¶12, §65¶13, §68¶2, §68¶25
age (27): §42¶14, §42¶14, §43¶28, §44¶7, §48¶2, §50¶2, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶35, §51¶37, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶47, §57¶12, §59¶8, §59¶8, §61¶16, §62¶15, §65¶13, §65¶13, §67¶5, §67¶5, §67¶5, §68¶2, §68¶2, §71¶1
arabs (22): §42¶20, §48¶2, §48¶2, §50¶2, §50¶2, §50¶7, §50¶7, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶44, §51¶44, §51¶47, §52¶15, §52¶15, §59¶19, §64¶12, §68¶25
mahomet (24): §42¶20, §48¶2, §48¶2, §50¶2, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶41, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶25, §57¶12, §62¶15, §64¶8, §64¶12, §67¶5, §68¶2, §68¶2, §68¶25, §68¶25, §68¶25, §68¶25
syria (17): §43¶28, §48¶2, §48¶2, §50¶2, §51¶28, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶44, §52¶2, §52¶25, §57¶13, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶19, §59¶19, §64¶12, §64¶12
caliphs (14): §47¶36, §48¶2, §48¶2, §51¶1, §51¶44, §52¶9, §52¶17, §52¶25, §52¶25, §52¶25, §59¶8, §64¶8, §64¶12, §65¶13
faithful (22): §50¶2, §50¶7, §51¶1, §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶42, §51¶44, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶25, §52¶25, §52¶25, §53¶6, §57¶12, §64¶8
caliph (36): §51¶1, §51¶28, §51¶28, §51¶37, §51¶37, §51¶41, §51¶41, §51¶42, §51¶42, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶43, §51¶44, §51¶47, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶2, §52¶9, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶17, §52¶25, §56¶19, §57¶12, §57¶12, §57¶12, §59¶8, §59¶8, §64¶8, §64¶8
sultan (15): §51¶47, §57¶12, §57¶12, §57¶12, §57¶12, §57¶13, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶8, §59¶19, §61¶1, §67¶5, §68¶2, §68¶25, §68¶25
bagdad (8): §52¶9, §52¶17, §52¶25, §52¶25, §52¶25, §57¶12, §64¶8, §64¶8
abbassides (10): §52¶9, §52¶9, §52¶15, §52¶15, §52¶25, §52¶25, §52¶25, §52¶25, §52¶25, §64¶8
progress (6): §1¶5, §9¶21, §13¶42, §37¶5, §53¶23, §62¶1
example (4): §1¶5, §1¶5, §62¶1, §68¶22
war (5): §1¶5, §9¶21, §9¶21, §13¶42, §53¶23
general (6): §1¶5, §47¶39, §53¶1, §68¶19, §68¶22, §69¶6
roman (9): §1¶5, §1¶5, §1¶5, §20¶26, §47¶39, §47¶39, §62¶1, §69¶6, §69¶6
national (6): §1¶5, §9¶21, §47¶39, §53¶23, §62¶1, §62¶1
years (11): §1¶5, §26¶23, §37¶5, §47¶39, §47¶39, §52¶12, §53¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §68¶22
arms (7): §1¶5, §1¶5, §1¶5, §9¶21, §20¶26, §26¶23, §47¶39
single (6): §1¶5, §26¶23, §26¶23, §53¶1, §62¶1, §68¶22
freedom (10): §1¶5, §1¶5, §37¶5, §37¶5, §47¶39, §53¶1, §53¶1, §53¶23, §62¶1, §69¶6
empire (17): §1¶5, §20¶26, §47¶22, §47¶39, §47¶39, §47¶39, §47¶39, §47¶39, §53¶1, §53¶1, §53¶23, §53¶23, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §68¶19, §68¶22
ignorance (5): §9¶21, §52¶12, §53¶1, §68¶19, §69¶6
civil (7): §9¶21, §13¶42, §20¶26, §47¶39, §52¶12, §53¶1, §69¶6
god (7): §9¶21, §9¶21, §37¶5, §47¶22, §52¶12, §68¶19, §68¶22
useful (5): §9¶21, §26¶23, §52¶12, §53¶1, §62¶1
human (8): §9¶21, §13¶42, §26¶23, §26¶23, §26¶23, §53¶1, §53¶23, §62¶1
rapid (4): §13¶42, §20¶26, §53¶1, §68¶19
church (13): §13¶42, §20¶26, §20¶26, §37¶5, §37¶5, §47¶22, §47¶22, §53¶1, §68¶19, §68¶19, §69¶6, §69¶6, §69¶6
age (8): §13¶42, §47¶39, §47¶39, §52¶12, §53¶1, §62¶1, §69¶6, §69¶6
subjects (9): §13¶42, §47¶22, §47¶39, §47¶39, §52¶12, §52¶12, §53¶1, §53¶23, §62¶1
science (7): §13¶42, §13¶42, §52¶12, §52¶12, §52¶12, §52¶12, §68¶22
manners (7): §13¶42, §26¶23, §47¶39, §53¶1, §53¶23, §53¶23, §62¶1
italy (5): §20¶26, §53¶23, §68¶22, §69¶6, §69¶6
eloquence (7): §20¶26, §20¶26, §20¶26, §26¶23, §26¶23, §52¶12, §69¶6
equal (5): §20¶26, §26¶23, §47¶39, §53¶23, §62¶1
nature (9): §20¶26, §26¶23, §26¶23, §47¶22, §47¶22, §53¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §69¶6
virtue (5): §20¶26, §37¶5, §47¶39, §47¶39, §53¶23
profane (5): §20¶26, §26¶23, §52¶12, §68¶19, §68¶22
passions (9): §20¶26, §20¶26, §20¶26, §37¶5, §53¶1, §62¶1, §68¶22, §68¶22, §69¶6
merit (11): §20¶26, §37¶5, §47¶39, §52¶12, §53¶1, §53¶1, §53¶23, §53¶23, §62¶1, §68¶22, §69¶6
romans (6): §26¶23, §47¶39, §53¶23, §68¶19, §68¶19, §69¶6
applied (5): §26¶23, §47¶39, §52¶12, §62¶1, §68¶22
people (9): §26¶23, §47¶39, §52¶12, §62¶1, §62¶1, §68¶19, §68¶22, §69¶6, §69¶6
constantinople (13): §26¶23, §47¶39, §47¶39, §47¶39, §47¶39, §52¶12, §53¶1, §53¶23, §62¶1, §68¶19, §68¶19, §68¶22, §68¶22
restored (3): §37¶5, §62¶1, §62¶1
superior (3): §37¶5, §47¶39, §52¶12
character (7): §37¶5, §47¶39, §53¶1, §53¶1, §53¶1, §53¶23, §69¶6
royal (7): §47¶22, §52¶12, §52¶12, §53¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §69¶6
annals (4): §47¶39, §47¶39, §52¶12, §62¶1
thousand (10): §47¶39, §47¶39, §47¶39, §52¶12, §52¶12, §52¶12, §52¶12, §52¶12, §62¶1, §68¶22
reign (6): §47¶39, §52¶12, §53¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1
byzantine (7): §47¶39, §47¶39, §53¶1, §53¶23, §53¶23, §62¶1, §68¶22
emulation (6): §47¶39, §52¶12, §52¶12, §53¶23, §53¶23, §53¶23
greeks (11): §47¶39, §47¶39, §47¶39, §53¶1, §53¶23, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §68¶19, §68¶22
literature (3): §52¶12, §53¶1, §68¶22
industry (4): §52¶12, §52¶12, §62¶1, §68¶22
lascaris (4): §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1
vataces (7): §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1, §62¶1
emperors (5): §3¶11, §12¶38, §17¶30, §17¶39, §21¶11
distinct (6): §3¶11, §10¶4, §17¶39, §20¶10, §21¶11, §21¶11
extraordinary (4): §3¶11, §6¶37, §20¶10, §39¶8
ample (5): §3¶11, §6¶37, §12¶38, §21¶11, §60¶22
laws (5): §3¶11, §17¶30, §25¶22, §39¶8, §39¶8
important (4): §3¶11, §20¶10, §33¶1, §66¶17
augustus (5): §3¶11, §12¶6, §12¶6, §21¶11, §60¶22
state (4): §3¶11, §6¶37, §17¶39, §70¶21
war (8): §3¶11, §11¶34, §12¶6, §17¶30, §25¶22, §25¶22, §39¶8, §39¶8
divine (6): §3¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11, §60¶22
roman (8): §3¶11, §12¶38, §12¶38, §17¶30, §17¶39, §21¶11, §39¶8, §70¶21
senate (8): §3¶11, §3¶11, §5¶7, §5¶7, §5¶7, §5¶7, §12¶6, §12¶6
people (9): §3¶11, §6¶37, §10¶4, §12¶38, §25¶22, §33¶1, §39¶8, §39¶8, §66¶17
prepared (8): §3¶11, §5¶7, §5¶7, §20¶10, §25¶22, §33¶1, §39¶8, §66¶17
soon (10): §3¶11, §6¶37, §12¶6, §12¶6, §17¶30, §25¶22, §33¶1, §39¶8, §39¶8, §70¶21
empire (12): §3¶11, §5¶7, §6¶37, §11¶34, §12¶6, §17¶30, §17¶39, §22¶4, §25¶22, §39¶8, §66¶17, §66¶17
public (10): §3¶11, §5¶7, §6¶37, §6¶37, §6¶37, §17¶39, §21¶11, §33¶1, §39¶8, §60¶22
order (5): §5¶7, §5¶7, §6¶37, §12¶38, §21¶11
ranks (4): §5¶7, §12¶38, §17¶30, §66¶17
soldiers (7): §5¶7, §6¶37, §22¶4, §25¶22, §25¶22, §39¶8, §39¶8
mind (6): §5¶7, §21¶11, §21¶11, §22¶4, §22¶4, §66¶17
military (8): §5¶7, §6¶37, §11¶34, §12¶6, §17¶30, §25¶22, §39¶8, §66¶17
julian (8): §5¶7, §5¶7, §5¶7, §22¶4, §22¶4, §22¶4, §22¶4, §25¶22
martial (3): §6¶37, §12¶6, §60¶22
arts (6): §6¶37, §10¶4, §17¶39, §39¶8, §39¶8, §60¶22
numerous (5): §6¶37, §11¶34, §17¶39, §66¶17, §70¶21
love (7): §6¶37, §6¶37, §17¶30, §22¶4, §60¶22, §60¶22, §66¶17
men (4): §6¶37, §17¶30, §21¶11, §39¶8
person (7): §6¶37, §12¶38, §17¶39, §21¶11, §33¶1, §70¶21, §70¶21
troops (8): §6¶37, §10¶4, §11¶34, §20¶10, §22¶4, §25¶22, §33¶1, §60¶22
discipline (4): §6¶37, §6¶37, §25¶22, §39¶8
gold (6): §6¶37, §6¶37, §12¶38, §12¶38, §17¶30, §25¶22
affected (6): §6¶37, §6¶37, §11¶34, §17¶30, §17¶39, §60¶22
duty (6): §6¶37, §12¶6, §17¶30, §22¶4, §33¶1, §39¶8
ancient (6): §10¶4, §10¶4, §10¶4, §22¶4, §60¶22, §66¶17
italy (10): §10¶4, §10¶4, §17¶30, §33¶1, §33¶1, §39¶8, §39¶8, §39¶8, §39¶8, §66¶17
world (8): §10¶4, §12¶6, §12¶38, §17¶39, §21¶11, §25¶22, §66¶17, §70¶21
great (4): §11¶34, §22¶4, §33¶1, §70¶21
life (8): §11¶34, §12¶6, §17¶30, §17¶30, §25¶22, §39¶8, §60¶22, §66¶17
hope (5): §12¶6, §22¶4, §25¶22, §25¶22, §33¶1
received (3): §17¶30, §22¶4, §33¶1
service (7): §17¶30, §17¶30, §17¶30, §25¶22, §39¶8, §39¶8, §66¶17
nature (4): §17¶39, §21¶11, §21¶11, §25¶22
use (5): §17¶39, §17¶39, §39¶8, §39¶8, §66¶17
cause (5): §20¶10, §21¶11, §33¶1, §70¶21, §70¶21
logos (5): §21¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11
infinite (4): §21¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11, §21¶11
spirit (7): §21¶11, §22¶4, §22¶4, §25¶22, §25¶22, §60¶22, §66¶17
republic (5): §2¶8, §2¶8, §26¶21, §31¶11, §31¶11
virtue (6): §2¶8, §8¶21, §26¶21, §31¶11, §37¶16, §47¶30
increase (4): §2¶8, §24¶10, §41¶25, §50¶15
service (3): §2¶8, §8¶21, §26¶21
war (5): §2¶8, §8¶21, §26¶21, §37¶16, §40¶26
barbarians (5): §2¶8, §26¶21, §26¶21, §37¶16, §37¶16
roman (10): §2¶8, §2¶8, §26¶21, §31¶11, §41¶25, §44¶30, §44¶30, §47¶30, §47¶30, §59¶21
arms (5): §2¶8, §2¶8, §41¶25, §47¶30, §47¶30
soon (7): §2¶8, §26¶21, §37¶16, §41¶25, §41¶25, §47¶30, §47¶30
city (8): §2¶8, §31¶11, §40¶26, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §50¶15
multitude (6): §2¶8, §6¶49, §24¶10, §24¶10, §31¶11, §41¶25
public (9): §2¶8, §6¶49, §6¶49, §26¶21, §31¶11, §31¶11, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25
country (9): §2¶8, §24¶10, §24¶10, §24¶10, §24¶10, §37¶16, §41¶25, §41¶25, §44¶30
thousand (14): §2¶8, §2¶8, §2¶8, §24¶10, §24¶10, §31¶11, §31¶11, §31¶11, §41¶25, §44¶30, §47¶30, §47¶30, §47¶30, §50¶15
rome (12): §2¶8, §2¶8, §8¶21, §31¶11, §31¶11, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §47¶30
considerable (2): §6¶49, §24¶10
people (6): §6¶49, §24¶10, §31¶11, §31¶11, §37¶16, §41¶25
age (4): §8¶21, §26¶21, §31¶11, §44¶30
splendid (4): §8¶21, §31¶11, §31¶11, §50¶15
arts (5): §8¶21, §26¶21, §31¶11, §47¶30, §47¶30
province (4): §8¶21, §24¶10, §24¶10, §44¶30
king (5): §8¶21, §24¶10, §26¶21, §41¶25, §47¶30
seven (6): §8¶21, §40¶26, §41¶25, §41¶25, §50¶15, §50¶15
empire (6): §8¶21, §37¶16, §44¶30, §47¶30, §59¶21, §59¶21
babylon (3): §24¶10, §24¶10, §47¶30
soil (3): §24¶10, §24¶10, §24¶10
peace (4): §24¶10, §37¶16, §37¶16, §40¶26
miles (5): §24¶10, §24¶10, §40¶26, §40¶26, §41¶25
assyria (5): §24¶10, §24¶10, §24¶10, §24¶10, §24¶10
various (5): §24¶10, §31¶11, §31¶11, §41¶25, §44¶30
important (5): §24¶10, §26¶21, §40¶26, §41¶25, §50¶15
reverence (4): §26¶21, §26¶21, §26¶21, §37¶16
time (3): §26¶21, §31¶11, §50¶15
soldiers (5): §26¶21, §37¶16, §41¶25, §41¶25, §47¶30
fritigern (1): §37¶16
corn (3): §37¶16, §41¶25, §41¶25
goths (6): §37¶16, §37¶16, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25
feet (3): §40¶26, §40¶26, §41¶25
gates (5): §40¶26, §40¶26, §40¶26, §40¶26, §41¶25
real (4): §41¶25, §44¶30, §47¶30, §50¶15
mankind (1): §41¶25
tiber (3): §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25
belisarius (5): §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25, §41¶25
inhabitants (3): §41¶25, §41¶25, §50¶15
thomas (5): §47¶30, §47¶30, §47¶30, §47¶30, §47¶30
order (6): §1¶17, §6¶26, §10¶14, §12¶37, §49¶5, §65¶5
east (7): §1¶17, §2¶24, §11¶39, §17¶16, §65¶5, §65¶5, §71¶14
army (8): §1¶17, §10¶14, §10¶14, §11¶11, §12¶37, §17¶29, §23¶26, §65¶5
long (11): §1¶17, §2¶24, §2¶24, §6¶26, §10¶14, §10¶14, §17¶29, §20¶16, §23¶26, §49¶5, §71¶14
provinces (7): §1¶17, §1¶21, §2¶24, §2¶24, §9¶24, §49¶5, §65¶5
arms (9): §1¶17, §1¶17, §1¶21, §9¶24, §10¶29, §17¶29, §23¶26, §49¶5, §65¶5
manners (7): §1¶17, §6¶26, §9¶24, §10¶14, §10¶14, §17¶16, §44¶1
composed (3): §1¶17, §1¶21, §44¶1
thirty (10): §1¶17, §1¶21, §1¶21, §11¶39, §12¶37, §12¶37, §15¶54, §17¶16, §17¶29, §44¶1
force (6): §1¶17, §1¶21, §1¶21, §6¶26, §10¶14, §17¶29
consisted (6): §1¶17, §1¶17, §1¶21, §12¶37, §15¶54, §17¶29
military (12): §1¶17, §1¶21, §1¶21, §9¶24, §10¶14, §14¶39, §17¶16, §17¶29, §17¶29, §23¶26, §49¶5, §71¶14
seven (7): §1¶17, §2¶24, §15¶54, §15¶54, §17¶29, §44¶1, §51¶29
rome (16): §1¶17, §2¶24, §2¶24, §10¶14, §10¶29, §12¶14, §12¶37, §15¶54, §15¶54, §15¶54, §15¶54, §44¶1, §44¶1, §49¶5, §51¶29, §71¶14
establishment (11): §1¶17, §1¶21, §11¶11, §11¶39, §14¶39, §14¶39, §17¶16, §17¶29, §17¶29, §20¶1, §71¶14
men (11): §1¶17, §1¶21, §1¶21, §11¶39, §15¶29, §17¶29, §17¶29, §23¶26, §65¶5, §65¶5, §65¶5
roman (18): §1¶17, §1¶21, §2¶24, §2¶24, §6¶26, §10¶14, §10¶14, §10¶14, §11¶11, §12¶37, §12¶37, §15¶26, §17¶16, §17¶29, §17¶29, §17¶29, §51¶29, §71¶14
ancient (17): §1¶17, §2¶24, §2¶24, §9¶24, §9¶24, §10¶14, §10¶14, §12¶37, §15¶29, §17¶29, §17¶29, §20¶16, §44¶1, §49¶5, §49¶5, §51¶29, §51¶29
arts (6): §1¶21, §9¶24, §11¶39, §23¶26, §23¶26, §51¶29
successors (7): §1¶21, §12¶14, §17¶16, §17¶29, §17¶29, §23¶26, §51¶29
important (6): §1¶21, §14¶39, §15¶26, §17¶29, §20¶1, §51¶29
soon (10): §1¶21, §2¶24, §6¶26, §10¶14, §10¶14, §11¶11, §15¶26, §15¶29, §15¶54, §65¶5
sufficient (4): §1¶21, §15¶26, §20¶16, §51¶29
capital (7): §1¶21, §2¶24, §15¶54, §15¶54, §17¶16, §49¶5, §65¶5
time (11): §1¶21, §10¶14, §12¶37, §15¶26, §15¶54, §15¶54, §17¶16, §20¶16, §23¶26, §51¶29, §65¶5
city (12): §1¶21, §2¶24, §10¶14, §11¶39, §11¶39, §15¶54, §17¶29, §23¶26, §44¶1, §44¶1, §51¶29, §65¶5
cities (11): §1¶21, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24
war (10): §1¶21, §1¶21, §2¶24, §10¶14, §12¶37, §12¶37, §20¶16, §44¶1, §51¶29, §51¶29
great (20): §1¶21, §1¶21, §10¶14, §10¶14, §10¶14, §10¶29, §11¶11, §11¶11, §12¶37, §15¶54, §15¶54, §15¶54, §15¶54, §17¶16, §20¶16, §23¶26, §51¶29, §65¶5, §65¶5, §65¶5
empire (22): §1¶21, §2¶24, §2¶24, §2¶24, §6¶26, §9¶24, §10¶14, §10¶29, §11¶11, §12¶14, §14¶39, §15¶26, §15¶54, §17¶16, §17¶16, §17¶29, §17¶29, §49¶5, §51¶29, §71¶14, §71¶14, §71¶14
thousand (23): §1¶21, §1¶21, §1¶21, §1¶21, §2¶24, §10¶29, §10¶29, §12¶14, §12¶37, §12¶37, §12¶37, §12¶37, §15¶54, §15¶54, §17¶29, §17¶29, §17¶29, §17¶29, §51¶29, §51¶29, §65¶5, §65¶5, §65¶5
senate (10): §2¶24, §10¶14, §10¶14, §10¶14, §10¶14, §12¶14, §12¶14, §12¶37, §15¶54, §44¶1
rapid (6): §2¶24, §6¶26, §11¶39, §15¶29, §17¶16, §65¶5
age (8): §2¶24, §10¶14, §11¶11, §15¶26, §15¶26, §20¶16, §51¶29, §71¶14
nature (9): §2¶24, §6¶26, §6¶26, §10¶29, §12¶37, §20¶16, §23¶26, §44¶1, §51¶29
public (14): §2¶24, §10¶14, §10¶14, §12¶14, §12¶37, §15¶26, §15¶54, §20¶1, §23¶26, §37¶11, §44¶1, §49¶5, §51¶29, §71¶14
people (14): §2¶24, §6¶26, §9¶24, §10¶14, §10¶29, §12¶14, §12¶37, §12¶37, §15¶54, §23¶26, §23¶26, §44¶1, §49¶5, §49¶5
state (13): §2¶24, §10¶14, §11¶11, §12¶14, §12¶37, §15¶54, §17¶16, §20¶1, §23¶26, §37¶11, §44¶1, §51¶29, §71¶14
reign (13): §2¶24, §2¶24, §6¶26, §9¶24, §11¶11, §17¶29, §20¶1, §20¶16, §20¶16, §23¶26, §23¶26, §49¶5, §49¶5
new (10): §2¶24, §6¶26, §6¶26, §17¶16, §17¶16, §20¶16, §23¶26, §44¶1, §49¶5, §49¶5
number (9): §2¶24, §6¶26, §12¶37, §12¶37, §12¶37, §15¶54, §15¶54, §17¶29, §17¶29
abandoned (6): §6¶26, §12¶37, §15¶29, §20¶16, §23¶26, §49¶5
multitude (8): §6¶26, §10¶14, §12¶37, §12¶37, §15¶54, §15¶54, §23¶26, §51¶29
religion (9): §9¶24, §14¶39, §15¶26, §15¶54, §20¶16, §20¶16, §23¶26, §44¶1, §71¶14
progress (3): §9¶24, §15¶26, §37¶11
years (10): §9¶24, §11¶11, §12¶14, §15¶54, §17¶16, §17¶29, §20¶16, §44¶1, §51¶29, §71¶14
general (7): §10¶14, §10¶14, §12¶14, §15¶26, §44¶1, §49¶5, §65¶5
different (4): §10¶29, §12¶37, §15¶26, §20¶16
historian (6): §10¶29, §15¶26, §15¶54, §17¶29, §51¶29, §71¶14
constantine (14): §11¶11, §14¶39, §17¶16, §17¶16, §17¶29, §17¶29, §17¶29, §17¶29, §20¶1, §20¶16, §20¶16, §20¶16, §20¶16, §49¶5
whilst (3): §2¶6, §6¶24, §13¶9
adapted (4): §2¶6, §13¶9, §17¶17, §34¶9
life (4): §2¶6, §10¶11, §11¶17, §34¶9
manners (5): §2¶6, §13¶9, §14¶34, §17¶17, §34¶9
received (4): §2¶6, §11¶17, §14¶34, §34¶9
rich (4): §2¶6, §13¶9, §17¶17, §34¶9
public (4): §2¶6, §17¶17, §34¶9, §49¶6
emperors (5): §2¶6, §2¶6, §17¶17, §17¶17, §49¶6
power (6): §2¶6, §13¶9, §14¶34, §17¶17, §17¶17, §34¶9
various (4): §2¶6, §10¶26, §11¶17, §14¶34
province (6): §2¶6, §11¶17, §11¶17, §11¶17, §13¶9, §14¶34
country (6): §2¶6, §3¶34, §10¶11, §11¶17, §13¶9, §49¶6
useful (6): §2¶6, §11¶17, §11¶17, §13¶9, §34¶9, §34¶9
roman (11): §2¶6, §2¶6, §10¶26, §11¶17, §14¶34, §14¶34, §17¶17, §17¶17, §34¶9, §34¶9, §34¶9
age (4): §3¶34, §10¶11, §11¶17, §13¶9
rendered (4): §3¶34, §10¶26, §15¶63, §34¶9
reign (3): §3¶34, §6¶24, §10¶26
romans (7): §3¶34, §10¶26, §11¶17, §13¶9, §17¶17, §34¶9, §49¶6
rome (6): §6¶24, §11¶17, §14¶34, §49¶6, §49¶6, §49¶6
magnificent (2): §6¶24, §17¶17
celebrated (3): §6¶24, §13¶9, §49¶6
dances (1): §6¶24
indignation (4): §6¶24, §14¶34, §17¶17, §49¶6
emperor (5): §6¶24, §10¶26, §13¶9, §14¶34, §14¶34
state (4): §6¶24, §11¶17, §14¶34, §34¶9
great (6): §6¶24, §10¶26, §11¶17, §11¶17, §13¶9, §49¶6
innumerable (3): §10¶11, §10¶26, §13¶9
displayed (4): §10¶11, §13¶9, §17¶17, §34¶9
goths (8): §10¶11, §10¶11, §11¶17, §11¶17, §14¶34, §14¶34, §14¶34, §34¶9
youth (3): §10¶26, §13¶9, §14¶34
provinces (5): §10¶26, §11¶17, §17¶17, §34¶9, §49¶6
north (3): §11¶17, §13¶9, §14¶34
monarchy (3): §11¶17, §13¶9, §17¶17
intercourse (3): §11¶17, §17¶17, §34¶9
dacia (4): §11¶17, §11¶17, §11¶17, §14¶34
language (5): §11¶17, §17¶17, §17¶17, §34¶9, §34¶9
ancient (3): §11¶17, §14¶34, §17¶17
distant (3): §11¶17, §15¶63, §49¶6
independent (4): §11¶17, §13¶9, §34¶9, §49¶6
barbarians (8): §11¶17, §13¶9, §14¶34, §14¶34, §34¶9, §34¶9, §34¶9, §49¶6
empire (12): §11¶17, §11¶17, §13¶9, §13¶9, §14¶34, §14¶34, §14¶34, §17¶17, §34¶9, §34¶9, §34¶9, §34¶9
britain (3): §13¶9, §13¶9, §13¶9
defended (5): §13¶9, §15¶63, §34¶9, §49¶6, §49¶6
weight (4): §14¶34, §15¶63, §15¶63, §34¶9
sword (117): §1¶16, §5¶27, §14¶25, §18¶30, §24¶19, §24¶28, §38¶24, §40¶23, §40¶25, §41¶4, §41¶12, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶29, §42¶12, §42¶17, §43¶9, §43¶11, §43¶19, §45¶6, §45¶13, §45¶21, §46¶8, §46¶10, §46¶13, §46¶21, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §48¶7, §48¶17, §48¶17, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶32, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶38, §49¶10, §49¶10, §50¶29, §50¶39, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶17, §51¶21, §51¶33, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶17, §54¶4, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶7, §55¶7, §55¶14, §55¶14, §56¶5, §56¶17, §56¶21, §56¶22, §57¶5, §57¶7, §57¶18, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶24, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶15, §59¶20, §60¶17, §61¶2, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶12, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶14, §62¶14, §64¶18, §64¶18, §65¶3, §65¶6, §65¶8, §65¶17, §66¶1, §67¶8, §67¶11, §68¶3, §68¶7, §68¶18, §68¶26
soon (185): §1¶16, §1¶16, §11¶43, §17¶19, §18¶30, §18¶30, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶12, §19¶24, §20¶11, §20¶11, §20¶23, §22¶14, §22¶14, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶26, §24¶28, §24¶28, §24¶28, §28¶4, §28¶6, §28¶6, §30¶1, §30¶7, §31¶2, §36¶3, §36¶5, §38¶24, §39¶6, §40¶11, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶24, §41¶3, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶30, §41¶30, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶19, §43¶22, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶2, §45¶13, §45¶13, §45¶19, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶13, §46¶18, §46¶20, §47¶21, §47¶23, §48¶3, §48¶8, §48¶10, §48¶17, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶34, §48¶34, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶42, §48¶42, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶28, §49¶29, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶16, §51¶18, §51¶36, §52¶3, §52¶10, §52¶19, §53¶17, §54¶5, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶11, §55¶13, §56¶2, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶14, §57¶17, §57¶17, §57¶18, §58¶11, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶23, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶17, §60¶5, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶13, §60¶15, §60¶17, §60¶23, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶9, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶9, §63¶10, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶4, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶12, §67¶11, §67¶12, §68¶4, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶24, §69¶10, §69¶13, §69¶19, §70¶15, §70¶15
left (126): §1¶16, §1¶16, §5¶27, §14¶25, §18¶30, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶12, §19¶24, §21¶32, §24¶15, §24¶20, §24¶20, §24¶26, §28¶6, §30¶1, §35¶9, §38¶24, §40¶11, §40¶23, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶20, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶31, §42¶11, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶18, §44¶43, §45¶6, §45¶11, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶18, §46¶21, §47¶23, §47¶34, §48¶4, §48¶10, §48¶15, §48¶17, §48¶20, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶34, §49¶32, §50¶29, §50¶29, §51¶16, §51¶16, §51¶20, §52¶10, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶27, §53¶18, §55¶2, §55¶12, §55¶14, §56¶6, §56¶13, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶23, §57¶5, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶14, §58¶12, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶24, §58¶31, §59¶4, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶20, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶23, §61¶5, §61¶6, §62¶5, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶7, §63¶9, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶19, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶17, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶11, §67¶7, §67¶9, §68¶4, §69¶10
service (130): §1¶16, §1¶16, §20¶23, §22¶14, §22¶14, §24¶26, §24¶28, §28¶4, §30¶7, §31¶2, §31¶21, §31¶29, §35¶6, §36¶5, §36¶5, §39¶5, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶21, §40¶23, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶20, §41¶23, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶17, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶21, §45¶13, §46¶15, §46¶17, §46¶19, §48¶9, §48¶17, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶32, §48¶42, §49¶10, §49¶28, §50¶10, §50¶29, §51¶13, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶33, §51¶36, §52¶3, §52¶20, §53¶3, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶16, §53¶17, §53¶18, §53¶18, §54¶5, §55¶8, §56¶5, §56¶11, §56¶13, §56¶22, §57¶9, §57¶15, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶15, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶23, §58¶23, §59¶10, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶17, §60¶5, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶9, §61¶21, §61¶22, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶9, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶22, §66¶10, §66¶10, §67¶11, §67¶12, §68¶4, §68¶16, §69¶13, §69¶19
long (174): §1¶16, §1¶16, §7¶34, §10¶6, §10¶16, §10¶16, §11¶43, §13¶39, §14¶25, §17¶19, §17¶19, §19¶24, §19¶24, §20¶11, §20¶11, §24¶19, §24¶19, §24¶19, §28¶4, §30¶7, §31¶21, §31¶29, §31¶43, §35¶6, §37¶27, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶25, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶20, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶5, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶17, §43¶19, §43¶21, §43¶22, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶23, §48¶4, §48¶10, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶37, §48¶42, §48¶42, §51¶17, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶33, §52¶1, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶18, §52¶26, §52¶26, §53¶3, §53¶7, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶16, §53¶16, §53¶17, §54¶4, §54¶5, §55¶6, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶15, §56¶6, §56¶6, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶23, §56¶23, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶11, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶20, §58¶24, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶10, §59¶12, §59¶20, §60¶6, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶19, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶7, §61¶12, §61¶22, §62¶11, §62¶13, §63¶7, §64¶13, §64¶15, §64¶19, §64¶19, §65¶9, §65¶17, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶12, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶16, §68¶18, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶26, §70¶15
soldiers (173): §1¶16, §5¶27, §5¶27, §18¶30, §19¶24, §19¶24, §20¶11, §20¶11, §21¶32, §21¶32, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶20, §24¶26, §24¶26, §24¶30, §28¶4, §30¶1, §30¶7, §35¶6, §35¶6, §40¶11, §40¶17, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶7, §43¶7, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶19, §43¶21, §43¶22, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶17, §48¶32, §48¶34, §48¶37, §48¶45, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶18, §51¶36, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶15, §55¶7, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶6, §56¶12, §56¶12, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶20, §56¶20, §57¶7, §57¶10, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶20, §58¶20, §58¶20, §58¶23, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶17, §60¶5, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶19, §60¶21, §61¶2, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶7, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶14, §63¶4, §64¶15, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶22, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶7, §67¶13, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶23, §68¶26
roman (267): §1¶16, §5¶27, §7¶34, §10¶16, §10¶16, §17¶19, §17¶19, §17¶26, §17¶26, §19¶24, §20¶11, §23¶22, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶26, §24¶28, §24¶30, §28¶4, §30¶1, §30¶7, §30¶7, §31¶2, §31¶21, §31¶43, §31¶43, §35¶6, §35¶13, §36¶3, §36¶3, §39¶5, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶7, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶18, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶19, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶13, §45¶13, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶10, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶20, §46¶20, §46¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶7, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶15, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶38, §49¶10, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶32, §49¶32, §49¶32, §49¶32, §50¶29, §51¶6, §51¶10, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶33, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶8, §53¶15, §54¶4, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶13, §55¶14, §55¶15, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶21, §56¶22, §57¶9, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §58¶3, §58¶11, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶6, §61¶7, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶14, §63¶6, §63¶9, §63¶10, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶21, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶12, §67¶8, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶16, §68¶20, §68¶26, §70¶8, §70¶11, §70¶15, §70¶15, §70¶15
enemy (173): §1¶16, §1¶20, §5¶27, §10¶16, §14¶25, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶12, §19¶24, §19¶24, §20¶11, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶28, §28¶6, §28¶6, §30¶1, §31¶2, §39¶5, §39¶6, §39¶6, §40¶17, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶18, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶4, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶21, §43¶22, §45¶2, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶14, §46¶17, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶34, §48¶10, §48¶17, §48¶18, §48¶22, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶42, §49¶10, §49¶10, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶29, §50¶39, §50¶39, §51¶6, §51¶10, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶17, §51¶33, §51¶40, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶18, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶15, §53¶16, §53¶17, §53¶18, §53¶18, §53¶18, §54¶4, §55¶6, §55¶11, §55¶12, §55¶13, §55¶13, §55¶14, §56¶5, §56¶6, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶17, §57¶7, §57¶8, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶22, §58¶24, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶15, §60¶14, §60¶14, §61¶9, §62¶11, §62¶13, §63¶9, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶21, §64¶22, §65¶4, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶17, §67¶9, §67¶12, §68¶16, §68¶27
troops (197): §1¶16, §1¶20, §10¶16, §10¶16, §14¶25, §14¶25, §18¶30, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶24, §21¶32, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶19, §24¶26, §30¶1, §30¶1, §31¶2, §31¶21, §35¶9, §35¶9, §38¶24, §39¶6, §40¶23, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶20, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶30, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶21, §43¶21, §45¶13, §45¶13, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶20, §46¶21, §47¶34, §48¶4, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶33, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §49¶10, §49¶28, §49¶29, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶27, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶18, §51¶21, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶27, §53¶7, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶15, §54¶4, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶17, §56¶17, §57¶7, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶14, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶23, §58¶31, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶17, §59¶18, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶5, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶15, §60¶19, §60¶19, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶7, §61¶9, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶9, §63¶9, §63¶14, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶18, §65¶3, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶17, §66¶1, §66¶12, §67¶4, §68¶15, §68¶27, §69¶13, §70¶11
greeks (230): §1¶16, §30¶1, §30¶1, §30¶1, §31¶43, §35¶9, §40¶20, §40¶20, §41¶4, §41¶35, §42¶18, §43¶4, §43¶9, §43¶19, §45¶13, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶13, §46¶15, §46¶18, §47¶21, §47¶23, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶20, §48¶20, §48¶22, §48¶32, §48¶34, §48¶37, §48¶37, §49¶10, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶25, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶6, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶17, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶36, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶26, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶7, §53¶10, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶16, §53¶16, §53¶17, §53¶18, §53¶18, §53¶18, §53¶18, §54¶4, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶8, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶12, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶11, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶14, §56¶14, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶7, §57¶8, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶15, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶3, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶5, §60¶5, §60¶6, §60¶13, §60¶14, §60¶14, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶15, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶21, §60¶21, §60¶21, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶12, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶6, §63¶6, §63¶6, §63¶7, §63¶14, §63¶14, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶18, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶15, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶12, §66¶12, §66¶12, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶7, §68¶16, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶20, §68¶20, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26
war (271): §1¶16, §1¶16, §10¶6, §10¶6, §10¶16, §14¶25, §14¶25, §17¶19, §20¶11, §24¶15, §24¶20, §28¶6, §30¶1, §31¶2, §31¶2, §31¶29, §35¶6, §35¶6, §36¶5, §38¶24, §39¶5, §39¶5, §39¶6, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶25, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶2, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶6, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶19, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶11, §45¶13, §45¶21, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶19, §47¶23, §47¶23, §48¶10, §48¶10, §48¶22, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶42, §49¶10, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶29, §50¶29, §50¶29, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶17, §51¶17, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶21, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶16, §53¶16, §53¶16, §53¶17, §53¶17, §53¶18, §54¶4, §54¶5, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶7, §55¶8, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶12, §55¶12, §55¶13, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶5, §56¶6, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶22, §57¶2, §57¶2, §57¶7, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶11, §57¶14, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶22, §58¶31, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶18, §59¶20, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶17, §60¶21, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶9, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶22, §62¶13, §62¶13, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶7, §63¶9, §63¶10, §63¶10, §63¶14, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶18, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶3, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶15, §65¶15, §66¶5, §66¶5, §67¶4, §67¶4, §67¶7, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶11, §67¶11, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶15, §68¶27, §68¶27, §68¶27, §68¶27, §69¶10, §69¶19, §70¶11, §70¶15
arms (313): §1¶16, §1¶16, §1¶16, §1¶20, §10¶16, §14¶25, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶12, §20¶11, §20¶11, §23¶22, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶26, §24¶26, §24¶28, §24¶28, §28¶6, §28¶6, §30¶1, §30¶1, §31¶2, §31¶21, §31¶43, §35¶6, §35¶9, §36¶5, §39¶6, §40¶17, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶24, §41¶2, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §42¶18, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶19, §43¶22, §45¶1, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶2, §45¶3, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶13, §45¶21, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶13, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶9, §48¶17, §48¶23, §48¶30, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶38, §48¶42, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶28, §49¶29, §49¶29, §49¶32, §50¶27, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶10, §51¶10, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶20, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶16, §53¶16, §53¶18, §54¶4, §54¶4, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶8, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶12, §55¶13, §55¶14, §55¶14, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶5, §56¶6, §56¶11, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶21, §56¶23, §56¶23, §56¶23, §57¶2, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶7, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶22, §58¶22, §58¶31, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶17, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶5, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶13, §60¶14, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶21, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶21, §61¶22, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶14, §63¶6, §63¶9, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶18, §64¶18, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶22, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶17, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶7, §67¶8, §67¶8, §67¶11, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶7, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶10
thousand (506): §1¶16, §7¶34, §11¶43, §17¶19, §17¶19, §18¶30, §19¶24, §19¶24, §19¶24, §20¶23, §20¶23, §20¶23, §20¶23, §22¶14, §22¶14, §22¶14, §24¶15, §24¶15, §30¶7, §31¶2, §31¶2, §31¶2, §31¶29, §31¶29, §31¶43, §35¶9, §35¶9, §36¶3, §36¶3, §39¶5, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶24, §40¶25, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶9, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶35, §41¶35, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶18, §42¶18, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶7, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶18, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶21, §43¶21, §43¶22, §45¶13, §45¶13, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶7, §48¶8, §48¶10, §48¶10, §48¶18, §48¶23, §49¶29, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶27, §50¶27, §50¶27, §50¶27, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶29, §50¶29, §50¶39, §50¶39, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶10, §51¶10, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶16, §51¶17, §51¶17, §51¶17, §51¶17, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶21, §51¶21, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶32, §51¶32, §51¶32, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶36, §51¶40, §51¶40, §51¶40, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶7, §53¶8, §54¶4, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶7, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶13, §55¶14, §55¶14, §55¶14, §55¶14, §55¶14, §56¶6, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶2, §57¶2, §57¶7, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶15, §57¶17, §57¶17, §57¶17, §57¶18, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶20, §58¶23, §58¶23, §58¶23, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶17, §59¶18, §59¶18, §59¶20, §59¶20, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶14, §60¶14, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶19, §61¶5, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶9, §61¶9, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶9, §63¶10, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶22, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶3, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶17, §65¶18, §65¶18, §66¶5, §66¶10, §67¶4, §67¶4, §67¶7, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶20, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26, §69¶19, §70¶11, §70¶11, §70¶15
battle (143): §1¶20, §10¶16, §14¶25, §18¶30, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶24, §19¶24, §20¶11, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶26, §28¶6, §30¶7, §30¶7, §31¶2, §31¶21, §35¶9, §35¶9, §38¶24, §39¶6, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶20, §41¶24, §41¶29, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶22, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶13, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶13, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶34, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶37, §48¶42, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶10, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶36, §51¶40, §52¶8, §52¶20, §52¶20, §53¶15, §53¶16, §53¶16, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶7, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶22, §57¶2, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶14, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶20, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶15, §60¶10, §60¶16, §60¶19, §60¶19, §62¶11, §64¶18, §64¶19, §65¶3, §65¶6, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶15, §67¶7, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶12, §68¶7, §68¶23, §68¶23, §68¶24
days (149): §1¶20, §14¶25, §17¶19, §19¶12, §19¶24, §24¶28, §31¶43, §35¶6, §36¶3, §36¶5, §40¶9, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶7, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶24, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶11, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶4, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶14, §43¶17, §45¶13, §45¶19, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶17, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶23, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶10, §48¶15, §48¶30, §48¶33, §48¶37, §48¶45, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶6, §51¶17, §51¶17, §51¶18, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶40, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶18, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶5, §53¶17, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶12, §55¶14, §55¶14, §56¶6, §56¶12, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶22, §57¶2, §57¶2, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶15, §57¶17, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶20, §59¶20, §60¶10, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶19, §61¶5, §61¶5, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶13, §63¶4, §63¶14, §64¶14, §64¶16, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶17, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶11, §66¶11, §67¶4, §67¶7, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶24
camp (168): §1¶20, §18¶30, §19¶24, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶19, §24¶26, §24¶26, §30¶7, §30¶7, §35¶6, §35¶9, §39¶5, §39¶6, §39¶6, §41¶3, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶24, §41¶29, §41¶31, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶14, §43¶17, §45¶1, §45¶3, §45¶3, §45¶6, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶23, §47¶21, §48¶4, §48¶17, §48¶17, §48¶17, §48¶18, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶38, §48¶38, §49¶25, §50¶24, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶13, §51¶18, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶36, §51¶40, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶26, §52¶27, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶14, §56¶12, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶14, §57¶7, §57¶8, §57¶8, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶18, §57¶18, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶20, §58¶22, §58¶24, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶15, §59¶17, §59¶17, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶13, §60¶15, §60¶17, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶22, §62¶14, §64¶14, §64¶16, §64¶18, §64¶19, §65¶4, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶18, §67¶7, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶20, §70¶11
siege (124): §5¶27, §5¶27, §10¶16, §18¶30, §30¶1, §31¶2, §35¶6, §40¶24, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶11, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶7, §43¶12, §43¶17, §45¶6, §46¶1, §46¶14, §48¶18, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶42, §49¶29, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶27, §50¶39, §51¶13, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶32, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶18, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶26, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶12, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §57¶7, §57¶17, §58¶9, §58¶15, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶20, §58¶20, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶17, §59¶18, §59¶20, §60¶10, §60¶13, §60¶19, §60¶19, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶9, §62¶11, §62¶14, §63¶14, §64¶13, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶5, §66¶7, §67¶4, §67¶11, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶18, §68¶27
walls (141): §5¶27, §13¶39, §14¶25, §18¶30, §20¶23, §24¶15, §24¶26, §24¶28, §24¶28, §28¶4, §28¶6, §30¶1, §30¶1, §30¶1, §30¶1, §35¶6, §35¶6, §38¶24, §39¶6, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶25, §41¶8, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶29, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶17, §43¶7, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶21, §45¶13, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶20, §46¶20, §49¶32, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶10, §51¶13, §51¶17, §51¶17, §51¶18, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶33, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶7, §54¶4, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶5, §56¶12, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶23, §57¶15, §58¶9, §58¶12, §58¶18, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶20, §58¶20, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §59¶3, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶17, §59¶17, §60¶3, §60¶10, §60¶15, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶19, §61¶7, §61¶9, §62¶11, §62¶13, §63¶10, §63¶10, §64¶17, §64¶21, §64¶22, §65¶3, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶18, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶23, §70¶11
people (241): §5¶27, §7¶34, §7¶34, §10¶6, §11¶43, §14¶25, §17¶19, §17¶19, §19¶12, §20¶11, §20¶23, §20¶23, §20¶23, §21¶32, §22¶14, §22¶14, §23¶22, §24¶28, §28¶4, §30¶1, §31¶2, §31¶2, §31¶2, §31¶21, §31¶43, §31¶43, §35¶6, §35¶13, §36¶3, §37¶27, §38¶24, §38¶24, §38¶24, §39¶5, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶24, §40¶25, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶5, §43¶5, §43¶7, §43¶7, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶15, §43¶18, §43¶18, §43¶22, §43¶22, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶3, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶13, §45¶19, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶19, §46¶21, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §48¶3, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶10, §48¶18, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶36, §48¶45, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶28, §49¶32, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶39, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶10, §51¶10, §51¶10, §51¶12, §51¶21, §51¶33, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶16, §54¶4, §54¶4, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶8, §55¶8, §55¶15, §56¶5, §56¶5, §56¶11, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶23, §56¶23, §57¶5, §57¶11, §57¶17, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶17, §58¶18, §58¶24, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶9, §59¶15, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶13, §60¶15, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶6, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶13, §62¶13, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶10, §63¶14, §64¶22, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶3, §66¶1, §66¶5, §67¶4, §67¶4, §67¶8, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶20, §68¶24, §69¶13, §69¶19, §69¶19, §70¶8, §70¶11, §70¶11, §70¶11, §70¶15, §70¶15
army (197): §5¶27, §10¶16, §10¶16, §11¶43, §14¶25, §17¶19, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶24, §20¶11, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶19, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶26, §24¶26, §24¶26, §24¶26, §28¶4, §28¶4, §30¶7, §39¶6, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶25, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶29, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶18, §43¶19, §43¶19, §45¶2, §45¶6, §45¶9, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶23, §47¶21, §48¶9, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶45, §49¶28, §49¶32, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶27, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶6, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶36, §51¶40, §51¶40, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶27, §54¶4, §55¶7, §55¶13, §55¶13, §56¶6, §56¶6, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶7, §57¶8, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶18, §58¶9, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶18, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶24, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶17, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶19, §60¶19, §61¶6, §61¶9, §61¶9, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶9, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶19, §64¶22, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶18, §66¶1, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶11, §67¶12, §68¶4, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶13, §70¶11
years (223): §5¶27, §7¶34, §17¶19, §17¶26, §17¶26, §19¶12, §20¶23, §21¶32, §28¶4, §28¶6, §30¶1, §30¶1, §31¶2, §31¶43, §36¶3, §36¶3, §40¶11, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶25, §40¶25, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶8, §41¶31, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶11, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶5, §43¶14, §44¶43, §44¶43, §44¶43, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶19, §45¶19, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶10, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶20, §46¶21, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶7, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶15, §48¶17, §48¶17, §48¶20, §48¶22, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶42, §48¶45, §48¶45, §48¶45, §48¶45, §48¶45, §49¶29, §50¶10, §50¶10, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶12, §51¶17, §51¶21, §51¶36, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶5, §53¶8, §53¶15, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶7, §55¶7, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶11, §56¶6, §56¶11, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶14, §57¶17, §57¶18, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶18, §58¶19, §58¶24, §58¶24, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶17, §59¶18, §60¶5, §60¶6, §60¶6, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶20, §61¶21, §61¶21, §61¶21, §61¶22, §62¶13, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶7, §63¶9, §63¶10, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶18, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶18, §66¶1, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶7, §67¶4, §67¶7, §67¶11, §67¶11, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶19, §69¶19
empire (286): §5¶27, §7¶34, §7¶34, §17¶19, §17¶19, §17¶26, §18¶30, §19¶24, §20¶23, §20¶23, §23¶22, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶28, §24¶28, §24¶30, §28¶4, §30¶7, §31¶2, §31¶29, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §35¶6, §36¶5, §38¶24, §39¶5, §40¶9, §40¶11, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶21, §40¶24, §41¶2, §41¶2, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶18, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶12, §42¶21, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶6, §43¶11, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶21, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶1, §45¶3, §45¶3, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶19, §46¶8, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶21, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶34, §48¶3, §48¶3, §48¶7, §48¶8, §48¶15, §48¶17, §48¶18, §48¶18, §48¶20, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶36, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶44, §48¶45, §49¶10, §49¶28, §49¶29, §49¶32, §49¶32, §49¶32, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶6, §51¶12, §51¶32, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶26, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶3, §53¶3, §53¶3, §53¶3, §53¶8, §53¶10, §53¶15, §53¶16, §54¶4, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶11, §55¶12, §55¶13, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶5, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶15, §57¶17, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶15, §58¶22, §58¶31, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶12, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶6, §60¶13, §60¶13, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶7, §61¶9, §61¶12, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶6, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶10, §63¶10, §63¶10, §63¶14, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶21, §64¶21, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶15, §65¶18, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §67¶4, §67¶4, §67¶7, §67¶9, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶13, §67¶13, §67¶13, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶18, §68¶20, §68¶24, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶13, §69¶13, §69¶19
city (281): §5¶27, §11¶43, §14¶25, §14¶25, §17¶19, §18¶30, §19¶12, §20¶23, §24¶15, §24¶28, §24¶28, §24¶28, §24¶30, §28¶4, §30¶1, §30¶1, §31¶2, §31¶21, §31¶21, §31¶21, §31¶43, §35¶6, §35¶6, §36¶3, §38¶24, §39¶6, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶21, §40¶23, §40¶24, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §42¶5, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶17, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶4, §43¶7, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶21, §43¶22, §43¶22, §45¶6, §45¶6, §45¶6, §45¶13, §45¶19, §45¶19, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶14, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶23, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶4, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶22, §48¶34, §48¶34, §49¶10, §49¶28, §49¶28, §49¶32, §49¶32, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶10, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶20, §51¶32, §51¶33, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶26, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶7, §53¶15, §54¶4, §54¶4, §54¶4, §54¶5, §54¶5, §55¶6, §55¶11, §55¶12, §55¶14, §55¶15, §55¶15, §56¶2, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶22, §57¶8, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶15, §57¶18, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶18, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶22, §58¶23, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶17, §59¶20, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶10, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶9, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶9, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶12, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶20, §68¶23, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶10, §69¶10, §69¶13, §69¶19, §70¶8, §70¶8, §70¶11, §70¶11, §70¶15
second (149): §7¶34, §10¶16, §18¶30, §20¶11, §28¶4, §36¶5, §40¶9, §40¶20, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶24, §41¶29, §41¶31, §41¶31, §42¶6, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶21, §45¶9, §45¶13, §45¶13, §45¶19, §46¶8, §46¶14, §46¶21, §46¶21, §48¶3, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶18, §48¶20, §48¶22, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶38, §48¶45, §49¶10, §49¶25, §49¶28, §49¶29, §49¶29, §50¶24, §51¶13, §51¶21, §51¶21, §51¶36, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶3, §53¶8, §53¶8, §53¶15, §53¶16, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶7, §55¶7, §55¶11, §56¶2, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶14, §56¶14, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶23, §56¶23, §57¶5, §57¶5, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶12, §58¶17, §58¶22, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶15, §60¶3, §60¶5, §60¶5, §60¶13, §60¶19, §60¶21, §61¶6, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶21, §61¶21, §61¶21, §61¶21, §62¶5, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶14, §63¶4, §64¶13, §64¶21, §64¶22, §65¶2, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶11, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶18, §68¶23, §68¶26, §68¶27, §68¶27, §69¶19, §70¶15
death (209): §10¶6, §10¶16, §10¶16, §14¶25, §19¶24, §20¶23, §21¶32, §24¶28, §28¶4, §28¶4, §30¶1, §30¶7, §35¶9, §35¶9, §35¶13, §35¶13, §37¶27, §38¶24, §38¶24, §38¶24, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶23, §40¶25, §41¶7, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶18, §41¶28, §41¶28, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶5, §43¶7, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶18, §43¶19, §44¶43, §45¶3, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶19, §45¶19, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶10, §46¶13, §46¶13, §46¶16, §46¶17, §47¶23, §47¶34, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶7, §48¶9, §48¶18, §48¶22, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶45, §49¶32, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶39, §50¶39, §50¶39, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶40, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶18, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶16, §53¶18, §53¶18, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶8, §55¶12, §55¶15, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶6, §56¶6, §56¶12, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶23, §57¶2, §57¶5, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶14, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶19, §58¶31, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶20, §59¶20, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶12, §61¶20, §61¶22, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶13, §63¶6, §63¶10, §63¶10, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶18, §64¶21, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶18, §67¶4, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶20, §68¶24, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶19, §70¶11, §70¶15, §70¶15
palace (184): §10¶6, §11¶43, §13¶39, §17¶19, §19¶12, §19¶12, §20¶11, §22¶14, §22¶14, §22¶14, §22¶14, §24¶28, §31¶29, §31¶43, §35¶13, §36¶3, §36¶5, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶11, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶21, §40¶21, §41¶6, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶30, §41¶31, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶18, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶7, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶14, §43¶17, §43¶22, §44¶43, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶6, §45¶6, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶11, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶23, §47¶21, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶15, §48¶17, §48¶20, §48¶20, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶42, §49¶25, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶20, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶5, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶8, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶18, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶11, §55¶15, §56¶11, §56¶11, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶7, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶15, §57¶15, §58¶19, §59¶7, §59¶17, §60¶3, §60¶13, §60¶13, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶21, §60¶23, §61¶7, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶7, §63¶10, §63¶10, §63¶10, §63¶14, §64¶16, §64¶22, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §66¶7, §66¶10, §68¶16, §68¶16, §68¶20, §68¶23, §70¶15
son (198): §10¶16, §10¶16, §18¶30, §19¶12, §20¶23, §24¶28, §30¶1, §31¶29, §37¶27, §37¶27, §37¶27, §38¶24, §38¶24, §40¶9, §40¶24, §40¶25, §41¶2, §44¶43, §45¶2, §45¶2, §45¶2, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶13, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶13, §48¶3, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶9, §48¶18, §48¶20, §48¶20, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶44, §49¶25, §49¶29, §49¶32, §49¶32, §50¶10, §50¶10, §50¶10, §50¶10, §50¶27, §50¶39, §51¶10, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶21, §51¶32, §52¶1, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶20, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶7, §54¶4, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶7, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶13, §55¶13, §55¶13, §55¶15, §55¶15, §56¶5, §56¶5, §56¶5, §56¶11, §56¶11, §56¶11, §56¶11, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶23, §56¶23, §56¶23, §57¶2, §57¶5, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶18, §59¶4, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶15, §59¶18, §60¶3, §60¶5, §60¶6, §60¶15, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶17, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶7, §61¶12, §61¶20, §61¶21, §61¶21, §61¶21, §61¶22, §61¶22, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶10, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶19, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶21, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶9, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶17, §65¶17, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶7, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶20, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26, §69¶10, §70¶11, §70¶11
day (146): §10¶16, §11¶43, §14¶25, §14¶25, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶24, §19¶24, §22¶14, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶20, §24¶26, §30¶7, §35¶13, §36¶3, §36¶3, §39¶6, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶20, §40¶25, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶30, §41¶31, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶12, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶19, §43¶19, §45¶1, §45¶21, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶10, §46¶14, §46¶16, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶34, §48¶7, §48¶15, §48¶17, §48¶29, §48¶33, §48¶37, §48¶38, §49¶29, §50¶24, §50¶29, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶12, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶33, §51¶40, §52¶8, §53¶10, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶15, §56¶12, §56¶12, §56¶14, §56¶14, §56¶16, §57¶2, §57¶8, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶15, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶24, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶17, §60¶14, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶15, §60¶16, §61¶5, §61¶5, §61¶20, §62¶3, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶14, §65¶4, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶17, §66¶7, §67¶11, §67¶12, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶23, §68¶23, §68¶27, §69¶19, §70¶15
victory (163): §10¶16, §11¶43, §14¶25, §14¶25, §18¶30, §19¶24, §20¶11, §24¶15, §24¶20, §24¶28, §28¶4, §28¶4, §28¶4, §28¶6, §30¶7, §35¶9, §36¶5, §38¶24, §39¶6, §40¶9, §40¶23, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶9, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶21, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶3, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶11, §46¶1, §46¶13, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶34, §48¶29, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶29, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶33, §51¶36, §51¶40, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶27, §53¶5, §53¶10, §53¶15, §53¶16, §53¶18, §54¶4, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶12, §55¶13, §55¶14, §55¶14, §55¶15, §56¶6, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §57¶5, §57¶8, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶11, §58¶9, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶22, §58¶23, §58¶24, §58¶31, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶15, §60¶5, §60¶15, §60¶19, §60¶23, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶9, §61¶12, §61¶22, §62¶14, §63¶10, §63¶14, §63¶14, §64¶19, §64¶22, §65¶4, §65¶4, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶17, §66¶7, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶12, §68¶24
prince (211): §10¶16, §19¶12, §20¶23, §20¶23, §22¶14, §23¶22, §24¶15, §24¶20, §24¶26, §24¶28, §28¶4, §28¶4, §30¶1, §36¶5, §37¶27, §37¶27, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶20, §41¶7, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶20, §41¶29, §41¶29, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶19, §43¶22, §44¶43, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶2, §45¶6, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶11, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶17, §46¶21, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶34, §48¶7, §48¶17, §48¶20, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶42, §49¶10, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶6, §51¶21, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶40, §52¶3, §52¶10, §52¶20, §52¶26, §53¶3, §53¶7, §53¶8, §53¶10, §53¶15, §55¶2, §55¶7, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶13, §55¶13, §55¶14, §55¶14, §55¶15, §55¶15, §56¶11, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶23, §56¶23, §57¶2, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶19, §58¶19, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶12, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶13, §60¶13, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶20, §61¶21, §61¶22, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶7, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶3, §65¶3, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶7, §67¶4, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶23, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶27, §68¶27, §68¶27, §70¶15
emperor (492): §10¶16, §10¶16, §11¶43, §11¶43, §14¶25, §17¶19, §18¶30, §19¶12, §19¶12, §19¶12, §19¶24, §20¶11, §20¶11, §20¶11, §20¶23, §20¶23, §21¶32, §22¶14, §23¶22, §23¶22, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶26, §24¶26, §24¶26, §24¶28, §24¶28, §24¶28, §24¶28, §24¶30, §28¶4, §28¶4, §28¶4, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §35¶13, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶24, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶20, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶35, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶7, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶21, §43¶21, §43¶22, §43¶22, §44¶43, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶1, §45¶1, §45¶1, §45¶6, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶13, §45¶19, §45¶21, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶17, §46¶17, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶20, §46¶20, §46¶20, §46¶20, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶34, §48¶3, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶10, §48¶17, §48¶18, §48¶18, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶34, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶38, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶44, §48¶45, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶29, §49¶29, §49¶29, §49¶29, §49¶32, §49¶32, §49¶32, §49¶32, §49¶32, §50¶29, §50¶29, §51¶13, §51¶18, §51¶21, §51¶21, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶5, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶8, §53¶8, §53¶8, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶18, §54¶4, §54¶4, §54¶4, §54¶4, §54¶5, §54¶5, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶8, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶13, §55¶14, §55¶14, §55¶15, §55¶15, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶5, §56¶11, §56¶11, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶7, §57¶7, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶17, §57¶17, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶15, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶6, §60¶6, §60¶13, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶23, §60¶23, §60¶23, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶7, §61¶7, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶12, §62¶3, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶10, §62¶10, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶7, §63¶9, §63¶9, §63¶9, §63¶9, §63¶10, §63¶14, §63¶14, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶9, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶17, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶12, §66¶12, §67¶4, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶13, §67¶13, §67¶13, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶16, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶27, §68¶27, §70¶11
gold (196): §11¶43, §17¶19, §17¶19, §17¶26, §19¶12, §19¶12, §19¶12, §20¶11, §20¶23, §20¶23, §22¶14, §22¶14, §24¶15, §24¶26, §24¶28, §28¶6, §28¶6, §31¶21, §31¶21, §31¶29, §31¶29, §31¶29, §31¶29, §31¶29, §31¶29, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §35¶13, §36¶3, §36¶3, §36¶3, §36¶3, §36¶5, §37¶27, §38¶24, §40¶9, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶23, §40¶25, §41¶6, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶28, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §43¶5, §43¶7, §43¶9, §43¶12, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶21, §44¶43, §45¶11, §45¶13, §45¶13, §46¶9, §46¶9, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶17, §46¶17, §46¶23, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶4, §48¶8, §48¶9, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶32, §50¶10, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶6, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶17, §51¶20, §51¶21, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶40, §52¶3, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶8, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶15, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶12, §55¶12, §55¶13, §55¶13, §56¶5, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶21, §56¶21, §57¶2, §57¶2, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶17, §58¶11, §58¶22, §58¶24, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶17, §60¶10, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶19, §61¶22, §62¶3, §62¶11, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶10, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶18, §64¶22, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶7, §65¶9, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶12, §67¶4, §67¶11, §68¶15, §69¶19, §70¶8, §70¶8, §70¶8
standard (117): §14¶25, §18¶30, §19¶24, §20¶11, §20¶11, §20¶11, §20¶23, §24¶28, §35¶6, §38¶24, §40¶23, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶30, §41¶31, §42¶5, §42¶12, §43¶1, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶18, §43¶21, §45¶2, §45¶13, §46¶1, §46¶13, §46¶18, §46¶20, §46¶21, §47¶23, §48¶29, §48¶29, §48¶34, §48¶37, §49¶28, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶29, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶6, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶16, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶36, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶18, §52¶19, §53¶16, §53¶18, §54¶5, §55¶6, §55¶13, §56¶6, §56¶20, §56¶21, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶18, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶17, §58¶18, §58¶20, §58¶22, §58¶24, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶12, §59¶12, §60¶15, §60¶15, §60¶17, §60¶19, §61¶2, §61¶22, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §64¶15, §64¶19, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §65¶8, §67¶8, §67¶12, §68¶7, §68¶27, §70¶11
horse (119): §14¶25, §18¶30, §19¶24, §24¶20, §35¶9, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶28, §41¶31, §42¶6, §42¶12, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶18, §43¶21, §43¶22, §45¶6, §46¶8, §46¶16, §46¶23, §48¶8, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶30, §48¶38, §49¶25, §49¶32, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶29, §50¶39, §50¶39, §51¶10, §51¶10, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶16, §51¶18, §51¶20, §52¶8, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶20, §53¶7, §53¶16, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶13, §55¶13, §56¶5, §56¶6, §56¶6, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶16, §57¶2, §57¶8, §57¶8, §57¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶23, §58¶31, §59¶4, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶18, §59¶20, §60¶14, §61¶6, §62¶5, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶4, §64¶13, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶19, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶8, §66¶11, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶20, §68¶23, §70¶8, §70¶11
general (175): §14¶25, §14¶25, §18¶30, §18¶30, §19¶24, §22¶14, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶28, §28¶4, §30¶1, §30¶7, §35¶9, §38¶24, §40¶9, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §41¶3, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶19, §43¶19, §43¶22, §45¶6, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶13, §46¶15, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶20, §46¶21, §48¶7, §48¶8, §48¶10, §48¶29, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶42, §49¶10, §49¶28, §50¶24, §50¶24, §50¶29, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶36, §51¶40, §51¶40, §52¶3, §52¶26, §53¶18, §54¶4, §55¶8, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶12, §56¶14, §56¶14, §56¶20, §57¶11, §57¶15, §57¶17, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶18, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶15, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶23, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §62¶5, §63¶10, §64¶13, §65¶2, §65¶7, §65¶8, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §67¶4, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶18, §68¶27, §68¶27, §68¶27, §70¶11
head (151): §14¶25, §19¶12, §20¶11, §20¶23, §21¶32, §22¶14, §23¶22, §24¶20, §28¶4, §28¶6, §28¶6, §31¶43, §36¶3, §39¶6, §41¶2, §41¶4, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶22, §41¶28, §41¶29, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶12, §43¶4, §43¶6, §43¶10, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶18, §43¶19, §44¶43, §45¶3, §45¶19, §46¶9, §46¶19, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶21, §48¶4, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶29, §48¶32, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶38, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶29, §50¶39, §51¶4, §51¶4, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶32, §51¶32, §51¶33, §51¶40, §51¶40, §51¶40, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶10, §52¶19, §53¶8, §53¶10, §54¶4, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶13, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶16, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶18, §58¶9, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶18, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶9, §63¶9, §63¶10, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶19, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶7, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶15, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶12, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶13, §67¶13, §68¶18, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶27, §70¶8
constantinople (310): §17¶19, §20¶11, §20¶23, §22¶14, §22¶14, §31¶43, §31¶43, §31¶43, §35¶13, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶21, §40¶21, §40¶23, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶21, §43¶21, §43¶22, §45¶3, §45¶11, §46¶1, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶8, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶16, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶21, §46¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶23, §48¶4, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶15, §48¶17, §48¶18, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶25, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶42, §48¶44, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶25, §50¶39, §51¶12, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶10, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶3, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶10, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶16, §53¶18, §54¶4, §54¶5, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶12, §55¶14, §55¶15, §55¶15, §55¶15, §56¶5, §56¶11, §56¶13, §56¶17, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶7, §57¶7, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶15, §57¶17, §57¶17, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶7, §59¶11, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶13, §60¶13, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶16, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶7, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶12, §61¶22, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶4, §63¶7, §63¶9, §63¶10, §63¶14, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶19, §64¶21, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶6, §65¶15, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶12, §67¶4, §67¶8, §67¶11, §67¶13, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶7, §68¶7, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶23, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶27, §68¶27
justinian (149): §17¶26, §20¶23, §20¶23, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶11, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶16, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶21, §40¶21, §40¶21, §40¶23, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶24, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶35, §41¶35, §41¶35, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶17, §42¶18, §42¶18, §42¶21, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶21, §43¶21, §43¶22, §43¶22, §44¶43, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶1, §45¶9, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶9, §46¶15, §47¶21, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶23, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶7, §48¶7, §48¶7, §48¶7, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶23, §49¶10, §50¶10, §52¶3, §53¶3, §53¶5, §56¶22, §60¶21, §69¶13
new (159): §18¶30, §24¶26, §24¶28, §30¶7, §39¶6, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶25, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶22, §41¶23, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶17, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶10, §43¶14, §43¶17, §43¶18, §44¶43, §45¶1, §45¶3, §45¶3, §45¶6, §45¶9, §45¶9, §45¶11, §45¶13, §46¶1, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶15, §46¶17, §46¶18, §46¶18, §46¶21, §47¶23, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶9, §48¶10, §48¶22, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶29, §48¶37, §49¶10, §50¶24, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶10, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶33, §52¶1, §52¶3, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶20, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶8, §53¶8, §53¶10, §54¶5, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶13, §55¶13, §55¶14, §55¶15, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶23, §57¶5, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶17, §57¶18, §58¶10, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶23, §59¶11, §59¶17, §59¶18, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶10, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶12, §61¶21, §62¶3, §62¶3, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶9, §63¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶18, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶19, §64¶21, §65¶2, §65¶2, §65¶4, §65¶6, §65¶8, §65¶15, §65¶18, §65¶18, §66¶1, §66¶10, §66¶12, §66¶12, §67¶8, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶4, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶19, §70¶15
till (169): §18¶30, §19¶24, §21¶32, §24¶15, §24¶15, §24¶20, §24¶28, §28¶6, §28¶6, §31¶21, §35¶6, §35¶13, §36¶5, §39¶5, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶17, §40¶24, §40¶24, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶29, §42¶11, §42¶17, §42¶17, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶12, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶19, §45¶2, §45¶19, §45¶21, §46¶10, §46¶16, §46¶18, §46¶20, §46¶23, §46¶23, §46¶23, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §48¶7, §48¶17, §48¶18, §48¶20, §48¶22, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶42, §48¶42, §49¶10, §49¶25, §49¶25, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶29, §51¶5, §51¶6, §51¶6, §51¶12, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶13, §51¶17, §51¶17, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶20, §51¶21, §51¶33, §51¶33, §51¶36, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶8, §52¶8, §52¶27, §53¶5, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶15, §53¶15, §53¶16, §54¶5, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶8, §55¶11, §55¶13, §55¶14, §56¶17, §57¶2, §57¶5, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶17, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶22, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶7, §60¶10, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶19, §60¶21, §60¶21, §61¶9, §61¶20, §61¶21, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶14, §63¶10, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶16, §64¶18, §64¶19, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §66¶1, §66¶7, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶12, §67¶4, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶11, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶23, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶27, §69¶10, §70¶8, §70¶11, §70¶11, §70¶15
king (204): §19¶24, §24¶19, §24¶28, §31¶21, §31¶29, §35¶6, §35¶9, §35¶9, §35¶13, §35¶13, §35¶13, §36¶3, §36¶5, §36¶5, §36¶5, §37¶27, §37¶27, §38¶24, §38¶24, §39¶6, §40¶24, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶24, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶11, §42¶12, §42¶18, §42¶18, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶14, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶15, §43¶17, §43¶17, §43¶17, §45¶1, §45¶1, §45¶2, §45¶2, §45¶3, §45¶11, §45¶13, §45¶13, §45¶21, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶13, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶19, §46¶21, §46¶21, §48¶18, §48¶38, §48¶42, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶32, §49¶32, §51¶4, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶5, §51¶40, §51¶40, §53¶5, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶7, §55¶13, §55¶14, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶22, §56¶23, §56¶23, §56¶23, §57¶10, §57¶10, §57¶11, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶11, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶17, §59¶17, §59¶17, §59¶18, §59¶18, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶16, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶5, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶7, §61¶7, §61¶7, §61¶9, §61¶9, §61¶20, §61¶21, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §63¶6, §63¶9, §64¶16, §64¶19, §64¶22, §65¶15, §65¶15, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶5, §67¶7, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶26
holy (156): §20¶23, §21¶32, §28¶4, §28¶4, §28¶4, §28¶4, §31¶21, §36¶3, §37¶27, §37¶27, §38¶24, §38¶24, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶21, §41¶2, §41¶6, §41¶8, §41¶12, §41¶23, §41¶29, §42¶11, §43¶21, §45¶19, §46¶14, §46¶18, §46¶19, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶21, §47¶23, §48¶30, §48¶36, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶10, §50¶10, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §50¶39, §51¶10, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶16, §51¶18, §51¶20, §51¶20, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶8, §52¶19, §52¶19, §53¶15, §53¶16, §54¶4, §55¶7, §56¶6, §56¶6, §56¶16, §56¶16, §57¶5, §57¶7, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶15, §57¶17, §57¶17, §57¶17, §57¶17, §57¶17, §57¶18, §57¶18, §57¶18, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶15, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶23, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶24, §58¶31, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶15, §59¶18, §59¶20, §59¶20, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶10, §60¶10, §60¶16, §60¶19, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶9, §62¶3, §62¶11, §62¶11, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶15, §65¶3, §65¶17, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶7, §67¶7, §68¶4, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶27, §68¶27, §69¶13, §69¶13, §69¶19, §69¶19, §70¶8, §70¶11, §70¶11
st (139): §20¶23, §20¶23, §20¶23, §21¶32, §31¶21, §31¶21, §31¶21, §31¶21, §31¶43, §35¶6, §35¶6, §35¶6, §35¶6, §36¶3, §37¶27, §37¶27, §37¶27, §38¶24, §38¶24, §40¶9, §40¶9, §40¶17, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶20, §40¶21, §40¶21, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶23, §42¶11, §43¶9, §43¶12, §45¶6, §45¶13, §45¶19, §45¶19, §45¶19, §45¶19, §45¶21, §46¶10, §46¶10, §46¶16, §47¶34, §47¶34, §48¶4, §48¶7, §48¶15, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶29, §48¶32, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶42, §49¶10, §49¶10, §49¶25, §49¶32, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶18, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶19, §52¶19, §53¶7, §53¶15, §54¶4, §54¶4, §54¶5, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶15, §56¶5, §56¶6, §56¶16, §56¶17, §57¶15, §57¶17, §58¶9, §58¶10, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶24, §59¶4, §59¶18, §60¶5, §60¶10, §60¶14, §60¶15, §60¶16, §60¶19, §60¶21, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶20, §61¶21, §62¶5, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶11, §63¶6, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶19, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶11, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶16, §68¶18, §68¶23, §68¶23, §68¶23, §68¶26, §69¶13, §69¶19, §69¶19, §69¶19, §69¶19, §70¶11
enemies (140): §21¶32, §24¶15, §24¶19, §24¶20, §24¶26, §28¶6, §30¶7, §31¶2, §31¶43, §31¶43, §35¶9, §35¶13, §40¶11, §40¶23, §40¶23, §40¶25, §41¶2, §41¶2, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶20, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶30, §41¶35, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶12, §45¶1, §45¶3, §45¶13, §46¶1, §46¶13, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶19, §46¶20, §48¶4, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶9, §48¶30, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶45, §49¶25, §50¶24, §50¶27, §50¶29, §51¶13, §51¶16, §51¶21, §52¶1, §52¶1, §52¶8, §52¶20, §53¶15, §53¶16, §53¶17, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶15, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶21, §56¶22, §57¶5, §57¶7, §57¶9, §57¶14, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶17, §58¶22, §58¶22, §58¶24, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶10, §59¶12, §59¶15, §60¶3, §60¶6, §60¶13, §60¶19, §61¶2, §61¶2, §61¶6, §61¶9, §61¶12, §61¶12, §62¶10, §63¶7, §63¶10, §63¶10, §63¶10, §63¶14, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶18, §64¶18, §64¶19, §65¶2, §65¶3, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶7, §65¶15, §66¶1, §66¶1, §67¶4, §67¶8, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §68¶24, §68¶26, §69¶10, §69¶13, §70¶11, §70¶15
greek (149): §30¶1, §37¶27, §40¶20, §40¶21, §41¶20, §42¶6, §42¶11, §46¶14, §48¶7, §48¶23, §48¶23, §48¶25, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶44, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶29, §51¶12, §51¶13, §51¶17, §51¶20, §52¶3, §52¶3, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶10, §52¶18, §52¶19, §53¶3, §53¶5, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶8, §53¶10, §53¶10, §53¶15, §54¶5, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶11, §55¶13, §55¶15, §55¶15, §55¶15, §56¶2, §56¶2, §56¶11, §56¶12, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶16, §56¶17, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶21, §56¶21, §56¶22, §56¶22, §57¶7, §57¶7, §57¶9, §57¶14, §57¶15, §58¶3, §58¶9, §58¶11, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶12, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶18, §58¶19, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶4, §59¶10, §59¶10, §59¶17, §60¶3, §60¶3, §60¶15, §60¶15, §60¶17, §60¶19, §60¶19, §60¶23, §60¶23, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶2, §61¶6, §61¶6, §61¶12, §61¶12, §62¶5, §62¶10, §62¶11, §62¶11, §62¶13, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶19, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶17, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §66¶11, §66¶11, §66¶11, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶11, §67¶12, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶7, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶26
turks (122): §31¶43, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §46¶1, §46¶1, §48¶33, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §50¶39, §52¶1, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶13, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶13, §56¶14, §56¶14, §57¶7, §57¶7, §57¶9, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶18, §58¶3, §58¶10, §58¶11, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶20, §58¶22, §58¶24, §58¶31, §58¶31, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶10, §59¶11, §59¶12, §59¶12, §59¶15, §60¶3, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶6, §63¶9, §63¶10, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶17, §64¶17, §65¶7, §65¶8, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶1, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶7, §67¶4, §67¶7, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶11, §67¶11, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶13, §68¶3, §68¶3, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶18, §68¶20, §68¶23, §68¶26, §68¶27, §68¶27, §68¶27
royal (137): §31¶43, §35¶6, §35¶13, §36¶5, §36¶5, §36¶5, §37¶27, §40¶21, §40¶25, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶22, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶11, §43¶1, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶17, §43¶22, §45¶2, §45¶6, §46¶1, §46¶9, §46¶10, §46¶14, §46¶15, §46¶16, §46¶19, §46¶20, §46¶23, §48¶3, §48¶4, §48¶4, §48¶8, §48¶8, §48¶17, §48¶18, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶22, §48¶25, §48¶30, §48¶32, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶38, §48¶38, §48¶42, §48¶45, §49¶29, §50¶29, §51¶4, §51¶40, §52¶10, §52¶20, §52¶27, §53¶10, §53¶10, §54¶4, §54¶4, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶2, §55¶6, §55¶11, §56¶5, §56¶14, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶17, §57¶17, §58¶9, §58¶9, §58¶22, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶9, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶11, §59¶15, §59¶17, §59¶20, §60¶5, §60¶5, §60¶6, §60¶6, §60¶13, §60¶16, §60¶21, §61¶5, §61¶5, §61¶7, §61¶7, §61¶20, §61¶20, §61¶21, §62¶3, §62¶10, §62¶14, §63¶10, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶18, §64¶22, §65¶4, §65¶8, §65¶9, §65¶9, §65¶15, §65¶17, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶10, §67¶8, §67¶9, §67¶12, §67¶13, §67¶13, §68¶20, §69¶19
belisarius (137): §40¶11, §40¶11, §41¶2, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶3, §41¶4, §41¶4, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶6, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶7, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶8, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶9, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶11, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶12, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶18, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶20, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶22, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶23, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶24, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶28, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶29, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶30, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶31, §41¶35, §41¶35, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶12, §42¶21, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶1, §43¶4, §43¶5, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶6, §43¶7, §43¶9, §43¶9, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶10, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶11, §43¶12, §43¶12, §43¶14, §43¶21, §43¶22, §43¶22, §43¶22, §46¶9, §48¶30
turkish (127): §40¶20, §40¶20, §42¶5, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶6, §48¶33, §48¶34, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶38, §48¶38, §51¶6, §52¶1, §52¶20, §52¶20, §54¶5, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶7, §55¶12, §56¶6, §56¶21, §57¶2, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶5, §57¶7, §57¶8, §57¶8, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶9, §57¶10, §57¶11, §57¶11, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶14, §57¶15, §57¶15, §57¶18, §58¶15, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶17, §58¶18, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶19, §58¶22, §58¶22, §58¶22, §59¶3, §59¶3, §59¶4, §59¶7, §59¶7, §59¶10, §59¶11, §61¶2, §61¶12, §62¶14, §64¶13, §64¶13, §64¶14, §64¶14, §64¶15, §64¶15, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶19, §64¶19, §64¶19, §64¶19, §64¶21, §64¶22, §64¶22, §64¶22, §65¶6, §65¶6, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §65¶15, §66¶1, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §67¶7, §67¶7, §67¶9, §67¶9, §67¶11, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶12, §67¶13, §67¶13, §68¶3, §68¶4, §68¶4, §68¶4, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶24, §68¶26, §68¶26, §68¶27
byzantine (111): §40¶21, §41¶3, §41¶20, §41¶29, §41¶31, §42¶6, §42¶6, §42¶18, §43¶1, §43¶5, §45¶1, §45¶13, §45¶13, §45¶19, §46¶1, §46¶1, §46¶9, §46¶13, §46¶17, §46¶20, §46¶23, §48¶3, §48¶25, §48¶30, §48¶33, §48¶36, §48¶37, §48¶37, §48¶42, §48¶45, §48¶45, §48¶45, §48¶45, §49¶25, §49¶25, §49¶25, §51¶18, §51¶21, §52¶3, §52¶20, §52¶26, §52¶27, §52¶27, §53¶3, §53¶3, §53¶5, §53¶7, §53¶7, §53¶8, §53¶10, §53¶15, §55¶6, §55¶6, §55¶14, §56¶2, §56¶5, §56¶12, §56¶14, §56¶16, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶20, §56¶21, §56¶22, §57¶8, §57¶15, §58¶31, §58¶31, §59¶3, §59¶3, §60¶5, §60¶14, §60¶21, §60¶23, §60¶23, §61¶7, §61¶7, §62¶3, §62¶5, §62¶11, §62¶14, §63¶4, §63¶6, §63¶9, §63¶10, §63¶14, §63¶14, §63¶14, §64¶13, §64¶16, §64¶17, §64¶18, §64¶21, §64¶22, §65¶15, §65¶17, §65¶18, §66¶4, §66¶5, §66¶7, §66¶7, §66¶10, §66¶10, §67¶4, §67¶13, §67¶13, §68¶7, §68¶15, §68¶16, §68¶23, §68¶24
body (4): §5¶18, §12¶12, §48¶13, §68¶1
secret (3): §5¶18, §6¶11, §43¶26
time (3): §5¶18, §43¶26, §43¶26
prince (3): §5¶18, §6¶11, §12¶12
longer (5): §5¶18, §5¶18, §43¶26, §43¶26, §55¶10
severus (3): §5¶18, §5¶18, §5¶18
palace (5): §5¶18, §6¶11, §48¶13, §48¶13, §68¶1
days (7): §5¶18, §12¶12, §43¶26, §43¶26, §55¶10, §55¶10, §55¶10
emperor (7): §5¶18, §6¶11, §6¶11, §6¶11, §12¶12, §48¶13, §48¶13
death (7): §5¶18, §6¶11, §6¶11, §6¶11, §12¶12, §43¶26, §48¶13
reign (9): §5¶18, §6¶11, §12¶12, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §48¶13, §55¶10, §68¶1
virtue (3): §6¶3, §6¶11, §12¶12
soon (4): §6¶3, §12¶12, §12¶12, §68¶1
sons (5): §6¶3, §48¶13, §48¶13, §48¶13, §55¶10
father (6): §6¶3, §6¶11, §43¶26, §48¶13, §48¶13, §68¶1
caracalla (3): §6¶3, §6¶11, §6¶11
brother (3): §6¶11, §6¶11, §48¶13
crime (3): §6¶11, §6¶11, §6¶11
mind (4): §6¶11, §12¶12, §48¶13, §68¶1
life (6): §6¶11, §6¶11, §12¶12, §12¶12, §48¶13, §48¶13
mother (4): §6¶11, §48¶13, §48¶13, §68¶1
son (6): §6¶11, §6¶11, §48¶13, §48¶13, §48¶13, §68¶1
period (3): §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26
age (5): §43¶26, §48¶13, §55¶10, §55¶10, §68¶1
revolutions (3): §43¶26, §43¶26, §61¶17
north (5): §43¶26, §43¶26, §55¶10, §55¶10, §55¶10
eyes (4): §43¶26, §43¶26, §48¶13, §48¶13
seven (4): §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §55¶10
fifth (4): §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §48¶13
year (6): §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26
second (7): §43¶26, §48¶13, §48¶13, §55¶10, §68¶1, §68¶1, §68¶1
comet (8): §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26
years (7): §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §43¶26, §48¶13, §48¶13, §61¶17
constantine (4): §48¶13, §48¶13, §48¶13, §55¶10
features (1): §48¶13
nicephorus (3): §48¶13, §48¶13, §48¶13
constantinople (7): §48¶13, §55¶10, §55¶10, §55¶10, §61¶17, §68¶1, §68¶1
bed (1): §55¶10
ruric (1): §55¶10
novogorod (3): §55¶10, §55¶10, §55¶10
wolodomir (1): §55¶10
borysthenes (3): §55¶10, §55¶10, §55¶10
kiow (3): §55¶10, §55¶10, §55¶10
russian (1): §55¶10
greatness (4): §2¶19, §17¶11, §67¶1, §71¶8
architecture (5): §2¶19, §10¶38, §17¶11, §71¶7, §71¶13
private (10): §2¶19, §12¶9, §17¶12, §44¶2, §44¶5, §45¶18, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶8
ruins (4): §2¶19, §45¶18, §49¶35, §71¶13
public (12): §2¶19, §17¶12, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶15, §45¶18, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8
erected (6): §2¶19, §17¶12, §44¶2, §49¶35, §71¶2, §71¶13
romans (12): §2¶19, §30¶15, §30¶15, §44¶2, §45¶18, §45¶18, §67¶1, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8
works (6): §2¶19, §44¶15, §67¶1, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶13
empire (13): §2¶19, §10¶55, §12¶9, §17¶11, §45¶18, §49¶2, §49¶35, §71¶3, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶13, §71¶13
time (11): §2¶19, §10¶55, §30¶15, §44¶5, §44¶15, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8
monuments (18): §2¶19, §17¶11, §44¶2, §44¶15, §45¶18, §49¶2, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶13, §71¶13
state (10): §5¶4, §30¶15, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶2, §44¶5, §45¶18, §49¶35, §71¶3, §71¶13
people (13): §5¶4, §5¶4, §5¶4, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶2, §44¶5, §45¶18, §71¶2, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8
senate (11): §5¶4, §12¶9, §12¶9, §12¶9, §17¶12, §30¶15, §43¶16, §43¶16, §44¶5, §45¶18, §71¶8
ancient (16): §5¶4, §12¶9, §17¶11, §44¶5, §44¶5, §44¶15, §44¶15, §44¶15, §67¶1, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶13
roman (20): §5¶4, §5¶4, §10¶38, §10¶55, §12¶9, §12¶9, §12¶9, §15¶60, §15¶60, §17¶11, §17¶11, §30¶15, §30¶15, §43¶16, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶2, §44¶5, §49¶2, §71¶3
rome (40): §5¶4, §5¶4, §10¶38, §10¶55, §12¶9, §12¶9, §17¶12, §30¶15, §43¶16, §43¶16, §43¶16, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶2, §44¶2, §44¶5, §44¶15, §44¶15, §45¶18, §45¶18, §45¶18, §49¶2, §49¶35, §67¶1, §67¶1, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶13, §71¶13, §71¶13, §71¶13
edifice (4): §10¶38, §17¶12, §71¶3, §71¶7
temples (6): §10¶38, §45¶18, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶13
st (13): §10¶38, §17¶12, §30¶15, §49¶2, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶13, §71¶13
antiquity (13): §10¶38, §17¶12, §44¶15, §45¶18, §71¶3, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶13, §71¶13
columns (8): §10¶38, §17¶12, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶3, §71¶7
temple (8): §10¶38, §10¶38, §10¶38, §17¶12, §45¶18, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶7
marble (9): §10¶38, §17¶11, §17¶12, §49¶2, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶13
long (11): §10¶55, §12¶9, §17¶12, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶5, §49¶2, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶3, §71¶13
city (29): §10¶55, §12¶9, §17¶11, §17¶11, §17¶12, §30¶15, §30¶15, §44¶2, §44¶5, §45¶18, §45¶18, §49¶2, §49¶2, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶13, §71¶13, §71¶13, §71¶13
lofty (6): §12¶9, §17¶12, §17¶12, §45¶18, §67¶1, §71¶13
senators (7): §12¶9, §12¶9, §15¶60, §15¶60, §43¶16, §43¶16, §71¶7
years (12): §15¶60, §43¶16, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶15, §49¶2, §49¶35, §67¶1, §71¶3, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶8
porticoes (6): §17¶11, §17¶12, §17¶12, §17¶12, §67¶1, §71¶7
labour (10): §17¶11, §30¶15, §30¶15, §44¶15, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶13
new (13): §17¶11, §44¶5, §49¶2, §49¶2, §49¶35, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶8, §71¶13, §71¶13, §71¶13
materials (8): §17¶11, §44¶15, §67¶1, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶13
walls (12): §17¶11, §17¶12, §30¶15, §30¶15, §43¶16, §45¶18, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶13
forum (4): §17¶12, §17¶12, §44¶2, §44¶15
capital (9): §17¶12, §45¶18, §45¶18, §67¶1, §67¶1, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶7, §71¶7
arches (9): §17¶12, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶3, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶13
stately (3): §17¶12, §67¶1, §71¶3
brass (4): §17¶12, §44¶2, §71¶2, §71¶7
column (7): §17¶12, §17¶12, §49¶2, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶13
statue (5): §17¶12, §44¶2, §49¶2, §67¶1, §71¶7
century (11): §17¶12, §44¶15, §45¶18, §49¶2, §67¶1, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶13
baths (7): §17¶12, §17¶12, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶3, §71¶7
reduced (10): §30¶15, §30¶15, §43¶16, §44¶15, §45¶18, §45¶18, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶13
country (11): §30¶15, §43¶16, §44¶2, §44¶2, §45¶18, §67¶1, §67¶1, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶13, §71¶13
use (10): §44¶2, §44¶15, §44¶15, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶2, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶7, §71¶13
decay (5): §44¶15, §45¶18, §67¶1, §71¶3, §71¶8
far (7): §45¶18, §49¶2, §49¶2, §67¶1, §71¶7, §71¶8, §71¶13
edifices (4): §45¶18, §71¶3, §71¶7, §71¶8
image (8): §49¶2, §49¶2, §49¶2, §49¶2, §49¶2, §49¶2, §67¶1, §71¶8
people (24): §6¶27, §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶12, §23¶28, §32¶15, §33¶12, §37¶20, §37¶20, §39¶14, §39¶14, §47¶24, §47¶25, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §51¶27, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §67¶3, §67¶3
emperor (27): §6¶27, §15¶59, §23¶12, §23¶12, §23¶12, §32¶15, §47¶13, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶8, §66¶15, §66¶15, §67¶3
christ (20): §15¶59, §37¶30, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶25, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §47¶32, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §51¶27, §60¶1, §66¶15
greek (12): §15¶59, §23¶28, §32¶15, §33¶12, §47¶27, §53¶20, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §67¶3, §67¶3
latin (17): §15¶59, §23¶28, §32¶15, §33¶12, §37¶20, §47¶13, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶32, §53¶20, §60¶1, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8, §67¶3
heresy (20): §15¶59, §16¶31, §21¶34, §37¶20, §37¶30, §39¶14, §47¶13, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶25, §47¶25, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §60¶1, §60¶2, §66¶15
holy (16): §15¶59, §16¶31, §21¶34, §32¶15, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶15
alexandria (11): §15¶59, §21¶10, §23¶28, §33¶12, §47¶13, §47¶15, §47¶16, §49¶4, §51¶27, §53¶20, §67¶3
faith (30): §15¶59, §15¶59, §16¶31, §21¶4, §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶28, §33¶12, §37¶20, §39¶14, §39¶14, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶28, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §51¶27, §60¶1, §60¶1, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8
church (35): §15¶59, §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶28, §32¶15, §37¶20, §37¶25, §37¶30, §39¶14, §39¶14, §47¶13, §47¶15, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶25, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §51¶27, §51¶27, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8, §67¶3
persecution (8): §16¶31, §16¶31, §21¶34, §47¶15, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶32, §51¶27
prelates (11): §16¶31, §21¶10, §37¶20, §47¶16, §47¶28, §49¶4, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8
religion (19): §16¶31, §23¶12, §23¶12, §23¶12, §32¶15, §37¶20, §37¶20, §39¶14, §39¶14, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §51¶27, §51¶27, §51¶27, §67¶3
zeal (23): §16¶31, §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶28, §32¶15, §37¶20, §39¶14, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶24, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §51¶27, §51¶27, §60¶1, §60¶1, §67¶3
churches (23): §16¶31, §21¶10, §23¶28, §32¶15, §47¶13, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶15
theological (11): §21¶4, §21¶10, §21¶10, §39¶14, §47¶13, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶28, §47¶32, §60¶1, §62¶9
schism (15): §21¶4, §39¶14, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶28, §47¶32, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶15, §66¶15, §67¶3, §67¶3
controversy (8): §21¶4, §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶10, §23¶28, §47¶18, §47¶27, §51¶27
christian (20): §21¶4, §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶12, §23¶28, §32¶15, §32¶15, §37¶20, §47¶13, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §51¶27, §51¶27, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶15
nice (6): §21¶10, §21¶34, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶25, §66¶15
synods (13): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶10, §37¶30, §39¶14, §47¶13, §47¶24, §47¶28, §47¶28, §49¶4, §60¶1, §60¶2, §62¶9
cause (11): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶10, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶24, §47¶28, §51¶27, §60¶2, §62¶9, §67¶3
throne (15): §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶28, §32¶15, §47¶13, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶24, §47¶32, §49¶4, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8
bishop (7): §21¶10, §21¶34, §39¶14, §47¶25, §47¶28, §51¶27, §62¶9
religious (13): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶12, §32¶15, §39¶14, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶28, §47¶32, §47¶32, §49¶4, §60¶1
egypt (16): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶10, §23¶28, §23¶28, §47¶15, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶27, §47¶27, §51¶27, §51¶27, §51¶27, §53¶20, §66¶15
episcopal (11): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §21¶34, §47¶13, §47¶13, §47¶18, §47¶28, §49¶4, §60¶1, §62¶9
ecclesiastical (16): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §23¶28, §32¶15, §37¶30, §39¶14, §47¶15, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶25, §47¶28, §51¶27, §60¶2, §66¶15, §66¶15
east (28): §21¶10, §32¶15, §37¶30, §37¶30, §47¶16, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶25, §47¶25, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §53¶20, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶15, §66¶15, §66¶15
council (16): §21¶10, §23¶28, §47¶13, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶15, §67¶3
orthodox (17): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §21¶34, §23¶28, §37¶20, §37¶25, §39¶14, §47¶15, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶25, §47¶32, §47¶32, §60¶1, §62¶9
clergy (23): §21¶10, §23¶28, §32¶15, §37¶20, §37¶20, §37¶20, §39¶14, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶25, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §60¶1, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶15, §67¶3
bishops (37): §21¶10, §21¶10, §21¶34, §21¶34, §23¶12, §23¶28, §23¶28, §37¶20, §37¶20, §39¶14, §39¶14, §47¶13, §47¶13, §47¶15, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶2, §62¶9, §67¶3
antioch (15): §21¶34, §21¶34, §33¶12, §47¶13, §47¶13, §47¶15, §47¶15, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §47¶32, §47¶32, §47¶32, §49¶4, §67¶3
arian (5): §21¶34, §21¶34, §37¶20, §39¶14, §39¶14
creed (21): §21¶34, §23¶28, §37¶20, §39¶14, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶25, §47¶27, §49¶4, §51¶27, §60¶1, §60¶1, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶15, §66¶15, §67¶3
catholics (14): §21¶34, §21¶34, §37¶20, §39¶14, §47¶13, §47¶16, §47¶25, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §49¶4, §60¶1, §66¶15
monks (13): §21¶34, §33¶12, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶24, §47¶32, §51¶27, §60¶1, §62¶9
constantinople (25): §21¶34, §23¶12, §32¶15, §33¶12, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶32, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §49¶4, §53¶20, §60¶1, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §66¶15, §67¶3, §67¶3
greeks (30): §23¶12, §37¶30, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶32, §47¶32, §49¶4, §49¶4, §51¶27, §51¶27, §51¶27, §53¶20, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶15, §66¶15, §66¶15, §67¶3, §67¶3
union (11): §23¶28, §47¶13, §47¶13, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶32, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶15, §66¶15, §67¶3
west (14): §23¶28, §33¶12, §39¶14, §47¶27, §49¶4, §49¶4, §60¶1, §60¶1, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶15, §66¶15, §66¶15
catholic (15): §23¶28, §37¶25, §39¶14, §47¶15, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶28, §47¶28, §47¶28, §49¶4, §60¶1, §62¶9, §66¶8
synod (25): §23¶28, §39¶14, §47¶13, §47¶13, §47¶15, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶28, §47¶32, §47¶32, §49¶4, §51¶27, §60¶2, §66¶15, §67¶3, §67¶3
chalcedon (11): §37¶30, §47¶15, §47¶18, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶27, §47¶28, §51¶27
pope (15): §39¶14, §39¶14, §47¶27, §60¶1, §60¶2, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §62¶9, §66¶8, §66¶15, §66¶15, §66¶15, §67¶3
st (14): §39¶14, §39¶14, §47¶15, §47¶18, §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶27, §47¶32, §51¶27, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶15, §66¶15
exile (3): §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶25
patriarch (17): §47¶15, §47¶15, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶16, §47¶28, §47¶32, §47¶32, §47¶32, §51¶27, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶15
latins (12): §47¶24, §47¶24, §47¶28, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶1, §60¶2, §62¶9, §66¶15, §66¶15, §67¶3, §67¶3
youth (5): §4¶20, §17¶34, §19¶11, §24¶4, §24¶4
long (6): §4¶20, §17¶34, §22¶16, §22¶16, §38¶44, §61¶11
court (8): §4¶20, §4¶20, §19¶11, §22¶16, §24¶4, §24¶4, §61¶11, §67¶10
years (7): §4¶20, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §67¶10
just (5): §4¶20, §22¶16, §22¶19, §24¶4, §41¶19
empire (13): §4¶20, §17¶34, §20¶12, §22¶16, §22¶19, §23¶17, §38¶44, §38¶44, §41¶19, §41¶19, §61¶11, §61¶11, §67¶10
emperor (20): §4¶20, §17¶34, §19¶11, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §22¶16, §23¶17, §23¶17, §24¶4, §41¶19, §41¶19, §41¶19, §41¶19, §61¶11, §61¶11, §61¶11, §61¶11
freedom (6): §17¶34, §19¶11, §20¶13, §24¶4, §38¶44, §67¶10
guilt (4): §17¶34, §17¶34, §22¶16, §61¶11
monarch (6): §17¶34, §19¶11, §22¶19, §23¶17, §23¶17, §41¶19
justice (6): §17¶34, §17¶34, §22¶16, §22¶19, §23¶17, §61¶11
roman (12): §17¶34, §17¶34, §17¶34, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §22¶19, §38¶44, §38¶44, §41¶19, §41¶19, §67¶10
general (5): §17¶34, §19¶11, §19¶11, §22¶16, §61¶11
soldiers (5): §17¶34, §19¶11, §20¶12, §22¶16, §22¶19
age (8): §17¶34, §17¶34, §20¶13, §23¶17, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §61¶11
sovereign (10): §17¶34, §19¶11, §20¶12, §22¶16, §22¶19, §24¶4, §38¶44, §41¶19, §41¶19, §61¶11
war (8): §19¶11, §19¶11, §23¶17, §24¶4, §41¶19, §41¶19, §41¶19, §41¶19
days (4): §19¶11, §19¶11, §20¶12, §41¶19
friend (6): §19¶11, §19¶11, §22¶19, §23¶17, §24¶4, §24¶4
military (6): §19¶11, §20¶12, §22¶19, §22¶19, §38¶44, §67¶10
constantius (4): §19¶11, §22¶16, §22¶16, §22¶19
julian (24): §19¶11, §19¶11, §22¶16, §22¶16, §22¶16, §22¶16, §22¶19, §22¶19, §22¶19, §22¶19, §23¶17, §23¶17, §23¶17, §23¶17, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §67¶10, §67¶10, §67¶10, §67¶10
place (6): §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §22¶16, §22¶19, §23¶17
army (4): §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13
celestial (5): §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §24¶4
mind (8): §20¶12, §20¶12, §22¶19, §23¶17, §24¶4, §24¶4, §38¶44, §41¶19
christians (6): §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §23¶17, §61¶11
victory (5): §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13
truth (8): §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §22¶19, §23¶17, §61¶11
cause (6): §20¶12, §20¶12, §22¶16, §22¶16, §22¶19, §24¶4
event (7): §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §23¶17, §41¶19
life (4): §20¶12, §20¶13, §24¶4, §24¶4
sign (6): §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §41¶19
cross (6): §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §61¶11, §61¶11
christian (9): §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §23¶17, §23¶17, §61¶11, §61¶11, §67¶10, §67¶10
thousand (10): §20¶12, §20¶12, §23¶17, §23¶17, §41¶19, §41¶19, §61¶11, §61¶11, §61¶11, §61¶11
religion (8): §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §24¶4, §24¶4, §61¶11
constantine (14): §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶12, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13, §38¶44
eyes (3): §20¶13, §20¶13, §20¶13
instead (5): §20¶13, §20¶13, §24¶4, §38¶44, §41¶19
constantinople (7): §22¶16, §24¶4, §24¶4, §41¶19, §41¶19, §41¶19, §61¶11
accepted (3): §22¶16, §22¶16, §41¶19
antioch (6): §22¶16, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4
libanius (7): §22¶19, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4
sophist (5): §23¶17, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4, §24¶4
holy (6): §23¶17, §61¶11, §61¶11, §61¶11, §61¶11, §61¶11
decline (3): §2¶31, §38¶31, §55¶16
europe (3): §2¶31, §55¶16, §55¶16
empire (3): §2¶31, §38¶31, §38¶31
human (3): §2¶31, §21¶13, §55¶16
merit (3): §2¶31, §60¶7, §60¶7
generation (1): §2¶31
genius (4): §2¶31, §2¶31, §2¶31, §37¶13
new (6): §2¶31, §2¶31, §2¶31, §21¶13, §55¶16, §60¶7
age (9): §2¶31, §37¶13, §37¶13, §55¶16, §55¶16, §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7
different (3): §21¶13, §37¶13, §55¶16
obscure (3): §21¶13, §38¶31, §38¶31
perpetuate (2): §21¶13, §38¶31
years (4): §21¶13, §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7
life (3): §37¶13, §37¶13, §55¶16
arms (4): §37¶13, §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7
cross (3): §37¶13, §55¶16, §60¶7
country (4): §37¶13, §38¶31, §60¶7, §60¶7
holy (6): §37¶13, §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7
saxon (1): §38¶31
missionaries (4): §38¶31, §55¶16, §55¶16, §55¶16
embellished (1): §38¶31
great (3): §38¶31, §55¶16, §60¶7
denmark (1): §55¶16
eleventh (1): §55¶16
north (1): §55¶16
christendom (2): §55¶16, §60¶7
kings (3): §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7
land (4): §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7
germany (3): §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7
war (5): §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7
princes (5): §55¶16, §55¶16, §55¶16, §60¶7, §60¶7
hungarians (1): §55¶16
henry (1): §60¶7
knights (3): §60¶7, §60¶7, §60¶7
power (7): §3¶32, §5¶34, §5¶34, §28¶5, §33¶7, §38¶32, §38¶32
youth (8): §3¶32, §5¶34, §9¶12, §12¶21, §18¶15, §26¶17, §36¶21, §45¶12
general (8): §3¶32, §26¶17, §26¶17, §26¶17, §33¶7, §33¶7, §38¶32, §45¶12
roman (14): §3¶32, §12¶21, §12¶21, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §26¶17, §31¶40, §31¶40, §33¶7, §36¶21, §38¶32, §38¶32, §67¶6
emperor (14): §3¶32, §5¶34, §12¶21, §18¶15, §18¶27, §18¶27, §26¶17, §31¶40, §36¶21, §36¶21, §36¶21, §45¶12, §45¶12, §67¶6
people (14): §3¶32, §9¶12, §17¶38, §18¶27, §23¶27, §23¶27, §26¶17, §31¶40, §31¶40, §33¶7, §36¶21, §38¶32, §38¶32, §45¶12
army (9): §5¶34, §12¶21, §18¶27, §26¶17, §36¶21, §36¶21, §36¶21, §38¶32, §38¶32
reign (5): §5¶34, §11¶28, §28¶5, §36¶21, §36¶21
spirit (8): §5¶34, §23¶27, §26¶17, §31¶40, §51¶31, §67¶6, §67¶6, §67¶6
considerable (5): §9¶12, §12¶21, §17¶38, §17¶38, §33¶7
lands (5): §9¶12, §12¶21, §17¶38, §18¶15, §23¶27
ancient (7): §9¶12, §12¶21, §17¶38, §17¶38, §28¶5, §28¶5, §45¶12
germany (7): §9¶12, §12¶21, §38¶32, §38¶32, §38¶32, §67¶6, §67¶6
thousand (17): §9¶12, §12¶21, §12¶21, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §18¶15, §36¶21, §36¶21, §38¶32, §45¶12, §51¶31, §51¶31, §51¶31, §51¶31, §51¶31
arms (14): §9¶12, §11¶28, §12¶21, §18¶27, §18¶27, §26¶17, §31¶40, §36¶21, §36¶21, §36¶21, §38¶32, §45¶12, §67¶6, §67¶6
country (16): §9¶12, §9¶12, §12¶21, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §18¶15, §26¶17, §26¶17, §33¶7, §36¶21, §36¶21, §38¶32, §51¶31, §51¶31, §67¶6
important (6): §11¶28, §12¶21, §18¶27, §31¶40, §33¶7, §36¶21
city (6): §11¶28, §11¶28, §23¶27, §28¶5, §28¶5, §28¶5
war (13): §11¶28, §18¶15, §18¶27, §18¶27, §18¶27, §33¶7, §36¶21, §36¶21, §37¶28, §38¶32, §45¶12, §45¶12, §67¶6
gaul (17): §11¶28, §12¶21, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §26¶17, §31¶40, §31¶40, §36¶21, §36¶21, §36¶21, §36¶21, §36¶21, §36¶21
island (5): §12¶21, §31¶40, §31¶40, §36¶21, §38¶32
weight (5): §12¶21, §17¶38, §26¶17, §37¶28, §67¶6
hope (4): §12¶21, §18¶27, §26¶17, §51¶31
aid (6): §12¶21, §12¶21, §18¶15, §26¶17, §31¶40, §67¶6
dangerous (5): §12¶21, §18¶15, §18¶27, §23¶27, §38¶32
strength (8): §12¶21, §18¶27, §26¶17, §26¶17, §31¶40, §38¶32, §67¶6, §67¶6
new (11): §12¶21, §17¶38, §18¶27, §26¶17, §28¶5, §31¶40, §38¶32, §45¶12, §51¶31, §51¶31, §67¶6
soon (9): §12¶21, §18¶15, §18¶15, §31¶40, §33¶7, §36¶21, §38¶32, §38¶32, §67¶6
britain (8): §12¶21, §31¶40, §31¶40, §31¶40, §37¶28, §38¶32, §38¶32, §38¶32
danube (7): §12¶21, §12¶21, §26¶17, §26¶17, §26¶17, §45¶12, §67¶6
barbarians (12): §12¶21, §12¶21, §12¶21, §18¶15, §26¶17, §26¶17, §26¶17, §33¶7, §33¶7, §36¶21, §38¶32, §38¶32
provinces (12): §12¶21, §12¶21, §12¶21, §17¶38, §18¶15, §18¶15, §26¶17, §31¶40, §31¶40, §31¶40, §36¶21, §45¶12
head (6): §17¶38, §33¶7, §36¶21, §45¶12, §67¶6, §67¶6
capitation (4): §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38, §17¶38
nation (5): §17¶38, §18¶15, §18¶15, §26¶17, §36¶21
julian (6): §17¶38, §23¶27, §23¶27, §23¶27, §23¶27, §67¶6
reason (5): §17¶38, §23¶27, §36¶21, §45¶12, §51¶31
province (7): §17¶38, §31¶40, §31¶40, §33¶7, §36¶21, §36¶21, §38¶32
long (10): §17¶38, §23¶27, §26¶17, §28¶5, §31¶40, §31¶40, §36¶21, §51¶31, §51¶31, §67¶6
cities (8): §17¶38, §28¶5, §33¶7, §36¶21, §36¶21, §37¶28, §38¶32, §51¶31
constantius (6): §17¶38, §18¶27, §18¶27, §18¶27, §18¶27, §18¶27
monarch (10): §17¶38, §23¶27, §28¶5, §28¶5, §31¶40, §36¶21, §38¶32, §45¶12, §45¶12, §67¶6
empire (7): §18¶15, §18¶15, §31¶40, §31¶40, §36¶21, §45¶12, §67¶6
limigantes (1): §18¶15
allies (6): §18¶15, §26¶17, §36¶21, §38¶32, §38¶32, §67¶6
quadi (1): §18¶15
sarmatians (5): §18¶15, §18¶15, §18¶15, §26¶17, §67¶6
alexandria (5): §23¶27, §23¶27, §23¶27, §28¶5, §28¶5
strength (8): §1¶23, §5¶32, §9¶4, §9¶26, §49¶31, §50¶6, §66¶24, §70¶25
independent (8): §1¶23, §9¶26, §31¶8, §37¶12, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶40, §49¶31
present (9): §1¶23, §5¶32, §10¶25, §13¶33, §24¶18, §38¶23, §50¶6, §66¶24, §69¶11
spirit (9): §1¶23, §44¶10, §49¶31, §50¶6, §50¶6, §51¶49, §66¶24, §70¶13, §70¶13
ancient (8): §2¶15, §5¶32, §9¶4, §9¶26, §10¶25, §13¶27, §38¶23, §66¶24
private (7): §2¶15, §9¶16, §9¶26, §44¶10, §50¶6, §50¶6, §70¶25
servile (8): §2¶15, §10¶25, §13¶6, §31¶8, §31¶8, §38¶23, §44¶10, §66¶24
distinction (5): §2¶15, §2¶15, §13¶27, §15¶42, §38¶23
liberty (7): §2¶15, §3¶1, §24¶18, §38¶23, §38¶40, §50¶6, §51¶49
human (11): §2¶15, §9¶4, §10¶25, §13¶6, §25¶27, §25¶27, §37¶12, §38¶23, §38¶23, §50¶6, §66¶24
slaves (6): §2¶15, §13¶6, §13¶33, §31¶8, §38¶23, §66¶24
laws (11): §2¶15, §3¶1, §13¶6, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶40, §44¶10, §44¶10, §49¶31, §51¶49
freedom (9): §2¶15, §2¶15, §38¶23, §38¶40, §44¶10, §44¶10, §51¶49, §70¶13, §70¶25
roman (13): §2¶15, §2¶15, §9¶4, §13¶27, §13¶33, §25¶27, §25¶27, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶40, §44¶10, §49¶31
country (12): §2¶15, §9¶26, §24¶18, §24¶18, §24¶18, §25¶27, §25¶27, §38¶23, §49¶31, §66¶24, §66¶24, §70¶13
commons (6): §3¶1, §31¶8, §49¶31, §51¶49, §70¶13, §70¶25
arms (11): §3¶1, §5¶16, §5¶32, §5¶32, §9¶26, §9¶26, §10¶25, §13¶6, §13¶27, §38¶23, §70¶13
soon (11): §3¶1, §5¶32, §13¶27, §13¶27, §24¶18, §24¶18, §24¶18, §25¶27, §38¶40, §66¶24, §69¶11
distinguished (7): §3¶1, §5¶32, §10¶25, §13¶27, §37¶12, §49¶31, §70¶13
public (9): §3¶1, §13¶6, §13¶33, §24¶18, §24¶18, §38¶23, §38¶40, §69¶11, §70¶13
state (14): §3¶1, §9¶26, §13¶6, §13¶33, §13¶33, §24¶18, §31¶8, §37¶12, §38¶40, §38¶40, §44¶10, §66¶24, §70¶13, §70¶25
people (15): §3¶1, §9¶4, §9¶16, §10¶25, §13¶6, §13¶27, §13¶33, §15¶42, §24¶18, §31¶8, §38¶23, §50¶6, §66¶24, §69¶11, §69¶11
weight (7): §5¶16, §13¶6, §13¶6, §13¶33, §31¶8, §37¶12, §38¶40
use (6): §5¶16, §9¶26, §31¶8, §38¶23, §38¶40, §44¶10
barbarians (13): §5¶16, §5¶32, §9¶26, §13¶6, §13¶6, §13¶27, §25¶27, §25¶27, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶40, §50¶6, §66¶24
new (8): §5¶32, §5¶32, §9¶16, §13¶27, §25¶27, §38¶23, §66¶24, §70¶13
honour (7): §5¶32, §9¶16, §50¶6, §50¶6, §50¶6, §69¶11, §69¶11
empire (12): §5¶32, §5¶32, §13¶27, §13¶27, §13¶33, §13¶33, §15¶42, §25¶27, §49¶31, §49¶31, §51¶49, §70¶13
times (10): §5¶32, §10¶25, §13¶33, §13¶33, §31¶8, §38¶23, §44¶10, §50¶6, §66¶24, §70¶13
men (8): §5¶32, §13¶6, §15¶42, §24¶18, §24¶18, §25¶27, §50¶6, §66¶24
rome (14): §5¶32, §13¶27, §13¶27, §24¶18, §31¶8, §31¶8, §38¶23, §66¶24, §66¶24, §69¶11, §69¶11, §70¶13, §70¶25, §70¶25
manners (11): §5¶32, §5¶32, §9¶16, §13¶6, §25¶27, §31¶8, §38¶23, §49¶31, §50¶6, §51¶49, §66¶24
easy (6): §9¶4, §13¶6, §13¶33, §51¶49, §66¶24, §70¶25
life (10): §9¶4, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶23, §50¶6, §50¶6, §50¶6, §66¶24, §69¶11, §70¶13
long (12): §9¶4, §10¶25, §13¶6, §15¶42, §24¶18, §31¶8, §37¶12, §38¶23, §44¶10, §49¶31, §51¶49, §70¶25
germany (9): §9¶4, §9¶4, §9¶26, §9¶26, §9¶26, §10¶25, §49¶31, §49¶31, §49¶31
according (7): §9¶16, §13¶27, §13¶33, §15¶42, §38¶23, §49¶31, §50¶6
tribes (9): §9¶26, §10¶25, §10¶25, §25¶27, §25¶27, §31¶8, §50¶6, §50¶6, §51¶49
common (6): §10¶25, §13¶6, §15¶42, §37¶12, §37¶12, §49¶31
diocletian (6): §13¶6, §13¶27, §13¶27, §13¶33, §13¶33, §13¶33
plebeians (4): §13¶6, §31¶8, §38¶23, §70¶13
romans (13): §13¶6, §15¶42, §24¶18, §24¶18, §24¶18, §31¶8, §66¶24, §69¶11, §69¶11, §69¶11, §70¶13, §70¶13, §70¶13
nobles (8): §13¶6, §31¶8, §38¶23, §49¶31, §51¶49, §69¶11, §70¶13, §70¶25
servants (4): §13¶33, §38¶23, §38¶23, §38¶40
domestic (6): §25¶27, §38¶23, §38¶40, §50¶6, §50¶6, §70¶25
poverty (5): §31¶8, §38¶40, §38¶40, §50¶6, §66¶24
language (7): §38¶40, §50¶6, §51¶49, §51¶49, §66¶24, §66¶24, §70¶13
plebeian (1): §38¶40
great (14): §3¶35, §46¶26, §49¶33, §49¶33, §49¶33, §49¶33, §49¶33, §49¶33, §49¶33, §53¶13, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18, §59¶1
sword (14): §3¶35, §46¶26, §50¶34, §53¶13, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18, §60¶11, §61¶18, §62¶8, §69¶21, §70¶5
princes (17): §3¶35, §49¶33, §49¶33, §50¶4, §50¶4, §56¶1, §56¶1, §56¶1, §56¶10, §58¶26, §59¶14, §61¶19, §61¶19, §62¶8, §66¶3, §69¶21, §70¶5
king (13): §3¶35, §49¶33, §56¶18, §58¶26, §59¶1, §59¶14, §60¶11, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19, §62¶8, §70¶5
years (15): §46¶26, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶18, §59¶1, §59¶14, §59¶14, §61¶18, §61¶19, §62¶8, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21
sepulchre (5): §46¶26, §56¶18, §58¶26, §59¶1, §60¶11
war (12): §46¶26, §46¶26, §50¶4, §50¶4, §50¶4, §56¶1, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶18, §59¶14, §61¶18, §69¶21
second (18): §46¶26, §50¶34, §53¶13, §56¶1, §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18, §59¶1, §59¶14, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19, §66¶3, §69¶21
jerusalem (10): §46¶26, §46¶26, §58¶26, §58¶26, §58¶26, §59¶1, §60¶11, §60¶11, §61¶18, §61¶18
emperor (17): §46¶26, §46¶26, §46¶26, §49¶33, §49¶33, §49¶33, §56¶18, §58¶14, §59¶1, §59¶1, §61¶18, §62¶8, §62¶8, §66¶3, §66¶3, §69¶21, §70¶5
thousand (16): §46¶26, §46¶26, §50¶4, §56¶1, §56¶10, §58¶26, §58¶26, §58¶26, §59¶14, §60¶11, §60¶11, §66¶3, §69¶21, §70¶5, §70¶5, §70¶5
arms (21): §46¶26, §50¶4, §50¶4, §56¶8, §56¶10, §58¶26, §58¶26, §60¶11, §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶19, §62¶8, §66¶3, §66¶3, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §70¶5
holy (14): §46¶26, §50¶4, §50¶4, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶10, §58¶26, §59¶1, §59¶1, §59¶14, §60¶11, §60¶11, §61¶18, §70¶5
france (10): §46¶26, §56¶18, §59¶1, §59¶1, §59¶14, §60¶11, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19
germany (7): §49¶33, §49¶33, §56¶1, §56¶18, §59¶1, §60¶11, §69¶21
title (15): §49¶33, §49¶33, §56¶1, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19, §62¶8, §69¶21, §69¶21, §70¶5, §70¶5
service (11): §49¶33, §50¶4, §56¶7, §56¶8, §58¶26, §58¶26, §59¶14, §60¶11, §60¶11, §61¶18, §70¶5
duke (9): §49¶33, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18
kingdom (9): §49¶33, §50¶4, §50¶4, §56¶1, §56¶18, §58¶26, §58¶26, §60¶11, §61¶18
pope (8): §49¶33, §56¶18, §59¶14, §59¶14, §60¶11, §66¶3, §69¶21, §70¶5
count (11): §49¶33, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18, §58¶26, §61¶18, §61¶19, §69¶21
latins (6): §50¶4, §58¶26, §58¶26, §59¶1, §59¶14, §66¶3
age (17): §50¶4, §50¶34, §53¶13, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶18, §58¶14, §59¶14, §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19, §62¶8, §69¶21
greeks (14): §50¶4, §53¶13, §53¶13, §56¶1, §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶10, §60¶11, §60¶11, §62¶8, §66¶3, §66¶3
father (11): §50¶34, §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶10, §56¶18, §60¶11, §60¶11, §61¶18, §62¶8, §69¶21
son (19): §50¶34, §50¶34, §56¶1, §56¶7, §56¶18, §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19, §62¶8, §66¶3, §66¶3, §66¶3, §66¶3, §69¶21
naples (5): §56¶1, §56¶1, §56¶18, §61¶19, §62¶8
latin (9): §56¶1, §56¶10, §56¶18, §58¶26, §59¶14, §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶19, §66¶3
norman (8): §56¶1, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18
apulia (8): §56¶1, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18
barons (9): §56¶1, §56¶8, §56¶18, §60¶11, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19, §70¶5, §70¶5
guiscard (8): §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18
knights (7): §56¶7, §56¶10, §58¶26, §58¶26, §58¶26, §60¶11, §61¶18
robert (13): §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶18, §56¶18, §58¶14, §58¶14, §61¶18, §61¶19
normans (10): §56¶7, §56¶7, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶18
sicily (10): §56¶8, §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18, §56¶18, §59¶14
peter (12): §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶18, §59¶14, §59¶14, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §70¶5
st (12): §56¶8, §56¶10, §56¶10, §56¶18, §56¶18, §58¶26, §59¶14, §59¶14, §60¶11, §69¶21, §69¶21, §70¶5
counts (8): §56¶8, §56¶8, §58¶14, §58¶26, §60¶11, §61¶18, §61¶19, §69¶21
england (3): §56¶18, §59¶1, §59¶14
baldwin (4): §58¶14, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19
pilgrims (7): §58¶14, §58¶26, §58¶26, §59¶1, §59¶14, §59¶14, §60¶11
french (6): §58¶14, §58¶26, §59¶1, §61¶18, §61¶18, §69¶21
venice (4): §58¶26, §60¶11, §60¶11, §60¶11
land (4): §59¶1, §59¶1, §60¶11, §60¶11
crusade (7): §59¶1, §59¶1, §59¶1, §59¶14, §59¶14, §61¶18, §69¶21
marquis (3): §60¶11, §60¶11, §69¶21
courtenay (8): §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶18, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19, §61¶19
colonna (13): §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §69¶21, §70¶5
augsburg (1): §1¶29
rhaetia (1): §1¶29
bavaria (1): §1¶29
provinces (4): §1¶29, §3¶7, §16¶55, §16¶55
empire (4): §1¶29, §14¶14, §15¶3, §16¶55
country (5): §1¶29, §1¶29, §14¶14, §16¶55, §16¶55
emperor (5): §3¶7, §3¶7, §11¶41, §11¶41, §11¶41
commanded (3): §3¶7, §16¶55, §71¶9
number (3): §3¶7, §11¶41, §16¶55
roman (4): §3¶7, §11¶41, §11¶41, §15¶3
legions (3): §3¶7, §3¶7, §14¶14
rome (6): §3¶7, §11¶41, §11¶41, §71¶9, §71¶9, §71¶9
senate (4): §3¶7, §3¶7, §11¶41, §11¶41
great (3): §3¶7, §11¶41, §15¶3
power (5): §3¶7, §11¶41, §14¶14, §14¶14, §16¶55
general (6): §3¶7, §11¶41, §14¶14, §15¶3, §16¶55, §71¶9
long (3): §11¶41, §16¶55, §71¶9
gold (4): §11¶41, §11¶41, §11¶41, §71¶9
particularly (1): §11¶41
aurelian (3): §11¶41, §11¶41, §11¶41
magnificent (2): §11¶41, §11¶41
amphitheatre (4): §11¶41, §71¶9, §71¶9, §71¶9
proof (1): §14¶14
plundered (1): §14¶14
constantine (3): §14¶14, §14¶14, §16¶55
galerius (5): §14¶14, §14¶14, §16¶55, §16¶55, §16¶55
christian (3): §15¶3, §15¶3, §15¶3
obtained (3): §15¶3, §16¶55, §71¶9
christians (4): §15¶3, §15¶3, §16¶55, §71¶9
native (1): §16¶55
precious (1): §71¶9
number (6): §1¶19, §5¶1, §15¶55, §31¶9, §47¶20, §58¶2
use (7): §1¶19, §9¶6, §9¶6, §31¶9, §31¶9, §31¶9, §67¶2
soon (8): §1¶19, §1¶25, §5¶1, §5¶1, §15¶55, §28¶15, §58¶2, §67¶2
roman (12): §1¶19, §1¶25, §2¶7, §2¶7, §12¶26, §15¶55, §28¶15, §47¶20, §48¶21, §49¶22, §58¶2, §58¶2
city (13): §1¶19, §2¶7, §2¶7, §17¶14, §28¶15, §31¶9, §31¶9, §48¶21, §58¶2, §58¶2, §67¶2, §67¶2, §67¶2
thousand (9): §1¶19, §5¶1, §5¶1, §5¶1, §9¶6, §31¶9, §31¶9, §47¶20, §47¶20
celebrated (4): §1¶25, §9¶6, §15¶55, §67¶2
ancient (4): §1¶25, §2¶7, §9¶6, §17¶14
reign (5): §1¶25, §15¶55, §15¶55, §47¶20, §48¶21
received (8): §1¶25, §1¶25, §15¶55, §15¶55, §28¶15, §31¶9, §48¶21, §58¶2
gaul (9): §1¶25, §1¶25, §1¶25, §1¶25, §12¶26, §15¶55, §15¶55, §15¶55, §15¶55
age (9): §1¶25, §17¶14, §48¶21, §48¶21, §51¶48, §51¶48, §58¶2, §58¶2, §67¶2
country (11): §1¶25, §1¶25, §2¶7, §2¶7, §9¶6, §9¶6, §12¶26, §12¶26, §48¶21, §48¶21, §67¶2
splendour (3): §2¶7, §12¶26, §15¶55
subjects (7): §2¶7, §2¶7, §5¶1, §12¶26, §31¶9, §51¶48, §67¶2
zeal (8): §2¶7, §15¶55, §15¶55, §47¶20, §51¶48, §58¶2, §67¶2, §67¶2
empire (8): §2¶7, §28¶15, §48¶21, §49¶22, §49¶22, §49¶22, §51¶48, §67¶2
rome (12): §2¶7, §2¶7, §12¶26, §15¶55, §17¶14, §17¶14, §31¶9, §31¶9, §47¶20, §49¶22, §67¶2, §67¶2
capital (7): §2¶7, §5¶1, §15¶55, §17¶14, §31¶9, §48¶21, §67¶2
great (9): §2¶7, §9¶6, §9¶6, §15¶55, §31¶9, §49¶22, §58¶2, §58¶2, §58¶2
command (5): §5¶1, §9¶6, §48¶21, §49¶22, §51¶48
small (4): §5¶1, §5¶1, §9¶6, §15¶55
military (6): §5¶1, §12¶26, §12¶26, §15¶55, §31¶9, §58¶2
citizens (5): §5¶1, §17¶14, §17¶14, §31¶9, §47¶20
millions (4): §5¶1, §31¶9, §31¶9, §48¶21
power (7): §5¶1, §15¶55, §31¶9, §48¶21, §49¶22, §58¶2, §58¶2
easy (5): §9¶6, §31¶9, §49¶22, §49¶22, §67¶2
greeks (8): §9¶6, §9¶6, §48¶21, §49¶22, §49¶22, §67¶2, §67¶2, §67¶2
religion (8): §9¶6, §28¶15, §28¶15, §48¶21, §49¶22, §49¶22, §51¶48, §67¶2
son (6): §9¶6, §9¶6, §9¶6, §48¶21, §48¶21, §48¶21
eyes (7): §9¶6, §15¶55, §28¶15, §28¶15, §47¶20, §48¶21, §67¶2
africa (7): §9¶6, §12¶26, §15¶55, §15¶55, §17¶14, §31¶9, §49¶22
years (9): §9¶6, §47¶20, §47¶20, §47¶20, §48¶21, §49¶22, §51¶48, §58¶2, §67¶2
egypt (5): §12¶26, §17¶14, §47¶20, §47¶20, §51¶48
devotion (5): §15¶55, §15¶55, §28¶15, §48¶21, §58¶2
time (5): §15¶55, §15¶55, §31¶9, §51¶48, §51¶48
christians (8): §15¶55, §15¶55, §28¶15, §47¶20, §51¶48, §51¶48, §51¶48, §51¶48
holy (9): §15¶55, §28¶15, §48¶21, §49¶22, §49¶22, §58¶2, §58¶2, §58¶2, §67¶2
emperor (16): §15¶55, §17¶14, §47¶20, §47¶20, §48¶21, §48¶21, §48¶21, §48¶21, §48¶21, §48¶21, §49¶22, §51¶48, §67¶2, §67¶2, §67¶2, §67¶2
wine (5): §17¶14, §28¶15, §31¶9, §31¶9, §48¶21
public (10): §17¶14, §17¶14, §31¶9, §31¶9, §48¶21, §48¶21, §49¶22, §51¶48, §51¶48, §67¶2
pounds (4): §31¶9, §31¶9, §31¶9, §47¶20
clergy (7): §47¶20, §48¶21, §51¶48, §58¶2, §58¶2, §67¶2, §67¶2
court (3): §48¶21, §48¶21, §58¶2
cross (6): §58¶2, §58¶2, §58¶2, §58¶2, §58¶2, §67¶2
joseph (1): §67¶2
public (6): §3¶36, §5¶3, §27¶15, §44¶41, §44¶41, §63¶1
romans (11): §3¶36, §3¶36, §44¶23, §44¶23, §44¶23, §44¶41, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27
senate (8): §3¶36, §3¶36, §5¶3, §5¶3, §30¶26, §36¶29, §36¶29, §44¶41
free (7): §3¶36, §3¶36, §27¶15, §44¶23, §44¶41, §45¶8, §49¶27
oppressed (5): §3¶36, §37¶21, §45¶8, §49¶27, §49¶27
tyrant (7): §3¶36, §27¶15, §37¶21, §44¶23, §44¶23, §49¶7, §49¶7
earth (6): §3¶36, §27¶15, §27¶15, §49¶7, §49¶7, §63¶1
person (9): §3¶36, §5¶3, §10¶44, §27¶15, §44¶23, §44¶41, §49¶7, §49¶27, §61¶3
formidable (4): §5¶3, §37¶21, §49¶7, §49¶27
city (9): §5¶3, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §61¶3, §61¶8
sovereign (6): §5¶3, §27¶15, §36¶29, §45¶8, §61¶3, §61¶8
empire (9): §5¶3, §27¶15, §30¶26, §36¶29, §45¶8, §49¶27, §49¶27, §61¶8, §61¶8
power (7): §5¶3, §10¶44, §27¶15, §37¶21, §45¶8, §63¶1, §63¶1
palace (10): §5¶3, §27¶15, §36¶29, §37¶21, §45¶8, §45¶8, §49¶27, §49¶27, §61¶8, §61¶8
throne (13): §5¶3, §36¶29, §36¶29, §37¶21, §37¶21, §45¶8, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27, §61¶3, §61¶8, §63¶1, §63¶1
emperor (22): §5¶3, §10¶44, §10¶44, §27¶15, §36¶29, §36¶29, §36¶29, §36¶29, §49¶7, §49¶7, §49¶27, §49¶27, §61¶3, §61¶8, §61¶8, §61¶8, §61¶8, §61¶8, §61¶8, §63¶1, §63¶1, §63¶1
foot (6): §10¶44, §49¶7, §49¶27, §63¶1, §63¶1, §63¶1
peace (7): §10¶44, §27¶15, §37¶21, §37¶21, §49¶7, §49¶7, §61¶8
unfortunate (6): §10¶44, §36¶29, §44¶41, §44¶41, §49¶27, §61¶8
roman (10): §10¶44, §10¶44, §30¶26, §36¶29, §44¶23, §44¶23, §44¶41, §49¶7, §49¶27, §61¶3
rome (12): §10¶44, §10¶44, §30¶26, §36¶29, §36¶29, §44¶41, §49¶7, §49¶7, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27
imperial (10): §10¶44, §27¶15, §30¶26, §36¶29, §36¶29, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27, §49¶27, §61¶3
unwilling (3): §27¶15, §36¶29, §44¶23
powers (6): §27¶15, §37¶21, §44¶41, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27
blood (6): §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §49¶7, §61¶3, §61¶3
years (11): §27¶15, §30¶26, §30¶26, §37¶21, §44¶23, §44¶23, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27, §61¶8, §63¶1
ambrose (7): §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15
milan (5): §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15
church (12): §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §37¶21, §37¶21, §44¶41, §49¶7, §49¶7, §49¶27, §63¶1, §63¶1, §63¶1
italy (11): §27¶15, §30¶26, §30¶26, §36¶29, §36¶29, §36¶29, §36¶29, §44¶41, §45¶8, §49¶27, §49¶27
people (14): §27¶15, §27¶15, §27¶15, §30¶26, §36¶29, §36¶29, §36¶29, §37¶21, §49¶7, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §63¶1
disgrace (7): §30¶26, §36¶29, §44¶23, §44¶41, §61¶8, §63¶1, §63¶1
greek (7): §30¶26, §45¶8, §49¶27, §61¶3, §61¶8, §63¶1, §63¶1
revenge (6): §30¶26, §45¶8, §45¶8, §61¶3, §63¶1, §63¶1
claudian (9): §30¶26, §30¶26, §30¶26, §30¶26, §30¶26, §30¶26, §30¶26, §30¶26, §30¶26
death (11): §30¶26, §37¶21, §37¶21, §37¶21, §44¶23, §44¶41, §44¶41, §44¶41, §44¶41, §45¶8, §61¶8
second (7): §36¶29, §36¶29, §45¶8, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27, §61¶8
prince (8): §36¶29, §44¶41, §49¶7, §49¶7, §49¶27, §61¶8, §63¶1, §63¶1
successor (7): §36¶29, §37¶21, §37¶21, §45¶8, §49¶7, §61¶8, §63¶1
son (12): §36¶29, §37¶21, §37¶21, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §61¶8, §61¶8, §61¶8
till (6): §37¶21, §44¶41, §44¶41, §49¶27, §61¶3, §63¶1
athanasius (6): §37¶21, §63¶1, §63¶1, §63¶1, §63¶1, §63¶1
hunneric (4): §37¶21, §37¶21, §37¶21, §37¶21
lombard (3): §45¶8, §45¶8, §49¶27
hand (6): §45¶8, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶7, §63¶1, §63¶1
reign (8): §45¶8, §45¶8, §49¶7, §49¶27, §61¶8, §61¶8, §63¶1, §63¶1
rosamond (4): §45¶8, §45¶8, §45¶8, §45¶8
alboin (3): §45¶8, §45¶8, §45¶8
john (8): §49¶27, §49¶27, §49¶27, §61¶3, §61¶3, §61¶3, §61¶3, §61¶8
roman (7): §1¶30, §1¶30, §7¶12, §7¶12, §23¶11, §48¶40, §70¶16
prince (7): §1¶30, §48¶40, §48¶40, §48¶40, §57¶16, §59¶6, §70¶16
power (8): §1¶30, §23¶11, §23¶14, §28¶3, §28¶3, §57¶16, §59¶6, §59¶6
family (5): §1¶30, §7¶12, §7¶12, §28¶3, §48¶40
emperor (15): §1¶30, §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶12, §23¶11, §23¶14, §28¶3, §28¶3, §48¶40, §48¶40, §48¶40, §57¶16, §57¶16, §68¶10, §68¶10
virtues (5): §7¶12, §7¶12, §21¶12, §23¶11, §48¶40
command (4): §7¶12, §48¶40, §57¶16, §59¶6
years (7): §7¶12, §21¶12, §21¶12, §44¶33, §50¶22, §57¶16, §59¶6
dignity (5): §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶14, §23¶11, §23¶11
great (8): §7¶12, §7¶12, §23¶11, §48¶40, §48¶40, §59¶6, §68¶10, §68¶10
revived (5): §7¶12, §7¶14, §44¶33, §48¶40, §59¶6
fortune (5): §7¶12, §7¶14, §7¶14, §7¶14, §23¶11
birth (5): §7¶12, §7¶14, §23¶11, §48¶40, §57¶16
use (8): §7¶12, §21¶12, §21¶12, §23¶11, §23¶11, §44¶33, §50¶22, §59¶6
long (8): §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶14, §23¶11, §23¶14, §48¶40, §50¶22, §59¶6
father (7): §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶14, §21¶12, §21¶12, §50¶21, §59¶6
people (11): §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶14, §23¶11, §23¶14, §44¶33, §48¶40, §50¶21, §57¶16, §68¶10, §68¶10
rome (10): §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶14, §28¶3, §28¶3, §28¶3, §28¶3, §50¶22, §70¶16
senate (11): §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶14, §7¶14, §7¶14, §7¶14, §7¶14, §28¶3, §28¶3, §28¶3, §28¶3
public (12): §7¶12, §7¶12, §7¶14, §23¶11, §23¶14, §28¶3, §48¶40, §48¶40, §50¶21, §59¶6, §59¶6, §59¶6
son (9): §7¶12, §7¶14, §7¶14, §21¶12, §21¶12, §21¶12, §50¶21, §59¶6, §59¶6
return (5): §7¶14, §7¶14, §23¶14, §44¶33, §50¶21
temple (6): §7¶14, §23¶11, §23¶11, §23¶14, §57¶16, §68¶10
country (6): §7¶14, §23¶11, §48¶40, §48¶40, §50¶21, §59¶6
obliged (6): §7¶14, §21¶12, §23¶11, §44¶33, §44¶33, §44¶33
soon (7): §7¶14, §7¶14, §21¶12, §28¶3, §48¶40, §48¶40, §57¶16
common (7): §21¶12, §21¶12, §23¶11, §44¶33, §50¶21, §57¶16, §59¶6
hopes (5): §21¶12, §28¶3, §28¶3, §48¶40, §70¶16
christian (8): §21¶12, §21¶12, §23¶14, §23¶14, §28¶3, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16
received (6): §21¶12, §21¶12, §23¶11, §59¶6, §68¶10, §70¶16
religion (15): §21¶12, §23¶11, §23¶11, §23¶11, §23¶14, §28¶3, §28¶3, §28¶3, §50¶21, §50¶21, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §59¶6, §68¶10
future (4): §23¶11, §48¶40, §68¶10, §68¶10
clergy (10): §23¶11, §28¶3, §44¶33, §48¶40, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §68¶10, §68¶10, §70¶16
holy (12): §23¶11, §23¶14, §23¶14, §50¶21, §50¶21, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §59¶6, §68¶10, §68¶10
city (17): §23¶11, §23¶11, §23¶14, §23¶14, §44¶33, §50¶21, §50¶21, §50¶21, §50¶21, §57¶16, §57¶16, §59¶6, §59¶6, §68¶10, §68¶10, §68¶10, §70¶16
palestine (5): §23¶14, §23¶14, §48¶40, §57¶16, §57¶16
children (5): §23¶14, §28¶3, §48¶40, §50¶21, §50¶21
jews (5): §23¶14, §23¶14, §23¶14, §23¶14, §50¶21
jerusalem (12): §23¶14, §23¶14, §48¶40, §48¶40, §48¶40, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16, §59¶6
exile (4): §28¶3, §48¶40, §50¶21, §70¶16
humble (3): §28¶3, §50¶21, §59¶6
favourite (3): §28¶3, §59¶6, §59¶6
votaries (5): §28¶3, §57¶16, §57¶16, §59¶6, §68¶10
east (6): §28¶3, §44¶33, §48¶40, §57¶16, §57¶16, §57¶16
benefit (6): §44¶33, §44¶33, §44¶33, §44¶33, §44¶33, §57¶16
conquest (4): §48¶40, §57¶16, §57¶16, §68¶10
time (9): §1¶13, §10¶31, §10¶42, §19¶13, §19¶13, §51¶15, §51¶46, §65¶19, §69¶1
soldiers (8): §1¶13, §1¶15, §1¶15, §1¶15, §9¶17, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶15
public (15): §1¶13, §2¶18, §2¶23, §2¶23, §10¶18, §10¶42, §32¶18, §38¶37, §43¶27, §51¶46, §60¶4, §60¶4, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶14
just (8): §1¶13, §2¶23, §2¶23, §10¶31, §19¶13, §32¶18, §51¶2, §65¶11
conquest (10): §1¶13, §9¶17, §10¶42, §32¶18, §51¶15, §58¶16, §58¶16, §59¶2, §65¶14, §69¶1
provinces (14): §1¶13, §2¶18, §2¶23, §6¶44, §6¶56, §9¶17, §10¶42, §38¶37, §51¶2, §51¶46, §60¶4, §65¶14, §65¶19, §69¶1
country (17): §1¶13, §1¶13, §2¶18, §6¶44, §6¶56, §9¶17, §10¶18, §10¶31, §10¶42, §10¶42, §32¶18, §38¶37, §43¶27, §51¶15, §51¶15, §51¶15, §58¶8
age (13): §1¶13, §1¶15, §2¶22, §10¶7, §10¶18, §19¶13, §32¶18, §38¶37, §38¶37, §38¶37, §43¶27, §51¶2, §51¶46
cities (11): §1¶13, §2¶22, §2¶23, §10¶42, §19¶13, §43¶27, §51¶2, §51¶14, §51¶15, §58¶8, §65¶14
arms (19): §1¶13, §1¶13, §1¶15, §1¶15, §6¶6, §6¶6, §6¶44, §6¶56, §9¶17, §9¶17, §10¶7, §10¶31, §10¶31, §10¶42, §51¶2, §51¶15, §58¶16, §65¶14, §69¶1
war (20): §1¶13, §1¶15, §1¶15, §6¶6, §6¶56, §9¶17, §9¶17, §10¶18, §10¶31, §32¶18, §32¶18, §32¶18, §32¶18, §32¶18, §38¶37, §51¶2, §51¶14, §58¶8, §59¶2, §65¶19
roman (25): §1¶13, §1¶13, §1¶15, §1¶15, §1¶15, §2¶18, §2¶18, §2¶23, §2¶23, §6¶41, §6¶56, §9¶17, §10¶31, §32¶18, §32¶18, §32¶18, §43¶27, §43¶27, §51¶2, §51¶2, §51¶15, §51¶15, §65¶11, §69¶1, §69¶1
ancient (11): §1¶15, §2¶22, §2¶22, §2¶23, §9¶17, §10¶31, §19¶13, §19¶13, §38¶37, §65¶14, §69¶1
long (11): §1¶15, §9¶17, §10¶31, §10¶42, §19¶13, §32¶18, §51¶2, §51¶15, §58¶16, §60¶4, §69¶1
blood (10): §1¶15, §38¶37, §51¶14, §51¶15, §51¶46, §58¶16, §58¶16, §59¶2, §65¶14, §69¶1
empire (20): §1¶15, §2¶18, §2¶22, §2¶23, §6¶41, §6¶41, §10¶18, §10¶31, §10¶42, §19¶13, §43¶27, §51¶2, §58¶16, §60¶4, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶19, §69¶1, §69¶1
shall (9): §1¶15, §2¶18, §32¶18, §51¶2, §51¶14, §58¶16, §59¶2, §65¶14, §69¶1
asia (10): §2¶18, §2¶22, §2¶22, §2¶23, §10¶31, §10¶31, §59¶2, §65¶14, §65¶19, §69¶1
great (12): §2¶18, §6¶41, §10¶7, §10¶42, §19¶13, §19¶13, §43¶27, §43¶27, §51¶2, §58¶16, §59¶2, §65¶14
general (13): §2¶18, §6¶41, §9¶17, §10¶18, §10¶42, §38¶37, §51¶2, §51¶14, §51¶15, §51¶46, §51¶46, §58¶16, §65¶19
people (22): §2¶18, §2¶18, §2¶22, §2¶22, §2¶23, §2¶23, §6¶6, §10¶7, §10¶42, §43¶27, §43¶27, §43¶27, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶15, §51¶46, §51¶46, §58¶8, §60¶4, §65¶14, §69¶1
history (9): §2¶23, §6¶6, §6¶41, §6¶44, §38¶37, §43¶27, §51¶2, §65¶11, §65¶14
national (5): §2¶23, §2¶23, §10¶42, §51¶46, §69¶1
capital (9): §2¶23, §2¶23, §10¶31, §10¶42, §19¶13, §19¶13, §58¶8, §58¶16, §69¶1
chiefs (10): §6¶6, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶14, §58¶16, §59¶2, §59¶2
victorious (7): §6¶41, §9¶17, §10¶18, §10¶18, §51¶2, §60¶4, §65¶19
thousand (30): §6¶44, §6¶44, §6¶44, §10¶42, §32¶18, §32¶18, §32¶18, §43¶27, §51¶2, §51¶2, §51¶14, §51¶15, §51¶46, §51¶46, §58¶8, §58¶16, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §59¶2, §60¶4, §60¶4, §65¶14, §69¶1
throne (8): §6¶56, §10¶31, §32¶18, §51¶15, §60¶4, §60¶4, §65¶14, §65¶19
chief (12): §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §10¶7, §10¶42, §51¶14, §51¶46, §59¶2
companions (11): §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §9¶17, §51¶14, §58¶8, §58¶8
persia (10): §10¶42, §51¶2, §51¶46, §51¶46, §51¶46, §51¶46, §65¶11, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶14
city (20): §10¶42, §10¶42, §19¶13, §19¶13, §32¶18, §43¶27, §43¶27, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶15, §51¶15, §51¶15, §51¶46, §51¶46, §58¶8, §58¶16, §58¶16, §69¶1, §69¶1
seven (3): §32¶18, §51¶14, §58¶16
christian (9): §32¶18, §51¶14, §51¶15, §51¶15, §58¶16, §58¶16, §60¶4, §65¶14, §69¶1
constantinople (7): §32¶18, §43¶27, §51¶15, §58¶8, §58¶8, §60¶4, §69¶1
days (7): §43¶27, §51¶2, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶15, §58¶16, §60¶4
damascus (10): §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶14, §51¶15, §51¶15, §51¶15, §51¶15, §51¶15, §65¶14
greek (7): §51¶15, §58¶8, §58¶8, §58¶16, §58¶16, §58¶16, §60¶4
soliman (4): §58¶8, §58¶16, §58¶16, §65¶19
saladin (1): §60¶4
mousa (1): §65¶11
bajazet (3): §65¶11, §65¶11, §65¶11
timour (9): §65¶11, §65¶11, §65¶11, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶14, §65¶14
moguls (1): §65¶14
ottoman (1): §65¶19
tartar (1): §65¶19
enemies (4): §4¶26, §14¶22, §63¶11, §66¶2
common (6): §4¶26, §15¶30, §15¶30, §33¶13, §60¶20, §66¶2
country (6): §4¶26, §7¶4, §7¶4, §14¶22, §33¶13, §33¶13
hand (7): §4¶26, §14¶22, §15¶30, §17¶15, §60¶20, §63¶11, §66¶2
general (6): §5¶17, §16¶27, §60¶20, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
private (6): §5¶17, §15¶30, §60¶20, §60¶20, §63¶11, §63¶11
away (6): §5¶17, §6¶28, §16¶27, §16¶49, §56¶15, §63¶11
religion (7): §5¶17, §15¶30, §15¶30, §33¶13, §60¶20, §60¶20, §63¶11
life (9): §5¶17, §6¶28, §6¶28, §11¶26, §11¶26, §15¶30, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
public (10): §5¶17, §5¶17, §6¶28, §15¶30, §16¶49, §33¶13, §56¶15, §60¶20, §60¶20, §66¶2
received (5): §6¶28, §14¶22, §16¶27, §33¶13, §66¶2
alexander (5): §6¶28, §6¶28, §6¶28, §6¶28, §6¶36
longer (5): §6¶28, §16¶49, §56¶15, §60¶20, §60¶20
faithful (6): §6¶28, §15¶30, §16¶27, §16¶27, §33¶13, §66¶2
family (4): §6¶28, §33¶13, §33¶13, §63¶11
prince (7): §6¶28, §11¶26, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2, §66¶2
soon (8): §6¶28, §7¶4, §16¶27, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2, §66¶2
throne (7): §6¶28, §6¶28, §11¶26, §17¶15, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11
soldiers (7): §6¶28, §7¶4, §16¶49, §33¶13, §56¶15, §60¶20, §60¶20
age (9): §6¶28, §6¶36, §10¶39, §10¶39, §14¶22, §15¶30, §60¶20, §60¶20, §63¶11
son (13): §6¶28, §6¶28, §6¶28, §7¶4, §11¶26, §56¶15, §56¶15, §56¶15, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11
emperor (13): §6¶28, §6¶28, §7¶4, §7¶4, §17¶15, §56¶15, §56¶15, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2, §66¶2
long (4): §7¶4, §10¶39, §11¶26, §63¶11
youth (5): §7¶4, §17¶15, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
years (5): §7¶4, §17¶15, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
greeks (9): §10¶39, §56¶15, §56¶15, §56¶15, §56¶15, §60¶20, §60¶20, §63¶11, §66¶2
society (4): §11¶26, §15¶30, §15¶30, §15¶30
reign (5): §11¶26, §11¶26, §17¶15, §63¶11, §66¶2
cause (5): §11¶26, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
place (7): §11¶26, §14¶22, §16¶27, §16¶27, §17¶15, §56¶15, §56¶15
city (14): §11¶26, §14¶22, §14¶22, §16¶27, §17¶15, §17¶15, §17¶15, §33¶13, §56¶15, §56¶15, §56¶15, §60¶20, §60¶20, §66¶2
constantine (10): §14¶22, §14¶22, §14¶22, §14¶22, §14¶22, §14¶22, §14¶22, §17¶15, §17¶15, §17¶15
great (4): §15¶30, §16¶27, §16¶27, §16¶49
peace (5): §15¶30, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11
bishop (5): §16¶27, §33¶13, §33¶13, §33¶13, §33¶13
returned (4): §17¶15, §56¶15, §63¶11, §66¶2
constantinople (9): §17¶15, §56¶15, §56¶15, §60¶20, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2, §66¶2
daughter (4): §33¶13, §33¶13, §33¶13, §66¶2
maria (4): §33¶13, §33¶13, §33¶13, §33¶13
reduced (4): §33¶13, §33¶13, §56¶15, §60¶20
father (5): §33¶13, §56¶15, §56¶15, §63¶11, §63¶11
war (6): §56¶15, §60¶20, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2, §66¶2
palaeologus (6): §56¶15, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
andronicus (4): §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
empress (3): §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2
cantacuzene (10): §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §63¶11, §66¶2, §66¶2, §66¶2
life (16): §1¶10, §1¶10, §21¶23, §27¶9, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶14, §29¶9, §29¶9, §32¶1, §40¶18, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶31, §58¶4, §58¶4
palace (15): §1¶10, §21¶20, §27¶14, §32¶1, §32¶1, §40¶6, §40¶6, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §58¶4
reign (16): §1¶10, §3¶26, §3¶26, §21¶20, §21¶20, §27¶12, §27¶14, §32¶1, §32¶1, §40¶6, §40¶6, §44¶13, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31
empire (21): §1¶10, §3¶26, §3¶26, §4¶23, §13¶19, §21¶20, §21¶29, §21¶30, §27¶12, §27¶14, §29¶9, §32¶1, §34¶13, §34¶13, §34¶13, §40¶18, §44¶13, §47¶37, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶31
public (24): §1¶10, §4¶23, §4¶23, §4¶23, §13¶19, §16¶29, §21¶20, §21¶20, §21¶29, §27¶14, §32¶1, §32¶1, §32¶7, §34¶13, §40¶18, §40¶18, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31
years (25): §1¶10, §13¶19, §13¶19, §21¶29, §21¶29, §27¶9, §32¶7, §32¶7, §40¶18, §40¶18, §44¶13, §44¶13, §47¶37, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4, §62¶7, §62¶7, §62¶7
civil (13): §3¶26, §21¶20, §21¶20, §21¶23, §27¶12, §27¶14, §27¶23, §32¶1, §34¶13, §44¶13, §48¶19, §48¶19, §58¶4
pious (9): §3¶26, §16¶29, §27¶9, §27¶23, §29¶9, §40¶6, §47¶37, §48¶31, §58¶4
character (11): §3¶26, §21¶20, §21¶29, §27¶14, §27¶23, §32¶1, §32¶1, §40¶18, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶31
power (15): §3¶26, §4¶23, §13¶19, §21¶20, §21¶23, §27¶14, §29¶9, §40¶18, §44¶13, §44¶13, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §58¶4, §58¶4
sovereign (11): §3¶26, §13¶19, §21¶20, §21¶29, §27¶14, §27¶23, §34¶13, §40¶18, §45¶22, §48¶19, §48¶19
death (12): §3¶26, §13¶19, §16¶29, §27¶9, §27¶12, §32¶7, §40¶18, §40¶18, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31
god (11): §3¶26, §21¶20, §21¶30, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶23, §29¶9, §40¶18, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4
tyrant (9): §3¶26, §3¶26, §4¶23, §4¶23, §21¶20, §21¶23, §21¶23, §29¶9, §29¶9
empress (9): §3¶26, §27¶12, §27¶14, §40¶6, §40¶6, §40¶18, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶31
received (10): §4¶23, §13¶19, §13¶19, §21¶20, §27¶12, §27¶23, §29¶9, §34¶13, §40¶6, §48¶19
throne (9): §4¶23, §27¶9, §27¶23, §29¶9, §32¶7, §47¶37, §48¶31, §48¶31, §62¶7
justice (8): §4¶23, §27¶14, §29¶9, §40¶18, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶19, §58¶4
new (13): §4¶23, §4¶23, §13¶19, §13¶19, §21¶23, §21¶23, §27¶9, §29¶9, §32¶1, §32¶7, §44¶13, §44¶13, §48¶31
brother (13): §4¶23, §13¶19, §21¶23, §29¶9, §34¶13, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31
emperor (41): §4¶23, §13¶19, §21¶20, §21¶20, §21¶20, §21¶20, §21¶23, §21¶23, §21¶23, §21¶23, §21¶29, §21¶29, §21¶29, §21¶30, §27¶9, §27¶9, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶23, §27¶23, §27¶23, §27¶23, §32¶1, §34¶13, §40¶6, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §44¶13, §44¶13, §44¶13, §47¶37, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31, §62¶7, §62¶7
merit (12): §13¶19, §13¶19, §21¶29, §27¶23, §32¶1, §32¶7, §32¶7, §40¶6, §40¶6, §44¶13, §48¶19, §58¶4
exile (11): §13¶19, §21¶20, §21¶23, §21¶29, §21¶30, §40¶18, §40¶18, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §62¶7
people (21): §13¶19, §13¶19, §27¶9, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶14, §32¶7, §32¶7, §32¶7, §40¶6, §40¶18, §44¶13, §45¶22, §47¶37, §47¶37, §48¶19, §58¶4, §62¶7, §62¶7
sentence (8): §16¶29, §21¶23, §21¶23, §21¶29, §27¶14, §27¶23, §27¶23, §48¶19
church (28): §16¶29, §16¶29, §21¶23, §21¶23, §21¶23, §21¶29, §21¶29, §21¶29, §27¶9, §27¶9, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶14, §32¶7, §32¶7, §40¶18, §47¶37, §47¶37, §48¶31, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4, §62¶7, §62¶7, §62¶7
condemned (6): §21¶20, §21¶29, §27¶23, §40¶18, §48¶31, §62¶7
bishop (10): §21¶20, §21¶23, §21¶29, §21¶30, §27¶9, §27¶23, §27¶23, §27¶23, §40¶18, §62¶7
ministers (9): §21¶20, §27¶14, §27¶23, §34¶13, §34¶13, §34¶13, §40¶18, §48¶19, §48¶31
son (13): §21¶20, §21¶30, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶14, §40¶6, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §58¶4, §62¶7
soon (17): §21¶20, §21¶30, §21¶30, §27¶9, §27¶12, §29¶9, §32¶1, §32¶7, §32¶7, §34¶13, §34¶13, §44¶13, §47¶37, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31, §58¶4
prefect (10): §21¶20, §27¶12, §40¶6, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §48¶19
constantinople (16): §21¶20, §21¶20, §27¶9, §27¶9, §32¶1, §32¶1, §32¶7, §32¶7, §32¶7, §34¶13, §34¶13, §40¶6, §44¶13, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31
milan (15): §21¶20, §21¶29, §21¶29, §21¶29, §21¶29, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶23, §27¶23, §29¶9
revenge (6): §21¶23, §27¶14, §29¶9, §40¶18, §40¶18, §48¶31
archbishop (14): §21¶23, §21¶23, §21¶29, §27¶9, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶23, §27¶23, §27¶23, §32¶7, §32¶7
private (11): §21¶29, §27¶12, §27¶23, §29¶9, §32¶1, §32¶7, §40¶18, §44¶13, §44¶13, §48¶31, §48¶31
theodosius (7): §27¶12, §27¶23, §27¶23, §27¶23, §27¶23, §34¶13, §34¶13
ambrose (8): §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶12, §27¶14, §27¶14, §27¶23, §27¶23, §27¶23
royal (9): §27¶14, §34¶13, §34¶13, §44¶13, §48¶19, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31, §62¶7
wife (7): §27¶14, §40¶6, §40¶18, §40¶18, §48¶19, §48¶31, §48¶31
john (8): §32¶7, §32¶7, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §48¶31
penance (9): §32¶7, §48¶31, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4, §58¶4, §62¶7
husband (4): §40¶6, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31
justinian (14): §40¶6, §40¶6, §40¶6, §40¶6, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §44¶13, §44¶13, §44¶13, §44¶13, §47¶37
theodora (17): §40¶6, §40¶6, §40¶6, §40¶6, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §40¶18, §47¶37, §47¶37, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31
antonina (1): §40¶18
remorse (4): §48¶31, §48¶31, §58¶4, §62¶7
zoe (12): §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31
michael (8): §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §48¶31, §62¶7
glory (8): §5¶36, §11¶29, §15¶22, §17¶2, §21¶21, §23¶31, §31¶6, §38¶47
reign (14): §5¶36, §6¶2, §12¶36, §12¶36, §15¶22, §16¶16, §17¶2, §17¶41, §18¶1, §44¶8, §44¶8, §47¶31, §49¶20, §49¶20
empire (24): §5¶36, §6¶2, §11¶29, §12¶5, §15¶22, §15¶22, §15¶22, §15¶32, §15¶36, §16¶16, §17¶2, §18¶1, §21¶21, §31¶6, §31¶6, §37¶18, §37¶18, §38¶47, §49¶20, §49¶20, §49¶20, §49¶20, §64¶1, §64¶6
roman (21): §5¶36, §9¶3, §12¶5, §12¶36, §12¶36, §15¶22, §16¶16, §16¶16, §17¶41, §17¶41, §21¶21, §23¶31, §23¶31, §39¶17, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶9, §44¶9, §47¶31, §49¶20, §64¶1
present (12): §6¶2, §9¶3, §9¶3, §15¶18, §15¶22, §15¶36, §18¶1, §31¶6, §38¶47, §47¶31, §64¶1, §64¶6
philosophy (7): §6¶2, §15¶18, §15¶22, §17¶41, §23¶31, §44¶9, §70¶1
history (10): §6¶2, §9¶7, §11¶29, §12¶36, §16¶16, §18¶1, §47¶31, §64¶1, §64¶1, §64¶6
mind (13): §6¶2, §6¶2, §9¶7, §15¶17, §15¶17, §15¶22, §21¶21, §21¶21, §37¶18, §44¶9, §49¶20, §49¶20, §64¶1
genius (9): §6¶2, §11¶29, §16¶16, §16¶16, §17¶41, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶9, §70¶1
virtues (9): §6¶2, §15¶32, §16¶16, §18¶1, §21¶21, §23¶31, §37¶18, §47¶31, §49¶20
virtue (10): §6¶2, §15¶17, §15¶17, §15¶18, §15¶32, §16¶16, §17¶41, §39¶17, §49¶20, §70¶1
age (24): §6¶2, §6¶2, §9¶7, §11¶29, §12¶5, §15¶17, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §17¶2, §18¶1, §21¶21, §31¶6, §37¶18, §38¶47, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶8, §44¶8, §49¶20, §49¶20, §70¶1, §70¶1
modern (6): §9¶3, §9¶3, §11¶29, §31¶6, §64¶1, §70¶1
nature (12): §9¶3, §9¶7, §12¶5, §15¶17, §15¶22, §15¶32, §15¶32, §17¶2, §37¶18, §44¶8, §44¶9, §64¶1
great (11): §9¶3, §9¶3, §9¶3, §15¶22, §21¶21, §23¶31, §38¶47, §49¶20, §64¶1, §64¶6, §64¶6
country (13): §9¶3, §9¶3, §15¶18, §15¶22, §15¶22, §16¶16, §17¶2, §18¶1, §38¶47, §44¶8, §44¶8, §44¶8, §44¶9
time (8): §9¶3, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §21¶21, §31¶6, §37¶18, §64¶6
life (24): §9¶3, §9¶7, §12¶5, §15¶17, §15¶17, §15¶17, §15¶18, §15¶32, §15¶36, §16¶16, §16¶16, §17¶2, §21¶21, §21¶21, §31¶6, §31¶6, §39¶17, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶9, §47¶31, §47¶31, §49¶20, §49¶20
truth (9): §9¶7, §15¶18, §15¶18, §16¶16, §16¶16, §18¶1, §37¶18, §44¶9, §47¶31
people (12): §9¶7, §9¶7, §12¶5, §12¶36, §16¶16, §16¶16, §17¶2, §17¶41, §23¶31, §39¶17, §44¶32, §49¶20
arts (7): §9¶7, §15¶36, §17¶41, §38¶47, §39¶17, §49¶20, §49¶20
society (8): §9¶7, §15¶36, §15¶36, §15¶36, §17¶41, §23¶31, §37¶18, §38¶47
important (12): §9¶7, §11¶29, §12¶5, §15¶17, §15¶18, §18¶1, §21¶21, §23¶31, §39¶17, §44¶8, §49¶20, §64¶1
human (14): §9¶7, §12¶5, §15¶17, §15¶17, §15¶17, §15¶18, §15¶32, §15¶36, §16¶16, §18¶1, §23¶31, §37¶18, §44¶32, §49¶20
knowledge (12): §9¶7, §12¶5, §15¶18, §15¶36, §16¶16, §16¶16, §21¶21, §44¶8, §49¶20, §49¶20, §64¶1, §70¶1
tacitus (12): §9¶7, §12¶5, §12¶5, §12¶5, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16
years (16): §9¶7, §12¶5, §12¶36, §15¶17, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §17¶2, §21¶21, §21¶21, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶8, §64¶6
study (4): §11¶29, §12¶5, §44¶8, §70¶1
plato (6): §11¶29, §15¶17, §39¶17, §39¶17, §44¶9, §44¶9
mankind (8): §12¶5, §15¶17, §15¶32, §15¶36, §16¶16, §17¶41, §18¶1, §38¶47
dignity (6): §12¶5, §15¶17, §17¶2, §17¶41, §39¶17, §49¶20
period (7): §12¶5, §15¶22, §31¶6, §44¶8, §44¶8, §44¶8, §47¶31
philosophic (4): §12¶5, §15¶17, §31¶6, §64¶1
merit (11): §12¶5, §12¶36, §21¶21, §23¶31, §23¶31, §39¶17, §44¶8, §47¶31, §49¶20, §64¶6, §70¶1
pleasure (5): §12¶36, §15¶32, §15¶32, §21¶21, §23¶31
business (6): §15¶17, §15¶36, §15¶36, §21¶21, §31¶6, §44¶8
happiness (8): §15¶17, §15¶18, §15¶22, §15¶32, §15¶32, §15¶36, §38¶47, §49¶20
rome (26): §15¶17, §15¶17, §15¶18, §15¶18, §15¶22, §15¶22, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §16¶16, §17¶2, §17¶2, §31¶6, §31¶6, §31¶6, §31¶6, §31¶6, §38¶47, §39¶17, §39¶17, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶8, §70¶1
employed (6): §15¶18, §16¶16, §37¶18, §39¶17, §39¶17, §44¶8
public (14): §15¶18, §15¶32, §15¶36, §15¶36, §16¶16, §21¶21, §31¶6, §39¶17, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶8, §49¶20, §64¶6, §70¶1
world (11): §15¶18, §15¶22, §15¶22, §15¶22, §15¶22, §15¶32, §15¶32, §15¶36, §15¶36, §37¶18, §70¶1
love (10): §15¶32, §15¶32, §15¶32, §15¶32, §15¶32, §15¶36, §23¶31, §44¶9, §70¶1, §70¶1
character (12): §15¶32, §15¶36, §16¶16, §16¶16, §18¶1, §18¶1, §21¶21, §21¶21, §44¶8, §49¶20, §49¶20, §64¶1
prosperity (6): §15¶32, §16¶16, §17¶2, §37¶18, §38¶47, §49¶20
eloquence (5): §15¶36, §21¶21, §39¶17, §44¶9, §70¶1
curiosity (6): §16¶16, §31¶6, §38¶47, §39¶17, §44¶8, §49¶20
laws (9): §17¶41, §31¶6, §38¶47, §44¶9, §47¶31, §49¶20, §49¶20, §49¶20, §49¶20
jurisprudence (10): §17¶41, §21¶21, §39¶17, §44¶8, §44¶8, §44¶8, §44¶8, §44¶9, §44¶9, §44¶9
alexander (6): §21¶21, §23¶31, §23¶31, §44¶8, §44¶8, §49¶20
rhetoric (1): §39¶17
conduct (136): §1¶4, §1¶9, §1¶11, §3¶4, §4¶6, §4¶21, §4¶22, §4¶28, §5¶5, §5¶24, §5¶29, §6¶4, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶18, §6¶40, §7¶13, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶21, §7¶25, §7¶27, §7¶30, §7¶30, §9¶19, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶9, §10¶19, §10¶47, §10¶48, §10¶49, §11¶4, §11¶13, §11¶33, §11¶45, §12¶1, §12¶17, §12¶23, §12¶34, §12¶35, §12¶41, §13¶2, §13¶3, §13¶10, §13¶28, §14¶6, §14¶16, §14¶20, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶38, §16¶24, §16¶35, §16¶46, §16¶54, §17¶22, §17¶31, §17¶33, §18¶10, §18¶24, §18¶28, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶23, §19¶28, §20¶8, §20¶25, §20¶27, §21¶17, §21¶18, §21¶38, §22¶7, §22¶10, §22¶15, §22¶21, §24¶3, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶17, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶26, §25¶32, §25¶34, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶11, §26¶16, §26¶19, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶26, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶13, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶29, §29¶1, §29¶4, §30¶22, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶16, §31¶33, §32¶6, §35¶3, §35¶3, §36¶22, §37¶22, §39¶18, §41¶34, §43¶8, §43¶13, §43¶13, §44¶4, §48¶28, §53¶11, §62¶2, §62¶4, §63¶8, §67¶14, §67¶14
military (214): §1¶4, §1¶7, §1¶7, §1¶14, §2¶30, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶9, §3¶9, §3¶24, §4¶11, §4¶11, §4¶21, §4¶22, §4¶24, §5¶2, §5¶26, §5¶31, §5¶33, §5¶35, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶18, §6¶20, §6¶22, §6¶32, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶40, §7¶5, §7¶7, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶23, §7¶25, §7¶27, §7¶29, §7¶31, §9¶25, §9¶25, §9¶25, §10¶21, §10¶47, §10¶49, §11¶7, §11¶36, §11¶46, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶3, §12¶10, §12¶16, §12¶27, §12¶28, §12¶41, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶32, §14¶13, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶21, §14¶28, §14¶29, §16¶43, §16¶43, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶22, §17¶24, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶28, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶16, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶21, §20¶9, §21¶33, §21¶33, §21¶36, §21¶36, §21¶38, §21¶38, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶12, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶16, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶33, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶14, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶26, §26¶27, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶26, §27¶28, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶7, §30¶3, §30¶9, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶33, §31¶39, §32¶3, §32¶20, §33¶8, §34¶12, §34¶17, §35¶16, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶27, §37¶4, §37¶22, §38¶9, §38¶11, §38¶18, §38¶43, §38¶43, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶1, §41¶1, §41¶10, §41¶10, §42¶8, §43¶3, §43¶13, §43¶20, §44¶20, §46¶2, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶28, §53¶9, §53¶9
provinces (247): §1¶4, §1¶9, §2¶30, §3¶2, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶8, §3¶8, §3¶13, §4¶21, §5¶11, §5¶26, §5¶35, §5¶35, §6¶7, §6¶8, §6¶13, §6¶17, §6¶19, §6¶22, §6¶35, §6¶39, §7¶3, §7¶9, §7¶16, §7¶16, §7¶19, §7¶27, §7¶29, §7¶31, §10¶2, §10¶17, §10¶19, §10¶49, §10¶50, §10¶50, §11¶4, §11¶7, §12¶3, §12¶13, §12¶30, §12¶34, §12¶35, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶32, §13¶35, §14¶2, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶27, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶32, §14¶33, §14¶38, §16¶35, §16¶42, §16¶43, §16¶45, §16¶48, §16¶48, §16¶48, §16¶50, §16¶53, §16¶54, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶24, §17¶25, §17¶25, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶33, §18¶6, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶24, §18¶24, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶31, §19¶5, §19¶6, §19¶6, §19¶8, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶21, §19¶23, §20¶4, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶9, §20¶9, §20¶27, §21¶2, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶18, §21¶38, §21¶38, §21¶42, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶8, §22¶8, §22¶8, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶10, §24¶13, §24¶17, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶13, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶34, §26¶12, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶24, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶32, §27¶1, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶25, §27¶25, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶23, §31¶7, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶30, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶39, §31¶39, §31¶42, §31¶42, §31¶42, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶17, §33¶8, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶17, §36¶4, §36¶20, §36¶27, §38¶9, §38¶11, §38¶27, §39¶7, §40¶8, §41¶10, §41¶10, §41¶16, §42¶8, §42¶8, §43¶3, §44¶12, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §48¶14, §48¶43, §63¶8, §70¶3
imperial (261): §1¶4, §1¶7, §1¶14, §3¶8, §3¶37, §4¶13, §4¶18, §4¶24, §4¶29, §4¶30, §5¶5, §5¶11, §5¶24, §5¶35, §6¶8, §6¶12, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶16, §6¶16, §6¶17, §6¶38, §6¶38, §7¶7, §7¶10, §7¶11, §7¶11, §7¶13, §7¶18, §7¶25, §7¶28, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶15, §10¶17, §10¶21, §11¶2, §11¶3, §11¶12, §11¶20, §12¶1, §12¶2, §12¶3, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶28, §12¶30, §12¶34, §12¶41, §13¶1, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶10, §13¶10, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶36, §13¶37, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶33, §14¶38, §16¶14, §16¶25, §16¶26, §16¶34, §16¶44, §16¶45, §16¶48, §16¶50, §17¶9, §17¶22, §17¶24, §17¶27, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶18, §18¶24, §18¶25, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶32, §18¶32, §18¶32, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶21, §21¶24, §21¶33, §21¶38, §21¶38, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶8, §22¶8, §22¶9, §22¶10, §22¶12, §22¶17, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶10, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶26, §25¶29, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶33, §25¶34, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶12, §26¶13, §26¶13, §26¶13, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶22, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶1, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶27, §29¶1, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶10, §29¶12, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶9, §30¶9, §30¶19, §30¶23, §30¶24, §30¶27, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶19, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶39, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶3, §32¶6, §32¶17, §32¶17, §33¶2, §33¶10, §34¶12, §34¶12, §34¶16, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶5, §35¶5, §35¶16, §35¶17, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶23, §37¶4, §37¶22, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶11, §40¶1, §40¶3, §41¶33, §44¶12, §45¶10, §46¶11, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶5, §48¶11, §48¶11, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §53¶11, §53¶11, §62¶2, §62¶4, §63¶8, §63¶8, §67¶14
general (273): §1¶4, §1¶7, §1¶11, §3¶5, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶37, §4¶11, §4¶15, §4¶29, §4¶30, §5¶31, §6¶13, §6¶14, §6¶19, §6¶32, §6¶38, §6¶40, §7¶5, §7¶6, §7¶10, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶21, §7¶27, §9¶15, §9¶15, §9¶15, §9¶19, §9¶25, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶19, §10¶19, §10¶21, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶47, §10¶49, §10¶50, §11¶2, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶4, §11¶5, §11¶13, §11¶13, §11¶27, §11¶33, §11¶47, §12¶7, §12¶10, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶23, §12¶30, §12¶41, §12¶42, §13¶3, §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶35, §13¶36, §14¶1, §14¶9, §14¶11, §14¶13, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶26, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶33, §16¶20, §16¶42, §16¶45, §16¶48, §16¶50, §16¶53, §17¶22, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶2, §18¶2, §18¶3, §18¶7, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶26, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶31, §19¶3, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶21, §19¶23, §19¶23, §19¶23, §19¶28, §19¶28, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶27, §21¶17, §21¶24, §21¶35, §21¶36, §22¶2, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶8, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶21, §24¶8, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶13, §25¶2, §25¶6, §25¶11, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶26, §25¶29, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶33, §26¶11, §26¶11, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶3, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶10, §29¶10, §29¶10, §29¶12, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶8, §30¶8, §30¶10, §30¶22, §30¶24, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶30, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶33, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶6, §33¶10, §34¶16, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶15, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶8, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶27, §39¶2, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶1, §41¶1, §41¶10, §41¶10, §41¶16, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶34, §42¶8, §43¶8, §43¶13, §43¶23, §43¶23, §44¶4, §44¶37, §44¶39, §45¶5, §45¶5, §45¶5, §46¶2, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶43, §48¶43, §53¶11, §69¶5, §70¶24
roman (407): §1¶4, §1¶7, §1¶9, §1¶9, §1¶9, §1¶11, §1¶11, §1¶14, §1¶14, §2¶14, §2¶14, §3¶2, §3¶2, §3¶4, §3¶5, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶13, §3¶21, §3¶24, §4¶18, §4¶18, §4¶21, §4¶24, §5¶2, §5¶2, §5¶5, §5¶8, §5¶8, §5¶26, §5¶35, §6¶4, §6¶10, §6¶12, §6¶16, §6¶19, §6¶22, §6¶22, §6¶33, §6¶35, §6¶35, §6¶39, §6¶40, §6¶40, §6¶53, §6¶53, §7¶3, §7¶9, §7¶9, §7¶10, §7¶11, §7¶13, §7¶16, §7¶25, §7¶30, §7¶33, §9¶25, §9¶25, §9¶25, §9¶25, §9¶25, §9¶28, §10¶9, §10¶17, §10¶21, §10¶21, §10¶21, §10¶48, §10¶50, §11¶7, §11¶21, §11¶36, §11¶47, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶2, §12¶3, §12¶4, §12¶7, §12¶7, §12¶10, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶17, §12¶28, §12¶28, §12¶29, §12¶33, §12¶33, §12¶41, §13¶1, §13¶2, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶10, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶36, §13¶37, §14¶2, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶13, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶24, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶26, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶32, §14¶33, §14¶38, §14¶38, §15¶47, §16¶14, §16¶20, §16¶24, §16¶24, §16¶25, §16¶44, §16¶45, §16¶48, §16¶54, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶23, §17¶24, §17¶24, §17¶25, §17¶25, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶17, §18¶24, §18¶25, §19¶4, §19¶7, §19¶8, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶18, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶23, §20¶4, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶25, §20¶27, §20¶27, §20¶27, §21¶17, §21¶33, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶38, §22¶12, §22¶12, §23¶9, §24¶8, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶17, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶34, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §26¶32, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶22, §27¶25, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶29, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶6, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶10, §29¶10, §29¶10, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶8, §30¶9, §30¶10, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶22, §30¶23, §30¶23, §30¶23, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶36, §31¶39, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶6, §32¶6, §33¶2, §33¶2, §33¶8, §33¶10, §34¶12, §34¶12, §34¶16, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶11, §35¶11, §35¶11, §35¶15, §35¶16, §35¶16, §35¶17, §35¶17, §35¶17, §36¶2, §36¶2, §36¶4, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶27, §36¶27, §36¶27, §37¶22, §37¶22, §38¶43, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶16, §39¶18, §39¶18, §40¶1, §41¶10, §41¶10, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶33, §41¶34, §43¶13, §43¶20, §44¶12, §44¶12, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶36, §44¶36, §44¶36, §44¶37, §46¶2, §48¶5, §48¶11, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶28, §48¶43, §49¶19, §49¶19, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §62¶4, §63¶8, §68¶5, §69¶5, §70¶24
long (211): §1¶7, §1¶11, §2¶14, §2¶30, §3¶2, §3¶4, §3¶19, §3¶25, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶18, §4¶28, §5¶13, §6¶7, §6¶8, §6¶15, §6¶18, §6¶20, §6¶40, §7¶3, §7¶6, §7¶10, §7¶11, §7¶13, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶18, §7¶27, §7¶29, §9¶25, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶45, §11¶2, §11¶4, §11¶7, §11¶47, §12¶30, §12¶41, §13¶3, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶37, §13¶37, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶9, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶21, §16¶35, §16¶43, §16¶44, §16¶53, §17¶23, §18¶3, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶17, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶32, §18¶32, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶19, §19¶28, §20¶4, §20¶8, §20¶9, §21¶24, §21¶33, §21¶35, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶12, §24¶13, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶29, §25¶4, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶35, §26¶12, §26¶13, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶16, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶26, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶12, §30¶5, §30¶10, §30¶23, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶12, §32¶20, §32¶20, §33¶8, §34¶12, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶5, §35¶15, §35¶16, §35¶16, §36¶7, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶12, §36¶16, §36¶19, §36¶27, §36¶27, §37¶22, §37¶26, §37¶26, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶21, §40¶3, §40¶5, §40¶8, §40¶8, §40¶10, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶34, §42¶8, §43¶3, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶23, §43¶23, §44¶4, §45¶7, §46¶2, §46¶11, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §62¶2, §62¶4, §62¶6, §66¶22, §67¶14, §67¶14, §69¶5, §69¶17, §70¶24
reign (222): §1¶7, §1¶9, §3¶5, §4¶24, §4¶29, §4¶29, §4¶29, §4¶30, §5¶33, §5¶35, §6¶7, §6¶8, §6¶10, §6¶13, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶22, §6¶38, §6¶40, §6¶53, §7¶5, §7¶9, §7¶17, §9¶28, §10¶9, §10¶21, §10¶49, §11¶2, §11¶4, §11¶7, §11¶12, §11¶25, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶17, §12¶17, §12¶29, §12¶29, §12¶42, §13¶1, §13¶2, §13¶3, §13¶8, §13¶28, §13¶32, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶27, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶32, §14¶33, §14¶38, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶34, §17¶21, §17¶25, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶32, §17¶33, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶17, §18¶17, §18¶29, §19¶3, §19¶8, §19¶14, §20¶8, §20¶25, §21¶18, §21¶24, §21¶36, §21¶36, §21¶42, §21¶42, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶15, §22¶17, §22¶21, §23¶9, §23¶9, §23¶30, §24¶13, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶4, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶11, §25¶16, §25¶29, §25¶34, §25¶35, §26¶13, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶27, §26¶27, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶5, §27¶16, §27¶20, §27¶21, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶29, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶8, §30¶19, §30¶23, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶36, §31¶39, §32¶12, §32¶12, §32¶20, §32¶20, §34¶17, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶15, §36¶1, §36¶2, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶22, §36¶23, §36¶25, §36¶25, §37¶22, §38¶5, §38¶9, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶8, §40¶8, §41¶16, §41¶17, §42¶8, §43¶20, §43¶23, §44¶4, §44¶36, §45¶5, §45¶7, §45¶10, §46¶11, §46¶11, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶11, §48¶11, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶26, §48¶28, §48¶28, §48¶43, §49¶19, §53¶11, §62¶2, §62¶2, §66¶22, §68¶5, §69¶5
prince (202): §1¶7, §1¶14, §3¶3, §3¶8, §3¶24, §4¶6, §4¶6, §4¶22, §4¶30, §5¶5, §5¶8, §5¶20, §5¶29, §6¶10, §6¶20, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶40, §6¶40, §7¶5, §7¶6, §7¶7, §7¶21, §7¶26, §7¶30, §7¶30, §7¶31, §10¶2, §10¶17, §10¶20, §10¶20, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶48, §10¶49, §10¶50, §11¶31, §11¶47, §12¶10, §12¶13, §12¶23, §12¶28, §12¶29, §12¶30, §12¶41, §12¶42, §13¶3, §13¶29, §14¶2, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶11, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶20, §14¶26, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶33, §16¶14, §16¶34, §16¶34, §16¶47, §17¶23, §17¶25, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶18, §18¶25, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶5, §19¶16, §19¶21, §19¶28, §20¶4, §21¶33, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶36, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶8, §22¶12, §22¶15, §22¶21, §23¶9, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶10, §25¶11, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶29, §25¶33, §25¶35, §26¶20, §26¶25, §26¶28, §26¶28, §27¶1, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶5, §27¶16, §27¶19, §27¶20, §27¶20, §27¶24, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶27, §29¶2, §29¶6, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶10, §30¶10, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶27, §31¶14, §31¶19, §31¶32, §32¶5, §32¶20, §34¶16, §35¶15, §36¶1, §36¶2, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶19, §36¶22, §36¶23, §37¶22, §38¶5, §38¶5, §38¶18, §39¶11, §41¶17, §41¶17, §43¶23, §44¶12, §45¶5, §45¶10, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶11, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §53¶9, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §60¶18, §60¶18, §62¶2, §62¶4, §62¶6, §62¶6, §63¶8, §67¶14, §68¶5
war (280): §1¶7, §1¶7, §2¶14, §3¶2, §3¶6, §3¶13, §4¶6, §4¶15, §5¶24, §5¶26, §5¶29, §5¶31, §6¶14, §6¶22, §6¶38, §6¶40, §7¶6, §7¶6, §7¶10, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶19, §7¶21, §7¶21, §7¶23, §7¶26, §7¶27, §7¶28, §7¶29, §9¶15, §9¶19, §9¶25, §9¶28, §10¶15, §10¶19, §10¶20, §10¶45, §10¶47, §10¶47, §10¶48, §10¶49, §11¶13, §11¶20, §11¶21, §11¶27, §11¶31, §11¶36, §11¶45, §11¶47, §12¶13, §12¶23, §12¶29, §12¶30, §12¶33, §12¶34, §12¶35, §12¶42, §12¶42, §13¶1, §13¶2, §13¶3, §13¶10, §13¶28, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶11, §14¶12, §14¶13, §14¶15, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶21, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶24, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶30, §14¶32, §16¶21, §16¶43, §16¶48, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶31, §17¶32, §18¶10, §18¶26, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶31, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶21, §19¶21, §19¶28, §20¶9, §20¶25, §21¶33, §21¶38, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶7, §22¶8, §22¶10, §22¶10, §22¶12, §22¶17, §22¶20, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶21, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶7, §25¶7, §25¶16, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶26, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶34, §25¶34, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶22, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶29, §27¶29, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶10, §29¶12, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶24, §30¶27, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶30, §31¶39, §32¶6, §32¶6, §33¶2, §33¶2, §33¶8, §33¶8, §34¶16, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶3, §36¶4, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶19, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶23, §37¶26, §38¶5, §38¶43, §38¶43, §39¶3, §39¶3, §40¶1, §41¶1, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶34, §42¶8, §43¶13, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶20, §46¶11, §48¶11, §48¶16, §48¶16, §53¶11, §53¶11, §60¶18, §62¶2, §62¶4, §67¶14, §68¶5, §69¶5, §69¶5
rome (293): §1¶7, §3¶2, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶9, §3¶13, §3¶37, §4¶6, §4¶6, §4¶11, §4¶13, §4¶15, §4¶29, §5¶2, §5¶8, §5¶10, §5¶11, §5¶14, §5¶19, §5¶20, §5¶35, §5¶35, §6¶7, §6¶8, §6¶13, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶20, §6¶32, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶53, §7¶3, §7¶8, §7¶8, §7¶9, §7¶13, §7¶15, §7¶15, §7¶18, §7¶18, §7¶21, §7¶21, §7¶23, §7¶23, §7¶25, §7¶25, §7¶26, §7¶26, §7¶27, §7¶27, §7¶28, §7¶29, §7¶31, §10¶2, §10¶19, §10¶19, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶45, §10¶47, §10¶49, §11¶2, §11¶20, §11¶25, §11¶25, §11¶36, §11¶45, §11¶47, §12¶1, §12¶3, §12¶7, §12¶10, §12¶17, §12¶30, §12¶34, §12¶34, §12¶34, §12¶34, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶11, §14¶11, §14¶12, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶27, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶26, §16¶34, §16¶35, §16¶43, §16¶45, §16¶53, §16¶53, §16¶54, §16¶54, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶31, §17¶32, §18¶7, §18¶16, §18¶31, §18¶31, §18¶32, §19¶14, §20¶27, §20¶27, §21¶2, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶36, §21¶42, §21¶42, §22¶10, §22¶21, §23¶30, §25¶8, §25¶8, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶25, §25¶33, §25¶33, §26¶13, §26¶20, §26¶26, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶17, §27¶19, §27¶27, §27¶29, §28¶16, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶10, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶9, §30¶9, §30¶9, §30¶10, §30¶22, §30¶23, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶30, §31¶32, §31¶42, §32¶3, §32¶17, §32¶20, §33¶8, §35¶3, §35¶5, §35¶15, §35¶16, §35¶16, §35¶17, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶10, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶22, §36¶23, §36¶23, §36¶23, §36¶25, §36¶25, §37¶4, §37¶4, §38¶11, §38¶43, §38¶43, §38¶43, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶18, §40¶8, §41¶34, §43¶8, §43¶8, §43¶8, §43¶20, §44¶19, §44¶35, §44¶36, §45¶5, §46¶2, §46¶11, §48¶5, §49¶19, §49¶19, §49¶19, §49¶19, §53¶11, §62¶6, §66¶22, §69¶5, §69¶5, §69¶5, §69¶17, §69¶17, §69¶17, §70¶3, §70¶3, §70¶3, §70¶24, §70¶24, §70¶24
life (266): §1¶7, §1¶14, §1¶14, §2¶14, §2¶14, §2¶21, §2¶30, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶19, §3¶37, §4¶8, §4¶24, §4¶30, §6¶7, §6¶8, §6¶12, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶20, §6¶35, §6¶38, §6¶39, §7¶7, §7¶8, §7¶9, §7¶11, §7¶15, §7¶17, §7¶18, §7¶19, §7¶21, §7¶21, §7¶30, §7¶31, §7¶31, §7¶33, §7¶33, §9¶19, §9¶19, §9¶19, §10¶15, §10¶45, §10¶49, §11¶13, §11¶27, §11¶45, §11¶46, §12¶1, §12¶3, §12¶7, §12¶17, §12¶23, §12¶23, §12¶27, §12¶28, §12¶42, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶37, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶27, §14¶29, §14¶32, §14¶33, §14¶38, §16¶24, §16¶24, §16¶25, §16¶48, §17¶25, §17¶28, §17¶33, §18¶2, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶18, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶32, §19¶2, §19¶3, §19¶6, §19¶7, §20¶25, §21¶18, §21¶33, §21¶38, §21¶42, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶21, §24¶3, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶4, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶11, §25¶29, §25¶32, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶26, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶1, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶5, §27¶17, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶20, §27¶22, §27¶24, §27¶28, §28¶16, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶12, §30¶4, §30¶8, §30¶10, §31¶13, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶42, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶5, §32¶6, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §34¶12, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶17, §34¶17, §35¶5, §35¶15, §36¶1, §36¶1, §36¶4, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶13, §37¶4, §37¶4, §37¶4, §37¶22, §37¶22, §37¶26, §38¶9, §38¶11, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶18, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶8, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶34, §42¶8, §43¶8, §43¶13, §43¶23, §43¶23, §43¶23, §44¶4, §44¶12, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶36, §44¶37, §45¶5, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §49¶19, §49¶19, §53¶11, §53¶11, §62¶4, §63¶8, §66¶22, §69¶17, §70¶24, §70¶24
public (339): §1¶7, §1¶9, §1¶14, §2¶21, §2¶30, §2¶30, §3¶2, §3¶3, §3¶6, §3¶13, §3¶24, §3¶25, §4¶6, §4¶11, §4¶13, §4¶15, §4¶24, §4¶25, §4¶28, §4¶29, §5¶5, §5¶5, §5¶8, §5¶9, §5¶9, §5¶9, §5¶31, §5¶35, §6¶8, §6¶10, §6¶12, §6¶15, §6¶22, §6¶32, §6¶32, §6¶40, §7¶7, §7¶9, §7¶10, §7¶18, §7¶18, §7¶27, §7¶27, §7¶30, §9¶15, §10¶15, §10¶15, §10¶45, §10¶50, §11¶2, §11¶3, §11¶45, §11¶46, §12¶3, §12¶33, §12¶34, §13¶1, §13¶2, §13¶3, §13¶3, §13¶4, §13¶28, §13¶32, §13¶35, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶10, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶33, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶21, §16¶21, §16¶21, §16¶35, §16¶42, §16¶42, §16¶43, §16¶45, §16¶45, §16¶46, §16¶48, §17¶22, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶3, §18¶16, §18¶18, §18¶25, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶32, §18¶32, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶5, §19¶6, §19¶10, §19¶19, §19¶28, §19¶28, §19¶28, §20¶9, §20¶25, §20¶27, §21¶24, §21¶33, §21¶33, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶42, §21¶42, §21¶42, §22¶2, §22¶7, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶15, §22¶15, §22¶21, §23¶9, §24¶3, §24¶21, §24¶29, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶13, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶26, §25¶29, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶33, §25¶34, §25¶34, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶24, §26¶24, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §26¶32, §27¶1, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶13, §27¶13, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶25, §27¶27, §27¶29, §27¶29, §27¶29, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶10, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶9, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶23, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶30, §31¶30, §31¶32, §31¶39, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶3, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶10, §32¶12, §32¶12, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶20, §33¶2, §34¶16, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶11, §35¶15, §35¶17, §36¶1, §36¶2, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶25, §37¶22, §38¶5, §39¶2, §39¶7, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶18, §39¶18, §39¶18, §39¶18, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶3, §40¶8, §40¶8, §40¶10, §41¶1, §41¶16, §41¶33, §41¶34, §42¶8, §42¶8, §43¶8, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶36, §47¶9, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶28, §48¶43, §53¶9, §53¶9, §53¶11, §53¶11, §62¶2, §62¶4, §62¶6, §63¶8, §63¶8, §67¶14, §67¶14, §69¶5, §70¶3, §70¶3
death (337): §1¶7, §1¶14, §2¶14, §3¶6, §3¶19, §3¶25, §4¶6, §4¶8, §4¶9, §4¶11, §4¶11, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶21, §4¶21, §4¶22, §4¶24, §4¶29, §4¶30, §5¶9, §5¶10, §5¶11, §5¶19, §5¶28, §5¶28, §5¶29, §5¶33, §6¶7, §6¶12, §6¶16, §6¶20, §6¶20, §6¶20, §6¶29, §6¶35, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶53, §7¶7, §7¶7, §7¶8, §7¶9, §7¶9, §7¶9, §7¶11, §7¶15, §7¶17, §7¶18, §7¶21, §7¶27, §7¶28, §7¶30, §7¶33, §9¶19, §9¶25, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶49, §10¶50, §11¶3, §11¶3, §11¶5, §11¶31, §11¶46, §11¶46, §11¶47, §12¶1, §12¶3, §12¶17, §12¶28, §12¶29, §12¶33, §12¶34, §12¶34, §12¶34, §12¶35, §12¶41, §12¶41, §12¶41, §13¶1, §13¶2, §13¶8, §13¶35, §13¶37, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶11, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶26, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶38, §16¶14, §16¶24, §16¶26, §16¶26, §16¶35, §16¶42, §16¶45, §16¶46, §16¶48, §16¶53, §16¶54, §17¶25, §17¶25, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶16, §18¶16, §18¶18, §18¶24, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶26, §18¶32, §18¶32, §18¶32, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶5, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶8, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶21, §19¶28, §21¶2, §21¶2, §21¶18, §21¶24, §21¶36, §21¶36, §21¶38, §21¶42, §22¶7, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶21, §23¶9, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶29, §24¶29, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶26, §25¶29, §25¶33, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶22, §27¶24, §27¶25, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶29, §27¶29, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶10, §30¶3, §30¶10, §30¶10, §30¶23, §30¶23, §30¶27, §31¶13, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶36, §31¶39, §32¶3, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶12, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶20, §32¶20, §34¶16, §34¶16, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶16, §35¶16, §36¶2, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶22, §36¶25, §36¶25, §36¶27, §36¶27, §37¶26, §38¶5, §38¶5, §38¶9, §38¶11, §38¶27, §39¶2, §39¶16, §39¶18, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶3, §40¶5, §40¶5, §40¶8, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶34, §41¶34, §42¶8, §42¶8, §43¶3, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶23, §43¶23, §43¶23, §44¶12, §44¶19, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶37, §44¶39, §44¶39, §45¶5, §45¶7, §45¶7, §45¶10, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶28, §48¶43, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §60¶18, §62¶2, §62¶4, §66¶22, §67¶14, §70¶24, §70¶24
emperor (662): §1¶7, §1¶7, §1¶9, §1¶9, §1¶11, §1¶14, §2¶21, §2¶21, §3¶8, §3¶8, §3¶19, §3¶21, §3¶25, §3¶37, §4¶6, §4¶8, §4¶8, §4¶9, §4¶11, §4¶13, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶18, §4¶21, §4¶22, §4¶22, §4¶24, §4¶28, §4¶29, §4¶29, §4¶30, §5¶5, §5¶8, §5¶10, §5¶10, §5¶10, §5¶13, §5¶14, §5¶19, §5¶31, §5¶33, §5¶33, §5¶33, §5¶35, §6¶4, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶12, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶17, §6¶18, §6¶19, §6¶19, §6¶20, §6¶29, §6¶33, §6¶35, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶40, §6¶40, §7¶3, §7¶5, §7¶6, §7¶6, §7¶6, §7¶7, §7¶9, §7¶9, §7¶11, §7¶13, §7¶15, §7¶16, §7¶23, §7¶26, §7¶29, §7¶30, §7¶30, §7¶31, §7¶33, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶15, §10¶17, §10¶19, §10¶19, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶47, §10¶47, §10¶48, §10¶50, §11¶2, §11¶3, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶4, §11¶5, §11¶5, §11¶7, §11¶12, §11¶13, §11¶13, §11¶20, §11¶20, §11¶21, §11¶21, §11¶27, §11¶33, §11¶36, §11¶36, §11¶45, §11¶45, §11¶46, §11¶47, §11¶47, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶4, §12¶7, §12¶10, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶17, §12¶17, §12¶23, §12¶27, §12¶27, §12¶29, §12¶29, §12¶30, §12¶33, §12¶33, §12¶34, §12¶34, §12¶34, §12¶35, §12¶41, §12¶41, §12¶41, §13¶1, §13¶2, §13¶4, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶8, §13¶28, §13¶36, §13¶37, §14¶2, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶11, §14¶12, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶27, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶33, §14¶38, §14¶38, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶20, §16¶20, §16¶20, §16¶34, §16¶35, §16¶35, §16¶43, §16¶54, §17¶9, §17¶9, §17¶21, §17¶25, §17¶25, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶17, §18¶18, §18¶18, §18¶18, §18¶18, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶32, §18¶32, §19¶2, §19¶2, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶7, §19¶8, §19¶8, §19¶10, §19¶10, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶23, §20¶27, §20¶27, §21¶2, §21¶2, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶18, §21¶18, §21¶24, §21¶24, §21¶24, §21¶33, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶36, §21¶42, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶10, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶21, §22¶21, §22¶21, §23¶9, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶22, §24¶22, §24¶22, §24¶29, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶4, §25¶4, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶11, §25¶13, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶34, §25¶34, §25¶34, §25¶34, §25¶35, §25¶35, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶1, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶3, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶13, §27¶13, §27¶13, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶29, §27¶29, §27¶29, §27¶29, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶10, §29¶12, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶9, §30¶10, §30¶10, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶23, §30¶23, §30¶23, §30¶24, §30¶24, §30¶24, §30¶27, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶19, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶36, §31¶36, §31¶39, §31¶42, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶3, §32¶3, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶5, §32¶6, §32¶12, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶20, §32¶20, §32¶20, §33¶2, §33¶2, §34¶12, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶17, §35¶5, §35¶15, §35¶15, §35¶15, §35¶15, §35¶15, §35¶16, §35¶16, §35¶16, §36¶1, §36¶1, §36¶1, §36¶2, §36¶2, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶12, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶20, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶23, §36¶23, §36¶23, §36¶25, §36¶27, §36¶27, §38¶5, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶7, §39¶18, §39¶21, §39¶21, §39¶21, §39¶21, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶5, §40¶8, §40¶10, §40¶10, §40¶10, §41¶1, §41¶1, §41¶10, §41¶10, §41¶16, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶34, §41¶34, §43¶13, §43¶13, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶20, §43¶23, §43¶23, §43¶23, §43¶23, §44¶4, §44¶12, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶39, §45¶5, §45¶10, §45¶10, §45¶10, §45¶10, §46¶11, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶28, §48¶28, §48¶28, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §49¶19, §53¶9, §53¶9, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §60¶18, §60¶18, §62¶2, §62¶2, §62¶2, §62¶2, §62¶4, §62¶4, §62¶6, §63¶8, §63¶8, §67¶14, §67¶14, §67¶14, §69¶5, §69¶5, §70¶3
age (182): §1¶9, §3¶24, §3¶25, §3¶25, §4¶6, §5¶35, §6¶12, §6¶16, §6¶16, §6¶22, §6¶39, §7¶11, §7¶19, §7¶25, §7¶25, §7¶29, §7¶30, §9¶19, §10¶2, §10¶9, §10¶9, §10¶20, §10¶21, §10¶21, §10¶50, §11¶4, §11¶13, §11¶45, §12¶10, §12¶23, §12¶28, §12¶28, §12¶29, §13¶3, §14¶2, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶12, §14¶15, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶33, §16¶14, §16¶20, §16¶20, §17¶9, §17¶32, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶7, §18¶10, §18¶16, §19¶2, §19¶2, §19¶7, §19¶10, §19¶10, §19¶10, §19¶18, §19¶18, §19¶19, §21¶33, §21¶36, §22¶12, §22¶12, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶10, §25¶11, §25¶34, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶11, §26¶13, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶28, §26¶32, §27¶2, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶29, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶4, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶19, §30¶23, §31¶7, §31¶7, §32¶5, §32¶12, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §33¶2, §33¶8, §34¶17, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶5, §35¶15, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶19, §36¶22, §37¶4, §37¶4, §37¶26, §38¶5, §38¶9, §38¶11, §39¶2, §39¶21, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶3, §41¶1, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶32, §44¶12, §44¶19, §44¶20, §45¶5, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶28, §48¶43, §53¶9, §53¶11, §53¶11, §62¶2, §62¶2, §62¶4, §67¶14, §67¶14, §69¶5, §69¶5
private (164): §1¶9, §1¶14, §2¶14, §2¶30, §3¶24, §4¶25, §4¶25, §4¶28, §5¶5, §5¶13, §5¶20, §5¶24, §5¶28, §5¶35, §7¶10, §7¶21, §10¶2, §10¶21, §10¶47, §10¶49, §10¶50, §11¶7, §11¶12, §11¶13, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶34, §13¶3, §13¶3, §13¶28, §13¶37, §13¶37, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶30, §14¶33, §16¶14, §16¶21, §16¶25, §16¶26, §16¶35, §16¶43, §16¶53, §17¶23, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶33, §18¶7, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶25, §18¶25, §18¶28, §18¶28, §19¶3, §19¶28, §20¶25, §21¶36, §22¶7, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶21, §24¶3, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶4, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶32, §26¶14, §26¶26, §26¶32, §27¶19, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶27, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶12, §30¶8, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶22, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶33, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶17, §33¶10, §34¶12, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶11, §36¶1, §36¶7, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶19, §38¶27, §39¶18, §39¶18, §39¶21, §40¶3, §40¶5, §40¶5, §40¶8, §40¶8, §41¶1, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶34, §43¶13, §43¶13, §43¶23, §44¶4, §44¶12, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶36, §44¶36, §44¶36, §44¶37, §45¶5, §46¶11, §46¶12, §47¶9, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶28, §48¶43, §53¶9, §53¶9, §53¶11, §53¶11, §60¶18, §62¶4, §62¶4, §63¶8, §63¶8, §67¶14, §67¶14, §69¶5, §70¶3
sovereign (169): §1¶9, §2¶14, §2¶30, §4¶25, §4¶28, §4¶30, §5¶19, §5¶24, §5¶35, §6¶10, §6¶17, §6¶17, §6¶19, §6¶20, §6¶35, §6¶39, §7¶11, §7¶30, §10¶15, §10¶19, §10¶20, §10¶45, §10¶48, §10¶49, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶5, §11¶27, §11¶45, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶2, §12¶7, §12¶23, §12¶23, §12¶23, §12¶41, §12¶41, §13¶4, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶37, §14¶2, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶12, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶24, §14¶24, §14¶28, §14¶33, §16¶35, §16¶43, §17¶22, §17¶27, §17¶32, §18¶3, §18¶16, §18¶17, §18¶28, §19¶4, §19¶8, §19¶28, §20¶4, §20¶8, §20¶27, §21¶17, §21¶24, §21¶33, §21¶35, §21¶42, §22¶2, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶12, §22¶17, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶13, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶29, §25¶2, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶11, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶35, §26¶12, §26¶14, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶32, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶24, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶10, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶23, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶10, §34¶12, §35¶15, §36¶7, §36¶16, §36¶27, §36¶27, §38¶5, §38¶11, §38¶27, §39¶11, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶8, §41¶1, §41¶16, §41¶16, §42¶8, §44¶12, §46¶2, §46¶12, §48¶5, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶43, §49¶19, §62¶6, §63¶8, §67¶14
power (217): §1¶9, §1¶9, §1¶11, §2¶14, §3¶2, §3¶3, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶8, §3¶13, §3¶13, §3¶19, §3¶19, §3¶21, §3¶37, §4¶4, §4¶15, §4¶30, §5¶10, §5¶11, §5¶24, §5¶26, §5¶26, §5¶33, §5¶35, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶10, §6¶17, §6¶39, §7¶6, §7¶9, §7¶9, §7¶18, §7¶26, §7¶28, §7¶31, §7¶33, §9¶15, §9¶25, §10¶15, §10¶17, §10¶47, §10¶50, §11¶12, §11¶20, §11¶27, §11¶36, §11¶46, §11¶47, §12¶2, §12¶10, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶17, §12¶23, §12¶29, §12¶29, §12¶30, §12¶33, §12¶41, §13¶4, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶32, §13¶36, §13¶37, §13¶37, §13¶37, §14¶1, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶16, §14¶21, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶32, §14¶38, §15¶47, §15¶47, §16¶14, §16¶24, §16¶43, §17¶21, §17¶22, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶25, §17¶25, §17¶27, §17¶32, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶10, §18¶17, §18¶18, §18¶25, §18¶28, §18¶28, §19¶3, §19¶14, §19¶23, §21¶33, §21¶33, §21¶35, §21¶36, §21¶42, §22¶3, §22¶10, §22¶12, §22¶15, §22¶20, §23¶9, §23¶9, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶11, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶33, §25¶35, §26¶12, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶1, §27¶3, §27¶16, §27¶20, §27¶21, §27¶26, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶20, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶32, §32¶20, §33¶10, §35¶3, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶16, §39¶7, §39¶18, §39¶18, §40¶1, §40¶3, §41¶17, §43¶20, §44¶4, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶36, §45¶10, §46¶11, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶14, §48¶28, §48¶43, §62¶4, §63¶8, §63¶8, §68¶5, §69¶5, §69¶5, §70¶3
empire (328): §1¶9, §1¶11, §1¶14, §2¶14, §2¶14, §2¶30, §3¶5, §3¶8, §3¶13, §3¶24, §3¶25, §3¶37, §3¶37, §4¶11, §4¶11, §4¶21, §5¶2, §5¶8, §5¶9, §5¶9, §5¶13, §5¶14, §5¶20, §5¶24, §5¶24, §5¶26, §5¶26, §5¶28, §5¶33, §5¶35, §6¶7, §6¶7, §6¶7, §6¶13, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶20, §6¶22, §6¶22, §6¶29, §6¶32, §6¶39, §6¶40, §6¶53, §7¶3, §7¶5, §7¶6, §7¶8, §7¶9, §7¶10, §7¶11, §7¶15, §7¶18, §7¶18, §7¶19, §7¶21, §7¶23, §7¶30, §7¶30, §7¶31, §7¶31, §9¶25, §10¶2, §10¶17, §10¶19, §10¶19, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶47, §10¶48, §10¶49, §11¶7, §11¶7, §11¶25, §11¶46, §11¶47, §12¶3, §12¶4, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶17, §12¶23, §12¶29, §12¶34, §12¶42, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶4, §13¶4, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶32, §13¶32, §13¶35, §13¶37, §14¶1, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶12, §14¶15, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶27, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶32, §14¶33, §16¶14, §16¶20, §16¶21, §16¶21, §16¶34, §16¶42, §16¶43, §16¶45, §16¶48, §17¶21, §17¶24, §17¶25, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶2, §18¶6, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶17, §18¶17, §18¶24, §18¶24, §18¶28, §19¶6, §19¶8, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶28, §20¶8, §20¶9, §21¶36, §21¶36, §21¶38, §21¶42, §22¶10, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶21, §22¶21, §23¶9, §23¶30, §24¶17, §24¶22, §24¶22, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶4, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶9, §25¶16, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶32, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶35, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶14, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶28, §28¶16, §28¶16, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶10, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶9, §30¶10, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶33, §31¶42, §31¶42, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶17, §32¶20, §34¶12, §34¶16, §34¶17, §35¶15, §35¶15, §35¶17, §35¶17, §36¶2, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶13, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶19, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶23, §37¶4, §37¶22, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶11, §39¶21, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶3, §41¶10, §42¶8, §44¶20, §44¶37, §44¶39, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶11, §48¶11, §48¶16, §48¶43, §53¶9, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §62¶2, §62¶6, §62¶6, §67¶14, §67¶14, §68¶5
justice (166): §1¶11, §2¶21, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶13, §3¶25, §4¶8, §4¶24, §5¶29, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶12, §6¶29, §6¶32, §6¶35, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶39, §7¶9, §7¶19, §7¶25, §9¶15, §11¶5, §11¶45, §11¶46, §12¶16, §12¶28, §12¶35, §12¶41, §13¶1, §13¶8, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶28, §14¶30, §15¶47, §16¶20, §16¶21, §16¶45, §16¶54, §17¶22, §17¶25, §17¶25, §17¶25, §17¶27, §17¶33, §18¶2, §18¶3, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶32, §19¶7, §19¶14, §19¶21, §19¶28, §19¶28, §20¶4, §20¶8, §20¶25, §21¶2, §21¶24, §21¶38, §21¶38, §22¶5, §22¶15, §22¶17, §22¶21, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶17, §24¶21, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶17, §25¶26, §26¶12, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶28, §26¶31, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶21, §27¶24, §27¶28, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶6, §29¶7, §31¶7, §31¶16, §31¶32, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶10, §32¶12, §32¶17, §33¶8, §33¶10, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶15, §36¶2, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶17, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶23, §36¶27, §38¶18, §38¶18, §38¶27, §38¶43, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶16, §39¶18, §40¶5, §40¶5, §40¶8, §40¶8, §40¶8, §40¶10, §41¶1, §41¶10, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶33, §42¶8, §42¶8, §43¶20, §44¶12, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶36, §44¶36, §44¶36, §44¶37, §44¶39, §44¶39, §46¶11, §47¶9, §48¶11, §48¶26, §48¶43, §62¶6, §63¶8, §70¶3, §70¶3
rank (165): §1¶11, §1¶14, §2¶30, §3¶2, §4¶8, §4¶13, §4¶21, §4¶21, §4¶25, §5¶11, §5¶24, §5¶31, §6¶4, §6¶7, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶20, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶53, §7¶3, §7¶5, §7¶33, §9¶15, §10¶17, §11¶3, §11¶13, §11¶13, §11¶20, §12¶28, §12¶34, §13¶4, §13¶4, §13¶32, §14¶4, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶15, §14¶15, §14¶17, §14¶26, §14¶30, §16¶26, §16¶35, §16¶46, §16¶53, §17¶24, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶10, §18¶17, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶32, §19¶2, §19¶4, §19¶19, §19¶21, §20¶27, §21¶2, §22¶3, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶12, §22¶15, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶20, §24¶13, §24¶22, §24¶29, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶26, §25¶33, §25¶35, §26¶13, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶19, §26¶25, §26¶28, §27¶1, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶24, §27¶26, §27¶27, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶4, §29¶4, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶20, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶39, §32¶2, §32¶6, §32¶17, §32¶17, §33¶2, §33¶8, §33¶10, §34¶12, §34¶16, §34¶17, §34¶17, §35¶15, §36¶1, §36¶12, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶22, §36¶22, §37¶4, §37¶4, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶11, §39¶18, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶3, §41¶17, §41¶33, §41¶34, §42¶8, §42¶8, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶23, §44¶19, §44¶36, §46¶2, §46¶11, §47¶9, §48¶11, §48¶28, §49¶19, §53¶11, §62¶2, §62¶4
danger (125): §1¶14, §2¶30, §5¶13, §5¶31, §6¶10, §6¶15, §6¶15, §7¶15, §7¶18, §7¶18, §9¶15, §9¶15, §9¶19, §9¶25, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶15, §11¶2, §11¶3, §11¶7, §11¶47, §12¶16, §12¶27, §12¶33, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶35, §14¶2, §14¶6, §14¶16, §14¶21, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶24, §16¶20, §16¶21, §16¶24, §16¶26, §16¶34, §16¶43, §16¶47, §17¶33, §18¶6, §18¶17, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶14, §19¶19, §19¶28, §20¶8, §20¶9, §21¶33, §21¶33, §22¶2, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶3, §25¶7, §25¶9, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶33, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶15, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶24, §27¶3, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶20, §27¶20, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶29, §29¶2, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶7, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶22, §31¶19, §32¶10, §33¶10, §34¶16, §35¶5, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶11, §36¶16, §36¶20, §36¶20, §36¶20, §36¶22, §39¶18, §39¶18, §40¶1, §40¶3, §44¶19, §44¶36, §44¶37, §45¶7, §48¶14, §48¶43, §48¶43, §62¶6, §67¶14, §69¶5, §69¶17
government (165): §1¶14, §2¶30, §3¶2, §3¶5, §3¶5, §4¶11, §5¶10, §5¶11, §5¶11, §5¶26, §5¶33, §5¶35, §6¶8, §6¶32, §6¶35, §6¶38, §6¶38, §7¶16, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶49, §11¶47, §12¶30, §12¶34, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶3, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶32, §13¶36, §13¶37, §14¶2, §14¶4, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶30, §14¶33, §14¶33, §15¶47, §16¶14, §16¶20, §16¶21, §16¶34, §16¶42, §16¶45, §16¶45, §16¶48, §17¶21, §17¶23, §17¶24, §17¶25, §17¶25, §18¶6, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶18, §18¶26, §18¶32, §19¶6, §19¶14, §19¶19, §19¶21, §19¶28, §19¶28, §20¶8, §20¶9, §20¶25, §21¶18, §21¶42, §22¶5, §22¶21, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶5, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶11, §25¶11, §25¶33, §25¶34, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶13, §26¶14, §26¶25, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶4, §27¶13, §27¶16, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶26, §27¶26, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶7, §29¶7, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶23, §30¶27, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶42, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶5, §32¶12, §32¶17, §33¶2, §33¶10, §35¶3, §35¶16, §35¶17, §36¶8, §36¶13, §36¶13, §37¶4, §37¶4, §38¶27, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶8, §41¶1, §41¶10, §42¶8, §43¶23, §44¶12, §45¶5, §46¶2, §46¶11, §47¶9, §48¶26, §48¶43, §53¶9, §62¶4, §69¶17
arms (240): §1¶14, §3¶6, §4¶6, §4¶30, §5¶2, §5¶13, §5¶19, §5¶19, §5¶20, §5¶35, §6¶4, §6¶10, §6¶20, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶40, §7¶16, §7¶21, §7¶23, §7¶26, §7¶27, §7¶31, §7¶31, §9¶19, §10¶9, §10¶47, §10¶49, §10¶50, §11¶2, §11¶4, §11¶7, §11¶20, §11¶25, §11¶33, §11¶33, §11¶45, §11¶46, §12¶3, §12¶4, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶17, §12¶17, §12¶27, §12¶33, §12¶42, §13¶1, §13¶4, §13¶8, §13¶10, §14¶1, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶24, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶28, §14¶30, §14¶32, §14¶32, §15¶47, §16¶42, §17¶32, §18¶17, §18¶25, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶32, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶5, §19¶7, §19¶10, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶21, §19¶23, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶9, §20¶9, §21¶2, §21¶36, §21¶38, §22¶2, §22¶8, §22¶10, §22¶10, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶21, §25¶2, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶34, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶13, §26¶13, §26¶13, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §26¶32, §27¶2, §27¶16, §27¶16, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶25, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶28, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶12, §29¶12, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶24, §30¶27, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶36, §31¶36, §31¶42, §32¶6, §32¶6, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶5, §35¶5, §35¶17, §36¶4, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶27, §36¶27, §38¶5, §38¶9, §38¶11, §38¶27, §38¶43, §38¶43, §39¶3, §39¶18, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶8, §40¶8, §40¶10, §41¶10, §41¶16, §43¶3, §43¶3, §44¶4, §44¶36, §44¶39, §45¶5, §45¶7, §45¶7, §45¶7, §45¶10, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §48¶16, §48¶28, §48¶43, §53¶11, §60¶18, §63¶8, §68¶5, §69¶5, §69¶5, §69¶17, §69¶17, §70¶3, §70¶24, §70¶24
army (245): §1¶14, §2¶30, §3¶21, §3¶25, §4¶6, §4¶11, §4¶11, §5¶10, §5¶13, §5¶13, §5¶14, §5¶19, §5¶24, §5¶26, §5¶31, §5¶33, §6¶7, §6¶14, §6¶14, §6¶16, §6¶16, §6¶17, §6¶19, §6¶19, §6¶19, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶53, §7¶3, §7¶5, §7¶6, §7¶6, §7¶7, §7¶7, §7¶7, §7¶10, §7¶16, §7¶19, §7¶21, §7¶23, §7¶27, §7¶27, §7¶31, §7¶31, §7¶31, §7¶33, §7¶33, §7¶33, §9¶25, §9¶25, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶15, §10¶20, §10¶21, §10¶47, §10¶48, §11¶2, §11¶3, §11¶5, §11¶7, §11¶7, §11¶12, §11¶27, §11¶36, §11¶47, §11¶47, §11¶47, §11¶47, §12¶2, §12¶3, §12¶3, §12¶27, §12¶28, §12¶41, §12¶41, §13¶2, §13¶4, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶11, §14¶11, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶24, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶38, §14¶38, §16¶43, §17¶27, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶16, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶32, §18¶32, §19¶10, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶16, §19¶16, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶23, §19¶23, §20¶9, §22¶2, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶7, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶12, §22¶15, §22¶17, §24¶8, §24¶8, §24¶8, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶22, §24¶29, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶14, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶22, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶26, §27¶28, §27¶28, §28¶16, §29¶10, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶8, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶27, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶33, §32¶3, §32¶6, §33¶10, §33¶10, §34¶12, §35¶3, §35¶11, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶20, §36¶23, §36¶25, §36¶25, §36¶27, §38¶9, §38¶11, §38¶11, §38¶27, §39¶2, §40¶1, §41¶34, §43¶13, §43¶13, §43¶13, §43¶20, §44¶37, §45¶5, §45¶10, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶16, §48¶16, §53¶9, §53¶9, §62¶2, §69¶5
troops (242): §1¶14, §1¶14, §3¶21, §3¶24, §5¶2, §5¶10, §5¶13, §5¶14, §5¶19, §5¶26, §5¶33, §6¶7, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶14, §6¶14, §6¶16, §6¶19, §6¶20, §6¶20, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶40, §7¶6, §7¶6, §7¶7, §7¶23, §9¶25, §10¶2, §10¶19, §10¶20, §10¶47, §10¶48, §10¶50, §11¶3, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶4, §11¶7, §11¶12, §11¶13, §11¶36, §12¶2, §12¶3, §12¶10, §12¶13, §12¶27, §12¶27, §12¶30, §12¶33, §12¶41, §12¶42, §13¶10, §13¶29, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶11, §14¶11, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶21, §14¶21, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶28, §14¶32, §14¶32, §14¶38, §15¶47, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶2, §18¶17, §18¶18, §18¶24, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶31, §18¶32, §19¶5, §19¶6, §19¶10, §19¶10, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶23, §21¶36, §21¶38, §22¶2, §22¶2, §22¶2, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶8, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶9, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶17, §25¶2, §25¶4, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶32, §25¶35, §26¶13, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶16, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶22, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §28¶16, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶10, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶23, §30¶23, §30¶24, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶36, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶10, §32¶20, §35¶11, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶20, §36¶25, §36¶27, §36¶27, §37¶26, §38¶18, §38¶27, §39¶3, §39¶3, §43¶20, §46¶2, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶16, §48¶28, §62¶4
master (149): §2¶14, §2¶14, §3¶2, §3¶9, §3¶37, §4¶13, §4¶21, §6¶7, §6¶16, §6¶16, §6¶38, §7¶3, §7¶11, §7¶17, §7¶30, §7¶31, §10¶2, §10¶21, §10¶45, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶47, §12¶2, §13¶2, §13¶10, §14¶4, §14¶17, §14¶23, §14¶27, §14¶30, §14¶38, §16¶42, §16¶53, §17¶27, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶33, §18¶3, §18¶10, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶29, §18¶31, §19¶23, §20¶27, §21¶36, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶9, §22¶10, §24¶8, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶26, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶35, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶28, §26¶28, §27¶4, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶27, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶6, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶10, §30¶3, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶16, §31¶36, §31¶39, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶6, §32¶17, §33¶8, §33¶10, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶16, §35¶15, §36¶4, §36¶8, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶17, §36¶27, §39¶3, §39¶11, §39¶18, §39¶18, §40¶1, §40¶3, §41¶10, §41¶34, §42¶8, §43¶13, §44¶12, §44¶12, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶19, §45¶5, §46¶2, §48¶16, §48¶43, §62¶6, §66¶22, §69¶17
people (360): §2¶14, §3¶2, §3¶4, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶13, §3¶13, §3¶13, §3¶19, §3¶19, §3¶37, §4¶13, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶18, §4¶22, §4¶28, §4¶30, §5¶2, §5¶8, §5¶10, §5¶10, §5¶14, §5¶29, §5¶35, §5¶35, §6¶4, §6¶7, §6¶17, §6¶35, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶53, §7¶10, §7¶10, §7¶15, §7¶16, §7¶16, §7¶19, §7¶25, §7¶25, §7¶26, §7¶26, §7¶29, §7¶30, §10¶2, §10¶15, §10¶21, §10¶50, §11¶2, §11¶4, §11¶7, §11¶7, §11¶25, §11¶33, §11¶36, §11¶45, §11¶45, §12¶1, §12¶3, §12¶7, §12¶23, §12¶42, §13¶2, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶35, §13¶36, §14¶2, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶26, §14¶27, §14¶28, §14¶29, §15¶47, §16¶14, §16¶21, §16¶24, §16¶35, §16¶43, §16¶45, §17¶22, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶33, §18¶2, §18¶3, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶17, §18¶25, §18¶25, §18¶31, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶19, §19¶28, §19¶28, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶9, §20¶25, §20¶25, §20¶27, §21¶17, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶36, §21¶36, §21¶36, §21¶36, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶8, §22¶9, §22¶10, §22¶10, §22¶12, §22¶21, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶29, §25¶2, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶33, §25¶34, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶12, §26¶13, §26¶14, §26¶14, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶32, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶13, §27¶13, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶20, §27¶20, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶24, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶29, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶10, §29¶10, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶8, §30¶8, §30¶9, §30¶9, §30¶9, §30¶10, §30¶10, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶23, §30¶23, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶32, §31¶39, §31¶39, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶5, §32¶5, §32¶5, §32¶5, §32¶6, §32¶10, §32¶10, §32¶10, §33¶10, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶17, §35¶17, §36¶1, §36¶2, §36¶2, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶22, §36¶25, §36¶27, §37¶4, §37¶22, §37¶22, §37¶22, §38¶27, §38¶27, §38¶43, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶16, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶10, §40¶10, §41¶1, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶33, §41¶34, §42¶8, §43¶3, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶20, §43¶23, §44¶4, §44¶12, §44¶35, §45¶5, §45¶5, §45¶5, §45¶10, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶28, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §49¶19, §53¶9, §53¶11, §60¶18, §60¶18, §62¶2, §62¶4, §62¶4, §62¶6, §62¶6, §63¶8, §63¶8, §63¶8, §69¶5, §69¶5, §69¶17, §69¶17, §69¶17, §70¶3, §70¶3, §70¶24
father (181): §2¶21, §3¶3, §3¶4, §3¶24, §4¶4, §4¶6, §4¶6, §4¶9, §5¶5, §5¶10, §6¶4, §6¶7, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶12, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶20, §6¶22, §7¶5, §7¶17, §7¶30, §7¶31, §7¶31, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶45, §10¶48, §10¶50, §11¶13, §11¶31, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶33, §12¶34, §12¶34, §12¶35, §12¶42, §13¶1, §13¶4, §13¶4, §13¶37, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶29, §16¶26, §16¶42, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶18, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶31, §19¶16, §20¶4, §20¶9, §21¶33, §21¶42, §22¶12, §22¶17, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶10, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶33, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶26, §27¶1, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶24, §27¶29, §27¶29, §27¶29, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §30¶22, §31¶32, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶12, §32¶17, §34¶16, §35¶3, §36¶2, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶8, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶27, §37¶4, §37¶26, §37¶26, §37¶26, §38¶9, §40¶3, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶32, §43¶13, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶36, §45¶7, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶11, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §62¶2, §67¶14, §67¶14
throne (191): §2¶21, §4¶4, §4¶21, §4¶21, §4¶22, §4¶25, §5¶5, §5¶5, §5¶8, §5¶10, §5¶11, §6¶4, §6¶16, §6¶16, §6¶38, §7¶3, §7¶3, §7¶3, §7¶11, §7¶27, §7¶29, §7¶31, §10¶2, §10¶17, §10¶20, §10¶21, §10¶48, §10¶50, §10¶50, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶7, §11¶13, §11¶20, §11¶20, §12¶3, §12¶4, §12¶7, §12¶17, §12¶23, §12¶28, §12¶29, §12¶33, §12¶34, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶36, §13¶36, §13¶37, §14¶2, §14¶7, §14¶10, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶21, §14¶27, §14¶29, §16¶14, §17¶27, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶25, §18¶28, §18¶28, §19¶3, §19¶14, §19¶28, §21¶2, §21¶18, §21¶24, §21¶24, §21¶36, §21¶36, §22¶17, §24¶22, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶13, §25¶34, §26¶12, §26¶24, §26¶26, §26¶26, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶21, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶27, §28¶16, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶36, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶5, §32¶10, §32¶17, §32¶17, §33¶2, §33¶2, §34¶16, §34¶17, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶11, §35¶11, §35¶15, §35¶16, §36¶2, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶23, §37¶4, §37¶22, §37¶22, §38¶43, §39¶2, §39¶11, §39¶21, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶5, §40¶10, §41¶1, §41¶1, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §42¶8, §43¶3, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶20, §44¶12, §44¶37, §45¶5, §45¶7, §45¶10, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶28, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §62¶2, §62¶6, §62¶6, §69¶5, §69¶17, §70¶3, §70¶24, §70¶24
son (244): §2¶21, §3¶24, §4¶4, §4¶9, §4¶11, §4¶15, §4¶25, §4¶25, §5¶10, §5¶10, §5¶33, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶10, §6¶12, §6¶14, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶16, §6¶20, §6¶20, §6¶20, §6¶22, §6¶32, §6¶35, §6¶40, §6¶53, §7¶5, §7¶5, §7¶7, §7¶7, §7¶21, §10¶2, §10¶17, §10¶19, §10¶21, §10¶21, §10¶45, §10¶48, §10¶49, §10¶50, §11¶13, §11¶31, §12¶30, §12¶35, §12¶35, §12¶42, §13¶1, §13¶1, §13¶4, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶12, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶24, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶29, §16¶35, §17¶25, §17¶31, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶16, §18¶25, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶31, §18¶31, §19¶16, §19¶16, §20¶4, §21¶33, §21¶38, §22¶17, §22¶17, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶6, §25¶17, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶35, §25¶35, §25¶35, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶18, §26¶26, §26¶26, §27¶1, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶13, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶29, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §30¶3, §30¶20, §30¶23, §31¶19, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶36, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶5, §32¶12, §32¶12, §32¶12, §33¶2, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶3, §35¶15, §35¶15, §36¶2, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶23, §36¶25, §36¶27, §36¶27, §37¶4, §37¶4, §37¶22, §37¶26, §37¶26, §37¶26, §38¶5, §38¶5, §38¶9, §38¶9, §38¶11, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶3, §39¶3, §39¶3, §39¶3, §40¶3, §41¶1, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶33, §41¶33, §41¶33, §41¶33, §42¶8, §42¶8, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶20, §45¶10, §45¶10, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶43, §48¶43, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §60¶18, §62¶2, §62¶2, §62¶2, §62¶4, §63¶8, §67¶14, §67¶14, §67¶14, §68¶5
command (134): §2¶30, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶8, §3¶9, §3¶9, §4¶6, §4¶11, §5¶9, §5¶10, §5¶10, §5¶11, §5¶31, §5¶33, §5¶35, §6¶18, §7¶5, §7¶6, §7¶15, §7¶16, §7¶26, §9¶25, §9¶25, §11¶4, §11¶47, §12¶1, §12¶16, §12¶23, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶8, §14¶4, §14¶15, §14¶21, §14¶23, §15¶47, §17¶21, §17¶22, §17¶23, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶10, §18¶28, §19¶8, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶23, §19¶23, §21¶18, §22¶9, §22¶9, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶29, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶17, §25¶29, §25¶33, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶28, §27¶17, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶7, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶32, §32¶2, §33¶10, §35¶3, §36¶2, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶19, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶25, §36¶25, §36¶27, §36¶27, §37¶22, §37¶22, §38¶9, §38¶18, §39¶3, §39¶7, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶18, §39¶21, §41¶1, §41¶17, §41¶33, §41¶33, §43¶3, §43¶8, §43¶13, §43¶20, §44¶35, §44¶37, §45¶10, §46¶12, §47¶9, §48¶11, §48¶16, §48¶28, §53¶9, §53¶9, §60¶18, §62¶4, §63¶8
spirit (159): §2¶30, §3¶2, §3¶13, §4¶24, §5¶26, §5¶28, §5¶35, §6¶19, §6¶38, §7¶16, §7¶21, §7¶26, §7¶27, §9¶25, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶9, §10¶21, §11¶46, §11¶46, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶10, §13¶29, §13¶36, §14¶6, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶24, §14¶32, §16¶24, §16¶34, §17¶23, §17¶25, §17¶28, §17¶31, §18¶2, §18¶2, §18¶17, §18¶18, §19¶18, §19¶28, §20¶9, §20¶27, §20¶27, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶24, §21¶38, §21¶38, §22¶2, §22¶20, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶17, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶16, §25¶17, §25¶33, §26¶11, §26¶14, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶16, §26¶18, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶26, §27¶28, §27¶28, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶7, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶10, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶27, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶33, §31¶36, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶10, §32¶17, §32¶17, §33¶8, §34¶12, §35¶3, §35¶5, §35¶11, §35¶11, §35¶16, §35¶16, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶20, §36¶20, §36¶27, §38¶27, §38¶27, §38¶43, §38¶43, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶18, §39¶18, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶8, §41¶16, §44¶12, §44¶20, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶39, §45¶7, §46¶11, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶16, §53¶9, §53¶11, §70¶3, §70¶24
secret (138): §2¶30, §3¶2, §4¶9, §4¶22, §4¶30, §5¶10, §6¶12, §6¶15, §6¶18, §6¶40, §7¶7, §7¶26, §7¶28, §7¶31, §10¶19, §10¶45, §10¶48, §11¶27, §11¶45, §12¶41, §12¶42, §13¶2, §13¶29, §14¶6, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶29, §14¶30, §16¶20, §16¶26, §16¶42, §16¶43, §16¶43, §16¶44, §16¶45, §16¶48, §16¶53, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶17, §18¶31, §18¶31, §19¶3, §19¶8, §19¶14, §19¶18, §19¶23, §19¶23, §20¶4, §20¶9, §21¶33, §21¶33, §21¶33, §21¶33, §21¶38, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶10, §22¶15, §24¶8, §24¶21, §24¶22, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶11, §25¶17, §25¶29, §25¶29, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶1, §27¶28, §29¶3, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶10, §30¶8, §30¶22, §30¶23, §30¶24, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶30, §31¶36, §32¶2, §32¶17, §32¶20, §32¶20, §34¶12, §34¶12, §34¶16, §36¶4, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶20, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶27, §37¶4, §37¶4, §37¶4, §39¶7, §39¶16, §40¶3, §40¶5, §40¶8, §40¶8, §40¶10, §40¶10, §41¶1, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶33, §41¶33, §42¶8, §43¶23, §44¶4, §44¶12, §44¶39, §45¶7, §45¶10, §45¶10, §46¶11, §46¶12, §48¶14, §49¶19, §53¶11
soldiers (211): §2¶30, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶8, §3¶21, §4¶29, §4¶30, §5¶9, §5¶11, §5¶26, §5¶31, §5¶31, §6¶4, §6¶10, §6¶10, §6¶10, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶18, §6¶19, §6¶20, §6¶29, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶39, §6¶39, §7¶5, §7¶7, §7¶8, §7¶10, §7¶10, §7¶15, §7¶25, §7¶26, §7¶27, §7¶27, §7¶29, §7¶31, §7¶31, §9¶19, §9¶25, §9¶28, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶19, §10¶19, §10¶47, §10¶48, §11¶7, §11¶7, §11¶27, §11¶33, §12¶1, §12¶4, §12¶10, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶23, §12¶27, §12¶29, §12¶41, §12¶42, §13¶36, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶28, §14¶38, §16¶42, §16¶42, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶32, §18¶17, §18¶18, §18¶25, §18¶25, §19¶2, §19¶6, §19¶10, §19¶14, §19¶19, §19¶21, §20¶4, §20¶9, §20¶9, §22¶2, §22¶2, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶8, §22¶8, §22¶8, §22¶9, §22¶12, §24¶8, §24¶8, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶17, §24¶17, §24¶21, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶4, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶13, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶17, §25¶25, §25¶35, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶32, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶28, §27¶28, §28¶16, §29¶2, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶10, §29¶10, §30¶19, §30¶23, §30¶24, §30¶24, §30¶24, §30¶27, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶33, §32¶5, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶10, §32¶20, §33¶10, §35¶3, §35¶15, §36¶2, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶25, §36¶27, §38¶43, §39¶3, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶21, §41¶1, §41¶16, §41¶16, §43¶3, §43¶20, §45¶5, §46¶2, §48¶11, §48¶16, §48¶16, §63¶8, §68¶5, §70¶24
person (138): §3¶2, §3¶6, §3¶19, §3¶19, §3¶24, §3¶37, §4¶6, §4¶13, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶18, §5¶2, §5¶8, §5¶26, §5¶33, §6¶13, §6¶15, §6¶29, §6¶35, §6¶39, §7¶9, §7¶21, §7¶25, §7¶29, §7¶31, §9¶28, §10¶2, §11¶20, §11¶36, §11¶47, §12¶2, §12¶16, §12¶28, §12¶41, §13¶3, §13¶35, §14¶11, §14¶16, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶26, §16¶14, §16¶26, §16¶42, §16¶46, §16¶53, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶25, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶2, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶16, §18¶18, §18¶24, §18¶25, §18¶26, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶23, §20¶27, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶33, §21¶35, §22¶3, §22¶9, §24¶3, §24¶13, §24¶21, §24¶21, §24¶22, §24¶22, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶8, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶33, §25¶34, §26¶11, §26¶18, §26¶20, §26¶26, §26¶31, §27¶2, §27¶5, §27¶13, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶10, §30¶5, §30¶24, §30¶24, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶16, §31¶32, §31¶33, §32¶6, §32¶12, §32¶17, §35¶5, §35¶15, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶27, §37¶22, §37¶26, §39¶2, §39¶11, §40¶1, §41¶17, §41¶33, §43¶8, §44¶19, §45¶10, §46¶11, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶28, §49¶19, §53¶9, §63¶8, §69¶5, §69¶17, §69¶17
civil (175): §3¶2, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶8, §3¶13, §4¶4, §4¶4, §4¶15, §4¶21, §4¶22, §5¶11, §5¶11, §5¶26, §5¶26, §5¶31, §5¶35, §5¶35, §6¶15, §6¶18, §6¶22, §6¶32, §6¶38, §7¶3, §7¶6, §7¶8, §7¶9, §7¶11, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶19, §7¶25, §7¶26, §7¶27, §7¶29, §9¶25, §10¶19, §10¶19, §10¶20, §10¶49, §11¶7, §11¶27, §11¶45, §11¶46, §11¶46, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶28, §12¶29, §12¶42, §12¶42, §13¶2, §13¶32, §13¶32, §14¶1, §14¶4, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶24, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶30, §14¶33, §16¶42, §16¶43, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶22, §17¶22, §17¶23, §17¶24, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶2, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶32, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶8, §19¶14, §19¶21, §19¶28, §20¶25, §21¶2, §21¶33, §21¶33, §21¶36, §21¶38, §21¶42, §22¶5, §22¶5, §22¶7, §22¶8, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶12, §22¶15, §23¶30, §23¶30, §25¶3, §25¶4, §25¶7, §25¶7, §25¶10, §25¶35, §26¶12, §26¶12, §26¶26, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶29, §27¶29, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶7, §30¶5, §30¶9, §30¶20, §31¶39, §31¶39, §32¶3, §34¶12, §34¶17, §35¶15, §36¶1, §36¶4, §36¶12, §36¶22, §36¶23, §36¶25, §37¶26, §38¶18, §38¶27, §39¶11, §40¶1, §40¶8, §41¶10, §41¶10, §43¶20, §44¶36, §44¶37, §47¶9, §48¶16, §48¶26, §53¶9, §53¶9, §53¶11, §62¶4, §69¶5, §69¶5, §70¶3
senate (254): §3¶2, §3¶2, §3¶3, §3¶3, §3¶3, §3¶4, §3¶5, §3¶5, §3¶5, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶6, §3¶8, §3¶8, §3¶13, §3¶13, §3¶13, §3¶13, §3¶13, §3¶19, §3¶19, §3¶21, §3¶25, §3¶25, §3¶37, §4¶4, §4¶8, §4¶9, §4¶9, §4¶11, §4¶22, §4¶24, §4¶24, §4¶25, §4¶29, §5¶2, §5¶10, §5¶10, §5¶14, §5¶20, §5¶24, §5¶29, §5¶29, §5¶35, §5¶35, §5¶35, §5¶35, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶12, §6¶13, §6¶15, §6¶16, §6¶17, §6¶17, §6¶17, §6¶22, §6¶22, §6¶22, §6¶29, §6¶32, §6¶35, §7¶3, §7¶6, §7¶13, §7¶13, §7¶15, §7¶15, §7¶16, §7¶16, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶18, §7¶19, §7¶21, §7¶21, §7¶21, §7¶21, §7¶23, §7¶25, §7¶25, §7¶25, §7¶26, §7¶26, §7¶26, §7¶27, §7¶27, §7¶27, §7¶28, §7¶28, §7¶29, §7¶31, §7¶31, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶17, §10¶19, §10¶19, §10¶21, §10¶47, §10¶49, §10¶49, §11¶4, §11¶4, §11¶5, §11¶5, §11¶12, §11¶25, §11¶45, §11¶46, §11¶47, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶1, §12¶2, §12¶2, §12¶3, §12¶4, §12¶7, §12¶7, §12¶10, §12¶13, §12¶13, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶16, §12¶29, §12¶29, §12¶34, §12¶42, §13¶28, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §13¶29, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶12, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶26, §14¶26, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶38, §17¶23, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶16, §18¶31, §19¶10, §20¶27, §20¶27, §21¶42, §22¶10, §22¶10, §22¶10, §22¶12, §24¶3, §24¶22, §25¶6, §25¶11, §25¶32, §26¶24, §27¶17, §27¶21, §29¶6, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶8, §29¶10, §30¶9, §30¶9, §30¶9, §30¶22, §30¶22, §30¶22, §30¶23, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶19, §32¶10, §32¶17, §33¶2, §35¶16, §35¶16, §36¶1, §36¶1, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶13, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶25, §38¶43, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶7, §39¶18, §39¶18, §39¶18, §39¶18, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶8, §40¶10, §41¶17, §43¶20, §44¶4, §44¶4, §44¶19, §44¶35, §44¶37, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶28, §49¶19, §53¶11, §60¶18, §63¶8, §69¶17, §69¶17, §70¶3, §70¶3
tyrant (123): §3¶3, §3¶5, §3¶19, §3¶24, §3¶37, §4¶11, §4¶24, §4¶28, §5¶2, §5¶10, §6¶14, §6¶15, §6¶17, §6¶18, §6¶38, §7¶9, §7¶10, §7¶11, §7¶15, §7¶25, §7¶26, §7¶27, §7¶27, §10¶45, §10¶47, §11¶2, §12¶42, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶20, §14¶23, §14¶26, §14¶27, §14¶29, §14¶29, §16¶14, §16¶34, §16¶54, §17¶31, §18¶3, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶29, §18¶31, §18¶32, §18¶32, §19¶2, §19¶2, §19¶4, §19¶7, §19¶28, §20¶8, §20¶25, §21¶17, §21¶33, §22¶2, §23¶9, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶21, §24¶29, §25¶7, §25¶10, §25¶13, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶33, §26¶11, §27¶4, §27¶16, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶10, §29¶10, §30¶24, §31¶32, §35¶3, §35¶16, §36¶12, §36¶20, §36¶25, §37¶22, §37¶22, §39¶7, §39¶18, §40¶5, §41¶1, §42¶8, §43¶23, §44¶36, §45¶5, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶5, §48¶11, §48¶11, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §60¶18, §62¶2, §69¶5
east (183): §3¶6, §5¶28, §6¶13, §6¶19, §6¶22, §7¶3, §7¶30, §7¶31, §10¶19, §10¶49, §11¶7, §11¶45, §12¶4, §12¶13, §12¶23, §12¶24, §12¶42, §13¶3, §13¶28, §13¶32, §13¶35, §14¶7, §14¶11, §14¶12, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶15, §14¶15, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶32, §16¶35, §16¶54, §16¶54, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶24, §17¶27, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §18¶10, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶5, §19¶6, §19¶6, §19¶8, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶19, §19¶19, §20¶4, §20¶8, §21¶17, §21¶36, §21¶42, §22¶5, §22¶15, §24¶3, §24¶29, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶7, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶13, §25¶13, §25¶16, §25¶16, §25¶29, §25¶29, §25¶29, §25¶32, §25¶35, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶16, §26¶19, §26¶22, §26¶22, §26¶24, §26¶24, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶32, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶25, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶28, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶10, §30¶3, §30¶20, §32¶2, §32¶12, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶20, §33¶2, §33¶2, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶17, §36¶2, §36¶4, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶16, §36¶17, §37¶4, §37¶22, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶16, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶8, §40¶8, §40¶8, §41¶1, §41¶34, §41¶34, §42¶8, §44¶12, §46¶11, §46¶11, §46¶12, §53¶9, §53¶11
italy (212): §3¶6, §3¶9, §3¶13, §5¶2, §5¶2, §5¶11, §5¶14, §5¶14, §6¶8, §6¶53, §7¶9, §7¶9, §7¶15, §7¶16, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶21, §7¶23, §7¶25, §7¶26, §9¶25, §10¶2, §10¶2, §10¶9, §10¶19, §10¶49, §11¶2, §11¶2, §11¶20, §11¶21, §11¶21, §11¶25, §13¶4, §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶35, §14¶4, §14¶4, §14¶6, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶12, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶20, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶28, §14¶30, §14¶30, §14¶33, §14¶33, §16¶25, §16¶34, §16¶48, §16¶53, §16¶53, §16¶53, §16¶54, §17¶21, §17¶24, §17¶27, §18¶10, §18¶18, §18¶26, §18¶31, §18¶31, §19¶4, §20¶8, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶10, §22¶10, §25¶5, §25¶8, §25¶35, §26¶19, §26¶22, §27¶3, §27¶4, §27¶13, §27¶16, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶28, §27¶28, §28¶16, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §30¶3, §30¶4, §30¶4, §30¶4, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶8, §30¶8, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶22, §30¶24, §30¶24, §30¶24, §30¶27, §30¶27, §30¶27, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶30, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶39, §31¶42, §32¶20, §33¶2, §33¶10, §34¶12, §35¶3, §35¶5, §35¶11, §35¶11, §36¶1, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶10, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶11, §36¶12, §36¶13, §36¶13, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶19, §36¶20, §36¶23, §36¶23, §36¶25, §36¶27, §36¶27, §36¶27, §36¶27, §38¶5, §38¶11, §38¶43, §39¶7, §39¶7, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶16, §39¶18, §41¶10, §41¶16, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶34, §43¶3, §43¶3, §43¶13, §43¶20, §43¶20, §43¶20, §43¶20, §43¶20, §43¶20, §44¶35, §45¶5, §45¶5, §45¶5, §45¶7, §48¶5, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §66¶22, §69¶5, §69¶17
soon (295): §3¶8, §3¶13, §3¶37, §4¶6, §4¶9, §4¶9, §5¶9, §5¶11, §5¶26, §5¶31, §5¶31, §5¶33, §6¶7, §6¶10, §6¶10, §6¶10, §6¶15, §6¶17, §6¶17, §6¶19, §6¶20, §6¶29, §6¶32, §6¶33, §6¶38, §7¶3, §7¶5, §7¶5, §7¶7, §7¶13, §7¶27, §7¶28, §9¶25, §10¶15, §10¶45, §10¶49, §11¶3, §11¶5, §11¶12, §11¶27, §11¶31, §11¶45, §12¶10, §12¶16, §12¶27, §12¶27, §12¶34, §12¶35, §12¶35, §12¶41, §12¶41, §13¶1, §13¶3, §13¶10, §13¶28, §13¶35, §13¶35, §13¶36, §13¶37, §14¶2, §14¶9, §14¶9, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶11, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶29, §14¶30, §14¶32, §14¶32, §14¶38, §14¶38, §14¶38, §16¶26, §16¶35, §16¶42, §16¶42, §16¶42, §16¶47, §16¶50, §16¶50, §17¶21, §17¶23, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶33, §18¶6, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶17, §18¶18, §18¶24, §18¶24, §18¶25, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶26, §18¶31, §18¶32, §19¶2, §19¶6, §19¶6, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶10, §19¶10, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶14, §19¶18, §19¶19, §19¶21, §19¶23, §20¶4, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶8, §21¶2, §21¶2, §21¶17, §21¶35, §21¶35, §21¶36, §21¶38, §21¶38, §22¶2, §22¶3, §22¶7, §22¶9, §22¶12, §23¶9, §23¶9, §23¶30, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶17, §24¶21, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶9, §25¶13, §25¶16, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶29, §25¶33, §25¶34, §26¶11, §26¶11, §26¶12, §26¶13, §26¶13, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶16, §26¶16, §26¶19, §26¶19, §26¶24, §26¶24, §26¶25, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶1, §27¶3, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶17, §27¶20, §27¶22, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶29, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶8, §29¶10, §29¶12, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶5, §30¶9, §30¶10, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶16, §31¶30, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶33, §31¶36, §32¶2, §32¶2, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶6, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶20, §33¶2, §33¶10, §33¶10, §33¶10, §35¶3, §35¶5, §36¶2, §36¶7, §36¶11, §36¶13, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶23, §36¶27, §36¶27, §37¶4, §37¶22, §38¶5, §38¶9, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶3, §39¶18, §39¶21, §40¶3, §41¶10, §41¶16, §41¶16, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶34, §43¶3, §43¶3, §43¶8, §43¶20, §44¶4, §45¶5, §45¶7, §46¶12, §47¶9, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶28, §48¶28, §48¶43, §60¶18, §62¶4, §66¶22, §68¶5
merit (153): §3¶24, §3¶24, §3¶37, §4¶8, §4¶9, §4¶21, §5¶10, §5¶11, §5¶13, §6¶16, §6¶22, §6¶38, §7¶3, §7¶5, §7¶6, §7¶9, §7¶16, §7¶18, §7¶21, §9¶15, §10¶2, §10¶9, §10¶17, §10¶21, §10¶21, §10¶47, §10¶47, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶5, §11¶12, §11¶13, §12¶16, §12¶23, §12¶24, §12¶34, §13¶1, §13¶1, §13¶1, §13¶2, §13¶4, §14¶4, §14¶4, §14¶7, §14¶10, §14¶15, §14¶29, §14¶33, §17¶31, §18¶2, §18¶24, §18¶29, §19¶7, §20¶9, §20¶27, §21¶24, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶9, §22¶12, §22¶15, §22¶17, §22¶20, §22¶20, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶13, §24¶22, §24¶22, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶9, §25¶9, §25¶10, §25¶29, §25¶33, §26¶14, §26¶19, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶28, §27¶1, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶5, §27¶13, §27¶19, §27¶20, §27¶20, §27¶22, §27¶26, §27¶28, §27¶29, §29¶1, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §30¶24, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶19, §31¶33, §32¶5, §32¶17, §34¶16, §34¶16, §35¶15, §36¶1, §36¶4, §36¶4, §36¶7, §36¶8, §36¶13, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶22, §36¶23, §38¶11, §38¶43, §39¶11, §39¶16, §40¶3, §40¶10, §41¶10, §41¶16, §41¶17, §42¶8, §42¶8, §42¶8, §43¶3, §43¶13, §44¶12, §45¶5, §47¶9, §48¶28, §48¶43, §48¶43, §49¶19, §62¶2, §62¶4, §62¶4, §67¶14, §70¶3
palace (186): §4¶8, §4¶8, §4¶13, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶15, §4¶18, §4¶30, §5¶33, §6¶8, §6¶38, §7¶28, §7¶30, §11¶2, §12¶34, §13¶1, §13¶28, §13¶35, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶24, §14¶29, §16¶35, §16¶43, §16¶43, §16¶44, §16¶47, §16¶47, §16¶47, §16¶48, §16¶53, §16¶54, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶31, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶32, §17¶33, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶16, §18¶16, §18¶18, §18¶25, §19¶2, §19¶3, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶6, §21¶17, §21¶35, §21¶36, §21¶36, §21¶36, §22¶3, §22¶3, §22¶5, §22¶10, §23¶9, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶12, §25¶2, §25¶4, §25¶5, §25¶5, §25¶6, §25¶35, §25¶35, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶18, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶31, §26¶31, §27¶2, §27¶3, §27¶13, §27¶17, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶29, §28¶16, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §30¶5, §30¶5, §30¶22, §30¶22, §30¶23, §30¶23, §31¶16, §31¶30, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶36, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶6, §32¶10, §32¶12, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶20, §33¶10, §35¶5, §35¶5, §35¶11, §35¶15, §35¶15, §35¶15, §35¶16, §36¶1, §36¶1, §36¶16, §36¶17, §37¶22, §38¶27, §39¶2, §39¶2, §39¶11, §39¶18, §39¶21, §40¶1, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶8, §40¶10, §40¶10, §40¶10, §41¶1, §41¶17, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶34, §42¶8, §43¶3, §43¶23, §43¶23, §45¶5, §45¶5, §45¶7, §45¶7, §45¶7, §45¶10, §46¶2, §46¶2, §46¶11, §46¶12, §46¶12, §48¶11, §48¶14, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶43, §53¶9, §53¶9, §53¶11, §60¶18, §63¶8, §67¶14, §68¶5, §68¶5, §69¶17, §70¶3
city (195): §4¶15, §4¶21, §4¶22, §5¶5, §5¶19, §6¶13, §6¶15, §6¶29, §6¶32, §6¶38, §6¶39, §6¶53, §7¶10, §7¶19, §7¶26, §7¶28, §11¶2, §11¶5, §11¶31, §12¶34, §12¶42, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶28, §13¶36, §14¶10, §14¶11, §14¶13, §14¶13, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶28, §16¶14, §16¶14, §16¶25, §16¶42, §16¶44, §16¶47, §16¶48, §16¶54, §17¶9, §17¶9, §17¶9, §17¶23, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶25, §18¶25, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶31, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶8, §19¶14, §19¶16, §19¶16, §19¶18, §21¶24, §21¶33, §21¶35, §22¶3, §22¶9, §22¶10, §22¶12, §23¶30, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶3, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶12, §24¶13, §24¶17, §24¶17, §25¶2, §25¶3, §25¶6, §25¶6, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶34, §26¶15, §26¶15, §26¶19, §26¶20, §26¶22, §26¶26, §26¶28, §26¶28, §27¶13, §27¶13, §27¶16, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶27, §27¶27, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶12, §30¶4, §30¶8, §30¶9, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶7, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶13, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶14, §31¶19, §31¶30, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶36, §32¶10, §32¶17, §32¶20, §33¶8, §34¶17, §35¶3, §35¶17, §36¶10, §36¶10, §36¶25, §36¶25, §36¶25, §36¶27, §39¶7, §40¶1, §40¶3, §40¶10, §41¶10, §41¶16, §41¶16, §42¶8, §43¶8, §43¶23, §44¶19, §44¶20, §44¶35, §44¶35, §44¶36, §44¶36, §44¶37, §47¶9, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶16, §48¶16, §48¶26, §48¶43, §48¶43, §48¶43, §53¶9, §53¶11, §62¶2, §63¶8, §68¶5, §68¶5, §69¶5, §69¶5, §69¶5, §69¶17, §69¶17, §69¶17, §70¶3, §70¶24
prefect (120): §4¶21, §4¶21, §4¶22, §4¶29, §5¶5, §5¶33, §5¶33, §5¶33, §6¶12, §6¶12, §6¶15, §6¶15, §6¶16, §6¶38, §6¶38, §7¶15, §7¶19, §7¶31, §7¶31, §7¶33, §7¶33, §11¶3, §11¶4, §11¶13, §12¶10, §12¶10, §12¶28, §12¶34, §12¶41, §14¶10, §14¶11, §16¶44, §16¶48, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶22, §17¶23, §17¶23, §17¶24, §17¶25, §17¶32, §18¶17, §18¶18, §18¶32, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶4, §19¶28, §19¶28, §21¶35, §21¶36, §21¶36, §22¶5, §22¶8, §22¶8, §22¶10, §22¶15, §24¶22, §25¶3, §25¶3, §25¶5, §25¶10, §25¶10, §25¶33, §25¶33, §25¶34, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶2, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶3, §29¶5, §29¶5, §29¶8, §29¶12, §31¶13, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶16, §31¶30, §31¶42, §32¶2, §32¶17, §35¶15, §36¶1, §36¶4, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶17, §36¶19, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §36¶22, §38¶18, §39¶11, §39¶11, §39¶11, §40¶8, §40¶10, §41¶10, §41¶10, §41¶10, §41¶33, §43¶23, §47¶9, §47¶9, §53¶9
constantine (246): §13¶29, §13¶32, §13¶37, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶6, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶7, §14¶10, §14¶10, §14¶12, §14¶12, §14¶15, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶16, §14¶17, §14¶19, §14¶19, §14¶20, §14¶20, §14¶20, §14¶21, §14¶21, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶23, §14¶24, §14¶24, §14¶24, §14¶26, §14¶26, §14¶26, §14¶26, §14¶26, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶27, §14¶28, §14¶28, §14¶30, §14¶30, §14¶30, §14¶30, §14¶30, §14¶32, §14¶32, §14¶32, §14¶32, §14¶32, §14¶32, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶33, §14¶38, §14¶38, §14¶38, §17¶9, §17¶9, §17¶9, §17¶9, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶21, §17¶25, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶27, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶28, §17¶31, §17¶31, §17¶32, §18¶2, §18¶2, §18¶2, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶3, §18¶6, §18¶6, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶7, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶8, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶10, §18¶16, §18¶16, §18¶16, §18¶16, §18¶17, §18¶17, §18¶17, §18¶17, §18¶18, §18¶24, §18¶24, §18¶24, §18¶25, §18¶25, §18¶26, §18¶26, §18¶28, §18¶28, §18¶29, §18¶31, §18¶31, §19¶2, §19¶2, §19¶4, §19¶6, §19¶7, §19¶10, §19¶10, §19¶18, §20¶4, §20¶4, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶8, §20¶9, §20¶9, §20¶9, §20¶9, §20¶9, §20¶9, §20¶9, §20¶27, §20¶27, §20¶27, §21¶2, §21¶2, §21¶2, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶17, §21¶18, §21¶18, §21¶24, §21¶24, §21¶24, §21¶33, §21¶36, §21¶38, §21¶42, §21¶42, §21¶42, §22¶5, §22¶10, §22¶12, §23¶9, §23¶30, §24¶8, §25¶6, §25¶7, §25¶8, §25¶33, §25¶35, §27¶2, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶18, §28¶16, §30¶9, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶19, §30¶20, §30¶20, §30¶20, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶32, §31¶33, §31¶33, §32¶3, §32¶10, §38¶5, §38¶18, §39¶11, §40¶10, §41¶32, §44¶20, §44¶39, §46¶11, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶14, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶26, §48¶28, §53¶9, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §53¶11, §67¶14, §67¶14, §70¶24
theodosius (182): §17¶32, §20¶25, §24¶29, §25¶13, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶25, §25¶26, §25¶26, §25¶33, §26¶25, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶26, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶27, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶28, §26¶31, §26¶31, §26¶31, §26¶32, §27¶2, §27¶2, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶4, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶5, §27¶16, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶17, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶18, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶19, §27¶20, §27¶20, §27¶20, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶21, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶22, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶24, §27¶25, §27¶25, §27¶25, §27¶25, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶26, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶27, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶28, §27¶29, §27¶29, §27¶29, §27¶29, §28¶16, §28¶16, §28¶16, §29¶1, §29¶1, §29¶2, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶4, §29¶5, §29¶6, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶7, §29¶12, §29¶12, §29¶12, §30¶3, §30¶3, §30¶9, §30¶20, §30¶23, §31¶13, §31¶19, §31¶36, §31¶36, §32¶2, §32¶3, §32¶5, §32¶12, §32¶12, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶17, §32¶20, §32¶20, §33¶2, §33¶2, §33¶2, §33¶2, §33¶2, §34¶12, §34¶12, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶16, §34¶17, §35¶5, §35¶16, §36¶1, §36¶8, §36¶16, §36¶17, §36¶25, §39¶11, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶32, §41¶33, §41¶33, §46¶11, §46¶11, §47¶9, §48¶5, §48¶5, §48¶5
military (10): §10¶1, §26¶4, §47¶35, §49¶8, §56¶4, §56¶4, §56¶4, §61¶10, §68¶17, §70¶19
emperor (19): §10¶1, §47¶14, §47¶14, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶35, §48¶39, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §56¶4, §61¶10, §61¶10, §68¶17, §69¶14, §69¶14
years (18): §10¶1, §38¶25, §44¶34, §47¶8, §47¶8, §47¶35, §47¶35, §48¶39, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶8, §50¶17, §56¶4, §56¶4, §61¶10, §69¶14, §70¶18, §70¶19
death (17): §10¶1, §38¶25, §44¶34, §47¶8, §47¶17, §47¶35, §47¶35, §49¶8, §58¶25, §58¶25, §68¶17, §68¶17, §68¶17, §70¶18, §70¶18, §70¶18, §70¶19
pride (8): §26¶4, §34¶14, §47¶11, §47¶17, §51¶25, §56¶4, §58¶25, §70¶18
domestic (8): §26¶4, §44¶34, §48¶39, §49¶8, §49¶8, §68¶17, §69¶14, §70¶19
luxury (6): §26¶4, §34¶14, §38¶25, §49¶3, §56¶4, §70¶18
horses (9): §26¶4, §26¶4, §34¶14, §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §48¶39, §56¶4
ground (8): §26¶4, §34¶14, §34¶14, §47¶14, §47¶17, §48¶39, §51¶25, §56¶4
life (13): §26¶4, §26¶4, §26¶4, §38¶25, §47¶11, §47¶14, §47¶35, §47¶35, §49¶8, §50¶17, §56¶4, §68¶17, §70¶19
troops (11): §26¶4, §26¶4, §34¶14, §47¶14, §49¶8, §56¶4, §56¶4, §61¶10, §68¶17, §68¶17, §68¶17
days (10): §26¶4, §38¶25, §38¶25, §44¶34, §47¶11, §47¶35, §51¶25, §58¶25, §61¶10, §70¶19
general (11): §26¶4, §47¶8, §47¶17, §47¶17, §49¶3, §49¶8, §56¶4, §61¶10, §68¶17, §68¶17, §70¶19
camp (7): §26¶4, §34¶14, §51¶25, §68¶17, §68¶17, §69¶14, §69¶14
danger (11): §26¶4, §47¶14, §47¶17, §48¶39, §49¶8, §49¶8, §56¶4, §58¶25, §68¶17, §70¶18, §70¶18
defence (9): §34¶14, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶8, §49¶8, §58¶25, §68¶17, §69¶14, §69¶14
court (4): §34¶14, §47¶14, §47¶14, §70¶18
palace (11): §34¶14, §38¶25, §47¶14, §47¶14, §47¶17, §47¶35, §48¶39, §48¶39, §49¶8, §49¶8, §61¶10
country (9): §34¶14, §47¶35, §49¶8, §51¶25, §61¶10, §61¶10, §68¶17, §69¶14, §70¶18
arms (13): §34¶14, §47¶11, §47¶11, §47¶35, §48¶39, §49¶8, §49¶8, §56¶4, §69¶14, §69¶14, §70¶18, §70¶19, §70¶19
attila (6): §34¶14, §34¶14, §34¶14, §34¶14, §34¶14, §47¶17
deliverance (6): §38¶25, §47¶35, §48¶39, §68¶17, §68¶17, §69¶14
just (6): §38¶25, §47¶14, §47¶17, §58¶25, §68¶17, §69¶14
master (8): §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §47¶11, §49¶8, §69¶14, §70¶18
heard (6): §38¶25, §47¶17, §49¶3, §49¶8, §68¶17, §70¶18
shall (9): §38¶25, §47¶35, §47¶35, §50¶17, §50¶17, §58¶25, §68¶17, §69¶14, §69¶14
avarice (7): §38¶25, §47¶14, §47¶17, §56¶4, §56¶4, §58¶25, §61¶10
people (16): §38¶25, §47¶11, §47¶11, §47¶14, §47¶17, §47¶35, §47¶35, §49¶8, §53¶22, §56¶4, §56¶4, §56¶4, §69¶14, §69¶14, §70¶19, §70¶19
leo (12): §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶35, §49¶8, §49¶8
bishop (7): §38¶25, §38¶25, §38¶25, §47¶17, §58¶25, §58¶25, §58¶25
did (6): §44¶34, §53¶22, §58¶25, §61¶10, §69¶14, §70¶18
hands (9): §44¶34, §47¶8, §47¶8, §47¶14, §47¶35, §53¶22, §58¶25, §61¶10, §69¶14
zeal (10): §47¶8, §47¶11, §47¶14, §47¶35, §49¶3, §49¶8, §49¶8, §61¶10, §70¶18, §70¶18
second (11): §47¶8, §47¶11, §48¶39, §48¶39, §49¶8, §49¶8, §56¶4, §58¶25, §61¶10, §69¶14, §70¶18
cities (8): §47¶8, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶8, §51¶25, §56¶4, §56¶4, §69¶14
romans (11): §47¶8, §47¶17, §49¶8, §69¶14, §69¶14, §69¶14, §69¶14, §70¶18, §70¶18, §70¶19, §70¶19
voice (8): §47¶8, §47¶11, §47¶35, §49¶8, §58¶25, §68¶17, §68¶17, §68¶17
obtained (5): §47¶11, §48¶39, §48¶39, §49¶8, §56¶4
head (9): §47¶11, §47¶14, §47¶17, §47¶17, §48¶39, §49¶8, §51¶25, §56¶4, §58¶25
new (16): §47¶11, §47¶17, §47¶35, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §50¶17, §56¶4, §56¶4, §58¶25, §58¶25, §58¶25, §58¶25, §70¶18, §70¶18, §70¶18
greeks (15): §47¶11, §47¶17, §47¶35, §49¶3, §49¶8, §49¶8, §53¶22, §53¶22, §56¶4, §56¶4, §58¶25, §61¶10, §68¶17, §68¶17, §69¶14
egypt (16): §47¶11, §47¶11, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶35, §47¶35, §47¶35, §47¶35, §49¶3, §51¶25, §51¶25, §51¶25, §51¶25, §58¶25, §58¶25, §61¶10
constantinople (16): §47¶11, §47¶14, §47¶14, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶35, §48¶39, §48¶39, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶8, §49¶8, §53¶22, §53¶22, §61¶10, §61¶10
church (19): §47¶11, §47¶14, §47¶14, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶35, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶3, §53¶22, §58¶25, §58¶25, §70¶18, §70¶18, §70¶19
theodosius (6): §47¶14, §47¶14, §47¶17, §47¶17, §47¶35, §47¶35
thousand (17): §47¶14, §47¶35, §47¶35, §49¶3, §50¶17, §51¶25, §51¶25, §56¶4, §56¶4, §56¶4, §58¶25, §58¶25, §61¶10, §68¶17, §68¶17, §69¶14, §70¶18
city (22): §47¶14, §47¶14, §47¶35, §47¶35, §48¶39, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶8, §49¶8, §51¶25, §53¶22, §58¶25, §58¶25, §61¶10, §68¶17, §68¶17, §69¶14, §69¶14, §69¶14, §69¶14, §69¶14, §70¶18
images (15): §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶3, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §49¶8, §53¶22
engines (6): §1¶18, §18¶23, §24¶11, §51¶19, §65¶21, §68¶12
valour (10): §1¶18, §7¶2, §8¶17, §14¶36, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶4, §63¶15, §64¶20, §69¶15
times (6): §1¶18, §63¶15, §64¶20, §64¶20, §68¶11, §68¶11
military (9): §1¶18, §1¶18, §1¶38, §24¶11, §32¶4, §51¶19, §64¶20, §65¶21, §69¶15
romans (14): §1¶18, §18¶23, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶4, §32¶4, §61¶13, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15
general (9): §1¶18, §8¶17, §14¶36, §51¶39, §61¶13, §61¶13, §64¶20, §65¶21, §69¶15
war (14): §1¶18, §11¶44, §14¶36, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶4, §32¶4, §32¶4, §32¶4, §63¶15, §63¶15, §63¶15, §64¶20, §65¶21
troops (11): §1¶18, §1¶18, §11¶44, §18¶23, §24¶11, §24¶11, §32¶4, §32¶4, §32¶4, §61¶13, §64¶20
country (13): §1¶18, §18¶23, §24¶11, §24¶11, §32¶4, §32¶4, §37¶29, §37¶29, §51¶39, §51¶39, §63¶15, §69¶18, §69¶18
arms (24): §1¶18, §1¶18, §1¶38, §8¶17, §11¶44, §18¶23, §18¶23, §18¶23, §24¶11, §24¶11, §37¶29, §51¶39, §51¶39, §51¶39, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13, §63¶15, §64¶20, §64¶20, §68¶11, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15
spain (9): §1¶38, §1¶38, §37¶29, §37¶29, §37¶29, §51¶39, §51¶39, §51¶39, §65¶21
great (11): §1¶38, §8¶17, §8¶17, §8¶17, §18¶23, §18¶23, §18¶23, §61¶13, §64¶20, §68¶11, §68¶11
sea (12): §1¶38, §32¶4, §51¶39, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §63¶15, §63¶15, §65¶21, §68¶11, §69¶18
men (8): §7¶2, §14¶36, §14¶36, §18¶23, §51¶19, §61¶13, §63¶15, §69¶15
ambition (10): §7¶2, §47¶10, §47¶10, §51¶39, §58¶1, §61¶13, §63¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶18
soldiers (8): §7¶2, §11¶44, §18¶23, §24¶11, §51¶19, §58¶1, §68¶11, §68¶12
army (12): §7¶2, §8¶17, §14¶36, §24¶11, §24¶11, §32¶4, §32¶4, §32¶4, §51¶19, §61¶13, §61¶13, §64¶20
philip (4): §8¶17, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13
king (14): §8¶17, §8¶17, §18¶23, §18¶23, §24¶11, §37¶29, §37¶29, §37¶29, §51¶39, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13, §63¶15, §69¶18
emperor (19): §8¶17, §11¶44, §11¶44, §14¶36, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶9, §47¶10, §47¶10, §58¶1, §58¶1, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §63¶15, §63¶15, §68¶11, §68¶12
victory (10): §8¶17, §8¶17, §14¶36, §32¶4, §51¶39, §61¶13, §63¶15, §64¶20, §64¶20, §69¶15
battle (12): §8¶17, §14¶36, §14¶36, §18¶23, §51¶19, §51¶39, §63¶15, §63¶15, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20
towers (3): §8¶17, §51¶19, §68¶12
thousand (25): §8¶17, §11¶44, §14¶36, §14¶36, §14¶36, §18¶23, §24¶11, §37¶29, §51¶19, §58¶1, §58¶1, §58¶1, §61¶13, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §68¶12, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶18
soon (17): §11¶44, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶4, §47¶10, §47¶10, §61¶13, §63¶15, §63¶15, §64¶20, §65¶21, §65¶21, §68¶11, §68¶11, §69¶18, §69¶18, §69¶18
walls (18): §11¶44, §14¶36, §18¶23, §18¶23, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶4, §51¶19, §51¶19, §51¶39, §51¶39, §61¶13, §63¶15, §65¶21, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶12, §68¶12
assault (5): §14¶36, §18¶23, §51¶19, §51¶39, §68¶12
days (13): §14¶36, §18¶23, §18¶23, §18¶23, §24¶11, §24¶11, §32¶9, §32¶9, §51¶19, §58¶1, §68¶11, §69¶15, §69¶18
thirty (9): §14¶36, §58¶1, §61¶13, §63¶15, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶12, §69¶15, §69¶15
day (14): §14¶36, §18¶23, §18¶23, §47¶10, §51¶19, §51¶19, §63¶15, §64¶20, §64¶20, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶12, §68¶12
danger (11): §14¶36, §18¶23, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶4, §37¶29, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §68¶11
attack (7): §14¶36, §18¶23, §51¶19, §64¶20, §65¶21, §68¶11, §68¶12
city (20): §14¶36, §18¶23, §18¶23, §18¶23, §24¶11, §32¶4, §32¶4, §32¶9, §32¶9, §51¶19, §51¶19, §58¶1, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §63¶15, §68¶12, §69¶15, §69¶15
adjacent (7): §18¶23, §58¶1, §61¶13, §65¶21, §69¶15, §69¶15, §69¶18
ditch (6): §18¶23, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶12, §68¶12, §68¶12
siege (7): §18¶23, §51¶19, §51¶19, §65¶21, §68¶11, §68¶12, §69¶15
defence (5): §24¶11, §51¶19, §61¶13, §65¶21, §68¶11
second (10): §24¶11, §32¶9, §51¶19, §51¶39, §58¶1, §58¶1, §61¶13, §63¶15, §64¶20, §69¶15
success (8): §32¶4, §32¶4, §37¶29, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §63¶15, §68¶12
constantinople (20): §32¶4, §32¶4, §32¶9, §32¶9, §47¶10, §47¶10, §58¶1, §58¶1, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §61¶13, §63¶15, §63¶15, §63¶15, §64¶20, §65¶21, §68¶11, §68¶12
lost (5): §37¶29, §51¶19, §61¶13, §64¶20, §69¶15
europe (9): §47¶10, §51¶39, §51¶39, §58¶1, §58¶1, §61¶13, §64¶20, §65¶21, §65¶21
france (13): §58¶1, §58¶1, §58¶1, §58¶1, §58¶1, §61¶13, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §65¶21, §69¶18, §69¶18
ladders (1): §61¶13
french (13): §61¶13, §63¶15, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §69¶18, §69¶18, §69¶18
rampart (4): §63¶15, §64¶20, §68¶11, §68¶12
bajazet (7): §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20, §64¶20
cannon (7): §65¶21, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶11, §68¶12